Zoning Board of Appeals - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, once again, I always hate to interrupt when there's friendly conversation up here in the dais and in the chambers, but interrupt I will because it is 7 o'clock, so it is time for us to call this meeting to order. I want to say nice to see my colleagues again. We had a 5 o'clock committee of the whole meeting, so we're back from that, and nice to see everybody here in the chambers for this business meeting. So I'm gonna officially call to order the Kalamazoo City Commission meeting for Monday, July 20th, 2026. And the first thing to do is a roll call. Clerk Burling.

Commissioner Hess. Present. Commissioner Hoffman. Present. Commissioner Prado. Present. Commissioner Slaby.

Present.

Commissioner Wilson. Present. Vice Mayor Duncan. Here. Mayor Anderson. Here. Thank you, Clerk Borling.

For our opening ceremony, we are blessed to have Father Bryce Buffenbarger here from the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church. He's been here before and come back, so I appreciate that. And I'm... As you are well aware, we do start our meetings with the invocation. And when we have an invocation, I ask everyone in the chambers to stand and then remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. Father Bryce.

Oh, you who are present in all places and times and filling all things, we are gathered here for the administration and direction of the city of Kalamazoo, and we ask your guidance and wisdom in these processes. You have revealed that your peace is within each of us and that we may be the salt that preserves and seasons the world with that peace. Where there is darkness, may we bring light. Where there is despair, may we bring hope. Where there is despondency, may we bring compassionate action. We ask these things that your peace may flourish in Kalamazoo and throughout the world. Amen.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. If we are lucky, and we are lucky tonight, we have a proclamation, and we do have a proclamation on our agenda, a very important one, and it is for Northside Day. Commissioner Hoffman's gonna be reading it. Whoever is here to accept that, please come forward, and I'm gonna come down with the proclamation.

Good evening, Northside family. I'm privileged to be reading this proclamation this evening. Whereas the North side neighborhood of Kalamazoo has a rich and enduring history as a center of culture, resilience, and community shaped by generations of residents whose contributions have helped define the character and strength of the city. And whereas the North side has long been a place where families, businesses, faith institutions, and community leaders have come together to build opportunity, foster connection, and create a legacy of pride and perseverance, and whereas the people of the Northside, its residents, families, leaders, and youth are the heart of the community and their resilience, unity, and commitment continue to shape and strengthen the neighborhood for future generations, and whereas the Northside Association for Community Development, NACD, guided by its long-standing commitment to people helping people since 1981, plays a vital role in advancing economic development, workforce opportunities, housing initiatives, and community revitalization efforts that directly benefit Northside residents. And whereas Northside Day serves as a celebration of community, culture, and progress, honoring the people of the Northside while bringing together Neighbors and partners to celebrate the past uplift the present and to build a stronger future moving forward together and whereas Northside day is not not only celebrates community and culture but also provides an opportunity for residents partners and supporters to invest in the continued growth and revitalization of the Northside through initiatives that support workforce development housing and economic opportunity and whereas This annual event highlights the importance of investing in neighborhoods, supporting local businesses, promoting community wellness, and fostering opportunities for growth and development. And whereas on August 8th, 2026, the Northside Association for Community Development will kick off its annual Northside Day to celebrate the people of the Northside community and their shared commitment to moving forward together. Now, therefore, on behalf of the 56th City Commission and on behalf of David F. Anderson, the Mayor of the City of Kalamazoo, do hereby proclaim August 8, 2026, Northside Day in the City of Kalamazoo and encourage all residents to join in recognizing and celebrating the people, culture, and future of the Northside community as we continue moving forward together.

Mayor Anderson, City Manager Hankins, Vice Mayor Duncan, City Commissioners, thank you, thank you, thank you so much for honoring us for Northside Day. For those that don't know about Northside Day, that is August 8th, 2026, a Saturday, and it's going to be a full day of everything that's happening, of all positivity on the Northside. the north side day is just a launching pad of all the great things that nacd wants to do in our neighborhood okay this is something that is going to allow us to keep moving forward together and making sure that all neighborhoods specifically the north side is taking advantage of all the opportunities that nac is giving to our people so we thank you thank you so much for allowing us to be here and thank you for honoring our day we can't wait for you guys to be there

Face this way. Stand up.

Oh.

Better, buddy? Yeah. August 8th, keep that in mind. My birthday, as a matter of fact. And we have a birthday tonight, don't we? Yeah, so there's sort of a celebration this evening. Happy birthday, Commissioner Slaby. Yeah, we'll get to the singing a little later on. Okay, thank you. Although it sounds great, Commissioner Oppenheimer. Okay, now we are down to the adoption of the formal agenda. Are there any changes or additions to the adoption team?

Yes, Mayor, if I may. Yes. I'd like to add a new item of the regular agenda to be numbered H5. The caption, this is related to our earlier closed session. The caption should read as approve a settlement agreement in the federal and state cases, both titled Dirk Adam versus City of Kalamazoo in the amount of $125,000.

Thank you, sir. So there's now an additional item under regular agenda H, it's item H5. Any other additions or changes? Commissioners. Manager Hankins, no. All right. Thank you so much. The agenda stands with that addition. Next, Communications Manager Hankins. Not at this time, Mayor. All right. Thank you, sir. Next is the opportunity for public comments. Just a reminder, you will have four minutes for public comments at this meeting. You can comment on the topic of your choice. Please state your name and whether you live in the city. Anyone interested, please come forward.

Good evening. My name is Deb Droppers and I live, my address right, 1401 Lommer Road. I am here to provide a quick update on the Kalamazoo farmers market. I am representing Midtown Fresh, Kiara Gamshow, Marcus Collins, and KELC events, and I want to kind of focus on three things that we are especially excited to update you on. Now, there are a number of things that have happened since the market opened May 1, but it's easy to remember and celebrate in threes. First and foremost, we have successfully launched the Kalamazoo farmers market in a rather quick transition time period. We were able to onboard a majority of the former producers, growers, artisans, and retailers. We had meetings, we reached out, we called. And I'm super excited because these are amazing people who are dedicated to their product and to our community. They care deeply for what they do, and I wish that many of you, you're welcome to join any time, at 5 a.m. when they load into market, and some of them have already been there since 3 a.m. with generators and lights to be able to get ready for market day. We were also able to launch a number of benefits that provide produce and food products to individuals who depend on their bridge cards and benefits for food. We were able to provide up to $50 in double-up coins, where most places are limited to $20. This has been substantial, and it's amazing to watch people come to market and to be able to say, I really get $50 in extra money. And so what some of you may not know is they buy $50 in Snap, and they get $50 in extra coins that can be used for produce and vegetables. And especially now, that's even more important. Plus, it's also an opportunity to really teach people about how to shop a market. And we were able to work with the county to be able to offer veteran benefits where qualifying veterans can receive $20 vouchers to use at the market. And we are also working with the NHBP tribal elders where clinic patients can qualify for up to a $50 voucher to the market. We are working to continue to enhance the programming that makes the market amazing and an open and inclusive environment for our community. Our Tuesday kids market, which is the third Tuesday of the month, which happens to be tomorrow, is where we bring in entrepreneurs. And we have up to 30 kid market vendors that will be working at the market from 10 to 1. And we also are continuing with the night markets. And we're offering special programs on Saturday, which include drop-in yoga classes and a cooking class for kids that will launch this Saturday. In addition to that, we're working to be able to open up that amazing building and the facility. And so it has been an immense pleasure and honor to be able to be there at the market and make it an amazing place that we all can be proud of. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Next, please.

My name is Sam Dixon, D-I-X-I-S-O-N. I was here at 5 o'clock, and I was glad y'all gave me the opportunity to talk then. I left a package with the city clerk, with the city commission, with all the evidence and everything, plus the flash drive of a successful assault that took place and everything. I'm going to read it for you. It said, good evening. First, I want to thank you all for allowing me the opportunity to share with you. The last time I was here was 2008 when Bobby Hopewell, David Anderson, Don Cooney, Stephanie Moore, and Clyde Robinson were serving on the commission. I filed a freedom of information for DNA for a crime that took place at the Best Western Hotel in room 307 at 4 a.m., 4, 3 a.m. Richard McCall was a responding officer, and he was called at 4.39 AM and found a black female passed out on the bed with a used condom wrapper next to the bed and a used condom in a garbage can. Officers assigned to the case waited 18 months before they investigated the crime scene and sent the used condom to be tested. I WAS WRONGFULLY CONVICTED FOR THIS CRIME BECAUSE THE TRIAL PROSECUTOR STEVE ITEMER TOLD THE JURY THAT THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF A CSC FIRST DEGREE FROM ROOM 307 BECAUSE THE KDPS FAILED TO HAVE THE CONDOM TESTED. THEY WAITED 18 MONTHS FOR THE INCIDENT. A SURVEILLANCE VIDEO AND THE TIME OF THE SURVEILLANCE AND EVERYTHING IS IN THE PACKAGE THAT I LEFT WITH THE CITY CLERK other crime during during this the prosecutor told and the public defender nathan tagg who i was forced to take from hasty michigan told the person that they believe committed the crime to plead the fifth so that he would not be inclimated himself now i need help to get my name clear because I've been held hostage for 17 years until now. I have to wear a tracker everywhere I go, which don't make no sense. I need a real lawyer to file a motion for newly discovered evidence or for the city commissioners to help me start a GoFundMe so I can get a lawyer and get my name clear. I just came for help. Somebody that can help so I can get my name cleared. I'm tired of being in the hospital for 17 years for a crime which I didn't commit. Like I said, you had the package there. And I have it here. Last time I was here, the Western Herald took the pictures and everything, got the DNA evidence of everything shown. It wasn't me. I got the report. from the officer richard mccall i got the dna evidence that was filed 18 months after the crime took effect so i'm getting wrongfully convicted then i got the person who they convicted of the crime and everything then i got the statements of the prosecutor who did a false statement when he says um what evidence There is to suggest to the jury, misled the jury, prosecuted misconduct. Then he got the search from the rooms of everything that took place. But during my trial, the evidence of DNA came back that same day and the police department gave it to the prosecutor. The prosecutor never turned it over to the defense because he knew I would have a new trial and I would be I would be innocent. I'm just coming to bring everything on the table now, because it's been held hostage for 17 years, and everybody needs to know the truth. I just thank you for giving me a chance to sit and approach. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Next, please.

Hello, city officials. Iris Potter, 1204 Manor, and a co-founder of Kalamazoo Remembers, a longtime organization working to protect our river and the Great Lakes watershed in full. I am addressing the DC moratorium issue on the agenda. Gretchen Whitmer, a lame duck governor, supports data centers in the media with tax breaks, ensures that farmlands are available with water, utilities, et cetera. Now, due to some backlash perhaps, she recently announced her plan, which involves requesting that data center AI corporations self-regulate with a new voluntary responsible growth pledge. for these corporations to protect Michiganders from rate hikes, obey environmental regulations, and pay their own infrastructure costs. Remember, this is after the state has given tax breaks already. I personally have worked with organizations who need corporations to do the right thing for the people and our environment. Some tout that they are environmentally conscious while their work on the ground causes harm, as I've seen firsthand. Money is always the bottom line, not the environment or the people. i can see the same destruction coming with dc's that i've already seen already also we will not have a state moratorium under governor whitmer unlike what the new york governor has done so kalamazoo needs a moratorium like close to 52 other municipalities with consideration of a ban at some point we have our first potential marijuana business owner if that happens that he may sell to an ai dc we have a climate sustainability plan so we don't need any more heat to add into that so i encourage us to plan ahead to save our water our land and protection from even higher utility rates we must protect our environment for our citizens and ensure we don't pay more we're also looking at our future generations so please soon pass a moratorium of one to three years so we do not sell out our livelihoods In addition, I want to speak about the call-in comments on the agenda. I have always supported that those need to come back. I'm really hoping that you do. So many people cannot make it here, and I just want to say I know many of them. It's very difficult. It actually takes, as you know, a lot of energy to get here, just for people who can get here more easily. It's also getting hot in the heat and then in the winter the cold, so I highly support that. I ALSO HOPE THAT WE CAN APPOINT OR YOU CAN APPOINT SOMEONE TO, LIKE SOMEONE FROM THE ECC, THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS COMMITTEE, TO THE COUNTY AND ASK THE COUNTY IF WE COULD HAVE A REPRESENTATIVE ON THE COUNTY PARKS COMMISSION BECAUSE OF THE POTENTIAL AND LIKELY SALE OF ASYLUM LAY. SO THOSE ARE THE THREE THINGS AND I HOPE YOU CONSIDER THEM. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Thank you. Next, please.

My name's Ray Sweeney. I was resident of the city. Happy birthday. Are we sure of that? A week ago, the Affordable Housing Task Force of ISAC met and I learned that the Kalamazoo County Continuum of Care was proposing a five-year plan to end homelessness. I assume you are aware of this effort. I urge you to play your role in this effort. The continuum of care is led by Patrice Griffin, one who is well known in this chamber. Through her own experience of being homeless, she has learned a lot about the barriers that prevent people from having stable housing. While she was serving as commissioner, she proposed and this body adopted changes to city ordinance that would allow hope to those who were frustrated by barriers. Still, details are being worked out with regards to the enforceability. Yet whilst these details are being worked out, let the spirit of this effort become our narrative. Among life's challenges, the loss of housing is traumatic. The cynic will observe that the problems of homelessness are way more complex than this plan. Be courageous, though. Be driven by this goal. Tweak it where experience guides you. Now is the time for Continuum to rally on behalf of those who are homeless. To the extent that we try, you will be blessed. To the extent that you try, lives can recover. To the extent that we try, you may succeed in ways beyond your expectations. I'd like to read a meditation that was written by Bishop Ken Untermer of Saginaw. It helps now and then to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our visiting. This is what we are about. We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there's a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something and do it well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end result, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future, not our own. Thank you. Thank you. Next, please.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Stephanie Valor, and I am a Northside resident. I am coming before you tonight in regards to some of the recent meetings that I've seen at City Commission or posts that have been online in reference to flock cameras, mobile noose and party issues. The issue has plagued the Northside for over 25 years. I myself have lived through it for more than 20. We will all agree to disagree in reference to this. Over the last several weeks, I have had several individuals knocking on my door, whether they're residents or whether they're from organizations or whether they're from within the city, in reference to asking some very invasive questions. um just the same as residents are not asking for the mobile nuisance parties block parties x-train lines whatever you may label it as to be we're not also not asking for anyone to continuously keep knocking on the doors and asking us if we want cameras in the area if we don't want cameras in the area it is becoming at this point a little bit ridiculous I myself live in the middle of a block where in order for me to leave home, whether I leave left or right, I have to pass those flock camera towers. So for me personally, it does not affect me. However, that may not be the same for someone else. but again it's not something where i have asked to either be disturbed in the evening from the parties that are not asked for on the block no one's walking up and down the street and asking those questions i do propose to the city as well as kdps to suggest consider holding forms in the community whether they're being held at neighborhood associations or at local parks because crime is happening everywhere it's not being isolated to the north side but there seems to be an extra focus at this time on the north side of kalamazoo it will provide some closure from some families when things such as those cameras are able to aid with some of the recent crimes that have happened there's recently been a murder on the north side which is less than two blocks away from where i live at I'm sure as things have always been, people are very closed mouth and they're probably not aiding and helping that family. But I'm sure that family wants closure. There is again a flat camera that sits in that area and hopefully that flat camera does give that mother some assistance with closure in that situation. I've never been in her shoes, but I would hate to be in her shoes with getting that phone call, that knock at that door that her child has been deceased in by the hands of a gun. Again, crime is high everywhere, but there needs to be something to address the unwanted knocking on the door. Again, and it's happened from several avenues that residents are not asking for. In addition, everyone is picking and choosing in regards to whose doors they're knocking on. So it's not isolated to one, it's happening with all. I can ask several of my neighbors currently, no one's knocked on their door at all. My door has been knocked on by everybody. so it is it's becoming a little bit bothersome with this situation again this has plagued the north side for more than 20 years it's not something that if you ask the majority of the residents they are wanting no one wants to get up and have to clean up every morning i recently had to get up before i could leave out there were underwear in my front yard i did not ask for that to be left there behind a party that i did not even ask for to happen in front of my home or on the block that i live on These are concerning issues that has been going on for way too long and there needs to be a resolution where everyone will agree to disagree with these situations. Thank you.

Thank you. Next please.

Good evening, my name is Sarah Pruitt. I am a resident of Kalamazoo City. And I am speaking about the moratorium, the new business this evening on AI data centers. In the PJM grid region, which serves 65 million people across 13 states, power supply costs have jumped from 2.2 billion to 14.7 billion in a single year. with data centers accounting for nearly two-thirds of the increase. Residential electricity rates nationally have risen 32% between July 2020 and July 2025. Communities near proposed facilities face noise, strained infrastructure, and loss of farmland that are immediately visible as a cost. For the object of noise pollution, this can cause health issues in both people and animals. It has been shown as a correlation, not yet a causation, but a correlation in farm animals in farms in Texas, resulting in an entire season of cattle being born stillborn. It can affect our fishing, our hunting, and our park revenue. Too many of these things are cons and there's not enough pros for people to want data centers in their areas and in their communities. I am in favor of a permanent moratorium on data centers, specifically AI data centers here in Kalamazoo. In regards to another issue, the flock cameras, how can we guarantee that our data that is being collected every day is being used legally? There has been so many reports across the country that The government, state and federally, private companies are using our data as currency. They're using our data to inform ICE and to basically violate our right to privacy. How can we be sure that our flat cameras here in Kalamazoo and in the state of Michigan are not doing this? Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Hi. My name is Quentin Sandberg. I am a resident of Kalamazoo, and that's actually why I came here tonight, at least to speak, I should say. Kalamazoo has always been a college town to me. My college town, go Broncos. But on a serious note, though, earlier this decade, I actually fell on hard times and went homeless. I found myself in Kalamazoo at the end of 24, and I was able to utilize the resources that the city actually provides to those that are unhoused. And with the community actually opening up their doors and their arms and just saying hi and engaging with me, I was able to actually get back on my feet. So I really just wanted to come here to say thank you. Thank you to the city. Thank you to the community. Thank you.

Thank you. Next please.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Manager, and Commissioners. My name is Brian Bouton, and I'm a resident of Kalamazoo County in the township of Augusta. Though I don't live in Kalamazoo proper, I have worked, worshiped, and played here for the last 10 years or so. I'm also a seminarian through General Theological Seminary, and I joined Isaac earlier this year to more fully engage with our community. I would like to address the use of flock cameras this evening. and I would urge you to take the time to evaluate through an equity lens whether this technology should continue to be used in our community. While these cameras may assist law enforcement in solving crimes and locating missing persons, they also collect information on thousands of people who are not suspected of any crime. That raises important questions about privacy, transparency, public trust, and equal protection under the law. kdps has documented the alprs can assist criminal investigations and i appreciate that at the same time the city's public materials don't distinguish between evidence that help that cameras help investigate crimes and evidence that they themselves reduced overall crime those are different claims and they deserve to be evaluated differently I have heard repeatedly from some residents who report that flock cameras with flashing lights are disproportionately located in lower income neighborhoods and communities where many residents are black. Whether intentional or not, that perception matters. If one community bears greater burden of surveillance than another, justice requires us to ask why. The burden of surveillance should not fall disproportionately on the same communities that have historically borne the burden of over-policing. Kalamazoo knows from experience that public trust is hard won and easily lost. Given our history of addressing concerns about equitable policing, we should be especially careful that new technologies don't unintentionally recreate old disparities. Even if these cameras provide legitimate investigative value, they should not be deployed in ways that undermine the relationships the city has worked to strengthen. Policy 338 recognizes that automated license plate readers require safeguards. It includes important protections such as requiring officers to verify alerts before taking enforcement action and documenting searches. Those protections are worth preserving. But the policy also leaves important questions unanswered about camera placement, the transparency of audits, the sharing of information with partner agencies, and whether those safeguards remain enforceable beyond departmental policy. If Kalamazoo chooses to continue using flock cameras, those protections should not be left solely to departmental policy, which can be changed administratively. It should be codified and enforceable law through ordinance. Those ordinances should establish transparent and equitable criteria for camera placement, clearly define who may access ALPR data and for what purposes, establish meaningful limits on data sharing and retention, require independent audits and regular public reporting, provide meaningful consequences for misuse, and give the community an equitable voice in oversight. This is not a question of being pro-police or anti-police. It's a question of whether powerful surveillance technology remains accountable to the people that it is intended to serve. Public safety and civil liberties are strongest when they reinforce one another. A city committed to justice can protect both. Then I'll wrap up my time with a prayer. God of justice, mercy, and peace, grant us the wisdom to protect our communities without surrendering the dignity and freedom of those who call them home. guide our leaders to seek not only what is effective but what is just not only what is lawful but what is right may our decisions strengthen trust honor every person's inherent worth and reflect our shared responsibility to care for one another with fairness humility and compassion thank you thank you next please

Good evening to our mayor, our vice mayor, commissioners, city managers, city attorney. My name is Sharlai Davis with ISAC. I want to begin by thanking Vice Mayor Drew for all of his hard work in helping bring the democracy defenders here on July 1st. So thank you so very much, Vice Mayor. We were stop number two in a dozen or so cities, and we want to lift that Kalamazoo was part of this movement in year one, and that's phenomenal. I want to say also thank you to El Concilio, our El Concilio family, for offering interpretation and hospitality for our family guests. And then also thank you to all the supporter organizations and congregations, and some of them are here tonight. I also want to say thank you to Commissioner Slaby and then also Manager Hankins for taking time. I know you all are so very busy to attend. Thank you both so much. We had wonderful speakers, Maynor, Ali, Elena, and they shared their organizing around peace building, gun violence prevention, voter suppression, and collective movements in Guatemala, in Mexico, and then in Colombia. We were reminded that night in real time that the white supremacy and injustices that we see happening now in our own country are happening internationally as well. And it was a powerful reminder that we are all connected. So that is the reason you all that we want to engage in what Representative John Lewis, the late Representative John Lewis, called good trouble so that we leave this world better for those who come after us. We look forward to sharing the photos, the video clips, and also the information that was generated in small group discussions amongst attendees while they were brainstorming, talking about and brainstorming about the increase of capacity for change, deepening collaboration beyond competition, and then the engagement when things get challenging, but also challenging white supremacy, fear, and the loss of hope. We don't know what's ahead of us, but we are going to be prepared collectively. We gained family members that evening at that event, and we look forward to continuing that collective work. And it took a community effort to make it happen. So thank you all. And again, thank you, Vice Mayor. Lastly, I wanted to just lift you all have heard from community members, some in support of flat cameras, some who are not in support of flat cameras, and then some who are saying we support if we have equitable oversight beyond city structures. And so I just have two questions. My questions are, where is the city at with flock cameras and any contracts? And then when will the flock contract be up for renewal? When does that contract expire? Please let us know. And then at a later time, you all, I can share some questions and best practices that the ACLU recommends connected to surveillances before renewal and purchases. And then in my last minute here, I am in support of the moratorium for the data center. So thank you. I'm so happy that that is on the agenda and we look forward to hearing more. Blessings and thank you.

Thank you. Thanks, please.

Hi, my name is Matt Griffith. I've lived in the city for 15 years. And I'm here with the Get the Flock Out of Kalamazoo campaign. I support this moratorium on data centers. They will rise our energy costs. And the amount of energy needed is measured in hundreds of megawatts, if not gigawatts. Typically, this is reserved for large cities. This causes obviously the loss of energy to rise, but also it pollutes our air because many of these need gas turbines to provide additional power. They need water to cool these GPUs because the energy that goes into this building, it needs to get converted into some other type of energy unless they've broken the second law of thermodynamics. And also, it creates noise pollution, which I've heard people talk about in other neighborhoods where their children cannot sleep. And the people who have soundproofed their homes, but they can still feel the vibrations caused by these sounds, and they're still not able to sleep because of it. I would also like to point out that it is super critical for the city to use these AI-powered flock cameras that need these types of data centers in order to both surveil us and to train for other models. I think there needs to be transparency. There was a recent MLive article in which they tried to FOIA the audit records, but KDPS refused to release them. And if the data is owned by the city and we pay for it, I believe that we should be able to see how that data is being searched. Also for the contract, will we see a vote by the city commission on the next flock contract? I recently was given the last year's order form by another resident, Aaron, who it shows a discount of $10,450 to put the contract for this last year at $99,900, just $100 below the 100K threshold in which the city commission would have to vote on. Now, this seems to me that the city and Flock are doing this intentionally to get around this purchasing policy by the city. We have had over 1,000 people sign our petition to remove these cameras. And we are encouraging people to come out on August 17. We will be having a rally in front of City Hall here. And then we'll be coming in here to have our voice be known that we do not want these cameras. Yes, thank you. Thank you. Next, please.

Hi, everyone. How you doing? And happy birthday to you, Commissioner. I hope you've had a great day. Hi, everyone. My name is Tina McClinton, and I live in that lovely flooding area, the south side of town, the neighborhood where flooding is out of control. All we want is dry streets and working storm drains and working storm sewers, not storm drains that flood out the streets and back up the storm sewers in the streets. It's been eight and a half years, guys. Eight and a half years I've been here at every single meeting. And guess what? I'm still waiting. And my other thing is before you build in my neighborhood, and guess what? I'm still waiting for the street, dry streets too. But before you build in my neighborhood, can you at least fix these things this time first? What else is wrong with Kalamazoo? Your road diets are a joke. All they do is back up traffic for blocks. Cars set idle, polluting the air more and more. You set it every single light. Yes, it's calming traffic, but it's still causing a lot of accidents. It's causing way more pollution. You've got traffic backed up for blocks sometimes. Rent is too damn high to say we live in a crime-ridden city. $1,200 to $1,400 for a studio apartment, wow. All you're doing is helping create more homeless. People cannot afford that on a fixed income. Rent is too high in Kalamazoo. It's terrible. You've got families and residents and people sleeping out on the streets. Even if you work two jobs, you can't afford to live in the crime-ridden city. Shootings are out of control. Just the other weekend, three shootings. One young man died. One person stabbed in the chest, that young man died too, and left to die in the streets. Drive-by shootings, not safe for anybody. Whatever happened to, if you do the dang gone crime, then you do the time. Why does Kalamazoo catch and release these criminals? For anybody can get shot. You can even get shot in your own home nowadays. Pollution is out of control. With GP, the city sewer plant, road calming projects, pollution is out of control. All you seem to care about is the rich man's playground downtown. What, this will be the third time you change the streets downtown in the playground for the rich? Just look at all the money you have wasted to keep changing the streets. Now you want to make it two ways. It didn't work in the 60s, and it probably won't work this time, but you're going to waste the money anyway, so go ahead. But I see when you build downtown, you always fix the sewers, the sanitary sewers, and the storm drain issues. Question. I don't know. I want to get an answer. Why don't you fix these first in my neighborhood before you build like when you built KVCC growing field? And I hope you really do bring back public call-ins so everybody can have a voice. Everybody. They don't have to try to get down here. I work two jobs. It's hard to come here after working all day. But we need to bring that back. We don't want a data center in Kalamazoo. We have enough issues as it is. Pollution. We don't have that many trees. There's not that many green spaces left. Animals have nowhere to live. You've destroyed their homes little by little. Climate change is real, guys. Our weather stopped. Our weather is getting worse and worse. Stop destroying trees. Deforestation does not just take away trees. It takes away shade, clean air, rain that sustains life. Please stop destroying green spaces, woods, trees, and natural spaces for our wildlife. Thank you.

Next, please.

Okay, I'm Jody. I live in the city of Kalamazoo. I'm expressing a few things here. These people, for the birth of a spaceship, these people are real to me. There's at least 20 of them that have come to mind. There's stories, there's challenges. And I write at home, and I believe I write in the essence of God, Jesus, and the Spirit. Stuff comes to me. That's how I think this is going to evolve, but I'll give you a little bit of reading on what I wrote. In peace you'll open the glory. Be to God. Come on adventure in time to round the baby spaceship. The spaceship give me the peace serenity it calls for. May everyone please God. May God bless us like he always has. Like he will a spaceship with ten fingers and ten toes but lighting and fixtures. Give me time, say November, mid-November, and I'll assure you gift will conquer in time to round more spaceships ready to visit planet Earth to tell stories of outer space like Little Miss Muppet and Mary Had a Little Lamb. May come the time to sit and wait has arrived. First I must find out how to win the rules. Always change with the evil one. Now nobody inherits evil ways in the realm of Jesus. May the party begin around Christmas time in the essence of Jesus to gain love to new year of the following year. Give me time and we'll win. we deserve to fly a spaceship, a ship, a spaceship. I mean, I'm just, It seems it's hard, I don't have the right words. Anyway, to city commission, tis time to play, we are clean. Till time to fly, the amazement will be joy. Till the time comes to fly to sky, the stars, to Jupiter and back with ease. And time will win, and born a baby, we all call, that'll be a contest to the Jews. to arise when i have a baby to fly the spaceship around the universe with the help of our alien friends and others we'll win the love we deserve as soon as the star shuttles arrive from planet easier to understand in person as we all know the gathering in israel first last and others are the rabbis ready everlasting love might win love one another I mean, I just, I'm surprised myself, but I've come up with some good stuff. So, and these people are real. I'm waiting for like an announcement from the government to clarify things for me. But I believe it's real. I believe there's something special about to happen. and will know I should be coming to the city commission meetings more frequently. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Good evening. Happy birthday. My name is Maddie Jordan Woods. I live at 902 West Patterson. And you know what? I am disappointed that there are people and organizations that come and talk about taking down the flock cameras and using what is happening in my neighborhood as an excuse to do it. It's easy to say take down some cameras when you live on the west side or Portage or the township and at two and three o'clock in the morning, you are not having to listen to block parties that you didn't ask for. It is very easy to say to take down a camera. It's a tool. It's a tool that residents in our community ask for because guess what? They were being threatened, intimidated, called snitches, everything else. And everyone isn't going to stand up and keep coming up to the commission to say, this is what is happening in our community. You all have ordinances about parking after 2 o'clock, blocking highways. We're asking you to do the same things that you do to protect the downtown. protect our community and so i say to you i stand by my statement the north side is not a place for people to come and have a party it is not that place the north side is not a place where you get to park in someone else's driveway without their permission or lean on their fence without their permission you know what Guess what? The seniors that live in our community, the families who choose, because everyone that live in our neighborhood is not trying to get out. The people who choose to live in our neighborhood, they have a right to have some peace. But to be able to invite their grandkids to come to a park and not have to worry about shooting. They have a right to not be at 3 o'clock in the morning, people still out there. Yes, we were all young. We did all kind of things. But we did not do them on residential streets and stopping other people from sleeping. So I ask this commission to continue to ask our chief to take whatever tool is necessary to allow for our community to be the safe place that we want it to be, that it was when so many black people fought to be able to live on the north side because it was peaceful. It had grass, nice houses, near factories, near the highway. Our neighborhood is a gold mine, and it needs to be treated as a gold mine and not as an afterthought for people who choose to party past the time of when they can. I'm sorry. Yes, everybody has a voice. They got a right to have their voice. And we have a right to have peace in the neighborhood that we choose to live in. I will repeat again, everybody is not waiting for somebody to come and offer them some money for their house to get out of the neighborhood. Thank you.

Mayor Anderson, City Manager Hankins, Vice Mayor Duncan, I echo all of that. I'll come back to that in a second. But just a couple of things with my NACD hat and just a Northside resident. We have a couple homeless encampment problem going on on the Northside. I don't know why it's happening. Actually, I do know why it's happening. It's being pushed to our neighborhood and we don't want that. And so the first encampment is right next to the Family Dollar, right next to the train tracks. I'm sure you all have seen it. One, it's dangerous. And two, it's just an eyesore. And so if we can do something about that, that would be greatly appreciated. The next one is on Cobb Street, the National Storage, which used to be CubeSmart. They are along the trail on the back end. They are setting up usually around PROBABLY 11 O'CLOCK, 12 O'CLOCK AT NIGHT, AND THEN THEY'RE LEAVING IN THE MORNING TIME. SO AGAIN, THEY'RE CAUSING ISSUES, THEY'RE IN AREAS WHERE THEY SHOULDN'T BE, AND WE DO NOT WANT THE HOMELESS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD. BUT I HOPE THAT THERE IS A SOLUTION FOR OUR HOMELESS. I WOULD LIKE TO BE A PART OF THE CONVERSATION IF YOU GUYS HAVE SOME COMMITTEES OR ANYTHING THAT'S GOING ON. I KNOW THE COUNTY DID THEIR BIG THING WITH THE WHOLE REVAMP OF THAT HOTEL, BUT I KNOW THERE NEEDS, MORE WORK NEEDS TO BE DONE WITH THAT TOPIC. Next thing to our Northside residents, we're having canvassing or our canvassers are starting tomorrow. So that's going to all of our Northside residents. This canvassing work is going to be in a hopeful of a Northside home ownership fund, which will help support in the rise of property taxes. This isn't a promise. This isn't anything concrete or set in stone, but this is just a simple idea of initiative that myself and others with NACD and other community stakeholders would like to bring to the Northside community. So canvassers will be starting tomorrow. That'll be Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3 o'clock to 8 p.m. I've issued out a statement, also sent via mail, so every resident should have that information as well, and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3. We have our National Night Out, which is happening August 4th from 5.30 to 7.30. All neighborhoods are participating in that. Please stop by, come. It'll be free food, games, prizes, all those things for the community. um i want to just say this and i didn't say it at the last meeting i just wanted to simmer city manager hankins you are doing an excellent job you did not deserve all that backlash that you received at the last meeting um you just got here and so i don't think many people realize that and so you have a lot of work um ahead of you and i know you are going to do that work so i just wanted to lift you um during this time um and just give you that The violence topic, there's a lot of violence going on in the city of Kalamazoo, especially gun violence. And so I echo everything that Maddie just said. A young man just passed away in our neighborhood, 21 years old. It did not need to happen. It shouldn't have happened. And to my knowledge, that person hasn't been caught yet. And so one of these, the reason why we have these flock cameras in these camera towers is to do such thing, is make sure that we can stop crime, stop illegal activity, and make sure that we're keeping our community and neighborhoods safe. And so as myself personally, I'm in favor of the cameras. It is protecting us. It is going to keep everyone safe. And it's going to hold both parties accountable, whether you like it or not. I get it. I can see both sides of the story, but we need it because it's too much crime going on in our neighborhood and in our community. And a camera tower will be at Northside Day. So if you don't like it, you don't have to come. It'll be at La Crone Park. Last thing, Northside Day. Everybody say Northside Day. NORTH SIDE DAY. NORTH SIDE DAY, AUGUST 8, 2026. WE'LL HAVE A 5K WALK-A-RUN IN THE MORNING, COMMUNITY CELEBRATION FROM 11 AM TO 3 IN THE LACRONTE PARK, AND WE'LL HAVE BEATS ON NORTH SIDE ALLEY. ALL DAY EVENT. PLEASE BE THERE. THIS IS ALSO A FUNDRAISER. WE NEED TO REACH OUR 150K. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. NEXT, PLEASE.

Yeah, I ain't come prepared for anything. You know what I'm saying? This is my first time here and everything. I am the sole responsibility person for Sunday Funday. We've been all over the news. It's been five years. We ain't had no drama. We police ourselves. Week after week, we never have no issue. But this year has been a little bit of harassment or something going on that I really don't understand why we're getting... Yeah, I need some water. Why are we getting harassed so much or what's getting called upon us? They're using probable cause as... noise violation this noise violation is giving takes with so much stuff we in the middle of a park and we walked around we we really checked out everything make sure we weren't bothering nobody but like i said this was five years i never had no problem week after week, May 1st to October 1st, no problem. You know what I'm saying? Every Sunday, 4 to 8. And this year, just been a little bit more interaction with the police, more than what I expected. Public nuisance. I've never been a public nuisance. You know what I'm saying? It's just a gathering. Now we forced to make it an event. We don't get fair reunions like we used to no more. Spring Valley been a part of history for years, for years. Since I was a baby, I've been going to Spring Valley since I was a baby. I started back up. Just a couple friends hanging out and everything. And it ended up blowing up to way more than what I expected, you know what I'm saying? But at the same time, we successfully policed ourselves week after week, year after year. And this year just been more of a problem, you know what I'm saying? I'm not saying that we're doing anything perfect, but I'm not saying that we deserve the harassment we've been getting, you know? I don't know. Just been trying to do better. Can't nobody say within five years that nobody had problems. Week after week years, nobody had drama. Nobody been fighting. Nobody been killed. Nothing. We shouldn't be harassed like that. Whoever's called, it's just one person nickname. What else are we supposed to do in the community? What else are we supposed to do with our family? You know what I'm saying? My dad come out here. You know what I'm saying? My uncles, my aunties, just a bunch of people. I haven't seen in years. People are scared to come outside because of whatever's going on. Either it's harassment by the police or it's the neighborhood that the police should be policing. You know what I'm saying? It ain't no... There's no reason for people to be bullies in no aspect. Police can't be bullied, but they don't come out and actually interact with the community. I invited them out plenty of times. I didn't talk to y'all. I'm out to try to get you out. You know what I'm saying? Plenty of time. But it's like, don't label me what I ain't. Five years going on six years. Peaceful. Weekend after weekend. We have not had no problem. I don't understand what the year, what's going on this year. You know, but... I really didn't come prepared for this. You know what I'm saying? It's my first time here, and I just wanted to say my piece. And I thank you for, you know what I'm saying, coming to Holly Avenue. Thank y'all. You know what I'm saying?

Thank you. Thank you. Next, please.

Good evening, everybody. Hi. with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding for the ears that can hear, that can understand these words that I'm about to express. For the people of Kalamazoo, Michigan, could I please get a round of applause? Kalamazoo, Michigan. Is Kalamazoo, Michigan citizens in here or what? I don't hear nothing. Nobody ain't saying. It's up to us, the people, to get the city right. We got the commissioners right here. They can listen. They got the programs to make the city work if the people come together to make it work. It's up to us. What I'm learning and what I learned from the citizens is the lack of us that's behind me. We got to come together to help y'all to make the city right. That's why I'm here because I'm learning what to do. And when I'm seeing the problems, I see the north side is pitch black at nighttime. All you see is the street lights from the cars. There's no lights on houses, apartments, telephone poles, nowhere. It's pitch dark. In the parks, it's pitch black. What I'm learning now, all the shootings, especially on the north side. La Crone Park, that place should have a police station. That hut that's right there in the front, it should be officers located there on the premises at all time. The north side, it holds a homeless center for people that uses drugs and has a mental problem. As they say, from my understanding and learning, I believe it's a scam because they get away with crime every day. So what I'm looking for is a way to make Kalamazoo, Michigan better. And it's up to y'all and it's up to all of us that's in this building here tonight, this evening, for all of us to come together and make Calvinism Michigan right. We have the officer, he's in the back. We have people here that want to make it right. We got the solutions. We just got to get everything answered correctly. And the only way to do it is if we come together as a whole community. to make it better. So I'm going to say again, can I get a round of applause for Kalamazoo, Michigan? Y'all keep learning and get better.

Thank you. Next, please.

Hi, my name is Thelma. I'm a lifelong resident of Kalamazoo. I'm for deflocking Kalamazoo. Has nothing to do with the north side. Has everything to do with the country. Mass surveillance is not my thing. I fear nothing. I fear no one. I live on the north side. I can walk out my day and I've never felt safe a day in my life. That young man was 21. It was a camera within two blocks from him. He died. The next day, they put another camera there. They still don't have anyone. So I don't know how the cameras is making anybody safe. That young man died, and he was a half a block away from the camera. But they had it in the wrong location. And until people can learn how to communicate, we don't have to agree. Everybody does not have to feel safe by cameras. Everybody does not have to want cameras. We don't have to agree, but we do have to talk. It's a problem. And every, I can't speak for anybody but me. But it's a problem. And until we can all come together and really put some issues on the table to discuss and to powwow and do what we need to do, every week we'll be back here. Half of us want the cameras, half of us don't. I say deflock, period. Mass surveillance never been my thing. I hate that that mother is grieving this week for her son. I hate that that other young man had to die senselessly. But cameras is not the solution. People, us, working together, that's the only way we're going to get it done. It's not just the north side. Everybody wants to shine a light on the north side, not the north side. It happens everywhere, you know. And until we can get together and actually coming up here talking for a minute, it's not going to resolve anything. Y'all just going to hear about who wants flocks and who bothering who. The issue is that we need to communicate about these flocks. That contract is getting ready to be up in August. That chief, He owe us some answers. The city of Kalamazoo, y'all need to really talk to the people about do they want that plot camera up? It's a contract. Everybody doesn't feel the same way. And it's not just the north side. And I just wish that I agree with Jonathan for the North Side Day, but it takes everybody to come together to talk about real issues. We're not talking about anything. You're listening. No one else is talking. I don't think that's going to help us. And until we can get there, we can do this week after week. I'll show up week after week. I'll say the same thing week after week. Somebody will die week after week. You know, so, and until we can all get together and really, you know, brainstorm and come up with something about the cameras, about the violence. It's just violent. This is a violent city, and it has nothing to do with the north side. You know, so until we can get there, we can do this every week. I'll show up every week.

Thank you. Next, please.

Hi, my name is Lisa Jordan and I live 1422 Woodward. I've been there 30 years. I've never felt unsafe to come out my door. Just Saturday, Interfaith Apartments had a situation with my neighbor house got shot. It was Next door to me, my granddaughter was in the bed and it was her back room on her house that got shot. My biggest complaint is I've been there 30 years and in that time they've had different people on interfaith and we had seniors up front when I purchased my home so that was the reason I didn't have a problem. Right now, they put anybody in the front of those apartments. I'm constantly picking up trash. I'm constantly begging for speed bumps that's been over five years and no one's done anything. Again, I've been there 30 years. I'm not just a new person there. And when it gets as close to my neighbor as a bullet at her home, we need to do something. I feel like the apartment complex need to be gated in. They need to do something with it. It's unfair that I pay taxes, and I have to deal with that. So at this particular time, I'm just asking that this be reevaluated about how the apartment complex can do something to make the 1400 block of Woodward safe, as well as put some speed bumps out there, as well as the fact that I don't plan to move from the north side, and they're not going to push me away. I need them to do something, though. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

My name is Kimberly Hooper. I'm a resident of Kalamazoo. I live on the north side on Woodbury. the cameras which are and we are speaking in reference to i feel that the cameras on my street has been beneficial it has decreased the level of drug activity it has somewhat decreased the activity of the nuisance parties although you have people that really don't too much care about cameras i have cameras around my house i've had my fence tore down I've had my brand new vehicle damaged from people piling up in my driveway, 3, 4, 5, 6 o'clock at night, sitting on my car, in my yard, urinating in my yard, numerous things. My question to some of the people that do have concerns of the cameras being there is, why all of a sudden is it that this camera is of importance? Is it for the right reason? You know, you had cameras around on Westridge and Florence. You had cameras around on Westridge bipolar bears. It never raised this many voices or concerns. So for that camera on Woodbury, it is for our safety. I have a neighbor that's here with me. Her porch has been torn down. We lost vehicles. The County Department of Public Safety has done nothing to aid or assist us with that. We've had to come out of pocket or just take a loss. You know, it makes no sense. If you want to party, you have your own home that you can party at. You have different places that they have that you can party at. Right now in Kalamazoo, there is limited places where you can go socialize with people, have events and different things due to the fact that you have these young kids out here. being vigilantes. But it starts with our kids in our homes. We are responsible for our kids when they get a certain age. Once they get a certain age, they are responsible for themselves. So if they choose to make bad decisions, as somebody stated earlier, don't do the crime if you can't do the time. you know what i'm saying so no whatever the department of public safety is doing to aid and assist us we should be willing to help them if it is to aid and assist us if not then yeah we should stand up as far as those cameras on woodbury it has been a benefit to the people that live on woodbury i'm not speaking for the north side i'm speaking for my street because that's where i live a couple weeks ago Well, probably every time I've had my grandkids here, they come up from Detroit. The last instance, we're in our backyard. We're having a bonfire. My grandson is just standing there in the AM, probably 1 or 2 o'clock in the afternoon. All of a sudden, sounds like somebody standing right beside him shooting a gun. We had to literally take them and throw them in a basement. I had my grandson, who's seven years old, down there up under the stairs with a knife. Scary. They have never witnessed or saw anything like that until they've come to my house to visit. And I don't feel it's right or it's safe. I don't feel like they should have to be introduced to that at my house. It should be just as safe as anyone else's house out in Portage. on the west side, and anywhere else. Now, we had a problem with the nuisance and this and that back out at Target. I've been dealing with the County Department of Public Safety, the passers on patrol, with the gun violence and stuff like this. What I did notice is when they had it out at Target and different places, that has decreased. If not, you don't even hear about it. Why has this not happened on the north side? I've been going through this for over 30 years. Why has this not happened? Is it because it is not of importance, not of concern, or is it because they feel like these businesses are .

Thank you. Next, please.

Hi, my name is Willie Mae Dunnan, and this is my first time being in your meeting. And I have some concerns about where I live at. I live on Woodbury. And my home, I have been dealing with ugliness of people for many years. I've been living there ever since the 70s, early 70s. The home was my mother's at first. My mother left and moved to another state. So I took the house over in the early 90s. And I have been struggling trying to keep things together as a woman and as a mother. And as a person of the neighborhood, I have been through a lot over there and still standing strong. They break me sometimes, but I get back up. You know, it's a struggle. As far as the cameras go, I have no complaint about the cameras. I wish the cameras had been up when the young man was flying down the street at excessively high speed. I don't know if he was showing up for his friends or whatever the case may be, but it was a constant travel up and down the same street until it ended up where he lost control and hit my neighbor's truck sitting in front of his house, came from the front part of the Woodbury, through his yard, clean over to my side, hit my car in my yard, towed my car out, Toward my house, and now my house is, my foundation is cracked from the result of it. Behind that there, I had the big tree to the left of me fall towards my way. And it's been just one thing after another. But I thank God for being with me and keeping me covered under his blood, because it wasn't man blood that had his hands around me and my family. So I would like to see some things change with these parties and things unnecessarily. I have people sitting on my porch at night, late night, My family is not out there. Why are you sitting on my porch enjoying yourself, making my home your home? And that's not right. That's not cool. At least you should respect someone's premises. regardless if you like it or not. If I'm not out there indulging in what you got going on, you don't have no business up in my yard, up on my property, tearing up my yard, tearing up whatever I sit out in my yard. They tearing it all up, tearing the fence down. They just do whatever they feel like doing. I do not like that because my children was not raised up like that. So I find it hard for me to swallow or digest someone else's children from somewhere else coming and tearing up what I'm striving, trying to have for my home. And I'm struggling as is trying to maintain what I got. So it's putting me in a position. I'm already in a position from the young men running to my home. And then when the police make the report, the police make the report as it was the neighbor. The neighbor had insurance. The young man, I guess, didn't have no insurance. I don't know whatever it was. But I know it wasn't like no tag on the car. And the way the police had the report written up, that my neighbor was the one that tore up everything. And he should be responsible for it. He was not the party that did it. But the parties that did it got out the car.

Thank you.

Your time is up.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Shona Espinosa. So, okay, I feel weird even trying to speak about this because that was some real stuff from everybody else. But I'm here to ask this commission as a whole if they will endorse the ESP Bill of Rights. I've reached out to you guys several times over the past year. I know. Thank you, Vice Mayor Drew, for jumping on it and endorsing. So the ESP Bill of Rights is for support staff, for your bus drivers. Oh, and Slaby. Slaby jumped on too. And happy birthday. Parasecretary, bus drivers, the support staff that is in education. We are asking for a thriving wage, good health care, good retirement, a safe place to work, PDs, the things that support staff needs. So we are asking for support. We're asking for people to share and asking people to endorse it to help us get this into law. Because we all know that those that work in education don't get paid enough. They don't get the respect that they need. But I'm asking you all to endorse this before August 4th. as individuals and as a whole. And if you endorse it as a board, it'll pop up on the MEA website and show that everybody that you guys endorsed it. But that's why I came. And thank you.

Thank you. Next please.

One more thing.

I'm gonna give you a postcard. I challenge y'all to fill it out, put a stamp on it and send this to somebody.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who wants to take advantage of public comment? Please come forward.

So I didn't initially intend to come down and visit you guys this evening. I don't know if you remember when we first started talking about data centers. I came and visited and I said, I didn't have a problem.

You want to be heard, you have to talk through the microphone.

Sorry, I'm so short and I kind of bounce around a little. My name is Amanda. I live in a strange mixed use area of Kalamazoo. I live in the block of Burdick. and Lovers Lane and Cork and Kilgore. So you have one residential neighborhood on Burdick on the east side. That's my neighborhood. Do you know how many people I watched walk through that neighborhood today to go to the wooded area that encompasses Mill Pond? 37 people. That's a lot. There was a young man from the north side who spoke about homeless encampments. Does he know that the city has paid almost half a million dollars for Santiago's yearly contract to clean up homeless encampments, curb lawn issues, things like that? Those are things that I think all of the people in this room that have concerns about these encampments that kind of lead into waterways should know. So I personally have filed complaints with the city for the last two years about this area. Do you know how many times I've talked to Mary Miller because I have concerns about weapons? I've handed her weapons out of there, okay? This is also... right across the street from the Michigan disposal site on Cork that's currently being cleaned up for forever chemicals. 308 Cork Street is owned by EA Sargent. It's the two big oil tanks. There were people living in them. Are you aware of that as the city commission? Because they have nowhere else to go. Nowhere. If you walk through that area, because the city owns a southern portion of this, a miscellaneous mystery property who have been trying to track down for two years, owners, anybody, someone to tell them that their property is turning into a literal landfill. There are bottles. There are appliances, propane tanks. Anything you can think of, it's there. And it's not just because people are homeless. It's because they get pushed out of wherever they are. They're homeless for whatever their situation ended up being. They can't, they won't, they don't take their belongings with them when they go. I can't even explain how much money I personally have spent on trash bags to clean up, which is astonishing when we pay a company for this. The parcel in general that I'm talking about right now is 06-34-240-001. It's listed as being owned by Plastics Place LLC. THAT TAX BILL ROLLS UP TO THAT TAX BILL ROLLS UP TO THAT TAX BILL ROLLS UP TO INDIVIDUALS OUT OF NOVI INDIVIDUALS OUT OF NOVI INDIVIDUALS OUT OF NOVI MICHIGAN.

MICHIGAN.

MICHIGAN. I'VE CONTACTED THE CITY OVER I'VE CONTACTED THE CITY OVER I'VE CONTACTED THE CITY OVER AND OVER AND OVER. AND OVER AND OVER. AND OVER AND OVER. NO RESPONSES. NO RESPONSES. NO RESPONSES. NOTHING GETS CLEANED UP. NOTHING GETS CLEANED UP. NOTHING GETS CLEANED UP. IT'S HAZARDOUS. IT'S HAZARDOUS. IT'S HAZARDOUS. THERE ARE LITERAL HUMAN THERE ARE LITERAL HUMAN THERE ARE LITERAL HUMAN FECES BEING I'd had enough. So now, since I've gotten no follow through from the city, I've gone ahead and filed a complaint with Eagle. I called them on a Saturday afternoon, and I hope you hear from them soon.

Thank you. Next, please.

Good evening, Jeff Messer, City Resident. The public can read and respond to tonight's remarks on my blog at messer.substack.com or scan the QR code on your screen. We are asking the City Commission to please direct the City Manager to reopen Arcadia Creek Festival Place to the public until construction work resumes this fall. Arcadia Creek Festival Place has been completely fenced off and closed to the public for over seven months since Tuesday, December 16, 2025. The only exceptions were in June during two weekend festivals, Kalamazoo Pride and Caribbean Festival. The site is scheduled to reopen again on Saturday, September 19 for the Can-Am Peace Jam. The site was fenced because it was going to be renovated this year. However, city staff decided to postpone renovations until after the end of festival season in October. Over the past nearly seven months, the only work on the site has been a few days of environmental testing near the stage and the removal of two metal benches on the southwest corner of the park. At this point, all the fence does is keep people out of the site. During the City Commission business meeting on Monday, June 15, Commissioner Jay Slaby echoed these facts and stated, quote, if we're able to take the fences down for these festivals, then keep the fences down until we engage the rest of the construction phase. I think this is really important to ensure that we're sending the right message to the community that this will continue to be a space where anyone and everyone can gather no matter what. Her second quote echoes the promise that we received from Deputy City Manager Rebecca Kick nearly two and a half years ago on Monday, February 5, 2024. A fence surrounding the park is not part of the plan, Rebecca Kick said Monday. Rather, the intention of the renovation is to make the park an inviting place for everyone in Kalamazoo. This means welcoming for all, all, all, Kick said. Just like Bronson Park or MLK Park, those places are open to the public and that's what this should be. On Monday, January 22, 2024, I was one of eight citizens to stand at this lectern and get $1,650,000 in federal pandemic relief funds removed from the annual budget for Arcadia Creek Festival Place renovations. The City Commission restored these funds on February 19, 2024, with the understanding that the plans do not include fencing in the site. the current fencing of the site breaks the promise we received so city manager hankins a self-described quote servant leader please honor this promise that your deputy made to us and reopen arcadia creek festival place to the public until renovation work resumes this fall otherwise the community will learn that this administration does not keep its promises it cannot be trusted in the future charlotte davis So, the City Commission has City Manager Malcolm Hankins, so-called servant leader, over a barrel right now because it's my understanding that he already signed a contract extension with FLOC without consulting with the City Commission after sitting on that dais for over seven months listening to the vast majority of the people who don't live on the north side speaking against the flock cameras. So I don't know how possibly deaf our new city manager could possibly be, but it's clearly that he's already been compromised by the dark side. Reopening the festival site is one very tiny, small thing that you can do. It's already been reopened twice, reopened and closed twice. It cost the city zero. I think the downtown ambassadors did it. So please show us that you can do something other than sign secret contracts without public input from the people that we elected to represent us and get that festival site open and back up.

Thank you. Thank you. Next, please.

Good evening. I'm Erin. I live right here in Kalamazoo, and happy birthday, Commissioner Slaby. I'm here to talk to you about something very simple that will be fresh in your mind, and that is the Arcadia Creek Festival site and the closure thereof. The site has been closed for, as Mr. Messer has just said, going on seven months, and there has been little, if any, renovations occurring within this fence. At this point in time, there exists no reason for the fence to continue being in its current position, and there's no reason not to remove the fence. Thank you very much, and have a great night.

Thank you.

Next please.

Hey, everyone. Nice to see you again. On the fences, I just got word that people were rushed out of Arcadia that were serving a meal because apparently just being on the other side of the fence is wrong, too. So maybe you guys should investigate that. Oh, he's not here. Fuck him. So on the data centers, like... We already have a data center that's been for sale for almost three or four years. They can't sell. I don't think that we want to put more data centers in our communities, especially our marginalized communities. So I do support at least a one-year moratorium on our data centers. That's all I got. I forgot what I was going to say.

Thank you. Next, please.

Hey, good afternoon, or good evening, Commission. D.I. Paris wanted to address a topic I know a lot of residents came up about earlier on data centers. Been around this district. I'm running for Congress in the fourth congressional district, and we've had proposals pop up all over. Door Township, Gunplain Township, too many to count at this point, but they represent threats to our communities. These large scale facilities that would suck up our water, would affect the air that we breathe and the land that we grow our plants on and where our people play. I've even heard from organizers from around the country, including Marquita Bradshaw, who leads Seeding Justice or Sowing Justice down in Memphis, Tennessee, who's fighting back against the large-scale facility there, Elon Musk facility. They're reporting that no new livestock are being born from farm animals nearby those facilities. We're seeing lawmakers in Lansing pass tax breaks for these facilities, hampering our ability to generate revenue for our local communities. And just nearby in Dowagiac, we saw that they purchased and began rolling out humanoid robots to then staff these facilities. So if we're not able to bring in any revenue, we're not able to provide any jobs, and these facilities are hurting our communities. then really what are these things here for and who are they here to benefit? And so I'd ask commission to please listen to the community as this project is being rolled out or any projects are being presented to you. Luckily, folks are able to make their voices heard before any votes have happened, before any land transfers have been conducted. And so thank you to the citizens for continuing to step up and thank you for commission to listening to the community.

Thank you. Next, please. Anyone else in the chambers wants to take advantage of public comment? That was your last chance. All right. Seeing no one, I want to thank everyone that took the time, made the effort to come down here and express their concerns and comments on the topics of their choice. We are now down to the consent agenda, which is G, Manager Hankins.

Thank you, Mayor. The following items are submitted for approval. G1, approval of a one-year contract extension with Gabriel Roeder Smith and Company for the purchase of actuarial services in the amount of $129,500. G2, approval of a professional services agreement with HDR Michigan Inc. for the City of Kalamazoo water reclamation plant, raw sewage force, main condition assessment in the amount of $135,100. G3, approval of a contract supplemental and change order with Moniform LLC for manhole rehabilitation in the amount of $301,405. G4, approval of a 17-month contract extension with Blue Cleaning for custodial services at various city properties in the amount of $379,650.88 and approval of a budget amendment in the amount of $17,800. G5, approval of a contract with LD Doxa Associates Inc. for Kalamazoo Water Reclamation Plant Secondary Clarifier Catwalk Rehabilitation in the amount of $457,900. Six, approval of a professional services agreement supplemental and change order with Tetra Tech Inc. for the Water Treatment Plant Number 25 Electrical, excuse me, Reliability Project Construction Engineering in the amount of $753,400. G7, approval of a utility easement with Kalamazoo Community Courtyard for water mains installed as part of the Duke Street Apartments Project. G8, approval of the mayor's appointment of Daniel Kastner to the Historic Preservation Commission for a term expiring on March 31st, 2028. G9, first reading of a buy-sell agreement with Parktown LLC for the purchase of 1517 South Park Street in the amount of $605,000.

Thank you very much, Manager Hankin. So commissioners, the requested action is a motion to approve items one through nine and authorize the city manager to sign all related documents on behalf of the city. Is there a motion? Motion. Motion made by Commissioner Wilson. Support. Supported by Commissioner Hess. Clerk Borling, please call the roll.

Commissioner Hoffman.

Yes.

Commissioner Pradel. Yes. Commissioner Slaby. Yes.

Yes.

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

Yes.

Thank you, Commissioners. The items on the consent agenda are approved. Next is the regular agenda, H. First item is H1, Manager Hankins. Thank you, Mayor.

Approval of a professional services agreement with Tetra Tech Inc. for design engineering services for secondary clarifier rehabilitation at the City of Kalamazoo water reclamation plant in the amount of $1,500,000.

Thank you, Manager Hankins. Is there a staff report on this item? No, there is not. Staff is here and available to answer questions. Thank you so much, sir. Commissioners, questions on this particular item for staff? Commissioner Prado, he'll fill in for you.

I'm sure, Mayor. I would love to hear a little bit of background on this project.

Yeah, I was not making light of it, but here, Manager Hankins, Director Baker, thank you. Specific question or just a general question?

Well, it's $11 million plus project. And so this is the engineering work for it and design work. It's my understanding. So I just thought it'd be worth hearing a little bit more about it and why this is necessary now and how it's going to benefit the reliability of our system.

sure uh thank you your honor uh city commissioners a city manager i'd be happy to talk just a little bit about this project so at the kamazoo water reclamation plant there are a series of final clarifiers these are the large circular tanks that help settle out solids towards the end of the pro the end of the process there are four circular final clarifiers that are towards the north end of the treatment plant Those tanks have been in continuous service since 1981. And so this project starts off kind of that design to replace the mechanical elements of those clarifiers and then provide some hydraulic upgrades to those as well. It's going to increase some removal efficiencies within the treatment plant. And then it's also going to just replace those age related mechanical features of those tanks. I'll also note that in your consent agenda and then in some previous city commission agendas, there have been some specific replacement items associated with those tanks that are kind of moving forward of that design. So I'll speak to those real quick. There was the final clarifier launder covers that came before you at a previous commission meeting. And then tonight there were the final clarifier catwalk components. And so those elements are moving forward ahead of the project, but the project will be then focusing on those major mechanical elements and then upgrades to the tanks. For just some perspective, these tanks are very large, over 200 feet in diameter, and so there's a considerable amount of steel and mechanical work that is involved with those tanks themselves.

Thank you, Director Baker. Just as a reminder here that this particular action is professional service agreement. $1.5 million is the cost of this particular action. I just want to make sure there wasn't any confusion on the numbers on that. Any other questions for Director Baker? Commissioner Slate.

Do you have a sense of the timeline once the design phase is done when we would go out to bid for construction?

Certainly, so I would imagine or anticipate that the design is gonna carry on over the next 12 months, give or take, and then we'll probably line up for somewhere around the neighborhood of 2027 into 2028 for construction, and then that construction phase will take probably about three years.

Thank you, Commissioner Flay-Beans. Thank you, Director Baker. Any other questions for Director Baker at this time? All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Seeing no more questions here, is there anyone in the audience who would like to comment on this item? That's item H1. If you want to comment on this item specifically, please come to the podium, give us your name, whether you live in the city, and you'll have three minutes. Seeing no one, commissioners, the recommended action is a motion to approve and authorize the city manager to sign all related documents. Is there a motion?

Motion.

Motion made by Commissioner Slabey. Support. Supported by Vice Mayor Duncan. Discussion, commissioners? Seeing none, Clerk Borling, 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 our regular agenda is item H2, Manager Hankins. Thank you, Mayor.

Approval of a contract with SWT Escavating Inc. for the Burdick Street Emerson to Stockbridge water main replacement project in the amount of $2,577,774. Thank you so much, Manager Hankins. I presume their staff is available for questions, but I assume there's no staff report on this, is that correct? That is correct. All right. Questions, Commissioners?

okay seeing no questions now is the opportunity for anyone here in the chambers to comment on this item this item h2 if you would like to comment please come forward state your name and whether you live in the city you'll have three minutes see no comments uh commissioners the recommended action is a motion to approve and authorize the city manager to sign all related documents. Is there a motion?

Motion.

Motion made by Commissioner Slabey. Support. Supported by Commissioner Pradel. Discussion commissioners?

Seeing none, Clerk Borling, please call the roll. Commissioner Slavy. Yes. Mayor 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. Manager Hankins. Thank you, Mayor.

Approval of a contract with Utility Metering Solutions, LLC. for the 2026 water meter replacement project in the amount of $3,038,791. Thank you, sir.

I presume we're in the same situation where staff can come forward if there are questions. Questions, commissioners? Commissioner Hess.

I need to hear from Director Baker. And I mean, I know you've explained to us the Neptune meters before, but just so everyone knows what we're voting on here, this is over $3 million. If you could give us a little breakdown on the Neptune project, please.

certainly thank you your honor thank you city commissioners i'd be happy to talk a little bit about the smart meter project this is water meters that are in your home and in your business that meter the incoming water that serves you and then that your billing is based upon that so we started a number of years ago a on an initiative to replace water meters with smart meters that work is focused on a lot of what we call attrition. So there's no all new meters or smart meters. If there is a work order on a meter, a smart meters put in. If we're out there are already working in a home such as doing lead service line replacement, we put a new smart meter in place at that time. smart meters utilize a different format to communicate read data to us so all that information comes to us via radio network and does not rely on a meter reader to go door-to-door to collect that information just in terms of numbers we've got about 46 000 meters across our system we're reading meters all the time. We've got 22 billing cycles that are constantly reading meters, calculating usage, sending out bills. It is a component of our department that we've got an entire group of people that work on this stuff. The advantage of a smart meter is that we are in the future then able to get this data quicker, process this data quicker, and then get invoices out to customers quicker. If we can do that in the future, our goal would be to move from a 90-day billing period down to a more sustainable 30-day billing period so that folks could have just a basic monthly water bill and it'd be much easier to manage expenses and you don't have that bill that comes only four times a year that can be high from time to time. So that all being said, all the work that we've been doing to date on this program has got us about 30% complete with the system. What you have in front of you tonight puts about another 12% towards the goal of getting completion, so this will push us well over 40%. This work in your packet tonight in this recommendation is about 5,800 meters. About 5,100 of those meters are those residential sizes. So that five eighths and one inch size.

Thank you, Director Baker. I certainly appreciate that. And I look forward to the day when everyone in Kalamazoo Water System is able to have that monthly water bill. Thank you.

Certainly. That's some goals we're working towards. Thank you, Commissioner. Any other questions for Director Baker at this time? All right, I see none. Thank you, commissioners. Thank you, sir. Thank you. And now is the opportunity for anybody who is here in the chambers who would like to comment on this item, this item H3. Please come forward. You'll have three minutes. State your name and whether you live in the city.

Ray Sweeney here again. I'm so delighted in this monthly billing, and I hope that you would speed people. If there's a shutoff notice for the water service, move those people onto a smart meter so that they can get the monthly billing and perhaps avoid the shutoff. Most of the people with shutoffs are with consumers. But every once in a while at First United Methodist Church, we had people coming in with a water shutoff. So go for it.

Thank you, sir. And just as you brought that up, I just want to remind people. Are you coming up to comment on this item also?

OK. My name is Joe Williams. I just want to thank you for the upgrades that y'all been upgrading in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I just got a question to ask. With the Conservice Utility Services bill, is that the same service as Consumers Energy? So when paying both, is that correct or incorrect?

The water bill is separate from your gas and electric bill. Water bill comes from the city.

OK. See, I'm being charged for energy for consumers and conserves. I'm paying both utility companies. And I'm learning now today that you're upgrading. So I'm learning. I don't know. I've just been told that I'm not supposed to pay two energy services. I don't pay for water, but I pay for energy for HVAC. So the HVAC is charging me for heating and air conditioning, and then consumers is charging me for utilities and sockets. So I'm paying both services. Is that correct? Okay, well, I just want to thank Kalamazoo, Michigan for upgrading and making Kalamazoo, Michigan a better place. Keep getting better. Thank y'all. Thank you.

Anyone else in the chambers want to comment on this item?

Keep doing good.

Just a reminder, and I know that you know this about a water shutoff, but there is a very robust program that is available to people who are concerned about having their water shut off. If you get the bill and you feel like, hey, I don't even want to open it because I'm concerned of what's going to be inside, printed right on the envelope that says, do you need help paying your water bill? Open the bill up and you'll see how that is available. I want to give a a lot of credit to our utilities department for making sure that program is in place seeing that there's no more comments commissioners the recommended action is a motion to approve and authorize the city manager to sign all related documents is there a motion motion support motion made by commissioner slaby supported by commissioner hoffman discussion commissioners Seeing none, quirk boiling, please call the roll.

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

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

Thank you, Mayor. Approval of the contract with L.D. Doxa Associates Indy, Inc. for the Treatment Plant No. 25 Electrical Reliability Project Any amount of eleven million two hundred and twenty seven thousand dollars.

Thank you, sir I presume we're available for questions other questions on this item Commissioner cradle question.

Yeah. Thank you Mary I apologize to director breaker when I wrote down my notes I mixed the two items with H1 and h4 whatever but I do have a couple questions about about h4 and I was hoping that you could stay up here cuz I didn't I knew you were gonna go back there again There's with eleven million dollar. Yes. Thank you My apologies. I was wondering before we get started, would you mind just, for Mr. Williams who came to speak, would you mind just kind of sharing the different types of meters that might be at folks' household and what this particular type of meter is tracking? Sure. I'm sorry, from H3.

I'd certainly be happy to backtrack into that just really quick, just for some general knowledge. Our homes in Kalamazoo that may be served by the electric utility and a gas utility, that's consumer's energy, you'll have a gas meter outside your home if your home is connected to the gas system, natural gas system. That natural gas is commonly the source, fuel source for cooking for your stove and heat via your furnace. And you get a bill from that from Consumers Energy. If your home is served by electric service, which most all homes are, that was the electric wires that come into your home. The electric wires also power your furnace and they would also power your AC unit. So our heating, ventilation and air conditioning does utilize both natural gas in the winter and it also utilizes electricity. And so those items all together kind of create that bill from Consumers Energy. And so usually on your Consumers Energy bill, you'll see a line item for natural gas and there's some details on that and then some line items for and there's a lot of details on that. Separate from those bills or that bill would be your bill from the City of Kalamazoo for water and wastewater or water and sewer service and that is from your water meter and that water meter is probably in your basement. If it's not in your basement, it may be located outside of your house.

Thank you. Okay, so to H4. So $11.2 million for this project. This is plant number 25. It's a motor control area and center with electronic controls. It's described as effectively obsolete because it's from 1978. Can you speak at what's at risk without making these upgrades. I know it also speaks a little bit to how there were, what does it say here? It says wiring to wells 25-1 and 25-5 had already failed. And so I think that'd be helpful for people to understand like what's at risk, why that's important. And then another component, if you could talk a little bit about this, I remember on some instances we've been pretty stressed out in situations where we have standby generators or don't have the ability to have redundancies in place if for some reason we have like massive power outages and whatnot. I see as part of this as well, it's part of a partially a conversion as well to a natural gas powered backup generator for that as well. So I was wondering if you could speak to those things.

Sure, I'd be happy to do so. As I start out, I just want to give some general overview of what Station 25 is and where it's located. Station 25 is one of many drinking water treatment plants that's located out in Comstock Township on H Avenue. And that is the primary source of drinking water for NEARLY ALL OF COMSAC TOWNSHIP, NEARLY ALL OF RICHLAND TOWNSHIP, AND PORTIONS OF KALAMAZOO TOWNSHIP, AND THAT WATER ALSO COMES INTO THE CITY OF KALAMAZOO AS WELL. SO IT'S A VERY LARGE DISTRICT THAT THAT STATION PROVIDES DRINKING WATER FOR. That station is one of our baseload stations, so that station's running 24-7, and when it satisfies the water demands of those areas and those townships that I mentioned, that water is then routed into other pressure districts all surrounding our district. All told, we serve 11 municipalities in drinking water, and so it's really important for us to have stations that are reliable and that stations that work and we can move that water around. station 25 was built in 1978 so all those mechanicals those electrical components that drive those motors that turn on those pumps and those systems and transfer those motors back and forth all that stuff was built at that time we've had a few pump replacements over the years but those major control centers those motor control centers all date back TO THE LATE 70S. ONE OF THE THINGS THAT WE NEED OUR STATIONS TO BE ABLE TO PERFORM RELIABLY FROM A RESILIENCY STANDPOINT IS OUR ABILITY TO REMOTE OPERATE THEM AND FOR THEM TO BE AUTOMATED, ESPECIALLY WHEN WE'RE TALKING ABOUT OUR OPTIMIZED CORROSION CONTROL PROGRAM. SO WE'VE OPTIMIZED The chemicals that we're using in corrosion control, specifically phosphates, we've optimized that blend and we're optimizing how we feed that blend in. So we're actually metering the flow out of the station and then we're pacing that flow kind of up and down across into higher hydraulic range of that station. So having updated motors, motor controls really enables us to do that. And then also speaking about the reliability and then the the emergency generator. We're seeing more and more storms, whether it's winter storms, ice storms, tornadoes. We've had a tornado in the city of Portage. We've had some near tornadoes kind of come through Kalamazoo. Even this year, we've had a very, very active storm season. We have thunderstorms that come through Kalamazoo and take out 30 45, 60 trees at a time. And so if this station loses power, we've got to immediately put that station on a generator. The generator that's out there right now is diesel powered. Having a diesel powered generator in a well field gives us a lot of concerns. It gives us a lot of concerns when we talk about wellhead protection and how this would be against our own ordinance to have diesel fuel out at a station. Additionally to that, because of that outdated motor control center, that generator is not able to run all the pumps or all the stations. So we need to update the motor control center and we need to update the generator to be able to run all the stations and provide those resources. And of course, getting away from diesel and going on to natural gas is going to be a step in the right direction, certainly for wellhead protection as well as reliability.

If I understand correctly as well, a lot of the electrical components are in areas where there's pipes and like pumps and those sort of things, which causes a lot of moisture and whatnot. So that's going to be like kind of segregated from where it is currently. So what is that going to require to kind of separate that into a separate space?

Sure. So we're updating and building things in accordance with 2026 electrical standards. There's been a lot of upgrades and new knowledge in this field from the 70s. So we're now relocating those electrical components to MCC Center in kind of an offsite building. That generator is going to be a standalone unit away from that house itself. So there's going to be a few outbuildings that will house different electrical components to make sure we're complying with arc flash safety. That's another component of this as well as worker safety, making sure that we've got OSHA compliant fixtures and electrical components, and then making sure that we're building them in a way that's compliant with modern design standards.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Prado. Other questions, commissioners? Once again, thank you, Director Baker. Appreciate it. Thank you. With no more questions, is there anyone here in the chambers like to comment on this item? It's item H4. If so, please come forward, state your name, whether you live in a city, and you'll have three minutes. Seeing no one, commissioners, the recommended action is a motion to approve and authorize the city manager to sign all related documents. Is there a motion?

Motion.

Motion made by Commissioner Slabey. Support. Supported by Commissioner Pradel. Discussion, commissioners.

I see no discussion. 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 on the agenda is item H5, City Manager Hankins. Thank you, Mayor.

Approval of a settlement agreement with the federal and state cases, both titled Dirk Adam versus City of Kalamazoo in the amount of $125,000. Thank you, sir.

Are we intending to have a staff report on this item?

I would defer to Attorney Leal.

I can just give a brief overview, Mayor, Commissioners. Earlier this afternoon during the CAL, the City Commission met with outside counsel regarding the pending litigation which involves these two lawsuits, one in federal court and one in state court. You were fully briefed by outside counsel as to a proposed settlement agreement that was agreed to by both tentatively agreed to by both parties subject to the approval of the City Commission. The settlement came about from a federal district court ordered facilitated mediation with an outside mediator. The mediator was able to during the mediation to bring the parties from the two opposite ends of the financial spectrum to come together and settle on a proposed settlement of $125,000. With that, that would bring finality to both the federal and state cases, and it would also involve no liability admission on the part of the city. and the city would also obtain a release of all claims which prevent any similar type of lawsuits brought by Mr. Adam against the city arising out of these same facts in this underlying lawsuit. Just in general, this lawsuit was an employment disability discrimination case. Thank you, Attorney Leal.

Commissioners, any questions on this of Attorney Leal? All right, seeing none, is there anyone in the audience who would like to comment on this item? This is now item H5. It was added, it wasn't originally in the printed agenda. If you want to comment on H5, please come forward, give us your name, whether you live in the city, you'll have three minutes. Seeing no comments, Commissioners, the recommended action is a motion to approve, and I presume we will be authorizing the city manager to sign all related documents. Is that accurate, Attorney Leal? That is correct. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Motion made by Commissioner Hoffman.

Support.

Supported by Commissioner Hess. Any discussion, Commissioners?

Seeing none, Clerk Borling, please call the roll. Mayor Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Hess. Yes. Commissioner Hoffman. Yes. Commissioner Pradel. Yes. Commissioner Slaby.

Yes.

Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice Mayor Duncan.

yes thank you commissioners the motion passes we are now down to reports and legislation manager hankins thank you mayor you have before you commissioners the report that i provide each commission meeting i'll just highlight a couple of things and leave the rest of the report to speak for itself the budget process for staff and for the city has begun internally We are going through our evaluation of potential projects. One thing of note that I've shared is that we are attempting to usher in more engagement with the community in our budget process. So we have put forth a community meeting that we will have as part of the budget process as one element of how we factor in feedback in our budget process. I've also asked staff to be intentional about identifying opportunities to view our services through an equity lens. So I wanted to make sure that I highlighted that for you all. Another item that will be coming your way that you'll see coming forward is we have staff who have expressed interest and aligned with my interest in having a residence academy. So we are working internally to create an environment where the community can come into the city and get a look at how things are done, understand how services are delivered, as well as understanding how we operate. My hope is that that helps to build some understanding about government and operations and governance, and also helps to give some opportunity for people in our community to have dialogue with staff and us in a more informal setting. So those are my updates for tonight.

Thank you so much, very helpful. I appreciate you highlighting those items. So it is not always the case, but tonight we do have a couple more items. One will be under K, policy items, and the other one is under L, new business. Neither one of these are action items for this evening. So this is opportunity for discussion and both items were requested to go on the agenda by Vice Mayor Duncan. So now we're down to K policy item. This is a discussion regarding call in public comments and I'll defer to you Vice Mayor Duncan.

Thank you, Mayor. One, I want to thank my colleagues for entertaining this. As I have recently been elected, we've heard a lot on the campaign trail and as I've been elected on the dais about how accessibility to these meetings is an issue. And I wanna make sure that we are doing everything we can as an elected body to engage with the public in every way that we can. And while during the unfortunateness of COVID, we had an opportunity for people to call in. And so we went away from that once people were able to take the mask off and shake hands again, but there is still use in the ability to be able to virtually call in and speak to us and engage in conversation with this commission. So I asked for this to be brought up. I've separately had conversations with some of you about my wishes to bring this on. And I'm really, really excited about the collaboration that we can create around bringing this back for the community. So tonight, my only discussion is I move that the city commission, that's us, direct city attorney in concert with the city manager to prepare alternative amendments to the rules and procedures concerning public comment. The alternative should include options regarding the duration of individual public comments, opportunities for remote participation through call-in technology, and the placement of general comment on the meeting agenda, together with any related procedural changes necessary to implement these options. I want to also note that the city clerk, city manager, and city attorney should also identify legal and operational considerations on public engagement associated with each alternative and return them to the city commission for a vote. Do I have a second?

So if we do take action which I had suggested this was not necessarily an action item I'm not certain if it needs to be actually an action item to ask our city manager to come back so I'm not sure where we're gonna go with that. I mean, do you definitely want it to be an action item? Is that your desire?

City Attorney, can you add some clarity?

I actually had a question about the list that you gave and how this actually comes back before you, but I can reserve that. You wanted the question, can you repeat the question?

Yeah, I am moving that we direct our city manager along with our clerk, city attorney to work together to bring back options to us on reinstalling public comment to the city commission.

Okay.

And in that, considering the operational and legal ramifications of public engagement,

So I think the question was, do we need to actually take action to have them come back with the option?

That is my question, not related to the discussion of the wording itself. Is that a necessary step to ask our city attorney that very same thing?

You can do that. Usually you'll do that when there might be a few members on the commission who may not want to go in that direction. Usually you can do it just by... Assent me if everybody's okay with that, then we would bring it back. Otherwise you can take a vote.

It's it's Yeah, okay, well there's a motion made I guess the next step would be whether there's support for that motion before we get into discussion, correct? That is correct. That's the route you want to go? Yes. Okay, so is there support?

Just to clarify, you just made a motion for us to move forward with city manager, city clerk, and city attorney to make options. Okay. Support.

Okay. Discussion?

Commissioner Prado. I think this is somewhat implied in the language, but I just want to double check with you and kind of go check with you a couple questions I had that might be worth considering with this. So one of them was just the inconsistencies on boards and commissions. So right now, as far as I know, it might be one other one, but I know certainly because I'm liaison to the planning commission, planning commission does have calls on Collins right now. But as far as I know, there is no other border commission that does ECC. Okay. Are you aware of any other ones? And the CRB. Okay. CRB. So we know of three bodies out of almost 20 entities that, so maybe three or four, but it would be interesting to know what inventory, like who does that and who doesn't and figuring out a consistent plan on how to address that. Because it just seems a little bit off to me that some offer some don't. Um, uh, the other thing I was going to ask as well is just, um, and I would imagine this probably falls under the maybe like legal considerations, but we encountered this in 2020, but just proactively addressing how to make decisions across the line between first amendment rights and things like hate speech and those sorts of things that could come up and how to mitigate those kinds of situations, because we were dealing with those kinds of situations in the moment when it was happening and it was tricky to work on those as well. The other thing I'd be curious as well is just in terms of staff implementation. When we were doing that in the one or two years during COVID, it was the IT department that was exclusively, which is a pretty lean team as it is. And so I wonder if there's a way that we can make sure that it's not on the burden of just one department that's already spread pretty thin to make that happen. Let me make sure I didn't forget anything.

Yeah, I think that's it, yeah. Thank you, Commissioner Prado. Commissioner Hess.

Thank you. And also, I wonder if, I don't know if our clerk and our city manager and city attorney would have conversation about this, but is there a rule that you have to be physically in attendance? But then also, can we have comments on general agenda items only? regular agenda items only rather than just general public comment. Is that something that we can look at? General public comment can be made to us in several ways and we get it throughout the weeks. We get it on email. We get it via 311. People can reach commission to have us bring up information or items on our agenda. But I'm wondering if we could make it or think about it being just comments on regular agenda items.

Commissioner Slaby.

Yeah, so I am in full support in bringing the call-in back. I think that is an opportunity to make sure that these meetings are accessible for anyone to participate, especially those that are homebound. Not beyond just making accommodations here, but there are just people that simply cannot leave their home. And while I understand that there's opportunities to reach out to us prior to the city commission meeting via email or by phone or another way, there's value in in meeting in real time to discuss the matter, which is why we conduct our business in real time together in one physical space. There's opportunities for people to hear things being presented to them that they did not hear before the commission meeting, right? And that would maybe inform them or prompt them to ask different questions than they might put in an email or other type of communication prior to the commission meeting. I would just, I think, lift up that we had small group meetings about this very topic, and I would hope that that time didn't go to waste because I think, at least for my small group meeting with Commissioner Hess, I thought there was ample discussion on the topic, a lot of different things brought up. Some of the similar questions Commissioner Prado brought up were brought up in our small discussion, and so I would have hoped to maybe... have received some of that information back more timely so that, you know, bringing this on our agenda today, we would have already had that information versus kind of waiting, I think now over a month to just even bring it back up as a topic to then get us to have options. So I'd love maybe, you know, in a weekly email, City Manager Hankins, more clarification on small group meetings process because i want to be able to make sure like we just had all these uh conversations about this with some of these questions asked it would have been great if we could have saved time to have those answered so that we can have i think a better discussion tonight about what we're trying to do here i will say that i think that we do need to explore of the logistics of rolling this out for a city commission meeting in terms of how long public comments are by bringing back in the phones I think we need to think about the order of public comments to be able to streamline our meetings even more so. And I do think that there's opportunities for us to hear, especially from our city clerk, in terms of how we wanna roll these out consistently across our boards. So I do think it's important that some of our boards have it, some of them don't. We used to, we got rid of it at a city commission level at some point. And so if we wanna bring it back at the city commission level, What does that look like for anybody that wants to participate in any of our variety of public appointed committees or boards moving forward?

Thank you, Commissioner Slaby. So I just want to remind everybody, we're not voting on starting it tonight. So I get your support of it, and that's fantastic, but we're just asking our city team to look at it and come back. And there's another thing I just want to caution, and I don't want to be, maybe I'm over-cautious about this as it relates, and Attorney Leal can weigh in on it, but I really, I'm very cautious about the idea of that there's kind of this deliberation that occurs offsite in small groups that isn't shared more broadly in small groups, which then could be, in my opinion, a violation of the Open Meetings Act. You're having small groups and you're saying, oh, this group thinks this, this group thinks that. So I'm just going to say out of a preponderance of caution for my part, relative to your comments about, well, you maybe could have addressed this, I think it's better for the deliberations to happen here in public. you know, rather than kind of maybe that more circuitous route that you described.

So that's just... Just to clarify, I agree. What I'm saying is we had these small group meetings a month ago and we never really heard back on the subject at all. So I would have loved whether it was like a summary of some of the small groups via email or just something on the agenda more timely than having Vice Mayor prompt us to have this on the agenda now without any follow-up. Because just to my point is like, why do we have these small group meetings? What is the point of a small group meeting to discuss this topic if then it doesn't get put on the agenda in a timely manner for us to then deliberate in public. Cause I absolutely agree. It's just like, it takes way too long. And then it feels like we just had a small group meeting to have a small group meeting and it didn't go anywhere. There was no communication afterwards to let anyone know on the commission what would come from the small group meeting. So I appreciate Vice Mayor Duncan for prompting this to be a topic of a discussion today, you know, in July. And so I think that that's what I'm trying to say. I'm not trying to say that we should have had additional small group meetings, et cetera. What I'm saying is I don't see why we have a small group meeting and then nothing comes out of it so that we can then deliberate outside of one city commissioner trying to get us to talk about it finally.

Thank you, Commissioner Slabey. So I guess we can set that topic aside, but for now we have a motion on the floor and that motion is seconded. Which I think is, is that motion clear enough to those who are being directed to do the work?

Absolutely. I think Vice Mayor laid out what staff really needs from this entire commission, which is clarity on what you'd like us to look at, the extent to which you want us to look at it. And I think I've got enough direction after hearing that motion. So appreciate it.

Thank you, Manager Hankins. Any other discussion, Commissioners? Commissioner Slaby.

Well, just to make sure that the options that come back are things that either reflect what has been asked here or been asked in these small group meetings. Is there anything that we can do as a commission for city staff, city manager Hankins to ensure that all of our questions are answered? Is that something that you want us to individually email you additional items or thoughts that we have on this topic?

Absolutely, I'll accept any communication you'd like to share with me. If you have comments that were not stated here, please send those to me.

Right, and it would be important for us to see you, city attorney and the city clerk, on this matter.

Absolutely.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Slaby. Any other discussion? Now is an opportunity for anyone who is here in the chambers to comment on this item. If you want to comment on this item, it is now, it is item K1. Please come forward. You'll have three minutes. Please state your name and whether you live in a city.

thank you vice mayor for bringing that up i really think everybody should have a voice you have some people that are handicapped you have some people that don't drive you know they can't get here so it's very important if you really really want to hear everybody's voice and you really want to get the community involved you need to bring back public call-ins so everybody has that chance I mean, yes, it does make the meeting last longer. But then you get to hear from every single resident that wants to speak. Maybe not everybody doesn't want to. But you still have those that do. I've seen them come down here in crutches, in wheelchairs, in braces, just trying to get in here to speak up on their concerns. And this would give them a chance to speak. Thank you. Thank you. Next, please.

Hello again, Iris Potter. We did it before. We didn't do it during COVID and we didn't bring it back.

We've done it before.

I think that everybody does deserve a chance to be heard. I also think that it should be general public comments. We shouldn't limit phone call comments to agenda items. and i do think that we need to do it across the board for all commissions and boards because it's it is not even at all so i urge you to do this on a timeline as well because sometimes things just sit and there are important things that need to be done and i think this is important so if it can be done in a timely manner and all this information gathered by the city manager and brought back for a vote. I would really appreciate that and I think a lot of other people would too. So let's get it done. Thanks.

Thank you. Next please.

This is something that's really important for our community. All our voices matter. And when you don't give us the tools to be able to access them to show that our voices matter, then that's just showing how ineffective this board can be. Like to me, it sounds like you got certain one of you guys, certain ones of you guys are okay with silencing voices. We have so many people that are outside that we have so many people that are disabled or those that can't come out the house or those that work multiple jobs, those that have kids. There's so many reasons why people cannot be here and it's not accessible to them. They need to have their voice heard as well as anybody else that is here. I wasn't here when y'all had the last one. Why? Because I was in a conference in a totally different state. I wanted to call. I wanted to come, but I couldn't because there's no calling option. So you need to realize that everybody has a voice and they all should be heard.

Thank you. Next, please.

Good evening. Jeff Messer, city resident. Commissioner Slaby and Vice Mayor Duncan, you weren't here when call-in comments were discontinued, but you won't guess which meeting that was. It was that late January 2024 meeting where we got that $1.65 million in funding for the festival site taken off. I didn't mention earlier that we did get two no votes on putting that money back in. It was Dr. Cooney and Commissioner Hoffman. Yeah, the call-in comments, I think really the only opposition to it is probably from the commission. Some of you don't want to stay here all that late or the public wants it. There's like no doubt about it. The public wants it. The last few times we had Iris, that last meeting, I think Iris was one of the ones who called and one of our eight people. who got that $1.65 million taken out of the budget. So yeah, the last few times that the public comment was via the phone, it wasn't used that much. So if the commission is afraid that the meetings are going to go too long, I wouldn't be afraid of it. It wasn't really used a whole lot, but I do appreciate that there are people who are homebound who do need this option. We hadn't realized that before the pandemic, so we learned. I will point out that the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners still does have remote participation. People can participate via Zoom. I've never seen anyone using it, but it's available. The Kalamazoo Public Library, this public can participate via Microsoft Teams in their meetings. So the Kalamazoo City Commission is kind of behind what the Kalamazoo Public Library and Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners is doing. So that's about it. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else in the chambers? Yes, please come forward.

Good evening. I'm Erin. I live here in Kalamazoo. Thank you, Vice Mayor Duncan, for bringing this up tonight. I think there is nothing but good that can come from opening the floor to more voices and making it accessible for more voices in a higher percentage of our community.

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

Good evening again. Thank you, Vice Mayor, for bringing this up. I just want to say, as others have said, that I am in full support of phone calls for public comments coming back. I wanted to go on record that, again, this is leaning in, and I'm echoing what folks have said, leaning into accessibility. And then it's also leaning into inclusion and equity. And so again, equity, you all, is not sameness. Equity is ensuring, if you're using an equity lens, allowing, empowering community members to have what they need. And you all are talking about different options for them to be able to lean in, to have a voice, to be able to lift whatever concerns or whatever that they want to lift. I want to echo again, and this is something that even as an organization we have seen, should we have a Zoom meeting or should we be in person? And when I hear from individuals saying, you know what, I can't be there in person, As a family, an Isaac family, let's have this on Zoom then. So again, really making sure that everybody is included. And I'm not saying go back to Zoom meetings, but I'm saying have different options. Because as it's been lifted, people have family obligations. They have different work schedules. They have health concerns that they're dealing with. And we want to make sure that everybody can lift their voice. This would be a beautiful opportunity to remind a community of Kalamazoo, our family members, that their voices really matter. They don't have to come in chambers, but they can call and they can have their voice heard by you all. So thank you again.

Thank you. Next please.

Yes, my name is Matt Griffith, and I live in the city. I would also just like to echo that I think it is a good accessibility thing for people to be able to call in. I know that earlier today I was talking with another organizer about coming and giving public comment, and unfortunately they were at work, but they had mentioned, oh, maybe they would call in, but unfortunately that isn't available to them. I know I personally, I work at Meijer as a team member, and I typically work 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., And it would be nice if I could take my break and call in and tell you guys what I'm worried about and what I would like to see you guys do while I'm doing things for the community of making sure shelves are stocked and things like that, but I could still interact.

Thank you. Thank you. Next, please. One more call? Anyone else want to comment on this item? Thank you so much for everyone who commented on this item. So the comment time is closed.

Clerk Borling, please call the roll. Commissioner Hess. I'm sorry. Do you want to have more discussion on it? Thank you, Clerk Brown. Commissioner Hess. Yes. Commissioner Hoffman.

Yes.

Commissioner Prado. Yes. Commissioner Slaby.

Yes.

Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice Mayor Duncan. Yes. Mayor Anderson. Yes. Thank you, Commissioners.

The motion passes. Now we are down to new business. One item under new business, a discussion regarding a moratorium on data centers. Vice Mayor Duncan. It's me again, y'all.

OK, so yet another item that we have all heard very loud and clear from the community on. But not just that. If you have not been living under a rock, you are seeing what is happening across the country with data centers. When they go in, prices of electricity go up. Residents are affected. We live in the great state of Michigan, where we have close to 10% of the world's clean water. And we have not just an opportunity, but a mandate on us to protect our lakes, our streams, and our rivers. And when I look at what is happening, even with closed system data centers, they are right now a danger to the environment. And so until we know more about what is happening, and unfortunately other communities will have to be the guinea pig, I am proposing that we put a check into the legalities of a two year moratorium on data centers in the city of Kalamazoo.

So just for clarity, we're discussing, we making motions.

We're not making a motion. I am asking, I just want it to be on the record. I know that we have to give direction to our city attorney in order to get information back. And I would love for us to get some language around the moratorium and the legalities of how long we could extend a possible moratorium date.

Okay. Please. So basically a crest from our city attorney, do some research on that. possibly come back with some proposed language, what we could do and what's allowed, right? Yes, Mayor. Okay. I was gonna say, is there any opposition to asking our city attorney to do that? I'm seeing that doesn't look like there's any opposition. Attorney Leal, do you have a question?

No, Your Honor. I would be happy to explain. I mean, I was prepared tonight to do that, but we can do it in a more of a Cal setting where we can actually explain how moratoriums operate. There's been some statements made in public comment in this meeting and previous meetings that are not really part of a moratorium, so I just want to make sure that everybody understands what a moratorium is, and I'll be happy to do that at a future Cal presentation so that it can be recorded.

Vice Mayor Duncan. Follow up. How long would that presentation be?

If you're just wanting just what moratoriums are, how they operate in this context, and just the overview, that shouldn't take long. I think a lot of it will be the questions involved in moratoriums. I mean, they're very simple. The city has done them in the past. I think as Christina Anderson told me that this commission did it as part of the marijuana licensing scheme establishment that you had enacted in the moratorium. It's a temporary pause in receiving applications. That's all it basically is, while you study the issue and come up with reasonable regulations to address that issue. And that's what it is. And so they're limited in duration. US Supreme Court has actually set up set forth how they operate and what the durations should be. So I'll be happy to explain that in a cow and should take maybe my presentation 15-20 minutes.

Okay. Thank you. Cause I was going to say, if you suit it up, let's hear it. So I would love to hear at our next city commission meeting at our cow information about moratoriums, that language and the legalities where the state and federal allows us to do. I want to know everything in every tool that we have at our disposal to help our community.

Does that work for you, Attorney Leo?

Yes, sir. Okay, appreciate it so much.

Okay, we're set on that then. Plus someone else wants to make more comments. Mayor.

Yeah. Can I share something as well? I mean, I think just the fact that there is as much how much attention came from just the speculation of a potential data center should say where public sentiment is. I think also just if you look at the jurisdictions within Kalamazoo County, there have been everything from the most recent Texas township, which was like June 26 to, you know, Kalamazoo Township, just even like passing consideration of studying a moratorium. And so, so far it's in Texas Township, Kalamazoo Township, City of Portage, Ashtamo Township, Pavilion Townships in some capacity or another. I think the thing that would be interesting, city attorney, as you're looking at things is that I've noticed like looking through what other jurisdictions have done, some have been, have gone as far as saying and spelling out data centers, cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, and even battery storage. And I don't know if it would be worth just examining or having a moratorium for those class of type facilities. So I just wanted to lift that up as well.

I was gonna give Commissioner Slabey a chance next. And then you, Vice Mayor? Okay.

Well, I just wanted to add, I know that we haven't had an update in quite a while about our master plan process, but I think because we are undergoing that, this will be very timely as something that will be very impactful to us as a community to be able to pause and explore through a moratorium the impact of a hyperscale or any data center in our community and that we can then address that within our master plan and other ordinances we might have. I would wanna see within this presentation to Vice Mayor's point about the different tools that we have at our disposal, particularly around zoning. Right now, what I understand is data centers are already zoned in M2 as a permitted use. And I think it would be great that through this moratorium, we are actually productive instead of just using this to delay and kick the can down the road, but actively look at, you know, how we can potentially, what would it look like if instead of a permitted use, we set it as a special use based on, I think, the... significant impact that data centers have had on their communities across the nation, I think that that would be important for us to weigh in the zoning regulations that we apply beyond just what we already have existing. So I just want to make sure that that is part of the conversation moving forward if we do decide to move forward with the moratorium.

Thank you, Commissioner Slabey. Vice Chair Duncan. Commissioner Prado.

Something I forgot to mention before as well as I think like out of all those areas that I listed off before as well, I mean, in terms of consideration of a data center going here in the city of Kalamazoo, we're far more dense than those places. We are much more landlocked and we have far less developed land. So, you know, the onerous on us to be thoughtful about what remaining land is available to develop is crucial. and especially as we're considering things like housing and those sort of things that we're gonna need land to consider in the future. So those were just some things I wanted to lift up as well.

Thank you again, Commissioner Prado. So obviously a moratorium is a tool that can be used for a variety of things. You know, talking about citing commercial facilities related to marijuana business is something that we did in time past. I just want to recognize that Commissioner Prado did also mention not just data centers, but the battery, the best sites as well. So I know that tool, moratorium, could be used there. Those tend to be smaller installations rather than the data centers, but So I don't know if that's just something you need to in any way think about when I on this topic I can certainly do that mayor I was just trying to in the scope.

I mean we started from just what a moratorium and how that while they function what's what are the Necessary requirements to put in a moratorium and what it does I've seen the discussion flow into more of with planning staff would study and look at and may try to determine whether a better zoning classification or zoning permitting process might be better or other types of issues like crypto mining, best storage sites, And so we're venturing into more into the weeds from the original discussion. So that 15 minutes, I think that is probably a discussion that would have to come back at regular intervals by staff to give you that information to do that presentation. I'm not a planner. I know a lot about land use and planning, but I'm not a planner, and I would have to rely on the planners to help me with that kind of stuff.

I think everyone's comfortable with that. Tell me if I'm misrepresenting this, but start with the moratorium, and then there will be details to work out related to zoning, planning, and so on, which will require other expertise.

Manager Hankins? Thank you, Mayor, if you would. I see this as the step you just described. If you have a moratorium, the time we would use for that moratorium would be to get that information, answer those questions, so that you would actually have what you would need to make a decision about process down the line. Okay with that.

All right. So there's not a motion all right, so we're set on that I think there's understanding there, so Next on our agenda is Commissioner comments are there commissioners that like to make comments this evening It's looking like There are no additional comments mayor am I missing something there I

I'll go first.

Okay. Is that what it is? It's an order thing? Okay. Who wants to go first?

I'll go first.

Thank you, Commissioner Hess.

Unless Drew, unless you'd like to go first. Okay. So, hey, today at 3 p.m., and it should be on your local news channels as well at 11, we had the official groundbreaking for Kalamazoo Avenue for that two-way construction and all of the water infrastructure and infrastructure that is going to make downtown a more desirable location. And so this is in the intent of leaving it better than we found it. And so like tonight, just tonight, we voted for over $15 million in upgrades to our city's water infrastructure. And this kind of stuff is important. And I just, yes, it's a lot of money, but this takes people and it takes patience and ultimately a whole lot of kindness. So as a taxpayer, I'm really grateful to all the people who do that work, who oversee these systems and who have an eye on the systems for their for their functioning, for their well-being, and for being so forward-facing. So tonight, we all voted for our future. We voted for the future of Kalamazoo. So thank you for that commission. I want to thank Marvinetta Woodley Penn. I don't know if you know Marvinetta. She's a citizen here, a local citizen here. She's got a podcast, but she brought the movie Natchez to Kalamazoo, and I was blessed to see it last week with a talk back that had... Dr. Candy McCorkle was one of the panelists. Dr. Sally Haddon, a professor in the Department of History at Western Michigan University, and Dr. Karika Parker were there. And from all the folks that were at the Arcus Center that night, there was a wonderful, wonderful, Drew was there. It was a wonderful conversation and raised a lot of awareness. There are three more screenings in Kalamazoo, Thursday, July 23rd, and Friday, July 24th at the Dormouse Theater. Friday, July 24th at the Portage Zang Senior Center and Thursday, July 30th at the KP Cinema downtown. You can get more information on Natchez in Kalamazoo, that's N-A-T-C-H-E-Z in Kalamazoo on Facebook. And it really does address a lot of issues on history, a lot of issues on race, and critical conversations that can be had here in Kalamazoo. And I want to thank Marvanetta for doing that. And then lastly, there's a few community opportunities available with our regular Friday lunchtime lives, Fridays from 1 to 1130 to 1, over here in Bronson Park where you can meet with your neighbors, have some food, and enjoy some entertainment. But then this Saturday, July 25th, from 10 to 1, as we normally do each quarter, Styrofoam Dental products, electronics, and paper shredders will be available at Mayors Riverfront Park, and please do that for your environment. And then we won't meet again before National Night Out on August 4th, so those dates will be made publicly available soon. They'll be on the city's Facebook page, but come out to your neighborhood night out and enjoy the neighborhood and enjoy all the folks that are coming out.

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

Thank you, Mayor. I enjoyed going over to NACD earlier this week. They did watering, weeding at their growing community garden in the back. So that was exciting. It's a partnership with Bronson Hospital System, as well as KVCC's food hub. So it was exciting to see residents come, learn how to grow food, but also take care of the garden that's there. I appreciated the National Day of Learning, even at a time where we had the smoke air quality warning, they were able to quickly pivot to move their stuff indoors. So it was great to connect with them. And just wanted to plug again, tomorrow at 6 p.m. down in the lower level of Shakespeare's Pub, me as well as IBEW Local 131, we are hosting Workplace Power It's a opportunity for anyone, whether they're working currently or not, to learn about the history of unions, talk about how to organize, even if you're not part of a union, what are your rights as a worker, and just an opportunity to network with other people in the community around that topic. So again, 6 p.m. tomorrow, Shakespeare's Pub, right downtown Kalamazoo. It is free, and we welcome anybody that wants to be part of the discussion. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Slaby. Vice Mayor Duncan.

Thank you, Mayor. A couple of things I want to update the public on. Last meeting, we spoke about response to Spring Valley Park community. We have heard you and we've been busy. So along with some of the statements that were made, changes have been made alongside KDPS. And before I go on, I want to be clear. This commission, this community, and our public service, our public safety department, we are partners. It is my hope that we can work together to create a better community, and sometimes that looks like accountability. And so with that being said, now concerning our parks, park rangers will now respond and be the primary point of contact for addressing park rule violations, no longer Kalamazoo Public Safety. Kalamazoo Public Safety will only respond to our parks when voluntary compliance cannot be achieved. So please y'all don't show your tail and Public Safety won't have to show up to the parks. but this has been done in conjunction with city management and our public safety. So I wanna thank public safety for coming to the table and negotiating this and talking to us about how we can best work with our public. I wanna be clear. When I think of public safety, I think of a hammer. And that's a good thing. That's a tool we need to use sometimes. But to a hammer, sometimes everything can seem like a nail. And I don't think that we can continue to put our officers in a position that's lose-lose. And so this is an opportunity for us to allow other functions of our government to do what we pay them to do. And parks should be policing or enforcing our parks. I want to also say that all license plate information that was taken at Spring Valley has been dumped and will not be used in any future ordinance or enforcement processes. I want to be on the record. I am asking, I've said this a lot, but because we have had so much mix up with the parking downtown, I'm asking my fellow commissioners on the record to support me in trying to create a parking ticket amnesty day. Where I come from, this is something that's very popular as we are experiencing a community that's playing in the margins right now. When I come downtown and I'm just trying to shop, and support the city that I love. If I get a $15 ticket, sometimes that's the decision between medicine for me. So I would love us to discuss if that's possible. If it's not, you know, whatever. But I wanted to put that out there. Peanut, I saw you here tonight. Thank you, black man, for showing up to this commission. Black men, if you are hearing me, if you can hear my voice, Our youth, our community needs us. This is your calling. The expectation is that we stop complaining and we get together and we start making plans for our community. Antoine, thank you so much for what you do for your city. We see you. Thank you for the organizers of Sunday Funday and getting that permitted. That is permitted now through October. So family, you come out and you show those people some love. And also, I want to lift up a young man in this community, Marco, whose birthday it is today. But over the weekend, this young man spent thousands of his own dollars to put on kickball tournament, dodgeball, in the field with food, food trucks, entertainment, everything. You could not ask for a better citizen of this community. So Marco, your vice mayor, your city is proud of you, and we love you. Thank you so much for what you do for our community. I want to also thank our partners at Isaac, El Concilio, and everybody that make the Democracy Defenders Roadshow happen. Y'all are family. I love y'all. And one of the things that we learned, Brother Ali, who grew up in a gold mine, told us that fascism is running. We must run faster. And so that stuck with me after that. While I'm a big guy, I'm trying to practice my running. I'm trying to be run faster than fascism. I want to lift up what Commissioner has said about Natchez and Marvinetta Penn. Thank you, Miss Penn, for bringing this to our community. I was really hesitant to go and see this movie. As a young black man, I did not want to see another slave movie, I'm going to be honest with you. But I thought this was going to be something just about a plantation. really what this was was a story about history, who gets to tell it, and how that shapes social and economic perception around that area. So it was such an eye opener, and it fell on us so heavy as we watched. I also want to say, because you didn't speak, Commissioner Hoffman. Welcome back. Your colleagues have missed you. Your community has missed you and we love you. Your work here is not done. That's all I'm gonna say to you. Thank you so much Kalamazoo for giving me this great opportunity to serve this great city. I love you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Any other comments at this point? okay uh i just want to say a one small thing and one of the uh blessings i guess that accrues to someone who happens to sit in this seat and as a matter of fact i think that seat as well under state law is the ability to perform marriages so that is something that i do from time to time we can verify that on the vice mayor's side but That, for me, is an opportunity to connect with people in our community at their most intimate and profound events in their life. I got to participate in one of those, which happens from time to time this past weekend. Sometimes an event where I may not have met this couple before and I may never see them again, who knows, but we are together for a moment in time where there are publicly recognized promises being made at that most basic familial level, which is what helps build community around those kinds of promises. And for those of us that sit up here, we also make promises when we sit at this table. We take an oath, and that is a public event. And those unfortunately are somewhat rare in our society, but One of the few places we still do that is where two people make a commitment to each other. And so I just want to say to those of you who invite me into that space, thank you for allowing me to be there. It's definitely an honor for me. I love you, Kalamazoo. We're adjourned.