City Council - Regular Meeting

It's my job. What's I saw I saw That's it. Hello.

You want my shoulder? I'll give you mine. Okay.

Can't start without or actually no. Ryan, I didn't leave it in the car. I left it in the conference room. It's just two B. We're driving this year. You too. Excuse me one second. I had a feel.

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Okay. Sorry about that. All right. Thank you. Hello everyone. We will call the um it's 7:03 right now. We'll call the April 7, 2026 uh East Point regular city council meeting to order. Would everyone please rise for the invitation given by Councilman Curley followed by the pledge of allegiance.

Oh most holy one, once again we come here tonight to do the business of our beautiful city, we ask that our hearts would be Belt here. Council member Shadlick here. Council member Scott here. Belt here. Council member Shadlick here. Council member Scott here. All right. Uh, approval of the agenda. I understand uh, administration's recommending to remove new business item A because it's not ready. It's not quite ready for prime time. That's correct. Right. Would anyone like to make a motion to approve the agenda without that? So move. Sorry. Support. That's fine. All right. Please call the RO. Council member Baker.

Yes. Council member Shadlick. Yes. Council member Curley. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld. Yes. Council member Scott. Yes. All right, we'll start off with our presentation with uh Sarah Frederick for Rare.

Good evening everyone. Um my name is Sarah Frederick and I am the deputy director of the recreation authority of Roseville and East Point. And um I'm here tonight just to give you guys a little introduction of what we're going to be offering uh this spring and summer um with the recreation authority. So, um, this Saturday is our annual spring craft and vendor show. I believe it's around 75 plus, um, craft vendors. We sold out again for another year. Um, so we have a packed building full of local, um, vendors to sell their goods. Um, that again is this Saturday um, at the recreation authority center from 10:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. Um, admission is a dollar per person and then children 12 and under are free. However, if you guys um take a peek at your East Cider edition from last week, there is a free coupon in there. So, um be sure to cut that out and bring that to get in for free. Um like I said, the whole building's full. Um you know, we have a lot of great uh artists and everything attending. And then um we also will have a table um with our uh adaptive group um at the recreation authority um selling their crafts that they have made this winter and everything as a fundraiser for um their program. So hope to see you guys all there. Just a few uh save the dates um that were in our newsletter this year um for the spring and summer. We have our uh donuts with grown-ups on Saturday, June 6th. Uh, Family Nerf Wars on Tuesday, June 23rd. Uh, Pride in the Park on Thursday, July 16th. Uh, Movie in the Park. Um, we're going to be featuring Wicked Part Two and uh, on Tuesday, July 21st. And then, um, our community rumage sale on Saturday, August 22nd. We have a few also um, family fun trips

this year. Um, a couple of them are leading up or after school gets out. So, kind of a good way to kick off the summer. Uh, so we will be going to a Detroit Tigers game on Thursday, June 11th. Uh, Michigan's Adventure on Friday, June 19th, and uh, Bavarian Lodge um the Bavarian In Lodge on Monday, August 17th through Wednesday, August 19th. Um all these family fun trips include um bus transportation um to and from the location and um uh the full experience of the hotel and lodging and then your game tickets and park tickets. So um those specific dates of those special events and uh the family trips are all listed in our spring and summer newsletter and on our website. Um registration just opened this Monday um for all these programs. Again, we do have our uh youth and adult and adaptive enrichment programs and everything. Just wanted to highlight our special events and family fun trips.

All right, you guys have any questions? Thank you. Any questions? Awesome. Well, thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah.

All right. Um, first hearing of the public is now open. Well, do something more for themselves or their families and have something that they can kind of look forward to as well. Um, outside of just the day-to-day, you know, businessto business type things that a family would typically be doing. Um, outside of that, it does open up the opportunity for individuals to get nutrition in a different way. Um it allows people to have like not farm fresh but urban farm fresh opportunities um cottage law um abilities. So people who have different cultural backgrounds and everything that have beautiful abilities of creating things that you wouldn't typically see at a grocery store or along those lines. Um being able to share that with our community a little bit more and have the opportunity to do more with what they're good at. So that is I think the amount of time I get. Right. Thank you.

Anyone else wish? Good evening everyone. I am Joella Bush, the executive director of Giana House located in East Point on the grounds of St. Veronica's Parish. and we service young women between the ages of 18 and 25 who are pregnant and homeless. We provide uh services for those young ladies to live at our home during their pregnancy and then for up to one year after their babies are born. Uh we also have a community outreach program that services over 200 families in the East Point and surrounding areas and we provide services to these families um without any federal assistance. um strictly through um people just like you and I who believe in our mission and who support and donate and um also through fundraising. So I just wanted to um invite you all as well as the East Point community to um our event our it's it's ours it's our inaugural charity night Friday May the 8th from 6 to 10. Good evening. Pastor Albert Rush, pastor of East Point Emanuel United Methodist Church, also a chaplain for the East Point East Point Police Department, part of the Rotary Club, and also the interim chair of the East Point Community Coalition. I wear a lot of hats, but more than anything else, I love what I do and I love being a part of this community. I've been living here for 14 years as pastor of East Point of Man United Methodist Church. But this today I'm coming forward to you as we've talked before about an opportunity for our leadership to to be with our community our comm community our uh the

East Point Community Coalition is going to have a spring into wellness community health fair coming up Saturday April 18th 2026 from 11:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. There's flyers out there. It's it's health and preventive resources interactive stations take-home wellness materials. We have a number of vendors there for to connect with about opportunities and things that's going on in our community and making sure that those do not know what our coalition is about. I wonder if you're uh um Rob used to be the president of the coalition at one point in time. So, we're just very we're our job is to connect with our community and our mission is supporting the residents of East Point and surrounding communities by promoting a safe, healthy and substancefree environment, providing opportunities and education so that people can be able to make sure they're substance free. How we have opportunities for uh substance abuse resources through our connection with care. Also making sure that for those that do have drugs, drugs initiative is what helps us with a safe and responsible way to dispose of unused or expired medications. This is what helps us prevent substance misuse. This is what helps prevent reduce accidental harm um with children and families. And this is also a big way that we can keep our community safe. This is a national initiative and the next upcoming one is on Saturday, April 25th from 10:00 a.m. to 2 pm at the East Point Police Department. Um during our last October drug takeback day, we collectively um gathered 22 pounds of unused or expired medication. So that just really speaks volumes to the impact of what this is. So, this is a really great opportunity for residents to do some spring cleaning and take part in this really simple but really meaningful way to support your community and your homes and your family safely. And lastly, I would like to invite everybody um to join us for

upcoming coalition meetings. We meet every first Thursday of the month at 11 a.m. on Zoom. However, our upcoming May meeting, we're going to be meeting at 6 o'clock on May 7th at Pastor Rush's Church, Emanuel United Methodist. We're going to be having a potluck and celebrating all the great things our coalition has been doing in the community um and planning for for our times ahead and um we would love for the community all of you guys to be involved in that. So, thank you. Thank you.

Hello everybody. Uh Cardi De Monaco, East Point resident. I wanted to come out um and talk about something that was brought up a couple meetings. This was false and a lie. Uh the more I think about it, I'm just perplexed by why it was even said. Um because it doesn't really matter if it's started with a council member or the finance director or the city manager because the council is responsible for the budget and just adopting a budget uh with the city. and um you know any can be updated yeah by any council member too but that was just uh very perplexing. Um, but I I stand by that vote that we did make to eliminate the HR manager/ deputy personnel director position as um as it last existed because it was no longer aligning with our original goals for the position when it was created in the fiscal year 2019 2020 budget. Uh, the position did not exist before that going back to at least 2014 and I'm pretty sure much longer than that if it ever existed. uh the the city council that was seated during the financial crisis of 2008 was required to make many tough personnel decisions that affected the police department, fire department, every department of the city, the fiscal health of the city. Something that all city councils must consider to run a professional well-run municipality. That is all. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, council. Mary Halford, East Point resident. A couple of things that I wanted to bring to your attention. If you have not recently seen um page, the council discussion page on Facebook. wanted to bring this to your attention after the September um I'm sorry March 17th meeting and with the request of opening an hour earlier by Moses Roses I happened to spend the entire week monitoring the traffic over there. Not once did I see an abundance or overwhelming number of cars. No people lined up. In fact, the most numbers I saw on that parking lot before 10 and even a little after 10 was seven. Everyone should be involved in or at least have the opportunity. So, I'm asking you again. I know you were voting on the second reading of that situation with Moses Roses. I had hoped he would be here so I could tell him to his face. He lied. And I don't have a problem saying that. We need to do better for the city. And I'm going to keep saying that until somebody actually hears me. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh first of course you know I am the person that was being talked about relative to being laid off uh as the former personnel director. I do recognize that this subject is on the agenda for tonight. But I would like to again request that the results of the investigation uh regarding the discriminatory practices of former mayor Elk City Manager excuse me Elky Doom be made public. Um there are several people with relevant information identified um to the investigating attorney who were not contacted for their testimony. I'm wondering how a fair unbiased conclusion could be arrived at without the testimony of everyone involved. Additionally, as a part of that discussion, I hope um of course I was um laid off as a result of a a budget amendment um that appears to have been generated according to previous.

Anyone else wish to be heard? Excuse me, mayor. Did he uh did you catch his address? I didn't, but I figured we'd go back and look. But actually, where did he go? Oh, can you uh just leave your address over there for us? Yes. Thank you. Go ahead.

Good evening, council. Craig Wedki, East Point resident. Um, in advance of your discussions for the 2627 bud budget, I would respectfully request uh considering an additional $1,000 for the beautifification commission budget. As a commission, we've worked to improve the entrance to Spindler Park with assistance from the Smith family. We maintain a garden bed at Gratchet and Nine Mile. And this Earth Day and the public is welcome. Our group looks to resurrect the adopt a garden program where we try to have citizens adopt bare parcels uh around the city that they can plant flowers and make the city a prettier place. And also at the same time, our group will be uh working to clean the walking path at Spindler. Uh at this time, we are also looking to explore working with the parks commission to beautify some of our park spaces. Over the years, I know all of you have been part of our cleanup, and we thank you for your assistance. But with additional funding, we certainly like to make East Point a more visually attractive place to live. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard?

Good evening, council, Mayor John Sera, Kelly Road. Uh, Mr. Bloom, there's there's there's budget stuff on the agenda tonight, maybe for a further meeting, but I'd like to know if there's a water bill great height coming. I would also like to uh endorse the comments of Mary Hall Rafford about the marijuana situation. Uh there's there's been too much funny stuff going on about that. You're not listening to people. I think you're listening to I was I was kind of astounded by it. Uh I had no really knowledge of the of the circumstances. But to me, it gave me a sense of how you, Mr. Kleinfeld, run the city. And I would characterize it as my personal opinion. You run an ugly city. That was an ugly meeting. It was rigged in my personal opinion because it did not include everything was around a a vendor, a lawyer that somebody hired here that made a snap decision that everything was right. That didn't look right to me. It looks like uh I think you were on an ugly administration, Mr. Kleinfeld. Um,

you have 30 seconds.

Once again, I I ask the people of East Point to turn down or vote against the millillage or the bond issue for the school system. Christina Gibson has not shown herself to be a competent. since she has been released. I've looked at the administrative budget that has been approved for months and apparently she was laid off for budgeting reason. She was no longer fitting that that that sector or whatever. However, get to the point Wanda. I'm seeing a an increase in the administrative budget, the amount that is paid out monthly that the committee is approving. And if that's the case, if she was let go to because they didn't no longer need that or for budget reasons, they wanted to to uh have less money paid out for that position. Why are we not seeing a decrease in the administration finances on a monthly basis? That would be a question I would like to have answered at some point. You can email me if I'm misunderstanding what is going on. But I'm going to give you an example. Say when Miss Vicki was with the city that they were they was approving a budget in January for $41,5122. But then in February it went up to she let she was let go. But in February it's $45,651. In March is $42,532.32. March $44,000. Then on the March 17th it was 44,000.

I'm not seeing someone need to make it make sense to me that if this person was let go, laid off because they found a need to phase out that position for maybe financial reasons, I would love to see a decrease in the monthly administrative budget. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard? It turns out that there is a a meter account under a Kelly Road address and they have been paying their water bill every month. So, my apologies for questioning whether or not they've been paying for water. At the March 16th city council meeting, attorney Chris Ayelo requested that they be allowed to open at 9:00 am instead of 10:00 a.m. He stated, "There are a lot of people sitting outside the front door waiting to get in at 10 10:00 a.m. For the last seven days, we've made 287 sales at 10:00 a.m. Exactly. This would equate to about 40 sales at exactly 10:00 a.m. every day. Would this mean that they are allowing 40 people into the store right at 10 10 o'clock a.m. to make purchases? Um I you know I just feel that there's a lot of exaggeration about you know for what they want what they want. Um this is a print screen of a page from Moses Rose's website dated March 23rd showing that their East Point location is open from 9:00 a.m. to 900 p.m. 7 days a week. I'm pretty sure that these hours had been posted on their website since they opened February 1st. It looks like they just copied hours from another store. Could this be why people are lining up there at 10:00 a.m.? Because if you go to the website, it says that they open at 9:00 in the morning. Um, they don't have their hours posted on the big poll sign out front. Uh, I think that this may have caused some confusion. And it's not that they're needing to open earlier, it's that people thought they opened at 9:00 cuz that's what's posted.

You have 30 seconds, right? Um, you know, I again, it's not so much the difference of an hour, although I think that we could maybe let them be open for a little while and see how they do before we start changing ordinances citywide. um you know just just a thought but I don't

more or less sometimes their own agenda and I think we ought to be just thankful and glad to the most high y uh that uh it wasn't suggested rather than uh 9:00 8:00 or 7:00 as it was previous time uh even though they would just want to be open up at 9 that somebody didn't suggest let's let let them be open till 8:00 uh instead I believe that was by Councilman Maggie and what have you. And so, um, I think we ought to basically pay closer attention to, uh, who these people are for and what they're voting for, how they're voting, and like I said before, uh, we've got to get it more under control and, uh, get better people up here, uh, to represent, uh, us as East Point citizens. Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else? Caramel region section 84-4 C12 and three regarding rabbits is grossly inadequate. Domestic rabbits do not belong housed outdoors as it puts them in grave danger of being attacked by predators whether humans, roaming cats, dogs, wildlife, and the everinccreasing presence of birds of prey. Rabbits are the most third most abandoned pets at shelters and rescues. At the last meeting, Chief Haynes addressed that three rabbits froze to death. Reproductive cancers, rabbit hoarding, illegal breeding of rabbits, slaughtering rabbits for human consumption, or other food source. The RHDB2 vaccines are mandatory to prevent this deadly disease causing them to hemorrhage to death. So follow section 8-17A for the ferrets. Remove ferrets, put in rabbits, remove rabies vaccine, put in the RHDB2 vaccine. Raising and slaughtering rabbits for human consumption or other food source must be prohibited just as it is under section 8-6D4. It shall be unlawful to slaughter a domestic hen deemed as pets for human consumption or other food source. In

2007, when I bought my house, some jerk at the end of my block was raising and slaughtering rabbits for food. Animal control did nothing until PETA got involved. At the last meeting, no questions were asked about rabbits. None of you replied to my three emails of you. This tells me you have not done your research. You're doing an absolute disservice to the rabbits. if you don't add these critical amendments I've just addressed. And where's the registry for criminals convicted of animal cruelty? Do better. If you don't, then you have no business retaining your elected seats. What you guys have done with this ordinance. I emailed two drafts. A copy and paste of the dog ordinance for all of you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard? Anyone else? Oh. Hi, my name is Amy Cerello and I am the food service director at East Point Schools. Mr. Mayor, um there's seven minutes that we have to approve, but I'll take the first one and I asked to approve the minutes of the January 20th, 2026 meeting. Second. All right. Please call the roll. Council member Curley, yes. Council member Baker, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Scott, item B, meeting minutes from February 3rd, 2026.

Motion to approve the meeting u minutes for February 3rd, 2020 26. Second. All right, please call the RO. Council member Scott, yes. Council member Baker, yes. Council member Pashadlick, yes. Council member Curley, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Item C, uh, meeting minutes from February 17th, 2026. All right. I move that we receive the, um, regular minute meetings, the regular meeting minutes for February 17th, 2026.

You can choose who uh who supported. Please call the role. Council member Baker. Yes. Uh, Council Member Curley. Yes. Council member Scott, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Shadlick, yes. Uh, item D, meeting minutes for March 3rd, 2026. I would move the acceptance of the regular minutes of the March 3rd, 2026 meeting. So, please call the roll. Council member Curley, yes. Council member Scott, yes. Council member Baker, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Shadlick, yes. All right. Item E, close session meeting minutes from March 3rd, 2026. I move that we receive the uh close session minutes for March 3rd, 2026.

Please call the RO. Council member Baker, yes. Council member Scott, yes. Council member Curley, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Shadlick, yes. Uh item F, City Council and Planning Commission joint meeting minutes from March 5th, 2026. I move that we receive the city council and planning commission joint meeting minutes for March 5th, 2026. Thank you. Please call the role. Council member Baker, yes. Council member Scott, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Curley,

yes. And lastly, the meeting minutes for March 17th, 2026. I move that we accept the regular meeting minutes meet minutes for March 17, 2026.

Second, please call. Just going to hit hit a couple of points. I did watch that meeting. Um, and for the folks that don't know, I was uh home with COVID, so I couldn't be here. This um I wasn't sure what that item was. I thought it was going to going to be a discussion on the report. Um, I think there were some things during that discussion that I I don't know that I understood why it was being discussed at a public meeting or the proper time. Um, uh, but I will speak to some of the things that were said. Mr. Blum was asked or chimed in to answer uh, whether or not the agenda item was one that was put on by one of uh, or members of council. It was not. to be clear and I did not want to bring it up at the last meeting because uh I want everyone to see that Mr. Blum is here when he said that publicly. I do not know why he said it. It was not my agenda item. It is not an idea that it initiated from me. I don't think it I well I can't speak to Cardi de Monaco. I was asked by Elki to uh whether or not I wanted something added on an agenda now or later, which she used to do, or give me a heads up if she thought something was going to be contentious. Given that we were hiring a new city manager, there was a question about should we tackle the budget amendment now uh so that the new manager doesn't have to deal deal with it when he gets here. That made a lot of sense to me. It is not something that I reached out to administration and asked to begin working on or create. It's not an idea that started with me. It was something you comfortable putting that on the agenda. And of course, and sometimes our city manager will ask which agenda something should go on or how long I think something might go at a meeting. Um, I've never told them not to put something on the agenda and I've if

I ever do tell them to put something on the the agenda, which every single one of us can do. If I had put it on the agenda, it wouldn't have been a problem. But if it were my agenda item, it would have began with me saying, "Hey, council, I asked this to come to you for these reasons." We, our administration does not uh dress up personal um agendas as if they're administration's recommendations. I'd be furious if I found out they ever did that for someone else. I would never let them do it for me. So, I was a little hot under the collar. Um I did want to explain as the deputy uh director of personnel as the deputy uh director of personnel or something to that effect. and that position was gone. Uh yes, when it came to the agenda back in September, I did vote against it because I didn't like how it was presented. um coming from a background of over 25 years where there is an HR department, I have a different perspective about it and I understand some of this may be discussion coming going forward, but just to give a little um reasoning why it it was an issue for me and then why I wanted to look further into it. Again, it was just how it was presented. But also, um, understanding the importance of, and this is not to say that no one else understands the importance of HR. I'm not implying that, but from my perspective, understanding the importance of an HR position. It is to make sure that things are being done fair and that employees are protected. Um, and so that was kind of really where I sat with it. Um, and I understand that she had other responsibilities on top of that. Um, as far as uh what was stated at the

hearing of the public today that um someone's being paid $50 an hour to do it uh at the time of that meeting several meetings ago. I was told that someone was filling that role temporarily. So, um I think that this is something and maybe this will be whether it be today or within the next couple um at the uh budget meeting. I think that's something that we have to address or look at because if the role is being filled, there's more questions that I have about it, you know, of where we went, you know, why certain actions took place and then where we are now or where we're going forward. Um, but in fairness to our city manager, I did not ask that ahead of time. Um, I didn't know that I would hear that today. So, um, but I think that's something that we should consider for one of our upcoming meetings or during our budget uh, workshop. Um, but that was pretty much it. I asked a lot of questions back then. I mean, just several meetings ago when I first put this on the agenda. um and just out of like I told you out of the spirit of being fair um for you because you weren't here. I don't feel it was my place to try to speak for you or against you or in any, you know, in any capacity, but that you should have that opportunity to come and speak for yourself to say what your perspective is or what your actions either were or were not. Um, in regards to that, this was not put on as a action item, but I think within our upcoming meetings, we there may be some things that we need to look at in regards to this position and it's, you know, wherever it goes or doesn't go. So, but I don't know if anybody else had any questions. I'm not trying to

monopolize the conversation, but yes, it was my item and just in the spirit of being fair and to try to get some answers to see how things transpired. Um, that's why I wanted it on and I didn't know if that anybody else had any other questions or if uh administration wanted to address what was stated just at hearing of the public about the employee being paid supposedly to fill that position.

Um, I won't speak to that. I will speak. I just want to be sure that um as the minutes reflect, they were just approved from March 3rd of this year. Um the role that was filled temporarily was not that role. Um it was a separate role. Um it was an administrative assisting position. All the HR decisions are made by myself and assistant city manager Kim Hman. Um that's uh as it as it has been since I began. So the role that was was filled excuse me the role that was filled um is completely different. doesn't make HR decisions. It does posting and filing.

Okay. And I guess just just to to give a little clarity as to why I asked is because it was also stated that Bana's position had some HR responsibilities. Nope. And well, no, no, no, no, no. Several meetings ago that it came out in one of these discussions that she did some HR functions. I'm not I'm not going to debate it back and forth, but do we need to I don't need to. But I mean to be clear Well, in all fairness in all fairness in all fairness, I do have the mic right now. In all fairness,

and I'm I'm not trying to tell you what your employees are or are not doing. I'm just uh recalling what I heard over several meetings. I I've looked at the ethics uh board meeting. I've looked at more minutes than I care to really sit and elaborate on. Going back, um I understood that she was being trained in some capacity by Vicki prior to you coming here. And so when this person came in, that's where and I was just trying to explain where whether we call it confusion or misunderstanding where that came from. It was not trying to say who's doing what specifically. I don't work here eight hours a day. And so I'm not trying to tell you who's doing what, but this I'm just explaining of why I had questions because of what I recalled. And so if this person that was temporarily filling a position, which you guys said could be done for 90 to 120 days, there was some speculation as to what that end date was. Um, then that's where more questions came into place for me. So that's all right. Did anyone else want to speak on this issue?

All right. Well, we'll move on to reports from administration, city manager report, Mr. Mattis.

All right. Couple of things cooking. Uh, spring has sprung. There's lots going on. I'm sure you've seen the Michigan State tree of the orange construction barrel. Um, it is the season. Um, lots of things planting and, uh, sprouting up. Uh, we have lots of contracts and things that are underway as well. So, those are starting to bloom. Um, lots of contract negotiations that are getting started. So, uh, your next the your next meeting agenda, you'll see a closed session to discuss strategy related to that. So, that'll be on April 21st. And then you'll see several contracts for things like services coming up in the near future as well. Um, we've been doing lots of collaborating with neighbors on a couple different projects, which is exciting. Um, I'm learning lots and, uh, it's been great to dive into those things. Um, I was also at training and missed our last meeting and had a very good experience with the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks. It's a mouthful. Um but a very good time. Um we had an opportunity to talk about the police and court building um earlier today. It is headed to bid soon. So you'll be hearing more about that project as well as several road projects headed to bid. Um and then last I wanted to highlight a couple of grants. Um we had a fantastic fellow. Uh Ruiz Zerbell has been a a godsend to the city of East Point. She's helped in lots of ways in contingency of projects and built some projects. Um we received a couple of grants that I wanted to touch on. The Next Cycle Michigan Seed Awards. Um East Point is one of only 30 organizations to receive this award. Um it funds a recycling improvement project that you'll be hearing more about in the near future. Um we will be um having some workshops and things related to that to um encourage recycling for all of our residents and u stakeholders. And then we also received a second grant from the Michigan Recycling Coalition. Um that we are one of only 50 municipalities to receive that award. Um it'll fund some education and outreach efforts around recycling and composting in in the city. So you'll see more about

that. Some of that information is on the table um just outside the door. Uh but we look forward to getting those programs going and continuing those efforts that Ruie started. Uh she did a great job. Um she's headed to an to greener pastures, but um she's in Italy right now. So, Chow Rui and we appreciate you. That's all for me. All right. Thank you. Any questions? All right. We'll move on to finance director's report. Mr. Blum.

Yes. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh before this uh meeting began, I sent out an email with the line item budget with all of the footnotes. Uh that's for your perusal over the next five weeks or so and get prepped for the the May meetings. Um and that is all I have for this evening. and I'll I'll have a brief comment during budget. So, all right. Uh, thank you. Any questions? Uh, and thanks for sending that out. I was, you know, going to ask for it if if you didn't send it out, so for anticipating that. Uh, city attorneys report, Mr. Albbright.

Thank you, Mayor and members of council. I wanted to touch on the hours of operation by uh, Moses Roses. um city administration was um informed back on the morning of March 24th that they were advertising the hours as uh 9:00 a.m. and uh Miss Homeman reached out to me and and let me know that and so I immediately called uh Mr. Ielo and told him that uh the city was aware of that and that needed to be changed back immediately because that ordinance had not passed. I believe that he did so right around that time or at least instructed his IT personnel to do that. And I just went on their website and I noticed that the hours of operation are currently advertised as opening at 10:00 a.m. Um, Mayor, I also wanted to touch on uh Miss Schwarz uh last uh Thursday she had forwarded an email to the planning commission uh that uh roadside uh stands were briefly discussed by the planning commission, but the city does not have an ordinance to address uh that type of use. And so, um, I was asked by the planning commission. I also said that I would bring that before, uh, the council, uh, during my report section this evening to see, uh, what the interest was on moving forward with something like that. It would require, uh, some type of ordinance change, whether it was to the actual code of ordinances or the the zoning code. Uh, that's something that I could sit down with city administration to uh, come up with a proposal. That may or may not have to go to the planning commission depending on if it becomes part of the uh, actual zoning ordinance. But again, I'm just looking for a little direction this evening to see if that's something that the uh the council is interested in. And I believe Miss Schwarz has passed out some additional materials too uh regarding that uh those types of uses.

I als want to speak to it. Uh speak into the mic, please. No, you're fine. You're fine,

guys. Um I I don't mean to be disrespectful in any manner. Um if that was um I am, you know, obviously new to all of this and so I reached out to all of you. Some of you answered, some of you didn't. And I appreciate everyone's time uh given or not. And I am just working really hard on trying to I I do believe that it is not a uh zoning issue from what I know from the building and zoning department. It is more of an ordinance. So, we have to um petition a vote to change the ordinance. And there is, I believe, two ordinances that um would technically need to be like loosened for that that ability to happen. Um outside of that, it's really just mainly just having the opportunity to have like a structure outside. I'm not really thinking that people are going to be building a structure that's going to be a permanent structure. So something that has like wheels that can go back into their garage. Um and just making sure that it is, you know, typically the things that are in there. So not anything that isn't cottage food law that isn't already a Michigan law in itself and the Michigan Farmers Act. So the Michigan Farmers Act allows people to sell their goods and everything um with roadside stands or at events like farmers markets and things along those lines. Um, that is also something that I know you guys are in the works of considering, but this is also for people like myself who can barely get to do as many things as they would like to do. Um, as you can see, my son had to leave because he is he is a very rowdy little one. And, um, you know, it's a little hard to do farmers markets and do things as often as I would truly love to do. So, I'm I'm gonna pause you just for a second because

we this being your report, have you gotten together? I I want Sorry for interrupting you because we might ask we might go forward and then ask you to come back and talk again. So, um have you talked to the city manager about that idea at all? Not yet, mayor. Only because this just came up during last Thursday evening's planning commission meeting. So, it's a relatively new topic being brought before the city. And did pling request for it to be like sent to us or anything or just casual conversation?

It was more casual conversation and during during uh the meeting I indicated that I would certainly I um you know forward a copy of uh Miss Schwarz's email to the council which I did and I believe that there's some additional materials that she's she also has too. The PowerPoint is actually with you guys up front. It's just not it's in a printed version. So there's um the ability to see it. Rob Baker has it. I did try to send it to Karen, but I am not technology savvy. So, um I'm doing the best that I can with that. So, Rob does have a good copy of that and I'm sure would be willing to pass it along to anybody if I am having any troubles with it. He seems to be very helpful in that regard and thank you for that.

Thank you. So, Mr. Mayor, no, I haven't had a chance to speak with Mr. Madison. I'm willing to try to come next time as well. Um it might be a little difficult, but I'll I'll figure it out. Oh, sure. And I I I did see your email. I know we all have your contact information. Um, council, my suggestion would be have those two get together and decide if they want to recommend something uh in and actually whether it would go through planning or what kind of change it would be and go from there. Okay, that's fine. Yeah, sounds good. Sounds good. Sense. Okay. Yeah, there's definitely interest. Yeah. Yeah, I think we should go forward on it. Real quick, Mayor Miss Schwarz, do you are you aware of any other communities in Michigan that uh allowed? Many

many do just do any come to mind just off the top of your head? Even just um Rochester, there's women on TikTok that I actually have listed in the actual email uh PowerPoint. There is people that do it in general in our general backyard area type deal as well as all throughout the United States. Okay. So, this is a very big change, but I'm trying to do it respectfully um within our city's ordinances and stuff because I do believe that this would not only obviously help myself, but help many others as well. And it's really not just about just me. I want more people to be able to be involved in this, too. I'd love to be able to visit their stands and see what they have to offer as well. Okay, so the city of Rochester, Michigan.

Yeah, Rochester, there's people that are doing it. Um I know that Madison Heights there was a woman doing it. Some people are taking like um old entertainment centers and they're putting um wheels on them and more doors and stuff and they're putting like baskets of the things that they're selling from their garden from their farm uses from um their cottage law bakeries and stuff and there is proper formatting for that as well like Michigan cottage law you have to have an obvious statement that this is not like you know regulated by the food and administration and stuff. I'm going to suggest if you have more follow-up questions that you follow up after the meeting. I will.

I really appreciate you. I I've been working on this for weeks and I am sorry this is not what you want to hear. I just really appreciate your time. It's okay. No, we appreciate it. If I think at this point, do you have anything else other than uh council's in receipt of our monthly status report? I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. Does council have questions for Rich? Um, no. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. K. Uh we'll move on to uh well we removed item A. Um item B second reading and adoption of ordinance number 261256 uh amendments to article 8 animals. Did anyone want to make a motion?

I would move to give second reading and adopt ordinance number 26-1256 amending amending chapter 8 animals article one. Is there a second? Okay. Is there any discussion? Yes. I

sure may. I have a um question. Um under section 8-19, requirement to spray or neuter cats. Uh item D, violations penalty. Upon violation of this section, the owner or custodian shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, which upon conviction shall be punished by a fine not to exceed $500 or imprisonment for a term not to exceed 93 days. Let me repeat that. 93 days in jail or both and the court may order the cat to be sprayed. I I can't vote for this with that item that they may be put in jail for 93 days. Now, somebody's going to tell me, "Well, Harvey, it's it's a deterrent." Well, you could put three days and that's a deterrent. I I I don't understand where the 93 days came from. I I it it floored me when I read that. I couldn't believe that. That's what the over three months to go to jail for not getting your cat a shot. So, I would like m Miss Mayor, if I can, I would like to make a motion. And um

Well, we Oh, is it a motion to amend? There's a motion to amend. Sure. Go ahead.

I would make a motion to amend to delete the following. Or imprisonment for a term not to exceed 93 days in jail or both. Like to have that eliminated. So there would be wouldn't be jail time. You the $500 would stay there. Well, you can you can you can move your head back and forth all you want, but I'm not going to sit here and have Grandma Jones go to jail for 93 days before she didn't give her cat a shot. And if you could if you think that's justified to put somebody in jail, I don't know if somebody goes to jail if they hit have a hit and run, your honor,

or if anything like that. So that's one second. Well, that's the motion. Y there I is. Hold on. Is there support for that? Support.

Okay. Um the chief trained in first. Yeah, Chief. Um, I just wanted to be clear. This is a misdemeanor. Every one of our ordinances for animal control and everything else we have are misdemeanors. Every one of those ordinances carry with it a penalty of up to $500 andor 93 days in jail. This is no different than any other misdemeanor that is on the books here in the city of East Point, the city of Madison Heights, the city of Royal Oak, the city of Warren. Name your city. These are local ordinances that are pretty standard throughout the state. Um, no one in the history of me being a police officer, which is now 35 years, has ever gone to jail for this type of offense. Um, as we said at the previous meeting, the majority of these offenses, if they're even issued, because they're given a chance to rectify before they're ever issued a violation, if they are issued a violation, it goes in front of the court and um, we have our city attorney here that will probably state the same thing, but they will go in front of the court and as long as they have complied or they are given more time to comply, the ticket is generally dismissed with a small fine. So, I know that it sounds like, but this is every ordinance that we have. This isn't something that we made up. This isn't something that came out of a magic hat. This is the state law that has changed into local ordinance.

Chief, I I don't want to argue with you, but I realize you don't have a magic hat in your office on your desk. I wish I did. I understand that. Uh, since the mayor asked you to speak, so I guess that gives me permission to ask you a question. Yes. And I know the other ones have the 93 days and maybe I should take those one at a time or the next several council meetings and reduce that. Why 93 days? Why not why not two weeks or why not five days? Why 90? because that's the way is that is that some

I can I can let Rich answer, but my understanding is that's just the way the statute is written and that's what we're we're adopting as a local ordinance and that's what all the local ordinances that's the standard fine and or jail time. It's not something that we can see I that that's when you say jail time that just gives me the creeps particularly for the offense. So, I mean, that's just, you know, the motion's on the floor. I haven't got a Oh, I did get a second. Um, it could be turned down fine. If it not, then this is the first time that that 93 days has been eliminated from all the things you got. Chief, go ahead.

I'm just going to chime in with the question. I actually don't, it's not something I've researched, and I wouldn't expect you to know off the top of your head, Rich. never seen a misdemeanor without a jail term. And I I actually don't know if you can have a misdemeanor. I don't I don't know. I've just never seen it. I know 90 93 days and um a year are the typical benchmarks for a misdemeanor.

Basically, what separates a civil infraction from a misdemeanor. Civil infraction is not a crime. It carries with it just a penalty of a monetary penalty. whereas a misdemeanor can carry uh both a monetary penalty and uh a term of jail not to exceed 93 days. And it what it does is it gives the judge at a sentencing assuming the case goes through the process and the defendant is either found guilty or pleads guilty. The judge at sentencing then can take a lot of different factors into consideration such as if this is a a repeat offense. Uh did the person do it and was warned and they just ignored the warnings. Uh and so it gives the the the the judge uh the discretion to just issue a fine to put the person on probation uh to uh hold a term of jail not to exceed 93 days. For instance, the judge could say, "Okay, well, I'm going to give you uh 10 days in jail." or the judge could hold that jail term in obeyance, meaning that I'm going to place you on probation, and if you violate any of the terms of your probation, you're going to get the 10 days in jail. So, what it does is it limits the judge from uh not giving a sentence beyond the 93 days. Uh so, the jail time can be anywhere from one day in jail not to exceed 93 days. Uh the uh fine can be uh $10, but it can't exceed $500. So, that's why that's uh that's why that's in there. And that's in practicality. Um that's how it works. Uh and again, in doing this now for 29 years, I've never seen uh any of the judges in uh over in the 38th District Court uh give somebody a jail sentence for something like not to say that it couldn't happen, but I've never seen it. I

I guess I would lead in my next question is with a civil infraction. Um, I don't typically deal with those. So, uh, is it necessary for it to be a misdemeanor for the court to have enough jurisdiction to order like other conditions like neutering and stuff because or is it just a fine? Does it need to be a misdemeanor for to enforce? So, do you understand what I'm saying? I do. Um, well, if if it's uh if there's any violation of this ordinance, the judge can order that that person to comply with the ordinance. Otherwise, they could get another if it's just going to be a civil infraction, they could get another civil infraction and they could just every single day.

But having an a misdemeanor gives them a little more I can order you to do this by the state. It puts more teeth in the ordinances. Okay, Mr. Mayor, if I may. Yes. I I just want to elaborate here on something. So, the spay and neuter is not a shot. It is to help fix the animal so that we're not running into a hoarding situation. Unfortunately, as I mentioned the LA at the last meeting, we have had a hoarder of over a hundred cats. Yeah. Mcome County Animal Control just dealt with 84 cats. I now have been made aware of a new possible hoarder in East Point.

Now, the problem with that is is that they're just reproducing. Those finances fall on the taxpayer dollars. that also falls on our animal control to either euthanize those animals that are too feral to be adopted adopted out or find rescue placement. So, it's to help eliminate this process that we keep having to continuously battle. So, that's why I'm urging to have a spay and neuter ordinance for to to involve cats because they should be. Otherwise, we're going to continue facing financial hardship here real soon. We're also

I have I have absolutely no problem with any of it except the 93. You So, sounds like you're trying to you you misunderstand what I'm saying. I have no problem with what you're doing or what you need to do. Yeah, we're just we're just mimicking the same ordinance as the dogs and the state law state statute. Uhhuh.

Um so I think my position for tonight's purposes is I I will probably vote against the amendment, but I'm actually in favor of the um general idea of decriminalization and removing jail time. I just I I would want to know first whether or not it can be a misdemeanor with no jail time. I guess I would want to do the research on what would that look like to change it without taking the teeth out because I agree. I I I don't think we should be typically using it to lock people up to have it in compliance with how state law defines a misdemeanor though. I don't want to shoot from the hip and have an ordinance that's not either not enforceable or um contrary to state law. And if if we could do it and bring it back later, I would be open to amending not just this but a number of them.

So V, what would you what would you bring back to us? Well, where wouldn't be a misdemeanor? Is that what you've been working on?

What what the council could do this evening is pass the ordinance as presented as before the council this evening. And uh just like any other ordinance, um the the ordinance section can be what's called decriminalized. Okay. Uh the misdemeanor uh violation penalty provision could be amended to make it uh just a civil infraction. There's also the possibility of for repeat offenses, it's kind of a a graduated violation section that a first offense is a civil infraction. uh a second offense within a certain period of time that elevates up to a misdemeanor. So that's okay. So it sounds to me like you could bring something back that would eliminate the 93 days.

It's possible. Yes.

You know, folks, maybe I wish you stop moving your head back like I think you're going to have to call the ambulance that you might be having something going wrong with you. Yeah. Um, and because of that that makes me feel better. And maybe it's just Harvey. Maybe I'm overreacting. I'm sorry. Uh, but I'm visualizing and maybe I should, you know, maybe it's my age. I don't know. Uh, I'm visualizing Grandma Jones in there in jail and her saying, you know, could you let me out? My great my my granddaughter's graduating from Michigan State. and they said, "Oh, no. We can't let you out. You You got 92 days left." So, I I will withdraw my motion, particularly after our city attorney made me feel 100% better. Uh, and I will wait for that. Now, that's not going to be six months from now or it's be like two or three meetings you'll have that done.

It's something that I'd like to talk to uh Chief Haynes about. Yes. about what how about the uh who supported the amendment? Are you okay with him withdrawing? Um I had a question. I can do I can get I can we can vote on it. I can withdraw my motion anytime I want to without without the supporter objecting to it. I withdraw my motion. No, you do. Okay. I'm not gonna argue with you. I I don't think it's I don't care whether we vote on it or not. I see where it's going. I was just I didn't want to steamroll someone else who had also I mean I'm still going to vote no for the main motion, but that's okay.

Yeah. Okay. So, my question is um do we know what percentage of residents that have animals do not have their animals spayed or neutered? Do we have a percentage? Do we know how many homes that might be based off registration? Do we look up some data? Well, I think I think it's difficult to answer because if they don't have a license, we don't know that they have a dog or another animal. So, we would really, you know, if I had to put a number on it just on a guess, I would probably say 30%. Yeah. That are probably not that we don't but we don't get complaints on because we don't go out looking for that.

You know, it's one of those where we get a complaint um of a barking dog and then we do investigation. and we find out the dog is not licensed or not spayed, not neutered. And then we start with our warning process just like regular code enforcement would do. We start by warning them and saying, "Hey, you have x number of time to get your dog spayed or neutered. You know, we have um lowcost clinics that we refer them to. Um we have, you know, as you well aware, we did last year and we plan to do it again this year. We have a lowcost shot clinic along with a um microchipping, free microchipping. So, we're already doing all these things that are enabling our residents to be successful and not to have to worry about um you know, not having enough money to get them. And we have agencies that will help them. Uh and and again, you know, I can't stress enough that this whole issue is brought up because we're we're trying to mirror the ordinances a that we already have the ordinances that the majority of this entire state of Michigan already has in place. We're not doing anything different. We're not doing anything above and beyond. We're just trying to get our ordinances in line with state law and with the local ordinance codes that everybody around uses. Um, and again, there is no intent, and I know I I know what you're I'm not trying to to say anything negative, but there is no intent to lock anybody up for these issues. There never has been. There never will be, but it's it's ve very similar to a traffic offense of driving license suspended. It's a 93-day misdemeanor. People don't go to jail for their first offense of driving while license suspended, but it's there. But I, you know, I'm just I'm just, you know, trying to say that it's not something that was created in a vacuum. It's something that we followed the rest of the local ordinances and are merely mirroring them. So, if there's something that needs to be changed and Rich and I can have an an off topic conversation with that, um, and I

I have no issues looking into that at all. And I know I know for a fact the gentleman that you are, you would be very satisfied when Rich comes back uh with a change in that where the $500 would still be there. And I know all the other ones are there. I'm not going to go back and try to change those. But you you'd be satisfied, wouldn't you? Because you're you're a very nice guy.

I am a very nice guy. Thank you. I would prefer though, honestly, I would prefer that if if we were taking a change to come back, even if it's just this ordinance, if we were looking at reducing and decriminalizing to a civil infraction, I would ask certainly that council take into consideration that a second or subsequent offense would be back to the misdemeanor. Because what I don't want to get into is first of all, we don't like, well, I shouldn't say that as a police officer, but we don't want to issue tickets to everybody. That's not the goal. The goal is compliance. And if we can get them to comply without a ticket, that's the best scenario possible for everyone because then the animal is good. We know the family's good. We know everybody is is on the right page. Um, but we do have those that absolutely refuse to comply. Not because they can't afford it, just because they won't do it. And when we have that situation, we need to have some teeth in it. because the last thing I want to do is have my acco writing civil infraction after civil infraction after civil infraction after civil infraction and the court can do nothing about it. So that would be my only concern is that if we do look at decriminalizing even if it's just this violation that we at least consider having a subsequent offense within even if it was within a target date like within one year the same issue happens that we revive that ability to have it as a misdemeanor. Now, I know I did some research and I looked up and um the information that I found was about 78% of owners that have animals do spay and neuter. So, there's about what a 22% that would probably prefer not to. Um I don't know if you run into a lot of issues with those that full 22%, but there might be a small percentage. Now, some owners may not want to be mandated to spay or neuter their animals. So, I

think we should kind of consider maybe only the owners who I guess it would be like animal cruelty issues um that we have evidence that can be supported to actually place this violation on or like when we go to license them or chip them require that they do take a course so that they know the benefits spaying and neuter would um cause maybe um avoid cancer. And um I know there's mammorary cancer some of that research I found. So kind of look at some other options without mandating and giving them some wiggle room because I think that 22% some might be opposed to it.

Well and yeah and I think you're right and I think we're we're probably out of that 22% we're probably only talking about 3 to 5% that are the problems. Right. So those problems are the ones that we need to have heavier enforcement action for. Um but then you do have out of that 3 to 5% you have a couple of percent that want to be breeders and we don't want the breeding occurring in the city because then you you know you you come up with the kenneling and you come up with all these other issues you know that we have happen. So that's why we that's why we just need a little bit bigger bite into the law if we can if we can work that out. But you're right. And out of that the 30% that I mentioned, I would say and and Ashley, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but we're probably talking maybe 10% that even get a ticket to begin with.

And and those of that 10% that get the tickets generally go to court and they end up with some kind of a settlement. They are able to get their dog spayed or neutered and then we move on and it's it's it's done. You know, it's again, I can't stress enough. It's about compliance. It's not about jamming people up with fines and tickets. Mr. Mayor, if I may. Sure.

Ordinances are for those who are causing problems. If there's no problems with the cats, with the dogs, ACPD is not called to the house, they're not going to be regulated. It's so that PD and animal control have a a basically a hammer when there is a huge problem, the hoarding, things like that. So this again 90 plus percent of the people this doesn't even apply to but it's for the small percent that cause problems and the dogs get out or they have a hundred cats in the house. It's for things like that. Yeah. And I want to respond to Karen's point. Um,

the requirement as I read it only is require administration. The requirement, I'm sorry, the requirement only applies if you have two or more cats of the opposite sex. Uh, where you're keeping them in a situation where they're exposed to a likelihood of breeding. So, I think it's okay to keep that in there. I mean, if you have one cat or something like that, you don't have to alter your animal. Now, is the same thing uh does the same thing applies to the dogs if they have one dog? Uh, I'm actually not sure. Is it is that mirrored from the dog ordinance? The uh Yes. Yes. Thank you. Yes, it's mirrored from the dog ordinance.

I'm sorry. Did you have more questions? Um, okay. So now when they go to register their animal, they get the license. Do they have to answer whether or not the animal is spayed or neutered? Because they have to register. They have to show proof of spare or neuter from the vets's office. So they have a certificate. Okay. Yep. But they have to register with the city. Correct. Correct. Okay. So is So you will find out whether or not the animal is spayed or neutered. Yes. If they come in to to get a license, yes, we will know. Okay. Um, but if those individuals are not the problems, right? And so it's like, okay, and they have to, how do you

Oh, that's what I mean. We would we would get a call, you know, for a barking dog or we would get called for a loose dog or we would get call for um abandonment or strays or I mean we would come into it at a different way. Okay. Yeah. It's not the people that are coming here to register their pets lawfully like they're supposed to do and get their license. It's not those that this has any bearing on. Okay. Mayor, if I may. Uh, well, I want to make sure every the everyone from council can get their questions out first. So, hold on for a second. Um, I'm all good.

Do you have anything? Um, I I mean, I know how I'm going to vote. I I don't want to cut you off, but I think every Does anyone on council have any other questions or information that they're seeking for this? All right. Harvey's withdrawing his motion for the amendment. So, um I guess call the role on the main main motion, please. Council member Shadlick, what' you say? I didn't think I had support. Oh, I was just Harvey's motion was supported, right? Harvey's motion was motion. I made a motion. Well, I do. You did?

Yeah. I'm sorry. We had a motion maker and a support, right? Tman, yes. Correct. Please call the RO. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Baker, yes. Council member Scott, no. Council member Curley, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Um, and before I move on, I I'm actually going to propose uh another motion, see how it goes. uh just move to direct the city attorney to get with the administration and provide a report to council on um options for changing that uh penalty and decriminalization. I'll support that. All right, please call the roll. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes.

Council member Bacon, yes. Council member Curley, yes. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Scott, yes. All right. Thank you. Moving on to item C, second reading and adoption of ordinance 261257, traffic and vehicles. So moved. Support. Support. Which one did you hear, Miss Omen? Uh, Council Member Curley. Okay. Uh, any questions on this? Please call a roll. Council member Baker. Yes. Council member Curley. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld? Yes. Council member Shadlick? Yes. Council member Scott? Yes. All

right. Item D, second reading and adoption of ordinance 261258, adult use recreational marijuana establishments. Would anyone like to make a motion? I move to give second reading and adopt ordinance number 26-1258, chapter 10, article 11, section 10-278. Is there support? sport. All right. Um, did anyone want to speak to this item?

I I just wanted to respond to something from the hearing of the public. I think that uh knowing that they were advertising early and probably just had people showing up because they thought it was open. I think that's probably what was happening. Not that there uh there's people lining up at 9:00 a.m. for this. Um, I think I probably said it the last time. I It's I don't have a strong feeling either way on this. If we were opening earlier than when the schools get in, I think I would have an issue with that. Um, but I I I don't think I don't see the harm of opening an hour early. I think there's opposition to medical or not medical, the marijuana establishments in general, and I get that. Um, but I appreciate that information coming forward because I I do think uh we certainly don't owe that establishment anything. Uh, but I also try not to base any of my opinions on my personal feelings about any individuals. So, that's all I had to say. Please call the RO.

Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Curley, yes. Council member Scott, no. Council member Baker, no. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Item E, uh, presentation of proposed fiscal year 20, uh, 26 27 budget and scheduling of budget workshops. Mayor, uh, if you don't mind, can we take like a two-minute recess? Yeah, I'm fine with that. Why don't we um take a few minutes and reconvene at 8:40? All right. Thank you.

at uh 8:42. Um all right. So we are moving on to uh oh item E presentation of proposed fiscal year 2026 27 budget and scheduling of budget workshops. Would you like to speak to this? I can speak to it briefly. Um, this is the the first pass. So, council received. Yes. Sorry, I'm looking for the page. Well, would anyone on uh Oh, you have? Yeah.

I would move to schedule a public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2025 2026 budget and tax rate to support the budget for Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026 at 7 p.m. and direct the city manager to publish all required notices of the public hearing. Thank you. I'll second. Right. Please call the role. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Baker, yes. Council member Curley, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Scott, yes.

And I just wanted to state too, uh, we talked earlier, we um, essentially canceled our May 5th regular meeting because there's an election that day. Um, and we have the two workshops the following week. So if there are business items that need to happen that would have happened on the 5th, we can call a special meeting for the 12th and start a little earlier or do the 13th. We'll be together a couple times there or we can fund things to the following regular meeting. So looking forward to all this fun and excitement in May. All right. Uh on to item F. Uh introduction first reading of ordinance 261259 fiscal year 2026 27 appropriations and tax levies. So moved

support. Thank you. Please call the role. I think I heard council member Baker. Yes. Thank you. Council member Curley. Yes. Council member Baker. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld. Yes. Council member Shadlick. Yes. Council member Scott. Yes. All right. Uh item G. schedule public hearing on proposed 2026 27. Oh, that's okay. That's why I was confused. I was like, I I don't see that. Uh it was two items down. Okay. Yes. So, uh moving on to approval of resolution 26 uh 2015, library millillage renewal, uh proposed ballot language.

All right. The East Point Memorial Library is seeking to renew the current millillage. So I motion to approve the resolution number 26-205 approving the ballot question language for the East Point Memorial Library Mill renewal proposal support. All right, please call the RO. Council member Scott, yes. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Baker, yes. Council member Curley, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Um item I approval of award of master plan contract for the East Point Memorial Library. Would anyone like to make a motion?

I would move to award the East Point Memorial Library master plan contract to MCD Architects of Farmington Hills, Michigan in the amount of $20,800. Support. Any questions on that? Please call the role. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Scott, yes. Council member Baker, yes. Council member Curley, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Um, item J, approval of special event application, East Point Community Schools, 5K walkrun. U, I do have one question about

the perimeter of the park of Spindler. So, we're going around. Um, but I wouldn't see a problem if you know we're not like going AC because I know ground there and so there it wouldn't going across like in the playground or anything like that. So, okay. I I I guess I was just asking because you know if people are running you know we don't want people running. No, I understand. Yeah. Yeah. And then we're we'll make sure that we'll have people at um different parts of you know of the um the route where it's going to be at and everything. So Okay. That was my only question. Okay. Would anyone like to ring a motion?

I would move to approve the special event application for the East Point Community Schools 5K walk/run on May 2nd, 2026 contingent upon the following. All food trucks must be permitted with an approved inspection at least five business days before the event. Any tents larger than 10 by 10 require a site plan and must be properly permitted. All tents must comply with the International Fire Code 2021, chapter 31. The exact 5K route must be clarified and general liability insurance must be provided prior to the event and must name the city of East Point as additional insured in the amount of at least $1 million.

I'll support that. And just for clarity, that's 10 feet by 10 feet for that tent. Oh, I'm sorry. Just in case anybody was wondering. So, all right. Please call the RO. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Baker, yes. Council member Curley, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Scott, yes. Great. Payrolls and bills. I move that we pay the bills in the amount of 2,559,373.82. Support. Who'd you hear support that? Um, I did. Whoever.

Okay. Um, any questions on that? Please call the RO. Council member Baker, yes. Council member Curley, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Scott, yes.

All right. And now we'll open the second hearing of the public. Would anyone wish to be heard? like the city of East Point, who if there's a problem with a hired person, who does that person complain to or is that not something that the council itself would take care of? And I say that because the council here is similar to the school board in as much as you make decisions about who you hire for positions and you need to have good information in order to do that. Now, I personally have a problem with what happened with the school board, but that's old news. Everybody who knows me knows why. But at the same time, there needs to be some sort of deliberate organization and process and plans so that people have an avenue to pursue when there are items going on without lawsuits being involved. That's what I'm getting to because I think we don't need to spend a lot of money on lawsuits if we already have a process in place to handle complaints when they come in. The third thing I wanted to uh bring up is when uh mo with regard to Moses Roses, I did get a chance to talk to a neighbor who lived five blocks away and he said he'd never send seen more than seven to 10 cars there at any time. So once again, I'm saying before you make decisions, know collect the evidence, the documentation that there is truly a need. We should position Did I go over my time?

No, you have 30 seconds. Um whether it's absolutely needed and that's not my point because I think that's the practical thing approach to things. Thank you. Thank you

to second on the roadside stance. I know that you guys were talking about doing farmers markets. Um, as a mom, obviously I'm a very busy person right now and I do have experience in that work um with just running events and finding vendors and finding the right things. Um, I would be willing to help in any regard. Uh, you guys do have my contact information and I would love to see that in our city. So, I would volunteer at no charge to help that become a thing in our city. Um, I I just believe that we have that opportunity to really give back and even if I couldn't be present, others that would help as well in our city. Um, there's a a chef here, her name is Chef Tammy, and I know that there are many others that would love to be able to volunteer some of their time to make sure that their city has the opportunity to do something along those lines. So, if that's something you guys are ever actually interested in moving forward on as well, then I hope that that is something that we can. And thank you guys for all of your time.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be here? Have a 100 cats in our house and we'd, you know, be worried about her making her grandkids, whatever. I I I can't stress that they're we're not going after the good people, right? We're going after the ones that have a serious addiction and it's a problem. And it's not only affecting them. It's affecting hundreds of lives in their care. They're not getting care. They're putting them in situations where they're sick and they're filthy and it's disgusting for the human and the animal. And then there's nonprofits like mine cleaning up the mess. Um I think that that is punishable. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you, councel. Just real quick, um, on behalf of the library commission, thank you for the approval of the ballot language and the approval of the contract for the library, one of the hidden gems of this city. Thank you. Thank you,

Johna. Kelly Road. Uh from the from the earlier rare presentation, I'm dead set 100% against any pride in the park garbage. I do not. The the LGBT community represents no more than one or two% of the population. And I'm not even sure if it's just a campaign event for Mr. Kleinfeld. I don't know what the there's no there's no reason for that for one or two% of our population. Um, Mr. Bloom, I believe I direct this to you. I did get a tax increase of $100. Not much, right? $100 ain't much, but my house is not worth more than I can sell it for. I don't believe my house went up a penny. And my house built in 1957, I could probably put $30,000 in it lickety split. Talking about roofs, furnace, water heater. So you you guys, it's just based on computer stuff. You put stuff in a computer, you get it out, adjust for inflation and and raise people's taxes. Um, this animal ordinance is beyond the pale to me. Super woke stuff. I mean, you if you got problems with breeders, you got people with too many cats, you got people who abuse animals, you write a a ordinance for that purpose. Somebody keeps an unvaccinated cat in their house and there's no call, there's nothing, then just forget you don't need that kind of an ordinance. And once again, speaking on that uh meeting for ethics, I think it was really detrimental to you, Mr. Kleinfeld. I got to really uh say that it looks like you run an ugly

ship here. I don't know what you're doing. And I advise the attorney. My my own personal advice is that when you get the uh when you get the suit, what you're going to get, I'd just settle immediately because you get a sharp pencil lawyer take a case like that to court with a $90,000 salary, you could you could be paying a million dollar judgment from a jury.

Thank you. Anyone else? Jennifer Nicholas, East Point resident. Um, I would like to see um further discussion and investigation into the circumstances surrounding Vicky Brook's termination. I believe that the initial third-party investigation dealt solely with her issues um her concerns about discrimination in the workplace and her issues with former city manager Elky Doom. I don't feel that her termination has been investigated thoroughly. Um most of these meetings are on video, so what has been said is is documented. We can go back and see them. Um, additionally, the civil service board meetings, although those are not recorded, even though Chairman Martin has asked for those to be recorded, they are not. I've attended those, too. So, I've heard what's been said. Chairman Martin has asked very specific questions regarding Vicky Brook's termination and who's replacing her and whether it's temporary, part-time, temporary, full-time. and the responses that he's gotten are either I don't know or some form of deflection. So, I really do think that, you know, we owe it to Ms. Brooks and to the city in general to uh find out what happened. You know, Elky Doom says that council and mayor came to her and wanted this position eliminated. Mr. Blum said that this was a budget amendment that was requested by mayor and council. you're saying that nope, it wasn't you. Why would he even say that? It's very confusing to people and I

think that to clear it up and be transparent for everyone, uh there should be further investigation into it. As far as Moses Rose's hours, yes, um they did change it to 10:00 a.m. 52 days after they opened. So, I don't know if it's a matter of just um carelessness or sloppiness that they had hours of 9:00 a.m. to 900 p.m. since February 1st or if that was their intention to try and um give a reason why they needed to be open an hour earlier. Mayor Kleinfeld, I I understand your position on it. You have said you don't care if they're open till 11:00 p.m. or midnight. You don't care if they're open till 9:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. Makes no difference to you. Um I I don't you know no offense but your opinion on it.

You have 30 seconds. What your role is? Um you know we've got summer months coming up. Uh I'm sure that people are going to be out and about more. They had only been open for a month and a half before they wanted uh extra hours again. Now we don't even know how they're operating

their position as far as u uh what Mr. Bloom has said. So, it looks like uh uh now that the ball is back into Mr. Bloom's hand uh in regard to his statement uh against those two uh this situation not going away and what have you. Uh uh because uh it it it it it looks uh real bad uh in regard to how it's been handled and what have you and especially as u just as was just stated and what have you. It's confusing and there's a lot of uh uh shift uh uh uh changing and what have you. He said, she said and all this. So, we need to get to the bottom of it. Uh uh when we made mention of um of due to the animals, uh I'm I'm not totally uh clear and and uh understanding uh what's the difference uh between a a license and a uh having having a license and uh being neutered and spayed and what have you. when we had a a judge here in East Point, uh, Carl Birds, I believe is how you pronounce his name, who practiced a pay of state uh, situation and, uh, and had to be uh, many times uh, opposed by the uh, ACLU uh, as well as the federal government had to step in and say how unorthodox and how un uh, lawful and constitutionalwise u uh, his practices was, but it didn't stop him. And he was in office as a judge until he retired. And that and that's was more or less due to scenile uh for 12 years. And uh many people, some in here today and everything new about uh uh this this guy being uh nutty as a fruitcake and what have you. So uh uh there's a there's many statements

online and everything where it shows that he sent people to jail for dog license for jw walking uh seemed like anything that he could do. So I wouldn't be surprised if neutering and spade wasn't one that was involved in it as well. uh uh when we searched the internet to see how how how silly this guy was and what have you, but uh nothing was ever done to him to really uh sent him to jail to punish him and and and get him to resign and step down from ever being able to practice should be law period and what have you. And uh these are kind of things has been going on for some time. It's just not kind of coming out and being exposed and what have you. So there's a lot more to come out and everything. people know about what's going on here and it's time for cover to be exposed.

You've once again failed miserably to do right by the rabbits and protect them. All of you. You have a duty to prevent rabbits just like you did with the backyard chicken ordinance to prohibit them from being slaughtered for food or other food consumption. You didn't do a damn thing to put that in the ordinance. You failed miserably by ignoring spaying and neutering rabbits to prevent hoarding, illegal breeding, and reproductive cancers. This isn't about if they'll develop these cancers if they're not spayed or neutered. It's about when. You failed miserably to protect rabbits by mandating the RHDV2 vaccines to prevent rabbits from hemorrhaging to death. You chose instead to go the sixth grader route. You know when you didn't do your homework, so you decided to copy off your classmate and hand that in as your completed assignment, thinking the teacher would just be none the wiser. This was lazy. You failed to do your research. This is just so aborant. You clearly do not understand, nor do you care about the specialized care that rabbits require. And you disgustingly just prove that in this pathetic ordinance you just passed in copying and pasting the dog ordinance for rabbits. Rabbits are not dogs. How do you not get that? Turning to other items, follow protocol.

If somebody is not on the agenda to give a presentation, don't invite them up for all this back and forth. It doesn't show the rest of us respect when we're limited to three minutes during our public comment periods. You also do not conflict. Ordinances don't conflict with state law. When you do that, not only are you violating state law and then you want to decriminalize, you want to take away the discretion from the judge. I don't think Judge Galen would appreciate that, especially how much she loves animals. And last of all, Councilman Curley, don't you ever disrespect me like that again. Every single one of you are bound by the preamble and the charter. If you don't like what we have to say, that's too bad. You wanted this job. You don't get to attack us. We're exercising our First Amendment rights. If you don't like me shaking my head because you're just doing something that No. People break the law. They need to be held accountable, but you don't get to attack me or anybody else.

Anyone else? All right, seeing none, the hearing of the public is closed. We'll move on to uh mayor and council reports. Um how about Miss Scott? Um I just want to go ahead and just wish all the students who are getting ready to take MSTEP um good luck on the test. and I know some are preparing to take the SAT or PSAT. So, I just would like to wish them um the best of luck on the exam. All right. Uh Mr. Shadlock,

have a couple of um things that I'd like to clarify first with respect to that animal ordinance amendment with the animal ordinance uh motion that was passed. Uh I just want to clarify because I think there may have been a little bit of confusion. This wasn't for shots for the cats or the animals. It an example is that we're trying to prohibit or restrain the breeding of the animals. So, if you have a male and female cat, one of them should be neutered or spayed is what the point of the whole thing is. Um, as for the misdemeanor penalties, I think that's ultimately up to the judge whether or not she would assign, you know, those types of penalties. It's always at the judge's discretion. Um, I'd like to thank everyone for coming forward and speaking at the hearing of the public. Everyone was very passionate tonight. I listened to everything that you had to say. I hope that you are not discouraged from coming forward. Um, you know, I I do want to acknowledge a couple people who came forward. Uh, Lisa, about the animals. Thank you so much for your rescue of those those animals. Very kind of you and um very necessary. We appreciate that kind of um compassion in our community. And uh I'd also like to welcome Britney um at 1 PM they usually have a lunchon and uh they also have like some other activities going on. Uh adopt a garden um will be there. So we'll we'll be uh doing that if you're interested in that as well as um I believe arts and cultural diversity commission will be there as well. So um we'd love to see everybody on that day. And that's all I have.

Okay. Thank you Councilman Curley. Uh thank you mayor. Uh, first question, and I guess that would be the final answer. Um, I agree with the request about increasing the aidifications budget by $1,000. When when when would I respond to that or talk about that? At the May budget meetings. At the bay. Okay. Yep.

Because they do fantastic things and they can't do a lot of the things without funds. So, I'll bring that up then. Um, secondly, a 10 mile road at Hayes. It's terrible. He can hardly drive on it now. And, um, I guess the question would be, has the administration written a letter or called or set with the county commissioners about when are they going to do it and why are they going to wait?

Yes. Um, we've been u we've been advocating for that. It is on their program, I believe, for 2027. Um, and we've insisted that it be sped up and that it happen sooner, but we have not gotten very far in those conversations. I hear you.

Our county committed, is the only one of the 11 that is trying to push that to have that happen as soon as possible. Um, maybe they need a picture of of what the road looks like. send it to the chairperson and say this is what it looks like and you know we're I'm almost commenced now. We're going to almost have to have a sign there saying slow your speed down because things are going to happen

or these these potholes brought to you by Mcome County Road Commission. Yep. Um, I don't have a passport and I don't have my original birth certificate after 89 years. God, it's probably wherever. Yeah. And I vote by mail. Millions of other people in this country vote by mail, don't they? And unless our people in Washington turn this request down to make it almost impossible to vote, uh there's going to be an awful lot of people that's going to be disappointed. So, if you agree with me that you need to call your senator or call your congress congressman, um do so. If you don't agree with me, that's okay. You know, that's this is America. We we still have rights. although not as many as we did two years ago. So just do do what you think is right. Um if I got a little heated today tonight, I'm sorry. Um that's my tenure. I guess that's the way I go. And you don't agree with me about particularly about changing the time from 10:00 to 9:00. There was there's nothing mysterious about it. I did it because I thought it would be okay. Um I didn't get I didn't get an round envelope. I'm not going to go to Vegas for free. I did it because that what I thought and people want to disagree, but that's okay. But don't you know don't go any further than disagreeing with us. And um I'm sorry that I yelled at you,

shaking your head. I that Yeah, that was that was out of line. So I'm publicly putting that in the minutes that I'm sorry um that I did that. Uh it was stupid and it hurt you. It hurt you and I didn't think about it at the time. So I'm sorry. That's it, Mayor. Thank you, Councilman Baker.

Thank you. Um, yeah, I don't have much tonight, but uh I want to thank Miss Schwarz for coming out and uh she and I did have an opportunity to talk a few weeks ago and uh I received a call and I actually was able to call her back and uh heard about her idea and I I think it's very interesting and I did come up here. I was able to talk with uh Miss Homeman, our assistant city manager about it. Uh Mr. matt as he was uh away out of office that particular week. And so there was conversation. She was excited about it and uh you know told me that I was okay to let you know that she would to try to give them a substance-free activity and just encourage them to come out and uh hang out uh and do some things that didn't involve substance and try to promote a substancefree uh agenda. And I think that's a wonderful thing. Um there's uh I used to I've done a lot of volunteer work in the city and I can't tell you how many times like even with gleaners. We would open up car doors and sometimes the first thing you smell is marijuana. Um so I I do uh support what that coalition does. Um like I said, I was chairing it. I was a part of it for a number of years and I I just want to recognize them for a lot of their uh the great things that they've done. And I've seen a number of I've met and seen and interacted with a number of community organizers and the work that they do is is uh definitely a labor of love. Um beyond that uh uh we appreciate everybody coming out. We know that uh sometimes these meetings uh they get a little spirited. Um, but I do agree with people being able to come up and express our our residents being able to come up and express their thoughts. Even if it's disagreement towards us, we have to listen to that.

We that's those of us that sit up here, we have to subject ourselves to that. We have to listen to what you have to say. Even if it's criticism against voting, against things that decisions that we make at this table. Um, but that's all a part of serving this community. So, with that, that's all I have.

Uh, thank you. Um, I also I I like to see how many people came out tonight. It seemed like maybe because it was a long agenda, it's kind of a a packed audience. Um, I look forward to the budget discussion. I think when it comes to the positions, uh, Ryan's the one who has to assess assess how he wants to run his administration and basically his job is to come to us and ask for money to do it. Um, and so I think the discussion that people are curious about will be coming up soon, um, as we kind of see what decisions we're going to make to fund the steam manager uh, manager's office. Um, in terms of um, sort of the conversation that took place when I wasn't here. Um, I hear people saying it's confusing and I agree with that. When I was watching it, I I thought it was confusing. Um, I didn't think it was necessarily an appropriate conversation because it's it was sort of uh uh different people having opinions on what they talked to different people about before an agenda item was put on. I did not understand the purpose. Any one of us can put an item on. Uh administration can do it themselves. I can't deny someone's putting uh someone's right to put an item on the agenda. Uh if all of council disagrees with it, we can take it off the agenda publicly at a meeting. So I I think um I would like people to think about uh the fact that it was put on the agenda. There was a report. There was information presented to council. Council is the one that made that voted on that item. The fact that the the the confusion that gets brought up with uh trying to determine I guess who had the idea first or something. Um, I didn't understand it because it just creates confusion and I would never if I disagreed with how an agenda item went, bring it up at a subsequent

meeting to have a discussion and then start asking administrators which council person you talk to as if they have to answer for that. Everyone can talk to administration and gather information. And I don't think it's my position to grill them for doing it. I think uh they have the right to do that. I encouraged them to do that and so nothing nefarious happened but I did think it was confusing the way the conversation was presented. Um so I I just wanted to kind of put that out there. I because there there was comments about further investigation. There's not been any allegation or something specific that's been highlighted that needed to be investigate investigated. When a complaint was brought up that's when we said hey go investigate that. Um, of course, if information comes to us that needs to be investigated, I think we would follow uh that lead and do the right thing. So, I just kind of wanted to say my two cents on that uh regarding my feelings on just how how the information comes out and how I know it looked to the public. I wasn't pleased with that myself. So, that's all I had. Motion to adjurnn.

Go to close session. Oh, I'm sorry. Motion to go into close session. I'll make a motion to go into close session pursuant to 15 uh 26818 support. Please call the roll. I believe that was council member Shadlick, right? Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld. Uh yes. Council member Shadlick. Yes. Council member Scott. Yes. Council member Baker. Yes. Council member Curley. Going into close session at 9:23. Okay.

question. So, clarific we are back in open session at 9:33. Uh is there a motion? I would move move that we approve the city attorney's recommendation with respect to the pending litigation to extend the time from September 30th, 2026 to December 1st, 2026.

Please f