City Commission - Regular Meeting

like to call to order the city of Battle Creek, Michigan and the Battle Creek City Commission meeting for November 18th at 7 o'clock. Matter of fact, it's 7:01. Um, we want to thank everyone here tonight. We have the Youth Challenge Academy. I'm glad to see each and every one of you. We have five individuals from Post Franklin neighborhood that are going to receive a special award. and we have people from a organization up in Lancing dealing with affordable water and we're going to be hearing from their uh comments at the end of the meeting during public comments. So, um we have a lot to do. Um the agenda is probably about an hour and a half long. Just kidding. It's only there's only one resolution. So, we thank you. Thank everyone for being here tonight. And we're going to start with the uh moment of silence, our invocation. Then we'll have a pledge of allegiance led by Commissioner Chris Simmons. Um would you please stand if you can

Commissioner Chris Simmons. 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 our roll call. Madam clerk, when you're ready, Commissioner Kat Katarski Smith, Commissioner Lacass, present. Commissioner Lance here. Commissioner Morris here. Mayor Binky here. Commissioner O'Donnell here. Commissioner Reynolds present. Commissioner Simmons here.

And Vice Mayor Sophia here. Thank you. And Commissioner Smith is traveling this week. Um so first of all, we're going to start off with our beautiful Battle Creek Awards and Commissioner Reynolds is going to help me with those. Um and who is reading off the Ted? Thank you. Yep. I've got them here. I if if you'd like me to, Amanda, I can read those. That's fine. Yeah, certainly. Okay. Okay. So, we've got some nominations this evening from NPC1, Ward 3 nomination for Trinity Lutheran Church at 2055 East Columbia Avenue. We have anyone here from Yes, we do. Thank you.

We have an NPC 10 W one nomination for Lori Diane Gesson at 28 North 26 Street. have an NPC 10 W one nomination for Judith and Randy Bishop at 31 North 26th Street. Thank you very much. And then finally NPC 11 W 4 nomination for Matthew at 221 North Morland Drive.

Well, thank you very much. Um, first of all, Ellis Cutler and his wife are here representing the church, a friend. Okay, I'm sorry. A property manager. I'm very sorry. I'm very sorry. Then Lori Gon's here. And um, we have another one. Lori, here we go. Thank you. U, we want to thank everyone for their efforts at improving their property, making Battle Creek look better. Um just yesterday I was at the corner of Chestnut and um Calhoun Street and there was a property owner that shared with me just because he's doing things putting in a new fence his neighbor had to go out and buy the same exact fence. So those things really do make our community better. So we want to say thank you and if we could have a group photo taken right here it would really appreciate it. All right, Ted, is there any more? That was it for beautiful Battle Creek Awards.

All right. Now, we would like to ask the gentlemen up that uh took their time this summer to improve Pulse Franklin by cutting grass, picking up trash, and doing all sorts of thing. Can you come up for a photo? There's five person,

Randy Yer, John Stover. Mike

I'm gonna have to borrow Jim so I can read it.

This is a unique U presentation. Uh we've never had a volunteer group uh so dedicated in the Post Franklin area that really uh helped improve um what is taking place up there. And I know there's a lot of people that are working hard in the Post Franklin area. Um there's one lady that's uh quite elderly that picks up trash several times every day and um we had a presentation for her not too long ago. Um this is a unique operation. I volunteered to meet them next summer and uh spend some time with them to clean up uh a portion. Maybe they're going to expand the area. Right now, I think they're doing a four to five block area of Post Franklin. And uh we just want to say thank you to them. Your efforts make our city a better place for all neighbors. These individuals dedicate their time and service to clean up, improve, and overall appearance of a threeb block area post Franklin in the Franklin neighborhood. In addition to mowing, they move remove trash and small debris in the area, beautifying its appearance and increasing safety for others. We thank these individuals for their dedication and commitment to our Battle Creek community. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions and roots spring up and make new trees. And um we just want to say thank you. We appreciate it. And sometimes people do these things and we never know about them. We want to do something special by letting more people know about it. Thanks again, MEN. OH, there you go.

Like you like each other. Yes. Thank you. Next item on our agenda is a presentation. I'm going to turn over your city manager.

Thank you, mayor. Good evening, mayor and commission. Um, this evening we have a uh presentation concerning the LDA development tiff plan. Uh, Eric Kho, senior planner with Progressive is here to uh walk us through that. If you'll recall, we had on the or potentially on the agenda a month or so ago information about the LDDA and TIFF plan. This is a good opportunity for us to review the things um that we did in the Beckley Road study and um information for that TIFF.

All right. Good evening, commissioners. Thanks for the opportunity to present about this plan. Um just wanted to talk through a little bit of the planning process, what went into this plan and what are some of the outcomes. So, um just to give you a snapshot of kind of a synopsis of what we're kind of trying to work with in the LDDA. If I lived in Mingers Creek Village, um I could walk to Target. It's only a half mile away. That's the same distance as here to New Holland. So, it's actually relatively close. But the way that we designed this area in the 80s, um there's over 2,000 ft of surface parking in between, 200 ft of road, 150 ft of grass, and no sidewalks. So, when this place was designed in the 1980s, it was designed really walking and biking and um anything like that were an afterthought. It was designed just for cars. And the the um reality of that is that we have now over three times the amount of surface parking that is required um in the LDDA. So there's a ton of parking, a ton of asphalt that's not really being utilized. There's a lot of people that live there. It's really one of the most dense neighborhoods in the city, believe it or not. Um, and there's a lot of people there, a lot of opportunity there, but there really isn't, it's really not designed for people to live in a way that's um, fully utilizing the land. So, what happens with this plan is that it's actually the um, uh, outcome of the sub area plan and the master plan amendment that went in for the Beckley Road corridor. As part of that planning process, we were able to get in touch with over 3,000 community members. um 2,000 of them responded to a digital survey or um provided comments through the city's email address or through the Facebook page. We had six focus group interviews with uh a couple dozen different stakeholders in the area on housing, on transportation and mobility. Um some other topics, we we talked with the county, we talked with local

neighboring townships. Uh we had virtual Q&As's online. We had three pop-up events, two open houses, and one walking audit, which was actually quite a bit of fun. We did a walk of the uh area to figure out what it felt like to be walking on foot in in the neighborhood. So, this is really the the DDA and TIFF plan is really the outcome of of the planning process that went into this. Um, and you are all familiar with where we came from in this area. Um, there was a lot of opposition from the get-go when the mall was being built in the 80s. uh the DNR uh actually was opposed because of the water um which we'll we'll show a little bit but the point of this is really that it was built very quickly and without much planning so there's that's why over there now there's handful of private roads that are really in poor shape that are owned by people that really it's tough to get a hold of. Um there's a lot of just sprawl and just kind of people things aren't really joined together very well. So, we're trying to kind of course correct from that boom that happened in the early 80s, but now a lot of the infrastructure is reaching its useful end of life. Okay. So, there's there's unmaintained private roads. Really difficult to walk or bike even though there's a ton of people that live in this area. There's over uh 3,000 people that live just in this small uh neighborhood. So, it really is one of the densest places in Battle Creek. Aging retail. There's no public space. Uh, so there's really besides the linear trail and the the cemetery, no space is owned by a public entity, which makes it kind of lack that neighborhood quality. There is the the library there, which is something that we could talk about. Uh, but flooding is a challenge. We found over half a dozen retention ponds. We don't know quite who's responsible for maintaining them. A lot of them have water in them when they're actually designed to be empty, except for when it's flooding. So, there's a concern about flooding in the area and and the fact that that might be continuing to

increase. In the mall itself, um the outlots are performing. You're seeing some of the new construction on the outlots that are happening outside of the mall. Some of the anchor stores are still there. That's pretty strong. But in the mall, it's about 70% interior vacancy. And then, like I said, three times the amount of surface parking that's required um is is in the area. Really quick about flooding. So over the last couple decades, you could see in the on that image, our region is one of the most um it's one of the wetest places in the country. So when you think about the changing climate, the fact that there's wildfire fires and hurricanes elsewhere in the country, relatively safe in in Michigan, but the one thing that is changing and that it poses a threat is the amount of precipitation that we get. So the amount of flooding is going up, but also these like delusions that kind of come out of nowhere, those are increasing, too. and they're they're projected to continue to increase. So that's something that we're thinking about when we're trying to design the infrastructure in the LDDA and we have a creek there, we have some retention ponds, how and we have a bunch of surface parking where all the water just runs into the creek or runs into the road. How do we plan for the next, you know, 20, 30, 40 years in a way that is going to be responsive to the water that's that's kind of increasing? So we want to we want to protect safety of people that live there. We want to protect the property values that are there as well. There are a lot of really good strengths. So when the first time I walked through the LDDA, it was almost it was probably about two years ago now. And I immediately saw the linear trail, which is a great strength that it has. You know, the the creek, um the nature and the water that's there. You don't really see that very often in a place that was built in the 80s like that, but it's there and it's something that we should really utilize. Um, like I said, it's the one of the densest population neighborhoods in the area. It has the busiest bus route. So, the Capitol Avenue bus route is the busiest one. Um,

strong retail options. So, the fact that you have uh the Beckley Road corridor, that's actually doing really well as far as retail goes. And then existing infrastructure. So, thinking about ways that we can reuse the streets and the sewers and the water systems that are already there and and make them more um beneficial to the community. So there's it is a younger denser neighborhood. We projected demand for over 500 housing units in the area and that could actually support existing retail. So if you think about adding a thousand people to that neighborhood, that just adds demand for the more commercial areas and add existing retail. Out of the engagement, there's really three main themes. So placem, green infrastructure, and reducing car dependence. Placemaking is really um we're going to talk through this a little bit here, but placemaking is really just fostering places that people want to stay. So, you might not necessarily be able to walk or bike to the corridor, but once you get there, ideally you could park your car once and maybe walk around, cross the street a little safer, walk to places, walk to Horox, then walk across the street. Ideally, green infrastructure. We want to enhance the environmental sustainability. So, making sure that we create places that are attractive and really nice places to be, but that can also serve the purpose of protecting um flooding and protecting our creek. We looked at three areas specifically um as far as where we could look at redevelopment. So, the Mingers Creek Mall site, Lake View Square Mall, and then number three is North Capitol Avenue. But we also included um relaxing some zoning restrictions so that you could build um more apartments where the existing apartments are. And this might have got buried in the plan, but we actually did um a fiscal analysis of the area. So we took the city's budget and we figured out what it costs to have single family houses and what it costs

to serve those single family houses. We took what it cost to have a multif family building and we uh took analyzed how much it cost to actually serve that building. And then we looked at revenues and what we showed is that for all of these developments, we're actually showing a um a net revenue of 70 grand at the Ming Creek Mall site, 65 grand if we are able to increase infill, and then 10,000 net revenue at the at the mall along with 12 acres of new park space. The reason for that increase is because the city's already servicing these areas, right? There's water, sewer, there's trash pickup, there's police, but what we're doing is adding um density to increase the amount of revenue that's coming in. So, the amount of operation services go up slightly, but the amount of revenue goes up quite a bit more. Let's talk about the Sears site. Uh it's been it's been for sale for quite a bit now. Um vacant for quite some time. Uh something that hasn't really been discussed too much is that it sits in a flood zone. Um that makes redevelopment very difficult because of flood insurance requirements and the potential risk on behalf of somebody who's going to try to buy the site. It's possible for these maps to be redrawn. So there could be an an avenue for FEMA to redraw the map because this the if you see the blue line, that's where the creek used to be, right? And now the creek is under underground and going around the site. But this is just an important note because the FEMA site makes it a little um dangerous or risky for someone to acquire the Sears and do something with it when you're involving lenders and and uh flood insurance and that sort of thing. So, it's a it poses a challenge

to redeveloping that site. What we're showing in the plan is that we daylight the creek. So, it's a pretty bold goal. It's exciting. Um, but what we're seeing is that that can have some really cool side effects. Um, obviously you'd have public park space and a new creek that you'd have access to, but it actually has been shown in other communities to spur redevelopment and actually boost surrounding property values. So, this is a really good example in in Connecticut. Um, this was a mall that was built over a creek. The creek got put in a ditch and circled around the mall. Flooding in the '9s um brought $26 million in damage and ended up closing the mall. What happened was that it was acquired and then between the state basically their version of Eagle, the EPA, the local funds, they assisted in cleaning up and redeveloping the park. And what happened at at the bottom there, you can see it spurred redevelopment of 170 units and 20,000 square feet of retail in the surrounding area while also removing properties from the flood map. So, super beneficial. having that public amenity is starting would make other sites around it more attractive is really what we're what we're showing there. The other one is looking at um there's there's room for over 500 units just south by the target. So if you can put a little neighborhood there that would generate $70,000 in net revenue after you factor in expenses. a little bit more difficult because there's a quite a few private developer private owners on that lot. So, it's a little bit more um um negotiation and back and forth with the private developers, but we're showing in this plan that it's definitely possible and and feasible in this on the site. And then one of the other main things we had a a really great conversation with BCATs as part of this pro process. They were on Jeff

Franklin was on our steering committee and they were really excited about some of the road changes that we were showing. So, um, you can see some of the amenities on the right there, just improving the bus stop, having wayfinding at the trail. So, showing people, hey, that Taco Bell over there, there's actually a linear park there. You should go check it out and not keep it a secret. Really try to emphasize that. The thing on the left there is showing what we could do with Glen Cross. So, Glen Cross is an enormous road that really gets maybe 500 cars a day. It's kind of the southern part of of that area. There's no sidewalks, but there's apartments all around it. So, there's really nowhere for people to walk, even though there's over 3,000 people that live there. So, what we could do is really just take it. It's very easy to take that from four lanes to two and then have pedestrian trails and biking trails on either side. So, that was another thing that BCATS was very excited about and supportive of. This shows the different projects that we estimated um in the LDDA plan. Uh the DDA has about a $1 million budget is what it was projecting in the plan. That is a mix of um so just as a reminder, I'm sure you guys are familiar with this, but there's no new taxes as part of this. Um what happens is it gets diverted from um the city, the county, and the and Kellogg Community College into the LDA's budget. So once the DDA is able to start to generate a million dollars in revenue, you're able to bond against that potentially and increase some of the um some of the changes that are happening in that area. Goes through some of the other ones as well here. So that's kind of the DDA and tiff plan in a nutshell. I'm happy to answer any questions or or talk through it some more. Well, not a question, but I just wanted to Glen Cross Road was built back when they were flushed with money and there were, like you said, there were no housing. So, they labeled that road the road to nowhere.

It was um Gary Dodd, who was one of the uh leaders of the MPC on the south side of Battle Creek and uh he was a a frequent critic of uh TIFFA money. Okay. All right, Chris.

So, good to see you, Eric. I uh actually served on the subcommittee that helped develop this plan. Uh and it's a great process and you're right, we engaged a lot of folks on it. Um, what my where I'm I guess I have a little bit of a disconnect is from this plan which I I build as like a master plan like the city has a master plan to then putting in motion to implement this LDDA capture with a significant amount of money. Um, and I just have that disconnect like okay when did we as a body go through this plan and say we like this not so much this or I mean these are all some of them are great some of them I think not so great right but you know that was part of the the process to make the plan so I guess it my question would be what is what is our next step and this would be towards city administration um to get public input from elected officials to say this looks good this looks good you know the the the park at Sears I understand everything about the water I'm glad you're moving the bus stop from the flood zone by Taco Bell out of that. So, uh those kind of public infrastructure things Glen Cross um I think are are have some merit to it.

I I'm a little less I'm a little more ler of like the placemaking kind of stuff. There's a lot of great things you mentioned uh development happening at the mall orox and the new out outlaw restaurants like do we just step back and let this happen naturally which is that's kind of where I am as far as I think we need some engagement. Yeah, I think there is merit to moving forward. You ask most people I ask, "What do you want to see on Beckley Road?" They want the the dang lights timed properly to turn turn in and out of these places. Yeah, we haven't talked about that. I mean, if I'm going to I'm going to bond out some money. Let's let's fix the the traffic flow. Um so,

what is our next step in the process? And how do we say, "Okay, this is what we'd like to do moving forward." And there's merit to some of these public infrastructure kind of things. maybe not so much on other parts of this. So, I think that you probably have a couple of options. Um, if this body would want to look at the the projects that have been laid out and rank them on what you would like to see, we can certainly do that. Um, I know the LDDA there's they've approved commissioners for the board. So, there will be representation from this body on that body.

Thank you. So if you want to appoint someone to that position and then have the LDDA board then take those projects and make decisions on what they would like to move forward with, we can also do that. I don't know if Mr. Daring has anything additional to add to that or if I'm missing something.

Yeah, it is a process, right? And you know, we're trying to we're trying to do our best to, you know, maintain the integrity of the initial study process, right? Which there was an extensive amount of community engagement and this is what came out of it, what Eric has introduced this evening and then that was translated into a development tiff plan. So we what we don't want to do I from a staff perspective right is to walk away from what we learned from community engagement around what folks wanted to see out there in in the final plan. But we also recommend or you know certainly recognize that ultimately the LDDA board has to make decisions about where to invest the money based on this plan or other opportunities that may come up. Uh and that ultimately the city commission approves their budget on an annual basis. Right. And so I think there are some built-in controls there if the commission feels like this isn't really going the direction that we're comfortable with um without necessarily having to again compromise the plan as it was put together based on the amount of engagement that went into it. So I think there are some checks and balances there that could work. and this idea obviously of having an elected uh representative from the commission on the LDDA board along with property owners who aren't there right now and some other reconfiguration that we need to do. Hopefully, we'll we'll kind of bring all that in line with where those that are in the decision-making positions can feel comfortable about the plan moving forward.

And if I just may to to that to that point, thank you. That's one of the things that I I pushed for when this when we first started the ball rolling on this plan. And I'm like, LDDA was really kind of defunct. There was no board there. I'm like, who's going to actually administer this and there was no public representative? Like we have commission representatives on the DDA board. Uh we might be exeicio, but we're there and we're we're part of that part of that process. Thank you for that. Thank you for hearing us on that. And yes, checks and balances, but we all know sometimes we set these things in motion and they take on a life of their own and they're hard to hard to go. And this is a very large commitment with bonding out a lot of mil millions of dollars over many decades that we just need to make sure we do our due diligence. Thank you.

Uh thank you Chris and thank you and Amanda and Ted Daring. Appreciate it. Any other comments by the commission? Patrick, go ahead. Oh, thank you mayor. Um just a question uh how these projects get prioritized because like the first one shows high and then everyone else is medium and low that was in a discussion with the with through the steering committee but also with the LDDA.

Okay. So really with and a lot of times with DDA plans um and I think you know the city manager is correct that ultimately you all can send it back to the LDDA and say we don't feel comfortable with these projects. Typically with DDA plans we do try to write them with flexibility because as part of the public act you know you want to have that flexibility to be able to carry out these activities and be able to continue the plan moving forward. Um, so there is a little bit of uh flexibility that's in, you know, kind of added to the to the to the projects. So the the lynchpin project really is that public park space and that's why that was a high priority because we saw that's one that is achievable, you know, because it has it's vacant and it's it's up for sale. Um, and if you're able to kind of build momentum with that, some of these other things would flow from there.

Okay. I was just wondering if it came from public comment or something like that. How it was developed and yeah, that type of questions is what I had, but I I would change the order a few of these if I had a choice myself, but thank you for all the research and work that you did. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Patrick. All right, that concludes Oops, got one more. Commissioner Loff,

thank you. Um, I just wanted to talk about placemaking. Commissioner Simmons had brought it up. I've been taking um some housing and financing courses and one of the big things they talked about is back in the day people used to move from community to community based on jobs and you know to go along with our workshop on the housing situation a lot of times now people aren't necessarily moving for jobs but they're moving for communities and you know to be in a community that they like and then they will find a job that you know fits that need. So having those placemaking or third places is so important. Um, you know, think along the lines of back in the day when you had a mall that people would go to or, you know, the American Legion or a church somewhere else besides your home or employment where people would meet and it was kind of like another place that you felt at home at and could connect with people. So, I think that that was kind of um one of the biggest things they said, you know, to kind of bring people in.

Thank you, Commissioner. Any other commissioning comments? Seeing none, this concludes our presentation. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you all. Next item on our agenda is chair noting any added or deleted resolutions. There were none. Thank you. Next item on our agenda is petitions, communications, and reports. There were none.

Thank you very much. Next item on our agenda is public comment regarding any remaining agenda items. If you'd like to make 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? Yes, David. And then we'll go to Joe Harris. I'm talking about West West 273 of the four-year term candidates. Can I talk about that now or?

Yes, you can.

Okay. I'm getting I'm for the two-year term. I think four years is going to be too long. You know, you put a person in for four years. That's a long time. You get a candidate that runs for an office, you don't know she's a Democrat or a Republican that's unnominational, a conservative or liberal. You know nothing about them. You vote for somebody you don't even know. And you're going to turn around B for four years. Imagine four years. Now we got a twoyear. If they get elected in, if they don't do a good job or not happy with that person, we got opportunity to get them out or otherwise we they can be in there for ever and may not ever get them out of there. So I think we should um keep a two-year term till we know the candidate. If we have more information like I vote, I want to know who I'm voting for. Know something about him. But I'm going to vote for somebody for four years. I want to know something about him. I think we should stay at a two-year term like we have now. It working out well. This if they do a good job, it should be reelected in two years. I just don't I just can't pay for a four-year term and we should stay about like we were.

Thank you, David. Joe

Joe Harris, Battle Creek. Uh I'm also talking about resolution 273. Um first I want to thank you all for amending it from what it originally was. I appreciate the fact that you took out the uh commission discipline section for the simple fact that as I said last time there's already things in place via state law and again if if that becomes an issue I would encourage um you guys come up with a process so as to appeal to the governor and then go on from there. So that's enough about that. But in regard to the terms um so here's my stance on it. Uh I I agree with the two-year term just because of uh what uh the gentleman before me said, but at the same time, I can also see the four-year term in that it it allows for you guys to work on larger projects and bigger projects. But here's what I'm going to preface. Longer terms encourage um what what I like to call lifetime politicians. Not that any of you are going to do that, but it does to an extent. So um I would this is just me. If you're going to do a four-year term, consider consider some kind of a term limit. Um maybe you know u a term limit of that you can't serve more than you know three four year terms and move on. And the reason why I say that is is is it allows for uh other people to come in maybe uh that have other thoughts uh something to that effect. Um and you know four years is a long time. Um, I mean, I'll kind of look at Congress that we have. Uh, we have one side that has two-year terms. You have another side that has six-year terms. I know we can't do that here, but there's advantage to the two-year terms and that if you don't like the one representative that that you feel like they're not representing of you, they can get out. It's harder for a senator. I mean, it is. Um, but just consider maybe term limits just to kind of balance things out a little bit. That's just my thought process on it. Thank you guys.

Thank you, Joe. Any other public comments? Kathy, then we'll go to Ree.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Hello, commissioners and staff. Um, I too am speaking on resolution 273. Um, I was a little bit unaware of it because you may have noticed I wasn't at the last commission meeting. Maybe you didn't. Um, I am a little concerned regarding the change from what I understand to be two-year terms to four-year terms. Can I ask a question? Is that accurate? What is partly in here? I can't ask. Never mind. Okay. Um, I do believe that there is a significant um benefit for us having our our commissioners every two years reelected. Um, I do recognize that there is some cost involved in that and that may be a consideration both personally for the candidates as well as for the city to run the elections. However, I do believe that the freshness of every two years is something that keeps people hopping, shall we say. Uh, and and I appreciate that very much. Um, I also agree with our last speaker that um I know there currently is a term limitation to the commissioners. Um, however, I would like to see that expanded a bit, as in perhaps more than just a year off the commission. Perhaps making that a longer term or even no, just making it longer term. Um, but for the most part, uh, I have also spoken and I really wasn't going to speak about this issue, but I got a whole pile of phone calls and texts today and a whole pile. How many is that? 12. and every single person said that they were not in favor of elongating the terms for the city commissioners. So, I just wanted to report that back. Um, thank you very much.

Thank you. We're going to go to Reese and then we'll go to Mary.

Good evening, Reese Atkins, 84 South 23rd Street. I also I am in favor of going to a four-year term, but I also, like the other two speakers, would like to see a time term limit to where if you do run, you can only run for maybe two four-year terms and then you have to step away. Um, that way it gives more people the ability to run, gives more ability of people to come up there and we ain't got the same person in the same water at large. We can get a variety of different people up there. Thank you. Thank you, Ree Mary.

Hi. Um, nice to meet you, city manager and the commissioners. And I've uh watched term limits come and go, and I'm not in favor of them because it diminishes your pool of trained candidates. You spend years paying people, training them to do a very intelligent job, and then you tell them they can't do it anymore because they've been doing it for 12 years, which sometimes is silly. Um, as far as the fouryear, I actually think it would be a huge improvement in your ability to get things done. Two years, you one year in and you're running for office. And that's why it's so frustrating with representatives. They just don't have enough time to get real work done that four years would let you do. And you guys aren't like half the state big thing. You guys are real small. This is just Battle Creek. So, we don't have a big population of bodies that have the mental ability to do what you do, even though everybody has an opinion about it. Um, and we need to be able to have you guys keep doing this. We spend a lot of money training you, whether we re recognize this or not. You really are a a trained, intelligent force, and we need to help promote that. Um, and competition, you know, is nice, but not always in this capacity. You know, this isn't a sports team. Um, this is really government and it's not a competition. It's a collaborative. And so, that's kind of my opinion on this, but I want to talk about something else later. So,

all right, Mary. Thank you. Any other public comment at this time? Seeing none, we'll move on to our next um commission comment regarding meeting business. Move to approve the consent agenda. Second. Been

moved and supported to approve the consent agenda. Is there any item that a commissioner would like to have removed, discussed, clarified? Seeing none, would you please vote on the consent agenda? It never popped up on my screen. There it is. Yeah, I voted.

It came up a little bit late, but it came up that uh consent agenda has been approved. Next item on our agenda is uh yes I think that somebody's missing. It's not showing. Yeah, the mayor's not on there, but I have See, I'm not showing. It's

not on the screen. I vote yes. I don't think I'm I don't see me. Put me down as yes. Here we go. Do we need to take a break? No, it's No, I don't It's lagging for some reason. Okay. So, you'll the records uh 8 to zero, right? Yes. Yes. Okay. Let the record show that that passed 8 to zero. Next item on our agenda is resolution 273. Madam clerk, when you're ready.

If approved, this resolution would allow for the submission to the electorate. the proposed amendments to the city of Battle Creek charter to set terms of office for all elected officials of the city of Battle Creek to four years and have those terms begin at an organizational meeting of the city commission to be held the first Tuesday in December after the election. Move to approve resolution 273. Second. So moved and supported to approve resolution 273. Are there any comments from the commission? Commissioner um O'Donnell then Commissioner Simmons.

Thank you, Mayor. Um just a few legal questions on this. Um I know we discussed it in the last time and we So if a commissioner is convicted of a felony, what would what would have to take place? We still have to petition the governor or would they be removed from their seat immediately? Uh that's a that's a question that there's m there are multiple ways in which that situation could be addressed. Um,

the other question that I have is same with someone moving away. I I don't mind the discipline part. We took that out. But I just have a feeling that we should have something like in there because if somebody was convicted of a felony, they could hold up a a person to be appointed for quite some time and we got paperwork to deal with. Same with if somebody moved away and not really resign. They just packed up and left the seat open till we have to petition the governor. I just wanted to know what would take place. I think uh that's a situation that you know that could be addressed when if if it were to occur. Um the 273 those prov the provision the broad provisions were removed from the previous version for 273 here and I think that's something that the commission can consider uh and perhaps address at a later date. Um essentially it's uh it's something that we could look into and see what other options we could provide to the commission on that. Um, but it would just not be on the ballot for the next election for for the uh voters to consider.

Okay. Could we amend it and add it tonight if we decided we wanted to? You definitely we have to put it on for another meeting. You definitely could amend it tonight, but I did didn't have anything prepared uh for tonight specifically. I I just have a feeling we just need to look into that just to make sure that I we get representation for the people. they're not getting held up to get a replacement in those spots for those just those certain circumstances that come arai. Yeah, I would be happy to draft up something for the commission to consider at a future date uh if if that's what the commission desires basically.

Thank you. Everything else looks looks fine. I mean, we're going to leave it up to the voters to decide what they want anyway. So, um if if this is what we got for right now, I'm I'm all for this currently. We can discuss the changes later. Mr. Simmons. Thank you, Commissioner Patrick O'Donnell.

While I uh do agree with Commissioner O'Donnell that that could be a problem, I can't think of a time in recent history that has the problem we've even faced on this commission. So, um I know Detroit when Quantam Kilpatrick was convicted of a felony and he wound up resigning. So, that didn't even have to go to the I think they were going to go to the governor and and he saw the writing on the wall. So, um, if it were happening every term, yeah, let's address it. But I'm just I just don't see the need to address it. Um, I did make some comments at the last meeting about two-year versus fouryear. You know, I would have probably never initiated this in the first place, but now that I've thought about it, I I do like the merit of having some more consistency for four years. Uh, when commissioners come on, uh, and this term, we've not even had a strategic planning session for all of the the new commissioners. I haven't attended one uh in the last six years. So u I I think that would allow for more uh goal setting, strategic planning as a body and make us more productive. Um as far as term limits, um the voting is is a term limit. I disagree with them at the state level. Uh federal uh they passed them back in the 90s and the Supreme Court overturned that as unconstitutional. So, um I think vote v voting is our ultimate term limit. The only thing I'm a little disturbed about is we moved our city commission elections from oddnumbered years um back in 2017 uh to even numbered years to increase voter turnout from single digits to now in in um in conjunction with either presidential or gubernatorial election years. And we're talking about putting this on the ballot in May. Is that Yeah. Which we're going to get really low turnout. I mean, just that's going to be the only thing that's

on the ballot. So, we're going to probably get low single digits of people that show up on this, but ultimately it is up to this would be up to the citizens. So, I'm going to support this tonight. Glad we took out the provisions for the the discipline. And um I've really enjoyed the conversation. I think it's uh it's uh some important things we're talking about as far as making us more effective body. So u but ultimately it's up to the voters. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Any other commission? Commissioner Morris and Commissioner Lacass.

Thank you. Um I just wanted to thank everyone for their comments. I received a lot of phone calls and texts myself. Um and they are on opposite ends of the spectrum. So I think that this would be something that's really great for the voters to make their own decision on. Um, I think that there is value in four-year terms as well as there's value in two-year terms. Uh, so I just would like to see this go to the constituents for a vote. Thank you, Commissioner Morris. Commissioner Lass,

I just wanted to mirror what they had said. You know, that this is just us putting it out there for the voters to decide. It's not us deciding. It's just to give everyone a chance to have their voice heard. Um, being a newly elected official, I think there is some um advantages to being, you know, there for four years. the first couple years you're really in there getting your feet wet and getting you know to understand the ins and outs of everything. Um meeting with all the department heads. I've been taking every possible course I possibly can to serve the public as best as I possibly can. So that takes up a lot of those first couple years. So um also the strategic planning I think is very important for every commission um to be a part of going forward. But again it's up to the public. Um also pretty much every city this size has four-year terms. we would be, you know, kind of in cohesiveness with them. So,

thank you, Commissioner. Are we prepared to vote? Okay, let's vote on resolution 273. How are we doing? She's got the She's She's got the old version of the software. Reynolds and Commissioner Lance. I vote. Yes. It doesn't show up on my thing. Okay.

Okay. I will record that. If I could, mayor, I maybe suggest that the uh that the clerk do a vote roll call vote. Okay. But the system is janky right now. Our attorney was requesting a roll call. It is. Commissioner Lance, yes. Commissioner Morris, yes. Mayor Banky, yes. Commissioner O'Donnell, yes. Commissioner Reynolds, yes. Commissioner Simmons, yes. Vice Mayor Sophia, yes. and Commissioner Lacass.

Yes. Resolution 273 has been approved. Next item on our agenda is general public comment. If you'd like to make general public comment regarding over 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 begin your comment. Now to those youth challenge academy guys, I heard you get extra credit if you come up here and make a comment. No, they're saying but

I'll give the extra credit to save time. If one of you wants to come up and speak for the entire group, I we'll allow that. But who's going to come up? Come on. We we want to hear what you're here for. Good. Good job.

Thank you very much. Welcome to Battle Creek. Hello. Um my name is uh Cadet Cycle from Michigan Challenge Academy and um I used to live in Holly, Michigan, but this is my first time going to a city council meeting, so part of my nerves. You're doing a great job. Thank you, sir. We have three minutes to go.

I appreciate it. Uh, you made a lot of excellent points and I really appreciate the way this is running, too. Um, as a member of the Michigan You Challenge Academy student council, we really had some trouble running our personal council. So, it's really a great example to lead by look watching the uh excuse me, the city council. Sure.

Uh I pre the four-year term seems like a great idea. I mean, just to get that long running in. I know Richardson, one of our our president, would love to be uh four years in the running, but you know, as of right now, we only have about three weeks left till we graduate. And uh I was really glad to see how a uh professionally council was run. I appreciate you guys. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much. Make sure you thank everyone. WE APPRECIATE All right. Do we have any other public comment tonight? Yes, David. Then we'll go over to Mary and then we'll go back to the affordable water organization. David, you're first. We'll go to Mary and then Sylvia. I comment a little more on this two 273. Number one, we don't have term limits. I know of.

We're going to say commission gets selected in he can keep running and running until whatever till he loses I guess. And um remember we're putting somebody booming for somebody for four years. A person can do a lot of damage in four years. You get a guy, person, man, whoever they are, and you don't like them, you're stuck with them. That's it. So, I think it's we have we had any problems the way we've been doing it. I wonder if we really had I think what we've been doing this two terms, it's been going pretty well. I don't why we really want to go a four term. It's I think it's I like this two-year term. I think it should stay right there.

Thank you, David Mary.

Hi there, commissioners. And I'm not talking about 273 again. What I'd like to talk about is accounts payable. One of my favorite subjects. I understand that we have campaign political campaign debts from 2016. Yes, we do. Don't we, mayor? and he's smiling at me because we've discussed this. I think it's very sad that we have these debts and I do not think we should allow any more politicians to campaign in our city if their party owes us money from 2016. We have had 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024. We can't keep collecting debt for every two-year campaigns. They need to pay ahead. They have to pay the debt they have. Now, if you're a Republican, we have Republican debt. You ain't campaigning until that debt's paid. I don't care who owed it. You a Democrat, Democrats owe us. You ain't campaigning until they pay it. In the future, all campaigns will be prepaid. We can't subsidize these clowns. They vote themselves big tax breaks and then they don't pay their campaign bills and we have to pay them. That might be annoying. And you asked me for donations. I'm sorry.

Okay. All right. Um I said Sylvia. We're going to go Sylvia then George. Joe. Excuse me. Silia. All right. We got to take one at a time. So they can come up and sit with you, but one at a time. Madam clerk, there's a basket right there. If you put them in the basket, then someone will pick them up.

Thank you, Mayor Binky. Um, Vice Mayor Sophia and commissioners and staff. My name is Sylvia Arduno. I am a Detroit resident, but I work statewide in a grassroots organization with residents that are trying to figure out how we can get affordable bills at the local level. You all do valiant work trying to operate, maintain, fix infrastructure for water systems, and it's very much a local responsibility. But what we're finding across the state is that residents that are within your municipalities cannot afford the bills as the costs keep going up and up. We've tried working with uh with many cities that are trying to figure out well maybe we can create an affordable program where residents can uh apply for assistance and that did happen during the pandemic. There were funds that were available through the federal government. Those funds are gone. There is no funds right now either through the state government except for a small 5 million that was appropriated by the legislature this last budget round. We need a way though for residents to be able to pay for the cost of keeping their water service going because there are residents across the state who are shut off because they cannot afford to pay or because their uh water bills will go onto the property taxes thereby jeopardizing the very housing that they work very hard to have. Tenants are also being forced into paying for water bills that landlords used to cover and there's a lot of unethical things that are going on in some of those arrangements. We're asking you to please support a resolution for a state uh Senate bill uh water affordability package. It would be comparable to what energy companies are already getting to assist their comp their customers who need help. There's no such thing for local governments or local water customers. This would create a new state program and all customers throughout the state, cities and townships would be eligible to apply. You could have your customers apply for that program or you could administer your own. the the legislation offers flexibility in how it would be operated. And so what we need is your support. In fact, for what it's worth, Jackson just now, I just learned, passed a resolution

supporting statewide water affordability legislation. We're looking at cities all over the state to do this. And we're going around to city governments asking for your support. In fact, I love local government meetings. They're the best. This is really the heart of America. And so, I appreciate what you're doing. I ask you to please take a look at what we have here in the packet. It's got a summary of the legislation and um a letter that I'd like to submit to you and asking for your support. And so I'm happy to answer any questions after the meeting as well. Thank you. Thank you very much, Sylvia. And um would you like to speak next? Yes.

Hello, my name is Rosen Walker and I appreciate you all for allowing me to provide public comments to you about water affordability. Two weeks ago, I met met with several residents on Helen a Montgomery Avenue street who talked about how hard it is to keep up with the cost of water bills. Some of them are here tonight. They were they are seniors, parents with young children and young adults just trying to work and survive. We all need, what we all need is a way for our families to pay water bills, sanit sanitation. Sorry about that, you guys. Sanitations and storm water bills they can afford. We all ask that you pass a commission resolution in support of statewide water affordability. Thank you all.

Thank you very much, young man.

Good evening. My name is Alton McIntyre. I'm from the city of Detroit as well. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, council members, commissioners. Although I'm a city resident, I've been fighting for clean and affordable water since 2015. I've been to East Land, I mean East Point. I've been to Detroit all my life. Born and raised Groves Point and throughout. I just left uh Jackson meeting last week where we talked with uh the mayor and their council about adopting the resolution for clean and affordable water for all Michiganders. I've been all the way to Lanson. I've talked with state representatives and supported Stephanie Chain in her effort to get this resolution passed and where water can be affordable for all residents no matter where you live at. Well, we all Michiganders and we all are surrounded by the same body of water which supports our land, our homes, our lifestyle. Period. Cuz as you read, as you can can see in your Bibles and everywhere else, it tells you that without water, you cannot live. You cannot survive. Won't nothing grow. So, I'm asking you as a city council, as the mayor here, please support our water affordability act and water affordability bill.

Thank you very much for your comments.

Okay, Joe, Joe Harris, 243 Eldridge. Um, in regard to what was spoken earlier in regard to uh um commission discipline, I don't I don't know if it's a a matter of legality as much as already the legal process is there. So that's specifically MCL 168.327 which gives the process in which to uh get uh to get the information up to the governor for consideration of a commissioner recall. I think my opinion what needs to happen is the the commission as a whole needs to adopt some kind of a policy or a process in which if god forbid any type of situation were to happen that they have a process to follow in regard to getting all the information up to the governor. So I'm kind of thinking as an impeachment process and I mentioned this before. So, it's just it it's like it, for example, you have a commissioner that's accused of some kind of misconduct. Uh there's a call for an investigation. Investigation occurs. Evidence is given. Uh commission votes on it whether or not to send the evidence to the governor. And so, that's just an example. It doesn't have to be that way, but it's just an example of what could be done. So I think it's more of a a commission process that needs to be established so as to get that up to the governor so that process can be followed. Uh in regard to the uh the term the uh the terms um something I didn't mention la uh last time is that you know uh there is also a process for citizens that to to to recall commissioners. It's there. It's also in government statute. And so if there's a situation in which citizens don't

appreciate what the commissioner is doing or how they're representing them, there is a process to follow for that recall and that recall can go on the ballot. So there there are things in place so as like a checks and balances to make sure that that happens. So uh just wanted to mention those two things. Um, and real quick on the on the DDA, uh, my biggest concern is, uh, in regard to the the capture of certain those those funds. And the last I read, correct me if I'm wrong, is around 35% of a certain area going to have funds that are captured um, from from the Battle Creek taxes and so on and so forth. And so my question is is is is is going to make up for the shortfall if there is a shortfall which I think there will be uh because you have 35% less from that area. So I I I just am trying to get that in in my brain and where the shortfall is going to to come from. But I thank you for your time. You guys have a great Thanksgiving. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Yes, Kathy and Tao. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Kathy Antea, Parkridge Drive. Uh, for the last several months, I have been regailing you with information regarding Share Center, the gem of Battle Creek. Um, one of our most important assets for the entire community. And the Share Cent's recent November 6th Share for Share fundraiser was extremely successful. We raised about $30,000 in one evening. So yeah. Yeah, we were we were super excited by that. We had a fabulous time. It was really a lot of fun. Sher was glamorous and gorgeous. Lots of people got photos taken with her. So it was wonderful. Uh and the fundraising is still going on. We still are happy to accept donations. You can go online, sharecenterbc.org is our website. Um and you can make a donation. What we'd really love to have folks do is do a monthly donation. Am I Yeah, do a monthly donation. Um, commit to doing that every month. Um, we would love to have folks do that. In addition, I am the volunteer coordinator and I have lots of opportunities for volunteers. We need people to serve meals. We need groups to come in and cook and prepare the meals. Um, if you like sorting and organizing things, I have lots of that work to do. um cleaning. If you like deep cleaning, oh boy, you can come on the third Sunday of every month and I have a deep cleaning session at the Share Center as well. Um and on December 10th, uh the friends of the Share Center, which is kind of a loose group, we were the ones that helped organize the fundraiser. The friends of the share center are having um um meetup g I hate to call it a meet and greet because that's so overused, but essentially we're having a bunch of

folks get together just to shoot the breeze. Um noies are on me. This will be held at Uproot ery uh restaurant. Wait, Market and Eery. That's it. Uproot Market and Reery, the new green ger downtown. That'll be December 10th from 4:30 to 6:30m. Uh again, munchies are on me. Come on down. Come talk to us. We'll have all kinds of clipboards where you can sign up for a variety of volunteer tasks. And if nothing else, you can come to the share center on any given day and play cards and uh that would be very much appreciated as well. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Kathy. Any other public comment? Ree?

Good evening. Reese Atkins, 84 South 23rd Street. This is something that's been on my mind for a little bit and I've been really trying to do some research in it. Um, and please don't take this wrong way. I support safe place 100%. But what I'm seeing is safe places for females with for domestic violence, which yeah, there's a lot of it. But what I don't see is when a male individual is abused by the the female. Um no place for him to go to get help. No place for him to go to recover to get counseling or anything like that. They're basically just shoved off the round. I'm seeing a lot of uh progress of wanting to build things and build stuff like that. Let's be Battle Creek be the first one to build a place where male people who have been abused um domestic wise or by parents or anything like that to where they can go to get the help like women do and I support that. But let's have something where the males can go and get the support and get the help. I went down Saturday to the school that was being redone that was being toured because it's being tore down. Perfect spot. I mean, that school's not that bad, you know, or even the property to build something like that. Let's have Battle Creek be the first town, the first city to have something like that to where the males can get the same assistance that the females can get. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Any other public comments at this time? Any other public comments? Joe Ziggler. Joe Ziggler, Battle Creek, Michigan. I have a very important request from the commission, the mayor. Um, the Battle Creek Public Schools made a gut-wrenching decision. The citizens of this town in 1926 gave their hard-earned money, over $800,000 to build that architectural gem, and it must not be destroyed. Today's money, that's $16.4 million. So, you think, well, what can the commissioners do? Why am I coming to you? Because without a flourishing school system, Battle Creek cannot flourish. Plus, this is an economic opportunity. For example, the historic youth building. I feel a little like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. I've been through this before. And we know that historic buildings are valuable and can become a resource. There are over 29 low-income housing units in the historic youth building and we have a housing problem now. Maybe that's the reuse for it. But in any case, what's needed is it's not the city's building. The school gets to do what they want with it. And so I'm asking you to show vision and leadership and take charge. Have courage. And I'm asking to make a motion during city com commission comments to

the effect of directing the city attorney to uh begin drafting a tenative contract to help negotiate with the city schools and to ask the city manager or her staff to reach out to the city schools and tell them that we're here to help them. to show the good faith that when the citizens of this community give the equivalent of $16.4 million that their investment will be respected and over the years there has not been the best relationship between the city and the schools and this is a win-win to be able to help develop that relationship. So, with that said, I guess you'll need some sort of tentative motion to make, which is what I said to direct it. And, uh, maybe the schools will donate what they were going to pay for destruction towards what's needed to stabilize the building and mothball it and make it presentable and something a developer could consider investing money in. This is a great opportunity. The Milton is another prime example. You get as best debated and other things that don't make it economic sense for a developer and that I believe will have many people wanting to present ideas.

Joel, thank you for your comments and it'll be up the commission to um make uh Okay. And if I you have any questions or information, I will Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other public comments? Seeing none, commission comments. Uh, Commissioner Patrick Odon. Oh, thanks, Mayor. Um, thank you for the Youth Challenge Academy for coming out tonight. I know they have to leave because of the time mix constraints that they have with their um, program out there, but I really got to get up at 5 a.m. to run three miles.

I can't even think three miles. So, they're way ahead of me. Um, this this weekend, uh, great great events downtown. Please attend the holiday parade um and uh the lights down there. Please everybody enjoy that down there. We've got um two new facilities that have opened downtown. I hope people go down there and um check it out. But I did have a question for the city manager. Um we did have that um walkway sign. It was removed downtown um for yielding for pedestrians. And I was even down there town the other day and it was gone. and I'm trying to walk to one of the new places and the traffic was really bad. Like they didn't even see me. Um so if we can look into finding out what take place to make sure people know to yield to people trying to cross the street. I mean just because the sign's not there. It's still state law.

So if you could look into that. I'll look into and one other thing if um I had a couple visitors come up to me and ask me how um the missing statue is doing at Irving Park. if we could get another report of uh because the pedestal's there but nothing's there. So, okay. Yeah. So, thank you. That's all. Thank you, Commissioner Patrick O'Donnell. Any other commission comments at this time? Commissioner Reynolds and then uh I see a hand up down there. Uh Commissioner Simmons.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Um I just wanted to uh put on record the reason for my absence of the last commission meeting. Um, I had a leadership meeting with my employer, so that is why I was not able to attend. So, I just want that written in the record. You were noticeably absent. We missed you. Thank you.

Um, thanks for mentioning the the Youth Challenge Academy. I think the the comments from the young man actually just made my day. Um, and his his comments about uh um that's a great program. Um, Southwestern Junior High, I had opportunity to tour that. My wife was a student in the junior in the junior high there late 80s and she wanted to go back and I'm glad we did. Um we had a housing workshop a little earlier tonight before this meeting and actually talked about that like what could we possibly do with that that site for housing. I know the the uh housing commission uh staff uh consultants architects they they've walked through there. It will be a challenge to do to to remodel that, but um we certainly can have that conversation. Um I wanted to mention uh something that the mayor and I actually had the honor to attend last week. uh young lady from uh Lake View uh high school. She's a senior there. Josie Powitz uh as her Girl Scout project um put together a flag donation box and or retire flag retirement box and it's sitting over the the the police station next door. Um and I actually I I got to put a couple flags in it and then initiate it. But thank Josie for for doing that. Uh, and if you have flags that are, uh, should be properly disposed of and retired, uh, that asset is there and they will, uh, they'll be properly through the American Legion, I believe, or or some other organization that properly disposes of them. So, uh, I just want to acknowledge that. Great job, Josie. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, Vice Mayor, did you have a Okay. No. On this side, any any comments? Um, I would like to say, Joe, we will get back to you. Um we will talk our city attorney and our city manager and as a commission we'll respond. Are there any other comments by the commission? If none we're adjourned. Thank you for attending this nice meeting.