City Council - Special Meeting

It's a good way to start. All right. Hello everyone. It is 6 p 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 12th, 2026. We'll call the city council special meeting to order. Please call the role. Council member Baker. Council member Curley here. Mayor Kleinfeld here. Council member Shadlick here. Council member Scott here. All right. And we'll go right into the first hearing of the public. The first hearing of the public is now open. Would anyone wish to be heard? Anyone wish to be heard?

Understand the first first first. Uh yes. Can you explain? Uh, we have do we have the budget meeting tonight? Yes. And this is the first hearing of the public.

Oh, the Oh, got it. Got it. Okay. Um, Mr. Mayor, I'm hearing that Mr. Mattis is is actually absent from work a lot. We pay Mr. Mattis good money. We gave him some kind of stipen to move into the city, which people are saying maybe he didn't. I don't know, but if he's not fulfilling the terms of his contract, he needs to be let go. Um, in light of uh the St. Veronica's 100th anniversary, I'm going to introduce a nasty subject of possible hate towards the Catholic Church from this council. I don't know why we we from time to time we recognize individuals. We did it with a school a school crossing guard and the gentleman that helped in the McDonald's case. And these are right things to do. These are good things to do. When we have a 100th anniversary of a Catholic church that has served for longer than anyone here has been alive. That's a that's a significant contribution to East Point. Um, and I'm not going to pray in a broad brush because I know there are supporters of St. Veronica and this council, but somehow I guess we can't get three votes to get a resolution passed to honor the church. Well, I'm viewing that as nothing but hatred towards Catholics. And uh I'll leave it at that for now, but this is going to be an ongoing discussion. Um

so with that, I'll leave that. I'll come back later. Thank you very much. Hi, Jennifer Nicholas, East Point resident. Um I don't know if this is exactly budget related other than um you always include the organizational chart in with the budget and as always residents of East Point are at the top followed by city council, mayor, boards and commissions all of which are East Point residents and then after that we have city administration, city manager, assistant city manager and other administrators that are not necessarily East Point residents. Um, back in November of last year, November 18th, when we decided to go ahead with the five-lane plan for NineM Road, there was a brief mention of that last section between Kelly and I 94. And I believe Mr. um, Mayor Prom Baker had said that we could wait for discussion on a potential median um, until the design was actually brought before you. This is six months later and I don't believe that the design has been brought before you. I do believe that it's been submitted to MDOT and I believe that coming up pretty soon all you will be responsible for doing is uh accepting whatever bids have come in. I believe that the design is already done. Um it concerns me because I know we've had a lot of problems on NMI with businesses losing parking. you know, AEW goes ahead and and makes a design based on what they would like um what maybe city administration has discussed with them, but I don't see how it's come through city council and the mayor and

definitely not the residents. So, you know, I have asked about this section of nine mile before. When you look on the website, um, talking about the nine mile reconstruction, it still says that what was considered phase four from Kelly to I94, an update to this phase of the project will be provided once phase three is finalized. Um, again, I from what I understand, the design is already done and that you are not going to have any opportunity to make adjustments to it being that it is the end of May. being that I do believe that there's a timeline for the funding. So, what you what you see is what you're going to get and all you're going to be doing is approving the funding for it. Um, it concerns me because again that doesn't seem to be going through the organizational chart process and it's really not supporting residents. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard? Hey, seeing none, the first hearing of the public is closed. We'll go on to new business. Um, I guess, uh, Mr. Mattis, do you want to should I just kick it over to you and you can determine if you want to speak on or just call up a department head?

Um, I can if you'd like. Um, I don't have any preamble ready for you. I think if you want to just dive into it. Um, department heads, if you want to just come up as the the one before you ends, I don't need to introduce everybody, I don't think. But, uh, we'll start with an introduction of the library team. So, Abby and Chris, come on up. Hello. Um, so we had our at our last library commission meeting, we did go over the budget and it was approved by the library commission. Um, so these are the um the budget as was voted on. Um, as you can see, most of the things are pretty close to the same as last year. We didn't change much. Um, one thing of note is our um our building and improvement. We put in to have $75,000, but we didn't put anything connected to it as of yet because, as you know, we are currently starting a U master plan. And our assumption is that once they are finished, they will have plenty of stuff for us to do and that 75,000 will probably not cover everything, but it will get us through the next year of the improvements that we're going to be making. Um other than that one one other change of note is that we have found that our need for digital media has increased significantly and it is going to be larger than our um regular materials budget. I think that might be the first time that's happened. But as

time progresses, we are finding our patrons are using the ebooks, e audio, hoopla, libby, all of those things much more than they ever had before. And so we are asking for an increase on that. Um otherwise, I think that's about it. Does anybody have any questions? Okay.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. For those that I have not met, I am Jennifer La. I'm the newly appointed court administrator for the 38th District Court, presenting today's budget. The budget for the court is relatively stable. There's no staffing changes. There's no big purchases. It looks and has approximately a 2% difference from last year. And that is primarily due to the filling of the court administrator position that had been open in the last fiscal year. Other than that, we are working this year to monitor and review all of our efficiencies and make sure we're in compliance both operationally and strategically with the regulations that we need to follow. Do we have any specific questions in regards to the court's budget?

Any Oh, go ahead. Um, if I could just point out here, and this is true of several areas we'll discuss, but we don't have wages currently changed in our budget. uh we are deep in the throws of contract negotiations and so those are not reflected in the budget yet. So if in about 15 minutes when we've gone through everybody and we want to approve everything wholesale, we probably should not because some of those figures are not in there yet. But true of court, true of several uh yes areas we'll discuss. Thank you, Ryan.

Any other questions from council? I guess my question is I think the proposed budget as presented to us um has the same amount budgeted for the magistrate. Is that right? Yes, it does. Same or similar? Yeah. Okay. Is there still I I guess uh uh and Mark's here today too and Kathy um that uh that position was helping out with the administrative functions. Is that still happening?

That position is being removed from administrative functions so that they're solely focused on the casework. So as we get through and we evaluate what that is, we'll be able to better come to council and say this is what the budget for that is. But we also didn't want to come shortsighted in that as well. The magistrate position handles all of the misdemeanor arraignments for the city of East Point along with many of our collection process hearings. I guess my question is should we expect expenditures to go down now that the staffing's evened out?

When it comes to personnel, yes, it should even out there. I do not want to give you a firm answer on that because I have only been looking at the numbers for approximately seven weeks now. Sure. All right. Any other questions from councel? Have we received any word from the state court administrator's office with respect to the possibility of a second judge?

Not at this time. We have not. It is being discussed. It is on the table, but we haven't had the legislative movement yet. The state court administrator's office does recommend a second judgeship for the community and that was distributed in the judicial resource report that came out during the late fall spring. So they made a recommendation. They did make a recommendation. Have they provided any suggestion on funding? They did not.

That's actually one of the reasons we left the court magistrate at the 110. Um, if a second judge comes in, the magistrate of course would drop, but we would need money for a second judicial secretary. So rather than reduce it and then have to raise it later, we just said leave it alone and we'll get a better idea of what the run rate would be. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Uh, moving on to uh city manager attorney. Oh, thank you. I'm looking at the wrong thing. Oh, you're Yeah.

Uh, good evening, mayor, members of council. Um, I'm happy to answer any questions. Uh, budget seems to be the same year after year. Um, open lawsuits are down, which I'm pleased to report. Uh, but, uh, everything seems to be, uh, going fine. Any questions? All right. All right. Sure. Thank you. Thank you. uh economic development.

Good evening, mayor and members of council. Um just run through some of the things we're uh currently working on moving into the future with the city. Um, one of our big focuses on Nine Mile Road in particular, as the road construction continues, is East Point was one of six cities selected to take part in the Recast City Southeast Michigan cohort, which will support bringing small-cale manufacturers if you can um, use the moni moniker hot sauce handbags and hardware. That's a good way to remember, but it's basically folks making physical products and selling them either directly through a retail store or through e-commerce platforms. We've also been working collaboratively with the cities of Sinclair Shores, Warren, and Centerline on a Stevens Road Greenway plan. And in particular, uh, city manager Mattis ask that I emphasize that this is focused on design. So, we will still have to come up with, uh, funding and some of the other elements to actually implement that plan. So, this is just phase one. Um, we're also working on some exciting programming with Velocity, including a capital access road show that will take place in June, July, and August, and culminate in a fall small business resource fair. Uh, and we continue to partner with the building department to support uh bringing in new businesses and matching them up with available properties. Shifting over to the DDA. Um we're very excited uh that next week is going to start the major construction for Civic Point, the community gathering space behind the library. Uh we are also uh doing really good at our uh sponsorship renewals as well as getting new sponsorships for our award-winning summer concert series uh which we won last year from the MDA for the best promotion. And uh we've been, as you know, spreading holiday cheer through our annual light of the night business holiday lighting program. Um there are some minor changes to each budget, but most of them are relatively the same. Um that's my highle overview. If you'd like me to dig into anything deeper, I'm

happy to do that or answer any questions at this time. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Thank you. Clerks and elections. Are you going to handle that one or

I guess I am. Um clerk's department. Uh no big changes there. One thing on our radar is election equipment. So that line um our tabulators have a lifespan and we may get to replace them in the coming year. We received guidance that we may. So we have we have funds uh dedicated to that if we need them. Um we're not sure what the state guidance will be or when it will come. So um other than that um fully staffed. We know we'll have two elections to run in the new fiscal year. Um and it'll be an exciting time in the clerk's department. Any questions for myself or deputy clerk underwood? Uh I guess just briefly just to that uh if I remember correctly I think that budget amount I think increased a little bit but would that be because of the um the two different elections and you're saying with the uh purchase of the new equipment was that all factored into that?

That's the the big potential expense. Yeah, we're not sure what it'll be but election equipment is the biggie. Okay. Thank you. Any other Mr. Mayor? Go ahead. Excuse me. I'm not sure. Oh, I'm not on. I'm not on now. I'm not sure what I can I I want to make um a motion u concerning the um arts and culture and the beautifification. I'm not sure if it if it's do it now. You're going to be back up again, aren't you? Later on. Yeah. Maybe that would be the better spot. Um yeah, city hall, city wide budget. Yeah, maybe citywide. Yeah,

I'll wait there then. Then I'll make the budget uh the the uh motion. All right, sounds good. Um any other questions? All right, let her off easy. Uh finance and treasury.

Good evening, mayor, city council. Kelly Row, deputy finance director. Um this is uh the finance department budget, the treasur's budget and the assessor's budget. Uh the finance department has several functions some which being budgeting, accounting, accounts payable, payroll, benefits, accounts receivable, debt, debt administration, grant reporting, investment management and risk management. Um those are just few of the things. um with the um finance budget, accounting budget, it actually decreased overall by about $12,000. Um wages went slightly up uh due to merit increases, step increases, and there was a $20,000 decrease in professional services for the divat machines that we uh got rid of this past year. Uh, any questions on the finance budget before I go to the treasur's office? Okay. For the treasur's office, that is um the investment manager. Um, it stayed stagnant from prior years. Um, that changes based on how investments are reported throughout the year. If there's an increase in investments, there would be an increase in cost and also if there's a decrease investment, decrease in cost as well. Um the assessor's office also reports to the finance department and um the increase there's about a 3% increase uh for the assessing department and that is a contractual obligation with the assessor. And that is all I have unless you have any questions.

Thank you. But I don't think we need it.

There it goes. I'm not going to Don't Don't be scared. It's short. like three slides. So, um All right. So, good evening, Mayor Council. Um you'll notice not much has changed in the budget. We did go down $578,630 due to some of the capital improvements that were decreased. We did some big projects last year. This year, we have some smaller projects. Um, the biggest things to note are under building improvements, we have a second story egress and under operating equipment, we have $60,000 set aside for breathing air module and a fill station. Both of these projects do have some earmark money from the state. I budgeted for the whole amount, not knowing if that money would come through. Um, but it does sound like it's going to come through, so that's a good thing. Um, this was the something that just came up last month in the Bronx Engine 78. Uh, similar type of station. They did not have a second story egress and I just thought it was worth a note showing. Uh, you can see their own crews rescuing their members out of the window here. Um, so this was the thought of last year. our stairs in the building when you guys did your building tour um go right down to where the apparatus bay is. The apparatus caught on fire and you kind of see it down there in that window and the guys were unable to get out. So, everybody did get out. They were safe. But in order to avoid this type of thing, this was the thought behind the uh $95,000 set aside. And you'll see it just go over the fire marshall's office out that door and it'd be like a deck with a a ladder that comes down. So, um, this is the breathing air station that we have right now. It is not, um, we're not able to get parts for it. So, it's still functionable, just not surfaceable. So, in the near future, if if it's something breaks and we can't get a part for it,

uh, we're looking to replace that. So, besides that, that's it. Unless you have any questions for me. Do you have any questions? Yeah, just go. Any idea on a guesstimate for the replacement cost of that machine? Uh 60 we we did get some quotes 50 to $60,000. So guess if you could speak to if you have any thoughts on it. Um how do you feel about the staffing as it relates to I'm just looking at the overtime and the wages. So the amount set aside for the overtime.

Yes. So, I mean, right now we're trying to get to full staffing. We have two offers out right now, which will put us to seven members on shift today, plus myself and the fire marshall and administration. Um, I mean, are you asking what I think staffing should be, or are you asking

I I suppose I'm asking is that because we're short staff, the reason the overtime is should we? Yes, that that overtime number has has been mostly because we've been running on overtime for the last several years because we've been short staffed. So, we're back filling to six on a daily basis. Um the city hires back up to six members and that's causing that number that you see the 339,000. Yes. So, yeah. Um I think once we get to full staffing and everybody's counting and everybody's a paramedic, you'll see that number drop. So, Okay, thank you. Yeah,

uh building and rental.

Good evening, mayor and council. My name is John Mayers. I'm the chief building official for the city. Our budget's pretty simple. Uh it's been intended to stay pretty close to what it has been for the last year and year and a half or two years. We've just redesigned it and located it differently so that we could manage uh an operating procedures. We've increased our planning as we look forward to developing our city in a number of districts and the master plan uh going forward. So we think we increased there. However, our blight has changed a little bit because we've managed our system and we've taken our code and our rental inspectors and put them in one person individually into quads and districts so they can work on both sides so we can maximize highest efficiency between a rental blight as well as the neighborhood blight at the same moment. So, we've restructured that fe design. The other thing, as you already know, is we're looking to bring this to a three-year program, and that'll allow us to reduce the number of rentals we will have every annual and allow us to put more of our time into uh recovering the blight issues in the community. So, the idea is is to right now, um, as of the last two months, a month ago, we have now crossed over 4,000 rental properties. And so, we now need to manage them a little differently. And so we can do that with uh ordinances and code designs for life, health, and safety. So those are the major changes uh that we've modified, but we don't see us slowing down in the process of of cleaning and taking care of uh sweat equity or construction blight that's going on in the city. Is there any questions?

I have one. Um are there any big goals that the building department is working towards in the coming year? Um, I've been working the last couple weeks and we have got confirmation uh that a a restructuring of the 9M Speedway is being pro processed and is beginning to be underway. They plan to put a uh redesigning of the tanks, the systems, and the property and adding a 7-Eleven to match the store structure from that property. So, we're now asking for a community um public notice so we can sit and talk as as as a as the leadership of the city and how we're going to go with that. I've also now been in contact with the bank across the street that's been vacant for the last two and a half to three years and we're in renegotiations with them redesigning that as a multi- um commercial use building. hoping that um in this next spring or fall we'll be ready to have a brand new entry off of uh 94 and out of uh St. Clair Shores into 9MI that's being operated at the moment. And then right now we if you haven't noticed or you may have we already have land surveyors working on the prime storage uh south unit property and we're hoping we can push the bum far enough to start this summer the reconstruction or the new construction of their second edition that was scheduled over two years ago. Um, do you have a I'm kind of catching you off guard, so I don't know if you would know this, just sort of a estimate of how much we bring in through um, uh, building permit fees.

Not off my hand. I don't, but I'd be glad to get it to you. It would be very difficult. Mr. Mayor, if you go to the first page of the line item detail, um construction permits are budgeted at $650,000. It's account 49100. Thank you.

Has that been trend? I don't know if you would know this, Randy. Has that been trending up or has it sort of been even for the past few years? It it does bounce around year to year. It just depends on the activity, but it's it has trended up over the last five years. Um yeah, so actually 20 fiscal year 25 was the first time that their revenues exceeded their cost um by a very small margin. Um and we're still about 6.8 8 million in the hole. So, we're allowed to make a little bit of money, but uh yeah, it's he's he's doing a good job. All right. Thank you. Any other questions?

All right. Thanks. Thanks. Uh DVW Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Budget Council. Thank you. Uh, a little reading.

I'm Darren Palushi, DW director, and Mitchell Blum, one of my supervisors are handing out some reference maps for ongoing projects. Uh, we have no formal presentation for tonight. What we do have is a budget with no additional staffing requests and only a few capital purchase requests and those are vehicles. Uh with that we can answer any questions you may have. Um any questions from council? Um I did uh this is not necessarily a question wanted to bring this up as a thought for administration. Um, Sincler Shores is reallocating some of the extra or it's not really extra, some of the much neededed funding increases from uh the Act 51 money to cover sidewalk uh replacement costs for the residents and I'd like to have us take a look at that. Um, I did see that at their uh one of their meetings. Uh, we can definitely look into that. I mean, that 51 non-motorized is for sidewalks. So that's the I guess only comment I had. Any questions from councel?

All right. Well, thank you. Okay. Thank you. And Mr. Mattis, I'm guessing this would be you. City Hall. I'm gonna let Randy talk about it.

Yeah, I'll pass it to Randy. Okay, you entering my section now. Um, yeah, the citywide city hall as we call it is anything related to city hall and then anything else for the city that doesn't fit a specific department. Um, within it we have non police and non-fire retirement contributions uh and principal payments on the city hall. any maintenance to city hall all all the utilities that one is uh fairly consistent year-over-year. Retirey contributions have dropped slightly. So there's a slight overall drop in this project along with um for the current fiscal year there's 250,000 for the rain garden grant that we received from consumers energy and another 292,000 for various projects around the city. So it's it's capital and then a small reduction in retiree cost. Um the insurance fund is where uh we track again this is non police nonfire uh general employees the workers comp retirey healthcare uh and then some uh general liability insurance. And again that's consistent year-over-year. Nothing big going on. Um we did set up a new department. Um it's called court grants. Uh the court requested that all grant court grant activity be removed from their operating budget. So we've um it's 101287. Any court grant activity will be recorded there going forward so it doesn't skew the quarter operations uh budget or any of the trending. Um then you flip on to the street lighting

special assessment fund 219. That is where we are paying for the street lights throughout the city um to light up the roads. Uh it is done through a special assessment which will need to be renewed later this year. Um we do build in a little bit of money for capital. Right now, it's being spent on the uh lighting down nine mile and then some of the solar uh street lights that have been been put in throughout the various uh neighborhood areas. Uh the plan is, you know, with council approval and the readoption of the special assessment that we would continue to do uh some capital projects related to street lighting. Um, and then we got a whole bunch of funds that run through. So, MIDC, that's the Michigan Indigent Defense Council. Uh, we get a state grant. We pay for the defense attorneys. It's a net zero to the city, but we have to administer the activity. We've got CDBG, which is the federal money that comes in for various projects. We run the revenue and the expense through. Again, it's a net zero. Uh, excuse me. 397 is the Brownfield fund. Uh, the again the CVS at 9 and Kelly. There's a loan out on it. We capture some taxes to pay the loan back that actually should be paid off during this fiscal year. We've captured enough taxes, more than had been anticipated, and there will be an early payoff of that loan and then we can stop the capture. The money will come back to general fund. um tax foreclosure. We're not in that business anymore. The court building is an assessment on tickets that run through the court, but it's used for building maintenance. Um that fund had built up and we're now using it to pay for 50% of the design work on the new

police court building. Um the death benefit, pension, retirey, all that is u postemployment expenses. It's designed to be self-sufficient. Uh we have some small ones with a designated contribution where if people contribute money for a specific cause, it goes there and then we spend the money out. Um the final one is the chapter 20 drain debt. Um that had that is a a millbased fund. It is a uh county debt that we set the millillage at whatever it needs to be to pay the cost. We had some um debt payments that were being paid off and the debt was starting to decline, but there is a new project that's starting up. Uh right now we're forecasting an an increase in the debt payment. It may not increase because there might be a grant that comes in, but right now the grant's not guaranteed. So we're budgeting assuming that we will have to pay our portion of the county debt. The um millage rate is going to go from a whopping 5.0 0 to a 5.1. So minor increase. Um it would have gone down if that new project hadn't started, but it is uh just designed to cover the cost. And that's all I have on those sections. Uh so on the tax reversion fund um so we have budgeted 50,000. Can you explain what that I guess how that would is that just to cover sort of the outstanding uh deficit in that fund.

Um it we still have to do snow removal, grass cutting, and basically maintenance for holding on to those properties. So the sooner we get rid of them, the sooner we can stop spending, which will be another topic for a later date. But so when and I had I had a little bit of confusion. I think I spoke to Kim about this recently. When we own these properties, do we sort of pay taxes to ourselves or do we or do taxes just get

We We have been doing that, but we found where we don't have to. So as of two years ago, we quit paying the taxes. Um, so we don't pay it to anybody ourselves or the county or the schools. So they're all tax exempt now. So the only ongoing cost is grass cutting, snow removal, and then if there's any vandalism that has to be fixed.

Okay. Any other questions from council? Thank you. Uh, moving on to uh police and animal control. So, Chief Haynes is on his way. I had uh well, you know, I had another question actually for uh Randy. The city hall, how long until that we pay off the debt on the city hall? Uh it is 2032 will be the last payment. And we still have a board that oversees that loan, right? Don't we have a

No, it was refinanced. um out of the building authority and it's um the bu the need for a building authority has gone away with changes in state legislation about 10 years ago. So when we refinanced the debt, we took it out of building authority and put it in the city's name. Okay. All right. Well, if we'd like to skip forward to uh city council manager, go right to you.

Sure. Chief Haynes will be here shortly. So, he's not going to make it. We can cover PD. I know the talking points if you'd like and then we'll do our best on questions or Yeah, we'll we'll call them. Um, police department, the budget overall remains very similar to last year. Um, no changes to staffing, some regular expenses related to vehicles and upkeep and maintenance type things. Um, one thing of note is that the uh school resource officer contract is coming up. So that will be on a council agenda in the next probably in June, maybe into July. That's one that Chief Haynes has been working on with Superintendent Gibson. Um, any questions related to police? That's just one I wanted to touch on, but um, anything else we can tell you?

Um, I you know, I had spoken to you separately. I did I did want to get a little more information on the expenses uh for the acco. I know that we've increased our staffing there um and vehicles. It's my personal belief. I don't think we need to have two vehicles. We don't typically have two officers patrolling at the same time. Um at least I don't think we do. I guess that would be a question for Corey. I don't think normally, but uh I've there have been instances where I've seen two at the same time, if I may speak to it.

They they usually are are split in different directions, and I probably think that the city attorney can answer that since he deals with a lot of those complaints, but um my understanding is that they're often going in different directions. Well, I I again, it might be a question for Chief Haynes. I'm curious if they're working or or scheduled for the same hours. Um I was under the impression we had hired another person so you know it wasn't just 9 to5 that people could get a response.

Yeah, mayor. There's often times when when I'm over at the the district court handling the docket and there are um animal cases up that both animal control officers are working at the same time or one of them is on the road and one is at court uh or some of them might or both of them might be on the road at the same time. We do have that department also has a uh someone who takes care of the kennel as well.

And are we are we still kind of working out how much we expect that uh building to cost?

We are working on that internally. Um we've been um speaking with MDARD quite a bit. the department of I'm going to get their acronym wrong, but uh they oversee animal shelters statewide. Um rural development is part of it. I can't remember all their letters, but um we've been speaking with them about requirements for the building and then we've had our building official take a look at it and our DPW crew as well to determine what needs to happen. So we because council hasn't moved on any of it yet, we're still charting the course that we want to recommend from administration. Uh we don't have firm numbers in here at this point for what that'll look like.

Do do you think administration is I guess on the side that we need a building that that size or might might you recommend downsizing? I'm just curious. I think it's a good size building. Okay.

It I know the current space is too small. Um I don't know if the next pot of porridge is too hot or too cold, but I think the building that we have is just right. Uh we that's what part of the the conversation has been um just to ensure we meet the MDARD requirements of where well animals are versus sick animals versus cats versus dogs and all that fun stuff. So um as soon as we do have a plan together that'll come before council to to chart that course. Okay. Any other questions? Anything else under police? All right. City Council.

All right. City Council stays very similar to previous years. Um there is funding available for training, all that good stuff for members of city council. Uh any questions related to city council and then we'll jump to city manager. Go ahead. Okay. City manager. Um similar to before, it's it has changed a little. Um any questions on city manager? Can we go back to city council? Sure. That's where Oh, it is. That's the spot.

Can I do that now? Um, okay. Mr. Mayor, I've been contacted by the chair people from the arts arts and culture diversity commission and the beautifification commission asking for more funds for the the outlay of the things they do for the city. So, I would uh at this time with your approval make a motion that we increase the arts and culture diversity commission and a beautifification commission by $3,000 each. Can we clarify? Was that two 3,000 or in 3,000 for each commission?

Okay. And I think we all realize the diversity that they do for the citizens of this community. And uh they have a lot of new ideas, but they're short of funds to do anything new. I have a quick question, too. Well, is there support first? I'll support it. Just Okay. You're suggesting $3,000 increase or the budget increased to 3,000? Increase the budget by 3,000. Oh, I thought it was two 3,000. Pardon me. I thought you said it was to increase two 3,000. Yeah, I think that's what was confusing because when he said it, I wasn't sure if he was

increase by $3,000 each. Got the amount right there. So, if to increase each by $3,000 would bring beautifification to 5,000 and ACDC to 7,000. That's right. Five. Yeah. AC/DC. I'm sorry. They're currently two and two. That would make them five and five. I think arts had reached out and just asked for a thousand increase. Well, you can. We were just looking They were just looking for any kind of an increase to be honest. I mean, well, I they'd be thrilled, but you know, I'm sure they'll take anything. Of course. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, um,

but there was a second for this motion. So, if you want to change my mo my main motion, uh, that's that's up to you guys. If you'd be willing to, I mean, I can support increasing it to 3,000. I don't think I want to over double the budgets in one year. What is beautifification's current budget? 2,000. 2,000. So, it's both. They're both They're both two. My mistake. Yes. Okay. Two each. Randy, what kind of an impact? I mean, are we able

It's either going to be 2,000 or 6,000 depending on what you agree to. Um, we're currently we do have a slight deficit that's been presented um less than half million, which I'm I'm comfortable with. Um, that whatever change you make would be insignificant to the overall. So $6,000 is going to blow this budget all to hell. Is that what I'm hearing? No, it's not going to.

Any other thoughts from council? All right. Please call the roll. What? Well, I guess I'm trying to understand what is the because I heard you say, uh, mayor, that you would support going to $3,000 or are you supporting increase by 3,000? That That's what I thought his motion was was to increase to 3,000 and I supported just to get the motion on the table. Um, I'll probably vote no on this motion and then if it fails, make a motion to take it to $3,000. Okay. All right. Thank you. Any other comments? Please call the RO. Council member Curley?

Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld? No. Council member Shadlick? No. Council member Scott? No. Council member Baker? No. All right. I'll make a motion to uh set the budgets at $3,000 for both commissions. Support. And tell me again what they're getting right now. 2,000. So that that's the arts. Both of them. Both of them. Both of them are 20,000. Yep. With this motion go to 33.

Okay. Well, I'm not going to vote no because they they need the money. But like I said, I I can't believe that $6,000 would What is it? How many millions of dollars is our budget? What's the total amount? 20. Good. Well, give me a ballpark. 28. We have a $28 million budget. A 31 million. 31 million. Okay. I've said enough. The call for the roll. I'll vote yes reluctantly.

Well, could could we do like 1,500 for each? I mean, that's cutting the 3,000. At least they'll get half of that. So they'll get 1,500 and that will put their budget at 3500 as opposed to 5,000. I can get behind that. I don't know, Margaret. Sure. All right. Um, well, I I'm just gonna Yeah, it's not really proper, but yeah, I'll just change my motion to set it at 3500. Do you still support support? So motion to set the uh budgets for both commissions at 3500. Please call the roll. Mayor Kleinfeld. Yes. Council member Shadlick.

Yes. Council member Scott. Yes. Council member Baker. Yes. Council member Curley. Yes. All right. The remaining items are AV personnel in the IT budget. Any questions related to those? You want me to go into detail? I mean, have we looked into I know that we contract for it. Um, have we looked into whether or not in-house might be beneficial?

We've talked about a little bit. Um, our contract with ETSs does have an expiration date in the near future. We're not there yet. Um, so we've kept an eye on it. Um, this year does not have an increase from last year uh in their contract. Right. Um, other questions? Yeah. Uh, with the AV and everything, um, and I just don't have a page in front of me, but, uh, are we looking to keep that about where it is? Are we increasing?

We are looking at bumping up AV a little bit. When we installed the sound system in here, we didn't get the whole enchilada. Um, so there's a few things that we didn't get with it. So, we uh we've spoken with the the vendor uh to see if there are other things we need to ensure the YouTube video doesn't lag and things like that. Okay. So, we may have some expenses related to AV. Okay. Yeah. And I I know that's been a conversation for a minute and uh I guess I just I just kind of wanted to make sure we didn't forget about that that we address it for sure. Yes. Thank you. So, Mr. Mayor,

so um Ryan, I' I'd ask about the AV. Um, I'm sure the council and mayor and probably you have gotten a lot of calls about the sound is not working properly and the video. I guess the question is when is it going to be fixed permanently? I mean, who who do they send in here to try to fix it? But you know yourself how often it goes down. I do we we do hear about it after lots of meetings and that shouldn't happen. It shouldn't. That's part of the system updates that we are looking at that we don't have in this year's budget, but we could in next year's.

So the the up the upgrade means that what we bought doesn't work. No, what we bought we didn't buy all the bells and whistles that came with it. We got the base model. We didn't get a few of the other things. So, we're looking at what of those other things actually are worthwhile to spend the money on.

Okay. All right. I'm I'm asking that because um our daughter lives in Royal Oak and she watches it, but she says, "Dad, it's either the sound is either not working properly or the picture is not working properly." So, and everybody can't come here in person. So, you know, we have a tremendous responsibility to get the word out so people know what's happening. And uh anyway, yep, that's we're working to address it. You're right. So, with our current system, you mentioned going through the vendor. Is our equipment vendor specific? So, we have to go through them.

Um I don't know that we have to. Um I think I'm not sure what's contractual and what's not off the top of my head. Um the equipment we haven't had many issues. Um, it's the there's there's just a couple gaps in the the overall process that we're working to address. So, I'd like to get the the Zoom stuff fixed for when someone can't appear, but would like to. Great. Any other uh questions? Okay, moving work everybody.

Well, we'll move to the second hearing of the p public. The second hearing of the public is now open. Would anyone wish to be heard? Anyone wish to be heard? Um, we never did get a figure on the budget, but Mr. Brun said so quickly on the deficit that I don't know if I got it right. Is that a half a million dollar deficit? Um, I would like this budget printed and sufficient copies put in the library so that people can read it. Uh, we we heard nothing about a water rate increase which was discussed at past meetings but nothing official here. Uh, I believe the police and fire staffing should be increased. We we are uh we live in a dangerous city. I think uh tonight there was no pledge or no religious uh invocation. I don't know why. Uh I do believe along with the St. Veronica which I feel is a hateful policy towards Catholics. There's also the sticky issue of the firing or redesign of the job of the young lady that comes here on and off. and we've had uh hearings about that. Um I my first my first uh time I I commented on this, I said it was an ugly hearing, the the one I attended, but I'll be more specific today. I I believe there's racial content to that to that redesign of the job. I put that on you, Mr. Kleinfeld,

Mr. Bloom, and Miss Doom. did the hatchet work, but you're the mayor. It couldn't have happened without you wanting it to happen. And I do believe there's a racial content to that. And so, as sticky as it sounds, that's what I believe. I believe that from what I've seen from the hearings. And that's all I have for tonight. Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard? All right, seeing none, the second hearing of the public is closed. Uh we'll go to mayor and council reports. Um Councilman Baker,

thank you. Um for those that noticed, I walked in a few minutes behind, but uh traffic from work is uh interesting between construction, lane closures, and and so forth and so on. So, uh, but I did make it. Um, beyond that, um, I know we're going to dig further into this later on down the line. And, uh, I think I, um, Mr. Saler, I know I didn't catch all of your comments. Um, but I did I do know there are questions going around about the the, uh, water rate increases. Um, so perhaps uh maybe at our next meeting we can address whatever concerns that you have. If you have anything else specific that you would like to ask. Uh, beyond that, that is all that I have.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Carly.

Thank you. Um, good meeting. Um, just one thing, John. I don't know how well you know the five of us up here. Uh but for you to hint or imply that there's some dislike or hatred for Catholics, shame on you for even saying that even thinking you what. But to say it publicly, someone up here has got to argue with you and say that's that is totally false. And we are going to have a certificate of whatever you call it for the for the uh church of Veronica. 100 years is a long time. You're absolutely right. And we'll read it publicly from this table. And if they want to read it at the party, that will happen too. Um, so please, next time you come up here, unless you have absolutely proof in writing that one of us over up here hate the Catholics, it's it's not right. And you know it's and you know it's not right. When you get done and you sit down, you know it's not right for you to make that accusation. And I got a lot of stuff, but we're meeting next week, right? So, I'm I got a lot of stuff, especially about 10 milei road. We're going to get the county exec down here and we're going to get a big bucket of boiling oil and some duck feathers. We'll see what happens.

All right. Thank you, uh, Councilwoman Bashadlick. Just want to remind everybody that the, uh, Rare Park has their grand opening on May 20th, which is a Wednesday. They have a 10 a.m. and a 5:00 pm program. So, if you're interested, please check it out. All right. Uh, Councilwoman, uh, Scott, nothing to report. Uh, I just want to say thank you for to our department heads for coming out and, um, motion to adjurnn. So moved. Support. All right. Please call the role. Um, Council Member Baker, yes. Was that Council Member Chadlick?

Yes. Council member Scott? Yes. Council member Curley? Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld? Yes. Great. Meeting adjourned at 658.