City Council - Regular Meeting

You might be right.

Good evening. Good evening.

Inkster City Council meeting for Tuesday, September 8th, 2026 is now called to order at 7.20 p.m. Everyone, please stand for our prayer. Ms. Molden, can you bring us home?

Father God, in the name of Jesus, we thank you and we praise you for this day. Thank you for allowing us to gather here today, Father, in the mighty name of Jesus. Father God, we pray that this meeting would go according to your will. In the mighty name of Jesus, bless our mayor, our councilman, all of our residents, Father God, everybody that's here today and those that's on their way, we thank you, Father. We thank you for this time to gather together. And, Father God, we ask that this meeting be a meeting of purpose, a meeting of one mind, oh, God, in the mighty name of Jesus. And we thank you in advance in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Continue to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance.

of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Roll call. Mayor Nolan.

Present.

Mayor Pro Tem Chisholm. Present. Councilwoman Rutledge. Present. Councilman Bishop.

Present.

Councilwoman Scott. Present. Councilwoman Howard. Excuse. Councilwoman Richardson. Here. Mayor, you do have a quorum.

All right. If I take a look at the agenda, I'm going to add a mayor's proclamation under presentation, a short presentation. Anything else? Let's see what else we got. A, B, C, D. So we have D? Yes. Okay. There are four items under new business. Do we need to add or take away anything else?

Okay, what's A?

A would be the Walnut Street. Okay.

I took away A.

So A now is Walnut Street. B is block party application. Okay. C is priority waste amendment extension. And then E is voter block party. Anything else we need to change? Do we have a motion to approve the agenda?

So moved. Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded in discussion. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Okay, it passes. Presentation. All right. It feels strange being on this side now.

Good evening, everybody.

I would like to present a proclamation tonight proclaiming August 19th, 2026 as Corliss Stevens Day. Let me read it. I think I can read. All right. Whereas, Corla Stevens is celebrating the monumental occasion of her 80th birthday, having been... having been born on August 19, 1946, and marking eight decades of dedicated leadership and cherished contributions to her family. And whereas Corliss Stevens made the City of Inkster her home in 1965, she premiered Walter Stevens and moved from Cleveland, Ohio, establishing deep roots in the city where she has resided and thrived for over six decades. And whereas Corliss demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to her career through 30 years of dedicated employment with Wayne County, working tirelessly to support county operations. And whereas, following her distinguished career with Wayne County, Corliss continued her strong work ethic by serving an additional 10 years with the MGM Grand Casino prior to her well-deserved full retirement. And whereas, through decades of hard work, perseverance, and steadfast love for her family and friends, Corliss Stevens exemplifies a life of strength, character, and integrity that inspires all who knew her. Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Mayor of the City of Inkster, along with the City Council, do hereby proclaim August 19, 2026 as Corliss Stevens Day in the City of Inkster and urge all citizens to join in celebrating her 80th birthday and ironing her remarkable life and legacy. With my signature at the bottom.

What a surprise. Okay, what about the daughter-in-law?

What about the daughter-in-law?

Because they were instrumental too.

Oh, they were. I had no idea. Oh, what a surprise. I didn't even know.

You know, I'm getting old. I've known Miss Stevens since I was 10 years old. 47 years.

On to the business. No public hearings. Consent agenda.

This was a long holiday weekend City Council still drag All those not in favor say me all right hit passes boards and commissions

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

I do. I want to reappoint Jean Liddell to the Commission on Aging. Jean Liddell.

Yeah.

Okay. Okay. We're properly moved and seconded. Any discussion? Oh, the Aging Commission.

Aging Commission. Jean Liddell. Okay.

Does that spark any discussion? No. Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Passes.

And I'd also like to reappoint her to the Inkster Historical Commission, Jean Liddell.

So I move. Second.

We'll probably move to second. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Passes.

And one new appointment replacing Mr. Edmonds would be Doris Moulton to the commission, aging commission.

Is she old enough for that?

Second.

That's good. It's been probably moved. Seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. All right. Passes.

That's all I have. Thank you.

Anybody else? All right.

sent this around and some need to be re-appointed. Oh, sure did.

Oh, okay. Who can appoint?

They all want to be re-appointed?

They all need re-appointment.

So, Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to reappoint Deborah Owens to the Aging Commission.

Okay. So moved.

Second. We'll probably move to second any discussion. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Passes.

I'd like to also make a motion to reappoint June Patterson to the Aging Commission.

So moved. Second. We'll probably move to second. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. Passes.

And I'd also like to reappoint Chuck Coleman to the agent commission.

So moved.

Second. We'll probably move to second. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay.

Abstain. Abstain. My cousin.

You can vote for your cousin.

No, they told me I couldn't, and I'm not trusting that. We do not have a nepotism policy.

Mrs. Inkster. I know, I know. That's my point. We're all cousins. That's my point.

I'd also like to reappoint Gabe Henderson to the Aging Commission.

Second. Probably move to second. Mr. Mayor, does he accept the nomination? He said he ain't old enough. I want to see his ID. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Passes.

I'd also like to reappoint Rosie Allen Thompson to the Aging Commission.

So moved.

Second.

Properly moved and seconded. Discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Passes. I'm talking about Antonio.

Beautification committee. Beautification, historical, and then tip. No, he did gene on us. Oh, that's right. Yes, so all you need to have now is the beautification. And then the tip or no?

Does the show want to be on?

I haven't seen it much. I haven't seen it. I put it on there so you all can see it and maybe come up with some more. Right now they don't have enough requirements. Yes. Got you.

All right, so we need to figure out who wants to sit on those other two. Tiffa? What's that one?

They have to live in the Tiffa District.

It's just Tiffa, right? It's Tiffa?

Yeah.

They have to live in the district.

Yeah, I live in the Tiffin District.

Thank you.

But that's the way it was. I don't know if they changed that in the...

It might go door to door.

Okay.

All right, anything else on nominations, boards and commissions? All right, move down to new business.

Consider approval to purchase one vacant parcel case, LD-26-02. The parcel is located on the east side of Walnut Street between Harrison Street and Ash Street. Partial ID noted for $1,500. Please see the attached Wayne County public records. So moved.

Second. Probably moved to second. Discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. Passes.

Consider approval for the revised street closure slash block party application to take effect immediately upon approval.

So moved. Second.

We'll probably move to second. Discussion?

Just a quick question. The signature approval page.

We scratched that out.

I wouldn't scratch that out because they did do the signature approval page. That was deleted. Okay.

Thank you. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. It passes.

Consider authorizing the administration to enter into a contract extension with Priority Waste for one year at a new rate of 16.68 per household. This is an increase from the current contract rate of 14.50 per month. Please find attached the new proposed contract per the second amendment and extension.

So moved.

Y'all real excited about this one. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion?

Yeah, I have a discussion.

Sure.

Can't we just approve of giving them an increase?

They may not agree to that.

I mean, the service has just been so poor. I just have a problem with that. That's what I'm saying. I understand. That's where I am. I know we need it, but they've been poor. I just would like to see something that would make them an incentive that we want to pay them more, even though you're saying that it's allowed and you have it in the budget. I'm just still... I don't know. It's just the work. They're kind of sloppy. So I have a problem.

I understand.

I can go and negotiate with you.

They're here.

You want to negotiate? Where?

Come on up.

He's like, you're a little hesitant right there. See how much authority he has.

He's like, I'm not that much. Good evening.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Good evening, everyone. Good evening.

You guys state your names for us, please.

Sam Carmagno with Priority Waste. My name is Rudy Giovanni with Priority Waste. Okay, good. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you for having us here tonight.

Okay, I got complaints. Because I'm getting calls, and I guess all of us are getting the same calls, because you're not picking up on time. You know, backtrack even when we call. I have to usually call my DPS director a couple of times before I can get it. some answers or get the problems resolved. And it's been too hot for you not to pick up the garbage. You know, I have issues with that.

Well, yeah, I'll apologize on behalf of the company for delays you guys, you've all encountered over the last, you know, I'd say almost a year or two. We've had some major transitions since the GFL acquisition and now here at Priority Waste through transitioning CEOs. But overall things have significantly stabilized from where we were a couple months ago we've made tremendous progress in a lot of ways as far as delays we've been pretty consistently getting done every day now if there's some intermittent areas that you're still seeing I'd be happy to take a deeper look into those but overall completion has been very consistent almost every single day recently in recent times

Okay, so why can't we just extend you without the increase in the funding? I mean, I like to pay people. I know everybody, they need their money. I understand that. I'm just saying that the complaints that I've been getting, that we all been getting, and I live in an institute, even I have to call to have you come back and come back, and then the people that you have working, I mean, they'll leave trash in the street. You know, they're sloppy when they're picking up. So, you know, I just have a problem with you getting an increase even if I put you on a, oh, well, I can't put you on anything. But just the increase that we're paying you more money and you're doing less work. That's how I feel.

I know we're going from 1450 to 1668 per household so there's a slight increase there obviously cost of everything continues to go up right so it's our way of continuing to try to do the best we can continuing to improve your level of service Are you hiring more people? Yeah, we've hired, so I oversee the Wayne location, right, that directly covers the city of Inkster. So we've hired dozens and dozens of drivers since our new CEO, Aaron Johnson, has taken over. We've invested, as a company, I think $180 million into this company. A lot of that went to new assets. The company purchased 91 new assets, I believe, throughout the whole metro Detroit region. 41 of those new assets are going directly to the Wayne location. you will begin to see those assets in the city of Inkster here soon. I saw four new trucks when I left today. So there is new equipment rolling in, and that will directly impact your service and improve it.

Are you hiring now?

Yes. Yes, we are.

Inkster?

We got any candidates here?

They hiring.

I'd be happy to take your number. Equipment. Equipment.

Trucks.

Equipment. That's been a major portion of our issue since the GFL acquisition was equipment that's been run down, right? So this is a huge investment they've made in the equipment, especially on this side of town out of our Wayne location that services Inkster.

i guess i just wanted to see more um service to the community to us you know like the young lady that got up and she said that you took a whole trash can and then you want to sell her one who does that i just have a problem can y'all get her a garbage can i'll be happy

we'll speak to you after yeah that's just poor service i can tell you you know it's also going to address the poor service we've also implemented having route logistics managers we're calling them similar to route managers in the past that are now located on site compared to being located at our corporate office at clinton township so we now have some direct supervision of these of the drivers loaders helpers that are on site and they're also going to be in the field So they're going to be in pickup trucks in the field, able to rove the streets. So we lost that ability for a couple years during the acquisition, and we're now back to having that. So that's a big piece of being able to go out, look at individual addresses, see what's going on, evaluate the drivers, look for trash in the streets. That's a big step in the right direction that's happening as well right now.

And if I could just comment on that, with having the LMs, they're going to be at the yards where the trucks are actually coming out. So you're going to have that daily interaction between the logistic manager and the drivers so you can identify issues before they even happen. We want to stay in front of that. And on top of that, communication, I think, is a key thing for you guys and, of course, the residents. Anytime something, as far as a delay or a missed pickup goes, You guys need to get an answer, and you deserve that. And I think that for a while that's been lacking. And, you know, with this price increase, I think that one thing that we need to do is earn your guys' trust back. It comes with you guys and the residents. And that's something that I take pride in. I know that Sam takes pride in that, and the company takes pride in that. So we want to continue on a daily basis to earn your guys' trust with good service and consistency.

So if you don't do good service we withhold your payment?

Do you agree to that?

A fair answer to that would be I think we need to start off with showing you every day that we are capable of providing you guys that good service to the point where we wouldn't even have that discussion.

But you haven't showed it, so the trust for me is kind of gone, I guess.

I understand. Really. And it's our goal to gain that trust back.

Yeah, because your service has really been poor. And I've been living in Inkstar all my life. And as you can see, I'm... seasoned but 70 years I've been here so and you guys this is the worst that we've had so I just you know we just want our community clean We want you to deliver on time and pick up, you know, do what you're supposed to do. And the citizens shouldn't be calling me, and I'm trying to call Jerome, and I called your office and don't get answers back. So I go straight through Mr. Bivens, and then he'll text me. I'm on it. They do.

But. And that's one thing I want to eliminate is you guys shouldn't have to jump through hurdles to try to get an answer.

My point, I shouldn't have to. I'm too old for that. I can't jump through a hurdle.

And again, I want to sincerely apologize for the issues that have been going on. And I look forward to showing you guys improvements.

Can I have your direct number? I'm serious.

You can, absolutely. Absolutely. I'd be more than happy to. I do have a question. What do you manage?

This is a one-year extension, so this kind of gives us a year to show your progression on which direction we're heading. It gives us a chance to get these new assets out in the field and really start to show you the difference.

So which one is it? Both of you in charge?

I oversee the location that services Inkster.

I'm a municipal account manager for the east side, so I'm actually just here to represent Paul and Sam Sr.

Okay, when I call, who am I calling? Who's going to give me their direct number?

You can call either of us, because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what community it is. I want both numbers.

When they call me, I'm calling you.

Absolutely, I'll give you a business number.

And if you don't respond, I'm going to tell the public. I've got to pick my abatel. Really, I'm serious.

And I take you serious, and I'm more than happy, like I said, to give you my contact information. Okay. Because I want to make sure that you guys are taken care of, and I sincerely mean that.

I will call you. She's going to call. I'll call you. Okay.

Okay, cool.

Good evening. I just had a question as far as I know you talked about the logistics manager, so I'm just wondering if that is something that will resolve what I'm about to currently state. I don't know if you were here earlier when I talked about it or if there's an additional component that has to be added. But on Sherbourne Street, I had a resident just like mine on Patterson Court who had called in I'm sorry, well, he reached out to me via email, and he stated that the bulk had been missed on their entire block. And so I asked him to go ahead to the website or call the 800 number for priority to report that. So he went on the website, he filled it out and everything, and then he said, yeah, he filled it out, and what happened is they came back to pick the bulk up, but they only picked the bulk up at his house. They left the bulk for the rest of the block. So I was just curious from, I guess you could say, a technological standpoint or procedure standpoint, when that goes out, is that called... or response to that call only for that particular unit or house if they put it in, or do they survey the whole block and say, oh, no, we got to take note of this, and either circle back when we had a manpower, or was that just, you know, just humans being humans? And it was like, nope, I'm responding exactly to this one. I'm not doing the rest of this block, and they'll get it next week.

So part of getting these logistics managers on the streets is getting them in a pickup so they can verify this stuff and make sure if there's a claim that, hey, there's multiple bulk stops missed, they can go over there, look at this, and tell the driver, hey, when you go down there, service the whole street. In the past, you might send a driver out from... another city that's coming in, hey, can you grab a couple of these missed stops? And they don't know what service days where. They just know they're having an issue with this house, so they might not know all the details. And in the past, not having someone on the streets to verify that makes it challenging where you can see those types of things happen. So I think you'll see a lot of that corrected by having a route manager, logistics manager on the street looking at these in person.

And also in the past, when there was an incident where something was too heavy, like yard waste, for instance, because someone say they had an estuary to grass in decades. And so now when they're filling the bags up, it's dirt and grass, and it's too heavy for the drivers to pick up. I understand the weight limits and all of that. Don't over exert yourself. But they put a sticker on the bag alerting that resident, this is too heavy. And from that point they had to decrease how much was in each bag or they had to dispose of it themselves. When we go past certain homes sometimes and they just like from the storms or whatever the case may be and they just throw stuff out there because they're expecting the garbage man, rubbish personnel to pick it up or a DPS to just come through and pick it up. But nobody's ever called in and said, hey, I have this oversized branch out here or whatever the case may be. Are they still going to be placing any type of sticker or notification to the resident to alert them? Hey, this doesn't fit the proportions and this violates the situation and it won't get picked up or will they just keep getting passed by, passed by?

The drivers do have tags, should have tags. That states they can tag, like you said, something's too heavy, it's unacceptable for collection. So they should tag pretty much anything they're not grabbing. Obviously, you get big piles of brush, things like that. We don't really go and tag every piece of brush. But general things that we don't grab or something we're leaving should get tagged. Should get tagged, the logistics manager should be notified of anything that's left, and that's really where we strive to go. get to where they're communicating back to the manager and we know exactly what's laying what's been tagged what's been laying and that someone's approving it right so if you're going to leave this mattress gets too big you can't get to it then you notify the manager and they say okay that's approved to leave or it's not approved we need to we need to get it picked up

Well, this evening we all, you know, debriefed. And tomorrow morning he sent out a notice to the organization saying, I went to Inkster, we barely made it out. Councilwoman Richards said, follow me to my car. And if you all do not step your game up, Inkster's going to start dropping all their stuff off in front of the building. Send the briefing out.

You can CC me on it when you send it out. We'll hear the message. Thank you. Councilwoman Scott?

So we spoke multiple times about just contacting, but not everyone will get you all's personal contact information. So I'd like to hear from you all directly what's the best way to get in contact with Priority Waste when we do have these issues.

The best way, I mean, you can obviously fill out the form online. I think it was mentioned prior. You can go online and fill out the form. That's probably the easiest way for simple things like a missed pickup. Correct. No, correct. You can also, the Priority Waste Customer Service line is still open for calls. Now, we've had a lot of challenges there in the past, and we acknowledge that. We do have a third-party company out of Troy that's handling a majority of our phone calls still and that's reduced our call volume Tremendously, so there could be some some intermittent issues still but for the most part the phones are being answered And the calls are being logged so we're not dealing with the backlogs that we had for months and months and months Well, you could not get through Guys that come out and pick it up but it is in customer service as well because we do have a lot of customer service complaints and

We're upset, I understand it's annoying to get 10 million calls. However, a lot of our complaints are going unanswered. So I just kind of wanted to bring it to your attention as well. Yeah, and then just kind of whatever they said as well, just kind of disappointed. So that's it.

No, the call center, I mean, obviously if we get it picked up every day, we shouldn't be taking that amount of calls, but having that third-party call center to help assist us with those calls has made a tremendous difference in getting resolution to some of these issues that we've had.

Do you have that number on you, just so we can find the record?

You've got the corporate number.

I think we have it.

Mr. Mayor water booking He's gonna look it up on the website on a progress website where you click on the extra, Michigan portion of it It has the routing map, but it also has our former information because we change domain names Yeah, right now I have city extra calm for Jerome Bivens and our domain change to the city of Inkster gov and then of course the website as well the city extra gov and

You need to make sure they have the updated information our website our website emails So city of Inkster mi gov is the new website city, okay city of Inkster, okay

I think there's a few of you that changed in the area.

And all the emails are the same, cityofbingstonmi.gov. But initial and last name is the same for all our emails.

We'll get that updated.

The phone number is 1-855-927-8365. One more time. 1-855-927-8365. Thank you. Of course.

Will you guys be able to hang out for a few minutes? I think some residents may have some questions directly for you. Absolutely. Okay, appreciate it. We shouldn't be too much longer. Thank you. All right, so that was discussion. Y'all ready to vote? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. It passes.

Consider approval for voter's registration special event. Event date, October 3rd, 2026. Event hours, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Location, Smith Chapel AME Church, 3505 Walnut Street. Contact person, Michelle House. I'll move. Second.

We'll probably move to second. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. It passes. All right. Public participation, my favorite part.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, and residents. Quiet in the classroom.

She just told her boss to be quiet.

So this month is, we're recognizing suicide prevention, and suicide and crisis prevention for the month of September. Today is what's considered 988 day, which represents the eighth of this month, and also the contact information if you need to call for any assistance. As we recognize Suicide Prevention Month, I want to take a moment to speak about something that affects us all, not just public servants, but as parents, grandparents, friends, neighbors, and members of the Inkster community. We talk about suicide. We talk about people. We're talking about someone's child, someone's parent, someone's friend, someone who may be sitting beside us right now quietly struggling. According to the CDC, 48,000 people died by suicide in the United States in 2024. That is a sobering number, but I believe it is important to remember that every one of those lives mattered. Every one of those families mattered. And everyone who is struggling today deserves to know that their lives matter too. As a community relations director, I have the privilege of connecting with residents, families, and organizations throughout the city. One thing I've learned is that sometimes people do not need us to have all the answers. Sometimes they simply need someone to listen, check in on them, remind them that they do not have to face difficult moments alone. Suicide prevention starts with connection. It starts with asking, how are you really doing? It starts with taking someone seriously when they say they are struggling. It starts with knowing where to turn when we need help. This month, the Inkster Police Department is making suicide prevention information available at the station. We invite residents to stop by, pick up resources, and share with them with someone who may benefit. I also would like to remind everyone about the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline number. If you or someone you know is struggling, you can call or text 988 for free confidential 24-7 support. And if you are the person who is struggling, I want you to know this. You do not have to figure out everything for yourself. Ask for help. You do not have to carry everything yourself. Let's continue to please look out for one another, have these difficult conversations, and make sure our residents know that support is available, because sometimes it's just a simple conversation that is the beginning of hope. Thank you.

Thank you. Russell?

Good evening, Council. Good evening, Mayor. Good evening. I have brought up several times before in the past about William Asper. I am now still continuing to deal with him. Pursuant to MCL 764.15B, it clearly states you do not have, police do not have to witness him violating the personal protection order that I have against him. All I have to do is legally show them a video, which I have videos and footage and everything. Yes, the police have submitted a warrant in PBK. Not good enough. I'm still dealing with it. Last night, he came by my home and threw an egg at my house. I've got it all on video. Second thing. I have a wand company, okay? I've been going around in my area from Michigan Ave to Annapolis and then from Inkster to... I'm sorry, Michigan Ave to... Yeah, Annapolis and then Inkster Road over to Harrison area. And I have mowed, in the last six weeks, 41 city properties. If we are paying a company $15,000 every season, why are they only coming three times a year and they've only been here one time this entire season? If the taxpayers are paying for a service to be done, it should honestly be done with the money that they are paid for.

Yeah, we've had more than one cut this year. Latoya, you know how many? Is it two or three? How many do we have? Three. Three. We have three cuts this year. We have four different vendors that divide the city up. Five vendors, I guess.

Well, my neighborhood has been completely skipped because I've been the one doing it. I have mowed 41 properties.

I'll bet you what happens. They saw you cut it, and they get to going home with the money in their pocket.

Yeah, well, that's illegal.

I'm glad you – well, you got to let us know. If you go out and cut it, you got to let us know so we can – He has.

I've been in contact with Ms. Scott and Mr. Bishop about it. They know that I've been the one going around mowing everything. The other thing, too, is – If residents are going to get fined for having grass that's six inches or higher, and we only pay a lawn company to come three, four times throughout the season, the grass is going to get longer than six inches. It means how much it rains. True, but still, the grass is going to grow. Grass is going to get six inches or higher. If we're going to fine the residents for it being six inches or higher, we should hold the same standard for ourselves as well and have it more than... three to four times a season. I've, to date, I have spent over $1,500 out of my own pocket just on gas mowing all of these properties because I want to help make my community look a lot better. I'm not here asking for, you know, reimbursement or anything like that. However, It's the principle behind it of, if we're paying for a service, they should be here to do it. They've been in my neighborhood one time in May, this entire season. I didn't start mowing these until what, July?

so they had all of june it's your district yeah we can figure out who's the vendor in that district we can we can deal with that we've tried to figure it out and i like you said i told him like just stop doing it because of that reason and like it's his word against someone else's word but like he was saying like it's still his community and he doesn't want his community to look like that waiting for someone else to come around i'm not mad at him so i did say like I don't know. We'll talk maybe next year. He could just be a defender for his area, if that's the case.

Or before you cut, take a picture. Oh, I do. I've seen her several photos of befores and afters. So they can't say that they cut it if he cut it. I mean, we know.

Yeah, exactly. But exactly. Yeah, exactly.

And then the property that's on Ash Street, it's... I don't know the parcel number. It's right by where that open field is by Ash and Beach. The other day I was over there. I believe I made you aware of it at that one meeting. I was over there trying to clean up some of the debris and everything that's over there. A city worker approached me in a vehicle and told me if I did not get off city property that they were going to have me arrested for trespassing. When all I'm trying to do is clean up the stuff that's there. If it's that big of a deal, why do we have community members that, you know, like these organizations that, you know, want us to go out into the community and be able to clean up stuff and, you know, community initiatives, but then we're going to get threatened by city workers.

You know who that was?

It was a tall, tall guy, bald. I don't know his name, but he was in a big white... They are so biased.

He hasn't even finished describing them yet.

I don't get blamed even when he's not here.

You narrowed it down to half the DPS crews.

No, he's the only Ford F-350, long bed Ford F-350. What color? White in color.

It's a number.

It's a number on the back of the truck. Oh, I haven't seen the number. All I know is he got out and said that if I didn't get off city property, I was going to be arrested for trespassing. Which, I'm sorry, to me that's not right. Are you right? At all. Because then that makes community members not want to step up and not want to help out. Especially if they're going to be threatened with arrest for cleaning up their citizens.

I wish you'd have called BPS right away. So we could figure out who it was.

I've tried, but nine times out of ten, they don't answer the phone.

So did he think he was dumping them or something?

I tell you what, next time you call the airline's phone, call me. Because we have somebody we pay to answer the phone all day long. So unless she steps away on a break or lunch, somebody should be answering the phone. So if you don't get ahold of somebody, just call my office. Okay. I would like to figure out who that was.

To go back to the whole William Asper thing, I've already explained it to Chief Jenkins. My father-in-law has had to hire an armed security company for 24-hour protection around the house because he is driving by 10, 15, 20 times a day every day.

You said you submitted a warrant request?

There is a warrant currently at the prosecutor's office, but because it's a non-in-custody warrant, they deal with in-custody first.

Correct.

So whenever I just found out that it has been assigned to a prosecutor, but it's whenever the prosecutor gets to it. Okay.

Which means three months, four months. And during that time, I have to be in fear for my life, which is the reason why my father-in-law has hired an armed security company.

Just keep track of all your Ring Doorbell videos.

Oh, absolutely. I have ADT cameras as well, and they monitor everything.

He's going to get in front of the judge at some point, and if you can show he's been coming over and over again. Right. He's going to be a drug.

So, as I had also explained to Chief Jenkins, he is on bond out of the 22nd District Court, and he's on a personal bond. He's not allowed to have any contact with me. So, I don't know, Mr. Perkins, if there's any way that you would be able to, you know, petition the, you know, petition the judge for a motion for a bond violation.

I mean, that's an issue if the bond is... being violated, absolutely. Michael, we can take care of that in that district court. That's something you can do a lot swifter, where someone who's in a predicament like that, not giving legal advice, can get a show cause on the PPO. You have an active PPO, that's something that they will immediately attack In going down the Third Circuit Court, that's something that, you know, the first violation, it's up on the wrist. But the second violation is up to $93,000.

He's already gotten three violations from the Third Circuit, but the next one isn't. They can't get me in until November of this year. So you've done that. And they're backed up until November down there. It's just ridiculous. And the fact that he's the Westland landlord that's being sued by the DOJ for sexually harassing his tenants, I'm worried that the three properties that he's purchased here in Inkster, that someone else may fall victim to him. I don't want that to happen.

You're going to be here all night. Can you talk to Mike? I want to... I think we can do something about the bond violation, because that's 22nd District Court. So afterwards, can you have a word with them?

I'll say it from my side. Okay.

Okay. Thank you. Appreciate you. Connie Mitchell. Maureen Monahan.

I think you all know who I am I just have questions as far as ordinance go I had put a report in I think two years ago and I called and said what's the status and the guy called well it's taken care of I goes did you come in my yard did you go in their yard he said we can't go in their yard I'm having the same problem with the same customer or same person behind me. What do I do with ordinance? Does that, I mean, why doesn't ordinance tell me that it's done when you said it can't go in your yard? And yet they closed the ordinance. My complaint. Is there something I'm missing?

We have other means to find out whether somebody violated the ordinance. We have drones. We have all different means to see the violation without going in. So we can't just walk into my yard.

I said they could come in my yard, and the guy said, okay, he will. I have a camera back there. No one came in my yard ever.

So who did you speak with?

have it at home I don't have it with me it just said I want to report it again because I got the same problem and I don't want it not to get done another just quick question been having an argument with a friend about she wants to know what you guys are supposed to do versus what I as a resident supposed to do is that written somewhere somewhere in the Charter do you want to know what we're supposed to do yeah she just felt that you should be doing more and I said no no no you got to do your due diligence before you call them and it's just an argument and I just wondered for like a code violation No it was a bus issue and I said she had to call the school and she goes well why doesn't my councilman call the school that's his job and it's like wait a minute wait a minute no you got to do your due diligence first so is there someplace written that I could go to and we could me and her would have a discussion You're talking about the Dwayne Westland school bus situation and I think is that the next door neighbor we stood out in her driveway and talked about it?

No, it's somebody else. In the past, just to give a synopsis, I know on a different street, it might have been a same street, I'm not sure. But anyway, a resident did contact me about something similar because Wayne-Westland had made the school bus stop on that block. And children were in and out the driveway, standing around lingering, school buses out front, you know, for however long until they're picked up and dispersed. I did contact myself, the Wayne Westland Community School Board Transportation Department. I let them know they said that that particular time for that incident, they would look into it and try to get it on their agenda of changing where the route was for the following school year. I advise the resident of that. And I also said, just like I was talking about the residents calling priority or submitting their requests. So they hear from both sides that she called in for that. And she told me that wasn't her job. That was my job.

Absolutely.

And I'm like, well, first, you know, well, we don't have a school district, unfortunately, and we don't have any say over that because it's a public street. But her calling in or he, whoever the resident might be, would have more gravitas because that's their actual property.

And I called them every single day until they moved the route and if I didn't get anywhere I might have went to you but I just wondered if there's something that says in the charter what your responsibilities are as a councilman or mayor We advocate on your behalf as a legislative body but we don't have an actual firm say so and where school districts place their school bus routes Yeah I know but is there someplace to tell me what you do as a councilman for me?

someplace that says what you do as a councilman the rules and duties yeah something I'm trying to show her where there's something and I couldn't find anything I'll send you some information okay sounds good that's all I need questions if you want to just just follow just shoot me a message with that verbiage and I'll get it to you Sandra Kay Watley just wanted to do

Good evening mayor and council department heads Okay This is a good idea

the other hand is not a good idea this says community event sponsorship program okay and I'm here tonight and the reason I brought examples is because the council seems to be conflicted as to what constitutes what good ideas bad ideas You seem to be not doing what's beneficial for the cities when you do something like this. I'm here to strenuously object to the arbitrary allocation of my tax dollars to subsidize grown-up functions monetary shortfalls. Surely this council could have found a better use for $10,000 than to give it away. When, as fiduciaries of the city, your primary responsibility is to act in the best interest of your constituents. You ask people to trust you. You ask to be the custodians of their dollars and to work in their, to their benefit. But to utilize $10,000 of tax money, in such a manner is not prudent, it's not effective, and it's not efficient. There's a lot of things that are going on with this particular paperwork you have. Number one, where's the policy for it? Was there a policy? Is there a policy? The second thing is, has the attorneys reviewed this? Because a lot of things were left the city open to liability where this is concerned. You stipulated that, um in the application process that there's a thousand dollars per incident that you're supposed to use yet the resolution says up to fifteen hundred dollars that's kind of confusing and it's convoluted You stipulated that requirements, one of the things it says is that faith-based organizations serving Inkster are eligible to get this money. But then it says ineligible uses are religious worship and sectarian instruction. I don't know many faith-based organizations that don't engage in some sort of worship practices. Another thing that you... You request that the city of Inkster be listed on all promotional information and things of that nature. And that leaves the city open for liability if they decide to sue somebody. In here, insurance is optional. Insurance should always be something that protects the city. You're requesting a W-9. I'm still trying to figure that one out. You can't actually govern this because tax dollars, if you're using them, everybody's welcome. You're using federal money, so everybody's welcome, which opens up another problem for the police department, because now they've got to worry about crowd control and things of that nature. I would strongly suggest that council revisit this issue to determine what might be a more equitable use for tax dollars. There are a number of things that you can do and go outside the box for this. I mean, I was thinking you could ask Darren to put in a line item and so those people who are willing to subsidize these events can donate to it, some sort of donation purpose. But I am definitely against utilization of my tax dollars to subsidize grown folks' parties. If grown folks wanna have a party, grown folks should figure out a way to do it without my tax dollars. Thank you.

Thank you. Shirley Walker.

I got a smile on my face. Hi, Mayor. Hey, how are you? Hi, Council. How y'all doing today? What it is, no, I'm being nice. The Inks and Goodfellas like to say thank y'all for supporting us on August the 22nd. at Paint with a Twist. We will be trying to do it again because people are asking us to do it again. Because we fed them. We didn't give them junk food, we fed them. And y'all, whoever didn't show up missed a good dinner. Dee was in charge, she's our kitchen captain. I quit. No you don't. Never quit. So we're going to be doing more events next year. We was asked to do that and some other things that we're trying to do, and we would like your support when we give you our flyers. As soon as we get the ads, there will be ads distributed to everybody to put an ad in the Instant Goodfellas paper and we hope y'all spend a hundred dollars a piece we don't hear 35 35 35 no we were here a hundred hundred hundred hundred okay so that's why i said we're being nice i'm being nice today and y'all have a good day and i don't know where barbara is she has something else to tell you i don't know what she has something different yeah she has something different i don't know what

Shirley, could you start, I guess, soliciting volunteers for the paper drive, like now, you know, sign up for a versus? Yes. Because I know, and I only say that because I try, if I can, to get out there. And some years it's been like two, maybe three people. And then one of the things I got from residents, when I had the police out there with me one time and a sign, they said, oh, Inkster has a good fellows. And I'm like, yeah, we've been had one. But because they won't turn their head when you're standing there. They just, you know, look straight because they think you're begging. And so I was just wondering about a sign-up and then just, I guess, bigger advertising when we're out there.

What it is, we're working on having them to have T-shirts on that says, The Instant Goodfellas. And another thing we're trying to do is not to put it in the cold, because last year we had a problem. The police department froze to death. Yeah. I'm not the police, the fire department. rose to death and we apologize but they did try to help and we had other people that helped us to do the paper and stuff like that and they was cold so what we're trying to do is put it in November and do the paper because it was warm last year. And then when it got into December, everybody was freezing. So my hooker days is over, so I'm not standing on no corner no more. So, hey, I told you I wasn't going to cuss.

Ain't got some kind of violation.

I told you, I'll make you laugh.

But like I said, from now on, we're going to try to do it in November, the early part of November, and hope we get a lot of support. That's it.

Thank you. You got saved. You got saved. Watch out, gentlemen.

Chief might have to call the paramedics. I'm going to need a grandparent. April Garrett. Oh, my God. Oh, that's anyway.

No, I'm talking about.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I have a little more tame announcement here. The Westland A. Bennett Foundation is going to have its fifth annual Kids and Cooking event on Saturday, September 19th from noon until 2 at the Leanna Hicks Public Library. And we have 22 slots left for kids that are between the ages of 5 and 12, so please have them register on our website, westlandbennett.org. So we thank you. We have our special Bennett the book, the talking book will be there, and our mascot Fanny will be there. Hopefully I won't be Fanny this year. But thank you. If you all want to come, September 19th.

All right. Ms. Garrett, do you have any confessions you would like to make? No. Okay. Desiree Adams. Desiree Adams. No. Hello.

Hello. Good evening, Mayor, council members, and members of the community. My name is Desiree Adams, and tonight I am honored to publicly announce my candidacy for the Wayne Wesleyan Community School Board of Education. I also want to say that after this announcement, we're going to get out of here because it's past bedtime for my two little ones. I appreciate you all. And I came straight from work, fed them on the go to get here. I have dedicated more than 15 years of my career to improving educational opportunities for children and families across our region. As a mother of two daughters, an educational leader, and someone who has spent my career supporting schools, teachers, and students, I understand both the opportunities and the challenges facing public education today. I'm running because I believe every child deserves access to high-quality education in a safe, supportive, and welcoming learning environment. Our schools are the heart of our community, and when they are strong, our families, neighborhoods, and local economy are stronger as well. If elected, I will focus on responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources, supporting student achievement, strengthening partnerships with families and educators, and ensuring every decision is made with students at the center. I believe school board members should listen first, collaborate often, and lead with integrity, transparency, and accountability. this campaign is truly a grassroots effort built by neighbors parents educators and community members who believe we can continue moving our district forward together over the coming months i look forward to meeting residents throughout wayne westland and inkster hearing your ideas learning from your experiences and earning your trust and support Thank you to the City Council for providing this opportunity for public comment, and thank you to everyone here for your commitment to serving our community. I respectfully ask for your support and your vote on November 3rd. Together, we can help ensure that every student has the opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed. Thank you, and have a wonderful evening.

Ms. Adams forgot to tell you, she works for Wayne Risa.

I do work for Wayne Risa, and we actually just opened our Early Childhood Center in the heart of Inkster, and today was our grand opening. We had about 13 four-year-olds come in, and so that's why I'm a little less formal today, because I was down on the floor engaging with our four-year-old students today.

Nicole Scott. Who was, you just pointed at her. Oh, come on doctor.

I'm Dr. Vitaja Kendrick-Spanley. I reside in the city of Detroit, but I have family that lived on Hazelwood and Inkster before they went back home to Louisiana. September 26th, I am a mother of a son living with neurodivergent autism. I think she's met my son at some events. So I'm hosting an autism and mental health fair. September 26th at Dozier because we need to bring resources to those kids, family members that have neurodivergent, and then we're having a mental health forum. So we also need to have the support because sometimes families of kids that have neurodivergent, those families need resources as well because it's taxing on the family and the community, the church and the schools as well. I'm an educator at Detroit Public Schools, 25 years. I minister in my church. for probably 30 years, so I see the need for us to do this in the city of Inkster. What's the date? It's September 26th. It's an autism and mental health and community event. I've hosted it for seven years in Detroit, and I met someone, and they asked me to come out to Inkster to do it. I have one booklet left, so I can pass it to you. The latest mental health form I did, but I can email it to you guys. Okay.

What time is this?

It's from 9 to 2. 9 to 2. So I want you guys to think I'm being rude. I have a son. He's on the time schedule. He's 21. So he's probably, he's been texting me all day. Mom, I need help with my homework. And then that's texting on the parents as well. I think I spoke to you about it. I did the housing summit. I'm the one that did the housing summit in Detroit.

And you sent me this too. I have this one. Okay. All right. Well, thank you. Appreciate you.

Thank you. You guys have a great afternoon. You too.

Nicole Scott.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, and Department Heads.

Good evening.

Good evening. So I'm coming to you all to ask again for, so we're doing the third Thursday, so the third Thursday will be the 20-something of this month, or the 19th of this month, and we're coming because several of the citizens have asked us to do the same event on the 2nd September of this month. The event is the... Family Over Everything concert that we've been doing at the pavilion.

So you're not going to do the third Thursday?

We'll do the third Thursday. We've already got permission from you all for that. You already approved that. Now we're asking for the second Thursday because it's been such a success.

Are you doing any more before the weather gets cold?

We would like to go into October.

Okay, because I'm tired of you all coming before it has permission. So you can get all the dates and we can say okay and you don't have to come back.

So we didn't know that we were going to come before you again. It was just everybody's been asking. People have been calling. Someone even walked up to my mother and asked her if we're doing it. We've had a lot of – it's been a great success. And then we also brought in – we're trying to do more programming for Parks and Rec. And so we thought this would be a great idea because it's a very peaceful event. We're not asking for a lot. Just for your – go ahead.

No, no, we love the event. You don't have to convince us. We already did it. It was a couple times, so it was a success. Now, are you asking us for $550 is the question.

So I'm not asking you directly for the $550. My organization will take care of the insurance. The only thing we're asking for is the cleanup and a porta potty. The money that we raise, the ban, the ban will come, and then they get paid by donations.

I didn't worry about the ban, I'm just, based on the conversations we had earlier, we gotta talk about, if we're trying to slide this in the budget, I have no issue with it, because I think it's a great program, but we just had a conversation about taxpayer money going to adult parties, and that's what this is.

So it's not actually an adult party, I would say. I mean, I've been, go ahead.

Please go ahead. I'm Ashana Butts, the chair of the Parks and Recreation Department. For anyone who does not know, good evening, Mayor and Council. I had a conversation with the director, Director Clinton McDaniel, and the treasurer, we talked about What we will be able to offer, we are not going to be able to offer the covering of insurance, but we can offer one porta potty and cleanup. We did not discuss if we can do multiple dates for up to October, but we did talk about us doing a co-event thing where the money would come out of the Parks and Recreation budget and not out of the city's $10,000 budget. allotment budget, that's what we have been speaking of. So that's what we're looking at, the Parks and Recreation budget, not the one that was spoken of earlier.

So I know that you're saying that it's . . .

Well, we already agreed to two. August and, I'm sorry. Yeah, it was August and September, yes. Yeah, August and September, right. If we want to do more, then that seven has to be, I don't care what budget come out, it's still obviously we have to approve that. And we got to decide how much port-a-potty money we got in the budget, you know what I mean? Because you did it two times after, which we did not pay for the portable.

No, I did.

No. We did. So I'd be happy to do a concert every week. But if we're going to make that as part of, we need to.

that in the budget under a line item you can come out of parks and recs if we have money in parks and recs but i haven't taken a hard look at that to see if we have an extra two three four thousand dollars so mayor the one of the reasons why we were thinking about it we know that there's a pavilion that's coming up coming up next year that you're thinking and then a lot of other cities i've been fortunate enough to um help with the john lawrence event which is a very peaceful event it brings the community out and it brings the community together and we just thought we would do something um here in our city because it was it was so popular

Yeah, I mean, I love it, but we need to put that in our budget.

How much are the port-a-pies?

Huh?

How much are they?

Well, for two of them, they're $550. That's why I said, do we have to pay $550? We could probably get away with one. There has to be a handicap port-a-pie.

In the second event, we only had one out there. It was fine. Okay. We had two at the first event.

So are we doing it every week through October?

So we don't want to do it every week. We were just asking to do it the second and third. We're fine with doing it the third. We just thought because the citizens have been asking for us to do it, we just thought that we would ask, come before you again and ask to do it the second. Well, actually it will be this Thursday.

That means we've got to do something tonight, right?

You have to tell me tonight so we can get the band and all the other people together. And it's okay if you don't. We're just asking. Again, people have been calling. My mother even got a call to say, is this something that we're doing? We thought that it would be something that we could do to just kick off, you know, what you're doing next year and then also just get a feel of it.

You don't have to sell me on that. I love it. I'm not mad about that.

It is a time crunch, John. We can do it. I think we can, but we did just, I just found out about the second, this Thursday also. We have a meeting this Thursday, and that's when I was planning on discussing everything, but this is new for me also, so I understand the time crunch.

Potentially do the meeting the 4th?

So basically we're just asking for permission to do it this Thursday, which will be the second Thursday. And then we already got, and we just need the port-a-potties. And then we already got the three. I'm sorry? How much was it? I paid for them. It was $380. $380. $380 for the handicap? Yep.

I don't think that's how much.

So you all paid for the two port-a-potties. This last one was $380 for the handicapped one. I'm sorry? Yes.

Okay, because I didn't think it was that much.

For the handicapped, because remember, it's larger. Right. So the two were, I think, five something.

Why don't we do this? We'll discuss tomorrow at the staff meeting. I have the authority to do that, so we don't have to take a vote on that tonight. We'll discuss it with the staff, and we'll have the answer for you tomorrow. Thank you. All right. All right, thank you. Gabe Henderson.

Hello, family. How are y'all folks doing today?

Good.

I'm going to ask a question. Anybody, have y'all ever heard of Cardboard City? Cardboard City? Do y'all know the history of Cardboard City? But, okay, not to go into detail, you know, that was on the south side and all. It was a little before World War, well, actual World War II and all that, you know. They were building homes on the north side. and on the south side. We on the north side, the government put brick and mortar, put a whole lot of money for people on the north side. But on the south side, we didn't get that. They got substandard materials, press board and all that. But it housed some of the people during the time of war and all that, and they was able to work at different plants and all that. But anyway, Cardboard City, we're having a Cardboard City reunion picnic this Saturday, this Saturday. It's going to be, normally it's at Inkster Park, but it's going to be at Colonial Park. Y'all know where Colonial Park? Inkster Road, you know, west of, what, west of Inkster Road. Okay, north of Michigan Avenue. So you're welcome to come. What time is it? 12 o'clock. And if you, you're probably gonna see some folks you ain't seen in a long time. You're gonna see people 90 years old. We're gonna see a guy that's 99. But anyway, y'all welcome to come to our event. And hope the weather be fine. And that's, I think that's all I got to say. But a little love y'all.

Yeah, okay. So y'all welcome to come. Thank you.

I'm just here because I'm concerned about this $10,000 that you are using for residents' money, $10,000 for parties. And if we can do that, then we can come up with $10,000 to help fix my streets, my sewer system. Some of these trees and stuff around need to be cut down. Some of these vacant buildings and stuff. I think the money could be used better. than for parties. Because if people cannot afford to have parties, don't have them. Have their own fundraisers to have the parties. But don't use taxpayers' money for it. We have too many things going on at INSTA that we could use that money for. And that's just my opinion.

I pay taxes.

And I don't want my taxes going towards parties. Don't fix my street. come fix my sewer, because we flood. Every time it rain, flood up to the sidewalk. And I, you know, we vote for you all to be, to represent us. And using taxpayers' money like that, that's just wasteful. It's very wasteful. And I think that need to be considered. Like maybe think about that again. How can we do something different? instead of using taxpayers' money. That's it.

Thank you. Connie Mitchell.

Good evening, everyone.

Good evening.

First of all, on this past Thursday, there was a storm that came through Inkster. When I got to the basement after being on my first floor and hearing the roaring of the wind, and I was seated in my basement waiting for it to calm down, that is when I heard the warning. I don't understand what's going on with our warning system, but I would like for it to be investigated and improved because it should not have happened after the storm roared through Inkster. Thank God we did not have a lot of damage as did Detroit and other communities. But to hear it after I'm in the basement taking cover is crazy. So whoever's responsible for it, and I understand that there is a system behind me on Rosewood. Many cities every month test their system. I never hear it. So what are we doing? We're putting us in peril. The government has tried very hard to dismantle NOAA. So even from the Federal Bureau, we are not getting information about storms coming like we should. But we need to do better in Inkster. I'm just happy that we didn't have any more trouble than we did. But to not hear it until I take cover, it should have been going off before I had to take cover. So that's one issue. Second issue, I am tired of the lack of ordinance being enforced in our city. I have to dodge trash cans after trash day because people leave the can on the street and they walk the trash from the house to the can on the street. I don't understand why ordinance cannot get it together enough to have a plan where the day after pickup, as long as your populace has been informed as to the rules about trash, can't go out before 6 on the day before, has to be off the street by 6 on the day of. That's the law. That's the ordinance. Nothing's being enforced. How difficult would it be for us to have ordinance ride through those neighborhoods after the city has placed in the water bill that everybody receives the listing of fines that you will get if you leave your can on the street, if you leave your tree clippings on the street. If you ride up Parkwood now, you'll see stuff that's been on the street so long it's turned brown. Listen. The city of Wayne pays 53.3006 homestead mills and property tax. The city of Inkster pays 54.1387 to 64.5310 homestead mills. We pay more taxes than many people. In fact, I was told that we pay the second highest rate of taxes in Wayne County. I expect something out of my taxes and I'm not getting it. I have been an inkster since 1971 and it is going down and I resent that because my tax dollars are not being used properly. Third thing, as to the use of my tax dollars for entertainment of others, sorry, no. You are supposed to be guardians of our money. That is not good guardianship. If you want to do that, that's fine. And this means no disrespect to the organizations that have received the support. But get a block grant. Have a special party for donations. But do not use my tax dollars when I have to drive five miles an hour on Harrison Street while I'm weaving around holes, or when I come up to my home on Center Street doing the very same thing. $10,000 might not pour much concrete, but it would do a couple of yards. So use our money wisely. We pay too much in taxes to get what we're not getting as citizens of this city. I'm a homeowner. I have invested in my property. I keep my property up. And I expect that everybody else should be required to do the same. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Clerk.

Good evening. Gearing up for the November elections. Election inspector training dates will be confirmed this week. You will be notified by mail and email. Our pre-lat testing is 8 to 4, and public accuracy testing will be at 4 p.m. on October the 8th in the council chambers. Early voting will be starting October the 21st through November the 1st, 8 to 4, here at City Hall in the council chambers. September the 24th is the first day for absentee ballots to be mailed out. They will be available for issuance as well. Citywide garage and yard sales, September the 17th through the 20th. Last day to register is September the 11th by the end of the business day, which is 4 p.m., and it's free. The only thing that is required is that you have your copy of your registration form to where if we need to come by and see it we can see that you did participate and a list of addresses of all participants will be available as well so you might want to just pause yours for a minute and go over and see what your neighbor doing and that's all i have okay city treasury

good evening mayor council um did want to uh just notify everyone that uh we were a couple days late with the water bills due to the uh holiday and a couple employees being out but those have been sent so residents should be seeing those this week um you can also look that up online for uh that that's going to be the august uh charges for um the water bills. And then we want to announce that we have a new employee that started last week. She'll be at the front window for the cashiers, for anyone that comes into City Hall to pay any bills. Her name is Shavoria Collins, and we want to welcome her aboard. Everyone say hello to her. when you have the opportunity to interact with her. And we also want to wish a fond farewell to Mr. Justin Smith, a young man who worked for Treasury for about three years. Our loss is the fire department's gain. Justin is going to the fire cap. Many of you probably saw Justin there at the front window. He left us. He started last week at the Fire Academy, and we're very happy. We enjoyed our time with him, but we are, again, our loss is the, eventually will be the Fire Department's gain once he gets through the Fire Academy. So just wanted to make those announcements. Thank you. All right, thank you.

All right, Mayor and Council of Communication, Councilwoman Richardson.

Starting with me, huh? Okay. Safe date, October 17th. I did get a confirmation from the Wayne County Treasurer, Eric Sabree, where he will be coming out and those that need help with their taxes, he will be available. I have not been able to secure the complex. I'm not sure. I did go up to see if I can get that date. So I was kind of surprised that we have other things going on there. And they told me that you weren't booking anything else.

Okay. So I'm not sure where we're going to be with those construction projects. But just like your breakfast that you put on, if you want whatever condition we're in, we just kind of got concrete floors. You can have whatever event you'd like to have in there. So we're not booking anyone. But if you're okay with how it looks in there, we can have it there. I don't have an issue with that.

Okay. I'll talk to you. Afterwards, and we'll get it together. Okay. Okay, so as soon as I talk to him and get everything together and get other resources available for the citizens, then I'll let you know what's going on, but I want you to know that that's something we're working on. Also, on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Isabel, you know they did the street, and they did replace some of the siding, but they put in seeds that are growing trees. And I'm wondering, who's going to cut that? Because it can't grow up while you're coming out. You won't be able to see on the Michigan Avenue. But it's a mixture of grass seeds and plants. So the plants are growing up. And you know we don't cut that often. So that's going to be a danger. So I wanted to make you aware of that. And maybe you have to check into it and try to do something for that. OK. And one more thing. Let's see here. Oh, I did have a complaint. One complaint for the water department for paying the bills. And this did come from Dr. Woodrow Whitlow, Jr., who is Overseeing a family member he has attempted to pay the water bill and he said you're making it too difficult And he said for me to tell you I'm not gonna tell you the other choice words he had Oh, I can give you the choice words in private but not public but yes, he says that he's had three different sites trying to pay his relatives bill and each one crashes, or it takes them to another site, but they're collapsing, and they're not working. And he's tired of us doing that, and we ought to be more open to taking people's money. So I thought I'd deliver that message.

He can write a check right now. We'll take the money.

He said he'd pay it online. So I just wanted to kind of let you know about that.

I'll get his contact information.

I'm not going to give you a contact number. I'm just delivering the message. I don't want him calling me back. Okay, that's all I have. Thank you.

Okay.

I'm going to have my model stand up, please. Got his pink on. So the city is doing Paint the City Pink. I see at least four people in this room that have been affected by breast cancer. And I think as a community, we owe them our support. So therefore, we have several ways that you can support. We have on September 18th, the council meeting is gonna be held at the rec complex and you can nominate a person up until, I'm sorry, September 18th for the October 5th council meeting. Somebody who has been affected by breast cancer and they're gonna receive some items and we're just gonna honor them that night. Also, you can get you a team together. We have the 5K Walk, and you can participate in that. There's so many ways. You can buy a T-shirt. You can grab you a yard sign if you want to participate. And then I'm going to let the chief. Thank you, model. I'm going to let the chief talk about her event. And we tried to make it easy for you with QR codes. So if you get the flyer, you can just scan the QR code and participate how you can participate. But let's, as a community, come out and show this support for people who've been affected by breast cancer.

In the month of October, we're having our 100 Hollows Goes Pink. So those of you that participated last year, we had a huge Halloween party, but we had it like a week before Halloween so that we can get more participation. It was a huge success. So this year, our Haunted Hollows is gonna go pink. So we're gonna incorporate pink into our Halloween party for the community. That is gonna be October 23rd at 6 p.m., and it's actually gonna be right next door in the warehouse, right next door to City Hall. Also in October, October 16th, from six to nine at the Inkster Rec Center, we're gonna have the Pink Pajama Party. This is an all-adult party, no kids allowed, and everybody must wear pink pajamas to get in, okay? So that's October 16th at Inkster Rec.

Chief, I forgot one thing. and so the chief has at the police department she has some pink lights so if you would like to participate you can go over there and put a light in your um you know wherever you you can put this in your house you can put a light your front porch yeah thank you and we're also asking um residents to decorate their yards in pink just as a way of showing solidarity as a community

So in order to kind of fundraise a little bit, we are going to sell the lightbulbs for like $2.50 a piece. So if you're interested in purchasing them, you can come to the front desk of the police department and we have lightbulbs. So everybody please participate. This is a great event, a great initiative. And we just want to show support to those people who have succumbed to breast cancer and those who are still in the battle and those who have overcome.

Yeah, they got adaptions.

Y'all are out of order. I want to publicly say Councilman Bishop look good and his eye pink. I appreciate that. Councilman Bishop, would you like to say anything?

Can I ask a question? So you can purchase the signs. There's a QR code on here where you can purchase the yard sign. And so the yard sign is one just like this is $15.

You can make it $10.

Okay, $10. And then correct me, Lindsay, on the price. There's another one that you can order that has a person's picture on it. So if you wanted to honor someone who is surviving, battling breast cancer, or who has passed on, you can do that as well. These are ways that we can participate to honor people with the breast cancer fight.

And also those who may not be, who may not want to necessarily go online to purchase their sign, I will have order forms at the records window, at the PD, and then we'll get them specially, customly made, or you can just go pick them up. So yes.

That's it. Wow. All right. Council Member Scott, you have nothing else?

Yeah. I'll say something.

I'm gonna assume that the comments in regards to the application came from a great place I'm just gonna assume that I hear your feedback that was never my intention to misuse funds for the program because previous administrations and ourselves prior to making the application would spend well over $10,000 just supporting our different organizations, like helping buy Christmas gifts for the kids, Easter baskets, supplementing food within the city. So that was our intention on creating it. However, I hear your feedback, so it may not be a good idea. I wish you all would have came to the three to four other meetings that we had um for public feedback prior to implementing it yeah and it wasn't so yeah so ultimately um I did just want to comment and like I said kind of take my feelings out of it and say I hear you as a citizen and it just may not be and we can decide on council if that's something that we want to do is continue to fund um public events, whether it's class reunions or giving backpacks to the kids. Summerfest. Summerfest. So, yeah, we can just revisit the conversation.

Mayor Proctor? I'm so used to I was just going to ask about some of the drains. I know I sent an email, Latoria, especially like on Stanford Street. I saw some of the kids that was out there when I'm going to go check on some family after the storms have passed, if they could just be checked on because the kids, as well as myself, is out there. My mic is on. All the microphones are on. I don't know what the audio issues are. I've heard y'all all night talk about that. Troy did come out and he asked us and other people in the congregation asked if the mics were on. They are on. It's going to be something we just have to look at. I don't know exactly what's going on, why they're not picking up correctly. I do apologize that you are unable to hear us, no, clearly and loudly. I was just talking about the storm systems. I know Amherst Street does have a lot of flooding over there, and that's constantly brought to the attention of DPS, but I was also asking, because when I went on Stanford Street to check on some family right after the storms, it was a lot of flooding going on. They were able to clear those drains, some of the kids out there as well as residents, and it went down, but some spots it just wasn't going down, and I think Because of debris and trash that kept getting sucked on there, I think there's a lot probably down there. I just wanted to appeal to the residents. I know Councilwoman Howard always appeals to the residents about keeping your grass clippings out in the street, clearing the drains, and trash. There was tons of trash over there that had a lot of those drains blocked. And that's part of our issues right there. Not everybody's, but part of them. that when DPS does come out to use the vac to suck them out, those clogs are down there. And then when these storms hit that we have, it's 9 o'clock. That's the three-hour mark. When those storms do hit, a lot of that water can't go anywhere. And if the residents still go out there and clean and keep it up and stuff like that, we end up with those clogs in the systems that keep moving down further and further and so on and so forth. So that was that on Stanford Street. So if you all have a chance, Stanford as well as the other ones, just take a look, especially between Beach Daily and I think it was John Daily. Some of those plates are the older ones, too. They only had like two holes on them versus the rest of them. All right, that's that. And then just piggybacking on the community events things, I did get a plethora of conversations, of phone calls and dissertations via text message and email about the use of the funds and how things can be reallocated. So when things like that do happen, just because I used to get it out of both sides from when I worked at the House of Representatives and when I was here at the same time on city council so it's more so like okay well what can we do to resolve this and even when i've been on the phone before residents when they've been giving me earful and they get ready to hang up um former council person ron johnson and even some of our business owners because they were yelling and screaming and then when they got off the phone they said okay well you didn't have anything to say and i'm done talking and i go whoa wait wait wait I was listening and taking notes. And so it's sometimes trying to find a different way. So when certain things happen in the city and the residents do come out and speak, I consider it good democracy. I consider it them holding us accountable for things that we looked at one way, but they saw it a different way. Also, it reminds the people that they have a voice and it should be heard 24-7. And it also re-engages some who don't get involved to get back active and pay attention to what's happening in their community. And so just take it as a learning curve, a learning session. And say, well, you know what? We have been kind of sort of fighting different battles, if you will, behind the scenes when it comes to these contributions of people coming to the city and saying, I want you to sponsor this, I want you to do that. And the mayor said it. He asked a question at different points in time, said, are we in this business to provide for this or provide services to the residents? Like, what are we actually doing? And so it's a great question. And I heard, you know, Lindsay, when you were talking about, well, maybe, you know, in the future, we don't do this. And I heard residents say, you know, I want you to revisit it. So I said, well, you know, when I spoke about a moratorium, because the way the applications came in, I was like, well, maybe at this point, we make a firm statement and say, you know what? We did this. This did not go this way. And we just suspended going forward. And it's a statement that when they come before us to say, Here's the policy. The City of Inkster is not in the capacity to do X, Y, and Z. However, here's this nonprofit that we'll move you over to that is fundraising, doing whatever the case may be to help support or let me see how I can do that. We do have that spot in the budget for community events, I think it says, or what does it say? Something special, whatever it says, in ours. And make it where if it's something that we're participating in, that five thousand dollars that was you know allocated before we increase that that be something like when we go to conferences we get reimbursed for maybe we modified that way to say okay this is something I'm hosting in my district or for the city and you know we look at it like that but other than that just because i know they're going to continue coming down the pipeline the applications and stuff maybe it's just something we go ahead and say you know what we're going to suspend this and retool and just do something different because this just kind of got blown out of proportion especially with somebody who says oh it was unfair y'all gave them this much and you didn't give me this much And that way it just takes that stressor off our plates. I don't care if it's wiping the whole thing. I completely agree. No problem. Say that again, I'm sorry.

I don't care if it's wiping the whole thing.

Oh. So y'all want to make a motion tonight? Yeah, I want to make a motion. Okay, the mayor said no.

I'm at my event, so we good. Okay.

Other than that, I was at the Labor Day Parade. That was a good event, and happy Labor Day to you all, and union strong, and have a good night.

All right, just real quickly, everybody's talked about, I guess, what do we call that? Some sort of sponsorship policy, I guess. I've caught a earful from residents also, It rubbed me the wrong way initially, just because I knew it was going to be a slippery slope. I do think we need to do community events, though, that we sponsor. If we want to do a summer concert series on Thursdays, that's something the city can sponsor, and we can be involved in. We've already been doing the Summerfest for 100 years. That's something I think the people want to keep going. So as long as the city sponsors the event, we put it in the budget, we allocate X number of dollars, I think we're fine. having third parties come to us and ask to sponsor their events, that's a different question. That's what we probably shouldn't do.

The Press Well, Mr. President, why wasn't this said two months ago, before I wasted all my time? Mr. No, no, no.

I mean, I said we're in a slippery slope. I said everybody was excited. I said, I think we're on a slippery slope. Because we're a city, we provide certain services. All government does is provide services. That's it. Now, we can do a Summerfest under Parks and Recs. We can do a summer concert series under Parks and Recs.

We're completely avoiding the fact for decades we funded these other parties like Let me be honest with you. Inkster High in Robichaux.

Let's not act like these things aren't a big party.

Let me be honest. At least my prior term as being mayor, everybody came to me and asked me for money personally. We didn't give money to the Inkster High reunion. Once they sniffed it out this time, they started asking for specific things. Can you guys get the lights? Can you get the garbage cans? Can you get the... We were like, okay, because we own the property. Now, that started it.

The way y'all are just kind of backpedaling is blowing.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Because it was more than enough time. This didn't start with you. I'm not blaming you at all. This does not start with you. What I'm saying is how we divvy out our money is all we're talking about here. I used to give away probably 20% of my income as mayor because everybody comes and asks for money. And then so, then the idea came up, maybe we should set a specific amount. I'm like, well, that makes sense. But the specific amount should be set for our events. I don't want Robichaud to come ask me for no money to throw a damn picnic.

What did we give them last year? We gave them money.

And y'all could have said something before coming up here.

Matt, if I can interject something, please, if you don't mind. Let me say this. I've been on council since, well, I first got elected in 1999. And been on the school board, Inkster school board. Unfortunately, we lost our schools under a different administration. And that tax money that I paid and a lot of us paid in the Inkster district was misused and this is fact and you can look it up. We paid like $900,000 in taxes, only $300,000 went back to the school and the city took $600,000 of our taxpayer money and used it for whatever. We don't know. That's why we went and received the ship. We don't even know exactly how much money they took. When they sent in their financial manager here, who's straightening everything up, one thing he said, not only did they take it from the schools, they took it from aging, They took it from the library. They took it from every little piece of whatever they can get. And one of the things that the city manager said before he left here is that he was going to make everybody whole. I didn't get whole because I had to still pay for that school debt for years. All of us that lived in that district, not all of Inkster paid for that debt. We paid for that debt. But he said he was gonna make us back whole. So when we talked about giving, for me, I had no problem with that. Because I thought we owed the citizens something. And that's okay. And that's why I was for helping people. because they have taken so much, and even behind all of this, and I know y'all don't want to hear it, we lost our schools. It wasn't because somebody stole the money. Yeah, somebody stole the money, but it was sitting here in City Hall that took the money. Not an individual thing, and these are facts that you can look up. Just look up the deficit elimination plan. But the thing is, I think, like he's saying, we've all been digging in our pockets. And the mayor particularly, I haven't hit him up, but I should have. But the thing is, is that we've tried to do things to help the community. Like what you're doing now with the concert or family event that you're talking about. Or like she was saying, the things we did for kids, No Child Without a Christmas, trying to help all of us that's struggling. So we had done that because we thought that it was a good thing. And we did talk about it at council meeting, like she said, several times before we did it. We did do that. And personally, you know, I'm still hurt over my school district. I am. To me, it's like a death. And I don't care if people don't like it and they don't want to hear it, but that's just how I feel. And I've been in Inkster all my life. Those were my schools. Elementary, junior high, high school. We were family. That was our family. So when we're talking about giving our money away for parties and stuff like that, I don't look at it as a party. It's a family gathering because we were a family back in the day. We watched over each other's kids. We did those kind of things back then. We don't do it now because everybody hate each other. But back then, your kid out running crazy, a neighbor come, you know Miss Mabel. hey sit down boy and then you go tell your mama and your mother get you and the neighbor got you we were a family we watched after each other we could go next door about y'all don't do that now a cup of sugar until i could get to the store that's the kind of bonding and everything that we had back there we've lost all of that we don't give back anymore We don't. We just don't. It depends. We like that person. We need to get away from all that. But my thing is that I thought that when it was brought up for the council, I thought it was a great idea because we were made promises from the city that they would make citizens hold for the money that was misused by the city of Inkster. And it wasn't this administration. I'm saying that. And it wasn't the prior one. It's prior to that. It was back in my day. So you can count back yourself. But that's the way it was. So I just wanted to add on to that that we here, and we are here to service you. We don't call ourselves misusing taxpayers' funding. What we're doing is we're trying to help those that need it so that everyone can come together as a family, like you said, like Christmas, the little people. So that's kind of where we work. And that's why we kind of made that decision. And I supported that decision. And I still support that decision. I appreciate it. That's all I had to add.

I mean, I agree with the sense of community. It was different years ago. But we cannot spend taxpayer money on stuff like this. No, no, let me finish. Let me finish. We cannot do that. It's a slippery slope. I did not vote because there was no tie, but I would have voted no because of the slippery slope. Not because I don't want to help, because I end up helping out of my pocket.

You can call me any other time and say, hey, Lance, that's not a good idea. Hey, Lance, talk. But instead, you allow to go through, and then because people say something, then you choose to backpedal right now.

Well, first of all, time out, time out. You're in your feelings. I'm not in my feelings. Hold on, let me finish. I said on the record this is a bad idea. I said that the night we discussed it publicly because people came back and said, the mayor told y'all not to do it and you did it anyway. I said it on the record, but I don't get a vote. I only vote if it's a tie. I shut up and let the council do their job. I spoke my piece. I did say that. I said this is a slippery slope. It's a bad idea because everybody and their mama is going to come ask us for money. We gave the first $1,800 away to Inkster High to throw a party after we gave them the reunion party, whatever it is. We gave them the land for nothing because it's their land the way I look at it because it belongs to the community. Same thing with Ropeshaw. Then after Ropeshaw said we gave $1,800, they asked for $5,000. And I was just saying to my head, slippery slope. We did not approve $5,000 because the limit was $1,000. So we gave them $1,000. Then over the weekend, when I'm out of town, I pull up on social media after getting a text message saying, They're blasting us on social media because there was some brush left in Wheatley Park. And I almost lost my cool. Not only did we give you Wheatley Park for free, we gave you $1,000 towards sponsoring your reunion. And we're getting blasted with my name in it, with Clint's name in it. And I'm like, wait a minute. Didn't we just give you a free $1,000 to throw your party? And we're getting blasted because there was some brush left in the park that we're renovating. We're putting $977,000 into. I was on fire. You ain't got to worry about no $1,000 next year if we still have the policy. We're not going to give you nothing. But this is why we should restrict our giving to events we sponsor. And there were some good points made about liability. Honestly, I didn't read the fire print about putting our name on other people's stuff. I don't want my name on other people's stuff. Because if something happens, they're coming after us. We're the deep pockets. We are the deep pockets. So if somebody gets shot or killed, they're going to sue the city. So we should limit what we do to the things that we sponsor and we put in our budget. Look, we're going to do the other events anyway. But if three or four or 500 people can't come up with enough money to do a class reunion, they shouldn't do it. I'm just saying, look. It's so many people involved in that. Thursday night jazz thing, that could be part of our Parks and Recs. That is low cost. It doesn't cost that much. But if that's what we want to do, then we approve the budget with that money in the budget. And that's what it is. So we know Easter, Christmas, and Halloween is what we do for the kids. Summerfest for the adults and the families. We have the same events every year. So we can put those in the budget. Decide we're going to spend wherever the money is coming from and spend that money. But as far as third parties doing their own thing that has nothing to do with the city, other than they're doing it in the city, I don't think we should give them money. Well, we can't do it. We're about to adjourn the meeting. So if I let you speak, I've got to let everybody speak. Mayor and Council of Communication. I mean, hmm? What were you doing?

His mom, just chilling. You didn't do anything.

Anyway, anybody have anything else? No. No. All right. Do we have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Properly move to second discussion. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed, nay.

Thank you.