City Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, stay right. Thank you. We ready, colleagues? All set?

Well, welcome everyone here in the chambers with us this evening. It's very nice to see you and my colleagues here up in the dais. It seems like it's been a long time for me. I missed the last meeting, which was ably chaired by our Vice Mayor Duncan. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I appreciate that. I heard nothing but great comments. And it's a little bit different sitting in this chair than that chair. You don't get time to check your phone, I guess, right? So anyway, I appreciate that effort, and it's so great to see everybody. And let's go ahead and get this started. So I'm going to call to order the City Commission business meeting for Monday, July 26, 2026. And the first order of business is roll call Deputy Clerk Moss.

Commissioner Hess? Present. Commissioner Hoffman? Commissioner Prado?

Present.

Commissioner Slaby? Present. Commissioner Wilson?

Present.

Vice Mayor Duncan?

Here.

Mayor Anderson?

Here. Thank you, Deputy Clerk Moss. May I have a motion to excuse Commissioner Hoffman? So moved. Motion made by Commissioner Wilson. Seconded. Supported by Vice Mayor Duncan. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay. Motion passes. Well, we are blessed this evening to have the Reverend David Zomer here from Bethany Reformed Church to provide the invocation for us to get started. And just a reminder here, when he does come forward, I'll ask everybody in chambers to stand for the invocation and then remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. Reverend Zomer.

Dear Lord, we come before you as citizens of a fine country and a fine city. As we just came out of celebrations of independence and liberties, help us to keep that in mind as now the commission goes down to the serious nitty-gritty work of budgets and finances and programming and dreaming for this city. So I ask that you bring wisdom to each one of these counselors, and I ask that you help us support them. Lord, we also ask for your blessing upon those who work for our city who have to deal with the heat. I saw the park workers out there with the kids playing soccer this afternoon. I heard many times the fire engines of our city fire departments. And we know there are jobs that are dangerous in this heat. So we lift up each one of those workers. Bless us. Amen. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you again, Reverend Zomer, for helping us get started here. Well, if we are lucky, we do have proclamations that come to us recognizing special events and times and individuals that are doing great things in our community. And it just so happens that we do have a proclamation on our agenda this evening, and it is for the 2026 National Day of Summer Learning. Let's not let any summer slide happen for any of us. So I know there are several individuals here to accept that proclamation. I will come down with it. It's going to be read by Commissioner Hess. So if you'll come forward, please.

Welcome, and it gives me great pleasure in our education city to proclaim the 2026 National Day of Summer Learning on July 16th, 2026. Whereas high-quality summer learning opportunities are more important than ever in 2026, across the city of Kalamazoo, we are coming together to ensure youth and families have access to inclusive, high-quality youth programming and critical support for young people to heal, lead, and thrive in the summer months. And whereas the National Day of Summer Learning recognizes the vital role of inclusive, high-quality summer programs in supporting young people to thrive, and whereas these programs support youth to build positive identities, experience belonging, and exercise agency, nurturing lifelong social and emotional learning skills, And whereas these programs provide youth with real-world skills, mentorship, and meaningful opportunities to shape their futures and contribute to their communities. And whereas community partners, including schools, nonprofits, libraries, businesses, and youth themselves are innovating to ensure all young people can access enriching, affirming, and culturally responsive summer experiences. And whereas the demand for these programs far exceeds the availability, we must create sustainable funding models and remove barriers to access, including transportation and cost. Now, therefore, on behalf of the 56th City Commission and David F. Anderson, Mayor of the City of Kalamazoo, I do hereby proclaim July 16th, 2026 as National Day of Summer Learning in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and do commend this observance to all our citizens. Congratulations.

Thank you for that. I'm Regina Cabezzi, and I'm here with KidNet. And I just wanted to invite you guys to our 26th day of summer learning on July 16 at Bronson Park. I think this is a really important day to celebrate all the work that's being done around summer learning. As being one of those youth who did participate in summer learning, it's really important to me. And I encourage everyone to show up and show out. Thank you.

Thank you.

I just want to once again thank the team that came down here for the proclamation. As a special reward, you don't have to stay for the whole meeting if you don't want to, but I appreciate you being here. Next on our, there, you are excused. Next is the adoption of the formal agenda. Commissioners, are there any items on the consent agenda G which you would like to move to the regular agenda? All right. Seeing none, commissioners, the agenda stands. Next, communications. Anything, manager? No. Not at this time here. All right. Now we are to the time on our agenda for public comments. This is your opportunity to comment on any item that is important to you and you want to make sure the commission and those watching can hear what your opinion is on any topic. If you want to make a public comment, please come forward. You'll have four minutes. Please state your name and whether you live in the city.

Hi, John. name is ernest gathan junior i probably won't need to hold four minutes here i ain't got too much to say here um just question is about uh the sunday fun day situation here uh good evening commissioners my name is ernest gathan i'm here to ask for transparency and accountability regarding the what happened to spring valley park during sunday fun day on June 28. The dispatch record showed the incidents began as noise complaint. When the first officer responded, he documented that he did not hear loud music. Disputing that, the situation escalated to a large police operation involving numerous officers, crowd management, license plate collection, and the use of lard. Call report CFS 846-1 as well as CFS 940. Since then, community leaders, Park Recreation, NWACP, Clergy, and KDPS met and discussed what happened. According to who attended, everybody agreed that there needed to be improvement and this does not need to happen again. As a member of the community, I believe this incident, like I believe this incident should be reviewed through the lens of the Constitution. Every person deserves equal protection under the law, due process, and police fair, even-handed, and worthy of public trust. My question is simple. Who made the decision to escalate the response? Was it based on a verified fact? OR DID IT JUST GROW BEYOND THE ORIGINAL COMPLAINT JUSTIFICATION? I RESPECTFULLY ASK THE CITY AND KBS TO RELEASE THE COMPLETE DISPATCH RECORDS, DISPATCH AUDIO, RADIO COMMUNICATIONS, AND ANY OTHER ACTIONS REVIEWED SO THE PUBLIC CAN UNDERSTAND EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED. ACCOUNTABILITY BUILDS TRUST. TRANSPARENCY BUILDS CONFIDENCE. OUR COMMUNITY DESERVES BOTH. AND THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. NEXT, PLEASE.

Hello, my name is Matt Griffith. I've lived in the city for 15 years and I'm here with the Get the Flock Out of Kalamazoo campaign. So I'm here to ask the city council to provide more transparency around the cameras. I would like for them to release the contract between Flock and the city to say what the current terms and conditions that have been agreed to. to release logs of the searches that are being conducted and to show proof of which police organizations, the city slash flock have allowed access to this data. And the reason I think this is so, that this is important I'll provide a little example. Let's say that you recently put a bumper sticker on your car for pro-democratic candidates. And then you learn that Flock categorizes these bumper stickers and decals along with your license plate numbers. You might be worried with the current administration that this might make you a target. So if you try to find information on this, of who controls this data, you might find the Flock Camera FAQ on the KDPS's website. And here's a relevant section from it, quote, question, who controls the ALPR data? KDPS retains 100% control of the ALPR data. The data is shared only with Approved law enforcement partners in Southwest Michigan is not shared on the nationwide search platform, is not shared with ICE or any other federal agencies. Any other request for this data access must be individually viewed by KDPS command staff." So here you would think like, oh, there's no issues. But if we look at other contracts that have been released by other cities, such as the one that was released by Bay City, Michigan on November 17, we see that the contract is only about five pages. And in one of the sections, the last page is by signing it, you agree to the terms and conditions on FLOC's website. So if we look at that for, that was last updated February 16th, uh it says this about customer data uh quote customer data as between flock and the customer all rights titles entrance in and to customer data belongs to and is retained by the customer the customer hereby grants flock a limited non-exclusive royalty-free irrevocable perpetual worldwide license to use and disclose customer data to provide customer data will be available for authorized end users to access and download via the web interface during the applicable retention period. For clarity, Flock retains the exclusive rights to determine and control the method, timing, format, and medium of such access or delivery. And it is not obligated to provide customer data in any other alternative form, format, or transmission message outside of the web interface. To the extent any customer data constitutes personal information, Flock will process it in accordance with data laws and applicable laws and privacy policy set forth and they give the URL. So here you can see that KTBS is leaving out something very crucial that yes, technically the city owns this data, but They forget to mention the fact that actually Flock controls how the city can access it and that Flock has this very broad license. And in this, it doesn't say that they could not use this data and sell it to law enforcement, something that changed with this February update to the terms and conditions.

Thank you. Next, please.

Hello, my name is Trevor. I've lived in Kalamazoo County since I was 11. I speak today on behalf of the Get the Flock Out of Kalamazoo campaign of Southwest Michigan DSA. As disorientingly rapid as AI surveillance technology is evolving, so with it is the hostile posturing the flock safety company now assumes with relation to its clients in its relentless pursuit of new revenue streams and profit. Back in December of 2025, HC Van Pelt of Have I Been Flocked published a report laying out the details of a disturbing set of changes Flock had made to its terms and conditions wherein this hostility is expressed. The terms and conditions are no longer published and shared in a file with the client. Instead, they are maintained by the company on its website to be updated at its caprice. With any new order filing, even for routine maintenance, likely comes attached the expectation that the customer accepts its newest terms and conditions, that they supersede and cancel all previous or contemporaneous agreements. This is crucial when we consider, for example, code which previously guaranteed that Flock, quote, does not own and shall not sell customer data. This language has been deleted. Added in February under the same section is a clause wherein customer grants to FLOC worldwide license to use customer data to support and improve FLOC's products and services. What this entails is not elaborated on in the current version, but if we rewind to October, it reads to use and distribute data to improve and enhance services, crime prevention efforts, and to disclose the agency data to enable law enforcement monitoring against law enforcement hot lists as well as provide footage search access to law enforcement for investigative purposes. Additionally, Flock defined customer data only as that information digitally altered, if Flock so chooses, which Flock makes accessible to customer via its web interface, as distinguished from the raw still images, video, and audio, which were categorized as footage under the classification of Flock property. In simpler terms, you own whatever slop we decide to share with you while we retain ownership of your footage and have the right to share it with outside agencies so long as its purposes are investigative. It does not seem an unreasonable interpretation of this contractual zigzagging as Flock showing its hand before arriving at terms more arbitrary, which ultimately serve its purposes just as well as that which was more opaque. There have now been over 50 documented cases of agencies who've suspended and or canceled their contracts with Flock, usually after discovering through auditing that the company had toggled on the department's national lookup tool. It is the carefully curated language in their terms and conditions which have emboldened, sorry, Is it the carefully curated language in their terms and conditions which have emboldened them to act in this rogue fashion? We can only speculate. But suffice to say, in spite of Flock's reassuring sales pitches stressing local autonomy, the exact promises KDPS makes on its FAQ page with regards to Flock are hardly unique and consistently prove themselves unreliable, with an increasing number of mayors and police chiefs around the country having been forced to make public comments acknowledging so. As long as SPLOC Safety can wash its hands clean of all harm derived from its unregulated practices through its PR-friendly press releases, while shifting as much liability as it can get away with to its clients, they are unbothered. Last year it was discovered and made public by a resident that KDPS had neglected to switch its national lookup tool off from its default setting, and that its data had been accessible for immigration officers. Why wait around until it's discovered this function has inexplicably been turned back on, or that Flock at last discovered the legal avenue it needed in order to sell client data risk-free? The lesson is clear. In the free market, Flock is rewarded for misleading to whatever extent law permits, so they do. Don't let Flock make a liar out of you. The public demands full transparency. Make the current contract freely available and work so that henceforth all future contracts with Flock must go through a city commission vote before adoption. Anything short of this, given the political environment and its stakes, hitherto allowed democracy.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Good evening.

I'm a resident of Kalamazoo County, and I am concerned about the city's contract with Flock as the contract is not publicly available. There's radical changes happening to our institutions driven by novel technologies like this, which are creating a serious problem. How do we remain informed about the workings of our government if the details and designs of new technology remain obscure and esoteric? There has been conversations with members of the community here in Kalamazoo and wider Michigan community. And if I could sum it up in one word, it would be fearful. Fearful of the great amount of power that now exists to intrude in every aspect of our private lives. This fear has serious negative effects. This should be a part of any discussion of new technology. So I just ask, please don't dismiss the concerns of the people whose lives are being affected by this. Any technology that we're developing with such impact on our lives should be developed with the community. We should be involved in the design and implementation of said technology. It should be kept within the further grasp of the public. This technology by Flock Safety is proprietary and licenses our data to the company in perpetuity and irrevocably. This data is then used to the profit of flock safety. Our lives are now de facto property of the company. We have been told that if we want to see the contract by the city, we will need a Freedom of Information Act request. This is an additional burden on the public. We must spend significant resources of our time in order to learn information that should be public in the first place. So my request in short is please don't make the government a willing henchman in the increasing intrusion into and commodification of our private lives. Thank you.

Thank you. Next please.

I'm having a problem with Steinagels. My apartment is infested with mice. I've killed over 30 mice and nobody's doing nothing about it. The city of Kalamazoo should inspect all of Steinagels' properties. Half of them are falling apart. I'm having problems with Scott. I'm not good at public speaking. But they discriminate against people too. When you move, they make up damages that haven't happened and try to charge people with it. Then they try to steal your own deposit. They discriminate against a lot of people. They need to be investigated.

That's all.

That's all I want to give you.

Thank you. Next, please. Thanks, Michelle.

I have one again. My name is Tina. I live on Lake Street. I live in that lovely flood plain area, the south side of town. See, I live in the neighborhood where your city storm drains flood out the streets and back up your city storm sewers in the streets of Kalamazoo, only on one side of town. Come on, guys. It's been eight years I've been coming here speaking of the flooding issues, and all I keep asking for is dry streets for all the neighborhoods. Oh, but wait. It's only my neighborhood that floods all the time. The south side of town. Not a wealthy neighborhood. So you're always wanting to build in my neighborhood. You have been trying to destroy my last natural green space lake to Stockbridge to John ever since December 18th of 2017. I'm still waiting for the flooding issues to be addressed. All we get is that we don't have that kind of money. But you always seem to have the money to mess up the streets, street lights, to make one ways, two ways, all over town. Well, downtown in the rich man's playground, only but at least you got an arena that no one wanted you got bike lanes and bike lights no bikes in them good job of ignoring the public in certain areas you can't seem to have the money to tear down all these burn up falling down houses condemn buildings when you build and then you also build on a contaminated land you just put dirt on top and build anyway How many years have these homes been sitting empty, dangerous to society, dangerous for children? They can go in and play. What if that building collapsed and crushes a child and hurts a child? The one on Cedar and Westlake has been sitting there for two years. It's been falling apart. But yet you have the money to make Park and Westlake a two-way, to put bike lanes in. How many people will die from you putting bike lanes in the street to calm the traffic? A few have gotten hurt. Some have gotten killed. I'm sorry, I value my life too much to ride a bike in the streets of Kalamazoo. It's all wasted money. You only follow the money train. The developers is all you seem to care about. The destruction of more natural spaces, trees, climate change is real, guys. Wildfires, storms, heat waves did not come alone. They all come with climate change. All you are... All these are warnings that flooding will be worse. It will get hotter. The more trees you let your developers destroy, the hotter it gets. The more trees your common traffic destroys, the hotter it gets. The more traffic gets backed up for blocks. Your road diets are a joke. Crime is out of control. Shootings are out of control. Speeding and running red lights are out of control. Flooding is out of control on the south side of town only. All we want is dry streets. Pollution is out of control. Homeless is happening more and more because the rent prices are too damn high. But all you seem to care about is your rich man's playground downtown. for we don't have many natural spaces left. Our wildlife is running out of homes. You destroy trees, but yet they are animals' homes. Kalamazoo is becoming a mess. Bring back public call-ins at city commission meetings so every resident in Kalamazoo can have a chance to speak and address their concerns. I don't care if it makes the meeting longer. If you really want to hear from the public, you would bring back public call-ins. The 4th of July, you had eight fires in Kalamazoo. Eight fires. Two dumpster fires, one garage fire, and four people's homes caught on fire because you let people shoot off fireworks anywhere they want. In my neighborhood, they shoot them off at Upjohn Park, and they shoot them off over into the grass. They've set it on fire many times. They've set dumpsters on fire many times. This time, they shot them off at the railroad tracks by the farmers. Thank you.

Next, please.

My name is Antoine Nix. I've been a resident here my whole life, 42 years old. I raised my children here. I built my business here. And all of those things you wouldn't know if you didn't ask me. But the one thing that you would know before asking me anything is I'm a black man. I find it disheartening in my community that sometimes the police and other people can't discern a group of people enjoying a calm, peaceful Sunday. and look at that and see what the same thing they see at Shell gas station at 3 AM. The problem here is when we talk about community policing, you really should be from the community that you're policing. Because if you are, you would understand culture. Culture isn't just what we wear, how we walk, and the things that are extracted from us. It's the things that we do when we're together. So when you pull up to a public park, and you see 200 people of color enjoying a Sunday that should never result in the same thing that you say when you see 221 year olds at Shell gas station at three in the morning. I find it disheartening that we don't really know how you utilize the mobile nuisance. I think it's crazy that you could pull up to my grandmother's home who just passed away and we're having a repass at her property that she owns and you can come and tell us that we are now part of a mobile nuisance, that you could physically go take my license plate down and you could potentially seize my vehicle. I'm not really here to talk about the park because it never was about the park. It's always about what you see when you see people like me. Because again, you don't know I'm a business owner here. You don't know I'm a father. You don't know anything. But you know that I'm black. And that when there's 200 of us, that is looked at as dangerous. And to me, that's dangerous. Because you don't understand what you're looking at. I really have a hard time wrapping my mind around how you show up somewhere and you don't, you can't discern the difference. So understanding as a black man that no matter if I'm right or wrong, any police contact can result in me being harmed, even if I'm 100% right. So sometimes we're put in a messed up spot. I will say the chief invited us down there to talk. He invited us down there to get a side of the story that I might not have heard before. But it's still, we have to get back to, again, community policing and you guys defining when and where mobile nuisance can be enacted and used because you're using broad ordinances to deem things that should not be deemed as a mobile nuisance party because you don't understand my culture because you don't want to. So it's ignorant to say, hey, this can be deemed here as a mobile nuisance. This isn't. This isn't. Whatever. I drove downtown, and I could hear the music of bells at my property all the way on the south side. But the police were called to a peaceful Sunday with the average age is 45 years old. You're either over the age of 40, or you're under the age of 10. The picture everybody keeps displaying of the police officer holding the tear gas, I explained to the chief, look behind him, there's seven kids looking at him.

I don't care what they think about me, what they think about them.

Thank you. Next.

for the opportunities to speak today to highlight the measurable life-saving progress we are making here in Kalamazoo through public safety health approach to public safety and why sustained collective investment is the only way to protect this. My name is Dominica Sims and I stand before you not only a National Specialist for Community Violence but also Executive Director of Dominica's Promise, a deeply committed resident of Kalamazoo. Through our grassroots initiatives, including SLAP, the reentry program, GLOW, our youth mentoring, and other community initiatives, I look into the faces of the people behind our safety statistics every single day. As a specialist in the field, I can tell you with absolute certainty that the communities making real lasting progress are the ones like ours that have stopped treating violence as a pure, merely criminal justice issue and are actively treating it as a public health epidemic. Too often conversations about public safety fixate on short-term, weekly fluctuations, but violence is complex and a long-term trend that tells a true story. Because we have embraced the public health framework over the past five years, our community in Kalamazoo have achieved approximately 25 percent reduction in firearm assaults. This progress did not happen overnight and through law enforcement alone. It happens because we did the work in building a deeply interconnected three-way ecosystem right here in our own neighborhoods. The community, our GVI and CVI specialists, and our public safety partners. One of the foundational truths I emphasize is that we cannot arrest our way out of gun violence. Traditional law enforcement is necessary for tools of accountability, but cannot heal trauma, and it cannot protect the trigger from being put in the first place. Lasting safety requires an ecosystem where prevention, intervention, and enforcement work hand in hand. We may not all have the answers to reducing violence, but what we do know is that One absolute certain is that working together is a single most important answer that we do have. I want to publicly thank Public Safety for their commitment to this approach. It takes true leadership to step outside the traditional boxes and partnerships so deeply with the community-based organizations. Because of this partnership, we are not only reacting to crime, but we are also building a community and saving lives. By addressing issues and concerns like the Spring Valley incident, which was handled within 40 eight hours of law enforcement, community leaders and community members. We are working towards strategies through this street level intervention strategies. The intention mediations we have have been able to stop level of violence that no data can fully capture. I'M TRYING TO SKIP THROUGH BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE SO MUCH TIME, BUT THIS SIMPLE NUMBER CANNOT ACCOUNT FOR THE TRAGEDIES THAT DID NOT HAPPEN OR THE SHOTS THAT WAS NOT FIRED, BUT WE MUST RECOGNIZE THAT WE DO NOT STAND ALONE. WE STAND ON THE SHOULDERS OF THE COMMUNITY ICONS, LEADERS, ETC. WHO CAME BEFORE US AND HAVE BELIEVED IN THIS WORK. But let's be clear, CBI does not replace public safety, it complements it. While our interventions are the most ground shifting behaviors, mentorship and other cooling down conflicts, public safety officers are doing vital work to take dangerous weapons off the street. This leads us to one question. How do we sustain this work? The public safety approach is not an abstract theory. It's working right here in Kalamazoo. It's strengthening trust, reducing violence, creating safer neighborhoods, and saving lives. As we look ahead, I urge us all to champion this collaborative model. Let's move past short-term fixes and prioritize permanent, sustainable investment. The relationships we have are great. My time is up, but thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

My name is Jeffrey Fry, resident of Kalamazoo. I was here last week. I want to thank the city commission for listening to me about cutting the lights off next to one of the houses. But as we know, we expect fairness. Fairness for everybody. So it was only cut off in one location. The public is not good at speaking. So it looked like unfair, just because they're not able to come up here and speak. So I would like that to be looked into. Because a lot of the things that's happening in our community, a lot y'all might not know about. You have to come to the community to actually know about what's going on in the community. Just like these nuisances. Everybody is considered a nuisance if you're black. All the parties that's being considered a party, it's just a gathering of family members. Family members really don't have nowhere to go. But typically the north side. Typically the north side don't go to other sides of towns. So where else do they go? They're going to stand outside in the street. But they're also labeled as a nuisance. So that's a targeting. We consider that targeting a branch of people. And that's not right. Because you have to come to the community that really understand. Because they do listen. You can tell a person to move out that driveway. That lady don't want you in that driveway. They're going to be respectfully moved. So what's considered a nuisance? That's what we want to know. Only thing we know is that people in the community is being targeted. Any time they come outside, they're nervous or scared, in a sense, because of the way the police is coming. And the last three weeks, I don't feel like it'd been necessary. Certain officers, when they come to a certain scene, I believe they're supposed to be properly trained. It's not to escalate a situation. It's to de-escalate. And a lot of times, when they come the way that they come, they already have a gun. They already have tasers. They already is competent. We're dealing with people that may have been drinking that night. So we also have to understand how they might be. But if you train, that's how you're coming. You're never supposed to deal with a situation one officer, and it's 20 people. You're supposed to call for backup. You don't handle it and then call for backup later. These are things that will escalate. And we're trying to de-escalate these things in our community. So if you're able to come speak with ones in our community, you will find out that this is not a nuisance. The other day, a grandmother, she got 50 kids doing fireworks. It's going to look like that. But them, it's her grandchildren. She got 50 of them. If they're all in one area, it doesn't make them a nuisance. So they're being targeted now. Black people are being targeted. At some point, who do we go to? We're tired of writing, well, he racist, or he did this, he did a complaint. People in the community is being affected, and things is not being responded well. like these cameras sitting on city property still next to houses but where at is they at how many do they have how long are they going to be there these are things that the community want to know how long can they be monitored How long do they put a camera on the city property next to their bathroom windows and say, oh, we're just going to keep it here for as long as we want to? No, tell the community something. Can they tap into them? Can they see what they're watching? They need to know something. They can tap into every camera that's on their houses. They can put a drone over there. What's the purpose? It's no reasoning. They just put it there and don't give the community no answers. I want to answer if I got a camera next to my house. So I understand them. So if some way, somehow, just talking is not an answer, let's get it in paper. Send it to them in the mail. Let's find out.

Thank you. Thank you. Next, please.

So I've been hearing all the polemic about the Spring Valley enforcement. And I was downtown this whole last week handing out cold waters. I ended up in an intervention situation where Kid EPS was very triggering to this person who was having a mental health episode. They had just gotten out of the hospital. They were passing out in the street, and they definitely did not want KDPS there. And even though KDPS showed up very friendly, they showed up cooperative, that was not enough. There really needs to be a deeper conversation with those people who are more critical of police. I know a lot of people in the community have working relationships with KDPS. and KDPS communicates with them and their stakeholders in the community, but that does not reflect in the larger community. And I'm not saying this as a cop hater or as a person who, well, yeah, I do distrust the cops. I'm saying this because I've read and I keep bringing up the OIR report. The report that was done back in 2020 when KDPS pepper sprayed peaceful protestors and when they seemingly sided with the Proud Boys, right? And that report, did speak about the fraud, the broken relationship between black and brown communities, and the police. And it's only heightened, right? As we're hearing right now, it's not the reality for the rest of the community to just have a conversation when people are being targeted, when there's an ordinance that doesn't have any real concrete language to it, and it gets interpreted by cops who already come hostile, who already come thinking that they're going to be racist. They think that black and brown people were dangerous. They think that we're always causing trouble. And that is how they come. And that is, of course, educating them, but also being honest about the culture within KDPS, being honest about the broken relationships um how how much worse it's gotten because communities continue to be disenfranchised this government is pulling resources from communities we see the city prioritizing downtown as the hub for for um you know more modern um buildings and this bougie hotel and an arena that is not going to pay enough and we don't see uh communities being impacted the housing crisis it peop They came here and gave a presentation about the ALICE statistics, the community who is working but living paycheck to paycheck. And nothing was really done about that. Nothing was really done about the OIR report. And you guys can say you fulfilled the recommendations, but the larger conversation about that was the distrust within not only city government, but the police. And we cannot rely on surveillance to be the answer for crime reduction. Because communities need more than that. They need housing. They need stability. They need resources that have generationally not been given to them. This is not about wanting a handout, as some people are saying on Facebook, or playing the victim. This is about reality. These are statistics that have come here before you. telling you that this is an issue for a long time. And now we see it come to head in these examples. And I see it downtown. I encourage people to just go downtown and see for yourselves what exactly is going on. Because the situation is bigger than just a conversation with KDPS. It's bigger than just sitting down and saying that this is fixable. Because it's not. It's not fixable. The police is racist. They have a rotten culture. And that was put in the report. And y'all need to make sense of that so that you don't gaslight the community who is coming and telling you that there's a serious policing problem. And that depending on fog cameras and depending on surveillance, it's not gonna be enough. It's not gonna cut it, right? Because I said before, intimate partner violence is up 200% in the community. So we really have to get to the level and the depth of how this is impacting the community without gaslighting because you have people that don't trust you.

Thank you. Next, please. Is there anyone else who want to take advantage of the public comment period? Yes.

Well, I'd like to first of all endorse my cousin Joseph Harris and my little sister Lina for city commissioners, okay? Thank you. I recently just looking at the news and they have the cop police at the Spring Valley Park and they have the nerve, the audacity, you guys have the audacity to pull out an ordinance that says that we are, or the people at Spring Valley Park, They are disrupting the quality of life. You know what that sounds like? That sounds like pests. That sounds like bedbugs. That sounds like roaches. Disrupting the quality of life? How were they disrupting the quality of life, just gathering together, showing off their cars, barbecuing, playing music? You guys need to change that ordinance. First of all, none of you guys are from Kalamazoo, so you guys don't understand Kalamazoo, period. I don't even know where I'm leaning at. Oh, there you are. We were talking about how Kalamazoo used to be a fun place. We used to have plenty of woods. We used to have animals to watch, watch deers and gracoos and possums and everything. We had places to go. Star World. Don't you know the clubs we went to? We had so many clubs and places to go to. That's why we have the X train. They're not causing any harm. They just need some place to go. Just congregate and dance maybe. You guys don't understand us. We like to congregate, have fun. We ain't causing no trouble. You guys know that. But you know what the thing is? The fact that You guys have to, like what my man said, you guys got to target somebody. And like I said, you guys are not from Kalamazoo. None of you guys are from Kalamazoo. So we already, all Kalamazooans know how Kalamazoo used to be. You guys put up a useless bike lane. I have not seen one person on the bike lane at all. OK? And then you guys are going to have the audacity of change West Michigan, two-way street? Man, that doesn't make sense. You guys got money that's just wasting it. Kalamazoo is good the way it is. It's been like that for a long time. It's comfortable. We don't need to uproot anything, the business or anything. Two-way street would not make any sense at all. And another thing is, too, it is basically satanic that the fact that you guys have the nerve to turn off the fire hydrants at Patwood when the children are playing in the water when it's 98 degrees. Who does that, man? Who does that? You mean to tell me that it was too hot to have the hydrants on and you had to turn them off? Okay, unless you guys going to put a pool somewhere, then the hydrants should be on when it's hot, when it's over 90 degrees. Not 90 degrees, when it's getting hot, okay? Unless you guys, I say we put a wavy pool in the cross and park, okay? It'd be cool to have a wading pool in Bronson Park, and then it'd be an ice skating rink in the wintertime. We need recreation. That's what the children need nowadays, recreation. And all this drones and all this stuff you guys putting up, that's a form of Nazism, man. That's how Nazism started. It all started with someone just monitoring one set of people. Then you get a whole bunch of people agreeing with it. Then you got the law enforcement enforcing the law. I'll tell you what, man, you guys better be careful, man, because a lot of people ain't going to be taking that for a long time, okay? We don't have it up to here, man, 400 years or this. No, man, we got to, y'all, you got to change that, for real. Because something's going to happen, man, for real. Because you guys know what you're doing. You know what you're doing. You guys haven't been out there examining or even exploring different areas of Kalamazoo. You guys come here, congregate, make your decisions, and then go back to your own little comfortable homes. But you guys not going out. experience a different side of town and meeting people and seeing how people live and how they enjoy themselves, or how they relax, or how recreational. First of all, I think it's useless to have an auditorium downtown when Wayne Stadium was there available. That's ridiculous. You're going to turn Kalamazoo to a metropolitan, a metropolis. We don't want that, especially for old Kalamazooans like us. We don't want that.

Thank you sir, your time is up.

Thank you.

Next please. I don't know what to say but

Other than my name is Alex Gray. I live at the Lakeview Apartments. That's right behind Spring Valley. And quite frankly, after I saw last week, the whole image, all I could think of, even though I'm a white guy, I could just see my family in that because my wife is black, I have friends that are black, and all I could think of seeing that was just the disgusting racist attitude. If this city really is truly committed to change, you would get rid of the flock cameras because that's what I wanted to speak about originally, but the flock cameras do come into that play. We have flock cameras on our apartment complex. That ain't helping all the thieves that come by and break in our damn windows. And I know the kids that are doing it, yeah, they have some stupid decisions, but they ain't got nowhere else to go. They don't got a playground. And then you want to blame the parents. The parents are too busy working two, three jobs to even care. It's disgusting. You guys want to do better. How about you train the cops and start firing the racist cops too? Do that. Stand on business. Because if you don't, there is always an election coming up. And the will of the people is a lot stronger than whatever you guys have to say. Whatever racist cop has to come and terrorize, we always come back, black or white. Do better. That's all I got to say.

Thank you. Next, please.

I'm a lifelong resident of Kalamazoo. I can see all this from 2013 when Jeff Hadley wanted to meet with the community at Mount Zion Baptist Church. They were doing a racial profiling study. And he talked to the whole community. I hear violence. I see violence. It's not a nuisance. Our children are not a nuisance. I just think that us talking from down here, talking to you guys up there, and the chief is back there, is not going to resolve any issues. I think we need to take it outside of here. I think y'all need to call a town hall. I think a lot of people want to be heard. And I don't think they're being heard here. I was here about the fly cameras. I've never seen so much violence than the episodes of people being labeled nuisances and men being pulled by the hair and police showing up with just large things of tear gas. I've been here my entire life. I've never seen anything like this before. And I'm disgusted. I'm just absolutely disgusted. And nobody here is the people. Nobody hears the people that it affects the most. You know, you come week after week, you talk about the same thing, the fly cameras. It didn't start out as a nuisance party. I probably was the first one to put nails on my ground to keep the x-ray in the way. I simply wanted to go home. But you don't have anywhere for the young people to go. They have to dance in the streets. My grandchildren dance in the streets because they don't have a bar. They can't go in any place and have a drink like a normal person. Nowhere on the north side of Kalamazoo can they go. So where do you expect them to go? And now they're labeled a nuisance. I mean, I looked up nuisance, it said it's the tall grass. It's a blighted house. You know, too many dogs over there or something. That's a nuisance, not people. We gotta do better. You know, you created this nuisance party ordinance, we can tear down. You know, because it's about us as people. It ain't about no ordinance. Those people got out of their cars. They don't have $500. These mothers are going crazy. They're going to their jobs. They're taking their cars. They have children to feed. And we can't do better. I done marched plenty of times in them streets. These gun violence groups, I don't see them stopping. I don't see no data. I see absolutely nothing. I hear a lot of words, you know. I'm actually out there. I'm boots on the ground, always happy. You know, I just know that we got to come out of here. We need to hear from the people. We need some solutions. All I see is violence. I see pain. I see anger. And it's not getting better. Nothing is getting better. Nobody died this holiday weekend. Nobody died. That was truly a blessing. Nobody, except for the gun violence, the domestic violence and I feel for that young lady, nobody died. Nobody died last weekend as far as I can see. I'm out here on a regular. I talk to people. They don't want to come and talk to you guys. Y'all need to go out there and talk to them. We need to find a different way to communicate because I just feel like that's all it is. Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Gwendolyn Hooker. I am here as myself. I'm a Northside resident, lifelong resident of Kalamazoo. And I'm not here to talk about all of the great things about Kalamazoo. I love my hometown. I'm not here to give people slaps on the back because we know that everybody does good sometimes, everybody does bad sometimes. And I'm the person that tries to hold everybody accountable, just like I'm held accountable when I make mistakes. I wanted to talk about accountability, trust, and responsibility. Kalamazoo County is supposed to be a trauma-informed county and it is important to recognize and acknowledge that there were hundreds of seniors, youth, men, and women that were at the park on June 28th. myself and my grandchildren included. I'm extremely concerned about the long-term effects that the actions and behaviors displayed on June 28 will undoubtedly have. Of course, I was in one part of the park. But when I started seeing the footage, someone said it. The way that Kalamazoo Public Safety showed up, with bear mace and threats and running footage, taking pictures of people's police license plates without actually having a conversation and communicating to the people that were there what was going on was so disrespectful, unprofessional, and inconsiderate. I am aware that there was a meeting last week with some concerned citizens and advocates, and I believe that is a great first step. However, considering the large amount of tax paying citizens, children, families, and seniors that were there that day, I do believe that further positive steps are warranted and necessary. I believe a public disrespect of that magnitude requires an equally public apology. A statement and what next steps could be. I believe that someone else said it best, you know, conversation bringing the commission coming out to the community. I know many of you guys do come out, but I think that coming out and actually being out are two different things. Being involved in the community, talking to people, having conversations. This is a big deal. It's one that got a lot of publicity. However, these kinds of things are happening all over Kalamazoo every single day. The same week that we were talking about Spring Valley, public safety showed up and turned off a fire hydrant. The same week that happened, somebody showed up, public safety showed up, and disrupted a whole family repass. These are things that are escalating, and they seem to always be where black and brown people are. I don't think that's just a coincidence. I think there's a culture that needs to be addressed. There's been public records and accountability and reports and all of those things that the taxpayers have paid for. And they've gotten these reports, and nothing actually was done in response to them. And I think that it's time to do something in direct response to the reports that we paid for. I also believe that the commission needs to take a hard, strong look at the nuisance ordinance that was voted on unanimously. I think that we need to do something that ensures that there's not any discretionary powers that can happen when people are looking at this ordinance. And public safety doesn't have the latitude to interpret what that ordinance means based on any given situation. It's too discretionary. It doesn't actually, it just, it's a blanket, it's a blanket ordinance that really could be used anywhere at any given time based on whatever circumstances that public safety deems necessary. And I think that that's, I think that's a bad, I think that's a bad situation.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Next, please.

Good afternoon to the city of Kalamazoo. I am a third generation Kalamazoo citizen. My father helped build the city of Kalamazoo. He built Bronson, I-94. He built Western Michigan University. So I feel rooted in the city of Kalamazoo. That's why I ran for mayor when I did. I ran for mayor for the city of Kalamazoo because I understood the citizens of Kalamazoo. And I remember a time before 2006 when we didn't have crime, when we didn't publicly their doors unlocked, their homes unlocked, their cars unlocked, because we were safe. See, I will speak to the commissioner board, but I don't believe y'all listen to us anyways. So I'm gonna speak to the people of Kalamazoo because I believe we're the ones who need to be heard in this situation. So what I see is a lot of open positions that are becoming available. And the only way we really gonna make some changes is when we change the seats. Because unless we do it ourselves, they don't understand us. People came to Kalamazoo because of the culture of Kalamazoo. The people come to Kalamazoo and change the culture of Kalamazoo. I read something about how friendly Kalamazoo is to a community. But then I looked at another community. They've talked about the poverty, economic despair. And I'm like, well, how is that a difference? I thought we was friendly, Kalamazoo. But we not friendly to the people who have trust fund money who never earned their money the hard way. We got people who work daily to try to make things happen. And yet you disrespect the community and the culture of people. We are loving people. Kalamazoo is about love, fun, and opportunities. When people came, we grew up, we had nightclubs, we had roller worlds, we had bowling alleys, like we had the real boys and girls club. We had parks, kids could go outside to play baseball, kickball, we had activities. People don't think about kids, they got short-sighted, mentalities nowadays. Everybody's short sighted with it. Well, we want the money right now, but we're not thinking about the second and third generation about the things that we're doing in this city. We only make sure that the people who are we want new city commissioner and we want new city people. We want to bring outside people in and get rid of our local. But we've been here. We're the ones that made Kalamazoo. When people come to Kalamazoo, say, that's really a Kalamazoo? There's a reason why people say that, because they love our culture. They love the people. They love our relationships. They love how we get down. We had one time when Mayor Jones, God rest his soul, he's not related to me, we didn't have this type of crime. We didn't have these type of activities. We had integrity. We have morals. We have value. We have self-respect. We had dignity. It wasn't for sale. Apparently, you can buy the park at Arcadia for $3.6 million. I didn't know the park was for sale, Kalamazoo. But apparently, the park is for sale if you got the right amount of money. They said the pride community was able to buy the park. But what about the rest of us? The black community, we went way out to Spring Valley to mine their own business to get out of the way. And then they came with harsh words. Brutal force towards our community people. We go and get out of the way because there's nothing else for us to do around here. Our kids have nothing to do. Our adults have nothing to do. Downtown has nothing for us down there. There's no representation of 12 black clubs. And I'm not saying brown because they have their own thing. Black people don't have anything downtown. We might have two or three things that we can do. And when you only have two or three, that's going to cause chaos. When you've got 20 or 30 different things people can decide, do you want to go to the pool hall, the bowling alley, or do you want to go somewhere else? You want to go to Club Nouveau or you want to go to one of the other spots? Because that's what we could do back then. Now there's nothing and no one cares. So until we start applying to some of these boards, running for mayor again, running for these commissions, running for chiefs, running for all the other political positions that are available, we're going to keep having these things. We have to own this. Even though we might not want to take these jobs, we're going to have to. You know, Kalamazoo, we're going to have to take the jobs because people won't do it for us. It's our responsibility to get the culture of Kalamazoo to be back the way the culture of Kalamazoo used to be, where we have respect and dignity and it wasn't for sale because of trust fund money.

Thank you. Next, please.

Hello. My name is Kenneth Maven, and I'm a resident of this area. And as I was sitting back here, and I was watching the body language from all of you, Hawkins, you too, and I saw that it looks like, it feels like, I can't accuse you of anything, but people are being gaslighted. You go and sit here, and you reach down, and you write your little notes, and you sit there with your hand on your thing. You're not listening to these people. You're not listening at all. All of you. All of you. are doing the same thing. Because what I saw on TV with those police officers, you know what that means? That means that when they left the precinct, they said, hey, we're going to the park. Let's get our pepper spray out. Let's get our riot gear out. And let's walk in there with loudspeakers and dismantle all these citizens up here. But I guarantee you all of you one thing, that when that arena is built, and a good hockey game goes on and people walk out the hockey arena over here that you're building and they're running down the street screaming and yelling, I guarantee you the police officers won't be met. They won't be met with all kind of pepper sprays in their back pocket with loud horns and everything else. You know what? Because as I sit here, I don't want to waste my time. And I apologize to all these people out here because the body language that all of you are showing, what has happened and what's going on, you don't care. We're being gaslighted. You guys are sitting there. City manager, mayor, city attorney, all of you guys are sitting there and just listening and going through the motion and thinking that we're sitting out here just you know, just going off. And that is what you guys are doing. But until something happens, then you want to address it. I want you to, I'm asking city manager, how do you feel as a man, as a black man with those kids out there in the park, and there's people out there in the park are sitting out there and the police show up with bull horns and they show up with bull horns and they show up with pepper sprays in their back pocket and stuff. That means that when they decided to leave the precinct and get in the cars to go to the park, they put all that apparatus on to go talk to people, to tell them to dismantle. How do you feel about that, Mayor Hawkins? Can you answer that? Or you just want to sit there stone-faced because you're getting your $200,000 salary? I got a minute left. You want to address that, City Manager? Oh, no, you want to sit up there with a stone face. Okay, how about you, Mayor? How do you feel about that?

You know, this is not a time for dialogue. This is a time for you to express your feelings. Because people are in pain.

Don't tell me about dialogue. These people are in pain. Mayor, city manager, you're getting a good salary for our tax dollars. But you want to sit there with a stone face and not say a word. What about the rest of you guys? This is how we feel in our neighborhood, in our city. But I noticed you, city manager, when somebody was talking, you would sit down and... You do your little writing and look up. That don't mean anything. Because what do you say? As a black man, what do you say about how people are treated? I got 38 seconds left. Give me your stone face for everybody else.

Go ahead.

There he goes. How much you make a year? How much we paying you a year for that stone face right there? I got 18 seconds left. You want to say anything? Or you just want to give me that stoned face? But I'll tell you guys one thing. I've got 12 seconds left. I'll tell you guys one thing. When that new arena's opened up and those people, hockey people, when they come out that arena after a game and they're yelling and screaming, I guarantee you the police won't be met with pepper spray and loudspeakers.

All done. Thank you.

City manager?

I'm not going to speak to what happened in Spring Valley Park because I feel that my role in that should be to listen and amplify other people's voices. I do want to speak to something I am good at speaking at, and that's data. We're gathered here tonight to talk about safety because every single person in this room deserves to feel secure on their own street. We all agree on that fundamental premise. But when flock safety cameras were first pitched to the city, we were sold a bill of goods. We were prompted that strict guardrails and transparency We were looked in the eye and told that this technology would never, under any circumstance, be weaponized by federal agencies against our most vulnerable neighbors. These promises were empty. I know this because when I sought out the truth, the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety flat out refused to provide the audit logs. They did not want the public to see how this system was actually being used, so I went out and obtained those logs myself. I am the one who reviewed the actual utilization data and I am the one who prompted the investigation after finding in black and white the use of our cameras to search for a deportation warrant. You don't have to take my word for it. I want you to listen to this report from Wood TV about exactly who was running that search.

The officer did, however, identify one other user with J-MAR initials in GRPD records. The individual's name was redacted from the email, but not the agency he worked for, which was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

an ATF agent, a federal agent searching our cameras, searching Kalamazoo cameras to execute an immigration warrant. But it gets worse. When Kalamazoo's own police chief tried to get to the bottom of this, when he tried to find out exactly who was tapping into this massive web of data, the neighboring police department involved flat out lied to him. And if you think the answer is just to negotiate a better contract to protect ourselves, I urge you to look at the reality of what we actually signed up for. Under their terms and services, we gave a perpetual license to our data for Flock to use as it sees fit. Let that sink in. We handed a private corporation the right to endlessly exploit the daily movements of our residents. And how secure is that data we gave away? CISA, the federal government's own cybersecurity agency, has issued severe vulnerability alerts regarding these very cameras. And we are forcing our citizens into a surveillance net that the federal government is actively warning us is vulnerable to hackers and exploitation. I want us to just to pause about this and think about the gravity of that situation. A federal agency tapping into Kalamazoo cameras, police departments lying to each other to cover it up, a private corporation holding a perpetual license to use our data on a network the federal government says is vulnerable, and a citizen having to force issue because the very agencies entrusted with surveillance data refuse to be transparent. The defenders of the system will tell you This is just a loophole. They will call it clerical oversight. But let me be clear, when mass surveillance network is built to indiscriminately track the movements of every single vehicle, every single day, abuse is not a glitch. It's an inevitably. We are too often told that we must trade our civil liberties for the illusion of security. But when a mother is too afraid to drop her kids off at school because she fears a license plate reader will flag her car for a federal task force, that does not make Kalamazoo safer. It drives people into the shadows. It makes us fractured. And it makes us weak. This is not who we are. Kalamazoo is better than that. The time for tinkering with data policies is past. You cannot put guardrails on a system that is built to spy on everyone, especially when federal agencies are searching our streets, local agencies are lying to our chief, and the corporation running it demands perpetual license to our lives. The trust has been broken. The only path forward The only way to restore the integrity of our community is to end this contract and take the cameras down. And because I've been accused of saying things online that I won't say to people's faces, Chief Boysen, you better unfuck yourself.

Next, please.

My name is Tara Maven. I'm coming up here first to just let you know I was there. I was present on Sunday Fun Day. I want to put it on the record that It was a beautiful day. There was fellowship. There was enjoyment. There were smiling faces. There was nothing but positive energy going on. So when I saw the allegations that followed afterwards, I was surprised. So I know a lot of people are touching on what happened with the police, but I want it to be put on record that It was a beautiful afternoon. Nobody was getting in any trouble. There was no violence. It was what our community needs. But I also want to put on record that once the video footage came out about what happened when the police came out, I was reading a lot of the community comments. And I was so surprised to see how many racists live among us. I saw chimps chimping out. I saw this. I don't like when a bunch of blacks congregate together. I'm always uncomfortable. So what this did was it just caused more division instead of bringing any peace and order. And you've got to think about the message that this is sending out to the people who are living in the community, because it definitely sends a message. And it's sending a message that black people are violent. It's sending a message that we need to be policed. We can't be trusted. I also heard on the loudspeaker a code that the police officers were stating that was being violated. When I looked up the code, I believe it was 55-21. I might be getting that wrong. Nothing felt in alignment with that code, which required them to do like an emergency securing of things. Again, myself and my daughter here were present. She's 14 years old. She's never experienced anything like that with the police. So all that did was invoke fear in a time that should have been joyous and beautiful and celebratory. So I think we just really need to think about those things. And I also feel like there is somewhat of an agenda going on. I see a lot of the inner cities where black people are congregating being more heavily policed, more regulated when it comes to the houses, people being pushed out of their homes, just a new plan for the city when it comes to the arena and things like that. So I'm not going to get long winded into that. people are noticing it's having a trickling effect. And that trickling effect is so much greater and so much more damaging than just supporting the positivity. And I think that there does need to be some kind of public statement or something from the police, not just them meeting with a few city officials, but coming out and saying, because the people that were in that meeting stated that the police took accountability. I would like to know what that accountability looks like. I would like for the police to state what they're being accountable for. Don't have it come from the mouths of the people that spoke with you, but come from you directly, because it came directly from you when you wanted to enforce your codes and your ordinances. So let us hear how things are different directly from you, because we're supposed to be trusting you with our freedom and our protection and our safety. So that's all I'd like to say. Thank you for listening.

Thank you. Next, please.

Justin Suarez. I live on the north side. And last commission meeting, there was a gentleman talking about the cameras that the police have put up in the neighborhoods with the flashing lights. And I noticed that the lights were turned off for a minute. But when I passed by them now, they're back on on some of those cameras. So that's something to be looked at because that's a nuisance right there from the police department in our neighborhood, you know, flashing lights and just a constant state of surveillance. You know, there's definitely, I've been affected by gun violence since I moved to the north side actually. My whole family was. and back in April and and then we started seeing the police try to clean things up in our neighborhood. And and I was the one that came up here to tell the community that I noticed they were wearing masks and they were treating people on the north side differently. Also, you know, they gave me attitude when I asked them about why are they wearing masks? And and so I was I went on a mission to capture this on camera because you wouldn't believe it, the way they were behaving. And we saw them with masks without name badges on. So it went worse. I didn't even discuss that last year. And this was all happening on the north side. And I think that what happened in Spring Valley Park, if they had those masks, they would have been wearing those masks. They would have been terrorizing those people. And if it was a bunch of white people in the park, you know that would not have went down the way that it did. We know that. So there's some rot in the KDPS, in the department. There's some rot. I've seen some of the comments from the officers online that I saw a detective make some comments. And then you look at some of their posts and they've got pro ice and all this shit on their, I'm sorry, all this stuff on their social media. You know, there's some rot in the department. And this goes back at least a year that I've witnessed myself. They did get rid of the mask policy quickly, which that was a move in the right direction. But then we have an event like this. The flock cameras, the city wants to meet and talk to the NAACP and tell them, the police, that you can trust us. We'll have meetings with you. But look at what happened at Spring Valley Park. I urge the police, I urge the city to release all the body camera footage from what happened in that park. That costs a fortune to get that body camera footage, a fortune. So you guys could release that to the public and that would help. We could start to look at how some of those officers behaved. And the public, we can see who the good ones are and what actually happened there. It's all on video. So that's what I would recommend. But there is a rot. And the flat cameras, you know, we're giving them an awful lot of data. We don't even know what they can collect with those cameras. I mean, it's scary. And we're supposed to trust them when they behave like that. So that's all I have to say today. Thank you. Thank you.

Next, please.

I apologize for speaking without a mask. And I just wanted to, I hadn't planned speaking. I'm not feeling very eloquent because I've been ill for this last week. But I wanted just to speak because as a Northside resident and someone who isn't a lifelong resident, but is somebody who cares about the community, and I'm raising children, and I am a homeowner, and I do care about this community. And I've been trying... As much as I can possibly be a supportive and contributing member, again, I apologize, I do feel like The thing that I really wanted to say, and I'll speak when I'm healthier at a different time, is I just want everyone to remember that our kids are watching and we're showing them problem-solving skills. And these kids are learning that sometimes we're using bullying behavior instead of being the adults in the room. And we need to be better examples for everybody. I don't think... that the x train is completely gone and the lady that was saying she put nails in her front yard i do think that that mobile nuisance party ordinance was created to address some of those things and like people are saying it's being misused and how it's um being applied or at least as it was intended it's being not used in that way um to that point I do still see some of the behaviors as far as like, you can see the stream of cars down North Street, and I've never seen bodies hang so far out of a vehicle ever. But it's not as constant as it was. And to the point of the person that said, or a couple of us have said, there isn't a lot for these kids to do. These young adults, these kids, they don't have a skate park. They don't have clubs and places that they can hang out and associate, and I think Those things, if we could look at it in a more positive light and give those kids options and things to do, when you look at the whys, that's what's happening, in my humble opinion. And I guess just to speak to that positivity, in the past when I've heard about the kids that were jumping fences, I'm like, hey, Kalamazoo, where's our Olympic team? Let's use these energy, these qualities these kids have. Let's help them be great adults. They're watching us right now. How we problem solve is this next generation. And we've seen the issues that the kids are having with being bullied and the racist, the history. And we are making steps forward. And I do think we should speak to some of that. But I think that we have a lot of work to do.

Thank you. Next please.

Commission. My name is Kathy Faison. I live in Township. Most of my work predominantly affects the city. I do want to say I was one of the individuals that was able to meet with KDPS. Initially, it was coming up here, kind of giving an update, but one of the things is When I always say I'm the voice and trying to be the voice that lift other voices in the community, what I heard tonight is they don't want to update from me. They want to hear from KDPS. So I'm going to leave that to KDPS to update community. What I will say and what I will lift up from the meeting is hearing voices say that when it came down to Spring Valley, that's over 40 years that that has been happening, where black people have been gathering. Now I'm going to go to Mike, as all of us in community know as Peanut. I'm going to go to Peanut. PINA has been promoting, encouraging individuals, our black community, to gather at Spring Valley. And this is actually going on the sixth year. That being said, there has not been an incident. There has not been a fight. There has not been any guns. There has not been a shooting. This has been a place for our black community to come together. My sister came here last year. There was three generations from me, my children, and my grandchildren out there. This is a place where we all can gather. Now, what I want to say is what I heard of the loudspeaker was arrest, towing vehicles, license plate collection, use of force, deployment of chemical irritants, which may cause injury. while kids are present, while kids are in the video. And this is what everybody really wanted to speak on that became a problem. Everybody says this is not a Spring Valley issue or the park issue. I disagree that it is because Spring Valley was what was caught on tape and on video. And from what I'm hearing, there has been incidents since then involving repasses, involving fireworks. And it is unfortunate because the thing is, when there are too many black people together, it becomes a problem. How do we get away from that? Because the same way that you don't want us to look at officers and say every officer is bad, every white person is bad because of what we may encounter, you have to understand and take us individually. and say that we are all not grouped together, everybody is not bad, and understand that bad comes from everybody, from race, whatever profession, you're going to find it. Start taking people for who they are. And I'm going to lift up once again, because this cannot be over lifted. Find something in the community for people to do. And it's not just kids. See, if you really focus on kids, then you're getting them prepared for adults. So when there's people that's older in the park, it's because of what was available to them as youngsters. But we need this not just for kids all ages. Occupy people time, you will occupy their mind. Thank you.

Thank you. Next please.

Good evening. Jeff Messer, city resident. The public can read and respond to tonight's remarks on my blog at messer.substack.com. We are asking the city commission to please direct the city manager to reopen Arcadia Creek Festival Place to the public until construction work resumes this fall. Parkedia Creek Festival Place has been completely fenced off and closed to the public for nearly seven months since Tuesday, December 16, 2025. The only exceptions were in June during two weekend festivals, Kalamazoo Pride and Caribbean Festival. The site is scheduled to reopen again on Saturday, September 19 for the Can-Am Peace Jam. The site was fenced because it was going to be renovated this year. However, city staff decided to postpone renovations until after the end of festival season in October. Over the past nearly seven months, the only work on the site has been a few days of environmental testing near the stage and the removal of two metal benches on the southwest corner of the park. At this point, all the fence does is keep people out of the site. During the last City Commission business meeting on Monday, June 15, Commissioner Jay Slabia echoed these facts and stated, quote, If we're able to take the fences down for these festivals, please keep the fences down until we engage the rest of the construction phase. I think this is really important to ensure that we're sending the right message to the community that this will continue to be a space where everyone and everyone can gather no matter what. Her second quote echoes the promise that we received from Deputy City Manager Rebecca Kick nearly two and a half years ago on Monday, February 5, 2024. A fence surrounding the park is not part of the plan, Rebecca Kick said Monday. Rather, the intention of the renovation is to make the park an inviting place for everyone in Kalamazoo. This means welcoming for all, all, all, Kix said. Just like Bronson Park or MLK Park, those are places that are open to the public, and that's what this should be. On Monday, January 22, 2024, I was one of eight citizens to stand at this lectern and get $1,650,000 in federal pandemic relief funds removed from the annual budget for Arcadia Creek Festival Place renovations. The city commission restored these funds on February 19, 2024, with the understanding that these plans do not include fencing in the site. The current fencing of the site breaks the promise we received. So City Manager Hankins, please honor the promise that your deputy made to us and reopen Arcadia Creek Festival Place to the public. until renovation work resumes this fall. Otherwise, the community will learn that this administration does not keep its promises and cannot be trusted in the future. Thank you. Now please welcome some friends I've brought with me to also address the closure of the festival site. Thank you.

I'm Erin Gleason. I live in Noelwood over on the west side of Kalamazoo. I volunteer for Food Not Bombs. We distribute food and clothing every Sunday and we set up every Sunday outside of the fence, outside of the Arcadia Creek Festival site. And we used to be in there, but now we are outside and that means we are uncovered from the sun, we are uncovered from the rain. And we're distributing food. People are coming out here, dozens and dozens of people every Sunday for good food and dry clothing. And without the aid of these, the coverings that we would have inside of the Arcadia Creek Festival site, we can't promise that. It's very simple. We need the fence to come down to serve our community. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next, please.

I'm continuing Kathy Phaethon's statement. For next steps for the public nuisance, license plate numbers were taken and recorded that day. We would like clarity on what happened with those, and there should not be any action taken on those plates gathered that day. No vehicle should have any consequences for being present that day. Can we please get transparency around steps and process with that? Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I don't know if my OK. Good evening to our mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, city manager, city attorney. My name is Charley Davis with Isaac. I want to first thank everyone who has spoken tonight in chambers, those who have written letters, those who have been impacted and those who have been harmed and those who care enough and also are hopeful enough that speaking up will bring change. I want to say that while I was not at Spring Valley Park, when I saw the pictures, especially that Brother Remius put up and things that were on social media, I saw children, I saw elders in age, I saw families in the pictures. And the first thing that I was thinking was, oh, this looks like a family reunion, a beautiful event. And as I started looking more and figuring out what was happening, and I'm sure all of the black and brown folks here who have experienced this before, it clicked on, uh-oh, it has happened again. And that it has happened again is that being black or being brown in public spaces. And that, as the young people would say, that is a thing, you all. and as you have already heard and i want to put this on public record and i know we don't want to talk about difficult things there is systemic racism and racism in our community and we just have to be honest about that if we are going to address it being black or brown in public places there's a public perception if you heard this already i'm just echoing it that the mere presence of black and brown people black people in this instance In public spaces are perceived as threatening, we're doing something wrong, and we don't belong. This happens often. It happens with hostile encounters. This includes even community members. I was thinking back to an event that Isaac had at Spring Valley Park, where a man walked up to us in white privilege and power questioning why we were in the park when we had a fundraiser there. So again, the calling while black, that's a thing as well. That's something that is not legal now to do. And also differentiating that, you all, in practices and policies, and really looking at this seriously through an equitable lens, but a racial equity lens as well. You've heard people say it before. As black and brown people, we experience it. We know that feeling when we are in public spaces. And then here comes, whether it's law enforcement or here comes somebody questioning us, that happens far too often. And as we can see in different instances, that's not only toxic, but that can be deadly to us. And I'm not being dramatic. That can be deadly. Racism can be deadly. So I want to put that out there. I want to also say, you all, that we have much work ahead of us. We have much work ahead of us. And with that, you all, I am asking for us to look at this as a systemic issue, to look at, again, the practices and the policies, not only of this park, but of different public spaces, I want to also say that I look forward and it's been asked of you all. I look forward to all of you all responding to this in your comments time as well. We definitely will be listening. So thank you.

Thank you.

Salutations. Hi. My name is Delia, and I'm a resident of Kalamazoo. I don't know how to do this, but anyways. I'm one of the young folks that like to turn up, and we don't have nowhere to go for real, for real. So when we do events like at Spring Valley, we're supposed to be able to go there peacefully. And we're triggered thinking that a whole bunch of white people in uniforms and badges are going to be against us. That's not fair. And I want to know, well, y'all not going to answer the question because y'all don't answer, brother. Where did y'all think y'all was putting us if y'all was going to arrest us? Because I've been in that county, and it's nasty, and it's overfilled, and it's overcrowded, and it's injustice in the whole system. Y'all do better, like for real. And that's all I really got to say. And check out that jail system for real, for real, because there's no running water. Y'all wasn't going to put us out nowhere, not in there, not for what we was doing. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to take advantage of this public comment period?

My name is Wendy Fields. I'm here as a resident of Kalamazoo County, Kalamazoo City, having lived here over 70 years. And so I also wore a different hat and was one of the ones in attendance to the meeting that was also held. And I'm glad that it was because I think it helped all that were in the room to understand history, perspectives, the anger, the triggers that were there. And I want to say we left out of there having a better understanding with a plan to go further and deeper as we move forward. But the other thing I want to say is that event in Spring Valley is not new. I used to go and I hung like wet clothes on a clothesline. Was there, been there for decades. It was an awesome thing. And it's unfortunate what happened happened. But I heard over and over and over again from some of the people that came up here to speak that there is nothing in Kalamazoo to do. I heard that certain things need to happen, but I also want to encourage those individuals to maybe become entrepreneurs and to create what it is that they want to see for our children. Because we do have a different culture, of which I love deeply. I commend Kim Guess. Symphony Ali, Brian Sims, on the business that they have, which is the experience, and not having young kids myself, but we have individuals out here with young children, I would strongly encourage them to become entrepreneurs and to create what they want to see. The other thing that I took upon myself to do was I saw the video footage on Facebook, but I also contacted Council on Public Safety because I wanted to see what they had. And what I saw was different pieces of what was not on Facebook. And one of the things that also bothered me We talk about the children. We talk about how they were impacted and what they saw. But they also heard some very vile and vulgar language. And that was coming from some of the attendees in that park. So it's a two-way street. Accountability, responsibility is real. And it comes in both ways. parts and both ends. And I think that's something that came out in the meeting because everybody took accountability and responsibility for what did happen that day. And I'm just here to say that we could get better. Thank you. The other thing, because I took our time, that I want to acknowledge is Lucinda Stinson. She was just selected and became the first African-American president of the Kalamazoo Rotary. So that happened today. So congratulations to her publicly.

Thank you.

CITY COMMISSIONER, MAYOR ANDERSON, CITY MANAGER, VICE MAYOR DUNCAN. I'M COMING AS A NORTH SIDE RESIDENT AND ALSO A SECOND HAT AS THE NAC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. First, I just want to echo and agree with a lot of the comments that's been made this evening just going on, especially at Spring Valley Park. I saw the footage. I had my conversations with some of the KDPS leadership. It was disheartening to see, again, something that's been going on since my folks has been around. It's our culture. That's what we do. I just want to make sure and let it be known that that's what we do here in the city of Kalamazoo. That's what brings people here. That's what brought some of y'all here. And it is disheartening to see some of the issues that's been going on with our KDPS, how they address us, how they come at us when we're having our parties or when we're having our gatherings. This isn't 2020 anymore. We like to be around each other. We want to be in close proximity with each other. So as although there's not much to do, I also want to echo as well with Wendy say, I want to lift up Kim Guest and Symphony Ali, as they have establishments and businesses here in the city of Kalamazoo downtown. And as I'm going into my next segue, we have Northside Day coming up August 8th, and this is not just a day to celebrate the people of the Northside of Kalamazoo, but this is also a fundraiser. So although there's not much to do here in the city of Kalamazoo, this fundraiser is designed to support LIFT UP A LOT OF THE THINGS THAT NACD WANTS TO DO. SO ESPECIALLY WITH OUR WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, OUR HOUSING, AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. SO AS THERE'S NOTHING TO DO, YOU CAN DIRECTLY IMPACT WHAT WE DO, ESPECIALLY ON THE NORTH SIDE OF CALENDAR, WHETHER YOU HAVE A BUSINESS, WHETHER YOU HAVE ANY TYPE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ADVENTURE THAT YOU WANT TO DO. I WANT TO BUILD UP THE NORTH SIDE OF CALENDAR THE WAY IT USED TO BE. Period. It's been a lot of things that's been going on on the north side of Kalamazoo that has been good and bad, but I want to build it up to where it used to be. It used to be a thriving neighborhood. It used to be lots of things to do. We used to be able to walk outside. We used to be able to open the door, keep the garage doors open, nothing happening. and we should be able to get back to that. So that's August 8th, 2026. Please be there, show up. There's three events in one day. 5K walk around in the morning, community celebration at La Crone Park. I want everybody to be there. And then we're gonna have Beats on Northside Alley. Does anybody know where Beats on Northside Alley is? You don't know where Northside Alley is? It's right behind NACD building. I named it Northside Alley. So I need you to be there, okay? Thank you. Thank you.

is my name. I'm going to touch on something I said a few meetings ago when I spoke, and I'm going back around to respectability politics. Respectability politics, the belief that a good education, a respectable job, and replacing our cultural life ways with the assimilation forced upon non-white people to survive will keep us safe. Attitudes that we are heavily policed because we create our own problems. That is black on black violence, thugs and guns and drugs and activists and noncompliance and resisting arrest and loitering and car gatherings. It's always us and never those upholding white supremacy who are the problem. It's always trying to make improvements on our behalf fit in a system of carceral violence that is inherently violent. It's in white people calling cops for no good reason on kids or neighbors or people in parks or whatever they want to weaponize them for. It's respecting a profession more than the people who pay their paychecks, which are everybody sitting behind me. I saw online people showing implicit bias about behavior, permits, and outright racist comments, almost jeering at the reaction by police at the Spring Valley function. And my question is, why was there a media write up after there was public addresses within the community that brought up a crowd of people who were being defiant? I think these coded words about being defiant is the why or justification for intimidation by the police force. I personally have experienced the force and harassment of KDPS towards vulnerable populations. Implicit bias exists in the force, and when you approach a group of black people in an acultural and intimidating way, the response of the questioning is appropriate. ICE has sprayed mace inside of black families' cars, has put infants in critical condition. Police have murdered a one-year-old baby in Mississippi because the parent was accused of stealing diapers. And I saw a local video in Kalamazoo of KDPS grabbing a black man by his locks after tasing him twice at close range and dragging him out of the car by his hair. I know and can sense what every police force is capable of as we mourn stolen black lives daily in the global black community. Do not treat the citizens as if they deserve to be surveilled and controlled and can only be approached with hostile, aggressive, weaponized, militaristic police. And black people don't owe you a certain demeanor to deserve respect as important citizens of this city. To the people, you know what's up. Stay up, keep your head up, and speak up. All power to the people.

Thank you. Is there anyone else in the chambers who would like to take advantage of this public comment? Period.

everybody, Will and his sibling, Kalamazoo resident, also a member of the City's Board of Civil Rights, also a proud union member at Western. You probably can guess what I want to talk about tonight. It's been the common theme. But I think it's incredibly important to emphasize a broken system. A broken system is one where there is a one-sidedness. What do I mean by one-sidedness? Let's think about how we define a mobile nuisance party. What is a mobile nuisance party besides a gathering of non-white folks? When I think about the one-sidedness, I've heard a few comments saying, there's nothing to do in Kalamazoo. I disagree, and here's how. There are things to do if you have money. There are things to do if you can sit in an air-conditioned restaurant. There are things to do if you can afford and have the privilege to go to school and be in classes. But what if those things don't apply to you? This is the one-sidedness that demonstrates that a system is broken. One-sidedness is with the flock cameras. Anybody, even people from out of state can access and have accessed Michigan's flock cameras. That's a one-sidedness. It's one-sided because if I want to know what was going on with KDPS, I have to FOIA that, send an email that doesn't get an answer, spend money on those things, spend time on those things. One-sidedness. One-sidedness will not help our city grow and expand. One-sidedness will not cause us to have transparency and accountability. One-sidedness means that if you have access and means, you are going to be a first-class citizen and everybody else fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh-class citizens. What can we do to ensure that we have a system that is not one-sided? I've laid out a couple of things here. Why do we have flock cameras? Why have we put literal fences around third spaces? What are we doing for our community to try to alleviate this burden? I know some of you in this room share a faith. The faith asks questions like, who is my neighbor? You know how that story goes, right? Who is our neighbor in Kalamazoo? It's not the commissioner. It's not the CEO of a hospital network. Who is our neighbor in Kalamazoo? who deserves that preferential option. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else in the chambers who would like to take advantage of this public comment period this evening? All right, see no one? The public comment period is closed. And I do wanna thank everyone that took the time, made the effort to come down here to the chambers and express your deeply felt concerns. I appreciate that. Next on our agenda is the Consent Agenda G, Manager Hankins.

Thank you, Mayor. Item G1, approval of a six-month contract extension with Top Notch Tree Care LLC for 2026 tree removal in the amount of $105,930. Item G2, approval of a contract with Commissioner Slabey.

I apologize, Mayor. I was wondering if the commission would consider removing G18 from the consent agenda and moving it to the regular agenda. And I apologize for not doing that at the time of adoption of formal agenda. G18, the approval of updated retirement system endowment investment allocations.

Okay.

Okay.

Appreciate it.

Okay.

Manager Hankins. Item G2, approval of a contract with PK Contracting LLC for the 2026 Handwork Pavement Markings Project in the amount of $111,077.50. Item G3, approval of a professional service agreement with Hubbell, Roth, and Clark, Inc. for construction engineering for the Portage Street Cork to Stockbridge Safety Project in the amount of $130,805. Four, approval of a sole source purchase with Quality Air Services LLC for the critical spaces control platform upgrade for the Kalamazoo Crime Laboratory Exhaust System in the amount of $132,115. Five, approval of an 18-month contract extension with Tree Works for hazardous tree removal in the amount of $199,843.07. Item 6, approval of the purchase of John Deere 544P wheel loader from AIS Construction Equipment through the My Deal Cooperative Purchasing Program in the amount of $344,990. Item 7, approval on an 18-month contract extension with Kendall Electric Inc. for inventory and non-inventory electrical supplies in the amount of $608,000. Item G8, approval of a resolution of tentative award for the fiscal year 2026 non-copper service line replacement. G9, adoption of a resolution approving the amended 2016 Michigan Mutual Aid Box Alarm System Association Agreement. G10, adoption of a resolution approving new neighborhood enterprise zone certificate application for a new building at 825 Porter Street and 810 North Pitcher Street in the Zone 32 Nez District. NEZ District. Item G11, acceptance of the donation of a mobile command trailer from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Radiology Security. G12, approval of an agreement with the City of Galesburg to install radio readers in Fleetwood Platte for sewer billing in the amount of $250,000. G-13, approval of an Economic Development Corporation Economic Initiative Fund loan to Alt-Neds Hospitality LLC in the amount of $120,000. G-14, authorization for the city attorney to settle a sewer backup claim with AZO Services Management LLC in the amount of $47,117.27. Fifteen, authorization for the city attorney to settle a waste release claim for Costco wholesale at 5100 Century Avenue in the amount of $81,273.43. Sixteen, acceptance of a grant from the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation in the amount of $80,000 and a donation from the Downtown Economic Growth Authority in the amount of $30,000 to fund 2026 holiday events and programming. 17 approval of housing development fund grant agreement with community homeworks for single family owner occupied critical and code enforcement repairs in the amount of $135,000. Item 18 approval of the minutes from the city commission meetings on June 1st and June 15th, 2026.

Thank you, Manager Hankins. So commissioners, requested action is a motion to approve items one through 17 and item 19 and authorize the city manager to sign all related documents on behalf of the city. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Motion made by Commissioner Hess.

Second.

Supported by Commissioner Slabey. Deputy Clerk Moss, please call the roll.

Commissioner Prado.

Yes, but I'm going to abstain from G17 as it's my employer.

Commissioner Slavy? Yes. Commissioner Wilson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Duncan?

Yes.

Mayor Anderson?

Yes.

Commissioner Hess? Yes.

Thank you, Commissioners. Items on the consent agenda are approved. Next, we're on to H, the regular agenda. City Manager Hankins.

Thank you, Mayor. Item H1, approval of a contract for Apparel Construction USA LLC for the 2026 Pipelining Project in the amount of $2,792,847. Thank you, Manager Hankins.

Is there a staff report on this item?

There is not, but staff are available if need be.

Commissioners, do you have questions for staff in this particular item? This is item H1. All right, seeing no questions, now is the opportunity that anyone in the audience can comment on this item. I ask that your comments be directed specifically to this particular agenda item in your comments. That's item H1. You'll have three minutes. Please come forward to state your name and whether you live in a city. Seeing no one, is there anyone here on the commission who's willing to make a motion to approve item H1?

Motion.

Motion made by Commissioner Slabey. Support. Supported by Commissioner Wilson. Discussion, commissioners? Seeing no discussion, Deputy Clerk Moss, please call the roll.

Commissioner Slabey? Yes. Commissioner Wilson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Duncan?

Yes.

Mayor Anderson?

Yes.

Commissioner Hess? Yes. Commissioner Prado?

Yes. Thank you, Commissioners. The motion passes. Next on the agenda is item H2, Manager Hankins.

Thank you, Mayor. Adoption of an ordinance authorizing water supply systems revenue bonds series 2026B in an amount not to exceed $2,500,000. Thank you, Manager Hankins. Is there a staff report on this item?

There is not. No staff report. Any questions, Commissioners, on the sale of revenue bonds? Seeing no questions from the commission, now is the opportunity for anybody in the chambers to comment on this item. It's item H2. You'll have three minutes. State your name and whether you live in the city, please. Item H2. Adoption of an ordinance authorizing water supply system revenue bonds.

Page three.

I'm sorry.

Page three. Page three. I was just trying to help.

Thank you.

You all set?

All right. Seeing no other comments. Commissioners, the recommended action is a motion to adopt. Is there a motion?

Motion.

Motion made by Commissioner Slaby. Support. Supported by Commissioner Cradle. Any discussion, commissioners? Seeing none, Deputy Clerk Moss, please call the roll.

Commissioner Wilson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Duncan?

Yes.

Mayor Anderson?

Yes.

Commissioner Hess? Yes. Commissioner Prado?

Yes.

Commissioner Slavy? Yes.

Thank you, commissioners. The motion passes. Now we even though it didn't appear on the printed agenda, we do have a third item now on our regular agenda. This would be item H3 now on a regular agenda, which was formerly consent agenda item G18. Manager Hankins.

Thank you, Mayor. Approval of updated retirement system endowment investment allocations, adding the Loomis Sales Active Core Fund.

Thank you very much, Minister Hankins. Commissioner Slaby.

Thank you, Mayor Anderson. I had requested this to be removed from the consent agenda so we can have a discussion about the consideration of adding the Loomis Sales Active Core Fund to our portfolio. I understand our current retirement portfolio already includes investment options that are not ESG screened, that's environmental social governance screened. And I'm not suggesting we remove those choices at this time. But I do support expanding the range of options available to employees. My concern is that if we're adding new funds, I'd prefer we prioritize adding screened funds that give employees the opportunity to invest in alignment with environmental, social, and governance principles. More choice for me is a good thing, and I believe those choices should include funds that reflect those values. A fund like this, will often has a high probability of having those funds invested in things like overseas defense contractors and also big fossil fuels. And I think based on the work that we've done from an environmental standpoint as a city and our support on nonviolence, I would hope that we don't invest in a portfolio that includes funds that may or may not be involved in advancing those type of activities. There are different types of funds that we could look at to include in our portfolio that are ESG screened. Again, that's environmental social governance screened, which basically means those bonds or funds screen for those type of activities and are not included in the portfolio. And they are also effective and perform well compared to these traditional bonds. So I just wanted to lift that up to my fellow commissioners. I know I'm bringing this up at this time while we're considering the approval of this. I just, by that principle alone, will be voting no to include this because I would love us moving forward any new funds added to the portfolio to consider that type of screening be applied.

Thank you, Commissioner Slaby. Other discussion, commissioners? Commissioner Hess.

Sure. Appreciate you lifting that up. I'm just wondering, is it Steve Vicenzi that could speak to this? Yes. And maybe just give us a background on how we do screen for adding these funds.

All right. So these funds are part of the retirement system endowment. So they're not actively invested directly by employees. That's their 457 accounts. Those are handled separately through Nationwide. We have a fiduciary agreement with Nationwide to provide a mix of funds available to employees within that retirement system, for this retirement system. The we have the Retirement Investment Committee, which has been in place since 1980s. They have been creating our investment allocations, recommending to city commission as we brought here forward tonight. So that committee put together a subcommittee to review the fixed income portion of the portfolio. They did their research on that topic along with assistance from Zhang Financial, who helps us do any detailed research when it comes to any of our investments. And then their responsibility as a committee is to provide the highest rate of return while protecting the overall asset portfolio. ESG has been a conversation for a long time that has been brought up at that committee. There are some potential legal risks with ESG funding in a pension. For example, you invest into a fund that does not perform as well as another, you have to be able to defend that decision. you invest in a fund and it goes negative you also have to be able to defend that position as well so not saying we can't do esg it's just we have to be extremely careful that that is not the focus that we're here protecting the funds that are set aside for our retirees pensions thank you other questions for staff at this time

Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Vicente, appreciate it. Other discussion, commission? Commissioner Slavin.

I would understand that we would make a motion and then if it's supported, then we have another opportunity to discuss too.

Sure.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah. So commissioners, the recommended action is a motion to approve and authorize the city manager to sign all related documents. Is there a motion? I'M SORRY. YES.

I WANT TO THANK COMMISSIONER SLAVY. MY NAME IS TOBY HANNA DAVIES. AND I WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN STARTING THE VERY FIRST the Responsible Investment Endowment Fund at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation for Isaac. And I really appreciate the question of whether we want to be supporting by our investments things like weapons, alcohol, guns, tobacco. any of the things that are questionable investments regarding our values. It's very important to know that the return on investment, the ROI, is just as high or even better for socially responsible investments. There are so many things that we do support, that we do want help grow in our country and in our community. And really, all our investments should be in line with those values that I think all of you hold. So I would really appreciate your postponing this question if you don't have enough answers yet. And truly considering a policy that all investments for our retirement funds for our employees should be socially responsible. Thank you.

Thank you. And I apologize in moving this from the consent. I looked over the point where we have the opportunity on all regular agenda items for anyone in the chambers to comment on that item. So I apologize. Anyone else who wants to comment on this item is now item H3. Seeing no one else. Commissioners, the recommended action motion to approve. Is there a motion?

Mayor, I guess after Toby spoke, I did have a question for staff and I wondered if we could still ask before prior to the motions are. Thank you. Thank you, Steve. While thinking about our fiduciary responsibility, I think back to the contract, the extension for our assessors. And I knew when we had removed it originally from the agenda, we had realized after the fact that there was a deadline for that extension. So I guess I just had a question around, is this time sensitive? Is there some kind of deadline that we have coming up in regards to this? Could we postpone to allow commissioners to consider what has been brought up or are we fighting against a timeline to allow this to be added to the portfolio if that's what we decide here?

No, there's no strict timeline to this item. I just brought it forward as soon as reasonably possible after the investment committee approved their recommendation. So if you want to delay for further consideration or questions, we can definitely do that.

So this doesn't impact necessarily significantly on the timeline in which it would be put into effect to impact the retirement fund?

It will not.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Steve. So commissioners, recommended action is a motion to approve. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion made by Commissioner Bradel. Is there support?

Sure, support.

Support, okay. Discussion, commission?

um commissioner slaby i appreciate you bringing this up and i think it's it's worthy to explore i just i hesitate that um you know we're paying for these folks to examine things and make recommendations for us and i just think that you know after they've done that work it's it i'd rather just approve this tonight and then look at moving forward in the future ways that we can examine that rather than you know delay or reject work that they've already done on our behalf

Other discussion? Commissioner Slateman.

I do want to say thank you to the committee because I know you guys meet and work hard to figure out how we can do best by our retirees. And that's important to ensure that our workforce feels supported even after