City Council - Regular Meeting

not even thinking about or considering at all.

Good evening everybody. It is 6:30 April 7th, 2026. At this time, I will call our city council meeting to order. We will start with pledge of allegiance and then uh invocation will be given by myself.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Uh please reverence in whatever way makes your heart happy. Uh to the grand architect of the universe, creator of order, giver of purpose and sustainer of this community. We come before you today, mindful of the responsibility placed upon us. We thank you for the call to serve, for the trust given to this mayor, myself, and to this council, and to the staff to steward the well-being of this city and its people. Grant us wisdom, clear minds to see what is right, steady judgment to navigate what is difficult, and the courage to choose what is just, even when it's not easy. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Madame clerk, if you will proceed with a roll call, please. Mayor Mahoney, present. Vice Mayor Dansancy, present. Council member Robinson, present. Council member Gun, present. Council member Wood, present. Council member Hunt, present. Council member Forgrave, present. All right, we are all present and accounted for. Looking for a motion and support to adopt the agenda. So moved. Support. It's been moved and supported. Any discussion, comments, questions, additions, deletions.

Seeing or hearing none, the clerk will tally and display the vote. agenda has been adopted. We have no presentations or proclamations and we do have one public hearing under item number six. Uh, so I'll be looking for a motion and support to conduct a public hearing to receive citizen comments for the city's purpose substantial amendment one to the 2025 2026 annual action plan for the reallocation of home investment partnership program funds.

So move. It's been moved and supported. All in favor say I. All oppose the same. Uh, public hearing is open. I don't have any slips for this public hearing. Madam clerk, do we have anything that was emailed to us pertaining to this? There was an email that was sent and forwarded to council. Um, give me just a moment. And it was in regards to city owned lots which I don't think was very

there's nobody gonna speak for the public. I will you got to fill a slip out and you can can Okay. I mean you can speak for yourself as public. I am the public. That that's it. No sure. I didn't you want me to fill it out first? I thought that's all you came to say was that you are the public.

Well, that was almost it that you know we have to trust in the wisdom of and the guidance of our leaders. Um, if we don't, it's your responsibility to come out and vote and make sure that they they are on their toes. But if no one objects or endorses or condones, I again I I uh um bow to the leadership and the wisdom of the people who are in office and on the staff. So nobody has any problems with it. Um I leave it to you guys to discuss from the public position. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, no other emails outside of the one you mentioned, Madam Clerk. Okay. Uh, council, do you guys have any comments? I know we got this item later in the agenda. We might be able to dive into some questions, but any comment during this public hearing? Okay, seeing or hear none, I'll be looking for a motion in support to close the public hearing. It's been moved and supported. All in favor say I.

Okay. Um, that brings us down to item number seven, citizen comment portion of the meeting. I will start as we always do, uh, with reading the rules for speaking before the city council. Number one, each speaker will state their name and address prior to addressing council. Number two, each speaker is limited to up to three minutes during the citizen comment portion of the meeting. Council members will not debate or answer questions at this time. Number three, each speaker should be polite and courteous to the council and members of the public in attendance. While any speaker is free to express his or her opinion on any subject, no speaker may direct personal attacks at any member of the staff or council unrelated to the manner in which they perform their duties, use obscene language while addressing the city council, or engage in disruptive or disrupt, excuse me, disruptive or disorderly behavior during a city council meeting. Number four, should any speaker cause a breach of the peace through their conduct, the mayor may declare the speaker out of order. Number five, if a speaker is declared out of order by the mayor and refuses to cease and desist from disruptive or disorderly conduct, the mayor may order the person removed from the meeting. Number six, each speaker may speak once under public comment and may not yield their time to others. Rose Hello, my name is Rose 27 Street. I'm handicapped. So, the person

there. I'm sorry. The mic wasn't on. I'm sorry about that. So, did you hear anything I said? I did. I did. Just didn't realize the mic wasn't on.

I already called the city. They said they can't do anything about it because they have tear up the street and blah blah blah blah blah. But I mean, they have their own parking. I The guy that told me in there said they have three decks of parking. Why, you know, say have seven people living in an apartment. I mean, they all shouldn't have a car where they can park in the street and only have three minutes. So, I I I live in an apartment 327. It's in a house downstairs. Jackson Apartments open it. If you ever heard of John Thomas before, these are worse than John Thomas. I have lived in this apartment for 14 months. I have mice for 14 months because Arvark says there's a 100,000 ways for the mice to get in the apartment. I have a service dog. I he says I cannot use her self feeders. That's not right. She's allowed to eat wherever she wants to eat. I have to watch. I put the food next to my coffee table so I can watch it. And I put the food on the bed. I found a piece of mouse poop on my bed. Isn't that amazing? It's lovely. Um they moved my safe because electrical problems. I told him I don't want him working electrical in my house anymore. My apartment. He blew out all the power to my apartment. I had old power surge. I didn't know on the side that you have to push a button. I don't know that. He blew out my p my whole deep freeze. $250 over $250 worth of ice cream and deep free and meat. He didn't he hasn't opt to even pay me half back. I I need help. I'm trying to find a place to stay. My father help me has to help me pay half rent. It's $1,100 on that crappy street. The apartment's okay looking, but it they're buying up all these apartments, these houses in Jackson, just slapping them together. The guy that owns my house was in North Carolina. Does he even know what the house looks like? Probably not. And this bud, this landlord, he's rude. He's a bully. I asked him for some backst steps. I says, "Well, I'll just call Disability Connections." "Well, I'll just evict

you." He doesn't even know what Disability Connections is. I spent $20 at the library copying because he puts everything in text. Everything in text. $20 copying off everything. He just he told me just last week, "Do us both a favor and move. Believe me, I want to move. I don't live subpar like that." And my dog as a service dog, she needs to eat. Thank you. Thank you,

John C. King. John King 203 Third Street here in the city. Uh last week when the uh fire jet was shot down or went down in Iran, first article for the sit Pat I looked at and there were several laughs on it and um sadly there's a lot of people that are rooting for the death to America regime. a lot of Democrats apparently too. Um in the last hour or so I seen a WX report uh you know with that uh tried to suggest oh the Pope said this about Trump da da da. Fortunately, the I heard what the Pope said, his actual words, and because he was born and raised just a few hours west of here, he spoke perfect American English, so you know, there was no need to rely on the translation. And what WX channel 10, what they reported, had a quite a spin on it. Um, so more politics regarding what's going on in Iran, our governor declared or wanted to declare gas emergency and you know because of alleged high prices which is kind of funny because you know I can remember since I can't count my age on just one hand, you know, five years within the last 5

years with her help, the Biden administration and everything, you know, like uh and even Dana Nestle, the pipeline up north, they had gas prices even higher. She didn't declare a gas emergency then. Then demon Dana Nestle back then had a bunch of, "Oh, I'm going to go after you if you gouge." I know on West Dad there was a BP that the first day they shot up gas prices a dollar. Obvious gouging. Um but not so that our attorney general doesn't have anything to say about that. So the the politics is like really really bad. Um, so I want to say congratulations to the University of Michigan basketball team. They won the national championship last night. That's first time a Big 10 team or a state of Michigan team won the national championship since 2000. So congratulations to them. Nancy Smith Thank you, mayor. Good evening, council. I'm Nancy Smith. I'm a constituent services representative for Senator Sue Shank, and I'm always happy to drop in on your meetings to find out uh what's on the agenda and share that back with the senator and to update you on what's going on in Lancing and around our district. So, I will do that now. Um, Senator Shink was in town recently to attend uh what was called a legislative breakfast for the human services coordinating alliance in Jackson. Uh

where elected officials from every level, city, county, state, federal, um and some in between were right there to um speak one-on-one with leaders of local human service or uh providers to give those folks a chance to get facetime with their elected folks and talk budget and talk policy. Um and um yeah, um Senator Shank has provided lots of tributes so far in 2026, including one very special one to honor Jackson High School's own coach Nathan Martin on his remarkable achievement, winning the Los Angeles Marathon. Um if you folks ever know of a person that you think deserves a legislative tribute, please reach out to our office and we can help. Uh our office has begun our annual legislative door knockocking wherein we visit the many of the neighborhoods within district 14 uh Senate District 14 and we mostly just check in with people if they answer the door and ask them what's on their mind and then we carry on have some short conversations. Last week we were in Chelsea and then we were in Jackson in Ward 4. Uh, Senator Shank and our team joined in the Reed Manor fire response early on, attending meetings, uh, procuring donations like beds and bedding, uh, being part of that resource fair at the King Center and helping to facilitate what they called the document rodeo where residents could get replacements for their lost and destroyed documents. I think there's another one of those going to come too. Uh the senator plans to continue to stay involved on next steps and best ways that the state can assist these folks going forward. Uh with the goal of course being permanent housing for every affected resident. And thank you to Council Person Hunt for uh keeping open the lines of communication.

Finally, to the city manager and department leaders, when you and your staff apply for any state-based or federal grants, please feel free to reach out to us. give us a couple days notice and we'd be happy to provide those u letters of support that can go along with your application. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, that concludes our citizen comment portion of the meeting and moves us to our consent calendar. Looking for a motion and support for the consent calendar.

It's been moved and triple supported. Any comments, questions, concerns, deletions? They need to be pulled. Seeing or hearing nothing, the clerk will tally and display the vote. passes unanimously. We have no other business. And that brings us down to new business item A. Looking for a motion in support to approve the Department of Public Works designate to designate Michigan Paving and Materials of Monroe uh as the prime supplier of hot mix asphalt for the 2026 construction season and purchase an estimated 2,000 tons at a cost of 100,000 142,000. So moved.

It's been moved and supported. Any comments, questions, concerns?

Seeing hearing none, clerk will tally and display the vote. brings us down to item B. Uh looking for a motion to support to approve substantial amendment number one to the 2025 2026 annual action plan for the reallocation of home funds. Adopt the resolution to amend the appropriate budget and approve submission of the substantial amendment to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. So move. It's been moved and supported. Any comments, questions, concerns?

Anyone here to give us some context for this? Of course there are. Of course, you can come up if you'd like. Come on down.

I promise it'll be brief. My voice is shot. So, you might be really lucky this evening. Councilman Dancy, I appreciate the questions tonight. Um, this is a substantial amendment. That means that it's a change to a plan that you approved previously. This is a change to the action plan that you approved last year. Um, HUD requires us to have a council motion at a public hearing at a 30-day public comment period whenever we want to make a change like this. This isn't a change in scope. The action plan for HUD for your CDBG and home dollars. It already spells out that you're going to that the city would like to work on affordable housing. It already spells out dollars to that effect. It's done that for years related to these home funds. But what we didn't do is that we have some old funds that are unspent in a bucket that's about 9 years old literally. And so in order to reprogram those funds, you have to take official action to say that's okay. It's going to meet a project that you already approved. It's going to meet dollars that you already thought you were spending anyway, but it's old money. And so, if we're going to reprogram that old money, we have to provide the community a chance to speak on that topic to provide that input. We want to provide that in that chance for you to say, "Hey, this is a great project. We support you spending these funds in that way." This project would support the construction of a new home on at 322 Clinton. So, if you're familiar, that's that little road that juts off of Louis Glick, right next to the home that caught fire earlier this year. We're going to build a house on that empty lot. Uh it will be sold to an income qualified family earning 80% of the area median income or less. They'll go through a home buyer education and standard protocol through Habitat and then Habitat will place uh this family in that home when it's finished. We anticipate the home will be finished sometime in early fall and we'll break ground as soon as we can pending your approval of this substantial amendment.

Mr. prayer. So said differently, we're not spending any new money. We're not doing any new stuff that we hadn't previously contemplated. We're just using old money, which then frees up new money to do new stuff. That is exactly correct. And a far more succinct way to say what I just took a minute and a half. It's a group effort, Corey. Thank you so much. So this old money has just been sitting.

Uh yes, kind of. We've been spending away on it on different projects, but we receive reports from HUD on a regular basis that lets us know, hey, you had $200,000 from a program year 10 years ago, but oh, you missed $20,000 of it. Make sure you go and spend it by the deadline. And so we look at those reports and make sure if there's any old money out there that maybe normally when there's old money out there like that, we had a project that say a project had a budget of a half a million dollars. Well, maybe the project came in at 450 and so there's 50,000 remaining in that budget, but we need to go back and reprogram those dollars at some point or they just sit. And so sometimes those dollars will sit for six months and we'll catch them and reprogram them. Sometimes they sit for a couple years because another project hasn't come around or we've been moving other money around and spending different money from different buckets. This is just a bucket we need to clean up and finish spending in before it expires. So, we've got change sitting around in dishes and drawers and in couch cushions and like we're putting it all together and like now we have a house worth of change.

That is again I think I might just sit down and let Councilman Wood handle these. I'm just trying to make sure that I understand what's going on in that department. So, you are absolutely crushing it, sir.

I do have a question for you. So although um we've approved the um housing right under that program this is a this is a new project right or no this will so in the HUD world you have projects and you have activities this is an already approved project in other words think project like overarching strategic goal but the activity underneath of that project is the construction of this one individual home so

if we weren't moving money around to spend um expiring ing funds, I wouldn't be up here. We wouldn't need to because the activity would meet a previously approved project. In other words, the construction of a new affordable home. But because we are shifting some funds around within our interior buckets with HUD, we have to make sure that we do it the right way and the transparent way. So that's why we're here. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. Do we anticipate that this amount is sufficient to complete this activity?

It is. this this amount will not only um use up all of the expiring funds plus some other ones that will be expiring in the next couple years. So, we're getting ahead of ourselves a little bit, which is good. I like to be ahead of the game. And then yes, these funds will be enough to 100% complete the project. So, there would be no ask for additional funds from another pie. Not for this project. No, this will 100% fund this project. Sounds like is going to happen. We'll have money left over and we'll be back in five years. there's a chance we may have money left over. Um but but more importantly, hopefully we just have other funds from these federal dollars that continue to come in and then we can continue to have these conversations about projects

and then Habitat is involved in that they're going to be reviewing applications and making recommendations or they have somebody already in mind.

I don't think they have someone in mind unless they haven't told me. They will review applications. Uh the other part of this that uh I think is uh buried in this agenda item that we talk about every now and again is that Habitat serves as what we call a CHOT community housing development organization. HUD requires that we set aside a minimum of 15% annually to go to one of those organizations in the city of Jackson. We only have one. It's really hard to certify a CHTO with HUD rules. They are extensive and the review annually takes months. And so because Habitat is our only designated CHTO, we have to make sure that we meet an additional HUD requirement which is 15% minimum will go to them to fund projects annually. So um this satisfies our uh 15% annual total set aside for numerous years because of the dollar amount. So again, we're just continuing to check more boxes that HUD likes and also that match our strategic uh and annual plans.

Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you everyone. Thank you Corey. Um seeing or hear no other questions the clerk will tally and display the vote.

Just long enough to get my Oscars speech. Okay, item passes and that brings us down to item C. Looking for a motion in support to approve the renewal of the city-owned lot mowing parts A and B and ground maintenance contracts with Ellesian Landscape and Flatwork LLC. Uh, Elsian Landscape and Flatwork LLC successfully performed their services for these contracts in 2025. Looking for a motion to support.

It's been moved and supported. Um, is this a continuence of their option to renew this contract? Yes, this is a renewal. If I look this at those guys, this is the last This is the Yeah. third year. One more after this. Okay. One more after this. Yep. We will be bringing private lot mowing uh bid for you guys to consider awarding next next time or so. So So we have one a fresh one for next month. Okay. Any questions, comments, concerns?

Okay. Explain what you mean by you're going to be bringing that new contract. So this one is for us. This is for one moved off the agenda. City lots. Yeah. This is not this is for our city owned lots. So this is what we own. What we'll be bringing next month next meeting is one where people complain about their neighbors and then they we have our contractor go and mow that lot. That's what we're bringing next meeting. So are they in the bidding process? We're we're bidding it out right now.

Okay. Yeah. See here, no other questions on this particular item. The clerk will tally and display the vote. Item passes unanimously. And that brings us down to council member comments. Council member Wood. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council, staff, and public. Um, only thing that I have today is, uh, we are looking for, let me back up. The city of Jackson's, uh, land use plan, the way that we decide what uh, kinds of businesses and homes can be built or renovated or given a permission slip in different parts of the city. our zoning. Basically, the document that guides our zoning is called our master plan. We're in the process of reviewing that master plan because it's about a decade old. Um we are asking for applicants to join the steering committee to help that process. If you or someone you know is a city resident and has a high school education but did not go to college, you are exactly who we want to apply and sit on that steering committee. We want to make sure that we've got a representative steering committee so that our land use strategy is representative of the cities of Jackson of our residents rather. Um the application is on our website or Facebook and we would encourage anybody to reach out and apply. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Council member Hunt. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you to everyone that attended tonight. Thank you, Nancy, for the update. We appreciate that. Um, and then I want to thank um, Beth for um, just working with the individuals that are hosting these special events. And for those of you that live in the city of Jackson, take time. There were seven special events that were approved tonight. Take time to get involved. Thank you, Council Member for Gray.

Uh, thanks. Excuse me. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Um, one thing I'd like to mention tonight is that tomorrow at Lumin Christie High School at 5:30 in the afternoon is the home opener for team number three, Jackson United Lacrosse High School uh, team. So, I encourage everybody to come out whether you know anything about the sport or you don't. It's a blast. I think I'm really proud of the kids. They're doing a really good job uh, and we're growing as a team and hopefully growing the sport uh, for future generations. So again, encourage everybody to come out and I hope to see you there. Hopefully the weather holds. All right. And Council Member Robinson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um I don't have much to say this evening, but I want to thank those that came out tonight for for our meeting. Um and also uh Nancy for the update from the senator. Um I did get an opportunity to attend a few of the events. Couple were held in ward one uh for the Reed Manor families uh that were um devastated by the uh the fire. So, um I feel they were very appreciative and we had uh the bus volunteered by Jackson ISD. Um that was really helpful and I got there just as they were loading and people were waiting and so um I really thank the community for their support with those family members. Thank you. Council member Gun.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I just want to um encourage and echo what uh what was said earlier about the um the steering committee, sorry, for the master plan. Thank you, Connor, for bringing that up. and really encourage people this is an opportunity for you to participate at the local level in giving input to the city on um the plan moving forward for all types of projects um infrastructure infrastructure projects and priorities for the city. So um you know W three especially we need you um involved. So I would encourage you to go to the website the application is uh very brief and um apply and other than that congratulations to U of M.

Oh god even though I am a Spartan I still support everything Michigan at the national level. So congratulations and thank you vice mayor.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. You won't hear me saying that, but thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, you know, we just come off a very important holiday weekend. I thank God for everyone. It's the most important weekend for Christians. So, um, it was a great weekend, great week coming up went by. So, and thank those who, you know, really participated in the true meaning of, uh, what Easter is. Uh, I'd like to thank DP W, is it Devin? That's his name. uh for getting signs made, put up together. So, you know, we did a honorable name, street name, chonorable street name in for Pastor James Elhine and they was able to get them put put together and they got them up before Good Friday. So, I thank them for going out putting together doing some hard work. Thank Troy for helping out. I guess he did. I don't know if he did or not. Maybe he did. Maybe he didn't. I don't know. But I thank you, Mr. Troy. And uh just like to thank each and everyone for coming out. Enjoy. You know, my eyes are hurting. I just look to my right. I just see this ugly color to my right. I just can't help myself. But congratulations to those who did what they could do. Oh my my heart is aching so bad. But good luck. Wait till next year. Have a good day, people. I'm just trying to prolong because I know the mayor said 7:06. My time going on.

Okay then. All right. We good. We good. We good. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you again. Um um I I don't have I don't have a whole lot to say. I will say congratulations to uh University of Michigan uh basketball team. I am uh generally a uh a fan of uh Michigan State basketball, but I'm a big- time fan of University of Michigan football. So, I can I can still celebrate uh a win for Michigan is a win for Michigan. Um I know it's some others who won't dare say that up here, but that's okay. We going to show him some love anyway tonight. Um uh I I do want to just commend I guess a place that I I just love to be at. Uh and that's uh at the golf course. I just want to say uh to Eric and the whole staff that takes care of of our our golf course. Um I brag on Ellisar Park Golf Course all the time. Uh and I play there by choice. Like I love all the golf courses in our area, which we have a plethora of in any direction that you can go to. Uh but I I truly believe the way that they care for our uh municipal course. Um it it makes for great golf at a very very reasonable price. Um and I just appreciate the work that they put into it. And the course is already in beautiful shape. Um, and so looking forward to somebody turning the heat up uh for the duration of this spring before it's summer and all of a sudden it's 100 degrees outside. Um, and that's all my comments. Mr. City Manager,

I too can be brief, but I did want to give you and the community a quick update on the Eyes on the Block program. Um, there are only 14 slots uh left. The team has been doing a really good job getting the word out, getting people signed up. City attorney Matt Hegerty um approved uh all the documents for this program which include registration guidelines, resident sign up, multi-unit tenant ownership approval forms, things like that and consent and privacy statements. Um just want to give a lot of credit to the team um who helped roll this out uh to get us to where we are now. Um and it looks like uh just in a few more weeks uh we'll be uh starting our installation process on these. So thank you very much for council for seeing the wisdom in this program. Um I think it's uh will make a difference.

Looking for a motion to adjurnn. All in favor say I. All right.