City Council - Regular Meeting

the longest minute.

All right, good enough for me. All right. Hello everyone. It is Tuesday, April 21st, 2026. We'll call the city council regular meeting to order. It is 7 p.m. Would everyone please rise for the invocation given by Councilman Curley followed by the pledge of allegiance.

Oh our gracious heavenly father, we especially ask your guidance and your patience for us tonight. We ask that you would be with the council as they make decisions. And we would ask that you would be with the citizens that are here tonight and those who are watching on television. Give us a strength, Lord. Help protect this beautiful city of ours. It's all right to have differences of opinion. Lord, as long as we respect the person that have those opinions. So we ask these in your name that Jesus Christ. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you everyone. Uh, please call the role. Council member Baker here. Council member Curley here. Mayor Kleinfeld here. Council member Shadlick here. Council member Scott here. Right. Approval of the agenda. I move we approve the agenda as presented. Um is there support any? Yeah, I was considering the two uh amending ordinances item C and D. I would like to remove those from the agenda if council agrees. If not, then

so I I want to I was going to suggest kicking those over to the planning commission, but I figured we could make a motion for that at those at that point. Okay. Great. Please call the RO. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Curley, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Scott, yes. Council member Baker, yes. Right.

The hearing of the public is now open. Would anyone wish to be heard? John Deont, East Point. Uh, you're welcome for the 4-hour meeting that we will most likely go into to discuss these two lovely amendments, but it's our job to do that work. So, we're going to do it. We're not going to have a nice night, but we'll probably have a couple beers at the end of the night and then we'll send something back and you all can make a decision. So, thank you for that. I am here to ask for the community's help, not the social media gangsters that sit and slander everything. We are a community of 30-ish,000 people. We are going into the master plan. We had a little less than 200 individuals respond to emails, websites, surveys. 200 out of 30 odd,000 people, but we will be the first ones to grab a phone and say something horrible that code enforcement gave me a ticket for something that they probably should have given you a ticket for. But we are not investing in our future. So I am making a public plea to get involved in the master plan. Whether you agree with it or not is irrelevant. It is the most important document save our charter. It takes us into the future. If you want to sit and live in the past, the past wasn't all so hot. We need to move forward and I need everybody's help. So please, if you have never thought about doing anything with the master plan, if you've never contributed any information, I need your help. And I'm going to each one of you up there. I need each of you to dig in. The biggest part of a master plan is the

assumption that you have a thriving school district. We don't, which makes our job even harder. So, I need all seven of you to dig in with me. I need city administration to dig in. More importantly, I need the community to dig in. We're not always going to agree, but chances are we're going to agree more than we're going to disagree. So, I need your help. Let's get involved. Thank you again. You're welcome for the ordinances.

Hi everybody. I'm Alex Stokes. I sit on the planning commission with John and I came here because I saw a Facebook post regarding item D on new business and so I'm a general contractor. I live in the city and I also have a landscaping trailer. I don't do landscaping. It's just something that I use to move kayaks around or help people move or something like that. But the ordinance changed as I read it now would strike down the exceptions to have that ability to park in your driveway. So I made sure did as best I could and then I I think I understand it. I went door to door. I talked to gentle a gentleman who worked for Wow Cable is a Wow Cable truck that he's like, "Where am I going to park this thing?" There's people who work for plumbing companies, electrical companies. They're small general contractors. And if we strike down the exceptions of having the uh commercial vehicles or just any kind of trailer or anything in your driveway, these people have no option. They're not going to have an option for that. Now, um I might have went around told a bunch of people. So, we might have a few people up here. That being said, I would also echo what John said. Uh the master plan is very very important and we have had uh very poor community engagement. So, it is very important to tell your neighbors and become active and try to become active and and encourage others to not just click on your phone, not just get upset, but come to meetings and maybe voice your opinions, too. So, thank you.

Thank you. Hello. Good evening. Um, I'm not part of anything other than the people who live here. I just have a house in the city. Uh, I've been living here, it'll be 10 years this November. I've never been to a meeting. I've never seen any reason to do anything other than vote in the elections when they come up. Today, that changed. Um, like the gentleman before me, I don't have a a personal need to park anything um for for my own business. I used to have a company van. If I was still a carpenter, I would be uh left pretty high and dry with this change. But there is um when I when I come home from work, I see a lot of them around. A lot of honest people just trying to do their jobs who are going to I don't know have to park out of town and walk home. It kind of looks like it it leaves a lot to be desired. And in particular, there's there's a gentleman on my street who comes to mind. He helps everyone. I I live on Wilson Avenue, uh, east of Grashet. Everyone on the street knows this man. He helps everybody. He's got a business doing landscaping. He's got a trailer. I mean, he might have to leave town. He's got friends. I talked to him earlier today. He couldn't make it to the meeting because prepping for an inspection. Um, but he uh he's got friends who own businesses in town that are considering leaving East Point just because it's so hard to do anything business related and I think this is just going to make that worse. I think if we need if we need to build the town, we need to have income to do it and this is not going to help that.

Thank you. Uh, could you just state your name for the record? Oh, yeah. Ryan Pacinz.

Thank you very much. My name is Matel Chanowski and I'm here for the uh ordinance D about the commercial in trailers and driveways. I'm one of those honest, hardworking men that's trying to just provide for my family. Um me and my wife uh attend auctions trying to just, you know, buy and flip or just do whatever we can or um you know, from work a commercial vehicle if I need a park. It's not it's going to create a bunch of problems and I'm just it's my property, you know, and as long as I'm not obstructing um the road, public roadway, or obstructing a view of my neighbor, like I understand if I'm blocking my neighbor's backyard with a giant truck or something, but if it's just a trailer, I don't see any reason that we shouldn't be allowed to have that on our own property. So, that'd be all

right. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Jody Noble. I live at 24634 and East Point. And I'm also hear about the um parking of private vehicle, maybe company vehicles. I mean, in our street alone, I can think of lawn contractors, plumbers, electrician that drive company vehicles because some of those are on call. And if they don't have their vehicle there and they get an emergency call that they have to go out on, what are they going to do? They have to first of all go to wherever their truck is, then go out on their call. when they come back again, go park their truck wherever they're going to have to and have another vehicle to get back home. So again, it's hampering the these good people of East Point who are trying to make a living. The other thing that I wanted to talk about tonight was um the roadways. I know that my street alone has been delayed over three years in being repaved. The front of my house is nothing but gravel. They try and patch it. The patch doesn't even stay in it because it's just gravel. We need to have these streets paved. And I'm asking you again, please don't delay our street again another year. I know it's been at least three years, maybe four years, you delayed it when it should have been repaved. Um, and the other thing I wanted to talk about was there's a business at the end of of Lexington and 10 mile that the business does not even have a name on it. They have multiple cars parked every morning up and down both sides of Lexington that hampers the roadway of coming in and out. I've almost gotten hit many times. And the company itself has multiple cars that they park all the way out to the street on their approach that when you are trying to pull out of our street, you can't see oncoming cars. It's a hazard. We have almost been hit so many times either turning in and there's

another car coming or whatever. We have reported this company before with even vehicles not even having license plates on them pulled out there. So please, if somebody could investigate this, we've called before on it. We know that they served citations to them before, but they're right back at it again, worse than what they were before. And last is about the replacement of uh people's cement even in their backyards, garages, patios. Come on people. That's my private patio. That's my private garage. And why should I be told by the city that who again goes on my property to You have 30 seconds.

I need to replace that cement. Again, I understand sidewalk and approaches, but please, I think the rest of it is getting a little far taken now on having to tell me to replace some of my own cement. Thank you. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Grant Hayes. I stay at 15309 Stevens in East Point. I'm here about article D. Now, my issue is y gave me a fine cuz my motor home was parked in my yard. Y telling me I had to get it had to be in the driveway. I came down here, drew out, drew everything out, pulled a permit, everything was fine. I paid for a contractor and everything. Now you telling me they haven't even been a year. Now you telling me that I had I can't parked my mobile home there and after I've done paid all this money to put it there. You could have told me this in the in the first place, but I just paid all this money for a contract. I done paid for my permit. I paid for everything. I did everything y'all told me to do. And now you telling me I can't park there. So why did I pour it? Why did I Why hire a contractor? For what reason? Is she going to replace my money? That's what I want to know. I want to know is anybody gonna replace my money? Because some fact, if y'all was going to do this, I'm pretty sure y'all was already had it in your mind that y'all was going to do this. From the time I pulled my permit, you could have told me that would um not to do it. But I wasted all that money doing this. And I I followed your rules and I don't think it's right. And it's on my property in my yard. And it's not nobody can trip over it. Nobody no no no no no damage can come to anybody. So I don't understand. So I I hope that some way that you can explain to me why is it

that we can't park our vehicles in our driveways? Can somebody explain that to me? We don't respond at this portion of the hearing of the public, but if you after you're done speaking, if you can leave your information over there. All right. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Corey Thomas. This is my wife, Sharita Thomas. And we have um two address Deerfield Avenue. And we have two um companies. We both entrepreneurs. I got a landscaping company and we have a food trailer. Food Eats. We always had this. We've been living there since 2014. And we never had a problem. We had older trailers and now we upgraded to now we have a commercial 16 by7 trailers. They both the same size.

So we never had any problem before. Now my neighbor is when we when we barbecue, she calls the fire department and um she said she smells smoke, which is she's smelling barbecue chicken for real. Fire department came, sirens, the whole

And we we they wanted to buy dinner. They wanted to get a dinner. I'm like, "Yeah, come and get a dinner." We never had a problem. I was a neighbor that when we get all the snow, I would walk down the street. I would do everybody's snow. I just keep walking because I had the big snowblower. Never had a problem. Never have a problem. Now business is growing. I don't know if she don't like it, but she's just she's making our life hell. And I'm I'm about to sell this house because now if we have to move these trailers to storage, it's probably going to cost us $10,000 a year to store these trailers. So it it' be cheaper for me to just move somewhere else and give me like an acre of land and call it a day. But they about to y'all about to lose good East Point residents because I don't have any problems with anyone. And it's about to us, you know. So, like I said, we always had these trailers. We never had a problem. All of a sudden, now we getting citations and and they and they say we can't barbecue. We can't smoke.

And the fire department did come by and said we have commercial gra everything is up to cold. But if our neighbor sees smoke, she's going to call the fire department. And they told me, I asked the fire department, you know, instead of coming, if it's a real fire, can I call you ahead of time? And I I just I think it's ridiculous. You know, the time can be sent to saving someone's life versus coming to see literal smoke.

And also, uh I want to piggy back off the other gentleman. We have our trailer in the yard. I'm a caterer. If I have an someone else canled at the last minute. I can't go and to Clinton Township or somewhere to get my trailer, set it up, and come back. Then I just lost that. I'm sorry. 30 seconds. Seconds. Okay. But that's all I want to reiterate. And we see this gentleman here for any questions or just leave your contact information with them, please. Thank you.

Hello. Uh my name is Martin Li. I think I've sent most of you emails over the weekend regarding this new policy uh with the landlord certifications. I don't have a problem with the policy, but I just think that it was poorly communicated to the landlords. I mean, I I've been a landlord for 48 years, and I've always received a letter when my certification was ready to expire. I made sure I got over there and I paid the certification fee. I probably got some of the nicest houses in East Point and I pride myself on that and I just don't feel like I'm being treated fairly here. I came over because I didn't get a notification like I normally get in the mail. I came over two days late to pay for my certification. That's when I was told that there was a $300 fee. I think that's a little excessive when the original fee is only $200 and you're going to charge me 300 for being two days late. Well, I thought it was being charged for being two days late. I had another certification that was due in three weeks and I was going out of town. So, I thought, well, I better get over and pay. I don't want to get jacked for another $300. So, I came over 11 days early. I paid that one and I asked the girl behind the counter. I said, "Now, I have 30 days to schedule the inspection, correct?" And she said, "Yeah." So, I said, "Because I'm going out of town, I won't be back till the 10th and the certification expires on the 6th." So, I was thinking, "Okay, I paid it. When I get back, I'll schedule the inspection." I get back and I got a letter in the mail saying, "I owe another $300 because the house wasn't certified." So now, not only does it have to be paid by the expiration date, it has to be inspected, has to be passed, the inspection. If there's anything that has to be done, has to be corrected, and it has to pass the certification. Otherwise, I'm going to get hit for $300. I don't have a problem with that, but I think it should have been communicated a little better. You're

saying you sent me a notice in November. I never got a notice in November. First I heard about it is when I came over here, and now you put up all these notices on the glass and everything telling everybody about this new ordinance. Well, I don't have a problem with it, but I think you should show a little lenience here on these $300 fees until we learn the process. So, that's all I got to say. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, Wanda Moody, Eastburn resident. Um, first of all, there's no need for me to reiterate anything that has been spoken tonight with reference to the parking and the storage nor the concrete because I I piggyback on everything that they're saying. Now, with that being said, I would like to say transparency is not just making information available and what I'm speaking about is the budget. uh I had an opportunity to read through a portion of the budget which is very voluminous. No one could understand that. So what I'm asking is that you will not only make it accessible to us but make it understandable because what we have to do is when we go through that I respectfully ask that the budget be presented in a more userfriendly manner with clearer summaries and explanations so residents can compare with our previous budgets and confidently trust the process. Moving on, I would like to mention about the um the water rates going up and this is not because of East Point. It is because of Glee who is with the city of Detroit and there's a 6.7% increase. Now, what I would ask is that on our water bills, there's a section there that says important messages. Can can the city of East Point put an important message there that we will be having an increase in our water bill on July 1st, 2026? And I say that because we will not be blindsided. We'll be prepared to see a larger bill. Now, uh, the next thing I would like to discuss is, uh, members of the council, I respectfully request a budget increase of $2,000 for the AC/DC commission. I'm the chair for that commission and that I believe the staff liaison casually

requested this increase with Mr. Mattis, but I haven't heard anything. So, with that being said, as chair, I'm asking for that increase. This additional funding will allow us to better channel our efforts within the community, promoting cultural events, expanding outreach, and fostering more inclusion of groups. So, I ask that you consider increasing our budget to $2,000. And in addition to that, and finally, Mr. Mayor, you could easily might have missed it, but I did send you an email requesting that you look at applications for any residents that may want to be on the um ACD commission because we are down two seats. There's two vacancies and because of that, we don't want to be forced with the possibility of not having quorum in this summer because we know other commissioners are going on vacation. But if we have nine members opposed to seven members, we can meet our quorum. And that is all I have to say. And I thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Good evening, council. Maryford East Point. Um, couple of things I'd like to bring to your attention. First, I want to reiterate uh what John Dean said earlier about the master plan. We do need the engagement of as many people as possible in this city to prepare for the master plan. If we don't have your input, please keep your complaints to yourself. This is your city and people ought to care enough to say what they want to say about what is going to happen. This is the way democracy works. Everyone has an opportunity for their voice to be heard. With regarding the millage on May 5th, my vote is no because we do not have a thriving school district. And as long as we have waste in the district, we won't have a thriving school district. I could go into detail, but I suggest you look at um the videos from schoolboard meetings. I will be there. I was at the last one. I will be there at the next one. Until we have someone willing to spend wisely, they shouldn't get any more taxpayer money. Still waiting for an answer with regards to the question I asked at the last meeting. If someone has a problem with the city manager who's at the top of the hierarchal chart and the only group of people above him is council, who does an employee go to, this needs to be clearly stated so people will know how and to whom they

should address any concerns that may happen in the workplace. It's difficult enough to keep good employees, but when people don't have anyone to address their concerns, they walk off jobs, probably because of toxic environments, and no one ever questions why. So, I'm going to be fighting, as I said before, in 2019, I will be the voice of those who are too uncomfortable to have their voice heard. I will speak for the residents. I'm not speaking on my own because none of these apply to me. You have 30 seconds.

But everyone needs to have their voice heard other than on social media. Thank you. Thank you.

Hi, Evan Newberry, East Point resident. I live on Courtland Court. I know you guys are coming out to check the aprons and whatnot. I do have a crack in my driveway and it's because the court is trash. I have to come to a complete stop to enter my driveway because there's a deep. I've asked them to fill it. No, it'll bring the stuff up. I asked them when they were going to work on the court. They said next year or two. That was four years ago. I realize our court has not traveled like the rest of the city, but we do still pay taxes. And I want to guarantee that if they decide they're going to replace my apron that in three or four years not going to come back to replace it again because of the damage to the court. The damage coming into my driveway. You're not going to fix the court. Please don't fix my driveway because I'm not paying for it again in in two or three years when you guys come back around. It is awful. I've got pictures, but it is awful. So, thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be here? Evening.

Uh Steve Coroli. Um I live at 24521 Dale and have for about 26 years. Want to speak about the amending the traffic code. Well, it won't affect me any longer. When I first moved in, I was just a 25year-old with no money. So, I remember laying in the driveway doing my brakes. you know, at 2 a.m. because it's the only truck I had. Now, I've I've come a long way. I have an office stand in my street. I could park my vans there. What if I hired someone and he had to park in East Point? Your ordinance modification wouldn't permit that. I understand what you're trying to do based upon a little pamphlet I read from a neighbor. I think you could target those things way better than what you've currently written or crossing out. Um, I understand what you're targeting, but the way you're doing it is it's horrible to blue collar people. Um, and I remember, you know, there's been a couple times where I wanted to work on my wife's vehicle in the in the garage. Um, I was able to get her a new one for Christmas, but she had a 2013 Honda. She thought it was unsafe, so I'd be rebuilding this the entire uh suspension system for her and my van would be in the driveway labeled Corollis. And I've modified my garage so it'll fit a 9 foot foot vehicle and I can park it inside now. But that's because I've made more money When I was a young kid, I didn't have that option. So, the vehicle was in the driveway. And there used to be an old ordinance that said I couldn't do it either. I was violated a couple times and you guys said you wanted me to remove my ladder racks at 2 a.m. when I would get home from an emergency call. You guys were kind enough to accept a written letter. It said that would be horrible to the infants next door. We don't get a complaint. No one bothered me. You modified that ordinance to allow commercial vehicles to be parked. And now this one came up and I was like, whoa, that would really suck if I employed someone. They couldn't park a Corolli truck in their driveway. And we do do emergency service. Doesn't happen often, but we go out, you know, I've gone out at midnight. I'm the owner, but I still take the late night calls. Um, I couldn't park in my own driveway. There's a better way to rewrite this, please. Don't Don't do what you're doing to the poor folks that work hard and

would have a labeled truck like like I do now. And I feel very privileged. I could park inside in a heated garage. But it took me 26 years to get here. I came here as a 25year-old is now 50. And I love it here. I don't want to leave. Um, don't don't force other people out because they can't park their work truck. So, I encourage you to just write a different modify it differently. The way I've read read it really would suck for someone, especially me being 25 again. Like, where am I going? I'd have no place to park that vehicle. Nowhere. So, that's all. Thanks, guys. Larry, East Point residents. Uh, we the people. Uh, East Point is a blue collar uh uh residence. Most of the people are blue collar workers and what have you, more so than industrial and what have you. And uh we have a lot of concerns, a lot of problems that uh uh somebody uh whether it's through council or through uh city employees uh in different positions and what have you making all these here uh outrageous decisions and what have you. Uh I too just like the previous gentleman uh I work on uh changing my oil and my cars and what have you. Uh I can't afford to go to uh Jibies and all this and what have you and with some of the things I can do at my own house and everything. So, I don't I don't know how somebody could have the audacity to sit up there and tell me I can't do what I want to do in my drive with my cars. Uh, and this is a very important reason why so many people ought to be concerned and come out more and more to these uh uh council meetings and what have you because there's a lot

of things going on that's crazy that's just totally outlandish and and and uh uh uh shouldn't shouldn't even be thought of uh for a blue collar worker uh city and what have you. Uh we have the water bill with this increase and what have you. Uh uh I forgot to look it up and everything. See where East Point places at uh uh of a city uh why it's so high, where do we rate at and what have you and for the reason why we're so higher than most other places in uh uh uh Michigan and what as well as uh the transparency. Uh I've been coming to these meetings for a long time and there is no transparency. We can sit up here like we're doing today and ask questions and all this here and never get a response. Never. It's just you just talking. You just you're just saying stuff and that's the end of it and what have that has to stop and what have you. We come up here to ask questions so we can get answers to it and know how to address things. We as a community and what have you. uh as well as uh the parkings uh uh uh reference to the parking uh storage and what have you. Uh uh that's crazy. Like the guy said previous, it could be handled a better way and what have you. If if

you have 30 seconds, if it's something that's uh uh uh reckless or something that's damaging or an eyesore to the city and everything, uh we are reasonable people and what have you. We can think and what have you. uh then we can understand things of that sort. But when people got things in order and they're conducting themselves right and there is no problem and that's and everything uh uh you just can't make rules and regulations and just tell people what they do. For instance, the garage situation and what have three feet here and three feet there and all this and what I'll see you on the next one. Anyone else wish?

Good evening, council mayor. Uh, I too uh oppose the school millillage until until Christina Gibson is replaced. I don't think it's any use giving her any more money. We need a new school system. Uh, back to uh, transparency. I asked and I only from this young lady here tonight did I find out what our water water rate increase is going to be. I asked last week. There was no reply. So, uh, uh, that's not good. That's not transparency. I don't have to beg. Um, and things are slipping my mind. The the Stevens Road project needs to be on film and I need to see it from home. Residents don't have time to go to meetings here and meetings there. And you're also hearing from residents, there's a lot of bum side streets. We don't need the Stevens project. We just threw a guy off this council for loopy ideas like that. Maybe we need to throw him a few more out. I don't know. That might happen. Um, and my mind is blank. Well, I'll guess I'll sit down and I'll be back again. Better luck next time. Anyone else wish?

My name is Ivon Landon. This is the first meeting I've been to, but uh how I was aware of this was I was on my Facebook and um they said that you were going to decide like on the parking thing. It doesn't affect me per se, but it could have. When I when I speak, I'm sorry, get kind of passionate, but um my late husband used to ride a motorcycle and uh this just came to me that we were thinking of getting a trailer. So, if we wanted to travel a long distance and take it with us, we could do that. Now, the storage would be in my backyard. How big is a tra a a a trailer for a motorcycle? How big is a trailer for a um lawn mower or whatever? Um I think this is taking away a lot of rights of people. Why did we buy our property? In essence, we do not own anything. If we don't own our little space, our little bit of heaven, we don't own anything. And more rights are being taken away from us. There's people that say, "I bought my land. I bought my house outright for $60,000. It's worth $210,000 now. Now I'm paying taxes and paying more for what I thought I bought. And now I have to pay keep paying on it. It's like having a mortgage the rest of your life. Well, we don't own it then. We don't own if you if this city council is going to tell us that we cannot park. If we keep our houses up, if we keep our yards up and we make our little area, our little piece of heaven, you know,

nice place to live. Um, then why am I being restricted on what I can what I can park in my backyard? I can't fit a trailer in my backyard. I can't fit my car in my backyard because they put the fence post too close to my house when they built the house. But still, there's other people. You can't park an RV. What if you have an RV and you just and you've got it stored. You're not going to Most people don't store it in their backyards. We don't have it big enough. You store it somewhere. You bring it home and and you're doing stuff in there, you know, that you got you're getting ready to go on a trip. You can't leave that overnight.

You have 30 seconds. 30 seconds. Okay, this is a lifetime for people and this is people that have their own businesses. This is a blue This is a bluecollar neighborhood. This whole city is blue collar. You're just going to run more people out of this city. Just like the people have said before, it's cheaper not to live here. It hasn't been cheap to live here. I've been here over 20 years and it used to be cheaper. I'm done. But I'm just telling you, give us back our rights at least for our little piece of heaven. Thank you. Anyone else wish to hear?

Sir, you already spoke, didn't you? Oh, I can't I can't say nothing else. Just one time we have a second hearing of the public when you can come up again. Anyone else wish to be heard? Anyone else?

Jennifer Nicholas, East Point resident. I love this community and these people tonight. This is this is East Point and I know many of you have been here for a long time and you know that this is East Point here. Some of you are newer and maybe you don't quite understand East Point yet, but these people have very um valid concerns about their life, their property, their lifestyle, how they want to live here. And I know that, you know, you're talking about changes and and going forward with new things, but you can't you can't leave these people behind. So, I I hope that you all are listening to what's being said tonight and going forward with ordinances and changes. Keep these people in mind, find a way to get them engaged. I'm thrilled that these many people came to a city council meeting. I would love to see them here every single week. Um and as far as the master plan, which um John Deont and some planning commissioners touched on, um maybe Mr. Mattis, if you could uh during comments refresh our memory when the open houses are for the master plan. and I know they're coming up in the next couple weeks. Um, and I would encourage a lot of people to come out for that. And also, if these ordinances are going to be kicked over to the planning commission, if you make that uh date and time available to everyone so they can come out and say the exact same things that they're saying tonight in front of the planning commission. My issues with these ordinances, one, we already have ordinances that um that concern sidewalks, driveway approaches. Those are public areas. This ordinance seems to want to include driveways, garage slabs, back patios, these are not public areas. And I'm sorry, the idea that the city is going to tell uh a homeowner possibly on a fixed income that they have to replace their driveway or their

garage slab because it's cracked with no means to afford such an expensive cost is is pretty egregious to me. the issue with the commercial parking. This came through the planning commission. All right. This was discussed in October, November. There was a public hearing on on November 6th where the ordinance as it stands now with those ex exceptions was available for the public to speak on. The planning commission approved it with those exceptions. It came to the city council twice and you approved it with those exceptions. So this on this agenda tonight out of the blue, that's not that's not a very transparent process. It just seems like a bait and switch, an end run to get an ordinance through that, you know, is not going to be popular or acceptable to this community. And going forward, you you need to do better. You need to do better about being transparent and putting things forward to people so they can understand it and let their opinions be known. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard? Before I get into my comments, I just want to take a quick minute. For me, it's personal. I want to um acknowledge my grandmother. She was a survivor of the Armenian genocide. This April 24th, this Friday, makes 111 years since the genocide. In the miserable Turkish government still denies that the Ottoman Empire brutally massacred a million and

a half out of two million Armenians. Want to honor my grandma. She's one that I got all my advocacy from and uh you know I'm I'm listening to people uh and I understand their irritation and their frustration and I am beyond pissed with all of you and how you screwed the rabbits with this abominable rabbit ordinance that doesn't do anything to protect them. What the hell are you going to do? How are you going to keep them from being slaughtered. How you going to protect them from fly and bot strike where maggots burrow into their flesh and eat them alive? Who the hell is going to go around? Huh? You going to have your uh cops go up and down every block every night to see if rabbits are outside from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.? Do you all not understand that rabbits have different needs than dogs? Why the hell didn't you do your research, your due diligence? Why did you copy and paste the dog ordinance for rabbits? How stupid is that? You know, I mean, I expect the federal administration we currently have to be corrupt, inept, and just in unconscionable. But you all are a bunch of Democrats. You're just as corrupt as they are. You're not doing a damn thing to protect these rabbits. But you all want to sit there and pat yourself on the back like you did something so great. No, you screwed these rabbits. You put them in harm's way. You've done nothing, you know, and then you don't want some grandma sitting in jail for 93 days. You don't even know

the difference between a vaccination and a sterilization. And then so instead of standing your ground and explaining it, no, you decide you want to decriminalize this and take away from Judge Galen's discretion in her sentencing guidelines. I mean, this is just beyond stupid. The city has known about this landlord who is not reertified for over two years. Those tenants are living there illegally. They can't live there without a certificate of occupancy. They've been there. They're running up the water bill. They're not paying it. And now my neighbor dead because of that. You guys suck.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be here? Anyone else? Seeing none, the first hearing of public is closed. We'll move on to approval of the minutes. Um, item A, regular meeting minutes from April 7th, 2026. Mr. Mayor, I would move that we uh accept the minutes of the regular meeting of April 7th, 2026. Support, please. Council member Curley, yes. Council member Shadlick, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Scott, yes. Council member Baker, yes. Right. Item B, approval of the close session meeting minutes from April 7, 2026.

Is there a motion? I move that we receive and file the close session minute meetings close session meeting minutes from April 7th, 2026. Support. Please call the roll. I'm sorry. Uh, Council Member Baker. Yes. Council member Scott. Yes. Council member Shadlick. Yes. Council member Curley. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld. Yes.

Right. Uh there's no scheduled hearings. We'll move into unfinished business. Scheduling of 2026 27 uh budget workshops. Would anyone like to make a motion? Add motion to schedule the special meeting for budget workshop on May 12th and May 13, 2026 at 6 pm. Support. Any comments? Please call the role. Oh, just real quick. I'm sorry. And I think that that 13th is if we it's always tentative if we don't complete everything. That's correct, sir. We're going to hold the date. Uh we'll do as much as we can on the 12th and hold the 13th if we need it.

All right. Okay, thank you. Lee Calwell, Council Member Scott, yes. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Baker, yes. Council member Curley, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. All right, we'll move into reports from administration. We'll start off with our city manager report, Mr. Mattis.

All right, good evening. Couple couple things for you tonight. We have several events coming up. Um there's information about these and more on the table just outside the door there, so make sure you stop and take a look. Lots of things coming up. Um, Little Shamrock Soccer begins this Saturday at Forest Park Elementary School at 10:00 a.m. That'll be very fun. Uh, we have an Earth Day event on Saturday at Spindler Park from 11 to 3. That'll be very cool as well. Uh, and there's other events related to the master plan and things like that. U more info back there. Um, the construction season um is underway. Um, if you haven't been on NMI today, uh, construction is underway. Uh, we'll have some some activity there for the next couple of weeks. Um the police and court building has gone out to bid. So we'll have more information about that project in the next couple of weeks. Um we're excited to see a competitive bidding process. That is good news. Uh we have lots of things going on as spring gets going. So you'll see the city social media. Um there is a great spot as well as the website to find all the information of what's going on. Uh council will be discussing contract negotiations uh this evening. Um and during our close session related to that, um our our planners for the master plan will be in town um here next week. So, we're eager to keep this moving. Um and just a reminder that there is no meeting on May 5th because of the budget workshops on the 12th and potentially 13th. Those will be at 6 PM on the 12th. Um and then just a quick reminder that it is administrative and professionals week. So, I just wanted to shout out to staff. Um, thank you for all you do for the city and for the community. Um, tomorrow is administrative professionals day. And then um, just a reminder because our deputy clerk Underwood is shameless that um, Thursday we have the public accuracy test for the May 5th election will be here in the lobby um, at 10 a.m. So um, any questions related to that, you can find it on the city website. That is all from me. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, any questions for Mr. Mattis? All right, we'll move into our finance director's report. Mr. Blum.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, earlier this month, we received our U distribution of road funds for the month of February. It was the first time there was any noticeable increase from the new changes. So, it's a glimmer of hope that the money is actually going to start coming in. Uh, we are planning on the uh additional funds in the next budget year and uh they seem to be tracking. There's a portion of it that will not start until May. Um, but by uh the beginning of the next fiscal year, we should start seeing all of it on a monthly basis. Um, did want to point out there was an email sent to council. Uh, there had been a uh question about the spending for the two commissions that have budget. Um, two people had two different ideas of how much and they were both wrong. If it didn't come from finance, it's probably inaccurate. So, anybody dealing with a commission, have them run the questions through finance, just not for the next week and a half because I'll be on vacation. So, uh any questions for Mr. Blot?

Uh I just unless I'm missing something personally about water rates, can you talk about that? Um sure. The um the budget was prepared and presented. It has an overall 6.9% increase on the water rates. 6.8 8 of it is a direct result of the uh Great Lakes Water Authority increases to us. So there's very little uh impact on the rate from internal uh city cost. Okay. 6.1 is from 6 6.9 is total 6.8 of it is from GLWA. Okay. Thank you. Okay.

And I guess to clarify for anyone listening who doesn't understand we that's who we buy our water from. and sewer. Yeah. Yep. Any uh other questions for Mr. Black? Now, I have a question. I don't know if this should be directed to Ryan or Randy. I know we're doing the workshop. So, um if any residents have any question, will the workshop be open to them where they can ask questions? Um because I think um they like some clarification on that. It it's open to the public. There's a hearing of the public at the beginning. um so they can ask questions that could be addressed during the uh discussion. Thank you.

Yep. Right. Any other questions? All right. We'll move on to the city attorney's report. Mr. Albbright. Thank you, mayor, members of council. Uh I just wanted to let the council know and also members of the public our office participated recently in a jury trial for uh animal neglect which resulted in uh guilty ver verdicts um in that case and I just wanted to publicly recognize the city's animal control officer Ashley Sanchez. Without her help um we would not have been able to uh get the uh favorable outcome that we received. So again she does just a phenomenal job as animal control officer. That's all I have. there.

Any questions for Mr. Albbright? All right, we'll move into new business. Uh, item A, approval of DPW hoist emergency purchase. Would anyone like to make a motion? Mr. Mayor, I would move to approve the emergency purchase of a replacement hoist for the Department of Public Works and Services motorpool in the amount of $150,251.39 plus a 10% contingency

and would I guess would that be for a total of 165276.85? What the contingency? Yes. Yes. You just read off the the number if you want to do both numbers. Contingency. Oh, sure. 165,276.85.

Is there support? I'm I'm sorry. We have to correct that to thousand. Oh, I'm sorry. Million. I I'll support that with the correction. Thank you. All right. Are there any questions? No. Now, I have a couple questions. Um I I was just wondering I think the current hoist um what is its capacity um that it holds or lift for the vehicles? So, your current hoist that went out Can it? Yeah. Sorry if you don't mind.

Sorry, I didn't bring my notes with me, but I I believe the current hoist is 32,000 lb capacity. The new hoist will actually be double that. And that's just due to the modern trucks and the equipment on them is a lot heavier. The old hoist was built for an older fleet, smaller fleet, and so we're just getting current with the equipment that we have. Okay. And is that I know you're um stating that um your new hoist um you'd be purchasing so that you would be able to work on say for instance larger vehicles like the fire trucks. Do we know the weight capacity on the fire trucks?

Yeah, so we did actually go and get weights on those. The only one that we wouldn't be capable of lifting is actually the new ladder truck, but there really is very little because that has its own lift system with the hydraulic outriggers. The cost to get a lift that would lift that vehicle is almost double. and for the amount of the the instance that we would actually need that uh it just wouldn't be it wouldn't make sense financially.

Okay. Um Okay. So, for the largest truck that you have, do you know the weight capacity on that or is the what I'm trying to determine is your the current hoist that you're trying to purchase, is there like a smaller hoist that would be cheaper? So, right now, our vehicles at public works, our heaviest one is right about 55,000. Um, once you get the fire fleet in there, a loaded vehicle, we're pushing just over 60,000. Okay. Okay. I think you answered all my questions.

Hey, Mr. Lamor, the memo that we received indicates that the hoist they have now is 60 years old with a 30,000 pound lifting capacity. with a little research on that. It's actually 70 years old. Oh, thank you. Director came over. Okay. I I will note that a memo from you is incorrect. Gladly noted. Right. Uh any other questions? Please call the RO. Council member Curley, yes. Council member Baker, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Scott.

Yes.

Thank you very much. Um item B, um introduction and first reading of ordinance 26-1260 amending non-owner occupied housing. Would anyone like to make a motion? Oh, this is the only one that I actually was okay with on the agenda. So, I'll go ahead and make the motion. Uh I move to give first reading to ordinance 261260 amending the nonowner occupied housing um and scheduled to give second reading and adoption for reg regular meeting on Tuesday May 19th 2026. Second are there any questions on this one?

Um I think I have a question on there. So, um, based on the ordinances stating that if you are not a parent or a child of the owner, you would have to essentially register um with the city that you'll be occupying that residence. Yes. If you're renting to to I believe this is carving out an exception if you're a parent or a child. Okay. Okay. Adding that exception in

adding that exception in is it are we able to add the exception to just all family um familial members so that say for instance my cousin if I wanted to allow them to live in my residence um I can understand if you're a friend but I think we can make a familial exception. Does administration want to speak to that at all?

Not sure off the top of my head. That's why we do two readings. So, that's a great question. Uh, we'll have time to look into that better. Um, I would I'd say if there was a change, if it better aligned with our, you know, zoning ordinance and other things that define uh family units, there are definitions of those things for for lots of things. Um, we can definitely take a look at at that though. Perhaps before the next reading, could you maybe put together a little memo looking at that? Okay. Do you have any follow-up questions? No. Uh, please call the RO. Mayor Kleinfeld? Yes. Council member Baker? Yes. Council member Curley? Yes. Council member Shadlick?

Yes. Council member Scott? Yes. All right. Uh item C is on the agenda for introduction and first reading of ordinance 261261 amending chapter 38 article 3 adding flatwork replacement criteria. Um this was mentioned uh during the approval of the agenda. My suggestion was going to be to kick it over to the planning commission to review and get a recommendation council.

Well yeah we talked about that before the meeting started. Actually, it's going to both be C and D. Uh there were a couple of people from the planning commission here tonight. Um I would just hope that they that they listen to the citizens uh of what their feelings are and um we keep in mind that the final decision will still be here at this table with the council and mayor. the planning commission will go off through it and they'll make another recommendation. So, the buck still is going to stop here. I don't know when that's going to be. Does anybody know when that that's going to be on the planning commission's agenda?

I think it's worth mentioning that the planning commission meets the first Thursday of every month at 7 o'clock in this room. So, if you'd like to join for that conversation the first Thursday of the month at 7, um it is up to council if you want to make a motion that the planning commission review and recommend on both of those. And you can provide a date certain if you'd like to say they have three months or they have three weeks or they need an answer tomorrow. Uh which isn't fair. Uh but you can do that if you'd like. So that so the the date would be what? May 7th. May 2nd. Seven. Seven.

Seven. Well, I I for one um Senator, I don't want to I think they could talk about it at the next meeting. They've talked about it before and we didn't have except for a couple days to look at the suggestions. We get our packet on Friday and this is Tuesday night. So, if we let them know tomorrow by communication from the office, uh they'll know that it'll put it on their agenda so folks can come here on the 7th. So if you want to that that inform a motion that that the council would notify the planning commission that we would like to have the discussion of these two items uh on May 7th and then our next meeting will be I did

our next meeting is until the 19th of May. Okay. Um there's no reason there's no reason why we can't put it on the 19th. Then on the 19th we can at least get an update. Sometimes they won't have a final answer after one meeting even with notice. It's just to give them some grace. Uh but we can get an update to council on the 19th if you'd like. If not a final or or an updated version.

Well, you make out the agenda the Thursday before our meeting. So, if they make I would assume they're going to make a decision because I I spoke to the chairperson and he was anxious to get it back on their agenda. And as I said before, I'll say it again, we're this body still has to make the final decision. So, whatever they decide to add or delete, we still have the option of adding or delete what we want to with two reads. So are you I guess are you making a motion to refer to planning for their May 7th meeting?

I am there support. I'll support that. Any other discussion? Could we ask um could we read back the motion? Make sure we got it all. I I was trying to simplify it. Would it just be a motion to refer to planning their May 7th? Refer the item C and D to the planning commission at their meeting of May 7th. Still support that

and the mayor and the mayor supported it. The motion the council didn't. The mayor did. Yeah, I was ready to vote against it anyway tonight, but I mean, if it goes back to planning, I you know, there might be I agree with what was stated during our hearing of the public, but I mean, if we want to hear further discussion from planning, it's fine. But um just based off of what I read through the agenda packet, I mean that's why I didn't make a support one way or the other because uh I mean my recommendation was just to remove it. But if you guys are seeking further information, I mean that's that's fair request. So no, I agree and I I think my position was the same as yours. I would have just uh voted no on both of them. I know administration had some concerns and I think it just gives them a place to to raise them. Um I think if it comes back in the same form uh I don't I doubt it would have support here but uh at least they could tease that out and see if there's something they want something different they want to recommend. Well, I don't think anybody has any doubt of my position, but I was ready to put it down the toilet. Both items and uh then and I talked to John quite a bit.

Hold on, hold I I talked to John quite a bit, so he knows my position, but he was here for the hearing of the public, so he knows the citizens opinion and he certainly knows mine. And so I'll be at the meeting and even though I'm on the council and going to make the final decision, I'm still going to speak up about how crazy they are. Not the not the commissioners, the two recommendations. Okay, that's it. I'm I'm done. Any other comments or thoughts? All right, please call the RO.

So, mayor, this is for both C and D. Both C and D. So, I have Council Member Curley. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld. Yes. Council member Shadlick. No. Council member Scott. No. Council member Baker. It's a no for me. All right. Well, uh Okay. There was an initial uh take off my ear plug. Not initial, but I mean another proposal. Would someone like to make a motion? I would move that uh and I don't know if we want to do them both together or individually, but the motion would be the same. is that we uh do not make these amendments to if I can do them both both items C and D or if it needs to fine by me. Okay.

I I think they're going in the same direction. So, okay. Well, I would move that we uh don't go with the amendments of uh items C and D. Support. All right. Please call the RO. Um or if you have comments. Well, I'm I'm a broken record, but Now, I'm I I I had a lot of notes here as to why I'm go why I was going to vote no and put this down the toilet as I said before, but let's let's vote on them. Is administration clear on the motion? Yeah. Okay. Please call the ro. Council member Baker, yes. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Scott,

yes. Council member Curley, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. All right. Those items are put to bed. So, let's move on to well, now item E, approval of resol uh resolution 26-206, participation in the reciprocal aid agreement and response protocol. Would anyone like to make a motion? Sure. I feel a lot better, too. I would move to approve the resolution number 26-2016 for the East Point Police Department to participate in the Mcome County Law Enforcement Mutual aid agreement of April 2026 and further authorize a city manager to execute all necessary documents. A second. Right. Any questions on that?

Please call the RO. Council member Curley. Yes. Council member Baker. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld. Yes. Council member Shadlick. Yes. Council member Scott. Yes. All right. Uh approval sale uh item F. Approval of sale of 22054 Oakwood to Mcome County Habitat for Humanity. Moved. All right. Is there support? Yes, I support. And I guess we should specify for the amount of $3,000. Is that Can it be part of your motion? Absolutely. And there's support. Please call the RO. Council member Baker.

Yes. Council member Curley. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld. Yes. Council member Shadlick. Yes. Council member Scott. Yes. Payroll and bills. Oh, righty. Uhoh. I mixed up mixed up my paper. That's previous. Thank you. Um, I move that we pay the bills in the amount of $4,690,19.54. Support. All right. Any questions on that? Please call the role. Council member Baker. Yes. Uh, Council Member Curley, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Scott,

yes. All right. Uh, moving on to second hearing of the public. The second hearing. The public is now open. Would anyone wish to be heard?

Hi, Jod Noble, 24634 Lexington. Um, I know I brought up about the paving of our street, especially from Stevens to 10M, but um, I do know that part of the problem with our street is it's a thoroughare for a lot of trucks, especially coming out of the truck stop to go straight across and go up our street to 9 mile. Um, part of the other issue is the towing company that's at 9 in Lexington. But the other thing I wanted to ask is please if you can find it to put Lexington on the repavement schedule for this year. We are the only street that pretty much has not been expanded widthwise. If you have two cars parked on both sides of the street, it's barely enough room for a car to get down the center. And if you go on the streets that are either Roxanna or any of them around there, they have all been expanded. Um, they have plenty of room. So, again, that's something else I'd like you to please consider and repave our street this year and not delay it again. Um, the other thing I'd like to say is thank you for putting those two issues down. And the other thing I wanted to bring up was I am an owner of a recreation vehicle and it is a large one. I can't keep it in my yard. I do store it, but at the storage there is no water supply. There is nothing. is just a parking lot and I need to bring home my trailer and have it in front of my house so that I can pack it, unpack it, clean it, wash it, wax it, whatever I need to do to it. And if that would have passed, I would not even be allowed to maintain my recreational vehicle anywhere because you cannot do it at campgrounds either. A lot of them you don't have running water. So, please again, thank you. And if that comes back up, I hope they do reconsider the way it was worded. We had so many hours to have it sitting out for the house to maintain it and that worked out perfectly fine for us. Thank you again.

Thank you. Anyone else wish Ryan? Um, as I mentioned the last time I was up here, this is my first in the 10 years I've lived here. This is my first meeting I've been to. Um, that went well. I felt that was uh surprisingly well actually. I didn't know what to expect but I watched uh from the sidelines a lot as you might say for the past several years and um was expecting something a lot more exciting in the worst possible way. So great work. Thank you.

Anyone else wish to hear Kelly wrote. I'd like to note although it's not the city's fault, we had a nearly 7% water increase last year. So now we're looking at 14% over two years. That's really high considering that DTE and consumers are on the same path. That's this is not good. Um, last meeting we had information brought to us by a citizen that said we eliminated a $90,000 job, but yet our administration fees did not go down at all. So where did the money go? I mean, where are we spending the money? if we we've eliminated a $90,000 a year employee, so there should be some money, but I guess there's not. And uh uh I would like to know if this this year's budget had a $300,000 deficit. I understand. I would like to know. I mean, last year's budget, well, we're in this year, but the last budget had a $300,000 deficit. What is the deficit in this budget? And I'd like uh I'd like I'd like some comment. I don't want to, you know, leave in the dark like the last meeting, you guys holding secrets to the last minute. We have a ballpark figure you could throw out. I'm sure of that. This Stevens project sounds like the sounds like the nine mile thing all over again.

Uh I don't know if we uh we must have to put some money in it. Not everything is going to be given through us through whatever grants or whatever you got. And if our money is going into it, there should be meetings in this room. They should be on video so people can watch at home. We can't track all these meetings personally going to uh there's two meetings listed here. We have a we have a uh a video camera in this room. We need to see this stuff on video. What's being proposed? How much is going to spend? And uh if we can't do

you have 30 seconds for scheduling purposes. If you can't do it here, we have a video person here in the city. She needs to take her camera over to these meetings and record them. If you have to pay her overtime, there should be a lot of money. We just eliminated a $90,000 a year job. So, pay her overtime. Get these meetings on film so that we can watch them at home.

Thank you. Anyone else wish again East Point resident uh per last uh session of council uh the mayor stated that uh he was confused of uh situation regarding uh why uh Councilman Baker uh would even question or had concerns uh beyond or further than uh than what had been stated prior to that uh in regard to Mr. Bloom and what have you. Well, I can answer that for you. Uh the confusion is uh my confusion probably is different from your confusion. The confusion was uh if you was at the meeting of the civil uh uh board and what have you. Uh there was conflicting stories. Uh Miss Doom said one thing, Mr. Bloom said something else. The stories weren't conflicting with each other. It come to be a lie. Uh somebody was telling a lie. Put it that way and what have you. And so uh and the public wants to know, uh answers and reasons for why why is somebody lying and why was uh uh they conflicting like they are and what have you. So uh even even how the uh uh the meeting was conducted and what have you uh it they didn't want to accept it from the very beginning. they wanted uh uh there were some on that on that uh uh commission that wanted to drop it right then and there without hearing anything. Well, the the the when it was voted on, the question was uh should we uh uh look into it more since we don't have the

evidence or the understanding of what's going on with it and what have you. And uh that's all it was. It wasn't a yay or nay in in uh in in the defense of uh uh Miss Brooks or anything of that matter. and it was voted no, not to even look into it further and what have you, which was absurd and whatever. So that's that's the reason why people won't want to hear and that's the reason why Mr. Baker uh did what he did and what have you. Uh rightfully so. And we should have a right to know and what have you because there's something very fishy about how this whole deal went down. And matter of fact, u uh I'm going to make a statement here to reinstate her her position. Uh uh that's what I recommend that she get her job back. Uh there's been enough flim flowing, flamboying, and all this kind of stuff. And and uh uh dancing around everything that uh uh uh regard to this here when nothing makes sense, nothing comes together other than it was a setup deal, a plan deal, it was a conspiracy and what have you. So that's the answer. uh since she was confused of why it was brought up again and thank God that it was and what have you and uh and it's not done yet and it won't be until the final results come in uh to the right thing is being done

much. Thank you. 30 minutes 30 minutes. No, that was three minutes. Oh, you didn't 30 seconds.

Sorry, I tried to I think it it did not pick up on my mic. Sorry about that. Jennifer Nicholas, East Point resident. Um, I'll pick up where he left off. Um, regarding Vicky Brooks at the board of ethics meeting on February 18th regarding the budget amendment that he created, Mr. Blum stated there was council dissatisfaction with the position. They did not feel that the city could afford or should be paying a $90,000 a year position. The request was to eliminate the deputy position and bring back something at a lower level lower level. At that same meeting, Elkie Doom stated the elected officials asked Mr. Blum to put this as part of his budget amendment. At the March 3rd city council meeting, Mayor Prom Baker asked who from council requested the budget amendment. Is there anyone who can speak to this? Mr. Blum responded since I created the budget amendment I can. It was initiated by Councilman De Monaco and Kleinfeld. They requested that the budget amendment be put in place and added to the agenda on the first meeting in September. At the last city council meeting, which was April 7th, Cardi de Monaco and Mayor Kleinfeld both said that they did not add the budget amendment to the September 2nd agenda. No one ever said that either of them did. Cardi De Monaco said that Mr. Blum's statements were false and Mayor Kleinfeld said he did not know why Mr. Blum made the statements at the March 3rd meeting. Mr. Blum sits right here. I think you probably could have asked him at that meeting why he said what he said. I don't know Mr. Blum personally, but he seems to be of sound mind. no cognitive or medical issues that would

cause him to blurt out random names. I guess the bigger question is if Mr. De Monaco and Mayor Kleinfeld are implying that Mr. Blum is either dishonest or delusional, why is he being kept on as our city's finance director, handling our city's money and handling the budget? So, if you would, you know, at some point care to clear that up. No one ever said that you or Mr. demon put it on the agenda. What they're saying is that you told Mr. Blum to do this budget amendment to eliminate Vicky Brook's position. You know, it's it's a fair question. No one's saying if that's right or wrong, but let's be honest and transparent about it. Why would Elky Doom and Mr. Blum say something that was completely untrue? And and if they did, why why would we keep them on with the city? Okay. So, if you have time to address that. And you know, this meeting tonight was fabulous. I'm so happy so many people came out and things went their way. And going forward, I hope I hope you all will come out every two weeks to these meetings. Thank you.

Thank you,

Mary Hall Rayford, East Point resident. I'm excited to see people come out. I'm excited to know that council is actually listening. Sometimes I've wondered and every one of you know that because I don't have a problem telling you that. But tonight you listen and I'm thankful because in this city and I think we have something like 32% senior citizens. Most of us have limited incomes and we can't afford to do a lot of major repairs unless they're extremely dangerous. And so being mindful and considerate of that fact, of course, it would also be helpful if someone is putting together these changes if they actually lived in the city to understand the residents better. I think that would be extremely helpful as well. So, uh, with that in mind, um, I know that, um, Mr. Mattis, you were supposed to move into the city. Have you found suitable housing for you and your family, or is that no longer going to be something considered? I'm glad people came out. I hope they will continue to come out because together when we make our voices heard we can make a difference and I really appreciate our council tonight listening to the residents. Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else wish to be Where do I find all this information easily on the city website? Because after I heard about some of the stuff, I tried looking for some of these ordinances and I really searched and I couldn't find them. Is there any way that it could be made possible on the the first page or something or under when it says city ordinances, you know, like or or could direct you the normal person like me who I don't really know much about, you know, too much about the politics or anything, but just to find out, you know, um what's going on um with these ordinances because um I got I got a letter from the um city about them coming out for concrete or something like that. Well, I thought we just did that within the last two years on my little block. We only have about 10 10 houses. It's on Courtland Court or Courtland Avenue. And um I looked I went and looked at my front and I go, "Well, all my I have no cracks in my sidewalk. I have fairly brand new uh apron, what they call that thing. at the bottom and uh and I thought if they if if it's because of the little dip which is not can't be more than five degrees in my where my sidewalk is. I looked down the street. Oops. I look down the street and this the segments that the city replaced go all the way down the street. They're up and down. You know, they're not it's if it's that little tiny little puddle that's like this by this in the crack

where the two where they meet where the two slabs meet in that little line if it's right this little puddle like this is worse than something going like this you know is that's just as unsafe as my little puddle might be okay so I couldn't understand it because I asked my next door neighbor if he got a letter he said no so now I'm wondering now I heard somebody saying about that and and I didn't know this I'm And it's my fault that I didn't think about it. But now you can tell us to replace our concrete on our driveway. I mean, I have the old stuff, the real old stuff from the beginning. The real good concrete. And I got a crack in it. And I know where that came from. It was from the before we bought our house. They put a dumpster on it. Those people that put those dumb those cleanout dumpsters, they don't care. They just drop them and it breaks the slab. Because that happened. I grew up in Harper Woods, our house we had for 40 years. And when my sister moved out, they they had one of those things come and after they took there's a crack. They just drop it and our whole driveway was cracked. So, I'm just asking where I can find this information out so that I'm aware ahead of time. That could be more inform.

You have about 30 seconds. Yeah. I just want to know if it's possible to put something maybe on the front page that if you want to see, you know, like ordinances or whatever very easily instead of having to go through every single department, you know, or whatever. I I I couldn't find some of the stuff. I found ordinances that I that weren't even listed on here that look like they're coming up. So, I would I would just be I'm ju I'm just here to say that, you know, I I do want to be involved a little bit more and I want to see what's going on, but I'm confused about what's wrong with my with my front yard. Can you leave your information over there? Thank you.

Just so I can find out.

Oh, thank you. Anyone else wish you All right, Matt Chinowski again. Uh, sorry about the first time. I wasn't able to articulate um exactly what I wanted to. I just it was a last minute thing. I ran in here. I didn't even know what to expect because this is my first time here. But I wanted to say thank you for hearing us out and uh just a guy trying to keep my family out of poverty, trying to, you know, feed my kids uh take them on vacation, have a good life, and uh letting us not do that or have a commercial vehicle or even a trailer at our home is really uh it really affect our lives. So, I really appreciate you guys uh you know, hearing us out and doing you guys uh what we really needed for you guys to do to uh let us keep continuing providing for our families. So, thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be? Wanda Moody, East Point resident. I have quick few notes here, bullet points, but I first want to start out by saying thank you to the council for listening tonight to all of the residents and exercising compassion and using common sense with both your decisions. Um, I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight as well. thing that I want to try to um is change the dynamics of the meeting and that I'm an individual that we may not agree with something that is going on but we still have to respect the office for which you guys hold and I I am not speaking um a in a mean tone or a hateful tone but for a resident to call our council out of their names is unacceptable. It's totally unacceptable because we can voice our opinion but yet and still be respectful at the same time because you would want respect to be given to you. So you should give respect to the council. um with reference to the the website, it is totally not user friendly. So because, and this is going to sound physicious, but because the $90,000 salary is no longer with the city, the city should take it a a mindful approach and send out an RFP to hire an excellent IT team to revamp the city of East Point's website because it really needs

to be done because you cannot find anything on the website. So, take that $90,000 salary that we no longer have and hire someone from it to come in and revamp our website. Um the next thing I want to say is that I look I was looking to find out when the city is presented with an increase with the water and glee when they are negotiating the price increases. Is there a representative from outlining cities that are a part of that negotiation or do we just sit back and say, "Okay, they increase us again this year. We have to go along with it."

You have 30 seconds. If you if if the city partake in the negotiations when they do an increase on our water rates. Other than that, I am all set. Thank you guys for everything that you do. You do do, you know, 90% of the time you do a wonderful job and we do. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to hear? Anyone else? Just a reminder, our first amendment settlement does allow us to call you out individually. Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and contentious stupidity. Y'all took first prize. Your gross incompetence proves you have no way to stop breeding, hoarding of rabbits, or any more of them freezing to death. What's the matter? Three rabbits that froze to death? That's not enough? No light bulb goes off in your head there. I hope she gets the maximum sentence allowable by law cuz what she did was disgusting. Why did she have three or four rabbits to begin with when only two are allowed? Your amended ordinance for the rabbits is just pure garbage. And then to hear that Sanchez has done a phenomenal job. I remember I had to fight like hell to get charges against this horrible tenant who choked his dog so hard with the leash his paws came off the sidewalk about a good two feet. They dangled and then he would he hit him in the face repeatedly and then violently kneaded him in the chest and all she wanted to do was give him some

stern warning. Phenomenal job. Absolutely not. Not not in my book. You also ignored the life-saving RHDB2 vaccine for rabbits. Apparently, you have no issue with rabbits hemorrhaging to death. That just makes you out to be a bunch of cold-hearted sobs. Not one of you advocated for the rabbits. That's unconscionable. It's 2026 now. Even though the antiquated law still considers animals as property, that's not how society views animals.

You have 30 seconds. Their family and you have done absolutely nothing in this ordinance to recognize them as family. And clearly you've done no rabbit rescue work. I've got over 34 years experience with rabbits. I know what I'm talking about. Everything I've told you is life saving and you all ignored it. Thank you very much.

Anyone else wish to be heard? Anyone else? Seeing none, the second hearing of the public is closed. We move on to mayor and council reports. Um, Councilwoman Scott,

thank you so much. Um, I just want to go ahead and provide a reminder that there will be a Memorial Day parade um hosted by the East Point Military Museum. So, it starts um at 11:00 a.m. on May 25th and it will end at Splender Park. If you would be interested in participating, the final meeting is May 18th at the Military Museum 166 Stevens. Um, if you are interested in participating in that. Also, Friends of the Library presents the game Bunkco and it will be hosted this Friday at the library from 5 to 7 p.m. if you would be interested in coming out and having a nice night with the community members. Um, we'll see you at the library. I would like to thank Ivonne for just giving me a reminder. Um, I think when she said her home or her property is a little piece of heaven, um, that really reminded me um, exactly what my house is to me and actually what our property is to each resident member. And so we need to take into consideration as council that that is your little piece of heaven. But this is our little piece of heaven as well and we should take care of it as such. Um moving forward um we are asking for residents to participate in the master plan. I know we have Juanita who is the director for community engagement. I would like to see um her being incorporated in trying to see how she can tap in and reach out to the community and get them to engage with the master plan. Um I share the same consensus. We do need a more userfriendly website for our residents and so I would like to see

some improvements there. And lastly, I know Mr. Curly touched on this about increasing the funds for the beautifification community um committee, but I would also like to see how we can work at increasing that also for ACTC. Um so, thank you so much. And um that's the end of my comments. Thank you, uh Councilwoman Pette. I just want to um piggyback on what Councilwoman Scott had said. Uh Bunko is Saturday. Yep. Saturday.

I think you might have said Friday by mistake. Yeah. So, it's Saturday 5:00 to 7:00 and um we're encouraging everyone to go, of course, because it's a good for a good cause. It's um through the uh it benefits the friends of the library. So, if you would like to come out, um all are welcome. It's $15 and you pay at the door. So, um I wanted to mention that. I also wanted to uh encourage everyone to attend Earth Day Saturday at um Spindler Park at 11:00 a.m. it starts. So if everyone could come out then we have a lot of great groups who will be there as well um representing I know arts and cultural diversity commission will be there um with a table where we're hosting some uh plant um seeds and uh I I would encourage everyone to come and um I think that's all I have.

Councilman Carly.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Um, I too am excited. There's been so many people come tonight and I'm extra excited about the people who came up and spoke uh in opposition to the two items that we were we were going to deal with. Um, and I'm sure that the administration will not attempt to put this back on the agenda anytime soon. Um, I live on Lexington like Judy does and the repair shop on the corner of um, 10 milei in Lexington, my wife and I do have to go out into the street to see if there's any cars coming. Chief, it's terrible. You know, I'm going to get hit. They parked their cars well beyond the sidewalk right up onto the street. And one warning from the police department, they you don't do it anymore. And if they do it again, I don't know how much the fine would be. $500, I don't know, whatever. But uh that Yeah, that's really dangerous. I I I live on Lexitton since 1965 and they are going to repair Lexington from Nine Mile to Simon, you know, it's it's not all that great, but travel down to Lexington and 10 mile road, it is almost as bad as um 10 mile and Hayes. It is terrible. But AW said, "Well, Harvey, it's we don't have the money and it's not scheduled for another year or so." So, we'll have to we'll have to put put up with that. Um,

well, we're celebrating what year for America? 250 250 years. And how often do you see women appreciated and honored? Not very often. Um I often thought, will we ever have a woman president? And at my age, I think I've got one more. Next year is probably going to be my last um presidential election because the other one I'll be in the late 90s. But we'll see. We'll see. Uh so I want to read a few names and I'm going to read a few names every meeting we have of of some ladies who contributed their heart and their soul to America. You'll write you you you'll probably recognize most of the names. Rosa Park, Amelia Heheart, Ruth Ginsburg, Marie Curry, Sally Ride, Mother Teresa, Harriet Tudman, Susan B. Anthony, Ida Wells. You've you've been some of those, haven't you? But I'm gonna bring them up again and uh not going to mention any male because you know they they're advertised already. Look on CNN news. They're they're they're there already. But we got to honor the the women of our country because there are so many. The list is really big. But I I won't spend 10 minutes reading all the names, but every every name of the female woman that contributed to America is is astounding. It's it's fantastic. And Mr. Mayor, thank you

again, people. Thank you. God bless everybody. This is this is East Point. Thank you, Councilman Baker.

Thank you. I won't be long. Um Yep. I'll touch on a slightly touchy thing. So, and there were some comments that were mentioned about uh the discussion item that I put on the agenda several meetings ago. Uh I believe that we we're not always going to agree at this table. Um that's apparent. Um Mayor Clyfield and I did talk after last meeting uh outside in the parking lot. He and I had a difference of opinion about the discussion item. Um we both stated what our opinion was. I disagree with his perspective. He disagreed with mine. It is what it is. But we try to we have to try to do so at least civily and and that's the purpose of having an odd number of council members. There are times we're going to disagree up here. Um the reason well some the reason why I initially put it on the agenda was because I did have some questions about uh the agenda item from last year and there were things that were still coming to the council. There were other commissions like to the board of ethics and some s uh civil service and there were questions that were coming to me. I can't speak for anyone else but I'm sure others had received questions as well. in an effort to be integral and in an effort to find out some clarifying details is why I put it on the agenda as a discussion item initially. Uh that particular meeting, Mayor Kleinfeld was sick. He didn't make it out. His name was mentioned and I asked that it be put back on the agenda just so that if he needed to or wanted to speak to some things that he could. I thought that that was in uh a way to be fair. If someone mentioned my name and said something, I I might want to have that opportunity as well. Uh but ultimately, what he said, how he felt,

if he said anything, was his decision. But my attempt was to be fair. Um, in regards to our communication with residents, uh, I've had several people reach out to me over various agenda items. Uh, this very agenda, uh, that we have before us today. Uh, if there is something that I cannot answer, I do my best to tell you that I don't know. I will try to find an answer. I will try to direct you where that answer could come from. Uh there are some questions that our finance director has the answer to or other members of administration. If there's issues with if there's questions or concerns about construction and roads, Darren knows every I I don't know how he remembers addresses and locations like he does, but anytime I tell him about a problem or something that someone emailed or called about, he already knows about it. and it's been as early as 7 or 8:00 in the morning. He said, "Yeah, I'm just leaving that area now." So, but I do my best to try to communicate with whoever reaches out. Uh the gentleman that was here earlier, he did send an email concerning his rental properties, but he also included our city manager, which was I believe the person to go to uh regarding that matter. And that's why I had no further communication because he did include administration, our city manager in his email. Uh, all of us have an obligation to the residents. We work for you. Um, I know it was mentioned about the hierarchy of how things go, residents, council, city manager, and then so forth and so on. Um, our numbers, our phone numbers, our emails are public. Um, if you reach out, sometimes there are things that we miss.

There are some emails that I've gotten that were addressed to Mayor Kleinfeld. I don't know how I I thought that that problem got corrected, but there I don't know. I can't tell you how many emails I forwarded to him that came from someone else. Um, sometimes we can miss things, but I believe that we should do the best that we can to get back with you, to follow up with you, and to be honest with you. If there's something we don't know, it's okay to say that we don't know. If there's something that we need to look into further, say, "Hey, let me get back with you." I believe that's fair. But I know there are some concerns and I know sometimes people feel like they're not heard and I try to do my best to follow up and to let you know that I do hear you. I do get your uh emails. I get your concerns and questions. Um some people call me directly and if I'm able to talk at the moment um then we usually have a nice dialogue. So, I just wanted to address a few of those things uh because those were some concerns that came up at the hearing of the public. Uh in regards to the master plan, I did have a chance to talk with Mr. Dant uh I believe it was the latter half of last week and I have no disagreements with anything that he said. I've also talked to a few other residents in regards to the master plan. Um, and I am appreciative that we do have people that are passionate about this city and looking at how we move going forward. That's all I got.

Thank you very much. Um, I guess I'll start off by saying uh uh Councilman Baker is right. We had a discussion after our last meeting and I had uh strong opinions that I shared publicly, but um we disagree and that's totally okay. And um you know at at the last meeting I I got my opinions out. I have no desire to kind of beat a dead horse or berate anyone publicly or repeat myself over and over again. Um I had got out what I had to say. So I I appreciate uh Mr. Baker's comments and um moving on from that. Thank you to everyone for coming out tonight. I appreciate the amount of people that came out um speaking against the agenda item. Um also thank you to the members of the planning commission who were willing to take up that item and sort of rehash it. But uh you know sometimes if we're all in agreement to get something done, then we can just take care of it now. So thank you to council for that. And um in regards to the master plan, I know people hear that thrown out a lot. uh if you're curious about it or you have no idea, you know, what that is, I encourage you to research it a little bit, but uh at its base level, if you're interested and you're giving input for that, um just think about what ideas you want to see for East Point, what things you want to see in the future. Um and reach out to council members or members of planning commission or come to a meeting just to share those ideas so that we can at its simplest level, that's what it is. What what vision do we want for the future? So if you are interested in getting involved, please do. And um with that, I will entertain a motion to go into close session for collective bargaining pursuant to MCL 152681C.

So move. Support. I please call the role. Council member Baker. Yes. Council member Shadlick. Yes. Council member Scott. Yes. Council member Curley. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld. Yes. We'll go into close session at 8:49.