Council - Regular Meeting

asked for further. that I won't make him. Oh, thank you. Thanks for and Sorry. to see

So that's something you You don't have a question. I hope this meeting it is 7 p.m. We can start with the home and silence. Stand for the pledge of

allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and for it stands nation indivisibley and justice. Mr. Reminder, if you happen to have your cell phone with you, please make sure it's off or on silent roll call for us, please. William, here. Stewart here, here, David here, here, and

here. I would like to make a motion to approve of the agenda with an addition under our presentations and recognitions. would like to add Mr. Mickey Bner with our engineering team from White. Do I have a support? I want some support. All say I oppose. Very good. So, we will start our evening with a transfer of author code in city manager Terry.

Yes. Madame Mayor, members of council, and it's my pleasure at this time to have the transfer of office with our new city manager, uh, Dr. Cheryl Terry. At this time, uh, mayor would ask that the city clerk administer the laws. right here. I shar I Cheryl Tero do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support

that I will support the Constitution the Constitution of the United States of the United States and of the state and of the state and that I will that I will to the best of my ability to the best of my ability faithfully and impartially faithfully and impartially discharge the duties discharge the duties of the city manager

of the city manager. So, I'll help There you go. Next, I would like to get a proclamation uh proclaiming March 26th as equal pay day in Albian. Um I Carolyn is Mary gonna come up with you? Okay. So I have with us Carolyn Field and Mary Brown Leonardson with our Albian Business and Professional Women's Club. So ladies, if you want to come forward while I read your proclamation proclamation proclaiming March 26 as equal payday in Albian. Whereas March 25th has been proclaimed equal payday by Albian business and professional women. And whereas March 25th marks the end of the days that women must work to earn the same wage that their male counterparts earn in just in just the previous year. And whereas in Michigan in 2025, women working full-time earn 81 cents

for every dollar earned by men working the same period, resulting in a wage gap of 19 cents. And whereas despite legislative policies that support the universal international that equality between men and women is a fundamental human right and that credible research and business reports continue to build the business case for why women mean business for the 21st century. And whereas we are trending toward an extremely competitive job market in the context of a shrinking talent pool, which further suggests that the time is now to utilize all societal and economic assets to leverage the untapped brain trust of over 50% of our workforce. And whereas corporations and communities who take steps today to ensure that they are an equal opportunity employer of choice can gain valuable recognition by discerning consumers for their attention to gender equity in their workplace and business practices. And whereas the city of Albian promotes a culture where the equal treatment of women and men is not just the right thing to do, it is also good for business. That the full participation of women in our enterprises and in the larger community makes sound business sense now and in the future. that a broad concept of sustainability and corporate responsibility that embraces women's empowerment is a key goal that will benefit us all. Therefore, be it resolved that our mayor Victoria Garcia Snider along with the Albian City Council proclaims March 25th, 2026 be declared equal payday in the city of

Albian. Ladies, you want to say a few words? Thank Oh, sorry.

You you can see I don't come here right. My name is Carolyn Face Gil and I am a member of the Alban community. I am the current president of the Alban Business and Professional Women's Association. We are a 98y year young organization locally over a 100 years state, nationally and internationally. We Albian business and professional women are currently meeting the fourth Monday of the month at full moon. We meet to eat dinner at 5:30. We have a program at 6:30 and our business meeting at 7 and we are usually done by 8. If anyone is interested in attending one of our meetings or would like more information, I have business cards I'd be more than happy to give you so that you can reach out and contact me for further details. Um, I also have a membership application for the mayor

since it's on and off Monday and we are open to men. Although our club is called women, we do encourage men to join us to support the progress of women. Our Our mission is to achieve equity for women in the workplace and our vision is to provide uh women with equal power through advocacy, education and information. To that end, we work hard behind the scenes trying to promote equality and equity. Thank you. Mary, if you want to say a few words, she did a great job. All right, I will come on out and give you the information. here.

Okay. Super wants us.

Thank you. Do one over here. Sorry. I want to turn it around. The camera.

Okay. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Mickey.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh, thank you for having me here. Um, I just want to give an update. I was talking with the former interim city manager and suggested it'd be a good idea for me to share some information. Um, you may recall your January 20th meeting, you approved our proposal to prepare a project plan that is for Eagle and this is for the clean water state revolving fund. Our current water project is through the drinking water state revolving fund. So, it's the same program but on the wastewater side instead of the water side. our plan after last year's water project, you're I'm sure you're all aware from uh Director Kern, but a lot of the sewers we got close to um just in construction, not hitting them, but getting close, they collapsed and we could not repair a section. We had to chase them back to the manhole. So, it was very brittle and some of those sewers even appeared to be in perfect condition when televised and they were still um experienced the same issue. So, we talked last fall and suggested it' be a good idea to be proactive with some of these and pursue um funding for lining of the sewers and that's what our project plan is for. Um this project plan is due May 1 and Eagle calls it a project plan is essentially the application. It's a pretty thick document um but that's what they call a project plan. So, think of that as a grant application. Um we started out looking at um some of you may rec remember that the city undertook a saw project. It was a grant program backed applications were in 2013 and they were implemented between 2013 and 2020. It was storm water and wastewater asset management um or storm water asset management and wastewater. I got the SAW made acronym in there. But um so the city city had some a lot of the sewers were televised. We poured through all of those. Um couple things we learned. I don't know are those attachments going to be put on

the screen at all or not? No. Okay, that's fine. Um so when looking at the data, so you have maps in front of you and I think the first one it's 8 12 by 11. I like looking at this on a big 24 inch by 36. So it's tough. It's going to be really tough for you to see, but it's yours is 8 and 12 by 11, I think, but it's this color one. I'll just hit some highlights on it for you. Um, most of the streets have a color in the background. It's either red, let's see, orange, yellow, or green, and that's indicating the condition. Some of the streets are highlighted, and the ones that are highlighted are projects that were either recently completed or upcoming to be completed. So you'll see Irwin Avenue has a highlight on it. Uh Dean and Hogland, Elbian Street, those are highlighted. Those are upcoming. So it it shows some of those. Um so the condition um we're interested in that because Eagle allows us to line sewers and it's a cured in place pipe. It's essentially a felt material that they can shape. It's flexible, shape into a youth form. They um soak it in resin, insert it in sewer, apply either heat or UV. Typically, it's a steam. It expands, it hardens. It's like it adds structural integrity, makes the pipe smoother. Um so, it increases the hydraulic capacity even though it reduces the the area a little bit. It increases the hydraulic capacity and then it gives it structural integrity again, restores that to the pipe. So, that's what we're talking about. That was our intent to do some dirt in place pipelining. Eagle only allows us to line sewers that are rated fours and fives on a fivepoint scale. So one would be like very new pipe or maybe a really minor um fracture. And if you look I think the next page you have there I provided some examples of what these levels are just so you can

visualize them. I won't spend a ton of time on these. If you have more interest be happy to talk infrastructure of anyone that want to listen as long as you want. But I'll go through these quickly here. The first one is level one. You can see a blow up in the upper right corner of a very minor crack. Uh second one is a level two defect. You can see a little bit larger crack. Um and then also you can see on the along the left side the joints are offset. So you picture uh two pipes and instead of being aligned, one is shifted a little bit. So you're seeing a little bit of an offset in a joint there. Um the next page has a structural um a level three structural defect and you can see a you know a little chunk of pipe that's been broken and um dislodged. It's still sitting there but it's uh impacting the integrity and that can allow material be it sand to leak into the sewer which can lead to a um sink hole or a roadway collapsing above it. Next page is a level four structural defect that shows more uh severe cracking you can see and also the joint is offset. So you can see larger cracks going on there. Um the next one has again an offset joint and these level fours are eligible for lining. Um the offset in the joint is we're able to line that. If it gets too severe then we can't line it anymore. But then you can also see the blow up in the upper right corner of some more um structural cracking of that. And the next one shows a level five defect. So that's a pretty major void. That's a structural concern right there. I can't tell if it's at a lateral or not, but there's you can either get groundwater in or soil can wash into the sewer which can contribute to um again to a sinkhole or the anything above it eroding. And the next three pages are just an example of the report that's done when the sewers are televised. All these ratings, nothing to point out there, but just want to show you what

all how all the information is reported and we look at that. The next ones are um I think those ones I just showed you are all from sewers here in Albian. next ones. As we went through things in the month of February, our team and maybe the first part of March, I want to point out a couple things that we did find. So, the first one looks like it has a pipe going through it. That is what it is. It's a pipe going through. It's a conduit. Um, not sure if that's gas. It could be telephone or some other telecommunications line. But when you have an obstruction like that going through a pipe, you cannot line it. Can't go around that. So this segment of pipe which we would like to align probably a four or five we can't do that because of this obstruction right here. Um you look at the next one um it shows a structural level defect number four up on the top of the pipe. But another thing I do want to point out is that it's about 75% full of water. Most of the sewers under normal conditions are probably 10 to 20. They get surges. The reason this is so full is we can use the belly in the sewer. So you picture a pipe should be laid at a straight grade. This has a belly like this. You don't want to line that because um that's just not a wise choice. There's a defect in this. It was either attributed to poor construction and the first place for it could have settled over time. So we do not want to line uh those types of sewers either. Uh the next one has a pretty major offset joint. You can see that. Um, so that tells you the pipe that it's looking at has settled compared to the pipe where the camera is at that point. So you cannot line through that because it's too significant of a joint offset. Uh, the one after that, the pipe looks like it could fail just about any day. You see that's just shattered. Um, what's holding it in place? It's just

the ground around it not shifting too much. So we initially had planned to do just a lining project. We shared this information with the city team, the city manager, DPW and finance director. And so we had put together a list of um and a map of sewers line and we presented these. There were probably a couple dozen obstructions like that or fa you know failures. And we the discussion was you know we have knowledge of this and we probably should have saved this for future. So we had the flexibility and the scope to add some sewer replacements and that's what our team discussed and recommended doing. Um and I'm talking with the city staff as well all of us collectively. So we added um so we have lining of a bunch of sewer. We have um some sanitary sewer replacements that we're looking at now. And I can't remember if I mentioned this at the beginning, but one thing we learned early on is that just over 50% of the city's sanitary sewers were televised back in 2016. So, um I don't know if I pointed that out in that very first map I showed, but everything that was gray on there was not televised. It's a lot of sewer. And so as we talked about this one another eligible item for this funding and this is low interest loan and it may be some principal forgiveness um is updating preparation or updating the asset management plans televising of sewers is an eligible item. So we said this would be a good time to get it all done at once. Um we could have it maybe one company maybe two we'll get into those details later um in the process but um it really makes a lot of sense. Um you see what we learned right here um just from from this and you know one thing with sewers really it's all infrastructure there's nothing that selfheals you know you or I get a cut on our hand and it it scabs up

and it goes away and you never knew we had a cut there. Um these holes these cracks do not improve over time. They only get worse. They don't improve. So we know that. Um and and another thing I kind of think about, so with this um with the remaining sewer that has not been televised, I kind of think of it as someone not going to the doctor for 20, 30 years. They can say, "I feel great. Everything's fine." They go in and find out they have stage three or stage four cancer, right? And all of a sudden, boom, shazam. And um not saying that to scare anybody, but it's like the condition is what it is. We just don't know what it is. So, um, as it stands right now, um, the current scope includes about 39,000 ft of cured in place pipe lining. Um, we're also looking at the the manholes were evaluated back then in 2016. So, we've got about 1,200 vertical feet of manhole lining. They can do that same process. It's different. Instead of a line reach, we spray it on manholes, but it um can add uh structural integrity and seal up any voids. We've got about 6100 ft of sanitary sewer replacement. That's going to require open cutting the road, digging it out, replacing the sanitary. We're planning to go manhole to manhole based on the experience we had this past summer. And then 144,000 ft of sewer televising that I just mentioned. um timeline on this. Uh really wanted to get you this information because we've got about two weeks to wrap up the draft project plan. By the end of this month, we want to advertise that for public availability. At your April 20th council meeting, there will be a public hearing um on the project plan and you will have a resolution for consideration to um approve the plan and submit all of it to Eagle, which is project plan is due May 1st. So that coincides with the regular council meeting. Um then our team would

get that submitted by May 1st and the the resolution a copy of that has to go in uh the project plan itself. Similar to the water project mid July we would get preliminary. We have an opportunity to pursue more points if we think that they are warranted somewhere or if Eagle overlooks something. Um by September Eagle would issue a draft intended use plan and that says how they're they plan to spend their money. um which communities are tenatively planning to award, how much loan dollars, how much uh principal forgiveness, and then in October, they would make a final uh issuance of that intended use plan, and the city would um hopefully be made an offer with funding. This past year, the water project, if you remember, I think we got a little over $9.6 million in uh grant dollars that was left over. That was ARPA money um from COVID that the state was going through. That money is all gone now. So the Eagle's kind of back to their normal rates right now or pre precoid. Um last year in the attended use plan, communities were offered overburdened communities were offered 13% principal forgiveness and significantly overburdened communities were offered 18% principal forgiveness. So not as good as the water project, but still um you know nice to get some some break on that. And then uh overburdened communities are offered a 2% loan rate and significantly overburdened are often offered 1%. And that can be at 30 years or they'll go for 40 for uh overburdened communities. Um so if the city moves forward with that then design work began and the project would be bid in spring of 27. um loan closing August of 27, reconstruction, September, October of 27, and construction would begin in probably November of 27. The line making do throughout the winter if the weather is not terrible for them, it would probably go through uh spring of 29. That would work. One other thing I want

to point out right now too is that we said we have to open up the roads to replace the sanitary sewer. We said, well, we should really look at the water main those roads, too. We don't want just like the water project. We don't want to have to dig something up. We got a brand new road and have a water man break. The city has a lot of old water man. We don't have numbers on that. I'm guessing it's probably going to be close to that 6100 ft, but we haven't looked at the ages and um pipe materials of all those yet. So, um I do not have a final cost estimate at this point. We're still looking through working through the um the water man, but that would be replace Santa water man and have a rebuild the roadway likely between the curbs like we've done some of the other uh streets with the water project. That was more than my three minutes, right? If there's any questions at this point, um I want to give you a little bit of the details on it and the why tonight and then on April 20th probably do another high level of all the project costs and impacts um to rates and of that 8:30.

Councilman Reed, you have a question.

Okay. The pink line up here that says recent water man or go reconstruction without sewer. What does that mean? So, one thing we looked at when we started this was um like what came to mind for me is we recently reconstructed Irwin Avenue. Okay, we put over $2 million into that project and we didn't touch the sanitary sewer. We replaced the water man for the full length, 1.2 miles and what I don't want to have happen is um have to dig that up for a sewer break. So, one of the strategies we looked at is trying to line sewers on projects that were recently reconstructed where we didn't touch the sewers. Projects that we know that are coming up that might not have sewer included to get those sewers lined so we don't have to worry about them. Um, so that's kind of what those did I answer your question? Um, recent project water main or road. Yeah, San Francisco. So that would be like Irwin Avenue would be a good example of that that reconstructed probably four or five years ago. I think we did not touch the sanitary sewer on that project. Um fortunately most of the sewers on there were rated four or five. So they they should be um addressed anyway. So that'd be part of the sewer lining. Does that answer your question?

Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? Yep. So I understand why Eagle would say only fours and fives. that they're going to support. That doesn't mean that we couldn't take two or three and do it preemptively.

You're exactly right. So, we made the case and we've got evidence. Um, Director Kern has a lot of photographic evidence and probably some video of these sewers that collapsed. So, for example, there was a couple segments on Irwin Avenue that were a two or a three, and we're going to say they were installed at the same time, the same beams, the same material. We believe they're of similar integrity from a structural nature. So we can we have had other lining projects where we've been able to make that case to Eagle as well where we think these should be because of when they were installed and what we've experienced. We have lots of documentation on what we've seen where sewers that even had zero cracks in them um collapsed or fell apart. So, um, so we can make that case to your point. Yes, we can. We can make that cake. We're prepared for that. We've done it. We've been successful in other communities.

At this point, um, we've got everything addressed. That was fours or fives is included in the number that I read off the 39,000 ft of lining. That and the 6100 added together about 45. over 45,000 ft. Addresses all the fours and fives and it fills in some of those gaps. Yeah. I would think it would be easier to do a whole scratch than Yeah. do 150 ft, 300 ft, stop, take a break for 20 ft, then do it again. Yeah. So, they typically go manhole to manhole. They have a point of entry. So, they go in one and they go out the other one and they line it. Um and then they send in um a little rover that goes and cuts out all the sewer laterals because it puts a solid pipe in.

Sure. And so they they clean it before they televise it even though it's already been televised. They'll do it again and they'll mark they'll know where all the sewer laterals come in and what angle they're at. They put the liner in and they send it back in and they cut all the laterals out and they televise it again and make sure they got them. So, it's a it's pretty pretty impressive process.

The advantage of it is you don't have to tear up the road for it. So, it saves a lot of expense on that. That's why a lot of communities do it. It's it's a great process. Um, but this this would essentially tackle everything that we know about. Um, the plan would be to do the the televising of the remaining 144,000. And, you know, we would expect probably a phase two in 2029, maybe 2030, something like that, because you know, we're going to find some things things there. One thing we also noted is that um a lot of the sewers that weren't televised are ones along the river um which I would suspect is the highest likelihood for for infiltration. So if you're below water table, if you've got water leaking into the sewers, that's going to your wastewater plant. It cost the city money to treat that. And we want to eliminate minimize any storm water that we're paying to treat. that's just not not what it's intended to do. It takes up capacity. Um so we want to eliminate that. So those are sewers that would get televised. I I expect some of those would be included. I know Director Kern has televised one underneath the river. He said there was it was sealed up really well, I believe. So that was great. I was shocked to hear that. That was great news. Um that was in good condition. So, um, but that would be down the road for those of you that stick around for five or six years, probably expect to see that one come around.

Compromise. Yep. So, the 6,100 ft of sanitary sewer that needs to be replaced. Um, are we suggesting doing the entire rollway? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. um which in your consideration is that something that we'll be able to do in that November time frame like start start that as well or is that something we're going to push a little bit further out?

Yeah, great question. So there's probably we would have at least three different contracts. You remember with the water project we have six contracts. We have one for water services, one for the iron removal plant, one for the tower, and we have three for water main replacement. This one would probably be similar and maybe have might have more than three, but we have three different very different scopes of work. So, one is televising at the 144,000 ft. There's companies that do that. They don't do construction. That'd be one contract. A second contract would be the lining. The companies that do lining typically don't do sewer replacement. So, we'd have one or two contracts of that. Then the third one would be the sewer replacements. Your uh point. So, if we close on a loan in August, have a pre-construction meeting in September or October, the to your uh question uh Councilman Williams, um the lining could begin in November, but we typically don't start construction in Michigan until um March or April. So, that type the re replacement work would start probably the next construction season. Um you know, I was going to say like about this time of year, but maybe not quite yet. Maybe like by next week or something. But um once the weather breaks you know cross laws are off then I think they would proceed with the replacement.

Now will this come out of the um the water uh water budget? So so this would be waste water. This would be your I think sewer fund but it would be waste water. So it would have to come out of that this part of it. But then for that 6100 ft of sewer replacement we have

um look and see what the age and condition and material type of the water man is. And then that would that water mane replacement would come out of the water fund. It would have to if we if we end up adding that in. And if we do any roadway work, that would be act 51 monies. Um I kind of suspect that between the sanitary sewer is typically in the middle of the road, 8 to 12 foot deep. You're probably going to open up the entire road with that. So the water man, we might be able to look at replacing that just for the cost of the plumbing. What I mean by that, minimal roadway pavement removal replacement. Um maybe a little bit for curb or sidewalk to run services, but that'd probably be about it. The plumbing, I'm talking about pipe fittings, um water services, things like that.

Now, are we currently replacing the sanitary line in the projects that we act on right now?

So, some of the water projects, yes, some I don't think we have all of them yet, though. Not all of them, but we have most of them. We kind of had to. Um we are planning to on Helbian Street, Dean and Hogland, and Beamer. Most of Beamer, not all. We're planning on that. Um and one other thing on the sewer replacement. If this were any other um system, we find some of these faults we looked at like the the conduit going through it, the gas line, whatever that is, we'd probably dig that up, replace one stick of pipe, and move on with our life and just call that good. Just dig one hole 15 by 15, dig down, do a spot repair it's called, and just leave it. We have a lot of experience from last summer that when we tried doing that, you know, oh, this little piece of pipe collapsed. Let's dig to the joint and replace it. We got there and they tried to put a a coupling on to attach it and the next pipe just crumbled and they went to the next one. Same thing. So, we're planning for the worst. If we find a piece of pipe that's solid, we could potentially reduce that. Um, but we're going to we're going to probably plan for the worst. Yeah, we're going to plan for the worst, hope for the best. Um, and have that approach.

Well, probably over a hundred. I'm glad you were had brought that up because as noted these photos or video were from 2016 to 2017. So we got 10 years. That's why I said they don't selfheal. I mean these things they might be the exact same but not one of them has improved.

I'm certain saying that. So um the ones with holes or voids probably have gotten worse. Um, but you know, and this one with the with the pipe going through, I mean, that's you can we can all kind of laugh at that a little bit. It's like, how could someone do that? I don't know if that's been that way for um if it was the year before. That one was done in 2017, March of 2017, that could have happened in 2016, that could have happened in 2003 or 1991. And had it been more recent, if if one of the some company had recently pulled a permit or if we could find it for on that street, probably have them pay for part of that. But um and I don't And you're not unique.

But we didn't have it mapped at the time. That you already have a map. That could be true. But you're not unique. I've seen this in many communities um where they bore through either a storm sewer or sanitary sewer. So that's it's more common than you'd like to think. It's complicated. Yeah. As I look at uh level two structures kind of maybe the third page in I see Alvie and Maple. Does that indicate that it may Maple Street? Yes, it does. So I see Maple Spring probably has all levels in terms of structure.

Yes. Get a lot of complaints on Uh so I just wonder and that probably will come to 27 to 29 in terms of um that so North Maple Street is planned for uh lining that was on the list. Yep. It's on the map showing that. Yep. Okay. So when the lining occur possibly the road will be repaired as

No. So, so the the lining is noninvasive and that's a nice it's really nice when you're on like a major street with a lot of traffic because they can get in and out probably part of the day or a day at most. They just blockade around, set a truck up on each end and they can um put the liner in manhole to manhole, blow it in, boom, cut the laterals out, move on to the next one and they can do several many segments in a day. So, um it's really nice for that. But if you have a a residential area with low traffic volumes, um it's still cost effective because you don't have to get in to tear up the road. Um well, we want it to I understand. Understood.

Maple's a tough road. I know exactly what you're talking about. Yep. I've driven it many times. So, yep. But I think that is probably one of the next priorities I think in discussions uh for roadway projects probably through the small urban group the surface transportation program funding. So that is one that was um we wanted to get line so that because that transportation funding does not cover any sanitary sewer or water main. So, we thought this would be a time get that line, then when the road money is used for it, that can be improved without having to spend more for a sanitary sewer replacement.

Well, thank you, Mickey, for being with us and hopefully you'll be able to successful times. Yep. I'll be back uh April 20th for uh consideration of the the for the public hearing and consideration of the resolution. Okay. Thank you. Right. Next, I'm going to go ahead and open up our public hearing for the tax exemp tax exemption for team one classics. It is 7:37 p.m. Miss De Kelly would like to step forward and will give us some information.

Well, good evening, madame mayor and city council members and madame city manager. You'll recall that I presented this tax abatement application for team one plastics along with holding the public hearing for the project at the February 17th city council meeting during which attorney Harkness discovered that we had an incorrect lot number on the application. And then we further discovered that the two different lots that Team One Plastics has, lot five and lot six, both have different um establishment dates for their industrial development districts. So the new accurate information for their revised application is now lot five with the industrial development district establishment date of December 16th of 1991. So, with the assistance of clerk Domingo, attorney Harkness, we're holding a second public hearing this evening to ensure transparency and to present the corrected lot number and industrial development district to the public um for the revised application and in hopes to avoid any issues with the state of Michigan when they review it or approval. And at this time, I'd be happy to answer any questions or concerns. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Director Kelly. I'd like to bring up a concern I had when we first brought this to council a few weeks ago, and that was uh considering that they are already into the development of this uh expansion and they didn't seem to indicate they had any financial issues. What is the motivation to approve a fullterm 12year 5% exemption for the

Well, at the Albian Economic Development Corporation, we have an evaluation score sheet that I've discovered that my predecessor had in our files. So, I broke that out and I reviewed it and it's a point system based on the company's overall investment, which is about 2.4 4 million with the building construction as well as the new machinery and equipment that they're going to be purchasing as well as the job retention of 89 employees as well as the creation of between four to six employees. So it's um it's kind of it's a metric system. So based on that information from their application that determines the amount of years that they should be awarded. It's not rubber stamped of course that's your decision here as city council people. Um, but that is what the evaluation form says. Um, at some point in the future if we wish to review that and maybe tweak it a little bit, that's something that I'm welcome uh to any feedback on, but that's where the 12-year came from was the the evaluation score. It's a good question. Thank you.

Great. Sure. Any other questions for our PDC CEO? Right. So I will provide the opportunity for anybody in the gallery that would like to stand and address council in regards to this topic. Feel free to come forward. Seeing your movement, I will go ahead and close our public hearing. It's 7:41 p.m. Do I have a motion to approve resolution 3269 classics taxion? So move support.

Any further questions for our city manager? City attorney. City Williams. Yes. Reorder. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes. Do I have a motion to approve? Sorry. Public. If there's anybody in the gallery that would like to stand and address council in regards to an agenda item, you may do so at this time.

Good evening everyone. I chief of public safety and if I may, I just wanted to take my chief's hat off and put my city resident hat on and offer my support for Elen egg extravaganza. Um I know it's on the agenda today. Um, I believe if we could ever possibly wave a fee, um, certainly I can't think of a better situation. I believe the rec department used to run the egg hunt up until a certain time and then I think in 2019, Audra and uh, Nathan Quentes took on that responsibility. They've been doing a great job. Um, at Victory Park, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kids have come and I just can't think of a a better um, reason to do so. So, I just wanted to offer my support. Thank you address regards to an agenda item. Hello, name is Mar and um um I came up to address council on the um Austin school housing development and I had a question about um does the building has what is this? the plan to uh address it concerning the people that live around that area.

Unfortunately, during public comment, we are not able to engage in dialogue. So, we will take your questions. Your council member will get a hold of you if you wanted to make sure we get that information. So, your your home and address? Um, 116 West Pine. I'm right around the corner. 116 West Pine. Across from the Salem United uh church. Okay. Yeah. So, we will stay in communication with you. Okay. Any questions? Any other public comment?

All right. Next on our agenda, we have our calendar items in our packet. It's the March 2nd study session and your March 2nd regular session minutes. Got a motion to approve. Move. All in favor say I. I. We have a motion for approve second reading. We have ordinance 20262 known as Joys ordinance. Good evening.

Just wanted to take this ordinance and kind of bring a reasonable standard to it. Um just make it more logical, more fair, more appropriate. Really wasn't subjective. It was just kind of black and white reasoning. I think uh changing it to a reasonable standard will give our officers allow them to exercise their discretion and be able to just have be able to solve problems better. Um I think with this ordination, sometimes we found that um sometimes people will use us as police department to weaponize us against a danger. They're not happy with or with or another situation and they will repeatedly call 911, try to use us to intimidate them. And I just want to make sure that, you know, that isn't happening and that we just really do the best we can with this ordinance and just bring that reasonable standard like so many of our ordinances are already.

Any questions for Chiefs? Okay, thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yes. Steward. Yes. Ross, yes. Davis, yes. Yes. Williams, yes. And second, yes. Do I have a motion to approve ordinance 2026 collection payment water and sewage service? So move forward.

Okay.

So um this was just a minor tweak to our existing ordinance. Um right now the uh existing ordinance has um it set up for collection on a quarterly basis. As council's aware, we're switching to the new water meters which actually pull the information on an hourly basis. Um so in my discussions with um former city man um indicated that the city was looking to switch to monthly building as opposed to quarterly. So the rates themselves are not being affected at all. It's just going to be build on a monthly basis because of the new meters as opposed to a quarterly basis. So it in all likelihood will make things a little bit easier on residents because the bills will be smaller. They'll just come through.

Any questions for your hardness? Yeah, I'm not sure if we're returning to hardness, but it was raised in one of our prior sessions that um do we do we expect to continue mailing the bills out and wouldn't that be um you know basically triple the expense and I wondered if we had any any response to that. So I think director Kern had said at one time that billing could be done on a mobile app with the new meters. Is that correct?

Correct. Good evening council. Uh they'll be able to do it electronically through email also with a mobile app and also through a web application. It also gives the homeowner the ability to monitor their building as well. Does that mean we won't be mailing out? That's really what the crux of the question was. Yeah, I'm kind of leaving that part up to Director Clark. That's going to be his more so his department than mine. Um I just know that uh we'll probably still do it for a while and see how it goes. I mean like I know what you're trying to allude to like we have older folks who may not be techsavvy or have the access to do that but

No. And just as a followup, I would suggest that we provide the ability for our citizens to opt out of a paper bill like we do in many other instances. I think that's the overall goal, but like the mayor said, that's our big concern is missing some customers. So, we have I'm sorry, I said thanks. Do you have your No, yeah. Um I agree with you, mayor. I think we do need to retain the mailing services to a certain extent at least for um those seniors who don't communicate using electronics. as long as we factor that in nothing.

I think if we can find a way when we do the system upgrade as an opt out most people would they'll have that ability but sign up for opting out if they would like to just get electronic bills that should have changed. It hasn't changed over yet. Correct. Correct. Yeah. Any other questions or comments?

Yes, if I can just add, I I agree with um Jason that probably mean that we did campaign in regards to let people know of the change and that they have options to receive the information electronically, but as a back stop, they will still be receiving the paper um the mailing postcards until we can transition. That make sense? Yes, absolutely. And I think too, just so let you all know, we're about 45% complete. So each week it keeps going up more and more. So we're doing pretty good. Tomorrow we're doing 46.

That's the whole time frame for lunch at this fast when we launch the monthly bill. I think Director Clark is looking at probably another monthish. They're kind of playing it by ear. We want to make sure that we kind of do it just right. Um I don't know if he's going to wait till the 50% mark. So right now we're running two systems. We got the new all the 45% water meters are being run in the new one and we're kind of Alexis is merging it and then sending it out currently. So, I think we're going to try to do it um a little bit at a time.

Anybody? Yes. Ross, yes. Davis, yes. Yes. Williams, yes. Yes. And Stard, yes. for a motion to approve amendments 202604 U for tax exemptions for the development of Austin school and an additional building for housing. So move

yes madam mayor and members of the council um before you is information regarding the uh pilot program in regards to Austin school. As you know, um last year we were um working on a pilot with uh community housing network and mushroom gardener school. A few months ago, we were presented with a proposal to renovate Austin School along with building another um housing unit on the property just to the north of it. And so, but on the same property, um, again, the pilot program trying to be consistent was created to replicate and not have competing pilots with different entities. As you know, uh, there there are two filing deadlines. One is in April 1st and the other one is, I believe, October 1st. Um there are a limited number of tax credits that the developer gets and we have the Washington Gardner and we have uh Austin school which two different entities vying for the same amount of money. It's a very competitive program. It's based on points and is um some of you were here last uh meeting and some of you weren't. We had Mr. Dane Prescott of the pivot group just present what could be proposed. As you know, ordinances takes two readings and in our particular case, um it would take another special counsel

meeting yet this amount to have council consider if you wanted to pass such. So, where where do we go from here? Um there's a motion in a second to approve this pilot program, but what's at stake here is we also have the Washington Gardner. They weren't successful in the last round of funding. Um they're both making applications both pivot group and community housing network. So in this particular case um and I think I illustrated or have illustrations what is being planned is approximately a 47 unit apartment complex to go on that property as mentioned earlier. Um and and rightfully so. I hear the concerns. Well, nobody's paying or in this case, they're not paying their fair share. As one other person had pointed out, that school has sat vacant for close to 30 years with no movement. And then you go across the street, you see more abandoned buildings. One of the attractive things is to take that building and that area and improve it to incentivize the economic development in that area in that neighborhood. And while it's not fair, um what is fair is trying to provide mixed income housing. And so the administration is leaning towards supporting this. And while we're supposed to take a mutual position, we've had opportunities working with

other developers with no interest but in going elsewhere. And so right now I'm trying to explain this why a developer would want to. This is what they're in the business for is trying to receive these credits to incentivize the redevelopment of structures. Picture yourself if we don't do this. What will happen with that school? Now, fortunately, uh with Dr. Tio in office um she has access to developers and we have we've tried to get developers interested in those different councils different philosophies. However, we have I see this as an opportunity where we could succeed and I think our community will be the better should we should council approve this. Now again this is a competitive process. So if the pilot if the if the grant the funding agencies don't reward or award uh the pivot group nothing will happen. Now that's not to say that they won't start over and apply in October. That pretty much could be but a lot of these groups after two tries they'll move on to different communities. So that's what I don't want to say is at risk, but that's what the alternatives are. We appreciate everybody's perspective on this. We really and there's no right or wrong answers. It's just that we have an opportunity to take a building that has sit vacant for 30 years and turn it into mixed use. So

that's why the administration I don't want to say is urging but um it is very attractive from where we sit to take advantage of this opportunity. I welcome any comments. I wish Mr. Dane were here but a little while ago we had a white out condition so I don't know why he's not here. Any questions or hets? Sorry. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Most everyone knows me as a historic preservationist in my my other job. Um, and it would give me no greater than to see a historic building like the Austin school rehabilitated into something that this community would be proud of. However, that is not why I was elected to sit today. um not for the pres preservation of a single building but to help maintain the continued preservation and revitalization of this community. I've done some research on uh Pivotal the company the develop the developer in question who's interested in this project and on average their litech uh tax exemption is 9%. They're only offering albian 7%. the average duration of their projects is a 30-year term, not 45. I want to see housing here, but I also want to make sure that we put ourselves in the best negotiation position we can to get the best part of this partnership. If this is a partnership, then it behooves us and behooves them to make it as equal and as beneficial to both parties as possible. Um I I don't get the sense that they're willing to negotiate with us that way. I I don't know why we push uh these so quickly uh so that and give away the farm, if you will, when I don't think that's necessary. I think if we stand up for ourselves a little bit more and and dictate what their deal is going to be for us, uh, I think we both wayers and I would prefer to see something more along the lines of 9% in a 30-year instead of 7% for 45.

Yeah, thanks Mar. Um, I actually think a win for Alvin looks like um us developing housing for people that live here. Um, housing that people can afford. People are currently being priced out of the marketplace. As I mentioned before during a um study session, Oak Meadows, a local um uh housing development, has decided to go from affordable housing to um market rate that allows them to charge rates as high as $1,400 a month. Um, not too many families here in the housing area can afford a $1,400 a month um, rent. But let me say it like this. My cousin was paying $700 a month for rent and they sent a letter in the mail saying that her rent would go up to $1,400. Um, she had a twomonth time window. Now, um on average, someone receiving a bill that doubled, especially in the amount of $700, um in the course of two months, I think that would that would force a lot of people out in this community. Um, one of my friends that lived out there, he um he he and his mother, he he's a a veteran of the US military, he and his mother ended up having to move to the Kazoo area um to find more suitable housing um because their rent had doubled over this over the same reason. Um I don't want it to be lost on us here at council the fact that um the city is a blue collar city. Um there's not many opportunities in the surrounding area for highpaying jobs. Um the need for this is the reason why this developer has come. Um the need for this is also

the reason why it hasn't taken place until now. Um, we could continue down the path of being a a difficult community to work with as we have been in the past or we can take this opportunity to set a brighter future for the city of Alen by embracing um new opportunities, especially those that will help to benefit our community members. I believe that creating these opportunities for people to live and remain in the city of Albian are a tax benefit to us in the community because it would bring um state revenue funding which we've seen it declining um around the tune of a million dollars as of the last census. Um it would help to also bring in tax revenue from the incomes of those people that work and live in those um apartment complexes as well as the benefit of those same people spending money on our local community and helping to support our local coffee shop and bookstore. um helping us support our local grocery store or actually just being here to stabilize our community so that we don't have to stress so much overs and water and different things. Um the decline of our population is to the detriment of the city of Al once 12,000 um citizen community is now 7700 8,000 somewhere in that range. Um, and we see it and we feel it driving down the street. We see it in the houses that have been condemned or vacant lots that are present. So, I I would implore us to support um the development of the Austin school.

So, as many of many of you know, I'm a lifelong resident of Albian. um born here, lived here all my life and I don't remember seeing housing development in our community in my lifetime. But I think if we can attract developers to Albian by approving some of these pilot programs to get their foot in the door, I think it's a good move for us. Um, you know, I've said it before, it's been said time and time again that the state of Michigan is still in a housing crisis. A lot of our homes are older homes. They've been used as rentals and as rental properties go, they're not the best maintained. So, when they go to sell, it's very hard to find somebody who wants to buy a house that needs a lot of work. There are a few people out there that are willing to take that on, but not many. Um, so I think this is a good move for Albian. We can definitely once we can start bringing in more developers, we can change the the rates that we're accepting for programs like this. Um, but as of yet, we have one to receive the any type of funding to make this a real job. So again, we are approving this in hopes that they can get the grant approval to make this development a reality, but only one of them more than likely will get it, if any of them. So then if ne neither of them get it, then we're back to square one and trying to attract the deote. So I don't see this as a bad thing for the city. Yeah, you know, I understand where you guys are coming from when you have concerns for the terms. Um, but I think in the long run, this would be a good move for us.

Comment.

I agree. I I it's it's interesting hearing the the research that has been done as well as the talking points but I think every there is uh validity in both and the building has been for self for 30 years and that's a long time you know and we've had people as I said during um our pre session we have we've had people who have the the desire ire to, you know, make the improvements, but the funding wasn't there. And with funding and renovations and things like that, you know, it just can't happen. What we call one time two men on a truck. I was there trying to clear out the building, but it just can't happen with the resources that we have in house. So, we have to look outside and we may have to take a little bit of bump and bruise, you know, to get what we want. But, um, I don't see the alternatives right now. Good. Mayor, if I could um going forward and um under Cheryl's leadership, um some observations um there's certain foundational things as Cheryl will tell you that we need to build a city. need fire department, police department, um post office, school, um that's another subject for another day. However, I would not recommend necessarily a pilot program for new development. What made these two projects attractive from my standpoint is taking a building that has not that's

been vacated for 30 years and repurposing that building back into something useful. If we had a vacant piece of property, no, I don't think that would be fair to single single um plotted homes. I don't think that'd be fair at all. However, we have an opportunity to take a building that is in disrepair and give that building new life, repurpose it, and give that geographic area of our city some economic development. So going forward, I just my observation and being a long time in this business, I would not necessarily support something in a vacant piece of property. Not a pile, maybe a taxment, but not a pile, but on these two buildings, Washington Garner and Washington or Austin Avenue, I I I think it's a good alternative.

So that's all I just wanted to comment. I think so too. And it would also help to to improve that part of town that that it's a nice I I live in that area. It's a nice part of town, but because that building is sitting there like that, you find some of the places around there junky and and really not up to par. And I think with the change in that, it's going to make the whole neighborhood improve. I'd also like to add um I've looked at the work that um the Pivotal Group has done in the Jackson area um and I admire it before I actually even knew who the Pivot Group was um the development that they did on Francis Street. I believe the other ones were on it's in the downtown area as well. But they're beautiful buildings. um great resources and additions to the Jackson community. And to think that we have the opportunity to have something similar here in our community, I think we have to take advantage of the opportunity that's being presented in in front of us so that we can benefit our um citizens here in our community. Council member Frost,

no. Davis, yes. Yes. Williams, yes. Reed, yes. Stewart, yes. And yes. Do I have a motion to approve of the application for the outand?

So, we even have uh a little write up along with your application direct stand up uh in support because this is the only that we do have in the community. Um it is a wonderful event if anybody has ever been uh present during one of the ad hunts. It's astronomical the amount of kids and families that come out to participate. It's really overwhelming. Um I agree that this is a wonderful cause and an event that is held each year. Um grassroots type of um organization. It started off small and has just grown. So I would also be in favor. Anybody have any questions or concerns?

Yeah.

Thank you. Um thanks for all kind words as well. I know Nate and Ara appreciate it. Um Nate and Audra um Fuentes. Nate's one of my classmates as well as um AP um Chief Pips. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Um but but yeah, they definitely really took down on um continuing the tradition of having an egg hunt out at Victory Park. Um they tap um their friends, family, loved ones, and community members to donate and volunteer to um put on the event. And I got to tell y'all, it's probably the biggest event that takes place in Victory Park. Like you have trouble parking. You almost got to park down a roof. It's a long walk, but it's a good time. So, um children out there having a great time smiling. Um it's a phenomenal event and I definitely think this is something that we should support.

Any other questions or comments? Council member, yes. Yes. Williams, yes. Ste, yes. Ros, yes. And yes. Next is our discussion. Carter amendment where city manager participates with this one.

Yeah. So as council be aware um we had a long and difficult road from our city manager search. Fortunately, we were able to wear Cheryl down to the point when she um and uh while while I hope she's with us a good long time, um I think the experience uh should give us of we should probably reflect on what we should do in the future when eventually Cheryl decides to retire and we have to look for another city. Um right now as council is aware our our um charter requires that uh the city manager got both a bachelor's and a master's degree. Um specifically the master's degree requirement while while I think it's awesome that we have that there aren't that many city managers um across Michigan that have a master's degree and as we found out through this last disqualify a great number of candidates. Um, so what I what I did is I looked at six different communities. Um, I looked at Charlotte, Eaton Rapids, Battle Creek, Lesley, Potterville, and William. And of those six cities, they basically had one of two variations of language. Um, one such language basically said, uh, the city manager must have had training for or previous experience in city, public or business administration. Um the other version says that um the city manager is appointed on the basis of um executive and administrative qualifications with special um reference to training experience.

Um so I'm not saying we need to go that general but that seemed that was the trend. Uh of those six cities, three of them had her set, the other three had the second set. So my suggestion would be we go with something along the lines of requiring a you could say a bachelor's degree in public administration or a related field and previous experience in city public or business administration. Um right now the way ours is set up is you have to have a bachelor's degree and master's degree in either public administration I think it says or equivalent. So, hypothetically, someone who's a city attorney could be um a city manager or well, I I didn't want it either. It's hard enough being the city attorney. Um so, I bring this up now because we've already got our board of review at the attorney general's office for, you know, you know, pre-re with the idea that we can put it on for the November election this year. if we want to look at doing a career amendment, now is a good time because we'll already have one on the ballot this fall. So, I thought I'd bring it to council to see if we have any thoughts in this regard and if we can come to a consensus, I can put together a resolution to send the AG's office for preapproval.

Council, uh, thank you, M. Um, I would say I agree with you on not so faith with the um the requirement. You you don't want to cast a net so broad that you have to filter through so many candidates that potentially won't filter out. Um, but I do like the recommendation as you say for

Thank you. Um I when I read this I saw the eore equivalent as sort of sufficient. Um and if we wanted to define what equivalent would be I don't disagree with the idea of bringing it to the public and having it change our charter but you could simply add um at least a master degree in public administration or equivalent city management experiences. And that way we're know we're going to get somebody who's been a city manager somewhere. The degree the degree is irrelevant. If they've been city manager somewhere else and have come through that experience with positive uh recommendations, then that should count. So if we just add those three words, then we can still have the master's degree up there for people who want to collect a piece of paper. But I don't want to limit it to say that we're not going to allow we're not going to consider candidates that have right so we're vague. I'd rather be a little more specific by just saying those three words. I guess my thought was was to say because the way that it's set up right now is is a bachelor's and a master's degree or a minimum requirement

or an equivalent of a you know or it says a bachelor's and at least a masters in public admin or an equivalent to a masters in public ad which could be a jurist doctor could be you know somebody higher PhD but my thought is rather than to set we set a minimum with a bachelor's degree in public administration or equivalent and then if somebody comes along adds more education they obviously qualify. I'm just thinking the way it's written right now a minimum is too high to cast the net that we want for candidates because I mean we were very lucky with Cheryl because she went the distance and ran the gland got a PhD. Not every city manager does. I mean, I've worked with I I don't know how many different city managers and right now I think all of my communities, Cheryl's the only one with an advanced degree, right?

I mean, for the reasons of asking for the charter amendment, do we have to get that deep in the woods with the language or are we just for the ballot language?

So, yeah. I mean, so basically what the AG's office requirements is they want the specific amendment we're making to the language in our resolution. They want they're very particular in that they want the red line version of what we're proposing and what we're eliminating. So, I mean, I guess my thought would be it it says right now it reads to be eligible for appointment the city manager must have previous experience in city public business or industrial administration and also have your bachelor's degree and maybe we just get rid of and at least a master degree. We say at least a bachelor's degree in public administration or equivalent. That's

so somebody with a master's degree can certainly apply, but they're not required to have a masters. Yeah. That I I when I first read it, I thought, oh, we want to keep the master's degree, but you have I mean, you get the wording change to have a bachelor's degree or equivalent to a previous experience. Yeah. I mean I have the experience before the degree in other words you know in the language.

Yeah. And you'll fix the word industrial industrial mean. Oh yeah. Well that would be municip. Um, so what we're saying is So you're talking about scratching and at least a master's degree in public administration. No, I'm just saying it it'll say a bachelor's degree and then we get rid of and at least a master's degree. Right. Right. So it'll be a bachelor's degree in public administration or

or in and you know I don't know that equivalent is maybe we just say or related applicable field or something like that. I thought go ahead. I I think that I'm hearing that it's the experience in city manager positions that is what we're concerned about. Correct. So it feels like that's what we should spell out. If that's what our consensus is, then that's what we should spell out. That was my bachelor's degree in public administration or equivalent city managers city manager township, right?

Municipal administration experience by leadership, right? Well, so here's the question though. The front part of it says to be eligible the city manager must have previous experience in city public business. So we've already said that. So then here's the question. If we're talking about wanting sure they have previous experience, do you want to put a number on it saying like you have to

I would just I would I want them to have been a city manager or a township manager somewhere else before they qualify for us. In other words, I don't want someone to come out of college who did a two-year internship as a, you know, for a municipality getting that previous experience in city college and business admin industrial administration and be a candidate for our city management industry. I don't want them applying. I want somebody who has been at the top of their relative community. They managed a police force and a fire department and a public works department and the tax people and all that. That's what I want. whether they have a piece of paper. I mean, there's a billboard coming into Alvin from the side like the get rid of the paper chain or whatever it is. So that experience is the thing that's counted and I want somebody who's led. I don't want somebody for whom we will be there first time leading all of those departments. So, how about the city manager must have previous experience in municipal administration and also have a bachelor's degree in public administration or

right but administration doesn't say leadership because because no offense current he's got administrative experience running the DPW but administrative experience running public safety right but he's not he's not been in charge of in that position

right but we had Kip I understand. And he would then apply because he was able to say in his resume that he was acting city manager, right, for a number of times, right? That's what I want. I want someone who's actually sat in that position for some period of time, not two months, but you know, at least a year. I don't want to put the number on it. I just want candidates to say, "Oh, I don't have that, so I'm not going to apply." Or, "Oh, I have that. I am going to apply." And get rid of the masters requirement. But I want leadership because I don't want us to have a city manager fooled when we are first and we don't know how well he does.

Well, Madam Mayor, um you you obviously and your point is well taken. However, anyone of the staff could step into that role between the mentoring of Cheryl and by witnessing other managers. So to suggest that um Director Kern or uh Director Pips or David or anybody they could just by witnessing an evaluation could step in in this role. Um, I think that's exactly an excellent succession plan because they're committed here. They know the streets. They know the geographics. They know the physical and the administrative side of business. That's exactly what came if we want. So,

but that verbs, right? So what you're saying then is is that this is not necessarily for outside candidates but to allow an internal candidate to succeed.

That's what I think should be allowed. Oh, I but that should be stated. But I I what I what I would like is is for us to because certainly if chief if Chief Kip were still chief and he had led us as interim city manager on several occasions he absolut and then returned to his chief position. Absolutely. So if we want Chief Fipps or or Deputy or Director Kern to serve in that position, we should give them this position on an interim basis during vacations, during, you know, leaves, what have you, because I I still think there is value in someone who's actually sat there, negotiated the contract, been there for a year, knows all the ins and outs that are relative to all the other divisions.

Point well taken. Except that what I would suggest, what is your time frame to the AG? I would say we probably want to submit it to them no later than the end of April.

Okay, here's here's what I would say. We have a council meeting coming up. They have at least two more council meetings uh between now and then. At least two more. Could you come up with sample language to present to council that would accomplish that? Well, I I I come home with sample language, I guess. And I take Councilman French's point, you know. I mean, I think everybody in council wants somebody who's got previous managerial experience, but are we talking about just the city manager? I mean, you know, a lot of times, and I think the part of the point you're making, Doug, is that assistant city managers are frequently promoted. And I don't what we don't want to do is get so far into the weeds in the language that you we're we're eliminating those potential candidates, you know, like, hey, we want somebody to defend a city manager. Okay. Well, assistant city manager has been that. And I don't think anybody here would debate on whether or not Haley did a fantastic job in her first role, which she did. But I think to limit it to to just previous city manager experience pigeon holes us to to candidates that have sat in the chair when there are a lot of times like um the meridian towns just our our current manager was the former assistant city manager in East L. He's doing a great job. So I I I I hesitate to get I I think it's too I think some of these communities have language that's too broad. I think our current language is too I think the requirements are too high. But I also don't want to get too specific with this because I think we're going to lose the idea is to cast a wider net and I and I think we lose something if we say you have to have been a specifically a city manager or a municipal man. So, kind of going what you were saying, I think if we allow

attorney Hartness to draft language that kind of encapsulates all of our sentiments and I get what you were saying about internal candidates that Yeah, definitely for an internal candidate. Yeah. But for somebody else to come to our community and not know how we have how our structure is, how we run things and if they were only um you know a director of one department, I think that would be hard to translate into running our city hall. But yes, having somebody internal who knows all of our facets and knows our personalities, that's a different story, you know.

Thank you, mayor. Um, I think what I'm hearing is that there's been some sentiment to changing the language to allow it to be broader. Um I would agree that the individual you're seeking after me have executive leader um experience in municipal operation. Um one thing that has been overlooked is there's also certifications like I have the ICMA International City Managers Association certified manager designation. So there are other factors that can be considered that could be an and or within the language. I don't know. It could be something considered when you're actually posting your position, but I don't know if we need to belabor it here. I'm confident that K and I and Doug can pass some language for your consideration and um come back to you on there.

And the one other thing that's important to point out, our citizens, they're the ones that are making this choice. So, we have to give them language that they have confidence that we're doing the right thing because they're the ones ultimately that are approving this.

Council um I think um the new city manager. No, I I like what she said because there are things that we haven't even considered regarding the certifications which are very relevant but uh so I think we sold that's right.

All right. Next is our discussion on study sessions prior to council. Counciloman item here. Um, so this council has been doing study sessions since uh before I sat in this chair and I was hoping we could discuss a little bit about that history, why it was decided that they were necessary um and how we might look at it going forward. I know one of one of my concerns uh with our study sessions and actually our study session earlier today was a good example is that there's so much covered and discussed during study session and not at the formal council meeting uh that I think is important and really deserves its its time in front of the public during a formal session. Uh and um so I I would just like to a little bit of background uh if some of the the veterans here wouldn't mind uh helping me attorney.

So study session or the the used to do many moons ago study sessions were a rare thing. um they became a a bimonthly um or bi-weekly, excuse me, occurrence um because at the time our regular meetings were becoming so long because we had so many questions on every agenda item. And so I think at the time the council was looking for a remedy and one of the things that they came up with was to do a study session to get all the ideally get all the questions about the complicated action items out ahead of time so that the regular session meeting wouldn't take forever. It's almost it's kind of almost the same scenario as what Councilwoman Davis come up with with the closed sessions. you know, you you spend an hour talking about one agenda item and some of the public doesn't want to stick around to talk about item number five on the agenda because we're we're beating a dead horse on on questions on agenda item may. So, um I I can't remember if it was how it got suggested, but I I remember telling council that um like the city of Eaten Rapids before I started with them, they do a study session, a twohour study session. And it doesn't necessarily go the entire meeting, but they have a 2-hour study session at 5:00 and then their regular meeting starts at 7:00. And their regular meeting usually lasts about 15 minutes because they they've already discussed everything. The public can come to the study session if they want and they just get in there. They're like, "All right, we already talked about this. Let's vote." And I think that was the idea behind it.

Mayor Dan French. Yeah, I I think that our charter says that the meeting starts at 7 and we were a council that argued quite a bit and so we just go on and on and on and on and we were having council meetings that wouldn't get out till 11

and and so that was a way to sort of get some of the meat and potato. I would agree with you. I would love I work out of town. I don't get to I have to rush through dinner to get to dinner before my council meeting. And so I would love for us to forego council uh study sessions nonetheless absolutely necessary. So if we have if we have a developer who's going to come and make a presentation to us and we want to be able to make sure that we have enough time to get through the rest of our agenda then maybe we'd have a study session with that and it would be public just like they are now. But it would be a single item kind of thing sort of like what we did today with Mickey. Mickey came and he didn't think we were going to ask questions for a half an hour but we did. And so I think those are useful. Um but I think it should not be a think we we know each other well enough. And I think also the thing that we forgot to do because there was a lack of trust in those days among some is that we get our packets on the Thursday or Friday, Wednesday or Thursday of our the week before. and our job is to read that as soon as possible so that we can then contact our city manager with questions that we have and they can answer those questions outside of city council. We can review those responses at the regular meeting. But if we come in without having read our packets, then it's all discovery and it takes longer and longer and longer to get done. But if we've read our packet, we can write down the questions we have. we can contact our city manager and they can answers for us before we meet on Monday so that we don't have to hash all that out and if we want to review during council member comments or during an item discussion that thank our city manager for providing information that we needed to for us to be able to make a decision uh yes or no on something. And I think if we if we refocus our efforts on understanding that our role as city council members is not to get the meeting packet on Monday afternoon or Monday evening and read it and then be ready for the meeting, but to do it the week before take the weekend and take some time and reflect. So then even

Monday morning, call the city manager, hey, I got a question about this. What's this about? And they will answer. So, I think if that's the thing that we do and we get to have an extra half hour to have dinner and be a little more relaxed and groovy about stuff before we come to council meeting, I'm all for it.

So, we have had some meetings where we we've canled that study session because there wasn't enough um new information that we had discussed at some time prior. Um, you know, so I think depending on what's on the agenda, how much is on the agenda, what's new on the agenda, we kind of make a judgment call as to whether or not we're going to have that study session. Uh, but kind of like what Mayor McDonald said, I think we had in past practices folks who did not prepare and so they came to the meeting asking all kinds of questions. that as soon as I get my electronic packet, I'm looking at it. I'm looking at the attachments. If I don't see something, I'm getting a hold of Jill. If I have questions, Colin's getting a call or an email city manager right away because I want to get these questions answered. So, a lot of times when I'm at sitting here at council, I'm not asking questions because I already have the answers. And so I do want us to be able to talk about certain items because that gives the city some understanding of where we're coming from before we make that decision. So it's good that we could have dialogue, but it doesn't have to be the labored arguments and not un that's coming from misunderstanding.

So that's kind of how we got back to having study festival because like French said, we were here 10 or 11:00. If yeah, was that it? I would also add I remember Colin giving me oldies. Um if if I had a question or someone on council had a question on Colin, Colin would then reply to everybody in the council. Hey, Councilman French had this question about this particular item. Here's my response, right? And when Cheryl was our sitting in, he did the same thing. So I think that that could be a standard practice so that all all our questions are public within the council and they can be disseminated and if people want to foyer that email or that question then that that's that's certainly possible.

Not not if I'm giving advice. No, but I mean forational purposes. Yeah. And just quick two cents. Um, I I like the idea of limiting those study sessions because it I worry that the things we cover in the study section aren't as readily visible. So, we're we're online today and I think people see that and it feels more transparent unless we need to have that study session. It feels more transparent to have those discussions here.

Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I I was on council when we started doing the um study site. Um well when we implemented the study sessions and I think like over the course of the last year with Doug um the study sessions have been helpful um we've covered a lot of heavy lifting um from the roads to water to um new development things like that. But to Andy's point, there are times where we got we we have a limited agenda and we don't necessarily need the time beforehand to go over everything that, you know, we may have to discuss in in the meeting. But, um, there is a benefit on those days like today when we have questions for Mickey and it might take us a while to get to them. Um, and it could shave a little bit of time off the end of the meeting. So, we're not, you know, 9 10:00 going home, even though we're probably 9:00 tonight. Um, but with that being said, therapy is said, I would support making an adjustment, but I can also imagine there'll be days when we need to have it. If we have it on those days, I'm far from that.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense to me. I I do find a lot of value in in certain study sessions that we have. I think today was certainly a good example of where they really are an important tool for the council to have. But again, my my biggest concern is that there are some important parts of aspects to the discussions that we have. uh the parts even that maybe things we don't disagree on that I think is important for the public to see because the public asked us to represent them and I think it's important for them to see their representative engage in a conversation on the official level in our meetings and I so I I might suggest myself that when we do have our uh study sessions that we maybe are a little bit more focused on getting the extra information, clarifying points kind of hashed out, but keeping the the cross discussion saying that for the official meeting. Great. Any other comments? Very good. Future agenda items. Anything meeting agenda? public comments in the B that would like to stand and address confer agenda item. Um I know I plan to invite um Mallerie AIS from the transportation department when I have my uh precinct meeting or or something like that. But we may want to staff once all the fairs I know they're working on a lot of different things but we may want to have

her come to a council meeting to do a presentation uh regarding the services that are available in the Albian community as compared to you know the Calon County area you know what services what are the goals you know for Albian what do we have right now will you be goal would be maybe in five years. Uh what are some of the aspirations for advancement for um for the Albian community and things like that? So eventually within the next maybe couple of months we can invite her to come to give a presentation of transportation

or Mallerie Aus Mallerie Aus is the director of um the authority the transportation. All right. Do I have a motion to go into close session? So move support.

All right. Thank you. Okay. I shared with you um by email earlier today um the city manager news report. Should we not receive it or we have an alternative email that you prefer to receive communication from? please let me know about that. But as you know, today was my first day

and I just want to thank everyone. Um, everyone's been most kind and helpful and I didn't blow up the computer yet. So, I'm really proud of myself.

And I just want to remind the listening audience that um today was the start of our adjusted hours. So that city hall is open from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and will be closed on Friday. And uh one of the things I'm having staff look into is if we can start recording the other boards and commission meetings so that those be available and accessible to the community. So look forward to seeing that move forward. And I want to reach out to each of you as well to start scheduling some one-on-one meetings. So we'll have to um get some insights on what's important to you and where you would like to focus some attention. And related to that, I think you have something like 45 days to establish my goal. So we'll need to set some time aside to have those conversations. Um and uh Doug has been exceptionally um helpful and supportive and I just have to thank again for everything that he's been doing and I look forward to having a conversation on how we can um keep him around for some period of time to lend his expertise to some special projects in particular. So we'll be moving forward with that with without any objection. I think we all agree that we can keep your arms. You would all be very happy with that decision. So you don't want to see

Thank you. So you can agree to or we can tight

um with that in mind, there's two there's two things on a serious note. We have some development going on in the city that um I'd like to see through um some on uh North Eaton and then um we have some zoning issues that are are pretty important that need to be dealt with tomorrow. We have a special use permit uh that the planning commission. So, um hopefully under the direction of our new city manager, she'll allow me to continue forward. Another thing, um because she's in place now, um I am seeking the release of some of her, um money for relocation expense. Um, I think it's only uh I mean she's here now. Um, she's in a process of buying a house and um I believe it's $2500. Yes. So, I would uh strongly recommend that we um authorize David to make that payment. And I don't know, Colin, do we even need a motion?

No. already in our contract. I think we just need to Yeah. You mean the mayor could just send us. So, um that'll be the first thing tomorrow if that's okay. Okay. And that's all I know. Comments. Attorney, attorneys, I was just gonna say just a reminder, I I had emailed Doug and I think Aaron and the mayor just to remind council, I will be out of state from the 25th to the 4th. I will possibly, but definitely have a margarita in my hand. So, I'm probably not going to be

Jimmy out of the country, out of the out of out of the state. Um, but either of the John's, either John Power or John White at my office will be available at the you just call the main office number. Um, and I can I'll send everyone their email. Uh, but feel free to reach out to either one of them in my absence and they'll be happy to answer any questions. They've been instructed not to contact me unless the building is burned down around the fourth. Why not text?

We still have to I don't know if we've nailed down the date of the pilot. I was going to bring that up. I think from the responses next Monday or the best suited date um to have our special meeting. So if that works for you all um we can decide on 6:30 or keep it at 7. I think we only have three items right now that would be on the agenda. So, keep it at 7 o'clock and 7 pm next Monday. Monday. Yes.

Mayor, not I've already sent a message to uh Jill, but I will not be able to make that meeting. I'm going to be out of state end of this weekend next week.

And just one other thing, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve you and the citizens of Albian. Um it's it really has been my pleasure. um you know you get to a certain age and you start looking back at your career and gosh you know um it's just been a wonderful experience and some of this is due to these gentlemen and the other staff that I work with and it really has been a pleasure working for you and I hope um that you'll never ever hesitate calling on me for anything. You know, I live

down the street and so I'm always here to help you in whatever capacity I can. You're not saying, but thank you. Thank you. Other council member comments.

Yeah. Thank you, mayor. In the last few weeks, um I've I've been curious about a few things. uh and so I thought I'd just bring to the council's attention some of the things that I've been doing uh research in the community. I had been interested in the uh business communities the local business community's impact on uh the Albian city economy and so I had a really productive meeting with uh Billy Beers at the Chamber of Commerce and Emily Verbecki with the DBA and of course Debbie Kelly over with the EDC. Uh we had a great meeting kind of look at uh the the our downtown uh commercial district and look at some of the some of the development for uh the industrial center and just kind of getting an idea of what the pulse is on Albian business and and what exactly how much do they bring to the city at large and that relationship and how we might be able to uh continue to build that relationship uh going forward. um some pretty great feedback and some great great ideas of how we can better kind of get a hold on particularly our downtown. I think that our our historic downtown uh is and could certainly be a bigger draw for and so I'm really interested in finding ways to support the business community uh certainly all over our our city but also our downtown to really try and bring bring it up. Uh also, um I had a meeting and there's uh an issue speaking of our downtown buildings um regarding historic preservation. Uh I had a meeting I attended a presentation last week over in Marshall. It was a presentation put on by the state historic preservation office, Shipo, and they were talking about uh different

tools that communities had in order to kind of protect their historic buildings. And one of the things that is very interesting is that at least that I learned is that even though we have a registered historic commercial district, there really are no protections. It's really an honorary title, but there are tools that Albian can apply for at the state level that would give us uh our ordinances more heat in terms of protecting our buildings. So, I think it's something that we should look at more. Uh I will send the paperwork that I picked up, send that to city manager so we can maybe look into some of that. Uh, but I think that if we are going to seriously consider and seriously pursue making our downtown something that we can all be proud of, maybe pursuing some of these um, uh, financial incentives and also uh, historic preservation protections might be good thing to do.

Wonderful. Thank you for that. Um this past weekend, uh

a Concord high school basketball team the division 4 state championship. Um Concord basketball has been led by our own um who was an Albian College resident, Albian resident, I mean Alvin College graduate and an Albian resident. I want to say congratulations to the entire basketball team for a fabulous season. We do have several young men who live in Alb who play on that team. So I want to be able to congratulate them publicly at all. Um Marcus was assisted by his father, Robert Giles, as the assistant coach who also lives in Albian. Um his son Marcus Gail Jr. was on the team. Uh Daryl Dean Jr. also on the team. Derell Jackson and Tyler Rundle. Um, all of them are Albian residents, so they deserve kudos and a pat on the back if you happen to run across them. Um, also the women's basketball team are still in postseason playoff. They have a game Toron, so we encourage uh the women's team as much luck as the guys seen this year. So, just want to publicly congratulate both teams on their wonderful seasons in the boys division board championship.

Yes.

I just want to say thank you to uh the council for uh approving my attendance to MML or our attendance to MML. We had the opportunity to share two days with our new city manager and as well as with other uh municipal uh areas and some of the things that they're facing and uh some of the challenges that they um are working on as we are. So, it's always a good networking um experience, you know, to be with others who are in Michigan and encountering some of the same things that as well as learning new avenues and new possibilities in terms of what is available to us in terms of grants and things like that. I know last time I did a um slide presentation. And I don't know if you want to sit up and and look at a slide presentation, but just want to say thank uh thank you. There is a certification program uh with municipal government that I wasn't aware of in terms of uh things that council members should know and I don't know how many steps there are. Seems like there maybe about 15. But there is a process of learning how to be an exemplary council person in your community. And that is something that I think we should uh feed into. It is just about getting all of the training that we can so we can do the better job, the best job that we can in terms of learning experiences and functioning effectively as a council member.

Any other council accounts? Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So move support. All in favor say I. I. Oppos. Meet a journ 9:33 p.m.