City Council - Regular Meeting

going to be going out of town. Yeah.

No, no, no. He left on Thursday. All right. I live free when I leave this building. technique. [snorts] Music [snorts] [clears throat]

[clears throat]

took something. What is it?

[clears throat] [snorts]

real quick. [clears throat] Yes, I'll leave. It's amazing.

Right. [snorts]

It's always Mhm.

All right. [clears throat] This is this is 2020.2 right now. [clears throat] So you want us to renegotiate?

Yeah, we trying to do it right now. Right. Okay. Right. Okay. MG. Okay, that makes sense. Okay.

That's what I'll be. Thank you. Not always. How's everybody? How are you? I like you ride your bike. [laughter] My motorcycle, right? I was going to say, why you look like you just got off a Harley? I like motorcycle.

It's kind of You can tell my age. Like you just took off the helmet, right? Look like you just rode right in. Well, you came right off the Harley-Davidson. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the city of Highland Park in person and virtual regular meeting scheduled for today, Monday, November 3rd, at 700 p.m. Um, Madam Cler, would you please take the role? Council member Shi, present. Councilwoman Martin here. Councilwoman Manica here. Council Pro Tim Robinson here. Council President Thomas

here. Thank you. Uh, moving on to item three, the approval of the agenda. Council, you've had access to the agenda. What is your pleasure on today's agenda? I want to make a motion to approve the agenda. Have a second. We have a motion on the floor by Councilwoman Martin, seconded by Councilwoman Manica for the approval of tonight's agenda. Questions, concerns, or dissent? Madam clerk, would you please call the role on approval of the agenda? Councilman Estrai, no. Councilwoman Martin, yes. Councilwoman Mana, yes. Council Pro Robinson, yes. Council President Thomas,

yes. Thank you very much. Moving on to item four. This is the approval of the proposed minutes for the virtual and inerson regular meeting that was held on October 20th, 2025. City Council, what's your pleasure? Move to approve the proposed minutes of virtual and in-person record meeting held October 20th, 2025. Motion on the floor from Councilwoman Manica. The chair will offer a second. Questions, concerns, or descent on the approval of the minutes?

Yeah, I got a question. Go ahead, sir. Uh on page two under the mayor's uh veto it said no action was taken. I need that to reflect that it died for [cough] lack of support. Madam clerk can you accommodate Mr. Ashi? I'm sorry Mr. Ashi the clarification from the attorney said there was never a motion so no action was taken. Nobody [snorts] moves it for lack of support. No lack of support when a motion gets made.

You know, is it is it [clears throat] is it me or do the rules change between the three? No, don't say between the three of them. I'm curious because normally when no action is taken, when nobody says anything, it dies for lack of support. Now you're telling me that it has to have emotion and then die for lack of support. Make up your mind. No. Which one is it? Thank you. My answer. Thank you, sir. Um, go ahead and take the role on the approval of the proposed minutes. Councilman, hell no. Councilwoman Martin, no. Councilwoman Mana, yes. Council Pro Robinson,

no. Council President Thomas, yes. These minutes will not be taken into the record. Moving on to Mayor McDonald. May McDonald is still at the food drive over at the rec center. She will not be here tonight. We'll move directly into citizens participation on agenda items only. Please, if you will be kind enough to make your way to the podium. I will set it two minutes.

Is this an agenda item? Then it'll be at the end. Just a second. Let me check to see. Um, I have Anthony with your hand raised. Is this related to an item that's on the agenda, Anthony? No, it's not. I don't want to speak. Thank you.

All right, sir. Okay, then we will move into seeing no comments in the audience, we're going to move into item five, that is the bid opening for zipline for Ives field playground. Uh council, we will entertain a motion to open the bids to begin the bidding process. I want to make a motion to open the bids for zipline for Ives field playground. Second. Motion on the floor by Councilwoman Martin, seconded by Councilwoman Manica for bid opening. Questions, concerns, or descent? Would you go ahead and take the role on the bid opening for zip lines for Icefield? Council Mazi. Yes. Councilwoman Martin. Yes. Councilwoman Mana.

Yes. Council Pro Tim Robinson. Yes. Council President Thomas. Yes. Madam, if you would be so kind as to open the bids and provide information for us.

There are four bids received for the zipline for Ice Field. The first one was received from Morgan in Morgan Inland LLC [snorts] [clears throat] in Morgan Hill, California. The grand total 55,2589. Again, grand total 55,2589. The second bid was received from Midstate Recreation in Ohio.

Grand total 13,586.80. Again, $13,586.80. That's [clears throat] for a single zipline. For the double zipline, the amount is 23,781. For the double zipline, the amount is $23,781. The third bid was received from St. Clear Recreation in Holland, Michigan. Single zipline $14,900. Again, single zipline $14,900 for a double zipline. $27,000. double zipline, $27,000. And our last bid was received from Clay Environmental Design Holland, Michigan.

Single zip line $23,500 for a single zipline. $23,500 for a double zipline. $40,000 for a double zipline. $40,000. That was the last bid. Ask a question. Yes. Oh, did you say fit Claire or

Yeah, two in. Yeah, two in Holland. That one one was in Ohio. You got that one? Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. And the other one was from California. Yes, Morgan. Morgan Hall was in California. Those were the four. Okay. I don't know if you said or St. Clair.

I don't have anything from St. Cl. You had two in house. One is play and one is clear. Okay. One is Holland, Michigan. The play environmental design LLC.

And the second one is Sinclair Recreation. Yeah. Sinclair Recreation LLC in Holland, Michigan. And the last one question is born in California, you only had is that $55? Yes. Yes. It didn't specify. It just gave a grand total. Thank you so much. Additional questions for the clerk. Chair will entertain a motion to close a bidding and refer these bids to the administration. I make a motion to close the bid. Second

motion made by Prom, seconded by Mr. Shlose the bids and to refer these bids to the administration. We have a motion on the floor just to close the bidding. And to refer Thank you very much, ma'am. Questions, concerns, or descent? If you would be so kind as to call the role for us, madam clerk. Councilman Ashabi. Yes. Councilwoman Martin. Yes. Councilwoman Madaka, yes. Council Pro Tim Robinson, yes. Council President Thomas,

yes. Thank you very much. Moving on to item six under the city administration. We have a uh an information session. It's a memorandum to One Water Partnership and sewer steering committee provided to us by the city administrator. We don't have to take the role on this. Ma'am, the floor is yours.

Okay. I guess we have [laughter] good news. Uh we have submitted a two-year report to Glee and to the one world one world as one water one world one water partnership. Uh apparently our meters are [snorts] metering and we are way way way below their estimates. All right. We have an obligation to report that to them because we feel that per the contract and for the settlement uh the term sheet and everything that all the parties agreed to that we have to submit the best available thing and that's what we've done. So we have submitted a very graphic uh report graphs, pictures, and meter results. And our rate analyst has concluded that at this point in this fiscal year, we're asking for about an adjustment of 2.8 million. And um that right now is the time to put in all of our information for next year's rates. If you recall, we will go through a process and every February they have the public hearing where they raise the rates water and um we have submitted the timeline of the activities for the past two years. uh water department has put in this timeline the

130 meetings between Leewa and the state of Michigan and all of the various folks that are participating in this implementation process and we are now expecting to be heard and um so that's what this uh report is now They per the uh contract they have 30 days to establish uh so it goes to leeway and the one water partnership they have 30 days to review it and form a subcommittee the subcommittee then um to review it or whatever and then if we don't agree we take and uh Our position is there's nothing to agree or disagree on because meters are in meters are and controls the meters.

It's their meters. We were very specific to make sure that the meter company would be the same meter company that they use on all their meters because we did not want to get into a point that we were having some confusion about who was doing our meeting. And so we are um this has been a long call for the city over a decade and um our position has always been that they were overfilling us that we had a fixed rate contract when Chrysler left. We settled. Everybody settled. And now that we've settled, this is the deep. And so we're going into this uh hopefully probably get all scratched up, but the fact of the matter is meters are meters. That was the whole point. Get the meters in the ground. See what meters say. So that's where we are. This is the report. Uh we're going to come back uh once the committee gets formed. Councilwoman Robinson has expressed an interest in understanding the timeline and the dates and so uh once we get them at this point and we're holding our position and our [snorts] position is that we're following the contracts following the settlement agreement the term sheet that's what this is tonight good news I can't believe It's been two years

already since we settled, but we know it's been two years because we've been paying in business, right?

And uh and so this request for the midyear adjustment of 2.8 million and then the adjustment for next year and our rate consultant has, you know, we had to hire rate consultant and our rate consultant has signed off on this. So, we are uh feeling very hopeful and happy and uh and we're going to see it to where it needs to go. Once we get these rates down to where they need to be, that's when you're going to see turn around in the city because people who live here will have affordable bills and then people will come here and try to develop a bill because you can't come and build here if it's unaffordable. And um and we you know there's a lot in this report that has to be choked down by the other side. But the fact is this is what everybody agreed to. And now they come back and say no. Well, they settle. They sell. Don't come back now and say, you know, anything other than what you said. Parties go to the table and say somebody gives up something. We gave up a lot. We agreed to pay these high bills and people have come in here and screamed and hollered and talked crazy to all of us about that. We settled because we had to get the levies off of the properties. I don't care about all the misinformation out there. They were on the properties. They're off. And so now we [clears throat] got to get the bill down where it's affordable and fair and equitable which was by the state wanted meters in the ground and the water. So um it's a good thing. Um and I'm glad to be able to report this out. Water department have worked like

dogs. All the meetings, the timelines are in there and may have come here, taken the abuse, and we have we have worked hard and we don't brag about all the work that's going on behind the scenes, but the fact is that we have some results now. Results have gone to wherever they need to go. The one partnership is 500 people. the same five kinds of people that they called us all kind of filthy names in the press. You remember what we went through? We were this, we were that, we were taking advantage of. Now the meters are showing that we're way out of the so it's good. And uh this is what we all fought for. This is what everybody paid these bills for. This is what you're paying bills for. This is what you're paying the taxes for. Hold on to this city. So that's what's going on. It's a good thing and I'm happy about it because I'm seeing the end.

Amen. [applause] Thank you, ma'am. Chair. Ma'am, will the citizens reap in that 2.8 million? Once we get it, it's called a it's called a midyear adjustment. So once we get it, we'll adjust the bills. It's going to be an adjustment for us. So it will be an adjusted adjustment for them. Like money. Oh, do we get money back because they don't as it will be an adjustment. So there should be credits. That's what I want. There should be credit. That's you know you get an adjustment.

Yeah. It's just like um I I I don't know how again we have to get it though, right? So, you know, is it gonna are we going to go through this whole process and Glee was Gleewood and the One World Partnership going to recommend that we get credit over time or something like that? This is why again I'm, you know, letting everybody know that we we may end up down at Cleveland because a deal is a deal.

That's right. and the contract pl it uh provides for a midyear adjustment. This is a special circumstance. So, we're not going to uh accept that you're going to be treated like everybody else. No, this was a settlement after a a 10year lawsuit. So, it's a special instance. Now, of course, we want the whole $2.8 8 million credited to us so that we can take it off of all these accounts. I mean, when you did the water fund, if you recall, we cut the water fund so we wouldn't have to raise rates. We closed up our nice water department down in the shopping center and moved them into the basement that floods here. Remember that, right? And then we cut the maintenance budget. So you know we and we've had water man every time we fix a pipe something else breaks. We have breaks. It's almost like breaking news. We have breaking pipe news. We had it all summer. So now we're our maintenance budget is is down. You know, we we pounce on Metro, but but they the last to be paid here. And so, thank God they haven't run out the door for not paying on time. So, bottom line, this is the tail end of the deal. Tail end of the deal is once the meters are in, we get the rates down. and everybody agreed to this process to these terms. We're not making up anything.

We are following the contract to the latter. So, we get the $2.8 million and we see some credits. So, it's not over yet. And I think I said that, but we're getting to the point now where we're get to where [clears throat] Highland Park is going to be treated like a equitable customer of that system and uh paying rates that are not five times higher than everybody else's because we're metered now. That's before we were unmetered. And I remember they said we had all these leaks. So they, you know, the state gave us the money and the state is right here [clears throat] dealing with the whole thing too because they're the ones paying for all this. So if somebody's not feeling something right, then they're going to have to deal with the state because it's the state's money. So, it's a good thing, you know, I don't really think it's that what we agreed to. This is what all the parties agreed to. So, now it's just got to be we just have to, you know, enforce the contract. [clears throat] And remember, we'll never end up back in court again. We end up in arbitration. But we're not going to end up in arbitration because the meters are we have the data now. That data is coming in every day and it's being run by a third party metering company. Same company that meters all of Cleveland stuff. So our meters are not accurate. Our meters are

not accurate. So, it's a good thing. Uh, you know, we we'll keep you posted. It's good news and um it's it's where the city is headed and that's going to help the city grow and develop. You got something you wanted to add, Mr. Shuffy? Yeah. So, were right and they were wrong. Well, I don't want to come out and say I don't want to do that. I will. I say it for you. I don't want to do it. But you know, I I risk my whole career here. So, I really didn't come to play.

But what we're seeing now is the meters are in the ground and they are metering well below their estimates. So, it's a good thing. All right. All right. Thank you so much, ma'am.

All right. Moving on in the agenda to item seven under the mayor to veto untitled walk-on resolution titled resolution 102025 requesting outline publication of all full ordinances for public access. City council, what is your pleasure on item seven? No action taken against the veto. We'll move on to item 8 in the engineering department. It's a resolution authorizing the acceptance of the MDOT agreement 255513 STPU fiscal year 2026 for the repair of Glendale Avenue from Hamilton Avenue to Woodward Avenue. City Council, what's your pleasure on item eight here? Move to

I move to approve the resolution authorizing the acceptance of M DOT agreement 25-5513 for the repair of Glendale Avenue from Hamilton Avenue to Woodward Avenue. Okay, M I'm sorry. Martin offer support questions, concerns or descent. Take the role on item eight, please. Yes. Martin. [snorts] Yes. [clears throat] Ma. Yes. Appro. Yes.

Council President Thomas. Yes. Motion carries. Okay. We're going to move into citizens participation. I'm going to set the clock for two minutes. If you wouldn't mind, for those people who would like to address council and the public, please come forward. Once you state your name, I'll start your time.

Can you hear me? Good evening. Good evening.

Uh for those who do not know me, my name is Troy Ginyard, uh owner of Troy Towin. Uh and I just wanted to bring some good news to the community today. uh on November 15th. Um as some people that know me well know I wear many hats and I have a foundation, a Ginyard Foundation. My uh family foundation will be giving away turkeys and food uh November 15th, Saturday at George Washington Carver right here in the beautiful city of Holland Park. This is our annual thing that we do and we're uh honored to have it here again in Holland Park this year. And I did bring some flyers for somebody who might want some in the audience, but you can also go to to the ginyardfoundation.org. That's our website and we're on Facebook, so citizens can go there to get more information if they need it.

All right. Thank you so much.

Good to go. Yep. State your name, sir. All right. Dear council members, thank you for your time. Could you could you state your name first? Uh Ben Bgants. Thank you, sir. Can you say that again, sir?

Ben Bgants. Uh dear council members, thank you for your time. My name is Ben Bgants and this is my wife uh Lisa Chan. We have been proud Highland Park residents for 5 years now and uh own our house uh at 65 Mos Street in Highland Park's historic district. We are here this evening to speak to you about the black solar street lights scheduled to be placed directly in front of our home and across our block by the private company Solar Tonic. I'd like to begin by saying that when my wife and I were deciding where we wanted to build our lives together, it was the historic beauty and craftsmanship of our block that made us so excited to live in Highland Park. And since then, we've been working tirelessly to restore our home, like many of our neighbors, and the goal to add beauty and value not only to our house, but to our whole community and the greater city. My wife and I got married at our home uh on Moss this summer and it filled us with pride to be able to show our friends and family our amazing Moss Street community. That is why when I spotted this solaronic employee in front of my yard last week who explained to me the city plans to put five stark black street lights on our block, which he described as the iPhone of street lights, uh we could not have been more disappointed. We have spoken with neighbors on our block who share our sentiment and we are here today to please ask you to do everything in your power to prevent these lights from being star installed on our historic district. We understand that behind this project there are very good intentions but we are saddened and frustrated for a few key reasons. Most importantly these lights are quite distasteful and are in complete contrast to the architecture and the historic feeling of our block where the majority of our homes are over 100 years old. We've seen the lights in person and they look like something you might expect at a military detention center or a strip mall parking lot. They're cold, they're painted black, and many of them have been poorly installed. The idea of one of these lights being installed directly in front of our home is genuinely heartbreaking. As we rebuild our city, there must be respect for history and a place for beauty when considering

projects of urban design. Secondly, I know one paragraph if you don't mind. You have to be super quick, sir. Okay, I got you. Uh secondly, I know that there are places within our city where these lights would not only be put to more use, but would be welcomed by the community. And I know that there are blocks less occupied in ours, where cars loiter all night, blocks that are not directly off Woodward, that don't get the light that we get off Woodward, that are truly in the dark, and many that have, you know, potential drug activity. And I just ask, why would the city not uh choose to install these lights where they actually are wanted? Okay. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Come on, Robert Lodge. Robert Douglas Lodge Jr. that is uh just for the record. Uh I'm I'm going to piggy back on the gentleman. uh because his issue is with the lights that I stated last week that this council needed more information about, more knowledge about, and you move forward and voted to have lights that you don't know where they're going and you don't know how the citizens feel about it. And so, so, uh, with that being said, Councilwoman, uh, Martin, I want to commend you and thank you for bringing the resolution a couple weeks ago pertaining to transparency. For the last 10 10 months, I have sat in this gallery along with other citizens of this great city, and we have requested that the city be more transparent. And it is uh uh sad to see that that transparency is being rejected. The reason why transparency is needed is because of past history of mishandling and misappropriating the city funds and the citizens money. And so if you want to be transparent, then the citizens would really enjoy and be thankful for a council that would and thank you for voting for transparency and I'm sad to see that the administration rejected it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Rene Ford. I live at 191 West Bu Vista. I have a question and I think it pertains to the water company. I'm not sure. When they replaced the water lines or whatever they did to the house from the yard, they left a bunch of old pipes or my grass. And I asked the young man when were they going to come and remove them. He said he didn't know. And the reason why I'm saying is because where I parked, my granddaughter gets out on that side of the streets and I tried to pick up one of the pipes and the pipes was too heavy. So, it's in my yard and it's also in my mom's yard. So, if she was to get it try to get in the car, I have to pull up so she could get in because these pipes are in the middle of our yard and I think it's very dangerous. So, I need somebody to address that situation about removing those pipes out of my yard.

Can you give the address again? 191 West Buun Vista and 193 West Buun Vista. It's about three or four pipes in 193 and I think it's two pipes in 191 and it's on the curb side of the sidewalk. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. I give you a minute. I just I just forgot to leave out one thing. When citizens come to get the to receive the items on November 15th, please bring your ID. You will need your ID. Okay. Thank you.

And you must reside in Highland Park. This is for Highland Park in Detroit citizens. Yes. So bring your ID. And uh thank you to our partners at Meyer and Forgotten Harbor. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We're going to move into council. Is there anybody online? No. No hands are up. Mr. Shafi, we going to move into council affairs. Starting with you, sir.

Okay. Good evening everybody. Uh so I'm going to uh piggy back on both uh Reverend Lodge and the young man in the back. Um we did not receive enough information and for the record I didn't vote for it. Okay. You know the council members that voted for it. I didn't vote for it. But but to see the fact that like you said the transparency is being fought against by the administration says a lot. It it lets you know exactly how they feel about you and what they feel about you as to what you should have and what you shouldn't have. Have you ever tried to file a a foyer in this city? never see that happen. Okay. But I want to talk to you about about something tonight. I think we've gone down this road here long enough. I think this city has went down this road long enough of a mayor. I I think we've had enough. after Robert uh Blackwell, every mayor that came through this city ran this city further into the ground than the last. And I think we've had enough. So, I'm I'm suggesting to the residents a ballot initiative. I think we need to move from a mayor to a city manager. And I think that the city manager needs to run this city. And I think that the council needs to be fulltime. and all of the bickering and the pettiness and the child play that goes on in this city will come to an end. We need this ballot initiative. So when you see me knock on your door, please sign. It's time for us to move forward. Think about it. Has the

road that we've been on right now been successful to you? Do you got a pop the piston or a window to throw it out of? Has it gotten better or worse? Ask yourself that question. [clears throat] Now, we may be in the clear right now and we may be debtree right now, but four more years of mismanagement, it won't be that way. And you may not have certain members on this council sitting here to stand up for you. You may get some of the old guard back who ran you into the ground the first time around. So keep that in mind. It's time for a change, HP. It's time for us to move away from the old and move into the new. If we don't get this right in four to eight more years, they can rack up enough debt to put us right back to where we were with this water situation. The plan is gone. [snorts] It's there, but we are but we don't have the money to fix it. So every step that we make now is crucial to our survival because we don't have that safety net. Remember when the plant was open, it paid for everything. It covered most of our bills. They closed it and that created this debt that we ended up with. $60 million. If it wasn't for the governor, there's no way that we would have or we would have been able to pay that. Not only did she pay that debt, she turned around and gave us another $288 million in this deal to put those meters in the ground and to redo every bit of infrastructure in this city. That's why they're all over this city tearing up everything on the ground and replacing it. She's paid for it.

And we are grateful to Governor Gretchie Whitmer, but understand this is her last term. And you already know she promised never to use the Emergency Managers Act, but you know that the next governor is going to use it. And if we get into the slightest amount of problem, they're going to use it on us. And who do they always use it on? They always use it on cities that are heavily populated with black people. We are always the subject of those emergency manager laws. So, we have to be very careful here. We have to restructure and reform this city. And the only way that we going to do that is if we eliminate the infighting. And the infighting is clear. It's the mayor's side of the table. She wants to be in charge. She feels like she's the boss. Just like all the other ones felt. How many times have you sat here and watched each mayor fight with council about what they can and can't do? A city manager would eliminate that. It would eliminate that. Think about it. Because the city manager would have to be RFPD by council, interviewed by council, and also the contract would have to be approved by council. So they would be at the behest of council.

Thank you, sir. That's your We need to do better. HP. We need to grow this city and move it in a different direction. And I want you to think about that. And I thank you. I heard you, man. Shut up. Watch yourself. Oh, no. You watch your side. Watch yourself. Miss Martin, go right ahead here, man. So good. Well, thank you, Mr. President, but I'm gonna make sure I have the floor before I speak. Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry. It really doesn't work if we're both talking at the same time. I completely agree, ma'am.

Okay. So, I am going under five minutes. Okay. Well, first off, I want to sit there and say thank you so much um one to the police and fire department coming to the event um that was at the rec center. Um, I wish that we had been able to do the tug-of-war between the fire and the police. That would have been very nice. Um, two, I also want to thank that to uh all the people that contribute for the event. So, that would have been Glory um Glory Contribute Meyers um Advance America did some contribution. Uh Stephanie Chang did and uh Tanya Meyers Phillips. So I I want to say thank you and acknowledge them for the um the contributions that they gave. Um on top of that, the discussion that I want to talk about is I was just here I think it was Wednesday and it's just really odd that the whole treasure department is closed. Like that is weird. Um I'm I'm not sure why the treasurer and it the question is at this point who's collecting our city's money. Um, the other thing I want to talk about is, um, thank you, Robert Douglas Lodge Jr., did I say that right?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay. Um, I do accept that. You're welcome. I believe that our city's transparency should be just as simple as Amazon is transparent about your package. When you order it, when you ship it out, when they deliver, they drop it off at your door. You know, the city should be just that transparent. And the tools are actually out here. I want y'all to know that the tools are actually out here. How nice would that be that if you go in and you fill out an application, it doesn't matter what it is. Um, let's say you give it to the building department or whatever like that. And your it should be able to say that your document is in this department, it's going to that department, and now it's in this department. So, you yourself will know where your document is, and at that point, you know where you're at in the process. It's out here. just so y'all know. Um that would cut down on a lot of calling confusion on what's going on or the clarity that we need between the citizens and the city. So I want to put that out here. Um with that being said, I also want to say I'm so great and happy to hear about Glee and we're going back to negotiation and there's a committee coming. I am excited about that. I can't wait to find out what's more going to happen with between us, Gleewa, and that contract. Um, and with that being said, only two minutes. Um, I'm going to go ahead and say thank you for being with us to everybody in Highland Park. And I'm going to go ahead and turn it back over to Manica.

Thank you so much, ma'am.

Hi. Good evening, everyone. Glad to see you all out. want to say thank you to everyone who participated in the last couple of weekends. Uh, New Grace had an excellent resource fair. If you did not get a chance to attend, um, it was excellent. Um, U of them came out, did a lot of testing for, um, just the family in itself from getting your hearing checked to testing um, for cancer, etc. Um, different things also doing physicals. It was just a wonderful resource fair that they had there. Um the following week which was here at Soul Harvest, the old Soul Harvest building, they had a a resource fair as well. I want to say thank you to those and the partners that came out for that as well. They gave out raffles uh for um residents of Highland Park also had the water department. Same scenario. uh Wayne Metro there different Molina etc. DW win which is very important uh they have a mobile unit. So just want to say thank you also to the people who contributed and helped out um for Halloween. So Avalon Village, New Mariah Missionary Baptist Church and of course our recck department with our fire and police being there participation Zeta Faba Sorority Incorporated uh etc. So it turned out to be very very nice and again if we work together we can do great things. Miss Martin mentioned the treasurer. So I just want to mention this again to everyone.

I mentioned the whole department. Well, the whole department, the treasury department, but in this case, we only have two people in that department, and that would be the treasurer and u our deputy treasurer, who is actually supposed to be unmed, but it's not open. And so, again, I hear all the complaints, but I don't hear anybody complaining about that. Um, that just confuses me. I get every complaint. We get every complaint. Come to this podium. Transparency. That's huge. Does this not fall under transparency as well? I'm not sure cuz evidently it must not because the residents don't seem to have a problem. Unless I meet you at the door downstairs, which happened this week when I came to city hall. There was nobody here. So, the question was, what's happening? How do I do this? You can come up here and complain about everything else, but that doesn't seem to be important to you. I I don't understand that. How does that not be important to you that you cannot come or there's no one there for you to pay your taxes or do any of those other transactions or is the city getting those transactions done? Stop being distracted by the small things. You You really are distracted by the small things. And that's what you keep pointing out cuz I guess that's what we feed off of. We got to quit feeding off of the little things so that we can move forward. Cuz whether we have solidarity lights, whether we have people come to these events or anything else, what's

going to happen if we never put somebody in that space? Have you thought about that? What happens if we don't put somebody in that space? That's what you need to be thinking about. Have a great day. Thank you, ma'am.

Hello, everybody. Thank you for coming out tonight. Excuse me. I have a chair on my head. The majority of the people that are not complaining are the ones that are paying your bills online like the majority of the feast. Okay? So, that's why we don't have to play. But with that being said, we have access total access to air breeze mobile testing that's at our disposal at any time for the people that want to come in and come up to their taxes in person. They can use that advance. It was also at the resource fair the other day and I requested that they be here December the 9th because we have a board of review meeting. So, I will get back with you guys on that to see if they agreed to be here during that time. I have a serious concern because October the 30th, which was a Thursday, I came up here to get my council package and I always ask I know he's not driving on my mute. Did he um want me to pick his packing up? He said, "Yeah." He said, "Also, can you pick up my bag from the justice center?" So, I asked my daughter, "Did she have time to do it?" She said, "Yes." So, we went to the justice center. I walked in with all my personal stuff and I'm thinking I'm just going to pick bags up. They told me that I needed ID to get this bag that belonged to Councilman Kush. So, I walk out to the car, get my ID. I come back in and I was told to ask for officer Richards. So he brought the paperwork out. It was three forms that I had to sign to get the property back from that belonged to Councilman Kers. My concern is of course I took pictures of it cuz my daddy said don't sign

nothing unless she get a copy of it. So um I have pictures of all three of those forms. What I need from the police department or court or whoever is a copy of the police report because to my understanding his bag was stolen. So if it was stolen and the police recovered it, it should be a report. I would like to have a copy of that report, a copy of the evidence record. And I would like that to be put in a minute so I can make sure that I get that. And again, with that being said, I love y'all and thank you so much for coming out tonight. And I appreciate you, Mr. G and Mrs. G. I really do. And I would like to give you my business card because my main concern was transparency, okay, and accountability because we should have had community meetings [clears throat] before the installation of any street lights or anything that goes on in our city. We should have a say in I've [laughter] been saying this for a long time. You can't [laughter] just keep coming and giving us what you want us to have. Speak to us if we have to live here. I have 14 grandkids, 10 great grandkids, and I want them all to be homeowners in High Park after I'm gone to get a chance to live in High Park like I did and enjoy a wonderful city. So again, God bless you and I appreciate you for coming and speaking up.

Thank you. That's it.

Okay. Thank you, ma'am. All right. I'm hold myself to the same five minutes. I do want to welcome the new guest to city council meeting to last month, 25 years for my wife and I. So I know where you are. I have five years. Your talking points go right into my council affairs. And this is you've been here for 5 years. We've been in office for three. And there was a mayor nine years before this administration. And much of your question and concern is coming from back there. But let me point [clears throat] something out here. I spent the afternoon on the phone with a former employee of the Highland Park Community College. Found out some interesting data. The demographic shift in Highland Park was between 1965 and 1975. It wasn't just there was white flight in Detroit, but there were people of means who moved from Highland Park to Oak Park, from Highland Park to Southfield, from Highland Park to West Bloomfield, from Highland Park to Farmington. The entire middle upper middle class echelon of Highland Park moved between 1965 and 1975. Highland Park was never majority poor until it became majority black. It is one of the most heavily subsidized cities in the entire state considering the following Medicare and Medicaid recipients, Social Security, rental housing assistance and section 8, HUD designation for housing as far as um affordable housing set aside, SNAP benefits and student loans. We are one of the most heavily subsidized communities in the entire state. Six out of 10 of our residents, any 10 received these benefits. And 10 years ago, if I'm not mistaken, Miss uh Square, DTE came and took all of the street lights. Now, I moved here 25 years ago. And when I moved here in the years 2000, I could walk my kids up and down the street. There were street lights. And if there was a time when there were street lights, and then there were none. I live in a historic house also, like you do. So there's a lot that you don't know because it's like watching a show on Netflix. You're in season 3 and the juicy parts happened back in season one. So there's a lot of pieces that are missing. So please come to the meetings and I want you to get on to the YouTube

channel and look at some old meetings. You can go back up to three or four years on the YouTube channel. I think you sound like the type of person who wants to know the truth and get to the bottom of things. So you'd have to actually go back and look at what led up to this scenario. Uh thank you Miss Square for your update. [clears throat]

you pointed out that 130 meetings. So in our entire term we will have 100 meetings that's 96 regular meetings and if you add in a special meetings in our entire term as city council people we're going to have 100 in meetings and they had 130 meetings related to the water that's significant. I had to write this down where you were talking. Hard work is hard. It's more than talk. So consider what went into actually making this water agreement a reality. Um the bottom line for us is that we have to increase our population. We have to increase our citizens. The city of [clears throat] Highland Park has a budget of $12 a year and takes in $12.75. So we cover our bills. We make a very very small amount of increase as it relates to our tax revenues. That's never going to change unless our demographic changes. So, we have to increase the population. [clears throat] We can't do that without lights. And although no, no, I we we don't we're not having a conversation. I'm saying they might not be aesthetically pleasing, but you had to be here today. They came and took them out. So, there's a comparison. And when people ask for transparency, I am suggesting that you go all the way back to the beginning of the story as far as you think it's relevant. I don't want to give you limited information, [clears throat] nor do I want to suggest that I have all the answers. What I'm encouraging you to do is go back as far as you can because that's where you'll find the answers to a lot of these things. And I'm not the best arbiter of that. I've only been sitting in this chair for this is three years, just under three years this month. Prior to that, I was on the planning commission and the ZBA as far as internal affairs in the actual government. I had no knowledge and neither did any of us. So, I encourage you to continue on that quest and ask those questions. Are your concerns are valid? But there's a story that happened a little before this that explains why those lights are so crucial. So I would encourage you, please continue to come to the meeting. Um, please continue to be a part of the

discovery pro the process. The people up here are amanable. Connect with your council person and help them uncover and unravel this thing for you. Having concluded all business of the city of Highland Park, the chair will entertain a motion to adjurnn. All those in favor? Meeting adjourns. 758. [clears throat]