Council - workshop

Oh, that feels good in here. All right. okay official yeah It's not, it's not something. It's patient health. I'll have you to do that, but. Yeah, and there's some groundless patients that do that. Right.

Of course, we're, after so many of these kinetics, right, so you can't hear what he said. Oh. It's almost, you know, about 43 miles per hour. Right.

But, yeah, it just goes, like, from a spine, fuzz, and a fade. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it.

how it decides to uh

Yeah. Yeah.

All right, folks, I'm going to go ahead and call our meeting to order. So if you have one, it is going to be now. If we could stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. So our study session is to finalize our city management goals.

We were emailed some documents.

kind of peruse and look at you can also have those documents on your desktop so at this point i will turn it over to our city manager thank you um well council members if you recall we had the first concession people students 21st and you identified some of the priorities um from your perspective and those were combined there was one document that you guys call a summary So I don't know if there's anything that might have been overlooked, but feel free to update me if that's the case. And then the second document that you received was the priorities plan. And it identifies the key priorities. One being infrastructure and asset management. Two is efficient and effective municipal operations. Three is financial management and capacity building. Four is community engagement and transparency. Five is strategic partnerships and community development. Six is housing, downtown, and neighborhood development. Guess I skipped it. So seven is strategic plans. And then there are some subfolds under each of those. So what you have an opportunity to do is discuss amongst yourselves If these reflect your conversations and your perspective, and then for each one of those strategic steps, if you think they should fall within the short term, which is six months, within six months, and midterm, which is six to 12 months, in the long term, this would be one year only. And also, if you want to modify anything that's been changed and deleted or add something that's not reflected.

I'm not sure if you all had enough time to kind of thoroughly assess the steps with each of the categories. You know, when I was kind of looking through these, trying to determine, is that even something that can be done short term, midterm, within a year, or long term, trying to make sure that we have actual goals in place for our city manager to be assessed when it comes to career evaluation. But then also don't want to put things that are truly unobtainable within a year's time. But yeah, we want to make sure that at least the residents feel like we're moving towards something and improvements within the community. So I'm not sure if you all had time to bring them. Um, I had a couple, but I mean, it's definitely open to hearing what others thought in regards to each other, of course.

Thank you. Um, I'll say that I wasn't exactly sure what we were going to do against me. So I went through and, um, with the exercises so I went through it in my head but it is a marketing event so I'm not really as far along as I could be to do it but I think we can probably around about seven and then a couple of subs it's probably a job for the team and agree on and try to agree, consents on what, if anything is short-term, what if anything is mid-term, what's long-term, and then if we have issues, we could probably get through this.

There might be a few things that are already done that we just share. Tom Spurgeon.

In regards to the first goal, And the items that are within that lot, for the short term, I think that we could probably get a current wish to identify priority items in neighborhood improvements. That's something that we probably already have some insight in there. For me, a midterm for six to 12 months to maybe evaluate payment condition and funding gaps, I think funding could take more time, but we may have an opportunity to find resources to make that happen in regards to making improvements. Because I know that even if it's not on the radar, there are certain areas within our town, like Jason has said before, where the routes are kind of uplifting sidewalks. And so it's becoming a little bit of a hazard for people who are walking or little kids, randomites. So we need to be mindful of being able to address those type of issues, even though it's not the full strength that can be done, but maybe fixes that can be addressed. The capital improvement schedule and then the coordinating with DPW and finance, I think that that may take a little bit more time. What I've put down is a long-term initiative.

Okay. The court or, well, hold on. The first one, the value of the favorite conditions, being that we have the PACER rating and they're also assessing the water current, I think we're at what? of the fact that the funding, we may be able to assess the issue, but the funding is going to take a while.

Yeah.

So, what do you think for that? Six months?

Yeah, that was a midterm for me. Yeah. And actually, when I was thinking of pavement, I wasn't thinking of roads, I was thinking of sidewalks.

Right, and sidewalks

yeah so i i basically divided the first one into two because i think evaluating payment conditions has to happen yeah so um the funding gap is we already know the funding gap when it comes to sidewalks in my mind, but I agree with what everybody else has said, that I was here for, sorry about that. About the signing, priority core versus neighborhood, I think that's, I just took the score, it's the unique words, they came, first two were first priority, second two were mid-term or long-term, so yeah. And they're long-term as well.

If we're not sure whether the short-term or mid-term, I think it would be wise for us to put them as mid-term so that they are attainable. Which one was that? The first two. The second one specifically, which was based as a short-term. If we're not sure that it's a short-term, then we should change it to mid-term so that it's not attainable. Yeah.

And I thought process with the priority corridors in the last comprehensive plan, we had addressed that. I just think we need to go back and see if those are the same corridors that still need addressing or if there's additional elements that need to be added on this. Before we see that, you mean? Yeah.

So we're staring at the terminal thing.

I got mid-short for all of them.

All right, what's going on? Listen. How do you do the second one, not the first?

Well, I think the funding gap was the similar. Yeah. Some people may be able to find a funding gap, but it's like 12.

Well, it's actually to a value of the company. I'm still sure of it. So, yeah.

So, yeah.

Okay, so that I see that you see the condition, yes, make an estimate of their sense of activity and that's it. We do that we can consolidate into neighborhoods and corridors, find some efficiencies with respect to those projects, once we get that first cross estimation. So that's that's what I was thinking. I'm in agreement with the short term on it. Okay, should I start around that?

short, medium, long. I got a short, medium, long.

Okay. Short, medium, long, long.

All right. Maybe move on to goal 1.2. Advance the water. Yes, go ahead. Improve communication outreach to residents.

Short term.

Are you still on the first page?

1.2 advanced lead and copper gun replacement. So I should be first. And then the finalized inventory should also be short. And then coordinate with state regulations and secure additional funding for replacement funds can be made at all.

I hadn't even wondered, like, The first one, finalized inventory, is that, can that be done within six months?

Can we do that within six months? That's all I want. Well done.

Yeah, we just need to know how many hours we got left in the ceiling for replacement, right? Probably. To finalize it. Does anybody know how, where's Jason? Let's see.

Hey, Jason. Hello.

that's where i thought we were at there you remember this is a study section good morning so we are just about there and if you remember from the deq's uh requirements it was a test it was only a certain percentage so we have just about completed all that but one of the things that we're identifying is where replacing our streets right now. If we come across that, we will replace that. The other thing it did is by the meter program, we were able to, once we got it in a house or a building, we were able to identify whether or not there was lead fittings in that. And we were required to, correct me, I believe it was 24 inches either side of the meter we were responsible for. So if we identified it, I will tell you from experience that We will probably forever, every once in a while, come across a lead service and then we'll replace it as identified. But I think for all intent purposes with this document, I think short term, we will just about achieve that based on the state's requirements. Oh, I think there is.

It's 2041, and I believe that we, but the requirement is a certain percentage, you know, like each year, and it's from the city's connection to the water meter. So if we're only doing 24 inches, it might be the other part of the line. Okay.

Right. So there was a trigger when we had identified, when we replaced meter, is that then we had to go out with our vector, dig up the curb stop, and then see. If there was any doubt at all, we replaced it.

Okay. Not very well defined, and it just doesn't seem like all the others to me. So that's why I'm just saying, if we were going to draft one, I would go from that to this one. Except the last. The communication.

No, I would draft goal 1.2 as well. So that's the last section of 1.2, which is to improve the interpretation of that.

Now, we're really just executing the rest of the copper mine. Copper and lead mine were placed in. We already have the funding, right?

Didn't we have the funding for that? No. Oh, okay. Not all of it. Right. Okay. So we still got fun and fun. Any questions?

Yeah.

Well, one of the things I don't like about it is something you created, Randy, which was we're not going to know all the lead. So we're setting up a failure. We're going to finalize the inventory, maybe one of them, and see what happens in probably 36.

That's what I did. In this particular case, I think as far as our city manager goes, as long as she's overseeing it, making sure and the water department is proceeding um i think that that's a responsible approach because we are responsible for the health safety and welfare of our citizens so i think that as long as she's identified it as a priority and is following through with it i think that that is well worth noting on your goal is listed as advanced it's just a

So currently, for number one, finalized inventory, short-term?

I added a structure.

Okay. Coordinating with state regulatory agencies and securing additional replacement funding. Can we go long-term on that? Just because we know this is going to be a continual issue going forward. And then for the last one, we'll keep it on the short-term?

That's right.

Perfect.

What did you add for the first one?

Short term and then two long terms and then one short term. And again, we just have to be mindful that we'll have to be very generous when it comes to grading along this.

Short, long, long term. Okay. Okay.

All right. Efficient and effective collaboration. Modernize technology and create citizen service portal. Implement real-time dashboards. What do you think? I mean, this is technology and... At least.

I was going to say, both those first two are taking a little time. Yeah.

But we got, we hit it. I had mid-short long.

I also had short for the online citizen request portal. I think that's something that has developed, yeah. Would you mind saying that again? I had short term for the online citizen request portal, or at least a way for them to message the city. Yeah. and get a response from somebody within 48 hours. Business, yes.

I have a question about that one. Wasn't there some conversation sometime about some kind of like a kind of an AI thing that would help people who were interested in that? There was some kind of a package that municipalities could join up and purchase?

I think Jason did kind of talk about that, that that could be an option for us, but I'm not sure what type of investment that would include.

I want to think about it as a two-pronged prayer in the process of doing a soft launch for what's called the Ad Victoria. So that you can go online or make a phone call and get some easy answers to your inquiring work order platform. So that will also fall within the system or the system.

The dashboards. Would it vary much differently from what we currently utilize as far as the city's website? Or would it just be updated more frequently instead of real-time dashboards?

And I don't necessarily know the feasibility when we say real-time, not a dashboard, definitely work on, but we took a real-time out of it.

So we can put maybe short on that because we already have.

So I think when I think of dashboards, the City of Amherst reports, you put out a lot of different mental reports, those are the kind of things I think of when I see dashboard items. And they're not going to be in real time, but they could be regular. And I could concur that they could be short-term because you're so...

So you're saying it'd be scheduled? So instead of maybe as it happened, it might be weekly or biweekly or something like that?

Maybe we could go into it in the meantime, but I'm not sure that's a real legitimate requirement. And I will say also on these kind of things, we have to be... There has to be annual discussions so that we can have requirements that we agree these are the requirements for what we mean by that. So there's got to be more discussion on this so that when we get to the end, We don't want to get to that level of detail, but we have to agree on it. So are we going to decide with a level of detail or trust it to a senior? So I don't think we want to micromanage.

No, that's not our goal. We set the goal so she figures out the communication. So I think kind of summarize what I've heard. If as long as you take out the real time in regards to implementing dashboards, that could be considered short term goal.

And we replace it with online.

Implement online dashboards.

I think the other question number of meetings that the city manager has or a link to the city manager's calendar or mayor's calendar or something you know or make an appointment with whatever it is right so to talk to the assessor whatever it is um i think we need to have a conversation about what that means because a dashboard by definition is something that's but be careful that we don't overwhelm the citizens. Because the website provides all the less quick information access. The dashboard should be like, what's the health of our city? How are we measuring the health of our city? That any citizen might want to be able to send.

So I think, you know, with that guidance, I think we should be able to figure out all the type of information that we can bring back to us.

When we have a water issue and we go out and knock on the doors and give everybody a slip and tell them, hey, we had a water issue in this area. Do we also put that on the website? Or have we put it on the website in the same day? Water, water. Okay, and that's as much real time as I think we possibly need. Right. You know what I mean? Right. Well, if there's an accident, avoid this neighborhood.

If there's an accident, avoid this neighborhood.

And I think that's what I was calling out was I think we've already been hit. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I think we've been hit in real time. If you're putting it on the website and sharing it on Facebook, I think other than just having an actual portal or app, I think we've been pretty good at that.

What do you think is realistic on the digitizing of the general workforce? Is that a midterm?

How is this going to be midterm?

So I'm hearing we have short, short, midterm. Yes. Agreed. Strength in code enforcement and community cleanup. This is called all that. Staffing and then.

Yeah, this is a big thing.

Yeah.

I've had some conversations with, what was the left? Oh, it's the gentleman who is, I don't remember what his role is currently. He's over in Springfield. He used to be in our planning department. Yeah. So I'm sitting next to him. That's what it was because I It was an interesting conversation, but it just went out to me, it impressed me that, I mean, I already thought it was a good idea, because I've been involved in this stuff all the time, but I think this is going to take some thoughtful effort and some manpower. That's all I wanted to say on that, but I think part of this is, it was a plan to build

I don't know. I would agree with all of them.

Well, somebody's got to leave it. That's not even my opinion. I mean, I think a trusted advisor and one who keeps an eye on somebody has to leave this. So, I don't know. Most of all, let's see what happens. Do you have a sense for how you would tackle this?

Not necessarily. As you say, resources would be needed. So it might be a budget conversation. How do we want to approach code enforcement if we're going to go beyond the existing staffing levels? And what might be some alternative approaches? An interesting one, I was driving through Albion with my husband, and he saw some grass that was high. He said, they need a ticket. I said, well, are you volunteering? He's like, yeah, I do. Well, not necessarily if you don't, but if you're not getting some supplemental ways to address any problem, of course.

That would be a great way to initially attack this, is to have a small group that is very strong topic and support what's already happening.

Because there is a lot already happening. Right.

It's just an individual that we have to deal with this stretch.

Yes.

If you remember last year, we had engaged Green and German in a citywide cleanup. Before, what we used to do, we used to have the dumpsters or the trucks at different locations. One of the problems that we ran into was this year when we wanted to pursue the same thing, Granger said, we don't have the staff. We decided as a team, we're not doing this anymore. If council will recall, when we did it last year, it was met very favorably by our citizens. And the reason why is because we had some elderly citizens that found it difficult to clean up their property and get rid of the excess waste. because they weren't physically able to. So when the trucks came by, we just asked that they put it out by curbside. We even had some volunteers help us do that. One of the problems, again, is that we see is that there's a shortage of workforce that even outside contractors are having an effect. 54 ponds or... I can't remember. Maybe it was... Yeah, it was almost Delta. And it was very effective and it correlated with Liz's code enforcement. So I think that the other thing that I would also bring up, it's a cultural thing too. I go back to what somebody once told me What is one person's junk is another man's treasure. And so we get into this philosophical thing, and that's why we need plenty of time to communicate the difference. Hey, you've got to clean up your property. You've got to get rid of this. You've got to bring your cans to the curbside in order for us to pick up. I think this is a long-term goal that... And I think Liz does a great job, but again, we probably should sit down when we had talked to other companies. One of the problems was is that because we already had a contract with Grainger, they didn't want to come in. They just didn't. They wouldn't encroach into Grainger's territory. If somehow we can break that cycle a little bit of trying to get somebody like Emmons or another waste management to come in. I think that would help, but we don't have staff. Our DPW cannot just go and do this. It has to probably be done by a contracted refuge company.

Well, the other issue was it was very expensive as well.

It was. David was not too happy with what we had estimated. It was like, I think the estimate was like $54,000. Something came in at $84,000. And he wasn't too happy with the city manager.

Sorry. What do you guys think about adding a step or modifying the first step so that it's collecting their thoughts on what do we really need to do to move this forward. And that would include staffing. I don't think we could do most of this until we have a staff. So we could sit down and point out how we could make the staffing happen. So we could move forward.

Six months from now, we'll probably go through the clock for this one. Certainly. Yeah. Before that. So if we change that to develop a strategy to improve the COVID. Yeah. Something.

Yeah. I also have that as the short term. I also have one as the midterm. And then I have the last one as the long term. Because that's, this is not going to be something that we can solve. But we don't really need to start making steps to be solved.

I think the first item is still a good item. I would say maybe we add another item, stick another item there. everything um first aid and get things rolling you're not going to force it that's a bad approach we need to do the things that are the most attainable for our people and and get that under a belt or at least going you're going to be the next level thing and then the next level don't do it all at once a little wrong people out of time we don't want to you know once you do

Okay, so one of my questions is about defining these priority areas that you just said, Jim, not to force it all at once, but when we're talking about priority areas, what are these areas and how are we deciding the criteria to say, well, this place sort

Okay. Bring it up. I could definitely see how that would be. Yeah.

So it's getting worse in the city. Why didn't you? Right. So, so I,

Because I don't think Mrs. Loomis or Safeville, they're not out just targeting small lots. It's like apples in your roof. You've ordered up windows. There's some very serious concerning property maintenance issues where you have people living in their home, children living in their home. You have sewage in the basement. I mean, these are all the things that we typically see that we really want to address. It's not that you're outdoor paint isn't approved by the local HOA. It's nothing like that. Another aspect is litigating. I mean, when we do do enforcement, what I understood before was a lot of litigation didn't go anywhere where we can enforce something, but then it might make it one step through the court process, but then that's it. And if you're not going to go to the next steps to either I'm new compliance standard. I mean, then all that work that was done before it is basically pointless. Um, cause a lot of our payments now we've done, I mean, they can be anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to $5,000 more like really bad, bad, bad scenarios. Um, so sometimes just on this show, go in doing a payment on a property where they've got an excessive anymore. Sometimes it's just going to them and say, hey, if it still works, call consumers. They can come pick it up. Or Grainger does that for one bulk item per month, just medication that will approach it that way. Or if you have to go further and you make contact with them and it's, no, they have also another refrigerator out. Or next to their house. It could be next to their house. It could be out of the curb. have done maintenance in their house and left all the woodwork out nails are all out kids running around the neighborhood but or it's a lot of scrap we have a lot of scrap collectors some of them do get it routinely taken care of very fastly others just allow it And it drives down the property value of people who live in the neighborhood, the people who live next door. And it feels just our best interest to help those people out as much as possible. But that recent incident we had in town where we had to do an abatement where, I mean, it was around 5,000 over to get an unreasonable amount of stuff out of the backyard.

So, Chief, what I think I'm hearing is that right now, even though we might have something on the books and, you know, even if someone, you know, puts a big amount on it, the litigation part of it, the follow through isn't necessarily here.

It can be. It can be costly. And sometimes I just don't think there was some follow through. And I'm not talking about any type of like recent recently, but decades, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, even. The litigation steps that needed to force compliance just weren't there. There was no follow-through. We've worked with Cullen as much as we can now to see things through. But in doing that process, I learned that it is very complex. cost it to the city. Yes. Well, generally, it goes back to the tax roll. That's the way we have it. So it will go back on the tax roll, and the city will likely see those fundings back, but worst case scenario, if that person decides to stop having taxes, then it will go to the Treasury, and then that's a whole other ballgame. Usually, you'll see it back, but it is quite the process.

I'm trying to recognize if you want to say anything.

So, When we took over, because Aaron's talking about stuff that went on years and years ago, what I would say is probably a different approach to code enforcement. I would say, particularly in recent years, code enforcement has been far more aggressive, both in terms of just general notices that SafePILT is issuing and citations that they're issuing. Generally, Liz will forward over to our office kind of the more decrepit properties where they get issued a ticket and it's just not, either they'll just default on the ticket or they, you know, won't show up to court or whatever. So on those where we're getting judgments, those were, when we're not getting compliance, we're doing show causes for contempt, which has been more effective, but it's a long process, particularly if Um, you have somebody that decides to get an attorney and contested. I mean, right now we've got one that the property owner is a sovereign citizen and you, everyone here knows exactly what, you know, they think the law doesn't apply to them. And, you know, he's got an attorney and I think the attorney's helping him see that. Yes, the law does apply to him, but I mean, that, that case has been going on for a year because it's just. you know, the wheels of justice turn slowly, but, you know, a great example was the, what was that old steel?

Union steel.

Union steel. I mean, we had a judgment on that, and that one changed hands so many different times, and it was impossible to pin down who had it. There was the Ann Street School, That one, at one point, a company owned it out of town, and we actually uncovered that the people that were representing the company weren't even licensed attorneys. There's a lot that goes into it. I think between Aaron's department and code enforcement, like I said, I think it's been a lot more aggressive. you know, the litigation process is, like I said, the wheels of justice turn slowly, but I think we're holding people far more accountable through that process than they were in years past. So.

Some would certainly keep in mind with that process.

I was just going to say, all that said, I think that's exactly what we need to do. I think we need to take legal action. Otherwise, code enforcement, our code is here for a reason. And if we don't enforce the code, then it doesn't make sense. So if we have code for a reason, we live in a city where that's our code, then we need to enforce the code. So I think, I'm pleased that we're making progress, and I think we have to keep at that. I don't see the alternative,

So the first one, develop a targeted enforcement plan, you say short-term. Align enforcement with long-term housing civility mid-term, if possible. Coordinate actions with HPS and planning long-term. And then you also add the strategic planning towards that. Of course, that won't be in the order, but we have the strategic planning.

Would you be comfortable along with the strategic part being short-term and then moving that target enforcement plan out to mid-term because some of it's going to be dependent on gathering experts and the people who are staffed.

So targeted is mid-term and then we'll put it strategically at the bottom? Not satisfied. It's a short term. And put it at short term, okay. Strategic. So I'm going to plan. Okay, strategic planning on the short term.

Thanks for all the questions.

Well, you know, we got a little full. I appreciate that.

What was that?

How is this not all short term? Well, we want a whole lot of fun.

Yeah, I'm with you, sir. What do you...

I was thinking that the last year will be a midterm, and there will be opportunities and efficiencies. I think that kind of comes along with the audit that happens as well. The audit's already... You've got that audit. And we'll be doing the budgeting by September, August, September. So, okay, I wasn't sure why not have this.

Yeah, it is ongoing.

I just wanted to mention, in regards to the revenue opportunity and the audit, in the initial draft, I think we were looking at somewhere in the area of $1 million outstanding opinion tax collection. make that a priority in terms of follow-up and enforcement and collection. But we'll need to get more aggressive with that.

And we heard a company need property tax, right? Assessing. What? Assessing.

So, sure. And I think they've been doing a pretty good job as far as being aggressive, because I've heard a lot of people having who made me, bed box made me check.

So all of these are short? That's fair, right? Capacity? I had short and mid.

I would probably say short is because we're completely looking for funding. We also have Lindsay.

In front of us, we have Lindsay and Amber, as well as working with the Alvin Community Foundation over there.

But keeping it our priority is not harmful. Sure. And my only thought with that is that depending on the timing, like some of these grids are not even available yet.

I just want to be mindful because my new director David Park would also remind me that this month you don't have to grant, but we also have to have a way to make that grant match dollars so they don't go for the balancing act.

Yeah. All right. So where we end up?

It's pursued or not. I mean, the work that it leads to is persistent.

Community engagement and transparency, develop a citywide communication calendar, and ensure consistent messaging across departments.

I think the calendar is pretty much done with the newsletter that we do currently. I mean, you may want to add some stuff to it, but we have a format there. of it and the actual physical calendar. Yes.

Yeah. I think

goals.

Increase grant public engagement opportunities. I think we've talked about asks from, and I know that city manager Terrell has, you know, also been a champion of one meeting with all meetings and this is informing the public from So I think that's something that we easily implemented as a short term. The digital engagement tools, again, the technology, I just don't know when it comes to our city website, our technology capacity, the tools that we have as part of that technology, how soon that could be implemented. So that's why I was kind of in between that then and then. I just don't know.

different like notifications telling people that we're having the dams meeting stuff like that the the things that you would otherwise have a town hall meeting for or have a town hall meeting for but you need to get people there and I know we've been utilizing

I think we've just got to be open-minded to the expansion. Not that we're not currently open-minded, but open-minded in the fact that maybe there's not an expansion that's readily available, other than creating an app or something. Right. Well, that's what I was worried about. Yeah.

And that's in Facebook, Instagram, that we're posted as a whole.

And it starts to be a heavy lift. Yeah.

That's a great way to have for our city. for a different sort of engagement than a message from a physical view of what I'm saying to do. So this is any and all of these.

So to your point, expand to cover this so I don't know where we are in the timeline.

I'd probably go long term on that just because you've done that. How far can you expand? How far can you expand in a certain amount of time? Yeah, and we may come to a point where we see that we don't need to expand, but we can pretty well.

And then the citizens' guide, I know that we've talked about this in the past as well. I know we have folks that have brought that to our attention. I think we had one floating around at one time, an old one, and I think that could be a pretty short-term project, especially what we have. Interns and VISTAs and what was that? Intern? Yeah. Intern group. I don't know what she's talking about.

I don't know what she's talking about. She just got here. Strength of partnerships and key institutions.

First was a big one. Yeah.

I love it. So when I worked at the college, twice a year, the city leadership would meet with the college leadership, the president's team, the dean, all those teams, the president. And at that meeting, they would talk about their relative big projects coming to both the college and city, any concerns that will be raised between the college and the city, collaboration Moraine did that all the time the previous president Moraine did that all the time I don't know what's happened since I left but my guess is that they're not doing that or maybe they are I mean if there's issues I need a formal I've had a formal twice in a plan twice a year not since I've been there and so I think that that might be something that we should I'm getting some Some of us received an email the last couple of days from a constituent in the city who said they were invested in the city and wanting the city to be more prepared for things happening with the COVID-19 pandemic. any other things that come up, puts both of us, both of our organizations on notice that there will be a formal meeting and reporting of things that are going on. So that we can support each other. So I would ask that that happen immediately, like make sure you get on like the first meeting,

so Canada's safety public safety can get together you know here we did meet I know but in the face of other people other than just us just us right so that we're all so and I would also ask that I think we have an industrial park with taxpaying employers that should be consulted as well and they should be you lose 100, 200 jobs, what happens to us then? You know, keep us out of it.

And I wonder if that can be part of the industrial part, you know, not of the for-profits, if you will. If that can be part of a joint meeting that you see in this world, and us aren't. Makes sense. Because we as a city are not managing the industrial part in BC until then. So I don't want to step on the toes of our dictating what we think should happen, but to be informed, to say it.

Yeah. Okay. All right. That's a big one.

Yeah.

I have five-year goals and partnership opportunities.

If you have something to say on the first one.

Oh, I was just going to say, I have made an initial outreach to Albany College President Webster, but I think having the voice of the city councilors wanting to do it and not just me thinking it's a good idea would be helpful. And the industrial partners, I definitely agree with you. And in fact, I've gone on some visits with the EDC president to some of the businesses we found to do with that schedule permits because maintaining those relationships is really key. And the two that we visited, we connected them to resources because they have workforce issues. So we connected them with Michigan Works

So the shared goals, I'd probably say big mid-term. We want to meet ahead of time. We want to have a meeting with our partners and then go share goals after, possibly. I think that's kind of what the other side of what we're doing, right?

So as you're meeting with them, you're looking for opportunities to partner and you're looking for opportunities to help. So we put it under short?

No, I wasn't saying that. I'm not. You want to go mid or you want to go short? It don't matter to me. Same man.

All right.

Yeah. Now, I think it may take you a minute to do the coordination of major institutions. Maybe not first, but I think you get all the ones that

So, yeah, yeah. Nobody wants to see the vast plot.

I appreciate that. Now, let's say some of these conversations are going to happen just naturally because of the process and those planned conversations. But there might be something that's highlighted that comes out of those that, you know, have continued conversations.

So, did we... move the first one to mid?

That's so short term?

Yeah. Okay.

Second one's mid?

Yeah. Yep.

And then I have that for the last plan for one of the thousand periods or at least a mid or a long term?

It's all spirit. Yeah. I mean, we don't want to hold it for too long.

It's got to be, it's got to be up in But yeah, something to go on. But I think you're from yes, no, because that's right. All right.

Well, I understand that he sees already been working on some of that. Yeah.

So it's something that we are currently working for.

Yes, it's right. I'm trying to get it off someone who's going to be a steward of it, get it back on tax rolls for us.

And then we can raise it as a goal. So go for it. Mid, mid, mid.

Short, mid, mid?

Yes.

I was hanging downtown in neighborhood development. I had short, mid, mid.

short did Tom Burton. let me uh put me in the back song with the support developed mass for infield

with that. First of all, I think that's going to be happening as far as your teachers.

All right. So on the second one, we are short, measurable, engagement, and back on priority. Thank you. Were we at mid?

I said mid, but that's a year. We're seeing through now and later.

I agree. That's what I'm praying that it's I apologize forgot to let you know that council member Vivian Davis had offered a certificate in regards to partnerships.

Council member Vivian Davis sent an email indicating that she would like, under partnerships, to work with the L.A. Youth Foundation to use their Youth Advising Commission to create a junior office for youth leadership.

I thought it was Pat Rotary. I didn't think she meant the Foundation Office. There was another, not Kiwanis. There was another, like Service. Yeah, they have a youth version of that.

Interact is at the high school level, Rotaract is in

that's what that's what yeah i think she intertwined because i know she put one but then she put yeah she had his holy foundation but the service participation wasn't that's the word that's a soft white person yeah i i messed up the

I would say we have a comprehensive plan that we had in

As far as housing, though, accomplished very much in the way of housing. And I don't expect that a new one will very much from the last one. So as far as like the infield housing and things like that, we still know that the necessity is there because none of our products have taken off. Yeah, they haven't started. So we have the information currently. So I think it's a shorter amount of time than something long that we would need to look at that. And we have a project. The Watson Street development is one that is ready for support, as far as I know, unless something has changed. So if we can support that project, that development initially, then we identify other projects that we

putting sewer and wire over there yeah why would that be because of the width of the streets yes can i answer some of those questions yes so um as you know washington street is considerably wide and the developer we were dealing with we had many meetings over the last year and a half with with them trying to figure out how we could put in some type of single-family homes there. Another problem that we ran into was that when they acquired the property from the school, that would be our EDC, is that there wasn't a provision for normal plotting. So, as you know, in our zoning handbook, when we plot residential homes, there's a certain width and length which determines site setbacks, all the setbacks, rear and front. One of the things that they were talking about is putting in a shotgun-style home with minimal setbacks about this, it raised the question of the width in our public safety. In other words, when we were engaged in fighting a fire. Another problem that we ran into was the cost of utilities. That in today's dollars, plus the fact of the uncertainty of the condition of Watson Street, which we did have televised, was that how are we going to pay for the connection? Because we were running a long way. One of the things that was looked at is a new water and sewer main that ran behind Watson Street, behind those proposed home houses. Then at one point, when we had taken a tour of what they were doing in Marshall, we had come up with the concept of maybe town halls would be better situated along Watson Street. That was serious consideration given to them. So again, we got back to, well, who's going to pay for it? And that's when Deb Kelly from the EDC started taking a look and talking to Bishop about funding opportunities for utilities, which to date there have not been successful grants for those programs. So the challenge is it's not that the city doesn't want to do it. It's just who pays what and where do those monies come from? The other thing that Dr. Cario and I talked about was the Washington Garner and also the Austin Schools. And so, again, there's only two periods in a calendar year which they're able to apply, and that will be coming up again, I believe, in October. Yeah. So as far as I was aware, both parties, Community Housing Network and the Pivotal Group, are still very much interested in pursuing those development. I like both those projects because, again, I know that a lot of people don't. But especially Austin Street, I believe that that gave an opportunity to give economic development a real shot in the arm along Austin Street and get some spinoff businesses in that commercial corridor. The other thing about the Washington Garner is that even though the college owns it, If it were to be transferred into somebody's hands, we would have some assurances that they would take care of it and keep the upkeep on it. So, again, those two projects, Washington Gardener and Austin Schools, should be pursued vigorously with our support. And then, of course, Watson Street. That is still a quandary of who's going to pay the utilities and how we're going to get them there. So it's still worth the pursuit, still worth the discussion with the developer. But again, I'm certain that Cheryl and her team will pursue that with all the vigor that it deserves.

I have something related to that in regards to Watson Street in particular. And Mr. Terry was indicating how big the utilities is, the challenge for that. And speaking of City of Marshall, one of their approaches was essentially to establish an assessment district for that new development. And, you know, through that, the funds go towards the payment of bonds. Well, that was one of the things I wanted to explore and look into if that's something that's feasible for our community, for those areas that we don't need development, but they may not have the direct energy to do so.

So in response to your question, Council Member Williams, I read this step differently than the three that we already have in point. I read this as strategic, who knows that I'm going to pass through that. So I love the idea of looking down ahead at what our town needs and where it needs to be. And that's to be able to strategic plan where a strategic plan takes us. And so when I read the step, identify target blocks for rehabilitation, I was thinking about our specific things. I was thinking about, as we look at our landscape of our town, where Stacey and I drive around, We drive around, we see this stuff, and we get real excited about things. And there are a number of neighborhoods, in my mind, that could be target blocks for rehabilitation that would make sense for various reasons. But I don't want to evaluate those for the time. I want to evaluate the things in the big picture and say, what makes the most sense based on our strategic goals? So my two cents worth was, or the way I was looking at this was, this is part of our strategic planning process. And we identified other neighborhoods that need an uplift or new neighborhoods that have not been developed that need to be developed. And so in my mind, it wasn't true. It was because I was doing long, or we were doing long-term planning. and we figure out how to solve it and make it happen. But we, that's not just, I appreciate the things that are already going on, and I appreciate what those vendors are there, but to me, that's kind of the wrong approach. The approach needs to be what we think needs to happen. And then we go after it, and we say to these people that, hey, this is, we got this thing going, are you interested in that? Well, let's get bids on this. So, anyways, sorry, a lot of words here, but I'm just saying to me, If we do this right, 100 blocks per day of levitation, this is something that will come out as part of, kind of come out as part of our strategic plan.

You want to go mid-stew or you want to go squirt? I think it's mid or long.

That's my guess. But I'm fine with it. Whatever you're comfortable with.

The plan itself is not anticipated to be completed before 9 to 12 months, so. That's fine with me.

So, I mean, well, we already have a strategic plan that specifies the housing need. I don't think we, like I said, in the short term, not much that's going to change when it comes out. This should be fairly similar to what it was before. Midterm, I can go midterm, can go mid, mid, long.

Okay.

Parks and Rec. How can you define your Parks and Rec plan? What does that do? Let's see. Develop long-term plans.

Thanks. Well, we already got the right, thanks to our city manager, we got the right creation plan going. So maybe that's the shorter term thing then.

Thank you. Is that fair?

That's fair.

The second one is, sir.

Complete comprehensive planning and housing assessment process. That's fair. Yeah, it'll be done. Research and develop some replacement plan. That's the long term. That's the first one. That was back in the very first month. Oh, you know what? Hold on. So 1-1, none of them evaluate pavement condition and funding gaps. And now we have research and develop sidewalk, replacing the plans. For 1-1, we went short-term. Research and develop sidewalk and replacing the plan, which I'll order.

Maybe go on. I mean, that's like we're done with the maintenance planning. Right. This is the rotation we're going to do in

Working with other boards and commissions the city is blessed to have very

two very good boards, not to discount the value of others. Our planning commission is one of the best active boards we have. It's filled with all different kinds of talented people. Last year we had, and from time to time, we get requests for special use permits or a change in zone. As I've mentioned to Cheryl this afternoon, one of the things that they really like is having a professional evaluation done by an outside consulting firm. This could be McKenna or PCI or any one of those, just for example. One of the things I would strongly encourage is the support of this council to give the planning commission that type of professional help There's a lot at stake when we're making decisions about change of property, especially in an R1, R2 district. We had really good luck with this firm that we brought in from the outside that reviewed a special request last year for a change, not a change of zoning, but, well, there were a couple of requests. This firm presented a professional outline for the Planning Commission to follow based on our rules and our ordinance. This is what will keep us out of trouble if we utilize this. One, it keeps us out of court, and two, it gives our citizens the confidence that our boards and commissions are listening and doing the right thing. I would strongly, strongly encourage continued use of those outside firms um it's something that i know that cheryl will pursue and but i just feel that um they've requested it on the planning commission we have a lot of talent on that board and we want to give them the support to make our town better and keep it in an orderly A lot of times we get into trouble when we grant special use permits because of friendships or we don't think the long term. We need to support that planning commission, and we do have an excellent one. So my suggestion is that we give them all the support they need. That would be an excellent point.

And I would second that. So I was president of that Planning Commission meeting where it was when McKenna Associates was there. It was PCI. Oh, PCI was there. And I found it invaluable. Their insight, just the depth of thoroughness and their knowledge regarding, you know, zoning issues and the whole time this project came before us. I really found it insightful and very, very valuable. Right.

Okay. I just want to make sure that on public record that we as a council, Mayor, all the staff, absolutely appreciate your professionalism, your hard work, your diligence, your insight and wisdom. He would not be here in this position without him. Well, thank you.

I certainly I certainly am grateful for the opportunity that you've given me to live so close to Albion, but to give me that opportunity to serve you and the citizens. It certainly was mine. And I really am pleased with the selection of Cheryl to carry on that torch and carry that leadership. You're in great hands, wonderful hands. And of course, Jill and Aaron and Jason and the rest of the staff have done a remarkable job and please acknowledge them because they work hard for you too and for the citizens. Again, we're in great hands with Cheryl and I know that I feel confident. Somebody had told me a long time ago, you always want to leave the town a little bit better than what you found it. And with Cheryl coming on board, we are better, we're a better council, better town for bringing her on board and may have, I can't even begin to thank you for your leadership, your partnership, and seeing us through all the ups and downs of municipal government. You know what we went through for the last year and a half. So, again, thank you so much for giving me that opportunity. And if you need a job, I'm an enforcement director. No, I'm happily married. but uh no i'm gonna uh probably help another city in the not too distant future so again thank you and if you have anything proper for me please do not ever hesitate to get a hold of me have it so thank you so much thank you thank you thank you

And I want to join in thanking for his tremendous support and leadership. He guided this community through some challenging decisions and made the courageous choices that were for the best of the community. So I'm very thankful for him laying a strong foundation and making the transition very easy for me. I'm very proud to be a part of this team and I'm thrilled to have had such a leader in place to hand over you know the reins if you will and yes you are still on my dial so I will still be in touch with you because there's just probably some information and details especially in regards to some of the projects that are still in the pipeline we want to make certain that they come to fruition and are successful but thank you again for coming Oh, I have to open my report. Okay. So, this is the housing weekend, and City Hall will be open on Friday, July 3rd. So, staff will be rotating. Oh, I'm going home. Thursday, July 2nd. Never mind. July 2nd! You're welcome. They'll kill me. July 2nd, which would have been the next day off for the holidays, although we should be closer between that Thursday and the upcoming Monday. So the thing off will be open on July 2nd. And I'll let you talk about that, the actual holiday stuff. But I also just want to share with you that the Summer Recreation Enrichment Program is off to a great start. We have about 30 students registered, but different ones come different days. And today being so hot, we were concerned about them being at Tommy's Park. So we were able to get them over to Trackside, and they had lunch there and had all their lessons and activities there. And then they had the brilliant idea of going to Sterling's Books for ice cream. absolutely loved it. It was a great day for them. Thank you for the entire community for helping this program be successful.

How do you remember this?

Friday night in our collaborative effort for our city, we'll have the Red Wing group cruising on the bricks and I was able to get out and visit some car shows and hang out a lot of 4x6 carts, so hopefully we'll have a good turnout. We'll see beautiful weather like today. Like today, we're going to have us. We'll all go. So the only things to note, to pass it on to people that have a vehicle to come, and also the thing that I heard most feedback on was are changed in the way you access the downtown street, which is a little circuitous, where if you come from the south side, you gotta find your way around the Michigan Ave, go down Ionia, turn right on Cass to get in. And I'll talk to you about how to get there from the south side, because I'm . Yeah, but anyways, that's there will be sandwich up to direct people in and that everyone else can park in the public parking lots behind downtown and streets assigned streets or should be a good night. It's going to be like other years, so there's not really much difference. It's mostly arching the exits and entrances and making sure that we don't have people cruising, trying to cruise through because there's no way out. So we don't want people in, I don't know if there'd be an opposite station at the entrance and so on. Let me know if you can help.

Yeah, great. Okay. So yeah, there's another great community A partnership that we've had with the DDA, the Chamber, the city, making sure that our downtown is going to be ready for bringing in visitors, especially for the car show and fireworks. So again, we want to share our use for EDS with the next five months when it comes to car show, fireworks, and managing people.

Don't be out there. He didn't look like he did. Get the wide-brimmed hat, you know.

So, one big announcement for the City of Alleyne. I had the African Weed Group attend the County and County Kickoff for the RxKids program. Not sure if you guys are aware of what this program entails, but it's going to be a huge benefit for our expecting families. So, families who are expecting a baby can get $1,500 upfront. They can utilize that for baby furniture, stocking up on diapers, getting everything that they need ready for that blessed arrival. Once the baby arrives, then the families can gain $500 every month in the first year. And that's, what was that? Six months. That was first year.

Yeah, six months for a year. Yeah, I mean, hey, so it's better than nothing.

But also, mothers that have already delivered That's why I thought that it was the first year because they had said that they could still sign up to be a part of the program, but still need to buy their dogs, even if they weren't delivered this past year.

Where can we go to get that information?

So we will be giving out the registration against July 1st. We will be making sure that people are getting that information as to how to sign up. I know that the community table has already been given out information, the cram, office syndrome, all that information. I know a lot of local doctors already talked about this because they knew that County was the next county to be involved. But this initiated out of Flint two years ago. And the doctor that kind of was the brainchild of this is from MSU. So MSU is a big sponsor of this as well. She said in the past two years, infant mortality has decreased. CPS cases have decreased. She says this overall, the child's, you know, ability to get a good education and be supported, that's been a big difference. So, residents of Albion, Cattle Creek, Springfield, and Sherry Parson. What's the name again? rs kids that's awesome that's awesome yeah that's phenomenal yes it is huge yeah it is huge um and then we will have a presentation that our um july 6th meeting next week yeah perfect so yeah that's it So that's my case. All right, do I have a motion to excuse Council Member Davis? So moved. Support. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?

Is anybody here in this room?

Do I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Support. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Meeting is adjourned 7-0-7-0. Everybody have a great day.