City Council - Regular Meeting

good evening garden city like to call the order regular city council meeting for monday september 14th 2026 at 7 pm our 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 i'd also like to pay tribute to our 9 11 heroes that just recently uh obviously was uh friday so a moment of silence for them also if everyone please rise

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Please be seated.

MR. SMITH IF YOU TAKE ROLL PLEASE MAYOR JACOBS HERE MAYOR PROTEM DOLD HERE COUNCIL MEMBER HUGHES HERE COUNCIL MEMBER WHIT HERE COUNCIL MEMBER KING HERE COUNCIL MEMBER DOLD HERE COUNCIL MEMBER CARAFOTIS HERE YOU HAVE A QUORUM OF SEVEN THANK YOU ITEM FOUR IS OUR APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA MAYOR COUNCIL MEMBER WHIT I'D LIKE TO MAKE A MOTION TO APPROVE THE MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14TH COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA AS PRESENTED SUPPORT FOR MAYOR PROTEM DOLD ANY DISCUSSION FROM TABLE

From the public? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0. We have no recognition, no county or state officials, no presentations. I'd like to call Mr. John Prosh, our DDA director, up for community events.

Good evening, mayor and council and residents. This Saturday, September 19th, our third and final Lucky Squirrel Craft and Vendor Show in downtown Garden City. That starts at 10 a.m., goes to 3 p.m., That event is full with vendors at 165. So we're looking for a great day for community interaction with the residents and vendors alike. So that's this Saturday. Also, following week, next Saturday, September 26th, our Chili Cook-Off. And Chili Cook-Off Downtown Festival sponsored and brought to you by Buccelli Group. That is an all-day event on September 26th. It starts at 9 a.m. with a pancake breakfast on National Pancake Day. So we're excited about that. Proceeds from that will go to some local charities as well as chili being cooked through the morning. with sales in the afternoon we have some bands lined up beer tent some cornhole tournaments some children's activities and our open house for our police fire and uh our dp dpw as well so we're looking for a great uh couple weekends here in downtown garden city and uh just inviting all the residents and friends and family to come out and enjoy it thank you also um

I believe the Secretary of State Mobile Office will be there for the chili cook-off. Yes, sir. So anybody that needs to renew plates, anything you can do at the Secretary of State Office, that'll be available on the 26th. Yeah, correct. And I think they're there 12 to 4, I believe. Yes, sir. Very good. Great. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Okay. Item 11 is our consent agenda.

Mayor. Council Member Witt. I'd like to make a motion to approve consent agenda items A1 through 5, including 5A, B, and C as presented.

Support.

Support from Council Member Hughes. Discussion from the table?

Mayor. Council Member Karifotis. I'm glad to see that we're getting volunteers, especially for the Planning Commission and the Parks and Rec, and I'm glad to approve these two.

Thank you. further discussion from table from the public all in favor aye opposed motion passes 7-0 on to our action items uh first one is animal shelter contract from romulus and i'll call up chief of police chief arnosky

Good evening, Mayor, Council. Thank you for your time tonight. I'm here to ask that we enter into a contract with Romulus to use their animal shelter. We've been contracting with them for about the past decade. Our current contract expired a few months ago and we now have a new contract with them that we're hoping to get your approval on. You'll notice that some of the prices went up. We kind of expected it somewhat from the deal we got the first contract two years ago. They were still trying to figure out where their pricing was gonna be at and to kind of stop the flow of funds coming out of their animal shelter, they've been losing money. They had somewhere around $300,000 in expenditures last year that they're just trying to get us to give a little bit more than what we gave. I know when you look at the numbers, the first year we go up about $6,000, and the second year we go up about $12,000, which will put us around $42,000 for the whole contract, but looking at other Services that's still about three times cheaper than what we could get it for elsewhere so while it's kind of I saw it sticker shock when I saw it It's still a better deal than what else is out there.

So I hope that you guys will approve it tonight Thank you motion is an order mayor pro tem Dole.

I so move to approve the attached agreement with the city of Romulus to provide animal shelter services for Garden City For the duration of 2 years. With the option to terminate with a 30 day notice support.

Or from councilmember care photos discussion from table mayor. Councilmember King.

I'm sorry what you this is for 2000 for the 2 years as 2026 and 2027 where we pay in 2025.

A word of service in the first country we have which expire which is to your country we're paying $1000 a month. It was just $3,000 a month. Yeah, plus it was $20 a day that they stayed there. Okay.

Council Member Dole.

So prior to this contract, there was no intake fee?

Prior to this contract, the $500 intake fee is to this contract, yes, and they got rid of the daily fee. in exchange for they want the $500 intake which covers the vets it covers the cost of the housing and the food and everything else they have to do better than the $20 a day was figured out okay do we always transport

95 of the time probably there's still a few where we do wind up not having anybody available and we do call them out because they they charge us for that so okay but we do it most of the time and um lastly what is the charge to the owners when they come and pick up the animal i do not know their fees that they charge it's very minimal so they but they charge a minimal fee they do yes and garden city sees none of that correct

I like that. Mayor? Councilmember Kiarifotis. So I love Romulus. I think they do a great job for us. And when we need them to pick up, they're very prompt about it. So that's a good thing. And I just want to confirm and make sure our residents know it's dogs only. They don't take cats. And when you said that about veterinary, they don't actually have a veterinarian there. So we're not to take animals there that are hurt or injured. But one thing, I did have a question about the contract. Right at the 7.3, it says no warranties. Romulus makes no warranty regarding shelter availability. We've had that problem with them in the past where there was like the whole month of August that we can take a dog there correct, but it says we still have to pay them that $2000 we do that's kind of sucky. And I'll say that I don't think that problem has happened recently that's when other cities are contract with them and they were filling up the space they were using the space that we needed, but I still think that's odd that they're saying sorry we can't take a dog for you, but you can still you'll still have to pay for it.

I'm not as up to date on animals, but I viewed it as like if they did have a parvo outbreak or something.

No, this was because they were just full.

Yeah, and they were doing some construction at one point too, I think.

Yeah, but I'm just talking about full. They were letting other people take our 15 spots. So if we get 15 spots, we should get 15 spots. I agree. But I think that they do a really good job, and they do a great job getting the animals adopted. I know it's not a no-kill shelter technically, but they rarely have to euthanize adoptable animals. They do a great job with adoptions, so...

And we can't control how many animals may be running at large that we can't find the owner But it looks like historically about three dogs per month is what we're taking.

Yeah, we've never filled that 15 spot for sure For sure, but the one the one month that we needed it It wasn't available. Okay. That's all the questions. I have. Thanks.

Thank you for the comments from table From the public All in favor aye motion passes seven zero thank you why does it all stay there sir item two is our renewal of our towing service agreement

Good evening again. I'm before you to renew our tow contract with Square Circle Enterprises who are doing business as Westland Car Care to provide towing and impound services to the city. This contract is a no cost to the city and designates Westland Car Care as a city used tow service provider and impound yard. uh we've been with them for since 2011 at least and we've been renewing the contract in three year increments in 2017 it's the last time there's been a price increase by them they've just continued to run with that contract and we just keep renewing it i talked to the owner he's good with just staying with the renewal no fees increase no nothing like that and so i'm just here to ask that we renew the contract

It's unusual not to have an increase. Motion is in order. Mayor. Council Member Dole.

Before I make the motion, though, in the motion itself, it says period of three years ending August 29th, 2025. Oh, the typo? So we want that 28? Yes, please. So we're renewing it from last year? Yeah, I know, but further into the contract, it does state.

Yeah, we've just been running on the same contract.

So we're taking it from 2025 to 2028 at this point? Yes. So we're a year late in doing this? Okay, I just wanted to verify. Yep. Okay. So I'd like to motion to approve the renewal of the towing service agreement with Square Circle Enterprises Inc for remote for a period of three years ending August 29th 2028 with an option for renewal for an additional three years pursuant to the original agreement dated 12 12 2011 support Support from councilmember went discussion from the table

Mayor? Councilmember Karifotis. I've always heard they do a wonderful job. I'm just curious, do we ever bid this out? Or when was the last time we bid it out?

Go back to 2011? I know the last time that I know that we used a different service, they bid it out, they did the whole process, they went with another company, and within a year, we had to call up Wesleyan Car Care to come bail us out because the other company wasn't upholding there. obligations to the contract so you don't think we've bid it in 15 years since 2011. yeah i mean if you're going to hold me to it i'll tell you the 2016 was okay you know this is safer that's when it was okay thank you okay further comments from table mayor councilmember king um do we know are the

This is a little different than the dog shelter we just talked about. There's no fees to us for the towing, but when somebody claims their vehicle, they pay the fee. Are their fees pretty comparable to other towing companies?

Yeah, I looked at theirs compared to the averages and stuff, and they're on the low end of the fees. I think...

there's a range from 20 to 60 dollars for like a daily impound fee for keeping your car there and they're 23 okay so i guess a follow-up question to that um i know they're pretty responsive responsive um good response on for the police department and responding and moving the vehicle uh have we seen any complaints from the residents who pick up the vehicles from the storage damage the vehicle or anything like that No. All right.

Thanks. Thank you. Further comments from public. Yes, sir.

Since I'm here attached a current copy to memorandum, so I don't, that wasn't attached in the thing, so I don't get to see it, but who is responsible for like accident cleanup? Would that be them? And if that is the case, I would have to disagree that they've been a little complacent on cleanup. I myself have picked up two bumper covers off of Ford Road in the last year, And when my own sister got taken out at Speedway, I asked the officer if he was really gonna release the scene this way, because there was glass everywhere. There's always glass by Speedway after an accident. I think that the accident cleanup, they've been pretty complacent after the last two years or so, other than that.

Okay, thank you. I'm sure we can have Chief Arnosky address that with Westland Car Care and pick up on that. So we'll get that addressed. Any further comment from the public? okay all in favor aye opposed motion passes 7-0 thank you chief okay item three is uh a radcliffe hvac project bulletin number two and i'll call up our parks and rec director mr zachary king

community mayor council before you is a request to move seventy two thousand dollars of unallocated hud grant funding to the radcliffe center hvac project contingency this will essentially cover the two remaining quotes we have with quality air the first one in front of you for the 59 900 that is to finish uh outside the scope of the project but to finish controls through the rest of the building giving us access to schedule all those units homes we can save energy costs in the end of the day uh... actually reached out to him and asked i want to really did to gym units we have they said they knew for sure uh... the money would get back and controlling those but more than pay for this that's a great reduction in savings to our on bottom end with grant funding dollars on the other two rooms in there is the fitness center there was also a room outside the scope that was a unique recently replaced we came into the building uh... we took over so that was replaced earlier on in the project So it's never in the scope, so the controls were not in the scope. So we're looking to add that. Right now we have really irregular controls of our fitness center. It's hard to monitor and hard to diagnose when it's not in the system. So we're hoping to get that put onto the system. And then all the UV units, all of our, we call them our verticals and horizontals, there's eight rooms in the building that have those, getting those on the controls as well. So we can program those to turn on and turn off throughout the day. The building has an interesting schedule of what rooms are used, what times of the day, so being able to schedule that will really save us HVAC costs and our utility costs, as well as prolong the life of the units. The second quote is a hodgepodge of $28,757. That's a lot of random stuff that happened throughout the project, and a few things remaining that we, because technically there's only 24,000 left in the contingency, There's just a few things that we need done that really was during the scope of the project came up and said, you know what, we don't have money for this. This is something that has to get done. This is a union that's leaking. We need to replace it as a backpool preventer that's not working. We need to get this replaced moving forward for the system to be fully functional. It is also to pay out that quote. There are expected to be no issues with these two. We plan this to be the complete of the project, these last two invoices. If so, there would be $7,938 remaining in the contingency left over after asking for 72 to move over. We don't intend to use that, but I figured it's a very small amount. It would be nice just to have it just in case you run into something in this last quote that we need a few extra dollars for. In terms of the HUD grant funding, there's $145,115 in that grant right now that's unallocated. After pulling out the $72,000, that would leave $73,115, probably plus another $8,000 that we won't be using out of that contingency. That's what will be left for HUD. So we have a few more years to figure out what we're going to do with HUD funding. This is a good step in reducing our electricity costs, our gas costs, our utility costs. We're hoping to maybe use the rest of that money to more reduce our utility costs. The lower we can get that, the better we can operate the building at a net cost. But we still have a few years to figure that out, so there's no plans of yet to do anything with that.

Okay, thank you. Motion is in order.

mayor councilmember witt i'd like to make a motion to approve the allocation of an additional 72 000 in unallocated hud grant funding to the radcliffe center hvac project contingency budget to fund additional hvac controls repairs and other hvac project related work support or from councilmember king discussion from the table

Mayor. Council Member Karifotis.

This is going to help the dance room not be so hot?

Yes, this will. Those eight rooms I mentioned, that is, there's four in the two dance rooms that we have, two in the imagination station area, and the rest are in Head Start.

Okay, and the HUD money that's left over, is that designated just for heating and cooling or something else?

No, the project scope is actually pretty broad. I was speaking with the city manager this week. We do have kind of an open book for that funding. We can't break ground. It's one of the things we did sign off on that we would not do, but other than that, it's pretty open. So reducing our yearly bills I think would be the great thing to go with that, but there's many options in that grant that we proposed, and we have until I know at least 2030. I think it's October of 2030 if I'm not wrong. Okay, thank you. No problem.

Further discussion from the table?

mayor councilmember king no just to make a comment i think this is you know great use of grant money to bring our operational costs down and i definitely would like to see the rest of the hud money to be used on something to reduce our operational costs yep i'm hoping actually to reach out to we have two different services uh at um the reckless center we have consumers for our gas dt for electric hoping to reach out to both of them they both have programs on how to reduce your cost

REACHING OUT TO THEM, THEY'RE THE EXPERTS, THEY CAN KIND OF OUTLINE SOME PROJECTS THAT THEY THINK WE SHOULD DO, WHETHER IT'S MOTION LIGHTS, SWITCHING TO LED'S IN THE ROOMS THAT AREN'T LED, KIND OF TAKE THEIR GUIDANCE ON THAT, AND THEN PROPOSE THOSE TYPE OF PROJECTS TO YOU GUYS.

MAYOR? COUNCIL MEMBER CARAFOTOS. I THOUGHT WHEN WE OPENED RATCLIFFE WE CHANGED ALL THE LIGHTS TO LED.

THERE'S PROBABLY TEN ROOMS NOT CHANGED OVER THAT ARE STILL ORIGINAL LIGHTING.

OKAY, THANKS. FURTHER COMMENTS? FROM THE PUBLIC? okay all in favor aye opposed motion passes seven zero uh item four is our annual technology support contract mr king good evening council before you is a contract uh agreement with layer cake technologies the city's technology consultants this is an annual renewal

Something kind of cool is our device count is continuing to come down, so even though there is a 2.5% increase on the device cost, because our devices are less than we were last year, the contract is less than it was previous year. that's just moving those devices down from 169 to 148. As you know, we did the Layer Cake technologies, purchased Skynet Technologies a few months ago. They purchased the old contracts. We've been operating underneath that contract. We've had some time to get to know the Layer Cake team. We met with the CEO and his staff. They were very friendly. It's actually a fresh new face to, I believe, our technology contract, but with all of our old, not the old same people, but our same people that we're used to using. The staff has been great We've had a scene of really an increase in productivity from technology and they're getting tickets done quicker staff is happier We're very happy with the transition over to layer cake. So I'm very happy to bring for you the new master service agreement There's not much that changes in between Skynet layer cake is that they all kind of have their own different taste but same response time to tickets and same dedicated service to the city If you would like if you have any questions to Ty Dolan, you probably know him He's been here since the beginning of technology in Garden City.

He can answer any questions as well Thank you motion is in order there Councilmember Hughes I'd like to make a motion to approve the attached agreement with layer cake technologies the city's technology consultants regarding the renewal of our annual technology support contract in the amount of 132 thousand sixty six dollars and sixty cents support or from council member care photos discussion from table air council member hughes um i had you i had an occasion to use layer uh layer cake and they were very responsive like i said they responded very quickly and they were friendly and they they took care of things right away so yeah they have a great team yeah a good reason you know a good uh good occurrence to have to call them okay thank you further comments i will say this um

i'm usually in my office and i'm not real good at computers so i have used layer cake a few times and i will agree they are pretty responsive and get get back to me usually when i am around you know they'll work with me on my schedule which is in and out so i appreciate all the work and effort that you guys do thank you further comments from table from public

all in favor aye opposed motion passes 7-0 next up is microsoft office 365 licenses mr king council before you is a agreement again with layer cake technologies regarding our microsoft office 365 licenses we purchased them through them as they manage the license holder for that in the amount of thirty nine thousand nine hundred fifty four dollars This is one of those things that always comes up before you every year as an annual renewal. Of course, Microsoft provides us access to Outlook, all of our emails, and all the other office tools like Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access, and Teams to all of our staff. This cost, again, is very similar, if not less than last year, due to reduction in license use.

Thank you. Motion is in order. Mayor. Council Member Dole.

Motion to approve the attached agreement with Layer Cake, the city's technology consultants regarding the renewal of our Microsoft Office 365 licenses in an amount of $39,954. Support.

Support from Mayor Pro Tem Dole. Discussion from the table. Mayor. Council Member Dole.

Not really a question, but didn't I read in the contract that Microsoft 365 is like the leading thing that they go after?

i'm sorry forget it it is definitely i mean there's really only two tools out there for employees to use google has a suite and microsoft has a suite uh essentially you're picking one yeah you're picking one or the other and microsoft in our environment is definitely the leading tool that we could use okay actually so much so the court was on their own system they were using google we recently switched them to microsoft because it's just for us it's a better product further discussion from the table

from the public. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0. The Senior Alliance Contract Agreement. Mr. King.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. The four years of contract with the Senior Alliance and the amount of $13,570 of grant funding to support Senior Center staffing and health and wellness programming at the Radcliffe Community Center. I know this is a very long, big contract attached. I've been working with the Senior Alliance on this. Every year we send a proposal of services that we can offer, and they reward us a contract. This next three years, they have awarded us money for authorized exercise, our Tai Chi classes, which allow those classes to be a donation. So we do ask, I think, for $2 or $3 per class, but that's totally donation-based. You don't have to and if you have silver sneakers, it's actually free. So that's actually the majority of Almost I look today 85% of people coming in is senior to silver sneakers So they're not having to pay anything. But then also the senior alliance allows Us to pay the instructor our total cost There's no cost for us running those classes and they also contribute a little over eight grand to our senior center staffing Any questions?

Okay motion is an order mayor councilmember King I I move to approve the attached contract with the Senior Alliance and accept $13,570 per year in the grant funding to support Senior Center staffing and health and wellness programming at the Radcliffe Community Center. Support.

Support from Council Member Karifotis. Discussion from table.

Mayor. Council Member King. This is directly 13,570 grant, no requirement matching or anything like that.

There is match funding, but because we have a large volunteer population at the Radcliffe Center already in our senior center, we're using a lot of theirs hours as the dollars match towards the grant. So our thrift store alone, the hours that they put in for the hours you're allowed to charge per volunteer covers our match. All right, thanks. I believe it's 15% to 25% match.

okay further comments from table mayor councilmember care photos and next year we'll get more yeah i still hope so okay uh further comments from table from the public all in favor aye motion passes seven zero

last one is uh road closures for the uh chili uh festival chili cook-off festival um you want to take it yeah this is just a routine request in front of you we're looking to close the street on saturday september 26 central street just behind our event area for the open houses we have police fire and dpw touch a truck that operate in that area so we're looking to close the street for the hours of the festival for them so we can expand our footprint to the festival

Motion here. Mayor Pro Tem Dole.

I move to approve temporary closure to Central Street for the 2026 Chili Cook-Off Community Festival on Saturday, September 26th, 2026 as outlined in the agreement.

Support.

Support from Council Member Hughes. Discussion from the table. From the public. All in favor? Aye. Aye. opposed motion passes seven zero okay uh next item is uh we have no other business uh item 13 is public comment this is for non-agenda items only you'll be given three minutes to make a comment um it's not a time to go back and forth if we can answer something at the end we will but during that three minutes that's your time to talk to us and make a comment so i do have mr joseph price uh Come on up and if you're a Garden City resident, okay.

Good afternoon, I'm Joseph Price. I'm a Garden City resident. I've lived here all my life. I moved back here about five years ago. I settled down here. I plan on raising a family here. And my children would be fourth generation Garden City residents. So I have a big stake in this city. I love this city. Yesterday I was driving down the road and I saw a black camera staring at me. And I've been reading about these mass surveillance cameras around the country. For the whole year how people have been fighting back against it how cities have been canceling contracts because there's issues of privacy this isn't just local cameras from Garden City Police, this is a enormous private corporation that owns these cameras and that owns the data and They're building a national database. They don't just read license plates. They read the make and model, color of your car, the dents that are in your car, the scratches that are in your car. They log it. They can track you from your home to your church to your school to Kroger, back home again. Retaliation can happen. There have been dozens of examples of flock employees, police officers, and city employees stalking women on these flock cameras. Some have been charged in court over it. There's one incident of a camera inside a young lady's YMCA gym being hacked by somebody, and we don't know who did it, but it's been proven that it's happened. So there are many, many concerns about this. In Michigan, there's supposed to be something called home rule where every municipality, every city, every village, every township is supposed to have a say over things that happen in their state. Something as monumental as putting cameras on every single corner in a city owned by a private corporation. that police can tap into and follow you wherever you go at any moment. I think democracy should have something to say about that. And if you wanted to put those up, I think they should have been put on the ballot in the first place. But I think it would be difficult to get that over the line. But I plan to raise hell about this, and I hope other residents too. If something isn't done about it, the contract should be canceled. Thank you.

Thank you. Further comments from the public? Yes, sir. Please state your name and city.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. John Talbert, Belton Street. I have a couple concerns. The first one is on the north-west corner of Harrison and Marquette. Great Lakes Water Authority did a repair there. uh had to be six eight months ago cones are still there the forms are still there for the curb they have not come back to do the landscaping so they still have all the cones there since school started somebody has taken the cones and pushed them at least into the whole hopes that kids don't get in there that's my concern because that's a young elementary school right there The second thing my concern is about the flock cameras as well. First, I thought it was great. There's a lot of great technology, but with great technology, bad technology comes with it too. And just like this gentleman was talking about collecting all this data, I travel to Southfield every day for work. I can count numerous cameras between here dearborn dearborn heights redford all the way down telegraph they know everyday which way i go to work which way i come home that's my concern they're collecting this data are they eventually trying to sell it

maybe do insurance companies don't know but like the gentleman said about all the negatives what's going on with uh retaliation with that that's very concerning too okay all right thanks guys thank you uh i will say this um toward uh harrison marquette we'll have our dpw get in touch with uh great lakes and see when when they plan on repairing that okay further comments from the public yes sir

I strongly support them.

I believe they've been crying. Can you give your name?

William Grove, 166 Greenwood, Garden City, Michigan. Thank you. I've lived here since 1997. I went to Maplewood briefly as a kid. So I've been here a long time also. I thought I had a very well-funded, outstanding police force. I've been listening to burnouts by my house, Cherry Hill and Middle Bell, for over a year. Assuming they were in Inkster, because nobody was doing anything about it. Saturday night, I got company over. I was embarrassed. Burnouts. They leave. Burnouts. You can hear them a half mile away. They leave. Burnouts. They leave. Burnouts. They leave. I had to go over there on my E-truck and stop them. They're doing it behind United Baptist Church in the parking lot between the church and the collision shop. I expect this to stop. Thank you.

Thank you. Can you please fill out... Your address in that so we we can look into it. If you can if you can fill that out several look into it please. Further for further comments from the public. Good Sir.

Hello, my name's Adam Minster. I live off of Rossland and Craig. There's been a lot of issues lately with this blight court. I do like it, but there's been people abusing it. Using Google images to report people has been a big issue lately. Reporting people for having multiple cars in their backyard shouldn't be a thing. I understand that we have a big rat problem, but making it where these people have to worry about their vehicles is kind of getting out of hand not just that we've also been having an issue with the garbage being picked up okay if for the garbage issue if you can put your name and address down we can look into that and see what we can do about that all right thank you mayor

Council member care photos. I would like to say something about that. What you just talked about. I just want to make sure that that you are aware that that page that you're talking about where they're posting Google. That has nothing to do with Garden City. That is not an official page for us. And that's not something that we know. Okay. I just want to make sure that you know.

I know that people are

Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you. Go ahead.

Hi, Lauren Anthony, Marquette Street. I just wanted to add a little bit to what Mr. Price had said about the flock cameras. I completely agree with everything he had said. I did just wanted to add some additional context that I understand where he was coming from when he talks about the democracy of it. However, I also understand that the way our democracy works is we elect you guys and then you guys are able to do a lot of these contracts, make these decisions so that we, the people, don't have to vote on every individual one. especially since we do our elections every two years. However, when this contract came up, this flock camera thing, it was presented to all of us as automatic license plate readers. It was not presented as all of the overall information that it gathers, everything that it does, and I think that's a very important thing to be taken into account when we talk about looking back over at this contract. I remember somebody even pointing out when they first started going up on one of the Facebook pages and they said, what is this? This looks like mass surveillance. Somebody pointed out, oh, they're ALPRs, they're automatic license plate readers. And I read that and I went, yeah, that makes sense to me and moved on. I wasn't aware until I read later all the information like Mr. Price said is being gathered, how it's all being tracked, that it is a private corporation that is housing all of this data. I understand if you read the contract we have with Flock, it does state that that data is technically it's our property and that they delete it. I believe it's every 30 days. I could be misremembering. I haven't read it in a couple of weeks. I'm sorry, a couple months. But that does not change the fact that they are the ones gathering it, and that is a huge concern for me personally. There is no need for warrants from a judge to be able to see it. All our police force has to do is call up Flock and say, hey, I want to see this. I want to get all this data for Lauren Anthony's license plate, this particular license plate. They're also being put up in areas, I've not been aware of this relevant in Garden City yet, but they're going in trails. Like you said, they're going in YMCAs. If they're supposed to only be used for license plate reading, why are they in areas where cars literally cannot go? It is just a huge concern for me, and I just feel like I understand the positives to it. For me personally, it does not outweigh the risks. And I do not like how it does not seem we were fully informed before this contract was actually put in motion. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Further comments from the public.

Hello, Mike Hagan on Backstreet. Two issues I landed on trying to get in my three minutes today are we need some police support at our schools. Pick up DRAPA, especially DRAPA. pick up at the end of the day. It's not any one school, it's all of our elementary schools, both Tipton and Public. Even if there's two cars or whatever that could go around, and rotate, there's money to be made on all the entitlement that is creating safety issues at our schools. You can't even get down Florence Street, no parking on one side of the street, same with Bach, can't get down the street, no parking. All the way down the street, it's a safety, it's the emergency route, so there's no parking down the whole side of the street. Every single one of those cars is free money. And we've done it for years. Doc did a traffic study with Mr. Gibbons. They put in signs, no parking signs on the opposite side of the street. No enforcement. They come, push the lights and give warnings and off they go and they're right back the next day. So some actual tickets being written there would be nice. Second issue is our sidewalks that are going on right now. It is absolute horrible with the reclamation that's being done. Some of the council members have seen some pictures of the dirt that is mostly rocks, glass, nails. They're not tamping it down whatsoever so the first time it gets wet it falls three inches. That is leaving trip hazards for us as citizens the very next week when they roll their ankle. That's our lawsuit, not yours. So I would like to see some better reclamation going on with our new sidewalks going in. I know Peter from Bocelli came, he's the inspector on site, the guys with the black CTS that follows these guys around. He came and took and documented some pictures today of that, and couldn't believe what he saw, so hopefully something will get done there, but there needs to be a better reclamation going on. I know we're on a time crunch to get this in before the end of the year,

that shouldn't fall on us thank you thank you i would i will say buchelli's usually when they they spot something there's an issue with it they they get on it they would they will get on it so we will uh i'm sure the city manager will be reaching out to uh dpw and buchelli to make sure we're inspecting a lot better um as for the vehicles parking at police schools at drop-offs i'm sure the chief will address that issue that started the school year so everybody's a little uh unfortunately they need to be retrained because uh even though it doesn't change it changes every year apparently so i'm sure the chief will look into that further comments from the public no further comments okay report from city manager

thank you mayor and council um first on the sidewalks yes uh you know we have been observant um on the west side of town where we've completed a lot of work and it was last year um we're pretty happy with the um reclamation um but as mr haggard stated uh we're we're moving fast we're trying to use as much of the grant money as we can get these sidewalks in we are on a time crunch however it is our full intention to make sure they're held accountable to uh making sure the ground next to the sidewalks are done properly and look nice so we actually appreciate our residents pointing out the concerns they're all things we're going to address this is a major 2.5 million dollar project across the town so there are going to be times when we're going to have to catch back up our goal is to get those sidewalks in the ground make this community more walkable and then make sure that our contractor follows up on their promises and make sure As timely as I'd love it to be to each one's buttoned up perfect as they walk away from each I also want to keep them moving I want to keep so we could spend as much of the grant money the state allowed to benefit this community So we will balance both and I appreciate when mistakes and stuff are being pointed out or something not satisfied We're gonna make sure it is as best we can And the other, I just wanted to thank our Parks and Rec director. One of the things, my first year here, that was important to me is that we utilize grant money in a manner that benefits us operationally long-term, that we reduce costs and we use grant money wisely. And I really appreciate the use of the controls at our Radcliffe Center. It's gonna be more environmentally, it's gonna lower our costs, and it's a good use of grant money to basically allow us to operate our community center cheaper. So I really appreciate that. And just to anyone who was speaking on the flat cameras, if you wouldn't mind hanging around for a second, I just want to hear a little more concerned after the meeting, if that's okay. And then I think that's it. I think I covered. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Smith.

wanted to say thank you to everyone who came out for community shred day on saturday so we had nice weather so that's always a plus one it's not super hot or rainy and thanks everyone for donated to the food pantry we had food donations as well as cash donations and also we had a very generous donation for school supplies for the cram the cruiser program as well so thanks everyone who came out and we'll see everybody again in the spring

Thank you. Mayor pro tem dole. Thank you mayor. I don't have anything tonight. Thank you council member Hughes.

Nothing nothing seen nothing.

OK councilmember what thank you mayor.

So we have 2 very eventful weekends coming up. i just want to make sure that for both of those weekends everyone remembers please drink responsibly and do not drive after you've drank please there are a lot of lives that are going to be around these events and we want to make sure people stay safe enjoy yourself have fun but please think about everybody else as well that's it thank you council member king

Yeah, I do have a couple of things, specifically around the Gap Sidewalk project. When I was talking to Mr. Miller a couple weeks, well, a couple months ago, probably now, he talked about getting an extension on that grant. Was he able to do that? Are we still in the process? Because I believe it ends this year.

Yeah, we actually were guaranteed an extension for another year.

Oh, so we did get it presented to 2027? Yes. Okay. And do we know where we're at and how much that grant's been spent to date?

I believe spending-wise we're about a million and a half. Okay. That's that's ballpark very off the top my head of the reimbursements I've seen come and go some of which has been paid some of which is still owed to us But we've got reimbursements out.

Okay, and then I know we've talked about we talked about regarding some residents regarding the Restoration again either side of the sidewalk and bringing in good filtered soil I walk We're on our neighborhood all the time, and I have a degree with Mike, Mr. Hagedone, that it seems like to be poor quality soil they're bringing in. I've heard from these five, six residents, like you mentioned, rocks, glass, steel pieces. It's definitely not good filtered soil. Gotcha. We'll speak with our contractors. Thank you.

That that that I'm also I think okay, thank you councilmember dole.

They're just a couple quick things. I wanted to ask a few meetings back we voted on a moratorium for the data set data centers. What are we doing with that has that gone before planning Commission, I mean are we doing anything with it or we're just going to let that run out.

No, we're we're actually in the valuation stages. We stated when we did the moratorium to look to see where that would apply with it's with our planners. It's with our community development, which so we should be able to produce something. If not, we can extend it that moratorium of the 12 months.

Hey, As far as the flat cameras go that's been a concern with some of us up here for a while and we've asked questions we've you know sitting city manager has answered a lot of the questions. But there's still questions and they're still I don't want to say suspicions, but... Concerns. Concerns, yeah. There's still concerns. And one of the things that I wanted to do, I just recently found out that we can do this, actually, is to ask for an audit of the FLAC system. So I can send you... what we'd like to see or what I'd like to see. And I think there's a few other council members up here that are very concerned about the cameras too. And honestly, it's nothing. I completely trust our police department, but police departments across the country have access to this data. And that's kind of worrisome. So anyways, we are looking at it. We are listening to the public. So the other thing, just wanted to say you know i was at the planning commission meeting the other night and i've been at a few of these where something's on the agenda and while we we held a public hearing and nobody came We had no residents come and speak for it or against it. And I know to some degree that's on the residents, but it's on us too. And I don't think, I stated this before, I think that there's some instances in the city where something may be going on where the entire city needs to be notified of this because it's going to affect everybody in the city. not just the properties that are 300 feet around it. I'm not sure how we go about doing that, but I would like to see us at least look at it and have some kind of criteria on what those things may be that every citizen needs to be informed of that. And the other problem with that, too, is, like it was mentioned at the Planning Commission, well, we published it in the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News. Who gets those anymore? Does anybody get those papers anymore? You just don't. I don't even buy him anymore there and they've gone up in price and you know. But I just wanted to say that I think we need to do a better job at notifying our residents about some of the changes that come and like one mentioned you know we we do set up here we are the residents voice up here and in that that's why I go on Facebook and can read you can't believe everything you see on Facebook but that's where people put their opinions and they put their thoughts out on social media now like it or not you need to be on there you need to be listening to the residents and another reason why stop councilmember care photos and I have our Meet the council members meetings, you know, and we invite the city every month to come and tell us what you need from us. But last but not least, I want to let everyone know that the Kiwanis Club of Garden City is working on with the city on upgrading Kiwanis Park and we've got a new swing set going in in the next couple weeks. Got new benches over there. New swing set. We've got a lot of stuff going on. We've had a big We have a five-year plan, and we've accomplished everything we wanted to accomplish that was on the list for this year. So go Kiwanis, and a couple of years, we should see a lot more changes over at the park. That's all I had.

Thank you. Council Member Karafotis.

I just have a couple things. One, I kind of want to echo what Kim said. When you guys are talking about the flat cameras, I hear you. I hear your concerns, and I want to hear more of it, whether you're for them or against them. Some of us on council are getting more details from our city manager, from our chief of police. And again, I do trust our officers, so it's a matter of what else is in the contract. And I'm sure we'll be talking about this more, but for right now, just know that your opinions aren't being ignored. Our city manager knows that it's very important to our residents, and we know it's very important to you. So whether changes are coming or they're going to stay the same, we hear what you're saying, and we're not ignoring you by any means. I also wanted to... reiterate kind of what I'm council member King said that I have also heard from residents about the film not just today and I should share the pictures the city manager but from other areas in the city on the west side last year a couple residents said the same thing about what was going in their yard they were concerned with rocks and doing their mower and all that kind of stuff Also, I've had lots of people ask me about the Kmart site and the Oren site, and I wanted to know if there's any updates with the owners of those properties that they're going to be doing anything shortly.

The Oren site was just in front of the Planning Commission, readjusting their plan to one that seems pretty positive, with maybe even a little more tweak coming, but it's moving in the right direction. And Kmart property, I'll have to find a little more update, but it's not got as much movement. Okay.

And then... Along with what Councilmember Dold said, this is a conversation we've had for at least six years now about how we contact our residents and putting things in the free press or putting things in the news. It just doesn't work. We've been saying that for six years. That's not how people communicate anymore. We have to come up with a better guideline, whether if there's going to be a public hearing, it goes out on the emergency text. If we can... tell everybody hey avoid middle belt because there's a chili cook-off we can certainly text and say there's a planning commission meeting this week for the public because it's on this i mean we use it for other non-emergency things so um maybe that's something to talk about but we've just been talking about it for six years doing something different i think it's time that we really look into that just better communication i thought that we were building also a email base database we were asking residents for their email on our website so maybe that would be another way to inform people and then i will talk with you later because i have some good ideas about saving money in um the stuff at radcliffe for the utility bills and that's all i got oh thank you um i just have a couple things one uh

mr smith um mayor council so this is a good opportunity for me to uh plug my little alert thing through the city website you can sign up for automatic text alerts anytime a agenda for a council meeting zba planning parks and rec gets added to the agenda center it will automatically you put in your phone and then you get a text alert saying there's a new agenda in there um so if you're not doing that yet sign up for that uh when i know when i do the council ones i always have my phone right next to me and i hit send and i just wait for the instant ding to know that it went through um so just through the city of garden city website if you go into agenda center there's an option on there where you can sign up for uh text alerts thank you thank you anyone else

All right, just a couple things for me. This weekend is St. Raphael's slash St. Thomas the Apostle's yearly festival, which is always a good time for the community. A lot of people come down there. A lot of fun. Catholics know how to have a lot of fun there. All kinds of stuff for kids to adults. So if you're not doing anything Friday, Saturday, Sunday, they're there. As far as the restoration or the road over on Harrison and Marquette, I will say we have the same thing over on Hubbard and Marquette, and they just asphalted that in, so maybe it's, I assume they were gonna do that at the same time, but they didn't, so we will get with DPW on that and find out from them. They don't always listen to us, because they're their own entity, but we can definitely reach out to them. I know we'll have some more information on the flock cameras. Quickly though, they're not up on every corner. They're not in neighborhoods. The flock cameras are out on the main roads, and they're only reading license plates. And there are concerns about different things, but they are, they're not doing facial recognition. They're not, if you turn down a side street once you pass Fort and Middlebelt, it's not tracking you all the way down there. so there are there are different things again i agree we i believe our police department uses it correctly and we will have some more information come out on it but um we own that data granted it can be hacked but your cell phone has a lot more data and a lot more traceable stuff on it than those flock cameras so um but we we will have more more info coming out on that i think that's all i have so with no further business this meeting is adjourned