City Commission - Regular Meeting

that need our support. And now, please join me in 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. [clears throat] When you're ready, can we have a roll call, please? Commissioner Bryson here. Commissioner Hender here. Commissioner Clausy here. Commissioner O'Brien here. Commissioner Roar. Mayor Vandenbush here. City Manager Reeves here.

And Commissioner [clears throat] May here. And can I have a motion to excuse Commissioner Ror? So moved. Support. Any discussion? All in [clears throat] favor? I opposed carries. On to approve of the agenda. I do have two uh amendments for the agenda. Under 10D, the year end should be 2025 and under 12A, it should be the 2026 2027 fiscal year. Can I have a motion to approve the agenda as amended? So moved. Support. Any discussion? All in favor? I

opposed carries. On to five presentations, proclamations, and recognitions. And we have the audit and single audit presentation by McBride Manley. Good evening everyone. My name is Curtis McBride. I'm a CPA for McBride Manling Company. With me this evening is Samantha Hudson. She's one of my business partners. I'm here to present the results of our audit of the city of Marine City's financial statements for the period ending June 30, 2025. Before I get into the slides, I first want to talk about our audit opinion. There are three types of opinions you can receive from your auditor. The first is what we call a clean or unmodified audit opinion, which means that we believe your financial statements are reliable and they're in compliance with our professional standards. The second type of opinion is what we call a qualified opinion, which means for the most part they're in compliance, but there may be a few exceptions to that. And then the third is an adverse opinion, which means that we do not believe the financial statements are reliable and they're not in compliance with our standards. I am pleased to announce that the city did receive a clean or unmodified opinion from our firm for the period ending June 30, 2025. Obviously, that's what you want to strive for. That's the best opinion you can receive. For clarification, we're not providing an opinion on the financial health of the city. That's not the focus of our audit. It's on the accuracy of the financial statements. Secondly, you can receive a clean opinion from your auditor and have to make what we call adjusting audit journal entries to your accounting records in order to render that opinion. So, I just want to be clear on that. The first fund I want to talk about is

your general fund. The general fund primarily deres its revenues from property taxes, state shared revenues, and federal, state, and local grants. So, in looking at the makeup of your fund balance, you can see you had about $2.79 million of assets on hand at the end of the year, and you had about $562,000 of liabilities against the assets, which left you with an ending fund balance level of just over $2.2 million. Now, one thing to note about that fund balance is that about 581,000 of it is actually restricted. So, you had some restricted funds for the marina, you had some county road commission monies restricted in that fund balance, and you also had some uh bridge to bay money that was restricted. So, about $1.7 million of the $2.2 million was what we call unrestricted fund balance. So, it can be used for general operating purposes. I'll get into the fund balance level in a little bit more detail in a subsequent slide. In looking at the income statement for your general fund comparing 2025 to 2024, you can see total revenues did go up slightly from about $3.87 million up to about $3.99 million for 2025. You can see expenditures also increased. So, your general fund expenditures were about $3.39 million for 24 and that went up to about $4.6 million for 2025. So, you can see you used up about $623,000 of your general fund balance during the 2025 fiscal year. Looking specifically at your general fund revenues comparing these two years, as I mentioned, total revenues did increase slightly from 24 to 25. They increased by about $112,000.

You can see property taxes went up. You generated about $1.94 million of property taxes back in 2024. And that came up over $2,58,000 for 25. For clarification, that's not because rates increased. property tax rates did not increase from 2024 to 2025. It's because the taxable values associated uh with those property taxes increased from 24 to 25. You can see distributions from the state of Michigan actually went down. So that went from $965,000 in 24 to about $75,000 in 25. That's because back in 2024, you earned um your state marina grant. That was about $272,000 back in 2024. So that explains why your state of Michigan revenues decreased or declined from 24 to 25. If you look at the pie chart, that really drives the point home that your general fund depends on property taxes. Property taxes make up about 51% of your revenues in your general fund. that is your lifeblood those property taxes and this is going to be critical to remember when I get into subsequent uh subsequent slide is that you really depend on your property tax revenues um so that those make up 51% of your revenues and then distributions from the state make up about 18%. So those are your largest revenue sources and that's pretty that's pretty normal. That's a pretty typical year. Looking at expenditures by type, as I mentioned previously, expenditures did increase from 24 to 2025. You can see that payroll and payroll related costs did increase quite a bit from 2024 to 2025. You can see one major increase is also capital outlay. So you spent about $187,000 in capital outlay in 24 and

about $611,000 in 2025. A large a big reason for that is you spent down a significant part of your ARPA funds during 2025. So that's why capital outlay increased. It's directly related to that. So you so your federal ARPA funds that came directly to you from the federal government. You spent those monies on uh a DP uh dump truck in the DPW department as well as an excavator and a trailer in the DPW department. And then you also spent some of your county ARPA funds during 2025. So the voting tabulators were part of that. Um the community center cost, you had some community center costs that were um spent with county ARPA funds, police radios, and then another uh big expenditure was the um irration and o oxidation ditch uh project that was during the 2025 fiscal year and you use county ARPA funds for that project. So that's why capital outlay [clears throat] did increase significantly from 2024 to 2025. You can see he also transferred money to other funds. So during 2025, you did transfer [clears throat] money to your capital projects fund and your cemetery fund from your general fund. Looking at the pie chart, you can see that payroll and payroll related costs made up about 43% of your budget. That's to be expected. So a city that has that offers public safety services has a police department, a fire contract, as well as a DPW department, those are labor intensive departments. So you would expect labor to represent a large portion of your general fund budget. I have a couple slides here where I get into trend analysis beginning with property taxes. As I mentioned, property taxes are your life in your general fund. So if you look in 2016, you generated about $1.5 million of property

taxes that year. It went up over $1.7 million in 2020. And as I mentioned previously, you generated just over $2,58,000 in property taxes for 25. So from 16 to 25, you see a positive or upward trend here in property taxes. However, if [clears throat] I took this all the way back to 2009, believe it or not, in 2009, you generated about $2,21,000 in property taxes in 2009. about the same level of property taxes that you just generated in 2025. That's because in 2010 there was a bit of a housing market crisis in the state of Michigan. So housing values declined sharply in one year which means property taxes followed suit and also went down. Well, there are limitations. There are caps placed on the increase in property taxes in Michigan. So proposal A places a cap on the increase in property taxes on individual properties from one year to the next. And then you have the Headley amendment which places a cap on the increase for the city as a whole. So because [snorts] of those caps, it has literally taken the city about 16 years to climb out of the hole that it experienced in 2010. And as I mentioned in one of my first slides, you depend on property taxes. Property taxes make up 51% of your general fund. That's your life boy. There's no, and I should point out, there's no cap on the decrease in property taxes, only on the increase. Next, this is the 10-year historical fund balance trend. Again, going back to 2016. So, the good news is even though you have lost a significant uh part of your property tax revenues, you can see your fund balance has remained pretty strong.

2016, your ending fund balance level was at about $1.18 million. Came up to about $2.2 million and really has stayed pretty steady since 20120. And as I mentioned, you finished 25 with an ending fund balance level [snorts] of just under $2.3 million. And again, your unrestricted fund balance level was about $1.7 million at the end of the year. So, what does this mean? Is it a good fund balance level? How does it measure up to other communities? Well, the Michigan Department of Treasury periodically performs what they call fund balance studies. So, the last one they performed was back for 2023. So, they actually released the data and they broke it down by municipal type. So, they looked at the median fund balance level as a percentage of your total revenues in your general fund. And they broke it down by community type. So, they had cities, villages, counties, and townships. What they found was that in 2023, the median fund balance level for a city as a percentage of revenues was 49%. The city of Marine City was at 48% for 2023. So, you were pretty much rate on par with the median fund balance level of all cities for 2023. Now, fast forward to 2025, you can see it did go down a little bit from 2023 to 2025. So your fund balance level as a percentage of revenues for 2025 was about 43%. The next two funds I want to talk about briefly are the street funds. So these funds derive their revenues primarily from distributions for the Michigan Department of Transportation. These are what we call special revenue funds because their fund balance levels are restricted for a special purpose and that's for the maintenance and construction of streets throughout the city. Looking at the balance sheet for

the local street, you can see you had just over you had about a million $39,000 of assets on hand. You had about $5,000 of liabilities against the assets which left you with a fund balance level of about a million34,000. Major streets had total assets of about $1.23 23 million liabilities against those assets of about $36,000 which left you with a fund balance level of just over $1.2 million. And if you notice the fund balance levels is all restricted. So the the fund balance has to be used for streets. In other words, you can't use the fund balance in these two funds for for general operating purposes. They have to stay here with streets. Looking at the income statement for these two funds, you can see local streets generated about 337 $373,000 of revenues and you spent about $165,000 in local streets, which made it so you had an increase to your fund balance in local streets during the year of about $28,000. Major streets generated about $427,000 of revenues. you spent about $270,000. So, you had an increase to your major fund balance of about $157,000. I just want to point out one thing on the slide. You can see transfers to and from other funds here of $23,000. That's because during the year, your major street transfer $23,000 over to local streets. [snorts] You are allowed to do that. So, you're actually allowed to take half of your Michigan Department of Transportation distributions that run through the major street fund and transfer those over to the local street fund. So, you can transfer monies uh from from major street to local streets. You just can't transferred over to the general fund to use for general operating purposes. The last fund I want to talk about is the water and sewer fund. This fund is unique in that this is what we call an enterprise or proprietary

fund. And that's because it's accounted for similar to a for-profit private business as opposed to a government. And that's because this fund is supposed to be a self- sustaining funds. So theoretically, the city is supposed to charge user fees, billing rates at rates that are sufficient to cover operating expenses to cover the the cost of of running the plants. So you need to make sure you're charging rates that are appropriate to at a minimum cover operating expenses. In addition to that, you need to make sure you're charging enough to set money aside for future infrastructure improvements. So those two things are critical uh in in managing the finances for the water and sewer fund. You can see looking at the statement of net position, you had about $16.2 million of assets on hand. you had about $3.99 million of liabilities, which left you with a net position of about $12.2 million. However, $1.5 million of that 12.2 was tied up in the water and sewer plant themselves and all the major infrastructure assets. Those are not liquid assets. And the rest of the net position was tied up in restricted funds for future capital improvements through the ready to serve fees. So that left you with virtually no unrestricted net position in your water and sewer fund at the end of June 30, 2025. Looking at the income statement for the water and sewer fund for the year, you can see you generated about 7,136,000 of revenues. You spent just over $2 million, which left you with a net increase or a change in net position of about $5.1 million. But this is a bit misleading. If you notice, you you generated about $4.7 million in grants. That was your DWSRF grant that can't be used for for operating purposes in water

and sewer. Also, you generated about $600,000 of ready to serve fees, which again is a restricted revenue source for infrastructure. So, if you remove those two revenue sources, you actually had a loss in operations in your water and sewer fund of just over $160,000. So that tells me that the user fees, the billing rates didn't even cover operating expenses in in your water and sewer departments during 2025. Some other manners I would like to discuss. Um on a positive note, we think significant improvements continue to be made over accounting processes. I know this is a discussion that we've been having here over the last three or four years. bank reconciliation process has been streamlined and reconciliations are now performed timely. As I brought to your attention a couple of years ago, um bank reconciliations were not being performed timely. In fact, that particular year, I don't think they were completed for most of the year. And even non-accountants know if your bank balance isn't accurate, you can't be sure that any other financial information that's presented to you as a commission is accurate, and you're relying on that information to make decisions. So it's it's absolutely critical. So we are pleased to announce that that situation has been improved dramatically. Also, it's it it is a good thing that a new purchasing policy was implemented to strengthen controls over spending and approvals. Your old purchasing policy was a little confusing and frankly a little bit antiquated. So it is good that and I see even on the agenda there's going to be some modifications to the purchasing policy. So it's great that you guys are continuing to to review it, modify it. It really is is a document that does need to be modified periodically. Internal controls over grants. This is another big area for our audit. So, this the city did approve and implement a federal grant policy which strengthens controls and oversight over

the use of federal grants. And really, this is for all grants, not just federal grants. We've we've obviously reviewed the city's grant policy, and we believe it's very thorough and detailed. And so, it's a very good policy. And I just want to remind you, not that you're not doing this, but having a policy is a great thing, but always continue to make sure that it's being imple implemented and executed properly. So, make sure you're staying up to date on that. And and you currently are. Just just a friendly reminder. Um the one thing we did note is that the the city should document whether vendors being paid with federal grant money have been suspended or debarred. So, ju just to go a little deeper on this, this is actually a compliance requirement. Whenever you do receive federal funds and you're spending them, you actually have to verify that any vendors that are that are being paid with federal grant monies have not been suspended or divided. You have to document that in your record. So, you did do that for the for the large project that you have going on for for the DWSRF project. However, where you where you could have a trap is if you're a subreient of federal funds. So let's say you're receiving c county federal funds and you're using a vendor to work on the community center. You also have the same requirements. You have to you have to make sure they [clears throat] haven't been suspended or debarred and you have to document that in your record. So this is a common internal control finding over probably the most common internal control finding over federal compliance. Um I just want to touch on one other thing uh while I'm up here. We talked a little bit about the general fund balance and where the city of Marine City measures up to other other cities in the state of Michigan. I just want to point out that that really is only the starting point for a much deeper conversation. All that is is a is a static number, but there's much more that goes into determining long-term financial health for a city. In other words, you could look at one

city and say, "Okay, this city has a fund balance level that is 48% of revenues. I have another city with the same fund balance level. But you know what is the population trend for for one city compared to the other? Is one of them you know have a a positive population trend and the other one is stagnant or even declining in revenue or or in population over time? What is the economic and tax base for the two communities? You know what what are your what's the condition of your infrastructure? What are your infrastructure needs? And this goes beyond water and sewer. you know, obviously you guys are currently addressing your water and sewer infrastructure, but what is the state of affairs? You know, what's the condition of your other general infrastructure? So, these are all things that you have to consider when you're when you're looking at financial health in your in your general fund. Also, legacy costs is obviously a big one. So, how is your pension funded? How is retirees health funded? These are all things that go into that discussion. The good news is your pension fund is about 86 or 87% funded at the end of June 3025. So that's good. The state of Michigan considers you underfunded if you're under 60%. So you are over that threshold. Now your retirees health is only about 16% funded at the end of June 30, 2025. And that's because under state law, the pension you're actually required to fund that on an actuarial basis. You're not required to do that for your retirees health. You can actually fund that on what we call a pay as you go basis. So you can actually literally pick a number, you know, and budget for it and say this is how we're going to fund um our our retirees health. At a minimum, you're at least covering the current costs for your retirees health, but you're not preunding it for future costs. So that that's actually common for a lot of communities. And I I do want to point out that both your pension and retirees health plans are closed to new participants. They've been closed, I

believe, since 2006. So, no one no one new can enter the pension and retirees health plan for the city. That's all I have. Any questions? [clears throat]

Chris, I want to thank you and your staff for all your work and working with our staff. The credit goes to obviously the people in the treasur's office who do this on a daily basis, but the department heads and employees who follow the policies and look for the best deals for the city and and try to really look out for the health, welfare, and benefit of the city and get the best bang for their buck in terms of whatever they do. I appreciate the fact that you you addressed um this is a snapshot backwards in terms of how well we adhere to our plan and you know that type of thing. I'm hoping in the future that you'll assist us or join us as we kind of delve a little bit deeper into long-term viability uh um really talking about the general fund and what the general fund uh should be able to cover and perhaps uh what we need to do going forward. We look forward to uh um within your capabilities or limits uh to helping us in that process.

We look forward to it, too. Thank you, Mike. Thank you. Thank you. Likewise, Curtis. Um I I I think you're the most responsive auditor that I deal with and um some of the things you helped with this year were key. Thank you very much. Thank you, Bob. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time, everyone. which all those comments should funnel to you.

Yes. Yeah, we know who doesn't work, right? Okay. Um, moving on to six, public comment. This is the time for public comment. Any member of the public may address the city commission on any topic. Please step to the podium, state your name for the record, and be heard. No commissioner, department head, or city staff will respond. The city manager will follow up on public comments as necessary. Please limit your comments to 5 minutes and please direct all comments to me as the meeting chairperson. Please refrain from the use of profanity and please do not direct any comments to any other members of the public. There's anybody like to speak anyone? Okay. Hearing and seeing none, we'll move on to approval of the minutes. We have 7A, the city commission meeting minutes of December 11th, 2025. I have a motion to approve the city commission meeting minutes as proposed for December 11th, 2025.

So moved support. Any discussion? [clears throat] All in favor? I opposed. Carries. Under consent agenda, we have 8. A the Marine City Area Fire Authority run report. B the Marine City Area Fire Authority annual run report. C the departmental monthly activity reports. D. The planning commission meeting minutes of April 21st, 2025. people watching.

We have the E Benzinski and Company Municipal Finance Advisors. They're $33,950 and that was previously approved with the approval of the bond process. And then we have F, the Miller, Canfield, Paddock, and Stone PLC for $26,500. That was previously approved with the approval of the bond process. I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items A through F as presented. I make a motion to approve the consent agenda, letters A through F. Support. Thank Motion in [clears throat] support. Can I get a roll call, please? Commissioner Bryce, yes. Mr. Hendrick, yes. Commissioner Clawson, yes. Commissioner O'Brien, yes. Commissioner May, yes. Mayor Vanabash, yes. Motion carried.

Okay. On to nine items removed from the consent agenda and we have none. On to financial business, we have 10 A expenditures including payroll of 2,678,5762. I have a motion to approve expenditures including payroll in that amount of $2,678,5762. I'll make a motion. Support. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Commissioner Hendrick, yes. Commissioner Clawson, yes. Commissioner O'Brien, yes. Commissioner May, yes. Mayor Vanabash, yes. Commissioner Bryson, yes. Motion carried.

Enter B for the plinary financial statements. Can I have a motion to receive and file the plenary financial statements for the period ending December 31st, 2025? So move support. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Under C fiscal year N June 30, 2025 annual audit. I have a motion to receive and file the fiscal year end June 30, 2025 annual audited financial statements. So moved support. Any discussion? All in favor? I oppose carries. Under D, fiscal year end June 30, 2025 the single audit reports. A motion to receive and file the fiscal year end June 30, 2025 single audit reports.

So moved support. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Under E, resolution 001-2026, and that's the 2025 20226 fiscal year budget amendments. And I have a motion to approve the resolution 001-2026, the resolution to amend fiscal year 2025 2026 budgets to adjust for changes in anticipated revenues and expenditures. Make a motion to approve resolution 001-2026. Support. Okay. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Commissioner Clawson, yes. Commissioner O'Brien, yes. Commissioner May, yes. Commissioner Braayson,

yes. [cough] Commissioner Hendrick, yes. Mayor Vanovich, yes. Car, we on to F. Engagement of services for the annual audit. I have a motion to approve the engagement of audit services agreement with the firm McBride Manley Company PC as presented. Make a motion. Support. Discussion. Roll call, please. [clears throat] Commissioner O'Brien, yes. Commissioner May, yes. Mayor Vanabash, yes. Commissioner Bryson, yes. Commissioner Hendendrick, yes. Commissioner Clawson, yes. Motion carried.

Okay. On to 11 for unfinished business. We have a ordinance 25-005, the St. Clair County drain rules. Second reading and adoption. Can I have a motion to approve ordinance 25-005, the ordinance regarding the adoption of the Sinclair County drain rules for a second reading adoption? Make a motion to approve ordinance 25-005 for second reading and adoption. Support. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Commissioner Bryson, yes. Commissioner Hendri, yes. Commissioner Clawson, yes. [clears throat] Commissioner O'Brien, yes. Commissioner May, yes. Mayor Vanabash, yes. Motion carried.

Okay. On to B, ordinance 25-006. That's ordinance amendment to 70-001, the motor Michigan motor vehicle code and uniform traffic code. Second reading and adoption. Can I have a motion to approve ordinance 25-006, the amendment to ordinance 70-001 regarding adoption of the Michigan Motor Vehicle Code Uniform Traffic Code for second reading adoption. Make a motion to approve ordinance 25-006 for second reading and adoption. Support. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Hendrik, yes. Commissioner Clausen, yes. Mr. O'Brien, yes. Commissioner May, yes. Mayor Vanabash. Yes. Commissioner Bryson.

Yes. Motion carried. Okay. On to 11C. That's ordinance 25-7. The purchasing ordinance amendment. Second reading and adoption. I have a motion to approve that ordinance 25-007 and amendment for the purchasing ordinance 34.01 at hall for second reading and adoption. Make a motion to approve ordinance 25-007 for second reading and adoption. Support. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Commissioner Clawson, yes. Commissioner O'Brien, yes. Commissioner May, yes. Mayor Vanabash, yes. Commissioner Bryson, yes. Commissioner Hender, yes. Motion carried.

Okay. Under the CWSRF required by milestone schedule for approval, item D. And I have a motion to approve the CWSRF milestone schedule as presented. So move support. Okay. for discussion. Um I just got one quick thing here for city manager. I know we've been aware with um you've [clears throat] been working with FNV on the different areas of the project and we're aware of concerns that have occurred with that. So are you comfortable with moving on the project where it is now and with us?

I am. Um we've had uh considerable con discussions that I've made you aware of in terms of a couple areas of the project. uh um that haven't gone perhaps as as we'd like to see them go. Um uh we've requested changes in those areas and changes have been made. Uh I'm hopeful that going forward that progress uh will continue and that cooperation effort will continue. Um, if it doesn't, I'll come back to the board and make you aware of uh those issues and and we'll take whatever steps we need in order to keep the project uh uh online. Uh, I've got Dave Delin here who um and Nate Skully. Dave uh was only responsible for the distribution portion of the project. Um, so which didn't include the water plant renovation piece of it. uh he was just doing the construction stuff in terms of this side of the house. Another group out of uh Grand Rapids was doing the process engineers were doing the water plant renovation equipment things within the the water plant. Um we've had our challenges. Um as I've outlined to you, um Nate Skully will be taking over as the lead engineer under Dave's direction now. So the group has been consolidated. Uh that gives me hope that it'll be a little bit uh a better process going forward. You're familiar with uh Dave Dyn. He has assured me that um we'll get that uh uh back uh in the direction it should be going and on track and and try to uh make up for some time that we've lost uh due to inherent problems uh going forward. So I'll keep you appraised as we move forward. I I trust that Nate and Dave will uh uh push that project along. This is the same

crew that would also be responsible for the CWRSF at the wastewater treatment plant. So, um I'll know real quickly um as we move forward um how well this works. Uh but I have confidence in both of them that uh we'll get this done. Thank you. We didn't meet any resistance for these changes that we demanded and uh think you're going to be in better shape. Okay. And I know you'll keep it monitored closely and let us know closer and closer closer. Yeah. Thank you. A [clears throat] slightly different note uh about this if if I've read this correctly. We're looking at like a design phase that's going to take something like 20 weeks and then we bid out for contract work.

Mhm. [clears throat] So there's a what's called a milestone schedule that the state initially had us agreed upon and and it is a extremely tight schedule. I I I'm concerned even about the schedule that they put us on, but we're going to work there. Dave, can you explain the process of what you're going to go through over the next couple months in terms of laying this project out, please? I would actually like to talk through that. doing can he go up to the podium please?

Your life history a little bit about you short. All right. Well, I guess to start uh the first milestone related to the design of the wastewater treatment plant improvements is a draft design submitt to Eagle which is set for March 13th. That's really the first goal date here where we're pulling together draft plans and specifications for the wastewater treatment plant improvements. That'll include us going to the site with field measurements, verifications, pulling together construction drawings and taking what we have put in the project plan and implementing that into something that contractors can bid. Um, as we get past the draft submitt, we are going to continually work on that. Eagle had will have initial comments that we will address as we prepare uh the final bid documents um for that second date for Eagle's approval and part 41 permit submittal. So, just so you know, we've already met multiple times out at the plant with the other FAV staff, our staff, because there's no way we could get this done with just within that schedule. So they've already kind of pre-started that process of identifying deficiencies and and issues for prioritization of what we need to handle first based upon the CIP reports we did and other infrastructure issues we've had there. So we've met with them. He's crawled through the plant. He's aware of it. Obviously they'll go back and do some more work on it, but they've already had to start that process in order to meet the tight deadline. Is that correct?

Yep, that's correct. and and the significance of not meeting the schedule. Uh the significance of not meeting the schedule is potential loss of funds from the state. Correct. Just so the commissioners [music] understand that. Yeah. So the first part of the schedule, we get the designs in one single approved for bidding. Are we expecting all the project work that's going to come out of the designs to be done within 2026 or is this a multi-year project? We're thinking and I mean this is early. We hope to start the construction in 26. So go into 27. We hope to have it done by 28. Great. Thank you. So the answer to your first question is yes. [laughter] Appreciate that.

Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. All right. Any other discussion? Hey, roll call, please. Commissioner O'Brien, yes. Commissioner May, yes. Mayor Vanabash, yes. Commissioner Bryson, yes. Commissioner Hender, yes. Commissioner Clawson, yes. Motion carried. Okay. On to new business. We have 12A the fiscal year 2026 2027 budget schedule. I have a motion to approve that fiscal year 2026 2027 budget schedule as presented. I'll make a motion. Support. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Okay. And on to 12B. The city manager goal setting background February 2026.

Hi, I just wanted to give you a heads up. It's that time a year ago. be starting the budget process. And with the budget process, we always talk about uh goal setting, not only for uh the commission, but our department heads. And uh we can't start that without looking back and seeing uh how we've done. I've supplied you twice in the last year an update as to where we are with the uh goals that were set by the commission uh in the past. As you noticed, uh uh we [music] sent a number of goals. I think it was five in total. and in one form or fashion, all of those have been accomplished and or ongoing or we exceeded I believe we exceeded the expectation that was originally laid out. So, I'd ask you to review um your thoughts. I've sat with each of you already and had one-on- ones in terms of looking forward, give you an idea of uh of what we're dealing with in terms of ongoing and I'd ask you to reassess uh your thoughts and what you've heard from the community members and come back to us in February with additional goals so we can all get together and [music] agree upon another set of goals for us to uh pursue. Uh your goals may include a continuation. Uh that's a strong hint of something we've been doing all along which is the managing of projects as you can see

uh in one form or fashion that overtakes much of our our life [music] in terms of multiple different projects going on within the city. And as we talk about that, we're kicking on additional work. So a lot going on, but I look forward to hearing your goals. You have any questions, feel [music] free to reach out to me. Thank you. Okay. On to 13 of an administrative reports. We have A, the city attorney report. I'm good this evening. Thank you. Uh B, city manager report.

I think I've given you enough for today. [laughter] On to C, reports from department heads. And I believe we have two reports. But before we get to those, I'd like to ask the fire chief if he has anything. Okay. [laughter] Then I believe then we would have something from Aaron Ason the DPW. [clears throat] Do you need this?

Uh real quick, Nate. Uh thanks for that. Thanks Dave. Um looking forward to that. We worked pretty hard down there to get that turned around and he's looked pretty hard for some loot. So hoping you nail that one. Um Madame Mayor Commission Mike Chief, thanks for uh coming here. I'm not quite uh the best public speaker, more of a back operator, I guess. But um my name is Aaron with the superintendent at uh DPW down there. Uh Department of Public Works superintendent. Uh I'm responsible for overseeing the city's infrastructure and essential services that uh resides um on everyday operations. The the role focuses on safety, reliability, and long-term care of the city's assets. Um, boys were going to be here tonight, but their 2:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., 4:00 a.m. phone call and asking them if they still wanted to make it tonight. I got a quick answer from all of them, but they're not here. Um so in the superintendent, you know, we I oversee all public works um cemetery operations, supervised DPW staff and daily field operations, um plans and manage um maintenance and improvement and on improvement projects. Um oversee equipment, vehicles, and department budgets. um coordinate with the city manager, city clerk, um treasurer, um chief of police, chief slangster, chief hustle, sorry. Um special projects, not sure his actual

name, um his role, but Scott Atkins, he's

learned a lot from him. Um we also coordinate with uh engineers and contractors. Um we sub our water and sewer out. Um it's to FNV operations and um I got to mention Dave Deamik um Mike Glasgow and Josh Stewart. guys are topnotch and um we work side by side with them help you know clean pumps and whatever we can do and uh for maintenance with that uh we also I also respond to emergencies severe weather flooding and infrastructure issues like the water tower issues sewer issues main breaks service line breaks um ensure compliance with the state federal and safety um requirements a lot of that is alongside with um FNV and Mike. Um, some of those examples are Eagle, MDOT, the county. Um, this things. Um, what the DPW does, um, the Department of Public Works handles the core services that keep Marine City clean, safe, and functioning year round. Um, got a pretty good crew of boys over there. Um, we got a little model. We work hard. We play hard. Those guys take everything serious. Every phone call that comes in serious. They know their day-to-day operations. They come in, they get it done next day. Um, like I said, they can't be here tonight cuz they're probably still sleeping. Um, I'm going to go through their names real quick. Pretty much, um, from the years they've been here. Jeff, he's um all these guys are pretty much like what I want to call like Swiss Army knife kind of guys. It's a little bit of everything. I mean, it's they all have

their niche, but that there's times where they're getting called in from this angle, from this angle, and they're all able to just jump right in. Um Jeff handles um pretty much our maintenance for lawns in the summertime. Um a lot of maintenance. He does a lot in the uh in the winter time preparing upkeep, you know, with the vehicles and just you would think that winter is our kind of our busy time, but it's our downtime from playing, you know, it's our catch-up time. So, he's in there non-stop painting and doing, you know, a lot. Um Josh, uh he's our foreman in our union steward. That guy needs a roofer union card because he covers everything. I mean, it's he could be doing an oil change, he could be fixing a water mane break, the next day he's planting dillies. I mean, it's And Jared's the same way. Jared's um the other guy. I'm kind of doing these in line. Um Jared has been working side by side with me and really taking a lot um off my plate. Uh, and you know, Michael can contest for that, but as all the boys are with this water project, um, he has handled I'll get a phone call and he'll over overhear it and boom, he's over there taking care of it, which we can put fires out over here. I mean, he's um, next one down there is Parker. Um, good kid, young kid. Um, another one of those Swiss Army knife kind of guy. He just comes in and he's been thrown through hell and back. We just we we teach, we teach, we teach, but sometimes there's just, you know, and Chief Nestle knows about this. He just he's been thrown in everything and

he can adapt, you know. Um, there's Tim. Tim and I'm going to go down to Jason. Jason is another young young young young kid. Um, with the water project going on right now, Tim and Jason, they're like on call during the day. They're doing the day-to-day operations, all the stuff that comes in, but they know when the phone rings and they see my name on there, they're like they're coming in to go, you know, help with what's going on with this with the water project. Um, Babar, um, I'm really not sure how Babar even started or where we even acquired or how that even happened, [cough] but that guy is topnotch. He's been through hell and high water and he's he's one of the boys and um, they take him in and as we all know, there was an incident a while back and made our guys pretty upset. You know, we're kind of a tough group that you call one guy out, you're getting, you know, you're getting all of us. Um, last but not least, Michaela. Um, Mike knows, Jason knows, um, Katie Chief knows. That one keeps me sane outside of my wife, um, Jen. She is topnotch, which of course in my packet notes today is a note from her. um apologizing for the DPW's uh department uh monthly that with Christmas and holidays and she got nasty sick and she excuse me she always handles that and went right over Aaron's head. She wanted to let me know that. So when I opened up my package to go over my notes before I came here,

she had already gone through them. Let me get back on track here. Um, our responsibilities throughout the city is I mean it's obvious we we maintain city streets um including patching snow removal, bridge maintenance, signage, street sweeping. I know I'm leaving a lot out here, but um we operate uh maintain the water distribution system and sand sewer systems including all the pump stations which we have two in this city. one on King Road and down here three counting Cockro, but that's theirs. Um, manage storm water systems and drainage on top of uh cleaning the sanitary sewers. Um, cleaning the catch basins so we got good flow for rainwater. Um, maintain city buildings, parks, public facilities, um, including trash, lawn maintenance, um, perform performing groundskeeping, landscaping and rightway maintenance. Um, we take care. Um, one of the bigger ones is the cemetery, King Road Park, Little E, all the parks. Um, it's a it's a lot for one guy and um, two to three at a time. Um, it's nice to have three uh, newer young kids. I like to give them a chance to come in, get some work ethic going with weed whipping and you know [clears throat] cuz they also when the grass stops growing the way the boys are down there, they'll throw them in the mix to teach them something else just to to get back which you can't teach that and that's huge. But uh um like I said, they also maintain uh city vehicles, equipments, and tools, which um thanks for the support for all you've given to get some new stuff. Mike's got

us in the right direction with a lot of new stuff that we no longer have to have our feet hanging out the floorboards of some of the vehicles. supporting community events to set up tear downs and logistics like uh for example Christmas decorations or uh maritime days you know we I'll [snorts] throw that in lend hand um back to the parks and stuff a lot of tree maintenance throughout the city parks and some you know the city easements maintain the beach and the uh pavilion and the pavilion bathrooms which won't go there. Um we got a new marina. We're going to start taking care of that as well. Um one other thing is the uh cemetery section section and cemetery operations. Um the DPW oversees Woodlon Cemetery. Um all the operations there including responsibility um maintenance. Um these duties are carried out with care, professional and uh respect. Um it takes a lot of time to maintain that cemetery. Um plus or minus 4,295 headstones that everybody has to weed whip around and a couple calarians that can get away from us real quick. And you know that it can be a challenge and April in the spring when we can't get in there and all we're going to do is lay ruts. It's best just to stay out. Yes, I know the weeds get long, but we get right back in there. um cemetery services include now before I even start I want to go back to Michaela 100% of everything and Jason I guess I should add this in my note Jason 100% of scheduling

anything in that cemetery is Michaela 1% Jason thanks for that 1% buddy um outside of the boys doing the openings and closings of the urns you know in the graves Michaela coordinates all the lots, the the schedule, you know, it's to the point now where we don't even we get told when we're going to go dig all a grave. So, it's she's topnotch and doesn't skip a beat over there. Um maintain on the burial, plot ownership records, um cemetery maps. Um she works [clears throat] with the families in the funeral home. Funeral homes call non-stop. um you know with uh headstones when can they get delivered um spring and fall footings when they can get set and it's it can get challenging because sometimes the stones will get delivered to the cemetery shed they'll get delivered to the DPW or they'll get set where the footing is and we got to go back and do our homework just to kind of make sure that it gets a footing underneath. Um non-stop maintenance over there. Um, so why this work matters? Um, DBW services directly impact residents daily lives in city's long-term stability. Safe streets, potholes or not. Um, reliable utilities, clean public spaces, and um, respectful cemetery care are all uh, essential to public health, safety, and community pride. Um, much of this work happens behind the scenes um, but is vital to Marine City's quality of life. So summary here, the DPW superintendent oversees infrastructure and essential services. Um the DPW team maintains maintain streets, utilities, building, parks, uh public spaces. Um c uh cemetery section ensures respectful and well-maintained cemetery [music]

operations. Together they keep Marine City safe, reliable, and uh well cared for. Um, I just want to say thanks for the continued support and uh, every every day is always something you uh, new. Um, we never know what's going to get thrown [laughter] at us. Um, wow. If I could have recorded from the day I took a superintendent's position, the look on his face when I come in, not asking for four or $5, maybe 45 to hundred and some thousands, it you kind of laugh at the looks I get and I don't always walk into his office with the best news, but guess apparently part of my gig. Um, but with all that said, with a great team that we have, I mean, we just keep grinding every single day in and out, alarm goes off, we show up in the morning, check messages, and with that, we try and keep move forward and see what that day brings us. And at the end of the day, we start over and do it again. So,

thank you, Erin. Thank the members of your department uh on behalf of the city staff and the commission and everybody else. I think people don't realize [music] all the things that you guys are responsible for.

Uh until it breaks, until it doesn't work, right? Until uh they see a better way to do it or have questions about it. But uh obviously it's a big impact in everybody's life every day when they turn on a faucet or flush a toilet or drive on a city street or go to a park or any number of the other services you provide. You use the our cemetery. So I just want to say thank you. Thank you to all your hard workers. 2:00 this morning they were out. They worked right through 4:00 today. Uh they were a tired bunch and and there's a chance may have to come out here in another couple hours again as well. So, uh, just let them know it is appreciated. We stand behind their work. We appreciate their work and, uh, we'll just keep going forward. Right.

Good work. THANK YOU. [applause]

I APOLOGIZE FOR THE LIMP. I'M NOT LIMPING as bad as Eric. This past week I've been in in training, but I'll get to that here in a little bit. Um, first I [clears throat] want to thank Aaron for um his presentation and what he does for the city. You know, not only as a police chief, but a city resident. You have no idea how much we appreciate him and his guys. Um, I will reiterate that the departments that work together continuously on a daily basis, the camaraderie, the conversations, the teamwork. I could go on and on, but I am thankful for for their department. also Chief Slangster and his department and his continued support. I mean, we can sit we we joke around, we have our fun, but when it's time to get to business, we get to business. So, um good evening, commissioners. Thanks for having me. Um Mr. City Attorney, Mr. City Manager, um Mr. City Clerk, um I would like to thank members of my staff who who showed up tonight. Um two missing. I'll introduce them first and then I'll introduce everybody in the room. Um, Pete Ballaya. Um, he retired out of the hospitals as a as a police officer under public act 330. Um, come to me, come to us two years or so ago. Um, he had to take a personal night tonight with some family issues. Um, my other midnight guy is Mike Leen. He was told that he needed to work tonight, but it's his birthday, so he went out to dinner with his lovely wife. Um Jim Van is filling in for him until he gets here 9 10 o'clock after his dinner. So those are my two guys. Mike Leen came to us from Detroit. Two two and a half years of experience there. Local guy lives around the the county, not within the city, but around in the county. Um both valuable assets to the department. Um we'll start with Paul Kelly back corner. Paul Kelly is a part-timer. Has been with us like six or seven years.

Yes, sir.

Um he come to us from Warren. He was a traffic cop down in Warren. We call him around the department. He is motor 7. [laughter] He he writes the most tickets. He is hard on people, but he is fair with people. Um he doesn't have any reputation. Everybody loves Paul. Paul is fair to the to all of his customers per se, but um he will always be motor to us. We are the unfortunate news with Mr. Kelly is effective the end of February he is done. He is going to hang up everything and move on and retire and spend time with his lovely wife Ann who is in the back so they can enjoy a retirement together. So we will miss Paul and we wish him well and thank him for his six or seven years of service. So thank you Paul.

Tom Kenyon Johnny come lately with a hat on. [laughter] He is uh he is a retired lieutenant from uh Madison Heights Police Department. He is um my school resource officer. He been in the school's fourth year. This is his fourth year there. Um the students and staff over there absolutely love him. He's got a great relationship with with the students, the parents, and the staff. I don't ever hear anything bad about Tom Kenyon other than he doesn't maybe know how to run a computer all the time. [laughter] maybe make some mistakes on his reports a lot. But either way, we love Tom Kenyon. So, we are we are honored to have Tom. So, thank you, Tom.

Jim, I'll skip. I'll I'll come back to you in a minute. Um Jim Jones been with us for 10 11 12 14 years. [laughter] The good news with Jim is been with us 14 years as a part-timer with the vacancy that we've had um in 2025 Chris Martinelli sergeant retired opened up a vacancy. We've kind of held that kind of open a little bit. Um the good news is for all of you and the citizens is that Jim Jones agreed to become a full-timer for so starting tomorrow. Tomorrow is his first shift as a full-timer. [laughter]

So, he has retired from the college. He was the college um guru when it come to criminal justice up at SC4. He's retired. Handed the reigns on to uh another person up there. You're still going to stay on staff up there, Jim, or you've done them? Yeah, I'm still in a reduced thing until the end of the semester. There you go. So, um we are blessed and honored to have Mr. Jones in the community and as a full-time in our department. So, thank you, Mr. Jones.

Thank you. Um, I'll go to Jim Banning. Jim, go ahead. [laughter] Stand up. So, I don't know if the good news or bad news has traveled. We are certainly going to miss him. But effective today, um, Jim Vanderm has put in his retirement paperwork effective July 20th of 2026 after 31 years of dedicated service to the Marine City Police Department.

Wow. So there's Jim has been a [clears throat] very dedicated and loyal um individual to the department. I've been a friend of Jim's for my entire time. I've been here 25 years. Um he is a great family man. He is a great cop. He is a great asset to this department and we are certainly going to miss Jim Vanville. So what are your plans after retirement? No plans currently. There you go. So, [laughter] sounds like he's going to stay part time. Yeah. Not that long. [laughter] Thank you, Jim, for your 31 years. YES.

And just like Michaela in the DPW, Stacy, please stand up. She is our heart and soul of the office. She She is what keeps us running and keeps us on our toes. Um, if you ever need something from the department, Stacy will get it for you. if she doesn't know how to get it, she will find a way to get it for you. She's a bleeding heart. She is nice [laughter] to everybody and we love her for that. So there are times where I'm throwing a pen up against the wall because I am frustrated over something and she's like, "Can you just settle down?" And so she keeps me sane. So we love her for that. [laughter] She's been with us just over a year. Yes. Almost two years. [laughter] You've been here two years in April.

Wow. See, time flies when you're having fun, right? So, just over just about two years then she's been with us and again, um she is absolutely awesome to have. We are lucky to find her and snag onto her and hopefully we can keep her and we can continue that momentum moving forward. So, thank you, Stacy. Um my last introduction, um Scott Baldwin, my my newest recent hire. Um he is a retired lieutenant from the Ser County Sheriff's Office. Um come to us in the part-time capacity in August uh due to some personnel issues we had ongoing. He almost immediately went from part-time to full-time. Um so he's been a full-timer now for just about just under 6 months or so. Um I know he's very techsavvy. He knows how to pull stats out of the Clemus, our report management system. um just because we were so busy last week with with things. And then this week with me being in training, I had I had task Scott with um pulling and generating some stats that we could present tonight. Kind of a annual report, for a lack of better terms. So, he's got some printouts that I will hand out to you. I'll let Scott talk about that. I'm going to let him own his project. Um he can discuss with you as we go along. I'm sorry I didn't get it to you sooner, so you you couldn't review it, but I've been out of the office. It's It's just It's been busy. So, um I will give a copy to the city clerk so he can post it to the website. I'll make sure I put it on our Facebook and everybody here has a copy of it. So, um without further ado, Scott, come on up. [snorts] Here's what happened. Actually, [laughter] I I showed him what I put together with crayons and [laughter] he said, "You can

you can talk about it then. This is your mess. This is your work." Um, I do like to pull stats. I am capable. Uh, within the last couple weeks, I was able to to um pull a couple of the reports. It's just data on Excel spreadsheet, like 20,000 lines or so. It's hard to to make uh heads or tails of what it really is. Um and honestly, there's I think this is really basic information and I want to talk about a couple of things cuz I think it's important, but um what you don't find is, you know, homicide and a couple of the serious park crimes because we really don't have it here. Um but I think it does show a couple of interesting things that that are important. Um the top the top number the 283 calls for service that was our yearly total. It's within about 50 of the year before. Um the you know the top busiest thing that we do departmentwide at uh 402 is just traffic stops. Um below that suspicious circumstances and then the assist medical assist citizen welfare checks, follow-ups, alarms, um the record checks which is like the gun and things that we can do at you know people pistol permits and things that people buy at at our office. Uh and then helping some other agencies whether they're in town or just slightly out of town. It happens occasionally. Um so this top sheet that you got, I mean it shows our top 10 calls for service out of the 2,800 that we took in the year. Those these are the top ones. Um the top 10 locations, interestingly enough, the first two and it's just because how they were typed or populated are both um our our main office. So people we get a lot of walk-ins where people come to the to the station and make reports. Um and then it's the school um you know a business, an intersection, King Road Apartments, um CVS, ironically, and I think that's just property checks more than anything. We're not taking a bunch of larsenies there. uh Harold Street,

which is a frequent flyer house. So, I did black out the address um and then the courthouse. And so, anyway, interestingly enough, and what I thought was important, out of the 2,800 calls that we took, and most of them being very, you know, pretty insignificant as far as it relates to crime, um a lot of it's assisting public, um which I think is great. We I specifically counted 55 juvenile type complaints. Now I that number is not completely accurate and I know this from working the 6 months here. Um because of sometimes the way we close out or we do a report if we get sent to an area or we deal with um a situation that might be suspicious say I I suspect that we've we've typed up a report and called it a suspicious incident even though we are dealing with juveniles. So, I think one of the things that we'll talk about through this next year is is maybe consistency in how we type up reports so that we can not say get more, you know, to be more accurate, but what I can tell you is one of the main things I did through the summer and late fall was deal with the juvenile issues around town. All fairly minor most of the time, but one right after another to some extent. So, um, one of the things I put down there, if you see the proactive checks, the breakdown on that, you see that we we did property inspections. So, business checks or school property checks or park area checks. And what [clears throat] what this proactive check breakdown are is it's entries on our daily. So, if you guys don't know, I don't know how you know if you know how we keep track of what we do, but on a daily, we literally type everything we do for a whole shift. And so, what I found myself doing was checking Mariner Park 20 times in a 12 12-hour shift. And it was because if I wasn't checking the park, then I was getting called there to deal with something that was going on. And that's your bathroom problems. That's your That's kids hanging out maybe fighting not even fighting each other but posturing doing the things that they do but they're the police are getting called on them. Um so I can tell you that you know parks and uh

recreation area checks 863 school property checks 1100 um business checks 1,200. We're putting those things on the daily every single day because we're driving by them 12 20 times in a shift. And sometimes it's because if I'm there at the park then they go to Washington Life. if I'm at Washington Life and they go back to the park, we're literally pushing kids around until it's curfew time and then we can deal with them. Um, these are the things that we're trying to to do, you know, that we don't necessarily get credit for it as a call for service, but it's put it's put on our daily and I was trying to find a way to to to be able to show people what we're doing because 2,800 calls in a year, I don't know if that's a lot for a small town. The when I worked for the county, we would take, you know, 36,000 in a year. So, I don't know how it compares 150,000 people in a county and, you know, under 4,000 people in a city, but I thought it was important to say like we're spending 12 hours doing something and and in this case, like I I'd rather talk to the kids and wave at them, push them around, as I like to as I was trying to say. Um, instead of, you know, reacting to a call because they're posturing to fight or all the the small kind of not major crime things, but the stuff that's getting our attention. Um, so that's that first page. The rest of this just kind of a breakdown and it and it shows, you know, call volume when you can see and this all makes sense, right? The summer we're a little bit busier. Summer transitioning into fall, we're a little bit busier. Um, so it's just a monthly breakdown like on a trend for calls. Calls by day of the week is kind of interesting. Monday's actually one of the biggest call call days. Not really. I mean, the some theories are people get home from a vacation and find something wrong or for people wait until Monday because for whatever reason when I hear this and I don't know why um they think the police department's not open and they have to wait till it's open. Well, Space is there who can do office type things. We're always here. So, I want to work on that at some point cuz I can't tell you the times. Well, we waited to call the police. Like, well, I'll never solve it if you wait to call me. It's

just the way it is.

Call when it happens, [clears throat] right? Um, but Mondays and Tuesdays seem to be big call volume days and um, actually Saturdays and Sundays are some of our lowest days. Oddly enough, the time of the day is interesting. And I'm going to be switching to a a midshift, which I think is cool because I think a second car on patrol is really effective tool when you're when you're dealing with maybe juveniles, like chasing kids around town, so to speak, or push them around park to park because I' I've now bailed out of the truck a couple of times and I'm just not as fast as some of these teenagers. So, they they [laughter] see the big police truck coming and they take off real [snorts] fast and I don't catch them. But I'm hoping that I can sit down the road here, maybe when he comes in here, maybe we can catch a kid doing, you know, one of these minor things. Maybe it's a curfew thing. Maybe it's just just to see who they are all messing around, pushing, you know, the doorbells or whatever. Um, our top 10 offenses is just another breakdown and it just shows that the most things, you know, traffic stop, suspicious, cis medicals. Um, I kind of feel like we really this this really is a department of, you know, providing services and the services are to to, you know, to try to listen to the public to try to take care of their needs. I find I'm finding that most of the needs in Marine City as it relates to law enforcement or police is is um I guess being there for them. It's not so much I think I put handcuffs on somebody twice in 6 months. um taken a couple you know couple of dogs to find owners helped with a lot of medicals um I think you know so to provide these services like I think it's essential it obviously makes the community feel like you know we're one um I think that hopefully it's the message that that we can be counted on and we can be there when things you know really get serious um but it was interesting compiling this report coming up with these numbers because It's It's a little

bit different than reports I've seen and and I truly could have thrown 25 other things in there that would probably like I don't totally understand them. So, I'd have a hard time explaining to you and you probably wouldn't understand them. So, I think as time goes on, we'll get we'll get a little bit better at at maybe honing in other details [music] to pass on. Um, but you know, some of the statistics are when the call comes out, how long does it take us to get there? What's about 2 minutes? And um what I can say I mean some of the things I that haven't been so like just fun for me at this agency created a previous one. I've yet to go 100 miles an hour in [music] any of the patrol vehicles here. [laughter] Um and I used to do that almost daily like for 25 years and he like he doesn't know that I've actually gone 80 cuz I think you told me 65 was the most I I'm supposed to go started. [laughter] Um cool safe town. I'm happy to be here. I'm glad he let me do the stat things. I understand why he didn't want to present this cuz it's it's ugly, right? I did it with crayons. Um, one of the things I wanted to say that I think is important is is the follow-up numbers. So, we've done we do a lot of follow-ups here and I think a lot of it's because to some extent we're our own detectives. Um, and and we have the time to do it. So, if I take a call today and say it is a theft or something, I get to um I get to show up tomorrow and ask questions. I get to show up the next day and ask questions. I get show up the next day and ask questions and I have time to do it for the most part and I think that's actually really great. Uh, one of my favorite TV shows and it goes back to the 70s and ' 80s is Columbbo because he literally continues to show up at the person's house and continues to ask questions and he has this this thing where he says just just one more thing, right? And he drives people absolutely berserk uh and then they confess. So, I think that we're going to we have time to do that here and that's what excites me. So anyway, thanks for letting me go out and go through my numbers because it was ugly. Wasn't pretty.

I appreciate [clears throat] it. Thank you. Your folder keep That's my folder. Yeah. Thank you, Scott. That's my phone. Take that. You can take all my notes, though. So again, like he said, he's 25 years with uh the Sanford County Sheriff's Office and uh he retired as a lieutenant out of the detective bureau. So he knows what he's doing. He's smart with his numbers and like I said, we're I'm glad to have each and every one of them. Paul Kelly, I will miss you. Motor 7. Thank you, sir.

Um so moving on. So normally I like to freelance some things, but I had to write some things down and and read this to you because this is one of the goals I have. We had a department meeting in November and the biggest thing that I'll get to, one of my points later on is is to talk about training, but the biggest thing I really want to focus on with the department is focusing on the little things. Um, I had a conversation with one of the officers and we got to talk about the little things and I I put together a a little um narrative here. Just let me read this. It says, "In law enforcement, we often talk about the big calls, the high-profile incidents that make the evening news and define our department in the eyes of the public. It is natural to focus on those moments because that is where the stakes feel the highest. However, as a chief, my focus is sometimes often elsewhere. I am focused on the small things, particularly how a patrol car is maintained, how a report is narrated at 3:00 a.m., and how a routine traffic stop is conducted on a rainy Tuesday. little things that I worry about. The theory of the small thing is some might ask why we obsess over the little details. The answer is simple. Because in our profession, there is no such thing as a small mistake. Reliability under pressure. When a crisis occurs, we don't have time to rethink ethics or tactics. We rely on habits. If we allow the small shortcuts in our paperwork or our procedures today, we are essentially authorizing failure during the life and death moments of tomorrow. Public trust To a citizen, a small interaction with an officer is the big moment. If we get the courtesy and the procedure right in the driveway, we can earn the trust when we need we need when we have to ask for the public's help in a crisis. Mitigating risk. Excellence in the mundane is our best defense against liability and tragedy. Correcting a

minor procedure procedural error now prevents a catastrophic failure later. So here's our commitment. I tell my officers that integrity is a practice, not a status. We do the little things right, not because someone is always watching, but because the discipline of doing things the right way is the only way to ensure that when the big thing happens, our response is instinctive, professional, and beyond reproach. We're not just building a police department. We're building a culture of discipline. We take care of the details so the city can sleep soundly knowing that the foundation of its safety is solid. Thank you for your continued support and of our standards and for our mission. I'd like to thank the the the support of our community, the support of you guys, the support of all the department heads. Without without that support, we we wouldn't thrive. Are we going to make mistakes? Yep. Are we going to correct them? Yep. We're human. We're going to make them. But my job as a chief and my mentor as city manager, we will make sure that those mistakes won't happen in the future. That is somebody's character. I take pride in my character. I I focus on the small things and it's that is my commitment to you and to our department. So, moving on things that's coming up in 2026 for the department. Um, end of last year, we had meetings with our accreditation manager, um, Gail Kachinsky. We've met multiple times and we're moving [music] forward with the accreditation process. That's going to be a year or two-year process along the way. Um with that, we're going to transition currently Lexiple maintains [music] our policies and procedures. Effective February 2nd, we're transitioning to a company called Power DMS where they they will take over for Lexiple. Gail is working behind the

scenes to help [music] transition to that. I'm assuming Stacy's going to training on this in when? March.

March. The three of us are going to get together ultimately with the blessing of, hey, this is the new policy. Does it read right? Does it fit the needs of the Marine City Police Department? Yes, it does. Does it meet the accreditation standards? Yes, it does. Approved. Put it in power DMS. So, it'll be a lengthy process, but after meeting with her, I was very skeptical at first. Believe me, I had a wall up on this. But after meeting and talking about it, I am looking forward to this this step and this process. I think it'll give us some tools that we don't currently have to continue to move this department forward. Um like I said in training, um I I promised the department that we will start to train and we're going to train hard in starting in 2026. M poles the the it's the word I'm looking for

state licensing. Thank you. Um they have developed this program called CBE which is continued professional education and they're mandating so many hours of training per year. With that mandate they've they're also giving us money for that telling us you need so many hours of all this stuff. So, we are going to really work hard and move forward. We had an audit. We're good for this year. We're moving into next year. I want to up the game, though. With that being said, the training that I'm in this this year, Jim Bannon, when's the last time we had any type of defensive tactics training?

About a while. So, in 1998, I went and got certified as a defensive tactics instructor. I was certified probably up until 2012 the PPCT pressure point control tactics platform went away recently he had come back saw the class offered it to the department nobody wanted to go so I'm like you know what I used to do it I would love to go you guys are going to regret me going but I'm going to go so not much has changed just a reertification along the way um a couple minor pressure points have changed some verbiage along in in the in the book has changed like you know two ways to deal with a threat. We could either engage or disengage. 20 years ago it was we could either penetrate or we could disengage. So some verbiage changed along the way. Um so I'm excited to teach these guys um the pressure points, the baton, the handcuffs, etc. So, that'll be a lot of fun. Um, with Vanimmon's, Officer Van's retirement, we'll be looking for a new full-timer in July. We'll probably start that process sooner than that. It'll take a while for our background and all that stuff to get done. So, um, we are hiring a full-timer. Um, couple other things. the the biggest thing is, you know, we talk about the pavilion and um the damage and the juveniles and such. So, city manager and I met with um Homeland Security, the the emergency management office. We secured funds to have cameras installed there and the marina. So, I know they they'll be installed here shortly. So, that's coming. Um, after I've been here 25 years, so I I

have two and a half years where I'm eligible to retire. I just want to end by saying that I am still thankful for being your chief. I am honored that you still allow me to be your chief. And if you guys ever have any questions or any issues, my my door is wide open. I don't hide anything. And if you ever have anything you need, please let me know. I'm open to talk and dialogue and communication. I think that's the biggest thing that what makes so far what we do as department heads successful. So without further ado, does anybody have any questions?

Well, I I just want to say same as Eric. I want to say thank you to you, your department members. I want to congratulate Jim. 31 years is quite a ride. Paul, thank you. Time to get off that horse, right? You're done. 32 years.

32 years. Congratulations. Uh I appreciate the fact of the willingness of your staff and of you to evolve. [clears throat] Sometimes um it takes uh a time, but we I I am thrilled that we're willing to go in different directions and seek out the best for the community. I I am thrilled with the people that we have representing the department with you. I support the police department. I support their operation. I support the officers. I support your work. Um, we'll always look back and make sure that if we can do a better job in anything and that's every day in any department. It doesn't matter. It's not just the police department. So, I want to make that clear. But I want you to know I appreciate uh you uh willingness every day to take on additional issues or different problems or different suggestions and really vet them and consider them. So, uh I'm appreciative of that and I appreciate your efforts, but more so the guys coming on, the guys that uh worked with many years. I I just appreciate every one of you and uh probably the closest thing to everything you said is Stacy's the glue.

You're not wrong. I get it. So, Mrs. Chief, thank you for your [laughter] Thanks, Jim. Yeah. Thank you.

So, commissioners, my uh don't leave yet, Jim. So, my my office has the honor of prosecuting the work of these fine people and um it's top-notch from the initial paperwork, from my ability to review and understand some of the crazy narratives that I read of what happened. Um it's all top-notch from the warrant process to standing before the judge and getting a result. And I thanks a lot, Jim. My pleasure, sir. Thank you all. Stacy, you finally get to see Stacy. Thank you, Chief. Congratulations, Jim.

Yes. Thank you. And other department heads. Katie, anything. Finance meeting. Finance. [laughter] And Jason office. Just one quick reminder. I want to remind everybody the new water rates went into effect. So you will see that increase on the bills going out at the end of this month. Okay. [snorts] [sighs] All right. And on to commissioner privilege and these on reports. We'll start with commissioner.

Well, the planning commission didn't meet. They didn't have any on the on the agenda, but I want to thank uh all the DPW, the police department, and all our city staff. Uh seems like everything is going good. I get calls. I got a call the other day from Florida and ask me about the problem of town. So, uh, thank you. Thank you, welcome tonight. Thank you, Commissioner O'Brien.

Um, transitioning into wintertime, it's always quite fantastic and seeing the teams come together here, the work you guys are doing, it's been very impressive. I really appreciate the presentations tonight getting to know your teams speaking on behalf of your crews. It's it's very meaningful. So, congratulations the upcoming retirements and enjoy the time off and thanks for all you've done for the community and for the rest of you sticking around for a little while yet. Thank you for what you're about to do.

Thank you, Commissioner May. Well, I was going to say everything that they had said, but [laughter] in in all seriousness to head on to to add on to that. Um, getting the the department head uh reports are very helpful for us. Um, and more importantly, I think it it helps you highlight your employees, which sometimes um [clears throat] I think they don't get highlighted as much as they should. Um, because nobody says anything when they're happy. They only they only complain um when they're upset or say something when they're upset. So, I had the fortune uh of of working side by side with the majority of of everybody here, whether or not it's a DPW, the police department, the fire department. Um the the police department is is very helpful. Um especially when it comes to medicals in the middle of the night. Um there's a lot of times we go on medicals that are non-emergency, so we don't have the fire department. It's very nice to have the police department there to help us out. Um the fire department, they're just they're great anytime um that that they're needed. And of course, DPW, I I don't remember a time that I've drove through the city and not seen them out doing something. So, thank you for your continued support, your continued leadership. Um I hope that you don't let the negative days and the negative comments um outrule the tremendous work that you do and and how you truly positively affect the city cuz that's at the end of the day that that's that's what matters. Um so, continue to take care of your staff. we'll continue to take care of you and and the city's moving forward and again congratulations on your retirements.

All right.

Well, ditto on all what she said. I mean, there's not much else I can say, but you know, I do have to say the DPW, you guys do a lot of work that is thankless. I mean, it's thankless stuff that people just don't understand sometimes how much that you guys have to put up with. and and and you're working in bitter cold like we got again out there and um uh I just appreciate it when you guys had to come to my house to replace my meter and on time professional does everything good. I mean [sighs and gasps] and uh Jim and your staff, I've known you since you came here. Same with you. I mean I've been here that long. Um but I remember when both you guys came here. So um I congratulate you. I know you've been wanting to [laughter] It's time. I know it gets to that point. I know how that goes. It gets to the time and I and same for you. I mean, it's it's a tough thing, but you know, you get to a point where you just got to let it go and start doing what you want to do in your life. I mean, you know, um you guys have given a lot already to the community. So, I just want to uh thank you all and I and everybody here does appreciate everything that our staff does in every department. I mean, it's it's a tough it's it's a tough gig. So, thank you all.

And not to drag this out too much longer, but ditto to everything they just said. We truly appreciate you guys. Aaron, Chief, all the our officers, Stacy, congratulations Jim again. Congratulations all, you know, and everything, you know, with the clerk's office, with finance office, everybody together. That's what makes city great is the employees, our city manager, our city attorney, everybody. We all work together. We all get the job done and we're just a great city because of that. So, thank all you guys. Thank you very much. And thank you, Curtis and Sam for your audit and presentation tonight. appreciate the [clears throat] information, the way you present it to us and how thorough you are and how you help us all year round. Thank you very much. And

with that, can I have a motion to I'll make a motion to support. All in favor? I