Village Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the September 8th 2026 council meeting for the village of Holly clerk.

Please call the roll wine burner here Wendell here Ryan here Pascoa here Kier Brandon here we have a quorum.

I will entertain a motion to excuse Miss Kier she wrote in saying she would be unable to attend today

I'll make the motion to excuse Ms. Kier.

I'll second that motion.

We have a motion by Wendell. We have a second by Weinbrenner. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Motion carried. If you are willing and able, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. This brings us to the approval of our consent agenda. All items listed under consent agenda are considered to be 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 in new business. Do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Before we do that, may I make an amendment to the agenda?

Yep.

I'll submit you once to second. So earlier today, I emailed everybody a document. Well, not actually a document. Communication I sent out. And what I'd like to do is see if we could add something under old business to go back and discuss the... So, essentially, remember this, we talked about this a few months back. Um, has to do with, uh, potentially unauthorized spending, um, and unauthorized contracts by our, uh. Potentially 2 members of the DDA.

Um, yeah, I remember, um. Without preparation, Gildner, do you have any legal input? Is there anything that would...

I spoke with Jim about that a few days ago, last week.

Will you use the mic, please? Oh, sorry.

I spoke with Jim about that. He emailed me, asked that I look into it. I had looked into it. I refreshed my memory. We spoke about it, and he advised me that he may indeed be making this motion. So in terms of whether it's added to the agenda, I leave it up to you guys.

So essentially, it has to do with, we've talked about it before. There was a contract that was entered in. Potentially, I think that's what we need to get to the bottom of, if it was done appropriately and legally.

Right now, I think we've got the new information that we didn't have a month ago or three months ago that impact our previous discussions. As according to our rules and procedures, in order to add it, we just need a 5 out of 7, a supermajority vote to add it to the agenda tonight. But we don't have 7 people here. I would have to re-read how it's written. And it's 4 out of 6 or it's still 5 out of 7. I think it's still 5 out of 7, but we will look at the rules and procedures, which I can do.

Okay, uh, while he's looking that up council, is there anything anyone else needed pulled?

I would also sorry. I would also like to pull item. I, um, just that's based on, um, that's the support letter of support for the liquor license. The only reason I'm asking to pull that is because we've already talked to Laura, uh, the license and regulatory authority for Michigan. And they basically said that they've canceled that. There's nothing else we can do. So our letter of support would. We'd be doing that for no reason at this point. So. If we could remove item I.

Okay, so consent I becomes, does that go to new business F?

Which is removing.

Oh, sorry, striking it out. We're not moving it. Gotcha. Okay. Daniel?

I would like to move F and G down for a new business. G is just to have something added to it.

Okay. So we will place consent F and G under letter E before the closed session item. Thank you, Mr. Love.

And then I have one other question. Yep. It revolves around signs. I don't know if we should have that put in the agenda or not. The ones that say we support the police because we don't know where they came from or So we don't know if it's allowed in our ordinances or not.

Who says we don't know?

Well, we didn't know. There's nothing on the sign that says where they came from. And I want to see people getting thrown around for it.

So if you have a question, would it be more appropriate to ask it under council member comments? Because I'm pretty sure everybody here has an answer.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, well then. That's fine. No, no, no. Two-thirds of council members present.

Two-thirds of council members present. Okay.

of the council members present. Okay, so with those amendments, that is with Jim. One more.

Uh-oh. We're not done yet. So the Finance Committee has been talking about water rates and what we have before us. We would like to postpone until even potentially a special meeting. We still think there's some more information that needs to be hashed out because the numbers we have in front of us are not what we were going to make suggestions of. So we would like to remove completely the water rates. Or I would.

Bye. Jim, what letter is that, please?

The new business item B.

Item B. Okay, so with the proposed amendments we are removing, we are adding an old business item that Jim will introduce. We are taking... F and G, putting them at the end of the new business.

Well, before F. Should we do it separately?

Before F, the closed session. We are removing item I of consent and removing item C from the new agenda.

B.

Pardon? Oh, B. Item B of the new agenda. Okay. With those amendments, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the new modifications.

Do I have support? I'll second that. I have a motion by Wendell. I have support by Cole. Clerk, please call the roll.

Ryan?

No.

Pascal?

Yes.

Weinbrenner?

Yes.

Cole? Yes. Wendell?

Yes.

Brandon? Yes.

Motion carried. Okay, no reappointments or appointments, no presentations, no public hearing. This brings us to public comment. Members of the audience may address counsel on any item that is not on the agenda. Those addressing counsel 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 counsel votes. Counsel will hear all comments for future consideration, but will not have a response at this time. Prior to addressing counsel, members of the public shall state their name and address for the record. Mr. Love, would you like to start us off?

John Love, 200 North Saginaw. I just gave you a list of Holly problems. And the other thing I'd like to know is what have you done to make Holly better? And you can have some kind of presentation or comment But on the problems that I've listed here, across the street from me is an Oakland street sign. This sign's bent, so it looks tacky. But, I mean, this is Holly. Also, the street lamp across the street, this is all in North Saginaw, it's missing the globe on the top after some car hit it a month or so ago. So it looks like, you know, tacky. The other thing is they have a share the bike lane sign. The only problem is the back lane ends there. So they should take that one down and then move the one that says I-75 from in front of the neighbor's house to that location, which would be more appropriate. It wouldn't look so tacky. Also, there's a drinking fountain down in the center of town. There's only one problem. It doesn't work. So I guess we're running short of water, but that should be fixed. And then there's the new addition to downtown Holly, the historic Battle Alley sign. Looks like some billboard sign, and it isn't historically appropriate. we have money to spend on something stupid like that, I'd rather see that money go to the Holly Hotel where the side of the building is missing as a result of the fire and nothing has been done about that. So you go down Tacky Alley, you got a tacky sign to start with and then you got this end of the hotel that is just open No, there's no covering. They have some kind of plastic a little bit on it that's been torn in the village, in the window, in the wind. So I'd like to see something done to improve the appropriateness and appearance of the town instead of nothing. So I'll give you a copy of it.

Thank you, John.

Thank you. Looking forward to improvement on the appearance of our community.

Is there any further public comment? Logan?

I guess my name first, right? Logan LeClaire. I live off Linder Drive. Holly, not in the village though. I want to do an event and I didn't know I needed a permit for an event. So I submitted to get permit of the event and I found out it has to be on the agenda within 60 days. And then I came here today to make sure it made it on the agenda and kind of maybe answer any questions if anybody had any. And I think it'd be a big deal. There is an ordinance in place that says I may not be able to do said event. and I'm asking that you guys maybe give me a little leeway or maybe reconsider the ordinance for that four-hour window so I could do the event. I don't know if you have any questions. I can answer them, I guess, but I've never hosted a event like this, but I thought it'd be kind of cool because they don't have any in the area and it's for a really good cause. So, um, I actually work with this team every year. I'm one of the hunting guides that go out. Um, they, they do a lot of really good stuff for just, you know, terminally ill children. And I kind of was like, well, if we can sponsor, you know, a couple of units, then it'd be kind of cool. I know the ordinance says for smell, quite honestly, it's a four hour window. They're not going to smell. Um, it's also gonna be a middle of November, so hopefully they don't smell. Um, as far as unsightly, I know a lot of people don't agree with hunting and I respect that a lot of people don't want to see it. And again, I respect that too. It is part of our culture and our community around here. I think a lot of hunters in this area, but I also understand not everybody agrees with it. Um, I'm willing to try to like work around that however I can, if you're willing to let me do the event. Um, I want to do it on my property. I won't need any help from police fire. I don't need like any public services or anything like that. It'll be something we all do. Like I'll take care of it. And then the wheeling team will actually send a team down because they obviously do events all over the state. So they'll actually send people down to, to help volunteer and set up and do all that. So I guess, I don't know what else to say. It's pretty straightforward. We want to have a buck poll for kids and, you know, young hunters, all the young hunters that would come in, I'd give a prize, oldest hunter, youngest hunter. Biggest buck, biggest doe. Obviously, we have a lot of does. I'm going to get, you know, shoot some does. I'll do some raffles. Usually, they do a gun raffle at one of these, which is pretty straightforward. What wheeling team is, because I'm sure people are going to ask, wheeling team is... terminally ill children that are literally dying, unfortunately, and they want to hunt. So what we do is we raise money and we talk to game ranches, we talk to farmers, we talk to people. We have specialized trailers built that we can take the kids out. They have heaters in them. Some of them are wheelchair bound. Some of the kids can't even technically pull the trigger on the gun and things like that. And we set them up so they can go take an animal. Sometimes we do it on private land. Sometimes we do it on, like I said, game ranches. We'll go to the game ranch and go, hey, do you have any management bucks or any buffalo? I helped a kid last year take a buffalo. It was pretty cool. We do elk hunts sometimes. And then the kid comes out with his family. He gets like a care package. He gets his camo. He gets a hat and coat and all that stuff and binoculars. And we take them out and they shoot a deer. And then they take pictures with it. And we pay for the processing. Part of the whole thing is and then we also pay for the taxidermy. So they get to take them out home with them that they can keep for whatever. Unfortunately, most of the kids that are in this program, we try to expedite the taxidermy. I have a buddy of mine that does it. We actually expedite the taxidermy because, quite honestly, sadly, a lot of times the mounts come back after the kids already passed, to be honest with you. So there is a waiting list to get on the hunts, and it's expensive to do it. There's a lot of cost involved. As a shop, we sponsored one hunt last year and then I sponsored one and I've also been one of the guides. I've done that for six or seven years now. I go out and actually guide the kids and help them and help with recovery of the animal and all that stuff. So I thought it'd be cool to do an event in town because there's no buck holes around here really. I think the closest one's a wasso. And, you know, there's a lot of sportsmen in the area, and I just thought it'd be cool to get kids involved. And we have a category for, you know, female hunters would get a prize, oldest hunter would get a prize, biggest doe would get a prize.

Logan, that's time. I'm sorry.

The alarm was going off over here. I don't know if I'm allowed to answer questions now or if I just go back and sit down. I don't know how that works.

You can have a seat.

Yeah.

But I will give you a little input so you know what to look forward to. We don't typically reply right after a public comment, but since this is for an event.

Yeah.

I'm not willing to entertain the idea of suspending an ordinance for an appointed official. That could look like favoritism. To my understanding, you're asking us to suspend the ordinance that states you may not hang skinned bucks on village property like that. So if you wanted to try to get it on the council agenda, you can email other council members, talk to them, and see if two of them are willing to direct the village manager to put it on the agenda, and then council can consider it.

Okay, I thought that's what, applying for the permit, I thought that would do that, or no?

The ordinance issue is separate. Okay.

Now, can I ask an off-the-topic question? What if they're not hung outside?

You'll have to get with administration. And ask that one?

Yeah. I was just curious, like, if I could, you know, I understand people don't want to see it, but what if I hung them inside? You know, we could hang them on the hoists, for all I care. And quite honestly, we're probably going to have, like, six or eight deer.

Mr. LeClair, that is time.

Oh, sorry.

Thank you.

We'll talk more.

Yeah. Get with them after or email. Any further public comment? Go ahead, Mr. Campbell.

Good to see you.

My name is Matthew Campbell, but you can call me Whistle. I live on 807 Marianne Drive. Good evening, circus members. My name is Whistle, and you're probably wondering why I'm here. I'm here because of the clown show this town has been putting on. Now, many of you may not don the makeup, but you do play that role very well. What's been very apparent so far is certain groups receiving special treatment. Now, what special treatment am I talking about? Well, the Circus Council continues to break laws, continues to. Nice sign on commercial property, by the way. I've seen cops speeding, swerving over yellow lines, running red lights with no attempt to stop. Now I'm at a disposition. When I see that, should I stop the cop and request for a drug and field sobriety test? I feel like we're kind of getting to that point with how much I've seen it. Also in regards to that, our chief, has hired a cop back in the day who was also a cop that was on drugs and also a racist without doing proper research. Now, if that was allowed to happen, and I'm seeing this, I'm starting to see a little bit of a correlation here. Now, some would say that'd be a perfect candidate with a badge and a gun, depending on like-mindedness, but in regards to funding PD, I think part of PD should also take a look, if we're spending all this amounts of money, looking at spending it on a gym membership. The fitness standards are terrible. And plus, those double XL plated vests must cost quite a bit. Nice reports too, by the way, Chief. Tells us nothing about what crimes are happening in our town, where the hotspots are, and plans to combat that. Now, speaking of laws, I find it comical that everyone wants to talk about that, yet we got Mr. Not-So-Nice Price going behind scenes with Mr. Wendell here and attempting to intimidate him with perjury. I find it kind of humorous that you guys want to talk about laws all the time, but yet you break them. I have plenty more. I wish I had more than two minutes, but I'm going to leave it at this. Win or lose, I'm gonna be here using my tongue as a sword and my heart as a shield. Laugh if you must, call me a clown. But remember, every kingdom needs a fool brave enough to tell the court when the crown is crooked. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Campbell.

Your eyeliner, your eyeliner is better than mine.

Any further public comment?

Court ahead.

Hello, Bjorn Heimberger, 882 Canyon Creek Drive. I don't live in the village. I live in the township, but I am a user of the sewer and water system, and that's what I'm here to talk about. I know there's in consideration a rate increase for especially the non-village residents of one and a half times the village rate. Now, I have a few questions about this. Number one, in this last time when this municipality analytics report was presented, there was somewhat of a notion that people outside the village, they get a free ride or they don't pay their share. I just want to say I moved to Holly about 20 years ago. When I moved into the house, I paid a $3,500 tap-in fee to use the service. And in today's dollars, that's $6,000. I've also since then paid all the rates that apply to it. And everybody has somewhat the notion rates in Holly are a little high compared to wherever they move from. So I take a little offense to taking a free ride to the water service because I do feel I paid a good share into the system. Now, the non-village versus village rate came up before in the past 20 years that I've lived here. And from what I remember, there was always the... It was always said that the water and sewer system is somewhat of a self-sustained service, so it wouldn't use general funds, and vice versa, the general fund couldn't use water and sewer because it's just for water and sewer. And that the water and sewer system needs to be self-sustainable. And if a certain user group would need to pay more, it need to be justified by establishing that the service actually, to give them that service, is really more expensive than what it would be for a regular user. In general, I did do a bit of a search what other sewer rates and water rates are in surrounding communities and it looks to me that the rates in Holly are easily one and a half times more than anywhere else. I hope there was something in that report that was looking into this why that service costs more in Holly than it costs pretty much everywhere else. There may be a valid reason, but it would be really good to know what that is. Thank you.

Thank you. I thought I saw another hand. Any more public comment? Hearing none. Seeing none. Do I have a first to consider item A of new business?

We have old business first. Pardon? Old business.

Oh, sorry.

Skipped right over it.

Jim, will you introduce both business? Absolutely. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.

So you may remember a few months back, I brought something up regarding our D-Day. And there was a post, there was an advertisement taken out in the Holly Post. And to my knowledge, there's been no board action to approve this. So I was wondering how this can be, how this is legal that somebody decided to bind the village, bind the DDA's name, and speak on behalf of the entire board, and also then spend taxpayer money on something that, to my knowledge, you have to have permission to do. So just like we can't spend money, I can't decide to give Daniel $500, nobody else can decide to give So it's been a long process. I think I've been stonewalled quite a bit trying to get answers. If you remember, the original story was the reason it was legal was it was approved by both the village treasurer and the village president. That was it. So I don't care why you guys approved it. That doesn't matter to me right now at all. We'll figure out why that was approved. But the action in the first place was what I was concerned. So, um, the director wouldn't talk with me or he will will not talk with me. I've been able to communicate a little bit. If I see the entire board. Then he feels that he's responded back to me on that way. So, to get answers, what I ended up doing is I did a Freedom of Information Act request in June on June. Uh. June 10th. June 10th, I submitted it. I didn't hear a response. So I sent an appeal on the 26th of June saying, hey, look, you've denied my request, essentially. What's going on? On July 2nd, he responded back saying, I accidentally sent you the response to the wrong address. I'm sorry. So he said the check was in the mail. I just mailed it to the wrong address.

He said there was a $6 fee.

So then on July 6th, I said, the fees are wrong. It's not right. I'm not supposed to charge this. You can There was a denial already, whatever. So then didn't hear anything back July, August 10th. I sent an email to the board. Explaining that I haven't heard anything back and trying to get these records. There's stuff that's not been happening appropriately.

I don't think and then, um, on August 10th, that same day, I received a response back.

With, um, with some records, I think the most pertinent record for this instance, and there are some other ones too, but, um. There's communication that goes back between, so an invoice came in on September 19th. September 19th, an invoice came in from the Holly Post. The Holly Post says, hey, you owe us 500 bucks.

The interim DDA director at the time says, what's this about?

And then Mr. Rasko responds back with, Need to see what budget this is coming from. So there is no vote required. This is an ad for the newspaper being published in Holly. In Holly, Linda and I spoke of it. I believe she was handling getting the ad created. And then Ms. Stouffer responds back. It should come out. It should come out of promotions. So to me, I'm reading this. They're making decisions behind the scene. So I asked our attorney. And our attorney's opinion was essentially Mr. Gilder.

I indicated that it appeared as though it was improper, proper processes were not followed. I was told that it was resolved either by the DDA board or because the executive director had it within his budgetary authority to take care of. I said a lot more than that, but that's the essence of my opinion.

Now, when we talk about processes, what processes? It's state law, correct? That would be the main process that we're referring to.

I didn't identify the specific process. I don't know that it's, I don't find it necessary, whether it's DDA bylaws, whether it's state law, proper process was not followed.

So, it's my understanding now, this is this isn't for councils, but I ended up filing a police report today for this. Because it, to me, it reads like, there's something going on here. I don't because I can't get all the answers and I can't investigate this. Somebody else needs to investigate this.

So I did file a police report and they can do that.

So, after all this, then I reached out and Mr, uh, Stefan, the director did respond. Uh, I said, hey, what what's going on? Why is this legal? What happened? And now he says that, uh, I have it here somewhere. The events you described predate my start date in February. I was not party to them and I will not answer questions about board authority, conflict of interest or compliance. From my own read of the record alone. So, my understanding what happened was just a question for 500 dollars. He approved it then. He said, hey, this is what's good. And now he's saying, I can't figure out what's going on.

Lisa, is this the one that we were assured that it came out of an improved budget line?

Yes.

Yeah. Okay. So to your question, why did the president and the treasurer sign? That is why we signed. Obviously, at the time, I wasn't aware that email exchanges such as that were happening.

So I think we do have two members of the Holly Post here. One is the publisher, one is the advertising manager. And if they would like to respond to it, we can't get answers from them. And I asked, I did reach out to the Holly Post publisher previously, and it was kind of good. The Holly Post publisher But at the time, my understanding, too, is at the time this was taking place, there was the executive committee, which now doesn't exist, allegedly. The executive committee, which was made up of the chair, DDA chair, DDA secretary, and DDA vice chair.

It was the chair, the vice chair, the secretary, and Dave.

So I... Okay.

He was not serving in an office on DDA. And they didn't have the officer of treasurer or anything. They just wanted it to be four people. So it was Jerome Raska, Linda Stover.

So what it looks like, and this is where I think we need to decide if we want to do something. If no one wants to do anything and everyone wants to say, hey, this is fine, I don't care, I'm fine with that too. But I'm not going to be pushing this any further. I've done as much as I can do, and I'm not going to do anything else. But it looks like to me, the Holly Post advertising manager was on the DDA. They talked. The advertising manager solicited business. The advertising manager talked to two members of the DDA, and they said, let's not vote on this. Let's just give you money.

So what motion would you be looking for?

tonight, right now. I don't know if we need a motion. I don't know the next steps of us to figure out if there was actually something going on, because like I said, the communication between, I asked the DDA for, the DDA director about street sweeping on North Saginaw, and he won't respond. So he's definitely not going to respond about anything of substance, I don't think, to me, or any of us, maybe. So I don't know what our course of action can be. Susan?

Yep. So I asked that very question. You know, at bottom, what is it that you're asking for? Because there were four people involved in that transaction. Two of them are no longer on the DDA board. So taking action to remove them from the DDA is a moot issue. A third member is the executive director. And, you know, I assume, you know, council may ask for some sort of investigation into the executive director. I don't really know. the extent of your authority over him, but if you wanted to do it, that would be it. What Jim explained to me is it appears to be ethics, an ethics violation, and hence an ethics investigation. So I'm just reporting, to me, it was a closed issue. That's how I was treating it, but if he wants to resurrect it, I suppose it's...

So my concern with it being a closed issue is Mr. Stephenson is saying he doesn't know anything about it. So how could this be a closed issue if he's not willing to opine and say this is why it's legal? So no corrective actions in my mind have taken place. There's been no discussion about it because no one has any answers about it. So for us to say that it's a closed issue in my mind, how do we get to a closed issue because... We just want to make it close.

Rule of order for a second. Madam President, can you ask the audience to not talk so loud because it does affect the hearing up here?

Yes, if we could keep our memorandums to the break, please. It does reverberate.

I've brought issues before to Manager Price. I say this is not being done right or we can fix this. He's like, okay, it's going to be fixed going forward. We've identified and it's

It's fine.

But my concern is that there's something else happening, too. We have board members saying, let's not vote on spending money, even though it's $500. Even though it's their friends and everything else. What if it's bigger than this, too?

So what do you want to see happen? Do you want to see an investigation happen?

What does everyone else want to see? I've been the one that's bringing this forward. I want to just see... I don't know what I want to say.

Gildner is, so let's troubleshoot what our options would be. Gildner, would an investigation of this issue and perhaps others, I'm not exactly sure what he's maybe pondering here, is an investigation possibility if the council were to?

I don't know what more investigation that I would do. Everything seems rather straightforward in terms of what happened. It's the corrective action at this point in time. As he explained to me, what would make it go away is if the DDA board were to meet and say, we approve that transaction after the fact. We can't make the DDA do that, of course. We can put out a request, but beyond that. So I'm not keen on. Ethics investigations, I've made that clear to Jim and anybody else who's asked. I think that we've had enough of those, frankly. But what are you accomplishing if two of the four are no longer on the board? One is the executive director, and I suppose you could have one as to the third member who's still there, who seems to be rather marginally involved of all the four.

On that as well, when we do ethics investigations, part of our ordinance is the first step is to see, rather than, it doesn't always have to be like a prosecution case against it. It should be, we do the least intrusive means first. We go to someone and we explain the, how can we correct this moving forward? And if we can do that, then, you know, and if there's no continued harm, then that is the first step in that. And I believe that's been done. I know that Mr. Cosco doesn't believe that This issue has completely been rectified for this, but I don't see them doing anything like that moving forward. Again, this was a transition time when they had an interim director.

So, I mean, this is a couple weeks after Mr. Steffes was hired. So he comes in and submits this check request. Someone is behind the scenes saying, hey, submit this check request. I want this money. I mean, I don't know.

Who knows what's really happening.

I have to believe he also didn't get hired in and said, I'm not going to talk to counsel.

That just doesn't seem like something a new hire is going to do.

So what do you want from this?

Well, I mean, one of the actions we can do is I believe we can also request money back from the paper. We could send a letter to the DDA saying, hey, you need to fix this. We've identified an issue. I think we should put something down

So we want to send them something official in writing that the Council co-signs.

Perfect.

So, Gildner, is there any way to enforce that?

No. I mean, okay.

But then it's on the record and you would be satisfied with that?

I mean, if nobody wants to remove members for this, I don't care about that. If we want to just correct this so it doesn't happen again, so we actually... To be clear, I do not want to remove Jerome or Dave. Yeah, exactly.

Okay, so do you want to go ahead and formulate a motion for council to consider?

So, I mean, I think the. So, how would how do I work something like that to to for corrective action actions of. Hold the vote we request we demand. We require it doesn't matter.

I don't think it matters. No. All right because. they're going to do it or they're not. Either way, we don't have any authority beyond making the request or the demand.

Well, we do. We could kick them out of our building. We could make it difficult for them. So there are actions we could do if they choose not to.

I mean, you could do that without writing a letter.

I mean, you're saying we don't have any options to enforce it. So we do have something we could do.

So I would say something along the lines of...

I mean, just have them tell us what's wrong.

We'd like you to take corrective action and either do a retroactive vote that approves the expenditure or get the money back. Those are like the two options.

Well, I mean, you still have to speak on behalf of the entire board without permission. So the money is not the only aspect. So does that make sense?

So what do you want to do to rectify that portion? I don't know. They have had educational classes from Main Street since then, correct?

As far as just PA57?

Yeah, PA57 and they went over it.

But they have, I mean, obviously, Director Stevenson has a lot more education in that than, you know, the previous, we have a full-time person doing this all the time. And we haven't had any issues since that I know of in this aspect.

So typically continuing education is something that people look to, Jim, for, you know, kind of guaranteeing going forward that processes will be followed to the, you know, to the best of their ability to the letter of the law, the ordinances and everything else. So would you feel satisfied with that? Just knowing that going forward? If they identify the issue. If they identify the issue.

Identify the issue and say we're voting on it. If that would help, would that help the issue?

Build your motion accordingly and make your motion.

I'll write it out.

Thank you.

Madam President, I just also want to remind you of public comment, as this is a new item.

Okay, thank you.

Yep. Does someone have something else?

No? No.

I thought someone said something.

Yeah, no, they were reminding me, since this is a new item to do, public and council comments after discussion.

I mean, I'll make a motion to request our Village of Holly DDA to identify and take corrective actions regarding the September 19th, 2025 invoice from Mattson Collective LLC in regards to the Holocaust advertisement.

We have a motion from Koskola. Do I hear support?

I'll second.

We have support by Weinbrenner.

Any public comment on this item?

Hearing none. Seeing none. Council, comments.

Does the DDA have a purchasing policy?

At the time, if I remember right, Lisa, help me out with this. Councilman Ryan asked if the DDA had a purchasing policy, and I believe at the time, they only had the village's purchasing policy to go by?

Correct. Well, would expending $500 from the interim director at the time fall under that policy?

Yes.

So to me, it sounds like it was already approved by at that point. So once again, the conflict is...

Hold on. Let Lisa answer, you guys. Nobody let her finish her sentence.

So the purchasing policy is because the Holly post is a Lisa, can you speak in the mic please? The Holly post is a unique entity or vendor. So what's required in the purchasing policy is that the director, which would have been Kevin, um, he to write a narrative of why they did not go out for bids and why they didn't get other quotes for the advertising. So that's what he had done. And that's what we attached to the, um,

Invoice yes, but then there was the 2nd piece where any expenditure over. Was it I don't remember was it 200 dollars requires board approval.

I don't think so. It's because, again, it's up to, it's bids and phone bids, and I don't have the purchasing policy right in front of me, but it is, there's phone bids, and then there's written bids, and then it can be approved. I don't believe it's $500. I don't think that's the lowest.

So was it over $200 then that they had to have board approval?

Yes, over $200 they had to have phone bids.

Okay. Well, the bids weren't necessary because it was a unique business. This is all kind of coming back to me as we're talking.

Yeah, that's where the narrative comes from, Kevin.

Yeah, I remember that part. And I'm not talking about bids, but I'm just talking about board approval for expenditures over a certain dollar amount. That's not part of the purchasing policy?

It is, but I don't think it's that low of an amount.

Oh, you don't think it's that low?

Yes. Okay.

Okay. So the issue is, you're still conflating this purchasing policy issue. So we had three members. It looks like three members of the board. One member worked for the publication that was getting money.

I get the conflict of interest issue for that.

So if our purchasing policy doesn't apply in this instance, because state law mandates that you must have a two-thirds vote of the board to override a conflict of interest. So you just can't just give money to people without board approval, and

Right, but the interim director at the time wasn't the one that had the conflict of interest.

The board member did.

So... He's talking about Ms. Allgaier. Right, but from my understanding on this email, it was the interim director that approved that purchase. And then it went to Stephenson, who did the corrective action after the fact.

So are you aware of any other interim director expenditures that they've approved like this? No.

So...

Or any other advertising that hasn't been approved?

I want to verify something you said, Jim. You said it would require a two-thirds vote by the DDA to override a conflict of interest. Gildner, is that accurate?

I don't know where the two-thirds comes from. Could be in their bylaws. I don't know. I think that was state law. Not that I'm aware of. Okay.

Madam president may make a recommendation.

Yeah.

So we don't spend too long on this. Yeah. If, if what the council would like to see is it just be added to a DDA agenda just for a, you know, after the fact approval. let me just ask Kevin to add it to they have a meeting next week because of the Labor Day if he can add it to next week's agenda and if he cannot if he doesn't or they refuse to it gives us a little more time to formulate or articulate a better response as far as a specific motion I know that it just pushes it off another month potentially, but if they if the answer is you want it on a Their agenda to get an approval. I don't foresee Kevin having any issues adding it to the agenda. I not to speak for him, but again, without even having any kind of motion here, I think that Kevin and I can just take care of this. And if they refuse to or they don't do it, then we have a little more time to articulate a response.

So can I say something as well? Because I did talk to Kevin about that and what they do on their agenda. So like when they want to approve purchases, He just puts all of the check requests in the packets. And then they do like a blanket consent saying, okay, do you approve all these purchases? And that's how the board votes on the purchases. So that $500 was in one of the board packets. I can't tell you which one. I'd have to go back and look. But it was one of the DDA minutes.

It was not.

It's one of the $500 line items. It was not included.

The check request was not in any DDA packets.

Didn't you FOIA any? Yeah, and he wasn't given anything. He said, if I recall, and correct me if I'm wrong, Jim, but you said that you were told there was no such, no materials available for that FOIA request, correct?

No, I did get FOIA information back for the $500 one.

Okay.

But never a check request.

I would love to see you, I would love to see this issue be put to rest. So would I. Right. So, what can we do here?

So. As long as Kevin's okay, but I mean, what's. What's our harm with gauging council's interest and asking them to put it on the agenda.

Yeah, so you want to be in our minutes then you're going to keep your motion on the table.

Yes.

And and and the motion was asking them to identify what the issue was and do a corrective action.

And I'll say this identify any potential issue. I'm in my motion. Identify any potential issue and take corrective actions for any potential issue.

Buster, do you amend your support?

I'll amend my support.

Okay, that motion is amended to them identifying any potential issue and taking corrective action. Lisa, will you call the roll?

Madam President, not all counsel got to speak yet.

Oh, go ahead, Daniel.

I'm not trying to be rude by that, but my question is, was that the only $500 full-page ad that the DDA took out, or was there a couple times they did that?

There was a couple others, I believe, right?

There are other ones. All the other ones were voted on.

I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't just one, and there was a reason why there was just one. If there was other ones, good.

Well, so why were the other ones voted on?

That's the law.

Do you happen to recall, Lisa, why the other ones were required to vote according to DDA and that one didn't?

I do not. I do not know that answer.

Okay, so hopefully that's something that could be addressed if they were to decide to accept the encouragement from Mr. Koskela here to take corrective action and identify issues is that kind of consistency.

All right. Any other council member comments?

Okay. Lisa, please call the roll.

Cascola?

Yes.

Wendell?

Yes.

Ryan?

No.

Cole? Yes. Weinbrenner? Yes. Brandon?

Yes. Motion carried. Do I have a first to consider item A of new business? Nobody wants to do it, huh?

I'll make a motion to consider item A of new business.

We have a motion by Cole. Who's going to support?

I'll support it.

We got support by Wendell. Thank you, Shannon and Daniel. All right, Director Rathsburg, would you like to introduce this item?

Good evening, council. Uh, in front of you as a council action request, uh, to spend 3000 dollars out of the parks, uh, project funds for a fence study at park. This is the 1st step of our 5 year plan that, uh, you approved about a year ago. It's taken us a little while to get it in front of you, but here we are. Um, we did receive 2 bids, 1 of which being David resource group. Davey is a very large company who has lots of resources in their toolbox. The other group was a little bit smaller and I had reservations about the size of their company. Davey also had provided us with an extra quote for like the full project scope of work that we were really looking at doing so that was kind of an added bonus to really give us a baseline of of what we were looking at so staff would encourage approving the contract with Davey Resource Group

I would like to talk on this for a moment in the absence of Councilwoman Kyer, if possible. Sure. This is something that originally had been on the radar of parks when I was serving on parks before I was a member of this council. Originally, CISMA, an Oakland County organization, was supposed to help with this. So this was a problem that was identified years ago. CISMA lost its funding, and so it kind of put on a little extra Time into this to get everything under its belt. Like Danny said, it is part of the plan. This had been part of a project when we had trees coming down. They're going to study what could be a unique. Ecological then really, but I mean, that's what it's called. So they do need to do this study before we can do any kind of improvements on that park. That would be water fun. So this isn't something new. It's something that's been budgeted for a while. I know Amber's been on it and was willing to take over before CISMA kind of stuttered out. It lost its funding, but glad to see it back on the business.

Council, any other comments? Thank you, Daniel. Any public comment? Hearing none. Seeing none.

Clerk, please call the roll. Weinbrenner?

Yes.

Kaskawa?

Yes.

Wendell?

Yes.

Ryan?

Yes.

Cole? Yes. Brandon? Yes. Motion carried.

Thank you, counsel.

Thank you. Do I have a first to consider? No, we're skipping item B, right? Yes. Okay. Do I have a first to consider item C?

I'll make the motion to consider the approval of resolution 2026-042, amending the truck routes within the Village of Holly. I'll second that motion.

We have a motion by Ryan. We have a second by Weinbrenner. Chief, the floor is yours.

Good evening, counsel. Thank you. This issue... before I read the car that's before you, but this issue has been an issue that has come to the police department from various sources, not only council members, business owners, people in the community. So with that, the Holly Village Police Department is requesting the removal of Maple Street and Saginaw Street as designated truck routes. And we would basically be removing from our ordinance the sections where it includes Maple Street from the west village limits to Saginaw Street and Saginaw Street from Maple Street north to the village limits. Right now those are an approved truck route and this request would be to remove that which would leave remaining just the Grange Hall section of Village Roadway. These roadway sections are currently identified as designated truck routes under Chapter 76, Schedule 1 of the Village Code. Grange Hall Road is also designated as a truck route and would remain unchanged. The purpose of this change is to reduce unnecessary through-truck and heavy commercial vehicle traffic through residential areas and the downtown business district while continuing to provide reasonable access for businesses requiring deliveries and commercial services. The character of Maple Street and Saginaw Street corridors has continued to develop. Residential properties, local business, pedestrians, on-street activity, and an increasingly active downtown business district are directly affected by heavy commercial truck traffic. The village has made significant investments in improving and strengthening its downtown with an emphasis on creating a safe, attractive, walkable, and economically vibrant business district. Routine through truck traffic that has no destination within the village is inconsistent with those objectives. This proposed amendment is also consistent with the stated purpose of Chapter 75, which includes protecting public safety, reducing unreasonable truck noise and vibration, protecting streets not intended for truck traffic, preserving neighborhood quality of life, and still providing adequate truck service to business and residences. This change would not prohibit trucks from making legitimate local deliveries, pickups, or service calls. Chapter 75 already provides an exception allowing restricted class vehicles with a village destination to leave the designated truck route and use the shortest reasonable route necessary to reach the delivery, pickup, or service location. The ordinance defines the restricted class generally as motor vehicles weighing 14,000 pounds or more, subject to the exceptions stated in the ordinance. The intended result is straightforward. Commercial trucks with legitimate business in Holly may continue to access their destination, while heavy trucks merely passing through the village will be directed away from Maple Street, Saginaw Street, and the downtown business district. The staff recommendation then is to approve the amendment to the village truck route designation, remove the identified portions of Maple Street and Saginaw Street from the truck route system and mapping, and update the official village truck route map and authorize the installation or modification of appropriate traffic control signage.

Council any discussion I think this is 1 item council. We talked about a couple months ago. So. Great, I heard you guys were already working out too. So. I, uh, I did speak with the chief. Um, I was talking about something. We're talking about for some reason, and, uh. The chief was actually out there pulling over vehicles, um, trucks to figure out where they're going. So he's like, yeah, you pulled one rope right in front of my house. I was like, you didn't see it? Normally I would see everything that happens around my house. So I'm sorry I didn't see it there. But I wanted to thank Chief for actually getting out there and figuring out where these trucks are going. So I think there's been quite a bit of research that's gone into this. Officer Bob Godier. When I was talking to him today, he mentioned that... He has sat down on Oakland Street. He's like, Eric, I'm out there. I never see a truck go by though. So I thank our police. So thanks for that.

Thanks, Tim. Council, anyone else? No, I agree. I think this is a first step in making sure we have to maintain the roads we have until we can figure out how we're going to improve them and keeping heavy equipment off of them without having business in the village is step one. Like it. Anyone else?

Just to clarify, that also includes North Hotlick to the village limits where Saginaw changes names after Grange Hall?

It's primarily Saginaw to the village limit on Saginaw. So that would go to Grange Hall.

I just want to make sure before you guys start getting phone calls that trucks are driving through right there.

The Oakland County map shows that as Oakland County Responsibility Road, not a village road, whether it is or not.

It is, but we are able to apply the truck route to the village and to roads within the village. So even though that's a state-designated roadway. We can still apply certain things. And just as an additional, I didn't do this, and thank you, Mr. Koskal, I did do that. I pulled trucks, pulled them over, told them right away, I said, the stop is just to ask your opinion. I said, if you don't want to give me your opinion, it's okay, you're free to go. And asked every single truck that I stopped, there was a double bottom gravel hauler, quite a few heavy loaded Asphalt trucks and they were coming off maple onto sag and on making that turn if you noticed we've had I think in the last five years probably five or six Danny could probably on this where the crosswalk more than that where the cross Beacon is being knocked down Because they can't make that turn so the axles jump the curb and knock out the traffic And then Oakland County has to come out reset this stuff up So it's it's been an ongoing event the the downtown no longer accommodates the heavy truck traffic Each of the trucks I stopped were simply, I asked them two questions. Why did you take this route and where are you going? And every one of them were going to a project in Genesee County, and the why was because it was an easier route to take. The easier route to take, I think, is easily redefined in our ordinance. And I think this allows us to protect our streets, our downtown, even our homes in that area from the vibrations and the damage. And the only difference is all the truck traffic being restricted or moved from this route simply goes to the north and takes Grange Hall Road and they have the same access. And I will also state that if there is any truck business within the village, we have industry in the village that requires truck access for delivery and pickup of products. Our ordinance already addresses that. They can take the most closest and easiest, most direct route to their business and out. This prevents the continual nonstop as a heavy truck route throughout our community.

I also think it's pretty proactive with Davisburg or Springfield Township right now with their potential of the gravel pit that's being built that we don't have gravel trains cutting through our area too.

Council, I got 1 question. I mean, I'm totally agree 100%, but my only concern is, is how are we going to have a semi or a truck driver gets off at how I wrote from 75 and decided to take it all the way in. And then gets to the village limits and realizes. I can't go no further, you know, it's like, okay, is there a way we can have something posted further up that they do not to get off of that exit? Well, and that let us do that or.

Good question, and I have the answer.

I know you do.

Believe it or not, under state law, we don't, so in my research of this, I also involved our waymaster, Oakland County waymaster, and Alex, who is our chief traffic engineer for Oakland County, road commissioner for Oakland County. Both of them reminded me, you know, chief, no signage is required. And I said, well, gentlemen, I want signage because without it, We have truck traffic, number one. And number two, I want to be fair. I think it would be rather cruel to take an existing 30-year truck route and shut the switch off overnight and not have signage and then have trucks come downtown. We're going to pull them over. That's not who we are as a police department. So I am continuing my work with Alex at the Road Commission. We're identifying every area where you could access the village that would still allow you a cutoff. So not only at Dixie Highway and East Holly, but also I-75, any place where you could come into the village on this. We're already stopped at Milford Road and Broad. There's already signage there that prevents coming up Broad or South Saginaw. So that's already covered. That's not our issue. So we're looking at that signage right now. Once kind of a cart before the horse. So once we amended the ordinance, then I can work with our waymaster and our road commission. And in addition, they publish information to trucks and trucking companies where these routes are. So I've been fielding calls from trucking companies because our road commission and waymaster are already putting that out there, that this is about to change.

Any public comment?

Hearing none. Seeing none. Clerk, please call the roll. Wendell?

Yes.

Ryan?

Yes.

Cole? Yes. Weinbrenner? Yes. Cascola?

Yes.

Brandon?

Yes.

Motion carried. Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Item D. Chief Watson, would you like to introduce this item?

Good evening, council. Before you, you have two new ordinance requests. The first one is a temporary use ordinance. And this ordinance allows temporary sales associated with existing principal use, applicable zoning districts, and creates a registration process administered by the zoning administrator. And the application includes basic information about the applicant, site plan, identifying the lot, buildings, parking, fire lanes, and location of temporary activity. The zoning administrator then evaluates several straightforward public safety land use considerations. The temporary use cannot create an unreasonable hazard to public health, safety, or welfare. It requires adequate off-street parking and traffic circulation. allows emergency vehicle access and designated fire lanes and the activity must comply with other applicable village ordinances state and federal requirements and it cannot create unreasonable impacts on neighborhood properties through noise lighting traffic or other operational characteristics. This ordinance distinguishes between different kinds of temporary activities instead of treating everything the same. A temporary tent or sidewalk sale associated with existing business can generally operate up to three days with a minimum seven-day gap between occurrences and no more than three occurrences per calendar year. Seasonal sales, including things such as Christmas trees or fireworks, can operate for up to 30 days. Council also retains the ability to authorize temporary uses associated with special events that might not otherwise fit neatly within these provisions. What I like about this ordinance is it creates consistency without unnecessarily burdening other businesses. If somebody wants to have a sidewalk sale, put up a temporary tent, conduct a seasonal sale, or hold another temporary activity, we now have a process. Administration knows what to look for, the applicant knows what is expected, and police, fire, and DPW aren't left trying to address problems after the activity has already started.

This is one that Chief Watson and I have been working on for quite a while, answering some of the problems that we've seen in the community. And he also has already brought it to the Planning Commission and got approval for both of these through that commission as well.

Do I have a motion to entertain item D?

I will make a motion to consider the approval of Resolution 2026-043, creating an ordinance establishing temporary use standards within the village of Maui.

Support?

We have a motion by Quoll. We have support by Ryan. Any public comment? Hearing none. Seeing none. Council? No-brainer? Okay. Lisa, please call the roll. Wendell?

Yes.

Ryan?

Yes.

Cole? Yes. Weinbrenner? Yes. Cascola?

Yes.

Brandon?

Yes. Motion carried. Thank you, Chief.

Thank you, Council.

Do I have a first to consider item E of new business?

I'll make the motion to consider the approval of Resolution 2026-044, creating an ordinance establishing mobile food establishment standards within the Village of Holly.

I'll support. We have a motion by Ryan. We have support by Cole. Chief, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Madam President. Food trucks have become increasingly common at community events, private businesses, and other locations throughout the village. They are a great addition to our events and to our downtown, but because these units involve cooking equipment, propane, generators, electrical equipment, open flames, and public interaction, I believe we need a consistent process for ensuring they are operating safely. The intent of this ordinance is not to make it difficult for food trucks to operate in Holly. It is to establish one clear set of expectations for everyone. It establishes a village-wide standard for mobile food establishments. It requires an annual Holly Fire department permit and inspections before operation requires operators to maintain equitable Oakland County Health Department and State of Michigan permits and approvals. It addresses important life safety issues including propane, generators, electrical equipment, fire extinguishers, suppression systems, safe placement in service areas, wheel chocks, emergency access, grease, wastewater, and trash disposal. And it requires permission from a property owner before operating on a private property. It does put time restraints on it, creates an actual enforcement mechanism if an operator repeatedly refuses to comply, including suspension and municipal civil infraction provisions. It creates consistency and expectations for all food truck operators in our community. We also took this to Planning Commission last month and received approval to bring it to you too today. I'd be happy to answer any questions on this ordinance proposal.

Council?

I have one. Is there only supposed to be inspected one time a year?

I'm sorry, can you repeat that? They would only be inspected one time a year? So they are inspected annually, and then as they go to the site, we also go out and inspect to make sure that they're still in compliance.

So every time, let's say, if you had a food truck, if it came here, it would be inspected every time it was set up here. Cool.

Do you have the manpower for that?

It's Curt and I. I do have four potentials that are going through the class now. So we are building our bench so that if Kurt and I are unavailable, we do have staff that are trained in recognition of those hazards so they'll be able to perform those inspections.

Chief, I want you to just give just a quick pitch about all the stuff that you guys are doing at like a state level, you know, for food trucks and kind of setting the standard not only within Oakland County but also within the state in regards to food trucks.

Thanks Village Manager, Tim Price. So, you know, I have to give, I do have to give Kurt the accolades here. Kurt, this is his baby. He's been very passionate about food trucks. We have partnered with iRoll Internet Reporting Online. which is a nationwide platform that stores every food truck in the state of Michigan. We actually had one that came up from Ohio, so we were able to look at that food truck, the last inspection it had, the fire department. But we are one of the leading frontiers here in Oakland County. with food inspections, the programs, the inspections. So we're super proud that we're able to put our stamp on this, but we just didn't have the backing without an ordinance. So with this ordinance, it kind of reinforces some of the things that we've been doing for the last several years, but now it just gives us a little bit of teeth in case we have some food trucks that may not be following all the rules and regulations. And it also protects a lot of our brick and mortars too. So I think that's super important component to this as well.

Council? Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Any public comments on this item? Mr. Love?

I guess the question I have is, a standard for the state, or does everybody have to have their own standard all over the state so that it makes it confusing? That's the only thing I wonder about.

Thank you, Mr. Love. Public comment? Hearing none. Seeing none. Clerk, please call the roll.

Ryan?

Yes.

Cole? Yes. Weinbrenner? Yes. Cascola? Yes. Wendell?

Yes.

Brandon? Yes. Motion carried.

Madam Chair.

Yes.

If you don't mind, I know we don't normally answer that, but I think this is important for transparency. We do follow the state standards, so we don't make them jump from any additional hoops. We are following the state standards, so the expectation is hopefully the same. Other municipalities do alter it, but we held pretty firm with the state.

And part of that sticker program is to say, everyone's following the same standards. So that it, because in the past, it had been kind of like the Wild West, that Holly might have a different standard than Fenton, than, you know, surrounding communities. And it's really to have a community of groups that are saying, we are following all the same state standards, and this is the seal of approval of it.

Thank you for that courtesy, gentlemen. All right, we have consent, F&G, and I think, Daniel, did you pull both of these? Yes, I did. If you would introduce those. We'll start with, do I have a motion to consider consent F, consideration of the approval of the Comcast franchise renewal?

Let me get up to it one second. The reason why I pulled up...

I'll make the motion for Councilman Wendell to consider on the consent agenda item F, the approval of the Comcast franchise renewal. I'm absolutely for the rest of that song.

Okay, we have a motion by Cole.

I'll support.

We have support by Ryan. And Daniel, take the lead.

The reason why I pulled it is because I was wanting to know if we did any other, looking to see if any other providers give us any better deal on it. I know that Comcast is one of the bigger providers Providers in the area, but I think that we might be able to get a better deal or more of a rebound effect from another carrier Okay, mr. Price I

up to 5%, we're requesting 5%. It's really just, how are we collecting on them

Is the hold music over? The punishment for that is you have to karaoke the rest of the song. I'm kidding. Please don't. Mr. Price, I have one follow-up question before I go to public comment. How expensive would it be to change carriers, to do all the paperwork involved?

You know, there's a lot of legality questions on that because this is part of Uniform Video Services Local Franchise Act. It's not like we're going out to bid for these kind of things. It's them being able to operate within our community.

Yeah, and on that point, this is not an exclusive arrangement. We have limited ability. If someone comes in and applies for a franchise... we have very little authority to restrict them. And so even the contract that they send to us is highly regulated by the state. Theirs hits all the points. So you can have other providers, but I don't see that as a basis for not approving Comcast under the circumstances.

So this isn't to approve them as the people that we're contracting with through the Village to Hold Comcast. This is for them to operate in the Village of Holly. Right. Okay, thank you.

Satisfied? Yep.

And I believe the motion is to accept the full amount we're allowed to accept.

Okay. And was that motion made correctly?

I read it from the... She read it from the thing.

Okay. Public comment? Hearing none. Seeing none.

Clerk, please call the roll. Weinbrenner?

Yes.

Cascola?

Yes.

Wendell?

Yes.

Ryan?

Yes.

Cole? Yes. Brandon?

Yes. Motion carried. Do I have a motion to consider the approval of Resolution 26-040, recognizing September as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in the Village of Holly? Mr. Wendell?

I'll make the motion to recognize September as a suicide awareness month in the village of Holly.

I will support.

And the reason why I pulled this one down was not for anything bad. I did find out later on when I was doing some more research that today is actually National 988 Day, and I'd like to piggyback on that

motion that we have for recognition and recognize that 98 is national 988 day in the village of holly thank you for saying that um any public comment on this item hearing none seeing none council any further discussion lisa please call the roll mad president what would this amendment look like

Do you want to actually, are we?

I didn't think that was an amendment. I thought Daniel just wanted it on the record.

Yeah, just wanted it on the record.

Great, just verified. Sure.

Kaskala?

Yes.

Wendell?

Yes.

Ryan?

Yes.

Cole? Yes. Weinbrenner?

Yes.

Brandon? Yes. Motion carried.

Madam President, would you like me to read the resolution since it's the proclamation we usually do that.

That would be great. Thank you, Tim. I think Daniel will appreciate that, too.

Thank you very much, Tim. So this is Resolution 2026-040, Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Whereas suicide is a serious public health issue that affects individuals, families, friends, workplaces, schools, and communities across Michigan and throughout the nation, and whereas every life has value in raising awareness about suicide prevention can help reduce stigma, encourage open and compassionate conversations about mental health, and connect individuals with support and resources. And whereas recognizing warning signs, checking in on those who may be struggling, and knowing where to turn for help can play an important role in preventing suicide and saving lives. And whereas individuals experiencing emotional distress, mental health challenges, or thoughts of suicide deserve compassion, dignity, understanding, and access to appropriate care and support. And whereas families and loved ones who have lost someone to suicide, as well as those who have survived a suicide attempt, deserve the continued support and understanding of their community. And whereas Suicide Prevention Awareness Month provides an opportunity for residents, community organizations, health care providers, first responders, schools, businesses, and local governments to work together to promote hope, connection, education, and awareness of available resources. And whereas anyone experiencing a mental health or suicide-related crisis may call or text 988- to reach the suicide crisis lifeline and receive confidential support. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Village Council of the Village of Holly hereby recognizes September 2026 as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in the Village of Holly and encourages all residents to learn the warning signs of suicide, support those who may be struggling, help eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health, and remind one another that help, hope, and support are available. Beautifully written.

Thank you, Tim. And Daniel, thank you for these. He got us these bracelets that says, You Are Not Alone, that say, You Are Not Alone, and Together We Fight. A little pink life jacket. Do these colors mean anything?

The pink jackets are for breast cancer awareness. The other keychains, those ones, are for suicide awareness. I do have a couple more up here that I have left over. If anybody from the audience wants one, they're more than welcome to come get one.

Thank you.

Yep.

All right. As item F will move us into... Closed session, I would first like to do reports and council comments. Tim. You're up.

So, a couple of fun things that we're doing at the end of a fun and important things we're doing at the end of this week on Friday, the fire department is doing their day of remembrance at last. Presentation at the last month's council agenda chief Watson did a presentation about what we're doing At the event start at 8 a.m. I'd encourage all of our community that would like to attend come out it's really You know, it's a solemn day, and we're going to be reading off the names of 343 first responders that lost their lives on the day. The following day, September 12th, we're having our holidays celebration, including our parade. I think, can people still register for the parade? Yes. Yeah, we can still have people register for the parade. There's cash prizes from donations. for the best floats, so please do that. And online, there is a schedule of events for the day that our volunteers have put together. It should be a fun day for everyone. And, you know, there's a lot of other stuff going on, but I'm gonna kind of leave it here with the positive things.

Thank you, Tim. Lisa? So bear with me because I I know I've missed a few meetings so I have a couple pages here So I'm gonna give a little update on the FOIA So for the month of August the village of Holly has received 14 FOIA requests We have completed and closed 13 of them with one awaiting of a deposit payment we still have two historical requests one in lawsuit status and the other awaiting a deposit payment and Update on projects. The utility pole pollution. AT&T, along with Consumers Energy, has addressed the dangerous leaning poles. Consumers Energy is working on 29 poles, and as of the last update on September 1st, they have removed 17 with only 12 poles remaining. They are continuing communication with me on a biweekly basis, and I'll report monthly on this project until it is completed. There are currently... And I also wanted to say they are currently working on the more complex poles, so the progress may seem a little slower. And the complex poles are ones where there's actual electricity attached to the poles. The second project update is for the fire hydrant repair. We met with Oakland County to discuss the reprogramming of the code enforcement funding to assist with the repairs and replacements of the fire hydrants. There was a public hearing last month regarding the reprogramming and the village has submitted the environmental study and letter of request to reprogram the funding. There are additional maps that need to be submitted and I'm working with Danny to get these maps so that we can submit them to Oakland County for review. Once approved, DPW can order the equipment and begin working on the eight inoperable fire hydrants within the village, and that's after they approve it. The ninth inoperable fire hydrant was repaired during the last water main break with village water funds. The third project update is the painting of the tops of the fire hydrants within the village. We have an Eagle Scout troop interested in the project, and Danny is currently working with the troop on a date in the project map. It's come to my attention that the village was still paying a lease on the land that we had purchased from the CSX depot, where the depot is, and I contacted CSX and received a refund back for $5,600 of the overpaid lease payments. These payments dated back to 2022 and were still being paid annually even after we purchased the land. So now that has now been... Stopped. Unclaimed property. Update on that. So there was $2,100 that was unclaimed property with the state of Michigan. We received a total of $1,600 of that, and $500 was not for our entity. MML annual meeting. I had an annual meeting. I met with the representative from MML, which is Michigan Municipal League. And we had an experience rating for our workers' compensation was a good 0.81. And what I mean by a good 0.81, in 2024 and 2025, our rating was 1.34. And in 2025-26, it was 0.97. What does that exactly mean? Well, the lower experience rating means lower premiums paid. To give a quick example, MML expense, if we were paying a premium of $100,000, the MML expects to see its members at 1.0, which would be $100,000. Well, being that we are at the 0.81, we would only be paying $81,000, so it's like a $19,000 difference. And so that's a savings. I'd like to thank the department heads for training on safety-related accidents and to our staff for being more cautious in their everyday tasks. Audit update. The auditors will be on site this week. Tessa and I will be working diligently on the audit in the upcoming weeks. Tax season. Just a reminder to residents, in order to avoid paying penalties on your taxes, tax bills are due September 30th without penalty. And the last update that I have is next week I will be out of the office as I will be on a medical leave.

Thank you, Lisa.

And it sounds like you got a couple good catches that saved the village of Holly some money.

Appreciate you.

Staff, if anyone wants to say anything.

Nobody looks like they want to say anything. Jim.

No, okay. I will just update 400L when we are closing on the 22nd of September. Okay. Any surprises? No, we're doing an EPA. We're doing stuff with EPA, but an environmental study right now. Yeah, what is it called? The BEA. And we're just providing all the information, assisting as necessary. Great work.

Thank you. Madam president, the planning commission did meet as our fire chief mentioned. We've been working on the zoning map. And it's been kind of, uh, everyone brings something unique and we'll live in a different area. So it's, it's great to say. That road doesn't look quite right or why is that road there? And then, uh, row has been working with us to get everything correct and, um. The official zoning map done. Uh, chief's done a lot of work on that as well. The capital improvement plan. We've still. That still hasn't been forgotten still working on that as well. Um, we do have a new chair. Mr. Jared Hopper was, uh, was voted in. So he is the new chair of, uh, planning. Um, for finance committee. I don't know if we've actually had a meeting, but we've talked. And, uh, the number, so the numbers we see in front of us. It's after talking with municipal analytics, we think it will be slightly different. And once we have some more information, it should be slightly different.

Okay. Thanks, Jim. Buster?

We didn't have a higher meeting here the last time. The library had closed down early than that, so they're rescheduling. Tim and Lisa know that I'll be contacting Tina in Colorado to reference our conversation on the appointment method to try and set up an appointment with you both. Thank you.

Thanks, Buster. Thomas.

Just to piggyback a little bit off what Jim said, I'm glad to see Mr. Hopper as the chair. I know he's also a proponent for getting a capital improvement plan done, so I'm looking forward to him continuing pushing you guys through that, and glad to hear that Tim met with Danny for many, many hours getting a lot of that stuff done.

Thank you. Daniel.

Okay, I got a little bit here. We had an HTC meeting last month. We did an election of our new officials, I guess you could say. McKinney is now our chairperson. And we also have a meeting coming up this week for our guidelines, our district guidelines and everything else to go over. And then I had a couple things within council person comments. Mm-hmm. I saw one of the things Jeremy put in here that our ladder truck did not pass the inspection again. It failed. My question is, is how much are we going to keep putting into this truck before we say enough's enough? I know that the village is strapped for money. I know that there's no money around, but You got to look at it like we're going to spend $25,000 every six months on this, or are we going to spend $25,000 every year on payments? I don't know, but things in 1986. It's almost as old as I am. I'm older than dirt. That is dirt.

You're suggesting buying a new ladder truck.

I'm suggesting figuring out a new way to get something that's newer. I've looked at that truck many times. I've toured the station with... With Chief a couple times about it, and it's not even safe the way that firefighters get a ride. They can't be in a rear open part of a compartment anymore. And I think it's just time to try to retire that truck, do whatever we can do as a village. I mean, it's safety things. I mean, what's going to be the next thing? I don't know.

As much as I'm glad that you're supporting them and I want to support them too, I just don't think that we have anything to support them with right now.

No, I understand. I wish we could just wave a magic wand, trust me. And then I was going to ask council if anybody wanted to second me on getting Willard's thing put on the next month's agenda. I'm willing to put my motion up right now for it if anybody else wants to second it.

I'll second it.

Okay, thank you.

Tim, will you add that to the agenda for next month then, please?

And that's all I got.

No, it isn't. Earlier you said you wanted to comment on the police signs.

Oh, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's right. I did say that, didn't I? This was actually for the attorney. We have, I've seen, and it doesn't bug me at all. I've seen a couple of people put on a post that has, we support local police and fire. And they're saying they're with other people's political signs. And I want to make sure that we're not violating or nobody is violating any laws, rules. Thomas Ryan mentioned that they don't show anybody who paid for them or anything like that, you know, like paid for by the Holly Fire Police Department supporters or whatever. It doesn't say nothing on them. We want to make sure that as a village, we're doing our due diligence to make sure it's proper.

Gilner, go ahead. And then I have some input too.

So to understand this better, you're talking about, these are signs placed on private property by whoever we support fire and police. Yes. Correct. No attribution noted on those signs. It doesn't say where they're printed or who they came from. There's, I mean, We have no role to play in that.

I just want to make sure we can't be responsible for something or nobody else can be held liable for anything.

No, I mean, you have a sign ordinance, and they could be subject to the sign ordinance, but sign ordinances are extremely difficult to craft. and to enforce because of the First Amendment implications of it. I'm not in a position to comment about whether certain provisions of the sign ordinance may apply, but in terms of people not related to the village printing or posting those signs, there's no role for us to play in that.

Before you do, I think it was about 84 years ago that I sat on the public safety millage committee with Chief Narsh and a few others. 84 years ago? Something like that.

Seems like it, doesn't it? It does.

And I learned that the logos were allowed to be used by whoever. Yesterday, I learned that there is a restriction. That is, you cannot pretend to be a police officer for Holly. And I guess that makes sense, of course. But beyond that, there's no restriction. There's no nothing to say that someone can't use it. Now, Tom Ryan?

Yep. I just want to clarify that if anyone feels that it goes against campaign finance, you would contact the state's Bureau of Elections. Their office handles those complaints. That would be more of a state question than it would be a local question.

Because I just don't want to see it hashed out on Facebook, per se, and everybody's starting to get in an uproar and grouse in an argument when no one knows even what There's yay or nay about it.

That was it for you?

That was it for me, yes. Thank you for reminding me about that, though.

Sure thing. Shannon? I have nothing. Okay.

Madam President. Yes. May I go before you? I have one other follow-up finance debate. Sure. So we were digging through a bunch of records and looking at the tax bills and all sorts of other stuff. One of the things we noticed was... The solid waste, so priority waste that comes and picks up our waste. Everyone's got a $259, or everyone should have a $259 charge on their property, but some people don't. So something needs to be done with the property. I thought something needed to be done with property. Some of us did too. So there's an apartment building near me. No charge at all. I don't think the township, unless there's another contract, the township doesn't pay for garbage. You have duplexes in apartments that only pay for one garbage, but there's like five units in there. Whereas everyone gets two garbage cans per unit. So what I'm saying is single family homes are paying more than they probably need to be or should be.

Can I jump off of him for a second?

Oh, for the love of what do you got Daniel?

Oh, no, I was gonna say that, um, it's not necessarily 2 cans per household because. You can put as many out there as you want and they pick them all up. So. I don't know if it'd be something better to fight on than that would be more of a grounds to go against.

It's not so much that it's that, um, there's an apartment building with 4 units in it, for instance. And that 4 units only pay 1 garbage instead of 4, there's not 4 fees or all the buildings downtown. You have one unit on the main floor and then three units upstairs. They're still only being charged one garbage.

I have the algebra lesson on your private time. Please. My report is DDA didn't meet yesterday because it was Labor Day. They meet next week. So I don't have anything. So, do I have a first to consider? Item F of new business.

I would like to actually, I need to make a change to the wording of this, just so we are in legalities. I just talked to Attorney Brown, and we just need to remove the first case on there. So remove Mattson v. Village of Holly, Holly Village, counsel case number 26CV10537. We will only be discussing the state.

Okay, so the consideration of village council to enter into closed session to discuss with attorney litigation, Matt's inverse village case number 2025 dash 218,000 dash CZ pursuant to open meetings X, 276 of 1976. Do I have a 1st?

I will make a 1st to enter closed session for the consideration of village council. to discuss with Attorney Litigation Mattson v. Village case number 2025-218000-CZ pursuant to Open Meetings Act 276 of 1976. Do I have support?

I'll support.

We have a motion by Cole. We have support by Weinbrenner to enter into closed session. The next regular meeting will be on October 13th. See you all at the September 11th event and holidays. Thank you for coming.

I'm going to vote.

What? Did you not vote? Oh, did I not vote?

No.

At least some of you called her old face. Ryan?

Yes.

Pasqua?

Yes.

Weinbrenner? Yes. Cole? Yes. Wendell? Yes. Brandon? Yes. Motion carried.