City Commission - Regular Meeting

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Good evening everyone. This is Monday, March 2nd. If you have any questions or business with this council, uh you have a couple opportunities under new business when we vote on something when the motion's made supported. I will give you a time to come up and have an opinion if you'd like before we vote. And then under public comment number 10, I'll give you a time there, three minutes for anything non-aggenda. Uh and I'll give you like a one minute warning to wrap up your uh thoughts. Please uh call the role. Cedar here. Gotler here. Kufa here. Leaport here, Paul here, FS here, Buster here, all present, your honor.

Thank you. Vote number four, consent agenda a city council minutes of February 16th, 2026. Special and regular meeting recommendation approved. B is the city council as zoning board of appeals minutes of February 16th, 2026 meeting. Recommendation approved. C is the historical commission minutes of November 4th and December 9th, 2025 meetings. Recommendation received. E is the planning commission minutes of January 14th, 2026 meeting recommendation received. And E is the zoning board of appeals minutes of January 21st, 2026 meeting recommendation receive. What are your wishes? Motion to approve A through E as presented. Support motion may support questions. All in favor say I.

Opposed? We have nothing under number five. Let's go to number six, reports administration. Mr. Duchaine, do you have anything tonight?

Uh no, Mr. Mayor, I do want to point out we'll have some information about summer road construction and street construction coming up. We'll put up on the web and other media outlets as we have three major projects including Fredmore repaving Henry to 7th Riverside M29 pedestrian safety improvements, Clinton uh Clinton Avenue repaving sixth and Carney and concrete replacement on Fred Moore which would start after the Clinton Avenue projects. So, it's going to be a very busy um street improvement project summer. That's all. Mr. Any questions? Council M. Uh Mr. Downey, you have anything for Nothing this evening, your honor.

Any city departments out there, authorities, boards, committees, commissions? Have any updates? No. Unfinished business under settlements. Go to number 8. A approve recommendation or award emergency contact or Mr. Ducha.

U Mr. Mr. Mayor, members of council, this provides a contract pre-negotiated with preset bid prices for emergency public work services. It has been certainly uh over time I've seen this put to very good use in many places and in fact the city has to rely on services from contractors if at times such as this winter you have things such as multiple water breaks other issues that come up at the same time and due to crew length or size length of problems and jobs having to call in an emergency contractor is sometimes necessary. The problem with doing it ad hoc or as the situations develop is then you're somewhat at the mercy of the vendor or the contractor at that time. This contract provides uh should council enter into it set prices um for all of the activities so we will know and we would have that agreed to when and if they were ever called on. Now, the scope of the the agreements are very wide because we're unsure of what type of emergency would happen, but they're pretty well diagnosed in the uh schedule of fees. Um so it is my recommended uh action that the council approve based on the bid summary uh reviewed by um our consulting engineer to um enter the contract with Murray Underground Systems Incorporated in Fort Graham, Michigan for a three-year term at the rates that are stated within the bid specifications and applied to those services on an ad needs basis. So, we would continue to do as much as possible with our staff and our DPW.

This is uh sort of a rainy day situation, extreme emergencies, overload, that type of a situation. Correct. Yes. Um and we we came close uh in a little bit this year in several situations to that. What happens if Murray can't do it in case of emergency?

Well, if that's well, they have committed in this contract to be able to do it. Uh, in doing background, he has this company has other contracts so other municipalities understand the scope of it. But in theory, if both our crews are exhausted, this contractor was unavailable, then we'd be back at the uh at the whim, I guess, of taking another contractor at whatever price was available at the time.

Mr. Shane, I'm generally in favor of this and I like the idea of being prepared for a rainy day, but does this establish any kind of exclusivity with Murray then in that case we can move on if that if this isn't working out or if they are unavailable for that work? This does not corre create a binding exclus ex exclusive use of this contractor versus any other contractor. Okay. They are not capable sometimes of several you know contracts at the same time. So they [clears throat] need that kind of release to Is there any kind of response time in this contract that's written in or language that would void the contract if there was situations where they weren't reporting or doing the work on time? Is that is that just Yes. Okay. I don't have that in there. How was Murray picked?

Excuse me. How did we pick Murray in that bid? One bid. One bid. Okay. That's my only other concern is we had one bid. It was it was advertised and widely on the bids and we had a number of inquiries, but uh one qualified bidder. I'll make a motion. All right. The motion may support a question. Got one question. So, will one of our supervisors be on that job? Yes, they would have to make the call. They would Yes, they would have to do that to monitor because it says so much per hour. Yes. Somebody keeping track of

Yes. And and in fact, depending on the notice on the job, uh may even hire engineering inspector to also monitor the job, qualify the job, and then be with the job. But other questions for council? Yes, sir. [clears throat] Bill CL 1374 South Evans. I didn't quite hear what Bill asked. I wanted to know if there was going to be a supervisor on the job. If they get called out from the city from the city, it would be somebody from the city watching the whole process, keeping track of time material, what's being used? Yes.

Okay. My my next question is, is this strictly water and sewer that they get called out on, or are we talking about the whole scope of work? The only other ones that would be generally of the type of emergency would be is when we say water and sewer if it would be a storm collapse or sinkhole perhaps or something of that nature. So I really wouldn't have any other one that would be qualified I think as an emergency in that case. All right. So there would be if they get called out there will be somebody from the city with them the whole time they're performing their work.

Oh I mean they're qualified. Sorry. They're qualified. Is that what we're saying? We're going to have a individual literally clocking their time when they show up and when they're done and everything they did or are we asking when they get to certain points throughout the job, they're going to call for inspection and approval so they can continue on to the next level like you would in any other contract that we do at any other time with any other vendor. I think that's probably better stated that way because I I'm not going to see and what typically has happened over the the many years had emergency contractors is usually they're there to set the job, discuss the hours, know the scope of it and then check in regularly or may be there certain times of the process. It may determine though because it'll be under our control water and sewer that we might even bring in an engineering inspector during times to do it. But otherwise there would be a I would expect city personnel to be in touch with it to know the job and to know the hours and those things but not necessarily be there u minute by minute during the job.

Thank you. So to answer my question is it's going to be an honor system whatever they turn in. We have no recollection what time they get there, what what material is being used, are we supplying the material, are they supplying the material? How's this going to work? How are you going to know if they when they get there and when they leave? This is that could be on the honor system by the contractor and who's going to keep track of what pipe they put in the ground, what material they use, cuz the city is going to get build for everything. Correct. So, you going to is it going to be an honor system? They're going to say we use x amount of pipe. We're not gonna have nobody there to make sure that everything coincide. It's my question.

Well, for the sake of not being repetitive, as I answered the councilman, there'll be there the job will be called. The job will be designated by city personnel. The start of the job and the expected scope of the work will be determined. If it's the type of material that needs to be supplied, that would be discussed at that time. Then they would monitor or involve themselves in the work until completed. uh may have to utilize engineering inspectors depending on the nature such as the licensed nature of water and sewer. There have to be somebody there to evaluate that too. Well, I'm talking, you know, you get a water break at midnight, you can't get nobody in your call Murray to do it. Who's going to kind of keep who's going to be the eyes for the city?

There's going to have to be the eyes of the city to monitor the job. Who makes the designation that this is the route that we're going to take in any specific situation? Is it entirely [snorts] up to you? Who is it entirely up to DPW? Conversation between both. Conversation between both I would have to be um reviewed by me or I'd have to be notified that it will always be reviewed by you. Yes. Yeah. Thank you. [snorts] All right. Call the role, please. Gotler. Yes. Kufa, yes. Leaport, yes. [clears throat] Paul, yes. BS, yes. Wester, yes. Cedar, yes. Motion carried.

Thank you. Let's go to B. Approve recommendation for planning commission 1100 drive. Mr. Duchain,

I recommend the council approve the action of the planning commission to deny the special the request for special land use 1100 South Carney Drive. The planning commission uh denied the special land use request and as required has passed their recommendation on to the council in review of the minutes and the facts and the planners report uh regarding this site and this um proposed application. Um I recommend the council support and approve their denial. Make the motion to approve. No support questions. Call the roll, please.

Kufa, yes. Leaport, yes. Hall, yes. BS, yes. Westerick, yes. Gotler, yes. Cedar, yes. Motion carried. Thank you. [snorts] The is the uh appointment of the library commission. With your endorsement council, I'd like to appoint Shan Jazzinowski to a three-year term expiring December 31st, 2028. With that motion, I would ask you to include the residency waiver for Miss Jasinowski. I'll make the motion to approve the appointment with the residency waiver as reported. Questions? All in favor say I. Let's go to number nine, claims and accounts, February 18 and 25, 2026.

Hearing no questions, I make a motion to approve as presented. Motion is made to support. Any questions? All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Go to number 10. Public comment. If you have any non-aggenda items, give you three minutes. I'll warn you when you get down to one minute, please. Go to number 11. Hearing council. Anybody have anything for Hearing nothing. Your honor, I make a motion to adjurnn. All in favor say I. I. I.

Oppos. Thanks for coming everybody. Be careful out there. Be safe. Be nice. The preceding program was produced by CTV Community Television. CTV Community Television is supported by the cities of Marine City and St. Claire, East China Township, Carterville Township, and the East China School District.