City Commission - Regular Meeting

Hello, test, test. That moving? I know there was a delay last time, so I'm not sure.

Hey, Chris.

Hello? Test, test.

Hello, good evening.

Hey, Chris, I think we can hear you. Say hello. Yes, good evening.

Hello. Perfect, we got you.

Good evening and welcome to the City of Battle Creek, Michigan and the Battle Creek City Commission meeting for May 19th, 2026. It is 7 o'clock p.m. We thank you for being here. We're going to start with a moment of silence, and then we'll have our Pledge of Allegiance, and I'll call upon Commissioner Morris to lead us in the pledge. If you are able to... If you're able to stand, we'll stand for a moment of silence in our pledge led by Commissioner Morris. Commissioner Morris. 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. Next item on our agenda is roll call, Madam Clerk.

Commissioner Katarski-Smith. Here. Commissioner Lanza. Here. Commissioner Lance. Commissioner Morris. Here. Mayor Behnke. Here. Commissioner Reynolds. Present. Commissioner O'Donnell.

Here.

Commissioner Simmons.

Here.

And Vice Mayor Sophia.

Here.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. We have a random act of kindness certificates. This was probably one of the first that we've received, and I appreciate the fact that this took place out at Fell Park, and one of our commissioners was there, and I'm going to let her talk a little bit about it. But if the Clark family is here, we'd like to invite you up to receive the proclamations.

I don't know if they're able to come. We'll get them to you.

I'm going to have commissioner Lacoste, um, give a description of what took place. It's quite interesting. I know that, uh, our state representative was involved in it too. And, um, he, he felt a little violated. So commissioner Lacoste, could you tell us a little bit about what took place?

Yes. Um, we were at fell park, one of our NPCs, um, doing some cleanup in the area and, um, myself and another member of that team. we put our cell phones down along with all of our stuff there, and someone had taken our cell phones. And the only people that we had seen were these three kids, and so I had asked them about that. They weren't sure, they had not seen anything, but they were able to describe the people that were on the trail besides them that had went by. So they were able to go ahead and kind of tell us where those people were, so we were able to retrieve our cell phones. I greatly appreciated that because, as anyone knows, my wife was probably in that phone. So we greatly appreciated it. The kids were really, really great and very polite and respectful. So I appreciated that as well.

And we just want to thank them for their dedication and commitment to our Battle Creek community. And this is on behalf of the Battle Creek City Commission. And I'll ask Commissioner Lacoste to get them a copy of this just as quick as possible. On our agendas chair noting in the added or deleted resolutions.

Thank you very much petitions communications and reports We did receive a communication from Patrick Barnett who said he would be here this evening to also Thank you very much next time on our agendas a public hearing madam clerk when you're ready This is a public hearing to receive comments on the City of Battle Creek's proposed fiscal year 2026-2027 budget.

I'll declare the public hearing open. If you'd like to make public comment on the subject for this public hearing, then please raise your hand and we will acknowledge you to come forward to the podium where you'll have three minutes to make your comment. Please state your name and address before making your comment. Are there any public comments at this time? Yes, sir.

Go ahead.

Hello. My name is Mr. Nadowski. I want to be clear that I'm not willing to vote for anyone on the commission that is not willing to, if they run for reelection, to loudly and clearly articulate that code compliance is a problem. And I'm talking dramatic structural reform.

Okay, we're going to need to stay towards the budget. Your feelings about code compliance are your feelings. But we're having a hearing on our proposed budget for 2026-2027. So do your best to articulate about the budget.

I want to complain that I was interrupted before my clock was paused. And I don't know what else. The second thing I want to complain about are the rules on public comment and the manner in which these rules are enforced.

Point of order, Mayor. I mean, if this is a public hearing on the budget, then we need to keep to that specific topic I understand you've got a list of grievances that you'd like to share. And that is, I'm perfectly happy to sit here and listen to that during the appropriate time during the meeting.

All right, let's continue. Thank you.

And in order to draw you a straight line from the words structural reform of code compliance, I'm talking about slashing its budget. Where was the good faith? Where was the good faith when I'm talking about slashing the budget for code compliance? And the response from the chair was to interrupt me and to complain about how and what I was saying. The budget is the core of what this municipal government does. And I would like to extend my hand to all the members of the board, city manager, the city attorney, the chief of police, city engineer, to talk about what's in the budget. I will be here after the meeting, willing to exchange contact information with any of you to get into the details of the budget and other issues not related to the budget.

Thank you for your comments. Joe, you're next.

JOE HARRIS BATTLE CREEK SORRY I DON'T HAVE A BUDGET PACKET IN FRONT OF ME I DID BRIEFLY LOOK AT IT JUST TWO THINGS PEOPLE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE BUDGET IS MADE UP OF A THEIR CITY INCOME TAX And B, their city property tax. And I just really wish that people would understand that so we have more people here, if that makes sense. It's their budget. One of the things that stood out was in the Verona well fields. I did notice that from what I could see, there was some either repair or funding that was missing. Joe, I'm sorry.

I'm going to have to interrupt. John, we're conducting a meeting here. Please, would you give us the respect? John, I ask you, you're out of order, John. I'll ask the police officer to take you out.

Anyways, Verona Wellfield, being that that's been a contention of where some of the water contamination has been coming from, It kind of concerned me that there seems to be a discrepancy on potential updates on there. I saw a zero is what I saw, if I remember correctly, and I'm just wondering if there's any rectification for that particular item, being that that's been a heart of our water issues. Just wanted to point that out, but thank you. I appreciate it.

Thank you, Joe. Are there any other public comments at this time on our budget. Are there any other public comments at this time? Seeing none, we'll declare this public hearing closed. Our next item on our agenda is public comment regarding any remaining agenda items. If you'd like to make a public comment regarding any remaining agenda item, Please raise your hand and we will acknowledge you to come forward to the podium. You'll have four minutes to make your comments. Please state your name and address before beginning your comment and indicate which agenda item you are speaking to. Are there any public comments at this time? Are there any public comments? Seeing none, our next item on our agenda is Adoption of Ordinance 382, Resolution Adopting Ordinance 1226.

This proposed ordinance, if adopted, would amend Chapter 1281 of Title VI, Zoning of the Code of Ordinances, to make text corrections, clarify requirements, correct formatting. This ordinance would also make substantial changes to Section 1281.01 to clarify what qualifies as substantial progress and bonafide development for purposes of determining when an approved conditional rezoning expires. Section 1281.01 to clarify that minor amendments that do not change the approved zoning or offered conditions are exempt from the full conditional rezoning process. Section 1281.04 and . To clarify that the site plan review exemption applies only to single units of single family and two family dwellings and does not exempt larger residential developments that require developer installed streets or infrastructure. And section 1280.01 GA would remove the requirement for a second newspaper public notice before the city commission meeting for zoning map text amendments, since it has not increased attendance and adds unnecessary costs.

I move for the adoption of ordinance 12-2026. Second.

The move is supported to adopt ordinance resolution 12-2026. Are there any comments by the commission? Any comments by the commission? Seeing none, would you please vote on the adoption of resolution 382, adopting ordinance 12-2026.

Commissioner Lacoste? Yes. Thank you.

The adoption of ordinance resolution 382, adopting ordinance 12-2026 has been approved. Next item on our agenda is adoption of ordinance resolution 383, adopting ordinance 13-2026. Madam Clerk, when you're ready.

This proposed ordinance, if adopted, would rezone the properties located at 14 Yuba Street, 175 Main Street, and 169 Main Street from MFR, High Density Multifamily District, to T3, Neighborhood Commercial District, to allow the conversion of an existing vacant single-family home to be converted into an office building in support of the Community Action Partnership Organization.

I move for the adoption of ordinance 13-2026. Second.

I move to support it to approve resolution 383 adopting ordinance 13-2026. Are there any comments by the commission? Commissioner Patrick O'Donnell. Thank you, Commissioner.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd just like to thank CA for taking care of that portion of the city over there. They're gonna with this change, they're gonna be able to bring in some more business employees over to that area and increase the area and the visibility of that.

So I want to thank them for coming forward and asking for this zoning change to move in our community. Thank you very much, Commissioner. Any other comments? Seeing none, would you please vote on the adoption of ordinance of resolution 383, adopting ordinance 13-2026? The adoption of the ordinance has been approved. Next item on our agenda is commission comment regarding meeting business.

I move to approve the consent agenda. Second.

The move is supported to approve the consent agenda. Is there any questions by the commission? Seeing none, would you please vote on the consent agenda? The consent agenda has been approved. Next item on our agenda is resolution number 386. Madam Clerk, when you're ready.

If approved this resolution would authorize the city manager to sign a mortgage agreement with recovery services unlimited Inc rsu for a 10 year mortgage to provide recovery transitional housing. The selection of recovery services unlimited incorporated was done by a competitive bid administered by the purchasing department in spring of 2025 I moved to approve resolution 386 second.

been moved and supported to approve Resolution 386. Are there any comments by the Commission? Commissioner LaCasse.

I'm just curious. I know this is, you know, grant-funded, an opioid settlement fund, so they're going to be contributing to that as well. But there's five units, and it's a 10-year mortgage for $862,000. So that's like $172,400 per unit. I'm just wondering why it's so high, if anyone has any answer.

Helen Guzzo is here. She can speak to that.

This is a vacant building. There's three, three bedroom and two, two bedroom. It was a gut rehab and that is the cost of construction. That was the lowest bid. I know you approved like last December, the competitive bid and that was the lowest. We actually got a lot of interest and that was the lowest bid that we received and it is a lot of money and it's, It's a no payment, no interest. We're turning it over for recovery services to own and operate. And then at the end of the 10-year period, it's like a 10-year period of affordability for them. So it's not costing. That's actually grant funds that we used and the opioid settlement dollars to create these five units of recovery housing.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Any other comments? Hearing none, would you please vote on Resolution 386? Resolution 386 has been approved. Next item on our agenda is Resolution 387. Madam Clerk.

If approved, this resolution would accept the proposal from Trapeze Software Group Incorporated DBA TripSpark Technologies for the ITS CAD AVL services in a not to exceed amount of $1,250,000. The funding sources are comprised of $1,007,333 in federal funds and $251,834 in matching state funds for a total of $1,259,167.

I moved to approve resolution 387. Second.

I moved and supported to approve resolution 387. Are there any comments by the commission? Commissioner Lacoste.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any information that can explain this a little bit better on what exactly this goes for, like what this covers.

Mallory, would you be able to come up? Mallory Avis is here from the TAC. Thank you.

Good evening. Mallory Avis, Executive Director for the Transportation Authority of Calhoun County. This technology would replace all of the onboard technology for all of the vehicles, as well as the back office technology. So this is what allows us to do all of our scheduling, the passenger-facing app, as well as the AVL, which is the vehicle location that allows people to see real-time information of where their vehicles are at.

Okay. Thank you very much for that.

You're welcome.

Thank you, Commissioner. Any other comments? Seeing none, would you please vote on resolution 387? Resolution 387 has been approved. Next item on our agenda is resolution 388.

If approved, this resolution would permit a closed session of the city commission in conference room 302A immediately following the commission comments section of the regular meeting on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, as authorized by MCL 15.268, Section E. In two matters of pending litigation, Scott Marshall versus City of Battle Creek, workers' compensation claim number BC0-23-000059-01, and Joseph Shanks versus City of Battle Creek, workers' compensation claim number BC0-23-000059-01, 17-01 Council for the city believes that discussing these matters in an open meeting would have a detrimental financial effect on the litigating and settlement position of the city in both cases I Move to approve resolution 388 second the movement supported to approve resolution 388.

Are there any comments? Seeing them, would you please vote on resolution 388? Resolution 388 has been approved. Next item on our agenda is general public comment. If you'd like to make general public comment regarding matters over which the City Commission has control, please raise your hand and wait for us to acknowledge you to come forward to the podium. You'll have three minutes to make your comment. Please state your name and address prior to beginning your comment. I see we have quite a few visitors in the audience today. I have it on good information that you get extra credit if you come up and speak during our public comment. And I don't want to put you on the stand right now, but we'll have a few minutes so you can think about something. If you'd like to just come up and tell us where you're from. That's all we were asking for. So you'll get extra credit. What that extra credit represents, I'm not sure. Are there any public comments at this time? David? And then we'll go to Joe.

On these resolutions, these hearings, I think they were poorly introduced to us. But you people up there know what this is all about. We've got a dash here and code numbers. We've got a, you say up there and we don't understand that out here. And I think a lot of us were out of contact. What was you people were talking about up there at night? I think that was pretty poorly done. I think this gentleman right here know we got two public comments, one earlier and we got one now. We got two during a meeting. And I want to say across, I want to thank her. She had a very busy day and she took time to help me out and help me get here to the meeting. I'm here tonight by her helping me. And she, a lot of things she had to do this week, and she just, I want to thank you across for all you've done for me. Thank you.

Thank you, David.

Just a couple things. First of all, on the budget, I don't know if this was done, so forgive me if it was and I didn't realize it, but on the budgets in the future, I think it would be a good idea if maybe there would be some online surveys for the citizens of Battle Creek to take to see what their thoughts are on the budget. And the only reason why I say that is we can see by the room, not everybody can be here to voice their opinion. Yeah, they can write you, they can email you, but I think surveys might be a good thing for the future. Just a thought on that. Solar fields, I want to talk about that. I'm going to say this is not my idea. This was someone else's. But we all know about the big solar fields that are happening in Michigan. You go over to Marengo Township and all that beautiful farmland is nothing but glass. And it's sad to see. So I'm not against solar as a rule. I know that solar for your homes, if it's on a personal home, it works pretty well. And not very many people understand or realize that there is a state law out there that makes it so that if you are an owner of a house and you are utilizing solar, energy companies have to buy back a portion of that energy that you save. So they have to pay you because of the solar. And they know this, which is why they're the ones behind the solar, because if they can control the solar fields, they can control the costs, maybe they can get rid of that fee. Kind of an interesting thought. So my thoughts are, if we're going to have solar, instead of using the farmland, why not use some of the brownfields that we have, like Clark's? Nobody can use it. It's empty. No one's using it. That might be an idea if... FOR THE FUTURE IF THAT COMES OUR WAY. ANOTHER THOUGHT PROCESS, AND THIS IS JUST KIND OF THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX, MAYBE SOME SPECIAL ASSESSMENT DISTRICTS FOR THOSE AREAS IN BATTLE CREEK THAT ARE CONSISTENTLY HAVING THE POLICE CALLED, AND I AM REFERRING TO IN PARTICULAR APARTMENT COMPLEXES, SOME MAJOR RETAIL AREAS, AND HERE'S WHY I SAY WHAT I SAY. There's an apartment complex in Battle Creek. I'm not going to mention who it is. Their security issues are really lax. They're consistently having the police call to their area. They're not willing to take proper steps to help protect their residents in regard to security. Cameras aren't enough. And my feeling is if they're not willing to take those steps and we're having the police consistently call to their area, then maybe they need to be taxed a little bit more because the police are consistently getting called over there. That's just a thought on that. In my last 20 seconds, if you're 65 or older, in my opinion, if you've been in Battle Creek for 20 years or more and you're 65 year older, you should not be paying property tax anymore. So thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Yes.

Hi, my name is Mr. Nadowski. I want to complain about noncompliance with the Michigan's Open Meeting Act. I've read the Open Meeting Act manual, and there are places in it where this commission is not in compliance with it. I want to complain about code compliance. in a lot of ways, in detail, that people are willing to sit and talk to me about it. The short version is it's hypocritical. I look at the condition of the exterior at the AT&T building right over there, and it looks terrible. How is it that the city, in our very most important intersection, you just shrug your shoulders and be like, How is that not a place where the city can get involved in making it look nicer or safer? Because there's a big old shrub on the corner there, and it turns that intersection into a blind intersection to where drivers who are coming west down Michigan can't see a pedestrian entering the street there. And at the street there, there's big old holes where anybody can step in there and break their ankle Well, that might turn into another closed session. Part of what really put financial pressure on Detroit, Michigan was public infrastructure falling apart and a personal injury lawsuit industry springing up that was very productive. And the same thing is happening here. The infrastructure is falling apart. People are already falling. I'm just waiting for the ambulance chasers. No offense to personal injury lawyers, I'm just, there's a little slide there. Another problem with code compliance is that it's a copyrighted document. And I want to ask that you bring back the little camera, video camera that used to be here so I can share documents to make it easier to communicate with y'all. put a little piece of paper under there. And maybe I violate some copyright, maybe I don't. But I can show it to you in writing, what the industry language is on exterior property areas. And don't get me started on obsolete semi-trailers. I'm sick of...

Thank you for your comments. Are there any other public comments at this time? Are there any other public comments? Commission comments?

Mr. Patrick O'Donnell. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to thank you for taking the time to work on the driveway that's been on the Internet talking about that. So thank you for taking your time to get that moving forward.

Thank you, Patrick. Appreciate it. Commissioner Lacoste.

I just wanted to apologize for coming in right before the Pledge of Allegiance. I was up in the UP. I have an adopt a highway section up there that I do three times a year. It was just traveling back down and then picked up David. So I was running in a little bit late and I apologize. I didn't mean any disrespect. Also for that award, I think we did not say their names. Their names are Rex Cameron and Sasha Clark. So I just wanted to point that out. And I'm really hoping that we can find some way to get more bids on some of these things.

kind of lower costs down overall i don't know how we do that but i'm hoping we can address it at some point thank you any other commission comments commissioner carla reynolds yes thank you mayor i just want to apologize for missing the workshop that afternoon i got word that we had lost a family member so that's why i wasn't able to attend thank you sorry about your loss are there any other commission comments

Seeing none, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much for attending.

No, it's not adjourned. We're closed session.

Sorry about that. We have closed session. Thank you, Commissioner.

We started at 7.33. Are they going to make a motion? Not prepared for that. You can give that to me.

Okay, we'll return from our recess and I'll call upon Commissioner Smith and Commissioner Lance to provide some information.

Move to approve the settlement of Marshall versus the City of Battle Creek, BCO-23-59-01, and Shanks versus the City of Battle Creek, BCO-23-17-01, in the amounts recommended by the Council for the City.

Second.

Move to support it. Are there any comments by the Commission? Any none, would you please, can we vote or do you have to call the roll?

You can.

All right.

I'm sorry I'm signed out somehow, but I'll voice vote.

Okay. Commissioner O'Donnell? Yes.

Thank you.

The resolution has been approved. Thank you, Chris. Meeting adjourned.