City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. you

So I.

I turned you off. Oh, well, I got to do it again. Yeah.

All right. Good evening, everyone. It's Tuesday, June 16, 2026. We'll call the City Council regular meeting to order. Would everyone please rise for the invocation given by Councilman Curley, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Our gracious Heavenly Father, once again, we come to this City Hall to do the business of our beautiful city. We ask that you would be with our hearts and our minds and our souls as we make decisions that are the right decisions and not our own. And a special thing that we would ask that you would bless the audience that we have tonight and all the folks who are watching. We ask all these things in your son's holy name, Jesus the living Christ. Amen. I pledge allegiance.

All right, thank you, everyone. Please call the roll.

Council Member Baker.

Here.

Council Member Curley.

Here.

Mayor Kleinfeld.

Here.

Council Member Shabnick. Here. And Council Member Scott is absent today.

And approval of the agenda. Could I get a motion to approve the agenda with the addition of a closed session, I guess item B, to discuss attorney-client communications? So moved.

Support.

All right, please call the roll.

Council Member Baker?

Yes.

Council Member Shadlick? Yes. Council Member Curley?

Yes.

Mayor Kleinfeld?

Yes. And with that, we'll go right into the first hearing of the public. The first hearing of the public is open. Would anyone wish to be heard? And if you could just come up and state your name and everyone has three minutes.

I've also come here to talk to you about infrastructure and the cost and all that you've done around that service. report, excuse me, lead service line replacement but the concerns that residents have had with their bills. So I've done canvassing several times in the neighborhoods just talking to residents and I'm here again to talk about an issue connected to water affordability and that's data centers. And so I wanted to share with you all if I could through Madam Clerk or Mr. Clerk, I'm so sorry, a flyer about an upcoming community conversation. It's going to be at the Recreation Authority of Roseville and East Point next Monday from 5.30 to 7.30. We've gotten confirmation from Senator Kleinfeld that she wants to be there to also hear from residents about their concerns with data centers. Much of what we're learning these days is that there isn't being the full absorption of the cost for operating these centers by the centers themselves, and many conversations and worries about the cost of energy and water from those centers will be transferred over onto residents. So we're having a series of conversations in many communities just to hear from residents about their concerns so that they can note that to lawmakers if that's something that they want to voice. So may I pass these to one of you?

Thank you.

And then just lastly, I also happen to sit on the state's Safe Drinking Water Advisory Council and we're looking at local water councils and the work that they're doing to make sure that they're Compliant with the safe drinking water Act but also the lead and copper rule revisions of 2018 and just one thing I wanted to point out I've gotten a copy of this. This is really commendable. So it's probably one of the best ones I've seen in different cities about how they're Publicizing this information. It's large. It's transparent. It's available and I just wanted to thank you all for the good work that you're doing on this front Thank you Thank you

Thank you. A woman shows a man. I love it. That's why I love my wife. Okay. Sean Baumgart. I represent the Northern Midwest Regional Council Carpenters. I was here to talk about the contract of the construction of the newest point police and court building. So the two proposals I've seen are the two lowest. And that process, in my opinion, drives down, uh, to bottom dollar bids, raise flags on what we have. Um, when we look at the subcontractor list, the red flags are all over the place. Um, Patriot team, Omega floors, La Force, JT Millwork. Um, we know from us, the, from wage service, uh, surveys conducted at job sites, these subcontractors, uh, are routinely engaged in practices like misclassifying employees and 1099 workers. Um, This is common in our industry, and people think that's how things are supposed to be done, and they're not. Misclassification deprives workers of essential protections like unemployment and workers compensation insurance. It allows cheating contractors to uncompetitively underbid responsible Michigan business owners by striking their responsibility for payroll taxes. It costs Michigan employers Michigan workers, Michigan communities, and Michigan taxpayers. When construction workers are exploited, they're forced to rely on social safety net to get by. When we misclassify workers, we get hurt. Without workman's comp, we end up paying the bill as taxpayers. Higher health care costs. When cheating contractors misclassify, communities like ours lose tax dollars that fund critical services like public safety. And when we see these practices employed, it's not uncommon for the project to exceed budgets and blow deadlines So that work done in under trained workers You know when they do to work All of this is why communities across Michigan's are adopting responsible contractor policies and reward the contractors of following law and perform quality these policies require things of every contractor and subcontractor being paid with tax dollars and Fold the closure of safety records, license, and complaints during bidding. Documentation of participation in bona fide DOL certified apprenticeship programs. Documentation of MIOSHA approved safety training program completed by all employees working on the site. Provision of audited... You have 30 seconds.

I'm sorry.

You have 30 seconds. 30 seconds, okay. But that's just a couple things. You know, a list of... Litigation arbitrations within the past five years, proof of insurance, including coverage of liability, property damage, and workers' compensation. Adequate to cover the full workforce required to deliver the scope of the work. How about evidence of compliance with fair labor standards in OSHA? So that's all I got to say. I hope you guys really look at it and determine the smallest bottom bid is not the best. That's all. Thank you.

Good evening mayor and members of council. My name is Devin Sutton and I reside at two two five zero three one Dodge street in east point. I'm standing here before you tonight because I am completely exhausted by the ongoing failures of priority waste. I have followed every proper channel available to me. I have filed this pickup reports, contacted city administration and have done everything asked of a resident. Despite this, my trash removal remains consistently unreliable. To demonstrate the severity, I want to share my timeline for the recent experiences here on Memorial Day holiday. Our pickup was scheduled for Tuesday, May 26th, because trash day was moved due to the holiday. Trash was completely ignored. After giving the benefit of the doubt for a week, I called the city on Monday, June 1st, to explain that two full weeks had passed without service. I was informed recycling and yard waste trucks were down and that there were widespread issues affecting all properties north of 10 Mile. Meanwhile, My trash from my property and properties across the street and down the street blew all the way down our block. From June 2nd to 4th, I called the city administration every single day. My trash continued to sit on the curb uncollected for an additional three days, even after giving notice to the city. Speaking with Lena Deagle, who is a great person, by the way, the trash was finally removed Friday the 5th after I called yet again. This is ongoing and continued to go on even to this trash pickup. Monday, it was not picked up. It was picked up this morning, leaving my neighbors across the street in the apartments completely left alone. This is no longer a minor inconvenience. This is a public health hazard and a severe quality of life issue for our neighborhoods. We pay our taxes and city fees with the expectation of baseline municipal services. Priority waste is fundamentally failing to deliver on their end of that bargain. I understand that contract termination and boundary adjustments are legally complex. However, the status quo is completely unacceptable. I am formally asking this council to direct the city manager and city attorney to audit priority waste performance metrics immediately. We must document these persistent severe level failures to establish a clear material breach of contract, allowing East Point to legally terminate this agreement and secure a provider that respects our residents and our city. If the city cannot guarantee reliable baseline services to its northern borders, then we need to seek secession or possibly other or possibly other alternatives in order to get our trash removed. We need immediate action, accountability, and a clean city. Thank you for your time for this matter and can also submit these to the record and for the minutes.

Anyone else?

My name is Scott Kozlowski. I have a warm resident and I understand that we've got a new city, uh, facilities coming in such as a fire station, police station or whatnot, a court building. Um, I understand that we got $8 million coming from the state to facilitate this, uh, projects. Okay. My main objective is we gotta keep this money within our fucking, within our region. I'm sorry, within our region. You know what I'm saying? We're gonna let contractors come in here from out of state, take that money, take our money, taxpayers, out of state, possibly out of country. We got to keep this money within our area. We're the taxpayers paying this money. We got $8 million coming into this. We got to keep this within our region. Let's keep it circulating within the small businesses of this area and such forth. I'm a contractor and I see this stuff every day. That's what I want to say. I want everybody to know we got $8 million coming into the city to facilitate all this stuff. We got to keep this money in our city, our cities within this region. I want everybody to know that. Thank you.

Thank you. I would just... I'd like to remind everyone to, I appreciate that you apologize, sir. Watch your language, please. Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard?

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Christian Spade. I am here representing the Macomb County Building Trades, and I also, too, would like to just briefly comment on the new court and the new police station going up here. One thing that I just wanted to say was that we should err on the side of caution. We are actually going through legal battles right now with Macomb County and the Macomb County executive team with the jail that they are putting up. It's meant to be secure, but because they decided to hire non-union contractors, there was a $25,000, sorry, $27,000 difference on the bid between union and non-union. And that $27,000 at the end of this project is going to turn into $12 million. So from a $27,000 difference is going to end up costing the county $12 million because the contractor didn't install the stuff right. So just to err on the side of precaution because, um, we want to make sure that the contractors are doing what they're supposed to do, whether they're union or non-union. We want to make sure that everybody is accountable for what the work they are supposed to do. We want to make sure that our residents are getting the proper work that they pay for. And one thing that I really wanted to, you know, just bring to you guys' attention is that I would encourage everybody to not approve, but let's just further investigate and properly vet the contractors that's going to be on this contract that's getting voted for approval, because you don't want to be in the same boat that Macomb County is in right now, because right now they're biting a bullet and unfortunately forcing the taxpayers to come out of pocket to pay more for a project that should have been done under budget and under time, and now it's going to be blown way out of proportion. that's really all I wanted to say. Um, again, I don't, I don't mind if it's union or non union. Let's just make sure that we hold in everybody to the same standard and that our stuff is getting built the right way because East Point deserves the right kind of, you know, facilities for our area. Thank you.

Good evening council. Um, Couple of things I wanted to address. One is the fact that the grassroots I thought was okay. And I say that simply because I'm not sure what happened with promotion or whatever, but there were so many people who said they didn't get any notice of it. And there are also people always complaining about there's nothing to do in East Point. when I find there's quite a bit to do if we're willing to look for it and come out and participate. So I wanted to address that. I'm not sure what else we can do to promote it. But it was not as well attended as it could have been. And I don't know where that problem lies. The other thing I wanted to address is there's been some concern from some in the community about short-term rentals because they a situation that happened with a pool in, I think it was West Bloomfield. I can't remember right now. But at any rate, did we include an ordinance with the landlords regarding short-term rentals so that we would not have that kind of horrible experience where someone's just renting out property on a short-term basis and then ended up with damaged property and a nuisance to the neighborhood? Anyway, thank you.

Hi, Jennifer Nicholas, East Point resident. A couple of things. I understand that Nine Mile's under construction now for phase three, and I'm wondering, will residents ever get to see a design for it before they finish it, or are we just gonna be surprised when it's done? I know the last council meeting, our city manager handed our mayor a piece of paper that I'm assuming was a diagram of phase three of Nine Mile. I still don't see anything on the website. You know, if you're trying to look at this last part of nine mile road, there's no design on, on the city website. And I, I don't know if it's posted somewhere here that I can't see it. Um, so I'm just wondering if that's going to be available before constructions completed. Um, the other thing I wanted to talk about is, uh, at the last meeting, um, you were discussing the inoperable vehicle ordinances. And I did email you mayor Klein felt on this. I went to the planning commission meeting on June 4th and they discussed it, but because they didn't have a quorum and they wanted to get into it a little bit more, they postponed further discussion until their July 9th meeting, which means nothing can move forward until after that time. You know, the issue with that is I felt that the planning commission was pretty much on board with What Chief Haynes wanted as far as getting junk vehicles and abandoned vehicles off the streets, but they wanted to discuss more vehicles on private properties. And I think if this ordinance had been presented at the last meeting just solely for the vehicles on the street, I believe that you would have had a first reading and approved it and a second reading tonight and approved it. And Chief Haynes could have started taking cars off the streets starting tomorrow. But the way this has played out now, because it's been kicked back to the Planning Commission, they won't discuss it again until July 9th. Your next city council meeting after that is July 21st. That's assuming that they make a recommendation at that time. And it comes before you for a first reading. Your second reading wouldn't be until August 1st. 11th. So it's almost a two month delay for getting cars off the streets. Um, and again, I'm was kind of concerned the way that this ordinance was presented because it was presented on the agenda as specifically for getting cars off the street and letting our police code enforcement handle that. But when you read the ordinance, it included a whole bunch of language about cars. Um, that are on people's private property, which falls under the governance of the building official. I think they should be two separate ordinances. And if there's any way that you could speed up the process for Chief Haynes portion of it, I think everybody in the community would appreciate it. Thank you.

Anyone else wish to be here? Anyone else?

I'll talk about the rabbits in a minute, but right now I am demanding on the record you all issue a public apology to me right now for violating my First Amendment rights last summer when I dropped an F-bomb and I was removed. You shot me down. You interrupted my comments, told me to take a seat. Chief Haynes escorts me out, and this man, he drops an F-bomb? First of all, I don't have a problem with F-bombs. But you violated my First Amendment rights, not just once. That's now the second time. You didn't do anything to him. You didn't cut him off. You didn't remove him. I will be speaking with my attorney first thing in the morning. Y'all better issue a public apology before this meeting ends tonight. Now, to the rabbits. With Gratiot-Cruz, thousands, several thousands are now learning the truth about your pathetic, asinine, ill-conceived, copied and pasted dog ordinance you're using for rabbits. You're grown adults. Are you kidding me? You don't know the difference between dogs and rabbits? What are you doing to protect them so they're not being used as bait for dog fights? And if you think dog fighting doesn't happen in East Point, you are sadly mistaken. You guys have just proven how ineffective you are, inept and incompetent. You're corrupt. You're deceitful, you're dishonest, you are doing nothing for the citizens. Every decision you make is based on what you want, not what the citizens want. Remember Nine Mile? That cost Carty his seat. Remember that abomination of a gas station? You ignored the residents there. And now you're not doing anything for the most vulnerable, the rabbits. You guys have no experience. in proper rabbit care. I don't really like to consider myself as an expert, but compared to everybody in this room, I've got over 34 years experience with rescue rabbits. Yes, that does make me an expert. You had an opportunity to ask questions. You asked none. You made no objections. How many more rabbits have to die before you get off your ass and protect them? And then all this sanctimonious BS about, you know, profanity. Oh, clutch my pearls. What are you all a bunch of snowflakes? Profanity is protected speech. Four of you are lawyers.

Good evening. My name is Jay Bonilla. I own a couple of properties, commercial properties in the city of East Point. On one of the properties that I own, the address is 24700. I had it since last year. On October 3rd, we applied for a... We did the site plan for it and all that. Me and my architect came in here for the public hearing meetings. And I have the site plan that has been approved by the city, okay? And after it got approved, we start doing the construction on it and all the stuff. And our assignments start getting all kind of problems with the zoning, with the inspectors and all that. And every time after the approval, they keep adding more stuff to the approval. And we keep going and we keep fixing, which is costing us a lot of money for those little stuff they add in. And not just that, now they came out with, even when we got the variance for the sign, the full sign, which is this right here, the sign is in the city's approval. All of it is, it's three feet inside and four feet out. So all the difference we have is one foot. And then I got proof for it on October 3rd of last year when we were here. And now our sign, they want to change it on me. So... I'm stuck with this. I don't know what to do. It's been going on for a year now with this building. I own properties in the city of Hazel Park, Warren, Sterling Heights, Roseville. I never had this issue, only this city. I've been having all kinds of issues with it. That's all. Yes. Yes. Thank you so much.

Minutes from June 2nd, 2026. Mr. Park. Thank you. Please call the roll.

Council Member Baker.

Yes.

Council Member Curley. Yes. Council Member Shadlick. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld.

Yes. We have no scheduled hearings or unfinished business, so we'll move into reports from administration. Mr. Mattis.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. A couple things. A reminder that the Eastside Chamber General Membership meeting is tomorrow morning, so if you are planning to attend, I'll see you there. Lots of construction is going on. So nine mile phase three is getting underway as phase two wraps up. So it's exciting, but the contractors are playing nice over there. Our splash pad and other projects in Kennedy Park are well underway. It's a busy place to be. If you have questions about other projects, please reach out. Darren could tell you chapter and verse of so many projects right now. It keeps them up at night. And then a reminder to council that we are going to hold July 10th for a ribbon cutting. So I'll send you a reminder, but we're looking at cutting some ribbons on July 10th. I'll send you more info about that. Other things, the May 5th election, we were audited this morning by Macomb County reviewing the election and everything related to that. We received rave reviews for that election. So great job, clerk's office. The library master plan work kicked off today. They had their first meeting, so you'll hear more on that as it gets going. There'll be more opportunity to comment and discuss that in lots of different ways as the library looks at their next 20 years. We have contracts are well underway with our seven bargaining units. We've been meeting with them regularly. We're getting very close to agreement on several of those. We'll discuss those very soon. And then And then I know our agenda doesn't look very long today, but I just wanted to say thank you to our team for these items. It's short but sweet. There's a lot of content to these. So the budget process began back in December when department heads began reviewing what their needs would be for the upcoming year. The finance team works very hard on these. Departments across the city work on these. Our office helps to put it together. It's a team effort to get that budget to you. So I'm excited for council to review that as a second read this evening. The police and court building has taken a true team effort. So across the city, across our AEW team, we have a lot of man hours into putting that project together and getting it to council for review this evening. So we look forward to that. Thank you, Jason, Matt, and Kern. He's only Kern because we're both Ryan, so Kern. And then boards and commissions. There are so many things that go into just making sure that these boards can function. So... We have different point people throughout the city who serve as liaisons to those boards and commissions. We thank them for all their work. It's a team effort to get all these things to you and appreciate you being here tonight to consider all these items. Thanks. Thank you.

Any questions for Mr. Mattis? I had one question regarding the nine mile design Is there any reason why we wouldn't be able to maybe post it out in the hallway or something like that? I Don't see why not I Mean just somehow so that it's it's available. We have a project going on. This is you know, what's coming?

Yes

Thanks, Matt. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Finance Director's Report, Mr. Blum.

Yes. Good evening, Mayor and Council. In preparation for the police court building, the city has gone through coordination with Standard & Poor's to get a bond rating. We had extensive interviews, supplied an enormous amount of information. And I have the draft back. It's looking good. It'll be final in a couple days. But the bond rating will be then utilized for the bond closing. The sale is going to be June 30th, and the closing will be July 21st. So that is moving along in preparation for this project. And that is all I have this evening.

Any questions for Mr. Blotten? All right, we'll move on to our city attorney's report. Mr. Albright.

Thank you, Mayor and members of council. The day after the last city council meeting, I forwarded a copy of the inoperable vehicle ordinance to the planning commissioners. They did discuss it. They added it to their agenda at the last meeting, as Ms. Nicholas did reference. They had... some changes they'd like to see with regard to various notice requirements. And so the following week I did meet with Mr. Myers about what could go in there. So we've come up with a draft, which I will then forward to the planning commission and they will be discussing that again at their, their July 9th meeting. If there's anything in that regard that the council would see change as far as a timeline, just let me know and we'll make that happen. Any comments from council? All right. Thank you.

All right. We'll move into new business approval of contract for the construction of the new East Point Police and Court Building. I don't know if I should kick it over to perhaps AEW or if anyone wants to speak on that. Or I can just open it up with some thoughts. Okay. I just want to clarify a couple of things just so I understand. I believe the 1.2 million for the gun range equipment and 1.9 estimated for furnishers not included in the award of the bid?

That is correct, Mr. Mayor. Okay.

And I had some, so in your role as overseeing the contract, I haven't spoken to you guys directly, but I know that I had asked the city manager for maybe a monthly status update for council. I don't know if council would want to see that once the project gets underway.

That certainly will not be a problem. We usually have regular bi-weekly meetings that document the progress. There are monthly pay applications, and you folks can certainly be, obviously, that will be in somebody's inbox in the city anyway. We can put it all together in a nice packaged report if that will make it smoother for the city to process.

Think I'd like to see updates once a month and kind of short and sweet I think the things I'm concerned about our timeline so we can track if something gets off off kilter change orders I guess this would be for Randy just tracking the finance and spending as we go along I imagine we'll have the eight million two million ten million and probably spend the 8 million first and then move on to the other funds.

That's absolutely the plan. We'll do grant money first and then we'll dip into the bond money and then the city's money. Okay.

And I have a question for AEW. I don't remember what it's called. When there's disputes between the engineers and the contractors, there's a resolution process, isn't there?

Yeah, there's multiple different ways to look at that. Mediation is one option, and then obviously litigation is another. Mr. Arlo, did I cover that correctly? Arbitration, yes. So, and, you know, I don't want to take us too far off course here for a minute, but the contractor, the apparent low bidder contractor is present, and they potentially could answer questions, I think, if that is or is not appropriate. I'm just making you aware of that. But they will adjust routinely their schedule. They track it every two weeks, every month. So you will get regular schedule updates on which trades are coming in and which trades are ahead of schedule, behind schedule, et cetera, et cetera, so.

And it's just something I've seen. I know AEW is doing the Jefferson project as well. And, you know, if a contractor digs in the wrong place, then we don't pay for it. But if they dig in a place and there's a surprise pipe or something, then we do. So I just, I guess, wanted to know, as the project goes forward, kind of. I'd want a council to be aware if there's like unexpected costs.

Yeah, you would be the city notified immediately of any what we call hidden conditions, which is also part of why there's a $1 million contingency in there. Mostly the number one thing we worry about is finding anything underground that we didn't know was there before. So that's the bulk of what that's for.

And so that was just one of the things I guess I'd want council to be updated on if that stuff comes up. Are there any other questions or any comments from council? Those were, I guess, some of my thoughts I wanted to touch on.

Well, actually, can I ask you a question, Mr. Mayor? Yeah. Would it be appropriate for me to send this information to Mr. Mattis for him to disseminate to you folks, I would assume, or Kim?

Uh, I guess it wouldn't matter to me. I sort of wanted at a council meeting for there to be sort of like a live update so that, you know, everyone kind of knows what's going on. Yeah. Um, given the size of the project, I want to be sort of keeping everyone apprises as things go, whatever you need to move along. Yeah. Um, And council, this was something I had, this is for administration really. I wanted to see the actual, so what we have is a bid award in front of us, but I wanted to at least see the contract. I have a couple of questions about that. I'm prepared to award the bid. I just wanted to get some more information. I think there's stuff in our funding that requires prevailing wage and what our provisions are to make sure we have qualified subcontractors just what the enforcement mechanisms are. So I've already talked to Ryan about that and I think there's a standard contract, is Kim over there? I think there's a standard contract, I just haven't seen it yet. So I was hoping we could award the bid and then maybe see the contract to approve it. I guess I'd ask for administration's reaction in council's opinion. If anyone has one.

So what are you guys administration? I mean, I guess we start off with you guys. What do you think in regards to that?

We haven't typically included the full contract in council packets. Obviously that's not here. It's something we can have in fairly short order and plan to work on first thing in the morning. I'm looking at Kern, but it's not something I have right now. Yeah, we discussed it earlier this evening, but it's not something I had at the ready. Oh, sure.

I understand. I thought it was going to be a shorter answer. It's fine. Thank you for that. That was going to be a quick question. Actually, I didn't know who drafted the contract, so it's good to know that AW does that. And the reason I'm asking about it is, again, given the size of the contract, and I haven't approved a project like this before, I don't think any of us have, I just wanted to make sure I understand what enforcement mechanisms are, what liabilities are, and if anyone doesn't perform, I don't want the cost to fall on the city, if it shouldn't. So council, I guess I would propose awarding the contract tonight and then maybe asking just to set a special meeting really short on like Monday or any day next week, one item to at least get our eyes on the contract and approve it for the project. Sure.

Go ahead. So normally when we do these sorts of things, typically the city councils will recommend the approval of the award to contractor. We will start drafting the contract. You folks will review the contract once it's all drafted up. and then sign it and move on. But we will certainly, it's the standard form, so it's easily found on the internet. We can get you the unmodified version for your perusal at your leisure, as well as the fully modified version once we put all the names in. As far as mechanisms, there's contractors are expected to carry performance payment bonds, and there are other guarantees built into the structure. to assure that they perform the work, which we can actually, you know, take a half hour later on to explain to you if you need it. I mean, obviously I won't go into it for the benefit of all these people who didn't necessarily come here for this, but there are mechanisms, sir, and council.

All right. When you said you guys typically peruse and then approve it, do you mean administration?

Yes. We write the contract up, right? The standard AIA form. We fill in the amounts, the name of the project, the name of the contract, or the name of the city, yada, yada. And then, you know, oftentimes legal counsel will look at it, but it's a standard form. And then once legal counsel is all okay with it, then I'm not sure if the city manager would be the one to sign it or if the mayor would or who would be the one to sign it. But city manager is what I thought. So, yeah. So then after you guys get a glance at it, Mr. Mattis would either sign it or if there's an issue, you don't sign it. I don't think there will be an issue, but that's how it goes.

And my first call if there's an issue is Mr. Albright.

All right, I guess I'll leave it at that. So typically you don't have that go back to councils, right? Just the award? Yeah, just the award. All right. Well, I did not ask to see the contract ahead of time. So here's what I'll change my proposal. How about we move forward with action tonight and then I'd ask the administration to share the contract with all of council. And then if any council members feel like they want to ask about a provision or tweak it or something like that, we can just call a special meeting at that time, of course, with notice.

Council. I mean, I'm ready to move forward with it. Okay. So, all right, I will move that we had awarded the contract for the construction of the new police and court building, according to the design and approved plans and specifications to see Gleason constructors incorporated Troy, Michigan in the amount of 22 million, $47,000 support.

All right, please call the roll.

Councilmember Baker? Yes. Councilmember Curley? Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld?

Yes.

Councilmember Shadlick? Yes.

All right, item B, second reading and adoption of ordinance number 26-1259, fiscal year 2026-27, appropriations and tax levies. Would anyone like to make a motion?

Mr. Mayor, I'll make the motion, but just let me ask a question. Is it possible you could read off some of the figures that our citizens are going to be charged, for instance, the Waterville, what would be the millage there, and different areas you've got, so we're not the only ones that know?

Okay. The various millages are basically just a straight-up calculation with heavily rollbacks. The increase this year is 2.7% on the tax side. what's called the chapter 20 drain debt millage that is going to be set at 5.15 mills, which is up .05 mills. It's a slight increase due to some extra county work. On the water sewer side, the water charge will go to $6.10 per cubic foot, for 100 cubic foot. And the sewer, where are you sewer? Next page There we are Sewer is going up to ten dollars and ten cents per hundred cubic feet The combination of those two is a net increase of six point nine percent of which six point seven plus percent is Tied to the GLW rate increase. There's very little that is tied to city cost There will also be a 4% increase on the ready-to-serve charge, which is used for the infrastructure projects. And I guarantee you construction costs have gone up more than 4%. So we're holding it in line. And those are really the big ones that people are going to see is the unit cost, which will be 6.9% increase, and then the ready-to-serve, which is going to go up 4%. So...

One more time about the water. We're being charged how much from Detroit and we're going to bill so much and then add it together. Can you? talk about that?

Yeah, it's GLWA, Great Lakes Water Authority. That's where we buy our water from and who treats our sewage. They create their own rates. They pass along to the member communities. Our rate increase this year was 6.78, somewhere in that range. And that's the increase we will pay to them. That's what I'm saying. The overall increase to the residents will only be 6.9%. So all of the stuff that is the city cost, the guys going out fixing water main breaks, patching holes after they do that, all those costs are very minimal change compared to the cost of purchasing the water.

Okay, good. Thank you. Mayor, if I might, I would move to adopt ordinance number 26-1259, providing for the annual appropriations and tax levies for the City of East Point for fiscal year 2026-27. Support. All right, please call the roll.

Council Member Curley? Yes. Council Member Shadlick? Yes. Council Member Baker?

Yes.

Mayor Kleinfeld?

Yes. Great. Item C, approval of removal of two members from the Beautification Commission.

Mr. Mayor, I know the motion. They want two members removed. And they give us their names. I'm going to make a motion without their names. I believe it when they say that they haven't been to several meetings and courts in the policy that they need to be, get the resignation. But I don't think it's necessary for us to announce their names publicly. I don't know, maybe they're dead. Maybe they moved, maybe they're having some very personal problems. And I don't think we should hold them up publicly for the city to know who those two were. So Mr. Mayor, I would recommend that we approve the recommendation by the beautification commission for the removal of two of their members.

I'll support.

Please call the roll.

Council Member Curley.

Yes.

Council Member Baker.

Yes.

Mayor Kleinfeld.

Yes.

Council Member Shadlick.

Yes.

All right, payroll and bills. I move that we pay the bills in the amount of $2,093,559.22.

Support.

Any questions on that? Please call the roll.

Council Member Baker. Yes. Council Member Shadlick. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld.

Yes.

Council Member Curley. Yes.

Great. Hearing of the public, the second hearing of the public is open. Would anyone wish to be heard?

Mary Harvey for East Point resident. My husband and I were talking about the rain barrels. I think we're going to need to continue to see the rain for water. Otherwise, our lawn is going to be quite ugly. And some people might smell us a mile away if we have to continue paying water bills that we can't afford. I realize that's not your problem because you don't set the rates, but I'm letting you know there are a number of people in this community who have issues with high water bills. That's the biggest complaint. And we all have to pay it. I'll deal with that. I'm curious as to whether or not there's anything in the ethics ordinance regarding disclosing relationships between people we're awarding contracts with. Because if there isn't, there should be. I think that should be totally transparent, and people should know who we're dealing with and whether or not there's any kickback from somebody making decisions. This is a big problem. We see the corruption in Washington, and there's been accusations here of corruption. I'm not claiming that. and I don't want to see anyone claim it, especially if it's not merited. So I would hope that we have total disclosure and transparency with regard to anyone getting awards or with contracts. There are a number of things that I would love to be about to go over time, so I'm not gonna do that. But with regards to, appropriate behavior, situationally appropriate behavior. I would hope we are more mindful of that because when we are supposedly adults in a public setting and we don't conduct ourselves in such a way that would be appropriate, it creates another look. I know I'm not a native East Pointer, but I've been here long enough to care about what people think about us, because trust me, I hear it all the time. So I would rather us have a better image of who we are as adults than to always have to deal with language that is certainly not appropriate. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be here?

Hello, good council. Chris Spade, Macomb County Bill of Trades. I just wanted to come before you, even though I do respect the vote that you guys put forth tonight in approval of the contract. I will like to let this serve as notice to both council and contractor, even though he got up and left. that mistakes that contractors make can get very expensive, not only to the city, but to our taxpayers and our residents. And so I just wanted to serve notice that we will be watching to make sure that the job is done correctly and to make sure that our members getting the, you know, our taxpayers are getting the job that they pay for to make sure everything is installed correctly as well. And, you know, things like this, the public definitely deserves to know what they're paying for and the product that they are getting. So just wanted to serve because, like I said, I believe that every contractor should be held to the same standard. They should be doing a safe job and they should be doing it the proper way. So it's not the problem that it went to a non-union company. But despite our various warnings that not only see Gleason as a contractor who cuts corners and takes shortcuts, but we just wanted to make sure that we told you guys that we are watching and we're going to take responsibility for our members here in East Point that we will make sure that they get a product that they deserve and make sure it's delivered. Thank you. Thank you.

Good afternoon again. Sean Bumgarten, Northern Midwest Regional Council Carpenters. I just want to kind of piggyback on what he just said. It's kind of wild how you take the lowest bid and say, I believe you guys said it's prevailing wage, correct? I mean, if it's a prevailing wage job, I don't know how it gets that low when you have six bids. C.E. Gleason knows the contractors they use. Yes, the name is the contractor, but it's a sub of a sub of a sub. So if you think Omega's doing the work, Omega's subbing it out 14 times to 14 different people. I go through this every day. I hit jobs every day. I've been a carpenter for 29 years. I've only been a representative for a year. You couldn't have told me 10 years ago that this goes on. It's amazing. It really is. Not good. No health insurance paid on people. No taxes being paid. 1099 is okay, right? But it's not okay when a contractor sets the job up and you use their tools and you come on their time. That's not okay. That's misclassification. That's all. I hope you guys keep an eye on this. When you see four people getting prevailing wage and build the whole job, it'd be interesting. That's all. Oh, one other thing. Union, non-union don't matter to me. What matters to me is I feel I represent all Carpenters, and I don't blame the worker for making a paycheck to go home to feed their family. I blame the contractor on not paying the worker what they're supposed to get. That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you again, Council, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to, again, in the work that I was doing today with a friend going around and promoting the utilities affordability data centers, we went to 21 businesses and we were asking if we could put flyers in windows. A lot of them actually were gas stations and party stores, bakeries, through shops. No one told us no, that we couldn't. And a lot of those same managers and owners of those facilities were telling us that they're worried about their water bills too. So we were asking, you know, willing to just share this information so residents can have a place to express some of their concerns, especially related to data centers. But in something that keeps being a conversation, I regularly am in conversation with Gliwa folks and attend meetings and are always talking about our concerns as residents about the water increases. They regularly say, we have no other choice. They're going to continue to go up. We have no other options about how we're going to pay for these. enterprise systems, essentially, right? Revenue can only come from the customers that you build. They're concerned about how they're going to be able to maintain and upgrade the infrastructure that's needed in this community. And again, for what it's worth, East Point is one of my favorite places when I'm going around to many cities and talking to city councils and commissions about water affordability. I think it would be in your interest to try to have a community forum that really brings in businesses and residents and is just transparent about how you're trying to do this given what you're being forced to pass on and cost through GLWA. but how it is that you really are looking at the bigger picture because it really is city by city, township by township, and everyone is grappling with the same questions. I think it would be good for you all as we really continue to try to build trust in public systems, not let them be jeopardized or threatened in any way with privatization or beliefs that they're insolvent, the systems are insolvent, to just have public conversations in a more transparent way, maybe have a forum so residents and businesses can come together and share more of their concerns with you. Thank you very much. Oh, just lastly, one of the businesses I stopped at was East Detroit Bakery, amazing place. I brought some goodies from them for you too, for everyone. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?

Larry Edwards, each one of the residents, even in the mayor, council. It's just so much, so much to be touched on from A to Z. And I know we can't do it in no three minutes and probably even a lifetime and what have you. But we try to touch on as much as we can with the little time allotted to us. and what have you. But with the night, on tonight and what have you, I'd like to also reiterate and everything, I'm still hearing transparency, trust, because that's a big issue, not only with this country or the world, but this city as well, and what have you. We in dealing in regarding to the payroll and bills, we just heard a figure of five mil and something that's to be paid. What are we paying it to? What are we paying it for? I'm one that would like to know. We just get a lot of Nothing as far as I'm concerned. In regard to the water bill, the water increase and what have you, it was said that it went up 6.7% from a Great Lakes authority. What is that in dollars? I'd like to know that as well. beyond the percentages and what have you. That kind of speaks for itself. But the dollars speak better for me. And then there's a residence increase of 6.9. Again, just percentages. How much increase in dollars are we talking about? I don't think that's asking a whole lot. But this is something that apparently is... done on purpose or hidden or to keep us from being able to not know, to keep us from being transparent or what have you, because figures and money can, when you're dealing with money, you can do a whole lot of different things with money. not accusing nobody of nothing, but it's a lot of funny stuff goes on with money and what have you. When you look at some of the gangster pictures and everything, the most too, uh, uh, well, you could say maybe important and what have you, but most, uh, not dangerous, but most damaging people were, uh, the secretary and the secretary and the bookkeeper as they call it and what have you. We need to know things and what have you. And, uh, so, uh, I THINK WE NEED TO START GETTING MORE INFORMATION. IT SHOULD BE POSTED SOMEWHERE OR SOMEWHERE WHERE WE COULD HAVE ACCESS TO IT TO SEE WHAT'S GOING ON SO WE CAN SEE FOR OUR OWN SELF AND EVERYTHING. I'M LIKE A MISSOURIAN AND EVERYTHING. SHOW ME. LET ME SEE IT FOR MYSELF. LET ME UNDERSTAND IT RATHER THAN SOMEBODY ALWAYS FEEDING IT TO ME AND TELLING ME WHAT'S GOING ON.

Anyone else wish to be heard?

Jennifer Nicholas, East Point resident. Speaking of trust, at the last planning commission meeting, our master plan consultants, TPMA, observed that over the course of interacting with residents and businesses here in East Point and watching our city council meetings, they observed that there is a very low level of trust between residents and city administration and residents and city council. I see it. It seems like we don't get straight answers to things. It seems like we don't get answers to things. I don't know how many times I've asked about nine mile from Kelly to 94. I don't see why, that's not available to residents, you know, in the budget, we do have that organizational chart at the very top of the residents. Next comes the mayor and city council underneath that comes city administration. You know, when you're asking about a contract for the court building and you have to ask, um, is it okay if maybe you can see a contract? I don't understand why that information isn't presented to you. I don't understand why a design for nine mile isn't presented to you right off the bat. You, you represent us. I've, you know, we vote for you. We don't vote for city administration. We don't vote for AEW or our city planners or, you know, other people in the city. And I just feel that there is a very lack of transparency. This thing with the inoperable vehicles ordinance. Mr. Albright, yep, you're right. John Myers said that he was going to expound on his portion of it. That does not help Chief Haynes' portion of it. And my point from the beginning is that those two should never have been tied together that way. And when I brought it up at the last meeting, I said it sounded like the inoperable vehicles ordinance for vehicles on the street got hijacked by city administration and the building official. I was told after the meeting that the building official had nothing to do with it, was not aware of the ordinance, was not aware that it was even going to be on the agenda, which is really funny to me because I had a conversation with John Myers the evening before the city council meeting, after the civil service board meeting. And we talked about it in length about the ordinance for vehicles for residential being parked in backyards and driveways. And we had a discussion about it. So, you know, I just feel like we are constantly being gaslighted about things. And unfortunately it reflects on people that aren't necessarily trying to hide things. It's unfortunate when people say city administration is non-transparent or city council is non-transparent. You all get lumped in together. It's not fair because I think I know each of you fairly well enough, but it is a problem. We really need to try and do better for our city. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard?

Yeah, again, Scott Kozlowski of the City of Warren. You've awarded these contracts. You got $8 million in state money. State money. That's the city taxpayers paying that money in. Okay? I hope they open up their eyes and follow these projects in this city. Okay? And to see if they meet them on budget. I hope they do. I'm kind of... on the line on that one. But for all you East Point residents, pay attention to these projects that are going on and what they're awarded to. And I wish you guys luck. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard?

Well, you're doing a bang up job when the residents are telling you in their own ways, you're not to be trusted. And another thing, this is not an etiquette class. This is not church. You don't preach about conduct in speech. You don't like my comments. There's the door. Don't want to hit you on the house on the way out. I mean, what is going on with you all? You just, you don't get it. People have addressed different topics, different subjects, and you don't respond to them. I mean, you work for the Wayne County prosecutor's office. You know about all the animal cruelty cases going through that court. And what did you do? You ignored everything. You're an attorney. Where was your common sense? You don't respond to logic or reason. You don't respond to facts. I mean, this is beyond stupid what you all did. How the hell do you make these decisions? Do you just like completely check out mentally? Everyone I've talked to about this half-ass ordinance, whether they're running for office or they're a resident, they all say the same thing when I tell them it's a copied and pasted dog ordinance used for the rabbits. They're like, that doesn't make any sense. I mean, what the hell are you doing? You could easily make these amendments, but you just wanna sit on your ass and not do anything. You know what? The way you treat animals tells me everything I need to know about you. You have no regard for these animals. They have no way to ask for help or protection. You think this is such a great idea? You know what? All of you go live in a six foot by four foot hutch the entire summer and you don't get any protection from parasites, not flies, not ticks, not fleas, not mosquitoes. You get fed once a day, you get water once a day. You're not gonna have any protection from the elements whatsoever. You cry for help, nobody's going to come. You're going to sit in your own excrement. Then let's see how much you like it. Because no animal deserves to live like this. And then you fail to recognize the direct correlation between animal abuse and human abuse. You just don't get it.

Anyone else wish to be heard? Anyone else? Seeing none, the second hearing of the public is closed. We'll move on to mayor and council reports. Councilman Baker.

Thank you. So in regards to the gentleman who spoke about priority, that's been an ongoing conversation amongst us, administration, residents, emails and calls that we get, we forward it to our DPW director, and then he takes action. I actually was CC'd on an email correspondence that he had with another resident. And then we did receive notice that that garbage did get picked up, but it's been an ongoing thing. And there are a lot of steps in place when considering what needs to be done. I've received the same issues in my house with priorities at times. I've had late pickups. I've had part of the collection picked up one day, something else picked up the next day. I can relate to some of the frustrations, but it is an ongoing conversation that we're having. I think at one point we did hear that they had some issues with some vehicles, you know, but that came from, I believe, our DPW director. I can't tell you how many times he and I have talked and he said, he's communicated how many emails that he's had going back and forth. People had issues with knowing who to contact so that he is the best point of contact because he can get right to whoever needs to be contacted on their end. DPW directors Darren Pellucci But if you send an email to one of us on council, we can always forward an email to him on your behalf What else was it Yeah, that was pretty much the one thing that I wanted to address To those that came up and spoken here another public we do consider things that you have to say to us, opinions, thoughts. We have to consider a lot of things. We do have conversations with administration if we have questions about things that are presented to us to try to get a better understanding so that when we come up here, we try to make the best decision that we can. And not everybody's going to always agree with the decisions that we make. We don't always agree with one another at this table. Sometimes we get a unanimous yes, sometimes we don't. So it's always interesting to when people say that, well, the people give their critiques about whether the council can be trusted or not. The council doesn't even always agree. So we're not voting in tandem or in unison on every single thing. But we do consider a lot of things when these issues and these agenda items are brought before us. And so our job is to try to be as responsible as we can be. We are human. We will make mistakes at times, but we try to be as informed when we make our decisions. We try to get our questions answered. For those that have said that there is no transparency, I can't tell you how many people that actually call me and I talk to. About certain agenda items that doesn't always come out at that podium of conversations that I have and I'm not asking people to do it but if I'm gonna be lumped in as it was said with Some of the frustrations then, you know, I'm gonna counter and say that there are some Conversations and some clarity that I do have with people When they asked me they reach out to me. They call me directly they email me And I try to give the answer best I can if there's something I don't know I don't have a problem telling anybody that I don't know something and I will look into or try to find that answer and I've done that numerous times with people so to say that there is no that there's a lack in communication I can't speak for everyone else because I'm not involved in the conversations with everyone else but I can only speak for what I do and My call logs, I can show anybody my call logs and tell you who calls me and who doesn't. So that's pretty much all I wanted to address with that.

Hey, thank you, Councilman Curley. Oh, thank you.

Two things, and I've said this many times about taking your cans and bottles, instead of taking and cashing them in, take them over to the library because the library has friends of the library who take those and deposits and buy things for the kids, for the children that come to the library. I had a couple other things, but I'm not going to get into that. The only other thing I have, and you've got to help me because June 10th, 10th, Juneteenth, if I try to tell you why that is, I'm going to screw it up. So if somebody are sitting here, please... tell me what it is. But anyway, we're celebrating that this coming Friday outside the door there at City Hall, June 19th from four o'clock to seven o'clock. And there's gonna be food, there'll be children activities, guest speakers. I don't know who they, guest speakers. A lot of music, but we are celebrating Juneteenth. It has to do with the Civil War ending, but what do you two tell us that? There's no one to say Harvey's bringing something up when he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. But it's a great thing. And this is our third annual. So if you have nothing else to do between four and seven o'clock, come on over, join us. And we'll have great music, great speakers. And one of the people up here are gonna tell you what Juneteenth is all about. Thank you.

All right. Councilwoman Peshatlik.

Yay.

I'd like to just mention I'm not a lawyer. I think Council Member Scott had mentioned it last meeting as well. I'm not an attorney. I'm a resident. I'm an elected council person here, and I work as a secretary, so I am not an attorney. For those of you who may think I am, I'm not. Secondly, I'd like to mention that I have no relationship with CE Gleason Constructors Incorporated. No relationship. Don't even know them. So I'd like to make that clear. I would like to also tout the AC Arts and Culture Diversity Commission Juneteenth event four to seven here at City Hall. It's to commemorate the freedom of the enslaved individuals. During the Civil War, it took a long time for the news to spread, and it finally made it to Texas in June. So it took that long that year, because back then we didn't have cell phones, et cetera, et cetera. News spread very slowly. So that's why we celebrated Freedom Day. Um, secondly, I mean, lastly, I'd like to mention St. Veronica's is celebrating their 100th anniversary of, um, being a parish there and they're holding a 100th anniversary fundraiser right here at our own villas on, um, grass shit near eight mile. They're doing a dinner, um, on July 21st from 4 to 7.30 p.m. if you'd like to participate. They have flyers that you can submit and they get a portion of the proceeds from just having dinner, pizza, whatever you'd like to do. So if you're interested in that, I have the additional flyers. I'd be happy to pass them out. Just come see me after the meeting and that's all I have.

Thank you, and I'm just going to mimic that. I hope to see everyone on Friday at the event, and I'll just go straight into entertaining a motion for closed session for collective bargaining agreements and for attorney-client communications. So moved.

Support.

Please call the roll.

Council Member Baker?

Yes.

Council Member Shadlick? Yes. Council Member Curley? Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld?

Yes. Going to closed session at 8.17.

Thank you.

All right.

We're back in open session. It's nine 32. Uh, I believe we have some motions.

I would move to approve labor agreements as presented for the East point 38th district court clerical union group and approve labor agreements as presented, including sick leave payout language for the East point clerical workers union association, the East point labor association, and the Department of Public Service Supervisors Union Groups.

Second. Please call the roll.

Council Member Shadlack. Yes. Council Member Baker. Yes. Council Member Curley. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld.

Yes. And would anyone want to make another motion?

Mayor, I can read the motion into the record.

I move to approve resolution number 26-2023, approving the legal services agreement for the 3M and DuPont public drinking water settlements, and further authorize the city manager to execute all necessary documents.

Support.

All right, please call the roll.

Council Member Baker. Yes. Council Member Shadlock. Yes. Council Member Curley. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld.

Yes. Adjournment. So moved. Support. Please call the roll.

Council Member Curley. Yes. Council Member Baker. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld.

Yes.

Council Member Shadlock.

Yes. Meeting adjourned at 934.