Village Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the April 14th, 2026 council meeting for the village of Holly. Clerk, please call the role. Burner here. Wendell here. Ryan here. Pascal here. Cole here. Ky here. Brandon here. We have a quorum. I don't have a gavalo. Daniel, you got to have the power of the fist. Madam, power of the fist.

Just in case Daniel gets out of order. Thanks. If you are willing and able, please stand for the pledge of

allegiance. I alian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. This brings us to the approval of our consent agenda. All items listed under consent agenda are considered routine and non-controversial by the village council and will be approved by one motion. There will be no separate discussion. If discussion is desired, that item will be removed from the consent agenda and discussed separately immediately after consent agenda approval in its normal sequence on the regular agenda. Lisa, I'm so sorry. Can you please read the long consent agenda?

Sure, I will. Um, A, agenda approval. B, consideration of the approval of the village council minutes of March 10th, 2026. C. Consideration of the approval of the village council minutes of March 23rd, 2026. D. Acknowledgement of receipt of downtown development authority DDA minutes of December 8th to 2025. E. Acknowledgement of receipt of DDA minutes of January 12th, 2026. F. Acknowledgement of receipt of DDA minutes of February 9th, 2026. G. Acknowledgement of receipt of parks commission minutes for February 4th, 2026. Consideration of council resolution 2026-016 for the village president reappoint of Larry Macau to the zoning board of appeals for a term ending April 30th 2029. F I mean sorry I consideration of approval of the special event application for the BFW Memorial Day parade on May 25th, 2026. J consideration of approval of the special event application for farmers market to to occur on Sundays from May 3rd to October 25th, 2026. K. Consideration of approval of the special event application for Art in the Alley on May 30th, 2026. L. Approval of the proposed settlement of grievance numbers 25-02 Police Command and 25-33 Police Patrol dated March 25th, 2026. M. Consideration by council of switching to a new credit card financial institution with a credit limit of $20,000 to be initiated by the clerk treasurer. N. Acknowledgement of receipt of auditing requests for proposals RFP responses. O. Acknowledgement of receipt of attorney RFP responses. P. Consideration of council resolution

2026-7 for codification of previously passed ordinances with American Legal. Q. consideration of the approval of warrant 2026-4 in the amount of $360,659.75. Do I have a do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda? Madam President, um I just wanted to pull the council minutes of March 23rd. Let's see what letter is that please?

C. Okay, we will take C and we will move that. Let's see. We'll put it before closed. So, we'll put it after K. We'll put that letter C. We'll put old C after K. And Jim, a J. A J. Farmers market. Okay. J will come. Old J will come after old C and before closed. Do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended? I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended.

I'll second the motion. We have a motion by Wendell. We have a second by Wein Bunner. Clerk, will you please call the role? Ryan, yes. Pascal, yes. Fine. Burner, yes. Cole, yes. Ky, yes. Wendell, yes. Brandon, yes. Motion carried. See presentations. This brings us to tonight's presentation, which will be a preliminary introduction to the work being conducted by Municipal Analytics by John Kaser. Welcome.

We're missing Mike. We just wanted you to shout real loud voice is kind of weak.

All right. Thank you. Good evening all. Um I was asked to come this evening and just give you an update on the strategic financial forecast planning model that we've been working on. Um, I know we discussed this several months ago when I presented the concept and council approved moving forward with the project. Uh, so I'm going to provide an update on where we're at. The next slide. So, so far.

Okay, I will try harder. So, so far we have reviewed uh several years of budgets and capital plans. We've looked at your financial statements. We've read your water and sewer customer billing records and analyzed those quite a bit. Uh look through your pension and OPED actuarial valuation reports. Um studied your taxable value history, your debt schedules, and your ordinances. Um and there's more, but that those are the highlights. Um we've taken all that information and put it into a 20-year forward-looking financial forecasting model that's built in Excel. Um, it includes all of the village funds, although I will say some of the minor funds really are not that critical to be forecasting, so I'm not going to focus on them tonight, but they are in there. Um, we have built a water and sewer rate analytics tool that is in that model as well. So now we can actually look at what happens to rates if we add more capital or we add more debt or we pay off debt, uh, those sorts of things, add more customers. We've met with the department heads, the village manager, reviewed a number of options related to operations, understanding the budgets, um a little bit about what things might look like if cityhood progresses. We also Oops, that's okay. Um we we did look at the cityhood initiatives um and I'll talk about what those are a little bit later in the presentation. Um some key findings that we have so far, the public safety special assessment is absolutely critical to sustainability of the general fund. Without that, uh things would look very different and I've got a pretty picture to show you about that. Um the general fund at this point has limited capacity to fund needed capital improvements. The model currently includes about 200,000 a year to pay for things like park improvements, facilities, parking, and

whatnot. uh ideally you'd be able to spend more than that and then there have been some uh small changes as we look at assumptions the wage assumption or the health care cost assumption or the inflation assumption taxable value assumption the the general fund is very much on a a tipping point. So we can easily sway the forecast which means the general fund is a little not so stable. Um so we're still working on trying to find some stability for that. So um just talk about what these charts are. Um the the green bars uh going up on each slide are forecasted or actual revenues. The red is expenditures. That small golden or yellow area is the targeted fund balance that we're looking for. Uh and then that black solid line is the fund balance and this is the general fund. So without the special assessment uh that top chart with the red border that's the outlook of the general fund you would be in a deficit position and actually run out of cash uh this fe this year. So that was avoided um and we've stabilized things and I know it's a limited term special assessment. So that bottom chart assumes that there continues to be a special assessment or some other revenue in place to fund uh what that current uh special assessment is is funding. So with that things look more stable but still not quite as strong as I would like to see them. Um so we are trying to understand what we might be able to do to influence that outlook uh based on some assumptions that we can make. talk about major streets. Um the streets funds, as you know, most of your revenue is coming from Act 51. Um and that covers your operating costs pretty much. On the left, we see that cash or the

fund balance line going up if we don't spend any money on capital. Um you would be doing great. But in 2016, a 10-year-old Paser study, that's the condition uh of the roads, as identified about $8.5 million of improvements needed uh over the next 10 years. So, obviously, that didn't happen to the extent that was planned. Um what I did is I put $850,000 a year into that chart on the right. Um and you can see you can't sustain funding even what was a plan 10 years ago. So, there's going to be need there's going to need to be some additional thinking about how you fund street improvements. Um, if we go to the next slide, you'll see a very similar story on local streets. Um, the 2016 study identified about 5 million in improvements. Uh, so that chart on the right, I put in $500,000 a year and it clearly is not sufficient to handle the revenues are not sufficient to handle the the needed investments. And obviously 10 years ago, the cost to improve the roads may have close to doubled by this point. Um, so what might have been $5 million 10 years ago might be closer to eight or$10 million today. So there's going to need to be some thinking about how you go about funding the streets. That might be a special millage. It might be a debt for there's there's many different options. Uh, so that's something for the council to think about. The next slide, solid waste fund. Um, you're overall not bad. Um, that's about a $28,000 deficit there. Um, I think a small adjustment in the fees for that service would correct that and then we can not subsidize with general fund resources, water and sewer. Um, again, this is one of those ones if we don't do any capital we're fine. Um you are currently

charging a sufficient amount to fund your on andm and your debt service. Um you do have decent cash balances in both funds. So that is a blessing and that will help. The debt service will be paid off in the next few years primarily. There will be a small amount left um in each fund, but the big chunks of of money that you've been paying for some years now uh will be falling off. and that creates an opportunity to either issue more debt or start spending the revenue that you were generating to pay that debt service on actual capital. Um, so there's going to be some talk about what that looks like and and the model is really designed to to test these things. So after you think about all of the inputs into a utility fund, operating costs generally are stable. That's your labor, that's your insurance costs, that's your electricity. Um, those sorts of inputs, those go up 3 to 4% a year perhaps. Um, your debt service is what your debt service is and your debt service is going down quite a bit. So, that's good. The thing that really impacts rates is capital and how you plan to fund those. Um, so we want to make sure we look at that uh and understand how much you're willing to invest and and how you're going to pay for that. We are looking at township rates uh for those customers that are located outside of the village uh to understand what options we have for perhaps charging them a a different rate um because they are not carrying the risk that the village customers are carrying. Uh so we want to reflect that in the rates and then cityhood initiative. Um we've got a lot of information gathered on this. Um, first of all, I will say that the proposed annexation area um is larger than any village to city uh transition that I've been able to find

so far. I've looked back 50 years. Um the population, if it was to be annexed as is proposed, your population would increase about 43% going from about 6,000 to 8600. This is based on 2020 census data. taxable value would see about an 85% increase. We are still trying to make sure we've got the right numbers there. The county site with this data is not the easiest to use. Um but we've got a pretty good sense of of what the taxable value would look like. Might be a little bit more than that. road miles um could go up to 94% more road miles depending on how some of the roads that are currently classified as county primary or county local are reclassified if they're taken over or left as as Holly becomes a city. So, that's a question that somebody's going to have to look into as you go through this process to figure out um how those roads would be classified and have some conversations with the county about which roads they would continue to maintain and which ones the city would take over if that moves forward. Um we also looked at what's the increased cost would be to move from uh village to city. And I know you've had a lot of conversations about this, but uh staffing, there'd probably need to be some staffing increases in the administrative office. The clerk treasurer role would probably be split. Uh so there could be more um resources available for both of those functions. Um fire would increase because you'd be serving a much much larger area. uh an increase in DBW again, you'd be adding a lot more roads um to manage and just trying to keep up with the water and sewer infrastructure as difficult as enough as it is. Uh there would be some increased costs for assessing currently the um well I won't get into the deals but assessing

if you contract for it the going price for um contracted assessing is somewhere around $25 per parcel. Um, so if you look at how many parcels, um, and we're still working on counting the parcels, that would give us a sense of what that cost would be to take on all the assessing in house. There would be some one cost, one-time cost to purchase, uh, voting equipment and then some storage space to ensure that everything is properly and securely stored. There would be some equipment. Um, some of the roads that would be brought into the city of Holly are dirt roads and those probably would not be paved right away. So, you would have to add something to your fleet to maintain those dirt roads, some sort of a grater um to at least keep those roads from becoming uh too potted. And then street tree maintenance is another cost that would go up. There are a number of roads that are in the township area that are part of the proposed annexation area that have dense tree uh lining. Um and to clean some of that up is probably going to take some money uh to get it up to a city standard. And again, this won't all happen overnight, but it is a cost that will have to be bear borne um by the city of Holly should that move forward. And then we're also looking at the um revenue and cost implications of cityhood. So the idea is we're going to balance we're going to first of all finish the model for the village and then we're going to lay over the idea of of cityhood. So all those costs we factored in and the additional taxable value population obviously would impact your state shared revenue numbers. Um your miles of road would impact your act 51 as would your population. Uh so we want to make sure we're accounting for all of that to um account for the additional revenue you'd get from the state uh if you become a city.

Thank you. Oh, we're still going here. Oh, okay. almost done. There's there's work to be done.

So, uh what we're going to continue doing is complete the baseline model. Um and then we're going to integrate a capital plan that we hope to get from the village. Um complete the water and sewer rate analysis and that's going to be looking a little more deeply at the township rates and how that could be structured. uh we're going to review and and keep adjusting the assumptions uh with the village to make sure that we are being as realistic as possible, not overly optimistic but not too conservative and then layer on the cityhood scenario like I said over the baseline model with the village finances and then test some other scenarios with staffing and other investments, capital and whatnot. What we need from the village uh is a CIP. uh we need some idea of how much money the village wants to spend on capital. That's primarily water, sewer, general fund and streets. Um those are the big areas that capital is spent. Um and also to develop some sort of a policy framework or at least a concept of how infrastructure investments are funded. Uh would that be we're going to leverage debt as much as possible to get things moving. Um, is it going to be we're going to pay for as much with cash as we can and and use debt as a as a last resort? We need some direction about how we're going to work this through. Um, I can run the scenarios, but if they're not realistic, there's no point. Um, so we really need some feedback from the village about what that might look like. And we have some old old capital numbers, like I said, the PAR study from 2016, some older older studies on on the water and sewer infrastructure. Um, a smattering of parks and facilities investments ideas that have been collected over the years, but we really need to pull all that together. Um, and that's really going to drive a lot of uh

the decision- making or at least the forecasting on on the outlook of the future. That's where we're at. um on the CIP process. John's already started to help us develop a model using you know what our assets are, the roads that need to be repaired, all of these things. So we have a baseline, a wish list as we keep referring to it of like this is the things that need to be repaired, but what we haven't done is the plan portion of it where we assign years because that's based on what kind of capital spending we want to do. And so those are things we talked about in our budget uh work session last time and we're going to continue having those discussions with the actual model. Um now as far as with our assets and uh expenditures and try to assign all right if we're going to be able to spend this much these are the years we're do it based on rows based on the different assets that we have to improve and at some point this model will be handed over to the administration to to utilize inhouse. Um, so we will guide it through to a point where we think we've got some at least some pretty good preliminary numbers. Um, and then this is a work in progress. It never really ends. Um, but it's a tool that can be used over and over for many years to come.

Thank you, council. Any questions? When do you foresee like the next update? I'm hoping in a month or so. That would be ideal. have to work with administration to figure out what works on the calendar. Does it show um are we looking at what our tax numbers were in 2016 versus like what they are today in terms of taxable value or how much we levied in taxes. We have looked at that.

Um I mean yes, we can we can always look back at what was but we've got to deal with the headley roll back and and what it is. Um that is another option obviously is is go for a headley override. um as opposed to some other revenue source. Council, thank you so much. I appreciate your time today. Thank you. And I'm sure the public does, too. I know we were really looking forward to that update and we'll see you a month. Appreciate it. Take care.

All right. This brings us to public comment. Members of the audience may address council on any item that is not on the agenda. Those addressing council will be limited to three minutes of speaking time. After each agenda item, there will be an additional two-minute public comment period to speak to that item before council votes. Council will hear all comments for future consideration, but will not have a response at this time. Prior to addressing council, please state your name and address for the record. public comment.

Uh John, how about you first John Love 200 North Sageno. I I don't get this deal with the street city. I don't understand why we need this. What's the big reason for this? It uh seems to me the place works all right the way it is right now. We're not uh going to have a a land uh swap or any kind of massive change in the boundaries. So I don't even understand even after hearing this pitch. I don't understand what the money is involved in thing. So it's just seems dumb to me. Uh I think it works fine the way it is and it's just a big project that's going to distract from the operating the operation of the village to get embark on this new uh dream of some sort. I don't even that isn't doesn't even make sense. I'd rather have a road fixed than spend money on doing this project. So that's kind of my summary of uh confusion on this whole thing.

Thank you, Mr. Love.

And yes, ma'am, in the row behind, Mr. Love Mary Blanchard, 3444 Old Creek Drive, Holly, Michigan. Um, I am bringing a notice. Uh this was issued yesterday um by Eagle, Empart and MDHHS. They are finally ready to have a meeting discussing uh the Faulk Road dump and PAS. Um however, they will only be discussing PAS and groundwater uh not the other issues. Um this is going to be held on April 30th. Um, there's going to be two parts. There is going to be a in-person watch party for residents and business owners that will begin at 5:30 at Holly Calvary Church. You are free to send questions ahead of the meeting to agency staff at pn kman.gov. We encourage all residents to come out and speak up for our need for clean water now and in the future. Um, Empart and Eagle have had five years since our last and only uh, resident meeting um, dealing with these issues. Um, there has been at least $400,000 of state allocated funds and I'm not sure how much uh, from the village of Holly has also been spent. Um, but we would like everybody to come out and learn about what is happening. Um, I

would also like to read part of an opinion letter that I had recently. The Safe Road Committee has been working for years to bring awareness of our area's multiple water concerns. We have made multiple requests to the state agencies to hold a meeting in Holly, Michigan dealing with all the water issues and have been turned down. The Save Faulk Road Committee, Village of Holly Consultants, State of Michigan consultants, and Oakland County Health Department have done testing of water on and off the Faulk Road dump for multiple years. The Faulk Road Dump has been a 2011 contaminated site primarily for heavy metals since the 1990s. More recently, PAS was found at the site and the Faulk Road dump became an EMPART contaminated site. The safe fox road committee was the first to test and confirm the presence of six PAS compounds in one home water well with one compound almost twice the state of Michigan regulated limit. Two local lakes are listed on the eat safe fish guide for the state of Michigan due to fish that have mercury and pas compounds. Big seven lake is also listed um in the eat fish guide. However, that was before uh there was any known um PAS in the area and they were never tested. Um recently DNR did take fish from Beavenans Lake uh but it will be up to a year to learn if those fish are also contaminated. Beavenans Lake is directly connected. I am sorry Mary but that is time.

Okay. Thank you for the update and your hard work. Uh, public comment. Leslie. Uh, my name is Leslie Jorgensson. I live at 2351 Hower Road in the Township. And I am here tonight because um I guess this is the time to speak when you're not on the agenda. I was supposed to be on the agenda tonight. I was told on three other occasions I would be on tonight's agenda by um April Brandon, your the village president. Um I was supposed to be on the agenda for an endorsement to be on the Holly area youth board, youth, Holly area youth assistance board. I am currently a volunteer for that board. Um, it was brought to my attention today that I was removed or never officially placed on the agenda for tonight because of a public comment I made on Facebook where I questioned whether or not Holly was doing enough for the residents of the mobile home parks at the north end of Holly last week during the flooding. Um, I guess my comments were taken as I am not an advocate or a it was not the right look I guess for anything to do with Holly. Um, which brings me to this podium because you will find I am trembling as we speak. It's not my favorite place to be as public speaking, but you will find that nothing would bring me more than to question my love for this town. Um, needless to say, I believe that my comments um that I made and that are being questioned, whether or not I have a love for Holly or I represent Holly in the best manner, it makes me question whether or not that's the real reason I'm not on tonight's agenda because

there was a few council members on this board that actually said absolutely 100% agree with what I was saying. All I asked is was Holly doing enough advocating? As I was sitting there speaking to a couple of my clients who said all they could see was the water rising and they hadn't heard from anybody. And I asked, "Are we doing absolutely the most we could do for them? Also, what can we do for you? Do you need food, groceries, a boat? What can I do for you?" So my question actually can't be a question but my comment is going to be I believe tonight's refusal to put me on the agenda has more to do with who maybe I align with that maybe the opposition or maybe a picture that was taken at a women's expo that's what I heard today um where I am actually pictured with um someone that is an active litigation with you that to me is what is disparaging Last night you removed somebody from a volunteer position as well who did nothing but tirelessly do everything they can for this town. And then today you're trying to do the same thing to me. So again, I'm going to say that egos and this leadership need to be put aside so that we can have the best people doing the best they can to volunteer. It's not a paid position, by the way. It was just a volunteer position to which I will continue. I just will not be on the board. Thank you.

Thank you, Leslie. Yes, please. Look up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's a super red blood cell. Hi, Ellen. Hi. My granddaughter made this for me. So, would you mind saying your name and address for the record, please?

Ellen P's and the blood drives are at 15010 North Holly Road, Holly, Michigan. Thank you. I live in the township, but the blood drives are in the thing. So, James, okay, this is my this is my helper, James. He's from Holly Schools and he's been helping at my blood monthly blood drives now since last summer. So, thank you, James. I appreciate it. So, this month's uh blood drive is April 23rd on a Thursday and this the it is being an amazing blood donor. Unlock your superpowers and save three lives. And the site of is at 15010 North Holly Road, Holly, Michigan at Holly Calvary Church and it's from 1 till 7 p.m. I hear a comment. Oh, okay. Who do we help? Where does the blood go that we donate? Cancer and blood disease patients, 34%. Anemia patients, 19%. Surgery patients 18%. Chronic illness and uh disorder chronic illness and disorder patients 13%. Trauma and accident victims 2%. Obstetectric care women experiencing complications during pregnancy or birth child birth 4%. And also pre uh premature babies and newborns using for transfusions during neonatal. Now, how much blood do they use for What do you think for a small baby? I'm thinking a unit. No, like a tablespoon. I don't know where I got my idea about

that, but anyway, I have flyers. I'll leave the current flyers on the back door or I mean by the on the back table. And if you're interested, a hollyblooddrives.org is uh my uh local website. and there you'll find information. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ellen. I get the feeling no one has ever told you no. Any further public comment? Uh, George and then I think I saw a hand over here. No. Did you say no? No, George.

No. Welcome, George.

Okay. Uh George Cullis, 601 East Maple Street. And tonight I'm here as the township supervisor. As public officials, we have a responsibility to this community. And one of those responsibilities is transparency. And it's unfortunate when misinformation gets out there. So tonight, I wanted to dispel something that happened at Saturday's workshop. If you go to the video at 7 minutes and 37 seconds, the village manager says, and I quote, "One of the things we've been waiting on is some of the assessing data. Um, the assessor was working on on it with us and um the township supervisor came up at him and said, "Uh, if you're doing anything for the village, you have to do it directly through me." So he threw a roadblock. So we are working through Oakland County. We are working through SAMCOG and other organizations in order to get the data we need in order to accurately process process this. This is taken out of context. I have a letter that was um done by the assessor and it says the village manager requested me to create a list of parcels and their values based on a map that was given to me. The map had no parcel numbers on it. So retrieving this information would have taken up a large chunk of time but I said I would work on it when my busy season concluded. Then I came and spoke to you and his concern was he felt uncomfortable telling the village manager that he didn't do it, didn't want to do it. He said, "But it's out of my scope of

work." And I told him, I said, "If he says anything, have him call me." That phone call never happened. the village his letter goes on to say and that if the village wanted the information provided to me the village would have to reach out to me which is what I had said he said he relayed the message to the village manager and the village clerk any work outside the general assessing duties you must reach out to Mr. call us. Now, we are under contract with this company and there is a scope of work that they do. If we need something outside that scope, just like any of the contractors you work with, you would have to get with them, negotiate a price to get that additional work done. Unfortunately, I didn't stop any of the information that's needed because it's all public information, which you can go on Gateway and get it yourself and do that. If the parcels are outside the village then and you needed the I don't understand why you needed those for projected revenue budget. If the parcels are in the village of Holly then why weren't the numbers on the map?

George that is time. Thank you. Can I finish this or no? I'm asking for if there's a motion from council. I'll second. Uh we um typically when we do these motions it comes with an allotted amount of time. One minute two minutes. How much you think you need? Two. Two. Okay. I'll still second it. Council, all in favor say I. I. I. All oppose say nay. Motion carry. Two minutes.

Okay. If the parcels were in the village, then why weren't the numbers included? Again, this is all information that can be done on the websites. For that matter, if the village manager would call me and I could find out what he was looking for, we might be able to produce that information out of our office. My guess is if I contacted one of the um suppliers to the village of Holly and wanted a scope of work done for me or had questions on what they were doing, my guess is this council wouldn't be very happy with me because I'd be overstepping. Putting the assessor in the middle isn't the right thing to do.

Thank you. Thank you, George. Public comment. Okay. Hearing none, that moves us to new business. Lisa, will you please read item A of new business? Consideration of council resolution 2026-017 for the village president's appointment of Regina Caos as the citizen at large for the village of Holly Downtown Development Authority for a term ending April 30th, 2029. Uh first I would like to bring up Regina Caos.

Please introduce yourself. Hello everybody. Good evening. My name is Regina Caos. I live at 7-Eleven South Broad Street here in Holly, Michigan. And I do have a quick little statement to make about this if that's okay. Of course.

Okay. Um, I just wanted to say thank you so much for the opportunity to be considered tonight for an appointment to the DDA. I want to begin by saying that I have a great deal of respect for the women who have served on the DDA and for the time, energy, and care that they have given to Holly. From everything I have seen and heard, there are clearly very big shoes to fill, and I do not take those statements that have been made lightly at all. I also understand that there are strong feelings right now. People care deeply about this community and that passion comes from a very real place. I am not coming into this with any judgment, animosity or any desire to add to division. I am coming in with a willingness to listen, learn and work. Serving on parks has shown me how important it is that our boards, commissions, and council communicate well with one another. In addition, I bring years of experience in community involvement, fundraising, event coordination, public communication, business and organizational work, including multiple national projects with the Teamsters Union. I believe all of that has helped prepare me to serve thoughtfully and work well with others. If appointed, I would bring my time, effort, communication skills, and commitment to Holly to the table. I know respect is earned and I am prepared to do the work, listen carefully and contribute however I can in service to this village and I just wanted to say thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you. Um if you don't mind standing for just a moment council, do I have a first to consider item A of new business? I'll make the motion to consider item A of new business resolution 20 26-07 for Regina. Kikos. Kikos. Thank you. We have for Downtown Development Authority. Thank you. We have a motion by Wendell. I'll second that motion. I hear support from Wine Brunner Council. Let's start with any questions for Regina Kikos.

Well, I don't have any questions for her, but I do have a comment to make on the position. Sure. Well, I think we can let you sit down. Okay. Well, thank you very much. Okay. Council discussion or you know what? Let's do public comment first and then we'll come to discussion. Okay. Uh public comment on this item. Hearing none. Do you see a I don't know. I'm getting a little glare right now.

Uh Andy Kos uh 7-Eleven South Broad Street. I know I might be a little bit biased here, but uh good evening council. I would like to begin by expressing my strong support for Regina and her appointment to the DDA. She is an outstanding choice and I believe she will serve the community with dedication and integrity. I understand there is a s there is significant support for the previous members and that is completely valid. However, as I understand it, their terms have concluded, and I encourage everybody to give Regina the fair opportunity and demonstrate what she brings to this role. She has more than earned that chance. Regina has consistently shown a deep commitment to this community when challenges arise, particularly when the Mil Pond issue uh did. She chose to step forward and put in the work rather than step away. We could have done the opposite. Very few people know we rent here. We could have moved. Our lease was up. she chose to turn this into home and uh her work ethic, her determination and genuine care for this town makes her more than valuable asset and uh I'm confident that she will do an outstanding job. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further public comment? Leslie,

as you can tell, I had to if I had another chance to do public comment, but because I'm not exactly sure of the rules because I don't usually attend. I usually watch. Um, but I'm much more much more disciplined when I can speak at home. I want to welcome if Regina is approved or however that works. I do want to go back to yesterday and the public comment I just want to make is that in the future I don't know how it gets approved or resolutions get changed but yesterday's DDA board where all unanimous with the absenteeism of one board member for the current board members to stay on. They were very adamant that they did a very good job. Some of them had Oakland County awards. So, it was it's very confusing why one person is getting to choose who's removed and who's added when the DDA board had no input on that. So, that's just my only public comment. Thank you.

Thank you, Leslie. Any further public comment? George, did you have your hand up earlier or were you just trying to I was trying to get Just checking. Any further public comment hearing? None. Seeing none. Council Thomas, should you start? Um, so I wasn't able to attend last night's DA meeting. I was at my son's baseball practice, but I was listening to it as it was going on, and I did hear the public comments and the board comments in support of Hillary and Karina. Yes.

Okay. Um, I have been reached out by other people that also were not there yesterday in support of at least Hillary. And for me, like I understand the process makes nominations, we vote if we accept those nominations for the position. So, I'm not confused at all by that process. But for me, I feel like out of respect for that position and the amount of hard work that Hillary put into it and that put into it that their names not being up first is an issue for me.

Council, so I would like to talk about um the candidate that is put in front of I am floored by how much work Regina put in with stepping in with the Mil. Nobody can deny that. The fact that the Mil Pond is where it's at rests with her and that committee and which they did all for free. This is not where her own personal home is getting value by doing this for herself. This is not something in her pocket which earns mad respect. The other thing is then she throws her head her hat into parks. Parks is one of my passions which I had to step away from when I took the appointment to this board. I love parks and Regina's done a great job being on there. There are three parks that sit in the DDA district. I think having somebody who can advocate for those parks, who can lend that knowledge to the DDA is instrumental. Um to me, this is a nobrainer for an open position. I'll say something. I've watched the Mil Pond go from hopeless to hopeful. Regina builds relationships. She builds bridges. And I'd like to see this rather hopeless looking situation between the DDA and the village council. Yes, the elephant in the room, everybody. I'd like to see that go from what feels pretty hopeless sometimes to hopeful. I think Regina's potentially part of that solution. Council, anything else?

Yes. Uh, I have had the honor of serving with Regina on our parks board. And to piggy back off what Shannon said, the DDA and the parks department do a lot of work together, a lot of cooperation, and I think that this can only further that cooperation between our two boards, and I'm excited to see it. If that's everything, no.

Buster. also watch every meeting and be there everyone Daniel,

I want to say first off uh I've not worked with Kina in any uh board like that, but I've seen her in a lot of boards. I've talked to her a lot after our meetings, before our meetings. I've seen all a lot of things she does. She's a very go-getter person, and I'm excited to see the things she can do with the DDA, helping everything go on. Um, I know Hillary um is was I don't know if she's still going to be or not the volunteer coordinator, but I think the DDA needs to have a chair on their on their board for the volunteer lead person, not just being a a resident put on there, but they should have a person who is in charge of the volunteers be on the board. I think they should have another board seat open. That's what I really think should happen because I mean I don't know what happened between how come the other two people are getting taken off aren't getting their names put in the hat I don't know what happened I that's not for me to decide to look at yes or no but I just that's what I feel about the board thing there should be one more seat opened up for the coordinator volunteers to be on that

whoever if takes it over that's good too but if not whoever would be that position would be sitting on the board there anyone else Okay. Clerk, please call the role. Wine Burner, yes. Kascala, yes. Ker, yes. Wendell, yes. Ryan, no. Cole, yes. Brandon, yes. Motion carried. Lisa, will you please read item B?

Consideration of council resolution 2026-018 for the village presidents of Brian McCay for the village of Holly Downtown Development Authority for a term ending April 30th, 2029. The appointment is missing. Yeah.

Uh Brian, would you like to come up and introduce yourself? Bye, Ellen. Hi Brian a business owner in the district and also the districtunt for your considerationward All right. Uh, do I have a first to consider item B of new business?

I will make the first to consider the council resolution of 2026-01. Second. We have a motion by Coen. Was that a second by Kusco? Correct. Okay. And um council, do you have any questions for for Brian? Let's start with that. And if not, you can have a seat. Thank you so much.

Okay. And we will turn to public comment. Any public comment on this item? Hearing none. George. Oh, thanks for the help, Andy. I just think it's important appunts and he's always concerned politics. You put your face circles. Thank you, George. No freebies.

Oh, okay. I thought George ruined it for everybody. Sorry.

While he's changing the batteries, was there any further public comment? Hearing none. Seeing none. Council, any discussion? Sure. Um, for the same reasons as before, I plan on voting in the same way. It's nothing against the two individuals. I'm sure you both be absolutely fine at the job. My comments on how I believe is um, sorry, I started looking at the public. Council, any further comment?

I do have a comment. So, when I first became a volunteer in this community, I had to put in a to volunteer moment. When I did put that in, I then had to interview with the village manager and the DPW head just to volunteer here. That was my course of how to be a volunteer within the village. It's not something that was um super simple. I had to take time off work to come in during their schedule. I had, you know, all these different things to volunteer. And that part is not always the greatest. Brian, I appreciate that you can diversity to the DDA in the fact that you don't own one of their typical businesses. That kind of experience that you're bringing is um instrumental in opening up some different ideas of what can happen with not just downtown, but Midtown, Northtown. Um I'm a Midtown, Northtown girl. That's what I like to spend my time. So, I do appreciate um the things that they're doing there and that you will bring some different stuff to that table. So, thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? My cars have long been worked on at Coleman's. Um, now I I don't think that I can expect Brian to just show up at my house with my car like Ed used to do, but um I know that Brian did most of the actual work on my cars and he's always done a great job. He's got knowledge of the tiff plan. He's got a practical approach and he's got long-term established relationships in this community. So, I'm excited that um I think that he would bring a lot to the table at the DDA. And council, if there's no further comments, clerk, will you please call the role? Costcella, yes. Ky, yes. Wendell,

yes. Ryan, no. Cole, yes. Wine Brener, yes. Brandon, yes. Motion carried. Lisa, will you please read item C? Consideration of council resolution 2026-019, a resolution establishing April 14th as Monarch Day and pledging to support pollinator habitat conver conservation.

Do I have a first to consider item C of new business? I will make the motion to consider item C of new business and approve resolution 2026-019, a resolution establishing a monarch day pledge and supporting pollinator habitat conservation. Do I have support? I will second that. I have a motion by Kyer. I have support by Cole. Councilwoman Ker, will you please introduce this item?

Oh, on the spot. So we have been working towards um going towards green communities. We've looked at different initiatives in terms of that. We have also we are a tree city USA. We are a playful city USA. It only makes sense to do this. We already have um initiated some of these pledges that they require in terms of native plantings. The DDA with their adopt a garden program has specifications in there in terms of um local um plants and habitats that we need. Um this is important because the monarch um population has declined by over 90% in the last five years. And one of the only things that they lay their eggs on are um milkweed. sorry, our milkeed. And so it's important for us to continue that. Um, and again, I just feel like this falls into our initiatives, our green initiatives. Um, and I think that we it helps also work in coordination again between council, planning, parks, DDA. It brings us all together over something that I think we can all agree is a good thing. Save the butterflies.

Wonderful. Tim, can you please read the resolution? Sure. I'm going to try not to say conversation now that it's in my head.

Sorry. Resolution 2026-019, a resolution establish establishing a monarch day pledge and supporting pollinator habitat conservation. Whereas monarch butterflies are iconic species whose annual migration across North America represents one of the most remarkable natural phenomenon. And whereas the monarch butterfly population has experienced significant declines in recent decades due to habitat loss, climate change, and reduction in native milkweed and nectar plants. And whereas pollinators, including monarch, butterflies, bees, and other insects are essential to the health of the ecosystem and contribute to the production of a substantial portion of the world's food supply. And whereas local governments play a critical role in supporting environmental stewardship and promoting sustainable practices within their communities. hand. Whereas the village of Holly recognizes the importance of preserving and enhancing natural habitats, including the planting of native milkweeds and pollinator friendly plants to support monarch butterflies and other pollinators. And whereas establishing a monarch day and pledge will help raise awareness, engage residents, and encourage communitywide participation in conservation efforts. Now therefore, be it resolved that the village of Holly uh that the council of the village of Holly hereby proclaims April 14th as Monarch Day within the village of Holly. And be it further resolved that the village of Holly adopts the following Monarch pledge. We pledge to support conservation of monarch butterflies and other pollinators by promoting the planting of native milkeed and nectar plants, reducing or eliminating the use of harmful pesticides, and encouraging community education and engagement in pollinator friendly practices. Be it further resolved that the village of Holly commits to exploring opportunities to incorporate pollinator friendly practices into public spaces, parks, and landscaping efforts where feasible. And be it further resolved that the village of I really need to like shorten these resolutions when I write them knowing I have to say them. Be it further resolved that the village encourages residents, businesses, schools, and communicated uh community organizations to participate

in monarch day activities and to take individual and collective actions and support pollinator health. And be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be made available to the public and shared with local organizations to promote awareness and participation. Any public comment on this item? Hearing none. Seeing none council, any discussion.

Just another thing that I wanted to add. Um when I did the research on this, once we do this, this will provide a website for us that our um community can go to kind of hold us accountable, make sure that we are making these improvements within our community. So again, I think it's another way that we can have outreach with the community as well. Clerk, please call the role. Ky, yes. Wendell, yes. Ryan, yes. Cole, yes. We burn. Yes. Costca, yes. Brandon, yes. Motion carried. Please, please read item D.

Consideration of council to approve a contract with the Oakland County Water Resource Commission to begin the lake level study of the Stiffs Mil Pond Lake and begin a scope of work for the Stiffs Mil Pond dam replacement in the not to exceed amount of $36,000. Do I have a first to consider? Item D of new business. I'll make consideration of council to approve a contract with the open county water resources commission uh to begin the lake level study of stiff milk pond as in the amount of 36,000.

I will second. I have a motion by wineer. I have support from Ky. Tim, can you please introduce this item?

I absolutely can. And we actually have Ryan from the water resource commission here as well um to he could probably answer any specific questions that you have. Um Ryan has been invaluable to us through this whole process working with the water resource commission. Um just been on call to answer any questions to help us out, assist us in any way. Um and we just really appreciate all he's done for us and he's just I'm really grateful that he's part of uh the Oakland County team that uh we can trust with this. But there has been some forward momentum with the legal level lake level process as the committee finished the petition process. Uh a couple updates. On March 25th, uh the Oakland County Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee approved the legal lake level documents and passed it on to the county commission. On April 8th, the Oakland County Commissioner voted and approved to establish a normal lake level for Stiff's Mil. And now we get to get to work. So to start the next steps of the process, we would like to contract with Oakland County, the Water Resources Commission to begin the legal lake level study and to start planning out the dam replacement. Some of the work the the commission the water resource commission will be doing themselves. Some of it they'll be subcontracting to Spicer. Um we will uh they will invoice us for the amount and basically that 36,000 will be in escrow with them to complete any of the work that needs to be done. Um and that's just similar to whenever someone contracts out us to do any kind of work like that as well. Um and it'll be the the total for this stage of the work is not to exceed the amount of 36,000 which will be paid to the water resource commission. And this will be out of the uh the lake improvement um money that we had previously put aside for this.

Thank you. Any public comment on this item? Mary Blanchard, 3444 Old Creek Drive, Holly, Michigan. And I appreciate the efforts that have been made by the st mill pond group as well as the village council in furthering this and for Oakland County Water Resource Commission for continuing uh to establish the lake level. Thank you.

Thank you, Mary. Any further public comment 7-Eleven South Broad Street here in Holly? Um, I just wanted to say Ryan, he truly has been absolutely invaluable to us. He's made himself readily available for anyone on the committee, including residents um, in this assessment special assessment district that would occur. Um, he's he's just been fantastic, really trying to help us move things forward, um, as we are on a very accelerated timeline to draw the water back up. So, these types of things happening quickly are very important right now or we could potentially lose our opportunity. So, I really appreciate him showing up tonight and for this item being on the agenda. Thank you. Thank you, Regina. Any further public comment hearing? None. Seeing none. Any discussion? Council,

I think we could not have done this at a better time. Honestly, if you are looking around anywhere in Michigan right now, there are several dams that are at that point of being breached. So, congratulations and thank you so much. Council. Okay. Cler. Uh, yeah. Clerk, please call the role. Wendle, yes. Ryan, yes. Cole, yes. Winner, yes. Costca, yes. Ky, yes. Brandon, yes. Motion carried.

Lisa, will you please read item E? Acknowledgement of council of the change on billing to a ready to serve charge design redesation. Do I have a first to consider item E of new business? So moved. I'll make a motion. Motion by Kasa. Support by Cole.

This was an item that came from a finance committee recommendation. Tim, will you please introduce this item?

Yes. And just so we're sorry, I do not believe this item actually needs a vote. Um it's just more of an item of recognition that's happened. Um just this was a recommendation by finance committee. It was more of an administrative change on some of our items. Uh and so um just wanted to for full transparency, we wanted to put it as an agenda item, let everyone know what was happening. So um it's the result of the recommendation from the finance commission commission uh committee also from municipal analytics after talking to John when reviewing the the water and sewer information is simply a relabeling of what was formally referred to as our billing from water or sewer debt to a ready to serve charge. This correction is only intended to better define the what this charge for clarity to residents. This uh change has already been implemented for future bills. What is a ready to serve charge or ready to serve charge also called base charge availability charge or fixed service charge for water sewer utilities? It's a reoccurring fixed fee charge a customer simply for having access to utility systems regardless of whether or how much water or service sewer service they actually use during the billing period. Um in plain language essentially the cost of having the tap available separate from the cost of water or sewer service actually flowing through it. Think of it more like a monthly subscription fee that ensures the utility can maintain the infrastructure needed to serve you on that demand. Um, doesn't we're not changing the rates or anything like that with this. It's just the reabeling of it what it to accurately reflect what it should have been the entire time.

Any public comment on this item? Anna

Anna Matson 15091 Western Valley. Um on January 15th, which we'll talk more about in a little bit, um I did a FOYA asking for all documentation that authorizes the Village of Holly's water and sewer department to levy debt service charges labeled WD and SD on the monthly bill. Um, this may have been by charter ordinance resolution or something similar. If there was a coordinating village of Holly decision to authorize those charges, I would like the minutes of that meeting. And originally, what was provided to me was a link to the water ordinance. The water ordinance says nothing about those sewer water and sewer debt charges. So, I had asked I want to be clear, I could have sued right there and then for those records because I was not provided what I asked for. But unlike what some of you think, I'm not just in this to sue every single time. So I took the civil route and I just reached out to the deputy treasurer who apparently handles all the foyas on behalf of the clerk. So I reached out to Tessa. I said, "Listen, I think there may have been a mistake. This is not what I asked for. I asked for the authorizing documents. This ordinance does not provide the authorizing documents." She waited two weeks, which would have been past the the Michigan law, and acted like it was a new FOYA request. So, 10 days later, I get a bill for I think it was like $70 for a new FOYA. And then later that day, she said, "Never mind. I found it. Here you go." And it was an amendment to uh it was a 2017 amendment to the water the the debt charges, but that's not what authorized the charges. So, I kept pushing. I said, "Okay, no, that that's not what did it." She eventually came back with a 2009 resolution, and it's still very questionable whether that authorized the

charges. So, it's not surprising that this happened because really, it seems like there was no court uh there was no council decision to authorize the sewer um and water debt charges in the first place. If this was truly to make things easier for the public, it doesn't. Ready to serve charges. I talked to a couple people today. They're like, "What's that?" Everyone knows what a water and sewer debt charge is. Um, but this really does look like a cover up because you guys have a lot of explaining to do why two bonds are expired and still being charged and two of the bonds are being charged out of water and sewer debt charges and they are they don't say that they legally can be charged out of those funds that they're supposed to be paid for out of general funds or like property taxes. So, I just want to say put this on the record that this looks like a cover up after my investigation into these debt charges. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Manson. Any further public comment hearing? None. Seeing none, council. Any discussion?

Um, I have a question and it goes based off of our ordinance for the water supply and sewage disposal rates. Um, it states that a the rates of the water supply and sewage disposal shall be established from time to time by resolution village council. Such rates shall be based on volume usage charge. And B, the volume usage charge covers administrative operation maintenance and repairs, repayment and/or refunding of outstanding debt and reserves required by the bonding instrument, future capital needs and respective systems. The village applies the charge to every user of water supply service and or sewage disposal service when a meter registered water flows. So my question is how can we have this charge on there if it's already supposed to be covered by the rate for our ordinance? Do we need to revisit ordinances first before we can charge this and in the charter if you need to look for it's 5109. So I'll have to I mean I'll have to Um, I mean, I've reviewed I know this the section and we've reviewed it quite a bit. I would have to get with actually go over it before looking it up right now trying to tap dance and answer out without actually doing a proper review. So,

council,

so I can say that we started working as a finance committee on this back in 2025. We started looking at what our area around us is billing, how that looks. We once we started contracting with municipal analytics, that opened up a whole another thing for us. Some of the areas around us that use ready to serve charge are areas like Lynon, Fenton. These are wellestablished communities who also have ready to use charge. What they did, we researched different municipalities in both Oakland and Jennese County. We looked at water rates for multiple places. Water historic water rates of what it once looked like when it was filling township different than filling the village. This has been an ongoing thing for over a year that we've been putting in time and work on. Municipal analytics was a huge tool for us, but this is not something that just came to light a couple months ago. We have been meeting regularly to that point there's an email from 2025 I just searched ready to surge so it's that was the first instance I think I could find in the email was discussing readiness we called it readiness to serve but essentially the same thing so it's we've been we've been discussing it for a long time there's just been a lot of different things we've been trying to different parts we've been waiting on with us and then we have a new company come in so it has we've been trying to do for quite some time. Um,

sure. Council,

I can go I can piggy back off of Jim on some of that. The plant man things we knew right away. My very first council meeting was their January of 25 moment when they talked to us about how we were in a deficit and all of those things. So, those were things that we first came with like what does this look like? Um, what is going on? It isn't anything that any one of us certainly not me who sat down and knew what was what and I am not a mun expert in utility billing. So it took a lot of research and um it's not something like we need to reflect and what we're charging and what this looks like has to be evolved. This is going back 20 years of old ideas, old debts, old modernizes all shame on us what you say but we need to modernize our records like this

you finding anything Jim no okay I'm not trying to say that we shouldn't change up how things are built I'm just saying that we do need to like make sure we're following state laws and even our local ordinances absolutely on how are being done. I'd like to I fully support that. I'd like to hear the attorneys weigh in on that a little bit. I I think Tim said they're going to get together and

they don't they don't have all the documents in front of them, but they'll look into it. And I I think if I remember right Tim you said we're not going to vote on this today questions just you know because we have been that's something that even when we're looking at town um when John and I talk about it we say all right we have to make sure that it's we're completely in compliance on everything that you know it if there is any increase it has to be completely representative of what that additional cost to the system would be. It can't be arbitrary. It has to be all these things. So, yeah, we owe you we owe you specific answers on that question to look into. I know that he's curiously looking through it as well right now, but what I would say is before we agree or have the name changed on the thing, I'd like to hear the attorney weigh in what it is.

I know. I kind of I kind I kind of figured that. I just wanted to make sure you knew that we weren't going to walk out of here with it being changed and also Well, no. I mean, I think they specified that we're not making a vote. No vote today. This is just kind of to come across your desk because like we said, we've been we've been working as a finance committee on this for a year looking at water meter sizes, ready to serve charges, people that are outside of the village. like you've been looking at all the different avenues and this is just something that we've come across that like Shannon said to get us here in the 20th century. Okay. Well, if that's it, Council Lisa, will you please read item F?

Consider my motion. Um, do we need to retract a motion since we're not voting accept it? We have a motion on the floor. Probably would be appropriate to withdraw it with the whoever seconded it as well. For a clean, I will withdraw my second. There we go. Thank you. Good question. Okay, Lisa, will you please read item F?

Consideration of village council of the purchase of the live fire training prop as well as training fire extinguishers in the not to exceed amount of $5,000. Do I have a first to consider item F of new business? I'll make the consideration of item F for new business for the consideration of purchase of green equipment for the fire department not to exceed $5,000. I'll second motion by Wendell, second by Wine Brunner. Chief Watson, welcome.

Good evening, council. Thank you. Uh in front of you, you're going to see council action council action request uh for the consideration of purchase equipment. But before I get too far along with this, I want to be very transparent and clear. uh not $1 of taxpayer money will be used uh in the purchase of this equipment. Uh we received a $2,000 match grant from the state of Michigan and we have raised n uh about $9,800 in training revenue uh since we launched our uh educational program at the fire department. So we'll be taking money from uh that to pay it and then we'll be reimbursed another $2,000 from the state. So, I want to be very clear that I'm not asking to uh spend any of the taxpayer dollars. This is money that uh we put in for a grant and money that we've raised through educational processes. This uh live fire training prop is basically I would like to ask the board of the commission here at council, how many of you have discharged a fire extinguisher by raise of hands. Wow. Impressive. Very imp. I wasn't expecting that. So, uh, if you go into a lot of our businesses, uh, a good majority of our business owners or our citizens in our community, uh, have not discharged a fire extinguisher. Uh, so what this will do will provide a training opportunity, and we're trying to make it a freeof charge training opportunity for business owners and residents to come in. We're going to set up a live fire prop and give you a fire extinguisher, give you uh, as you can see, I gave you a slide deck, too. uh we'll give you some educational instruction and then we'll take you out into the um parking lot and we'll actually do some live burns and then extinguish that with some extinguishers. So, uh I think this request brings a lot of value fire prevention uh to the community, but most importantly, as I led this conversation, uh not $1 of taxpayer money will be used uh in the purchase of this. I'd be

willing to answer any more questions on it. You've seen my council action request and the several pages that were included with it. Council, any questions? Is there is there a signup sheet that people have to go to to sign up for this or

Not yet. Uh Daniel, uh I have to get council approval first. Uh and then we have to purchase the equipment and then get it in in service. Uh but it'll be very similar to our CPR program which is very successful. Right now we're going into our third month. Uh, and that class has, I believe, got, uh, seven or eight people signed up already. So, uh, for every person that we're able to train on CPR could be a life saved with this. Every person that we save or train on with fire extinguishers could be a structure or uh, property conservation. So, I'm very excited uh, to get this out and rolling. I would hope by the fall we should have this up and running. Jim, so if I'm remembering correctly, this is one you got a grant for, too.

Yes, sir. $2,000 from the state. So, thank you. Thank you. Was it difficult written the grant? Did they give Every grant uh has a little bit of Very difficult. Thank you. I also have to give credit to Kurt Nichki, assistant chief. He's on vacation this week. Uh he also put a lot of work into this project. Um and it is a passion as his as well, too. Well, thank you, Chief. And thank you to your Go ahead, Thomas. Um if anyone hasn't actually viewed the packet online, has a lot of great information about different classes of fire, how to extinguish them. It's a good read. I would suggest going on and learning something from it. Thank you, Mr. R. I appreciate that. Does a great job with that packet. Thank you, sir.

Okay. Are these fire extinguishers refillable? Yeah, council. Okay. Thank you, Chief. Any public comment on this item? Andy, your hand shot up so fast. Uh Andy Kikos, 7-Eleven South Broad Street. Uh I've had several opportunities to go through this type of training. It is absolutely invaluable. I mean, I can already see you guys are It looks pretty pretty good, but it's It really is. And it would be a really big missed opportunity to not approve this. So, thanks.

Thank you. Any further public comment, Brian? I I fully support that. But I wanted to talk about the last um item under new business E. I didn't know if there was an option for public comment on that. I'm sorry. No, we have to stick to um the item that we're on. Is there an option for comment later or um opportunity?

Is there another public comment at the end? I don't think so. No, we we used to do that. We don't do that anymore, but you can always feel free to submit uh questions or come just talk to us and chat, you know. All right. afterwards. Any further comments on item F. Okay. Hearing none and seeing none. Council, any discussion?

Once again, I appreciate the fire department's willingness to um reach out for avenues for funding. It is one of those things that we all know that the village is trying to find as many creative funding opportunities can and you guys are on top of it. So, thank you for that. I second what Shannon said to great job by our fire department for everything they do and initiative of doing this is I'm sure you put a lot of your own time into it and I want to say thank you. Clerk, please call the role. Brener, yes. Costca, yes. Ky, yes. Wendell, yes. Ryan, yes.

Cole, yes. Brandon, yes. Motion carried. Thank you. Lisa, will you please read item G? Consideration of council resolution 2026-20 of appointing the Oakland County Emergency Management Coordinator as the village of Holly Emergency Management Coordinator and designating an emergency management liaison. Do I have a first to consider? Item G of new business. We don't got to read all that. Yes. Are you making a motion? I'll make a motion, but I'll slaughter all that. You'll make a motion to approve item G of new business. Yes. To make a motion to approve item G of new business, resolution 2026-20.

Uh, do we have support? I'll second it. We have a motion by Wendell. We have support by Weinbrunner. Chief Watson, will you please introduce this item?

Thank you again, council. I appreciate that. Uh, this is just this should have been included in last month's packet, and I apologize. as I dropped the ball uh with our Oakland County uh management process that we put in. Uh this is just designating Oakland County as the emergency management coordinator uh and myself as the liaison in the event that we get a hopefully never ever uh large scale event and we have to bring in additional resources like Oakland County. uh they would coordinate that large disaster scene uh and then I would be your liaison uh that would report back to the community uh and the village manager uh on the status of that disaster

council. Any questions for the chief? Uh I would like to add this is also no cost to uh the Thank you for adding that because I was going to ask that. Yeah, keep that up. I like free. Free is the best for literary. Okay. Any public comment on this item? Thank you, Chief. Thank you. Hearing none. Seeing no public comment. Okay. Council, any discussion? I can't think of a better person in our community to take this role. I mean, with all the training we've seen him go through with the trains and all that other stuff. Yeah. council

that doesn't affect nothing that you do, is it? Because you're in charge of uh any kind of emergencies that happen here, state of emergencies. Yeah. You wouldn't be overstepping. Okay. That's all I was curious about. Okay. Thank you, council. All right. Clerk, please call the role. Pasca, yes. Ky, yes. Wendell, yes. Ryan, yes. Cole, yes. Wineer, yes. Brandon. Yes. Motion carried. Lisa, will you please read item H.

Consideration council resolution 2026-021 authorizing Department of Public Works recommended budget amendments to the fiscal year 25-26 budget. Do I have a first to consider item H of new business? I'll make consideration of council resolution 2026-021 authorizing department of public works recommend budget amendments to FY25-26 budget I second we have a motion by weunner we have support by Wendell director Raspber will you please introduce this item

good evening council you should have in front of you a few different um budget amendments we need to pass through. The first one I'll talk about um has to do with uh our last purchase of road salt. So, we took our last delivery of road salt. That did put us over in our budget aotment in that line item. So, I'm hoping to move $5,000 from 591-556 981 to 203 453782. The second one would be for um our water treatment plant. Um we've seen an increase in our chlorine costs this year as to everything is going up in cost. So we have seen an increase in that. Um we have probably about two more loads to take this this year. So, I'm looking to move uh $2,000 from 591556981 to 591556740. Additionally, we have seen an increase in chemical cost at the wastewater treatment plant. So, we treat with uh uh gas chlorine at the wastewater treatment plant. Um we are over in that budget line. So, I need to move $2,000 from 590-55818 to 590-555740. And also, um, we have a few new hires at the wastewater treatment plant. Um, they are in the process of getting their license, so we need to send them to classes in order for them to achieve their um, their wastewater treatment plant licenses. And so we need a little bit of a bump in our training budget. So

we're asking for $350 to go from 590555818 to 59-555810. Council, any questions? Do you say 250 350 350? Okay. I think this resolution needs to be amended. So yeah, item four transfer of $350, not the 4,000 that's on there.

Do we need to make a we need to revise our motions? No. Okay. Any further questions for Danny? Thank you, Danny. Thank you, council. Any public comment on this item? Hearing none and seeing none. Council, any discussion? Um, I would just like to say the uh $5,000 for a salt is actually on the cheaper end. So, good job getting a deal on that. I know people have needed extra in other communities are paying upwards of like probably like 13 to 20 grand for that amount of salt, I'm assuming.

Yeah, Danny could talk on that a little bit, too. There is a big shortage of salt this year. We we get a pre-by discount with MI deal. It's a state vetted contract. So we are able to buy salt at about $65 a yard. At the end of the season, people were paying $300 a ton. So wow. Um we we do get a huge discount on the way that we buy salt. So now now we do have a surplus now coming into next year's winter. So that helps as long as council. Any further discussion? Thank you, Council. Thank you, Danny. Cler, I also appreciate seeing um the movement between the GL items and not just from

clerk, please call the role. Ky, yes. Wendell, yes. Ryan, yes. Cole, yes. Wine Brener, yes. Costco, yes. Brandon, yes. Motion carried. Lisa, will you please read item I? Consideration council resolution 2026-022 authorizing downtown development authority recommended budget amendments to the fiscal year 2526 budget. Do I have a first to consider item I of new business? I'll make the motion to consider item I of new business.

We have a motion by Ryan. Do I hear support? support. We have support by wineer. I almost called you Shannon. All right. I don't see a DDA member here to present. What? Yourself and Regina, but yeah, good luck, Regina. Welcome. Um, I can I can if you could do that, Tim. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I had hoped that Kevin was going to be here rather than DD member, but he's on vacation. Yeah. No, he's on vacation. He's at a conference in Oklahoma, so I'm sure he would want to be here too, but he's um having to he's working

but he's he's getting a lot of out of that. I talked to him yesterday and he's getting a lot out of the networking opportunities and sometimes those conferences are some of the best opportunities you can do in these positions is getting new um new methods, new you know just new connections and ideas. So, this is moving um it's a similar um budget amendment as we saw from DPW except for that it's within the DDA and it's moving $2,000. Previously, they had $10,000 budgeted for the Dickens festival and this is moving up to $12,000 just 2,000 moving it from project cost and design. So, just increasing that item by $2,000. So, I know this is was presented previously to council. Council looked at this um Kevin's done some work with Lisa on it. So yeah, we could talk more on it obviously.

That's what I was waiting for. I apologize. Uh let's keep it in order. Were you done? Yeah. Oh, I know there's gonna be questions, so I'll just Sure. I'll wait. Any public comment on this item? Hearing none. Seeing none. Okay, Jim, kickoff discussion. So this is the item that we all went into close session on correct close s. So this is the item we went to close session and we had an opinion letter from Mr. Gil. So why this is before us now without staff talking about it ahead of time doesn't make any sense. Nothing's changed to my to my mind.

I don't think this was think It was one of many items that were on the budget amendments were there were several things on the previous budget. Okay. So potentially yes. Uh I can go into further details if we want to we have to release the close session minutes or discussion. Right now we can't tell them why. I I would say that if you focus on this item you're fine. I'm basing all my information off of a close session meeting. Let me take the lead on this for a second. Mike, can we get a legal opinion? We're still on I We're on I We're not at Jay yet, John.

Um Mike, can we get a legal opinion on this that might hopefully satisfy where Jim's So, uh you know, I remember a number of closed sessions dealing, you know, in the last few months, uh several of them dealing with DDA. I remember one being on the budget. I don't remember this particular item as being something that I weighed in on. may have fallen under the general DDA budget. Uh but uh uh I don't remember this specifically. So So I can I can tell you exactly what we talked about in the close session and about why this is shouldn't be front. That's a lot.

Can I Can I I will not I not I'm gonna I'm gonna advocate I'll advocate for the DDA as I think believe Kevin would say if he's here and just to kind of represent we already received legal advice telling us not to do this.

I I think that the and correct me if I'm wrong I believe that concern there's two concern there was two concerns regarding this particular item. One was that it doesn't follow the tiff plan. I believe that the promotions portion of the tiff plan uh is broad enough that an item like this could be covered with under the tiff planal used I just don't want to get into what was specifically addressed now you can you can simply say I am not in favor of this because of this or not in favor of it because of that but to reference it back to what was discussed according to your memory. I just think that so what we can do is just take a vote to say let's release that information and I'm free to explain what I remember privilege on my

no there's nothing as long as my recollection is my opinion broadbased and if you're going to release privileges as it relates to that letter that I don't have that before me to know exactly what I don't remember it could simply be bad memory but you remember before session there were several comments saying I think this is we're going to readust order of stuff and everyone's going to be this is the DDA item so we're going to discuss about this in close session and that's when we actually discussed these so that was part of the issue

Thomas go ahead um could we just take like short recess have the letter that we probably still have do we still have the number and then he'd be able to give a better opinion on what Jim's asking and then we don't have that confusion on what items were in it or what

Buckle up gang. It's going to be a long night. So, uh, we have a motion on the table. Do we need to do we need to table this this item? No, I think that you can simply take care. All right. Five minute break. We will resume at 7:45 by our phones. Not that broken glass. The three of us will do this. Okay. Well, there might be some people,

remember? I was ask I was going to ask you to translate this but I just figured it out. I got someone says something that should be obvious but you're just like what? And then no

John, what are you thinking? Yeah, I think. See, it says uh yeah, the subject is down. Wait, where are you at? Yeah, the subject is it's just to review the minutes. It's just to review previous minutes. That's it. Yeah. Review the close session minutes from March 10th.

Review the close session from March 10th. Yep. That's all. Nothing too Nothing too interesting today. Maybe next time. See from March. Yeah. No, that would be on our March agenda.

Welcome back. And we're live. You're welcome. This is what you have to look forward to.

All right. Um, Mr. Gilner.

Yes, ma'am. So, we found that was just four months ago, five months ago. My request in terms of tonight agenda item post wasn't easily accessible. I want to look at that and then compare that proposed if we postpone it. Can we add it to the special meeting?

Yeah, I think so. Um, we would have to we'd have well for a special meeting, you can only um discuss items. You can't add items unless we properly noticed it before that those items, right? I think we still have plenty of time to properly notice it. Yeah, I think uh Oh, are you talking about the one at the end of the exp I knew what you meant. Yeah, April April 27th. I think we've got time to get your opinion before then and add that on there and we don't have to wait till the next Right. Agreed. Yes, absolutely. All right. So, let's see. Where were we? We had a motion and we had a second and uh do we need to retract those? Uh you could motion. You have the motion to table to postpone table.

So instead of retracting motions, we make a motion to postpone it. All right. I will I will entertain a motion to postpone this item until the April 27th special meeting. I'll make a motion to postpone uh resolution 26-022 until the special meeting. April 27th. April 27th. April 27th. We have a motion by Wendell to postpone. I'll second. We have support by Wein Runner. It should be just to postpone, not to put a specific date on it because that meeting has

so just to postpone. So just to postpone and then Buster, you second just to postpone. Okay. Okay. Now I don't think that we need um really discussion or even public com. Since we're not really doing an item. Go ahead. Um would we have to come like individually to review it if that was the plan to review it before the next hand or is could we make a motion to add it on to the close session today? Because if the point is us like is the point of postponing it for us to look and review it?

I don't think we can add close session items on last minute like to today because it wouldn't have been noticed right. opinion letter discuss.

However, if a council person would like to review close session minutes, they can always schedule an appointment to review those. I just want to make sure you can you can still do that if that's something you want to do. Yeah. So, it looks like we're not going to have to release close session item stuff. He's just going to review this stuff and give us an opinion on it. Got it. Okay. So, we had a motion. We had a second. And Gilner, we don't need public comment probably because we're not we're not discussing a vote about the item itself. So, Lisa, please call the role. Wendell, yes. Ryan, yes. Cole, yes. Wrunner, yes. Pascal, yes. Ker, yes. Brandon,

yes. Motion carried. That item is postponed until a special meeting. Lisa, will you please read item J? Consideration of council of Foya appeal by Anna Madson dated March 23rd, 2026. Do I have a first to consider item J of new business? I'll make the motion to consider item J of new business. I will second. We have a motion by Ryan. We have support by Kire. Clerk, will you please introduce this item?

Yes. So, um, on January 15th, um, Miss Madson, um, sent in a foyer request and, um, I can read it out loud here. Um, dear Miss Bone, under the Freedom Michigan Freedom of Information Act, I am requesting copies of several public records related to the water and sewer department. Specifically, I am seeking documents authorizing debt service charges. provide please provide all documents that authorizes the village of Holly's water and sewer department to levy debt service charges labeled WD and SD on the monthly bill on water and sewer accounts. This may have been by charter ordinance resolution or something similar. If there was a coordinating village of Holly council decision to authorize these charges, I would like the minutes of that meeting. Bond payouts and closing documents last 10 years. I request copies of the closing documents of final payout statements for any bonds that have expired within the last 10 years. Additionally, for any currently active bonds, please provide documentation that indicate their scheduled payout dates or timelines. Proof of payments made on bonds. I am requesting annual payment records that detail how much has been paid each year toward each bond. Revenue in bond accounts by year. Please provide documentation showing the total revenue collected in the sewer bond account and the water bond accounts each year going back to two 2005. Note, I am looking for the total amount each year, not all line items within the year. Official

bond statements and terms for any bonds that have had excuse me have had outstanding debt payments in the last decade. Please provide the official bond statements. Fee fee waiver request. I request a waiver or reduction of all fees associated with this request as disclosure of these records is in public interest and will contribute significantly to the public's understanding of the operations oversight and accountability of government. The request requested information is not being sought for commercial purposes. Format of production. and I request that all response records be provided in electronic format and delivered via email to and then she gives her email address. So um after that request um there was a response letter that was sent with a copy of the invoice. Um the response letter states that Hold on one second. I'm trying to find the other page. The um it says, "Dear Miss Manson, on January 15th, you submitted a foyer request for the following public records, copies of several public records related to the wastewater sewer department, specifically I am seeking." And then she lists everything that I just read in the letter. Um and then it says, "Your request is being granted in part with the respect to the following documents. Bond payouts and closing documents last 10 years. Proof of payments made in on bonds, revenue and bond accounts by year, official bond statements and terms." And then it says um your request is being denied in part with respect to the following documents. Documents um authorizing debt service charge. This information is available at no charge and is therefore not being

provided as part of the village response. You can find the information in the Holly Michigan code of ordinances title 5 public works chapter 51 rates for water supply and sewer depo disposal services section 51.01 H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H HPSBS code library and legal com codes Holly latest Holly Michigan and then um attached with that letter was the deposit invoice for the total invoice was for $18462 and half of it was uh there was a 50% deposit required for $92.31 and um the Miss Matson came in and paid the $92.31 and when the um information was then released to her um she did not pay the other 9231 and then she um had the appeal on March 23rd and she says dear clerk treasur office I'm requesting a cost appeal of my January 5 2026 foyer request titled number one water foya on the following grounds. I was not charged the lowest paid employee capable of doing the search as required by law. Furthermore, this information was used to inform the public about the inner workings of government. The information will be published in the Holly Post that reaches every village resident. Since this information is of public concern being used to educate residents, I will unlawfully charge labor fees. I am requesting a full waiver of fees. Thank you, Anna Madson. Okay.

All right, let's start with public comment. Miss Matson,

Anna Matson, 15091 Western Valley. Um, as stated the information, well, immediately when we started the newspaper, we had multiple multiple residents reach out to us to investigate and report what's going on in the water department. I've been paying attention to it for years and um so that triggered public records requests because we have reached out to the village numerous times for comment and we never received comment other than the one time Chief Nar responded. So I appreciate him for doing that. So when the village does not willingly provide transparent documentation on things, we have to result to public records request. So that's what we did. So we did a completely unbiased article. Everything is cited and sourced to public records that we received, records that we had to go um outside the village to receive and that's what we reported on. So since the information is of of public interest, it should be free for the public. And really, I think that the village should be publishing all this information on their website anyway because this is everyone's number one concern. If you survey the public, they will tell you water is their number one concern. So, these documents should not have to be um with a fee when someone asks for transparency. Um these bonds are near and dear to everyone's heart and they wanted to learn about them and I provided them that information. Now, if you are going to charge, you legally can only charge the lowest paid employee capable of the search. In 2024, I did a I did a request on water records, and I believe at the time, the employee was $16 an hour. That employee, from my understanding, has been given a raise to $20 and change. So, that is what I should be charged because that person is

capable of going through water records. Nothing is proprietary that I asked for. Uh the lowest paid employee can do the search and it's whether they do the search or not as long as they're capable. And yet I'm being charged $27 an hour. So again, these arbitrary rates should not stand. And also no 45 seconds.

Please come back up. We'll start your 45 seconds over. Go ahead. Um, also I just want to say that I'm doing this out of civility again because as we found out in your special meeting, you do not have a head of the public body. And so technically there is no pathway to appeal FOYA cost or FOYA decisions. Um, but I'm doing what you guys appear to just kind of made up. But there's nothing in your policy that says that this board is the head of the public body and the appeal instructions have to say have to say who the head of the public body is. And the clerk said that she was the head of the public body that I had to submit my appeal to her. Um, which means that she thinks that she's the head. So

Oh, that was your time. Thank you, Miss Manson. public comment hearing. None. Seeing none. Council. So, I think I'd like to start. Um, Lisa, can you address the accusation of overcharging Miss Matson? Which lowest paid employee is capable? How much are they paid an hour? She was charged 27 an hour. Can you

Yes. So, the um the $27 is for Tessa. Tessa had to call several of our um the like the uh Bazinski and the people with the bonds because again the records that we were looking through and everything we could not find the information that Miss Madson was requiring. So we had to contact them. I do not have somebody who is capable of making these calls to these people because the girls that work at the counter that's the lowest paid rate cannot call and get bond information. They would not get the information that Miss Manson was requiring. I see. Thank you. Uh council, go ahead.

Um I do kind of agree that there is a public need for this information. I mean water bonds and just the cost water in general has been in the public eye since before probably all of us were on council and it was it even predates before this administration. So the fact that we didn't already have this information available is kind of perplexing to me and I think the wording of the pee itself set aside just fact that it would be a benefit to the public knowing this information so many people want it that we should just provide it and that's where I'm pretty much at with it regardless of the personnel cost to get it I would agree with Mr. Ryan one item that went out is on one page it says it's for good and it's not profit but then the which I would have to assume is business related, a paper that's free that has advertisements nonetheless. It is for commercial purposes.

I'm also going to agree with Mr. I do think this is information that should be published in things that are uh every person invited under an LLC um which is registered through the state of Michigan. I looked it up so that it does clearly However, they do. But this is um information that I do think that we should have available. All of this digitiz might have been the first to request it.

Okay, council. One last one. I would like to thank for reaching out and talking to someone else before going through all different steps and are having issues getting answers, shoot us an email because as you know you mentioned to us previously that question to us previously they work for us. So if you can avoid other

I also want to say I do understand why Tessa's charged but public don't think this was any other means you're creating the documents. I don't disagree with that. I do understand. Okay.

All right. Clerk, please call the What? What was the motion? So make a motion. I'll entertain. Wait, what was the motion? It was just to consider it. Just to consider it. So to consider it, what does that mean? Would that be to approve the appeal? We've considered that doesn't need to be voted on. So now I can entertain a motion. And you make your motion the way you make your motion. I make the motion to appeal this foyer request. To approve

to approve this appeal of the foyer request on the basis of public benefit. Is that how you wanted? Well, on the basis of public benefit, so it should be no cost. We have a motion by Tom Ryan to approve the appeal on the basis of public benefit. Do I have support? I'll second it. We have support by Wine Bunner. Okay. Clerk, please call the RO. Ryan, yes. Cole, yes. Wy Bunner, yes. Pascal, yes. Tyer, yes. Wendell, yes.

Brandon, yes. Well, she's carried. I know this doesn't happen very often, but I to agree with Matson about not currently having a head of body, but I think I mentioned that at a certain meeting we all might remember as item K will move us into Wait, wait, wait. No, there's other stuff. Hold on. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. Item, which was old business. So, old item C. And who pulled that? Was that you? Tom Ryan. All right. Can you Introduce introduce. Yeah.

All right. So, I pulled this originally because procedurally we had to stop to take a short recess to get the information provided for us to make a decision. And I feel like that should be reflected in the minutes. So, just like a brief summary of that and the minutes and that's it.

I'm sorry. Can you can you say that one more time? One of our breaks we took was in the middle of before the appeals started. We didn't have the appeals in front of us to review. So procedurally we had to pause the meeting took a break to get the materials and then review them. I just want that reflected in the minutes like a brief summary of that. So you're saying the break was not in the minutes? No, the break was in minutes. I just want the reason for that break and then it's reflected and per but per OMA we don't have to go into detail about every item correct correct

right it's my understanding it's her minutes though it's the clerk's minutes there's been a discussion pre at a previous meeting about that same thing about making fine to do changes

yeah you know this question comes up all over the And that is you know sometimes there's push and pull between the clerk and audience members and council. There is no answer right answer. Uh everybody it's up to individual bodies to determine what is appropriate. Um all the says is that it must reflect action taken but there are some minutes where the municipality strives to do it verbatim. So uh in this instance if you wish to add it it's up to council ultimately they're your she is responsible for preparing them in the first instance but you decide whether they need to be amended or not council what are your thoughts okay so Tom do you want to make your motion and see if it gets support. We'll start there.

I move to amend the minutes to reflect that the requested toilet pills for review were not readily available and we took action to well we took a break to receive those that information to review and would like it reflected in the minutes. Do we have support? I'll support that motion. Okay, clerk, please call the RO. Cole, yes. Fine. Brener,

yes. Costa, no. No. Wendle, yes. Ryan, yes. Brandon, no. And I'm sorry, I lost count of votes there. Lisa's got it. A's got it. All right. Motion carried. We're on old item J. Okay. Is that the one I wanted to pull down? Yes. Jim, why don't you introduce why you pulled it?

So, there are some changes this year to the farmers market. President Brandon, I did receive communications from one of the vendors with some questions about that and I think the big item is my understanding is there's there was staff and I could talk a little bit about.

So, I think it's a good idea. I'll just think the Good. But I just wanted to highlight it for anyone watching or that was misunderstanding or need clarification what the changes were. So basically the change is if we have a business downtown or anywhere else that is doing the same thing as a vendor would come in to do for instance the person that contacted us had coffee and they said hey I'm I have coffee I'm starting business and I was depending on this income and then the rules have now been changed saying no or the suggestions have been changed saying no we're not going to do that toullyully local businesses

but allowing coffee would hurt both sip and saddle and belly group about about that same thing trucks coming in and we have all these businesses here that are paying taxes employing local people and it seems like I'm sure it's not a

so what you're saying by doing this showing council staff support businesses This was something that DDA worked on us with. We worked with with the DDA on this and I council member Costa contacted me beforehand on this and I agree this should have been on new business. I actually even in my my uh correspondence I stated that this being new business being just an old special event. I put it on consent but there was enough changes that should have predicated it being on new business. That wasn't the only change. just essentially the farmers market. We were always the villagers having to pay for a lot because we didn't have our trash services. Like we were just taking care of trash. So we had to formalize an agreement with them and how we're going to do trash moving forward. Um you know we were losing on background investigations that we had to do on all the permits all those. So we had to really redo that whole agreement. Part of it was also the request of them as you're bringing food trucks in until we have an established food truck policy. I just said it would be beneficial if they if it wasn't someone that we they can walk to in our downtown businesses. The whole point of having a farmers market is to encourage traffic into our downtown businesses. And not only that, but two of our coffee vendors in this example also have food trucks. So ask them first. And also, if you're bringing if you're going to bring pizza in, see if Big Papa would do it or try to default to a local business, a brick and mortar to support them first. And I will say that um Diane Rian has been more than willing to work with us in all of this and she's been very uh patient with me as we're trying to establish these new processes and, you know, has worked with us a lot and I just really appreciate her um doing that. Um and there's also other changes in regards to um that we now have uh the depot has been moved and it's still a construction site. So, they're not going to be able to utilize that site for parking. We've now done overnight uh parking procedures which limits their space as well. And

so, we're really looking at and this is part of the reason why I brought it to parks in the past about hey, what would it look like if we were to move the farmers market to Cyclone Park? Um and obviously there's not enough parking here right now and we don't want to further stress residents with that. So, that's something hopefully we can look at maybe in the future. Um to better utilize this space um and you know meet some of the needs we have for this part here and also market. I'll entertain a motion to approve item N. This will be O, I believe. Item O. I'll entertain a motion to approve item motion. I'll second the motion.

We have a motion by Kaska. We have a second by Wendell. Uh, clerk, please call the role. Cole, yes. Wine Brunner, yes. Pascal, yes. Ky, yes. Wendell, yes. Ryan, yes. Brandon, yes. Motion carried. as Kate will move us into close session. We will have reports as we'll adjourn after close session. Uh Tim, do you have anything to report?

Um you know, we obviously we've had budget work session last week. We have another budget work session uh this Saturday. I don't think we'll be the end of our budget work sessions. We're going to continue to work on this. Um you know, I appreciate everyone's patience as we're going through this. We're doing a little bit different than last year. We're we're letting the department heads present a little bit more of their wish lists and you know, council. Last year it was more, hey, we recognize we're in the deficit and emergency situation. This is what we need to do to get by. This year, council is really driving more policy for us so we can determine what our priorities are moving forward. And I appreciate all the correspondence that's already happened and that will continue to happen on that. I did want to um because George came here in an official capacity, I'll respond to that as well. Uh first of all, I just want to apologize to him for not coming to him. I should have I should have reached out to him on that. Similarly, I wish when he had received a complaint that he would have come to me rather than it being relayed as it was. How how it was relayed was through the assessor came to us to Lisa and myself and expressed that he felt he was being micromanaged by the supervisor and that um that he came in and watched him doing it and told him he can't do anything uh for the village uh without coming to him first. That's how it was expressed. We even had him reate. I said, "Hey, did you come to him or did he come to you?" Because that's a very important distinction. and he reiterated to us that that that the supervisor came to him. Obviously, that is not what is being relayed to us from him. So, I've already scheduled a meeting to talk to the assessor about that to get some clarity on that. Um, but uh and also was reiterated again during a phone call with municipal analytics when we called the assessor and we asked the same questions when we were trying to get some of this information. Um, yeah. So, I just apologize to him. I I could have handled that better too where I came went directly to him in regardless. I was working with the information I had at the time. But yeah, we have a lot of meetings coming up and a lot of budget sessions that were deep in and appreciate everyone.

Mike or Lisa, do either of you have one?

I have a real quick one. Um, so I'm going to give my foyer report for the month of March. The village received 10 foyer requests. We have uh completed and closed the 10. We have one historical request that's awaiting payment of deposit and we have one historical request that was abandoned and we have an uh one historical request in lawsuit status and um then we have the one in the uh appeal for today. Uh the village tax settlement is due to Oakland County by the end of April. So I'm working on that, trying to get that done. they are going to be closing the um site on the 17th and then they're not opening again till the 27th. So that gives me literally four days to get it done. Um the also the village uh manager department and heads and I are currently working on the budget as we as he had stated and that um on a positive note I wanted to let everybody know that today I opened up a new account with um a money market account with choice one and um we will be moving some of our monies into this money market account and right now we are only receiving 0.05% interest on our monies. So, I'll just use an example like we're right now we're getting $3,000 in interest and the new money market will be getting approximately 3.15%. So, even if I move, you know, $6 million into that account, we're talking about $15,000 a month. So, that's going to be a gain of like about $12,000 a month just in interest.

And just for clarification on that, because I know this was an item that was last month, um that you know We wanted to verify that we had a resolution that supported that the treasurer had uh the authority to make the exchanges and that resolution was found and and identified. So that's that's why we proceeded action

I'm gonna put Mr. on the spot here. Glasses coming on.

Um, quick. So, last night at the DDA meeting, there was a board member that brought up and said they like to ask tough questions. And I was like, okay, I like that. So, a tough question for you that I can ask here is if me, Councilman Jim Costa, were to ask Daniel to plow the driveway out here and pay him $500 and not have any discussion on that, is that allowed? Can I do that? You can. Yeah, sure you could. So, and the village can reimburse me for that.

Well, that's a different question. Um, you're asking someone to do is a different story. Having that the town, the the village pay for it requires village council approval. The whole council. The whole council. Okay, perfect. Um for I'll just do your mind's shot here, so I apologize everyone watching at home. I have uh two kids and they decided to um keep up all night. Well, five hours. So, he had a 1 hour nap and it turned into a five hour awake all night. So, um I don't miss those days.

DDA discussed um uh it sounded like sharing some expenses with the the downtown um so reimbursing us for expenses downtown, which I was happy to hear. The part that I didn't like to hear was they're allocating $10,000 to an attorney to negotiate on their behalf to come up with a contract for that or up to $10,000. So that just seems like we're wasting a ton of money there for two attorneys to be talking with each other. Um, so not good there. Um, Mr. Price,

you got a glassy on. I like either way, the assessor. Does the village pay for the assessor as well? The so we don't pay the assessor to the village but village residents pay taxes to the township to pay for okay that's I would verify that with the clerk is that true statement we don't we don't pay no we don't pay assessing fees

yeah I can't I will clarify one other thing because it has been brought up tonight it was brought up last night about processes and such I could have brought it up during appointments so people why during uh why appointments are made by the village president and confirmed by council. That isn't an ordinance we have here. That is through PA57 for all appointments. So any DDA across the state utilizes the same uh processes because that's how PA57 says the executive uh the executive leader of the municipality will make the appointments approved by the governing body. So that's uh just point of clarification on that. So if people are saying hey you know we have to change our ordinance here it's not our ordinance it's the state's requirements and that's how appointments are done for all almost every municipality has that I mean everyone does for DA but for all appointments. So

last is for sure got one more. Yes. Thank you. So I do want to thank treasurer for finding that resolution. I had talked previously to prior staff and I don't know about it. So I can't imagine what you had to go through to find that. So we're doing some scavenger hunt. You guys are more than welcome anytime to come in and volunteer to look through boxes. I'm I'm tell me where and when.

Yep. Tom, um I just have question for Tim. Um I know originally with theor conversation came up over the weekend. It was about knowing how much money we had coming in. Do we ever get like how much it was requesting or whatever, but just for ours coming up on the weekend, we have a better picture of finances.

Yeah, we have so we have we have our taxable value for us locally. We've had that. It was really um and we had requested it months ago from uh when we started this process from the assessor at the time. That's when we found out our assessor changed from Oakland County to um a contracted assessor. Um but no, yeah, we have it we have the uh or our projections for that and also through John's contacts, he actually was able to get us the other information we requested um through through his sources. He was able to get we we end up reaching out to Oakland County. We reached out to Simco through all their GIS and they were we were able to compile the data needed. So um and the Last question I had. Do we have like a timeline for the CIP? Because I know like we need it for us and they said they need it to help with their projections as well. Do we know? So we have we have a uh a draft like a basic again it's just a spreadsheet. Now usually CIPs only go out like 10 years. This one goes out 30 40 years um as far as the the projections on it. Realistically we're not going to be we don't know where we're going to be at in 40 years. Um but it will allow us so we already have it done. what we don't have is, you know, when are we going to do these things and how much money we want to invest in that. So, at the next meeting, I'm hoping to at least bring the draft of it out to in front of council and say, "All right, this is kind of what we're looking at. This is our assets. These are the when he talks about $10 million in major roads, $5 million in local roads. These are the priorities." I mean, I can and I think I don't know if I did it in the last meeting pulled up like Yeah, I pulled up the pacer map to kind of show a general idea of that, but it also we're also looking like the um waste water um and um and water treatment all of the improvements that need to be made there. Um some of them we haven't even identified like yet because we don't know when I talk about like ini in our system um we haven't

even identified what you know what those expenses will be and so there are still some question marks that um will probably be in the way of engineering studies that we're have to determine but yes we will have we'll have a the draft of that that we are going to have to complete as a group. Thank you, Daniel.

Um well, HTC did meet last week. Uh we did a walk of downtown um inspecting all the uh renovations that were done that weren't approved by HD standards, HTC standards and um we uh got uh our uh I can't think of the name of that book now, but our basically our rules and code of conduct for the HDC guidelines. We've got that. We're reviewing that at our next meeting. We're going to go ahead and changes we have and this be submitted to council. Um there's two things I do want to comment on. Uh one of them is uh the depot. Does is it still open? Why open? Because the main door was wood was gone.

I I know that it was open for when they were doing the drainage of it because it had some with all the rain that was doing flooding. I don't know the curtain status of it. I'm looking over. It's still open. So yeah. Oh, as long as we know as long as somebody know that's all he was they want to make sure the wind didn't blow down and nobody caught it. So, and my other thing was is I believe I know I came to you a couple months ago about Sun Communities, the trailer park in the north end about the water draining issue and I did make a comment on the Facebook po Facebook post that to them that it's a private property

that the village is our hands are tied but I want them to know that we're going to do everything we can to help them out. And um I know that you had told me if I'm not mistaken that we it can be looked into as an unsanitary thing for them because their drains aren't drained right. Um so here let me do some a little if I'm if I'm speaking correctly. I don't know. So um

so yeah so it is private infrastructure. They have they own the infrastructure and they're um and they're responsible for the maintenance of it. We do have some uh controls about it in regards to flooding. It's actually chapter 156 in our ordinance and it actually specifically spells out like mobile home requirements that need to be uh addressed in regards to flooding concerns. And so we've already looked at as a staff um that like all right, how are we holding them accountable? I mean, when there was flooding, Danny and I, and this is a day that I was um returning from being off, you know, when I was dealing with kids, Danny and probably spent five or six hours out there just going over the system with um with the staff out there. Hey, this is, you know, what you know, what we believe is the cause of this. We ended up getting the railroad uh out safety officers out there um through coordination with Chief Nar because one of our reserve officers works for the railroad and so they were out there helping us as well. So we are although it is their um their responsibility, we still try to hold them accountable for it, right? Just, you know, if there's a public safety concern, we're holding them accountable. If they're not meeting zoning a lot, I understand that if you don't actually see us posting, you know, videos online saying that, hey, we're out here doing this, you might not know that, but you know,

I knew that we were out there doing something. I'm not saying you, I'm just saying the public. Yeah. And so like officer um Godier was out there quite a bit. um last year when we had issues um he was out there uh to respond to it in regards to public safety because kids had to cross water to go to school. So we held them accountable for that. So there are mechanisms that we can utilize. What I can't do is I can't necessarily necessarily send Danny and his crew in there to fix it for them without risking like litigation and concerns with that. Um I there are mechanisms that we could do that but it's not uh probably the best usage of our staff's time when it's a private infrastructure when we have other concerns. I know 100% agree time.

No, I just wanted I wanted I wanted the public to know that we do hear them and we're trying to do the best we can but there's only so much we can do because we don't own that infrastructure and but again we we we don't that is correct but we do we are holding them accountable again a lot of happen behind the scenes. Um, and we try to do that for the benefit of the uh some communities in this case. I'm going to be addressing some of this just to Oh, thank you, Madam President. I didn't know. It's okay. Would this be considered emergency?

Absolutely. That's that could be a consideration too. If um uh if we could not uh if they are not maintaining their infrastructure in a manner that we cannot render aid. Um, we can require them to do certain things. Uh, absolutely. Thank you,

Shannon. I think we were all on the same page with trying to figure out stuff with the trailer park and it was a holiday weekend. I had people reach out to me. I can vouch for our guys because on Monday morning, I was on the phone sending texts, emailing Tim and everybody was already meeting and had already been on the scene by the time I had something. So, that was already handled before I got there. Um, what I would like to say in this moment just in reflection of some meetings, some past meetings, is I would like to see for our next budget or our next May meeting, whatever it is, if our policies and procedure committee can get together and tighten up some of this stuff, whether it's FOYA, the head of the body, when it comes to that, I think it is time. There is absolutely no reason why we can't get whatever best practices it was historic things um it's time to close it whatever that is and put concise data online for people to see what they need to do I don't have any reports as far as um buildings and grounds even though Danny I'd love to meet with you and we can talk about some of the things that you guys need I think I'm on I'm the only one on the committee so

I think on there too.

I'm happy to voice that stuff for you guys. And then as far as trees, because that's my happy place, is Neighborhood Forest is donating. We've got um a delivery happening in the works tomorrow. I just love to say to them that I've got a case of trees coming because I think it stresses people out. It's only 37 pounds, so it's not super big. But um we are getting quaking aspen. So all the families who signed up in the village township and students just in Holly area schools who are out to our parks clean up day. Amber, don't mean to steal your thunder. Um, that signed out they are going to get a quaking aspen tree which is native to Michigan which is a beautiful yellow tree in the fall and I can't wait to see what people post and do with those

on that there. Also, just a reminder that Arbor Day I believe is uh April 24th. We'll do a tree planting um and just kind of commemoration of our Tree City USA designation all that. We'll put all that on social media. Amber. Yes. Thanks for stealing my thunder. Get that thunder.

So, parks met last week. Um, we are going over trying to um spend down our budget for this year before the new fiscal year. Um, we've got some ideas for playground equipment and roll off docks. Um, but we will be coming back in May to submit the three bids to stay within our purchasing polic. and then hopefully approve that and then it'll come to you guys and you will hopefully approve that and we can get some new playground equipment into our parks. We also have the cleanup on April 25th. We will meet up at waterworks. Um we've decided there will be some people that will work at waterworks and then some people that will also be working here at Cyclone to get rid of some of this brush along the fence lines. And then just

as long as it isn't flooded, as long as it isn't flooded, wear your boots, rain or shine, rain or shine, we will be there. Um, thank you guys for approving the Monarch Day. I really appreciate that. And then lastly, just to reiterate what everybody has said, I want to say thank you to our staff for working on Easter and making sure that our people are safe. And as has been There's a lot of things that go on behind the scenes and just because you don't see it on social media doesn't mean that it's not happening. Yes. Thank you guys so much.

Okay. Thank you. Um I'll start with the uncomfortable piece. Earlier there were some comments made by Leslie Jorgensson regarding her endorsement that she was requesting of the HA was requesting the president to put on the agenda for council consideration and there was a performance implying safeguarding based on alliances. That accusation is illfounded and I resent the implication as I take great pride in being able to work with capable residents regardless of any affiliations. I assure you this decision was based solely on your actions and she is aware of this. We had an email exchange earlier today. She sent an email asking why and I said this is a matter you should be following up with um on high the Holly area youth assistance. I informed Tina Alvarado last Saturday that I would not be moving forward with placing your endorsement on a council agenda. While I had previously indicated that I did not see an issue with doing so, based on new information, that is no longer the case. It has come to my attention that you publicly supported statements asserting that the village was not taking action in response to the recent flooding in the mobile home parks, including questioning whether the village planned to get involved and suggesting the issue was not being addressed. You also affirmed comments characterizing the situation as being ignored. These statements were made without direct communication or verification and did not reflect the reality of the situation. You also made statements suggesting the situation was being treated as quote just the trailer parks end quote implying the village staff were disregarding or minimizing the needs of these residents. And you know, I sit here and I reflect, who is the face of DPW? And that's that man right there. That's Danny Rasberg. Those statements are not reflective of this village, of its staff, or of Dany.

Village staff and employees respond comprehensively and without distinction. They worked continuously throughout Easter weekend, including the holiday itself, to adjust impacts across the entire community. This included providing resources and assistance to the mobile home park despite the infrastructure being outside village jurisdiction. Publicly disparaging village staff while they are actively responding to an emergency situation is not consistent with a candidate seeking village council endorsement. Public statements and conduct favor directly into decisions regarding village council endorsements or for me to put one on the agenda for village counselor to consider. As a result, I will not be placing this item on a council agenda or supporting your endorsement at this time. For clarity, she referenced that she applied last October. The council liazison was not informed that a request was needed to be made to place. So, we didn't have all the information till February. Didn't get the resume till March, and that's why it wasn't being considered until April. Moving on to DDA. Here's an update from our DDA meeting last night. We reaffirmed some decisions because there was um a clerical error on on the time and I think it was on the DDA website. They had put down uh that the meeting was starting at 6:00 when it started at 5:30 or something like that. So we um in a show of good faith reaffirmed some of those decisions to make sure that they couldn't be called into question. We did a resolution of appreciation that was unanimously passed for Hillary Algy and Trina Greenway. There was a draft of the budget. Um, Kevin is suggesting an email policy. Everyone voted yes. There was a DDA ambassador program presented that I'm kind of against. I feel like they're trying to kind of I thought that it was kind of giving away work that the DDA is responsible for. And Tina pointed out it was some of the director's duties that

they wanted to hand out to residents, but the residents wouldn't be sworn in. they wouldn't be elected and they'd be able to say that they're direct um representatives of the DDA businesses and I'm not comfortable with the OM violations and other um and other things that that could open us up for. Those are avoidable risks in my opinion, but there was no vote made on it. Um no decisions were made at the time. Kevin's going to look at it, look at our feedback, and kind of decide where to go from there. And then they're doing a DDA planning retreat. That's the long and short of that. And so what do we need to do with this head of body issue? I was kind of hoping the council would come up with something. Should we start off maybe with a legal opinion from Gilner because at our last meeting we didn't have Gilner here. We had

I I Yeah. Um was it Chris which was here? I think I think Chris came last time. I think so. I think It needs we need to I need to meet with uh Mike and get some clarification. I think that our understanding from that meeting was that council believed they were the head of the public body after that meeting because they were saying that they did not believe it was the village president that they believed it was the rest of council was ahead of the public body. I think that we need to do a resolution regardless in cl to clarify that uh at least for foyer purposes stating whether or not for foyer reasons uh it is the village council for the village president last time that our clarification was that it would be the village president if council wants to go the direction of it being the entire council for appeals

I think I' I'd like to start with a written legal opinion from Gilner if the council kind of consensus backs that up because we didn't have him here. We didn't have a chance to sit down, maybe have um maybe have some more feedback on it. We had a guy kind of on the spot in the moment who isn't our regular. What do you guys think? Just kind of I agree. It's not my interpretation that the president himself is at the head of the council but procedures better

get a letter from guys. Yes. No. Sure. I mean I don't think it's necessarily be any different than what his colleague told us how we're going to be making decisions. or just have it as an item to discuss in the future because that's what it's going to come down to is what council wants. All right. Well, it looks like uh well, I I well, I'll put my two cents in like this is that um in my eyes, April is the head of the body because she is our village president. We're going to be debating this in the future, so I don't want to get caught up in it right now. I was just going to say only thing I would do is like it was a FOYA thing, then that's when we need to meet as a council on it first.

Yeah. I I think I'd be comfortable writing a resolution that we actually have legal input from our regular attorney. Yeah, I think that too. Thank you. I fully agree. All right. That looks like it looks like the consensus of consensus of council. So, let's do that. Okay. If that concludes reports. All right. Lisa, will you please read item K of new business? Consideration of village council to enter into close session to review the close session minutes from March 10th, 2026 pursuant to the open meetings act 276 of 1976.

Do I have a first to consider item K of new business session March 10th to open.

We have a motion by Wein Bunner, second by Kire. Clerk, please call the role. Wendell, yes. Ryan, yes. Yes. Wrener, yes. Cole, yes. Sker, yes. Brandon, yes. Motion carried.

Turn your mic back on if you push the button.

Are we on? Oh, we're live. Do I have a first to consider returning to open session? I'll make the motion to return to open session. I'll second. Motion by Ryan, second by Weinbrunner. All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose say nay. Motion carried. Lisa, will you please read item L of new business? Consideration of the approval of the village council close session meeting minutes of March 10th, 2026. Clerk, please call the role. Um, do we have to have a motion first to approve? Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. That's okay. Do you want to have a first to consider item? Is this L of new business?

I'd make it, but I don't think it can. I will make the motion to consider item L of new business consideration of the village council close session minutes of March 10th, 2026. Motion by Cole. Can someone else that was present? Second. Support by Kire. Clerk, please call the role. Ryan, um, I abstain I was absent. Kasala, yes. Wurner, yes. Cole, yes. Ky, yes. Wendell. Ivory Cuse because I wasn't there for the full entire meeting. Brandon,

yes. Motion carried. We will now adjourn the April 14th meeting of village council. The next regular meeting will be May 12th. Two days before my birthday. Yeah. But we do have a budget session Saturday, April 18th, 2026. And I heard Tim's bring an omelette at 9:00 a.m. Yeah. So budget meeting.