City Council - Regular Meeting

2026 regular meeting of the Holland City Council. I am Mayor Nathan Box and I'm calling the meeting to order. Brenda, would you please call the role? Okay. Clumps here. Freeman here. Raymond here. Corbin. Schultice. Mayor Keane here. Rowan here. Sheay here. Mayor Box present. We do have a quorum, Mr.

Wonderful. Thank you. We're going to begin this evening's meeting as we have for many years. First with an opening prayer this evening by city manager Keith Van Beek, followed immediately by the pledge of allegiance. And we would invite you to join us if you're so inclined. Dear Lord, thank you for this day. um as cold and blustery as it as it was, uh we thank you for the opportunity to live and breathe and on this day where there were so many volunteers out in the community to serve our community. Um we also thank you for the safety that um the vast majority of visitors and guests uh to our community over the last couple weeks for Tulip Time that it was an enjoyable event. Um, we thank you for all of the volunteers and the city personnel and all the others uh that were able to showcase our community um tonight and at all times. We ask for your wisdom and guidance as council uh deliberates about the good of this community and your staff um serves it. It's in your name we pray. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Mr. Van Beek. Next item on our agenda are consent agenda items. These are items that are considered to be fairly routine and they have been reviewed by council as part of our council packet. They will be enacted in one motion unless a member of the public or a member of council asked to have an item removed from the consent agenda and then it will be placed in its regular order on the regular agenda. But before I ask if anyone would like to have an item removed from consent and placed on the regular agenda, I would uh Brenda, would you please review the consent agenda items for us?

Yes. 4 A, excuse the absence of council member Schultis. 4 B, approve the minutes of the April 15 regular meeting in April 22, 2026 study session. 4 C, oaths of office. 4 D, claims filed against the city. 4 E, Benalty Civil War Muster Historic Saloon, September 18 to 20, adopt a resolution. 4 F, annual business license renewals for 202627. 4G, award the bid for the 2026 resurfacing project. 4 H, award the bid for the 2026 sidewalk repair project. 4. I award the bid for the 2026 crack sealing project. 4J, award the bid for the 2026 skip milling and paving project. 4K, award the bid for the 40th Street Midblock Crossing Project. 4L, award the bid for the Auto Avenue and 16th Street improvement project. 4 M. Adopt the budget and approve the MDOT agreement for the Waverly Road Resurfacing Project. 4N, an ordinance amendment to chapter 2, article 15, section 2-100.2, Two, historic district established landmark properties. 4 O, intergovernmental agreement with Holland Charter Township. 4 P, award the bid for the purchase of a pavilion. 4 Q, award the bid for the purchase of Maplewood Dugouts. 4 R, the January financial reports. 4S, quarterly investment report. 4T. The Howland Local Development Finance Authority Smart Zone

approved the fiscal year 27 budget. 4U, accept Michigan Recycling Coalition Grant and 4V, a revocable license agreement for 14 West 8th Street projecting sign. Great. Thank you, Brenda. Is there anyone in the public who would like to have an item removed from the consent agenda and placed in its regular order on the regular agenda? Seeing none, any member of council that would like to have an item removed from consent and placed on the regular agenda. Mr. Corbin, item in November placed back on the agenda at 12E or echo 2.1.

All right, the 12E2.1 that's community neighborhood services ordinance amendment to chapter 2, article 15, section 2-100.2 historic district established landmark properties. And that'll be it. Item 12, echo 2.1. Thank you. Anyone else that would like to have an item remove approved from consent and placed on the regular agenda? All right. Seeing none, what is pleasure of councel in regard to the consent agenda? Move to approve the agenda as presented with the exception of letter N. Uh moved by Freeman. Is there support? Support.

Support by Rowan. Any discussion? Seeing none, Brenda, would you please call the role? Clum Barnes, yes. Breeman, yes. Raymond, yes. Corbin, yes. Mayor Keane, yes. Rowan, yes. Shay, yes. Mayor Box, yes. Motion carries.

Great. Thank you. Next item on our agenda, item number five, public comment. Under the open meetings act of the state of Michigan, we provide the public the opportunity to address council at our regular meetings, our study sessions, and every one of our board committee and commission meetings. But we do have guidelines that we ask you to follow. Uh first is that each person is allowed to speak one time for a total of five minutes. There are three lights on the deis in front of me. There's a green light, a yellow light, and a red light. Green light means that you're doing well on time. Yellow light means that you have one minute left, and the red light means that your time has expired. Uh we do ask that when you approach the podium, you please state your name and the municipality in which you live because it's important for us to know whether or not you're a resident of the city of Holland. You may speak on any subject that you think is important, but please remember that this is one-way communication. It's an opportunity for you to address council, but we do not answer questions during this time or engage in discussion. Uh having said that, is there anyone here who would like to address council at this time? If so, please come forward. And would you please state your name and municipality for the record?

Yes. Um, my name is Megan Herszog. I live in uh the city of Holland. Um, my family values walking and biking around our town. We love that our neighborhood is a mixeduse, that we have things like the new stovetop coffee shop and that we have the aquatic center. That there's churches that are blended into the neighborhood. We, like I said, we bike and we walk to a lot of these places. Um, even if it's two miles away, we'll make it happen. Um, but something that stops us from doing it on a more regular basis and stops our neighbors is that some of these spaces were not designed for people first. They were designed for cars first. Um, for safety concerns, we sometimes avoid going down certain roads or going to certain things just because safety. Um, so I'm asking you to consider investing in making our downtown area, the city of Holland, more people first. Um, and why should we do that? Well, for the health of our community. Um, being outside helps us be healthier. Moving our bodies makes us healthier. Being connected to others helps us be healthier. I'm the mom of two little kids, um, a four-year-old and a six-year-old, and they're still little, but I'm looking forward to the day when I can send them out so that they can go and walk the neighborhood themselves and bike to their friends houses, and I don't want to have to worry about their safety with cars, at least not as much. So, um, I guess I'm speaking to you to think about the future, future for our kids and for our families. So, thanks for your time.

Great. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else who would like to address council at this time?

And would you please state your name and municipality for the record?

Ann Henrikson from Zealand. It's my privilege actually to be here tonight because of what has happened recently in Holland uh during tulip time before tulip time as well. I'm not here uh to make anybody look good but to give glory to God for what he's done in this city not only for tulip time but for before and after. It's a beautiful time of year and we celebrate our city. National Day of Prayer was celebrated at the Civic Center on April 28th. It was um 600 people came and the Civic Center served us with such generosity and kindness. Um it permeated everybody that came through the door. It was a time for prayer for our city and for our state and for our nation. and local pastors gathered together with citizens and began to pray. And it was uh just amazing to hear the prayers that came from individuals. And then the program itself um Evergreen Commons and the Calvary Christian School High School C choir um both generations gathered together to sing the national anthem and God Bless America. It was thrilling to hear the sound reverberate off the walls of the civic center. Dan Seaborn was one of the guest speakers and um he he spoke personally to each one of us that we would uh pursue hearing the voice of God speak to us personally for our community and what we could do to become involved in our government, in our school boards, in our in um our library boards, etc. The second speaker was pastor Massie

Campose from Florida and he is a constitutionalist American history, a motivational speaker and uh he spoke about the nation 1700s and how the nation was so divided um because of the diversity of hatred that was in our country and it was only by the hand of God uh the poster of a ational day of prayer is George Washington on a knee on his knee at Valley Forge praying and asking for God's help because there was he had come to the end and God provided here we are today that was also um what was in the tulip time parade on Saturday a large float and uh citizens walked alongside that float carrying scripture and I believe that was the first time since I've been here in Holland that it has been over Christianity that was allowed um and permitted for us to walk in freedom. I want to talk to you about the rest of the year. Um there is a group and I want you to know that National April Faith Month is not associated with this group but we do want to pair up with them. It's called Christ is King Holland and uh they are having an event in June 12th through the 13th. It'll start on Friday night with a special event and author, Pastor Michael Foster, who will be speaking to the men of the community and all are invited. It's good to be a a man. Foster will challenge men to embrace their God-given calling to lead and love their families well and to do

it unapologetically under the kingship of Christ. Space is limited, so you need to register. But on Saturday at 3:00, they will have a festival at Colin Park and um I don't know whether they've applied or what the city will do with their application. I'm sure they'll give it to them, but it'll be family uh familyfriendly uh food fellowship fund where no one is ashamed of Christ or his gospel. they have reached out to organizations and businesses to support this. So that is in June and then we just received a national April faith month from the city our application for September and it'll be September 12th and that is shine the light of Jesus in Holland at Colin Park again and this will be employing not employing but actually our guests will be the nonprofit Christian organizations in this city that give this city the groundwork. Mr. Mayor, that is 5 minutes.

I'm sorry, your time is expired. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to address council at this time? And would you please state your name and municipality for the record?

Certainly. Hi everyone. My name is Katie Kuja. For those of you who don't know me, I am here unsurprisingly to talk about pedestrian friendly cities. I'm here again to encourage you to prioritize making our city even more pedestrian friendly than it already is. Uh, one way you could do that is to adopt Devon's uh, small bets proposal. I know that he has provided that to you at least once, maybe multiple times. So, I'd encourage you to consider adopting that as soon as possible. Um, now due to the nature of this, you're not allowed to dialogue. We can't talk, nothing. So today, what I am going to do is I'm gonna talk out loud of the areas in Holland, and I'm going to miss a ton. I'm going to miss a ton that I think are pedestrian friendly. And I'm going to encourage you to brainstorm in your own areas during my time, what you think is pedestrian friendly, where you live. What do you represent? What are those areas? I want to know what they are. Obviously, I'll follow up with an email. You don't have to respond. You don't have to do anything. But I'm gonna encourage you to use your my time to think about your own areas and what is pedestrian friendly in your mind. So I'm gonna just talk out loud of the areas I think are pedestrian friendly as we never get to chat about about this. I just come up here and ask for it. But what does that even mean? So I'm going to think about it, think about the areas and obviously I've thought a little bit. I'm going to miss a ton. So here I go with what I think is uh the bridge under River Avenue by CVS over there. Great. We can go under that bridge unless it had rained recently or the water's high then it's extremely dangerous. Um moving along though moving to window on the waterfront that those new lights. Thank you. Amazing. So good. Uh those lights are amazing. Very helpful. Sixth Street between uh central Columbia. I think we can all agree pedestrians do not have a problem there. That is amazing. We can cross beautifully safely almost on that whole street. So good. Moving on to Seventh Street. Also, man, between College and Colombia, a couple of midblock push button lights. Ah,

beautiful. Love it. Um, and then there's of course lights at uh College and Seventh, Columbia and Seventh, I hear Central and Seventh, I think, is getting one. I know you can't respond. Um, and then 8th Street, the midblock crossings at 8th Street. Obviously, pedestrians love to be able to cross midblock and we can safely do that with the stop signs. I personally won't call 8th Street pedestrian friendly because I don't think there should be cars on that street. Oh my gosh, that was awesome during tulip time. Shut down for all those days. So good. Um, but that's just my opinion. I know I know the businesses don't like that thought. Um, Ninth Street again, those push button midblock crossings there. H, love it. So easy to cross. So good. Um, thanks for doing all that. Uh, oh, what my kids call farmers market street. So, that would be where our farmers market takes place. Again, amazing. Kids can run around. There's no cars. It is blocked off. So, great. I would call that extremely pedestrian friendly. Uh, unfortunately, one little side note on that, to get there, if you're not in a car, not so friendly. If you're walking on 8th Street getting there, yeah, that's they got that light on eight to get over there. But otherwise, it is a very difficult place to get to if you aren't in a car. Um, moving along, some other thoughts I have, oh, of course, 10th Street between Central and Colombiaish somewhere around there. You know, we've got the raised crosswalks. We've got um uh so the cars are slowing down marked very, you know, the raised crosswalks really slow cars down, making it really easy to cross a couple places on 10th there. um Colombia Avenue, that whole remodel, I would consider that adding that bike lane was I consider that pedestrian friendly. Other than that, I mean, uh the crosswalks, it all looks beautiful, but it is in front of a school. So, I'm I'm going to say it looks nice. It is helpful. I'm not going to like hoot and holler about that as we should have

crosswalks and signs, especially in front of a school. Um I love the push button crosswalk for Evergreen Commons. Again, one of those areas that that you can safely the cars stop, you push the button, we are good to go. So, good. Um, and we often I live over in that area. So, we often go out of our way to purposely use that that crossing so we can get across State Street, which is extremely hard to get across any other place. Um, let's see, what else was I thinking about? Oh, the light at 12th Street to get to this building. Um, if you're coming off of 12 street to cross River Avenue there, that light is so helpful. I will add one little side note to anyone who has any powers to do things. If you are on a bike and no cars show up on 12th Street, that light will never change. Um, so you have to get off of your bike. And if you're like me, I have kids in the back, so I have to either rearrange my whole situation, which if anyone knows, I have this huge torpedo rocket ship situation behind my bike with my three kids. Um, so that makes it tricky um to have to go push the button. But at any rate, those are

that is five minutes. I'm sorry. Is there anyone else who would like to address council at this time?

Seeing none, I will close the public comment period. Next item on the agenda is special order of the day, public hearings. Uh, first item is item 7A, planning commission, request to vacate second street. Mr. Vindic. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Uh, tonight we're going to have Steve Peterson come up and really we have this item and one later on in your agenda that are kind of um same topic but different uh settings here, Steve. Sorry. They're related to the similar project. Um, I know we have BPW staff here too, Phil. um is able to answer any questions. Um but uh this both um both of these um are leading towards a project that the BPW is looking to in support of the wastewater treatment plant. Um so Steve lead us into it please. Thank you.

Thank thank you Keith. Yeah. So, as Keith mentioned, this is associated with some work that BPW wants to do in the area that you're looking here on the map kind of between Second and Third Pine and River. Um, and so the idea is to vacate what is left of Second Street. So, there is a little piece of rightway on the east side of River and then there's a little bit more on the west side uh of River. So, the request is to vacate both of those pieces. what is left of Second Street. Um, if you're wondering, uh, the rest of Second Street that used to connect through to Pine was vacated in the 60s. So, this is really just getting rid of the rest of what's left of Second Street. Um, planning commission has reviewed this. Um, staff has looked at this. We are recommending approval of this uh, for a couple reasons. One, uh, Second Street doesn't connect to anything. This area is all owned by uh BPW. Um and so not only does it not connect, but this would also free up some area um at least on the west side for them to be able to do um some work in the future without having a conflict with right away. And actually on the east side of river, I would suggest that um it's actually kind of cleaning up. um you see that better on this aerial photo where it kind of cleans some stuff up or maybe there's some equipment structures that um you know get into that right away. So uh again recommendation is to vacate the rest of Second Street.

Any questions for staff? Well explained. All right. Oh, I'm sorry, Lynn. So it does actually connect to something, doesn't it? or is this a wall here at Third Street? Is there a Yeah, so I guess there's some driveway. There's some interconnectivity, I guess. I meant in terms of public uh rightway through the property. It doesn't connect over to Pine. It doesn't connect down to Third Street. That yellow highlighted area is what is left of public rightway. The rest of that is just sort of internal uh connection. So, apologize. It is connected that way, but not publicly. Does that make sense?

Yeah. So, what you're saying is that the rest of the Second Street, the yellow highlighted area is what will just become private property, right? And so, and Second Street initially, you know, used to go all the way to Pine, but ages ago. Yeah, that's the piece that was vacated in the 60s. Any other questions?

All right. Great. Thanks, Steve. What is the pleasure of council in regard to this item? Oh, we need to have a public hearing. Uh so I would like to open a public hearing and uh is there any member of the public who would like to address council in regard to this particular item? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Now I will ask what is the pleasure of councel in regard to this item? Move to approve. Move by clouds. Is there support? Support. Support by Rowan. Any discussion? Seeing none, Brenda, would you please call the role? Nathan. Oh, yes. Lynn, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Twice now I've done that, too. I apologize.

I'm sorry. I'm I'm so I I'm just uh So, it's cutting off it see it appears to be cutting off an entrance to Magna and this. So, and they're fine with all of this. I I know this is discussion time. I just had another question. I'll I'll let it go. I'll let it go. I'm sorry. Yeah, we did not receive any comment from anybody in regards to this and and here too. So from us and yeah, we are the owner of that building now. They they lease from us. Thank you so much. I didn't know that. Yep. Great. All right. Any other discussion? All right, Brendan, now would you please call the role?

Okay. Reman, yes. Raymond, yes. Corbin, yes. Marin, yes. Rowan, yes. Shay, yes. Clumps, yes. Mayor Box, yes. Motion carries. Great. Lyn, you're you're lucky that Mr. Schulty, our chief governance officer, isn't here tonight. Boy, boy, he'd come down on you like a ton of bricks. Uh, next item on the agenda, item 7B, community and neighborhood services, uh, community development block grant approval for 26 2026 27 annual action plan. Mr. Mr. Van Beek.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, we are now um very thankful and familiar with the process that Mark Cornelis comes and uh gives us. This is one of those two times a year where he comes. Uh, this time um giving information on our annual actual action plan for our CDBG funds. Um, and then also opportunity at the end of this for public comment and a public hearing. But thanks Mark for walking us through this.

Thanks for having me this evening. Um yes, this is an annual event where I come and ask you to approve the annual action plan for the following year. The July 1 to 20 of 26 to June 30 of 27 annual action plan community development block grant program. Um just a little bit of background for especially for those of you that are that are newer. Uh the community development block grant program um is a fedally funded program through the department of housing and urban development. Um it's been around since 1975. Uh its principal objective is the development is to help municipalities with the development of viable urban communities primarily through um three main topical areas. Decent housing, suitable living environments, and by that they mean neighborhoods neighborhood environments and expanded economic opportunities. And anything that CDBD CDBG touches needs to principally benefit persons that are of low to moderate income. And I can define what they mean by that um if if there are questions about that. Essentially, it's 80 less than 80% of the area median. Um the city of Holland has been a recipient of CDBG since 1989. Um and all told, uh we've we've uh experienced an investment of over $13 million in in in HUD funding. Citizen participation is a critical component as required by HUD. So I'll explain in a little bit how we incorporate um citizen participation and citizen feedback in the development of the plan. So this slide I think does a pretty good job of giving you an idea of what is permitted um to be um what what the funds are able to be used for with CDBG dollars. Uh there's sort of five main buckets. one being housing. And and this is not an exhaustive list of the types of housing uh expenditures that would be permitted, but it's

probably the four main ones that cities utilize, including us. Uh we we have for quite some time devoted about 70% of our funding towards the rehabilitation of owner occupied housing. But as you can see, there are a couple of other examples. We've also done some home ownership assistance in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Um, what you what you do not see there is a bullet for new construction. CDBG is not permitted to be used for anything tied directly to new construction. under public facilities. Uh some the best examples of public facility investments would be things like sidewalks, park improvements, even streets and sewers, but again, only in neighborhoods that meet that definition of census track block groups that are low to moderate income uh made up of low to moderate income households. Um, it's also permitted to use funding for things like the construction of city-owned or operated community centers, um, or homeless shelters, senior centers, that sort of thing. We have not, City of Holland has not, um, utilize funds in that manner. Um, upper right, public human services. um with a cap of 15% we can use some of the funds to support local projects that we feel are critical to the develop the community development of the city and and uh nearly every city in the country does um like to utilize some funding in that manner and and we we are one of those. I'll explain what we do with that in a minute. and then economic development um things like microenterprise assistance or commercial rehabilitation. It's a permitted uh project type but it's probably well not probably it is the least um common project type again not not just in Michigan but nationally really this just it's one of the more complicated ways of of utilizing the funds. And then lastly, the final bucket would be that we're permitted to use the funds for our own

costs around planning and and administration. So the annual action plan um nests within our consolidated plan. Um if you were here last year, maybe you recall that a year ago, about exactly a year ago today, we we we approved, you all approved a five-year consolidated plan. And the consolidated plan is a more robust document. It's a a fairly lengthy document that analyzes a lot of demographic and housing data and then points cities. It's intended to kind of point cities to where its greatest needs are. And then each of the subsequent five years following that um are u are we utilize the annual action plan to nest within that five-year plan. So everything we do in an annual action plan has to fit within what we approved again a year ago in that consolidated plan. So the annual action plan uh is incorporated in your packet but it includes what our expected resources are uh available to us in the coming year which happens to be $347,365. Uh it includes information on the consultation process that we followed in devel in the development of the plan and then it's fairly specific in laying out the annual goals, objectives and the specific projects that we intend to participate. So this slide is just an enumeration of the the ways in which we gathered public engagement or public feedback in the last couple of months. Um, again, HUD requires that we make a reasonable effort to to gather public input in the development of the plan. So, I usually begin the process either in December or January by holding some public meetings at the library uh with a

broad invitation list. Um, so in this past this past January, early January, I held two meetings, one in the afternoon, one in the evening. Um, a total attendance of 23 individuals. about a third of those were residents and about twothirds were persons representing um a nonprofit organization or a faith community or a neighborhood organization. Um in addition, and I'll I'll summarize the feedback received from those meetings in a moment. Um in addition, the neighborhood improvement committee has kind of guided the process during its January, February, and March meetings and ultimately um voted to approve or re voted to recommend your approval of the plan at its March 17 meeting. Um and then finally, or not finally, in in addition, um HOD requires a 30-day public comment period. So that took place between April 9 and May 11. that was noticed in the Sentinel. And then finally, a public hearing will take place before your your vote should there be a motion um today. The only public comment received to date has been uh goes back to those meetings in January other than the the comments provided through the neighborhood improvement committee. So this without going over um every particular comment, this just gives you an idea of the categories of comments that were were that I that were received in those January meetings at the library. You can just kind of see visually that the plurality of comments really pertain to housing and homelessness. Um concerns were expressed around the access to affordable housing. uh the rising increases in rents, um the importance of maintaining the city's home repair program, number of other things that are housing related. But also mentioned were concerns around

transportation, access to public transportation primarily, uh this the status of public infrastructure, um availability of basic needs type services, and a couple of other miscellaneous comments. So that brings us to kind of the heart of the plan which is the budget. Um so what you see in the lefth hand column are the projects that are in that consolidated plan. And again the annual action plan has to fit within those categories. So you've got those categories of projects that we included in the consolidated plan. And then uh the consolidated plan five-year budget numbers are indicated in blue. In green is our current budget for this current program year that we're in right now. And then the last column on the right is the proposed budget for uh this coming year July 1 through June 30. It's pretty much a status quo budget. As you can see, we're again devoting the the majority of our funding for our our own um internally operated home repair program. Um a similar amount for public services. uh similar amount for fair housing and for for administration. What's what's missing or what maybe stands out is that in the current year we did um allocate a relatively small amount towards that home ownership assistance which is that partnership we have with Habitat for Humanity. Um and then if you go over back to the consolidated plan column, you see we have more than that allocated over the five-year period. Um, I think I would just say that that that last investment of 14,000 in this current year that allowed us to assist all of the new residents in the Vista Green project. So, there were nine new Habitat residents in Vista Green and we were able to assist each of those nine

households. Um, what we don't have is enough money to keep doing that u for the next five years. So I think we need to enter into a conversation with Habitat and say how can we be most effective with these remaining dollars to you know how can we make make those best use of those in the in the years ahead. And also, I think the other thing that led to taking a a one-year breather on home ownership assistance was the numbers for our own home repair program were the trajectory was upward and I was wanting to be conservative that we had sufficient resources um to meet our own home repair program needs um in the coming year. So, um, the only thing remaining here is just a slide that just reiterates the recommended motion. Um, but I'll back up to the budget again and see if there are any any questions about about any of it.

Questions for staff? Yeah, Mr. Man. Thank you, Mark. Um, related to the public comments or summary, I would would you say that the majority of comments were overwhelmingly around homelessness and unhoused individuals? How does the breakdown of this kind of alleviate that even though the majority of funds are going to be through the home repair program?

Yeah. um what the the the ability to invest in public services. I I didn't go out of my way to highlight that, but it's limited to 15% of our of our budget. So, um and we are and and I also didn't highlight where we are spending our public ser where where I'm proposing to spend our public service funds, which is um in two projects. Um 25,000. So there's $45,000 allocated for public services for the coming year. 25 of that would be allocated suballocated to community action house for their homeless outreach program and the remaining amount I think it's 18 is it 20 sorry it's 27,000 for community action house 18,000 for um a project administered by good Samaritan that helps at risk households just maintain financial attain and maintain financial stability. So that's our effort to get at the higher need element of of the housing continuum, so to speak. And I would I would argue that our home our home repair program is a critical element of of addressing the housing need in the local. It's it's not it's not constructing new housing. It's not creating new opportunities, but it's maintaining um critical resources for again those low to moderate income households. So, it's yeah, it's it's providing the investment where we're permitted to. Um, I guess that would be my response.

All right. Thank you. Other questions. Great. I'm not missing you, am I? No. All right. Great. Thanks, Mark. Appreciate it. What is the pleasure of council? Oh, we do need to do another public hearing on this. Uh, so I would now open a public hearing on this particular item. Is there any member of the public that would like to address council in regard to this item? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. What is the pleasure of council in regard to this item? A motion to approve as as presented. Moved by Makina. Is there support? Support. Support by Vman. Uh any discussion?

Seeing none, Brenda, would you please call the role? Raymond, yes. Corbett, yes. Mayor Keane, yes. Rowan, yes. Sheay, yes. Clumparens, yes. Freeman, yes. Mayor Box, yes. Motion carries. Great. Thank you. Next item on the agenda, item 7 C, finance Holland Energy Fund fiscal year 2027 budget approval. Mr. Van Beek.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We had one approval on consent agenda. This is the the the first of two that you have coming. Lynn's going to come up. she serves on the Holland Energy Fund. Um, and we know that that's um something that we've had in place is a 501c3 and we've talked about it a lot in budget review sessions. Uh, but Lynn will be able to give highlights of this um budget before the public hearing and your consideration. Thank you.

Good evening, mayor and members of city council. Yes. Tonight I'm here to talk about the Holland Energy Fund budget. As Keith mentioned, it is a 501c3 organization. And so even though Holland Energy Fund is considered a fund of the city, getting a little technical here and included in the budget that we're going to adopt after this, we also are required to have this separate presentation. So um and that is why I'm here. So the Holland energy fund itself, the board did review this in March and did uh approve it and recommended it for approval from city council. So fiscal year 2027 proposed revenues are $216,500 and it's very consistent with the prior years except for a little bit lower transfer. So we have 175,000 of the um proposed revenues comes from a transfer from the city and the board of public works to support the program. We have an additional 33,500 that is on bill interest and this is related to um a part of the program that in prior years enabled residents to take loans that went on the um utility bills. So this is the investment income that we uh earn on those loans. And then we just have a little bit of miscellaneous. Sometimes we have a little bit of grant revenue we apply for or um donation revenue. So on the expenditure side, the proposed expenses are $35,400 and most of that is 188,000 is related to home energy 101. If anybody hasn't already uh checked out the program, uh do so on the website. There's great a lot of great information. It's a great program. We work with our partners from nonprofits uh in the community and we pro provide um energy improvements uh

opportunities free of charge actually. So uh we also have 109,000 that we have as a placeholder for C or the community energy plan support um that that commission just recently I think had an update. So, this uh uh is an extension of that um initiative and uh the funds are available for anything that might be able to support those efforts. We have $5,000 for business energy and we're kind of in the planning stages of evaluating if there's a program that we should roll out to um small businesses. And then finally, just $3,400, which is really the administrative cost, which you can see is quite low. So in the end this uh proposed budget uh has a planned use of reserves of 89,900 but we uh felt that was sufficient because felt that was uh acceptable because we also will have a projected ending fund balance of $1.2 million which is sort of like our savings for future years to be used for programming. With that I'd be happy to answer any questions about the Holland energy fund. Yep.

Any questions for staff? Great. Thank you, Lynn. Appreciate it. Uh, we do also need to do a public hearing on this item. Uh, so I will now open that public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to address council on this particular item? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. What is the pleasure of councel on regard to item 7c? Move to approve as presented. Uh, moved by Vman. Is there support? Support. Support by Raymond. Any discussion? Seeing none, Brenda, would you please call the role? Corbin, yes. Mayor Keane, yes. Rowan, yes. Shay,

yes. Clumps, yes. Freeman, yes. Raymond, yes. Mayor Box, yes. Motion carries. Great. Thank you. Uh, next item, item 7D, management and administrative services, the fisc year 2027 city budget. Mr. Van Beek.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Councel. Lynn's already up there, but I'm going to make her stand there for a second. And the reason I'm going to make her stand there for a second is because as I'm looking around, everyone that's in this room has already devoted hours and hours and hours, but there's a few people, primarily Lynn and Janessa, who you're going to be reintroduced here for a while. It's not hours and hours and hours. It's days and days and and days in 24-hour increments. Um, so first and foremost, just thank you Lynn, thank you Janessa and your teams, but then extended also to all the departments and entities that feed into um I'm actually going to say it out loud. B is for budget, but B is also for beast because this budget sometimes is it's it's a lot of detail, a lot of work. Um so thank you. Um you know that the theme um I'm going to the theme of this year was really working together. Um, and I think it's highlighted even as Janess is here to present that even though we have an all funds budget of over $275 million, um, what we try to highlight in the budget book, in the meetings that we had with you in conversations with uh, the public is that how all of the different elements of the city, even if we're using funds, um, a legal term from different places, is we really try to figure out a way to how to make all those dollars still move in the same direction and really complement each other in different ways uh to make this community a great place.

Um so thank you and Lynn is first going to cover kind of the majority of the book. We promise we're not going into the amount of detail again that we've gone into in to so many nights. And then Janessa is also here and we'll talk about the BPW part as ultimately the recommendation tonight is to approve the budget and then also to set the millage rate and the utility rates. So with that, Lynn, thank you and take it away.

Okay, I won't go through every page of the 499 page document. Dave Costa thought might be a good idea. But um and it's and just for everybody knows, so we have this whole document. It's available online to anybody who wants to know. There's a lot of great information in here. A lot of it we've been through in a lot of detail, but just for anybody who wants to check it out, there's uh appendix sections, which we're going to talk a little bit about when we talk about the property taxes, but there's a couple sections on all the capital projects that the city uh has planned and budgeted over the next five years. And each page includes each project has a separate page that includes um a picture because everybody likes pictures and also the um cost where we're going to get the funds to pay for it and um what the impact to our operational budget might be and then even we take a look to see if we have any impact for our sustainability issues. So it's just kind of some really nice information in there. But so now I'll get back to um most I'm going to highlight information that was available in our budget and brief which we prepare every year and it's also available online. It is a simple eight pages and it really serves to summarize in an easyto- read uh manner because we acknowledge that not everybody wants to read 499 pages of budget. So, I will begin with um looking at this. What we have presented here is our overall city budget. And when I say overall, as Keith mentioned, we have some areas in our budget where we present a combined budget from the combined city and Holland Board of Public Works. And this is the first one that we are looking at. And so combined budget this year we are proposing a budget that has 282,869,300 of revenues and $275,489,000 of expenditures.

So how we like to look at that in the big picture is on the source size we like to look to see what those sources of the revenue are by category and similar to prior years the largest contribution to the revenue is utilities at 61.8%. So it's charges for services that's mostly make made up from the utilities. Um other sources do include the taxes and assessments and that is at 12%. And then we have other um just other things like fees that are more minor in nature. But on the uses side then we have we take a look at it again kind of by um fund type and again utilities is the largest which is to be expected. We have a a great utility arm and Janess is as Keith mentioned is going to give you a little bit updates on that in a minute. So utilities represent 55.7% of the total budget. The general fund, which is the city's main operating fund, is 13.8%. And just so you know, capital spend, it is pretty significant at the city, and it actually represents 13% of the fiscical year 27 proposed budget. So now I'm going to turn to the general fund more specifically because we like to really look at that because that's our main operating fund. Consider it like our checkbook. So we want to make sure we have enough money in that fund always. So on the revenue side for the general fund, we have proposed a budget of $37.8 million. And on the right side of this chart, you can see I again look at revenues by source and property taxes for the general fund is the largest source at 51% or 19.3 million. Um we also have transfers in at 6.8 million. state revenue sharing and that's our share of sales and use tax that we get from the state and then some other inter um like

a personal property tax replacement goes in that. So that's 6.5 million and again charges for service is 2.5 million and we kind of wrap everything else up as being other and that's 2.7 million. uh we have enjoyed again a a nice amount of investment income as the interest rates continue to be a little higher than they were like six years ago. So that's part of that other category. So I do you do see the chart on the left and I like to take this opportunity always to remind everybody that when you get your tax bill that doesn't you get it from the city and then you come to the city to pay the bill but we don't get to keep all that money. So this little chart kind of illustrates all the different taxing entities that we do that whole process for including like the airport max um the library the pool county schools and even some of the stuff that goes to the state. So of the total amount that a resident pays on average it's just a little under 33% that actually stays at the city. Um on the expenditures for the general fund um I usually look at that kind of by area and as expected uh again our budget is 37.8 million so we have a balanced budget of that amount 49% is for public safety that's for um police and fire as you can imagine that's an important service in the city. Um some of the other ones I want to highlight parks and wreck 18% we also have a lot of really nice parks and facilities in our um city. Um, then transportation is only 6% on this report, but I do want to remind everybody that a lot of our funding for transportation doesn't actually come from general funds. It's we have several other funds which are um elsewhere in the budget that we get

funding from the state for roads and we do have um even a millillage that goes directly into that uh fund for road support and um transportation related projects. And the similar thing with the downtown market, it looks like it's less than 1%, but again, this only includes the funding that actually comes from the general fund. We get a lot of other sources of funding um through our DDA and through our principal shopping district that fund uh activities down at the downtown area. So, as I mentioned before, capital is a big expenditure for the city and the board of public works. So now I'm going back to a chart that actually is for a combined entity. So over the next five years between the city and the board of public works, we have uh proposed $277 million worth of projects. And um in fiscal year 2027, the total is 83.1 million. And just a few projects which can be found in the big pro the big um book are the recreation center that's planned. Um we have a lot of we have the continued um buildout of the broadband. We're in I think the last year of that. Um we have a recycling center planned. We have some money set aside for a pump track and we have a lot of water man replacement and plant improvements um in the utilities. So, uh, part of the part of the, um, the property tax process is managed by the state. And so, the state says that when we're adopting our budget and we're setting the millillage rates, we have to follow a certain process. And that process includes doing several calculations. And on this chart, I've listed some of those calculations. We

have to do a Headley roll back calculation. we have to do a truth and taxation formula calculation and then we actually have to come up with our proposed rate. Um and so all of that information as I mentioned we have a whole bunch of detail all those detailed calculations for anybody who really likes numbers and likes to maybe look we have references to the state statutes that actually um dictate those um can be found in appendix A of the budget. So everybody's kind of familiar with the Headley because we had that uh roll back that we had proposed and was passed by the citizens uh this last year. So I just want to show the how those rates play out. So the city authorized tax rate is 17.5. The city's charter actually authorizes a a tax rate of a millage rate of 17.5. So we have to do that calculation. So even though we had reset it back to 17.5, we already had to do the calculation and roll it back. So that is now 17.20007. So we can see how that happens, right? Um so the city proposed rate happily is 13.8692 which has been the same for the last 15 years. So that is good news for everybody. And let's see here. I like to look at this chart because for so many years we had seen this chart and we're getting very nervous about that orange line intersecting with those uh bars at the bottom because that could have had some really serious implications on our budgets at the city and and consequently our services. So fortunately you can see it was going down and down and now we've reset it. So but starting next year we'll probably s start seeing that go down again. And finally, we always do like to do a comparison just to make sure we're in line with our um comparables across the

state. So, we always do this tax rate comparison and it shows that of 55 that we survey, we are at number 19 on the lowest. And I will have to say if you did dug into it, you would see that and there's some asterisks on this chart and it too can be found in the larger budget. There's several of those that have a city income tax. So it's almost like a not comparable because they have other revenue sources right and then um also it's difficult when we do this comparison when we get the data you know we aren't at the city but just like we face the headley some other municipalities take other avenues so they might not have um an operate their operating might look like it's lower than us but that might be because they have a separate public safety millage right so it's it's not true apples to apples but it's as close as we can get and it's still good news that we are in um number 19 and we see what we can at least explain why a few of those are lower than us.

So with that I'm going to turn it over well I'll first start by asking if there's any questions before I turn over to Janessa to go over some more details questions for Lynn. All right Janessa thank you. This process couldn't be done without all your support. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um, as Lynn mentioned too, we created a budget and brief this year um, for the BPW part of the the budget as well. Um, very helpful, just concise overview of just those big main bullet points too for each utility as well. Um, that is currently active on our website as well, just right on the header too. So, um, we kept it short and sleep sweet tonight and didn't include any additional slides, but I just am going to give a brief overview. So, um, no, no changes since Dave and I spoke to all of you a month ago. Um, everything is still aligned with all the information we provided then, too. Um, no changes to our strategic priorities or anything since that presentation. Um, the budget really is a rigorous groundup uh, development process. Uh, as Keith has outlined here today too, um, it's been fully reviewed and recommended for approval by our board of directors too at the Holland board of public works already too as well. Um so that total budget for this year the expense budget is 153.7 million. Um the budget is largely the theme of it is a continuation of services and programs provided by the Holland Board of Public Works. Um it does represent a 12.79% increase over fiscal year 26. Um that is primarily driven by industrial sales growth and energy market fluctuations which we'll talk about a little later in those key drivers. Um overall though uh the budget remains structured so that each utility which is electric, water, wastewater and broadband all are self-supporting through their own rate structures and their own customer rates. There's no you know subsidizing between utilities. Um all that remains consistent with prior years. So of that 153.7 million um electric uh makes up 122.1 million of that. Um it remains our largest utility which is about 79% of our total budget for the BPW. Um in addition no rate changes or anything

recommended for electric. Um wastewater accounts for 14.8 billion of that uh budget as well. Continued focus on maximizing uh treatment capacity and innovative resource recovery. Um there is a 3% uh rate adjustment included in that budget again as we talked about last month too. um water 13.1 million of the budget of the overall budget. Um continue to prioritize uh infrastructure reliability and it's that final year of the planned um revenue adjustments as well for that that 13%. Um a big key point of that though is only 5% of that is the uh commodity charge. The rest of it is all in the tiered uh irrigation and tiered rate structure which is really for our conservation program too with saving uh money for or saving usage excuse me for irrigation. Um and finally 3.7 million is for the broadband utility as well. Um broadband continues to see rapid growth as we move toward that full citywide fiber coverage by June 30th of this year. So key drivers of the budget um fuel and purchase power that is the single largest category for the B the BBW and accounts for 40% of our total operating budget. Um in addition if you look at the overall 12.79% change of the operating expense budget from year to year 8.3 million is due to that fuel and purchase power. So the majority of the change is due to that um again that uh energy market fluctuation and that industrial sales growth. Um contribution to the city always good to highlight too a big part of our budget. Um this year's budget the the methodology and the formula between that contribution has remained the same. And this budget includes a $9.8 million contribution to the city's general fund which was part of the presentation that Lynn just just um spoke on as well. Um and that goes to support some of those broader public services as well. Um we are also pleased just to highlight here

too that there's no new debt issuances or anything u to support the capital plans that Lynn highlighted as well here too. So um no debt issuances planned across any of the utilities for next fiscal year. So um yeah, happy to answer any questions if there's any any questions for staff? None. Great. Thank you very much. Uh we do need to do a public hearing on this as well. So, I will open that public hearing right now. Is there anyone here from the public who would like to address council on the 2027 fiscal year city budget? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. What is the pleasure of council in regard to the 2027 city budget? Motion approved.

Moved by moved by Corbin. Is there support? Support. Support by Vman. Any discussion? Yes, Miss Rowan.

Thank you. So, um, I just want to clarify for we don't have a big crowd here in the audience, but um, for the public watching at home that we're kind of quiet tonight because with big stuff being passed, but we've spent hours and hours going over this, having presentations, appreciating the work um, that's been put in to create the budgets for both um, the city and for the BPW. But um yeah, just a little word for the public to know that we're not letting it fly by without having rigorous discussion, but most of those discussions have already taken place. Uh and thank you for all of the hard work. Thank any other Mr. Freeman.

Just a a continuation of L or Kim's comments to for Lynn in particular. I Janessa, I don't work with you as much as I we do, Lynn, but I know Lynn, you uh you and your team worked over this line by line, and I just really appreciate that every line has been looked at and evaluated if necessary or it's in the right place. So, thank you for your work and making this all happen.

Any other discussion? I I of course have lots to say. Um and and to echo what Miss Rowan and Mr. Freeman said, "It does seem a little anticlimactic by the time we get to this point. This has been uh a long and deliberative process, one that started all the way back in December, uh, when we had coffee with council and then when we had the retreat in January and and expressed council priorities. Um, and for some of us and and as Miss Rowan said, don't have a lot of questions today because for for for us this is the second, third, fourth, and maybe even fifth time we've we've seen this information and had presentations on this. Huge thank you to staff um on making sure that we are incredibly well informed on this. Um the a just for the public's reference, a 499 page budget um which is an awful lot to digest. So, uh, so the city has a nine-page budget and brief with a whole lot of graphics in it for people like me. Uh, board of public works now also has a budget in brief which is easily digestible for anyone. Uh, there are executive summaries and the city even goes as far as creates a one business cardsized summary of what we have in revenues and expenditures if you want to get that that simple with it. Very easy to understand. And if you want to look at transparency in government, the city of Holland has that. And not only do we have a 499 page budget, we have an award-winning budget. Not only do we have a budget and brief, we have an award-winning budget and brief. We do things incredibly well here. The people of the city of Holland can be an incredibly proud of the way that their money is handled and taken care of. Um I we are good stewards of your tax dollars. Um, I also want to point out to the people of the city of Holland, you

trusted us last November when we asked to have the Headley reset. Um, you trusted us and and reset that to the 17.5 mil maximum that's allowed under the charter and we told you that we would not increase your tax rate and we would keep it at the 13.8692 mills that we had for the previous 14 years and we have done that. Um we told you that we needed to do that because we were worried that we would be forced to reduce that rate uh to below that 13.8692 mills within the next couple of years. Um and we've seen that that very well may have happened this year uh based on the fact that we were forced to reduce it by.3 mills this year alone which would if that had happened to us uh without that reset we might we might be under that rate this year. um very very close if not under it this year which would have put us in a very difficult financial position here in the city. Um there's a reason why we have stability in this community. There's a reason why we're able to do good things in this community. Um, just last week, uh, Senator Slotkin was here to visit to to ask us some questions about why this community is growing, why this community is an economic driver for the state. And the answer that she got from this community, from the leaders in this community, is it's because we work together, we plan, and we provide stability. and this budget and the way that we do things is a great example of that. Um, I want the people of the city of Holland to know that the leadership across the board in this community is what makes this community successful and this budget process is a great example of that. So, thank you all. Thank you for the great work that you've done. It may seem anticlimactic. It may seem

boring. It may seem dull. It's that way on purpose so that we make sure that we get things done the right way and it's done with hard work. So, thank you. Brenda, would you please call the role? Mayor Keane, yes. Rowan, yes. Shay, yes. Clumps, yes. Freeman, yes. Raymond, yes. Corbin, yes. Mayor Box, yes. Motion carries.

Great. Thank you. Next item on the agenda, item number nine, written petitions and communications. In addition to providing the public the opportunity to address us in person at our council meetings, we do also have an email address where you can send us written communications. That is public comment at cityofholland.com. Again, public comment cityofholland.com. Uh when we receive those, council reviews them as part of our packet and we accept them into the agenda and into the record. uh we don't read them out loud, but we do accept them into the record. We don't have any this week, but I always like to make sure that people know that that is an option for them. Again, once again, public comment at cityofholland.com. Next item on the agenda, item number 10, adoption of ordinances, planning commission resoning request for 49 West 3rd Street. Mr. Van Beek.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh we now have the second part of what we talked about um in a different way earlier and it is Steve again that's going to walk us through uh this recommending recommended resoning request.

Yeah, thanks Keith. So maybe in the spirit of teamwork and cooperation working with the BPW uh guys uh team on this uh project. So, in addition to the vacation of Second Street, um we thought since we were already going through the process with BPW for the site plan, uh the street vacation, maybe let's look at the zoning up here. So, I have highlighted for you the property that we're going to talk about. Again, uh same neighborhood as we looked at the street vacation. And here is the zoning. So, on the left hand side, that same property highlighted in green is identified in yellow. that is our north downtown. That's our formbbased code north downtown zoning district. Um that's really set up for uh redevelopment, you know, uh mixed use residential buildings, etc. North downtown. Um so as we looked at it, we thought, you know, maybe that doesn't fit the best for what BPW is doing here. and um sort of evidence of that the master plan the future land use plan that we have is that map to the right hand side. So again that same property highlighted in yellow sort of that light blue color in the master plan we actually identify that whole area as what we call essential service. Surprise surprise right that's the BPW's uh water treatment facility up there. So um it also has the electrical substation up there. So that's not a big surprise that the master plan identifies that as this essential service. Um I would suggest the most uh likely zone district that we would put that in would be industrial. So, the recommendation from the planning commission, from staff, is that we would change that area that's in yellow, um, just the part that's highlighted there, that's BPW, from formbbased northtown

to industrial. And maybe before anybody asks, I'll be the first to admit what the BPW is doing up there is defined as an essential service and is allowed in all the different zoning districts in the city for good reason. Um but um just again since we were already kind of going through this process and going and touching these this property with some of these things, we thought it it would kind of clean up the area. Um I tend to like the zoning map to kind of reflect what's really going on. Um kind of remove any confusion if somebody was looking at some property and say, "Hey, I think I might have an idea for something." um the BPW treatment facility and what they're doing isn't going anywhere anytime soon. So, uh that area isn't going to transition uh to some other use. So, um and admittedly, I guess I'll say when we redid Udo and we did the zoning map, you know, we we probably got a little ambitious there and and probably went too far with with that designation. So, I feel like it's really more of a correction um since um nobody was really thinking that that would go any further. And uh Lynn, maybe before you ask me about that office building up there, um reszoning it to industrial um that is a permitted use in the industrial zoning district. So, that doesn't create um a conflict here either. So, long story. We're recommending that we reszone this property uh to industrial from the formbbased code north downtown.

All right. Thanks, Steve. But I was probably not going to call on Lynn anyway. So, any questions for staff? Yes, Mr. Freeman. Steve, um since we just um eliminated Second Street there, do we need to include that in the map of that zoning as well? You are sharp. Uh well thank you that is that's sort of an interesting um um you know what's happening here. So

vacate property we don't do it all the time. When we do uh the property that gets vacated you know it would typically go to the adjoining properties and so that's what it would be zoned. So we don't have to do anything different. That would happen sort of automatically once we reszone that uh area. If you decide to do that, with the street vacation happening, it will all become industrial zoned. We don't have to do anything separate. But it is kind of an interesting scenario there. So glad you picked up on that. All right. Any other questions?

Great. Thank you, Steve. We do not need to do a public hearing on this one. So what is the pleasure of councel? Move to approve. Moved by Reman. Is there support? Support. Support. Was that you Abby? Support by Clumparts. Any discussion? Seeing none, Brenda, would you please call the role? Let's see. Uh, Mayor Keane, yes. Rowan, yes. Shay, yes. Clumps, yes. Freeman, yes. Raymond, yes. Corbin, yes. Mayor Box, yes.

Motion carries. Great. Uh, next item on the agenda is the item that was pulled from the consent agenda. Item 12, echo 2.1, ordinance amendment to chapter 2, article 15, section 2-100.2, historic district established landmark properties. Mr. Van Beek. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Um, a couple things just to introduce. First, Steve is going to present this, but Steve is going to present it, and I I think I can say this because we'd like to celebrate with her because Anna, our historic um preservation planner and planner, um who has done an amazing job of shephering this through a very long, complicated process, um has just celebrated, we find out, right before Mother's Day, she had her and everyone's doing well. Um, we've had a little bit of fun actually upstairs because we always do that, right, Steve? That Anna was really like, "Hey, Steve, don't mess this up because I'm not going to be able to present it." So, Steve is

first of all pinch hitting for Anna. Um, also I kind of I won't take all the steam away from Steve, but this is really the end of a very long process and no shortage of multiple meetings and boards and committees and specially appointed boards and committees that um ultimately um is presenting this uh final recommendation to you. Um but also I will say this is a first reading of a proposed ordinance. So, this is also um by requirement going to come back before you again. But with all of that leadin, Steve, be careful because it's on camera and Anna is going to watch how you present this. So, good luck.

Thank you, Keith. So, I guess I'll say congratulations Anna and Tom. Um, welcome the new baby. Um, yeah, I don't know that I have a whole lot uh to add. And I guess since it's the first reading, maybe my suggestion would be if you have some questions and some things that you want answered, I would be happy to dig into that. Um, you've got the report. I won't be able to do Anna justice with all of the work that that she has done. Um the recommendation from the historic district commission is to just uh amend the ordinance to eliminate that landmark status since the green houses are gone. Um you've got the report from Shipo in there as well. Um and they are also uh in agreement that uh that designation um should go away. So, um, again, maybe I could what I can offer is, uh, to to dig into some questions if you've got some and be prepared for the next meeting if that's appropriate

questions. Yeah, I put some slides on there. Those are the things that you've seen already from Anna's presentation. I'm sorry. Um, so I thought maybe if that would be helpful if you needed any kind of refresh. Yeah. Questions, Mr. Corbin? Yeah, I pulled it off the agenda. No special questions or concerns. I just wanted to highlight the work and it was mentioned the work that has been done thus far and because it's a first reading I wanted to be very transparent that we're doing this and to make sure everybody aware that this is necessary. It's an important part or piece to close this and uh move forward. So that's the reason it was pulled off the agenda. But thank you very much for the update.

Great. And I and I think just as just for reference, you're the only council member that was on council when this process started, I believe. Unfortunately. Yes. Yes. Mr. Marine. And so, uh I guess I newer to this. Does that mean uh the piece that it's the the uh actual building versus the land that's gets the designation? Is that right? It's it's it's the land. Okay. Right.

Um so you kind of see it highlighted there. It's that triangle that got that designation in the ordinance. So that's essentially what would be removed from the ordinance. So it wouldn't have that landmark status anymore.

So with the I believe the skeleton of the greenhouse moving to Sennial Park, that doesn't impact historic district or designation, anything like that. Let me jump in just because so the building isn't there on the corner anymore. So part of the larger multiple pieces of this council will need to take final action obviously on this piece um but also ultimately to um follow through on the plan that's been talked about is that the structure of the building that doesn't exist on this corner anymore would be put into Centennial Park. Centennial Park already is a historic designated um location and then the structure being there kind of um I would say kind of continues the tradition that it's being recognized and it really tells the history of that building and the story of Holland of how this corner really primarily existed to support the plantings and Centennial Park. Hope that didn't but just

yeah little added piece and so indulge me for a moment. Is there any value to keeping that historic? Well uh I guess the way I would try to answer that is uh both the historic district commission and the state historic preservation office don't believe so. So both of those groups are recommending that we remove that uh because the green houses are gone. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Great. Thank you, Steve. Appreciate it. What is the pleasure of councel in regard to this item? Motion to approve. Corbin. Moved by Corbin. Is there support support by Raymond? Any discussion? All those in favor say I.

I. All oppose, same sign. Motion carries. Can I I'm not sure. Do we need a roll call on this, Vince? Because it had been on the roll call of consent. We could do a roll call question. Any council member can ask for roll call and it will happen. But it is um a good question. If it was a roll call item, even though it's first reading, it probably makes sense to um to ask for a roll call on this one. Yeah, we can do that. All right, let's do a roll call. Brenda, would you please call the roll? Okay, thank you. All right, Rowan, yes. Shay, yes. Clumps, yes. Freeman, yes. Raymond, yes. Corbin, yes. Mayor Box, yes. Carries.

All right, great. Thank you. Want to make sure we cross those tees and dot those eyes. Uh, next item on the agenda, item 12, echo 6.1, gifts. Brenda, would you please review the gifts for us? The city manager's office is pleased to report the following gift for the Department of Public Safety victim services unit. Donations totaling $125 received from various staff members at Cunningham Dolman, PC for the privileges of a jeans day. What is the pleasure of councel in regard to the gifts?

A motion to um accept the gifts, write a letter of appreciation, and deposit the gift as appropriately determined. Moved eloquently by Rowan. Is there support? Support. Support by Clamparns. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I I all oppose same sign. Motion carries. Uh next agenda on the next item on the agenda is item 12 echo 6.2 adoption of the 2027 strategic plan and business plan. Mr. Van Beek.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Um I will spare you going through all what the strategic plan and the business plan means. Um this was provided to you before the packet and then obviously in the packet. Um I think the strength of this document and the reason that we always try to present it and ask for your approval on the same night as the budget is because I think the strength of both of them is that the strategic plan informs the budget which then also is in part executed by the business plan. So um you know that all the things that we do are are guided by both and funded by both. Um so um this reflects uh discussions historically by council and then most recently by at the retreat in January. So um I hope that this reflects um on an continuing basis your priorities and that the budget did the same. and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions for staff? All right, seeing none, what is the pleasure of councel in regard to the strategic and business plan? Motion approved. Move to move by Corbin. Is there support? Support. Support by Raymond. Any discussion? Yes, Mr. Mr. Shay.

Thank you. Um, this is a great document. It's always super helpful. So, I appreciate all the work that goes into it. It's a lot of information. Holy moly. Um, one thing I was just kind of noticing that as we go through, as we talk about like the s how systemically it happens, we meet with coffee with council, it goes to the, you know, we have our retreat, etc. Um, and then like uh one thing that I I notice is that we don't mention our um community-led uh boards, committees, and commissions. And I just would like us to think about how those come into play in that in um in the creation of these things uh going forward in future years. I I would love to have us have a good discussion about that because I'm I'm afraid we're not utilizing some of the brilliant people that are giving their time as well as we could. So, thank you.

Any other discussion? All right. Seeing none, Brenda, would you please call the role? Shay, yes. Clumps, yes. Raymond, yes. Raymond, yes. Corbin, yes. Mayor Keane, yes. Rowan, yes. Mayor Box, yes. Motion carries. Great. Thank you. Next item on the agenda, item 13, communications from the city manager. Mr. Van Beek, yes. Just two broad topics tonight. First is really a question because I think everyone wants to know, Vince, did you wear jeans on Friday? I I hope I was in court that day and I just uh I had to wear Okay. I I just couldn't resist. I

That's a good question. It's a very very cool. The staff is um they get excited about about those Fridays. Yeah.

Well, great. Well, thank you that we are a recipient of one of those days. We appreciate that. Um, second really it's just a it's a broad recognition and thank you and I'm going to say brag on our city team. Um, if you look back at at the last couple weeks and in particular all of the preparation that goes into this thing called tulip time, um, the amount of effort and dedication and I would say passion to make sure that tulip time is a great event um, is just appreciated. Um, and you see that in so many ways. And it's not just tulip time because quite frankly I was um out today and we had community impact day. I won't steal your thunder Tim as Tim's wearing the shirt, right? But we also quite frankly had some bad weather in the last couple days and I ran into members of our tree tree team and I think we had a total of five five trees that went down that in the midst of everything too they just shift right from one and flow into another. So, um, really other than picking on Vince, the only thing I wanted to talk about and recognize today is just thank you to our team members. And if you didn't know, I know a lot of the team members do watch this. Um, so thanks everyone. That's all I have.

Wonderful. Thank you. Next item on the agenda, appointments and communications from the mayor. Uh, I do have a couple of appointments this evening. Uh, I'm recommending to city council to approve the appointment of Linda Barrett to the International Relations Commission for a partial term expiring on June 30, 2028. And to approve the appointment of Emily Evers to the Teen Court Advisory Board for a two-year term expiring on June 30, 2028. And I would be looking for a motion in that regard. Motion to approve. Moved by Rowan. Is there support? Support. Support by Clumparts. Any discussion? Seeing none, uh, all those in favor say I. I.

I. All oppose, same sign. Motion carries. Uh, and I just have one announcement, uh, and that is that the farmers market opened this morning, uh, and will be open every Wednesday and every Friday, and they have these great new thermal shopping bags that they have available. Uh, and despite uh, Mr. Corbin's suspicions. I did not choose the color of the bags, although I highly approve of their amazing, beautiful orange color. Uh, so get out there, enjoy our our world famous and amazing farmers market every Wednesday and Saturday heading all through the summer and through the fall. So that is all I have today. Uh, next item on the agenda, appointments, motions, communications from council members. Anything from council members today, Mr. Freeman? Well, I just want to add some uh flowery language to what Keith has already established uh for us and just regarding all the community things that have taken place and are continuing um in this day and in the weeks to come. uh tulip time by itself and all the effort that's gone into uh making that festival happen uh starting already a year ago and planting uh tulips and making all those plans and the expenses that have gone into that by the city and our nonprofit partners um is just astounding. And then to have um parades last week and the safety of our city um emphasized through our fire department and police department and city streets blocked off um and helicopters and all of it, right? Um it's a little intimidating. We had invited friends from Canada to be with us and they were just kind of blown away of everything that was taking place. And so just a huge thank you to all the different partners and particularly parks and wreck as they uh come out of tulip time. They get our city back in

shape after all those visitors. And then they hope the chamber of commerce uh sponsors community impact day. the t-shirt I'm wearing now, navigating over 2,000 volunteers today all across our city and inspiring 20 other chambers of commerce across the nation uh to do the very same thing in their communities. And so just the leadership quotient that is here in our area and that we get to enjoy uh it sits around this kiosk. We involve the people of our buildings and all of our city employees and then it goes throughout our community. I just could not be more proud. And then uh the parks and wreck could pick it all up again uh tomorrow and get our cemeteries and parks in place uh for Memorial Day and we do another parade uh that day and just honoring again those men and women that have served our nation uh so so well. And so again, kudos, kudos, kudos, particularly parks in the wreck and public uh safety uh for the way that you've served our community so so well. Thanks for shining.

Thank you. Any other communications from council members? Yes, Miss Clumparts.

I too just wanted to briefly talk about tulip time. I love tulip time. It's truly my favorite time of the year. and I had the privilege to lead six bus tours and was so pleased to hear the positive feedback about our community, how clean it is, how friendly everyone is. Kudos, yes, to our parks department folks commented on how there's not a weed in a tulip bed. And of course, to our Department of Public Safety, I can only begin to appreciate what it is to keep so many people and a community safe during such a large gathering like tulip time. And two, thank you to our community. I know that we endure some crazy traffic and um can be a bit of a headache for some folks during tulip time, but we do it every year because it really just does um help our community grow and thrive and mean so much to our businesses. So, thanks to our community too for always um putting our best foot forward when we we have guests into our home and looking forward to another great festival next year.

Great. Thank you, Mr. Corbin.

Yeah, likewise. Uh I met some people from California when I was waiting for the Kinder parade and they were so impressed with our city. Also met uh family from England who uh was visiting their sister out of uh east side of Michigan and decided this for the first time to come to to Tulip Time and they were very excited about what we were doing here. So but I would be remiss not to mention that this is National Police Week May 6 uh May 10th through the 16th. Um, with that said, um, today during National Police Week, we pause as a community to recognize and honor the men and women in law enforcement who dedicate their lives and protecting others and serving with courage, professionalism, and integrity. Here in Holland, we especially are grateful for the outstanding service provided by our Holland Police Department and their commitment in keeping our residents and visitors safe. We also recognize the importance of the partnerships and support provided by the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department, the Alagen County Sheriff's Department, Michigan State Police, and Michigan Department of Natural Resources and many other mutual aid partners who stand ready to assist whenever needed. Their work is especially visible during major events like tulip time, uh, where law enforcement agencies work together seamlessly to ensure safety of hundreds and thousands of visitors while helping preserve and welcoming families oriented the spirit that defines our community. Whether responding to emergencies, assisting victims, deescalating tense situations, or simply interacting with members of the public, you continue to handle difficult situations with patience, empathy, respect, while never losing sight of your responsib responsibilities to protect the community and keep us safe. For those who serve in public safety, we rely on each other during difficult calls, stressful situ situations, and long hours, long shifts, missed holidays, difficult calls. public scrutiny and even emotional toll on the job are realities that you carry while

continuing to show up every day in service to others. This week also reminds us of the tremendous sacrifices made by your families. We honor those who have lost their lives in the line of duty and we remember that behind every badge is a family member who shares in the burden and the risk of public service. On behalf of the city and council, I want to extend our sincere gratitude to all members of law enforcement, past and present, and to the agencies that continue to work together every day to keep our community safe. Please, as council, please join me in recognizing National Police uh Police Week and thanking those officers and responders who continue to serve our community with honor and dedication. Thank you to those who are attending as well in the back of the room.

Great. Thank you, Mr. Corbin. Any other communications from council members? All right. Uh, then I would entertain a motion to enter a closed door session to review negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement. So move moved by Freeman. Is there support? Support. Support by Rowan. Any discussion? Brenda, would you please call the role? CL Barns. Yes. Freeman. Yes. Raymond, yes. Corbin, yes. Mayor Keane, yes. Rowan, yes. Shay, yes. Mayor Box, yes. And just for clarification, it's collective bargaining agreements plural. And we're not going to be coming back with Are we going to be coming back with any decisions?

Yes, we may be coming We may be coming back with decisions, but it will not be televised. If you're interested in finding out uh any decisions that council may have made, you can contact city council uh tomorrow morning and you will they will have the results of that, but that will not be televised. or if you want to hang out in the lobby after the we'll enter open session and you can see that yourself. Great. Thank you. Can we do a small break?