City Council - Regular Meeting

good evening garden city like to call to order regular city council meeting for monday august 10th 2026 at 7 pm the first order of business is our opening ceremony which consists of the national anthem followed by the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence for those service members who have given their lives for our country please rise

Thank you. ¶¶

Thank you.

Mister Smith if you take role, please mayor Jacobs here mayor pro tem dole here Councilmember Hughes here Councilmember wit here Councilmember King here Councilmember dole here Councilmember care photos here you have a quorum of 7.

Thank you item 4 is the approval of the agenda mayor Councilmember what like to make a motion to approve the Monday August 10th Council meeting revised agenda as presented support or for mayor pro tem dole.

Comments from table. from the public. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0. Okay, we have no recognition. No state or county officials. We do have a presentation. Garden City High School, or Garden City School Superintendent, Derek Fisher. Mr. Fisher.

Mayor, members of city council, thank you. We do have a presentation tonight and I think they will pop it up there. So thank you for this opportunity. Just got a quick update to share some of the things going on in the district. And we can go ahead and pivot to that next slide please. So items for discussion tonight that I will touch base on. I'll include some NWEA highlights. Talk a bit about our K through six reading curriculum. touch base on safety and security, address some of our summer 2026 projects, talk about some of our most recent sinking fund purchases, briefly address some building upgrades that are happening, touch base on some facility highlights, discuss our facility dogs, and then touch base on some upcoming district events. So if you want, we will have time for questions at the end. So real quick, with the NWEA, the NWEA is an assessment that grades K through 10 take three times a year. An important thing to reflect on with the NWEA is it is a nationally normed assessment. and we have our most recent norms that took place post pandemic. So the most recent norming period was from the fall of 2022 through the spring of 2024. So it gives us a good academic metric, a good measurement, if you will, per grade level to assess where students are at performing and why we use it. We use it then to address any potential deficits and overall measure student growth we're big on student growth and making sure that our students are learning and that our instruction is competitive next slide please So for NWEA, testing is done in math and reading, and we do those assessments, as I shared, both, or actually three times a year, fall, winter, and spring. That winter assessment is really important because it's sort of that halfway mark, and if we need to make any adjustments to instruction or look at additional resources to support student learning, it's an excellent time to let us do that. All of our assessed buildings, from Lathers all the way through the high school showed effective student growth. And we did have some buildings that showed exceptional student growth when compared to the national norm. So I wanna highlight those buildings. So next slide. If we take a look at Memorial, we've got excellent reading intervention and excellent growth in both math and reading. We know that with Michigan, reading by grade three is extremely important, so we've put a lot of interventions in place at Memorial, which is our first and second grade campus. to really address student growth and making sure that our young learners are prepared to meet that third grade challenge. So for Memorial, it's important to reflect on for math, performance in first grade growth was in the 92nd percentile nationally and in the 96th percentile for second grade. So when we think about percentiles, if we just land in that 50th percentile when they average all of the student growth nationally, with 13 million kids that take the test, 50th percentile is that average. So when you start to surpass that 50th percentile, you know that good things are happening. So hats off to that Memorial team because we had excellent growth in math. And then looking at reading, First grade reading was in the 89th percentile and second grade reading was in the 82nd percentile. So extremely positive and great growth happening there at Memorial. Likewise at Douglas, third grade math was in the 77th percentile for student growth. Fourth grade math was in the 78th percentile for student growth. And then reflecting at Garden City High School, our 9th and 10th grade programming, our math programming, our spring score, which is that final assessment they take. We start, as I shared, fall, and we go in the winter, and then the spring. So that spring is like that end-of-year benchmark. Our spring score was above the national average for 9th and 10th grade. in math and then in reading our spring score was well above the national average so we had exceptional performance really at guernsey high school and great performance with our 10th graders right next slide So you say, well, how are you making these great gains, especially, you know, first through third grade? And we've implemented a new curriculum. We're using the benchmark reading curriculum. It's an ELA, English Language Arts curriculum. We adopted that in 2024. And the benchmark curriculum is aligned with what they call the science of reading. And that ties in with a focus on phonics and content-rich, knowledge-building text sets. And it goes beyond just reading stories and literary work So there's a literature component, but there's also informational texts that tie into other core areas in science and social studies. So students develop strong decoding mechanics. They understand word attack. They get deep language comprehension. We enrich their vocabulary. And through reading, we help them develop critical thinking across science, social studies, and literary topics in ELA. So it's really a solid curriculum. Very happy with the results so far. We've done a lot of professional development with our elementary staff on it, and we're gonna continue to see good results for our kids. Next slide. Safety and security, as you know, we've got a great partnership with our first responder community here in Garden City. That goes way back to when we had Chief Forbush and Chief Murie in the fire department and police department, and that certainly continues now with Chief Keene in the fire department and Chief Arnavsky in the police department. Just like with school improvement, student safety, crisis response is something we always look at, always evaluate. So the district continues to use our ALICE framework for crisis response. ALICE is naturally recognized, it's an acronym for alert, lockdown, inform. And then we've got other components with counter and evacuate on there. So we do training with staff on that consistently. And then we also, like I shared, we've got that strong partnership and supportive response from our Garden City PD and our fire department. And that extends into the grant work we do. We've had an SRO grant in place for the past three years, which has allowed us to add a second SRO to the district. So we have currently, and we'll continue that moving forward, we'll have two SROs that serve the district, one based on the east side of the district out of Garden City High School and one based on the west side of the district at Garden City Middle School. so this year we'll continue to work with officer whitten and we're bringing onboarding officer stanley over at garden city high school and then we've worked to support grants back and forth and we were happy to work with lieutenant cover as he's worked to get the police drone grant and provided some feedback on that as well so great partnership in place We will also continue to build our network of security cameras, and I'm happy to share. I won't go into explicit detail, but we have high hundreds of specific views both internally and externally across the district to support student safety and respond to anything we need to. And we've got a great visual on camera system and I know we're gonna be partnering with the police department and their first responders should they need to access that during a crisis. Also just know that best practices are in place with secured offices and our single point entry. That's the world we're living in now so we've got very specific guidance with that. And then most recently we've worked with our chief of police to review our latest emergency operations plan as of last week and we submitted that and had that approved by the state of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Education so that we have our new EOP in place and we'll be doing some training and some updates with our staff on that. Next slide. Just no secret, we've been doing a lot of projects. We've wrapped up our 2020 grant, our 2020 bond work a few years ago, but we've continued to do great work through our sinking fund and other financial vehicles. So for this summer, what we have going on, we've got playground upgrades at both Farmington 5-6 campus and BTC. Both of those facilities are getting new playscapes installed. and Berger Transition Center over on Maplewood. They're also getting new program-specific supportive playground equipment for that student population that's in place there. And we want to encourage our families to use those playscapes and get out and use that playground equipment. We also have a flooring project going on at BTC. We're redoing 19 classrooms there with new flooring. And then we continue to upgrade and improve our Garden City Middle School athletic field. I do have some pictures, so if you want to click over to the next slide. This is a rendering. I know it looks like a photograph, but that's a rendering from St. Clair. And that is the playscape that will be in place both at BTC and a duplicate piece will also go at Farmington. Next slide. And you can see that it's enriched, it's a great structure and also includes some handicapped accessibility. Next slide. And then we got, as I shared, we've got some specific playground equipment for that population at Berger Transition Center that's focused on movement and enriching their day and really designed specifically for our population at Berger for them to use as well. So we're happy to add that and make that addition. All of that playground renovation and playground additions will be complete by the second week of September. We'll have those wrapped up. And then you can see, just as a quick example, that's our standard flooring now that we're using across the district that included work we've done since the bond, our LVT tile, and 19 classrooms over at BTC, the former Henry Ruff, have been fully renovated, and that work will wrap up by the end of this week. So we're happy to have that in place. And then as you may be aware, we've done extensive work over at the Garden City Middle School athletic field. Got a fully renovated track there. Brand new scoreboard system. And if we pivot to the next slide, you'll get a chance to see the bleachers. We've got seating for 800. So our track team, our middle school track team is taking full benefit of this. We're adding a middle school cross country team. And we've got a lot of good things happening out there with the Garden City Soccer Club utilizing that. And then we're happy to share that PTA is going to be doing a turkey trot out there in November and utilizing that track. So some good things. I will share too with our track, just like with our pickleball courts, we're incorporating a pedestrian turnstile gate. And after school hours and on weekends, we want to encourage our residents and the public to get out there and use the track and make good use of that. Next slide. So for sinking fund purchases, we continue to put a big focus on life cycle replacement. We don't like to replace a bunch of things all at once and really hit that budget. So we've been very thoughtful since we've replaced the sinking fund with voter approval and renewed the sinking fund. to put a focus on transportation purchases, and we've been purchasing two to three new buses annually so that we can keep our fleet upgraded. So the end of this month going into early September, we'll have two new additional buses added to our fleet. And then we just recently replaced 40 student Chromebooks, and those will be used over at Farmington. So we're continuing as we look at our lifecycle replacement for instructional technology. to be thoughtful with that and instead of purchasing 2,500 or 3,000 Chromebooks at once, we're on an annual basis replacing anywhere between 1,000 to 500 Chromebooks so they're not all coming due at once. Next slide. In addition, building upgrades, you may have noticed across the district, all our buildings have new electronic marquees that we use to communicate district events and showcase students. Each building in the district has an electronic marquee, and we most recently added one at Central Office. One at Central Office is sharing that the first day of school is on September 8th. And then we're also branding ourselves and making sure that we've got our entrances looking contemporary. So there's decorative aesthetic branding, but it's also functional for safety and security as well. That'll be going in across the district at our building entrances. And as you can see, that's Farmington. We're also working on doing it at Lathers and Douglas. Memorial is already finished as well. Next slide. As you may be aware, we renovated our tennis courts over at the middle school. We actually converted the tennis courts. We have three full-size tennis courts, but what's been very popular is that we added 10 pickleball courts. That gets a lot of program usage with our Garden City Middle School PE course, but with that turnstile gate that you can see pictured there on the right, we also get a lot of community usage. So afternoons, evenings, and weekends, it gives me great pleasure to see families, students, young and old alike out there using those pickleball courts. A lot of positive feedback on that. And then we do have two new additions to our staff. We have Onyx on the left there, which is a standard poodle that services Garden City High School, Cambridge, Douglas, and Berger, and Zade, our smooth-coated collie, that services Garden City Middle School, Farmington, Memorial, and Lathers. Onyx and Zade are our facility dogs. And they work with our counseling teams, our school psychologists to enrich the work they do in small groups. And they're great ambassadors for the building. Kids and staff alike have responded very positively to them and we've incorporated them into our PBIS rewards. So both of those dogs can be found in small group reading sessions with kids and visiting classrooms where we've seen improved attendance. Next slide. And just a few upcoming events for you. We've got Garden City High School theater production, just in case Mr. Bennett hasn't let you know. Sound of Music, that's August 14th, 15th, and 16th, so that's this coming weekend. Matt May's show is Sunday the 16th. We'll be taking our friends from the Senior Tower to see the production this Sunday. And then Bounce Back to School, which is a great event and gets great community support from both police, fire, Garden City Library, our Kiwanis Clubs, Rotary Clubs, of course PTA, Scouts, turn out in support of this event along with our athletic groups. That's Thursday, September 3rd, hosted at Memorial from 4 to 7 p.m. That's free to our families. And then as I shared, our first day of school is Tuesday, September 8th, so a lot of good things going on and a lot of great work taking place. Happy to also share, we've got a new principal at Douglas. As you know, Mr. B retired, Mr. Bond Wagner retired June 30th, and we're happy to welcome Dr. Julie Kaminski as our new principal of Douglas 3-4 campus. She's gonna be a great addition to the team. And with that, next slide, any questions at all?

council any great great presentation and thank you for coming out and sharing that with us my pleasure comments or questions from the table

Thank you. I was wondering if you could take just a moment and explain the benefits of how we have our campuses separated by grades now.

Sure. Basically, the major benefit is an academic focus. So instead of having a K-6 or a K-4 building with a very diverse and broad curriculum, We create basically specialized academic buildings with a core concentration focusing on two grade levels, so very specific and very strategic, and what that lets us do, it lets us keep our curriculum delivery very specific, focused, regimented, but it also allows us to bring equity as far as resources and what we call MTSS, which is a multi-tiered system of support to bolster students that may be struggling in either math or reading. So each building, really the teachers assigned to the grade level buildings, whether it's Lathers, Memorial, Douglas, or Farmington, they really become grade level content specialists The principal works to support that and becomes a master of that curriculum. And then we have specialists, whether they're reading coaches, math coaches, or academic interventionists in that building assigned specifically to that building based on their curriculum strengths and supporting those grade levels. So it's not a generic approach. It's a very strategic and thoughtful approach. And you can see it in our student growth.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Absolutely, my pleasure. Further comments, questions? Mayor. Councilmember Karifotis.

I love when people ask me, you know, how are the schools in Garden City? And I say, they're great. And so for you to stand up here and say that we're, you know, the 96th percentile, that's national level. How are we compared to the other local cities around us?

It depends on what assessment, but our NWA scores are very solid. We've got great score. Michigan is an SAT state. We've seen growth in both PSAT, which is pre-SAT, and then that SAT exam in 11th grade. So for Wayne County, we've become very competitive. We have other districts visit us and want to tap into how we are supporting and building reading scores. So it's always a great honor when we have a district want to come and do classroom visits or go over our curriculum with us. And that happens.

Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Further comments or questions from the table?

Mayor, I just want to say thank you for coming and you're doing a fantastic job.

Give a shout out. I can't praise our police and fire department and our library. enough we've gotten tremendous support over the years whether i was principal student student services and certainly a superintendent from both our police and fire very responsive great dialogue and then working with james lens with the library and the things that they're doing with family programming, student programming, and early literacy support. I mean, it takes a community and it's wonderful to be in a place like Garden City where we have so many invested stakeholders. And when we recently revisited our strategic plan and redid our strategic plan, uh you know to have representatives including lieutenant cover who's here tonight participate in these lengthy strategic plan sessions and give us feedback and provide feedback and be invested it was just uh you know folks who came in to help facilitate that process their remark was we have not seen a community that has this level of stakeholder support so it's really a testament to the folks who work here and live here and what they bring to the table so it's very much appreciated mayor

Council member, careful. I just have one more question. I think a lot of people watching don't know what you meant when you were talking about the SRO. Could you just explain that so the public knows?

SRO is a school resource officer. So a school resource officer is a sworn officer who's employed by the Garden City Police Department. And what we do is we sign a memorandum of understanding and actually my signed copy as of today went over to the chief. And we commit to this partnership that the school district reimburses some generally through grant funds to help support the staffing. But we have two school resource officers who are uniformed sworn officers. who embrace the school culture, participate in school events, and are essentially boots on the ground throughout the school day, you know, five days a week, Monday through Friday. And we've had great response time, regardless, from Garden City Police. but to have officers there on site in the way we've done it now strategically and thoughtfully to kind of split the district from an east and west side, to know that if I need somebody in a situation, and maybe it's just a traffic incident or fender bender, but to know that essentially they're a minute and a half away from any school to respond to that, and they know our schools, there's incredible value in that. And we've benefited from that, just that strong support and great dialogue.

I know having a school resource officer at the middle school has made my kids personally feel very safe. Absolutely. When they are somewhere else in the city doing something and they see that officer, they're so happy to see them.

They're like, oh, they're so nice. And it shouldn't alarm folks to see the police cars in front of our school buildings because they're there for the right reason, right? Just to support our programming and provide an additional layer of safety and security.

I think that's teaching our kids that it's okay that the police are there, too.

Absolutely. Yep.

Thank you. Members of our community. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments, questions?

Mayor. Council Member White. Just to speak on the SRO stuff, as a student more recently, you know, we had Officer Breen for the longest time and, you know, he embraced everything as he did. Breen was a fun guy to hang around. So having them at the school was always, you know, you know, a weight off our back as students with, you know, how the world is nowadays. But definitely having somebody there that was chipper and positive and, you know, able to talk with and just, you know, have there during the school day to have that, you know, weight lifted off the shoulders was awesome.

For sure. And we work thoughtfully with the police. We want to make sure those folks are a good fit because it takes a special type of person to work in that school environment. And generally the officers who pursue that position, they've been very good fits over the year. So we appreciate that.

thank you very much and again thank you for the presentation absolutely very good great stuff going on thank you thank you superintendent okay we have a couple community events all start with uh... mister smith uh... with our community shredding good evening mayor and council are one of the most frequently asked questions we get uh... in our office is uh... when is the next red day coming up how the other one is when's the citywide garage sale so now that we've uh... net locked down the first weekend in june going forward for citywide garage sale i'm here tonight to announce that i'm pleased to announce we have brought back our second shred day for the year it will be saturday september 12th here in the city hall parking lot from 10 a.m to 1 p.m once again we will be accepting up to five paper bags or cardboard bankers boxes worth of your shreddable documents you can just roll in we can unload the vehicle for you each time we do the shred day we get a little bit more efficient but yeah you just pull up we can unload it for you shred your documents here on site if you wish to watch them be shredded you can do that as well so you can watch them Dump the bins in and shred. So that will be going on on September 12th. In addition to the shredding here, we will also be doing prescription drug take back day. So if you've got expired medications that you don't know how to get rid of, bring them on up here. We do have the prescription drug bin in the police department, but we'll take them back at the take back event. We are also taking donations of non-perishable foods and cash donations for the food pantry. That's part of the reason why I like bringing this back for a second thing is the cost to hold the event is offset because we do have a very generous population here in Garden City who always does well with donations to the food pantry. We have some people who come year after year. The amount of food that they donate more than offsets the amount of shred that they bring so we will be taking donations for the food pantry and we will also be doing school supplies for the garden city schools the one note is it is from 10 to 1 we do ask that you're in line by 12 45 just so we can get everybody processed before the one o'clock cut off but mark your calendars i have some flyers up here if you're in attendance we have them at city hall and there is also a qr code on the flyer that will give you even more detailed information on the events for shred day by scanning it okay thank you uh one other community event is uh from our garden city business alliance uh miss jackie peridor and miss elaine slater

salter hi elaine and jackie from the garden study business alliance we're just going to remind you that our last concert this year is coming up on the 20th so that will close out our 2026 season we hope to see all of you there and singe and smith is the band we will have five food trucks and the band and games from the parks department so it'll be quite the evening

thank you okay thank you did i say name i said miss jackie peridor and miss elaine slater salter falter i'm sorry okay couple letters miss uh miss line sorry about that okay uh we have no petitions or communications no public hearings uh the consent agenda mayor council member whit like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda items a one through four as presented support Support from Councilmember Hughes. Discussion from table? From public? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0. Our action items tonight. Item one is the Bocelli contract for inspection services. Mayor? I think Mr. Miller was gonna say something on it.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. I wanted to first talk about Dr. Fisher's presentation. He talked about the service pets that are in the schools. And as you know, International Pancake Day is in conjunction with our chili cook-off, so we're having pancake breakfast in the morning and the proceeds from the pancake breakfast are going to support the dogs actually so we chose the committee chose to we always pick a community project that's going to support that and so I'm glad that you mentioned them in your speech it doesn't have anything to do with Pacelli but I'm thrilled about International Pancake Day and of course I love animals so it's a good combination. Thank you. So I'm here tonight actually to talk about the building inspection services contract agreement that the city has with Bocelli. Each year after the initial year of the contract approval The contract was put in place in 2021 with yearly review and approval by the council to go forward based on their performance. So it is not a contract that was put together that's an automatic renewal. It requires a yearly review for that. What I like about doing the yearly review is, first of all, we can look at the numbers kind of outside of the fiscal year and then also look at performance of the of the building department in itself. But one of the things I also wanted to talk about in the presentation is about the fees in the building department. If you can remember, I took over as community development director about two and a half years ago. And at that time, it was kind of a midstream of our budget process and a fiscal year. But when we were reviewing that year and years before that, we're finding that the building department was losing money, basically. And that's one of the departments. It's not a revenue generation. It can be a revenue neutral. And so we had to do a complete kind of review of the funds and the fee schedule that we took to council in January. 2025 and it's kind of hard to see the the results because it's not it doesn't just happen overnight We increase the fees but then we have to look at an entire year to see how we really come out in the end So we the council approved the fees the fee changes and then we were kind of I was watching every month to see where we came out as we went along in the year and i'm happy to say that we came out ahead this year so i'm pursuing on many years that we have and actually so the state law says that we can't generate it's not a revenue generating department but we can break even and so we had to take that in mind but also look at projections of the number of building permits that we're doing how many inspectors are out and and also our staff that are there too. We have two city staff in the department also. And we came, I think, with about $7,000 of actually making a little bit of money, which is within the realm of not charging too much and making sure that we are covering our costs and also the cost of the Bocelli contract. And so I we did do that I'm also in in the last number of years but shelly's been there we do have a good team that is put together that provide services for the city. It's always hard you know we're going into people's houses were finding things that are wrong we want to make sure that it's done properly and again when you deal with the resident you tell something is not right it's always you know. hard to deal with sometimes but our inspectors do a good job of of course identifying the issue and then also Educating the resident is what they need to do to bring the house into compliance for sale or for rental and also with all commercial product projects that are done to the Chelle also does our kind of I work with Kurt the administrator there to kind of look at how our how the the timing is going of permits how long they are also we implemented just recently if we are going back to permits we are now charging to keep going back to sites that are problem sites I'm happy to say that with the fee fees going up, also the implementation of that additional fee. We're following that. We're doing that, and the Bocelli staff has been an important part of implementing that so that we can get the billing department up to speed and also to generate the proper amount of revenue. Also, when you look at the numbers that are in your memo it is it is a busy department we have contact with a lot of people at the building department and one of the things i want to just kind of highlight in the right corner there are 1300 online permits 1029 online inspections So again, we've tried to come into the 21st century and even move forward, right? And look at that. Last year, we had 680 online permits and 673 online inspections scheduled. So we've almost doubled that. So people are starting to use that. The large contractors in town are using that. um and we've had a good feedback they've been able to contact of course to set up their appointments they've been able to contact via email the inspectors they've been able to set up their own times for when they want inspections so it it really is uh it's becoming you know it's a way of the future we still want to provide the in-house service but a lot of the main contractors in town are using that to simplify it because it's it's really kind of removing a middleman they sometimes have a customer they're working for and they would have to call us and figure out a time for them go back to their customer now they can kind of work with the customer right well they're online and schedule the inspection that can occur and again i can't thank the bicelli staff for working to get the outlines up and then also to work on implementing the fees and the fee increases that went forward because if you look at it on in BS&A when you put in a fee it we have to make sure that it's covering of course the right GL numbers and it's going to the right revenue sources also and we're able to make all those changes that we did last January implement them beginning July 1st so of last year So with that, I'd be happy to recommend that we continue another year of building inspection services with Bocelli. And I also wanted to thank the staff, Mark, Kurt, Alex, and Paul. And then, of course, our city staff, Brenda and Margo, are kind of the face of the department, and they have to handle all the customers there at the front counter. And they work well with the Bocelli team also. So... with that I'll be happy answering questions.

Thank you.

Motion is in order.

Mayor Pro Tem Dold.

I move to approve one year extension with Bocelli Group for building inspection services for their original agreement dated October 16th, 2021 at the same rate for services until December 31st, 2027.

support support from councilmember king discussion from table mayor councilmember care photos so this original contract is from 21 and it's not increasing in price for us to renew it correct correct and then how long has buchelli been doing this for us it was before 21. it was before i um at least 10 years i don't know the number of years i apologize eight years okay all right And since that time, we've renewed it every time. We never ask for a bid for anybody else or anything.

No, we did out on that. Yeah, it was bid out on 21.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Okay, further comments from the table?

Yeah.

Council Member Hughes.

I want to... talk about the online permitting and my brother was building a house and their city his city didn't have this and i'm telling you what this would really make things a lot easier for both the planning department as well as the builder and it's it's a wonderful addition i think i like i like the idea that thank you further comments from table from the public yes sir

bringing up Bocelli Group. They're overseeing our cement work on our streets, correct?

Your comment will be on the contract.

I'm just saying, what I see, what they oversee, is nothing but sitting there in trucks. I shouldn't be here complaining about cement work. They should be telling you.

Thank you. Further comments from the public? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes seven zero. Okay, item two is the grant agreement with SEMCOG, Mr. Miller.

Yes, I am here tonight to ask that we enter into an agreement with SEMCOG for a community planning grant. I applied for a grant six, seven months ago to actually look at a sub-area plan for really the Kmart block, not just Kmart itself, but all of the businesses that are there, and to really start to lay the foundation for a community a cohesive plan and also looking at the condition of the parking lot and trying to figure out what to do in the meantime now and then also in the future when the Kmart site gets redeveloped. There's a municipal parking lot that is part of the Part of back there but a lot of property owners are involved in that a lot of property owners own part of the parking lot so everyone thinks it's a city parking lot and it is not a city parking lot we actually own very little back there but I want to. The goal of the grant is to get everyone in the room talking about that parking lot, trying to figure out the best solutions. Also, a portion of the grant is to talk about pedestrian and bicycle access to that. There's an entrance way off of Middle Belt that is not safe to walk on. It's a driveway. But to come up with a plan to figure out how we're going to make that better. In the subarea plan, one of the things is to survey all of the properties over there, figure out where the property lines are, how much square footage people have. We don't know. We've never had that information. So I think it's laying the groundwork to establish something over there to work together to make it look better. And I would like to, of course, do that with the grant money. Part of the survey costs will also be covered with that. And again, maybe we can get this plan ready so that if we get another grant, we can kind of springboard to say, we've got a plan ready. This is how much it's going to cost. Or if we're going to have to put together a combined bid for the repaving of the lot. We'll know that business owner X owns 2,000 square feet and they owe us 2,000 square feet of concrete cost or something like that. I think it's a good way to look at that. Also, I would love to have Crowder Street reestablished there and put that in place so that if something happens at Kmart, we can... We have a plan as to make it a pedestrian friendly environment and how to utilize that largest piece of property in the city really that's open for development and opportunities too. I want to make sure that the plan addresses that and to get everyone in the room at the same time And again, it's being covered by the grant funds. I think that's important. The DDA at the last meeting, they did agree to cover the match, actually. So it'll be coming from DDA funds and the city for a total, actually, and SEMCOG, for a total of $40,000 to have a sub-area plan done up for just that block. So Middlebelt, Ford, Brandt, and Beachwood.

Okay, thank you.

Motion is in order. Mayor. councilmember witt i'd like to make a motion to approve a pass-through agreement between the city of garden city and the southeast michigan council of governments as attached support or from councilmember king discussion from the table

mayor councilmember dole i just want to wish you luck i know thank you thank you a lot of those properties have changed hands yes in the last several years so maybe we can see something uh great come from i hope so and um and the vacancy rates high and so we've got a lot of people back there looking at it and doesn't look good and so i i that was a key item of the grant and also us getting approved for it

Councilmember Hughes.

I see this is beneficial for us moving forward when we are trying to develop those vacancies, the property and fill those vacancies with the promise that we have a plan.

Yes. Okay, thank you. Further comments from the table? From the public? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0. Thank you, Mr. Miller. Okay, item three is semi with youth for youth. I'll bring up our Parks and Rec director, Mr. Zach King.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Before you is a grant with the Southeast Michigan With Youth for Youth grant. We're currently still in the planning phase of this grant, working on what exactly it's going to look like. It's really easy when writing the grant to kind of really explore and come up with a lot of cool ideas. Especially this grant was completely based on what we wanted to see in the grant funding. A lot of grants kind of have requirements, and really this grant, the only requirement was giving youth a voice. Very easy, especially at Radcliffe Center, to do that. The grant was written to expand on youth services offered by Parks and Recreation, including weekly activities, the Junior Volunteer Club, and creating a new Junior Parks Commission that will recommend purchases to the real Parks Commission. The grant provides 100% of the funding needed for this, mostly in staff working hours to monitor their kids, but also money for purchasing items and equipment for activities for the youth. The grant did provide the funds up front, and we've already received those, but no expenditures have been made yet before council's approval tonight.

Motion is in order.

Mayor.

Councilmember Dalton.

I move to recommend that the City Council allow the Parks and Recreation Director to sign an agreement with Southeast Michigan with Youth for Youth, reimagined OST grant award in the amount of $40,000.

Support. Or from Councilmember Hughes, discussion from table. Mayor. I'm sorry, Councilmember Kirifotis. What are we gonna use it for?

Really, so those core services, so running weekly activities at a lower cost. So being able to provide low-cost activities, but the grant covers the staffing, which is our largest cost in any of our activities. This is staff to run that event. Events like Nerf Wars and Dodgeball, I want to create two other new weekly events that happen. Those already kind of happen in the center, so it's going to offset those costs. And then adding two more we actually just hired on a new youth coordinator her name is Kendra Her and another camp counselor Carter working to put this stuff together on what the youth wants to do Thankfully we're running a 50 kid camp right now And we're using them as our sounding board of what they would want to see what activities they like we're testing those activities every week in camp Seeing what they like actually within that's another grant that's powering that camp GC and funding that that source We have to do surveys and stuff, so we're learning back from the kids from that grant what they do like and what they don't like during the events. So that's kind of guiding us on a path until we can get the Junior Volunteer Club started back up, which comes back next month, and then creating a Junior Parks Commission, which then they will be the voice, the board, the voice. something cool in the grant which they strongly recommended was giving them a budget so there's four thousand dollars in this budget that youth will be deciding on what to purchase and my goal is to actually have them to them to a parks commission meeting to present to them and then maybe even goes farther and presents here i don't know yet i'm still working on all those activities it's kind of what i wrote it for um so that's kind of where we're going with it nice thank you thank you further comments mayor councilmember hughes

Sounds very exciting, especially the feedback part and let kids participate. And, you know, it moves them along in city participation, you know, and have a little control over what's happening in their world.

Yeah, very unique grant in the terms of giving the youth a voice. When I came across this one, I was really excited to write for it.

Kids, you know, kids, I think, participate, and they have a greater appreciation for things that they contribute to. So good idea. Thanks.

Thank you. Councilmember Dole.

Do you have an age range?

There is not an age range for this, just youth, so under 18.

Further comments from the table? From the public? All in favor? Aye. Opposed?

motion passes seven zero don't go too far next up is the ice arena compressor purchase mr kane sorry good evening again uh the before you is a bid to purchase a blitzer ice compressor an rfp was posted for the equipment and serve ice refrigeration submitted a bid for 44 218. the bid includes a new compressor complete installation startup and warranty serve ice is currently the city's current maintenance vendor for the ice plant Just a little bit of history on the ice plant. There's two compressors in it. Compressor B, which has failed during our last ice season, has been running since 2018 when the plant was installed, outliving its life expectancy of six years as of last season running eight seasons. Having two compressors is not only for redundancies, the compressors work together to maintain the ice temperatures required, which is strongly impacted by the outdoor temperatures and the usage of the ice. I do want to note there is an incorrect GL on my form. It's not going to be from fund 401. It's going to be from the general fund 101. The correct GL is 101-759-977-000. It's the capital account for equipment inside the ice arena budget. And not really related to the compressor, but I'm happy to report today the ice rink opened for its season. We're currently hosting a camp throughout the month and of all the normal activities through August and then back to our normal season in September.

motion is in order mayor councilmember witt like to make a motion to approve the attached bid with service refrigeration of northville michigan in the amount not to exceed forty four thousand two hundred eighteen dollars to supply install startup and warranty a compressor for the ice rink support

Or from Mayor Pro Tem Dole, discussion from the table.

Mayor. Council Member Karifotis. So I'm not crazy thinking that we just did this, right?

We did, yes. Compressor A was replaced in 2015. When Erica was still here, they had requested that, and then when I started this one, I actually got installed.

Not 15. 25.

2025, yeah. Okay, I thought so.

All right, thank you. So what's the warranty on this?

I believe it's one year. It's not, I'm sorry. manufacturer warranties one year from the date installation and the install warranty is 90 days from startup thank you thank you mayor councilmember dole You said the average life expectancy is six to eight years? Six seasons. Six seasons. Yep. Based on the amount of months that we use the compressor, six seasons. I think it's 600 or 800 hours. So six seasons of the months that we use it.

Okay. And I know this was touched on the other day, but can we go ahead and start budgeting?

this every year so we know we're going to be replacing that you know at least one or the other and kind of yeah we've already had ready for it yep no as you know this just happened last fiscal year we were able to actually work that funding that we needed for the last compressor by doing less expenses throughout the season cutting back on part-time doing anything we could to make sure you can fit that purchase the compressor and moving forward changing a little bit we're going to set aside every month Dollar amount so to place two compressors every six years as around 250 that $250 a month We're gonna set that aside in our expenses kind of build a fund similar to how the police department does their vehicles and the fire department as their vehicles Same thing for our compressors gonna be a large purchase. We know we're gonna have to make every six to eight years Let's plan for and put it aside that also reflecting our ice rates, which are do increase every single year so we're increasing those ice rates to offset our expenses and Plan for these things in the future

mayor councilmember care photos also this is the first time we've had ice this early right this is yes so that's because we're renting the ice so we're getting more money for having it out there now yep yep no for sure we have actually a camp that approached us last year this time and said we would love to find some august ice some summer ice

which is often a considered non-prime ice rental. I was actually doing a lot of comparisons over the last few weeks of different ice rentals. A lot of their ice is cheaper in the summer. I was a little concerned about doing August ice. Your expenses can go up. You have to keep the ice at a cooler temperature and warmer climate. We're actually charging more than our prime ice rate for August, and we still have our ice completely booked up. I believe Tuesday was our last open day, and we just sold that last week. Nice. So doing very, very well and actually charging a prime rate because there's not many rinks that have summer ice. And we're a little fortunate, too. The closest arena around us that does have summer ice isn't open this summer. They're doing a full refresh of their ice plants.

And also, I mean, our prime price is also very affordable compared to other rinks.

uh around us so that's very affordable our uh everyone that runs for ice is very we're very upfront we're gonna raise our price five dollars every year um what that equates to so everyone can plan for it everyone knows our rates and they're very happy there so thanks thank you further comments from the table from the public all in favor aye opposed motion passes seven zero item five is our mers annual business meeting uh mr miller Should have sat closer.

Good evening again, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. This is the delegate form for the MERS annual meeting. We're recommending that Lauren Minch be approved as the delegate to do voting on behalf of the employees at the city. She is personnel director and is, of course, a daily user of MERS because when we get new employees or even existing employees, she has to make adjustments in the MERS system. She also knows the contracts very well and understands what's required to make contributions on behalf of the employees. to the system. So I think that having her there as a member, I think she'll do well for the city. And I would, of course, I have no doubt she'll represent us well. So I'd like to see if we could get the motion made and she'd be approved as a voting delegate for our section of the MERS plan.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

Motion is in order. Mayor.

councilmember king i move to approve lauren minch personal personnel director as a delegate for the 2026 mers annual business meeting support or for mayor pro tem dole discussion from the table from the public all in favor motion passes 7-0 thank you mr miller okay we have no other business public comment uh you will have three minutes it's not a time to go back and forth if you make a point we'll try to get back to you or if we have an answer for you tonight we'll give it to you but uh technically or realistically it's your time to make a comment uh so i have a couple here mr mccool

Thank you mayor and council. How are you? My name is Larry McCool. I'm James over in Garden City. This was always my argument when people griped about taxes. A gentleman was walking his dog near me and got tangled up in the dog and fell and banged his head pretty good. Well, my dog's barking. I look out there and I said, oh my God, there's somebody laying. I told my wife, dial 911. Yeah, within five minutes, a police officer showed up, the ambulance. The man was taken care of, you know, God bless the fire department and the police that showed up. Well, then the dog, you know, they were a little leery at first, and when the fireman come up, he says, well, guy, you got a treat. He asked the guy, and I says, oh, no, I got him in the house. I ran him in the house. I ended up, he ended up walking the dog home because it was just around the corner. So it was a very bad thing that turned out great. And thank you to the police department and the fire department. It was a really cool thing because that's my gripe. I tell you, hey, only in America, you know, you could fall down. be worth it other thing is the flight cameras I'm pro everything but I don't really like them I mean I don't understand the database and everything that's going on and if it's a good tool or not for the police but seems like Westlands getting rid of them our news we get through the phone and It says the city council didn't pay for it. I mean, I don't know if it's the conglomerate where the communities are together like during COVID. I went to Dearborn and got my vaccine, you know? So I don't know if it's a federal grant or it seems everybody's getting rid of them or getting more because the Westland one they took down and one went right up where it was before the other one went down. It's just that database, from what I understand, I didn't want to embarrass myself, but I looked into it a little bit and The first three things that come up is, you know, officers abusing it, and then you can, from what I understand, they can be hacked pretty easy. So I was just wondering, I don't know, what's going on with them, you know? I mean, I'm assuming it's a good tool, that's why they're there, but are we paying for it, you know? Guys, people can't afford the sidewalks that we're doing. And thank you for the roads. I mean, last time I was here, they were doing sidewalks, and the roads were bad, and you guys replaced the roads, and my sub is beautiful because of that now. I appreciate everything you do. I love living here. My wife and I, I mean, we came from southwest Detroit, moved here 30-something years ago, you know. I'm just afraid of my nephews. My wife's fifth generation Mexican-American. All my nephews are Mexican, so they look that way, and they could be tracked by what's going on now is pretty scary in my eyes. I mean, down there, they don't play. I mean, those guys...

a little bit roughly 15 seconds i mean so just looking out for them just okay thank you thank you um the city manager and i were actually having a discussion earlier about this we're going to put some information together and probably present it to everybody and try and try and clear up some Misinformation or information, whatever. However you want to word it. But we're going to, in the next couple meetings, try and get with the police and city manager and try to get some more information out. Great. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. Okay. Pat Nemec. Ms. Nemec.

just want to find out what you're going to do about the rat problem that we have in garden city i've never seen a rat in the 52 years that i've been here and we've lived in the same house and this past summer we have had rats running around our yard like crazy my neighbors are complaining about it there are other people we put it on the ring app for the neighbors to be aware and they're all complaining about rats in garden city i called an exterminator out i'm paying 49.99 a month for an exterminator and i had to sign a one-year contract i don't understand why all of a sudden we're having such an issue is it because of the road construction is it because of the sewers being put in different places i don't understand it and it's not just where i live they're complaining on merriman i don't know if it's merriman and warren merriman and ford but there were so many people who responded on the ring app and i'm tired of it i'm so sick of going outside and having to look around at my feet to see if there's a rat running around my we have a lawn service and we take care of our home i have raised gardens they eat all my tomatoes i had to pull all my plants out I'm just beside myself because of it. It's so out of control. I don't know what to do anymore. I'm afraid to go in my yard. My daughter, I have actual video that my daughter and I sitting on our deck outside where the rats were coming in our yard. They don't run away when they hear us. I mean, it's ridiculous and I want to know what you're going to do about it.

Okay. It's not a back and forth. I'll let you make your comments, and then we'll have a response.

Is there any plan for you to get rid of these rats? I just want to know.

This is the first I'm hearing of it. You're the first person I've heard of it.

Well, you know what? We've tried to get people to come here from our neighborhood, but they said, well, Garden City's not going to do anything about it. so here i am by myself with my husband and we do have a rat issue and it's not just you know just our area gilman's got a problem cardwell's got a problem it needs to be taken care of because some of these people can't afford it i'm living on social security and he's got his pension i mean how much Do we have to pay out to get rid of these rats?

Well, I don't want to cut into your time. I just don't understand it. I don't want to cut into your time, so I'll let you finish.

If any of you sit outside in the evening in your yards, if you see a rat, what are you going to do? Stay out there for a rat to come near you? No. And I'm talking one evening, I watched on my video. That's time. And there were a dozen rats in my yard running around, and this is no joke. And we keep our lawns, we have a lawn service. I keep my garden neat.

Why? Thank you. I have your address. We can't work on a problem if we don't know the problem. I'll say that right up front. You're the first person that's come up and complained about that. We'll look at your address and see if there's something going on over there. Okay, we're... That's why I try not to cut you off because I want to let you get all yours in. We'll take a look at it. We have your address. Okay, Mr. Nemec.

Yes, I came to you about a year ago and told you about this problem we had with cement in which one of your workers come out and said the only way he could fix it is putting sealer on it. That was a year ago. And you said you check into it and let me know what's going on. Next problem I got... I'd like to see the police chief here next month. The reason why, compliance officers, I'd like another job. Another thing, I'd like to know what the police are doing. Two years, and I ain't got no response. I went to the police station twice. I talked to an officer here once. He said he'd take care of it. He didn't take care of it. I talked to another officer when I came to the meeting. He said he'd take care of it. He put a street sign up. That was a joke. Two days later, a police officer come over to my house. He said, can I park in your driveway or your neighbor's driveway? I said, knock yourself out. Do you think I seen the police off for the last year? None. You know how people fly around this neighborhood? I almost got hit three times going to the corner store. It's ridiculous. And another thing I like to know, this new group you've got going, residential cleanup, they're gonna check on people. Am I correct?

your lawns or anything i've seen something ordinance officers yes okay how's that gonna work can you explain that again i'm not i don't want it's not a time to go back and forth okay thank you not his secretary or right-hand man okay we'll we'll see what we can do we have your information okay further further public comments mr jones

Michael Jones Garden City. We have a couple of senior events coming up that I want to make sure everybody's aware of. One is on this Friday sponsored by a couple of our councilwomen. It's an ice cream social. It's free. It's on Friday from 12 to 1.30. And the second one is two weeks later.

It's on Thursday. That's a Thursday? Yes, it's on Thursday.

Okay. Two weeks. That's the day I have surgery scheduled, so I'll probably not make it. We'll save some for you. Have one for me, will you? And two weeks after that, we have the end of summer lunch, which is on August 27th from 12 to 2. That has a... uh charge of ten dollars for residents and fifteen dollars for non-residents both of these events are taking place on the uh radical center patio all right thank you okay further comments from the public yes sir

live on Bridge Street. I just want to comment there is a rat problem. It took me about a year to get rid of them out of my yard with traps, my cat and dog just down the street, to the fact that they were coming on our deck and we were feeding them with the squirrels. We had to stop feeding the squirrels. We had to stop with the garden. They ate right in there with everything else, eating the garden. But it took a year, but also on the other side of that, I was hoping our neighbors had a lot of trash in places in their yard to keep the rats around uh two neighbors and after i talked to them they cleaned it up and it did help but once the rats are there you just gotta get rid of them just wanted to mention that okay thank you sir further comments from public

Okay, no further comments. City Manager, Mr. Givens.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I'll cover a few things. First of all, thank you to the Superintendent for coming and giving a presentation today. You know, as people talk, I'm reminded of things. What makes a great community? is safety good services in schools like that's the three things that really make you live in a community and uh i'm glad to report that uh you know the cooperation between the school district and the city is nothing but great and i'm super excited to see those excellent results and i think that's a product of their great efforts and just being part of a wonderful community So, and just, you know, we get a great report from our superintendent. The gentleman, I love the story about, well, under five minutes, someone gets hurt, we're right there. Even he's helping out with treats. You know, I guess there's another thing that creates a great community, which is great schools, great city services, and great citizens. So we really appreciate that and the good word. The police don't always hear those good words, so I'm so glad to hear it. SOMEONE COMING HERE TO REPORT THAT. AND THEN JUST ON SOME OF THE OTHER ISSUES, YOU KNOW, CONCERNS ABOUT BLIGHT AND THEN THE AFTER EFFECTS OF RATS. SO, YOU KNOW, ONE IS CORRECT, GROUND FEEDING. CAN'T DO IT BECAUSE IT DOES ATTRACT THEM. TWO, BLIGHT, TRASH ON THE GROUND. YEAH, YOU GOT TO KEEP YOUR PROPERTIES CLEAN IF YOU WANT TO AVOID THOSE. In that effort, the gentleman before asked about the progress with our Blake Court. Blake Court was our first hearing was last month. We had 21 cases, 20 adjudicated that time, one adjourned, but 20 found responsible. The vast majority were ordered for abatement within seven days, and if the subjects don't take care of it, we'll be out there to take care of it. We firmly are on the side of making sure that there's not trash and garbage on the ground that attracts rats, and we're going to do nothing but continue to work very hard to make sure that's the case but the resident cooperation also is essential but on the same note though if you're living near maplewood where we're having a lot of major road construction there are going to be disturbances to the normal places where rats may have lived before that you may see them move into the neighborhood in a short period of time and hopefully if we have clean homes no ground feeding and effective light enforcement we can uh we can move them along um but uh you know those it it's just uh you know uh in each meeting you see our problems and our good stuff but uh but it's good to see that um you know we have solutions for the problems there will always be problems but we have really good residents and we have really good uh municipal employees who work hard on them every day to take care of those things so thank you council Thank you.

Mr. Smith.

Just thanks to everyone who came out and exercised their right to vote last week for the election. I'm still doing my dissecting of the numbers, but voting percentage was up. I tried to do apples to apples looking at other August primaries, so we were up almost eight percent higher turnout than august 2024 and about two percent higher than we were for the last august primary that had a governor race on it in 2022 our early voting uh was the highest number of people coming through other than the presidential election which is always going to be the high one so people you know more people are starting to use that so thanks to everyone who participated in democracy

Okay, thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Dole.

I just got one thing. I want to say how nice it is to see our attendance growing, our residents coming to the meeting and speaking their piece, whether it's positive or negative, we want to hear from you. That's all I have. Thank you. Council Member Hughes.

Thank you, Mayor. i just want to say um i'm grateful for mr miller and mr king's approach to you know acquiring grants to help the city increase on our services and or make what we're doing even better so we're lucky to have people who can pull this together and and help um bring some fun in the city thank you okay thank you council member whit thank you mayor uh nothing tonight thank you council member king um nothing tonight mayor thanks thank you council member dole

Just a couple of quick things. Again, Music in the Park on Thursday. Come and visit the popcorn stand that Kiwanis is there every time now selling popcorn that helps our kids. So come and visit us. I also wanted to say thank you to Mr. McCool. for for coming because too often people come in with you know bad news bad news travels a lot faster so for you to take your time to come in here and look and tell us that story was absolutely terrific so thank you very much for doing that and Absolutely, absolutely. Thank you. And our fire department and our police department, all of our departments in the city really do a stand-up job. So I'm not just saying that either. You guys do a terrific job. And the gentleman that left, when he was speaking about the ordinances and things along that line, he may have been talking about Blight Court, but I kind of had the feeling that he was talking about something else. We have a group in the city that is urging residents to... tattle yeah to rat each other out for lack of a better word but um i just want to say again that that is not that's not what the city is asking our residents to do if you have a if you have a valid concern absolutely contact the city and let us know what it is we're not asking people to drive around town and report you know the yeah the neighbor's grass is an inch too long or or whatever the case may be so um but yeah the and i'm sorry and the last thing kiwanis is also doing i mentioned this a couple weeks ago taste of garden city a cookbook and the website to submit online is super long so i'll see if maybe we can get it on the city's website but you can drop your recipes off at Garden City Library or the Radcliffe Center. So the book's gonna come out filled with recipes from your neighbors and friends and should be really, really good. So send your recipes in.

That's all? That's it. Okay, thank you. Council Member Karifotis. I just had a few things I wanted to agree with Mayor Pro Tem Dole about seeing more citizens. Councilwoman Dole and myself have Connect with Council once a month. We had more people there again this month, so if you come out and you tell us what you're thinking, then we can share your views with the rest of the council, and you can know that we're actually listening to you. When it... We talked about the rat problem. I know that before we had handouts, maybe we can get some more information for our residents and make a couple posts or handouts to say, these are the things that you need to do. I know we've had those before, ordinance had them. And we can put them all over, you know, Radcliffe or wherever. And if you are having a rat problem, I just want to remind everybody to make sure your dogs and your pets are vaccinated for lepto that's carried by rats. And then about the flock cameras, we do hear you and the council has been discussing it. So we will have more information and let you know what's going on. It's been talked about a lot. So you'll be hearing more about it.

Thank you. At this time, I have nothing, so I will take a motion to go into closed session.

Mayor. Council Member Witt. The time is now 8.16 p.m., and I would like to make a motion to go into closed session to consider periodic personnel review, annual city manager performance review of Tim Gibbons as permitted in accordance with 15.286, section 8.1a of the Open Meetings Act, Act 267 of 1976.

support or for mayor pro tem dole uh mr smith if you'll take roll call please council member whit aye mayor pro tem dole all right customer care photos council member dold aye council member king aye council member hughes aye mayor jacobs aye passes seven zero at this time we will be in recess to go into closed session Okay, at this time, I will take a motion to come back into session. Mayor?

Council Member Witt. The time is now 9.15 p.m. I'd like to make a motion to return to open session. Support.

Support from Council Member Karifotis. Okay, Mr. Smith, if you'd take roll.

Council Member Witt. Aye. Council Member Karifotis.

Aye.

Council Member Dold.

Here. Aye. Aye. It's to come back to session. Go back into session.

Oh, I thought it was for attendance. No, vote. I'm sorry. Aye.

Council Member King. Aye. Council Member Hughes. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Gold. Aye. Mayor Jacobs. Aye.

Okay, we are now back in session. Take a motion for the closed session.

Mayor.

Council Member Hughes. Thank you.

I want to make a motion to approve the proposed amendment to the city manager's contract to include 10% salary increase, 5% salary retirement deferment increase, vehicle stipend increase from $300 a month to $400 a month, effective September 3rd, 2026. Support.

Support from Mayor Pro Tem Dold.

mr smith if you take roll please councilmember hughes aye mayor pro tem dole all right councilmember care photos nay councilmember dole aye councilmember king aye councilmember whit aye mayor jacobs aye motion passes 6-1 okay with no further business before council this meeting is adjourned