City Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you.

Once again, I hate to interrupt all this friendly chatter. It's not always this friendly, so I like to enjoy the moment. We do have to get started, so it's nice to see everybody here. And nice to see my colleagues again here. We had a 5 o'clock Committee of the Whole meeting with some focus on a particular development, so that was interesting. And now here we are for our business meeting. So I want to call to order The business meeting for the Kalamazoo City Commission for Tuesday, September 8th, 2026.

Clerk Borling, please call the roll. Commissioner Hess. Present. Commissioner Hoffman. Present. Commissioner Pradel. Present. Commissioner Slaby.

Present.

Commissioner Wilson. Present. Vice Mayor Duncan. Here. Mayor Anderson. Here.

Thank you, Clerk Borling. Well, we are blessed this evening for opening ceremony to have Pastor Jermaine Gale here with us this evening from the Kalamazoo Seventh-day Adventist Church. And I just remind everybody how this goes. When I ask Pastor Gale to come forward to provide us with the invocation, I'll ask everyone in the chambers to please stand for the invocation and then remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pastor Gale.

Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, thank you for all the work you do to keep our city safe. And I would like to just have a special prayer as we begin this evening's proceedings. Holy Father in heaven, we want to thank you so much for the opportunity that you've given to these leaders to serve in this community. We want to thank you as well for those present in this gathering. We ask that you provide wisdom. We understand we don't have all the solutions to the challenges we face, and some of them are indeed complicated. So now we ask that your presence will abide here and that you may guide the discussions, that you may speak to us and help us to understand what decisions we need to make tonight. This is our prayer in your name. Amen.

Amen. 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 pastor gail appreciate it also we are honored this evening to get to provide a couple proclamations we have some two great proclamations here on our agenda the first one is september as big brothers big sisters month very important i will bring a proclamation down and vice mayor duncan will be reading it vice mayor thank you mayor

Do we have someone from Boys and Girls Club? Whereas Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Michigan has served children, family, and families in their community for over 65 years, providing life-changing one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth. And whereas the organization's mission to create and support strong, enduring relationships helps ensure that every child in Kalamazoo County can achieve their full potential. And whereas the impact of these mentoring relationships has been demonstrated through recent national research by Harvard University and the US Department of Treasury, showing increased educational attainment, higher earnings, reduced reliance on public assistance, and greater economic mobility for mentored youth. And whereas Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Michigan works in partnerships with schools, families, volunteers, businesses, and community organizations to strengthen our city through connection, equity, trust, And whereas the month of September is recognized nationally as Big Brothers Big Sisters Month, a time to honor the volunteers, staff, supporters, and community partners who make this mission possible. Now, therefore, on behalf of the 56th City Commission, I, David F. Anderson, Mayor of the City of Kalamazoo, do hereby proclaim September 2026 as Big Brothers Big Sisters Month in the City of Kalamazoo, and I commend Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Southwest Michigan for its continued dedication to mentoring and its profound impact on the lives of young people in our community.

WELL, GOOD EVENING AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PROCLAMATION AND THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE HERE. SO THANK YOU VERY MUCH. JUST WANTED TO ONCE AGAIN REITERATE HOW IMPORTANT MENTORING IS FOR ALL OF THE YOUTH IN KALAMAZOO COUNTY. RIGHT NOW WE HAVE OVER 100 KIDS ON OUR WAITING LIST WAITING TO BE MATCHED WITH A MENTOR. AND I WOULD LIKE TO GET THAT NUMBER TO ZERO. SO, YOU KNOW, IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT. People can go to our website, which is www.thinkbigtoday.org, and learn more about mentoring options. We have programs where you can mentor in the evening, programs where you can mentor in a school. And with me, I have Melissa Carlson, and she actually has been matched with her little sister for eight years. And they were the match of the year for BBBS of Southwest Michigan. And then they were in the top three in the country for BBBS of America. So thank you to Melissa for being here. And then we also have Regina Miller here with us, one of our biggest and best champions. Knows pretty much everybody in the community and us. We appreciate her as well. So anyway, thank you again for this honor. It's greatly appreciated.

Next up we have the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. Y'all would want to come forward. And I have my Love Where You Live sticker right here on my, right here in my city notebook. So we're really happy to provide this proclamation for you. to the Kalamazoo Community Foundation for 100 years of support and service. Whereas, Kalamazoo Community Foundation, KZCF, was founded August 24, 1925, first approved by a resolution by the Kalamazoo Chamber of Commerce and tasked with a clear purpose, to grow Kalamazoo's charitable resources and direct them where they are needed most. And whereas, for over a century, KZCF has helped turn local generosity into collective action by building trusted pathways for residents, families, and institutions to invest in the long-term well-being of Kalamazoo County. And whereas, KZCF is on a mission to create a thriving community where people, resources, and expertise are mobilized to advance racial, social, and economic justice in Kalamazoo County. And whereas KZCF has awarded more than $600 million in grants to hundreds of nonprofit organizations, opened doors to education for more than 5,000 students through scholarships, and provided more than $28 million in capital via low-interest impact investment loans to launch some of Kalamazoo County's most innovative projects. And whereas KZCF aims to support nonprofits and community partners behind the check, by nurturing transformative relationships, supporting capacity building, and providing leadership development and succession planning opportunities. And whereas the work of KZCF has been made possible by generations of donors, trustees, staff members, volunteers, nonprofit partners, and community leaders whose shared commitment has helped transform generosity into lasting public benefit, And whereas KZCF's centennial is an opportunity to recognize not only 100 years of philanthropy, but also the enduring spirit of generosity. collaboration and shared responsibility that has helped Kalamazoo County meet changing needs across generations. And whereas KZCF strives to be a trusted philanthropic partner for every resident of Kalamazoo County and works to ensure that Kalamazoo County community becomes the most equitable place to live. And whereas, KZCF will continue to stand alongside Kalamazoo's nonprofit leaders, generous supporters, innovators, and education seekers as they enter this next century of advancing Kalamazoo County. Now therefore, on behalf of the 56th City Commission and David F. Anderson, Mayor of the City of Kalamazoo, we do hereby acknowledge, honor, and celebrate Kalamazoo Community Foundation's 100th anniversary and its century of support, stewardship, and service across this city and communities throughout Kalamazoo County. Thank you so much.

Thank you. I'm Joanna Donnelly-Dales, and I'm the Chief Philanthropy Officer at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. And I am joined by our Board Chair, Amy Upjohn. And we're both so thrilled to be able to represent the organization. And we know that we cannot do the work that we do without trusted partners like our city government, our county government, our generous donors, all throughout the county and so we are we feel blessed to be able to take people's philanthropy and help amplify that so that all can benefit in kalamazoo county so thank you very very much for this proclamation no thank you it's an incredible honor to be here and i could not be more grateful on behalf of the foundation for this honor thank you

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Great things in Kalamazoo, and we're lucky to be in a community that has this kind of resource. So once again, thank you to our guests from Big Brothers Big Sisters and Kalamazoo Community Foundation. Commissioners, now we're down to C, the adoption of the formal agenda. Are there any items on G, the consent agenda? You would like to move to H, the regular agenda. All right, seeing none, the agenda statement. Mayor, I do have one. Oh, okay, I'm sorry.

You have in front of you an updated resolution for item G8, and on the consent agenda regarding neighborhood enterprise zone certificate at 116 West Cedar Street, and that's the one we talked about earlier. The updated resolution includes corrected figures for the number of units at 80% AMI. It was listed incorrectly at 28, and we've corrected that to reflect 30 such units.

All right, thank you so much. And we'd like you to adopt that updated resolution. All right. So we have the corrected error that was in the agenda. It's related to G8. So the agenda... Yes, Vice Mayor.

Does that altering that agenda item, does that take it off the consent?

Not automatically, but we could. Is that your wish? No. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Vice Mayor. All right. Then the agenda stands as is. Next, Communications Manager Hankins.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple things. I wanted to remind residents and business owners and visitors with the city that we have our annual community budget survey that is still open through September 18th. And on Thursday, September 17th, we will have a... budget community meeting from 6 to 7.30 here at the library. It's a free public meeting and an opportunity to learn about the city's annual budget process, ask questions about the budget, and share with us the priorities that you have as residents and business owners in the community. So I wanted to encourage anyone who's not completed the survey to consider doing that, and also if you're available to attend the budget community meeting that I've just described. One other thing that will likely be mentioned on September 3rd, the Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of the moratorium on data centers, cryptocurrency mining, and battery energy storage systems. The Planning Commission also asked for a cross-departmental group to be assembled as part of the input process, and I think staff will address that at some point. And the Commission also asked that they receive regular updates on the process.

Thank you very much, Manager Hankins. Now is the opportunity for public comments. Public comment time here at the business meeting is four minutes. You may comment on any topic of your choosing. Please come forward, state your name, and whether you live in the city.

Hi, everyone, again. My name is Tina McClinton, and I am from Kalamazoo. I've owned my home for 38 years. I've also been coming here for eight and a half years, asking you to save our last natural green space, Lake to Stockbridge to John. The last natural green space, our wildlife's last home. It's been on the city's destruction list ever since December 18th of 2017. I see I live in that lovely floodplain area, the south side of town. The neighborhood... you know, that only wants dry streets, working storm drains, working storm sewers, just like the rest of the neighborhoods have. See, in my neighborhood, your storm drains and storm sewers flood out the streets. This is a city issue. This is a city failure that should have been fixed long ago. But yet you still build in my neighborhood. And every time you build, we flood more. Fix the damn flooding. I've only been asking for eight and a half years. But we also don't live in your rich man's playground downtown. I see when you build down there in the rich man's playground, you fix all the infrastructure underneath the streets before you build. So question, why don't you do the same thing in the poorer neighborhoods before you build? I know I won't get an answer. I never do. That's why it's been eight and a half years, and I'm still waiting for you to fix the flooding in the south side of town. Dry streets for every neighborhood. What else is wrong with Kalamazoo? that you do nothing about, rent is too damn high. To say we live in a crime-ridden city, a studio apartment $1,200 a month, wow. This creates more homeless people. People can't afford to live. You have families and residents sleeping on the streets. You keep building all these huge apartments, but only 10 out of 60 is for someone struggling to be able to afford. Maybe. Do that so you have, you do that so you have an excuse to keep building these big, huge, ugly apartments. And then your rich developer friends get big tax breaks. Stop wasting our tax money and fix the things that needs to be fixed. Your road diets are a joke. And don't say ride a bike, because I want to live. Your streets are a mess. With the bike lanes, it's a mess. I know, you don't care. Crime is out of control, shootings, stabbings, carjackings, car stealings, crashing, then they run away. Happens all the time in Kalamazoo. We also have an issue with mental illness in Kalamazoo, roaming the streets. Why aren't these residents getting the help they need to get better? And bring back public call-ins so every resident has a voice. And listen when the residents express their concerns. Fix the problems. Kalamazoo is a mess. You really should start listening to your residents. You don't. You ignore us. That's why crime is so bad. That's why it's not safe anywhere you live in Kalamazoo. And eventually crime will come to the rich neighborhoods too. And it will come to the rich man's playground like it does all the time. Fix the damn flooding. I'm tired of coming up here. I have to be to work at 1 a.m. in the morning. And I have to be here so you don't steal our green space and build big ugly apartments in it and flood us out more. So you don't you will fix the flooding, maybe some year. December will be nine years. I've came to every single meeting and I'm still waiting for the flooding to be fixed. Thank you. Thank you.

Next, please.

I'm Erin. I live right here in Kalamazoo. It's been about a month since the sweep on North Edwards Street. I stuck around late last meeting to hear the response from the dais, and what I heard was not good, appalling, infuriating. Commissioner Wilson gave his postmortem analysis, saying the goal was to complete the process without harm. And for those out of the loop, the process in question here is harm. When you sweep out shelter from under our most vulnerable, I don't know what you want to call that other than harm. And Vice Mayor Duncan offered the idea of a tri-city anti-homelessness committee. This is a waste. I don't know why we're bringing in these homelessness experts to answer questions that we don't know the answers to. People need homes. People need care. And you don't gotta assemble three cities to figure that out. You can just walk right outside down into Bronson Park and talk to people. You can talk to them right now, like right after the meeting, and they'll tell you what you got to do. Anyway, let's talk Flock. We made some cool moves last month, but the work is far from over. In August, KDPS opened another renewal of their Flock contract, just signed by Matt Huber. I think that's... That's public now. I think that went through a FOIA request. Anyway, if we want the commission to vote on ALPR purchases, why not vote on suspending the current contract? Just a thought. Anyway, you all know what to do, and thank you in advance for doing it.

Thank you. Next please.

Hello. My name is Tom Howes and I'm speaking on behalf of Asylum Lake Preservation Association. Regarding our proposal letter for conservation and green space districts, we're grateful for the full support of the Environmental Concerns Committee a week or two ago now. The Planning Commission briefly discussed our letter at their last meeting and we'd like to address a few points that came up in that conversation. For those hearing this for the first time, Kalamazoo currently has no zoning districts specifically designed for green spaces or ecologically sensitive areas. The NFP exists, but as an overlay alone, it does not comprehensively protect especially environmentally sensitive lands, nor does it ensure the kind of sensible transition zoning that should exist between these and more intensive areas. We are proposing two standalone districts, a conservation zoning district for ecologically sensitive areas, which protects habitat, watersheds, water quality, and our natural systems that underpin public health across the entire city, and a green space zoning district for public accessible parks and recreation areas. And we propose three concrete steps to implement those districts. These aren't isolated concerns. Our environment, our watershed, our public health are deeply interconnected and our zoning code and values should reflect that. At the Planning Commission, there was also concern about legal risks, specifically with regard to regulatory taking. We want to be clear. We reiterate this in the letter. With regard to private property, our proposal is explicitly volunteer-based. This is an invitation, not a mandate, and an invitation for value change as well. At last week's Planning Commission meeting, there was also a question about the value of rezoning, merely rezoning city-owned land. Two important concepts should help answer that question. First, transitional zoning matters enormously. A conservation district that abuts a highly intensive commercial zone isn't protected in any meaningful sense. Thoughtful buffer zoning is part of what makes these districts work. Second, and more importantly, the goal isn't just to relabel land that we already have. It's to proactively ask, where are the gaps? Which of Kalamazoo's 22 neighborhoods lack adequate grain space? Which is, again, a public health concern. Where should we be seeking conservation opportunities, not just protecting existing ones? Kalamazoo declared a climate emergency and these districts are one concrete way to enforce that. We've also heard the question about a Michigan precedent. There are examples and more creatively, though not a zoning example, Ann Arbor offers green belt program and now a blue belt program, which are pretty inspiring. These are land acquisition tools and they show what's possible when a Michigan city commits to proactive environmental protection. Kalamazoo's own master plan calls for exactly this kind of proactivity actually. On page 145 it explicitly directs the city to quote, pursue the acquisition or protection of environmentally sensitive areas through a range of techniques. such as conservation easements, deeds restrictions, transfer of development rights, land conservancy donations, transfer to foundations or public bodies. The stated metric for that action, quote, adopt zoning revisions, pardon me, map affected areas, determine locations. We are not asking for something new tonight, we are just asking for what's already in our current master plan. The Imagine Kalamazoo public comment period closes this month and now seems like the time to act. We are asking you to advise and encourage planning staff to do that, study which lands would be well suited for new designations and that criteria, and allow private owners to opt in, bring a draft framework back to the community to implement. Thank you.

Thank you. Next please.

Well, you all know me, probably a little too well, right? You know, as I kept glancing back, I do that a lot. The reason I do that is because I try to look to see, like, who here is probably going to go home tonight, open a door, you know, and myself being one of them. So, you know, I like to start out by mentioning that. You guys did something recently with regard to marijuana initiative. And I think it's really cool. Although I think the 25% could probably be higher. But Kalamazoo smokes a lot of marijuana. Some of those funds could go towards good things. And obviously, you guys think that too. I know I keep harping on this, but it's only because I use public transportation myself. So I'm forced to be at the bus station, right? And we have a serious gun problem in Kalamazoo, right? I mean, I don't think Detroit has had two people shot dead at their bus station. But we have. One on the bus. So I keep bringing that up because I don't want people to forget. And there's technology out here that our law enforcement could use if they don't currently have that will detect where they can drive by and and detect guns in people's coats and backpacks and make it a little safer around here. I think that's a very good thing. I think that's a reasonable thing. There's another type of detection device that will detect air particles and recently fired guns. So if law enforcement were to come over there, they could tell if guns had been fired recently. These are tools that You know, I think we need to fund, you know, if we're not already doing that. Okay, I don't have a lot of time left, but I also want to, I do want to speak to the fact that thanks to Dr. Slade, we now have metal detectors in our school system. Unfortunately, another person, I'm not going to mention, fought against that for 20 years. So kudos to Dr. Slade, who we should have put in school superintendent position before Dr. Rechartery anyway. I think we all know that now. Also, because of the problem with recruitment that law enforcement has, as well as teaching, I think we might need to consider Kalamazoo's version of Guardian Angels so they can help law enforcement fight this crime. Okay? I think these are things that are reasonable and would help people. Okay? Because, yeah, people have been harmed just in the short time since all of us spoke. Bitten by dogs, bitten by other people. I could go into specifics, but obviously I'm not. But these are just things for you guys to consider. And also... Nod to Commissioner Wilson for coming to the job site. Nod to Mary Anderson for...

Thank you. Next please.

Good evening, commissioners. Iris Potter, 1204 Manor Street. First of all, I want to thank you for going forward with green zoning and taking a hard look at it and hopefully implementing it. It does obviously follow our climate emergency, our sustainability plan, all of them. And it also hopefully would get done for IK35. That would be so important. I want to thank the Asylum Lake Preservation Association for pushing this, for the Environmental Concerns Committee to do that, and also to Tom House who just spoke for being an integral part of that. I also want to thank you for moving forward with the moratorium on data centers at L. It's really important at this point because we need to follow so many cities, counties, states who are putting a moratorium on this. People are speaking to it. It's so important. Tom mentioned looking at Ann Arbor's situation and I actually just looked at that too and that's a possibility of taking a look at that. um i really want to thank you for looks like it's going to move forward for call in comments really really appreciate that for full accessibility because look at maybe sometime if it were you maybe that night you couldn't make it car broke down something happened so i think that's so important and i want to thank you for doing that One thing you might not realize, and I just learned this today working downtown, I just want to point it out that electric bikes and electric trikes are speeding down the sidewalk on the mall. I'm very concerned because I walk out a door where I work and I could be hit. So, I don't know, it's just something to think about and take a look at and I would really, really appreciate that. So, thank you.

Thank you. Next please.

Hello, my name is Scott Doster, and I moved to the city of Kalamazoo last November, October I mean, and then I had spine surgery in November, so I didn't get out too much until about three months ago, and I've been walking the city a lot, and I'm glad I live downtown. I don't have a bad word to say about anyone. I grew up in Parchment. My dad was a city cop. He started walking the beat, I think, in 1959. He retired in 1984, captained a detective city at Kalamazoo. But I've been going down here all my life. After high school, I moved to the south side for 10 years. Then I moved out to the country for 30 years, and I just came back here. Well, anyway, so you can believe this if you want. If I know something's true in my heart, that is good enough for me. Saturday the 8th, downtown, I was on West Michigan crossing Rose Creek towards the courthouse. And I was going to hang a left, walk down past the park. and walked down to my apartment. And I saw two unsheltered older gentlemen. I thought it had just gotten dark, I couldn't say. And I usually, the only reason I'm saying this is because it's part of this story. But I walked up to them, and I gave them each five bucks, and I said, if I give you this in the name of Jesus Christ, it's just like Jesus Christ has given this to you. I talked to them for less than two minutes, blessed each other, whatever. I got home Saturday night, and then Sunday before church, I was just kind of thinking to myself, hey, I wonder what those guys did with their ten bucks, you know? And... I was going to Bethany Reformed on Burdick, straight shot down from my apartment. I don't get halfway down, I see somebody walking towards me. I don't think nothing of it, on the sidewalk. He gets up to me and he stops. I think he's gonna ask me for a dollar or two. Instead, he says to me, I just want to thank you again for that special blessing you gave us last night. He wasn't talking about the five bucks. I looked, there's over 72,000 people in the city limits of Kalamazoo. I don't care what anybody says, we had an angel here in Kalamazoo. Anyway, then last week I heard from a couple of the unsheltered people that now some guys ran them off from the courthouse. Where those two guys were, as a matter of fact. they can't sit there more than 15 minutes and they can't loiter in the area more than 15 minutes i just said hey if somebody had bought that already he'd have it posted i looked with somebody i don't care who's buying it none of my business but he don't buy it yet on it yet it's public Then, oh, a couple of weeks before that, I was sitting on a step again at a church. I've done that maybe twice, sitting there for five minutes maybe at that spot. A woman, unhoused, rolls around the corner. I said hi to her. We talked for a minute, introduced each other. The first thing she said to me after that was, she quoted Jesus Christ. She said, I am just looking for a place to lay my head. That's what Jesus Christ said to the rich boy who wanted to follow him to go to heaven. Jesus said, hey... Foxes have dens, birds have nests. I, the son of man, has nowhere to lay his head. So your time is up.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Claire. I live in the Vine. Thank you to the person who spoke about the sweep last month on North Edward Street and reiterated that sweeps don't happen without harm because they are harmful by nature. We need long-term solutions. And meanwhile, there are also things that we can immediately do to alleviate barriers to access, safety, and social inclusion. And I'm going to focus on one of these more immediate solutions today. In our city ordinance, section 3323 on parks and public spaces contains several subsections that criminalize behaviors that are normative in the context of houselessness. It does this by designation of things like using the park outlets, sleeping or lying down to rest on improved surfaces, and sleeping in general in a park as misdemeanor offenses that involve large fines and possible jail time. It, like the tactic of sweeping, is harmful by nature and in practice adds to the burdens experienced by members of our unhoused community and also our community in general. This ordinance chapter is an example of class discrimination and enforcement is selective. At this point, I have been in one of three city parks five nights a week since May for my thesis project at WMU. I have seen several cases of individuals being ticketed for using the outlets. and even more be approached for sitting, which is actually not in the ordinance, or lying down on improved surfaces. All of the individuals matched a stereotypical description of someone in precarious housing. So for example, they might have had a lot of belongings on their person. And although there were several examples of people who used the outlets or sat on improved surfaces who did not meet this description, not one of those individuals was approached by KDPS. So, things like sleeping, lying down to rest, outlet use, laundering clothing, other behaviors that are criminalized in this ordinance with misdemeanor tickets are necessary for survival and social inclusion within a community. For all of the subsections within the ordinance that criminalize these behaviors, no equivalent alternatives are provided. So for example, while sleeping in a park is a misdemeanor, we have only one shelter space in the city limits whose strict policies and poor conditions have been cited by many with firsthand experience and makes the space inaccessible. Further, many will say that sleep itself within the gospel mission is inaccessible due to a number of barriers that I don't have the time to get into here, but if you've rewatched the meeting from last city commission, you'll see some of those. So okay, someone might fall asleep on a park bench after days of little to no sleep at the mission, and then receive a misdemeanor for that behavior, only adding to the challenges they are already facing in attaining things like social services, employment, and more. We need to not only provide alternatives to the things that are criminalized in this ordinance, but also commit to real code changes within the ordinance that alleviate these barriers. The ordinance is not only, this section is not only inhumane and unreasonable, but it's not cost or time efficient. It puts a strain not only on the people who the ordinance is enforced against, but also for public safety, the 8th District Court System, and the Kalamazoo Public Defender's Office who constantly are dealing with these park violation cases. Thank you to Manager Hankins for meeting with me and committing to exploring how this ordinance is intended to be enforced versus how it's currently being enforced and thinking about some training we can do to make sure things happen more fairly. I WAS ALSO ABLE TO MEET WITH A COUPLE MEMBERS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS BOARD TODAY TO DISCUSS HOW THIS ORDINANCE CONTAINS EXAMPLES OF DISPARATE POLICIES AND IMPACTS AS WELL AS HOW WE CAN GARNER SUPPORT FOR CODE CHANGES THAT CAN HAPPEN IN TANDEM WITH TRAININGS LIKE THE ONES DISCUSSED. I'LL CONTINUE TO ADVOCATE FOR THIS. IT'S A SIMPLE AND RELATIVELY IMMEDIATE STEP WE CAN TAKE TOWARDS A LEGAL .

THANK YOU. NEXT, PLEASE.

Good evening to our mayor, our vice mayors, commissioner, city managers, city attorney. My name is Charlay Davis with Isaac. I wanted to just lift, and also this is an invitation for you all, but then also our beloved community, those who are here and then those who are unable to be here this evening, But Erase will be facilitating what we call an IRO and an IRS. So that's internalized racial oppression and internalized racial superiority workshops in October. And let me lead with that I do not make this invitation in competition because I know there are wonderful workshops and trainings all over here locally and within our city, within our county, but this adds to the work that we are doing to deepen anti-racism. Some of you might have heard of this workshop. It's for participants to gain a common definition. of how we internalize racial oppression and internalize racial superiority. And some of you all have been through this workshop before. I have as well. And I am so excited to go through it again. It's been a couple of years. We will also identify the identity shaping power of racism and how that impacts people of color, BIPOC, family members, and then white people, white family members, while exploring how racism's individual, institutional, and cultural manifestations impact us. A lot of times this work is about self-reflection, looking at how we are impacted, developing interventions to disrupt problematic patterns, and then also taking what we learn in training and putting it into action real time. And so again, I want to make this invitation. Please keep an eye on your email for more details. It'll be one day. And also, it'll be interrupting inequitable practices. And that's something that all of us need to do in every institution, congregation, organization, wherever we are practicing and moving and living. And lastly, the aim of this workshop is to help build trust and strengthen cross-racial relationships within our institutions. And so before I go to my seat again, I want to say this is not in competition. This is something that we feel at Isaac is really important. We don't invite others or tell others that they need to go without going ourselves because this is something that we all need to do. We all can agree that whether it's nationwide, whether it's local, whether it's statewide, we are seeing white supremacy become more and more bold. And so we must be even more bold, I would say, in trying to dismantle white supremacy. And then lastly, I just ask you all, if this feels uncomfortable, that's OK. As I always tell my Isaac family members, if you feel uncomfortable, that's OK. I can't promise you comfort. But that's a good thing. And I ask you to lean into that discomfort and to go ahead and join us for the IRO and IRS workshop. So please keep an eye on your email, Facebook, other family members, text messages. And we look forward to this. And it looks as if it is going to be October 9th. That's a Friday. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Hi, my name is Shona Espinoza and this housing crisis that Kalamazoo has, something needs to be done. We have the city that has a contract with uh those landlords can't remember the names but their properties look like it's ridiculous it's ridiculous when i was going through the housing issues three years ago and the properties that they showed me To me, that's not where people should live at. You want all this expensive rent, but the properties look like they dated back in 1920. Like, there's so many things that are wrong with these places that are for rent. don't want to live somewhere when it looks ridiculous. That's not okay. We should expect better from landlords. We should expect better for places that we want our children to grow up at. We shouldn't have a contract with a company, it starts with an L, can't think, but that's not okay for the city to have a contract with them and they look like There's so many places, so many things wrong with them. Like when I was going to look at them, I wouldn't dare let my dog sleep there. That's how bad they are. One of them was like apartment in the attic. Like, what are we doing? We wonder why there's so many people out on the street. First of all, rent is too damn high. Everything is going up but our paycheck. Many people are working multiple jobs. One job should always be enough. This board has the power to say, hey, let's throw this out here and take a vote to make things better for our own house. They've been out on the street too damn long. Guess what? Winter is about to come. Y'all gonna have the same problem y'all had last year. Are y'all gonna let another one of our unhoused friends freeze to death and die? That young man that froze to death last year went to school with my daughter. My daughter is only 29 years old. Like, what are we doing? There are children out on this street. When is enough going to be enough for this board to realize y'all are the problem? Get yourself together. Hold yourself accountable. Nobody should be out on these streets. We wonder why the crime is so high. It starts with housing. When people don't have a safe place to go to, when people don't have a safe place to lay their head, when people don't have a safe place for their children, When their needs aren't met, there's high crime. But y'all too worry about converting one-way streets to two-way streets. Y'all too worry about building ridiculous things downtown that the only people that want them is rich people. What are we going to do for those that are less fortunate? What are we going to do for those that are about to be out on the street? I know for me, my dad is a vet. I lost my mom a year and a half ago, and I'm still advocating for my dad to keep his home. He's a vet. He's about to be 80 years old. What are we doing to make sure those like that aren't going to be out on the street? He's on a fixed income. I work for KPS. I'm barely making ends meet. i'm gonna be out on the street next then what i'm gonna be up here even more what are we doing for those that are out on the streets they deserve better each of y'all get to go home at night each of y'all have a place to stay each of y'all kids have somewhere to lay their heads it's about to be winter it's the holidays birthdays they are out on the street because nobody wants to help them and when they do it's the bare minimum if it's the bare minimum do better Do better as a whole. Do better.

Thank you. Next, please.

Good evening, Jane Ghosh with Discover Kalamazoo. I'm reporting back on the experience survey that six of you were kind enough to take between meetings. And before I share the results, I want to explain a little bit about why this matters. As I've reported to the city commission before, Tourism in Kalamazoo County supports 7% of jobs in Kalamazoo County. It delivers $750 million of economic impact. And what that is is that's employment. That's people being able to have meaningful jobs, meaningful work. It's the ability for small business owners to sustain their small businesses. That's why these tourism experiences matter. And that's why we're doing the tourism master plan. So the results of the survey that you took, there are 10 of those experiences that every single one of you have done. And there's actually three experiences you've all done in the last five years. That includes the Air Zoo, the Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts, and Western Michigan University home football games. Go Broncos. Commissioner Hess has done the most experiences of those at the table. Three of you are tied for number two, and I do think we have to give props to Commissioner Wilson. If you think of the opportunity years that he's had to do all these experiences, you've packed a lot in, so kudos to you. There are a couple things that none of you have ever done. One of them is visit a speedway. So we have two speedways in the county. One is Galesburg and one is Kalamazoo. Galesburg season is over. Kalamazoo Speedway, which by the way, holds the world record for the fastest three-eighths of a mile oval track ever they still have two events september 12th is the night of destruction so if that's what you're into september 12th is available and then september 25th through 27th is racing the super shoe nationals so kalamazoo speedway i actually i had never been to a speedway i tried to go to the galesburg speedway it was sold out so speedways are actually very popular they do bring a lot of a lot of people and a lot of economic impact to kalamazoo county Only one of you has ever kayaked the Kalamazoo River. And as I mentioned, the genesis of this work was our tourism master plan. And as we've been doing that work, we've realized the importance and the opportunity of the Kalamazoo River. And as we were beginning the work and realizing what a potential tourism gem we have here, I had also never kayaked the Kalamazoo River. And I'm speaking now from firsthand experience. It is absolutely an amazing asset, a beautiful asset that we have here in our county. And because I will be coming back to talk to you about the master plan, we want to make sure that you have an opportunity to experience it for yourselves. And so Discover Kalamazoo is partnering with the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council to give county and city commissioners the opportunity and city staff the opportunity to experience kayaking the river for yourselves. And when you think of what it is, it is already navigable. If you think of a city to our north, for example, they're having to spend millions of dollars to make their river be able to use kayaks because there's dams. you can today you can set a kayak down in comstock and and go all the way through and kayak past mayor's river waterfront park and pass downtown and right at the the site of the former arcadia and then get off at verberg park it's absolutely an amazing opportunity that we think we have for tourism So please look out for an outlook invitation for myself. I'll be sending it to all of the city commission and key city staff. We'll have a primary date and a rain date and we really hope that you can join us so you can see for ourselves what an amazing asset we have here in the city of Kalamazoo. Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anyone else in the chambers that would like to take advantage of this public comment period? I've seen no one. Public comments is closed. I want to thank everyone that took the opportunity to provide comments and made the effort to do that. So thank you so very much. Next is the consent agenda. Manager Hankins. Thank you, Mayor. The following items are presented for approval.

Item G1, approval of a professional services agreement supplemental with Hubbell, Roth, and Clark, Inc. for additional design engineering services for Portage Street and Alcott Street pedestrian improvements in the amount of $55,000.00. Item 2, approval of a contract supplemental and change order with Severance Electric Company Inc. for city fiber conduit work in the amount of $64,810 for a total contract amount of $160,250. G3, approval of a professional services agreement with GHD for environmental consulting services at the Cork Street Landfill Superfund site in the amount of $225,100. Item G4, approval of a contract with Peters Construction for new hydrant installations in Oshimo Township in the amount of $252,794.53. G5, approval of a contract supplemental and change order with Carrier and Gable for 2026 traffic equipment in the amount of $250,000.00. G6, approval of a contract with Peters Construction for the citywide sidewalk repairs project in the amount of $285,365.72. G7, adoption of a resolution recognizing Full Tilt Performance Athletics as a nonprofit organization operating in the community for the purpose of obtaining a charitable gaming license. G8, adoption of a resolution approving a neighborhood enterprise zone, NEZ, new certificate application for new mixed use development in the Park Cedar Burdick level NEZ district. G9, adoption of a resolution adopting and approving the Act 381 Brownfield plan for the 116 West Cedar project. G10, adoption of a resolution approving the project plan for the Heritage Community Expansion Project and granting consent to the project jurisdiction of the Kalamazoo County Economic Development Corporation for the portion of project in the city of Kalamazoo. 11. Approval of a recommendation to the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners that Kurt Artema be reappointed as one of three city representatives on the Central County Transportation Authority. 12. Approval of updated bylaws for the Civil Rights Board to amend the language in Section 5.2 and 5.3 regarding meeting locations. G-13, approval of the acquisition of two permanent easements and one temporary grading permit for the citywide pedestrian improvement HSIP number one project in the amount of $1,207.00. G14, approval of the acquisition of two permanent easements and six temporary grading permits for the citywide pedestrian improvements, HSIP. Number two project in the amount of $6,797. G12, approval of a request from Western Michigan University to publicly display fireworks at Waldo Stadium on September 12th, 2026. NG16, first reading of a transfer and development agreement for the acceptance and dedication of land for public right-of-way at 116 West Cedar Street and 433 South Rose Street by warranty deed.

Thank you very much, Manager Hankins. Commissioners, the requested action is a motion to approve items 1 through 16 and authorize the city manager to sign all related documents on behalf of the city. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Motion made by Vice Mayor Duncan.

Support.

Supported by Commissioner Slabey.

Clerk Burling, please call the roll. Commissioner Hoffman.

Yes.

Commissioner Prado. Yes. Commissioner Slabey. Support. Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice Mayor Duncan. Yes. Mayor Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Hess. Yes.

Thank you, Commissioners. The items on the consent agenda are approved. Now we are on to the regular agenda. City Manager Hankins.

Thank you, Mayor. Item H1, adoption of a resolution approving an amendment to contract number 26-5089. replacing it with contract 26-5334 with the Michigan Department of Transportation for Construction Engineering Services associated with Kalamazoo Avenue Construction.

Thank you very much.

Manager Hankins, is there a staff report on this item? No, but staff is available if there are questions.

All right. Any questions on this particular item, commissioners? All right, seeing none, is there anyone here in the chambers that like to comment on this item, this item H1, any comments would be specific to this amendment? Seeing no comments. Commissioners, the recommended action is a motion to adopt the resolution. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion made by Commissioner Pradel, supported by Vice Mayor Duncan. Discussion, Commissioners?

Seeing none, Clerk Boring, please call the roll. Commissioner Prado. Yes. Commissioner Slaby.

Yes.

Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice Mayor Duncan. Yes. Mayor Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Hess.

Yes.

Commissioner Hoffman.

Yes.

Thank you, Commissioners.

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

Adoption of a resolution approving an agreement 26-5212 with the Michigan Department of Transportation for railroad crossing improvements associated with the reconstruction of Kalamazoo Avenue.

Thank you. I presume there is not a staff report on this item. Correct. Any questions from commissioners on this one? Commissioner Pradel.

Hey, Director Baker. So the question is, is this a three-part approval related to the railroad crossing? I noticed the last one was specifically, it looks like, I want to make sure I word this correctly. install crossing surface to accommodate pathway. I wanted to just ask for clarification. Is that going to involve sort of a regrading similar to like on what you see on Howard and I guess it would be the corner of Howard and Drake. No, Howard and Stadium. And I think you know why I'm probably asking that question and just there's, and you know better than anybody, there's been a concern over the challenges with that grade of that work over that railroad crossing. And I believe there was a deadline for July for that to be remedied, if you will. And I ask because I know that this project that's coming up on the stretch of Kalamazoo Avenue is very timeline sensitive and very much domino based to keep everything moving on schedule. So I just wanted to get your thoughts about If there's anything similar like that that we should be on the lookout for, any ways that you think we can try to prevent a similar situation from happening. I know that we don't have a ton of control over that, and I know it's an issue of frustration for you and your team, but wanted to get your thoughts.

Sure, certainly thank you for those questions and just some overall background on some of this work. If I could, I'll kind of step back and just talk about the work as proposed first, and then I'll get into answering some of the specific questions as it relates to the construction of the grade crossings. So items in front of you are item H2, H3, and H4. These are separate items, but they're all related to railroad crossings on Kamazoo Avenue. Two of the crossings are essentially just adding gates and signals to support two-way traffic now because there will be future eastbound movements on Kalamazoo Avenue and we'll need gates and crossing arms to support that. There's also one of these items is the relocation of a crossing. The westernmost crossing actually is not going to be in its current location as the project builds out in 2027. So we have got some renderings online that show you what that's going to look like if you watch the video that describes the two-way conversion. a project that shows that railroad crossing actually shifts and becomes a different location. So that will be a reconstruction and a new grade crossing placement there. Our teams are working very closely with both MDOT Rail and Amtrak. So these agreements are with MDOT Rail. And then two of the crossings, the work will be completed by Amtrak, and one of the crossings, the work will be completed by Grand Elk. So those different railroads will be performing the actual work. It is our goal and intent to have a smooth crossing surface that supports safe movement of traffic as well as a safe movement of trains. Speaking to the Howard Street crossing, that crossing was completed just after the city completed the roadway improvements. So the city completed roadway improvements and then later the railroad Amtrak came in and updated their crossing. Some of the challenge there that we're seeing with That work was a super elevation, that's where the tracks are going around a curve, was done and there was some gauge correction done by the railroad after our paving had already completed. MDOT Rail is supporting us in that work. MDOT Rail is working with us proactively to make sure Amtrak comes in and gets that crossing completed. We've been in communication with Amtrak. There's a lot of crossing work that's happening right now. There's crossing work that's slated to occur this summer yet, not related to this commission action tonight, but there is crossing work planned yet this year for Harrison, a bunch of crossings such as Edwards, and as we move then towards the west, Oliver's another one of those that are being repaired, and this Howard location's also on our list. We also have Grand Elk doing a number of crossings. One of those media releases went out today for the Crosstown crossing. There's also Portage crossing that's going to be updated by Grand Elk. There's a lot of work happening right now on railroad crossings to make sure that pavement surface is smooth for motorists. That work is going to continue probably right up until November to make sure we get all that work done. these crossings that have been identified here in front of you, we're going to be working with those teams to make sure that we really try to build a very smooth crossing going forward.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Director Baker. Any other questions for Director Baker while he's up here? All right, thank you so much. Appreciate your detailed explanation. And just as a reminder for anyone who's paying attention, we actually have three items right in a row here, H2, H3, and H4, which all seem like they're describing exactly the same thing. It's not exactly the same thing, although In large measure, it's all dealing with railroad crossings, but these were all individual actions that we needed to take. So it's gonna be a little repetitive here as we go through the next three actions. So now is an opportunity for anybody here in the chambers to comment on this item. That's item H2. Anyone like to comment on this item? Seeing no one, commissioners, the recommended action is a motion to adopt the resolution. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Support. Motion made by Commissioner Hess, supported by Commissioner Slabey. Any discussion? Commissioners? Seeing none, Clerk Borling, please call the roll.

Commissioner Slabey.

Yes.

Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice Mayor Duncan. Yes. Mayor Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Hess.

Yes.

Commissioner Hoffman. Yes. Commissioner Prado.

Yes. Thank you, Commissioners. The motion passes. Next on the agenda is item H3, City Manager Hankins.

Thank you, Mayor. Adoption of a resolution approving an agreement 26-5213 with the Michigan Department of Transportation for railroad crossing improvements associated with the reconstruction of Kalamazoo Avenue. Thank you, Manager Hankins.

So these were actually referenced by Director Baker, all three of these actions. Are there any more questions on this one that's specific from anybody on the commission? Seeing none, is there anyone here in the chambers like to comment on this item? It's item H3. Seeing no one, commissioners, the recommended action is a motion to adopt the resolution. Is there a motion? Motion. Motion made by Vice Mayor Duncan, whose microphone is evidently malfunctioning. Support. Supported by Commissioner Hess. Discussion, commissioners?

Seeing none, Clerk Borling, please call the roll. Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice Mayor Duncan. Yes. Mayor Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Hess.

Yes.

Commissioner Hoffman.

Yes.

Commissioner Prado. Yes. Commissioner Slavey.

Yes.

Thank you, Commissioners. The motion passes. Next on the agenda is item H4, City Manager Hankins.

Thank you, Mayor. Adoption of a resolution approving an agreement 26-5214 with the Michigan Department of Transportation for railroad crossing improvements associated with the reconstruction of Kalamazoo Avenue.

Thank you so much. Same as before, I presume there's no questions. Anyone in the chambers like to comment on item H4? Seeing no one, commissioners, the recommended action is a motion to adopt the resolution. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Motion made by, I missed that one, Commissioner Hoffman. Thank you.

Support.

Supported by Commissioner Slaby. Any discussion, commissioners? Seeing none, Clerk Borling, please call the roll.

Vice Mayor Duncan. Yes. Mayor Anderson? Yes. Commissioner Hess?

Yes.

Commissioner Hoffman? Yes. Commissioner Prado? Yes. Commissioner Slaby?

Yes.

Commissioner Wilson? Yes.

Thank you, Commissioners. The motion passes. Next, reports and legislation. City Manager Hankins, do you have a report?

Yes, Mayor. Just a brief one. In addition to the documentation of the reports you have before you, I just wanted to add that the Commission has also received a memo summarizing purchases that are administratively approved during August. And these are the purchases that are below the $100,000 purchase threshold. So that information is in your communication for your consideration as well.

Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Kirk Borling, do you have a report? Yes, Mayor. Thank you. In the agenda packet for this meeting, there is a clerk's report. The City Commission has received a couple of communications from the Environmental Concerns Committee. One recommendation regarding green space and conservation zoning districts, and the second is a recommendation regarding the creation of an ad hoc committee with ECC representation to investigate data centers during the moratorium. Those are being presented as informational. Thank you, Court Boyling.

I appreciate that. Next is K, policy items. City Manager Hankins.

Thank you, Mayor. I believe we have staff here to address anything that we had to address on item K. Yes. Yeah, K1. Yeah. One moment, Mayor.

Yeah.

Mayor, I can provide a . Great. We'll do that. Take you off the hook here. At its meeting on the August 17th, the City Commission passed an amended motion to the city's purchasing policy to add an additional exception that would require all automated license plate reader contracts to be approved by the City Commission. The City Attorney and the City Manager were tasked with preparing that amendment and that by today's meeting, that amendment is in the backup and if City Clerk Borling can pull up The portion of the purchasing policy, page three or four, I believe, that shows the redline revision. Before I begin with actually saying the actual exception, what are the general administrative approval authorities authorizations under our purchasing policy? Under our purchasing policy, there are two city individuals that are authorized to sign all contracts on behalf of the city that are $100,000 or less. The purchasing agent is the first person, and that agent has authority to do that for contracts up to $50,000. And from $50,001 to $100,000, that is the city manager. So knowing that background, you now see the section 3A, which is before you and the public, that actually lists the exceptions that despite the approvals granted to the city manager and purchasing agent, these types of contracts and this exception come before the city commission. The one that you have made by motion at the last meeting appears as the new subsection 3A4, which is, and I'll read the exception and I'll do the before, I'm sorry, I'll read what A says at the beginning before getting to four. The approval of the city commission is required to make purchases and approve contracts, notwithstanding the authority granted in paragraph two above, which is the administrative approvals, any contract or any amendment, renewal, or termination thereto involving automated license plate reader technology. So with that, that is the change that was motioned for the commission to tasking us to bring it back and that would capture the different iterations of a contract that would have to come involving this type of technology that would have to come before you.

Thank you very much. Very helpful, Attorney Leal. I appreciate that and all your work that brought us to this point. Questions for Attorney Leal? Sorry, Vice Mayor Duncan. I'm sure Clerk Borling will make sure that's taken care of before we get together again.

Yeah, I don't want to get too far into the weeds, but I know on this kind of stuff, like language matters, I did not hear the... And the things that would trigger this, the expansion of ALPRs. So for the record, I would like this to read. This requires commission approval not only for new ALPR contracts, but also any renewal, extension, amendment, modification, expansion, replacement, or a successor vendor as well. So I want it to encompass all of that.

I mean, that wasn't part of the original motion that was directing us, but you can certainly make that tonight if you want. But again, this language, hopefully this would answer the issue you're raising, is that this applies to any contract or amendment. Even if a successor takes over that contract, let's say Flock goes out of business and Axon takes it over, this would capture that, if any. And so I'm hoping that maybe that answers your question, sir. Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. And Chris Bradle.

I was just wondering if there was any thought given. So in this particular case, we're specifically stating anything that's an automated license plate reader or ALPR technology. And just trying to think about the future, I think oftentimes when we're changing laws, it's helpful to think about the future and how we understand things in the future or whether terminology could become irrelevant. And I was just curious if you feel like this is a terminology that would encompass technology that, you know, say 10, 20 years down the road, we would still understand what we meant. Or if there's anything more broadly that should be used so that it could capture if technology evolves or changes or looks different 10, 20, 30 years from now. Because, you know, a good example is like, you know, we're looking at data centers for zoning. I mean, who in a million years would have thought, you know, 40, 50 years ago that there would be giant warehouses of servers that help you answer everyday questions or, you know, places that do battery storage. And so, you know, I wanted to be kind of thoughtful about that. I was wondering if you or your team gave any thought to that usage of very specific tools. ALPR terminology.

Just before I answer that question, if Attorney Leal identifies a particular technology which we are not even aware of is going to be there 30 years from now, share it quietly. I'm going to invest in that business. It's just a joke. So anyway, Attorney Leal, do you want to... And you're correct.

I mean, this... technology is really advancing and with the use of AI, technology is advancing even further than we imagined. And you are correct, you know, with technology changes over the years, I mean, when I was a little boy, I never would have dreamed that we would be using these to basically be portable computer. And now it's there. That shows you how much society and technology has changed. That will happen in this area. In fact, there are other advancements already out there that are not considered automatic license plate reader technology. You have flock video cameras that are on. You have mobile security trailers. Axon has actual surveillance drones that are used the same way. And then there's a new product that Flock uses, which is a gunshot detection system that can be attached to an automatic license plate reader. That shows that the technology that exists right now, and it'll probably continue to advance going further. The amendment that's before you only captures the automatic license plate readers, not the other types of technology. I mean, if the commission desires to broaden it even further, the easiest way to be is to actually looking, I think that What all of them have in common is they're basically being used for law enforcement surveillance purposes. And that would be a broad enough coverage that would not only encompass this and the types of technology I described a moment ago, but also advancement as long as they fit the law enforcement surveillance technology.

I'm not necessarily proposing that that be the case because I would also not want to reword something that misses something also, but I was just curious if you've seen where other people have used less specific terminology that still captures the vehicle surveillance type technology.

And that, I guess, the language I said, like just law enforcement surveillance technology would capture even that. I mean, that would, where this is really limited to a specific type of technology. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Patel.

Commissioner Slabey.

I too based on just comments we've heard from the public and thinking that over since our last meeting have thought about kind of similar to what we did the data center went from data center to then adding crypto mining and battery storage and so thought about other surveillance equipment and technology that we could potentially use my question though because I know that we still have public comments and then we have the discussion time so I know this is really just a space to ask questions of city staff. City Attorney Leal, when I think about, we just talked about potentially using language as an umbrella term like surveillance law, enforcement surveillance or whatever. I guess would that cover though another department's use of this technology? Or even just like maybe we didn't even mention AI facial recognition. That's another technology that's being used, not necessarily by the city, but just an emerging technology. Who's to say we don't start using that or it's proposed to use that for, I don't know, billing purposes, accessing things, your city accounts, and for better customer service. And so that's not necessarily law enforcement surveillance, but potentially... that's something that people might bring up concerns due to the technology being used to implement that feature. So I guess it's just, I don't know if that's a discussion.

I don't know, I feel like- Is that a question for Attorney Leon?

Yeah, I'm just trying to ask like, is there technology, I mean, is there language that can go beyond that so that basically this type of technology can be brought to us without it just being reserved for law enforcement department?

One technology comes to mind and that is what is used commonly by cities, larger cities and usually with the traffic engineers where they actually have camera systems at various high volume traffic intersections to monitor the traffic flow where they could even remotely change the traffic timing or signal timing. That technology isn't there but I can envision where that in the future would be even more automated by AI doing that on its own and it is conducting. Is it surveillance of the type that you described? No, but it is technology that is out there that would probably advance. Our own security cameras that we have here in City Hall and in other public buildings, those would probably advance to something even greater than what we have now. Can that technology out there exist and change? Yes. How? I don't know. But right now, the issue that this commission has raised was the surveillance issue from law enforcement surveillance with respect to automated license plate reader technology. But it certainly can change in the future. I just can't tell you how that will change. Thank you, Attorney Leal.

Vice Mayor Duncan.

I'd actually like the language to encompass all law enforcement surveillance technology. Not that I'm picking on law enforcement, but the purpose of, you know, kind of pulling out ALPRs is the community is very loudly and very clearly spoken about. They have issues with the surveillance side of the technology. And again, at the last commission meeting, I made it clear whether we... have the votes to take them down or not, I think that we should be transparent as a commission about whether we want them up or not and not make that an administrative thing. And so I think to strengthen this, we should include all law enforcement surveillance technology.

Other questions for Attorney Leal at this point? Yes, Commissioner Prado.

City Attorney Leal, I also was wondering, based on this commission policy, when it comes up on the agenda, is this something that would be, because it's specifically notated as a separate approval requirement, would it have to be just regular agenda, or would that be something that could be included in a consent agenda for approval? It's just saying that, effectively, it has to be... approved, but not necessarily by separate agenda item, if that makes any sense.

I guess based on the dollar amount, it can be placed on the consent agenda, or if it's a higher volume, depending on the cost, it might have to be a regular agenda item.

And somebody could always remove it from the consent agenda. Generally speaking, it would fall under a consent agenda item just because of the dollar amount.

That is correct, Commissioner. Other questions for Attorney Leal? Commissioner Hess.

So for our purposes tonight, we are going to any contract or any amendment, renewal or termination thereto involving automatic license plate reader technology. Would that or do we need to change the language of that?

If there is a consensus of the commission that supports what Vice Mayor Duncan has brought forward, then you can certainly have a motion to amend the proposal, strike out automated license plate reader and insert law enforcement surveillance. those words and that would be done by a motion and amendment to do that. I'm sorry, a motion and second to do that.

Any other questions for Attorney Leo? All right, so I guess I got a question for you. At this point, I mean, we've been questions and then the next step would be feedback from the audience. So are you comfortable with that? Okay. So is there anyone in the audience who would like to comment on this item, this item K-1? Reminder, it's a three-minute limit on particular items.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening again. First of all, just thank you all for this policy and this practice change. Thank you, Vice Mayor, for bringing this forward. And thank you all for taking the time to ask questions and to look at this and to have a conversation about this. This is awesome. I do agree, and I want to thank the commissioners who are lifting some of the language. And when thinking about technologies and then also surveillance, A wonderful fact and information that we heard is that these surveillances, it's not just one, it's not just two, it is an ecosystem. And so that's how we need to treat surveillance as an ecosystem and to make sure that all is encompassed. And so in thinking about surveillance technologies, and I wish I had more information or more wording to be able to give you maybe at a later date, surveillance technologies might be a good wording, surveillance tools and technologies and services. That also includes automated license plate readers, unmanned aerial drones, gunshot detection technology, real-time video networks, law enforcement, body-worn cameras. I'm not going to read them all. The list goes on and on and on. And so that just hopefully speaks to the nature of an ecosystem. Just as you all and Attorney Leo, you did a, I said this at the last meeting, you did a wonderful job of when looking at the data centers, opening it up. and realizing it's not one, it's not two, but they do need to go together. And so I am in full support of this being the ecosystem of surveillance or surveillance technologies or surveillance tools and services. Thank you all. And please take the time to continue talking about it and figuring it out so that we do it right. And so down the line, we don't have to come back and say, oh my gosh, we missed something. We have to add it again. So take that time. Urgency, yes, but we want to do it right. We don't want to move in a sense of urgency. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi again. I think City Attorney Leal has introduced a really great piece of language with law enforcement surveillance technology as an expansion of automated license plate reader technology. Commissioner Slaby also offered non-law enforcement uses, but I think that's sort of... sounds to me like it warrants a separate and larger discussion um i am in favor of uh i'm in i'm in full support of uh adopting um this amendment as a restriction of law enforcement surveillance technologies thank you very much thank you is there anyone else who would like to comment on this item

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commission. So I do want to lift up this with the language. Sometimes we can be too specific And it won't cover everything that we need. And sometimes we can be too general and leave too much under interpretation. And that's by who's reading it. I think this is too tight, just going towards license plate readers, because there is too much technology. too much that can change and when i say even being too loose we don't know what the future brings we don't know what the next commission is going to do and having wording that's proper that can encase a whole lot makes a huge it makes a huge difference because we want things to be solidified to where that foundation can stay thank you

Thank you. Is there anyone else in the chambers who would like to comment on this item? Seeing no one, City Manager Hankins.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. Just wanted to see if the commission was willing to consider how we would define law enforcement. What was the surveillance technology before the adoption so that we have a sense of what that means to staff and how to go about implementing it, if that were to be the vote?

Well, all right. So maybe that's getting over into discussion side of things, you know, to... get to discussion. Yeah, Commissioner Slabey? I mean, generally speaking, the practice is motion and support and then discussion.

I make a motion to move to, I make a motion.

To?

Support.

Okay, motion to?

Adopt.

Adopt that amendment. Okay.

Sorry.

I'm sorry. So motion made by Commissioner Slabey.

What are we adopting?

Well, it's the item that we have in front of us here. It's just a motion. You don't have to support it, but there has to be a motion and support for there to be discussion. Support. All right. Supported by Vice Mayor Duncan. Discussion. Mr. Sleep.

So I'm trying to really think about what has been brought to us by the community. And the main concern is But I can be corrected if I'm misunderstanding the community, is this fear that the surveillance technology, ALPR, and other things that were brought to our attention, the drones and such, can be abused. The abuse of this technology isn't just reserved only to potentially be done by law enforcement. It can be done by other city staff. I mean, examples have been brought up, other places, some officers have stalked their ex, okay? What stops a park staff person that has access to this technology? to do the same thing. So I'm thinking about, yeah, I understand the climate around law enforcement and why it seems in this moment that we have to explicitly say law enforcement, but I think that that actually restricts us in our ability to ensure that no matter what city staff is behind that, that we are holding everybody accountable if we were to move forward with any type of technology like this. So to me, I think that law enforcement surveillance is still restrictive, too restrictive, too specific. And so to me, I would love to see something like any contract or any amendment, renewal or termination thereto involving identification and tracking technology, including ALPR, biometric identification and recognition technology, and other existing or emerging technologies capable of identifying, locating, monitoring, or tracking individuals, vehicles, or devices. And to me, I think that that is a great umbrella term, but, you know, would love to hear from Attorney Leal, that would include these type of technologies that we're speaking to but doesn't just somehow get interpreted only under law enforcement? Because again, what if someone's working in the building that's not technically considered law enforcement because they're not a police officer? These are the questions that I'm trying to consider because the main thing that I've heard is we don't want people to abuse this technology. And so that goes for everybody. And how do we use the language to ensure that that is actually being addressed? And that's why I think that type of language actually speaks to the technology we're concerned about being abused without only restricting it to one department. So I would suggest making an amendment, but would love to hear from my colleagues to replace ALPR with what I just read, and I'm happy to read it again.

Thank you, Commissioner Slavy. Other discussion?

Commissioner Cradle. I would tend to agree with you, Commissioner Slaby, but one thing I was thinking is that sentence that you were proposing, one would be the term public So like public and then what you named, and the reason why is because effectively what you're describing is a concern about using public resources for something that could monitor track, whatever. And that would, I think, maybe capture a lot of those scenarios like as a public body. I don't know.

Thank you, Commissioner Slavey. Vice Mayor Duncan? No? Any other discussion? Actually, one more thing, too. Okay, Commissioner Cradle.

The other thing is, I mean, to be fully honest, I feel like the vast majority of things that would be listed under public surveillance or monitoring type things already come before us. It's expensive. I mean, when you see the body cam... cameras for public safety or the cameras for the vehicles. I think it's Axiom or something was the last contract with them. But those are large contracts. The vast majority, even I think one time, somewhat recently I remember seeing cameras for either the parking structures or for some of our public buildings, the new building we're building on Crosstown. So those things come before us. pretty regularly, not a ton, but enough that it's already really happening. So effectively what we're trying to do by doing this is on the rare occasions that there's something that would come in as a smaller dollar or that we would catch to have come before us. And so I think that's an important note to make as well is that the vast majority of these things are coming before us anyways.

All right, so I guess any other discussion items for now? Well, I'll just jump on this, I guess, in terms of just some general thoughts also, is that I think it will be a bit of a fool's errand to try to imagine what technologies might ever be invented and try to just change this to fully address that. We're not going to be able to do that. I mean, let's face it. And why is that not necessarily a bad thing that we can't imagine everything that could happen tonight is because guess what? This is a city commission purchasing policy. It's in our rules. It's not an ordinance. It has to come to us twice. And I mean, we could change this tonight and we could change it two weeks from now. We could change it two weeks from now. So it can be modified and addressed over time. And as a matter of fact, although that might not be seen as a positive thing, a future commission could rip this right back out again. So just putting this here, is not creating an absolute rule in perpetuity. That's just a fact. These are malleable situations right now, and we're making a choice relative to that. One thing that I contemplate, as we're making broader and broader kind of expectations, and maybe these would all be covered, but you're talking about surveillance. Well, we are in a very extensive process right now to more in real time surveil the amount of water that people are using. Now we've been pushing that for a long time. We want smart meters. We want to know how much water people... So that is a technology that was not around five years ago, but we've been saying, hey, this is great. We really want to do this. Why do we want to do this? Because we're hoping to move to a time where we can do monthly water billing rather than quarterly water I mean, that's one of the reasons we're doing it. As a matter of fact, we're installing smart meters right now in people's homes when we're replacing lead pipes. So I'm not making a judgment on that. I'm just saying that's something we're doing. We've been reasonably positive about that. And I guess the last thing around this is that, I mean, we've got smart people on the commission. I appreciate that a lot. People are spending time working out some language. But I really start getting uncomfortable when we start, you know, we come... here with something we've asked our attorney to work on and presumably had some interaction with other departments, and then we start kind of rewriting it on the dais, I would be more comfortable personally saying, these are the things that we care about. This is what's important. This is the extent of how we want to expand it. Because, I mean, it's not like we're in a huge rush in this sec. You know, we don't have something coming up next week we have to address. I would be more comfortable if we express this in our concerns and then ask our city attorney to go back and rework this in a way and get it back out into the agenda packet before the next meeting rather than writing it after most people in the chambers have left and doing the work that way. That's just my comfort level on this. Commissioner Slaby.

I'd be happy to withdraw the motion if Vice Mayor Duncan's willing to withdraw his support to then postpone it to have City Attorney Leal come back with additional options for the language.

And I'm certain, Attorney Leal, you are going to be incorporating input you've heard and perhaps ask for more.

Yes, I think, I've heard another option that Commissioner Slaby has put forward and then the amended option that Vice Mayor Duncan wants to make to what's presented. So there's three options there. I don't, any other options that the commission is thinking right now, and I know it's short notice, but to what else you might be thinking that I should be drafting to present to you at the next meeting.

Yeah, well, I appreciate that very much. So there's the options here, but also just my suggestion here, we could go home and you could think about this some more and we could get it back and we could have on our next agenda. I really, you know, I'm just not comfortable with The idea that we're not having an opportunity to think through this in a slightly more extended fashion, a matter of a week or two, in order to make sure that since we're doing this work, it really incorporates what we want to be comfortable with. We have a city attorney for a reason. Why are we wanting to write this language ourself tonight at this point? I mean, I don't understand the rush on it.

i'm not withdrawing my motion um i think it's still early and we don't get often times to talk about this and i'm willing to withdraw my amendment and support commissioner slaby slaby's amendment to this language and pass that but i will not withdraw attorney leal how do we move from here then

A motion for postponement would be a superior motion to the main action. And if approved by four, then the item would be postponed to a date certain.

Would anyone like to make a motion to postpone to a date certain?

I will move to postpone for a date certain.

Would that be the next commission meeting? Okay.

at the next commission meeting on September 21st.

I support that discussion.

I don't support that. I think we could pass it in its current form tonight with the language here. And as you stated, we can adjust this every two weeks if we like. But I respect Attorney Leal's work on what's been presented before us. So we have something to vote on tonight. And we could add to it or amend it should we see fit. But I like the language for ALPRs. And we can encompass other tools at a later date.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. So just some clarification. So right now the motion on the floor is just to approve this as it's written and presented.

Technically the motion on the floor is to postpone. So we'd have to... Yeah, but the... Yeah, but correct.

That's superseding the motion. Correct.

I mean, I'd be open to supporting as is and still have City Attorney Leal come up with other language that we could consider. I mean, I don't know exactly if we're already going to have City Attorney Leal look at that language. I don't know why we have to approve this as is if we already know we want to explore the language since we don't have any upcoming deadlines. But I guess I'm indifferent at the end of the day as long as we can have City Attorney Leal come back with language regardless of this original motion passing or not.

Thank you, Commissioner Slaby. Commissioner Wilson. Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of manufactured urgency, whether it's from the dais or from our staff. I feel like there's no point in approving an incomplete resolution or policy. Thank you. I think we should give Attorney Leal time to come back to the next meeting with a more inclusive, complete draft of this, and then we can approve then. But right now, I don't support it as is.

Any other discussion? I think there are

a lot of times where there weren't rushing, but I worry about these situations where we're gonna forget something or miss something or something's incomplete. And if we have the ability to wait another meeting to, I guess, fine tune it, I would be in favor of doing that.

Clerk Borling, please call the roll. Commissioner Hess.

Yes.

Commissioner Hoffman?

Yes.

Commissioner Prado? Yes. Commissioner Slaby?

Yes.

Commissioner Wilson? Yes. Vice Mayor Duncan? No. Mayor Anderson? Yes.

Thank you, Commissioners. The motion passes. This item will be in its revised form on our agenda at our next meeting. Next item. Thank you, Mayor.

Next item, Mayor, at the August 17th, 2026 City Commission business meeting, this commission approved a motion directing the city manager and city attorney to bring back a revised City Commission rules policy that reflected some of the proposed options you had discussed regarding public meetings and call-ins. Some of those options and the options being presented tonight are public comments are to remain. after the communications and before the public hearing sections of the City Commission business meeting agenda. This is no change to the City Commission rules right now, so it's not required. And the second item is a return of public call-ins. And public call-ins are limited to the public comments section. And finally, the current four-minute time allotted for each public comment speaker has been reduced to three minutes. So those are the changes that are before you tonight for consideration. I'll turn it over to Attorney Leal for more details.

Thank you very much, Manager Hankins. Attorney Leal.

Thank you, Mayor and Commission. I just wanted to kind of explain the method to my madness incorporating these changes on the existing commission rules. As the manager said, with respect to the public comments section remaining where they're at in the agenda, there's no change necessary. the items two, three, and four are embodied in the newly revised section six of public comments. Before I begin to that, I wanted to say the reasoning why I struck out starting in the fourth line all the way to the end of that paragraph. And the reason why is the Looking at number three, which the option of creating public call-ins and limiting them just to public comment sections is creating two classes or categories of public comment speakers. One, the call-ins limited just to public comments and the second category being those individuals who are physically present in the commission chambers during the meeting who can speak to both the public comment section and on any agenda item in which the commission is expected to take some type of action. And so with that in mind, the provision that I wrote here was comments by members of the public shall be as follows. Next page, please. Category 6A, members of the public who are physically present at regular business meetings. Each speaker shall be permitted to speak during the public comments section on the agenda. In addition, each speaker shall be permitted to speak to all items on the agenda for action by the city commission except items voted on as part of the consent agenda, those votes setting a public hearing, or votes on secondary motions to the main motion except the motion to postpone indefinitely. Each speaker shall be limited to three minutes unless the time is extended by the chair or by vote of the commission. Section B, members of the public who call into regular business meetings. Each speaker shall be only permitted to speak during the public comment section of the agenda. Each speaker shall be limited to three minutes unless the time is extended by the chair or by vote of the commission. It was my intent that these changes in the way the two categories are created would be easily understood, not just by the commission, the public, but also staff.

Thank you, Attorney Leal. Questions? Commissioners? Commissioner Hess?

Sure. So you're saying that if someone were to call in during the public comment section, they could also address the regular agenda items at that time. Is that correct?

That is correct. That was the intent expressed by the commission at his previous meeting. Thank you, Commissioner Hess.

Commissioner Prado?

So City Attorney Leo, the question is, any thought of whether it's necessary or we should prescribe what goes first? And what I mean by that, should every meeting, should calls go first? Or should in-person commenters go first? And why this matters is imagine a scenario like the night where we had the vote on zoning at Asylum Lake. You have four hours of public comment. If callers go first, you know, effectively, people are at the comforts of their home. They can do it from their car. They can do it from a bench outside. People who are here are here. And there was an instance with the Asylum Lake situation where there were people who were here who left because they were saying, I got to get up at 5 tomorrow morning. I can't stay here anymore. So my question is... Is it recommended to select what goes first or second? And is there a possibility where you could do something like alternate? So for instance, what I mean by that is like maybe it's a situation where it's like the first meeting of the month in person goes first, next meeting of the month colors go first because again the point I want to elevate and raise is like it does matter which one goes first because effectively depending on who goes first could potentially disenfranchise people from the opportunity to voice their concerns about what they are either showing up or waiting to talk about on a line.

And to that, I do agree with you that it does matter who speaks first. I know the practice that the commission used, which I thought would also continue, would be speakers who are physically present went first, then call-ins came in next after that. And that seemed to be the practice that you had adopted, at least during COVID and post-COVID, and when I got here in 23.

One observation with that format is, I guess, that if a person gets to a point where it's like it's going too long here in person, somebody could go home and still call in, if that makes sense. I mean, if you were to decide what goes first or second. But it's a little bit more challenging the other way around. And so I just wanted to elevate that because I did see that happen, you know, even just this last year. with an issue and presumably there will be other issues where people want to speak for hours on end and Just in person alone not counting the calls and we also had precedents during the pandemic where there were similar situations I mean there was one meeting I think that we had to like postpone the meeting because it didn't get done until like 2 in the morning. And so we had to have like a continuation meeting. So I just want to be thoughtful of those scenarios because I could envision a large proportion of people being rather outraged if the clock runs out or if they miss out on that opportunity to speak based on whatever decision we make about who gets to go first.

Yeah. And that's certainly within your discretion to address. One thing that you're able to do even when you have a large meeting like the Asylum Lake rezoning or the rezoning next to Asylum Lake is to actually, you can amend at the date of the hearing, let's say a public hearing, to reduce the time for speaker for two minutes to try to get more people to speak that way to address the people waiting. I mean, you have that ability now and you will in the future. And you don't have a provision that would allow people to, if they choose to do that, it'd have to be voluntary to have one speaker speak for them and a lot of time of like 10 minutes and it's a group of people. We don't that's possible. It's a voluntary you can't and but it's an option then that could cut down on those long meetings with with respect about How do you keep somebody who speaks physically speaks and then goes and makes a call in or vice versa? And that's very difficult to address. I mean, you know, that's that is one of the the that could occur that somebody would be here, speak, and then go outside and call on the phone. I physically, I remember one incident shortly after I got here when a person actually did that.

Just to be clear, I was referring more to a positive way that somebody would do that. So it's like they can't wait here anymore, but hey, I can sit in my jammies. you know, in bed and wait until my time comes up in the queue and make a comment. So I was thinking more like that situation where it could be a positive thing that you could run out of time here but still have time at home to give your comment.

And so that, I mean, if you want to incorporate that thought into this, I mean, nothing... it would be another amendment to what I've drafted to select who goes first. Or if you just wanted to do it by practice going forward.

I mean, it could be. I'm not necessarily concerned that it's like codified in the rules, but I was just wondering if it's worth us discussing that or to kind of determine how we want to at least proceed with how it goes. The other thing I was just going to ask about is, and whether it'd be worth deciding like three months from now, six months from implementation to have a discussion again, just as like just a general commission discussion at the end of the meeting to just talk about the effectiveness. Have we learned anything or anything we would change just to make sure that it's working for both public, but also working for staff, working for the commission as well. Not necessarily saying like you're saying, hey, keep it or leave it, but just maybe there would be ways that we decide that we just want to fine tune it.

You might have an issue that comes up, an operational issue that you may want to, as a commission, address because we didn't foresee it. And so that's a perfectly fine idea. That's all.

Commissioner Hess.

Yeah, knowing what we did during COVID and knowing that it was in person, well, it wasn't in person during COVID, but it was in person after COVID, it was in person first and then call in second. That's what... we've discussed here, that's what you've outlined here. And I agree with you, Commissioner Prado, that if there are a lot of people here and somebody does see themselves being able to go home and call in, I think that in-person first and then followed by call-in with an evaluation in six months, three months, six months, I don't know how long we wanna try it, but to see if that's working out.

Manager Hankins? I just wanted to be clear with Attorney Leal. There's no order prescribed as of now in the language.

No, there's not.

So are we looking to... Okay.

I'm not interested. I don't think it necessarily requires to change commission policy to just say, hey, when we implement this, we want to do, try it this way, unless somebody feels strongly otherwise.

Thank you, Chris Burrow. Just a question here, Chair Leal. Clerk Bullion, would you be so kind as just go back up what was removed, all that particular section there?

That language has been basically modified. The intent behind that language is stricken out is in the following two paragraphs to the extent that it applies. So the way that was written was during the regular business meetings, they were limited to actually four minutes. There was an error there. I'm sorry, three minutes for speaker, except for four minutes for, it should be limited to four minutes for each speaker. It's hard to read through the red line. Three minutes for regular business meeting items and four minutes for the public comments. That has been modified for both of the speakers. The next thought was members who are physically present in the meeting shall be permitted to speak to all items for action by the city commission except that all is incorporated in section 6A. That language, I struck it out because it was hard to weave in the two categories of speakers within the existing language.

Pulled out but replaced by exactly similar language in a different format to a large extent. Yes, sir. Okay. Any other questions for staff on this item? Seeing none, now is the opportunity for anybody here in the chambers who would like to comment on this item. This is item K2. If so, please come forward.

Good evening again. I first want to say thank you all for this discussion about bringing call-ins back along with in-person public comments. I just want to lift again that this is the work of equity, and it is the work of being accessible or accessibility. So that's very important. I want to also say, you all, that often within systems, we find that a lot of individuals, especially those facing disparities, that they feel silenced and they feel unheard. And so public comment, it isn't the only time, but it is a time for individuals to come and to have a conversation, not have a conversation, but be able to share their concerns or what's on their heart, what is on their minds as well. I do have to lift that some municipalities talk back. And I know we have been in different meetings before where they have talked and answer questions back and forth with community members. No judgment. This isn't something that the city does. That's totally fine. Each municipality does its own thing, and that's OK. But again, I think that just speaks to the importance of honestly having four minutes to be able to give public comments. I have to be honest, it stung a little at the last meeting to hear that time was going to be reduced down. And I know it seems like a minute, not a lot. But it does make me wonder how that might be viewed and might be felt by community members. So again, you all, when we're talking about public comments, that's time for someone to share their voice. That's part of the democratic process. And then for many of us, that's a time for us to put different items on the record, on the record here specifically at city commission. And so that's important as well. Commissioner Prado, you said it at the last meeting, you said it tonight as well. I think it's really important to have maybe in three months, two or three months to look at this again and see what's working. I think that's wise to see what's working, what's going well, what might need to be adjusted. It really would have been my hope that you all would have kept the four minutes for in-person public comments, and then also the four minutes for call-ins, because we don't know what that is going to look like. I do hear things, I've heard wording such as long meetings, this and that, a little concerning for me, I have to be honest. Because again, we are trying to figure out, or we're worrying, in my opinion, about something that we don't know is going to happen yet. We need to see it. And that's why maybe in three months we can look at that again. I want to say this as well, that I understand. I don't and I never planned to sit on the dais in your position. And so I will never understand what it feels like to have a long meeting, a lot of public comments. So I have to honor that and say that. But no matter what and who comes to the mic, it is my hope that when people are coming to the mics that you listen with your heart.

Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the chambers who would like to comment on this item? So commissioners, the recommended action is a motion to adopt. Is there a motion?

Motion.

Motion made by Vice Mayor Duncan. Support. Supported by Commissioner Slabey. Discussion, commissioners? Commissioner Slabey.

I guess I just wanted to clarify the way it reads for both Part A and B. It says present at regular business meetings or who call into regular business meetings. So does this not apply to our Committee of the Whole?

That is correct. This is just the regular business meeting agenda.

Okay. And then I know that I had expressed interest in understanding how city staff will be prepared if this is to move forward, how they'll engage with the community on making sure that A, well, I guess... they know that this does not apply to our Committee of the Whole meetings, but also that call-ins will only be for the general public comment and not for the regular agenda items because I could see and everything comes, you know, every time we roll something out, that's fine, things happen, but I just want to better understand what the plan is to make sure people know this.

I'll let Manager Hankins respond to that.

Okay. Thank you, Commissioner. We have a communications team that's been discussing this since we've been talking about it, waiting on the final determination. We would use the platforms we currently have, our city website, our communications through social media. As we go out into the community, we will have material to share with people about the new rules and process. So if there are recommendations on other ways to get the word out, we will certainly take those as well.

Thank you, Manager Hankins. Other discussion?

Sure.

Commissioner Hess?

Yeah, I'd like to address the cow. Because we don't deliberate, we don't vote at the cow, folks still can watch the cow from home and call in and do public comment regarding things that they saw at our Committee of the Whole at our 7 o'clock business meeting. And oftentimes the presentations... themselves run up against the business meeting. So I would not encourage us to increase comments at 5 o'clock and be able to add them at 7.

Other discussion, commissioners?

It doesn't necessarily change anything, but I just think it's worth elevating that and recognizing that the end goal should try to make it as accessible for as many people as possible. But it's not with saying that everything we do is always going to inevitably make it hard for somebody. And so what I mean by that is, again, you make a decision where it takes longer to get through public comment. So maybe somebody has some sort of disability where they can't drive at night. And they're waiting to see, you know, trying to race against the clock to get home before it gets dark. There are people who struggle to drive at night. There are some people who have first, second, third shift jobs that make it inaccessible to make it to a five o'clock meeting. And, you know, you could say, well, let's do it at 11 o'clock, but that would restrict somebody else. And so, you know, I can't remember exactly how Don Cooney says it, but don't let, what do you say? Don't let good be the enemy of great. Yeah. And, you know, I think that is something to be cautious of as well because, you know, ultimately sometimes you can inadvertently disenfranchise people that you don't realize you're disenfranchising even when the goal is to make things more accessible, if that makes any sense.

Thank you, Commissioner Prado. Any other discussion, Commissioners? Commissioner Slaby?

I just wanted to lift up, you know, I really appreciate the way this is drafted, City Attorney Lee Yale. I know that just from talking with a variety of people in the community about bringing back call-ins, one thing that kept being lifted up that seemed to be split was the placement of general public comment. So we've been doing it at the beginning, but surprisingly I've heard a lot of people asking if that's where we want to have it versus having it at the end. So I know we briefly kind of discussed it last time when we were going over different options. And so I guess I just wanted to lift that up maybe potentially for more discussion if my other colleagues are inclined to speak on that and talk about the... I've heard different reasons why one would want to keep it at the beginning, at the end. Actually, Mayor Anderson's comments last meeting made me feel like, oh, why would we have that at the end? But then I started talking with more people in the community. I'm like, why would we have it in the beginning? So I'd be interested in hearing other people's thoughts as is it would remain at the beginning.

Commissioner Prado.

I could definitely understand that. And I think under a circumstance where time was no limit, the value of having both, right? But that's not necessarily feasible. But for me, it's about the public's ability to help shape policy or shape the decision maker's opinions about what they do. And my worry is if it was at the end, you might miss out on that opportunity to hear something. And I will tell you, there are times where somebody has made a public comment where it has changed the way I thought or shifted my direction or made me ask a question that I didn't ask. And so, you know, I worry that you would miss that by having that after the fact. That's my only thought about that.

Any other discussion, commissioners? Clerk Boring, please call the roll. Commissioner Hoffman? I'm sorry, Manager Hankins?

Just a point of clarification. I believe at the last meeting we talked about October-ish effective date, but I believe the language says it's effective immediately. And I don't know if I got that right, but I want to make sure that I... Attorney Leal?

Yeah, I mean, that's something logistics-wise you're going to have to...

there's nothing there that says, oh, that's right, it was my agenda report. Because this isn't an ordinance, any changes that you adopt are effective immediately. If you wish to postpone, there's nothing to prevent you to say that this change shall become effective at a future date. There's nothing to stop you. So if you want to or to approve it tonight, that's one option. The other option would be to approve it tonight, effective, immediate, but we will start the call-in process on X date.

So those are a couple of options for you. Attorney Leo.

Thoughts on that, Manager Hankins? I believe we generally felt like we could be ready to go in October. I didn't have a specific meeting in October, but I know we talked about that as staff.

So you're saying you think you could be ready by the first meeting in October? Yes. Okay. So that means we would not have this in place for our second meeting in September. That's correct.

Does that have to be part of the motion?

Yes. It's just so that everyone knows, the general public, the commission, and in your meeting minutes, when the effective date of the change goes live. And how can we effectuate that then? I know we've been talking about this for a while, but was there a motion and second to approve? Yes. Yes. Then a motion to amend the main motion. to make this effective on the first meeting in September, October. Commissioner Slabey.

Make a motion to amend, to make the amendment to city commission policy 10.0 effective first meeting of October 2026.

There's a typo, it's 10.1. 10.1. Second.

That was supported by Vice Mayor Duncan. Discussion on that motion? Seeing none, Clerk Borland, please call the roll.

On a motion to amend, Commissioner Prado. Yes. Commissioner Slaby.

Yes.

Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice Mayor Duncan. Yes. Mayor Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Hess. Yes. Commissioner Hoffman.

Yes.

Thank you, Commissioners.

The motion passes. Now we're back to the original motion that was offered by Commissioner Slaby. Is that correct, or who?

Clerk Borling knows. The original motion was made by Vice Mayor Duncan, supported by Commissioner Slaby. Okay, there we go.

Thank you. So now we're voting on that. Yes. Clerk Borling, please call the roll.

Commissioner Hoffman.

Yes.

Commissioner Prado. Yes. Commissioner Slaby.

Yes.

Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice Mayor Duncan. Yes. Mayor Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Huss.

Yes.

Thank you, Commissioners.

The motion passes. All right, we are now, anything else, Manager Hankins, from you at this point? No, thank you, Mayor. Thank you for your willingness to work with the team to put the logistics together so that we can do, add this as part of our regular process here for commission meetings. So is the time for commissioner comments. Anyone who'd like to add anything with comments this evening? Commissioner Hess.

Sure, I'll go. Last meeting I did announce the housing forum on September 10th that has been postponed until March of next year with the continuum of care. So I just want people to know that. And they'll be addressing issues of housing in Kalamazoo. Today we were blessed to have Governor Whitmer here in town. She visited Woods Lake Elementary. Mayor and I were happy to be there and support Kalamazoo Public Schools who talked about the successes in the public schools in the last three years. From the literacy rates to the testing rates to the graduation rates and lower amounts of student behavior issues. All very positive things. Governor Whitmer came to really talk about the new budget and how that supports students being fed in schools for breakfast and lunch and it was a wonderful day for the folks at Woods Lake Elementary. As you all know that I really believe that this city, Education City, is a place where if you live or study or work or play or pray or visit Kalamazoo, you can have your best self drawn forward. And people do that here. We have our best selves drawn forward up here, out there, all of our institutions that do it, but then all of our non-profits that are able to help people learn. If you want to learn something, there is something for you to learn here in the city of Kalamazoo. You're able to become your best self here, and I really believe that about Kalamazoo, and that's our superpower. There is a... Join me in doing Lights Out. for birds, migratory birds are finding, are trying to find their way if we turn off our lights at night during migration, which has already begun. And it's already begun in September from September through October. There is, excuse me, there's a pledge that you can take for birds. It's on the Audubon Society website. So please try and keep it dark in Kalamazoo is from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. for birds. The Canadiana Fest, now this year called the Can-Am Peace Jam, and what a better year to have a Canadian American Peace Festival than 2026, will take place on September 19th, so that's before our next meeting. That's the Saturday before our next meeting at Water Street and Haymarket. area there from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. You can get tickets at canadianafest.fun and it really is going to open up areas of communication and goodwill between United States and Canada. I will say as the Environmental Concerns Committee liaison from commission, I'll be following up with city administration regarding the ECC memos regarding green space and the moratorium just to make sure that we listen and we hear what you say and how we're going to move forward on that. And then, just last thing, to commission the Institute for Public Scholarship block party is this Saturday. We've all been invited, and I hope that we can all make an effort to be there any time between 12 and 5, and to be able to... to the community as well. The Institute for Public Scholarship Block Party is on North Burdick Mall. And please come and celebrate everything that they have offered from 12 to 5 on Saturday. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Hess. Other comments? Commissioner Slaby.

Just wanted to give a shout out to our city manager Malcolm Hankins. We did a walk last week downtown along the mall and just other areas within our downtown and we discussed a lot of items where we could invest in and improve in. He was very responsive. He took pictures of items with his phone but then somehow was able to take every single item and I'm talking about we talked like about 50 different items and was able to provide an itemized summary in email the next day with all of it assigned to 311 tickets. And so I don't know how you remembered it off of just the photos, but I'm really excited to see how we can make sure that downtown is enjoyable and accessible for every single person in our community. And so I'm excited to hear back on updates as we continue. So thank you, city manager. And then, you know, I just want to let the community know, both that are watching, that will watch, that are sitting in the audience still, we got two amazing opportunities in our community to provide feedback. Jane Ghosh, director of Discover Kalamazoo, just spoke earlier about how they're working on a 10-year tourism master plan. That is an opportunity for you to engage, even if it's from the aspect of equity and making sure anyone can access recreational opportunities here. That's an opportunity to get that incorporated. There was a workshop I was able to attend. Let me tell you, I think that it wasn't a super diverse room. I want to see more people at the table sharing their ideas on what that looks like because that way we're gonna have a better plan. And that tourism master plan is not something that the city controls. So it really is up to all the community members to get their voice heard through Discover Kalamazoo to continue to support tourism, but tourism that is accessible for everyone. And then also something that the city does control is our budget. And I think almost every meeting we have something brought up about how we should be using our money in better ways. And so what better way for your voice to be heard about the budget in addition to public comments to actually provide direct comments onto our budget. And so this has been open for weeks. It's online. I hope that there's an opportunity if someone can't access it online, that they can potentially come to the city hall and request some way to provide feedback alternatively and hope that's communicated somehow to people. But I just, I really hope that people take us up on this opportunity. I've seen a lot of comments on social media, pretty much just dogging this opportunity saying we're not going to even hear from you guys anyways. But I mean, if, If you don't share your comments, we definitely can't incorporate it because we're not hearing them. So I just think this is an opportunity like I will say just even serving on here for almost a year now, the least attended meetings that we have had are the budget meetings. And then literally the next month we'll have two hour plus long comment sections about how we don't use our budget right. and no one shows up to the budget. I mean, I'm talking about even everybody that usually comes to the meetings didn't show up to, and we had like three meetings dedicated to the public budget. So, I mean, we have our own responsibility, I believe as city commissioners to reach out to people, reach out to our constituents, make sure they know about this, have these conversations with individuals, have these conversations with groups, but ultimately people that want to have a voice on the budget, There's an opportunity, so please, please, please take it.

That's all. Thank you, Commissioner Slaby. Other comments, commissioners? Commissioner Prado?

Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to just lift up City Manager Hankins, you brought this up during your comments as well, but I just wanted to share some context as well. Planning Commission had their meeting last Thursday on the 3rd. If you get a chance to watch the meeting, when we talk about our boards and commissions truly being resident experts on these topics, I'm always thoroughly impressed with that group. the group right now, especially the technical expertise and the broad range on that group is truly phenomenal. And the types of questions, the thoughtful questions they ask about the data center work moving forward, they did a really good job. So please, if you get a chance to watch that, I think it would be really helpful to guide us as well, because that's going to be coming to us. They made a unanimous vote to bring forward to us a recommendation. The one thing that they did... Mention and they they did some like wordsmithing in the process and this is what you talked about city manager But they use the term putting together a cross-functional multi-interest task force and I believe city staff is well aware of that and is working to find SOME SORT OF RECOMMENDATION FOR US WHEN IT COMES FORWARD RELATED TO THAT. THE OTHER THING I WANT TO JUST MENTION IS LIKE FROM CITY STAFF PERSPECTIVE WATCHING BOBBY DURKEY AND THE CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE RESPOND TO THE QUESTIONS, AGAIN, DID A REALLY NICE JOB I THOUGHT. SO I WANT TO COMPLIMENT THEM ON THAT AS WELL. I ALSO, WE'RE KIND OF REMISS, TOO, WE DID NOT TAKE A CHANCE JUST TO THANK THE CITY CLERK'S OFFICE FOR THE AUGUST PRIMARY AND ALL THE WORK RELATED TO THAT. YOU ALL HAVE YOUR HANDS FULL THIS YEAR BETWEEN THE PRIMARY, BUT CERTAINLY GETTING READY FOR THE MIDTERM ELECTION, THERE'S A LOT THAT YOU HAVE TO BE THOUGHTFUL ABOUT OR COULD POTENTIALLY NEED TO BE THOUGHTFUL ABOUT WITH THE MIDTERMS THIS YEAR, AND SO JUST THINKING OF YOUR TEAM AND APPRECIATE ALL YOUR HARD WORK AND EVERYBODY WHO VOLUNTEERS WITH THAT PROCESS. And then also just, we saw big brothers, big sisters here tonight. Just want to encourage folks in the community to really take a shot at doing that and being a mentor in the community. They have so many opportunities to mentor and it's not the exclusive organization that you can do it with, but It's like they mentioned, they even have a big families program where you can effectively mentor someone with your entire family. And in fact, my family did that with a young teenager for a few years. And we would just tag along with our little kids at the time, go to the farmer's market, go to movies. And I remember one occasion we went to the farmer's market. It was the first time he'd ever been to the farmer's market, lived in Kalamazoo his whole life. He had never had a blueberry. And so his first blueberry he had ever had was visiting the farmer's market. And so those kind of just moments are really special and to share that with a young person is really powerful. And before the person that we mentored with our family, when I was in college, mentored a young person for quite a few years and just did it as a college student. And so, you know, when he had spare time, we'd hang out, go to sporting events, just do a lot of the things I would do anyways. But I would really encourage people to look into that because it's a powerful opportunity to shape somebody's trajectory and make a difference in our community.

So that's all. Thank you, Commissioner Prado. Other comments, commissioners? All right, thank you so much, everyone. It's always an honor to spend the evenings we get to together here, trying to do the best job we can for the city of Kalamazoo. I really appreciate everyone I sit with up here in the dais. I just wanted to mention a couple things. It was... If you are someone who's interested in the idea of helping young people get ready to go back to school, Kalamazoo is the place to be. There were so many events offering back to school support and supplies and all the work that's been put into that by all kinds of volunteers at all kinds of organizations was just really impressive. Particularly, I do want to call out the the carnival that happens over behind Lincoln School that the city supports, as a matter of fact. Amazing attendance at that event. It's a wonderful event that Northside Ministerial Alliance puts on, so I want to thank everyone that participates in making sure that that event is as engaging and supportive as it is. One other thing that I did attend... right over here in Bronson Park on August 27th, and I was there with Commissioner Pradel I don't know if anyone else was there, but it was a group of people in town that put a bunch of energy into recognizing that the only place in the state of Michigan where Abraham Lincoln ever spoke was right across the street here in Bronson Park. And it was, Commissioner Prado's been very involved with the organization, does that work, and there's gonna be a new refreshed marker that's gonna go up over there. It was actually 170 years to the day that this event occurred over here in Bronson Park when Abraham Lincoln was there. And that was in 1856 where he was in the park. There were evidently well more than 10,000 people in the park who were interested in the election that was coming up there in 1856. And he was there to speak about that. As a matter of fact, there were no sound systems at that time. So if you can imagine how that might work with 10,000 people and someone speaking, I'm not quite sure how they worked all that out. I think he had to repeat his comments over and over again as he worked his way around the park. Only five short years later, he was not exceedingly well known at the time, he was elected to the presidency of the United States and gave his very, very famous inaugural address in 1861, just five years later. And you can see, if you go online and talk about history, you can see the entire history speech that he presented here in the park. You can Google it and it's available to you to read. I think it was maybe 15 minutes long at the most, but you can begin to see some of his language and his thinking. At that time he was really advocating that the new territories not be allowed for slavery to expand in the new territories as this country was growing. And you can kind of see the genesis of his thinking and the resulting further actions that he took when he was president of the United States here. So it was worth contemplating and remembering that and As everyone probably is aware, there is a statue over here in the park and there will be a new marker right adjacent to that statue. So I wanna thank everyone that's involved in the community and doing that work, recognizing that and making sure that remember those things. It's a speech, although a phrase, although Abraham Lincoln did not invent this phrase, it's actually from a fellow. in Shakespeare, but this phrase related to that surely we will be touched by the better angels of our nature. Profound. I love you, Kalamazoo. We're adjourned.