City Council - Regular Meeting

Call to order this meeting of the Eskanaba City Council, February 5th, 2026. Mr. May, please call the role. Councelor Moore here. Councor Bosch here. Counc Dart here. Councelor Floth here. Mayor here. Please [clears throat] stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. At this time, seeking approval and or corrections to the minutes of the regular meeting of December 18th, 2025. So moved. Second. Discussion. All in favor? I.

Thank you. At this time, seeking approval and or corrections to the minutes of the regular meeting of January 15, 2026. So moved. Support. Support. Discussion. All in favor? I. Thank [clears throat] you. at this time seeking approval and or adjustments to the current agenda as written. Mr. Boshaw, um since the deadline for uh manager applications has uh passed, I think we should uh discuss or have an update on the manager situation. Add that as new business item number seven.

I'd like to also make a adjustment to for new business number four, the yach club lease. Um, I ask that we postpone a a decision um to March 19th, but yet I make an amendment to new business number four as a discussion piece for tonight for yach clubs. Discussion move approval with changes support further discussion. All in favor?

I thank you. At this time, is there any conflict of interest needing to be declared by members of council pertaining to items on the agenda? Hearing none. [snorts] At this time, we'll hear brief public comments pertaining to items on the agenda. If you wish to make comment, please approach the podium, state your name, place of residence, keep your comments to three minutes or less. [clears throat] [snorts] I would remind you that if you have intention of speaking about any of the agenda items, this is a city council meeting and not a town hall format. So your chance to speak is not it will not be within the format of the meeting hearing none. We currently have no public hearing schedule. We currently have no unfinished business on the docket. Moving on to new business item number one, presentation audit city controller. Uh so Amr and Cody with Clark Schaefer Hackett will present our 630 2025 audit results. [clears throat]

Yeah, they're here. [snorts] You guys want to get started? Yeah.

All right. My name is Amar Alfkari. Uh I was a signer on the audit. This is our first year to audit the city. I also have Cody Mitchell. He was the manager uh on the audit. Um in this year's audit, we had three audit reports. Uh first one was on the financial statement and that was unmodified report meaning it's a clean opinion which is the highest opinion you can achieve. So there is no findings. Uh there was a report for government auditing standard and that's mostly focused on your internal control your ability to manage federal funding. That one also there was no material findings and there was no significant or any non-compliance issues. So that's very clean opinion. That's the best results you would want to get from that. There was also uniform guidance report uh that specifically over federal money uh reviewing all the federal grants you received and that the pending of that federal expedenture was that following all the grant guidelines activities are allowable and it was managed well. Uh for this year uh you have received 15 uh.8 million uh in federal funding. uh most of this or almost all of it was co funding. There was also another uh 25,000 for a few other grants. Uh the largest one of them was about uh was for the highway uh project. Um but yeah, the bulk of this funding was 2 uh 15.8 million in CO funding and that also had no uh issues, no findings, nothing. So that's also very good

report. All the COVID money was spent as required and instructed by the federal agency. Uh you guys have access to the slides. I just wasn't sure. Do you have them? I wasn't given any slides. Cody is going to share his screen. Cody, do you want to share your slides? Yeah, I can. I can share my slides if someone makes me um presenter. It's not giving me the option right now to share my slides. All right. Give me one second. Thank you.

I just wanted to make sure you guys following with me, following through with that. Okay. How about now? Okay. Yep. It looks like it it they give me the ability. So hopefully that popped up for everyone. Yep. I can next slide please.

All right. So on the n uh next slide here um this is required to communication uh to the uh governing body. So there was no transaction uh lagged authorative guidance which means there was no unusual transactions for a city everything was the standard the transactions uh there was no material misstatement. Uh we also like to talk about management and working and the relationship with them. There was no any disagreement on how to record any transactions with management. There was no difficulty dealing with management. Uh we got a response rate to everything we needed was very fast. Um Melissa was uh very easy to work with. Uh usually fast response in in audit uh is very important. uh we perceive low response as um lack of organization of document or the files are not ready and they have to be prepared based on our request. Uh which is not a great sign. Uh but for for this audit and this has been very uh the first year she doesn't know or not expecting what we're going to ask for. So everything was already prepaid uh pre prepared and was ready for us. Um so she did a really good job on that. Uh in fact the audit was completed and signed and filed with the state two full weeks early before the deadlines which is phenomenal for a firstear audit. So uh also the city in this year implemented a large accounting standard for compensated absence. um more of a it's a change on the face of the financial statement recording uh different way to record compensated absence than it used to be. This is a new accounting standard this year and it it was one of the larger

ones and time consuming. Uh it was done uh and again we filed um 2 weeks before the deadline. So that that's the summary of the reports. After that, we'll uh switch to more crunching in the numbers. Uh did anyone have any questions before we switch to the next part with Cody on the reports or findings? No, please continue. All right, Cody.

All right. Yep. So, as Omry said, we're going to switch into looking at some of the numbers that we actually were auditing. Um so, on this first slide here, what we have is the changes in assets and deferred outflows. Um, so this is going to kind of comparing the year before and the year that we audited. Um, so I really just wanted to highlight some of the larger variances that we'll see on this slide as well as some of the next few slides. Um, so on this first slide, you'll see that there was an increase of about 5.8 million in cash and investments. Um so well while well we can lend this to um you know good investment earnings and and stuff like that. Um the bulk of why the cash and investments increased that year end was the $4 million in the state infrastructure loans uh that the city received um for that year that hadn't been spent yet. So that was you know driving up the cash at the end of the year. Uh the other one that I wanted to point out on this slide was capital assets. You'll see increased by $20 million. Uh so the majority of this um has is related to those large sewer and water projects um that Omer alluded to uh along with those ARPA funds. Um so that's what is making up the bulk of your increase in capital assets. Um and the city also had you know additions in their vehicles and everything else during the year but those large projects really drove that. On this next slide we're looking at the liabilities and deferred inflows. Um so just a few that I want to point out on this slide. Um you'll see that uh accounts payable at the top increased 2.4 million. Uh this is really related to the timing of payments related to some of those large um wastewater projects. Um so just the services received before year end and then it was paid by the city after year end. So larger projects larger accounts payable at year end. Uh the next one that I wanted to highlight was the 3.5 million increase in long-term obligations. Um, similar to cash, this is lending itself uh to those uh state infrastructure bank

loans that were received by the city, increasing their overall debt. Um, and you kind of m you mix that with the city making their debt obligation payments during the year. Um, which brought it down from that 4 million in additions to the 3.5. Uh, on this slide, the last one that I wanted to point out was the net pension liability actually decreased this year 2.6 million. Um the main thing driving this decrease in the liability was strong investment returns this year. Um so that's kind of bringing down that liability that the city owes on those pension items. All right. So uh for the next few slides um we we're going to have some slides in here looking uh further back than the last you know 24 to 25. Um this is really just kind of to give you an idea of how things have been uh changing year-over-year. Um most of you know this is our first year as the auditor. So a lot of what I'm going to discuss is focused on you know 24 to 25. But we wanted to give you that bigger picture of what's been happening um over the past five years. Uh so what this slide showing is net position at year end of governmental activities. So this is going to be your general fund um and any other fund at the city that outside of the uh electric, water, sewer. Um so those will be in a different uh type the business type activities that we're going to cover in a second. But what you'll see here is really over the years you've seen a steady growth uh in your net position at year end. Um which is always good to see. You don't want to see this number start uh ticking down at at a high rate. So, it's good to see that that you're building this net position uh year-over-year. On this next slide, staying on the governmental activities, we just wanted to give you a breakout of what is actually making up that number at the end of the year. Um, and this is pretty standard for for a large majority of governmental entities. Uh, so the

largest number by far is the net investments and capital assets. Uh, so this is looking at any capital assets that the city owns. So, infrastructure, vehicles, buildings, stuff like that. Um, and it's going to net that with the accumulated depreciation um as those assets are used over time. Um, as well as any related debt. Uh, the next largest is going to be restricted. Um, so that's any kind of funding that has restrictions from any outside entity. Um, so that's in that restricted bucket. And then you'll see there's a unrestricted amount at the end that actually creeps under to a deficit. Uh really what this what's causing this um is on a few slides ago we were looking at the pension liability. Those are large liabilities that the city is not going to pay off in the next year. That's stuff that's going to uh take time to uh you know have that liability decrease. So if you strip off that liability, you would really be um over um over the line the other direction. But since you have that liability on your books, it's going to have this small deficit here. Uh, switching over, this one is going to look at net position at year end of your business type. So, this is electric, water, sewer, and the marina fund. Um, and it's it's fairly similar to the one that we looked at for the governmental activities where you're seeing uh growth year-over-year trending upwards. Um, so that's that's good good to see. Similar to the last slide like this. Oops. Uh and then similar we wanted to just show you, you know, this one has that large breakout of net investment in capital assets. Um as far as business type goes, there's not a lot of restricted amounts um involved with that. And then this ALS, this actually has more of an unrestricted balance left over at the end of it. On this next slide, switching back to governmental activities, uh we wanted to compare the revenue and expenses

year-over-year. um you know for the last uh five years um you'll see that you know the expenses remained relatively similar um and revenues have remained relatively similar as well um overall in 25 um on the orange uh bar of the revenue really what's kind of ticking it up somewhat um there was increased property taxes and there was increased investment earnings. So those are the two of the larger buckets that's kind of making that uh revenue bar um increase somewhat. And then to switch back to the business type and look at the same type of chart, you'll see expenses remaining relatively similar. Uh revenue did have a larger increase this year and that really has to do with all of that grant funding that's coming in uh related to those capital asset projects. Uh so that's what's kind of causing that, you know, 10 10 millionish dollar increase that we're seeing on here. On this next slide, uh sticking with enterprise funds or the business type funds, uh this is showing your operating income for all of these funds. I know there's a lot going on on this screen. Um so, uh water and non- major, which is the marina fund, they tell you stayed relatively similar. Uh electric saw an increase in operating income due to a rate increase. Um so that was uh bringing up their operating income. And then wastewater. Um this is really just kind of related to overall increases, inflationary increases. Um but we also did note that there was more um sludge hauling this year that is kind of like a a higher amount that would have described some of that decrease there. Uh this next slide, it's showing the operating cash flows which pretty much mirror um the operating incomes we just looked at. Um and it also kind of brings into play um those payable items which is kind of making the water um you know

look a little bit skewed compared to the operating income. But all in all they're following the same trend as the prior slide. On this next slide here we're going to uh start looking a little bit into the general fund. Uh this being the main fund for the city. Um so you know what we'll what we see here is that um you know revenue from 24 to 25 has remained relatively consistent. Uh there was a few less transfer in this year which kind of makes it go down a little bit but uh nothing too drastic. Um and then expenditures um are really just increasing year-over-year. Um a lot of this could be you know due to raises, inflationary raises um things like that. Uh we also did note that there was a few more building improvement projects that did take it up from 24 to25 as an item that we could point to that was causing somewhat of an increase overall. On this next slide um we wanted to show you kind of the how the uh property taxes have been operating uh for the last five years uh it being the largest revenue source for your general fund. Uh so you'll see that um the property taxes uh revenue has had steady growth over the past few years. So it's good to see that healthy uh property tax base continue to grow. Um and then uh same on this slide, you'll see that the fund balance for the general fund has been growing year-over-year. Um and you're not, you know, seeing really any any decreases since 2022. Um so you know that's another good thing to see that your general fund balance is healthy and growing. Um which really leads into the next slide that we have um that looks at uh the fund balance of the general fund divided by the total revenues. So really what this slide's kind of getting to is um if you imagine that the general fund didn't receive any more revenue after

63025, you would still be able to cover 66% of the year based on what left in the the fund balance. Um so this is a very healthy percentage and you'll see it's remained relatively similar, you know, 68 to 64 to 66. Um the GFO recommends, you know, kind of like twoish months. Uh so this is this is well above that number. So a a healthy balance there. And the final thing that we wanted to point out um that we like to kind of discuss is the pension funding for the uh different uh pension plans that the city has. Um so we kind of laid out a little bit of a grid as to where like you know um the state would like best practice be that everything's 100% funded. um they they'll send you some uh information if you get below 60% um and then if you get lower than 60% they're going to start requiring corrective action at a certain point. Um so at the bottom of the slide we laid out for the city's pension plan you're at 75.85 uh so above this 60% and for the public safety plan you're at 90.98%. So, both your plans are above that 63% um and and you know, relatively close to the 100% on the public safety and somewhere in the middle on the the pension plan. Uh but no, uh cause for concern on either of those. And that is the end of our slides. Um if anyone has any questions, we'd be happy to answer them.

No questions. Thank you for the presentation. Yeah, thank you for your time and uh um yeah, if anything ever comes up, always feel free to reach out to us. Thank you.

Okay. New business item number two, [clears throat] approval contract with Cupad Recreation. City administration is seeking city council approval for a contract with CUPAD to update the recreation's 5-year plan. The current plan expires December 31st, 2026, and the cost would be 10,600, which would be paid after July 1st, 2026 um and is currently included in the draft uh fiscal year 2627 budget. Motion to approve. Support discussion. Mr. May please call ro. Councor Dubour. Yes. Councor Moore. Yes. Councelor Bosch.

Yes. May. Yes. New business item number three. Approval unendowed agency fund agreement. City manager.

The city council was requested to approve an agreement with community foundation for Delta County uh to establish the city of Eskanaba community benefit unendowed agency fund. This fund is designed to serve as a flexible financial tool to support local economic vitality through initiatives like job creation and housing growth. So what that all means is years ago there was the Eskanaba Industrial Foundation. Um and it dissolved uh the money was really supposed to come to the city to be used for economic development in the city. Um and it was turned down at the time um and it's been held at the foundation ever since. Um so I approached them to say we have all kinds of projects that have different funding gaps. There's so much owner equity. The bank is willing to extend to a certain point. Um a lot of our traditional tools like the MEEDC um often don't bring enough to Eskanaba. uh or the rules that come with their funding uh might come for example like after cert certificate of occupancy and there's specific funding timing uh that a lot of these sources that we traditionally work with fall short and uh we've also seen at the state level uh pretty severe reductions uh of a lot of economic development funding. Uh so it really with a lot of the projects we have and and this money already there it was time to activate it. Uh so worked with the foundation uh really they will continue to hold the funds and the city would just administer a a program um more than likely uh some sort of loanbased type program so that the the fund can be replenished um and probably to prioritize loans that that do replenish the fund more quickly

so that we can continue to support more projects. Um but uh it's sort of their standard template uh for an unendoued agency fund. Uh the only thing that really was unique to the city is some language in there about a demonstration of public benefit. Uh so that might mean job creation, it might mean housing units, it might mean infrastructure, uh it might mean increased taxable value. Um but every time we do make a loan which will come through the council um and certainly we will uh work with the foundation to keep them informed. Uh but we will have to demonstrate that public benefit as well.

Motion to approve the unended agency fund agreement. We have a motion seeking support. We can have discussion after that support. Mr. Ba. So, the qualifications uh for each loan would be handled on a case-byase [clears throat] basis by council. We can make up our own requirements for each. Yes. Um the terms, the loan, the interest terms.

Correct. Um what we've seen with programs in the past is there's very rigid rules about um certain amounts of owner equity um certain amounts um of job creation and the more rules you put on it in the first place um you end up with money that isn't usable. Um it doesn't complement the other sources of funding either. Um, there will definitely be things that council should have a checklist of and and we can develop that of some security interest, uh, some personal guarantees, uh, possibly the requirement that a bank has already done some underwriting on it. Um, certainly if it's a higher risk project or a longer term, we might want to charge more interest. If it's a shortterm loan with security, we we would likely use a lower rate. Um, but it's set up to have a little bit more flexibility. Uh, but certainly common sense requirements are going to have to be applied.

The city already has a loan board. This would be outside of the their scope. We could uh put it onto them. Um, I think when we sent our last loans that were CDBG based up to Northern Initiatives that board, I don't think they've met in years. Um, we'd have to verify possibly reappoint um members, but we we could either run it through the council or we could do it through that board. [clears throat] So the community foundation's only role in this is to hold the money and to invest the money.

Correct. And does the city have any authority or suggestion or control over how the money is invested? I think the city would have input. Um the city would receive statements so that we know how much funding is in there. Um, and there would have to be some communication if we anticipate uh certain loans that are coming. Um, we would have to communicate to make sure there's enough liquidity in the fund. Um, but we wouldn't have direct control over the investments. That would be strictly the foundation. Approximately how much money is in there right now?

About 450,000. And if there was four and a half million, we could probably support four and a half million of projects. Um there's just with all the we are constantly bombarded with uh businesses looking to expand u housing projects, you name it. Um working capital requirements. Um there's so many projects that we could support. um we won't have enough to go around.

At one time the city was sitting on a bunch of I believe that the money came from the state and it wasn't being utilized and we were told to either return it to the state and or send it to someone else here in the UP. I we council at the time sent it to and I forget who is handling those funds. someone here in the UP. Would it be possible to get those funds back and put into this?

Um, those funds were I believe CDBG that was the kind of the genesis of those. Um, so I don't think we could combine them. Um, Northern Initiatives, U actually does a really good job running those funds even though we don't make a lot of loans because their CDBG and the requirements that come with it. Um, but I do think we could push these kind of in concert where if business is starting, they need to employ 20 people. um we could use this fund, the unendowed fund for uh part of maybe the construction of the building or the buildout and then they could use the CDBG funds for working capital. Um so I I think we could take them back. I don't know if we have capacity to manage a CDBG loan though.

All right. Further discussion on this item. Mr. May, please call roll. Counc Dubour. Yes. Council Moore. Yes. Counc. Yes. Council Flaw. Yes. May.

Yes. [clears throat] New business item number four. [clears throat] Discussion. Yach club lease. So there is a lease in the uh packet. [snorts] Um, I I would say it's more or less the same as our last lease. Small changes. It looks a little different. It's It's a little more simplified. Um, more or less it's the same though. Um, there's a lot of conversation back and forth um between myself and and some representatives from the yacht club um on a shorter lease term or uh a rent more than a dollar or or just some different concepts down there. Um but at the end of the day, what ended up getting presented was pretty much what we had before. So I think um the that representation won't be able to be here till our second meeting in March together. Um, but if there's any feedback in the meantime, now would be a good time to see what council might want to see.

Did they give any other concession to move forward with the renewal? Did they provide something new? There were some uh and I don't remember specifically there were a few items in there um to work a little bit more together I think to try and and rent out the space for public events to advertise uh the races better to uh post a little more clearly that the building is open to the public. Um other than that it's more or less the same. [clears throat]

Do we know for sure their nonprofit status? 501c three. I don't know off the top of my head. I I know they have filed I think they're up to date with IRS filings. I did check that. Um but I I don't know if I've ever seen their articles of organization or anything like that. I just have something to consider. Um, the harbor is not really a money-making proposition for Eskanaba. It's our prime piece of property. There's between a pier and the fuel system, there's probably going to be between 1.5 and $2 million worth of improvements that need to happen soon that are being discussed in the five-year plan. So, I'm questioning why um the yacht club wouldn't consider paying rent or contributing monetarily to the harbor since um they really aren't. I think there should be a consideration either through rent or something else that so we have a monetary contribution to um the fact that they are using city property. I would like to know uh approximately how many members they have and how many of those members are renting slips uh from the city each year.

I can get that information. I think generally through um lease discussions there are um you know concessions or suggestions made on both sides and I'm not sure that it was real it has so far been that balanced. It's been um pretty much um a discussion on keeping things the way they are. And I think that um the way things are now um with costs up and the fact that we are trying to make some changes down there that there has to be some changes in this lease. And right now the um leadership of the yacht club has not brought forth any type of suggested changes. They're it's pretty much the same.

I would agree. And I think a dollar a year is uh not anywhere near where we need to be. So I suggest you go back and have another conversation. I can do that. Has there been any discussion from from the yach club about proposing the and or similar events? Right now, it's the club shall provide events open to the public such as Fourth of July brunch, an open house for the Lington Street Cruise, which used to be the Cruise and Classics. Um, and then andor similar events. I just is has anything been suggested, promoted, conceived of, thought about, dreamt of and what are the expectations that we have of what the club is to to present because we run into it with with various private clubs around the area that some have gone with a a social membership, some have gone with an open to public concept. At that point, what is the benefit to a paying member to join if everybody else can have all of the same access to the facilities and do all of the same things? Why would you pay membership? That those concepts tend to dissolve clubs. Um, so I don't know if that's something that council wants to come up with with what is what do we want to see them do? Do we have within within reason. I mean,

I think the excuse me, go ahead.

I think the distinct difference here is from what you just said is that they are on city property. And that's kind of an unusual thing. Other clubs and organizations either own their own building or they they they visit an establishment and rent a space or they go to lunch and buy lunch. But this is very unusual because they're on city property. So there's no easy answer to this. I think it just has to move forward. It can't stay the way way it is. We have to figure out a way to move forward. I think one item to consider too um the I think the concept behind the dollar a year lease is that there's a service provided uh and that public benefit um out some events and contribution some city events uh but also the welcoming of of transients. Um, I think right now how those transients are welcomed is um I'm not down there. Uh, but I think you know the yach club's not always open. It's open when someone might be there. Um, but it it's the way some of these services are provided. uh we certainly could be a little more prescriptive um in certain number of hours that it has to be available to transients um or as it relates to events uh what some of those contributions might look like. Um, but that's something I can mention. Uh, see if they have any ideas on how to provide a little more detail on on what some of that might actually look like.

So, I'd like to ask too, since our last agreement with them, tell us what improvements you've done, what [clears throat] additional activities you provided within that year, that last agreement that we had with you. And then also, I'd like to see a plan on your future five-year plan or what what are you looking to do to improve or increase the use of the Eskanabi Yach Club? I think we need to have a goal from them, too. Just like we have a five-year w plan or we have a you know, plans all over in all our departments that, you know, you're a club, but we're also leasing it to you. What's going to be the new stuff? What's going to be this ideas coming to you to us? So, that would be my recommendation. So to expound on that, not just a plan, an expectation because I think that's important when city land is involved. It's there should be an expectation, not just uh a wish list.

For comparison purposes, I look at the uh the Great Lakes Sports and Recck Club right next door to the landfill. They are a 501c3. They lease city property. I believe it's still a dollar a year. Um, but as a 501c3, they have youth programs throughout the summer. Um, I don't 12 weeks maybe. Uh, they host a national hunting and fishing day event which brings the last I I heard 350 uh youngsters out to their facility. Um, to me that's significant. Um, is there something similar that the yacht club could be doing? I don't know. Um, providing I don't know. Uh, training on boating operation. Could they uh I know snowmobile uh license or permits training um hunting, you know, for young children. I would imagine voting certificates are still uh required to some degree and could they provide that sort of training to uh youth in our community? That would be a step forward in my opinion. So in summary based on some of the information from Mr. McNeel is that it seems like the city is interested in allowing the continuence of some measure of the of the autonomy that that the club has had for use of the building. provided the club makes concessions about either welcoming visitors better,

opening things up, um, or some significant changes in in programs of that would that actively involve the public. If that's not the case, then the city is interested in increasing the rent because the courtesy rent is an exchange for some sort of service. Does that sound somewhat confusing but mostly clarified. Okay, we will have this discussion again on the 19th of March.

Thank you. New business item number five, approval [clears throat] resolution 26-01, Act 51, Street System Additions, Public Works. Um, I think it might be a lot easier to describe. Um, not reading this, um, but if you, [laughter] um, Old State Road, 8th Avenue South, and, um, not that far from the store intersection, you would head, um, down Old State Road. Uh, you would then take, I think it would be your first, um, left and you'd be headed south. And there's the Blueberry Ridge subdivision. It's a small gravel culde-sac along the airport fence. Um, we've maintained it as a city street. Um, it's unimproved, but we do maintain it. adding it to the Act 51 system uh would kind of increase our the the size of the our slice of the pie in the overall [snorts] state calculation. Um it would potentially provide um some more Act 51 revenue. Um so, you know, it doesn't really change anything on our end. um we receive a map from MDOT every year that shows our street system. Um engineering office goes through it and uh they found a few streets that weren't part of it. So this is just to to add it to the map.

Move for a support discussion. Yes. Is this one of the neighborhoods that has asked the city to seal coat their roadway? No. No. Um, it's already asphalt curbing. It's gravel. Oh, it's just gravel. Yes. So, once we include it, I'm assuming this is being done for a reason, aka paving eventually. No.

Um, so it was wasn't brought on by the property owners. Um, just adding it to Act 51 from what I understand can increase our total miles of city street which increases our funding. Um, if a street was put in, I would imagine it would still follow a special assessment process. Um, and the owners would have to pay for that, but right now there's only a few homes um, and then one on the end, mostly vacant lots, so it's it's probably several years out. I'm just wondering, we're not getting ahead of ourselves. If it needs to be paved, should it be paved before it's included? Doesn't matter.

Uh, I don't believe it matters. Um, Kent Dubard's here, too. Uh, public works. He might have some more knowledge on it, but um, I don't believe it matters.

It doesn't have to be paved in order to be included in the Act 51. Um, we have streets right now that are local streets that are gravel. Um, we maintain it and chloride it in the summertime, um, and plow in the winter time and pick up garbage on a couple houses on the street. Um, financially, like Jim mentioned, it would just benefit us in the long run to, uh, add it to the Act 51. And like Jim mentioned, um, they'd have to take out a special assessment for the couple residents that live on that street. And in my opinion, I probably never see it being paid because of the amount of money they're going to have to pay for the amount that's going to have to get paid is a significant amount, especially if you throw in curb and gutter and other things. Um, I just don't see it ever getting paid, but we can continue to maintain it and chloride it and grade it in the summertime and plow it in winter time.

Thank you.

A motion for approval. I think it was Did we already add it? Kieran first. Apologize. Got lost in the dust and the gravel apparently. Mr. May, please call roll. Council member Moore. Yes. Council member Flaw. Yes. Council Ba. Yes. Council Dubour. Yes. May. Yes.

New business. Item number six, approval of resolution 26-02, Act 51 Street. Name changes. Public works. Uh, administration is seeking city council approval of resol resolution 2602, changing the name of power plant road east of Sheridan Road to 21st Avenue North and change the name of Ordo Access Road to North 14th Street. Um, just really makes sense to add the the numbers as most of our streets are and you know the the power plant really isn't in operation. Neither is the Ordo. So um more consistent motion to approve resolution 26-021 support

discussion Mr. May I please call RO? Call RO. Okay, we can do all. Sorry, I couldn't hear you. Um, council Dart. Yes. Council Moore. Yes. Council BA. Yes. Uh, council. Yes. Mayor Hamilton. Yes. New business. Item number seven. Update on city manager position. Mr. Bosch, would you like to lead?

Sure. I just asked that uh this be added since the uh deadline has uh passed. I believe January 31st was the deadline council was informed there were approximately 30 29 I believe 30 uh applications received. I guess uh community deserves to know where we're going to go from here. Um having been through this uh previously um I do recall that uh obviously we can't discuss names at this time. Some of the applicants have requested that uh you know that their current employers not know. Um, so I guess I would suggest that we individually perhaps just a suggestion give uh the city administration our top four or five candidates out of the 30 and uh let them look at them and see, you know, if three or five of us say this person should be interviewed, well, it's kind of a no-brainer then. Um, if they have a a list of 10 people, 10 names, I don't know what what we would do at that point. I don't think we want to interview 10 people. Do we want to set a maximum number of interviews? Again, just my suggestion. Mhm.

I think starting first like you're recommending, let's see what the rest of council suggestions are to come through the filtering because then Jim can compile everything and give us an email roughly of where we're at. And I think I wouldn't I mean guess it depends on how many recommended candies we have at the similarity between all of us, but I wouldn't go too high on interviewing. I mean four to six. I mean I wouldn't even go I mean that's kind of where I'm at. I thought we gave Mr. McNeel an opportunity to pick who we want four or five candidates and he was going to have a conversation first and then we come back to us. That's what I thought that was happening. But that's not what happening.

Mr. McN wasn't going to contact any of the candidates and come back to us. Nothing like that. We were going just so that's clear for everyone. Yes. Just digest that for a moment so that doesn't get misinterpreted. That's important. Okay. Move on. So, our last discussion prior to this is that we ask that Melissa, Heather, and Jim send us all copies of the applications to us and then down the road have them filter out, but also from council provide recommendations based off what we looked over and then filter that kind of down to then begin the first interview process um is what we discussed and I recall prior.

So, they already sent us four. So I think to make it simple then if there's anybody else that we feel strongly about that we want to add to that list of four I think that makes it a little bit easier than giving us the you know making our own list. Very similar I'd say if any other council wanted to add another candidate or email a recommendation from the candidate list to Mr. McNeel to say I really strongly want to add this person. I I I think that's fine. I just think we need to, if we're going to do it that route, we need to have a deadline because we're I would say by the end of next week that has to be considered. I was going to suggest the beginning of next week. That's fine, too.

Um, depending on when we want to, we could set them tonight. Um, our dates for interviews, I would suggest the third or fourth week of February to keep this moving. Correct. Just because council submits extra names that necessarily mean that those individuals would get called for an interview. That's what I'm I'm thinking. There needs to be more of a consensus from council.

I would agree there. Like if Ron, you made a recommendation and then I made the same one not knowing you did. That's two already council members that are inquiring. Um I think that is what you're saying. So if everyone gave a another recommendation, if we match, it would reinforce, you know, you saying so if there's two recommendations for a name or or three that we more likely to be brought in for an interview than just one council member selecting one person, I'd say that would drop off the I say three because then that's the majority. I say three people would have to suggest somebody in addition to what they did would have to consent on something on three.

That's fair. I'm good if that's what council wants to do because then that that's a that's a good way of narrowing it down so you don't have too many. Okay. So council should have their additional choices submitted by Monday morning so that that can be disseminated back and we can make our decision because we'll need to start setting these things and [clears throat] I agree three or four weeks. I don't know how many weeks we have left in February already. Are there four left? No, three left. So we have a council meeting on the 19th. Um, but we certainly I don't know if we want to do it probably on a separate day. I I imagine

I was going to recommend a three-week time frame because it's we're going to have to contact candidates and give them time to plan. So my next question for the council too, if we're starting first phase interviews with the recommended candidates, are first interviews coming to us or are we filtering first interviews through them and then second interviews go to us? I'm just asking what were what our process would [snorts] look like. Um, previously when we've been through this, I I think it was just council did their interviews. Mhm. [snorts] There was no secondary interview. That's just what I recall.

Okay. Do we want to consider interview dates tonight or um I think this is the only time we can consider it. Yeah, I would agree. It better be now if we're getting information Monday and Tuesday. So calendar's out, folks. We're looking at [sighs] last week of February. Wide open for me. Mornings, evenings, afternoons.

Is it going to be kind of determined by the candidate if they're available? Are we looking to do Zoom? Are we looking to try to get them in person? We can we can make anything happen, I guess. What's the preference of council? Um, my preference is in person. Of course, that would be my preference, too, but I understand circumstances. I'm okay with Zoom [snorts] as well if need be. I think with this much notice and possibly more than one day is an option. If they're serious, they should be able to get here. Okay. So, February 25th, 26th, or 27th, I'm not available. Are we running the risk of of having candidates not agree to this? We do this as a council. What about the It has to be an open meeting.

What we've done in the past in that regard, I'm sorry, we're having two different um we've had uh the other candidates wait in the lobby with their phones off, the TV off so they don't know what's [snorts] going on in here that so they don't know. I'm more I'm more concerned about each individual candidate if they didn't want their current employer to know. Well, that's just it. Once they're named as candidates, a potential interviewee, um we we have to get, you know, get their permission at that point because it is a public Yeah. It may weave some out right there.

We we can't uh go into close session to interview them. Correct. Okay. Just food for thought. So, what about the 24th? Tuesday. I can do 23rd, 24th if if if we're looking at everyone's schedule. Todd was not available 25th, 26th, 27th. Correct. And are you thinking more morning or afternoon was my question. I have a preference anytime for meetings.

I have a preference for mornings for meetings for positions like this. I have a preference for mornings, but that's more just have them be here on time and see how that part works out. Um, if we're concerned about participation with open meeting, we can do it the evenings. I have a feeling the candidates are going to prefer a morning meeting.

At this point, I'm flexible. Also, take into consideration, how long do we intend each interview to last? Do we need two days? Are we going to [snorts] have four candidates or six candidates? Do we need two days? Let's Okay, before we Let's not get all the eggs in Tuesday's basket and find out we needed another one. expect an hour per candidate. Could be longer. Okay. Well, we best start in the morning then. [laughter] 24th at 9:00. Okay. [snorts] Word for me. I'm not positive to check my calendar. I don't My real calendar is at home. So,

so we can set a 9. We can set a 10:15. We can set an 11:30 and [snorts] break and 1:00. [clears throat] amenable. So, at this point, we're February 24th, 9:00 a.m. Correct. Works for me. If there's any candidates that have a good reason to to not make it. We could have an alternate date. We should set that as well. Can everybody make Wednesday? Unable, but I would say the 23rd if they want to come a day early. Yeah,

the 23rd if they can't do the 24. Okay. Monday. Okay. So, we'll we'll clear and reserve this room from 9 to noon on Monday.

What do we miss anything? Well, if we don't interview them all on the same day, there's a chance that our questions will be leaked to whoever, right? [snorts] So, I guess I'd like them all to be here at the same time as far as the order. Maybe draw names to see who gets to go first, second, third, fourth. Sounds good. All right. That sounds like the semblance of a plan.

Did you We're good here, Ron, with the rest of the information. Okay, that is the manager update. Moving on to appointments. Should you feel that you would like to get even more involved in your community than sitting in this meeting room tonight, you could take the example of Mr. Joe Prespina, who just celebrated his 82nd birthday on Tuesday, and I have to say it now because that was a personal request from him since he's a neighbor, but he is 82 years old and still serving on the traffic safety advisory board. So, it's never too late to pitch in. Board of Library Trustees, one vacancy. Historic Preservation Commission, one vacancy. Housing Commission, one vacancy. Zoning Board of Appeals, one vacancy and two alternate vacancies. Board commission and committee reports.

The uh city pension, the former MS uh we met a week or two ago since our last meeting. Um things are on track as we saw in the audit roughly 70% funded. Nice progress. I have no at this time. Nothing. Nothing. I'm good, too. I'm all right. Beginning of the month. Nothing's happened yet. At this time, we'll hear general public comment. If you wish to make comment, please approach the podium. State your name and place of residence.

Hello. Um, my name is Rebecca Bender. Uh, and I work for C2AE and I live um downtown as well, uh, 908 Lington Street. Um, but I come on behalf of C2AE, um, because we have an office downtown and we have been enjoying working with the city on the reconstruction of Letington Street. Um, so you can imagine our delight a couple years ago when we were at the House of Letington and we saw the rendering. Um it was a painting done in the 60s, but it was of the initial installation of the sanitary sewer um down the center of Letington. Uh and so Tyler graciously lent us the print um and we scanned it and then this summer while the crews were doing construction in the same area, um Orberstar and C2AE and some of the city staff recreated the photo. Um and so uh if I can share this with the with the group. So this was the painting. This is a a print of it. The uh painting that was done um in the 1960s. Uh and then here is our attempt at a recreation. This is a photograph taken um this summer. So we um we have taken a lot of pride in working with this city um with this in this work and we certainly mourn the tragedy of the house of Letington burning and we also recognize the personal and professional loss of Tyler

Dubard. So, I have another copy of the painting for you. Um, just so it's just um just a gift to the city, no conditions. Um, but we thought we'd we'd share it with you all uh with our thanks and our regrets.

Thank you. Thank [applause] you. If you wish to make further public comment hi, good evening. Kelly Vanenhov, Delta County Commissioner, District 4. Just have a few updates uh regarding things and happenings with Delta County. Uh Delta County is in the beginning phases of updating our master plan. We are requesting public participation in the form of an online survey. The survey can be found on our website at deltacountymi.gov. It takes approximately 3 minutes 3 to 5 minutes to complete. So we would really appreciate feedback. Uh the Delta County Opioid Task Force is accepting applications for mini grant requests. These mini grants are for up to $3,000 distributed annually. Our task force seeks to provide grant awards to qualified organizations and initiatives that can make effective use of a portion of our state settlement funds. The task force key focus areas include harm reduction, prevention, treatment, and recovery. Organizations must be registered nonprofits, local government agencies, community- based organizations, and tribal agencies operating in Delta County. I know uh Eskanaba public safety has been awarded opioid task force grant funds in the past and uh we really hope that we can work with Eskanaba uh city of Eskanaba in the future. Uh our Delta County parks are now taking online reservations for the upcoming camping season. We are asking returning campers to pay attention to the change in some campsite numbers for this season in our parks.

Online reservations can be made through Campspot or by calling 906-7861020 and speaking to our new parks manager, Heather Leuk. Um, our county meetings are held the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 5:15 at the Delta County Service Center. They are also available through our YouTube channel. And we love public uh participation and their input at our meetings. So, we look forward to large crowds in the future. Thank you. Further public comment at this time.

Uh Craig Warp, Esanava DDA. I wanted to let you know that next Wednesday in this room, we're going to have a brand new program uh that was put together by our uh community development committee within the Eskanaba EDA and we're partnering with the uh Delta County Economic Development Alliance to put on a business workshop that we're calling project point uh guiding businesses to success. Our first presenter is going to be uh Nicole um Nicole Podin who is with the Small Business Development Center in Michigan. Uh we're looking for any business owners or anyone who wants to start a business to be able to participate in these. Uh they're free and uh you can register at eskanabad.org or just show up between 3 and 5 o'clock. Hope to see everybody there. Yeah. Can you see that?

Okay. Further public comments at this time announcements. Watch your step. It's icy. Seek a motion to adjurnn. So move. Second. Have a good night. Thanks. You too.