City Commission - Regular Meeting

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Hello everyone. Welcome to the regular city commission meeting of Monday, April 27th, 2026. Uh it is 700 p.m. We are at 151 Martin Street, our beautiful historic city hall. Uh please join me in standing for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. Well, thank you. Mingham, could you please call the role?

Mayor Eller here. Temporary mayor prom Theres Long here. Commissioner Hay here. Commissioner Hos here. Commissioner Cole here. Mr. Kazowski here.

Great. Our first item of business is item number three, proclamations, congratulatory resolutions, awards, appointments, resignations, and confirmations, administrations of oath, introduction of guests, and announcements. Uh we have an announcement. The city clerk's office is issuing a final call for participants to register for the Celebrate Birmingham hometown parade and party. Registration closes May 1st. The event will be held on May 17th from 1 to 4:00 p.m. Rain or shine. Always a fun time. For more information, contact the city clerk's office at 248530180. Next up, we have appointments. And the first appointment we have is to the city commission.

Uh we have point of order. Excuse me. May I? Uh why don't we get through uh at least begin the process and we'll No, no, it's all about the process. I'd like to talk about the process.

We have a memo about the process which I will get to momentarily. and let's let's deal with that. So, we have we have in our packets a memo from the city attorney about the process that we're following and I want to make sure that everybody on the commission understands that. Make sure no one has any questions. Uh the city attorney is would be delighted to go through that if anyone wants. Everybody good with that? Okay. So part of that process is that we will take nominations uh from the original there were originally eight applicants but that was one applicant withdrew at the last minute. So now even though we narrowed the field uh to three and then nominated two the last time we are going to take nominations from all uh seven of the candidates. So you guys are free to nominate anyone from among

the seven the seven. So uh do we have any nom I'm prepared to make a nomination. Okay. Um point of order. Can I talk about this process? Sir, uh Mr. Mayor, I'm going to defer to the city attorney on that. No, mayor. you already um asked if anyone had any questions regarding the memo that was issued or the process and there were no questions I believe. So at this point you're just looking for motions for nominations. I I have something to say that is pertinent point at I think there's a point where we'll all be able to comment on the nominations and on

Okay. I mean Okay. Okay. Great. Commissioner Koski, go ahead. So, uh, this is round two, so I don't want to I won't say too too much,

but I will, uh, state once again how much I appreciate and respect everybody who applied, uh, took the time to apply and was willing to donate their time to serving on the city commission. Um, and once again, I beseech everyone who did apply to either continue participating on whatever boards they are currently serving on, uh, or become active in a city board if you are not as of right now. Among all these exceptional candidates though, however, I still remain convinced that Deborah her really presents a special opportunity for the city of Birmingham. She probably knows more about municipal governance than maybe anybody else in Oakland County. She also has a deep professional network of other experts in municip in municipal and state affairs. And I think that all of this would make her a tremendous ass asset to the commission and to Birmingham. So, with that, I move to nominate I move to appoint Deborah her to the city commission to serve the remainder of a 4-year term to expire in November of 2027.

Thank you. Other nominations? Commissioner Colt.

So, good evening, commissioners and fellow residents. I would like to start with two very specific points. I'd first like to thank the two candidates from two weeks ago for taking the time to meet with me over the past two weeks so we could have conversations and I could learn more specifically how that you think about and approach problems. Secondly, I would also like to make it clear that Birmingham will be well served regardless of who ultimately ends up in this appointment. Birmingham is truly a special place, a charming, walkable city with treeline streets, outstanding schools, and a community spirit that is the envy of communities across the state. But keeping Birmingham special in a changing world requires thoughtful, experienced leadership. That is what Mary J brings. A perspective on problems and approaching to solving problems that are additive to this commission, not duplicative. Mary spent over 40 years as a senior executive at Chrysler, Daimler, Chrysler, FCA, and Stalantis, one of the most complex, globally competitive industries in the world. What makes her background genuinely distinctive is not just that she ran large organizations, but the spec specific nature of what she did. She led product and commercial development, negotiated and reviewed legal agreements, technical, operational, distribution, and franchise, and held direct decision-making authority over major business proposals. This is a very particular skill set. Someone who sat across the table in high stakes negotiations who understands how contracts shape outcomes and who has to be held accountable for those decisions at scale. That kind of experience, commercial judgment, legal fluency, and operational execution allinone is not something every board or commission has. It is the kind of lens that can change how a body evaluates a contract with a developer, weighs an infrastructure proposal, or scrutinizes the fine print of an agreement before the city signs it. It is additive in the truest sense. And then there is her perspective uh she

brings as a resident. Mary bought her first home in Little San Francisco over 33 years ago. She has watched neighborhoods change from the inside, not from the boardroom, but from her front porch. She currently serves on the historic district commission and on the board of sale focused on independent living for adults. She understands both the physical fabric of Birmingham and the human needs of its residents in a way that is deeply personal. Uh I am proud to support her and nominate her for the position. Okay. For a term something something. Yes.

What he said. Okay. Any other nominations? Okay. Um, we typically do not take public comment on nominations for positions, but this is an important nomination and I think it would uh it's important to hear from the public. Normally, uh, we allow three minutes. I'm inclined to go one minute, but I'm going to compromise at two minutes. So, uh, actually, if if you intend on commenting on this, raise your hand. That'll give me a better idea. Okay, there's quite a few. So, yeah, let's hold it to two minutes. And if you'd like uh to comment, you can approach either one of these microphones. Just please give us your name and your city of residence and uh fire away.

Tracy Hackman. Uh, city of residence is Birmingham. And so I too worked for uh Chrysler for the last 40 years as general counsel of the finance arm and so had a lot of global interactions and so on and so forth. So I appreciate the global perspective that Mary has and I appreciate the fact that that brings a new perspective to the city and I you know and I really appreciate her community investment. So, um, we likewise live in Little Birmingham and, um, and so, you know, we've been here for like 25 years and so it's really a nice perspective to have the business community represented with a global perspective in terms of how we interact in terms of, you know, everything that goes on not only here but as we interact with the rest of the world. and Michigan. So, it's a wonderful perspective and I'm thrilled to support Mary.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor uh neighbors. I'm Lewis Meldman, 35300 Woodward Avenue, and I'm just here to support Mary, Mary Jay, because she has an incredible array of talents and ability to communicate and to work things out. And that's something we need on the commission. There's been too much bickering, too much uh uh small town vitriol. We need someone who has experience, a proven track record of being able to hash things out, deal with things, get compromises, and move forward in a productive sense. And uh Mary Jay is absolutely uh perfect for this spot in my opinion. um she's dealt with things on an international basis and I think she has a viewpoint somewhat above a normal city uh perspective and this will give us an additional perspective in in in order to overcome the squabbbling the vitriol that we've seen. too much of in recent months and years. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Kathy Reky. I live at 870 Lake View and I want to thank you all for opening this up tonight to public comment. I understand we have a bit of a division on the commission and I'm here hoping that we can sway you towards Mary along with the other people here supporting her. Mary's professional accomplishments um are without a doubt untouchable. She has obviously a very accomplished background and uh was completely successful and um in anything she endeavored to do under the Chrysler Stalantis FCA umbrella. Um I've known Mary for about 40 years and I find her to be authentic, balanced, and committed to the success of whatever she endeavors to do. Um, I am part of a group of parents who started an organization called Sales Solutions for Adult Interdependent Living, helping families who have a disabled child live independently. I asked Mary as a friend if she'd be willing to join the board. And Mary's response to me was not an emotional or a knee-jerk reaction of yes, because she gave it thoughtful consideration. uh asked herself what she could bring, asked me what she could do for the organization. And thankfully Mary did say yes. And her willingness to learn about individuals that had developmental disabilities to roll up her sleeve to help wherever she could was just so refreshing and the betterment of the organization. We we saw that throughout Mary's involvement. I fully fully support Mary as a a Birmingham resident. I hope again that those who are on the other side listen to the residents here

tonight and uh consider Mary for this because she's going to be awesome and she'd be a valuable asset to the commission. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Jerry Renler and I live on Oakland and I thought I'd bring a different perspective since so many folks have been focusing on Deborah her's day job. I know her as a longtime volunteer on the League of Women Voters um an organization which I have chaired and currently am vice chair. Um I'm going to read so I don't forget anything. So we do go back quite a ways. Um, what I've come to know about Deborah is her appreciation for work done by nonpartisan local boards um, such as yourselves. She listens well. She'll look at all sides of an issue before making a decision. Um, she understands the importance to represent all the residents of Birmingham and not just part of our city. Um, what I have seen of what she does besides listening well and looking at issues is being a collaborator and working together to make sure all of us who work with her have all the facts so that we can work efficiently and well as volunteers. So, thank you so much and thanks for the process and the opportunity.

Thanks. Thank you. Hi you guys. Um, thanks for inviting us here today. I'm Mary Kabitzky and I live on Park Street and I know Mary from across town because I put 40 years in at General Motors. Um, I know Mary professionally by reputation. She's strong and decisive and focused and unemotional and that's why I think she would be really really great at this job. Um, I think she can rise above a lot of stuff that I've frankly witnessed here lately and it would do my heart good to see somebody like that in this position. I also live in Mary's neighborhood so I can speak to how she loves this city and she loves our neighborhood and man, I would really hope that you guys would give her a really because you wouldn't be disappointed.

Thanks.

Thank you. Hello, my name's Jim Arpin. I happen to be on the advisory parking committee and this has absolutely nothing to do with that. So, I I live I want to make it really clear because I've been reprimanded before for coming up and specifically asking Mayor Baller questions um regarding that. So, I'm speaking as a citizen on Southfield Road. Um, I've worked uh with Mary over the last three weeks, several hours, and really appreciate her commitment and willingness to volunteer. I agree with Tracy and Bill's comments as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Hello, and good evening. Noel Hernandez, Park Street, almost 30 years. I've known Mary for over 25 years. She is quite the professional. She really cares about the neighborhood. Um, we've seen the neighborhood change quite a bit throughout those last 25 years and not all the best. I know Mary has a real interest and a real genuine love for the neighborhood and not just the neighborhood, the city. And she's very professional. She's uh extremely qualified and I know she brings the best um intentions and wants only the best for the entire city, not just the uh little San Francisco neighborhood. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Susan Hernandez and I live on Park Street. We support Mary Jay for the city commissioner position. As a 50 plus year resident of Birmingham, having having had known Mary for 26 years, we believe her career and background coupled with her passion for our city neighborhoods and residents will lend to the benefit of all all of us and also to the benefit of our city. And I have to say Mary's uh Kubinsk's comment about um Mary does not make emotional decisions. She's weighs things out very carefully and we just think she'll be great. Thank you.

Good evening and thank you for your time and due diligence on this important matter. I'm Bill Hall. I've been a city resident for for many many years, but the last seven in Little San Francisco, another fellow neighbor of Mary's. But I got to say what's remarkable is how many people have known Mary for 40 years. I thought I would be the only one. I go, "Hey, I got the 40-year award." Um, I met Mary, I was early days at Chrysler and um and enjoyed a long series of of paths crossing and working together on things. Um it was a tough place to work as many of you know if not firsthand otherwise u through bankruptcies and re ownership changes a lot of watching your backside you never know who to trust and who not to some tough days the cost cutting the budget cuts the two things I I agree with all of the all of the positive comments on Mary's s on Mary's behalf and the others it's all true I've seen it in person as some of the others have too but the two things I think about as I think about my experience with Mary. She was one person I could always rely on and I could trust. It's not always the case in a big business. You don't know who's got your back or who doesn't. And I knew when I talked with Mary, if it was in confidence, her word was her bond. And that meant a lot to me. Comforting. Uh I could sleep at night knowing that Mary was on my side and that I was on hers. The other thing, sometimes you just need to cheer up. Um, when I would see Mary in the hallways or at a meeting, it her pleasant demeanor and countenance always lit up the room. She just in the toughest of times, she had a way to say, "We can get through this. Let's not talk about what we can't do. Let's talk about what we can do." And that's what Mary will bring to the city commission. I really believe she'll be great for the city. Her heart's in the right place.

walkability, affordability, history, but a eye towards the future and charm and beauty. Mary is all in and I really I recommend you that you consider her further. Thank you.

Good evening, George. I wasn't going to speak tonight, but uh decided I will. So, uh a little background. Five years on the planning board, eight years on a city commission, mayor, appointed many people to the boards of this community. Deborah her is just an outstanding candidate. You couldn't ask for a better candidate and given the current makeup of this commission, she brings a lot of assets as far as local government budgeting. This isn't a corporate position. I don't know why uh we had several people when I served on the commission corporate I'm a corporate guy but that wasn't the main asset I had experience on the planning board and you and and Deborah brings a lot of experience in zoning issues lots of contacts throughout the state and I think she'll just be a tremendous asset for the city and I recommend Deborah her thank you

thank you.

My name is Gordon Nelson and uh I live with my wife Mary Kabitzky who was here earlier and we live at 576 Park Street. I come with a slightly different perspective on this. I was an senior executive in two of the major banks of the country before moving here and then I came here as a consultant to both GM and later my my last few years were my last 10 years were with Ford in managing analytics long-term strategic analytics and the process of developing product for the major automobile companies is a six to sevenyear process during that process it isn't You make a decision here and you say, "Okay, we're going to go along and do these things and and it's all and and it is in in in lock step. One step follows the next." And yes, it does, but at each step there's a big decision to be made. The the whole the whole concept of automotive production and and and development is a very complicated situation involving a long a strong empathy with those who are both from a staff perspective who are providing you information and from the perspective of the company and making money. Mary can do those things. I strongly support her as a and it if there's a if there's a if there's a an alternative to be done, you might think about hiring the person who can write policy as a staff person as opposed to a member of the commission. Thank you. And I support Mary.

Thank you. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Jim Ramsky and I live with my wife Kathy in Birmingham. lived there since 1990, 36 years. However, I've had the good fortune of knowing Mary since 1974, which is 52 years for those of you keeping score at home. And I fully support the accolades that Commissioner Tob put forth and others that spoke about Mary. um her due diligence to look at big problems from all sides, the complexity, the her ability to understand those things and thoughtfully work through those while keeping a collaborative spirit about her. Now, obviously the problems that the commission deals with are large in scale, strategic planning, but they have short-term needs you have to do as well. Street noise, big issue in Birmingham. We love having a walkable city. We're a magnet city, but sometimes in the summer, downtown Birmingham looks like Daytona Beach on spring break. You guys are dealing with those problems. I think you would really gain from having somebody like Mary Jay on the board who can look at these issues for both near-term and understand the long-term strategic impact as well as keeping a spirit of collaboration about her. And I fully support Mary Jay for this position. Thanks for your time.

Thank you. Uh hello, my name is Ralph. I live in the east side, uh where I affectionately call the poor side of Birmingham. Um so, uh I'm I think uh Commissioner B Commissioner Hey asked the most important question. What can the candidates do in the next 18 months? And um that made me think about some of the problems other cities and many municipalities are dealing with right now. And those things are like data centers, um AI, and I know some of these things don't involve the city, but these are problems that's coming up. uh ICE, right? And then also what FL flock cameras and surveillance. And I'm looking at this room. I'm definitely in the minority and this board. And I don't think this is a business problem. I I can't see people talking about the intricacies of data encryption or how Flock will lie to Oakland County or Clawson about how everything is secure and what they don't do with their surveillance data. So, um, like I said, I'm in the minority, but I do think there's some there there's a darth of technical skill set. I think only one person is, uh, capable of talking about that. Commissioner Cole, I disagree with your, uh, comment on adding more business sense. I think your experience with MRM and Commissioner Heg, what you what I believe and understand your skills are, you have plenty of business representation and again, this is not a business problem coming up in the next few years. Um, have you se did you hear about the Oakland County Commission meeting? It's going to be crazy on Thursday. There's some bad decisions being made. Um, yeah, I'm rambling. I think Oh, one last point in my last 30 seconds. What would be great is if someone could come in on this board on the first day and have connections with other towns in this state that is working with these problems like flock and AI and data centers. And it'd be great that they can communicate with these towns and we we know for free and quickly what fails, what policies work. Um, yeah, I think that'd be a great asset, but I know I'm in the Morty.

Thank you for serving and listening. Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone online? I see Christy Barrett K. Barrett has her hand up. She's Barrett. I think we'll take care of that. You're on. Oh, yep.

Oh, okay. Hi, Christy Barrett. Uh, Harmon Street. I uh do not know either candidate, Mary Jay or Deborah her, but I have um I've watched all the uh the interviews and did my own investigation with reading all of not all but most of Deb her um publications and research and um talked to a lot of people who do know uh Mary Jay from a professional standpoint and I thought I was convinced um of my preferred candidate. Um but as of watching the Saturday budget hearing presentation, I'm even more convinced that Mary Jay is the right person for this job. And also she there is a lot of work to do. I don't care what kind of policy you have. If you can't fund it and the people don't trust you, it's not going to matter. And a lot of the stuff that Jeff Horner brings to the table um is on the Michigan Municipal League. And do we really want to do we want to hire a or a point and um legislative person who has contacts or somebody who's going to has battle tested and has the finance background um to look at the entire economic e ecosystem of a municipality. Yes. is a service industry, but so is a health care system. And I do also want to compliment Commissioner Kazlowski on all of his um very tough questions that he asked at the budget hearing that I look forward to getting answers to. Um I've lamented this with several of you on

this uh commission. Now, the uh the way the budget's presented and the way um you know, let me back up. Uh Miss Barrett, uh your two minutes is up and you seem to be straying toward the budget. Do you have anything else to say about that? Sometimes you have to make decisions without all the information and you do that every year with budget hearing or any of the ma major initiatives. I think uh Mary Jay will bring a skill set unmatched uh in this particular case. So, thank you. I hope look forward. All right.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Anyone else online? If you're on Zoom, uh please use the raise your hand function. Seeing no one else. Anyone else in the room? Seeing no one in the room. I for Mary also.

No, I'm sorry. That's inappropriate, sir. Um, I did not suggest the opportunity if anyone on the commission would like to engage with either of the candidates. Uh, you want to Okay, go on. Let's also keep this very short. It will be okay. Great. Thanks. I want to apologize for everybody's behavior two weeks ago towards both the candidates because it got very heated and it wasn't as polite as it needed to be. I reflected on that myself and I didn't feel terribly good about it. I think my probably my face expressed some of that dis dissatisfaction with myself as well. So really what I wanted to say is I'm sorry to both of you. uh more than one person stood up there and talked about bickering and less than ideal behavior. Well, we showed that two weeks ago. Everybody showed it. It wasn't a good showing from any of us. Wasn't good leadership. We're going to do better. So, that's really all I wanted to say to both of you right now is my apologies and I will do better. Any other uh statements, questions for the uh Okay. So, uh we'll vote on the order that they were nominated. Uh we can do this by a roll call or a voice vote. Let's do it by roll call.

Okay. So, we'll vote on uh Miss Her first. Commissioner, any I'm sorry. Does anybody want to make any further comments

on the nominations? Uh it is about the nominations. It's the same two we had two weeks ago. And I want to start by saying I wrote a letter uh August I mean April 16th to the commission stating that what we did on the last meeting the 14th or better stated what you the mayor did was to my mind inexcusable. and that is that you uh interrogated and dissected one candidate and then when the other candidate came up uh you hit her with light questioning, praise and accolades. The point is you as the mayor of this city should be impartial. You should be unprejudiced, unbiased, and you showed all the qualities that are what Commissioner Heg was uh kind enough to apologize for. And I don't think we should apologize. You should apologize because you ran a horrible interview process that was very biased. And if you're the seat we're sitting on is the important part of this whole endeavor. It's not any of the people sitting in them. We live in a democracy that is of the people and by the people, but most importantly, it's for the people. and the people I'm referring to our community are outraged with what you did at the last meeting. Now, of course,

it's your call, but I'd like to make a motion that the mayor recuse himself from these proceedings and not vote on one or the other. They're both outstanding candidates, but you have shown that you uh can be totally reprehensible in the way you conduct your mayorship. Thank you. Um is a motion to recuse by another My understanding of recusal is that uh it covers conflicts of interest.

That's correct. and that uh one is required to disclose a conflict of interest. Sometimes if the conflict is uh great enough, the uh member would recuse him or herself. I've never uh come across a situation where there would be a motion and a vote on a body forcing one to recuse. Are you is that anything that

No, typically you're you're right. The path is that there's some discussion and it may be off table uh between the commissioner or mayor and that in this case um asking if there is a conflict of interest or if one exists. Um candidly, we did receive the email um or the letter from on April 16th. And you going to let me say something? No, she's got the floor. Thank you. It it does not appear that there is a conflict of interest. I think that there was discussion between you and Miss Cacher between uh regarding uh if there was an a conflict of interest and I don't believe that there is.

Okay. There just to correct the record there was no conversation because there is no conflict. Correct. So I am not financially related to either one of these candidates. I didn't know these people even existed until they came before us with their applications. Yeah. But so your your behavior was inexcusable. You're out of order and we're going to move on to the votes unless there's another comment. Does anyone else want to comment? Okay. Roll call on Deborah Horner, please. Commissioner Cole, no.

Commissioner Host, no. Commissioner Pazowski, yes. Commissioner Theres Long, yes. Commissioner Hey, no. Mayor Balor, yes. So, uh, you folks aren't familiar. You may not be familiar with the opinion. Uh, I might as well tell you now if we're deadlocked after one vote, we're just gonna move on. Well, we have to vote after

we will, of course, but after that vote, there may be you may want to whatever your reaction. We do want to keep the reactions to a minimum, but that's that's what's going to happen. It will at the next meeting the administration including uh our city attorney will be making some recommend we'll be making some recommendations about how we will handle this at future meetings. Okay. Roll call on Miss Jay. Commissioner Host. Yes. Commissioner Balor or Mayor Balor? No. Commissioner Cole,

yes. Commissioner Long, no. Commissioner Hey, yes. Commissioner Kazowski, no.

Okay, so everyone who came tonight for this, thank you very much. We appreciate it. We appreciate your comments. Stay tuned. Um the rest of the items regarding appointment or uh oaths of office or anything regarding mayor prom will be on hold until uh we appoint a new commissioner. So thank you very much and we will move on to the appointment to the planning board. The candidate is David Larson. Uh Mr. Larson, are you here? Come on down.

Either way, wherever you're comfortable. Uh, hi. Tell us why you're uh interested in the planning board.

Well, I I was asked to consider being on the planning board and um you know, I I I've been a resident here. We bought our house on Greenwood Street in 1977 and uh we can't think of a better place to live. And uh as an architect, you know, I'm interested in the fabric of the city and uh when I was asked uh I thought about it and I I feel honored to to be considered then by by the commission. So u want to give it a whirl. You know, I I I'm new to public service. My architectural practice has uh been exclusively in publicly funded work. We do commercial not commercial but institutional work a lot of college and university and and uh K12 work as a lot of you may know already.

Yeah. Yeah. And u you know uh we I just thought it'd be time to give back a little bit. So that's why I'm here. Well, thank you. Can I get a nomination?

Yes. Uh, I would be delighted to nominate David Larson as a regular member to the planning board to serve the remainder of a three-year term to expire March 28, 2029. Um, the uh charter for the planning board says that one member should be an architect in as much as one is available. Um the other members of the planning board are um extremely passionate about the fact that an architect is a valuable position on that board to uh make comments and termations and criticism about proposed new buildings in the city. And it was um uh you know difficult to find anyone to come forward who did not have a conflict who does you know by doing business in the city who is a resident of the city. So um Mr. Larson, I appreciate your uh willingness to uh apply for this position and note that Mr. Curry um uh had applied but withdrew the alternate uh two weeks ago because he heard that you were interested and uh favored your appointment. So

I don't know him. I didn't do anything. So okay, Dave, so we have a nomination. All those in flight favor. Opposed? None. Unanimous. Okay, you are joining uh an excellent board. You will enjoy your experience. I appreciate uh your support and I'll do the best I can. Thank you. Stick stick around. We're going to swear you in momentarily. Uh next up, we have an appointment to the design review board. Uh Rob Hoffman, are you here, Mr. Hoffman? Mr. Hoffman, are you online? I don't see a hand. I don't see him. Uh, is he a new? Yes.

Yeah, he is a new appointment. Generally, if someone is up for uh renewal, we and they're not here, we go ahead and uh appoint them. But if someone is not here, uh, we're going to Is it the pleasure of the commission to pass at this time on that until Did you hear from him? I was just going to check. Just one more.

Let's let's go ahead and swear in Mr. Lor. I I think even if you take sent a message, we would not appoint him. and Mr. Larson, come on over and you'll raise your right hand and then you'll say I do after me. Okay.

Okay. I do solemnly swear or purge that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of this state and endeavor to secure maintain an honest and efficient administration of the affairs of Birmingham free from partisan distinction control and perform the duties of office of planning board according to the best of my ability. I do all this extra technology is up here. Um but you're going to sign and print. Okay. Then I'll fill in the rest. nervous.

Simple as simple as this. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Say hi to Tina.

Uh we're going to move to open to the public for matters not on the agenda. We welcome public comment uh which may be limited to a certain number of minutes. We're going to make it three today per person speaking announced at my discretion at the beginning of the public comment portion on items or discussions that do not appear anywhere else in the printed agenda. Uh we will not generally participate in a question and answer sess session and definitely will take no action on any item not appearing on the posted agenda. Uh the public also is given an opportunity to speak to agenda items as they occur when uh the mayor opens the floor to the public. So if you have a comment, I want to ask uh at this point. Well, let's go ahead.

Good evening. David Bloom, Birmingham resident. I have three comments. The first is it's not easy and sometimes it can be very hard to make an apology. It's even harder to do it with in front of multiple colleagues and add to that in front of the public. And I think that Mr. Hake's comments um just show demonstrate his integrity and his character and a recognition that the meeting didn't go well last time and that he felt he played a role in it and he wanted to apologize and I think that should be commended. The second comment I wanted to make is I was in downtown Birmingham a week ago last weekend on a Friday about 900 p.m. It's a zoo. Um, as much as I'm happy to be in Birmingham and like all the lively things going on, I would like to suggest that the commission consider having a special meeting on a Friday evening or Saturday evening to just walk around, go into the Daxton, go in different bars, walk down the street and hear the people just taking their vehicles and revving them as loud as they could go and just see if how you feel about the community and the direction and if if any adjustments might be needed. The third one is I have a concern about the non-appointment tonight of a mayor prom. At the last meeting I believe commissioner long was appointed mayor prom. If I'm not mistaken I believe that appointment is only good for the meeting. City needs a mayor prom. Um god forbid something should happen to the mayor who's going to um step into hisstead. um if if something should happen to him between now and the next meeting and so I think it's incumbent

upon this commission to select the mayor prom at least for this meeting and until the next meeting or if not permanently um until a commissioner a new commissioner can be appointed. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh it is the opinion of the uh city attorney that the temporary mayor prom appointed uh last meeting shall serve as mayor prom until we're able to appoint a permanent one. Um I see a couple a couple people from PPE. So I want to ask if you intend there's two issues over there, right? You got Wimbledon and you got the park. Are you gonna talk about one or both? And how many other people are here to talk about one or both of those issues? Just one. Which one? The road.

The road. The road. The road. Okay. I believe we have a report on the road. So, if you will permit us to ask the assistant city manager who is sitting in for the city manager tonight to go ahead and make that report. Is that okay? And then feel free to comment. When in the course of the meeting will that right now? Oh, I mean I'm fine with that. Comment. Uh well, we could I mean it really everybody's going to have a chance to talk. Do you mind if this gentleman makes a comment on something that is non-road?

Uh Mike Cliff, Birmingham, uh resident. Since uh the last commission meeting I attended, I think a month back, I've sent a couple emails regarding the development of 400 East Lincoln. The the responses on the whole were disappointing to me. They suggest that anticipated usage of the pool might be insufficient to continue just uh to justify continued operation. I understand a concern, but nobody's shown me their math. Can a pool simply cover the marginal cost of its continued operation? That's one way to look at it. It's a little shortsighted. Maybe maybe we should assign some value to the health benefits to Birmingham citizens. Maybe the pool doesn't need to cover 100% of the cost of operation to be a worthwhile investment for the city. I think that's why we continue to develop uh parks and playgrounds. No revenue there, but we consider them worthwhile amenities for the residents. Is ADA access to lower and upper levels the problem? We don't seem to know the answer. If that is indeed a multi-million dollar impediment to retaining the pool, then I guess it's a multi-million dollar impediment to any other planned usage. So, the citizens of Birmingham better buckle up and get accustomed to pointing up tax dollars to maintain unused space. I'm a bit disappointed in a member of Next and I and I'm a member of Next uh from this dialogue. No one ever expected Nex to play a role in the operation of the pool, but why they are not at every commission meeting. Speaking at support of retaining a swimming pool is complete mystery to me. I cannot think of any physical activity more suited to maintaining senior fitness than aquatic programs. One of the responses I received from a commissioner was short and sweet and indicated there were private sector facilities available to me.

I live in Birmingham, so costs must not be an issue, which kind of clues me in maybe what constituency we're serving here. U it makes me wonder what I get for my tax dollars. I think that we can do better. I have a second point. If there's a commission meeting, bar crawl, count me in. Thank you, sir. Okay. Oh, okay. Mr. Mayor, are you about the road? You guys okay? Okay, go. Three minutes.

Thank you. Uh Larry Lang Bird Avenue. Um hi, Larry.

I came here to talk about something later on the agenda, but when I found out my neighbors and friends heard I was going to be here, they unanimously said, "Could you please say something about Wimbledon or sorry, Woodward?" Um, I mean, the first gentleman mentioned before, I've come to various meetings about what we're trying to do, what the impediments are to doing anything, but as a as a long-term residents here, we you all live here. I mean, it it's getting worse and worse and worse. It's it's an assault on our senses. We wouldn't put up with any other kind of assault being done, you know, to us. So, I know Commissioner or Commander Gruy and his team are doing everything they can within the the current rules to try and mitigate this, slow it down, whatever we can do. I would only encourage all of us supporting you to lead the way to see what else we can do. Um, I know it's a state road, the state has jurisdiction, the county has more jurisdiction than we do. If we can't do it the the fair and the following the procedure, maybe this is time for a little bit more of a bold action. Team up with Ferndale, team up with Royal Oak, team up with Berkeley and every other community up down here and just do something, you know, and let the state come back and tell us why we can't do that, why we shouldn't do that. All of us want this. These are not residents of Birmingham who are coming here and assaulting us with these louder and louder machines. They're just here for a good time at our expense. So that's my request is continue pushing, keep trying. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Uh, Assistant City Manager Clemens, Mark, Mark, step up.

So, obviously we we're going to talk about Wimbledon tonight, and I think everyone I'm sure the commissioners have all visited. I visited it. Uh, Mark is our deputy uh, engineer. He's here tonight to address the issues. I don't think the city obviously has a the plan has not gone as according to what we hoped it would do. It has not been a smooth project and it has not been uh one that we're proud of, but we're doing the best we can uh with what we have left. That I'm sure is not great news for you guys, but I want you to know that we empathize and sympathize with your situation. We know we have work left to do out there. It is our full intention to get that road uh completed by the end of spring uh to the satisfaction of the neighborhood that you will have a Cape Steel Road returned uh to uh a working order. That being all we can do is apologize for the missteps that have occurred and obviously we have Wimbledon part two coming up. We're going to learn from part one and we're going to utilize what we learned from part one to make sure it doesn't happen in uh phase two. So with that, you have our apologies, but I want you to know that we are working on it. Uh we are working with the vendor and I'm very confident that by the end of the spring, you'll have your road back.

Is there something you wanted to add?

Uh if there's any questions from our residents or anyone that has any, you know, anything to say, they're more than welcome to. But yeah, the engineering department is doing their part to make sure that, you know, the contractor that we're working with for phase 2, uh is always active with the residents and that there's no issues. uh our senior tech for phase one of Wimbledon has been out and about and just making sure that everything was tidy on the road and that all our residents in Wimbledon were uh you know everyone had their say and if there was anything that was wrong that you know we were taking care of that. Um just so everyone's aware for Wimbleton phase 2 we have a different contractor that's coming in his uh their name is Angalan uh and we've done uh some reference checks on the the projects they have done and we've we've spoke to engineering consultants and we've spoken to uh different cities and other municipalities and they highly recommend them and I think that everything's going to be um much more satisfactory with Angland uh with the next upcoming phase of Wimbleton. Okay, let's hear from uh the res

commissioners. Uh Rick Broaddsky, 625 Wimbledon Drive. Um I'm here to address the phase 2 funding um and request clarity at the next meeting about the road on how the city is handling the new funds coming in through the state road funding bill. Uh I understand that despite a recent letter referencing an 8515 split uh that the commission is approaching phase two under the the 50/50 framework that was agreed to in phase one. However, since that agreement, there's been a material change which I've brought up before this bill was introduced after it was passed and I'm bringing it up again. Uh the the road funding bill is going to provide as I understand it substantial additional funding to the city um for road improvements and particularly for major roads. So for the next phase 2 meeting, I request a clear breakdown of how much additional road funding is the city receiving this year next. How does that compare to prior years? And how's that additional funding being allocated particularly for road projects and toward reducing or offsetting resident assessments for projects like Wimble Wimbledon phase 2. Um, and separately, while I expect that phase two will likely be close in structure uh to phase one, I'd also ask that the commission be prepared to discuss potential uh safety enhancements that that may be uh appropriate for Cape Seal. Um, and then last, having heard those uh comments from from the engineering folks, and I which I appreciate, uh, it would be great to hear more about what the failure points were in phase one and how we're going to address them in phase two because it'd be great to not have to go through such a, uh, challenging process this time around. So, uh, I look forward to seeing

you all soon and I thank you for your time. Thank you. And I saw the assistant city manager taking notes. Perfect.

Uh, good evening, mayor, commissioners. It's been a few months. Nice to see you. Uh, Danny Sidman, 652 Wimbledon. So, part of phase two as well. I've been following phase one closely and appreciate the comments uh that you made about the missteps in the project. Um, again a side note, I would love to see, you know, if we have dates and, you know, times and what went wrong and how we plan to address, you know, these issues if they pop up on the second phase. Uh, I think the residents would really appreciate it. My understanding is the phase one folks have been approaching the project manager in his truck. Uh, and that's how we're kind of getting updates for the most part outside of a couple of emails that have trickled in. So, if there were specifics, uh, we'd love to to see them and I think we'd appreciate that transparency. Um, I just wanted to make a few comments again as we approach phase two. Uh, you know, our first meeting is Wednesday. Uh, planning for a June start for the letter. Um, I I think that, uh, clear accountability, realistic timelines that are continuously updated. Hey, the machine broke down. We're pushing out a week, you know, pushing I'm signed up for the uh, email reminders, and I wouldn't mind a weekly email uh, update to make sure we're still on track or if we're off track. Why? I think everybody I think that would go a long way for the residents. Um, road design. Maybe we're too far down this road already, but uh, again, I want to advocate for curbs with the Cape Seal. Um, my understanding from our previous discussions is that a lot of the safety enhancements that we'd all really like to see aren't really possible because they'll move, shift, or crumble without the presence of curbs on the road. Uh, we do have plenty of roads that go from no curb to curb right in the middle of the street in our neighborhood. So, I know we're a separate project and would like that to be at least considered. Uh cost structure, as my neighbor mentioned, um the 50/50 split is hopefully what we're pursuing or perhaps something, you know, better with the uh additional funds. Um one thing I did want to mention that I only mentioned maybe a year or two ago.

Um equity within the neighborhood. So, really important point. You know, we have several of our neighbors who face an extremely high bill for this work relative to the rest of us who have a simple 58 or 60 foot frontage. Um, and if there were enhancements that could be made, such as in introduction of curbs, um, and we could do something like, you know, spreading the cost of those corner residences to those of us who just have straight frontage. Um, again, I only speak for myself, but I would be more than willing to take on a small additional burden to have better infrastructure, safer infrastructure on my street. I plan to be there a long time. Um, so again, I only speaking for myself, but my neighbors I've talked to, we are committed to working collaboratively with the commission and all those involved. Um, but also want to be clear, we're all engaged. We're paying attention. Uh, and we will, you know, be present to to ensure that, uh, things are moving along and that our voices are heard. And as always, I thank you all for your time and consideration tonight. Thank you.

Thanks. Thank you very much.

Hi, Sally Swift, 541 Wimbledon. And we are not part of phase one. We are part of phase two, but we have half of our road ripped up, and we're not going to get paved until phase two. The dust and dirt and mud is unbelievable. So, I wondering if the city could do something about applying a material that would keep that mess down. Uh secondly, it sounds like uh some of my questions have been answered here in terms of the construction company for phase two. Um my husband's car was also damaged due to safety issues from um the construction company that would put up the high sign without sandbags and it fell during a heavy windstorm and damaged his car. Um the other comment is I heard that Phase two is not out for bid yet, but yet it sounds like you've selected someone. I I don't know if anybody can answer that right now. I don't want to waste my time.

I believe that is the case. The bid has gone out, but not but not selected. No, it's been selected. Oh, okay. So, it is at England company. Okay. Hasn't been awarded yet. The commission has to do that.

Okay. I just implore you not to have the construction start in September. Please, if there's a hiccup, then wait till next year. Thank you on that aspect. Uh I concur with my neighbors regarding the money issue and um everything that they had to say. So I won't repeat on that. Um and really I think that's about it. Thank you very much and what you can do to help me. Oh, there is one more thing. I saw the preliminary road uh design for phase two impacting just my I believe just my frontage and I've been working with the city engineer but for many months I have yet to hear any kind of response regarding the traffic setting that I found on one of the designs which was plopped right in the middle of the frontage of our house. It's very upsetting. So, I'm hopeful that there is a change and there won't be a sign destroying our view and eliminating parking in front of our house. So, with that, thank you.

Mark, did you understand? I did. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Any other comments? Anyone online? Uh, nobody online. If you're online, raise your hand. Use the raise your hand function. Oh, one. Miss Barrett. Yes. Um I'm actually calling in to give a compliment um to all of you. And first I want to say that I am a 30 plus year resident of Birmingham and I have voted for each of you. Um and but I'm also a taxpayer. When I watched the Saturday budget presentation, I was delighted because there were so many pointed and direct questions, if not a little bit frustrated um because I've many people have lamented this for years. The numbers don't add up. You can't go to the audit financials. You can't go to um open gov nor the budget presentation. Nothing ever adds up. There's so many um ledger charges that it it doesn't even make sense. And I'm a pretty astute with math. I'm not a CPA, but I did have a professional role um reading financial statements. And um this is one of the least transparent um from a open uh you know, governments that I've ever seen. So, I applaud each of you for asking my questions and I look forward to uh monumental improvements in the uh presentation and transparency. Thanks.

Thank you. Uh Danny Hill.

Yeah. Hi, Danny Hill. 282 Wimbledon. Um so I am right in the middle of uh phase one Wimbledon. Um top to bottom, this entire saga on Wimbledon has been a complete joke for the last nearly two years. Um beginning with the issues that we had uh trying to lobby as a neighborhood for the lower cost split, the negativity that was met by several commissioners, the issues that were had, the bickering that we've seen in the last few meetings that existed between commissioners and residents. As some raise, this project has been going on since September, since August. We are now on month nine of West Wimble of Wimbledon phase 1. It's been a ridiculous project for all of us that live here. We have dirt all over our houses. Our vehicles are constantly being damaged. We are not able to walk our kids down the street. We have no sidewalks. Everything is completely gravel. The street is completely gravel. It floods. It's It's got major potholes and serious issues. and we have no answers from anyone in the city. We approach commissioners and we're met with with nothing if not disdain. Uh we speak with people who are working the street who give no answers to us either. And now engineering is telling us and city planning is telling us that they're sorry and there's nothing that can be done. And I believe that that's incorrect. I think there's many things that the city can do in this case to give more breaks to the residents who have had to endure this process. Now, we sit here in April. Today, there was no one on the street. We can look at 65 degree weather over and over and over and over again, and we're told that machines are broken. All the machines broke down at once. Is that what we're led to believe? The the city has made a complete mockery out of the residents here in this neighborhood. and now we're without our park because you've knocked down our park and haven't built anything up as things sit in bins for several several months laying there while our

kids aren't able to walk or ride down the street. They're not able to go to a park. Commissioner Cole said at the beginning of this meeting that Birmingham is the envy of of other neighborhoods. You should hear what people in other cities are saying about Birmingham, saying about Wimbledon as they drive by it, saying about our parks. It's not a positive process and we need to do better and we want answers as residents as to how this is going to be fixed. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hill, sir.

Kent Fairless, 323 Wimbledon. Uh Danny, you captured a lot of the comments I was going to make, but I guess in the last two weeks, we've seen very little action, very little work being done on the road, and I heard from I think Mark, you said that you're working on it. So, what's happened in the last two weeks? Why aren't they out there working on the road? They've indicated to us that it's an there was an equipment issue and that's why that work that work stopped for two weeks. Well, my understanding is uh Mark, you can correct me if I'm wrong. I believe work started last uh Monday and Tuesday and then came to a stop and then hopefully we were hoping that they would work would resume today, but obviously based on what I'm hearing, it did not.

They did not. And you said you hope to have the road completed by the end of spring. Is that Can you give me a date on that? Well, in the spring would be by mid June. Mid June. Okay. Thank you. Y

Hi, Cliff Raer, 541 Wimbledon. Uh my wife has already uh given our comments, but one thing occurred to me that uh I think should be brought up. uh in consideration of the next phase of Wimbledon part two as well as all of the adjacent and adjoining roads north which are in subsequent phases. uh the logistics of the traffic uh uh uh that the uh contractors use uh these double haulers full of uh dirt uh every manner of truck you can possibly imagine in addition to the normal traffic because the road although the signs are up the road is basically open uh uh as long as you willing to uh test the gravel part of it. So, uh, the I where we are on Wibbleton right at Oxford, uh, I can only imagine that we're looking for f forward to five years of this turmoil to get the project done and uh the logistics of where these trucks go, how they traverse through the city uh, and how they traverse specifically around the construction construction area and adjacent properties uh I think is one of the things that needs additional attention for the next phase. Thank you.

Thank you. I see the city deputy city engineer nodding his head in agreement. Okay. Uh public comment coming to a close. If anyone online wants to make a couple public comment, please use the raise your hand function. Anyone else in the room? Okay, we're going to cl approach, please.

I want to make sure I have the timing right and I don't want to lose my opportunity. Um, is this the time of the meeting where we comment on the short-term rental? No. Okay. However, how uh I'd like to see a show of hands. How many people are here for the short-term rental discussion? Okay. I'd like a motion from the commission to move that uh discussion forward. I would I'd like to make a motion to move item 8 number two to the head of the new business 8A and everything else will be subsequent to

I'm looking for a motion to move that up to right now prior to consent agenda. Can I get that motion? Yes. Thank you. Can we move the motion to discuss short-term rentals up above item number five? Five being consent. Second. Five being consent agenda. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I Okay, so we're going to start. We're going to move on to that item. And I think uh we want to hear from the city attorney. That's correct.

Yes. Commissioners, at the last meeting, you asked us to look into short-term rentals to see what we could do now. And we did. Uh we met with the building official as well as the city manager's office as well as the planning department. And we took into consideration the comments that were received from citizens. And we also reviewed the neighboring uh the surrounding areas. We reviewed Ann Arbor. We reviewed basically to be honest any city that was brought up in any meeting. Um I reviewed all the prior meetings and the discussions and the public comments. Um and we have taken all of that into account to try to see what the best way to tackle the um issue or to examine it further. Based on all of that, um it is our recommendation and before you today is a rental property resolution. Um what we're asking is for the commission to consider putting into place a moratorum. Um this would be a small halt or temporary stay to rental licenses for the next six months. Um, it would allow the renewal of rental licenses that are for greater than 30 days. Um, however, it would not allow any new licenses that would be less than 30 days to or applications for those. Um, again, it's a moratorum. It's not a ban at this time, but it's an opportunity then for the planning board to receive direction from the city uh to examine the many facets that are involved with rental properties. Um there are very many different um

durations that can be looked at. There are zoning requirements. There's density that can be examined. there's uh if there's going to be allowed special exemptions. There are so many different facets that if we were to rush to a decision in the vacuum that we're in right now, we would miss the bigger picture and the opportunity to really do something for the city and move it forward. Um so again, the the moratorum would be in place. It would protect and um limit any new shortterm rentals. Um, and again allow the planning board to really dive in and investigate, research, take into consideration the the community response, allow us to interject as much as they'll allow us to, although it's they're they're a separate entity from the city. Um, but I I think that now is the time to do that and I think the planning board is the right place for it to go. Can I ask you some tough questions?

Let's go. Why can't you just ban them outright tonight? The Nope. I'm sorry. No, please. It's inappropriate. If with a ban, immediate ban, uh the subject the city would be subject to li liability. Um Dearbornne, the city of Dearbornne did a direct ban. In fact, they gave their residents six months notice that they were going to do it and now they're facing litigation. A direct ban would impact the pre we we gave licenses. We can't retroactively take those licenses back. We can't revoke licenses unless under what circumstances can we

any violation of the code. Our building official can examine and and revoke a license that he feels is necessary. And we've re I believe Mr. result. He is present today as well. Um we have gone through that code. He understands that he can revoke these licenses. Our police are on board. They are going to um patrol the areas. I encourage the neighbors to report any issues that they have. I encourage them to make the police reports. Um any violation of the code can result in a revocation of a rental license. So, if someone has a short-term rental license right now, they can continue to do short-term rentals.

Well, let me correct you. Right now, it's just a rental license. Okay. So, but yes, if they have a rental license now, it would continue and they would be permitted to rent short term. They would be permitted to rent short term. Are there is there anything we can do to further regulate those uh any rules new rules we can impose to further regulate them during this six-month period?

So the rules that are in place now include noise, it includes parking, it includes any violation, any disturbance, um any disorderly conduct, any really any issues. if there's any violation, the code allows for revocation. Um, so I again, so you're you're saying the the rules we have in place uh if more rigorously reported and enforced uh would would constitute doing a little bit more doing more.

I believe so. I believe that the I know the police chief is on board uh to support the citizens as always and um really patrol these areas. We have a list of where the rentals are where they currently exist. Um so they've all and again these are rentals that are licensed with the city. I can that list be made public or it technically I mean most of it's already public. They're all online. So, somebody right in in somebody in the community wanted to uh they can discover if their neighbor is a licensed rental. Sure. Okay.

Um, Commissioner Cole, question for you. So, aren't they already breaking ordinances because they're using a residential space for commercial purposes? Isn't that breaking the ordinance? No, because they have a license to rent. So, we've we've given permission to break our own ordinances?

Not necessarily. So, we gave permission for rental property. Now, not until July did the Supreme Court support that short-term rental is a commercial enterprise. So, that's July of last year. So, all of the rental licenses that have been awarded were awarded prior to and I I guess the commissioner's last comments were all pre that Supreme Court ruling.

My second question, because I just don't want the can to be kicked down the road on this, can we get a date that we'll have a recommendation back from the planning committee because otherwise these things get kicked down the road and kicked down the road and kicked down the road? There is a six-month limit on this moratorum. Um, I think it's important to not rush a quick decision on this. I think it's important for them to evaluate all the facets again and look at all the communities and get that citizen impact. If they if they're missing in input from the citizens, then it's a waste of time alto together. Um, but I I think it's important to to do it fully and really dive in and make sure that they have all the facts and circumstances in front of them. Is Mr. Dewee here?

He is. I know he's online. He's not. Uh, Nick, if you're listening and you could come up uh and join the conversation. We'd appreciate it. Uh, Commissioner Aras, uh, um, Mr. Dewee, we have a question for you regarding planning board priorities. We are aware that you are working diligently on the the uh zoning ordinance rewrite and that is a high priority. Correct. Mhm. Uh do you have any other high priorities uh for this year and for the next what uh six months? Well, yes, that that is our number one priority for the next 18 months.

Okay. It's a quite a heavy lift. So, if the commission were to tell you you have a new high priority, highest priority, would that be something you could accommodate? In other words, the this short-term rental issue. So, of course, I mean, okay, sort of the illusion of choice. I kid a little, but of course, we we're public servants. We work for the residents of Birmingham. You represent the residents of Birmingham. All that. Okay, Commissioner. Uh, I think who you two can duke it out. Who had their hand up first?

So, if either of you would like to comment, it's my understanding from reading that July 9th, 2025 uh Michigan Supreme Court uh decision that um the Supreme Court did for the first time. So, this is a tool we did not have the last time we discussed short-term rentals. For the first time, they they said that yes, they found that short-term rentals were a commercial use. And that means that a city can regulate commercial uses in residential areas via zoning. So, anything we want to regulate via zoning, we are required to send to our planning board. So, it's not we're just deciding to do this. We are required to send it to the planning board so that we can determine how to best regulate these via zoning.

That's correct. And are there public hearings required for uh for this sort of thing? It's all open meetings. No, I understand they're open meetings, but sometimes when they're public hearings or that they tend to delay things a little bit. No. No. Okay. So, no public hearings? No. I had another question following up on what we already talked about. Is uh Mr. Zilki in the room? You you uh you run the code enforcement, right? Correct. Okay. So, are we talking about both police and code enforcement when we talk about stepping up uh observation, let's say?

Yes. So, the revion of the one incident, it was revoked and in the Munich code, the way it's set up, it was revoked based on breach of pre uh breach of peace. So that's why that one one rental was revoked at that point and and moving forward that's where this is sitting at now with uh the request for tonight. But but do you agree with the attorney's assertion that any violation of uh the law? the law, the code, anything that's

the law, the code, the rules that they get when they get the license. Any infraction can result in a revocation. Absolutely. So, I want to be clear, the code incorporates parts of the law and that's where Yes. Right. and you have the manpower to do everything you already do and also uh be more diligent in monitoring short-term rentals. Absolutely. Okay, Commissioner Hay.

Uh yeah. Okay. A couple of things. Um, first of all, if we rep prioritize the planning board, that's going to probably cost us money because we've got an external consultant that we're already engaged with a timeline and a process. So, I just don't know if Nick's got any thoughts about that. He obviously can't make any financial impact, but we need to be aware of that. Just an observation. I don't know if you need to say anything to it, Nick. The short answer is no. I don't think it would cost us any additional money. We wouldn't change their scope. We would probably do it internally. So we would kind of absorb this work. Staff would absorb this work. We would work together with Jeff and his team. Of course, legal management. Okay. Bring it to them as a separate issue. All right. That's fine. Just wanted to check.

Um when it comes to compliance, so I used to be a rental landlord in Ferndale. I think the inspector was not having a good day because I was denied a rental permit for not having a cover on the floor drain in the basement. But that's how small it gets. That little 4-in plastic cover, that was it. I wasn't given a permit. We need to be that particular because I lived through it. So that's just one observation. Now I understand the concept here. You talked about a lot of these permits being pre was it June or July. How many is that?

How many permits? How many have fell into that prejune or July time frame? Because within the next 6 months, how many of those permits are expiring? So the permits run from April or March to April. Yeah. April 15th to April 15th. So effectively what you're saying is we just renew them all. Just renew them all. The moratorium has no teeth. Nope. or every single one of them expires. It does have teeth. Well, if we just renewed them all, then we're not going to There are no new renewals and there are plenty of rentals who are running without a rental license right now. Well, that's a whole different situation. That's correct. But they cannot come in and ask for rental licenses.

That's outside the scope of that particular that's that's a separate issue. And I know that the um the short-term rental companies do not view that. Well, I got that straight from the mouth of one of their former attorneys. Um, I do have some concerns because I look at that on the wall that's been there for several years and the very last sentence in it create community risk reduction policies and programs that emphasize citywide increased safety and security. So, I kind of have a uh a slight conscience issue here. The the proposal, while I understand where you're coming from, it's not a zero risk. And that's the conscience part for me. I struggle with that because if it's not a zero, then there is still an opportunity. And where I grew up, they said trouble comes in threes. We haven't had three yet.

So, that's why I have a concern and some reservation. I just wanted to say that Commissioner Host. Uh I'm not going to comment yet. I assume sometime we're going to comment, but I have a question for Mr. Zilki and maybe for Tracy as well. Uh we have X number of rental licenses. Do we know of any of them that are really shortterm? I mean, do we have a catalog or uh a category for overnight rentals versus long-term rentals?

As the agreement are set up, they are a rental agreement and it doesn't distinguish if it's short-term currently, not knowing exactly how many. Um, it's just set up as a rental and it's not really regulated at that point. Hey, you issue the rental license, but you actually don't know what they're going to do. Correct. They're going to rent. They have the option of what they how they render. We don't have the we don't know. We don't differentiate between a long-term and a short term, but we will going forward with the moratorum. Correct. And we are

uh scanning these websites. Correct. and we are identifying the ones that are short-term rentals and correlating that with our licensing. I think code enforcement has already started that correlation. Okay. So, if we don't have the list now, we will have it soon. Correct. Correct. Thank you.

Go ahead, Commissioner. you. No, I don't have any more questions, but I'm sure waiting for when we can have comments and discussion, but go ahead. We are commenting and discussing. So, I just wanted to to uh have the city attorney help walk me through exactly what's going on here. So, it sounds like what we're saying is if we try to sort of just pass an ordinance that says no short-term rentals, this is approximately what Dearborn did and it will end up being uninforceable. Is that kind of is that our position right now?

The the problem if we were to do something like that one, we would miss the the opportunity to really focus on all the different facets that could be included in that ordinance. Right? So, you're missing out on opportunities for further regulation or further inspection of of that regulation. I I mean the best place to do it and as Mayor Pro Tim Long stated is the right place to do it is the planning board. That's where it needs to go because we are actually looking at the zoning of this.

Yeah. Well, that's that's what I was asking about is I I kind of what I had imagined in my head at least and this is why I want to clarify is that what the Supreme Court case said is that well a short-term rental is a commercial use and that is a specific kind of land use and can therefore be regulated but only through zoning and it is state law that if we're going to regulate something through zoning it needs to go through our statemandated planning board. And so any other attempts to regulate them will somehow run a foul of other state law. Is that kind of and that is why Dearbornne is in court now is because

they or perhaps not. But we are afraid that we will end up in court if we do not. So you're saying this is the process. This is the best process for us to have an enforcable regulation of short-term rentals. That's correct.

Okay. Trying to think of a midpoint. Um, we have to go through the planning. Clear. No questions. Um, I know I read through the zoning the way I read it, but the planning has to read it. It's they have to give us recommendation. Okay. Clear. Like I mentioned, there's a conscience thing about when there's a less than or a greater than zero risk. The conscience side of it for me is if something happens then that was my choice and I have to go look at my family and say I'm sorry but you know I can't guarantee your safety and that's my conscience issue. Is there a way that we can put a six-month moratorum to allow the planning board to do their homework whereby not only are there no new licenses issued, but we have a six-month pause on operation of short-term rentals while the zoning is reviewed to find out how or if they will be allowed in the future. So, it's not banning them. It's just saying you are not allowed to operate until we understand the rules under which they may or may not be allowed to operate because that to me gives us a takes to zero risk point. It's not a ban and it does put it through the statemandated process of planning board review. Is that a middle point that we can come to?

Unfortunately, that would be a retro application of the law. So, we've already granted rental licenses. So we would be taking back our license for an arbitrary for a reason that is not pro that is not allowed pursuant to our code. So right now we can revoke a license if they violate any anything in the code or by a state law that's incorporated in the code. But if we take away their license for no reason that's listed in our code then we have a problem. So, is Chief Guru in here? I thought I saw him. Yes. Sorry. Sorry.

Want to ask a question. Chief Guey, are you in the room? There he is. Commissioner Commissioner Cole has a question, please. Yes. So, I've spoken to and met with a number of residents about this topic in the past two weeks. Do we know on complaints? And this Tracy, this is you too. If we've had complaints for noise or lewd behavior, would that be a violation of an ordinance where we could revoke it? We have noise ordinances. So, yes, if it's a violation.

So, can we go back and do you know who those are? So, one of the things we have done recently, we haven't completed our report, but we've gone back over the last couple years looking at anytime the word Airbnb or VBO shows up in a police report. And then we're going to provide that list of addresses to the building department to confirm whether or not these are actually on his list and licensed through the city or if they're operating without a license. Um, but to your point, if we go out to a call and it's a noise issue, um, it's not something we always ask, are you running this house or is this your house? Uh, but we certainly can issue violations uh through the the noise ordinance or whatever it may be that they're doing if we find a violation. Sometimes if we know it is a Airbnb or if it is a construction site, stuff like that, we do refer those and give copies of our report to community development or the building department to follow up on as well.

Okay. Thank you. That answer your question. Good. Okay. I definitely want to we want to hear from the public. However, it's important that we know what we're talking about. So, I would like to request a motion and uh and then we'll know exactly what we're arguing either in favor of or against. Would any commissioner like to make a motion? I can make the motion. Okay. All right. Let me know if I messed this up, Tracy. Okay. Uh whereas the city of Birmingham what Kevin I may be able to save you some time. Oh really?

So if you're going to I was going to read the whole kitten kaboodleoodle page 687 say make motion adopting the attached resolution in the Well I think it's important for the public to know what's in I'm happy to read the whole thing. Fire away. Let's go. Pay attention. We're only reading it once. Is it in the printed agenda? Just remember who did that for you though. All right. Thank you. I will not forget. All right. Staff, not to the first warehouse. Right at the very beginning. Start at the beginning.

City of Birmingham rental property resolution at a regular meeting of this. Well, I'm going to need to know who seconds it, but at a regular meeting of the city commission for the city of Birmingham, Oakland County, Michigan, held in the city commission chambers at 151 Martin Street, Birmingham, Michigan 4809 at 7 p.m. on April 27th, 2026. The following resolution was offered by Commissioner Kuzlowski and second

seconded by Mayor Prom Long. Whereas the city of Birmingham regulates rental properties in the city of Birmingham pursuant to city code chapter 22 community development regulations article 6 property maintenance code division 4 license for rented leased premises section 22331 at sequence. And whereas since at least 2011, all rental property, regardless of length of lease, requires the property owner to apply for and receive a temporary or annual license for such rental or leasing of their property. And whereas the regulations for all rental property is enumerated in section 22-331 through section 22-345 which includes the ability to revoke such annual license for violating any terms of the rental ordinance or for violation of any other ordinances impacting the property. And whereas the common term of short-term rental which is considered a commercial use and which is commonly defined as the offer of possession or occupancy of a dwelling for less than 30 days and whereas on July 9th 2025 in Melvin R. Berlin revocable trust at all v Ruben atall 22 NW3D 531 2025. The Michigan Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the court of appeals holding that the use of rental prop of residential property for even short-term rentals constitutes a commercial use rather than a residential use. Whereas the prohibition against rentals of shortterm rentals has been discussed in the past as we awaited action of proposed state law changes and a pending Supreme Court ruling regarding regulations involving short-term rentals. Whereas the city of Birmingham has experienced an emergent and tragic situation with a short-term rental property in the city that has had a drastic impact on the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of the city

of Birmingham. And whereas the city of Birmingham with due diligence and swiftness will assess, review, and determine all rental premises regulations further. And whereas the city commission will utilize its legislative powers to place a six-month moratorum, which is a temporary suspension, halt, and or pause to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of the city of Birmingham of the specific activity of providing either a temporary or annual license for renting or leasing or of offering possession or occupancy of a dwelling in the city of Birmingham for 30 days or less in which the owner does not reside in that property. and offering the possession or occupancy to another who is not the legal owner of of record pursuant to a written or oral agreement. And whereas the city commission will direct the Birmingham city planning board to review the current general and zoning ordinances and determine if all rental premises should be regulated and controlled by the Birmingham zoning ordinance, including all necessary regulations to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of Birmingham residents. And whereas the planning board should review how best to how best to protect the character and peace of the city's neighborhoods by determining if the city should at a minimum regulate and establish a minimum rental occupancy of 30 days. Evaluate the impact of rental housing density. Provide key contacts online for community complaints and enforcement actions. Enforce behavior and nuisance rules with the hosts being held responsible for noise, parking, and property maintenance. Establish inspection and enforcement protocols that carry penalties with fees for each complaint and consequences that can lead to revoking licenses as part of the zoning ordinances. Therefore, let it be resolved that no person now and until the moratorum is lifted apply to receive a rental license to rent, lease or offer to rent or lease a dwelling for

possession or occupancy for less than 30 days to a person who is not the legal owner of record pursuant to a written or oral agreement. and further resolved that the building department while under a six-month moratorum shall not grant either a temporary or annual license for rental or leasing of property or premises for less than 30 days and further resolved that the planning board of the city of Birmingham shall review analyze and determine all appropriate changes to the zoning ordinance return a draft ordinance and recommendations to the city commission forth with Thank you. So you've seconded it. Okay. So we now have the motion and second. Uh is it the pleasure of the commission to hear from the public at this point?

Yes. Okay. If you have a comment, please. How many people intend to comment? Okay. Uh try to keep it to two minutes. If you go to three, uh that's fine, but we'll cut you off at three and uh we'll have the timer up there. Um, I'm David Wyn. I sent all of you an email earlier today. Um, your city of residence, please. I'm a city of Birmingham. I'm 1457 East Lincoln Street. Thank you.

And, um, uh, my car got shot up that night. Eight bullet holes. Uh, it was actually 6:15 in the morning on Saturday. Luckily, no one was out on the street, which normally people are. Okay. The house in question of the incident is 200 yards from a school. I appreciate exactly what you're saying. I think the moratorum does not fully protect us. We have complained about that house since it started six months ago. About every week to two weeks there's been noise complaints, parties all night. Still the license continued. So I need to trust that you're truly going to shut these down when they have one incident right now. I don't have that trust cuz we've called multiple houses on our street. So we are lucky nobody got killed. lucky, but you're stretching your luck if you don't get something done quickly here. 6 months is too long. You can think about it all you want. Ann Arbor's done it. I don't care if they get sued. I don't care if we get sued. Get sued. If someone doesn't die, it's worth it. go through the zoning, get sued today. Who cares? It won't get to court until after the zoning's done. Don't be afraid.

Thank you, sir.

Hi, Eve Pikman. Uh 2355 Pemrook. That's Pemrook Manor, Pemrook Park. I've emailed a few of you over the last two weeks regarding this. Um, I'm pleased to hear about a 30-day moratorum. However, that doesn't address some of the problems. I emailed you specifically, uh, Mayor Baller, about the Grenic software that I was told about by a mayor of a neighboring community that goes out on sites like apartments.com and Verbbo and Zillow and Airbnb and looks for illegal rentals. Last time we were here, the city attorney said, "All the rental properties are registered with us." I know one of the short-term rentals I saw in my own neighborhood. It would not have been registered as a rental property. It is someone's primary residence. They're renting out a basement bedroom and bathroom with a single point of egress in violation of state fire code. By using the Granica software, you will free up Mr. Silki's department because AI and as much as I hate AI, AI will be doing the leg work for him on the front end. So his little code enforcement vans and Ford fusions will know actually where to stop. So that's point number one. Point number two, there are illegal rentals out there that slip through the cracks of what you've just said. Point number three, 30-day moratorum doesn't solve the other problem I brought to your attention. And as this gentleman mentioned, there are schools in close proximity and parks to a number of these short-term rentals. I misspoke last time. The city is required or law enforcement is required to notify residents if there is a registered sex offender at an address for more than 30 days. For more than 3 days, a registered sex offender is required to self-report to the city like that's going to happen. So having these short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods, whether it's during the school year or during the summer where the kids are still using

the playgrounds and the parks, you are jeopardizing children's safety by not further expanding your moratorum. That's a huge concern and that was what I really wanted to talk to you about today. Granica software is still cheaper than using city resources like employees to scroll through umpteen websites looking for uh rentals. And then the last thing I wanted to talk about last week just went on the 24th Downtown Magazine talked about a vast increase in the number of calls to police regarding who knows what. I'd be dying to hear from the police chief what percentage of those calls have to do with short-term rentals.

Stick around. he'll be addressing. So that will hopefully be a report we see. But please look into the granus software. I think it will lighten the load on both law enforcement, code enforcement, the city clerk. You had CCed her on the email, but this is a real concern. But the 30-day moratorum does not address the situation with registered sex offenders in our neighborhoods. And this is a real concern. I know I don't have kids, but I see kids riding their bikes by my house, walking by my house, and summer's almost here. This is untenable. Okay, we've already had a shooting. We don't need to go any further than that. It's not a 30-day moratorum. It's a 180day

180day mortorium to end up with a 30-day because the difference between under 30, you're a guest over 30, you're a tenant. Trust me, I know more about short-term rentals than anyone who's never stayed in one needs to know. And I know that Airbnb customer service for both res both guests and property owners leaves a lot to be desired and that's very ameliative language there. Okay. Okay. So I want to make sure I'm clear with you and everybody else who comes up. Uh what I hear I didn't hear you say you were either in favor of the motion or against the motion.

I am in favor of outright banning them. I understand that the city of Dearbornne is being sued because of it. I understand there's a legal process. I also understand there's right, there's wrong, and there's legal. But those of us who are homeowners in the community have a vested interest. Thank you. So, you're you're against the or the motion? You're speaking against the motion? I am. Or are you speaking in favor of the motion? Getting them out of something additional. I am all for doing whatever we have to do to get these things out of here. Okay. Thank you. I hear you. Thank you. We hear you.

Good evening.

Hi, I'm Colonel, retired Chris Cardin. I co-own 1475 East Lincoln right next to Dave's house. I have a handicapped son that lives there. He owns the house. For two and a half years, I ran all the counterterrorism operations in central Europe as part of my army duties. This gentleman is absolutely correct. You have a problem that is real. And if my experience can't tell you that, nobody's can. You had an incident with machine guns. I used to sleep very little for 2 and 1/2 years being responsible for 248 military installations knowing what could happen if one of those things went wrong. And it did. In this city, there is a zoning law that says these are single family houses if I'm not correct.

Excuse me, sir. Excuse me. Could you take your conversation outside, please? Thank you. I want to focus on you and you alone. Sorry. Isn't there a zoning law that says these are single family houses zone one? I asked. Oh, I'm sorry. It is residential zoning.

I live in Palmer Woods in Detroit, a much safer area right now. Birmingham. We had the same problem. We just imposed the zoning law and we don't have any short-term rentals in our neighborhood. I don't understand what the problem is with the zoning law that says you can't enforce it. Worked in Detroit, no places. And I'm not a lawyer, you know. I I sit on the other side of the guns. But the fact is, if you have a zoning law that says it has to be an own occupied house or a long-term rental, you should be able to correct it right away. And I don't believe that waiting another six months is a smart thing to do because I've seen these patterns before and I see them in the Detroit area. I still do counterterrorism operations. You're dealing with a problem that is bigger than Birmingham. And if you don't solve it internally and with all the other communities in this area, you're going to see it get a lot worse. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. Uh Larry Ling on Bird Avenue. Uh, first of all, I wanted to commend the commission for what I see is a real sense of urgency in trying to deal with this. Um, and taking advantage of the fact now that the law has changed in the state of Michigan that should allow us to do something. I the concern about safety is obviously first and foremost right now given what just happened. But aside from that, I think just having short-term rentals, if you take it to his extreme, we basically live in a hotel and that is not the kind of community we want to live in. what we choose live in Birmingham because it's a nice community. You know your neighbors. You can walk. You feel comfortable. So, it's an additional reason to to look into exactly what you're doing. I do support the the uh to your answer your question. I do support the the motion that's been made. I wish it could be done sooner. I think I understand why it might not be prud to do that. If we could find a way to do it prudently and make it faster, I'd be all for it. I will offer by the way that I just anecdotal my brother lives there. But I know that Rancher Mirage in California also did this very same thing. Ended up took away all short-term rentals and they found a way to make it work. So just a data point as you're looking through it. Um yeah, I don't have anything against you. I know someone that runs these, you know, runs business like that. It's not a personal vendetta or anything like that. It's just it's not the kind of community I think we want to ultimately f sponsor. And of course, we need to deal with the safety issue. So I I thank you for that.

Thank you. Brian Gordon, uh, Brown Street. Um, I'm I think you're heading in the right direction for the mortorium. I think it's the sounds like it's the way to go. Um, I'm curious. I haven't heard if anybody's mentioned the number of rental licenses that there are in the city or an estimate and an estimate of how many we think are short-term rentals. How many people are affected? I don't know if we know that. Um I think we have an estimate. I I think the number of short-term rentals is around 100 slightly le rental total is just under 1600

1600 1600 license. So that's significant. Um I guess my uh question would be if the enforcing departments, police, code enforcement are going to be uh more in tune, more aggressive, whatever the word is. We're looking for capped uh you know drains in the basement or you know duplexes on the outside that don't have covers and all of these things. um citations will be written. Uh my question is what does the home what recourse does the homeowner have to correct the violation and then renew reinstate the license or is one strike you're out? Do they end up going taking them to court? Is it district court? Is it circuit court? I would do what what I'm curious about the process.

It would if their license is revoked then it goes before the housing board of appeals. Then from there it would go I believe to the court. So the housing board of appeals is a is a city a mun is municipal and then it would so is they would have to appeal it.

They would have the revocation. Well, I wouldn't, you know, I'm just speculating here, but if if that's your business and you're losing your business, you're probably going to take a shot at doing that. And I I think there's a chance that there's going to be not just the code enforcement and the planning commission and getting busy, but the housing board of appeals is going to be getting busy and the legal department's going to be getting busy because, you know, you're talking about, I don't know, of the hundred, you're probably going to be looking for violations on as many as you can. That's the point. and and so I just I think you need to be prepared for that. So, thank you. Thank you.

Hi. Um I live next to an Airbnb. Name and address, please.

My name is Donna Vorhees and I live on Wakefield Street and we've lived next to an Airbnb now for um approximately three to four years. We've lived in Birmingham for over 20 years and we love living here and we've noticed that the landlord is trying to on a continuum have long-term rentals. The character of the occupancy of those people is completely different from the influx, the constant transients and the unknowns of the short-term rental people. They're not all They're not all bad. In fact, they're great people, most of them. But we have had nudity. We've had lewd behavior. We have people peeing on our fence, peeing on our flowers in our garden after they get drunk. Our house has been filled with smoke and the firemen have had to come and move fire pits away from our property line. there's there's disrespect. So, I'm hoping that I understand the moratorum correctly and and so forgive me if I didn't get all of it. I just have a question.

I understand that the moratorum protects the city. I get what you're up against. It's latigious to just shut everybody down. The moratorum is going to serve to stop. It's going to cork any new business from a new creating a new short-term rental. Correct.

Correct. for the people who live next to the ones that are off that radar. Why can't the commissioners put your heads together with a lawyer and protect us by creating a scale of grievances where we can use the code of fire, police, lewd behavior, all of it, anything that is an infraction of the existing codes. Why can't you create something with immediacy during this interim process until an end point? Why can't you do something for us to escalate that process with grievances so that you can revoke a license so we don't have to wait till a body bag?

We're doing that tonight. Will you be able to? You'll just have to participate in the process like everyone else. and and you ask why can't we sit down with an attorney? That's what we're doing. She's the attorney. We're the commission. I appreciate you and that's my that's my question to the city. How can we we will ask that question for you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Appreciate it. Wakefield.

Hello, my name is uh Steve Sandy. I live on uh Suffield Avenue in Birmingham. I'm a resident of the city and I am probably uh the minority in the room tonight in more ways than one. Um, so when I I first heard of of this complaint, my heart sank because I knew exactly where we would end up. I've been a um landlord in the city of Birmingham for over seven years, and I've been a landlord, like you up and down the Woodward corridor for about 20 years. Uh when I came to this first meeting, I I I I sought out uh some of the neighbors that were impacted to find out exactly what was going on. And I was horrified to hear that since this uh short-term rental, the one in question, opened up at the beginning of the year, all the things that have happened, it I didn't think that that could happen in in Birmingham because in my experience, the guests that we have, they've been great um very educated, very articulate world travelers and people who actually add to the character of Birmingham. I was talking to actually one of the the neighbors and she said, "You know, we have had some good guests even, you know, one of the girls that I went to school with. She came back on on holiday. Where is someone when they leave Birmingham and they want to come back with their family? Where are they supposed to stay? In the Daxton, right, in the Townsen? Our our hotels are are not affordable for families. they are not. So

I was asked, how come Airbnb isn't involved? How come Airbnb doesn't seem to care? So I reached out to Airbnb and I sought an audience with uh the mayor, city manager, and I believe one of the city attorneys on Tuesday, April 21st. Now, the mayor and the city manager did not show up for that meeting. and the city attorney shut it down. So what we had proposed were ideas to solve some of the things that I heard complaints about to put in ideas that even with a moratorum the city can't do right away. Setting minimum stays, setting minimum booking ages, making sure that all the neighbors of abuing properties are noticed, having a 24/7 contact person, limiting occupancy to two people per bed, and have a good neighbor policy similar to what they do on construction sites, even though they don't follow it because I' I've been a victim of that as well. If you've been next, they put you no. Oh,

sir, your time is up. Okay. Uh, we will, this isn't the last time we're going to be discussing this. Okay.

Um, I would like to clarify for the public that Airbnb requested a meeting uh with me and the city manager and we set a time and we told uh them that we might be late. we would be in another meeting. Uh our city attorney arrived on time. It was a Zoom meeting and discovered for the first time we were not told that a a resident who is a landlord would be present. We were not prepared to engage in a discussion with you and uh she shut it down. Yes, she did. And correctly. and uh we showed up a few minutes later and we were informed of what had occurred. So uh we were happy to talk to uh Airbnb and uh we'd be happy to hear the recommendations that Airbnb has and we would even be willing to engage with you. But uh that was not appropriate. We were uh sort of ambushed I would say. So that's it.

That was not an ambush. That request came when I spoke to the neighbors. They said, "How come Airbnb?" I'm just telling you our point of view. Airbnb reached out to us. I got Airbnb involved to talk to them. Just so you know. Yeah. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. We didn't know that you were involved. Um, next. Hi, Kelly Klowski. Again, no relation to the commissioner. Nothing against him, just to clarify.

So, he doesn't have to, right? Uh, I live at 1376 East Lincoln in Birmingham. Um, and just briefly, I respectfully to my neighbor, the landlord, uh, I I would say that the interests and the safety of myself and my neighbors, my full-time resident neighbors, whether they're renting long-term or owning their homes, is something I prioritize over whether or not someone can find an affordable hotel room when they come to visit Birmingham. There are more affordable communities neighboring Birmingham. stay at a hotel in Troy, stay at a hotel in Royal Oak if you can't afford Birmingham. Um, to me, they are separate issues and I'm not concerned with the hotel issue because I think our residential safety is a a much more serious issue. Secondly, I I do want to challenge uh earlier in the meeting, it was mentioned multiple times that we don't want to rush. You all had the Michigan Supreme Court ruling in July of 2025. If this was a priority for this commission, if we were taking seriously the complaints that residents have filed for years, ourselves included, and we have used the word Airbnb in the complaint when we call the cops. So, it's in those records. If we had taken that seriously and prioritized it, you would have been waiting for that ruling to hit so that you could take action, so that this six-month consideration planning board exercise could have taken place last year and we would be so much further along in the process now. So, I appreciate that it might feel like we're rushing if we were previously ignoring, but as people who live across the street from an Airbnb and are flanked by the one where there was a shooting and another one owned by a property management company based in Ann Arbor, I can tell you that this was this has been a priority. This is not new and we're not asking you to rush. We're asking you to take responsibility. And just a quick note on my neighbors in the houses that are still operating as Airbnbs. The one across the street is owned by a 24year-old Wayne State Business School grad. More power to him. Love an entrepreneurial spirit spirit. The

property across the street from us is one of over 30 that he manages on Airbnb with four different co-hosts who are listed and are based in the Philippines. He himself is based in Clinton Township. So, this is not my neighbor in Birmingham, you know, trying to to save a couple extra bucks to send a kid to college. This is a full-on commercial enterprise operated by people who do not live in this community. For all I know, never stepped foot in this community. And the Airbnb down the street from us, owned by that Ann Arbor-based property management company, they manage 70 different properties. So, I just again want to make sure the commission really understands the profile of these kinds of properties. And yes, we may have some great actors. We may have the occasional lovely guests for a couple of nights, but we have called over and over. We have filed complaints about all of the things that code enforcement referenced about property maintenance, about parking, about noise, and yet that house across the street from us is still operating as an Airbnb. So, I I look forward to increased enforcement and more rigid enforcement. Can't say I'm super confident that it's actually going to happen, but I guess we'll stay tuned and we will certainly continue to be at meetings. Thank you very much. So, I'm Eric Coler. You probably remember us the deal duo last uh meeting. Um so, Kelly's my better half. Well spoke, much better spoken than I am. Um but I would just add that um you know, ask yourselves who you're prioritizing here. Are you prioritizing business um in the residential area or your actual residents? Um I purchased this home in 2000. Um I've seen that area develop as I mentioned last meeting. I didn't choose to have an Airbnb be opened up across the street. Nobody called and knocked on my door and asked me if this was okay. Uh it's just something that we've been to deal with now. Um we do make our calls. Again, last time I questioned you how you are alerted or if you get any sort of summary about these reports, it seems that that's not the case unless something dramatic happens.

Sounds like you're doing that now. It's great. Um but again, like Kelly mentioned, uh I think 6 months is too long. uh you guys have had the time. Uh this should be a priority. Um when I have a tight timeline at at work, my boss tells me, "Can you do it faster?" So I think you could do it faster. Um so please see what you can do to to do it faster. And please uh think about who you're doing this for and and who you want um to represent your community and what you want to uh uh instill as sort of your values and and what you're trying to accomplish here.

Thank you. Hi there. My name is Cassie Soilton. Um, first I I just want to acknowledge everyone in this room. I understand the severity and I'm so sorry for all the things that have happened. It sounds like one Airbnb or a few Airbnbs. Um, I own and operate an Airbnb that I live in. I live in the home and and have this rental. So essentially what I'm doing in my space is running my home out four times a year to PGA tournament people who are playing in them players that are coming for the Cranbook tennis match for families that are coming back for funerals and have nine people whatever that they're bringing to the house. So last year, I think we had 24 nights stay. And of course, it's my space, right? This is my home. Everything's in it. My neighbors hardly know it exists. I mean, they they often will tell me, "I don't even know there's an Airbnb on this property." So, I'm here to offer a different perspective and the fact that they're not we're not all bad actors. And I totally I would be so angry if these things were happening on my street. And I understand the safety concerns and I want as much as anyone to avoid those. But I'm hoping that we can look at a way where people who are doing it like I am, which is, you know, to help with rising tax costs and the re keeping up of a home that's 120 years old here in Birmingham, that we can try to figure out a way to make everything work for everyone. And that is keeping the city safe for myself included. that's allowing those of us who want to take advantage of probably you guys all know what this is but the Augusta rule where you can rent your home out for 14 days tax-free and I mean if you go to 15

days you can no longer get that tax break so I mean this is a really big deal for someone who can make 25 $30,000 off their home because there's some tournaments locally so there's there's a lot more at play and I understand everybody's need and want to have this happen quickly but I also really am just voicing the desire to also look at it more strategically. And for those of us that are doing the right thing and being very careful, of course, if someone if I'm allowing someone into my home, there are ways to screen. I don't let anyone in who has less than 10 visits. I don't let anyone in who even has a fourstar rating. I'm not going to let them on in my home access to all my stuff. Right? So, there are ways to screen appropriate guests. There are ways to limit problems in the neighborhood. I mean, there there's a lot more that can be done when people aren't owning 50 properties like the last person was up here talking about. I just wanted to also show that side of things because there's there's a lot more to this story than this one incident, this one bad actor or these five or 10 bad actors that were out there.

Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening. I'm Paul R. I live here in town Birmingham. You know, you can pass all the code you want, but it won't amount to much. You have to be able to enforce it. And we have a problem with code enforcement. We don't have enough inspectors. They're not properly trained. I'm not criticizing them. I'm talking about the lack of resources afforded to the function getting it done. If you just look at construction, new construction, and compliance with code, you know what I'm talking about. And now what we're doing is we're asking a group of people, our enforcement people, many of whom are probably not even full-time. The part, you know, I'm I'm speaking without full knowledge, but a lot of our code enforcement people are, I believe, are part-time. We just haven't committed the resources to it. So, you know, a lot of what we're talking about really isn't going to amount to much. and we're hearing about that right now. I'd also like to talk a little bit about context. You know, right now there is uh still in uh discussion House Bill 4722 which seeks to stop you from regulating short-term rentals in great measure. Well, if that is not bad enough, uh, alternative dwelling units, which could be used as short-term rentals, that's

being considered right now in our zoning. Uh, so the perfect storm might be an ADU next to you as a short-term rental. Now, I just heard a uh a number which I'm still trying to wrap my mind around and I think it was 1600 rentals in Birmingham. Is that correct? Just under. That includes apartments and everything.

Uh that's 17% of all of the dwellings in Birmingham. That's 17%. That's not a small number. There's only 9,200 uh homes in Birmingham. Also in broader context, there is uh currently under discussion bills to restrict your ability. House Bill 5529-5531 is going to 32 is going to restrict your ability under home rule to regulate zoning on your own. So getting out ahead of this would be great. Let me suggest this. If you're going to put the planning board to task to do this, have attorneys present at all times, advising them so we can get this process correct and accelerated in the process. Yeah, it's been a little time for buyer howlet, but you know, it's money well spent.

Thank you. Probably under our retainer.

Anyone else? Hi.

Hi. I'm Dana Woodburn, lifetime resident, uh 808 and street. It looks like I'm not the uh odd man out here. I've been operating an Airbnb for over 12 years without a single bad experience. My current guest is from China. My previous guest from was from Korea. I have had guests from over 14 countries. All these guests have had the pleasure of enjoying our beautiful city and spending their money here while leaving a very small footprint. Uh my guests come for weddings, family reunions, and business purposes. I charge $110 a night and a an affordable alternative to all to the Daxton and the Townsen. No, not to either one of those hotels, but I'm affordable. Uh I understand a single uh incident uh sparked this outcry, but it was a single incident. It could happen anywhere, anytime, all the time. Um, the idea that investors are buying up properties and driving up single family home costs is ridiculous. If I thought I could buy a $250 or $300,000 house and operate them as an Airbnb with taxes, incentives, taxes, insurance, liability insurance, and maintenance, and turn a profit, I'd buy everything I could get my hands on. In short, enforce in short, enforce existing rental codes, issue citations for excessive noise or nuisance problems. Shut down bad operators, but don't kill a fly with a bazooka. Short-term rentals are not the problem. Non- enforcement of existing codes is. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Anybody online? If you're online on Zoom, please use the raise your hand function. I see Narla Narlu Castellano. Castellano. Narlu Castellano. Well, hello commissioners. Can you hear me right? Yes. Yes.

Okay. Members, I um I'm so glad that we are listening to us. I live at 1553 East Lincoln Street. On April 11, I woke up to gunshots across the street from my house. Um, not something I signed up for when I bought my house 10 years ago. I've been a resident for 10 years. I'm an active neighbor. I love my neighbors. The last thing I want is bullets running through my neighbors houses. I have three points to make during my two minutes. One, I find the language of the resolution unacceptable, highly offensive. It took you guys longer to read the language of the resolution than time we're allowed to even talk about our experience. I think that it should be drafted in clear language, natural language, and that we can all read and understand what it means. My second point, six months is excessive time that you're asking for the community to allow you to do research. This research could be done in six hours. If you need support, I'm sure we can find attorney volunteers to donate their time to support the research. I don't think we have a legal research timing issue that we need to resolve. My third point is um as far as risk goes, I don't know that the risk of litigation should be prioritized over the risk of losing my life in my own house. I appreciate that, but I also think that I hope we're looking at all the causes of action that could be implicated, not only litigation from um owners of short-term rentals, which I find the number quite staggering at this point, um but also causes of action from the neighbors that live here. Their lives have been at stake, continue to be. My child is terrified of

going in my front yard now because she woke up to gunshots two weeks ago and my street was closed for 12 hours or investigations. We had to deal with news trucks in front of our house filming um police investigations, dogs sniffing around, people with guns everywhere. I don't I don't feel that the commission shares our sense of urgency. This is not a sound issue. This is not a nuisance issue. Um the sound is the least of my concerns. We have been complaining about these particular properties consistently. The the resolution puts the onus on the residents to report. We have been doing that. We have not not reported nuisance. The issue is not nuisance. The issue is the risk of death. It's life or death. I don't think that we're lucky that nobody got hurt. We are hurt. Our children are hurt. The school across the street is hurt. We don't feel safe in our neighborhood right now. And I don't feel that this feeling is shared by the rest of you. I appreciate the owner of the property being present. I don't think Go ahead. I just don't think that anyone is against short-term rentals, per se. We are against gun violence in our neighborhood.

That's it. Thank you very much. Thank you. I We appreciate your comments more than you uh know. Um Sean online. Sean, hello commissioners. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes.

Hi. Thank you so much. I'm sorry I'm putting my little one to bed at the same time. Um, I appreciate you for taking the time to hear from the residents. Um, I live on Chapen Avenue, just a few streets over from the incident. Um, I appreciate Naru's comments. Um, and I second everything that she said. Due to my location, I've also had additional um I would say traumatic experiences. I have found a crack pipe in my front yard in the nine years that I have lived here. On one occasion, I found drug needles on the street next door to me 3 days ago. Um both of these are on file with the police. I have found a man urinating across the street when the rental was a short-term rental, undocumented at the time. I have found a man passed out, intoxicated in my front yard with a woman crying over him that my husband carried back to his short-term rental across the street. We have had a man urinating on our fence. The list goes on. It is if I sound exasperated, it is because I am. I have called the city over and over and over to be met with silence. I desperately ask you to hear us. I I respect the short-term rental owners and their desire to run a business. I do. But there needs to be limits. Whether it's a oneweek rental or a 30-day rental, something has to be put in place to protect the residents. I additionally want to say if you think that the Woodward Road Noise is separate, I respectfully disagree. It brings a crowd, a very youthful and vibrant crowd that wants to come and party. That is the audience. It is the same audience. You have to address these issues. Right now, my husband and I are actively looking to move because this has been fundamentally the worst residential experience of our lives. And we have lived several places and this is the

most distressing and upsetting. And again, all of this is happening while we're raising our precious, sweet little nine-year-old boy from the time he was 4 months old. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Sean. Uh, anyone else? Okay. Um, discussion. Discussion please. Okay. Commissioner,

can I start? You know, as uh most of you know, this has been a big concern to me for at least the last six years. Uh and every time I brought it up, which I'm sure is five or six times, it has been shot down either without a second or with the vote that we're not willing to discuss it. And I refer to the mayor prom and the mayor with the city attorney with the city manager each time something like this is said. Brad, despite what you're hearing in the community, STRs are not a problem here. We've had no complaints. Well, the saddest thing is it's come to a forefront thanks to uh April 11th. Uh and the joy is nobody was hurt. It's certainly a tragedy for uh that neighborhood. Uh but nobody was hurt and that is our number one responsibility sitting in these chairs is the safety and the tranquility and peace of our neighbors and our neighborhoods. uh what is being pro-offered by the city attorney is highly inadequate. Uh and I'll just cite the B burrow of Manhattan has taken care of this instantly last year. There are no short-term rentals uh in Manhattan and and that is how we should proceed. Uh the integrity of our

neighborhoods have been compromised by these short-term rentals. It is literally commercialization of our neighborhoods and we should be firmly against it. Uh should have been two weeks ago which wouldn't be after April 11th but it would have been our last meeting the 14th. Uh I am not I mean procedurally yeah let let the planning board deal with it for 180 days and and then come back with the recommendations that are in this uh um resolution suggested uh resolution but I'm going I'm more than willing to say that's 180 days too many namely we should stop short-term rentals under 30 days forever more now. So, I won't support the motion because we're not doing anything about it now. And if something happens in the next 180 days, I told you so. Um, city attorney does the uh the 1880day moratorum doesn't say to the planning board, you've got 180 days to do this. It just that's the window of time and we would hope they would act sooner. Correct.

Absolutely. Okay. Um, if we pass this resolution, that doesn't mean we couldn't pass a further resolution if someone were to offer one that would uh, let's say, have more teeth. Correct? That could be done.

Okay. Because we can do what we want to do, right? Okay. Uh please keep in mind that there's a motion on the table and uh uh maybe I should have reminded the first commissioner that we're addressing the motion on the table. Thank you for making it clear at the end that you oppose the motion. Uh who would else who else would like to speak to the motion and the issues? So, if this is the only path to get something done, I think it's a disgrace, and I think being sued is the cost of doing business. Sue us. Shut them down. Just shut them down. Um because it's not just about the incident that happened on April 11th. Our communities are I mean, as Kelly and her husband said, our communities are disintegrating because we're letting these things happen. and our number two most important job is building this community and this is destroying our communities. Um I will support only if this is the only path to get things moving fast otherwise I won't support it.

Well I think you heard what she answered right? I did that that number one we could do this. It doesn't necessarily we could add to it that we want the the planning board to act expeditiously. Yeah. expeditiously. I don't know how long it would take, but she also said that we could do this and we could do something else. So, can we just ban him right now? Um, that would be another motion.

Let's work on this motion and then we can discuss further action possibly after a break. Uh, so I want to say to the residents who have lives have been disrupted by short-term rentals that we do understand the urgency and we do hear you. And when we discussed this in 2023, those bills preventing us from regulating anything were very close to passage. There's huge lobbying money behind those from real estate and developers and so forth. Um, and we were we were working with our representatives to uh voice our displeasure that we did not want those uh laws passed that strip our ability to regulate short-term rentals. Um, we were also assured that our existing rental ordinance did what we legally could do at that point. Um, I have read deeply about what was done in Ferndale and in Arbor, and there are nuances to both of them that fall short of outright banning, especially of existing non-conforming uses. They both had to make accommodations in some manner. Um, some regulate by zoning, some regulate by density. Um, Ann Arbor specifically calls out no ADUs. Um so there is a lot to discuss but what I think I'm hearing most of is um a breakdown in the enforcement activity um because our orientation I think maybe was different previously that when the police were called they weren't going out and I'm I say from what we've heard I could be wrong they weren't going out with the idea of documenting how to pull

somebody's license. They were going out to address a problem, to solve the problem, to calm down and mitigate the situation. You know, stop making the noise or sometimes they'd pull up and the thing that had been reported was no longer occurring. The party was over, the noise was turned off. Um, you know, they they told them, "Move the fire put, shut down the fireworks." Um, and so code enforcement was more for was the home habitable up to our code and ordinances to get the license in the first place and then the complaints went to the police department who did uh their best to make sure that everything was safe and secure and resolved. So I think one thing that we could ask for that would perhaps give more comfort to people who are very frustrated about the number of CLA complaints that they've made is that the commission gets uh reported every meeting about what reports were received by the police department and that they internally flag them in such a way that we know whether they're tied to a rental property. so that the issue is visible to all of us and we can see patterns of violations. Um, we did hear that there were 1,600 rental licenses in the city. We also heard roughly a hundred of them are legal short-term rentals. There are obviously also illegal short-term rentals which we I assume are trying to fair it out whether we use Granicus software or not. um and uh shut down and um and it's my understanding if those are reported to Airbnb and Verbbo, they immediately are pulled off the site if they're not licensed. So, I think that I understand the frustration with the resolution as it stands. Um we, you know, hear the advice of our attorneys that you don't willy-nilly do something that, you know, and I'm not saying it's willy-nilly. If we stand

here and say, "We know we're going to get sued, but let's shut them down anyway." Everybody who sues us cites that in their complaint, the commission knowingly made this motion that they knew was a taking of the license and income that they had granted me previously, and they did it anyway, and then the judge finds for them, which is a tax consequence to our residents. So, I think that we're trying to uh, you know, thread the camel through the needle and do the very best job we can do for the residents tonight. I absolutely agree that we need to be much more rigorous about taking those police reports, those complaints, those code enforcement complaints, and um especially for the short-term rentals, looking at making sure that um a violation is acted upon and the license is pulled, even if even if they can go to the housing board of appeals and argue for it, they should be shut down in the interim. And um I don't believe it's going to take the planning board 6 months. I think they they will they're hearing our urgency. Um but you know, I I absolutely feel for the residents. I absolutely understand the pain and the grief and I think that we are trying to do, you know, the best that we can do for our residents and for um our liability, our legal liability and our legal responsibility as commissioners. Mr. Eddie. Um, so I'm rather torn on this like I mentioned earlier because there's a conscience aspect for me that if I don't shut things down and something happens, then how do I look in the mirror? Cuz I'm not sure how I look in the mirror. Um, there's an Airbnb down this street from me. Uh, it would be the perfect party house. We've been lucky it hasn't been one. It has an ingground pool. It's

fantastic. A few years ago, there was a new bill put between it and me. So, the only thing that stops any gunfire from it reaching my son's bedroom is my neighbor's 2-year-old's bedroom, which is not really an ideal situation, but I will say I do think that that host has been trying hard. Like, Mr. Sandy, I think you try hard. You're here. You're trying. So, I think there are good actors, there are bad actors. There are ones that don't really appear to put so much effort in. Uh, this is why I'm torn. But the last sentence up there, citywide increased safety and security doesn't mention anything about supporting anybody's individual business. It's not in there. It's not in the codes and ordinances. It's not in our responsibilities. People's businesses, that's your business. You pay your taxes for living here. That's it. I also understand exactly where the colonel's coming from. By the time you see it, it's already there. What you see is the manifestation of what was growing. It's bigger than you think. I get it. More than you believe. So I feel as though we need more teeth. And kind of like the other commissioner said, if this is the only option, then okay. But if there is a better mousetrap, I would prefer a better mousetrap because personally I do think we need to stop right now. and allow a clear head to think things through. Apologies to those of you that do make business off it, but realistically 100 100 households for 9,800 households, the math doesn't math out really. Sorry, it doesn't. It just doesn't make sense for safety and security of everybody. My wife's actually told me twice since she's she's moved in with me here in Birmingham that she felt unsafe in Birmingham. The second occasion was that morning.

Anyone that's read the packet here, you'll see we've got a community survey coming. Don't know if any of you read one of the questions. Do you feel safe in Birmingham? Yes or no? If not, why not? It's in here. We worked on that survey. That's not a brand new question since two weeks ago. It's been there for for a couple of months. I think we're probably going to get a different answer compared to the one we thought we were going to get when we started with it. So, I want more teeth. I'll only support this if there's nothing better. But I want something better because it's not good enough. I'm sorry with all due respect, but it's not strong enough to really get us as close to a zero opportunity for a known vector of of of threats. It is what it is. So, I would first like to thank everyone for coming and and sharing their stories. I mean, I found them shocking. Um, even knowing what happened on Lincoln, you know, I think I also have young children and and thinking about that happening on my street is just horrifying. Um, I think that, you know, this motion, the reason I spent 15 minutes reading it, uh, is because we really need to get the ball rolling this way. This is the most reliable way to enforce regulations on short-term rentals. Uh if we if we attempt some alternate path, we may end up with nothing. I think this is the way that we're going to end up with something that we can keep. And uh I believe uh Mayor Ber pointed out and Mayor Roam Long pointed out, we are going, you know, we have already instructed the planning director to make this the highest priority for the planning board. Um, and I don't think it will take them 180 days. I don't think the idea is that we're going to wait 6 months before we do something. I think the idea is we're going to move as

quickly as we can to get something that is as enforcable as possible on the books. Um, I think that in the short run there are there are a few things that I think are true. If if my understanding of what the city attorney said is true, and correct me if I'm wrong, we can greatly ratchet up the strictness of our enforcement, right? It is legal for us to revoke a rental license for a single infraction. Absolutely. Yes. Violation of the code is a revoc and and so we can at at our discretion choose to do so or it is up to the building official. It is up to the building officials discretion whether or not to revoke the license.

That's correct. So, we also have heard that there exists software that can help us hunt down the addresses of short-term rentals in the city. Correct. This is a comment from a member of the public. Those would be unlicensed ones already. Those are potentially unlicensed ones, in which case that's a violation anyway. Absolutely. There you go. Even better. Um, so and I will I will say we talk about if there's if there's nothing better, but to to Mayor Baller's point, this does not have to be everything, right?

This is one thing and I think it is an essential thing because this is the thing that we know will survive. Um, if we want to do something else to try to really cut this thing off right now, buy the planning board some time, so to speak, uh, I think we can entertain that. But I think that on this motion I think it is essential that we start the ball rolling here because I think this is what is going to give us legs uh in the long run and that is that is what I have to say about this motion. So I will be supporting the motion. Absolutely. I think this is the best path forward now. We wouldn't have brought you

Okay, we done. Uh I support the motion and I'm going to support another motion. And I'm not sure what it is yet, but it'll be we'll we'll devise that other motion after a two-minut break. But right now, I want to call on a vote on this motion and uh and then we'll take a quick break. Then we'll come back and discuss what direction we want to give to the administration. Sound good? Roll call, please. Temporary mayor prom. Yes. Commissioner Host, no. Commissioner Hey, yes. Commissioner Kowski, yes.

Commissioner Cold, it's the only way forward. Yes. Mayor Balor, yes. Quick break.

Okay. What? We're waiting for Mayor Pro Tim Long and the clerk. One more to go.

I hate water. I hate water. Oh, I hate water. If I take 4 oz, that's too much. Thank you.

Okay, we're back in session. Um, Commissioner Host, uh, I'd like to make a motion, Mr. Mayor. Wonderful. And that is, uh, that we should eliminate all short-term rentals under 30 days immediately with one exception, and that is if they're owner occupied. That is paraphrasing from the Bureau of Manhattan's rules. That had nothing to do with my motion, though. I just thought I'd state that.

I'll second by one. Okay, we have a motion in a second. Um, are New York rules are New York laws uh similar to Michigan to Michigan? Okay. So there there's no with Manhattan. Um what would be administratively? How would one accomplish uh what uh the commissioner has proposed?

Um well that would entail coordinating with the building official. uh they would probably have to go to each I would assume each licensed rental uh or contact each owner of that property and um find out what their current rental policy is and at that point if it would if your motion carried um if it was for less or if they offered for less than 30 days then it would be a revocation because it would be you're asking for an ordinance amendment to reflect this. Is that

his His motion was very clear. Could the clerk please read the motion to eliminate all short-term rentals under 30 days immediately with one exception if they are owner occupied. So that's the motion. It's much more complicated than that. That motion doesn't give the city the right tools to to do that. You we would have to have an ordinance in place that says exactly that. Um and that would be an ordinance amendment under the police power uh I think it's chapter 22.

Yeah, I can pull it up but it would actually have to be an ordinance. 74. Uh Tracy, can I say uh excuse me, Commissioner Host? Oh, let's maintain order. So, the way that his motion was phrased would not be effective under our code. It wouldn't give the building official any teeth because if you ban it, there's nothing in the code saying that it's illegal to be less than 30 days.

So, if it were the sense of the commission that we wanted to take more immediate action What would the city attorney recommend we do as an alternative to the motion that's on the table? As an alternative, I would suggest that you look at it from an administrative approach. And that would be perhaps a motion directing and and the perhaps the resolution wasn't as direct, but a motion directing the police, fire, and code to um maintain adequate records and fully document any encounters that they have with rental properties who are licensed. I would further ask them to uh document and enforce our current code against any rental properties who are not licensed. So that would mean issuing them violations as well. That's one suggestion.

What about revocation of licenses? Well, that's already baked into the code. So if there is a violation, then that would be revoked. grounds for So, so you're suggesting that as a possible alternative, we direct the city to crack down enforcement on these and revoke as many licenses as possible. I would say enforcement as well as documentation, right? Because that is what is going to carry the entire process through. It's the documentation. So people making complaints means nothing if it's not written down and documented effectively. So that's what you should do.

And if I could say and what's I think been missing so far is you heard say they weren't really Commander Guru said they weren't really noting whether it was a rental property or not when they were going out on nuisance and noise calls. And so every nu we the motion should also say every nuisance and noise call should be checked against the database of rental licenses and they should ascertain if they can uh you know whether the person inhabiting the premises is an owner or otherwise for the unlicensed ones.

And I I don't want to step on the chief's toes. I'm sure he's still around, but I don't know the best way to phrase it where we're actually giving him a tool that he can use versus um creating something that doesn't even exist in the police department. So, um but yes, I I think the pract proper documentation of the reports is what's important. Okay. Uh

yeah, I I think may I I think it goes without saying that that I think given the nature of our conversation tonight, I think both the code enforcement department, building department, and the police department are well aware of the concerns of both the community and the commission. And I think that both those organizations will will take uh heed of that and and act appropriately in terms of how they document things, recordkeeping, and those things moving forward that maybe wasn't as good in the as it was in the past. But

it it is there. I was going to suggest that we direct you to come back at the next meeting with something more substantial and immediate. Um I could see us debating this motion for another 10 minutes or more. Uh I don't want to take away the public's ability to comment. We could be here all night. So, but you know, I'm not the only guy. I'm not in control of this entirely. However, I do think that the motion is just a little too uh it's difficult. I mean, if we pass it, you know, we're we're we're making life very difficult for the administration. uh we're sort of giving them one of those

strong mandates that we've seen come from in other that we've heard circumstances that are that are difficult to uh achieve. Mr. Mayor, you had a a comment.

Yeah, a couple of things. So, uh Mayor Prom actually brought up some of the points that I was going to bring up about this. Uh I'm glad you got there first. I also had a concern about the the enforcibility because there is a cost to city services for checking everything for 30 days. So if we were going to go down that pathway, you're right, we could be here for a lot longer going into the details of who funds it and how is how does it get funded. So my personal preference, I've already said I don't think we've got enough teeth in what we've got, but if it was the only option we had in the table, then I was going for it, but I wanted more. I would if if the motion and the second would withdraw and go for a motion more along the lines of what you propose that by the next meeting we have a substantially more aggressive approach that has been legally checked. I would be comfortable going down that pathway but the next meeting is the last possible opportunity.

I don't want to wait to the meeting after that. It's two weeks from now. No, it's next week. Oh, one week. Okay, then we have one week. Even better. That's expeditious. Sorry, I wasn't looking at the calendar. Thank you. And and if I may say, that would give uh you a chance, you and Mary and the chief and Chief Guri a chance to huddle on language that incorporates some of the things Mayor Baller just asked about documentation and record retention um and enforcement and any other teeth that we can add

and ways of ask. Commissioner H. I was willing based on the uh problems that uh the staff has uh shown us uh to amend my resolution to state uh the following. Create an ordinance eliminating all STRs under 30 days immediately unless they are owner occupied. That would require what would that parliamentarily speaking? That would require him to withdraw his second. You know, make a new motion.

Could you define legally what the term immediately means? Not explicitly. I mean, based on the conversation, I think we could get there. But if you want to make me direction to say, "Hey, we want this to come back at the next meeting as an ordinance." We have a motion on the table. I don't think you can amend the motion until the second is withdrawn. That's true. And and I still think we're My opinion is we're not at a workable motion. Commissioner Hager, would you like to take a stab? Well, at I will draw. Don't make a don't make the motion, but come up with a

something that you might make a motion. So, going wait to the first motion. I'll withdraw my second. Excellent. Okay. So, now there's no second. There's a motion on the table, but no, unless somebody's else he doesn't have to withdraw it, right? It won't. There's no second, so it'll die. Okay. Yeah. which is uh exactly what happened over the last six years talking about STRs. Yeah.

So to kind of move us forward in a way that feels as though we have the most efficiency and the ability to be able to review this legally. I would like to make a motion requesting the city attorney and the city staff to look into generating language by the next meeting to create a greater level of enforcement over and above the previous motion for the management and control of short-term rentals within the city of Birmingham. Does that sound appropriate?

Second. Okay. I guess not bad if you're not a lawyer, right? Do you see any problems with that, Maria? Just just for clarification. And short-term rental being 30 days or less. Short-term rental as 30 days or less. If that's what the legal definition is, then yes. I'm just I'm leaving it broad-based because just in case it does have short different requirements, maybe we'll let it say short-term rentals and we leave the 30-day parameter out of it right now.

Okay. I would support the resolution. I hope my colleagues will support the resolution. I hope that the public while it may not satiate you 100% that you understand that we're trying to move ahead responsibly. And so I will ask us all to limit comment because it's 10 p.m. and we haven't even done the consent agenda yet. So this is not, you know,

so if there's any comment, any comment from the commission, any comment from the public on the motion. So you're either in favor of it or you're against it. A quick comment. 30 seconds or less. I'm in favor of this motion. And thank you for all your time on this issue. Appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

I don't think your motion goes far enough. There's action you can take right now to shut down bad actors. There's action you can take right now to limit the types of guests that get uh in trouble. There's action you can take right now and we are willing to work with you and get that done. Action has not been taken when these residents have called with complaints. They've been calling for months and you already have the tools and you have not take action. Taken action. Okay. Thank you very much. We have I I do want

Can you run the 30sec timer? Are you for or against the motion as as we're happy we're happy to engage with all those ideas? Nothing that uh we're doing tonight stops us from doing what you might suggest. Any other comments on the motion? Anybody online? We have Nar Narla. Narlu. Narlu. Narlu Castellano. I had to put on my glasses. Sorry. Nu.

You are forgiven. Um, I agree. And whatever make us go forward next meeting. So, next week, I feel a sense of urgency to get appropriate language. I would like to see our attorney really advocate for the residents and the people that have been injured by this shooting. Just because a bullet didn't blow up my daughter's head doesn't mean we're not injured. We are and we're bleeding and we are suffering and I appreciate that. The second thing is like did we just admitted that no proper records have been kept of our complaints and so that's one of the fears that we cannot document what the neighbors have been clamoring for. So that's a little bit redundant to I think ask law enforcement to enforce the law. I don't think we need a resolution that ask the police to police.

I will address I will address that statement. We have various levels of reporting that the police do from incident reports to full blown. We have a former police chief sitting right in front of us. Yeah. things called Dcards where or complaint forms where they're chief in the room. So it isn't as if we don't document everything. It's the it's the detail that we we use and so in some cases, no, we aren't documenting every detail of every complaint, but we are documenting every complaint. Yep.

Any other comments from the public online? Use the raise your hand function in the room. Nothing. Roll call, please. Shuffle the deck. Commissioner Cole, yes. Commissioner or mayor temporary. Mayor Pro. Yes. Okay. Mayor Valard. Yes. Commissioner Hopes. Yes. Commissioner Hay. Yes. Commissioner. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you very much. We move on to the consent agenda. All items listed on the consent agenda are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion and approved by a roll call vote. There will be no separate discussion of the items unless a commissioner or citizen so requests uh in which case we will remove it and uh consider it um subsequently. Anybody on the commission have an item? No. Anybody in the public, in the room, online? If you're online and you want an item removed from the consent agenda, use your raise your hand, folks. Seeing none, a roll call vote or a motion, please, and a second.

Uh, I move the consent agenda as presented, including items A through G. Second. Commissioner Host, yes. Mayor Ballard, yes. Commissioner Cole, yes. temporary mayor for country. Yes. Commissioner Hay, yes. Commissioner, yes. Um, next up is the city manager report, which I hasten to add. It can be uh reviewed online and uh so most of that is there anything in that report that you feel necessary to amplify or expand upon?

No, I think given the hour that that is everything's pretty clear in here. I would just note that the uh uh first day of the uh farmers market is this this Sunday and there's an interesting uh take from the police department on electric bikes that the public should be aware of. That is an important uh point. Could you uh that was in the manager's report? It is. Okay. I'm going to I was going to ask if anyone has anything in the manager's report that they want amplified or expanded upon. And I would like that amplified. Okay. It was exactly that one. Um and say there was

two for two already. See? Yeah. There was um I believe there was a community meeting about it very recently. But unfortunately I saw it the same day I think it happened. And I know there are kids in my neighborhood. I actually asked my son if if if his dad could make their ebikes not illegal. So kids are being told it hasn't stopped them. Why don't you let him tell the public? I I would actually like to see this happen again with that forum that was held. Sure. Because the message has started. I I would love to see more publicity for it happening next time.

Okay. Well, the basically what what what occurred is the police department became aware of a social media post attempting to gather individuals riding electric motorcycles at Booth Park on Saturday, April 18th, 2026. In response, the police department went there with their own bikes and had conversations uh with those who were in attendance, but the weather was really cold and rainy and nasty and so there wasn't a whole lot of people there. But the interesting thing is uh the police department has observed a significant increase in the number of electric motorcycles being operated within the city. Most of these devices are not only illegal to operate within the city, they also pose a significant safety risk to riders, other motorists, and pedestrians. Electric motorcycles with no pedals are considered motorcycles under state law and as such are prohibited on sidewalks and must be licensed through the Secretary of State. In order to obtain a license for a motorcycle and for it to be street legal, it must meet all of the safety requirements. An operator of a street legal motorcycle must have a driver's license with a cycle endorsement. Criminal charges. The police department has observed that the majority of users of these devices are underage minors. While there are certain legal ramifications for those operating these devices illegally, there are also ramifications for those purchasing them and allowing their unlicensed children to operate them. under Michigan law section 257.904 is a misdemeanor to allow an unlicensed person to operate a motor vehicle. The Birmingham Police Department asks for your cooperation and helping us to ensure that everyone's safety by not permitting the use of these devices within the city. Officers will be providing strict enforcement.

Did you want to add anything to that? I was going to say to give context about my son He's 11. It's 11 year olds and 10 year olds. We're asking him if we can not do this. So just contact straight from the schools.

So that that's one thing we did do. The the item that's in the packet we sent to our SRO to hand out at the schools. Uh we asked the schools to include it as a mailer to parents of the district. Um the event that was mentioned on Saturday, it was posted last minute. Uh there was a reason for that. So, we became aware of a group that was trying to organize a ebike meetup um at at the park on Saturday. Once we heard of that, we did decided to have a littleformational campaign at the park on Saturday and we didn't want to post it too early to make them aware of that. So, it was posted late opportunity not.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So, that that's why we did that and uh that's why I was out there and some of their officers on Saturday. Uh fortunately or unfortunately enough the weather was pretty poor and there wasn't a lot of people out but we did make contact with a couple kids that were operating legally on ebikes. Um certainly they were uh young 14 years old on ebikes operating in the street which is legal. Um they were aware of the law. They were wearing helmets and they're very cooperative but other than that we didn't run into anybody else I think mainly because of the weather. So going to my neighborhood. Oh yeah. They're even on gas dirt bikes in my neighborhood. So, we good? Yep.

Anything else that would uh you would like uh highlighted from the manager's report?

Okay. Excellent. Let's move on to unfinished business, which is the draft community survey. Good evening. Um I bring to you tonight for um the third time a draft of the community survey. Since we last met at the end of March, I believe it was March 23rd. Um at that meeting the city commission did a question by question um review of the survey. Then our survey workg group went back um in April to meet with our consultant Will St. Amore from Cobalt Community Consulting to make sure that the commission's um request and feedback from the March 23rd commission meeting were incorporated into the new draft. And so the commun um the work group consisting of two resident members Deer Andy Mcme, two commissioners, Commissioner Hig, Commissioner Co, and city staff including myself, Mark Clemens, Marian Gamboa, Mary Chavez, uh Melissa Cota, Nick Dupi. We had a very good meeting and you know I'd just like to highlight that this this process has been very collaborative and you know we have worked together both in this room and in those rooms to bring you what you see today. Should you approve of the questions tonight, the survey will be reviewed for spelling and spacing errors and all of that by our consultant before being sent to a random sample of 2,000 residents.

Uh I would like to say that it's much improved. Um, I think that this last iteration is much clearer, much shorter, has a likelihood of producing uh more understandable uh discreet and actionable information, and I am ready to support it. Commissioner Klowski, no offense.

No, I I agree. I think I think it's much improved. Um the only thing that I I still I'm wondering about is like uh do we want something about like we talk about unimproved streets and whe whether you're willing to pay more? We want to just talk about roads and pipes generally. Do you want to pay more? But um I'm not going to die on that hill. I think that this is this is really good. I appreciate all the work everybody's put into it and and I think it's I'm happy to send this out. All I want to do is apologize for commissioner intervention on this.

We wouldn't want the commission to intervene on something before it, would we? I I don't understand what that means. What does that even mean? Uh it meant uh we should have left this as a giant thank you to Melissa uh Commissioner Heg, Commissioner Cole, and Will and his firm. They're the professionals.

Uh Commissioner Hey had his hand up. Actually, I'm going to put it this way. I appreciated some of the feedback from the commissioners. Um, some of it was harsh, but we came up with something much better out of it. And we tried to pay attention to getting it down to as condensed as we could without being meaningless because there is kind of a sweet spot of length and we were way too long to begin with. So, I'm going to say everybody contributed. Everybody that had a finger in that partner over there was active in it. assistant city managers both active in it. I feel as though it got a lot better. Is it perfect? No. But what we did agree was will we ever get to perfection? No. We can we can whittle away at this forever and we'd still never get there. But if we don't get something out and get some data back, we're not going to learn anything. So the goal for me out of this, and I think Commissioner Cole may be speaking for him as well, but we we talked about this being a repeat process and not a one-time event. We set up a cadence of these because then we can start setting data points and see differences in data. We'll also learn what questions have more value, what don't have value, but the core questions in it. So, I did appreciate everybody's input. I think like Melissa said, it was a very productive meeting that we had. Really productive. I felt very good about it. Um, and appreciated everybody's input.

I'm happy to proceed with it if anybody else wants to or anyone's got any comments. Would you like to speak that into the microphone? Yeah, I'm fully supportive of it, too. It was a great process. Thank you. Okay. Well, I hear you guys appreciating the commission input on the matter. Commission U mayor, temporary mayor prom. I would like to make a motion adopting a resolution approving the draft community survey questions and authorizing the distribution of the survey to the public. Second.

Uh, comment on the motion. Comment from the public on the motion. Comment from the public online on Zoom on the motion. Uh, I think since there's money involved, isn't there? Money was already paid though, wasn't it? Yes. All those in favor? Opposed? passes unanimously, which is to say 6. We move on to a public hearing.

New business 8A, a public hearing for the confirmation of the role for the 202526 asphalt resurfacing program. It is staircase. Yeah, that too. It is 10:14 p.m. on 42726. The public hearing is hereby open. Do we have the engineer, I believe, isn't it? Or is it the finance department? I'm online. Oh, great. Hi, Ryan.

Yep. Good evening, mayor and commissioners. I'm Ryan Catz, deputy treasurer. Tonight we recommend the adoption of the resolution confirming special assessment district role number 919 2025 and 2026 asphalt resurfacing program staircase project deferring the cost over a 5-year period at an interest rate of 7 and 3/4%. The hearing of necessity was approved on April 13th and notices were sent out as shown in the report. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh is there anyone from the public in the room who would like to comment uh at this public hearing? Seeing none, is there anyone online? Use the raise your hand function if you are online to comment on this matter. I see none. So, I'm going to close the public hearing at 10:16 p.m.

Read the motion. Uh, yeah. And, uh, I want to, uh, recite what, uh, Mary Casaric said at our last meeting when, uh, you know, we had this before us. Uh there should be no reason that I read the motion unless uh everybody wants to go to sleep. Uh I would like to make the motion that it is as written uh in our agenda.

Does this mo I'm going to defer to the city attorney. I think the problem that we saw the last time was that there was conflicting numbers between the two and that's why Miss Kacharic said that the motion has to be read in totality. Uh, another question. No, we did not have to read this one in totality. Tracy, yeah, I mean, we keep talking about it. Um, I'm happy to read it if you're going to insist, but nothing changed. I think we're asking, the mayor is asking for an opinion. I want it to be clear what we're asking. Does this need to be read in its entirety or there's only one sid

because there is only the one or does it need or can we move the suggested resolution? We can move the suggested resolution on this one because it's only one. Okay. Could somebody move? That's exactly what Mary said the last time. Thank you. Can I get a motion? I'll make a motion to move the suggested commission action as documented on page is 488 489 with the maps on 490 and the address on 491 of tonight's commission package. Thank you. Second. Do we have a second? I said second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any comment on the motion from the public online? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mayor Balor, yes. Commissioner Cole, yes. Temporary Mayor Prom, yes. Commissioner Pazowski, yes. Commissioner Pay, yes. Commissioner Ho, yes. Uh, we move to item B, the police department renovation expansion. Uh, Chief Grooley.

Yes. Good evening. Uh, I'm here before you for the renovation expansion project to go over the designs of the Sallyport. And I apologize. I had it downloaded on the computer, but I don't see it here now. So, give me one second. I'll bring it back up. So, the the point of this meeting is to review the designs of the Sallyport because that's being added to the historical building here in City Hall. Um, but I thought I'd take this opportunity to show you some of the other parts that are being done, the garage expansion at DPS and I do have the interior uh floor plans that are being done for the interview room and dispatch expansion. Um, first, this is the garage expansion. The uh current building right now, this garage is our Evans garage. This area here is our long-term evidence storage. Next to this is where we used to have the old animal control, the dog run area. Um, so if you've been over there, you've seen like the fenced in, green tarp around it, um, and some shrubbery. So, this is a space that was always operated or controlled by the police department. The expansion would be this this building here, this garage space. Uh, the design idea was to try try to just match what's going on over at DPS already. If you've been at DPS recently, you've noticed they're changing some of the garage doors to like a black garage door. Um they're in a process of changing them all over. So, these will match that new black garage door in the future. Um this just shows kind of what's there currently. This is a side picture of that just to match the cinder block and then the the second story of that to match what you see uh with the existing buildings over there. So, I just want to show you the quick. I don't know if there was any questions on that. if you want me to move on or any questions at the end.

This is twotory building, right? It is a two-story. Correct.

So, initially when the Sallyport uh was taken to the historic design commission, this was the design that was presented by uh NDC or yes for the uh architectural drawings of that. U this is what they reviewed initially had some comments and thoughts about the sallyport. This is just to clarify, this section right here is the new Sallyport design. Um it was designed to pretty much match the existing building. Uh there was conversations at that meeting about some people like that it matched, other people thought maybe it shouldn't match based on um the secretary of the interior standards for the rehabilitation. Uh the direction of the committee at that point was that the architect would work with the planning department to adjust these designs to meet those standards that are listed in the report. Um those meetings resulted in this ultimate design uh which removed some of the um the stripe that you saw across the top that kind of uh aligned with the existing stripe in the building. It also removed the blocks that you can see around the windows where the old building or the existing building has these accents that kind of stick out around the windows. They removed that to make it uh smooth uh stone around there. give the uh shows up a little bit better on the side image there with the windows. So, um after meeting with the planning department, those were the recommendations so that when you look at this new building being added to city hall, you can see the slight design differences uh in that to know that it's not part of the existing building. Also, the flat roof that it doesn't match the uh existing slate roof. And then lastly, I just wanted to show you the floor plans. These this is the uh addition of the dispatch expansion and the interview room. So here it shows the new Sally Ports location. When you come in the enclosure here, this is our existing booking room with our jail cells to the bottom. Off to the right here will be that new interview room

which will give us direct access from the uh booking room right into this secured area. If we had somebody in custody we need to interview, we'll no longer have to transport them through clerical and through the public area of the building to an interview room in our basement. Uh this up here is our new dispatch center. Currently, there's a wall that separates the room right here. Everything in this area right now is an IT closet. So, this opens up this space that this will become our operational space for dispatch, allowing you to have an area to to eat lunch or break off to the sides by still staying in the dispatch center. It also gives an area for the dispatch manager to have a desk location within the dispatch center. So, if he's needed in a crisis, he's in the room versus right now his desk is actually outside uh the dispatch center. So, I know that was quick. I know it's late. If you have any questions, I'm certainly happy to entertain those.

Very good report. Thank you. Any question? Questions, Commissioner? Hey, oddly random question. Is there any value to having that flat roof turned into like um an open space that's usable by the staff, just like lunch space for nice weather? So, that would be a whole additional construction project on top of that. and you're blocking windows that are already upstairs. So, it's all right. Like I said, it was random.

So, although the design is shown with exactly matching brick, I'm going to assume that you will not be able to exactly match the brick on his this building. Um and so therefore there will be also some additional slight delineation from the historic structure by the color or the size of the brick which will also um be closer to the the shipo standards. That's correct. And actually I just changed this picture to show you that this was a an expansion done probably 30 35 years ago. Mhm. And if you go out there now and look at that brick, you can see a slight difference in color from the existing building from the original building. So there'll probably be similar case to this. Yeah.

But it's a very very small addition. So I'm I personally am not concerned. Um it's small and it may not frankly last forever if we do other things in other places. So um I'm happy to support it. I'm curious about that comment. There was some implication in there and I'm not sure what it was that it would be go like we'd demolish it. I I I think it make a great garage for a for a you know a scooter bicycle or we've got to

it it is in proportion to the rest of the building. It is an insignificant amount of square footage. Okay. Well, you're not suggesting we might demolish it at some point, are you? In 20 years, you never know. Commissioner Kazlowski, uh, quick question. So, this is part of sort of a followup on the accreditation process, right? Correct. Um, are we going to be good once this is built or are there other physical changes that we need to make? So, this in conjunction with the interview room certainly addresses a lot of our safety and security needs that were noted in the accreditation report. So, for accreditation, yes, we're good. Wonderful. Any other comments?

I was going to make a motion.

Well, I have a comment. I I just, you know, look, I had a discussion with uh Commissioner Long, a a resident who happens to be an architect who's watches what we do because he used to be involved uh on the commission called me today. concerned. his primary was concern was that and I and I I think there's some merit in what he was saying was uh the act that that the historic district commission uh sort of punted this to uh staff to work it out with the architect what was sufficient to uh differentiate the this and and he thought that the the HTC should have should have been more uh more vocal or more whatever. My concern is that we do the the Secretary of the Interior's standards are part of our ordinances. Now I admittedly they are open to subjectivity. uh but my personal interpretation is that they re they require differentiation that goes beyond what we have here. Now, I agreed that this was not like I'm ambivalent because I think this looks great. And if I were if if those standards did not exist, I'd say match it. Put totally match it. Like don't worry about it. But we do have that. And it seems like we're only barely following it. This is a case that it comes up in other circumstances where we don't follow our own rules. Arguably, we're following our own rules

here, but only if you think that eliminating these slight details. Can we have Mr. Dwee opine?

I don't know. He I'm just bringing it up. I I mean I would have liked to have seen two or three alternatives from the architect because sometimes when you challenge them to come up with something that is that is truly differentiated, you get a more creative design and possibly something cheaper than brick and limestone. That said, I'm not going to oppose the motion. I'm just expressing concerns. Feel free to make the motion. I'll make just my own personal opinion on what you said. I like the first design cuz it matched everything. The house I grew up in is called a grade two listed. When my parents did the updates, they were required to make it match. They had to use exactly the same materials. So maybe I'm coming from a different perspective, but I like the fact that it does blend in. So that's why I don't want I don't want to micromanage and nickel and dime this thing to death. I like it. I think it's going to do what we needed to. So I'm going to make a motion adopting a resolution to approve phase one of the police department renovation expansion for the interview room project within city hall and the garage renovations within the DPS campus in an amount not to exceed $300,000. and make a motion adopting a resolution to approve the final design of the proposed sally port included in phase two of the police department upgrade project.

Second comment on the motion. Commissioner Host,

um I like the fact that we're not nitpicking on the design. Uh, I just want to remind everybody that the first time this came through through uh, city manager Marcus, it was $26.7 million for the whole building and a huge addition. And this is so welcomed. It's like what real people do will do anything for your accreditation. But thank you, uh, Chief Any other comments from the public, people online? Seeing none, m uh temporary mayor promis.

Yes. Mr. Host, yes. Mayor Balor, yes. Mr. Kowski, yes. Mr. Hay, yes. Mr. Cole, yes. Moving right along, we have the 2005 2525 to amend the 2025 fee schedule. Uh, and reflect. This is the evening monthly parking parking permit program. Correct. So, we have the parking manager, Aaron Ford.

Good evening. I will try to keep this as brief as possible. Um, so I'm here to talk about the evening parking program. Uh, currently the city does have uh two forms of monthly parking um in the parking system. We have what we call uh reserved or regular monthly parking pass which anybody who buys a monthly parking pass, it's valid 24 hours a day, 365 days a week, assuming you renew each month, right? There's uh there's no restrictions. We also have an evening monthly parking program whereas it exists today. Um, it does exist at all five garages. However, there are some limitations. The pass is only valid from 400 pm to 8 am the following day. Um, obviously still seven days a week. However, if you use that pass outside of those ranges, the system will timestamp you and charge you accordingly. So, if you come in before 4:00 or you stay after 8 a.m., the system will calculate how long you've overstayed and charge you. Uh we have worked um very closely with the Birmingham Shopping District as they have a firsthand relationship with a lot of the restaurant tours and other businesses in the in the community. And we feel that this program is very underutilized today. Um we have I believe it is exactly 79 evening monthly parking passes. So out of 4,000 plus monthly passes our entire system has only 79 of those are evening passes. Um the feedback on the the BSD gave us from a survey that they put out um was that one that this program the 4:00 start time is too late. Most people working in a restaurant or evening their start time is around 3:00ish give or take. Um also um the current program it's $20 off your regular evening or regular monthly pass. So take the Pierce garage for example. The regular rate there is $100. The

evening pass is $20 disc discount, so it's $80. Um, for somebody who's making a little bit lower of a wage, that is still a pretty heavy lift. Um, so based off the feedback that we were getting, we thought an appropriate adjustment would be to um expand the hours. So instead of a a 4:00 start time, bump that up to 3:00. Um, you'll see there's some charts there. We are not concerned with the three o'clock time frame with capacity issues at three o'clock. All five garages have more than enough capacity to to I guess accommodate that early arrival. Um, additionally, we wanted to increase the discount. So, instead of a $20 flat discount across all five garages, it would be a 40% discount. Um, so that gives it a little bit of a tier pricing. Um, but making the discount uh more appealing we feel will make the program as a whole more attractive. Um, and hopefully we'll see higher utilization. With these discounts, we project that we'd only have to sell 24 total more evening passes to offset the the decrease, which we don't think that is very much assuming that the program is appealing.

Um, well, thank you. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Ford?

Commissioner Host. Uh, no. But I I have a comment and I want to thank Mr. Ford and the committee for coming up with something like this and if it doesn't work, maybe you'll come back with an even better program. The notion is there's a lot of people that work here and they can't afford to be in the decks. So, this is a great step in the right direction. And hopefully, you know, there's there's been a lot of people we get feedback that people park in the neighborhoods because they're trying to avoid to park or pay to park. Um maybe this will be an incentive and maybe the the discount will make it more appealing. They'll come into the garages.

Yeah. Yeah. I've become friends with a lot of them and I'm hoping they will go into the decks. Thank you. Any other comments? So, I have a question for you. Yeah. So each garage has it kind of I don't remember the exact numbers for a couple page but it's $54 in one garage it's 80 another. Is that become an administrative burden for you? Why not just say it's 54 bucks in all garages? No because it'll be an automatic charge through our software system. So our monthly parkers right now it's they all pay online through our software system. So they're not coming into the office, you know, paying at a at a desk. It's all automatic automatic payments.

That was my only question. I think it's a great program. Uh I'd like to uh make a motion adopting a resolution to amend the 2025 fee schedule and to reflect the proposed changes to the evening monthly parking permit program, moving the start time from 4 p.m. to 3 p.m. and increasing the discounted rate from a flat $20 to 40% off the monthly permit rate at each garage. Second. Second. Who won? I think Commissioner Host was first. Commissioner Hake, did you have a comment? Yeah, it was just a little one. Um, okay. That's

just because you have five seconds for for a little one. Just the revenue variance there just because it goes down. We brought it up at the budget meeting on Saturday. Look at the meter parking rates cuz it's cheaper than this. You'll offset that. No problem to allow everybody to maintain revenue and still get a win. Understood. Thank you. Roll call, please. Commissioner Hay, yes. Mayor Balor, yes. Commissioner Kazowski, yes. Uh, Pro Long. Yes. Commissioner H. Yes. Commissioner Cole, yes.

I would just like to add I did take this to the APC and they did approve it as well. So, sorry. I should have led with that. Aaron, you want a cookie? I'm serious. Thank you, though. Okay. All right. Uh, asphalt resurfacing programs.

Commissioners, would like to remind you we have the report. We've all read the report.

Okay. So, the engineering department recommends that the 2025 and 2026 ashalt uh resurfacing program be awarded to Al's ashvalt for $2.4 million. Uh we think that they're very qualified uh contractors and they did a great job at the Willlets and Bates project uh in 2025. Uh we think they're more than qualified for resurfacing uh Brookside Ravine, Uklid, and the other roads as well as crackitting many areas around the city. Um as well as patching the parking lot for the Spring Valley Golf Course. Uh there's uh subcontractor Land Techch Design Build is also very qualified to build the retaining wall along the little San Francisco area. Uh they've done projects along Clarkston Plaza, Green Oaktown Square, Ottawa Stadium, and many other locations. And we're hoping that you guys adopt a resolution to award contract to Al's Ashton.

Any questions for our deputy engineer? Sure. Here's one. I go first. Could you uh give me a quick rundown on trench repair?

Yes. Okay. So, uh trench repair is when some contractors are doing some work around the city like utilities and such. Uh last year what happened was they would pay us a $3,000 trench repair with their permit. Um, and we would actually take all these locations, we put them in a program, and then so say it was in from 2025, we take everything from 2025, January 1st to December, we put in a program, we bid it out on in 2026, and then it goes out to a contractor, they start the work in 2026, and then they basically go out to these areas that have cold patch and they'd repair it all and they do a better finish on it.

Yes. So, uh, that was the last year what we were doing in 2025. For 2026, what it became is a bond. So now the contractor has to do the work themselves and when the work is complete they let us know and then we do a final inspection of it. If it looks great we basically return the check uh for the for the bond they paid. So is this this is probably the last year of trench repair. Fingers crossed. Cool. Thank you. No no my street got dug up today. No it's got dirt. Sorry, let me let me rephrase that. Of the the city, the intention is the city will do less of the trench repair, correct? And the uh the individual contractors will do it. So, there are permits. No, there are trenches will need repairing

for sure. So, there are permits that are still existing from 2025 for they paid the b the $3,000 trench repair, but they there are houses that have not been finished building. So, there's still utilities that need to be installed once those are installed. And then they uh they'll do the trench repair for those and then we should be all done for next year hopefully. Excellent. Thank you. Motion here.

Happy. I'll make a motion adopting the resolution to award the 2025 and 2026 asphalt resurfacing program project contract number 2-25 parentheses P and number two-26 parentheses P to Al's asphalt in the amount of 2,182,392.90 plus a 10% % construction contingency for a total of $2,400,632.19. In addition to authorize the mayor and the clerk to sign the agreement on behalf of the city contingent upon execution of the agreement and meeting all the insurance and bond requirements by Al's asphalt. Second comments public online

shuffling the deck. Mr. Hay, yes. Commissioner Kazowski, yes. Commissioner Cole, yes. Commissioner Post, yes. Prov. Yes. Mayor B. Yes. Give us nice roads. We move to commission discussion. Sorry. Uh discussion on items from a prior meeting. The first item is builder's bond agreement. Uh this is uh step two in the process. Is that correct? That's correct.

So step one is we agree to discuss it. Step two is the maker of the motion tells us what he wants to talk about. Who was the maker? Can I make the motion? Okay. I've been asking for this for many, many uh moons. Um, in a nutshell, in a nutshell, did everybody receive Ed King's uh you know, letter? Yes.

And and by the way, he's a lawyer who actually does this kind of verbiage for cities. Uh Jeff, did you happen to see Kickhams Ed Kickham's letter? Yes.

Okay. The point is there's the parameters that we could use. The notion is we're undercharging the builders, the developers for the use of our public roads which all of us own. And as such, we should charge them for not only in front of the house they're building, but possibly all the way down the street with the notion that the trains and all the heavy equipment are coming uh down the road to that site. $5,000 is wholly inadequate and we should direct the commit uh the staff to come up with a plan as to how to charge these builders but make it a lot more than $5,000 because

Okay. Well, so that's I think what you want is a report and maybe some validation of the information you're giving perhaps even a legal uh legal opinion at some point then step three uh as to you know whether we can do that whether this amounts to uh whatever. So you are prepared with something for us. I I am um I guess to answer Commissioner Host's question, I know at one point the dollar amount uh the $5,000 that started getting enforced March of 2025. It was always in the ordinance from way back when from what I could tell started being enforced in March 1st of 2025 with the $5,000. Um, and then the next step that we we started doing in September of 2025 is doing a pre-demolition site inspection of the lot in question, the two neighboring lots across the street and the two on the adjacent. So, in the five areas over there, taking photos of the streets, seeing what's going on with the trees, documenting it. Um and then moving forward I guess to answer um to reiterate uh um Mayor Proemp made a comment about holding back a CFO. We do issue temp CFOs and we kind of see what's going on the damage before we even issue a temp CFO. What damages in the area we create a bond amount to kind of reflect on that and in that all the contractors actually do do the repairs. We actually return the bonds once it's completed and we're satisfied and then going through some collaborations with us in the building planning and engineering and even the DPS uh to implement a standardized bond agreement which documenting who's the contractor, who's the homeowner at the moment, being able to hold

responsibility and everybody's aware of what's going on. And we like to move forward with kind of creating this document and which would actually list all the bonds because there's several bonds from the building from planning and engineering not not as much from planning but there's still several bonds creating one form being able to document who's responsible for it be able to hold them responsible as moving forward and that's the way direction we like to move forward creating that standardized bond uh agreement. Uh so what do you uh anticipate step three being for us of this three-step process for having a a concern of a commissioner brought onto the agenda?

Um I think I remember hearing a fee of $25,000 was out there at one point. It seems like it's kind of not knowing then with uh with Ed's letter where's that dollar amount? what's realistic to actually have somebody put something up front and hold that for the construction, the length of the construction, which usually about a year, two years, depends on the size of the house. They're putting money up front, but taking in a dollar amount, the 5,000, we never had an issue in the time I've been here, and it's always been refunded, and it's a we held the contractor responsible for the damage in it. we document it, but doing the pre-construction um inspection, we're documenting what's there, whether the road is in a little bit less shape or if it's a new road. So, we know what's there, if the trees are being damaged. It's just being documented and we be able to kind of enforce the dollar amount that at that point.

Help me out here. You know what I'm asking? Yeah. I think what we'll do is the important we'll come back with something with with the consolidated form and with the blessing of the of the uh city attorney that it's a legally enforceable document that would improve our process and improve our recordeping to move forward with a uh if in fact there were to be a bond revocation we would have some substantial evidence to support that

but there were a whole commissioner host made a whole lot of assertions he wasn't actually asking questions if you sort of convert his assertions into questions. It would be what's the typical cost to repair something, right? Because he's he he is asserting that we should take $25,000 or even more. I don't know that $5,000 is inadequate. My question would be, is $5,000 adequate? You don't have to answer that right now.

Well, I mean, happy to answer. Second question is well another question would be how do we know that I was in here with with all the builders that day and they're like they were very concerned about this and you know I mean I think we have to consider all points of view and one was how do how do you know we did the you know what especially what like on my street there's like four projects going on and they're all right next to each other. How do you know it was that guy and not that guy or that guy? I mean, the section of Shirley just south of of Maple, it's it's it's a it's it's difficult. So, that's another question and that's partially a legal question. So, I would say there are a lot of questions we would like you to answer.

We actually ran into your specific example on my street and they just find all of them because you couldn't they all created damage. Well, did they split it up evenly or did they charge them all five grand? I forget what the charge was, but everybody was charged. And then when the road was actually recap sealed, all of the residents on that stretch of a street was across the road from me. I didn't get this. They all got credit for the amount that those four properties had paid in the cape ceiling. What do you do with the dough? You know, do you offset specifically the unimproved, right? Yeah. So these were all the questions that we brought up when we met together. Okay. That would have to be resolved. Okay.

The the key being obviously what you talked about, how do you prove that? Right. In my experience, and Jeff correct me wrong if I'm wrong, the only times we've been actually able to carry through on this is either a a citizen saw it happen. It could be a witness or b code enforcement or someone else happened to be there or building official or engineering and saw it occur. Other than that, it's all speculation and uh from that point forward as to who did the damage to the to the street. So, that's that's a huge issue that we have to to discuss and see if there's any recolle.

Well, it's like it's almost like the short-term rental situation. We're relying on citizens to report stuff, to use their cell phone cameras, right? Whatever. So, do we need a motion to direct them to come back? But can you set some expectation as to when you plan to bring this back to us? I mean, maybe a couple meetings from now. I mean, let's get through this. Take the time you need, right? City manager would say, I can't tell you short time. Yeah. But within a year, right? Oh, absolutely.

Yeah. And I would note that Mr. Kickham's email is more rhetorical than it is prescriptive. He said, "You could do this, but I don't know. You could do this. I don't know. We could charge that. It may be too much. Depends on what you can document and what you can prove, which is exactly the questions we're asking." That that was going to be my point when talking about Mr. Kickens. You know, great. All of those things are completely subjective. I mean I think even if you say it's a new house or a renovation or even if it's a patio there are trucks on the same each of these projects whether it could be a p you know do you say a new house is more do you do a patio being less I mean they still got trucks still be the same damage

damage it's just monitoring it and documenting the roads as they they are in the condition condition that they are I think realistically to not put burden on this. We need to really understand the condition of everything around there because you you set parameters as yeah like plus minus two houses around it which is it's it's good. Again I use the example of my street it got torn up by cement trucks that were staging at the complete other end of the street. I mean like 40 houses away but they parked so much in there that there were 6in deep grooves in the street. I mean it was it was bad. You probably know what I'm talking about. They were bad, but it wasn't adjacent to. So, we need to move along.

They just need to take a general survey is what I'm trying to say. I get the direction. Thank you. Yep. All right. We're moving on to commission. Well, resolution regarding short-term rentals, we already covered. Uh, so item F, commission items for future discussion. Commissioner Kslowski,

I just wanted to bring this up. Um, we discussed it earlier during public comment and I thought, uh, assistant city manager Clemens did a good job of talking about the situation on Wimbledon. Um, it has been, as people noted, many, many months um, often times of pretty horrifying conditions up there to be honest. Um, and I think that it behooves us to be maximally vigilant on these project on this project as it goes forward, both for the rest of phase one and for the rest of phase two. And so I would like to move to receive a report from staff uh at each subsequent regular meeting uh regarding the construction on Wimbledon.

I would second that. I Yeah, I'm not sure that's appropriate at this. Look, you know this three-step process, that's not a three-step process, right? You just want Can you can I mean if we will accept it as direction to staff? I no I think we've done that before and I think yeah we can I we can make it a a staff report under under reports that you'll be updated on a commission commission meeting update. Okay. Not a hard thing to do assuming there's a couple weeks like do you want an update? We just got one. You want one next Monday because we got a meeting next

probably. I mean people are saying people are expecting people are expecting people not coming out. We think they are. We think they're not. I don't know. These are my neighbors and I don't know what to tell them. Okay. Hold on. Let's Yeah, he's got the direction. Do we really need to comment? No. I It was just a an addition to that that he asked for and it was touched on earlier as well. I would like to see the outcome of the things gone right, things gone wrong analysis because it went really wrong and we need to learn the lessons. Okay. I'm not sure that needs that's tied into what he's talking about.

I mean, you basically want to throw a bunch of people under the bus. I'm not we I'd be happy to know that that some lessons have been learned for purposes of potential litigation. I would suggest that we don't go through that path. Yeah. But I can I can definitely weekly or you know bimonthly. That would be great. I mean I want to be able to keep people informed accurately about what's going on there. um and make sure that we as a commission are doing everything we can. Yeah. Given what we've experienced tonight in the project, it's a good idea for the commission to know that. Excellent.

Uh just a question to staff or direction to staff. I recall that uh the last time we talked about Wimbledon phase one, the commission asked to be provided with the packet that goes to the residents for the resident meetings and I understand there's a meeting for phase two and so I would like to see the packet. That's for Wednesday night. Yeah, I would like to see the packet. I will see that you all get a copy. Thank you.

Okay. Uh I need a resolution to meet in close session. I don't like to make, excuse me, like to make a resolution to meet in close session pursuant to MCL 15.268 section 8 parentheses 1 par D of the open meetings act to consider the purchase or lease of real property up to the time an option to purchase or lease that real property is obtained. Second. Uh, yes. Commissioner Kazowski. Yes. Commissioner Cole? Yes. Mayor Balor? Yes. Commissioner K? I assume I'm accused.

Commissioner Hops. Yes. Okay. Nothing removed from the consent agenda. We have communications regarding short-term rentals, the city commission vacancy, uh 400 East Lincoln, YMCA, and Next, and a communication regarding trash. Commissioner reports. Uh does anyone other than me have commissioner reports? Commissioner Klowski does, but he doesn't realize it. Um I might realize I have three. Well, he'll do one of them. Um Well, he can help.

Sure. Uh I was invited to the Calaldian American Chamber of Commerce annual awards ceremony uh at Shannondoa Country Club. It was quite an affair. Uh it was uh attended by numerous uh luminaries from politics, business, uh you name it. It was uh it was really quite impressive. Uh, I even met the former ambassador to the US from Hungary. My wife is Hungarian. She's a Hungarian citizen. It was a good thing. And we have an appointment on Wednesday, May 5th or 6th with the Hungarian consulate. So, that was a

Is that Mr. Gafar?

A fortuitous meeting. No. Uh we also had we were uh the proud hosts of a mobile mobile meeting, mobile conference, mobile something of uh a huge national planning conference that was in Detroit this last weekend. It may even still be going on. and Nick Dwee uh hosted uh a presentation on Woodward Avenue and he got a bus load and it was full. Uh they came up Sunday morning and showed up around 9:00 a.m. It was beautiful morning. I spoke to them on the steps of city hall and then they came up here and sat in this room and got a presentation all about Woodward. These were planners from all over the country. So we should all be proud that uh we showcased Birmingham and that Mr. Dewee, who is up for an award for which I wrote a letter of recommendation from that organization and uh we're all rooting for him. Uh and finally, uh Commissioner Ksowski and I attended a SIMCOG meeting in Pleasant Ridge, which uh I'm I'm guessing you have attended in the past, which is a mayor's group. Um but commissioners are welcome. and they talked about uh Woodward Avenue in particular. Uh if you're not aware, there is a long planned uh fix to the Woodward Loop in Pontiac. It is now one way and it's like six, everybody knows it. That's going to be eliminated. It's going to be two ways. It's going to be much more pedestrian friendly. the whole plan that they had to isolate the downtown and turn it into a never

worked. Uh so uh so this is a big big project for our region. Uh we also of course talked about road diets and noise which I will permit.

We did well we were we were there with there are lots of participants. SECOG was there. Uh MDOT was there. Uh they proceeded with discussing the M1 corridor plan. uh which is a plan that has been ongoing for at this point I think something like 18 months. Um we actually hosted one of their events an open house at the Baldwin Public Library. I believe that was in June of 25. Um where they are considering new design alternatives for Woodward. Um in particular they are interested in improving pedestrian safety, improving cycling safety, uh improving possibilities for transit, things of that nature. Um and it was it was really exciting to be there. We were there, you know, lots of other communities were there. Um, lots of discussion from other communities about noise. We are not alone in that fight. Um, and and so it was heartening to hear that that we have we have lots of friends in the area. Um, the RTA was there uh which is the regional transit authority. They are sort of an organization that does something specifically by themselves and also works to try to coordinate uh transit among different agencies like SMART and DOT. Uh they own and operate the Q-ine. uh so those kinds of things and they are exploring possibilities for grants for uh potential bus rapid transit on Woodward Avenue. So they are in talks with MDOT about how to incorporate that into future design. So uh the next formal meeting I believe is in September October range. I don't think they've settled on a formal date, but um very hopeful about the possibilities of a safer uh you know, more friendly Woodward.

Thank you. Uh I would also like to report on a meeting I had with the chief of police and the city manager and the city attorney regarding our messaging on Woodward Avenue, the signs that are now out. Uh a a a how would you describe the messaging? speaking, trying to speak directly to the people. Uh this is both the signs and the messaging that the officers give when they stop people. Uh it's kind of like, hey, you know, people live here. We hear you. We appreciate everybody loves cars. Uh but, you know, if you could recognize that there are neighborhoods immediately adjacent to where you are. Uh so and and we're trying a variety of messages. Right. Right. So we'll see. Um

Mr. Mayor, yes. I'm still on I I'm part of your reports. Reports. Okay.

Okay. On the 20th, I went to the township's uh planning board on behalf of the city. Uh Jana wrote a letter, I believe it was March 13th, to the township uh people uh with the problem of the Birmingham Country Club's pickle ball courts. They're looking for a variance of 107 ft to the east and they're right up against uh Saxon for the village of Beverly Hills people. But I was there on behalf of the Birmingham farms people who are very close to where these courts will be put in. Uh and I pointed out to the planning board that the variances are asked on a nonconforming use which is the tennis courts and the paddle ball uh paddle courts that are already existing. They voted down the motion to allow them to go ahead and then they did something that I've never seen before and that is they made a motion to table it after they voted it down and that will be May 4th. I hope it's not because I have to be here. But, uh, the tableabling allowed Birmingham Country Club to come back with, uh, more, uh, you know, a better plan, a better, uh, decimal sound rating. Uh, and I just share with you all of their drawings are beautiful, but they don't show the houses on Saxon or the houses on Norfolk. The point is they

purposefully do not show how close they are to residential neighborhoods. Thank you. Any other commissioner reports? Commissioner comments right here. Okay,

commissioner comment. Uh, today about 1:00 I wrote uh the city clerk, the city attorney, and the city manager and I said, "Why isn't my letter of April 16th in the communications?" And I did not get a response. I put a letter at everybody's seat. Uh I wrote it about four I think I got it in at four o'clock on the 16th and here it is not in the communications. Neither is Mary Casaric's response that uh discussion is not actionable or something like that. And I wrote her back and said this has nothing to do with discourse. Discourse has nothing to do with my letter. And then I got a little tiny thing from the mayor. But none of this is in communications. And I wonder if that's on purpose or just all a mistake. Well, I guess my response to that would be that we don't typically put emails from city commissioners into communications. That is not a thing that I've ever seen. Uh we communications is when someone from outside a resident sends us an sends us a communication about one of these topics and and and we put those in. Now, my understanding is that we are going to soon be talking about our policy for publishing those whether we only publish them on request or we publish them uh as a matter of course or

we put them on a website somewhere but don't put them in, you know, and just link to them the way we link to the manager's report or future agenda items. But never in my 25 years do I recall that an email from a city commissioner to the city manager would be published in the agenda. But thank you for your comment. Uh we're going to move on to uh legislation, advisory boards, committees, commission reports. Nothing uh legislation city staff. We have a flock safety uh camera staff report from the

chief's here. chief who has patiently waited and he uh at my request I think provided uh the agreement and I'm sure if this was a full agenda item earlier in the meeting we would have some people here to ask questions and comment but right now it's just us so come on up if you just want to take questions yeah I got your email late and didn't have a chance to send it to you electronically. We printed a copy for everybody, but I mean kind of personal. Yeah, you got my report. If there's any questions, I'm I'm certainly happy to answer them. Okay,

Commissioner Long.

So, uh I appreciate the report, Chief Guey, and I appreciate also the conversation we had about this earlier, which pretty much mirrors the report. Um uh and I appreciate that our uh uh you're calling it uh license plate reader data which is only what we collect um is only accessible to instate law enforcement agencies that have been authorized your department. I'm curious about ballpark how many authorized shares there are in a year and I am more concerned about the policies of the people we share that data with. So you're saying we don't share it uh statewide and we don't share it federally, but once you give it to somebody else, do we look at what their policies are and how they share it out?

So no, we don't. Uh so the way that works is each department can request sharing uh properties with another department. Um every department is responsible for their own um I guess logging or accounting of how they're using the system. We're able to see that an agency used our system, look it up. In there will be what the reason was. There should be a complaint number attached to that. So, we can run an audit report to see what it was used for. Um, in terms of what policies they have and how they operate, no, we don't we don't know what their policies are. It's just a sharing of information between police departments.

So, how would we know? Would we ever know if I understand that you look at legitimate reasons for data sharing with Oakland County or something? um how how would we ever know if they shared that on in a broader way than we were comfortable with or we intended? So, we wouldn't unless somehow we were to find that out and then we could remove their access.

Um any other questions? I I have a couple questions and it's late and I don't think this is the last of this, but this contract I noticed was not signed by the mayor. I like went looking for it to see if the city commission approved it. I couldn't find it in any agenda. What What is the So, it was it was part of the budget that was approved by the commission to install cameras. I believe it was the 23 24 budget when it first started. Um, so it was in the budget for an approval. It falls below the guidelines to have to come to the commission for the purchase. That's why it's signed by the city manager and the city attorney. And what is what do we what does it cost? Um, I think it says in there top of my head I think it's under 20 grand. Okay. 19.

So do you understand the concerns of the people who are concerned about this about privacy about surveillance? Do you understand?

I I completely understand the concerns. Um I can tell you that I have not seen any wrongdoing in the system. I've not seen any evidence of wrongdoing. Um I can tell you that we run an audit on ours every year. Uh we did a separate like a three-month audit from the last time just to check the last three months. I wrote that in the report. Um every use that we have is documented with a complaint number and documented with a reason. Um the benefit that we get from them is is amazing. Um I think it has a direct impact on the crime that we're having. I think it has a direct impact on our ability to catch criminals. Um not only that, but I also documented in there issues where we're finding people that are suicidal. We're finding dementia patients that have wandered away from home. Um it's been very useful and and a very successful tool in law enforcement. Probably one of the more successful tools we've seen in years. Um advancements in in in our ability as uh police officers to locate people, catch criminals, find those that are missing and in need. So

all So I was curious, all those cases had to involve a car with a license plate, right? Correct. Okay. Correct. It wasn't It's not like you're seeing a person wander. All of them involve a car with a license plate. Okay. I I mean it it like I said it's one of the greatest tools that has come around in a long time in law enforcement for us to locate these people. Um there was an incident we had and it goes beyond this a little bit, but um I actually I think I did include it in there where there was a suicidal person that would had left from home

and had it not been for Flock, we we would have had her missing here locally um had not known, but we were able to track her progress through the state, find out she had family uh in the Chicago area and they contacted a local agency over there and were able to render her aid. Without Flock, we never would have known that. We never would have known that she had left the area completely. So, um, there's a lot of cases like that where it's been extremely valuable outside of of criminal justice use. Uh, but certainly even in the criminal justice use, it's been very valuable. Any other Commissioner Klo?

Um, so thank you for providing us with this. I think we're going to have to dig through it a bit. Um, so, so what does sort of the raw data that like you consume from Flock look like? Is it like recording a car and you will watch like a video of that car driving through a place or it's like a map and you can see a dot moving along a map?

It's a snapshot of the of the car um at the location where our camera is. Right. So, for instance, we have cameras at 14 and Woodward. So, if I was to run a license plate or if I was to search for a make model of a car around a certain time frame, I would get those matches at that location. Um it doesn't necessarily track it unless I search other areas to see where it may have went from there. Um, but it gives me just a picture of that car or the rear of the car with the license plate. So, to our knowledge, what it is doing is it is taking photos of cars, reading the license plate, and then sort of stitching together the knowledge from those photos to give you some kind of tracking of a vehicle.

Not necessarily. It'll just tell me that it was there at that point in time. If I want to do a further search and try to track it at other cameras, we can do that. Okay. So, but what it is storing is basically I saw this license plate at this location at this time. You got a database full of that stuff and you can search it however you want to. Correct. Okay. If I can. So, if we get a crime at 3:00 in the morning at a gas station or something broken into Mhm.

Okay. Obviously, but maybe if police get there in time and apprehend it. Maybe if not, we can then go to our cameras and look at the camera at 3:00 because we know that's what the time and find what vehicles were on Woodward Avenue around that time where we would never be able we would have no idea. These cameras give us the ability to investigate these things further. I'm mostly questioning like do does this like record a huge amount of video that goes off to some stills. It's just stills and it is principally stills of license cars on roads. It's the rear of a car. Yep. Yeah. There's no I believe cheap no facial recognition. No, there's none of that. It's the make, model, color, and license plate. And it's the picture of the rear of the car only. Okay.

You would have to look up who owns that car. Correct. It doesn't correct. Patch that in either. Right. Right. We good. Okay. Great. I thank you. Thank you very much. Uh, I think that's it for we just need to uh go into close session. So, at uh 11:15 we're going to go I guess it'll say recess up there, but we're going to go into close session. Take two minutes.

Good evening. I'm gabling the city commission meeting back into session. Um, we have completed our close session. We have nothing to report. May I have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. All in favor? I I meeting adjourned.