City Council - Regular Meeting

So, be a little lenient. Give a little grace. You all want grace. So, give it to the citizens that take the time to come here and speak. Um, as far as the finance chair, I would like to ask Judy again, and I know this is a broken record, but I'm going to ask again as the finance chair, how much money of ARPA is left? Can we get it in right? I still would like to know how much ARPA funds are left to allocate. And then my second question about ARPA funds, I noticed that there was audit done by the neighborhood engagement hub for the $30,000 or what have you? Have we done audits for other people that have um received our money to verify that everyone who received are using those funds appropriately? It would be nice to see the results of all of that money that was given to different organizations come back and say how did it help for whatever problem they said it would resolve. I ask that each one of you take one 501c3 and ask them to come up and give us some feedback just so we'll know that money wasn't wasted were used inappropriately. Um DDA need some help. Um as finance chair with the DDA um I came the other day just to drop a bill off and it was after hours. Um so the city was closed and I just wanted to put it in the mail box down here. When you look on the city of Flint website, it doesn't say what time you have to stop um paying for parking, but even if I was say a senior, and I know that a lot of them drop off their bills in the mailbox outside, they shouldn't have to pay a dollar for

we should have like some type of grace period out here for parking. And if you can't do that, the city needs to move the mailbox closer to the street so that people can drop off their voter ballots and their bills. It I mean just to pay a dollar for you to just come and drop something in a mailbox, that could change somebody's home environment. So any help with that would be appreciated. The final speaker for this meeting is Rosalyn Salvin. I want to thank you for allowing me to address the committee. I'm here to speak about the proposed ordinance 260006. I'm a member of the bridge brigade that has been protesting on the Beach Street I69 overpass. Every Friday since February 28th, 2025, we're there for about two hours. We leave the area cleaner than we found it and have had good response from the public for being out there. We reviewed MCL section 257.615 and are in compliance with all restrictions in that statute. We do not do anything that resembles any emergency vehicles or presents a distraction to the drivers on the expressway. No flashing lights or reflective materials. We do not promote or denigrate any political candidates. We bring awareness of current events that are happening. Most the time the city police drive by and county sheriffs, we've had a increase in that recently and they give us a first a thumbs up for expressing our first amendment rights of freedom of speech. The dot has stopped a few times and told us we

couldn't have things on the bridge. We informed them that we are within our rights under statute MCL section 257.615 and they have left. The MDOT attempted an administrative rule change. They had an open comment period, got thousands of negative responses due to the freedom of speech on public property. There's nothing moving forward with that at this time. I did look yesterday. Um, there is also, I believe, legislation pending at the state level that I've been told will not go through. This ordinance proposal and the other attempts that have been made are nothing more than a blatant attempt to shut down our right to free speech and peaceful protesting. We the people say no to those attempts. We are guaranteed to the right of freedom of speech by our national constitution. Shutting down our right to use public property for freedom of speech is the same as denying us the right of freedom of speech. Do not take away our constitutional rights. Would you like a copy of this?

Give it to the court, please. Madam Chair, that was the final speaker. Thank you. It's now time for council response. Council members may respond once to all public speakers only after all public speakers have spoken. Individual council members response shall be limited to two minutes. Would anyone like to Madam Chair? Go ahead.

Thank you. First of all, happy new year to everyone 2026. I am in agreement that uh hopefully this will be an amazing year for the council in which we can uh sit here and do the work that we're supposed to do for the residents of the city. I want to address a couple of things that um some people said. Uh you made a suggestion that we invite the recipients of the ARPA grants to come and speak to uh how the spinning is going and if they're meeting any milestones or metrics that they have um placed in order to get the funding. I will invite some in here uh especially some that received money in the seventh board. I will invite them to come and speak and give an update on what they're doing with their ARA money and if they're moving forward if they're meeting any metrics as well as I can reach out to some who are elsewhere, but I will specifically reach out for 74 um recipients uh and then any other 501s that I just happen to catch up to. I would invite them to come speak as well so that they can give a report on what they're doing with their ARA money. Uh and then you also spoke to parking in front of city hall. One alarms me because you said it was after hours and so you should not be getting a ticket anyway if it's after hours. But also if you all you did was come up and drop something in the dropbox, you have 30 minute free parking in front of city hall to conduct business. So if you did receive a ticket um we can get that ticket. You did not. Okay. But just so you know, there is a 30 minute grace period for anyone conducting business inside of city hall that parks in front of city hall. So there is a grace period there. And then as far as um the woman who came up and she spoke about resolution 260006 that is in legislative committee. It's not that resolution is not in this committee, but thank you for providing us with that paper so that we can take a look at it and to see a little bit more about what you're talking about before we get to that committee and vote on it. I yield, madam chair.

Thank you. Anyone else? Madam Chair, go ahead. I'd like to say happy new year to everybody and thank you guys all for coming out and looking forward to working for you in the new year of 2026. Thank you. Anyone else? Madam Chair, go ahead.

Thank you. I'm going to say thank you to the sixth board residents, Sarah and Michelle, because it is always some active sixth board residents that are in here to voice in their opinion. And um Michelle, there are uh two that are coming. Um it'll probably in the next month to talk about the Rubik's, what they've met, what they and they've done some great things. When we talk about um M Park has a going green garage where you can utilize a electric lawn mower. You can use uh blowers, anything lawn so that we don't have to get all the calls with light but cut your grass. They can utilize those lawnmowers for free. And also with Bethl church uh with the great things that are going on there where you can go anyone can go there on Monday to get free food and also get a COVID test, get a flu test, also get cholesterol. So there are many great things that are going. I wanted to make sure um with our my board money that it would be seen even after I was not uh in the sixth quarter in the seat anymore and that was important to me to keep it so it's something that's sustainable. Um Sarah, I agree. And I never told you my grandmother was deaf and I had to learn how to read lips. And when her phone rang, it was a light. It was so antiquated that would just go off in her home. And if they decide right now that they want to come to a meeting, they should be able to come to a meeting and have someone in a language that they should be able to understand and communicate with. And it is dragging on. Um we just got back. It needs to be done. uh language. We have language barriers and it should not be one for our deaf community. We have the largest Michigan School of the Deaf less than five miles from here and we can't get someone here to be an interpreter. It's it's inexcusable at this point. We find

money for everything else. We shouldn't find money for that. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes. Go ahead.

Um first I would like to say happy new year. um to you all. Um and I would like to um thank the residents who are here. Thank you for being engaged in the process. I'm really hoping that for this year 2026 that we can get more residents to come down and be engaged. Um, also I would like to say to um, Miss Young, Miss Young, I will um, definitely invite um, some of the um, individuals or organizations that received ARPARE money, particularly those who um, received ARPA money in reference to my um, $30,000 um ward initiative. Um that's a good idea to have them come and and speak about what it was that they, you know, did and the outcomes of it. Um and Miss Sarah, thank you. Thank you for for coming and speaking. Um, actually, if you think about it, this should have been done years ago. It should have been done years ago. And I'm I'm you know, when you came to us the first time, I was like, you know what? She's right. So, thank you for always coming to to the podium and and pressing the issue. And so hopefully we can um get something done and and put some money in the budget to make sure that it can continue on.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone else? Seeing none, I will take a few minutes. You know that I know American Sign Language and that I know the syntax is very much different and not that individuals can read their reading skills. I have a tax client whose reading skills and understanding even with an interpreter present is very difficult. So, um I am behind getting a sign language interpreter is working on the funding and I have taken I took the holiday off so that will be started again this probably next week. Um, and also the ARPA tracking the ARPA dollars is never my job. It is the administration's job. [snorts] If you want to know how much money is left in the ARPA, you may voya that information just like I would have to. I kept track of the ARPA money for the council reasons for community grants. I stopped doing that. So, um, you may go ahead and foyer that information. And now it is time for the consent agenda.

Is there any, Madam Chair? Go ahead. I make a motion to approve the consent agenda to send, excuse me, to send a consent agenda to council. There's a motion to send the consent agenda to the council by the council woman and the seven board. Is there support? Is there is there any separations? All right. It's totally separated. Um, our one and only resolution is 2600 ESNA software upgrade addition of business licensing and special assessments. Go ahead. Motion to send to council.

Support motion by the council councilman in the eighth boarded by the councilwoman in the seventh board to send to council. Is there any discussion? Go ahead. Through you to Mr. Moore. Mr. Moore.

[clears throat] Mr. more. Since this was not a budgeted expense, can you tell us what um the benefit to the city residents? This is going to be this is a major upgrade to the software. Uh it is something that uh go back step. The reason why it wasn't budget is the capital bottom. and it's an internal service fund which means that uh it won't trump at the revenue and expense of that fund. Well, it wasn't budgeted because we adopted last year's budget. So, this one got budgeted. So,

just broadly speaking, can you tell how spending $600,000 is going to improve the system and how it's going to improve the interaction with Absolutely.

That's that's one of my questions. Uh the first item I'll uh talk to is the uh security of the system. Uh right now everything is uh the version we have is housed in this building. We are responsible for making sure that the hackers don't take access to it. With this u uh upgrade uh it'll be moved to the cloud. The vendor will be responsible for maintaining security. They have much better security than than we could ever hope to have. So our data will be a lot more secure. Second, the the program is designed uh the way the business world works today. Uh right now if you uh try to export many of the reports to Excel, uh there's a lot of work to make it useful. Sometimes uh an account number would have three lines in order and you'll have 30,000 lines that you have to deal with. uh with this program with the update will all be online. You won't have to spend hours trying to manipulate data so that you can't use Excel to access it. Uh it's going to make it so that uh we always have the most recent update on everybody's computer as soon as they log on. uh right now every week uh we have to update our uh programs and like I have a seven programs that I use uh so I have to make sure those seven are updated every time I have computers that's twice as many it takes me roughly an hour a week to upgrade everything that will be gone won't have to worry about that uh it's going to provide us with some uh software like one of the the big things is being able to uh send work orders to our uh water service

center uh and have sent to uh the field on their iPad so they can address it uh immediately. If you want to turn somebody's water on, we can send uh a message saying turn on this person's water. They'll get it. They can do it that afternoon. They don't have to come to city hall to get the work order. Uh there's uh so just a just to because my time is running out. How will this save the city money in the long run?

Uh because I don't think we're cutting any labor downstairs as far as like it may be more efficient, but we're we're just adding an expense. We're not cutting any labor. So tell me how this is going to add a cost benefit in the long run. Some of the other items uh we won't be storing the uh we won't have to maintain the servers in house. They're the vendors will be So how is this going to save the city money?

That that will save us money because we won't have to maintain those servers in house. There's a lot of uh a lot of these items are uh labor saving devices that we will save. The other thing you have to remember is that many of the items that we're we're talking about these are all going to be required at some point. The vendor is going to insist that everybody update their software at some point. And and what is the yearly because now we're we're going from something that we purchased, right? Now we're going to a subscription base that's going to cost us money every year till the end of time, right? So what is that yearly expense?

Currently for the on it's about 128,000 a year and this one with systems will be around 342,000 a year. Anyone else? Go [clears throat] ahead. uh through you to the speakers. Uh just for clarification, currently annually we're about 100 you say 28 128,000. Okay. And in addition to the 600,000 to I guess purchase the license or what have you. In addition to that approximately $300,000 a year.

Yes. And then that 600 that first year's 348,000 is incred. So then after that installation it'll be 348 years. Okay. And we would get invoice for that 348 after the first year. Yes. The 600 uh would cover the first year as well as installation. Okay. Um will uh will this reduce any any expenses like u insuranceances or or policies that we might otherwise now be be spending dollars for?

Uh I'm not sure it'll be uh and certainly it's going to be a labor saving device. The fact that uh we don't have to spend time uh updating our computers every week is going to save everybody in the city that uses it time. The fact that we can uh one of the things that we'll be able to do is use their program for credit card uh processing that will make it much much simpler for us to reconcile our our bank statements every month. save hours every month by using their program as opposed to using a third party.

Okay. But but to your to your knowledge and understanding this not going to eliminate the need for us to carry any uh insuranceances that we might otherwise be paying now at you know to cover you know any kind of breach. I don't think I'll right now we are uninsured for uh cyber uh insurance. We're currently uninsured. That's correct. Okay. Uh I I think this will go uh along the way towards uh making it so that we're more insurable. Okay.

Uh and I I think it's also going to make greatly enhance the security of our system. Uh right now it's very difficult for uh you we have to spend a lot of uh staff time. We got to spend a lot of time worrying about trying to keep our data secure every single day with this. The vendor is going to take that responsibility. Okay. That I believe I understand I apologize. I don't know your name but you were nodding as it related to like some of the time. Yeah. Is is there anything quantifiable that you can add to this?

Well, I know that him and I both have like large reports every run. I have reports that take two to four hours and so when I'm running them in my system currently, I'm dead in the water to do anything. With this new program, it actually runs them behind the scenes so I can continue working. And his is the same thing. Same thing with Amanda. So, they run them behind the scenes. So we can continue working and those reports will pop up when they're done instead of running where we don't have access to our computers. I'm sorry. Can I ask you to share your name and your department? I'm Stacy Bassy. I'm the assessor. Okay. Thank you.

Reports is a very real problem. Some of the reports that Amanda and I run, we run at night because the rest of the users complain about how long how much it slows the system down. But by being able to during night during the daytime it's going to save us time is not going to impact any of the other users from and you know that is going to be attributed directly to the purchasing to having this put in the cloud or process.

The way they process is completely different thing. They have a completely separate server for processing the reports. So it's not going to impact somebody that's trying to enter in a cash receipt. And then I guess one other thing that I that's not jumping out at me. Um, how was was there a a bid process that was executed or was this a one source type thing?

So this is a sole source because of me. Um currently the state tax commission only has one um company that we are that is certified for assessing departments throughout the state to use and that is BSNA. We have CAMA standards which is um computerized cut. I'm going to cut you off. We'll cut we'll get back to you. Okay. Anybody else? M

go ahead. Yep. Thank you. That's what I was going to do. So it's um our camera standards which we have a committee that I am on. So we have standards that we have to meet with our computerized systems. So throughout the state we are all doing the same thing and have the same coding. And the SNA is currently the only system that has been certified through the state and it we'll be a while before we have other um options through other companies. Okay. Um how space relation wasn't cake anymore. No, congratulations. Yeah, thank you.

You're welcome. Um, so when was the last time this the system was it sounds antiquated. It they we switched to.net. I've been here nine years on Friday and we changed back when I was at Burton. So probably 15 years ago was when we went to net. So it is time for a change. It is time to bring that system up today. It's way less time. Yeah. Because software can be easily be outdated. I mean that's a long time,

right? And I have been to other um since this came out. I've been to a few other units and have um looked at the program and it definitely has some perks. There's still, as always, some glitches, but there's definitely, like I said, with those reports running behind, particularly for me, I have 57,000 parcels. When I say it takes me hours to run reports, and this will save me a lot of time. And also my employees time because when I'm running something, they are coming come into my office, they say, "Sir, are you running a long report?" I'm like, "Yeah, sorry." Because it literally will take It pulls on the system.

Yeah, it pulls out of the system. it could literally take them a good minute to even change to a different parcel. So, this will speed up everybody's work time within um the network. So, with the cyber um we have cyber tech and so we don't have cyber insurance this system um so will this um make us more more appealing to be able to obtain insurance. I I was recommended by the insurance companies

and something that um you know after the cyber attack we have moved some applications to the cloud like the police applications have been moved to the cloud because it's more secure. Okay, we did that last year and and this is going to make it for all the other main applications will be moved to the cloud because it's going to be safer. Okay. And so what I mean if the system that's

like floppy dis uh and the uh the setup for the the system which was done I don't 10 15 years back uh some of the decisions made back then are haunting us today. we'll be able to to correct those policies to make our system much more efficient. Okay. And so, um, Stacy, real quick, so when you say you run that when you're running reports, will it lessen the amount of people or like when you're doing reports that you have to separate or give it will it reduce the number of people having to run reports or I mean what is the savings? Time. Time.

Yeah. We'll be able to still work. Not monetary. Not monitor. No, we'll we'll be able to we'll get more work done. There won't be that lag. So, yeah, we'll be able to process more work done get and and faster. Why did this I mean the system that old why wasn't a

they well what has happened BSNA is expanding and they um partnered with a new company is coming in to help them grow. So with this company coming in, they did the they were able to help them um expand. So it's kind of like seen like Shark Tank when they go in and have that bigger company come in to take them to where they need to go next. So that's what it is. We've been talking the program's been available for maybe three years and and we've been talking probably two and a half years about because we do at some point where we're going to have to make a change.

So the yearly updates I mean the yearly fee does that include their updates because I'm they're going to updating. Okay. And so what's that total Jeff? 34 two. Yeah. Okay. And so Okay. And probably more than likely the cost will go up as it gets out there too. It's in there contract part of it, but it's a a yearly increase of uh 5% or uh CPI whichever is greater. Okay. To go off the CPI or 5%. So there is a increase. Anyone else?

Anyone else in the first row? Anyone else in anyone in the second round? Go ahead. So, um I can't remember somebody mentioned credit card fees. Um will the credit card fee for the residents change at all? Will it be decreasing increasing? I'm not sure about the uh I think the fees are going to be about the same. It's just that it's going to make it a lot easier for staff to uh track the fees and not track the fees, but track the payments that people make with credit cards. People pay online. Right now, they have a lot of customers that pay online

and it'll make it much more efficient. Uh because the But no offense, Mr. Morland, people don't care if it's more efficient for us if it's cost them two or three more%. That's what we're going to It's going to be virtually the same. Virtually the same or the same?

I want to say I believe that it's going to be the same. Yeah, I I don't think Yeah, I don't think Can you Can you find that out before Monday? We can find out. Can you find out for me before Monday? And then um do we know any other municipalities as large as ours that are on the cloud system? No, there is not any that scares me. There is there is one that's 37,000 parcels that is on there. But do they run water? Yes, there are six like I would say that

I I don't I don't like us being the guinea pigs and then we come to find out that I'm comfortable with it and I would be if I was not comfortable with it very

I get that but no offense to you. We've heard that from every CFO or I know that you haven't changed so we've been I think Mr. Moore has been our third or fourth CFO that have led us down uh astray many a times because they said they were comfortable with it. So, no offense, but I just it it scares me a little bit that we are going to go into a system that we're going to be the largest and potentially the guinea pigs and the residents and potentially your staff is going to feel the wrath of this if it isn't

isn't I'll get you a list of some of the larger customers that have changed over that. Can you get that to me as soon as possible? Because I I would seriously call that because this system and the way people pay their bills and and and look at stuff online with PSA like a lot of people use that in the community to pay their water bill.

But the problem that we have one of the largest communities within the state so it's hard to get something comparable to us. Well, we're not the one of the largest. I mean, we're in the top 10, but Grand Rapids is bigger and like there's a lot of them that are very few larger than us. Yeah. Let me get to the list and uh I can also get to the list of communities outside the state of Michigan as well. Thank you. Anyone else in the second round? Anyone else in the second? Go ahead.

Thank you. I do want to say you are correct. I believe m uh Flint is the seventh largest city in the state of Michigan and we have a lot of cities, villages, townships and a lot more smaller like even in Jese County. The reason we're the county seat is because the closest municipality to us has about 30 35,000 people less than us. So you are correct with the numbers of how it would be harder especially around us to find someone comparable as far as population. Um uh I know that I've heard before about uh BSNA and how um if certain people are running reports that it does completely knock out virtually the rest of your workday or any time that you have to do it and how sometimes it has to be handled after hours. So I am excited to see that we'll have something that you will be be able to continue being productive in your roles and do other things while this runs in the background. I yield madam chair.

Thank you. Anyone else in the second round? I'm going to take a few seconds just to talk about the licensing issue. As we all know, I'm here on council. We have a major problem keeping track of businesses who are licensed to do business within the city. Mr. Moore, can you address how this will improve that? This will allow us to keep track of them on our computer system, allow us to uh it'll have a complete database for every business that we have in the city. It'll interface with the other applications we have so we can make sure that there's a way that we can check, double check, find out where uh businesses are located. uh it'll make it much much easier for the department to uh to send letters to uh sending bills to interface with all of the businesses in the city right now. We just don't have a good way of doing that.

Thank you. Do a lot of that. Thank you very much. Okay, it's now time for the vote to send 2600 to council. Mr. Yes. Lewis. Yes. M. Johnson. Yes. M. Yes. Ward. Yes. M. Burns. Yes. M. Yes. Mr. Piper. Yes. Mr. Jarrett. Yes. Nine. Yes. Zero. No.

The vote is nine. Yes. Zero no. That will be sent to council. We now have a special order as requested by Councilwoman Burns regarding an update on the city's acco projects. Mr. Burns, I'll go ahead and let you start. Thank you. Um you, Madam Chair, excuse me. I we're going to do this in 15 minutes with additional time. Got it. Um you chair to um Scott Dunie and Mr. Edwards. [laughter]

Yeah. Um my reasoning for asking um requesting a special order, I wanted to know if we have got um one the any loans that we have that are uh for projects coming out. How are we going to fund the loans? Um where are we at with the spreadsheets um on our projects and what percentage and to give an update because so we will know like where we're at um and possible and I believe we've got something coming in for uh I think it's three revolving loans and I thought I had requested to have we have a new um is he interim DPW Um, Marwan Sohalad.

No, Mr. Marwan is permanent. Oh, okay. So, he is he our DPW director? He's deputy. So, does he come to meetings? He He can come to a meeting. I just learned since I've been sitting in this meeting Oh. that you Yes. I asked Mr. Dunie here to come to this meeting. I didn't know you wanted him and uh Yolanda to attend. So

yeah, I I wanted him here because if I know Miss Edwards that you are in the absence of the DPW director, you are in that acting role, but the interim should be here to answer these questions. And I did want him to be here because I did have I don't even know who he is, what he looked like. I mean I I don't and I would like to, you know, put eyes on him because these are some important projects and I don't know do we have an updated spreadsheet? Yes, I do. I can get you that tomorrow. I'll get that to Mr. Edwards and he'll get that to you tomorrow.

Could you get that for me? I don't know if we can I would like to I've got questions for him. Um because I'm I'm used to we go back to me. It should be the DPW. No offense to both of you, Mr. Dungeon, but that's his job. um his interim. He is basically leading that department right now. What licensings does he hold? S4. How many licenses are required? You hold one too though, don't you? Yes, I have a D1 S4 and an F3. And Janette Best holds the top uh wastewater license and she holds waste and he he holds a S S4.

S4. Okay. I would like him to come because one thing with our water and our infrastructure, residents have got um questions and I think that we need to be transparent. Uh people have very real trust issues with the water and the infrastructure. And um as spring comes, they start working on these streets, they start rattling the pipes, people going to see some rust in their water again or or sediment. Um that that just seems to happen. And where are we at also on the service line replacements? What percentage are we? I see them working.

Yeah, they're they're the state, you know, took over that project. So, yes, right now they're organizing themselves. We're in the last we were in the last 1 percentile of that project. So, the state is uh conferring right now with the vendor and they're preparing and getting themselves together to be up to gear up in the spring and Right. And so with them finishing up that project, um we don't know the the numbers have been off. And have we did any restoration yet? They were doing they were doing some of that, you know, toward the end of that season. Of course, when the season ends, they have to end. Yeah. They no longer can do that.

And so does the state give reports to let us know where we're at in that? Oh, yeah. We're still continuing. We have a comprehensive meeting. It has been going on uh every Wednesday. morning and that involves all the state sources that is eagle treasury uh um and all the flint sources and all the engineering folk and all the vendors everybody everybody's on this call like 20some people on this call

so if they're giving you the reports could it be um could you share those with us Mr. ever so that we know where they're at. I know it got into a portion of my war which the homes are literally over a hundred years old. Joliet um those streets over there where they were not um they were like some of the last to be done and I know people were not some residents were not turning them back in and some were. I know Michelle Young is here. it took forever to get hers and she's on the main street sunset. And so if we could get a a report of like where they're at um at it with restoration and also with service line replacement and then also if we can just I just want like some transparency when people ask I mean that's just sharing of information that the state has. Um but I would like for and pronounce his last name for me. Is it so Mark? Yeah, we just call him Marijuana. It could be better if he says it says it to you, but yeah, everybody just refers to it as

Okay. Because I know he lives in Windsor, Canada. And so, and the question is it any can he be licensed in the state in the United States with being a Canadian? He was working for uh he was working right out of Detroit. He was working for years. Yeah. He been working in Detroit for years. Well, he's only 25, so he can't be that. 26. It's a few years. I mean, yeah. So, let's don't give it that decade or so now. So, I would like to meet him. Um, and his he has a personal service contract cuz he never came through us. No, he's not an appointee. It was No, he's not an appointee. He's not appointee. He's a deputy. It was a competitive job. Oh, competitive job.

Most competitive job. There were like several candidates. Okay. And so he worked at Detroit for how many? 25 26 could have been that long. Well, I'll let him tell you how long. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I would just like to speak with him just to you know I I have some questions um from him and if we could if you could share that report please with the state where where they're at and then you said you're going to get the new updated one. Yes, I have to Mr. Edwards first one.

All right. Thank you. I yield the floor. Thank you. Is there anyone else? Is there anyone else who'd like to address the special order? I'll close out the special order and request a motion for adjournment. Madam Chair, go ahead. I just need to correct something really quickly before we adjourn, if I may. Sure. Thank you. I gave out some numbers. I wanted to make sure I get accurate numbers. Um, so the state of Michigan's population is 10.14 million. Uh, we were number seven, we're number 16 now, but I think they have to adjust the fact that more people have moved in. We're still number 16,

but I'm going to tell you 16 out of 1,773, we're still very much top in this city. I mean, excuse me, in this state. So again, state of Michigan population, 10.14 million out of city, villages, townships, all of that. We're number 16 out of 1,773. So still very necessary and hard to compare. Thank you. 110. A motion to adjourn. It's been moved by this councilman in the eighth floor and supported by the counciloman in the seventh floor. Ro call medical.

Dr. Lewis, yes. Miss Johnson, yes. Miss Priestley, yes. M Carter, yes. Miss Burns, yes. Mash, yes. Mr. Fifer, Mr. Yes, Mr. Ali. Yes. Vote is nine. Yes. Zero no.

Vote is nine. Yes. Zero no. We are adjourned at 6:00. It didn't take out anybody else. You need to come by and have some green.

You need to come up and have some some y'all get some money. Y'all turn it on. Y'all, you know what? Did you call?

Yeah. From what I understand, they starting out. Yeah. I don't know. They may be call

cuz what I understand. Yeah. I I got tired. I opted out. I was like, well, we were, you know, at first we were asking and 200 people down and taking it to trial. I felt like we should have gone because we could have gotten more money as a city. That's why I'm That's why I'm to be a trans.

I think we as a city, we should never we should never settle. I I don't like settling. Yeah.

Okay. But you know, you know that water had so many contaminants and stuff and I've been watching kiss. Oh my god. Something something has

Yeah. No, no, thank you. talk to you.

I've never Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Next, Tennessee production. And then we go just and better without you

Thank you so much. If all council members could return to their seats so that we can start the next meeting. If all council members could return to their seats so that we can start our legislative committee meeting. The time is now 6:06 p.m. on Wednesday, January 7th, 2026. I hereby call this legislative committee meeting to order. Roll call. Madame clerk.

Mr. Alam. Present. Dr. Lewis Johnson

Carter Burns present presenter. Mr. Jarrett present. You have seven members present.

We have seven members present. It's now time for the reading of the disorderly person city code subsection. Any person that persists in disrupting this meeting will be in violation of Flint City Code section 31-10 disorderly conduct, assault and battery and disorderly persons and will be subject to arrest or misdemeanor. Any person who prevents the peaceful and orderly conduct of any meeting will be given one warning if they persist in disrupting the meeting. That individual will be subject to arrest. Violators will be removed from the meetings. Are there any requests for agenda changes and or additions at this time? Seeing as there are no requests for agenda changes and or additions, it is now time for public comment. Members of the public who wish to address the city council or its committees must register. Before the meeting begins, a box was placed at the entrance of the city council chambers for collection of registrations. No additional speakers or slips will be accepted after the meeting begins. Members of the public shall have no more than three minutes per speaker during public comment with only one speaking opportunity per speaker. Before we call on the first speaker, I would like to acknowledge that all nine members are in their chair. Madam clerk and first public speaker, first speaker is James Moore.

James Moore, second board. I'm missing him being first. Um, I just hope that this year we can get some things done. We can be positive. Um, give some hope. You know, we can uh we don't do nothing else. We can at least clean up the city a little bit and do something about them potholes. Maybe everybody know what's up. Let's just go to work and get it done. Happy New Year's.

Thank you. Next public speaker, Madam Clerk. Next speaker is Sarah Houston 64. I just wanted to thank uh Councilwoman Burns, Carter, Priestley, Johnson, all you guys for acknowledging me and realizing that the need is here. I'm glad to know that I have her support. I'm disappointed that every time I address Miss Johnson, she conveniently leaves when it's time for public comment. I would just like to know that you hear and actually care what is being said. That would be really, really nice. And I think that the residents would probably like to hear it, too. I also wonder if you know or if you're aware that you may be cloned online because I have seen some horrible statements coming from uh Facebook that's supposed to be you. But I cannot believe that is you. So you might want to check into that. Just a FYI, seriously. So you know, check that out. I'm trying to be nice. But anyway, I um am looking forward to seeing change being made here and access being open and the deaf community feeling like they belong and hopefully sooner rather than later. Thank you.

Thank you. Next public speaker, Madam Cler.

Next speaker is M. Young, good evening again. Um, I'm going to say some things that I want to make sure people take their feelings out of it and we we're just going to state some facts. Um, I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings. I'm not calling anyone in particular out. But Madam Chair, we have a systematic problem that a lot of the citizens are talking about in the city of Flint about elections, residency, um, and we need improvement. Some of the things are things that would be in the city clerk's office that needs to be addressed. So, number one, the city portal. Previously, we have um a history of the city portal information being wrong, telling you you were in the wrong board. I would like to have some accountability and know that 2026 election, that problem will be closed and we can be proud of our city portal and how our election is handled. That is effective and truthful. Another thing that happened during the last election, maybe not the last one, but the last few, there were uh things that were sent out that shouldn't have been sent to everyone. And I'm not sure if that has to do with the portal information being wrong, but that has to also be corrected. We deserve professionalism from this group. Um, I think the pe people in the city of Flint get paid nice amount of money to get this job done and they have a nice amount of

people that work for them in the city. This should not happen again. We should be able to be the number one city because we've had the problem. We've had the time to get it fixed. We just need somebody to be accountable for fixing it. Now, I'm going to also address the residency problem. A fact is we have seen some judgmental paperwork signed with an address that is not in the ward that they represent. That is a fact. It's not a feeling. It's a fact and it's been multiple forms signed by a judge. I I would say that's legal. I would ask one of you to ask the attorney if it's legal. We have to address that. It's a stain. Do any of you want to be known as someone that is not addressing the issue that you are not brave enough to speak up on your resident's behalf? Be brave. Speak up. Hold people accountable. Do the work, please. Thank you. Next public speaker, Madame Clerk. The final speaker for this meeting is Rosalyn Salvinat. My name is Rosalyn Salat and I want to apologize for reading this at the wrong meeting first. Um, thank you for allowing me to address the committee. I'm here to speak on the proposed ordinance 260006. I'm a member of the Bridge Brigade that's been protesting on Beach Street,

I69 overpass every Friday since February 28th of 25. We're there for about 2 hours, leave the area cleaner than we found it, and have had good response from the public for being out there. We reviewed MCL section 257615 and are in compliance with all restrictions in that statute. We do not do anything that resembles any emergency vehicles or presents a distraction to the drivers on the expressway. No flashing lights or reflective materials. We do promote we do not promote or denigrate any political candidates. We bring awareness of current events that are happening. Most city police and count county sheriffs that drive by give us a thumbs up for expressing our first amendment right of freedom to speech. The DOT has stopped a few times and told us we couldn't have things on the bridge. We informed them we are within our rights under statute MCL section 257.615 and they have left. The MDOT attempted an administrative rule change during the open comment period. They got thousands of negative replies due to freedom of speech on public. There's nothing moving forward with that at this time that I was able to find out when I searched yesterday. I believe there's also legislation pending at the state level that I've been told won't go through. This ordinance proposal and the other attempts that have been made are nothing more than a blatant attempt to shut down our right to freedom of speech and peaceful protesting. We the people say no to those attempts. We are guaranteed to the right of freedom of speech by our national constitution. Shutting down our right to use public

property for freedom of speech is the same as denying us the right of freedom of speech. Do not take away our constitutional rights. And I spoke with the city clerk between the two meetings and she said that your your intention was for candidate political signs and if that's the case and you want to address that in the amendment so or the ordinance so that it specifies political candidates then I don't see any big problems with that. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Madam Clerk. You said that was the final public speaker.

That's correct.

All right. Seeing as how that was the final public speaker, public comment is now closed. It is time to move on to council response. Council members may respond once to all public speakers. Only after all public speakers have spoken and individual council members response shall be limited to two minutes. Is there anyone who would like to speak during council response? Seeing as how there's no one who would like to speak during council response. I will go ahead and take some very brief time. I'm going to address the uh city portal concern. What we will do is we will um get with the city clerk uh have a discussion with her about that and how that works because I'm not completely sure if she's even in charge of the information that goes on there. I'm not sure how that works, but I will get with her. Uh, and um, we should be able to have some sort of answer for you by Monday for special affairs of who's even in charge of the city portal. Um, and then as far as resol, I know you said that u, Miss Roslin, I know you said that you spoke with uh, the city clerk just now, but I think that my colleagues and I all want to separate it just so we can get some clarification on it. We do thank you for coming to speak to us about this and drawing this to our attention. Um that closes out my portion of council comment. It is now time for consent agenda. I will entertain a motion from the body. There's complete separation. So we will move on a complete separation order by the councilman in the eth ward. Um I will now move on to uh the first resolution which is 2550437-T which is the code amendment ordinance chapter 50 zoning map. Um what is the pleasure of the body?

There has been a motion to send a council by the councilman in the eighth ward. Is there support supported by the councilwoman in the fourth ward? Is there discussion? Yeah. Councilwoman, excuse me. Okay. Councilman in the eighth board. Is there anybody from the administration to speak on this? I'm sorry. We are in legislative right now and we are on resolution 2550437. Is there someone from the administration who can speak to this resolution? All right. We do not have anyone who can excuse me who can speak to this resolution. Councilman, you have the floor.

Uh motion to keep and legislative. There is a motion to have this remain in legislative until someone from the administration who can speak to this can join us. Is there support? Supported by the councilman in the first ward. Roll call. Madam clerk. Mr. Alamine. Yes. Dr. Lewis. Yes. Miss Johnson. Yes. Miss Priestley. Yes. Miss Winfrey Carter. Yes. Miss Burns. Yes. Mr. Chad. Yes. Mr. Fifer. Yes. Mr. Jared, yes. The vote is nine, yes, zero, no.

The vote is nine, yes, zero, no. Resolution 2550437-T, which is the code amendment ordinance chapter 50 zoning map, will stay in legislative committee until someone from the administration can join us. Um, moving on to resolution 26001, which is the code amendment ordinance chapter 46, wastewater disposal regulations. Is there some Excuse me. What is the pledge for the body? Councilwoman in the fourth ward send to council. There has been a motion to send to council. Is there support? Supported by the councilman in the first ward. Is there discussion? Councilman in the eighth ward. You have the floor. There's someone from the administration to speak on this.

Is there someone from the administration who can speak on this? I believe Miss Best will be joining us. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Council. Oh, excuse me, Mad Clerk. Um, as Miss Best walks up, I just want to let the public know that we normally have copies of the ordinances available in the back. This one is 60 pages long. So, if anyone does want a copy, I have several available up here. We didn't put it in the back just because the entire uh ordinance was 60 pages. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Council, you can start signing. Councilman, you have the floor.

Um, Miss B. I'm going to be honest with you, I have not read this whole entire book. Um, can you give us a few highlights in why this is before us? Why does this ordinance need to be adopted?

The sewer use ordinance is a part of the city ordinances currently and we were required by Eagle to amend it and update it so that we are in compliance with the state law. So, it's a requirement of our NPDES permit and we needed to add the POS. Um, we need to add a limit, a local limit for in our ordinance because they just put an a limit in our entity as permit. Are we are we testing PAS and waste water? Yes.

Okay. We actually have a limit and what they gave us is the drinking water standard for our discharge limit which doesn't give us a lot of wiggle room. Um but we generally meet it. I think we've exceeded it once. Um and that's 12 parts per trillion in water. Um we needed to also modify the the limits for available cyanide and BEX which is benzene, ethylenzene, taluine and xylene and those are based on um eagle's mandated limits which were established in 2024. [snorts] Eagle recommended we change the limits um for Hexane extractable materials which are actually fat soil and Reese's also known as fog and our limit was originally 500 mg per liter parts per million and we reduced that to 100 parts per million. This is what clogs up the sewers so we were glad to do that. Um, is there anything in here that would uh is there anything how do I work this? How is there anything in here that the res that will change anything with the residents on their dayto-day as far as um any any obviously this is waste water so they're not considered drink water um drinking water anything like that. So is there anything in this or is this purely a reporting ordinance?

These are requirements that limit things you can put down your sewer, what you can flush down the toilet, what you can put down your sink, um that kind of thing. Anything that would be introduced in sanitary sewer. So this also applies to industrial users and um commercial users. in his fat soil and greases the HM which is um So can I still dump my grease down the brand? No.

If it's over 100 parts per million. No, we would come and write you a violation and tell you to quit it because that's what plugs up the sewers. You lifted up the pump stations and all the other stuff. We're working really hard to try to corral that. We've started a intensive program to go back to the restaurants and say, "Look, you need to take care of this." So,

do we have other than like if if something gets flushed down the drain from a restaurant or everything else and it makes it all the way to the wastewater treatment, we have no way of tracking that per se. How how do we know that a restaurant is not in compliance unless there's a uh direct impact near that restaurant that they could possibly Well, what we what we do with our um greases program or fog program. Every restaurant is required to have a grease trap to separate the grease from, you know, but do but do we we check those?

Do we check those? Do we ask they have to have your reports that they submit or we only do it during inspections?

We've just enhanced this program. We used to have I think a fiveyear rotating program. We try to check all of restaurants in a 5year period and there's probably a couple hundred restaurants or food processing places. So, what we what we've just done is put together a a program that we're going to check all the restaurants, make sure that, you know, if they don't have any grease or fatty discharges, then we don't have to worry about a grease trap. But if they do have cooking grease or even washing grease off of dishes, they have to have a grease trap. He will.