City Commission - workshop

Hello, this is Commissioner Simmons.

Hey Commissioner, we can hear you good. Thank you, Chris.

I can't.

I can barely hear you.

Good afternoon and welcome to the city of Battle Creek, Michigan, in the Battle Creek City Commission workshop. Today's date is June 25th, 2026. We want to welcome Peter Dams here, along with the city manager and the city staff and the city attorney. Vicki, do you want to? Record the roll call, or I mean...

I'll just note it in my...

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Next item on our agenda then will be public comment, limited to three minutes per individual. Do we have any public comment at this time? Do we have any public comment? Seeing none, we'll move on to overview of the process, and I'm going to turn over to our city manager. Thank you, Amanda.

At this time, I would like to turn it over to Peter Doms to kind of go over the process that we're going to use, and then I will do an overview of what we have done in the past for projects, and then we will start our strategic planning process.

Thank you. So you'll take it after Peter's done, right? Yes, sir.

I will take it after Peter's done.

Mayor, commissioners, thank you for inviting me to facilitate this goal-setting session today. And you have in front of you the agenda. I'm just going to start walking you through it. We have a couple of planning activities planned to help you to set goals for the city, as well as some strategic objectives. If you go on page number two of your handout, it should say ground rules. One more page, Mayor? Yes. The page that says ground rules. Looks like this. So the ground rules are for you and for me. Just focus. Focus on the future. And focus on things that you can control or influence. That's really critical. So strategic planning is not wishful thinking, but it's rooted in reality of what you can do. I don't think one meeting at a time is typically in there for larger groups when we have shy conversations, but I don't expect any concerns there today. Success factors, willingness to share thoughts and feelings, and have an authentic dialogue. And what I mean is I don't want any of you to leave today and feel like, well, I wish this would have come up. So if there's something, bring it up as we go through our activities, please. And then I want you to enjoy the session. It's kind of an awkward way to set things up right behind you. But we'll work this through. And there's a Did You Know section in there. Strategic planning is consistently ranked among the five most popular managerial approaches worldwide. So organizations that undergo strategic planning can't go wrong. I find out with my clients too that they typically end up becoming more effective and more efficient And so it's a great undertaking that you're doing today, getting started. After today's session, we have a steering team that we're working with. And then we'll meet with the leadership team to help develop some sub-objectives to the goals that you are coming up with today. That's going to be sometime in July. If you go to the next page, we have the mission and the vision of Battle Creek City Government. The mission is to ensure a safe, prosperous, and culturally enriched community. And the vision is we envision Battle Creek as an extraordinary community where people choose to live, work, and play. I have those in there because those are our guideposts for today. So when we do the strategic planning and we do one activity, we're looking at what do we have in place to achieve our vision. So that would be really critical. So we'll be referring back to that. The next page I will go over after the city manager has done her presentation.

Thank you. I would like to take a moment to review the work that the staff has been doing on the current city commission goals. Vicky, if you wouldn't mind. Thank you.

One more.

The city commission engaged in a structured process to establish its goals and the objectives have helped guide staff efforts. The overarching goals identified by the commission were organized into those key eight focus areas. And I do appreciate the commission allowing me to find a few minutes here to touch on some of the projects that have been housed there. And there are staff here to answer questions should you have questions as we proceed through. Next slide, please. The first focus area is economy, and under economy, the main overarching thing was to support business-friendly environments and local investments and job growth for the community. Next slide, please, Vicky. If you look there on the left-hand slide with the blue bullseye. So the city strengthened its support for local businesses in downtown Vitality by launching the openforbizbc.com website as a centralized source for entrepreneurs and investors. Downtown spaces were also further activated through a mix of reoccurring and seasonal programming, creating vibrant opportunities for community engagement. And consistent calendar events helped drive repeat visitations and reinforce downtown as a dynamic destination. In 2025 alone, we had numerous events downtown drawing an estimated 53,285 attendees to the downtown area and with projections in 2026 of roughly 83,000 people coming into the city for events that are housed downtown. I will turn it over to Marcy for the second, the orange bullet.

So under this area, there was a focus on downtown development and redevelopment and readiness for development. Um, every 15 to 20 years, um, we are really focused with updates to our master plan. We are in a period of time where we're doing updates and we recognize that as a component of that, that it's critical that we also implement a housing strategy. And for the last number of months, our planning division has led that work through our community with community dialogue sessions. and strategic planning in addition to survey work that has happened. We've recognized that our downtown corridors could be more primed and ready for mixed use and higher density for housing. So we've done some up zoning to allow for greater density, specifically along our Dickman Road corridor and West Michigan Avenue in our downtown area. As it relates to our infill residentially zoned areas, we have some lots and parcels that are smaller in size. And so what we've done is we have shrunk the number for the setback requirements which would allow for infill development in what would normally be areas where infill development could not occur. So we're again creating opportunities for development to happen. In looking at our downtown area to support businesses and placemaking, we're looking at not only existing business but also future business in regards to walkability and green space, spaces where people in our community want to live and to be present. and then continued progress towards our redevelopment ready certification, which we have completed, and we are now redevelopment recertified for that. Zoning amendments have been a focus to allow for the support of redevelopment. We anticipate that the housing strategy will come before the city commission in the month of July, and then our master plan updates to follow.

Next slide, please. Safety was the next item was to promote community safety emergency preparedness and a proactive public protection like these So if you look at the blue bullet point, that is to establish a community oversight board to support police oversight and accountability. The city has strengthened transparency and accountability through the establishment of the COB, a key initiative supporting the city's broader governance and community engagement goals. The COB has formalized its operations by developing bylaws and clear review process, ensuring the structured and consistent approach to its work. Board members have been fully onboarded and trained to effectively carry out their responsibilities, including review of community concerns, In coordination with the Battle Creek Police Department, the Cobb has also implemented complaint review procedures, creating a collaborative framework for oversight and review procedures and reinforcing public trust. Through these efforts, the Cobb is playing a vital role in promoting accountability, fostering community confidence and enhancing residents and public safety. And if you look at the Cobb became operational first in May of 2026 and members completed their training and complaint review process is underway currently. The next item is related to the fire department, which is enhanced fire response capacity through facility upgrades and equipment investment. So the city, we have taken an important step in strengthening fire service through proactive planning and investment modernization efforts, while also recognizing the critical need for updated facilities. Notably, the city's newest fire station was constructed in 1972, underscoring the urgency of advancing plans for new construction facilities. and upgrades to meet current future service demands. In response, the city has initiated facility improvements, continued the replacement of aging fire apparatus and fleet equipment, and developed a comprehensive long-term strategy for fire facilities and resources. These efforts ensure that the fire department remains well-equipped, efficient, and capable of providing high-quality emergency response while laying groundwork for modern, strategically located stations and better community support. And just as a side note, we had the groundbreaking for Station 2 this afternoon. We're moving well into completing that goal. Next item, please. So transportation and mobility was the next. The first one is to improve infrastructure connectivity and accessibility for all residents. If you look at the blue bullet, that is talking about our sidewalk program. And the city has taken a strategic and data-driven approach to sidewalk maintenance and improvements, integrating these efforts with the broader infrastructure planning. Sidewalk upgrades have been coordinated with roadway projects to maximize efficiency and primary focus on bringing curb ramps to ADA compliance and addressing trip hazards caused by true routes within public right-of-ways. As part of that process, staff evaluate sidewalk conditions along project corridors to identify deficiencies and incorporate necessary repairs into the capital project scopes. Although funding constraints can limit the inclusion of sidewalk programs in the local street program, the city has strengthened its approach by completing a citywide sidewalk inventory, addressing the backlog of plant-driven repairs, and developing a prioritized project list for future cycles. A formal rating system has been established to ensure consistency in evaluating conditions, while resident reported issues submitted through 311 systems are tracked through CityWorks. inspected and cost estimated for action in the 2020 2024-25 budget year alone cost estimated for Act alone the city replaced fourteen thousand six hundred one square feet of sidewalk across 89 addresses and as of mid-june an additional seventeen thousand two hundred and fifty square feet need repairs across 174 addresses and have been identified These efforts are further supported by the compliance with state requirements to dictate one percent of our Michigan Transportation Fund dollars to non-motorized improvements and Reinforcing the city's commitment to safe accessible and well-maintained pedestrian infrastructure The second item on this slide is the enhanced Did you have a question commission sense The second item there is the enhanced transit service delivery through a coordinated regional operations. And the city has enhanced the transit service delivery through a strong regional coordination and collaboration highlighted by the successful establishment of the transit authority of Calhoun County, the TAC. And this effort involved intergovernmental agreements and providing operational support to ensure the seamless transition of unified transit system Throughout the process, the city also offered continued technical assistance and ongoing planning in partnership with the regional stakeholders to strengthen long-term service delivery. And importantly, transit services were maintained throughout the transition without disruption, ensuring that residents continued to have reliable access to transportation while the new governance and operation framework was implemented. Next slide, please. Utilities is our next item. Next slide. The first one is enhancing the reliability of the city's groundwater supply through the replacement of well development. And the city has made substantial progress in enhancing the reliability and quality of its groundwater supply through the development and replacement of the well system and its upgrades. New wells have been drilled to meet the regulatory requirements with close coordination with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy to ensure compliance with system design, The city has successfully completed contractor selection for the construction phases and is actively advancing the construction of new wells to the distribution system. These investments not only strengthen the long-term water supply reliability, but also support ongoing water supply improvements, including efforts to address the TTHMs through the system and optimization and improved groundwater sourcing. As a result, the city is stronger in its position today with modernized infrastructure, enhanced treatment performance, and continued compliance with state and federal drinking water standards, Ensuring the safe and dependable service for our community We have six new wells that are currently active two additionally have been authorized and I think there are four more that are currently permitted the next One is to develop, implement improved stormwater management through river naturalization. This is the Kalamazoo River Naturalization Project that is an ongoing long-term project. And significant progress advancing that has taken place through strategic investment and partnerships and planning efforts. There's a $13 million State of Michigan grant awarded in 2022 that supported the key activities, including the property acquisition, demolition, environmental assessments resulting in the assembly of approximately 60 acres of the formal industrial and commercial land, including the cleanup of the former graphic packaging international site, and a three-year hydrologic modeling study completed by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 2024, and confirmed the project's feasibility and subsequent inclusion in the Federal Authorization Resources and Development Act, of 2024, and it further positions the project for advancement. Additional funding secured in 2024 through the Michigan DNR and EGLE grants supported the design and pre-engineering work, with OHM consultant team now leading our development of the restoration plan through 2026. Public engagement has also been a priority with surveys and outreach efforts generating strong community input and help to guide the project's design and long-term vision. We also put in for congressionally directed spending through both senator slotkin insulin senator Peters office and both of those requests were Advanced and they are currently in committee next slide The next item to review is environment and community design and it advances the sustainable growth livability and quality and placemaking here in the city The first bullet there is to enhance environmental sustainability through community-based stewardship and action, The things we'll touch on here are the City of Battle Creek has made meaningful progress in advancing sustainable and environmental stewardship Initiatives across the community a key milestone was the completion of the city's first greenhouse gas inventory which provided a baseline for measuring emissions and guiding future climate action strategies and Building on this foundation the city has coordinated large-scale tree planting and habitat restoration projects to improve environmental quality enhanced green infrastructure community engagement has also been a priority with the city hosting cleanup efforts and and environmental events that encourage residents participation and stewardship in addition to partnerships with volunteer groups and external organizations it's strengthened our efforts leveraging shared resources and expertise to expand the impact of sustainability initiatives throughout our community the next bullet i will turn over to marcy

The next area is improve neighborhood quality through proactive property inspection and maintenance. The focus is certainly citywide as we look at both the commercial and residential side of our community, that there's a balance between the health and the well-kept conditions of both of those things in order to have a healthy community. This work is done by geography as code officers and inspectors work throughout the entire city. We implement a rotating inspection cycle of every three years. We make sure that every three years we are geographically inspecting all areas of our city to ensure that we're proactively providing equitable service delivery as it relates to code enforcement. And then identify and address property condition issues as it relates to exterior for owner occupied and commercial rental occupancy, both interior and exterior, to ensure overall quality of health and safety living conditions for individuals who are tenants in our community with a focus on health and safety. We, as a community, we understand that our community development priorities are to attract and retain residents and businesses of our community and we align our service delivery to support that. Outcome progress is reactivation of our neighborhood planning councils. We've done a lot of survey work and neighborhood planning councils have begun to reactivate and become engaged in decision-making and input throughout the community. Ongoing inspection cycles across additional areas. We implement our hotel-motel registration process because what we know and recognize is that we have individuals in our community who cannot access traditional housing and utilize hotels and motels as their permanent residence. So we need to ensure that those are also safe for occupancy. And then tracking and coordination, looking at the statuses of our properties, how many vacant properties we have, dangerous buildings, what are the conditions of them, how long are they vacant for, how do we put those back into productive use, and the time frame that it takes to do so, so that we understand the climate of what our economy is at related to property conditions.

The next slide is arts and culture, and it is enriches the community identity through creative expression and cultural investment. The city has taken a collaborative and proactive approach supporting arts and culture programming by working closely with community partners to coordinate a wide range of events and activities. Through the partnerships with local organizations, the city has helped deliver diverse cultural programming while activating public spaces with reoccurring arts initiatives and enhanced community vibrancy. Ongoing support for event planning and promotion and marketing has strengthened the visibility and impact of these efforts. while continued funding for downtown community venues has provided a stable foundation for programming. Additionally, the city offers technical assistance to event organizers, helping ensure that a successful execution is sustained growth of arts and cultural opportunities throughout our community. Next slide. The next topic is recreation, supports our parks, facilities, programs that enhance the quality of life. The first item there is to increase participation in recreation programming and expand access for all community members. The city has advanced recreational planning and community programming through a collaborative feasibility study to reimagine Bailey Park as a multi-sports complex in partnership with the Battle Creek Community Foundation, the Visitors Bureau of Battle Jacks, and other stakeholders. As part of this effort, it is carefully evaluating the potential environmental impacts of converting existing grass fields to turf, particularly in relation to the nearby The Verona drinking water wells, in addition to these planning initiatives, the city continues to support community access and participation in recreation by awarding spring and summer scholarships for access and helping ensure inclusive opportunities for residents. And then the second item there is enhanced park and recreation facilities to expand use and community impact. And the purchasing division, we're talking about the linear path and the paving work that we've done there. We've paved 2.4 miles of linear path using ARPA funds and used grants to purchase new equipment. The purchasing division solicited bids and received bids in 2024 for Parks Improvement Project, which include the resurfacing of the 2.4 miles of linear path along the Kalamazoo River, replacing the basketball court's surface at Post Park, and completing paint striping at various parks. The last item that I want to review with the commission is governance, which is advances transparent, effective, and responsive city leadership. The first is the improve how the city works and shares information by modernizing internal systems and making services easier to access. The city has modernized its operations by enhanced service delivery through several key technology initiatives. A major milestone was the implementation of the citywide ERP system, an integrated software platform that connects core functions such as finance, human resources, and billing into a single system. improving efficiency, data accuracy, and cross-departmental coordination. In addition, the city simplified website content and introduced accessibility improvements to ensure residents can more easily access information and services. Work is also underway on the comprehensive website redesign to further enhance usability and user experience. Complementing these efforts, the city implemented the accessibility mass notification system to improve communication and ensure timely, inclusive outreach to the community during important events or emergencies. And then finally, we have the collect and compare community feedback to guide city decisions and measure progress. The city did launch the National Community Survey last year using a combination of random sampling and online open participation to ensure broad and inclusive community input. To support strong engagement and comprehensive communication strategy was developed and executed, helping to raise awareness to encourage participation. and ensure that a diverse cross-section of residents had an opportunity to provide feedback. When we look at the outcomes and progress there, we had 628 responses collected, exceeding the previous participation levels, and 22 response rate with statistically reliable weighted results, and results provided a clear snapshot of resident opinion at the time, and the findings are shared publicly to inform planning and decision-making. So those are the updates. Those were not all of the projects that were housed under those items, but those were projects that I know that I've had conversations with different commissioners at some point about. So if there are any questions, I would be happy to answer. And if I can't, there are a group of people here I know that can.

Thank you. And Peter, did you say you wanted to go next? Yes. Okay. Turn it over to Peter.

OK. So if you go to the next page in your packet with the strategic planning agenda, we have what we call the strategy pyramid. I'm going to draw it up. And at the very top of the pyramid, we have the vision. That's why it's so critical to have that as a part of your packet. then this is the goal that you aspire to reach with respect to the goals that we're going to be setting today. It's supported by the mission. The mission is talking about the purpose of city government, why the city government exists. And from that will flow, and today we'll develop some goals for city government, as well as some objectives. And then at the very bottom, we will have departmental objectives. The first one were from the city commission. And the very bottom line there, we have departmental objectives that are supporting the commission objectives and the goals. So we may end up today between four to six goals. So as you can see, each goal will have its own objectives from the city commission, as well as departmental objectives, which will be developed in July. So this is really what we want to focus on, especially in our next activity. So the next page is called the gap analysis. So what does that mean? So we have the mission as where we are today. And we have a vision that's in the future. So a little bit in the cloud in the sky. And between where we are today and between where the vision is, there is a gap. Because otherwise, the vision would not be in the future. It would already be happening. So this is what we call a gap. And so when you develop goals, you could just go from the mission and then develop goals and say, this is the best practice for city government. This is something we want to do for a long time. This is a mayor goal. This is what the city manager is pushing. So you may have goals that may not be aligned because they are not pointing to the same outcome. So what you could have is disjointed goals, and you could have implementation that is not really tracking very well because things are not aligned so what we do today we identify what the gap is between where we are today and where the vision is and then we develop objectives and goals to close the gap and everything is pointing to the vision so we're going to develop goals that will point toward the vision and uh... That brings me to the first activity. So page five, you have this worksheet. And I'll walk you through it. So in this gap analysis, I'm asking you to identify the most critical challenges that could keep Battle Creek from optimally executing its mission and moving toward its vision. So this move right there. So we will use the results of this activity to identify goal areas and draft compelling long- and short-term strategic objectives for city government. So the first step in the blue box, next to the blue box, just jot down what you consider the most critical gaps, barriers, or challenges, things that keep you from achieving the city vision which is in your packet. Just put down some ideas. Don't create solutions yet, just negative terms. Then when you go to step number two, the green step, write down what you consider out of all the ones you did, what you consider your top three most critical challenges. And then you have yellow sheets there and markers. Take your yellow sheets and the markers that you have and write on three different sheets exactly what it is that your top challenges or gaps or barriers are. So you can do some wordsmithing there. And then I will collect those, and we'll put those on the wall, and we put like items together. So that way we can see where there is some consensus among the city commissioners. If we were just to do this over a flip chart, I can write something on a flip chart, and there might be five people who say, yeah, that's an issue. Or we can put something on the flip chart, and there's five people who don't think it's important. But it's on there, and the flip chart always looks like it's the same value. Are there any questions with this activity?

Can we talk to each other?

Of course you can. Thanks. Yes. And so each of you will end up with three written quite large, if you could, so that people further back can read this. And Commissioner Simmons, if you want to do the same activity and dictate it to the city manager, she will be able to write down your top three challenges, gaps, or barriers.

Yes, thank you.

So when you get to the yellow sheets, first we'll write large and legibly and using the markers that are up there.

So you may take these three here and put them on the marker individually? Yes, individually.

OK. Thank you. Thanks. And the reason we have this step in between is in case you want to wordsmith some of those. OK. When you're done, I will collect those then. OK. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. You can write the whole thing.

That way it's more specific.

Thanks for asking. What do you do next?

Oh, you take three, go to some of these cards, one card per item, and then you should have a big pamphlet.

Thank you. Yeah, appreciate it.

What's your day? Just a regular day. It wasn't too exciting. Fire anyone?

What?

Not dirty, though.

Chris, how are you coming?

I've sent some comments to Amanda, and she's going to describe them. Okay.

Okay. I just wanted to share with everyone I do have a goal to get out of here by 6 p.m. If we can achieve that, I know at least two of us will be happy.

Did you finish your thing already?

Thank you.

Amanda? So what we'll do is just put them like this on the table. So I'm not on the table, otherwise I'd stick them to there. Just put them like that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you. So what we want to do now is we want to put the cards on the wall, and we want to see if there's like items, and we put like items together. That way we can see if there's some consensus on some of these areas. Ideally, we will come up at the very end, we might combine some columns and come up with up to six different areas that would be the goal areas. so i'm going to put up the first card and then you tell me if the next car will be there similar over the new category so transportation walkable neighborhoods protected by clint uber e-bike scooters connecting trails so that's the first one i put right here lack of mixed housing say more different category Safety concerns. Develop a plan to grow Battle Creek by 10% by 2030, population growth. Different one. Too much focus on staff pet projects that divert resources away from core services. different one yeah i think so okay okay too much focus on special interests and not city not the city as a whole and all our residents i think the same as the other one same like pet projects Restructure code compliance and inspection to support neighborhoods. Do not work against the neighborhoods. Code compliance and inspection.

Would that be part of housing or safety or walk over neighborhoods?

So where would you put it? What's the?

Like a mixed housing.

Put it right here?

More of a housing.

Housing column. Maybe just a new one. Just do a new one.

Make a new one. And then at the end, we can see if we can combine columns. Community protection, police, fire. Safety. Economic growth.

Lack of commission involvement in policy development.

Lack of commission involvement in policy development. Lack of police training, willingness to arrest those breaking the law.

Safety.

Safety. Misuse of infrastructure.

Economic growth.

So where would that fall?

I liked what they said on there with the... I would put it either in that one or the ones with the focuses on pet projects. Right here?

Oh yeah, yeah, you're right. No, I think that one's good.

That will work?

Yeah.

Recreation, incentivizing younger population to move here, or younger people to move here. Later hours for businesses, vibrant Downtown. Economic growth? Lack of community engagement.

With the lack of commission involvement? We can always take things apart when we feel like it doesn't make sense.

No draw for residents to choose.

Right here? Yeah, explain what that means. When I say no draw for residents to choose, I mean in making it a place where residents want to choose to live, work, and play, and have viable lives. There's nothing to draw residents to that. Oh, I see. OK. So attract, yeah.

So it's kind of like this right here. Then we have the last three. Lack of spaces and activities, especially for children and families. like this walkway neighborhood bike lanes would they fit there we don't have to have recreation somewhere it's a recreation all right there Have blueprints for a house to be built on every empty lot in the city. One shop housing. Mixed housing? Lack of mixed housing? Infrastructure development, roads, and housing. Those are all items that are right here?

Yeah.

So these are the key issues that are keeping you in a negative way from achieving the vision for the city, for city government. So we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Maybe there's one that we can put somewhere else. And then what we want to do is we want to identify what this would look like if these things would be really running well and smoothly. And that would be our beginning goal of a gold statement.

But at the end, the transportation, that could go under infrastructure too.

This one?

I agree with that. And I kind of think this last column over here where it says lack of commission involvement and lack of community engagement could fit with the focus on pet projects, special interests, and issues with infrastructure. Yeah, I agree with that.

So where does transportation go? Walk-up in neighborhoods.

The lack of mixed housing.

Like right here? Housing? Yeah. And then there was another suggestion?

The first column to go with the... This one right here? Yeah, into the third column.

Into this one?

This one? Left. Left. So what we're going to do now is we're going to kind of take this around and talk about what it would look like if this would be solved. So we can start maybe with this one that seems to be pretty straightforward. Lack of mixed housing, housing every corner, infrastructure development, transportation, walkover neighborhoods. So what would that look like if this would all be implemented and would be working really well?

I would envision that we would be able to provide blueprints for a house that's built on a lot throughout the entire city. So that's, we're encouraging people to build in Battle Creek. Okay. And find the blueprints that we've developed ourselves that are going to fit that lot and assist us in building out a lot of the empty lots.

So what would you call that as an overall category? When all these things are happening, you have more walkable neighborhoods, you have bike lanes, everything is moving.

I think neighborhood development comes to mind right away.

Or cohesive neighborhoods.

Culture, neighborhood development. I didn't hear you.

I said cohesive.

Cohesive neighborhoods?

Cohesive neighborhood, yeah, that's why.

Cohesive neighborhoods?

Cohesive neighborhoods.

That would be our working goal. Cohesive. neighborhoods. And in the next activity, we're going to brainstorm ideas of what that could look like, what can be done to create these cohesive neighborhoods. Some of these things may pop up again. Safety concerns, community protection, police fire, lack of police training, lack of willingness to arrest breaking the law.

I don't think the first one actually really works. Safety concerns.

But what would it look like if everything would be fixed? So that would be kind of like the goal we're striving for.

That's not just that. It's like overall safety concerns.

I'm thinking something like invite. The word inviting comes to mind, but I don't know what to go with it. It makes it sound happier.

How about like safe city? Safe and secure city.

Safe and secure city?

Yeah.

Okay. Next one is the longest one. Develop a plan to grow Battle Creek by 10% by 2030. Population, economic growth, Recreation, get younger people to move here. No draw for residents to choose. Lack of spaces and activities, especially for children and families.

Vibrant and prosperous economy.

Attracting people, attracting businesses.

Attractive. Attractive too? Attractive library.

Attractive.

Okay, great. And then we have this column right here, too much focus on StaffCat project resources. and core services, too much focus on special interests, not the city as a whole, misuse of infrastructure, lack of commission involvement in policy development, lack of community engagement. So if you flip all this around, what would that look like?

Hey, Peter, I... You guys hear me? Yes. Yeah, I put actually a couple of the cards on this one, and I guess the... I would say just improved governance, whether it be from their elected leaders or city staff or community involvement, just improving that process.

Cooperative and responsible governance.

I really like to I think that the idea of it here is like collaboration between our government. in our government and our community. So maybe collaborative community and government?

Governance, government, governance?

Collaborative community governance, that sounds good. Yeah.

Collaborative community governance? Is that right? And the last one, restructure the code compliance and inspection to support neighborhoods. Do not work against the neighborhoods. So what would they look like if that's positive? Code compliance and inspection that supports the neighborhoods.

It's almost like you want to move it now after we've done the other one.

I was going to say put it in the community, the collaborative one. I think so.

What about cohesive neighborhoods or so?

That would work too. Yeah. Yeah, that kind of fits with the infrastructure development and blueprints and all of that. Right here? Yeah.

You want to move to this one?

Yeah, that's fine. I'm fine with that.

Okay.

Great. So we have the foundation for four city government goals in four different areas, cohesive neighborhoods, safe and secure city, vibrant and prosperous, attractive community, and collaborative community governance. So this is a perfect time to take a break. And dinners are in there, so if you can grab your dinner. And I prepared the flip chart so that we can brainstorm some objectives of how we can accomplish this. Thank you, commissioners.

And we'll gather, like, in 15 minutes. Is that enough for a break?

We have thought about a working dinner.

Yeah, a working dinner. We had a 15-minute break scheduled for everyone to take a breath and break, get their food, and then come back for a working dinner.

Thank you.

You're the only one who ever gave me a compliment for my work.

so we have a working dinner so if you turn to the last page and this agenda packet that we have here, page number six. Our next and final activity will be to brainstorm strategic objectives. So we want to develop objectives that help you achieve what you talk about here and that mitigates the issues that you had put on those yellow sheets. And so I'll just take down whatever you say. There's a steering team that's going to refine some of those. These goal areas will also be the foundation when we talk with the leadership staff about what they can do to contribute to these four different goals. So starting with the left one, what can you do to create a collaborative community governance?

Peter, I'll go on this one.

Say it again.

I think Chris wants to say something. Yeah, say something. Go ahead, Chris.

Okay, thank you. Yeah, one of my biggest frustrations as a commissioner has been, and, you know, this is not... Negative commentary on anything that anyone in particular staff or anything has done, but at times the Commission seems like an afterthought as far as developing policy. And it's brought to us just for a final approval, but we weren't really engaged in the. and the you know the development in the first place because we are the closest to the people. I mean we were elected by our constituents and so we are the voice of the people. Now community involvement is also important and we attend neighborhood planning councils and I think we do a good engagement of that but there just seems to be that disconnect of us being involved in the development of policy. I'm speaking for myself. Some other commissioners might want to take a more hands-off approach, but we are the policymakers and the staff is the administration that implements that policy. How we change that, I don't know. I guess I just like us to be more aware and more involved in that from the ground up on new policy or we're going to be talking about housing, I'm sure, to be heavily involved in what that's going to look like going forward.

So what I'm writing down is more involved with new policies. Does that capture what you were saying?

Yeah, I think so. Thank you. Thank you.

To add on to that awareness and involvement, I think that we could do better with getting, so like when we're getting community voice by doing like surveys and that sort of thing, our surveys never reflect city I feel like our survey numbers are extremely low more often than not and they don't reflect the vast majority of our constituents so if we could figure out ways to actually engage and bring different voices to the table instead of the same traditional four voices kind of more effective community surveys

What else can you do as a city to overcome these issues and make it more collaborative community governance?

I see more effective communication, though, too, because they get a lot of people going. I never heard of that. We're using older styles of communication still, like having to put stuff in the shopper instead of using more of the... geofencing for our community, like making sure people that live in the area understand the policies going on.

So you're talking about more effective electronic communication?

Yeah, more of electronic kind of a way to do communication instead of the old. I know there's people that still like the newspaper way, things like that, but not as many people read that. Okay, great.

How about more internal training for commissioners? In my three separate terms, I think that I've gotten three separate sets of training, and none of them have overlap. So commissioners that haven't served those same terms haven't gotten all of the trainings that I've gotten internally. I agree. That's a big one.

So commissioner training?

It has to be a standard way to do it, where they're trained on how go about bringing resolutions or ordinances, things like that. No sponsoring. Instead of having to go about it. Figure it on their own.

OK. How often should we do that? Quarterly? Twice a year?

I think at least every new commission. Yeah.

Every new commission? Yeah.

For every new commission?

but you have different types of every time you get a new commission or new commissioners it's going to be a different dynamic and everybody doesn't have to like if you feel like you've been to that training five times you don't want to go because you know what they're going to talk about and don't go but it should still be available for people who haven't had that chance oh it's more like we could put that more in a rotationary period where it was like this year's this focus and this year's the next focus on something else and it's like a four to five so you get a refresher because Vehicle that I Drive I have to be just take example for my life I got to be not certified and we do get like recertifications with different topics every two to three months, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a workshop or a Collaborative event where we go over something for a half hour that we haven't Maybe it would be discussed between the commissioners what type of topic we need to look into instead of

bringing something that's can that we've already seen before like you said yeah but also keeping in mind like just with like having new when new commissioners come on having that or you know yeah new person like um i see what you're saying look at onboarding for new people yeah that's that'll be the standard that's definitely i think been a challenge so like a commissioner orientation yeah that's always the thing yeah

That needs to be standardized a little bit. We also need refresher courses for us of what's coming down, especially like municipal league, like we've talked about before with properties and other things.

We also need to pick whether we're going to go with MML or NOC or other outside training, maybe focus on one so we don't have everything spread out as much.

Well, and I think also make it more attainable so that more, those who want to go can all go, instead of just more, somehow that, you know, they might want that.

More allocation, more travel expenses for those things because that training is huge. It's very informational.

So what can you do, what can you do to collaborative community governance? So how can you pull in the community?

Consensus with whom? Consensus decision with community.

think maybe like from the administrative perspective of it um having more help with uh like neighborhood planning councils to grow those and um i was thinking like couldn't we have somebody that was like a leader of all the neighbors that kind of collaborates the temperature between and we can't make them all and then i i do read the notes and other

neighborhood planning councils that I can't attend. But is there someone that could do a presentation at the court? I mean, that would be, I think, collaborative. There's like an individual that we don't need.

50 individuals we need one individual to say this is what most of them are talking kind of like what we're doing today gathering i just also think from like having us like as the city do more i guess towards helping the neighborhood planning councils kind of grow and you know help them try to kind of recruit people to come and just that kind of thing because you know we kind of say like okay here's that like the tools and then hopefully you know they work out for you but maybe we help Try to get more people involved and.

Yeah, a lot of people don't even know what they are still.

There's a lot of people that can I add a couple? Can I add a couple of thoughts on what you've been talking about here as far as the new commissioners coming on? I think it really is like drinking from a fire hose when you first start you sit down and meet with all the department heads and here's everything that we do and now go vote and it's. It's a little overwhelming and nobody really sits down like as a commission together and this says okay here We're the commissioners have been here for a while. We're gonna share some thoughts and experiences with you No, I did that one-on-one with a couple of new commissioners but maybe maybe instead of Just drinking from the fire hose from staff. We do like a new commission a retreat and it doesn't have to be a you know a whole long weekend but you know like a a six six hour thing on a on a saturday where we go somewhere nice and uh and and we get to know one another a little better and we share our experiences and and how we uh you know operate as as a body not just what's fed to us by the um by the staff and then as far as the community involvement neighborhood planning councils are great um one time and it's been a couple of terms ago, we actually had a town hall meeting because our commission meetings are really not structured. They're business meetings. They're not structured for, uh, people, uh, to have a back and forth with us. Now we do that at NPCs, but I, it's been a few years, but we had at city hall there in the chambers, a town hall where come talk about whatever, and we'll talk back to you. We'll answer questions. And it was amazing. Actually, the mayor, uh, a couple of years ago sat down and we did a Facebook live thing and answered questions that people sent us on social media and that we had, you know, several thousand views, people watching us and interacting with us. And, and that was great. So things like that, I think for community involvement, we have to think out of the box and not just, Hey, come down and here's your three minutes to talk to us. And we don't talk back to you. It just doesn't work. Thank you.

I'd also like to see some type of neighborhood maybe grants where people can apply for these grants to do different projects in different neighborhoods that can help different areas, bring communities together. Grand Rapids runs a similar program with neighborhood grants that really gets people involved in their own neighborhoods and makes them grow.

Okay, we have 40 minutes, so. That's cheap.

Are we good with this one? Anything else? All right, Mayor. Number two, attractive, vibrant, prosperous community. What can you do differently from what you've been doing now? What should you stop doing? What would be some innovative ideas to create that kind of community?

We need to encourage businesses to stay open later, to attract younger people to our area. And we need to have more vibrant downtowns with unique businesses.

So stay open longer and...

Especially restaurants, bars, like on the weekends, things like that. Everything closes at 11 for the most part.

Oh. And what was the second thing? It was at 9.

A vibrant downtown area with unique businesses really has been shown to bring younger people to the area. We need to bring younger people so they can move here and open businesses.

One other thing is parking. Everyone gets so confused on where to park, when to park, what time to park.

Simplify parking?

Yeah.

what else can you do that you have control over as a city i think that we should welcome and advocate for diversity within the different recreation contracts that we have like the people that we're contracting services out to run our programs i think that traditionally those have been very narrow and if we could encourage some different types of sports and different types of groups and non-traditional people to get involved in that i think that would be helpful for drawing different groups of people to want to be engaged in our city okay so more diverse recreation contracts i think we need to work with kella arena obviously and

getting more different acts, varied acts of entertainment. I think we lack in a lot of areas with Kellogg Arena and there's a lot of opportunity there to bring in more diverse entertainment and shows that people wanna see.

Do you have any input on that as a city? Oh, that's great. So you sit at the table with them and you talk about what can come into town?

Catalog Arena is city-owned, so it's something that we, yeah.

Great.

But I think there's been a lot of excuses on why we can't get certain shows there, and there's other areas that are smaller than us that have Jelly Roll, that have, you know, Jonah's Brothers, Soaring Eagle just got both of those. There's no reason why we can't get shows like that as well. Okay. And also, marketing... towards the residents and not just people outside of town because a lot of the residents aren't aware of some of the things going on in California.

Okay. So market taught residents.

I think that we should do like some community engagement to find out like what kind of activities, events, and spaces that community members would like to see brought here because I think, you know, historically we hear a lot of that. In Battle Creek, I think there's not a lot to do here for people in general. There's not a lot for kids to do, for families to do, and I think just really sitting down and having those conversations, kind of like we did with the housing recently, would be really good, especially, I know I've kind of said this a few times, but like full blast where it's like, one of those things that it was you know it started off as this vision and the community had all the input on that and helped to fund the fund that for the community and then now i look at it and i see that it just doesn't seem to be where the community initially envisioned it and i think as far as the space for the youth goes that have a lot of potential i think taking that back to the community to see what people think about it now and where we would like to see it would be a good start but just in general So, like, maybe community, like, engagement for events and spaces.

Okay.

I would like to see the continuation of investment in women and minority businesses throughout the city, just not downtown, but maybe at some of the commercial corridors.

One thing we had that This last weekend we had Juneteenth at Claude Evans Park, and it seems like if there's an event going on, it seems to be heading just at Claude Evans Park, but all of our neighborhoods have their own parks, and it would be nice to have some type of inclusive event at another park at a different time once a month or some type of programming where there's a bike rodeo or something out of the ordinary that's not done on it. at a different park so everybody can see our parks. Don't do the same thing at every event.

So hold events at different parks?

Different types of events, too. Like I said, one could be a movie night, one could be bike rodeo, one could be we don't take away Juneteenth, that type of thing, and build off of that so everybody can visit around the city and not just be I live here. I live in Piper Park. Nothing happens here. It happens all the time. It's like, no, it's coming around. Two weeks, we'll be there.

I think we should incentivize businesses that utilize our local waterways, too, and really kind of lean into our lake access or river access, things like that.

So incentivize... water-based businesses anything else that you can do to make community attractive vibrant and prosperous we do a great job promoting

balloon festival and so we bring everybody here one time um and the same thing everybody thinks of us as cereal city but there's so much more promote our historic um heritage and past and how it's shaped the communities around us that i think are more of a i don't know i have to say i mean just promote the history of battle creek and of all of michigan

Like maybe more city.

And you're doing a Del Shannon event this weekend. I don't know how many people know who Del Shannon is. Maybe they do know him and didn't know we're having an event that actually came from another community that came to us. Why aren't we promoting that going? Hey, we pick it up because we are Battle Creek. We want to do these events.

Well, I only saw like this, the kids day event tomorrow at Calgary. I'm off chance of being on Facebook on some, some pop-up that came across. And I was like, yeah.

So I think it's a big event.

I think city promoted events, more city promoted events would be great. City led events.

For more city promoted events. Yeah. Trying to make it a way that you want to move and live here, not come visit for three days. I had a great time. eating shrimps and grits.

Yeah. We also need to focus on arts and culture, music, things like that. We lack a lot of there. Yeah, we seem to be filling up his page. Sorry. I had to have that one. Increase again.

Increase. Focus on.

Focus on arts, music, culture, things like that.

Mm-hmm.

Anything else for the prosperous community?

Was part of this one the economic development? I kind of lost track of all the cards we had on this particular goal. Yes, it did.

I've almost moved that economic development to cohesive neighborhoods in my mind.

yeah that that's great i guess i would like uh just uh from the economic development side of it i know we focus a lot on especially talking about housing we're we've put a lot of energy into and it's a good thing we've got some good projects like the blue light light uh housing development or the milton downtown but with large institutional developers i've had some conversations with the city manager and other commissioners about doing some housing development, something that the city could lead that would engage small, diverse contractors, businesses to build homes from a housing standpoint. But I think sometimes our focus is, oh yeah, bring this big developer in, but I think we could diversify that.

So diversify the developers who are building homes?

homes or pick your category from economic development.

Okay.

I know we have like our small business area too, but it'd be good to have like a, A place where people that are looking at opening businesses could go for resources or things that the city can help with and streamlining them.

Business incubator.

So a business incubator.

Yeah, a lot of people aren't aware of the resources that are available.

So make people aware of existing resources. Anything else for a prosperous community, attractive, vibrant community? If you think of something after the session, you can always email it to the city manager and we'll put it on the list. Let's move to the third one, safe and secure city. What can you do differently, more off, less off, start doing with respect to making the city more safe and secure?

I think maybe involvement of, you know, we have the police officers that are involved in different projects, you know, like the trick-or-treating and stuff like that, but involving more officers that have more exposure to the community because it seems to be, you know, usually there's the select few that are involved, but I think we need a bigger group of officers that have more exposure to civilians in the area that... and kind of grow that rapport with them and communication with them?

I think more of our city services, police and fire need to collaborate together more. But having some of this different departmental stuff, it's almost like we're living in a different time now. It used to be don't get into my lane, don't get into yours, but we need to collaborate more to work together and make sure that we're all communicating on a forward vision, not backward. well, police got this and fire didn't, and I'm not going to talk to anybody anymore. And that's some of the communications I've seen.

I think we need to look at policies also that limit which calls police respond to, particularly civil issues, because it takes away from other areas that officers are needed that could be... emergency in nature or medical in nature. And we really don't need to allocate those resources to these individuals. And people that are abusing the system should also be held accountable. Residents that are calling over and over and weaponizing them.

So review policies regarding the type of calls to respond to?

Yes. And holding those people accountable that abuse the system.

Okay, then I've used the system.

I know we got it. This happens all the time at our MPCs, but we should probably have some type of event where everybody's coming together to talk about their community problems and what they're seeing. It's almost like that. Make sure that everybody's getting the proper services that they need. we hear a lot of things about people parking correctly and things like that at mpcs but they don't feel that they're being heard at a higher level it's almost like we should have a workshop with kind of like what commissioner simmons was talking about with the commission but more with the public safety departments and water department because a lot of people are just been scared like because of the water different workshops with different departments that they can talk to face to face and get answers That's where I'm brainstorming on that.

OK.

So what do you envision happening at those workshops?

More like an open dialogue where people can get questions answered. Just to give an example, like last week when we talked about our water services, a lot of people didn't have an opportunity to learn and understand what the language was meant. And it kind of caused a confusion of why rates have to go up, and they're like, well, that's because this is inflationary on certain products, and this is what we've got, which is what we have. I've visited down in our DPW, just some of the information they got on the walls is very great for the public to have knowledge of, and they cannot go down and visit the DPW, but it'd be nice to have an event like this. I know we do the one at the Kellogg Arena, but this is more of an informative event that, will be on access vision that people can see and say, oh, now I know how the water system really works. I don't just turn on my faucet. There's actually infrastructure that goes with it. And there's a reason why there's a water readiness fee. Because you couldn't afford to pay right away for collections how the system works, those type of workshops. How often, Andrew? How often would we have a workshop? How often would you propose that? I would almost bi-quarterly, every six months, depending on, you know, and on citizen input on that. What do we really want you to see? Because a lot of people say we're hiding behind stuff, and it's not. It's there, but people are busy in life. They don't have time to run down to every department. And our people don't have the time to do that. They have a job they've got to do every day. sweeping the streets fixing the parking lights that type of thing it would be almost like a collaborative moment where they get an hour or two to meet with some of these people that are that are working very hard every day and all they hear is complaints and they could get some compliments too so it sounds like a good deal we have 20 minutes i think there's a lot of officers in the department that do a fantastic job but

I think more training for Terry stops and things like that, so they understand the policies that they should be adhering to.

More training for traffic stops, you said? Terry stops.

Oh, I don't know what that is. Terry?

T-E-R-R. T-E-R-R-Y.

I'll also like to see us review our policies to make sure that our policies align with best practices. Recently, I've been hearing a lot of, well, that's the policy, but also, yeah, I don't think that that's right. So if we don't think that it's right, why are we still training on these policies instead of changing our policies so that they're right?

I think that we need to look at a different way of communication for the police department, sense of signal.

different communication for police department.

I would like to show, I would like to see more promotional uses again, using newer communication technology of what are, uh, fire and police and the heroes of our city. Even people that work here in the city, uh, like promote what's going on. more in a better media instead of just like the fire department showed up to help put out a fire at so-and-so at three in the morning. Let's have the people that were out there that fought the fire and say, you know, if they're willing to do a video or some type of community interview and say to them, We thank you for your time, like an interview with a fireman, policeman, city official. We're doing something good that's promoting our area. Everything's always bad, and that stuff shows up on the media right away, the bad stuff, but we never get the good.

Maybe we can nominate someone from various departments that does go a step above and really help secure, save city aspect of it.

Even in our commission meetings, show off the... officials that have done really good.

Right. Like if we have a firefighter that really went above and beyond.

We even slightly cut taxes. We should give one to Aaron one night and say thank you, Aaron, for your time for leaving the apartment that way.

Yeah, it could be any department.

Anything, yes. That's what I'm trying to make it. I don't think everybody's aware of that.

Yeah, recognizing those individuals like Breanne and the social media. She's done an amazing job.

For Safe and Secure City, I would also like to see for us to continue planning for future and longevity of our infrastructure.

of determined infrastructure in general or just public safety infrastructure public safety infrastructure like what we're doing in cliff

that's helping those people many times getting all that sewer redone that's been there for 50 years. It'd be great to have that promotion on a great positive plan. Like, yes, it's unfortunate your roads are this way, but you're going to love it years from now. You're, you know, that's what we're doing around the city is doing our build up the infrastructure, show you that we want you to live here for 50 years and have safe infrastructure and buildings and, And communicating that to them.

And communicating it better. A lot of people aren't even aware of what's going on. And then they think it's...

Need to communicate it better because they're like... Yeah. Why is putting everything in a negative view around here?

We need to figure out a plan for that fire station too. Just because of the cancer-related risks associated with the existing building. Monthly updates of our infrastructure and social media accounts.

Monthly updates in infrastructure? What would that look like?

Yeah. Well, it would be like, oh, the bridge, whatever that finishes, the Washington Bridge is now open. Look at this. Thank you for everyone who had to put up with this. Now it's beautiful.

The Washington Bridge, because if I have to continue to drive over the railroad tracks down the way, I'm going to lose it.

Maybe we can start with Kendall. We'll promote Kendall once it gets fixed.

Yeah. Well, ribbon cutting for the bridge is the handout.

Let's do it. We've got to do it.

Anything else for safe and secure city before we go to the last one, cohesive neighborhoods?

Yeah, just one final thing. If we're kind of lumping infrastructure in with this, and I've had some conversations with my fellow commissioners and with the city manager about modernizing A lot of our intersections, we've talked a lot about four-way stops and traffic lights and things. I'm currently living in Europe for work for a little period of time, and I drove to town today, and I don't think I had stopped at a stoplight. I went roundabouts all the way through town, sailed right through, very efficiently moved to traffic. That being said, roundabouts are a touchy subject with some people, but I think there are places... There are intersections where I think we could do, let's not call it roundabouts, but traffic calming devices instead of lights, instead of four-way stops. I've seen it done in big and small cities all over the United States as well, and done very successfully. And I'd like to see us explore that, maybe on a limited basis to start until we get more familiar with it. And I think we'll... we'll be happier with it in the long run.

Seems like Peter likes your word traffic calming.

He wrote it down for you. Yeah, do not write down roundabout. He did not mean that. He did not.

He already wrote it down. We also should look at dedicated bike lanes.

Okay.

And I was just thinking about something because I know, you know, back to the police and community involvement, You know, like when we go to NPC meetings, the officers usually from that area will come to the NPC meetings and kind of give like the breakdown of what's been going on in our neighborhood, which is nice. I think also when the weather is permitting, it would just be really nice to see maybe the officers that are generally in the areas and the neighborhoods to just walk around a little bit, maybe walk through the neighborhoods, chat with the neighbors, talk to the kids that are out hanging out, that kind of stuff.

we had that the other day the gentleman i just think that that community engagement would be out of the league out of the police car and come to knock at my door yeah just i mean when the weather's nice i'd probably rather be walking around than yeah i think there needs to be a policy too where officers you know when they get calls that they get out of their vehicles and look into them into the issue instead of just driving through and then deciding that there is no issue and continuing

Yeah, I second that. I think we need to be a little bit more proactive, not harassing people, walking down the street, doing nothing. But if you see something clearly in violation, like an homeless person living under a bridge and mounds of trash, and you drive by for two weeks, you know, you've seen them, and you stop by, and someone finally calls, and you stop, and, well, the guy had a warrant out for his arrest. So, yeah, we need to be more proactive.

Okay. Let's move on to the last one, cohesive neighborhoods. Talk about transportation, walkable neighborhoods, restrictive, restructure the code and compliance inspection, and so on. Yeah.

Every neighborhood should have like the core things within 15 minutes of walking or biking, like their grocery store, bank, pharmacy, key services, gym, playground.

Core things within 15 minutes.

walking time yeah the big term now is food deserts like one mile yes neighborhood grocery store is that i think like making sure that we have

I know we have a lot of pathways in Battle Creek already and I'm thankful that we have those. I just think making sure that those are always well kept and well lit, that's something that I think is really important because a lot of times you go walk down the pathways and they're overgrown, they're not really well lit, they are kind of secluded. IT WOULD PROBABLY JUST MAKE EVERYBODY FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE IF THERE WERE, IF THAT WAS A PRIORITY TO KEEP THEM MAINTAINED, WELL-LIT, YOU KNOW, AND... AND CONNECTED. AND CONNECTED, AND ADDING THEM TO PLACES WHERE WE COULD ADD THEM TOO, SO THAT WALKABILITY AND ALLOW E-BIKES ON THEM.

WOULD I ADD WALKWAYS?

IF WE COULD... expand our sidewalks for like, I feel like every school pathway should have a sidewalk. There shouldn't be, there shouldn't be areas around schools that don't have sidewalks for kids to walk to school.

I agree with that. Well, in like some areas we have like, you'll have sidewalks and then all of a sudden that's it.

The school that's in my head right now is Dudley and Dudley, like if you're walking the, um, I can't remember the name of the street right now. But if you're walking up, there's no sidewalk at all on that street, so you will have to walk in the street to get to school. Now it's early childhood education, but some kids still have to take their siblings and then go to school at Northwestern.

Can we add something in the safe part, like the sidewalks that are damaged from storms, things like that, that they are prepared in a reasonable manner? I don't know if this would be in that safe part.

Prepare sidewalks?

Yes. And we're not waiting a couple years to fix them.

So a reasonable time.

We've got to talk about code. Code compliance that's... and understanding in certain situations that need to be, like everybody needs to be up to code, but understand that it's not that they're trying to force you because they think that you're bad. It's to enhance the neighborhood, is what I'm trying to say here. It's like trying to make it so it's not that code compliance are evil people that are here to help, whatever, but also make sure that code is talking about policies and like where to get paint could help paint your house, because we have the paint programs and other things. So promoting neighborhood development programs, that's what I'm thinking of.

So I think with code, a couple places where I personally feel like maybe we're missing the mark a little bit is I think the educational part of it, like you're saying, I think we could maybe do better as far as to how we communicate educational pieces YOU KNOW, TO PEOPLE WHEN THINGS ARE IN NEED OF REPAIR OR OTHERWISE, BECAUSE SOMETIMES PEOPLE JUST GENUINELY DON'T KNOW, AND LIKE HANDING THEM A PAMPHLET MAYBE ISN'T THE BEST SOLUTION, BUT MAYBE SAYING LIKE, HEY, YOU CAN COME DOWN AND WE'RE GOING TO HAVE THIS OPEN KIND OF WORKSHOP TYPE EVENT WHERE WE'RE SHARING THE INFORMATION ABOUT THE NEIGHBORHOODS AND KIND OF LIKE THE CODE, YOU KNOW. AND ALSO, I THINK HAVING LIKE ALL OF OUR ORDINANCES AND THINGS IN ONE EASY TO FIND PLACE would be super helpful because I get a lot of times where someone will say like, I don't know the ordinance on this. And I'm like, I don't know either. And then we'll usually Google AI it because that's my favorite thing to do for everything. But there's not really one spot where everything's easily accessible that I could find anyways. Maybe I just am missing it. just so that everybody can see the same information you have available to them. Yeah, and if they have links with information too.

Yeah, better search engine or better search bar to plug it in.

Just like on our website, easily accessible. Here's all of our city ordinance and things.

If something pulls up, I don't know, something like that. And explaining to them the resources available, if there are groups that are falling apart, if there's different things, not just city-wide, but community action, different grants that are available. A lot of people aren't aware of those, but try to give them the information to help their situation if possible.

So a listing of resources available that are city resources, right?

I would like to have like city or like area cleanup days too where we try to help areas clean up their neighborhoods.

like maybe the city-led like organizational like neighborhood cleanings because a lot of the npcs trying to do that individually and it's and it's some and some npcs that works out really good but in some npcs where you have four people that show up to npcs it doesn't work out that great so maybe like more city-led promoted weekend neighborhood cleanups yeah and a lot of the npc ones are you know primarily parks and things like that but if we could get different residents that maybe you know or elderly or handicapped people that can't

fix all the things and they've got issues in their yard that need to be taken care of and we can kind of go in there and just kind of help out like one day as much as possible yeah um that just kind of reminds me of rock the block um and we did that with the calhoun county land bank um and we actually did like exactly what you're describing uh over in with npc2 we were able to go to somebody's yard who has like a lot of stuff that was piled up they weren't able to get and we were able to do that and then do some offices around the neighborhood so we could get some rock the blocks going and other NPCs that's on the city.

Maybe like where people can submit to like hey this is kind of my need and then you know are there volunteers in this area that would like to or people can submit other people too that might not know.

What do you want me to capture from your conversation?

Community involved volunteer opportunities city led just put it all.

i've never worked in a place to be left collaboration with the county though with the land bank we just recently did that the other mpc it took them it literally took them a full year to find out what properties that were available that people could actually use and clean up also getting code policies changed so you can actually use the yard your yard for your personal use. I don't know if people realize this, but we recently changed the code a couple months ago where even though you had an adjacent piece of property, you couldn't put a shed on it. So we just need to have more collaboration with the land bank, but also code changes to allow more property use. I don't know how to describe it. Because you used to not be able to even park your RV in your driveway because it was too tall. Now we've got a height limit removed from our codes recently. And the only complaint was the neighbor said, now I can't see into their backyard. He said, you shouldn't have been able to in the first place. But people got stuff. If they want to park their RV in their car, we shouldn't be harassing them because it's...

12 feet tall yeah maybe like collaborating with code and everybody sits down has the conversations why do we have those codes well like you know we talk to our community members then we conversate with code and we all kind of collaborate based on what we've been hearing from our community members we have five minutes we need to figure out what um buildings are also abandoned not abandoned but um well i guess they are abandoned where the owners aren't even here they might live in

Texas or something, and they're just sitting there dilapidated and figure out a process to fix that. That, and we, I would like to see a TNR program, especially in the post area. We have a significant amount of stray cats.

Well, get belated in squatters.

Yeah.

Because the person lives in Texas on this property, they don't know there's a squatter on there.

And then we, yeah, exactly. And then it's really hard to get rid of those people. and you have all kinds of other issues that come along with it.

Okay, so we'll tell them.

It's in our program for cats.

Say it again for cats?

It's in our program, a trap-neuter-release program for cats, where we take stray cats and we get them and spay-neuter them so they're not going to. Okay, but the last time I tried to do that, the cat won't leave my house. It sounds like you probably did.

prosper the city and sent dozens of groups out all throughout the city doing great projects and we're always looking for new things so you know if there's some way to be a conduit to funnel projects to organize religious organizations that would be willing to to volunteer can do that as well and we do prayer walks in the neighborhoods we just go around and pray about what we see mayor joined us on one of them last year And we walked around downtown, praying over downtown. It was a great program.

Anything else?

I would like to revisit. I think there was Lime Scooters or something at one point here. I would like to see about scooters, the e-bikes, those type of rental things for transportation and more Uber, Lyft, things like that. There's not a lot of other transportation options.

Increased transportation.

I heard that. There's got to be a solution. I mean, St. Louis has got it. They're a huge city, and they've got it. But somehow they're able to.

So rentable scooters.

I saw Commissioner Lacoste riding those scooters all over Washington, D.C. That's what it is.

We tried the program. It didn't work.

A great option for people.

Peter, our time's up. Oh, for two months.

Okay, we got all the charts full.

Can we take a photo?

Yeah, let's take a photo.

Do you want to be in front of the dais?

Who's taking the photo?

I'll take the photo.

Amanda?

And then we have concluding remarks and next steps. A little more this way. Perfect. Smile. Look at the photo. Smile. Thank you. Any next steps, Amanda?

so for our next steps peter will take the information that is here he will pull that together and then our steering committee will re-meet regroup go over those items and then we'll take those back to our city staff to create several goals from city staff that will help accomplish the commission's goals we'll bring that back as a body or to this body for right any final comments mayor

Yes, I will tap all this out. Yes, absolutely.

We want to say thank you very much. Thank you for meeting our goal. My pleasure.

Thank you very much. Okay, thank you, commissioners. I'll take everything down and then I'll reach out to you tomorrow and we can set up a time. Thank you. What do you call that?