City Commission - Special Meeting

[snorts] question. That's it. Well, it is nice to see you colleagues on this uh beautiful fall afternoon and nice to see some folks here with us in the chambers. So, I [snorts] am going to officially call this special business meeting of the Kalumu City Commission to order for Thursday, October 30th, 2025. First order of business is roll call. Clerk Boring.

Commissioner Cooney present. Commissioner Decker. Commissioner Hoffman. Commissioner Pradle, present. Commissioner Wilson, present. Vice Mayor Hess, present. Mayor Anderson, here. Thank you, Clerk Boring. May I have a motion to excuse Commissioner Hoffman? Motion made by Commissioner Decker. Supported by Commissioner Wilson. All in favor, please say I. I.

I. Post. Nay. Motion passes. Uh, no communications tonight. So, the next thing on our agenda is public comments. Uh, this is a special business meeting, so the public comment period will be four minutes as it is for our regular business meetings. If there's anyone who'd like to take advantage of the public comment period, please come forward. State your name and whether you live in the city.

Good evening. I came directly from the Halloween costume party at Heritage Community where I live. This is my welcoming immigrants costume, one of them. I'm Toby Hannah Davies, a city resident, and I want to thank you for making a very hard but very good decision. I think you chose a healing path, a trustbuilding path by um hiring uh Malcolm Henkins. I'm very grateful for what that means for us as a city. And I especially want to thank you, Mayor David Anderson, for the way you handled the split vote. Um, after really good debate, I love how you did so much work, vice mayor, listing the all the strong qualities of Laura Lamb. That was very effective. And so many others of you spoke really thoughtfully. Thank you for all the thoughtful work you all did to um make a hard decision. I saw Laura Lamb the very next morning early at the North Side Ministerial Alliance prayer breakfast and she said to me, "I'll work with anybody who's got the community's best interest at heart." I I thought that was powerful. And then I saw her the next night at an anti-racism training that Isaac sponsors called Courageous Action about really trying to deal with the ways that white supremacy culture affects not just the way we think, but

the way we feel, our deepest biases, and even our bodies, our sematics. Um um so it meant a lot to me that she was there again as she had been at previous times. Um and I want to recommend to all of you a powerful website called white supremacy culture by temaen or maybe she says tea. It's T E M A and her last name is Okun just like Oaken brother shoes so you can remember. Um she has put together a website on white supremacy culture aspects, characteristics and antidotes. And it's for all of us because living in this country, white supremacy culture thinking influences all of us whether we're white, black, brown, some other ethnicity. Um I think you'll really like it. It's not quick and easy. It's something to use over and over again to delve into um as you can more and more um as you become stronger and stronger if you're white at being truly a white ally. That's not a just a decision. That's a journey. That's many steps of going deeper and learning more. and this website is great for helping on that. So, I really wanted to recommend it. She also gives the title of her website as divorcing from white supremacy culture and becoming who we're really meant to

be. Thank you. Thank you. Next, please. Good evening, Mayor and Vice Mayor and commissioners. I won't take my four minutes. I promise. [laughter]

I just want to thank you all for making this decision um inviting uh Malcolm Henkins to be our next city manager. I think it's a really bold move and I think that it can lead to some very positive change and also some um some new ideas coming to the city. Um so I'm I'm really excited to see Mr. Henkins come and um I appreciate all of you listening to um the community's uh comments and doing your own research as well and I really appreciate all of you. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

[clears throat]

Hi, my name is Shauna. Um, I'm actually excited to see what this commission can do with a new city manager. Um, I want to thank you Wilson and Cooney, obviously Hoffman and Prado. You guys really listened to what the community needed, what the community wanted. Um, I know not everybody is happy, but it's I think this might be able for us to turn over a new leaf and start building some type of trust with this commission. Um, but I just wanted to say that um I'm glad you guys did take in consideration of um the community and how vocal the community has been about this search and this decision. Thank you.

Thank you. Oh yeah, they told my uh grandson August that's here. Next, please.

Seeing no one else who would like to take advantage of the public comment period, uh the next item on our agenda is the the actually was going to be one item. However, commissioners, you probably already received something and there's something up here in the disue uh for a request for us to add another item to the meeting this evening and that item is related to the extremely intense rivalry that exists between Western Michigan University and Central Michigan University and the fact that there is a very very important football game is starting at 4:00 on this coming Saturday And uh hopefully it won't be raining Commissioner Cooney for that. They're trying to pack the stand. So uh there's a shout out to all you fans. But there's request for a fireworks permit from Western Michigan University that uh they would be able to have use as part of their game against Central. And I think is the idea for when Western uh has touchdown or just any old time. I'm not quite sure how that's going to go, but if that's the case, hopefully we'll hear a lot of them. But uh that said, that would be item two. The motion itself would be I'm reading it here and you have it in front of you. I move to approve a request from West Western Michigan University to amend its July 25th application to publicly display fireworks at Heimsfield and Waldo Stadium to add Saturday, November 1st, 2025 to the already approved dates of September 27th and November 11th. So that would be item number two under our uh D discussion topics action items. Is

everybody okay if we add that? That's the second item there. All right. Great. All right. So let's let's get back to it here. So we are now to item number one D1 and this is an approval of an employment agreement with Malcolm Henkins for the position of city manager. And just before we get started on any discussion about that here, making a motion, I'd like to ask Commissioner Wilson just to make a few comments about this agreement if you'd be willing to.

Yeah, sure. Thanks, Mayor. Um, after about a week of friendly back and forth with Mr. Henkins, we're able to come to an agreement. Um, as you all know, we were up against a tight, you know, deadline with, um, our current city manager retiring and the election coming up. Um, so part of the way we were able to get this done so quickly is because the candidates had a copy of the contract ahead of time. So, um, yeah, like I said, very friendly conversation. We're able to come to an agreement and I believe Mr. Henkins will be starting at the top of the year, January 5th.

January 5th. So, yeah. Thank you. Any any questions? Uh, Commissioner Wilson and I were involved in that. any direct questions at this time as it relates to this contract? I know it was uh attorney Le, I want to say thank you very much for all your help uh help from the HR department here. All that was critical to helping us get through this. Uh I have to say that it's an interesting uh way to the system is set up is that uh you offer someone a job and the next thing you do is you have a potential to argue with them about what the terms of the contract might be. And I think that it we avoided getting into that. And certainly there's, you know, there's a different approach. There's a self-interest on both sides, but I think that we were able to get through that in a way that that uh was good foundation built relationship. Anything attorney Le you'd like to say about this? I just also wanted to recognize our CFO Steve Asency who was very instrumental in uh calculating the financial numbers and benefits that are that are part of this agreement. So again he came in and he was able to answer those questions and give us that information very quickly. So I want to also apart from and also with Shelley Fox who has already been recognized but I didn't want to leave out Steve.

Yes, thank you for recognizing that and thank you Steve as you're here in the chambers. So, at this point, I'm looking for a motion uh to approve the employment agreement with Malcolm Henkins for the position of city manager. Is there a motion? Motion made by Commissioner Cooney. Support. Supported by Vice Mayor Hess. Any discussion? Commissioners, Commissioner Pradle. [clears throat]

Sure. Um again, really want to appreciate you, Mayor, as well. Uh thank you for your efforts. I know it's a busy uh few weeks for you uh leading up to the election as well, but uh Commissioner Wilson as well um who's already been working with the subcommittee. Um you this is a big deal uh for us as a community and as a city and you know I looking at this um you know we are really stepping up and I think that's necessary in today's uh you know market for city managers and uh the demands that we particularly place on it. You know, it's um you look at our us as a city of Kalamazoo and when we have giant utilities that we have that we serve almost a quarter million people um there are unique challenges that we have in in this role and so I think this is is the right decision. U I'm very very excited to welcome um Mr. Henkins to the city of Kazoo and uh very excited to approve it. So thank you.

Thank thank you Commissioner Decker.

Thank you mayor. Um, yeah, I'm just now reviewing um the [clears throat] the agreement. Excuse me, I'm feeling a little bit under the weather. Um, so can we discuss how that transition will be? Have we talked to uh city manager Ritzma about has he stayed on past November 17th or how will that work? So here's how that's working is that at this point the uh agreed upon start date from Malcolm Henkins is January 5th and uh manager Ritzman's last day is the 18th of November. So that's that's set right now. So what we are working on is an interimm relationship. So we will have an interim city manager and uh what we are planning at this point is that action to approve that interim city manager will come back to us. We were not able to accomplish all that within this uh last week but that proposal will come back to us. We we have a one of these unique situations you might remember that will happen at our next regular meeting which is on November 17th. Uh just a reminder we will not have the meeting on the first Monday because it's adjacent to election. So our next meeting is November 17th and there will be a portion of the meeting where the existing commission will be sitting up here and then a portion of that meeting where then some folks will step down and the new commission will come up. So there will be an action item for us, the existing commission to take in terms of uh codifying a relationship with an interim city manager and we'll have an opportunity to talk about that a little bit more at that time, but that's the plan.

Okay. Thank you. Um will there be compensation for this interim city manager within those months? I'm sorry. Will there be compensation for the individual? That would be the interim city manager.

Yeah. So that will be a I'm sure Steve will be working on this again here, but that will be a budget uh [clears throat] component allocated for that. But of course, we do have a budget for a city manager anyway during that time. So, it should work fairly well with that. Commissioner Cooney. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I want to express my enthusiasm, um, that the new city manager will bring great gifts to this community and I believe that it was absolutely the right choice and I think his experience in neighborhood work um, and just who he is will make a huge difference in this city and I'm thrilled that he's going to be coming. At the same time, I want to say that I want to pay tribute to Laura Lamb and I want to recognize all the wonderful things that she has done for this city. And um I my great hope is that she will be staying here because I think that this team will will be a winner, a a a champion to bring this city to all that it can be. And if I was going to be on the commission again, I would want to show my appreciation to Laura Lamb, perhaps by an increase in salary or in some other way that we can show how much we appreciate her.

Thank you, Commissioner Cooney.

Other discussion, commissioners, at this time. All right. Well, thank you so much. So, uh, I have, uh, been blessed to have the opportunity to have multiple conversations, not just negotiating conversations with, uh, Malcolm Henkins, and that's been, uh, that's been very, very helpful just to have that time. As a matter of fact, we we spent an hour or so right back here at a factory coffee as he was coming through town, uh, heading up to Grand Rapids and just getting to know him a little bit. that's been very very positive. And one thing that I just uh want to make sure I communicated directly to him and I'm certain uh that I want to make sure everyone knows this is I told him that uh I would do everything that I could to make sure that he was successful as city manager because if he's successful, the city will be successful and the community will be successful. And so it was uh great connection, great conversation and I I really really appreciate that he was able to uh give me some time. He had a unfortunate event, had a death in the family and had to go to a a funeral and services up in Grand Rapids was just coming through for that and I asked him if he did have any extra time to to text me and and and give us some moments to get together and he did that and I appreciate that a great deal. Kirk Bowler, please call the role.

Commissioner Decker, no. Commissioner Pradle, yes. Commissioner Wilson, yes. Vice Mayor Hess, yes. Mayor Anderson, yes. Commissioner Cooney, yes. Thank you, Commissioners. The motion passes. On to our next agenda item. Anybody? This is the one related to fireworks at the Central Michigan University Western game. Would anybody like to make a motion for that one?

I can do it. Mayor, [clears throat] I uh move to approve a request from Western Michigan University to amend its July 25th application to publicly display fireworks at Heimsfield in Waldo Stadium and to um to add Saturday, November 1st, 2025 to the already approved dates of September 27th and November 11th. [clears throat] Is motion made by Commissioner Pradle, supported by Commissioner Wilson. Any discussion? I will just say if this makes a difference with Western winning because these two teams are tied for second. Is that correct? So, this is actually a very important game. I I hope it works. Click B, please call the RO.

Commissioner Pradle, yes. Commissioner Wilson, yes. Vice Mayor Hus, yes. Mayor Anderson, yes. Commissioner Cooney, yes. Commissioner Decker, yes. Thank you, commissioners. The motion passes. Now is an opportunity for any additional commissioner comments. Any comments, commissioners, for the good of the order? Seeing none, just a reminder once again, you know, regular schedule is we would have a a a commission meeting on November 3rd, but we are not due to the fact that there's an election the next day. Clerk will be busy preparing for all that. I do want to remind people if you have received an absentee ballot in the mail, for goodness sakes, please get it in. [snorts]

uh the clerk can be begin preparing those ballots and if the ballots are not returned until 4:00 on the afternoon of election day, well then the clerk's office is just going to have a lot more time to have to get those votes counted and more and more people are voting absentee these days, maybe even more than even go to the polls. So, it's so important. So, please, if you've gotten the ballot, uh think about it. if nothing this weekend and maybe get it in early on Monday morning to help the clerk and his great team. I love you, Kazoo. We are journed.