City Council - Regular Meeting

check check good evening everybody it is tuesday august 18 20 26 at 6 30 and i am calling our city council meeting to order at this time and we will start with pledge of allegiance and invocation will be given by sixth ward council member will ford gray

I would just ask that everybody takes a moment to pray or reflect or meditate on whatever they feel is appropriate. Thank you.

Madam Clerk, if you'll proceed with the roll call.

Mayor Mahoney.

Present.

Council Member Robinson.

Present.

Vice Mayor Dancy. Council Member Gunn.

Present.

Council Member Wood. Here. Council Member Hunt. Present. Council Member Forgrave.

Here.

All right. Thank you, Madam Clerk. That brings us down to the adoption of the agenda. I'm looking for a motion in support.

So moved.

Support. It's been moved and supported. Any comments, questions, concerns about the agenda? Seeing or hearing none, the clerk will tally and display the vote. Item passes. And that brings us down to presentations and proclamations. And looks like we will be right on track with item A. And this will be proclamations honoring Jackson Special Olympian Sierra Weller and Johan Lee for their accomplishments at the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Is it Jonas? Jonah, sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Please come on up. so i will read this proclamation and then i'll come around and join you on that side to present it to you um if you just give me a second and bear with me proclamation honoring special olympian jonah lee and sierra weller whereas the mission of special olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities offering opportunities to develop physical fitness demonstrate courage experience joy and share friendship with their fam and the community and whe Michigan area 19 proudly athletes throughout Jacks year round training in 17 of volunteer coaches and fostering inclusion, confidence, teamwork, and personal achievement. Whereas Jonah Yee exemplifies the very best of the Special Olympics experience through his unwavering perseverance, commitment to excellence, and enthusiasm for learning and growing as an athlete in numerous sports, including kayaking, snowboarding, and swimming. Whereas Jonah Yee Dedication extends well beyond athletic competition. Through volunteerism and active participation in the Jackson community, he serves as a leader and inspiration, demonstrating that true success is measured not only by medals earned, but by the positive impact one has on others. And whereas at the 2026 Special Olympics US Games in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jonah proudly represented the state of Michigan and the Jackson community by earning a gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle, a silver medal in the 25-meter freestyle, and a fifth-place ribbon in the 25-meter backstroke, an extraordinary accomplishment reflecting countless hours of dedication, discipline, and hard work. And whereas Jonah's achievement remind us that every accomplishment is strengthened by the encouragement of family, coaches, volunteers, teammates, and the broader community. And that together as a team, we can build a more inclusive community where every individual has the opportunity to succeed Now therefore be it proclaimed that I, Daniel J. Mahoney, Mayor of the City of Jackson, do hereby recognize and honor Jonah Yee for his outstanding athletic achievements, his exemplary character, and his continued commitment to inclusion, sportsmanship, and community service. The City of Jackson extends its sincere congratulations to Jonah on his remarkable accomplishments and thanks him for serving as an ambassador of Special Olympics, a champion for inclusion, and inspiration to all who have the privilege of knowing him. His determination, compassion, leadership, and perseverance make our community stronger, and we celebrate the example he sets for athletes and citizens alike. Okay, I'm just gonna start off at Sierra's accomplishments. Whereas Sierra has distinguished herself as one of the most dedicated and hardworking athletes in Special Olympics Michigan, competing with determination in powerlifting, cycling, swimming, poly hockey, and golf, consistently striving to reach new levels of personal excellence. Whereas Sierra exemplifies the true meaning of perseverance, demonstrating that strength is measured not only by the way she lives, but also by her unwavering commitment to improving her abilities, embracing every challenge, and giving her very best in every competition. Whereas her athletic accomplishments are extraordinary, Sierra's character shines even brighter. Her quiet encouragement, genuine kindness, and outstanding sportsmanship make her an inspiration to teammates and competitors alike. She celebrates the achievements of others as enthusiastically as her own, reminding us that success is greater when shared through teamwork and mutual respect. And whereas at the 2026 Special Olympic USA Games in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Ciara proudly represented the state of Michigan and the Jackson community with exceptional performances, earning a gold medal in the deadlift with an impressive lift of 314 pounds, a silver medal in the squat with 325 pounds, a gold medal in the bench press with 187 pounds and capturing the overall gold medal with a combined total of 826 pounds. Whereas through her humility, dedication and unwavering encouragement of others, Sierra has become a leader whose actions speak louder than words, proving that true champions are defined not only by victories earned, but by the example they set for those around them. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that I, Daniel J. Mahoney, Mayor of the City of Jackson, do hereby recognize and honor Sierra Weller for her exceptional athletic achievements, remarkable sportsmanship, steadfast perseverance, and her commitment to fostering teamwork, inclusion, and excellence within Special Olympics and throughout our community. The city of Jackson extends its sincere congratulations to Sierra Weller for proudly representing our community on the national stage. May her accomplishments continue to inspire athletes of all ages to pursue their goals with courage, determination, humility, and kindness. And may her example remind us all that the greatest victories are achieved by lifting others as we climb.

Does the overall gold medal mean that she won the weightlifting gold medal of America? Is that what that means?

So the overall is the combined weight of deadlift, the squats, and the bench press.

All right. OK. Top debt engineering presentation.

We cannot top that. There's no topping that you'll see on the agenda tonight. There's a public hearing regarding against the street corridor safety improvements from Mechanic Street to Horton Street. In advance of that public hearing, we'll have Troy White City engineer describe the project and what's happening.

Am I on? OK, good evening, City Council and Mr. Mayor. Thank you for giving me a few minutes of your time. I know you have a lot of important business, but I'm grateful that we can do this. It's important work to do for a federal grant project we're going to do. I'm here to talk to you about our Ganson Street Corridor Safety Improvements Project. I've got a few slides. We'll go over, and then we'll do our public hearing. I guess to give you an overview, what are we proposing for this project? Well, to start with, the city has been awarded a grant to improve safety along Kansas Street at 19 intersections between Mechanic, down by the fairgrounds, and Horton up at the East City limits. We were able to get this grant because we were able to show that there are safety problems there. And when I say show it, that's based off of incident reports, accident reports, things like this. accidents out there that can be improved by implementing different traffic measures. And that's what we got the grant to do. Can you scroll me the next one? So You probably just have to toggle down in the arrow. So what will this project do? The meat and potatoes of this project will upgrade the signal at Waterloo and Ganson. We're going to upgrade the signal to meet modern standards with it's going to match the rest of our most of our signals in town with a modern mast arm mounted signal heads in a box configuration and we're going to be adding. pedestrian crossing signals at that intersection. Currently, there are no pedestrian signals at that intersection, but we do know there's a lot of pedestrians there. Secondarily, we're going to be upgrading all the sidewalk ramps along Ganson Street, and we're going to be adding some pavement markings and some signing to make it safer and make drivers more alert of the non-motorized along that street. So why are we having this public hearing? Why am I up here talking to you? This project is being funded with federal money, like I said, and it will impact access to the MLK Quality Trail down at Mechanic Street, and it will impact access to Loomis Park up at the east end. when we use federal money for projects that will impact those public spaces, we have to have a public hearing and that's um, what we're going to do next. The point of the public hearing is to hear constructive commentary and um, make sure that's worked into the project. Um, when appropriate. A quick rundown. This is the crossing at Mechanic Street. It's not a signalized intersection, but we're going to upgrade the signing for retro reflectivity, make it brighter, and we're going to put in some advanced warning signing and we're going to do some pavement striping to make that trail crossing more visible to motorists. Um, like I said, Waterloo, this is the meat and potatoes of the project. We're going to be rebuilding the traffic signal will align the, uh, the crosswalks that they're, uh, right now they're kind of crooked because the roads are a little skew and we're going to be improving, um, payment markings and adding those pedestrian signals. And then lastly, up and down the street at some of the more heavily crossed intersections will be upgrading the signing for more retro reflectivity and we will be adding some more advanced warning signing and doing some pavement markings. We're going to try to, the goal is to get this out to bed in February, start construction next June, and then they'll work on it. One thing that's really difficult about projects that involve signals is the lead time on the steel for the mast arms. Really there's not a lot of control of that because there's such limited supply for that. But we'll get going in June and then we'll probably get it done within probably nine months. So I guess at this point, um, that's the extent of my short presentation. If you guys have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them. If not, I would request that, uh, you hold the public hearing and we can meet that, meet that requirement that, uh, is there for us.

Thank you so much. Uh, are there any questions from council?

Mr. Mayor, can you remind me about how much of this project is going to be paid for from the grants?

We have to pay 20% of the construction cost. Gotcha.

Thank you. And so for us paying 20%, that unlocks the remainder?

Correct.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. all right that brings us down to item six uh public hearing looking for a motion of support to open a public hearing on ganson street corridor safety improvement from mechanic street to horton street so moved support it's been moved and supported all in favor say aye aye all opposed the same public hearing is now open just want to get us started by Reading the rules for speaking before the city council during the public hearing portion of the meeting. Rules are just a little bit different than the regular citizen comment. Number one, each speaker will state their name and address. Number two, during public hearings, the city council may enact a timeline on all speakers to ensure that all present get an equal chance to speak. Council members and or staff may answer questions during this time. Number three comments made during the public hearing shall remain relevant to the specific topic of the hearing. Number four, each speaker should be polite and courteous to the council and members of the public in attendance. Number five, while any speaker is free to express his or her opinion on the specific topic of the public hearing, 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 disorderly behavior during a council meeting. Number six, should the mayor determine that any of the items listed in number five occur, the mayor may declare the speaker out of order. 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. Steve Johnson.

Thank you. Steve Johnson, 1619 North Day Drive. Standing here in terms of the Ganson Street corridor, while it hasn't been discovered all the things going on, I suspect that there's going to be a flock technology used in this area. And I'd like to stand up and let you know that I find that in conflict with my constitutional rights of privacy. And as such, would like to speak out against it, knowing what I've learned today just from NPR. There's no monitoring of the use by the Sergeant Schutte, anyways, they can go and track whomever, whatever. And there's nobody monitoring this. I worked at Consumers Energy, downtown, One Energy Plaza, and Hay Street 28.2 years. All right? We have monitoring of monitors monitoring the monitors. So whoever accepted this technology or technologies like that, really needs to look at establishing some form of monitoring so I don't have to read about it in the newspaper, OK? So that's all I have to say. Thank you very much.

I don't think this is going to be able to write more citizen comment. I don't see any other comments regarding this specific public hearing. I have an orange slip, but I think it's for a regular citizen comment based on the comment on here. By nobody jumping up, I'll assume that's accurate. Okay. Just make sure you get, Jimmy, can you just make sure you get me an orange slip? Yes, sir. Or a green slip, please.

Thank you. I'm not in opposition or a proponent of this. I'm just speaking up that... Jackson is making a lot of changes and I'm very, very impressed and happy with the things that are going on. We're doing a lot of intergovernmental layering to get things done. There are at least one ward, though, that even though it does get certain resources, like perhaps low-income housing units or something like that, we do have one ward that hasn't benefited in the same way that, say, the MLK Corridor has or now the Eastside has or some of the other uh, neighborhoods who are even just prominently, uh, predominantly, excuse me, well off. Um, I am talking about Ward five. Uh, we do have, um, it's just the way things were sectioned, you know, whether it be the interface shelters there, the courthouses there or certain church resources or that doesn't matter why. But Ward five is gone. Um, it's kind of been that donut hole of where even when we do get resources, it's not the resources that that changes the makeup or the demographics of the community. And I'm not complaining about anything because I'm probably missing some things that are being done. For instance, I know there's a lot of the 100 homes projects and a lot of the development that is happening.

So I just want to bring you back to the specific topic. Is there a concern or question?

No, I guess I'll end with I would like that spread all over the city, some of the projects that are going on. So I guess I am for this. I just would like to see some projects spread around. I just like talking on this mic, Mayor.

I know. I don't know. Um, council, any other questions, comments, concerns during this time?

What's the amount of the grant?

don't have that in front of me I probably should but it's probably about a three hundred fifty thousand dollar grant and like I said the meat potatoes of it is really gonna be at that signal at Waterloo it's an opportunity to really upgrade that antiquated signal that it needs to be done one way or the other and this is a great way to get it done so that was an estimate

That was the estimate amount?

Yeah.

Has it been awarded?

No. No, we have to go through this process to get to the point where we can bid it. After it gets bid, we'll be bringing back the contract for you guys to approve.

At which point we'll have the exact amount.

Exactly. We'll have the as-bid amount. And you will know exactly how much the city portion will be at that time.

Thank you.

But for an estimate, we're looking at probably 350-ish. And if we have to pay 20%, then we're probably on for about $75,000, maybe $100,000 to do 19 intersections? Correct. Is that about right? Yeah. Thanks.

And then just to clarify, where is the portion from the city coming from?

That will be coming from major street funds.

Okay, seeing or hearing no other questions, looking for a motion to close the public hearing. So moved. Support. It's been moved and supported. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed the same. Thank you very much. That brings us down to our consent calendar. No, excuse me. I'm skipping my favorite part of the meeting. Okay. That brings us down to citizen comment portion of the meeting. I will start with reading the rules for speaking before the city council during the citizen comment portion of the meeting. 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 or 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 disorderly behavior during a council meeting. Should any speaker cause a breach of 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. Lisa Salisbury.

Good evening. My name is Lisa Salisbury. I live at 729 Lansing Avenue. As you can tell, I'm extremely nervous because this is not something I normally do. But I'm here tonight to talk about something that sounds pretty simple on paper when we look at a 30-ish gallon container. This is a 30, so I'm not exactly sure what size they were asking for. But this is a 30-gallon container, and you guys are asking someone to put their whole life in it. Let's see what happens when we try to put a human life inside of it. I have a sleeping bag because I have to have somewhere to sleep. I have a change of clothes, socks, underwear, maybe an extra pair of shoes, a towel and a hygiene kit, soap, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, maybe some medications. I mean, starting to get pretty full. Where's my winter coat go or my boots or another blanket when it's 10 degrees outside? Food, important paperwork, personal belongings. What if you had something from your mom who passed away? Pictures of your children, the last few things you managed to hold on to from the life that you had before you were homeless. What do you throw away? because that's what we're asking these people to decide. Homelessness already takes away privacy, security, dignity and so much of what a person once had. Do we really need to take away the few things they have left to? I'm asking city council to reconsider the 32 gallon or 30 gallon ish limitation and find a more reasonable solution. I'm also asking for something else tonight. Winter is coming. The city has a beautiful place where they held the meeting for the homeless last week. I believe it's the old Masonic Temple. I'm asking you guys to seriously consider whether to open up part of that building or another city-owned building to be used as an emergency warming or overnight shelter during the winter months, especially during dangerously cold weather. It doesn't have to solve homelessness forever. It just has to keep somebody alive that night. We keep saying homelessness is a community problem, and if that's true, then it requires community solutions. These aren't 32 gallons of belongings. These are someone's life, and I believe we can do better than telling them which pieces of it they have to throw away. Thank you.

Nicholas Thurston.

Good evening. My name is Nicholas Thurston. I live in Jackson, Michigan, 410 Van Buren Street, Apartment B, Ward 5. So I just wanted to talk a little bit about fraud, waste, and abuse of public resources and how it's kind of compounding this problem and making it worse. I've talked about this pretty extensively, that there is a lot of money that goes to nonprofits in the Jackson area. And there's always stories, kind of like the one you just heard, about shortages and how it's everybody else's responsibility and these are community problems and all this other stuff. I don't see it that way. I was kind of offended that the city attorney, Matt Haggerty, said, we have to do ABCXYZ and bend over backwards for these neighbors and blah, blah, blah. Most of these people are not from Jackson. They're not from Michigan. They're not my neighbors. And you don't even live in Jackson County. They're not your neighbors either. I live in Ward 5. Some of my neighbors in Ward 5 live in the 200. They pay almost $3,000 a month for rent to live on the top floor after they paid utilities and renter's insurance and parking permits. Why should they have to come out of their door to people peeing and pooping and doing drugs on the sidewalk in front of their houses? They pay three grand a month. Those are my neighbors, not some random people that just got dropped off by an NGO from some other city or state. We had sex offenders, multiple sex offenders, living in those tents in front of the library. In Michigan, public libraries are considered public education the same way that school zones are. So things like drugs and sex offenders are not supposed to be happening in those areas. Why would the police department just allow this to go on for weeks? After all the contracts that the city of Jackson has put out, they have contracts with Welcome Home Organization recently from the Michigan Opioid Settlement Funds. Where have they been at? You don't hear anything after they get paid. The check gets signed and they disappear. They need to be going to jail. If you have a contract with the city of Jackson, if you have a contract with the county government, the state of Michigan, The federal government and your job is supposed to be getting people off of drugs, getting people into transitional housing, giving people honest information about some other options that are federally subsidized. If they are eligible, then you need to do it or you're going to jail. We're going to put you in a cage. We're going to keep you there as long as possible. We're going to eliminate your funding. We're going to completely shut down your company. This is not a joke. It's not a game. It's not a threat. It's a promise. We deserve better than what we're getting here in Jackson. I'm sick and tired of this. I don't care about storytelling because storytelling is not the same thing as actions. There are well-paid companies, multi-million dollar corporations in Jackson, like Community Action Agency, where Tasha Carter is a board member. Sean Willis is a board member. Toby Berry is their CEO. She's also a part of the RA thing that never follows through and does what they say they're going to do. No more contracts and no more funding for any of it. The police need to do their jobs. If people are doing what they're doing downtown, they need to go to jail, and so do the companies. Thank you.

Nick Cook.

Good evening mayor Mahoney and members of the Jackson city council. I'm Nick cook, director of public policy for the Michigan coalition against homelessness. I come before you tonight disappointed. I understand the city's responsibility to keep sidewalks accessible, park safe and public spaces available for everyone. But I'm disappointed that a proposal with such significant consequences for vulnerable residents has moved forward with so little meaningful engagement from those working on homelessness every day. Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness, a statewide organization with extensive experience in homelessness, policy, outreach, housing, and legal issues has over the past few weeks made multiple attempts to meet with council members, discuss concerns, answer questions, and walk through these issues together. Those efforts were met with silence, No meetings, no invitations, no meaningful dialogue, despite serious legal, practical, and fiscal concerns raised in the coalition's letter. The proposed ordinance creates a real risk of arbitrary and capricious enforcement. The coalition identified numerous unanswered questions. What qualifies as attended property? How long can someone step away before their belongings are considered abandoned? How will the 32 gallon limit be measured consistently? Without clear objective standards, enforcement will depend on individual judgment, creating the risk that people will be treated differently under the same ordinance. Research also shows that when cities remove encampments and store personal property, people rarely recover their belongings. A pro publica investigation found that many people lost identification, medications, tools, family keepsakes, and survival gear. While property retrieval rates in some cities were only a small fraction of what was taken. And many times cities just discarded items as a point of health and safety. The people affected by this ordinance are not carrying excess belongings. They are carrying identification documents, medications, medical equipment, legal papers, clothing, blankets, and other items necessary for survival. Losing those items can make it even harder to obtain housing, employment, health care, and benefits. I'm especially concerned about the tent ban. For many people living outside, a tent is not a convenience. It is only protection they have from rain, wind, snow, extreme heat, and freezing temperatures. Banning tents does not eliminate the need for shelter. It simply removes the limited protection people have when there's nowhere else to go. Most importantly, the ordinance does not create housing, add shelter beds, provide treatment, or connect people to services. It simply makes homelessness less visible while moving people from one place to another. The Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness warns that enforcement focused approaches often consume public resources while failing to reduce homelessness itself. I urge you to pause this ordinance, engage stakeholders, and focus on solutions that reduce homelessness rather than simply relocate it.

Christy Davis. Can you say it again? She heard me. I was trying to talk all over you. Sorry, I'm just a slow motion.

Christy Davis, 612 4th Street. I have a couple things. First of all, the thing about the community development, raising their fees. Community development seems to continuously raise their fees for everything, making developing the community more difficult and more expensive. Instead of them working outside of the city and working in other townships, maybe they should just focus their time and resources in the city. I'm sure one doesn't directly correspond with the other everything. I don't think we need to continue to raise fees all the time for residents. The other thing is, Jonathan, I don't know if you had a chance to look at any of those ordinances I had sent you after the last meeting. But a bunch of them would help take care. I know you can't respond right now. A bunch of them would help take care of some of the homelessness issues downtown. Besides taking away people's belongings, I don't know what that would do. besides just cause more frustration and anxiety. Um, I again think that Rhea needs to be checked into for a breach of contract. Um, because they were awarded T. A. Wilson for homelessness. Um, they're they're doing you're shaking your head. No, they can't be. sorry i was i know he can't respond but he's shaking his head um because if that was the that's why they were sold the building i don't understand why we can't hold them accountable same thing with the jackson housing commission why can't they be held accountable to fix their to fix their buildings that should be housing a lot of people when i was at the meeting this past week One of the things that was very disturbing was when Tasha, it was great, Tasha went through her speech of all the different reimbursement grants, which was great. She explained what they all have to be used for, which is important for people to understand because all grants have to be used. Even when non-profits get donations, you have to use the money for that specific thing. Otherwise, there can be a lot of legal repercussions. for the people not using the money for what it was specified. But one of the things that bothered me was when one of the other members got up and said that some of the other groups, specifically Interfaith Shelter, should be giving them money to open the T.A. Wilson School. Um, they can't do that either because ifs is responsible to their donors and their grant people to use the money how they said they would use it. So I think share put it best if we could turn back time. I think we would all agree. T. A. Wilson should not have gone to residents in action. Thank you very much.

Catherine curious maker.

Good evening. My name is Catherine Keersmaker.

I reside at 1116 South Durand, and I'm going to lighten this whole load tonight. I have a request. I would like to see an ordinance passed to require males to wear a shirt in the downtown district. That's all I have to say. Please consider it. There's a lot of ugly out there.

Good evening. I want to thank those of you who were able to make our meeting last week, where we tried to demystify the homeless service system a bit. I hope we provided some good information. My name is Toby Berry, apparently infamous at this point in time. I am the CEO of Community Action Agency. Our address is 1214 Greenwood. We have signed on to the letter provided by the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness in opposition of the proposed ordinance. As the local housing assessment and resource agency, we work closely with local providers to provide a coordinated approach to addressing homelessness. This approach utilizes available community resources to assist in moving residents from being unhoused to permanent housing. Our ability to quickly rehouse residents depends on the availability of housing units that fit the needs and size of the individual or family being housed. This is not a quick process and residents remain unhoused until rental units can be secured. I appreciate that the council delayed adoption of this ordinance to allow for further discussion. I hope that you have had time to read and review the legal opinion provided by the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness, and also hope that you will strongly consider their recommendations. I encourage you to take the next step by postponing this ordinance and bringing together people with lived experience, service providers, law enforcement, business, healthcare partners, and the continuum of care to develop a coordinated response that balances public safety with compassion and effectiveness. Being poor is not a crime, and it should not be treated like one.

Patricia Gujan, thank you.

Patricia do John 2258 Jackson, MI 49202. I hope this is okay. 30 years ago I was homeless with my four Children. I had cancer. I had no family. I had no job. My youngest child was five. I never expected to be homeless. Never. I have a middle-class home, but I was being abused, and so were my children. As soon as they started getting abused, I left. I became homeless.

It can happen to anyone in this room.

Now I have our neighbor's keeper, and I help the previously homeless. And I give them free furniture and household goods. And my nonprofit does, I should say, not me. But we're all volunteers. We're giving back. And I would hate to think that a homeless person would have to give up their stuff when I was there. And I know what it felt like. And I know what life is. And it's awful. And it comes from my clients telling me terrible stories of why they're there. It's a tragedy is what it is. It's not a choice, it's a tragedy. And that's all I really want to say.

John Wilson.

Good evening, John Wilson, 1045 South Durant Street. Council will be voting to receive the engineer's report for street reconstruction on Morrell Street from Brown Street to Bone Street. Council will also vote to receive the engineer's report for street resurfacing. Start re street resurfacing Elm Avenue to the east city limits both street projects will use federal funding and street construction assessments that are applied to property owners on both streets Homeowners long Morrell Street will pay up to sixty four hundred dollars for that project business Business is much more in Queens parish their project cost is projected to be fifty thousand dollars Homeowners along Page Avenue will pay up to $2,000. Businesses and rentals, much more. These projected assessment taxes are too high and unaffordable for many. Of course, to help out the property owners, they could choose to spread out their assessments over 10 years with interest. A property owner could pass a petition And if they get 51% of property owners to sign the petition protesting the assessment cost, then city council has the option to vote the project down or city council can choose not to assess a property owner as they have in the past with a couple East side major streets and MLK junior drive. Those streets were reconstructed at no cost to the homeowners or businesses on those streets. And councils vote, or not vote tonight, but you're receiving a couple memos from the Environmental Commission on bee colony and the tree nursery. It is this type of non-essential spending, if you go forward with this, with the bee colony and the tree nursery. that the council spends on and then turns around and has to assess a homeowner, property owner, thousands of dollars to have their streets fixed. Thank you.

CHRIS RODGERS. Jennifer Dixon.

Sorry, my first time doing this. All right, so my name is Jen Dixon. I don't live in Jackson proper, but I live in Blackman Township, but I'm in the city every single day. And what goes on here impacts my life directly. The reason I'm speaking today is because I'm interested in civic engagement. As the first line of the Michigan Constitution states, all political power is inherent in the people. And I want to see more people actively engaging in our democracy. For a citizen to initiate changes within the city, they are required to fill out paperwork and to collect signatures equal to 10% of the total number of people who voted in the last mayoral election. In 2022, that number was approximately 4000, meaning a citizen initiated action currently requires approximately 400 signatures. It used to be that the municipal elections were held on the odd years while the larger elections were held on the even years. There is less turnout from municipal elections, meaning less people come out to vote for mayor than they do for state and federal positions. Around 24,500 people turned out in 2022 to vote compared to the 2023 municipal election, where only about 4,000 total voters showed up. In 2023, the city council here voted to move municipal elections to even years, aligning them with the larger attendance state and federal elections. It was stated that this move was done to save money on the election process. a consequence however of this change means that the mayoral elections will see a much higher number of voters and thus per our city charter will result in significantly higher a higher bar for citizen initiated actions instead of the 400 signatures required by any citizen wanting to do an initiative it will require potentially 2 500 signatures for an individual citizen to do something citizen act initiated this is a massive negative impact on the ability of average citizens to participate in direct democracy i hope this was not the intention of this change and if it was not and if you truly are interested in upholding a democracy where citizens have a chance to engage in civic action i ask that you review the city charter and revise it in such a way that voting for mayor is not also a vote against citizen engagement As it stands, any vote for mayor this November directly harms the ability of individual citizens to engage with this system. Please remove this barrier and show your support for continued citizen engagement and the values of our democracy.

Cindy Evie.

Well, unfortunately, I left my comments laying on the kitchen table. And ad limbing is not my skill. But I will say that over half of the city residents are struggling. They are living. Many of us are living at or below the poverty level and those that are not below the poverty level are still like the median. I mean the. uh average income here is 25 000 the median income is 40 something thousand so um it's really rough out here and when we have to come in here and the city manager is making 230 000 a year that is so ridiculously out of line with a city of 31 000 residents so i have a proposal to make I propose that we cut Jonathan's salary in half as well as all the department's heads and take that money and entail it to cover services and housing for the most vulnerable residents of Jackson. That would be fair. Thank you.

uh ella scott hello my name is ella scott but a lot of people around here know me as alex i live in blackmond township but i'm in the city a lot for my community organizing so okay so as admitted at the last meeting uh the explicit goal of this ordinance is to clean up the encampments It's just what it is. Clear up the stuff that the people are leaving out. Where else are they supposed to put that stuff? Last I heard, the interfaith shelter was full. And even if it wasn't full, it doesn't allow pets, which is a deal breaker for a lot of people. A lot of people would rather stay homeless than have to give up their pet. Or alternatively, I've heard a lot of stuff about interfaith conditions feeling similar to a jail. Which considering the overlap between people who have been in jail before and the homeless is not encouraging, I imagine. And T Wilson can't open until residents in action can actually get the grant money that they were promised. As per the homelessness panel last week. so you just can't stay in the city i guess so they go to the townships but when they go to the townships and people are like hey let's take these people in they say get sued by their township for doing that and downtown is where the resources are at anyway like the reason that they're outside the library to begin with is because internet air conditioning heating during the winter bathrooms like a place to charge their phone But that's where the resources are. Okay, so the homeless have nowhere else to put their stuff. So they leave their stuff on the streets because what else are they supposed to do with it? So then this ordinance is looking at that and going okay, so This stuff is just here. Let's impound their stuff. But if they have nowhere else to put their stuff, and you're taking their stuff for them just leaving it out because they have nowhere to put it, then you're effectively punishing them for being homeless. I know it's been said repeatedly that this is not supposed to be anti-homeless legislation, But in effect, that's what it is. At its core essence, no matter how many changes you make to the wording and all of the small bits, which keep in mind, I think a lot of good changes were made, it's still not enough because the core essence at the end of the day is you're taking stuff from people because they don't have anywhere else to put it. It's a little weird. I don't know what to tell you. Thank you.

Devin Corday. Cordray.

Devin Cordray, 1036 1st Street, right here in Jackson, Michigan. And I thought that I would do a little demonstration for everyone about how much actually fits in a backpack. What is our essential gear that we're carrying around if we're homeless? Because what are you going to bring with you if you got nothing else but a backpack, right? So here's what we got in this very large and very heavy, hard to carry around backpack. We've got some underwear, two pairs of socks. We've got two pairs of pants, two shirts. We've got a couple toiletries in here because, you know, we're going to need those. We're going to need the medications we need to stay alive. We're going to need our important documents. Deodorant. Toothbrush. Hairbrush, toothpaste. But that's not the most important thing in this bag for me. The most important thing in this bag for me is actually the thing that takes up the most room, and that, for those of you who don't know what this is, is the CPAP machine. So if you're blessed with sleep apnea like I am, you stop breathing when you sleep, and so you have to be cooked to this lovely machine to make sure that you don't die in your sleep. So I'm gonna have to carry this around with me if I'm homeless, but it's gotta get plugged in somewhere, and we don't really have any power, so I'm gonna have to bring a solar panel and a power bank to charge this thing every night so I don't die, which is great, especially if I don't have a tent. So what's in this bag is important, but what's not in the bag is also important. Because if you notice, there's no pillow in here. There's no blanket in here. There's no towel in here. There's no family photos. My dad's ashes don't fit in here. Certainly not. I have to take my safe bag out to fit them in there. So what it comes down to this legislation is, You've all, whoever in general looked around and thought it was a good idea to pass this ordinance instead of putting yourself in the shoes of your unhoused neighbors for one second, because that is uncomfortable. You decided to be cruel instead of kind and create more barriers for them. You decided to weaponize the ADA against the homeless in Jackson. When we have plenty of ADA concerns that are not being addressed, you're making people fight harder just to have their own basic life and dignity. And you're suggesting that people should be pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and then taking the boots off their feet. So that's all I've got to say.

Madeline Carr.

Madeline Carr, Brooklyn, Michigan. I am speaking out in opposition of this personal property ordinance and asking City Council not to pass this harmful policy in any way, no matter how many times you claim that this ordinance is not discriminatory or an attempt to criminalize homelessness, we know the truth. That in practice, this ordinance will have disproportionate negative impacts on the unhoused. Here are some direct quotes from unhoused people across the United States in cities with personal property ordinances when asked by ProPublica on what was most devastating for them to lose. Mario Van Rossen, Los Angeles, California. My tools, because I use them to make a living. Not to mention some of those tools are given to me by my father and they made me feel close to my dad that is now gone because he passed away. But what really sucks is I used to use them to make a living so I could eat and buy what I need. Violet Loftus, Portland, Oregon. Because of the sweeps, I cannot keep anything. I can't get any sort of anything that I might get attached to. I have lost everything clear down to the clothes on my back. I now wear a purse that I wear 24-7. I have no trust and I live like an animal and have serious mental health issues because of it. Help it get better. Luann Loving, Portland, Oregon. All of my fishing gear, tent, wagon, lamps, lanterns, propane stove. I felt violated. I felt that no one cared and was very hurt and angry. I had to start over again collecting these things. Mariana, Phoenix, Arizona. I had my kids' baby shoes with me since we became homeless. It was all I had left of them because they're with family. The police and city took them with the rest of our stuff. It broke my heart. I still cry my eyes out when I think of it. It just reminds me that you have no power or control left. Adam Mora, Riverside, California. My prescription glasses were taken, have been getting headaches. My CD players, phones, personal paperwork, had no time replacing it. Also jewelry was taken, food, clothes. This has affected me because they just come and throw our stuff away and they just don't care, like it was nothing to them. Teresa Staten, my husband's ashes. It made me feel alone, scared, empty. Now I wonder where he is and if he's still in his urn and if he's okay and I hope he's not in the dump. Jeremy Foreman, Albuquerque, New Mexico. My sense of self and the will to keep trying to better myself and to get off these streets. So the most devastating object I lost was Jeremy Foreman. Thank you.

Sam Cluse. Sam Cluse.

good evening fellow workers ward 5. today i present as a public nuisance according to the city officials directly responsible for harming my family i've traveled for business throughout the united states canada mexico the united kingdom germany and romania the majority of my clients incentivize public transit use and the city of jackson taxes my income I expect Amtrak may publish a travel advisory warning customers of the personal property restrictions within the city of Jackson. I am a pedestrian commuter, one of the 20% of Jacksonians without access to a personal vehicle. I can reasonably expect confrontation with armed law enforcement for violating this ordinance. An objective violation appears to establish grounds to seize my excess personal property. This winter I can expect to be surveilled, profiled and confronted by Jackson officials on top of navigating the hazardous snow and ice permitted to accumulate on the sidewalks of every single city owned parcel. Excuse me. I'm not welcome to patronize downtown businesses or rest in any public park on my commute. Doing so could invite unnecessary conflict and risk my personal safety. I'll need express permission from city officials anytime I need to use my protective sunshade or mosquito tent in a public park. To again quote community development, Council has not indicated a goal to safely maintain the significant parcel inventory it has voted to purchase for workforce development. Our city clerk refused to read my comment into the public record on April 7th and assured me that each of you were provided my email. Yet on June 16th, my representative claimed she had no knowledge of any public hearing feedback from my household. City officials have failed to mitigate a documented public health risk. Our sitting council representative lied in writing to my family. Living or working in the city of Jackson is increasingly harmful under this administration. My family chose to relocate my disabled mother-in-law to a community where her physical needs and civil rights are valued. Meanwhile, the city of Jackson maintains a clearly documented history of ADA negligence, risking significant damages in federal fines and civil rights litigation. Regulation is written in blood, and every single city official in this room has working class blood on their hands. Shame on every single one of you.

John C. King.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Jen King, two zero three third street here in the city. Um, I would like to speak about, you know, I met, sent the letter earlier today to the council, so I'll read part of it and they have lived with some notes. There were a lot of lies and nonsense told during the so-called homeless political event, not sponsored by the city, but heavily supported by the city, such as with the city center, social media, and the event being televised by JTV through the city's YouTube channel. I was very surprised when I first saw the promotion of this event that Steve Castle was going to be on the panel of so-called experts. I was not surprised he did not attend. Um, then I mentioned like Justin counts with the community action agency, another person on the panel who had spent time behind bars that, uh, you know, the day before the vet, they go to candidate for Mayor John Wilson's Facebook page and called him races because he doesn't want, you know, all kinds of money just being thrown away with residents and action and other groups. Um, uh, there was a so called expert Laura room with the community action agency. That said, uh, illegal drug use, which one the so called homeless is not very common. That's not true. It is very common. A high percentage of the so-called homeless have illegal drug and alcohol abuse issues. I can tell that just by lived experience, if I may borrow the term from them, with needle syringes I have been picking up for decades. The library staff had to pick them up during the encampment that was out front, you know, the last couple months. uh one expert on the topic michael schellenberger has been very involved with the issue for decades in one article of his he mentions the evidence is overwhelming that the majority of people on the street are there because of untreated mental illness and addiction which leads people to use all their money to support their drug habit and be high rather than work Uh, a thing that's been concerning me was Ryan parent at that event and I had seen some pictures from thinking he's promoting residents and action and that nonsense. Uh, he's the president CEO of the Jason chamber. He got the national team or the year war by blowing smoke. I guess, uh. His the chamber. is his job is business and visitors. You know, he's got one job to do in with a punitive parking plan. He really screwed the pooch on that and we're going to have him now pushed this nonsense. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Charlotte O'Sullivan.

I live just outside of city limits today, but I've lived in the city for 15 years. It's very close to my heart. I'm here today to urge city council to vote no on proposite personal prop. Personal property on the personal property ordinance every city that has passed an ordinance like this has caused harm to unhoused residents and made on and made homelessness worse first It is wrong for city officials and police to be determining what is essential for someone living on the street and disrespecting them by taking their belongings. You try to claim that the ordinance is empathetic because the city is safely storing people's things for them to retrieve. Yet this is only an illusion of compassion. Reporting by ProPublica found that in every city, these ordinances, people rarely get their things back. The additional barriers to retrieving items have come from from homelessness along mistrust and justified fear of punishment from elect from elected officials and and police and police means people often choose not to or cannot retrieve their belongings. This means unhoused people in cities with these ordinance lose their personally important to them items that are also critical to their well-being. We can also see that in cities that have passed similar ordinances, there are clear negative physical and mental impacts on the unhoused. For example, researchers have found that having tents and tarps confiscated have forced people to sleep rough in the elements. People lose medications and medical equipment. people forgoing medical treatment over fear of leaving their belongings and having them confiscated, greater chances of overdose and disease for those struggling with addiction, and the additional stress and burden of having their belongings confiscated. One island-housed woman who has experienced having her items confiscated said, it keeps you in what is we call a homeless rut where we can't focus on anything except else except being homeless we can't focus on getting out out of it and moving forward simply put this ordinance will worsen homelessness and make it more difficult to get off the street the city cannot ignore the evidence facing it that this ordinance is unethical and will have home make homelessness worse i ask that you do not pass this ordinance in any way and instead focus on offering voluntary storage thank you elissa willis hello elissa willis uh here

1855 West Argyle Street. I want to start by saying I'm grateful that you guys did not pass the emergency ordinance last month because I do not believe that would have been the right decision and I also don't believe that passing that ordinance tonight will be the right decision. I was at the community conversation that took place recently about the unhoused situation and hearing from the different organizations that are in the area. It seems like there's a lot of potential working with them. What I noticed in that community conversation is that we don't really hear the voices of those directly affected, and I think we could do a lot better if we were hearing directly from them and what they need. Finding out what their current living situation is, what their ideal living situation might be, and what would help the most right now. I thought about how you all have approached the master plan, reaching out to the community really well doing that, having questionnaires, getting feedback from the public, meeting people out in the community to have conversations with them. I feel like an approach similar to that would be very helpful in this situation. I know there are some people from organizations in the area that have talked about having more of a dialogue, so there's definitely interest in it. Um, just collaborating with them, finding, finding out, um, what alternate ways, um, this, uh, issue could be tackled and help people out in these situations, um, would be very useful. Um, and yeah, I guess I just want to ask, like, how can you take advantage of that? What can you do? How can we have more of a dialogue, the community and those representing, um, the city of Jackson, the County of Jackson? What does that look like? It's unfortunate that in this environment there is no dialogue. There is a one-way commentary. It's very awkward. It's not natural. People don't have conversations this way normally. It's usually a little back and forth. So it would be great if we could change that moving forward in some way. Thank you.

That will conclude our citizen comment portion of the meeting. It brings us down to the consent calendar. I'm looking for a motion in support on the consent calendar. So moved.

CHRISTIE WOODARD. Support. CHRIS RODGERS.

It's been moved and supported. Any questions, comments, concerns, additions, deletions from the consent calendar? Seeing or hearing none, all in favor say, oh, sorry. Oh, refresh your, uh, voting apparatuses, uh, if you will please. And then the clerk will tally and display the vote consent calendar passes. That brings us down to item number nine. Looking for a motion in support to approve the second reading and final adoption of Ordinance 2026-03, amending Chapter 17 of the City Code to prohibit the storage of unattended and accessed personal property in public rights of way, sidewalks, and parks. Support. It's been moved and supported. I would like to open the floor for discussion. CHRIS RODGERS. Mr. Mayor?

TODD BANDUCCI. Yes, sir. CHRIS RODGERS. Before we do that, maybe we could have the city attorney go through the changes we made from the first reading to this one. TODD BANDUCCI.

I think that's a great place to start. Thank you.

Happy to do so. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Councilman Forgrave. So as council is aware, the first thing you decided to do was move this forward as a regular ordinance and not an emergency ordinance. This, of course, required first reading, which happened at the last council meeting, a second reading, which you're undergoing right now, and then the normal course if passed the ordinance would take effect 30 days and that's a minimum you you could actually we've done this in other ordinances the one that comes to mind is the smoking ban the council adopted several years ago you can extend the effective date, say 60, 90 days, if you want. I'm just pointing it out for reference. But otherwise, it goes into effect 30 days after. So you remove the emergency declaration. You also removed any civil infraction penalty, so any monetary fine. There is no monetary fine. whatsoever associated with any violation of the ordinance. It's just a storage and retrieval ordinance at this point, regulating conduct across the board regardless of your housing status. Third, there's a separate logging and storage of essential personal properties. So we're talking about things like IDs, medications, money, other what's defined in the ordinance as, quote, essential personal property. There's an extension in the downtown, the DDA district, of a four-hour minimum notice for removal in the DDA district. That was a change from two hours to four upon council recommendation after debate at the last meeting. Again, that's a minimum. Um, and then there lastly, the final two, there is no reference to pets or animals whatsoever. So we're obviously not going to store, uh, any, any living creature or someone's pet. Um, and then lastly, there is a opportunity. in limited circumstances to extend that 30-day storage period extension in writing. So if someone's hospitalized or has other extenuating circumstances that doesn't allow them to retrieve their property within the 30-day window, they could make that request and that would be granted by city staff in order to give them some additional time to retrieve those. personal items again as manager green pointed out we have two shipping containers so it uh all any property that is retrieved and stored under the ordinance were to be adopted would be would be stored on city property and be able to be retrieved so that's an overview of the changes that you made from the last reading and happy to answer any other substantive questions on the ordinance itself

CHRIS RODGERS. Thank you, Mr. Attorney. Council, what questions, comments, or concerns do you have? CHRISTIE WOOD.

So can you just clarify, the vote tonight is on the second reading. Are we actually going to vote on passing the ordinance tonight?

Passing the second reading would pass the order. That's correct.

It would be adopted after second reading, correct.

And it would take effect 30 days after.

As presently constituted, that's exactly right. So about September 17th it would be on the books.

Council and public, last month I was a no for the ordinance. And I was very hopeful that the meeting that we had would have given us a path forward, something concrete that our stakeholders coming together in one centralized location would be able to coordinate their services and hold one another accountable. And I sit here tonight because that did not happen, that did not occur, and my position remains the same.

mr. mayor I agree with what you've heard from Shalonda I was looking for more from the meeting i actually was expecting the homeless to be there to take advantage or meet some of the resources that might be available to assist them so um I'm not going to support the passing of the ordinance because I feel the homeless people have been shifted. We know they have been shifted. But I certainly don't want to slight the efforts we are making from the city we're making some efforts but i don't think it's going to it is not going to solve the problem and i also would like to say the community comes so very hard the local government to fix all the problems but we're not the only agencies and agency in the city that has resources to assist so you know anyway I'm just saying I'm not going to support it for the second reading because I do feel that the homeless people are just being move down the road and not resolutions are not there yet but i don't think it's all our problem please understand i do not think it's the whole city's problem mr mayor i'm sorry to interrupt this but could i request a five-minute bathroom break um

All right. Would it be amenable for us to finish the comments? Let's see how long this goes, I guess. At least? Yeah, sure. I don't particularly want to go to a break with the motion on the floor. I understand. But understand if it's an emergency.

I'll be a grown up.

And I'm sorry, before we move forward in any comments or move forward at all, I'm just gonna kindly ask that you put the sign down. Um, it absolutely is, but it is very disrespectful and I want to call it out. It's not, it's not that I care that I see it, but they are public and they are children and their families and there are people who watch this that do not deserve that do not deserve to see that. I'm sorry. It's very rude and disrespectful. And so I'm going to give you the attention that you're seeking by telling you that it's rude and disrespectful and it's very inappropriate. I'm sorry. Nobody was talking to you. That's very rude and disrespectful.

Okay.

This is why you can't get elected to anything.

Mr Mayor.

No, it was a direct blow because that's rude. My Children watched this. That's rude and disrespectful. I don't choose to today. I'm making I'm making time not to today. I'm making time not to ignore it today. And I'm sorry to counsel for that interruption. But I think that sometimes bullshit needs to be called out for what it is. because that's trash.

We need to call this meeting to order.

Thank you.

I'm asking that everyone sees any comments right now. This is not how a public open meeting should be held. This is unacceptable. I have family, I have friends, I have community members that are also watching this meeting. This is enough to everyone that has made an inappropriate comment. Unbelievable.

Is there any other comments on the motion that is on the floor?

I have a couple rhetorical questions for the city attorney. How many times is the word homeless used in the ordinance?

None.

How many times is the word unhoused used in the ordinance?

None.

All right. Thank you.

My only comment on the matters that I think two things can be true at once. Um, we can work to address how our shared spaces, our walkways, our parks, our other public accessible amenities that are supposed to be able to be shared and accessible by everyone. Um, and make sure that those spaces are available to be shared by everyone. And we can also make sure that we are fostering a place where conversation between all those who work in the space of helping homeless people. And we have even put our money where our mouth is not one, not two, but three years in a row and making sure that no homeless person has to sleep outside during the roughest months in this state. I think that we've proven that I think tonight is not about that. I think we just answered the question that the word homelessness, is not even in the ordinance. The word unhoused is not even in the ordinance at all. It's not in there. I think this is fair to everyone who is looking to share these public spaces. This is not restricting or taking away someone's right to live however they want to live. And speaking from an experience of being homeless myself, We didn't have belongings to carry around. We had nothing when we were homeless, nothing to accumulate. And my mother worked two jobs with four Children to get us out of homelessness. I have been there before. It still does not negate the public's right to public accessible places that are shared by us all. It does not make it acceptable or okay to use our public spaces as restrooms. It does not make it okay. This is addressing exactly what it says it's addressing. I will be in support of this still.

Mr Mayor.

Yes sir.

Thank you. I have two questions for the members of council who have indicated opposition at this time. Number one, are there changes that you all would like to see that could turn this into an ordinance or a version of an ordinance that would accomplish the intent but kind of remove some of the concerns that you have. So that's my first question. My second question is, it sounds like there is some lingering concern on the part of some of us that the attempt to have kind of community conversation, which I was unable to attend due to scheduling conflict, but it sounded like it was a good meeting. Since that wasn't able to produce what I think some of you were looking for, do you think that taking another shot over the period between this meeting and our next one would be helpful? Or do you think that neither that nor any textual changes would accomplish what you're trying to accomplish here?

At this point, I'd say there's nothing in the ordinance that I would support. My position has not changed from the last first reading. I don't believe it accomplishes anything, really. And I think to say that it would be an ordinance that is not targeting the unhoused or people that are homeless, is, um, cynical. In reality, we know what we're talking about, whether we write it in the ordinance or not. So, um, for me there'd be nothing in the ordinance that would address, um, my concerns. Um, I think the meeting last week I wasn't able to attend either. I was out of town for my other job, but I was able to listen to the YouTube. So I was, I appreciate that it was a recorded. And I think it was a good start. And so I think that one of the things that was offered by the, um, Minnesota coalition against the homeless witness is to help the city and those stakeholders and local businesses, um, beyond the downtown area to, um, pursue solutions to the homelessness crisis that we have in Michigan, in Jackson, Michigan. And I think that's not going to happen in a month. I think that's a longer-term commitment and that we have a part in that. And we can't be the only players, but we do have a part in that. We can provide leadership to that. And so that's what would make me happy tonight.

Mr. Merritt. I don't necessarily want to put words in council member Wood's mouth, but I think, I think what he's driving at and what I'd like to put a finer point on, um, and maybe what you alluded to a little as well, um, a lot of comments tonight talked about, you know, what does a dialogue look like? What does supporting these nonprofits look like? I mean, it looks like what we've been doing for the last 30 years, you know, you said three, I mean, how long looking back at however many years of CDBG grant funding, where the money is flowing, where the support is flowing. We have been doing this work year in, year out, and this is where it's led us, and we have tools at our disposal, right? On some level, I agree. I'll cop to Councilwoman Gunn's point, right? This will affect homeless people more than it will affect others. There's no way around that. But the tools at our disposal, the way this law is written, the way it's worked in other communities, I think actually would work. And I think too, compared with other communities, we are bending over backwards. We are not throwing things out for 30 days. We are allowing people to use this space if they would like to. Right? We're not going to turn people away if they want to use the space to house and store their stuff. Welcome to do that. I think we are going above and beyond with this to be as pragmatic as possible. Um, and I'm disappointed in everybody, truly everyone up here and out there who just fell so hard in either one direction, you know, to, to, to the mayor's point, I think we are doing our best with the tools at our disposal in the system we live in work in to make something work here. And I think it's disingenuous to sit here and say, you didn't solve homelessness at the last meeting. So you're voting. No. If we're talking about cynical and disingenuous. So I think it cuts in both directions. I think we have a job to do. I think nonprofits have a job to do. And I think we can continue to work together no matter how this works, no matter how we vote on it.

Any other comments, questions, concerns, discussion?

Mr. Mayor, I appreciate the comments that every other member of council has made. I know we all respect each other, and I know this is a more tense meeting than I think usual. So I appreciate everybody's candor. I guess I come back to the question that I had that I appreciate Councilmember Gunn answering, which is, are there changes to the ordinance or Maybe changes your conversations outside of these chambers that could change somebody's vote. The reason I asked that is because it seems like we've got three no votes, which means this is going to fail. And so I think the options before us practically are it fails or it's postponed or end is worked on and comes back in a different shape at a future date. So I guess I'm curious where council members Robinson and Hunt are on that question, because I think that just helps us get to the end of this discussion.

So as an elected official, we have an obligation to conduct our due diligence and I will say publicly, I appreciate the effort that was put into this ordinance. Um, Certainly not being disingenuous by any means, but the encampment is in Ward 5. And I'll just bring it all the way home. And I sit here representing Ward 5. And I've had countless, countless conversations with the individuals, many of which really don't appreciate the option that we are providing them to store their belongings. we saw it it's no longer there but it still exists i agree that this is not the city's responsibility alone and we are trying our best to to move the needle stick along but i can't in clear conscience disregard the humans that i've had direct conversations with thank you i can't

All right, here's my desire as I spoke to this last meeting. And I'm not saying that the agencies that have resources that individuals may need i guess i'm looking at it all the way around i do feel the city is doing what they can however they're and i'm not saying that agencies do not but i think i was looking for more of a proactive people coming forward that were homeless to say i need this that and those things in order to work on not being homeless. I don't know all the reasons behind that. And then I'm not going to say that the agencies don't have these services available. But how do we get everybody at the table so that we can resolve? I think the city's doing what we can. But it hasn't fixed the problem. And I was kind of shocked that none of the homeless that I knew. And I don't know all, because I haven't had the opportunity to go to the library. But I did notice the change in the encampment not being there, but also seeing that it's moved to another location. I think we just all have to come to the same table and try to fix the problem. Homeless individuals or unhoused individuals, we have to let go of some of our pride if we have issues that some agency might be able to help you with. And the agencies, I think we need to come away from the dust, and I relate that to my own career. I had to leave my desk at the bank and go to the doors that needed me or see if they needed me. So I think of it in that manner. And then the city, we put it out here. We're having our meetings. We've had two meetings now where this has kind of flipped around. But I don't think we've solved the problem, but we need to. find a way and counter that would be the answer to my question. I just think we all need to be in the same room and try to resolve some of the issues.

So council member council member Robinson, um, I guess my question then is, uh, do you think like, is it your preference then that we vote this vote down this ordinance and perhaps start some kind of new process or that we postpone this ordinance to the next meeting and keep working on it?

in the interim like what do you want to do i guess to keep working on it and i guess i'm not looking for us to violate any meetings act I think we just need to resolve the issue that we have. And no, we're not alone. I know there are other cities that are experiencing the same thing. And I think the city has done their part. We don't all necessarily have to be there, but the resources that we might offer, whether it be a department head that could come with some resources from the CBDG funds, it doesn't have to be actual council. But I just think that we've got to get everyone in the room, not necessarily this dais.

So then it sounds like if your preference is to postpone to the next meeting, do you want to make a motion, or would you like me to?

There is a motion on the floor. There is a motion on the floor. understand exactly what you're saying. I just, my concern is that we are postponing an issue. That's going to get voted down just at a later date. Um, I feel like, um, the ask to get this to a place for it to be a yes, doesn't realistically exist with the individuals who are opposed to it because the weight from last month to this month was for this meeting to happen. that we expected some resolutions to happen that, um, from a number of different organizations that was a two hour meeting. Right. And so we expected resolution on homelessness to happen within a two hour meeting from organizations that may work together in some capacity, but up to this point, not. particularly around this specific issue of an encampment being downtown. Um, I think it's an unrealistic ask to get everybody in the same room. I think it is a great idea. Um, I think it's possible, um, if all the parties outside of this room were interested in doing that, but I think if they were interested in doing that, they had time and opportunity to do that prior to us getting at this place right now. I just, I think that we have to like, if, if this is something that you don't support, like Angelita, thank you for your position. That means like, Hey, this is no, ain't nothing you can do to change it. Cause I'm a no. Cause I don't agree with it. And if that's where you are, I think that's fine. I can respect that, but like, let's not say, well, more needs to be done or we need to like, take this back to the drawing table and draw it out another 30 days for it to come back. And I still have homeless people, which we will. in 30 days just to say, no, it's not good enough yet. Let's keep working on it so that it can go another 30 days. And then the conversation will switch in 30 days from them, I promise you, because then we're going to be approaching wintertime. And it's going to be, how are we going to house people who are homeless over the wintertime? Then the conversation switches for the next four months on that. And then we might return to it. Well, you guys will return to it next year. I would rather us say, hey, if we're not in agreement with it, voted down, if you are in agreement with it, then vote it forward. If there, because it, that, because voting like it stopped, the ordinance not passing does not stop anybody who desires to get all people in the same room to work on this issue in the same room to work on this issue. It doesn't stop right there. It doesn't. And so like, I'm interested in seeing if that happens, because it sounds like that is the desire of someone council. Um, and I would support that. I just think that again, there's two separate issues being talked about. There's our responsibility to manage our public spaces. It doesn't say homeless because it does not only apply to the homeless in this case. Is it the encampment that brought us to where we are? I think we all know the answer to that. but it does not only apply to them. This is the shared space of all of our parks for all of our 30,000 citizens and the other 150,000 citizens who live outside the county or outside the city, but in the county who are also impacted by the decisions that we make here. That's a separate issue from us saying what our part is to help with the crisis of homelessness. That is not unique to Jackson. It is not unique to Michigan. There are homeless people across the entire country. We're not going to solve it. We can absolutely do our part to work on it. I just think that these are two separate things. And it's OK. Rules are rules. I think we have rules for a reason. If you're unhoused, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't respect and follow rules still. If you are housed, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't respect and follow rules still.

I appreciate what you're saying. I appreciate what everybody's saying. I think everybody in this room, I think, despite some pretty strenuous disagreements, is coming at this. Almost everybody in this room, despite strenuous disagreements, is coming at this from a good place in their heart, which I think is important. What I am saying is that just as the Like as we try to figure out what we're doing here, we've got an absent member. We've got two members, I think, who are saying just no, which is completely respectable. And we've got one member who wants to postpone, I guess, if we vote this down. this a version of this could come back in the future if we postpone we keep working on it i mean if the issue i think is having an ordinance of any kind that's one thing if the issue is the language in the ordinance pertaining to tents or should the limit be 32 gallons or 64 gallons or some other thing i think that is a different question and i think setting aside the the two Council members who have indicated their voting no, which is I think completely fine. And that's their decision and I respect it. That leaves five of whom you would need four to pass anything. And so I think that becomes a question for the remainder of do we want to let this die tonight or continue working on it? I personally see the arguments in both sides. I guess I'm mostly asking you, Mr. Mayor, and Councilmember Forgrave, having already heard Councilmember Robinson's point.

I'd like to give Councilmember Dancy the opportunity to represent his

warrant on this matter, even if that is me and wait in a couple of weeks, I am amenable to whatever, uh, the desire is. So I'm, I'm okay with that. I just, again, I think just to reiterate my, my concern is for us to spend more time to just get to a note. I just want to state my concern, but I'm okay with, I'm okay with us waiting.

Okay. Then I would make a motion to postpone second reading to the next meeting. A motion to postpone takes precedence over the main motion.

Thank you. There is a motion to postpone to our next meeting. And there is support. And so this would be to vote to postpone until our next meeting on this issue. Any discussion on the motion on the floor? Seeing or hearing none, the clerk will tally and display the vote. Please refresh your voting apparatuses first, please. Okay, until next time.

Mr. Mayor, could we have a bathroom break, please?

Is that a motion? Motion for a five-minute recess. Let's make it 10 minutes. Moved and supported. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Council could return and actually we gonna we gonna delay for a second. Sorry, the clerk is I gotta wait for at least the clerk to come back. But if you can slowly make your way back, that would be appreciated. We gotta wait for the clerk. looking for a motion uh to return from recess support uh it's been moved and supported all in favor say aye aye we are now back from our short break thank you mr mayor no problem um and if you will just refresh your screens so that your voting apparatuses will be properly working um That was item 9A. This brings us down to item 10A. I'm looking for a motion and support to approve updates to the planning and zoning schedule fee, including fee updates for variance applications, requests for zoning and zoning and permitting requests, and establish fees for various brownfield activities. Approve the resolution authorizing such fees, authorize the zoning administrator to create and update forms as needed, and further authorize the city manager and city attorney to make minor modifications as needed.

It's moved.

Support. It's been moved and supported. Can we just get a little background on this?

Sure can. John O'Connor, our planners, coming up to talk about this. This is only seven fees, and he can explain what's going on with them.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council. So over the course of the last year, I've had conversations with multiple zoning administrator planners across the area, and as I've been noticing, we've had an increase pretty substantial increase in our costs with uh public notice citizen patriot costs have went up sixty percent since 2023 approximately a hundred dollars per notification um so that's obviously a big part of this uh in this request for increase and then also we've seen with the brownfield plans multiple times where we have developers who come in they they want to put together a plan, our consultants review it, and then the plan sometimes doesn't come to fruition. When that occurs, we're using our local site remediation fund, our revolving fund, to cover those invoice costs rather than have the developer cover those costs by adding the escrow account We will actually have the money up front and then anything that is not utilized will be returned To the applicant and then if the plan is actually put in place Those dollars then would be put in the plan and then slowly returned in a TIF payment plan scheduled with that brownfield

Do you know off the top of your head, John, when the last time some of these other fees, because this is like the fee for a zoning permit is $30 going to $75.

Yeah, that was created in 2017. I'm trying to think on the others, they date back further than that.

Just for clarity, you said with the brownfield, some of the projects do not come to fruition because of what?

Sometimes they don't gain site control. The deal falls through. Maybe they have a purchasing agreement. And when it's determined that the site is maybe substantially more environmentally unfriendly for the project, then they may make a decision that they don't want to move forward with it. We've already had to expend costs to our environmental consultants fish with fish back and those invoices still have to be paid.

And so just to clarify, based on this fee schedule, so there have never, there have not been fees in the past for the brownfield.

Or the we have currently we have application fees, but we don't. We don't have anything in place to cover our consultants costs, so this is also to clarify in line with exactly what the county is doing. We are. Accelerate Jackson is working with the Brownfield board for similar language to what we're doing.

OK, thank you.

And John, there's a there's a skin in the game factor for some of these developers to write this. This helps. We're basically talking about earnest money. Yes. When you're buying a house like that's what we're asking for here. Yes, sir.

So can you one of the questions I asked him one, thank you to Chris for reaching out to me and asking if I had any questions on this particular item. I appreciated that. One of the questions that I had for him that I'm still curious of is how did we arrive at what this is being justified by the cost of the service that we're providing? So the SIPPAD was a great example of it increasing by $100, and you said $100 per application or per notice that we have to send out, it's gone up. Per notice, since 2023.

I didn't have the invoices from before 2023 to compare it to, but I would say that if we went back to 2017, that number would even be more substantial.

Okay.

Wait, I'm a little confused.

You lost him on that one. Before, what he's saying is in 2023 it was changed, and it looks like it may have been in 2017 before it was changed before that. So there seems to be a good stretch of years before things get changed is what he's trying to demonstrate.

Mm-hmm.

But you have a question on how did basically the earnest money amount get arrived at that he needs to answer? How do we come up with those numbers? Correct.

Correct. So the Brownfield numbers were derived from conversations with our consultant. And the consultant works as a consultant for many municipalities across the state. And this has been what the best practices or what has been commonly used, which is how I arrived at that number.

So we have, it doesn't seem like we've done any research on what the services that we're providing, because we're providing these services now. Correct. Like people can get a...

So currently all we have is an application fee.

Right.

And so if the cost for the consultant, let's say it's substantially higher than what that application fee is, everything that isn't covered has to be covered either out of the general fund or out of the LRCF revolving fund. So when, if the, if we don't have an EPA grant in place, that was the other location that we could have gotten those funds from. So that fund is depleted now. So now it's either general fund dollars or the revolving fund dollars. And that, that, that account is also very low at this time.

What is the application fee for those three? The,

brownfield housing tiff brownfield non-housing yeah what is what is the application fee the housing the housing tiff we did the fee is the same because previously the uh act three is the number yeah what is the dollar amount what is it i think the current is twelve hundred and fifty dollars twelve hundred fifty dollars and that comes out of the general funds right now from no that that access over that the access over that yes either comes out of the general fund or the revolving fund

And so this, this increase would be on top of that application fee.

No, the escrow is only if it's used. So in other words, we're going to have the dollar amounts. The application fee, yes, will be, it will be in excess of that. But anything that's not used will be returned. It's only for services rendered. If our, if they never get to the point where the consultants see anything, then that money's returned.

I'm at the risk of making things worse. I don't know how it could possibly get any worse. So this is for people, this is for brownfield developers, not Joe Schmoes on the street who wanted to have a project in the city of Jackson. It takes an inordinate amount of time to go from the square one to shovels in the ground. An inordinate amount of time, years of time. And so what happens is the Brownfield funds have to pay our consultant to deal with this developer. Sometimes this developer drags their feet. That happens. Sometimes this developer doesn't have success, uh, gaining site control on the property. Sometimes other things just happen. So instead of, brownfield fund which is supposed to support actual doing work in our local site remediation fund instead of having that fund to pay for busy work to get to doing the work we would like to have this created so we can hey say hey developer give us a $5,000 check we're gonna set it aside we're gonna work against that just like an attorney would and if the project goes through That's great. They can make up their money. They're going to get their money back because they'll have an approved tiff plan. The tax finance plan where they are allowed to recoup eligible activities expenses. This would be 1 of them. And if not, the city is not out any money and we have not spent an order on money in the northern amount of money out of our local site or mediation fund on a project that didn't go anywhere. This doesn't affect Joe Schmoe. This doesn't affect anybody on Marshall Street, anybody. This affects the big projects that come in that take out an inordinate amount of time. I keep saying that word wrong. I should stop saying it. Lots and lots of times.

I was trying to figure out how to spell it. Inordinate.

I can't say it. I just can't say it in the microphone. Inordinate.

John, I'm curious just to keep going down this... this rabbit hole. Um, so hypothetically, if this happens without this escrow account that we're proposing tonight and we use money out of the revolving fund, do we, do we get that recouped or do we just lose it?

We lose it right now. We're losing, we're just losing, losing money on projects that don't come to fruition because we don't have these escrow accounts. Okay. Losing my, thank you. That's needed to be said.

Yes. Thank you. So, so that, that applies to item D. and E. are both being escrowed, or are you saying all of these fees are escrowed? Because there's A is not escrowed.

B is not escrowed. F is not escrowed. G is not escrowed. G, just because let's keep making it worse, G is not for people who come to the counter and say, hey, I have a question about zoning. G is for banks who send, hey, we own this property. We think it's in Jackson, Michigan. It could be in Jackson, Mississippi. But could you tell us what's going on with it? So letters and correspondence go back and forth. John's time is wasted by answering somebody in a bank in New York or Germany or wherever, and they keep sending questions back and forth because they have no connection to what's happening here. So is the person, is the man on the street in Jackson somehow injured by these or made to pay more? No, not really.

Let's move.

So for, um, F and G, just for clarification right now in parentheses, it says one to five questions for F and six questions for G. Is that a increase currently? How many questions is it now? Or is all of this new?

So the, the increases from $30 and where we have no, we have no language in there about how many questions I'm answering. So if they, if they commandeer an eight hour a day of my time with a crazy, a good example would be, I had a property with, 11 variances, two conditional uses. I can't even name the number of signed permits, but I have to find every document. Also reach out to the fire department and other agencies sometimes to get the information that's required for this. And we charge $30. And there are companies out there that are zoning verification companies that charge thousands of dollars so that I can answer these questions for these folks.

I'd like to thank Mr. O'Connor for suffering with us through that.

it's okay it's my job and you know what you know what john now we all know a lot more about brownfield yes we do which is very important we know that jonathan can't say in order i wasn't trying to complicate the conversation i'm simply just trying to understand how we arrived at what the cost is going to be for the services being provided which I don't think has still been exactly answered yet.

It has not.

And so we don't know that's fine, but that is what my direct question was because I know we can't charge over or above what the services cost the city. And so I'm just trying to make sure that we're doing our due diligence, um, before like making a change and then saying, oh, it actually doesn't cover the cost or actually it overcovers the cost. And so I know these three items are the two items that are going in escrow. That is the protection for if it's under the amount, they would get the escrowed amount of money back that isn't spent. On the other items, that's not the case. They would pay whatever. I mean, on the zoning compliance letter, that's a little different. But for the zoning permit fees, for the fee for rezoning, for the fee for zoning variance application, those are items that we should have some type of idea on. what is this service costing us, and that being the justification for the increase in the cost. CHRIS RODGERS. Yeah.

And John hit that with the increased costs to notify things for rezoning and the variance applications. What could have been said better was that the advice we got from our environmental consultant on C, D, and E was the best practice that he's observed statewide and when he's working on different projects. Hey, my rate. $175 an hour usually takes this many hours to get a project over the finish line if everything goes right. John, you know, I'm seeing other places they do $5,000. I recommend Jackson do $5,000. Same thing with the one that's for $10,000. Same thing. Yeah, projects over $500,000.

And we don't think this will impact any of the projects that we foresee happening in the near or semi-near future?

No. When it comes to their brownfields, these activities, they get recouped by the developer. So yes, you have to pay a little bit in the beginning, but a brownfield property and a project, there's nothing straightforward about it. So it's a risk everybody's taking together.

Okay. Thank you.

You're welcome. Any other questions? All right, thanks.

Don't fucking say that.

All right. Seeing or hearing no other questions, the clerk will tally and display the vote. And that brings us down to item B, looking for a motion and support to approve the 2026-2030 draft labor agreement between the City of Jackson and the POLC non-supervisory unit Jackson division. Support. It's been moved and supported. Any discussion?

Mr. City Attorney, I have absolutely in no way any connection to this. Do I have a conflict of interest?

I think you've answered your own question.

I just want to be sure, because I'm sure we're going to hear about it.

You do not.

Thank you. And did I threaten your job if you indicated another answer? You also did not. Okay, thank you.

We appreciate those important clarifications. Any other questions, comments, concerns? Yes, sir.

I would just like to thank the bargaining team from the POLC non-supervisory unit and then congratulate the members of the unit on a respectful, successful negotiation process that went quicker than I expected. Not going to buy into what people say of negotiations. We work together every day. So when there's a win-win to be had, I think this is a win-win. I'm very proud of the work that we did to get here, especially with our bargaining counterparts at the union.

CHRIS RODGERS. OK. Seeing or hearing no other comments, questions, or concerns, the clerk will tally and display the vote. Item passes unanimous brings us to item C looking for a motion and support to approve the city of Jackson water treatment plants, purchase of a freight liner, Manatex crane truck through my deal contract. Number two four zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero nine five in the amount of 395,846 thousand dollars. to be paid via fund 402-591-000-981.000. Approved in the 2026-2027 budget, authorized city manager and director of public works to execute the appropriate documents.

Motion to buy a crane.

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

Currently, we only have one.

Of this scale, yes, we would only have one.

The current one is from 1985.

Got a little use out of that one, huh?

We bought it used in 2002. It's been a good machine, but it's time for it to go. It's time to upgrade and make sure everybody stays safe.

How will we dispose? What would happen with it now that we're not using it anymore? What happens?

What would we do with our new? With the old one. With the old one, we would probably send it to auction. I would have to talk with PPW's motor pool division and see exactly what they would do with it, but I believe it would probably go to an auction. Somebody else can try to make it a good yard ornament, I guess.

And those funds from the auction, should it go?

Should go back to the water treatment plant fund. Same fund, I believe. The water treatment plant did purchase it in 2002, to the best of my knowledge. And those funds would go back to counteract some of this cost.

Seeing or hearing no other questions, thank you for that. Seeing or hearing no other questions, the clerk will tally and display the vote. Passes unanimously brings us to item D. Mr. Mayor point of information. Yes.

Um, is there a like legal or clerk related reason that like, are you obligated to read out these super long motions or is there something you like to do for transparency?

Just like to be clear on what the motion is that I'm looking for.

I'm cool with that. I'm not trying to be a hater. I just want to understand.

Understood. Thank you. Are you asking me to paraphrase to save time? OK. Mr. Merritt.

Yes, sir. In that vein, actually, I was looking at the rest of the, well, not the rest, but items D through I. I think maybe the parliamentarian or the attorney could chime in. I think we could bundle all those together since they're all change orders and decreased amounts and save ourselves a little bit of time this evening.

Yeah, I was going to say there's.

I wouldn't.

OK. Yeah, that's why D through I. Yeah. I mean, if the mayor wanted to speed things up by paraphrasing, I think that would be his choice. Okay. Up to him.

Would have been on item I by now, if y'all would have just let me keep rolling. So at this time I'd be looking for a motion to support, to approve change order number two, to the drinking water state revolving fund phase one, less service line replacement contract with five-star energy services in the decreased amount of $363,680. to balance the contract quantities and match the quantities placed in the field, and authorize city manager and city engineer to execute the appropriate documents.

CHRISTIE WOOD GARDNER. So moved. CHRISTIE WOOD GARDNER.

It's been moved and supported. Any discussion? Seeing or hearing none, the clerk will tally and display the vote. Item passes, excuse me. That brings us down to item E looking for a motion and support to approve the change order one to Pearl loop transmission, main contract with Dunnigan brothers in a decreased amount of 1,000,972, $113 and 48 cents to balance the contract quantities to match the quantities placed in the field, authorize the city manager and city engineer to execute the appropriate document.

So moved.

It's been moved and supported. All in favor, or sorry, any discussion on the item? Seeing or hearing none. CHRISTIE WOODARD. Mr. Mayor? TODD BANDUCCI.

Yes.

CHRISTIE WOODARD.

I'm just looking at these large amounts, and I appreciate it being a decreased amount. Is it an approximate amount when we approve these items, and then once we get into the projects or whatever, we discover that all the funds were not utilized?

So these are, this is the end. So when you see these, these are not approximate, this is like they've used instead of the hundred yards of dirt that were estimated to be part of the project to use 82. So this has reduced the, that 18 yards of, of dirt and then the requisite labor to move all the dirt. So these are done.

Right. So I get that, but I'm just saying on the front end, the contract is bid.

We approve the bid. And then as they do the work, as things become, In most cases, more expensive. In a lot of these cases today, less expensive. At the end of the project, they have to match up what they actually spent versus what we approved so that everything matches. That's accurate, right? Exactly. Yeah. There you go. Seeing or hearing no other questions, clerk will tally and display the vote. Item passes. And the next item is item F looking for a motion of support to approve change order one to the MLK equality trail extension on mechanic street from Detroit, from Detroit street to trail street with Merlot construction company in the decreased amount of $114,470. Two, balance the contract quantities to match the quantities placed in the field, and authorize the city manager and city engineer to execute the appropriate documents.

CHRISTIE WOODARD. Some of the support. CLARE DUDA.

It's been moved and supported. Any comments, questions, or concerns? Under motion. Seeing or hearing none, the clerk will tally and display the vote. I don't pass as unanimous raises down to item G looking for a motion to support, to approve the change order one to the health district street lighting contract with J rank electric in the decreased amount of $16,521 and 88 cents to balance the contract quantities to match the quantities placed in the field and authorize the city manager and city engineer to execute the appropriate document. So smooth and supported. Any comments, questions, or concerns? Seeing or hearing none, clerk will tally and display the vote. Item passed is unanimously looking for a motion in support on item H to approve the change order 1 to the HUP Morrell Transmission Main Contract With Dunnigan Brothers in the decreased amount of $316,483.82 to balance the contract quantities to match the quantities placed in the field and authorize the city manager and city engineer to execute the appropriate document.

So moved.

So far. It's been moved and supported. Any discussion on the item? Seeing or hearing none, clerk will tally and display the vote. item passes that brings us down to item I looking for a motion to support to approve change order one to the Bloomfield Boulevard resurfacing contract with Michigan paving and materials company in a decreased amount of nineteen thousand eight hundred and eight dollars and eighty two cents to balance the contract quantities to match the quantities placed in the field and authorized city manager and city engineer to execute the appropriate document support It's been moved and supported. Any discussion?

Just a question, maybe for Jonathan. This reduction does affect the assessments? That was a great question.

Seeing or hearing no other questions, clerk will tally and display the vote. Item passed. This brings us down to item J. Looking for a motion in support to approve change order one to the East Ganson Street water service replacements contract with Super Construction LLC in the increased amount of $34,000. $71.20 to balance contract quantities to match the quantities placed in the field and authorize the city manager and city engineer to execute the appropriate document.

So moved.

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

Yes, so this is an increase. Do we know what came about? What new changes occurred?

Yeah, I can answer that. Basically what happened when we get out there and started doing the work, we had a couple more services that we had to do. We were planning on a certain amount. We get into the basements, we do inspections, and we find that there was added services that needed to be done, which made added work. So we have to pay for it at the unit prices we're paying. The prices were already negotiated. We just had to do more of that work at that price. That resulted in an increased cost. Kind of like using the analogy Jonathan used earlier about, you know, previously we might have used a little less dirt. In this case, we used more. So we have to pay them for it.

Okay. Seeing or hearing no other comments, questions, or concerns,

Clerk will tally and display the vote. Item passes unanimously brings us down to item K. I'm looking for a motion in support to approve Amendment 3 to the 23-006 MLK Corridor Reimagined Engineering Contract with Hubbell, Roth, and Clark of Jackson, Michigan at a not to exceed cost of $101,000. 176 dollars and authorization for the city manager and city engineer to sign the appropriate document it's been moved and supported any comments questions concerns mr mayor i have a question uh maybe troy i don't know maybe i confused it but was this for

I thought it said Morrell through Washington.

Can I give you a little rundown of everything that's in here? Would that be helpful? Yeah. Okay. So this contract was originally awarded for the engineering on the MLK project, the corridor project from south up to Morrell. And in that project, we're going to build the road, replace the water main, and replace the sewer. Well, along the line, we... During the development of the project, we replaced the transmission main, a separate water main that runs up there. We added that to the construction contract, but we did not add the engineering for that. So we need to pay the consultant for the extra work for that. I have other non-MLK related items in here. We got a grant to replace some critical valves throughout the water system. We have to meet all the federal guidelines and do the engineering for that. I've included those costs in here. then I have also included some cost for getting the next phase of the lighting district started and again a non MLK project and then lastly we got to do a traffic asset management plan to the state it shows how we're going to be planning to use our transportation funds and that's a requirement to keep getting the grants we're getting so I've bundled those three things in here. I've also reduced some costs for a project that's not going forward. We had some given them an engineering contract to extend the MLK transmission main between the current project all the way up to the train station, but that's not funded. So we're going to take that cost out. We're not going to pay for it because we don't need it, but we do need to pay for these other services that I've added. Is that helpful or is that more confusing?

I think if you look at this, it helps make sense.

Yeah, I'm reading off the table that I got in front of you.

Okay. I'm okay.

Okay. Seeing and hearing no other questions or comments on this issue, the clerk will tally and display the vote. Item passes unanimous, and that brings us down to council member comments. I will start with council member Gunn.

Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, um, I just want to say thank you to DPW and Jeremiah Spencer, um, specifically for bringing up the chainsaws and cleaning up trees after the recent storm. There were lots of trees in my neighborhood, including my neighbor's tree. Um, and so they were, they were prompt efficient. They were working very early in the morning after the storm. What now? Two weeks ago. So thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Robinson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to thank everyone for coming out and offering comments, telling their story. And special thanks to the crews. We had a few down in our neighborhood, but I didn't see a lot. But I know they were out there working for others, the DPW crew. Other than that, thank you all for what you've done. The city attorney for his hard work and effort and the city manager on this project. Ordinance. Appreciate it.

All right.

Council Member Forgray.

Nothing for me tonight. Thanks.

Council Member Hunt.

It's free to be kind, and it's free to express gratitude. Thank you all for coming.

Council Member Wood.

I had 9.45 in the pool, so buckle up.

um no thank you to uh staff public members of council um thank you jonathan on the work they were doing behind the scenes you and staff uh on the um there's going to be an ordinance we heard a presentation a couple meetings ago about um essentially fraud kiosks and there's some work happening behind the scenes on some ordinance on that front so i appreciate that We had a commenter mentioning the move to even your elections. The threshold for a statewide constitutional amendment is 10% of the votes cast for governor. I think us being at 10% of the votes cast for mayor puts us right in line with that. I see no reason to change it. And it's worth noting that nobody's used the initiative process in the last decade, maybe longer, even with the lower threshold. So I don't think that's a problem. Uh, I want to thank, uh, community action agency CEO Toby Barry for having a short conversation with me during the break. As I told her, I'm wide open to any textual amendments to the proposed access property ordinance. People can email me see would at city of Jackson dot org or text me at 9894449151 texting is better than calling. uh as i'm sure some of you have found out if you're opposed to the ordinance in any form that's completely cool i respect it there's just not nothing kind of to talk about um on that front i also want to thank our hometown paper for staying for the duration i think the most important thing that we did today was give our hard-working i'd say overworked rank-and-file police officers and detectives a 12 raise over four years and we also uh substantially increased the residency incentive that we it's like an extra bonus that we give every year to officers who live within the city limits we increase that from i want to say 250 or 500 to 1500 which i think is exactly what our constituents want to see is police officers choosing to reside in the community they serve so i think that was a great step forward i want to thank both sides of the bargaining process for that thank you mr mayor

Thank you, Mr. Wood. Thank you to everybody who came out to express their concerns about all the issues on the agenda tonight. I think all the issues that we take care of are important issues. I also think it's important that we show up in this space in a respectful way. And I apologize for my own language. I can admit what I'm wrong. I was very frustrated. Uh, I intentionally said the word though, intentionally, sometimes I need to grab your attention so that you can understand the severity of a situation. I feel like my biggest job as mayor in these meetings is to keep order. Uh, and that's what I'm trying to do. And I think it's also important for me to keep decorum and for people to be respectful in this space. You absolutely have the right. to exercise all the amendments, I think that you should exercise them respectfully when possible in all cases. Just very disappointed in somebody who I really over the years have declined to have respect for because of the way they choose to show up in this space. It just makes me sad. It really does. I also want to say thank you to thank you to Will. Like Will, I appreciate your grace this weekend and also to the Jackson District Library. try my best to show up when asked to be places, especially to honor and acknowledge organizations in our community who have done outstanding work for extended periods of time. And so I want to congratulate the Jackson District Library for celebrating 150 years, was it? 120 years. I'm 30 years old. And so the celebration that they had was extremely important. I made a commitment to be in there to read the proclamation that we gave them. However, what I have chose to prioritize more than anything right now is being there with my family. And so I had a conflict and I had to make a decision and I called Will because he texted me. We were playing a little phone tag. and he's like hey i'm just trying to catch up with you to make sure you don't forget about saturday the times from this time to this time and at that same exact time was my grandfather's 90th birthday party 90 years young and so if i had of chose to miss that i would have missed him singing some of his favorite songs um the surprise look that he had as all of his many many many grandchildren, most of them, my kids, great grandkids. Um, cause we surprised him. He didn't even know that we were coming out to his house to surprise him with a birthday party, but he was very happy. So, um, you know, I was trying to figure out how to be in two places at one and will made it easy and say hey man you don't have to be here there's like a bunch of other speakers like we'd appreciate it if you can come but like don't feel like you got to leave your family so i appreciated that grace and me being able to make an easier decision because i was like okay if i get there at 12 and i stay till 12 45 i get there at one but i would have missed a very important part of his celebration so i appreciated that grace um all right that's that's all i ask that's all i ask that's all i ask charge it charge it to my mind up my heart um thank you to the attorney to the city manager and to everybody else who worked on the ordinance and um everything that we had on the agenda uh tonight it does not go lightly the decisions that we have to make and thank you to city council the um Biggest responsibility that we have is to show up here and vote, uh, and vote in how we feel like our constituents would want us to vote because that's what we're elected to do. I will always respect your vote, no matter if it is in a line or not in a line with how I vote. And that is a guarantee. I respect that you have the right to disagree. And I actually like it when we disagree because it shows there is no back room conversations happening about the decisions that we make here. We lay it out on the floor right here in this room. Uh, so I appreciate everybody's efforts in, um, service. And with that, I will turn it over to the city manager. You just need a motion to adjourn all in favor.