Council - Regular Meeting

Yes. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah.

You got to be quiet.

Clock in the back wall, two minutes fast.

What was that? You should be.

um

We start with a moment of silence.

Thank you. Will you stand for a little bit of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Can you give us a hold of options?

Ready? Still here? Here. Here. Here.

So I have a motion to approve of tonight's agenda. So moved. Support. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Sorry.

As I indicated before the meeting, item B can come on. It's not ready for that.

Okay, so item B, approved to be approved by the Cobham County Land Bank for collaboration and corner is being instructed from the agenda. Any other additions or deletions? If not, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you. We have a number of presentations this evening. The first is the Native Youth Council. Dr. Harry Barner.

Good to have you back. Always nice to see you, Andy. As well as everybody else. And I want to say my special thanks to Jill Domingo here, who was very much part of what the Mayor's Group Council was about. And the Mayor's Group Council did a lot of great things when Mayor Domingo was mayor. And we want to redo some of that. And so tonight I have some people here who are going to talk about some of that. And so I'm hoping, can everybody hear me correctly? Good, good. And also, I want to say a special thanks to all you guys that have supported the work over the years that we have done in youth work. And it's been a great journey. And I think the Married Youth Council wants to continue to do some of the work that we did before I married Domingo. So I was talking to Jill the other day, and she said she talks to Jill every day. I said, I would like to do that, but I think I thought it was So with that in mind, I'm going to introduce you to some people that we have here. First of all, from our staff, here's Maurice Barrett. He's taking some pictures. So for this event. And some of the other people deserted me and went to the back. So we got a couple of people. I want to say a special thank you to my girlfriend, Erin. Not to be your friend in the face, until I was on the state ground, I would get you. Come on over here. I wanted to give, first of all, this is our president of our board, Andrea Armstrong. She will share a few words here. Her advice is that one of the people that's for the council and also kids at home, they should have them. And here, Elijah Armstrong, my godson, who I acquired some time for affairs. Angel being young and innocent, which he's kind of had that excuse no more, but he's not young and innocent no more. And then, so here is our future director of several of our programs, and also a person that grew up in the Mary Hugh Council, Shai Chunghouse, for me to lead my program when I retire. You're looking at someone. So I do it by asking me. So these individuals are going to be charged with what the future is going to bring. And then I'm sure they'll do a better job than I have. So with that being said, Andrea, I'll move on to you.

Good evening. I am Andrea Armstrong. Like you said, I'm the president of the Substance Abuse Program Services and also the advisor for the kids at home. and the mentorship program. And again, we have Aisha Gamble. She's another advisor for Kids & Hold and substance abuse program services, and Elijah Armstrong Jr. But I want to introduce Shytariana Stram, because like Mr. Bonner said, she has grown up in the Mayor of Youth Council, was the mayor for the Mayor of Youth Council for a couple of years. but now she has the privilege of being a Director of Kids at Hope and a Substance Abuse Program Services and Executive Administrator Assistant at Substance Abuse Prevention Services. So at this time, she will talk about what we're going to do. Well, again, Jill, we want to say thank you for continuing to support us with the Youth Council and to all of you, thank you again.

Hello, everyone. As she stated, my name is Shayteriana Stram. I do go by Shaystram. It's a lot easier and a lot less mess-ups. So just to reiterate what Ms. Bugg said, so I will be the director of the Kids at Home program as well as the Mayor's Youth Council. And then I am the Executive Administrative Assistant for Substance Abuse Prevention Services. So I don't want to sound repetitive. I grew up in the program. Throughout Mr. Vanna's program, I was in several other things. I was also an Albion College fellow. I graduated from Albion College. So I have a lot of roots here in Albion. The Mayor's Youth Council, especially Mayor Domingo, it opened me up to a lot of different opportunities. This is my first time being able to sit right there. and also just being here and being exposed to city politics. So that's definitely something that shaped me into the person that I am today, and I don't take it for granted at all. And not only did he invite us here into the chambers, but he also came over to Kids at Hope, and he was in our chambers, and he saw how we did things there. And so it was really a great experience. So we appreciate you both. So again, we are reforming the Mayor's Youth Council and we will be focusing on current issues or concerns that the outing youth are facing today. And the main focus of us, the main purpose of us doing that is because we know that the children are the future of Albion. And so we just need to focus on them. One of the main things and one of the first things that we do want to do once we get the Mayor's Youth Council up and running is to support the summer enrichment camp, which Mr. Brenner briefly stated that I'm a part of and I have. been able to be a leader in that program for the fourth and fifth graders and then also support them in some administrative things as well. So yeah, we just want to be able to empower young emergent leaders to be able to stand up here and hopefully give this speech in my place in the near future. So I don't have anything additional. I'm not sure if anyone has this.

Hi, I'm Aisha. And my daughter, or both of my daughters, was a part of the program. My daughter, Kaia, was able to represent Albania in going to France. And she was able to meet with the mayor of France for our sister city. So that was a great experience for her. My youngest daughter was also the mayor last year. She wrote... a grant or proposition for the program, which initially got her into the Ross Business School at U of M. So the Mayor's Youth Coalition is a great program. I would like to, again, thank you guys for being a part of that, you know, just the leadership that they got to experience. I think that was great coming from a small city, but being able to use what they've learned, you know, outside of Elgin, I think that's great. So thank you for being, you know, that strong foundation for them. But yeah, so we're looking forward to finding new youth to bring into this program and, you know, find some other success stories.

Oh, so our new mentorship program will miss pattern call me this morning. Tell me he's on a name and after my dad, Elijah and my mom, Ruthie. So our new program because Elijah will add an Armstrong mentorship program. We're going to try to do some scholarships with that. Again, thank you.

Thank you, Grandma.

I also want to give a special thanks also to our vice president, Andy French here, who has been very much part of my career and a lot of things that I did in college, with the college, we would call it, AmeriCorps. So it's great to have people like Andy continue to be in his role. And also, I want to say Ms. Min Reed, who I call, she's a good trouble. that I have partnered with for a million dollar fund that grew up in Alvin and now sits on the council here. There's a lot of work to be done in Alvin. And the council is a very big part of that, but so is all of us out here in the community. We are very part of it. And so we want to continue to utilize the training of the people in America's council and some of the programs to continue for the community to grow. from one of his wonderful wife who volunteered for our industry when she first came to the element. Any questions, I will entertain questions about the scholarship that we're gonna try to develop. Every family needs to have strong parents, guardians, and people in their family. And those of you who know your father's strong, their lives are strong, so you know they are that foundation. Out of that foundation came a number of young people that went on. Audra has a master's degree, her sister has a doctor's degree. The nephews and grandparents have college degrees or some kind of vocational training. So one of the things we want to do, one of the things that Mayor, the beginning I did was in 2010, transform an album. So this is now 2026. We also had, during that period of time, when Dr. Terry Holt made her first tour around here. So she was also a part of that. And Alvin and I worked with her on some ground running and some other stuff. So I will entertain questions that you may have. But I'll tell you what I tell my students. Don't ask a question. Don't do it in the parking lot. Ask me now.

Well, thank you for your decades of support and help in the city.

Thank you. Anything else? A lot of us seem to leave. We've got our homers that we might leave before we get through the program. So, thank you. Thank you.

Our next presentation is Cindy Stanzak, Director of the Albany District Library, regarding the Albany District Library Millet.

Thank you for inviting me. We're very excited. Like the city, like the township and the school districts, we were funded by a local millage. Ours is a 10-year millage, and this year we are back on the ballot. We tell people the trade-off is we get all of our funding in the first couple months of our year each year, but every 10 years it has to be re-approved by the public. That's the check and balance. And so we're back up. This year we are asking only for a flat renewal. now is not the time to be asking people for more money. So our real effort has been in millage education and outreach. So we have a pamphlet that I've distributed to the council and also on various receipts. Everything from what is a millage to how much money we're expecting to take in each year, how we use it, how we have used it, and a brief history of the library. The intention is to put the information out there and then remind people We've been there since 1919. If you have questions, you know where to find us. We are happy to answer them. But for the most part, yes, we are just going for a flat renewal. Ours is the only local proposal on the city of Albion ballot, as well as the Sheridan Township ballot. There is one other local proposal in Albion Township related to the Homework Community Schools bond. So I am here to answer any questions the council has and questions the community have. We just want to make sure that people have an opportunity to know what they're being asked when they go into the ballot.

Are there any questions from the gallery or from the council? So I have a question. Cindy, what percentage of your annual budget is coming from this millage?

As of 2025, about 77% of our entire budget is millage. There is no way that we would be able to do what we do without our local millage. And we have had somebody ask how much because there's been a lot of confusion in the last year about federal funding come down. For us, federal funding is approximately 1%. So ours is entirely by LB and for LB. And Shai was not kidding. She really does, has done a lot of things, including she was one of the youth literacy interns at the library when she was in high school. So I was excited to hear from her tonight. She truly has done a lot of different things. So if there is any questions, I'm happy to answer. As I said, our question is on the August 4th ballot, and we are happy to engage with anybody who wants to know information about how we intend to use the funds.

That when we tell people about this, we can say that, you know, if you want to pay today, you should be paying after we vote.

Unless property taxes go up. Yes. We've been rolled back like the city has many times over the years. Ours is, it is, there is going to be no increase to our millage rate. In fact, we keep getting rolled back, but We could have requested Headlee override to restore it to 2.5, but again, that now is not the time. We respect that, like most people in our community, we have to live within our means, and that's what we're determined to do. And I like to think that over the last 20 years, since it has been 20 years since the library became a district library and was no longer a department of the city, that we've proven to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars. And mine is a volunteer board. In fact, one is present today. Carrie is one of the city's representatives on the library board. She is functioning as the treasurer and doing an amazing job. It is not an easy thing to learn governmental accounting, to be at the eyes of the board on the books. But mine is a good active board and it's appreciated. So all of them volunteers. Any other questions? You know where to find us. Thank you.

Our final presentation this evening is Bill Tucker from Manor Casterison presenting our audit.

All right. Well, thank you for having me tonight. Bill Tucker from Manor Casterison here tonight to present to you the Audit and Financial Statements from December 31st, 2025. I'll just say start by walking through the information that I was handing out to you tonight, then we'll get into the audit presentation itself. So the first document that I'll hold up is the bound financial statements for December 31st, 2025. Within this document, you'll find all the necessary financial statements and new exposures to be in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Also within this document on pages one through three, you'll find the independent augury report that provides our opinion on the financial statements. The second document that I have for you, this is a loose letter that is on Maynard Caceres and letterhead. This is what we consider to be our board communication letter. A majority of this letter is boilerplate language. It does go through and address some of the more significant estimates within the financial statements for such things as useful likes of capital assets as a significant estimate. So that is disclosed in this letter to you. On the second page of this letter, you will find some couple headings that are required. Those headings include difficulties encounter in performing the audit, corrected or uncorrected misstatements, and disagreements with management. Just to let you know, there were none of those, but that is part of the required information that is required for this letter, just to have that formal communication with the board if we did have any issues in those areas. So I wanted to kind of address those couple things. The last item that I have for you tonight is the audit presentation outline. So I've have a couple items that we wanted to go through and discuss with you just related to the audit and the position of the city at December 31st, 2025. All right, so as you kind of get into that audit presentation outline, the first page you'll get to is just the agenda. So you'll see the handful of five topics that we'll kind of cover with you tonight. The second page that we get turned to is that overview of the Independent Audit Reports. kind of goes through the audit objective, the opinions, responsibilities, and management for the financial statements and the auditor's responsibility. Within the independent auditor's reports, we are providing our opinion on your financial statements. The purpose of an audit is not to detect fraud or give any opinion on your internal controls. Within the independent auditor's reports, we're providing our I'm sorry, we said that, right? Our opinion on your financial statements, we're giving our opinion on the 8 opinion units of the city. Those 8 opinion units are the government activities. The business type activities, the aggregate street and presenting component units. Each major fund, in which there is four major funds in the current year, the general funds, street improvement funds, the water fund, and sewer funds. And then the last opinion unit is the aggregate remaining fund information. We are providing unmodified or clean opinions on all each of those opinion units. An unmodified clean opinion is the best opinion you can receive on your financial statements, meaning that everything is presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. From there, the next page I'm going to turn to is an overview of the statement of net position. This page in particular comes out of your management discussion analysis. The reason that we kind of included it in this page in particular is just because it does have that good comparative information from December 31st, 2024 and December 31st, 2025. Just give you some of those, you know, broader highlights there. Some things as I was going through this that I identified, obviously, One of the large areas that we saw a significant increase there is if you look at that far right column, second number down from the top, you see that significant additions to capital assets. You know, your capital assets went from $30 million to $50 million. A lot of that obviously is your infrastructure going on projects and your water and sewer funds. So you can see those increases. improvements there. On the other side of that, as you move down the page, you do see some long-term obligations and liabilities for some of the debts related to that. So your revenue bonds. So we did see the non-current liabilities going up about $15 million as well. So just a couple of big highlights there, just again, from one year to the next. The next two pages I have for you relate to the city's two pension plans. So the first page that we have for you is the schedule of changes in the city's debt pension liability and related ratios. This is for the primary government and the housing commission. So this would exclude the public safety of pension. I know it's pretty small, but if you look at that far left column for December 31st, 2024, you see the fourth number up from the bottom. full liability and I have to kind of make my eyes adjust for that too. So it's about $2.5 million net pension liability for that pension plan. And that current is currently funded at 82% funded. You do see the trends on that for the last 10 years. The one thing that I do like to talk about on pension plans specifically relates to obviously you're funded at 82%. You know, where does that stand across the state? You know, where do you compare related to other governments across the state? So the averages that we see for pension plans is that they are funded at about 75% funded across the state. So you guys are above that trend, you know, obviously specifically for that city pension fund. Okay. The other pension plan that the city has, if we turn to the next page, relates to the Public Safety Officer's Retirement System. Again, looking at that far left column for December 31st, 2025, you do see a net pension asset there. So that pension plan has a net pension asset, $11.10. six million dollars and that is currently funded at 171 percent and it is like that for all 10 years where that has been Annette's pension asset so that you know pension plan has been funded for a long period of time and you guys had it fully funded haven't had any contributions to that pension plan for a number of years because you did you know put that money away a long time ago early on for that and really then reaping the benefits of the investment returns on the pension plan. The next couple of pages I have for you relate specifically to the general fund. The general fund is the main operating funds of the city. So we do have a five-year analysis of your general fund revenues, expenditures, and fund balance. As you can see from this, the blue is the revenues. Purple is your expenditures and then that Orange line is your fund balance trends over the years. Now you do see a significant change from 2024 to 2025 within your general fund specifically for revenues. So your revenues in the current year are about $6.2 million. So we do see that significant decrease. You did have a number of grants within 2024. So that related to a lot of infrastructure grants or intergovernmental revenues. That was your public safety grants and your McIntosh Park Improvement Grant as well. You did also have some transfers then, which were about $1.7 million from Maple Grove that came in in 2024. Obviously, they saw that reduction in 2005. The other thing that I wanted to point out to you on this page was that orange column of your fund balance. So your total fund balance at December 31st, 2025 sat at just around $2.9 million. The restricted components of that was about $2.8 million. And the unrestricted components would be the amounts that are available for expenditures in future periods. So it's about $2.8 million. And that represents approximately 38% of your annual operating expenses. Last year, it was about 43% sitting in fund balance. And the recommendation there from like the Government Finance Officers Association is a minimum of 15 to 20% sitting in that fund balance column. So I think, again, we like to see the, obviously, consistency of that number, percentages. Obviously, you do see the fluctuations based on years and expenditures up and down. Obviously, there's some fluctuations there. But obviously, percentage-wise, we do see that being relatively consistent year over year. All right, moving on to the next two graphs I have for you. The first next graph relates to your general fund revenue trends. Again, kind of as we were talking about already, you see some of those dips from 2024 to 2025 and kind of some special items, I guess, in 24. So you see those kind of coming back down. just the normal trend there. If we kind of took that out from 21 through 25, you'd see that those are kind of in line with where they should be on those revenues. Moving on to the next page, relate to your expenditures. Again, you can see some of those trends. This is broken down between general government, public safety, public works, recreation, culture, other expenditures, and other financing uses. Some more of those main functions there. Some of the increases that we saw, this was related to general government. We saw, you know, we see some increases from 24 to 25 in those expenditures. Some of the main areas, obviously, wages and benefits and building improvements are some of those. within the general government category. And then public groups, we saw the dam removal stem in there as well for 2020. Last page I have for you, this comes out of our single audit report, but this is a good page for like a summary of audit results. Starts off the top of the page with the financial statements. As you mentioned already, we issue that unmodified clean opinion on all eight of the opinion units. The next section that gets into there relates to intro controls or financial reporting. So the next section is talking about if there's any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses that were identified as part of the audit. You see no or none reported on both of those two categories. The next area, relates to non-compliance material to the financial statements that was noted. We did see two fund deficits or funds that were in deficits in the current year. So we had deficit net positions in the EDC and the internal service equipment pool fund. Both had deficits in the current year. The EDC was new. Equipment pool, this was the second year that that was reported as a deficit. I know talking with David before the meeting is something that you guys had submitted a plan to the Department of Treasury in the previous year and saw significant improvement on that going down from where it had been previously. So good progress there on that, even though it still sits in that deficit position. The last section that we have for you is labeled there are the federal awards. So as mentioned already, we did have a single audit. As part of a single audit, we are looking at your federal awards and looking at some of your major programs that you have for your federal awards. So the city did expend greater than $1 million in the current year, therefore requiring a single audit. We did test two major programs in the current year. Those were the water and wastewater disposal system for rural communities and the capitalization grants for drinking water state revolving fund were the two programs that we tested as part of that single audit. We look at the compliance requirements for those programs that are set by the federal government. As we went through those compliance requirements in the courier, we did not identify any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in those compliance requirements. So a good clean audit on those type of values as well. All right. All I have for you, any questions?

Any question?

Yeah. On a single audit? Yes. The non-compliance material to the financial statements noted.

Yep.

And that's noted with the number. What was that?

Like, so are you, what specific line are you asking the question on?

The, I'm sorry. Okay. There was a little under significant deficiency.

Yep.

Okay. non-compliance material. Is it just saying that it's cited within the overall document?

Oh, yes, yes. I'm sorry. Yes. Up above the non-compliance material to the financial statements was noted. This was related to your two deficits that you had. That, if you wanted to find that wording specifically, would be on page... 118 of the financial statements. 118? Yeah. And that has kind of specific wording for the deficiency and all the required elements. Gotcha.

But all in all, we still felt within compliance overall.

Yes. I mean, again, those are the type of things related to like that non-acquirements that we have to note and report to the state of Michigan. So they're looking at, the Department of Treasury is looking for somebody who has a deficit, like, what are you doing to come out of that deficit? You know, if it's, you know, okay, well, we're making changes to our operations or whatever that might be, something that they want identified so they can make sure that communities are, you know, addressing those issues. Thank you. You're welcome.

Any other questions? Any thoughts? Thank you, Bill. Yes, thank you. And I might add, thank you to our director of aid and his team for once again, getting us through a clean off. Well done. Thank you. We are now ready for public comments from the folks in the gallery. You shall delete your comments or agenda items only and no more than three minutes. That is a compliment. Do they need to do a gender hyperform?

My name is Chad Posity, 1021 Burr Oak Street. First agenda item would be item number three, followed by item number six. Mr. Harry Bonner is here, and this is a map coming from the Secretary of State related to Harry Bonner's agency, Substance Abuse Preventive Services of Albion. The blue dot on this map in Albion represents Harry Bonner's program. Harry Bonner's program does not have any clue about what this form that the Secretary of State is saying his agency is the ones doing it in the city of Albion. But yet, we have no service provider for these forms in the city of Albion. Mr. Bonner was talking about. Because this ties in directly with the budget. If you look at that first page there, it specifically talks about the city's income tax revenue.

Mr. Bossy, there'll be time at the end of the meeting for you to address that. Now is not the time.

Will you be around when we enter?

Okay. Okay.

Mary Slater, 803 South Superior, also president of the Albion Arts Commission. I'm here to support your approval of Jamila Vincent to be on the commission board. Her presence will complete our five-member board. We are very happy to have her. She is a photographer and has participated in many of our activities. And she comes to our board. She's been attending our board meetings and has many ideas about how she can contribute some of her expertise to our programs. one of which is in the idea of theater, which is another way we would like to expand our offerings. I want to say two other things about the agenda. I appreciate the moment of silence. Maybe it's taken for granted, but sitting here in the audience, it's an opportunity to put aside everything we come in here with from our world and center ourselves and focus on the business of our city. The other thing I want to just mention about Mr. Bonner's program, I didn't notice, but I was impressed how many of these students are adults now who were students affiliated with the Sister City program and traveled to France. And I want you just to be aware of that. These are our leaders and what our Sister City program does to help the education and growth of these people who then turn around and give back to our city. Thank you. Thank you, Mara.

ANY OTHER COMMENTS? SEEING NONE, LET'S MOVE ON TO OUR CONSENT CALENDAR. THERE ARE A NUMBER OF THINGS FOR US TO APPROVE. THE JULY 6TH STUDY SESSION AND REGULAR SESSION MINUTES. AN APPLICATION FROM WACALACOS REED FOR MACINTOSH PARK. A WAIVER OF PARK RESERVATION FEES FOR ALBANE COLLEGE. Marching Band Practice Facility, an approval permit for Victory Park for our pavilion on September 5th to Trenton Stovall, and an inclined sound permit for Christophe Petalak Church at Crowell Park on August 9th from 4 until 9. I have a motion for approval of the consent calendar. We also approve. So moved. There's support. I have a question for our I read the application correctly. They were asking for amplified sound. 7 AM is early, generally. What was that? 7 AM is generally early. That's what I'm thinking.

9 p.m. would generally still be within dusk, so the apartment would still be open.

Oh, I'm fine with 9 p.m. I'm worried about people who want to sleep in on Saturday. Yeah. Myself, yeah. Probably touch base and just have... If we could make sure that happens, that'd be great. It might be safe to... Thank you. Any other comments regarding the consent calendar? Ideas for individual discussion. We open this evening with a discussion of the four-day, 10-hour workweek. I believe that's you.

Yes, thank you. Well, as many of you can recall, our experience in the county and federal line union, the entrance agreement on February 20th of this year, and that agreement allows for the trial period of the four-day, 10-hour workweek. And that workweek has been on Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and then Friday is a day off. There are five periods scheduled to end September 30th of this year. So the agreement does provide that if neither the city nor the union by majority vote votes to change the hours back to normal hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July 31st, then the hours will remain on four tens for the duration of the contract. which ends December 31, 2017. We did, through my office, a survey of city staff and included that a good majority of the staff do like the four-day work week, but we would like an opportunity to also survey our residents in regards to what works best for them in regards to hours and days during the week before we make our final determination of how we want things forward. But I just wanted to advise you that the administration is working with the union in regards to how we would prefer to proceed with the benefits of not only our residents, but our staff. So this is just advisory at this. So we're asking, we'll get into talks with the union and have basically a 30 day or so extension.

Any discussion? Yeah.

Thank you for the information.

That's it. I have a question and I've heard from some folks in my precinct. We understand that public safety is not going to benefit or a Friday afternoon, what's the normal procedure for folks? They call public safety and then they call one of your guys, Jason, to... Yeah, don't worry.

It'll either come through Central Dispatch

That's all I needed to know. Thanks.

Thanks. Yes, that was good to read. So what's going to be done now is we're going to find out from the city what their wishes are on this.

Yes, I will be doing a survey with presidents and I'll share those surveys with you so that you can disseminate those. And also just entering into talks and negotiations with the union about what is most flexible for their movement.

Anything else? Thank you. Since we struck be the new B is approved professional services agreement with McKenna Associates for updating how to plan and housing access emotions. So move. Work. Thank you. Any discussion? So, um,

There are folks in the council members you can recall at the last meeting did approve our association and recommendation for the clinical service contract with McKenna for our comprehensive plan and housing assessment. So what you have before you is the actual contract. And a reminder, that is for the amount of $67,939.08. The next item will be the Michigan Economic Development Corporation Technical Assistance Grant, which will cover $50,000 of that amount. So, in fact, our kickoff meeting is coming to an end soon, so you may have to report this that day. And so the project completion is within nine months, and we're looking forward to getting this started. So we're recommending you...

Any questions or comments?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation to help fund Any discussion? My one question is, I assume that the remaining $17,000 is going to be handled by Jason's department.

Is it $57,000? It's $50,000. The contract is for $67,000, so not the $7,000.

The balance is 17. I assume that's going to come out of our rainy day fund or some kind or city council budget or.

Decided to always do. I'll figure it out.

Thank you, Dave. I have all comments. We did get a clean audit, so I'm kind of more confident now. Thank you. Any other comments? Council Member Stewart. Yes. Ross. Yes. William. Yes. Yes. Next item is to approve some appointments to our Board of Commissions. Tom Pitt, the Albany Building Authority, reappointment term to expire at the end of June 2029. And Jonalod Vincent, for initial appointment to the Arts Commission to turn to expire in early March of 2028. Motion to approve. Support? Any discussion? I want to take this time to thank those who volunteer to serve in our boards and commissions. Thank you. Did I get the pronunciation right? Oh, God, I'm sorry.

Jamila.

Jamila. Oh, sorry. I apologize. Well, thank you, Jamila, for being with us this evening, and I look forward to your many years of service. We're not spending money, so I just need a voice vote. All in favor of these appointments, signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Thank you very much. And finally today, we need to approve a change order, rolling eyes, number six, for $377,612.11 for the wastewater treatment plan renovations. All right, Jason. We need a motion to approve. Yeah, we do need a motion to approve. Motion to approve.

Good evening, Council. Mayor Pro Tem. So yeah, it's just like any house renovation. You kind of get into the walls and you see something else that's a little more messed up than we originally thought. So to basically break it down, a lot of the piping coming into the plant comes through a cement wall. The valves are gone. They were replaced in the ish and then the pipe coming through the walls this fence done really good keeping the shape not so much the iron that was there before so the pipes are bad so what that cost is is to do bypass pumping so they'll hook in bypass around that whole area come back into the plant and then turn around mileage all that We have over $500,000 in contingency funds for this project. This will take a good portion, $377,000. As I noted in my report, we still have a roof to put on. The original estimate came in about $41,000, but there's going to be some other costs that we have to incur as part of that $41,000. So it's going to go up. I just don't have those numbers just yet. I have about 96,000 left in contingency funds to help with that. So the one thing I did know in there, I shared the engineer's concerns. We met with USDA on site the other day. The engineers did tell them that we have some other concerns when we started digging in other spots of the plan. So hopefully everything goes well, but probably wrong. but fix it, make it right, so yeah.

But what is your roofing seal? Well, it might have to get a little bit better. Any other questions for director? Dr. Stewart. So seriously, with the idea that we might uncover other things and we've got M-6 and it gets sealed. Should we be thinking about some other planning?

Well, that's why you have Director Clark. So he actually took it upon himself. He's reached out and also spoke with USDA. We are able to do another $500,000 at 1.25. Yes. If we need to.

So when we initially started the project, The initial contract was $17 million. We had contingencies of close to a million that we could use, but we've already used some of it. We've added this to it. Like Jason said, there's $96,000 left, but there's language in the original agreement for the USDA that allows us to borrow an extra $500,000 at the low interest rate. I got that from Paul from the USDA. He's my contact there. And I just had to contact the attorney to make sure that they agree with what he has told me. So that's a possibility that we'll have an extra $500,000 for any more overruns. But it has to be specifically for that project. And we get it at a low interest rate, which is either going to be 1.25%. or 2.25% and not which of the three loans that they want to put that on. We have two right now that are 1.25% and one that's 2.25%. Those are very low interest rates. So we'll take those all day long.

So are we waiting to give the full go ahead?

We can't go after that until there's proof that we're over our contingency.

Well, I appreciate that. And also, I hear that you're checking to make sure that we do have that at our disposal. And my question is, are we going to be sure that

Yeah, there's a little bit more work that I got to do. Talk to the attorney, another Canfield attorney. And so I'm sure I'll be doing that soon. Good stuff. Jason tells me we're going to get close to that and go after that.

Given that we're, sorry, with the, I'm probably going to say what you were Um, will this, will that help the flow with this new, um, expenditure and the possible debt service?

The money that we'll use for this 377,000 will get put on the loan that we already have. Um, it'll probably go on either the 1.25 or the 2.25 depends. There's three different loans that make up 70 that make up 18 billion. It's a combination of three. So it just depends on how the USDA structures that. If this comes in first before the actual project is done and more contract bills come in, then it will probably be 1.25%. If it's going to come in right towards the end of the $18 million, then it will be 2.25%. Gotcha.

So my question... or fiscal year. Are there additional USDA grants that we can write that will help offset some of this, even though the project has been defined? We're extending the project every time you put a shovel in the ground. Is there a way for us to get a new grant that doesn't involve us having to pay debt, or adding to our debt, rather than maybe getting a grant?

We're talking about the sewer so as far as grants for anything else I can't speak for that that's for our grant writers to figure out I'm sure there may be some money out there but I'm more concentrated on this project and what we have available to us here already so going forward like I've been saying there's some other direct funding loan funding that we're working on so I really can't say yes or no I would encourage

It's a new fiscal year. We can write a new grant that expands the whole sewer project to include anything we didn't think about in the last one. See if we can't get that out. And yes, it's the same project. It's still the same sewer system, but it's a different project. There's a whole lot of other stuff that we hoped was going to be better than they are.

Don't forget, we have the current project that we're going after right now. That's close to $23 million for the sewer mining project. So I think we're just taking it one step at a time. I know that city managers are always looking for grant opportunities consistently, so she would be better qualified to answer what grants are coming up, what grants we could and could not get. Thanks. You're welcome.

Any other questions? So you put them in there. Wilson, Williams. Yes. Reed. Yes. Stewart. Yes. Ross. Yes. And there's one French. Yes. Future agenda items. What we got?

The bathroom.

Oh, discussion on the bathrooms? Yeah. Yeah. Public comments. Persons addressing the City Council. Comments from our gallery. My apologies, friends.

Chad Bozzi, 1021 Borough, again. I've got a quite thick packet that I handed to you guys. And in that packet, it speaks on how the Michigan Secretary of State's practices are affecting the city's own income tax revenue. City of Albion, if somebody lives in the city of Albion and works in the city of Albion, they get a 1%. If the person lives in the city of... works in the city of Albion and lives outside the city of Albion, it's a half a percent. However, some of these people that subjected to the Michigan Secretary of State system in which there is no ability to reinstate a driver's license because the services are not available, which seems to me to be a violation of the Elliot Larson Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, as in the language of the Secretary of State, Section 257.303, Subsection 1D, it specifically allows for the discrimination of those with disabilities rather than those It gives subjectivity to the Secretary of State. I had addressed with Mr. Harry Bonner and with Mr. Berry the SOS-257 and 258 packet. The Michigan Secretary of State's website shows this packet is available to be filled out at Harry Bonner's Substance Abuse Provincial Service. They would have to be able to perform not only the substance use evaluation, they would also have to be able to perform a laboratory urinalysis, common 10 to 12 panel, reporting integrity variables such as creatine and specific gravity. Instant tests are not accepted. So laboratory collection site is required. And again, that's not something that's in the purview of substance abuse preventive services. And it's wrong for the Secretary of State to be directing traffic to their agency when they're not even familiar with the process. Then when you factor in all the large population within the city who has refused a driver's license, not for any safety violations in recent history, if they get so much as a... impeding a traffic control device. It's normally just not even a points, civil infraction, but that constitutes... Finish your sentence. That constitutes... I lost it. You guys have the packet available. If you guys go through the packet, if you guys would have to have individual discussion, we can have individual discussion.

Thank you.

Thanks, Chad.

Anybody else? Rebecca Solness, 208 West Walnut. I'm embarrassed to say it's been two years since I was up here last telling you about some of the free services the library offers. I know I sent an email out, so if I can kind of read it. So I just want to remind citizens that there's free printing and faxing for DHS paperwork, unemployment paperwork, personal protection orders, Veterans Affairs paperwork. There's free printing and copying for resumes, cover letters, and all taxpayer work. So I think that's, I know that's helped me a lot. Just, can I keep costs down? If I, when I do print something that's 10 cents a page, black and white, We, a couple of years ago, went fine free for all materials, so the only time that we would ask residents to pay is for lost or damaged materials, but you can be late and it doesn't bar you from using the library, which I think is great. Library cards are free to all citizens of Albion. If you don't have a driver's license, the library just asks for some form of photo ID. In fact, I could be wrong about that. I know that you need a utility bill that just It shows your name and your address to prove that you live in the city. Or, sorry, the search area, not just the city. Oh, and then the free two-week checkout for internet hotspots is still available. I believe there are 30 available, which I think is great for a lot of people trying to cut their costs and they don't have internet in their home. And then there's a lot of free programs for adults and children. Libraries across the U.S. are moving beyond just books. They're moving into more of like a library of things. So our library is working on getting materials, and they also hold classes. You can learn how to crochet, knit, sew, a lot of other hands-on activities, which I think is great for a lot of different learners. I also, as a treasurer, I get to review invoices every month, and I am so impressed with what the library is buying to serve such a variety of citizens. I think that's really great because you can go there and find pretty much something for everyone. So I know that Cindy worked really hard to meet the needs of our diverse population. I think that's great. Another thing that I know they've increased are the homeschool resources. More and more families in town are choosing to homeschool their children. And I think that's really great that they have these free resources and it doesn't create a discrepancy of people that have extra money to spend on that. You can have more resources. It's free for everyone. So just please let your constituents know that the library is there for you to serve.

Thank you very much.

What's going on, guys? My name is Sam Larry. I'm the legislative director for State Representative Frisbee. Apologies if you couldn't be here tonight. The city of Springfield has their meeting at the same time. We just wanted to swing on by and provide you guys an update on state budget. It's done. Thank God. It was only a 24-hour budget process to get it through, but we were able to get a $800 million decrease in overall state budget. Zero new taxes. The increases are taken from the rainy day fund. Local and city and county revenue share remains pretty much the same. We fought for a couple of LDSI, particularly in public safety. We were able to get $85,000 for overall state Michigan share of victim services, as well as $56,000 for the city of Albion to get 16 new fire truck tires, as well as two AD heart systems. Roads, we should be seeing about $1.57 million for Albion. That is dependent upon several things, particularly the marijuana tax, but we are still expecting that money to come through by the end of the year. We also upped the per pupil funding for education another $250, so it's $10,300 per pupil, which will lead to $634,000 in additional money for Marshall Public Schools and about $380,000 in additional money for Olivet Public Schools. Finally, we continued the Public Safety Trust Fund And that's going to get about $108,000 for out in public safety from that. When it comes to future projects with the state as well, we have the House Accountability and Transparency Plan, which means for anything to be included in the state budget, it's got to be online and available for 45 days for public dissection as well as receiving a hearing. Because of that, we are asking that if you continue to work with our office on what you guys need, that you get any and all public projects to us by mid-March next year, so that way we can get it in fast.

Any questions? Thank you very much. Oh, thank you guys. Anyone else?

I'm Mary Hyman. I'm a Sheridan Township resident, 27 Mile Road and D Drive North that I've been proud to call. I'll be in my hometown for the last 11 years. I would just like to raise a concern Um, the fact that, uh, this year apparently, uh, flock AI enabled security cameras have been installed on every road leading in and out of Albion. Um, and I suppose I'm not opposed categorically to security cameras, but my concern about these is it's not like it's, um, just footage that's just being collected by ADPS or anything. The data from one of these cameras, they collect license plate numbers, make, model, and details of car appearances. And all this data is uploaded to the flock corporation's servers and seems to be available to any number of agencies without warrants, without probable cause, with very little legal oversight. And so I would like to ask how the decision was reached to install these, and I'd like to suggest that maybe it would be a great idea.

So this is public comment. We will not respond, but we will look into your concern. Thank you. You're welcome. Anyone else? Hello. Eric Tobin, 409 West Ash.

Just wanted to say thank you to the council for allowing the ACA, I represent the Albion Clerical Alliance, I'm the president, and just wanted to say thank you to the board and to Cheryl for allowing us to be part of the trial for the four 10-hour days. As Cheryl mentioned, our members have overwhelmingly been in support of it, and they're interested in working with Cheryl to make sure that we can do it. Oh, and on the library, my wife would kick me if I didn't say that she uses the library every single day. On her way to work, she listens to books to work and a half hour back.

So she will be definitely voting yes on the millage for the library. Thank you. Thank you, Eric. Anyone else? Correct.

Good evening. Debbie Kelly with the Albany EDC 101 North Superior Street. I live in Jackson County. I don't know if you need my address for Jackson County. I'm addressing the pink elephant in the room this evening, which is the debt elimination plan for the Economic Development Fund for my organization. I've been very lucky to have a great partner with City Treasurer David Clark, who is helping me through this process to prepare a debt elimination plan. which I will present to you at next city council meeting. But I would like to just point out a couple of things that I've done since my short eight months that I've been in this leadership role with the Albany EDC. Staff is down to two full-time employees. We were at five. We've terminated contractual services for marketing. We brought that in-house. We've terminated contractual services for software and other non-essential needs for the organization. We've had a budget freeze on salary increases, conference and training expenses, and other non-essential travel. We've moved our offices into the Ludington Center about 19 days ago. Ultimately, in the long run, we'll be saving costs on our rent and our phones and different operational expenses as related to our move. Um, any summer term interns from Elvin college will be funded by the college and not the EDC as it has been in the past. Um, we are waiting to get grant funding announcement from Southwest Michigan first for region eight for small business, entrepreneurial, um, assistance, networking, marketing, which are things that we're already doing. Um, so hoping that we get that grants we'll find out in September. I'm working closely with the MEDC, finding different opportunities for the city. Hopefully we can find some opportunities for our EDC as well. Currently I'm having conversations with local business owners and thank you to Director Kern for helping me make connections. Hopefully we can sell some property, get some revenue coming in, but please know that I work very hard for this debt elimination plan to present to you at next city council. So thank you for your grace and continued patience with our organization.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Good evening, everyone. A couple of things. Ms. Soltis had mentioned PPO's. She just wanted to take the opportunity to talk about personal protection orders. I'm very thankful that the library is utilized. out and use their printers. We do have packets in our side of City Hall. We also have cards that have QR codes on them that they can use. And I want to note that our department, as long as somebody who is being served lives within the city, our department does serve those at no charge, which I believe we are the only county that does that, or the only department that does that in our county. We've been doing that for a while. PPO office is aware of that, and they share that information there as well. And I know flat cameras have been a hot topic for a while now. It's been a little bit more than a flavor of the week. I certainly plan on bringing a presentation about that. So everyone has a little more information about it. Ours have been in place for over two years, just briefly. They've helped solve a homicide out of Lansing, located missing people and had really their overall departments across the country. But I will put a presentation together and share with everybody and then we can have it for discussion so everybody has a little more information about it. So there's can kind of combat some of the questions and misinformation that is out there about that. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other comments? OK, moving on. Thank you.

The plan is on Monday, July 27th. We're involved right now. We're also going to have a conversation with the team from the team. companies for the day-to-day plan to solve that traffic through our processes. And I also want to remind all the residents that we do have a 24-hour city hall assistance number that is AI-activated, and just call 517-994-1794, and that will help route you to the correct person or phone number, or a little student number. And we had a wonderful summer so far with the Albany Recreation Plumber Enrichment Program. The kids are having a fabulous time this week. They're at the Albany Innovation Albion, learning all things technology oriented. The last game is going to be August 14th. If you recall, we had a enrichment clinic go to the end of August. But because most of the school districts are starting before then, we decided to end earlier. and on Friday, August 7th, from 1 to 5 p.m. at Allen Park, there will be a celebration of Parks and Recreation Programs and a special presentation in honoring Larry Williams, a former city recreation director, and that's hosted by the Albany High School alumni, Substance Abuse Prevention Services, and the city of Albany, and every month, 12 to 10 p.m. And if you haven't noticed, the Calhoun County Land Bank's been busy. And 203 North Superior is still doing the demolition part of the stabilization for that project. So the parking at the rear, they said it'll be open after a week. Hopefully it will be. And Austin School, that building is owned by the land bank, Elm County Land Bank Authority. So they have indicated they will be releasing an RFP or RFQ to seek developers. So that information is being shared right now. And I want to remind everyone that we're trying to get the Recognition Advisory Committee re-energized. So we're looking for applicants and the application forms are online. There's a link in the city manager's report and we especially need representatives from three, four, and six. And the one that everyone's been waiting for, the treaty committee will be meeting on Wednesday, July 22nd at 6 p.m. in the second floor conference room at city hall. Unitations were sent out to everyone who attended the previous meetings or indicated interest in that topic. And the one we really have to be excited about is Cheesecake in Conversation with the City Man, which will be on Wednesday, the 22nd, from 8 a.m. to 9.30 a.m. There will be food besides Cheesecake. There's nothing other than Cheesecake over at that time. And I'll be there for this conversation. If you have questions, we'll be out there on information, and everyone is welcome. I do ask if you could RSVP if you can't do something else with it. And our wonderful public safety is going to have their national night out on Tuesday on August 4th. And that's from 6 to 8 p.m. at Macintosh Park by the Slash Cab. And now there's public safety officers, and they have free food, snow cones, and music, and fun for everyone. And our early culture date for October 20th, that's my club luncheon hosted by the Greater Albany Central Congress, and sponsored by the Albany Tech Moms Development Corporation, and Casey Creek, It's going to be held at the Livingston Center. And we'll be getting more information on that shortly. And, of course, included in your packet are big community projects, which I know that they're very busy and they're really excited about all the wonderful things they're doing with sharing their robust activities with everyone. That concludes the meeting.

Any questions for the student council? be a dog tag. Oh, that's for us. All right. Any other questions? All right.

I would just like to say with them, first of all, we got a complete town hall meeting with all Precinct meeting together with citizens of Albion to discuss the problems that we've had with the farm batteries. So keep your eye out for that date and time. Anybody else?

Thank you. Do we have a motion to excuse our absent conference? First from both of the presidents, both on the occasion. Support? All in favor say aye. Aye.

yes there was one other thing um just so counsels were there um everyone got an email about the incident with the uh infant from chief this um there was a an update crowd and he's too humble to to bring it an infant outside of a local motel. Chief Phipps took it upon himself to take care of that young infant in his personal home, got the infant cleaned up, and other officers from our department immediately donated clothes. I just want the council to be aware that that is the type of public safety department we have and the type of leader we have.

And for all the whole team. Oh, and I have one final request for the entire gallery. Today is our clerk's birthday. He's 39. So we can just have as good a rendition of happy birthday as we can. Yeah. Happy birthday dear Cheryl. Happy birthday to you. In speech to our Lord's dedication on her birthday, she's working late for us. By motion to adjourn. All in favor say aye. Aye. We stand adjourned. Meeting finished at 8.19 p.m.