City Council - Regular Meeting

Oh, you say something that's quiet. It's like all Yes. All hell breaks loose in the hospital when you say that, especially on a mental health unit or when it's a full moon. Exactly. Good job. Hey, good evening. and welcome to the city council meeting, the regular meeting on March 9th, 2026. It is now 6:30 p.m. Call the meeting to order. Clerk, can you please call the role? Councilman Toya Aaron here. Councilman Sean Fleming here. Councelor Lorie Gerald here. Mayor Prom Bill Mir here. Councelor Emily Robbach here. Councelor Quinn Wright

here. And Mayor Corey Haynes I am here. Um, if everybody could please stand that's able to for our invocation and pledge of allegiance which will be led by councelor Wright.

As we gather this evening, let us take a moment to reflect on the many stories, cultures, and contributions that shape our community. During this month of March, we recognize and celebrate Women's History Month, honoring the courage, leadership, and lasting impact of women who have helped shape our families, our communities, our cities, our city, and our nations. May we move forward tonight guided by wisdom, patience, respect for one another. May our conversations be thoughtful, our decisions be just, and our actions reflect the shared hope we have for a stronger and more inclusive community. I pledge algiance to

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.

Okay. Council, can I please get a motion to appoint Annette Boucher as our acting city clerk for this evening? Yes. So moved. Okay, have a motion. Is there a second? Your honor, I'll second. All right, I have a motion and second. Um, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say no. Motion carries. Next up is the approval of the agenda. What is the wish of council? Your honor. Yes. I move that we approve the agenda as presented. Okay. Have a motion to move as presented. Is there a second? Your honor. Yes. Second.

All right. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppose say no. Motion carries. Next up on the agenda is presentations. We do not have any this evening. There are no public hearings. So the next agenda item will be meeting open to the public. Please make sure to address me as the mayor um and limit your comments to three minutes. So with that, I will open the public meeting. Is there anybody that wishes to address council? All right. Hearing none, public meeting is closed and we'll move into the next item which is the consent agenda. Uh we have three items tonight. The first one being city manager confirmation of human resources director and purchasing director. And I'd like to stop there for a second. Melissa, would you like to introduce our human resources director?

Um Christina McKesky is with us tonight. And since she took the time to join council, I just wanted to introduce her to council and the residents that are here. Um, she started today for the appointment tonight. All right. Excellent. Welcome. Welcome aboard. Okay. The next item on the consent agenda is the director of public services, the 2026 fireworks display permit approval. And the last item under the consent agenda is the city council regular meeting minutes of February 23rd, 2026. What is the wish of city council? Your honor. Yes. I mo make a motion to uh uh approve the consent agenda as presented. Okay, we have a motion. Is there a second? Your honor. Yes.

Support. All right. We have a motion in support. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppose say no.

Motion carries. Next on the agenda is communications. There are none. So, moving on to reports. First report, city planner, special land use request PSP number 26-01 32371 Dwinder Road, Minor Auto Repair in Service. The applicant has requested special land use approval under section 15.05 of the Madison Heights zoning ordinance to operate a minor auto repair and service use at 32371 Dwinder Road Zoned M1 Lie Industrial. The property is located on the west side of Dwinder Road north of Avis Drive. The subject property is 1.4 acres in size and is currently improved with an 11,844 square ft light industrial building and asphalt parking area at the rear of the building. The building has been vacant for a few years, but most recently was occupied by engineering and industrial offices and was the proposed site for one of the marijuana facilities that recently fell through in December. The applicant intends to repurpose this building and site into an automotive repair use with six service bays. Proposed services include activities classified as minor auto repair in the zoning ordinance. Minor auto repair requires special land use approval in the M1 zoning district. These facilities are also subject to use specific zoning standards set forth in section 7.03.2 of the zoning ordinance. A public hearing was held at the February 17th planning commission meeting. Following that public hearing, the planning commission recommended that the city council approved the special land use based upon the findings with the following conditions. Number one, that the major site plan shall substantially cons be consistent with the concept plan approved with the special land use submitt. However, the

site plan shall be modified as needed to denote the following. Provide a site plan demolition plan including locations of asphalt removal and replacement given the state of disrepair, complete milling and repaving and new storm water quality structures may be required and include details of new concrete curbs and gutters and add the required concrete dumpster pad. A revised landscaping plan for the bio retention area to include spa plant species tolerant of periodic um indonation, road salt exposure and summer drought conditions so that the storm water feature maintains long-term infiltration performance subject to the approval of the city planner and the engineer. Given the adjacent industrial land uses and minimal buffer widths, the minimum perimeter parking lot landscaping requirements of section 11.0 06.3 may be reduced along the northern, western, and southern property lines as part of the major site plan review. The final site plan in use shall satisfy the use specific standards for auto repair and service facilities contained in section 7.03.2 and attached in the staff report for this agenda item. The use specific operating conditions shall be listed in the final certificate of occupancy. Should council concur with the planning commission's recommendation, a motion to approve land use PSP26-01 for a mino minor auto repair facility at 32371 Dwinder Road based upon the findings and include the planning commission's conditions would be appropriate. Should council not concur with the planning commission's recommendation, a motion to deny the special land use PSP 2601 with reason should be given.

Okay. Thank you, Melissa. What is the wish of city council? Your honor.

Yes. Uh for sake of uh opening up conversation, I'll make a motion that city council hereby deny the special land use request number PSP26-01 for a minor auto repair and service facility at 32371 Dwinder Road because the special use request is not compliant with the master plan and future land use goals of the city. specifically following with the following sections. Ordinance section 15.05.3 section D item four and five. The applicant's use is not consistent with the advancement of the new 21st century industrial applications being promoted throughout the recent zoning ordinance changes as permit as permitted principal uses and therefore is lacking compatibility and consistency with the intent of the zoning district as well as the city's master plan and future use land map. Also section 15.05.3 05.3 section F. The intent of the current zoning is to attract businesses with new and diversified technological industrial applications to the city and the applicant's use is not consistent with that intended purpose of the zoning district in which it is proposed. Okay. Thank you. Is there a second?

Your honor. Yes. Make a motion to second. All right. We have a motion in a second. Is there any discussion? your honor. Yes, sir. Um I uh I noticed that this did go to the planning commission and that it was approved and recommended back to council and I know that you and Councilman Fleming are the council reps on that planning commission, but I was curious um is was there any contentions or push back on that? Any concerns with the way it's moving forward before we vote? I I was not at the last planning commission meeting because they had another commitment, but Councilman Fleming, is there anything you wanted to add? Um, respond to that.

Can I guess what I want to understand is I know that it was recommended to move forward by the planning commission, but my question is were there some some concerns, apprehensions with moving forward with it? I think all of the concerns are actually listed in their motion. the consensus. So, um, the majority of people voted to recommend it to council. I mean, their conditions are listed in what I read a little bit ago that they that was the issues that they had with it were the things that I highlighted. Okay. Your honor. Yes, sir.

Um, again, just kind of for conversation purposes, you know, we we spent a lot of time uh putting together these new zones and um you know, mayor uh former Mayor Prom Bliss was quite excited that we finally got these things in place and now we're making exceptions to them. Uh it seems quite a bit. Um my concern with this one and and why I I propose to deny it is um you know it with the conditions that that city manager Marsh was just uh talking about is uh the the planning commission wants us to approve this with a bunch of exceptions. um couple of them being um kind of somewhat contradictive to what what we're trying to do with that area. And for commercial businesses um we have plans in place and uh planning commission is suggesting that we let some of them go like the landscaping and and whatnot. So, I don't I don't quite understand why the planning commission would send this to us. Um, but again, my concerns are with it is is with the conditions we're putting on it and it it just doesn't match what we're trying to do for that area. Um, and I'm all for filling buildings. I hate that we have buildings being empty, but I would certainly hope that we could find a better use for this building. um you know doing some of the technological advances that we're looking for um in some of the modern uh uh warehousing and whatnot that we're hoping to have in that district. So those are my thoughts.

Thank you. Any other discussion from council, your honor? Yes. Um you know, not having been present at the uh planning commission meeting, um I can just go on what we've been provided. So I understand, you know, like it's not fitting into our like master plans. We have to make an exception. That's the reason it's here. Um we do have a lot of vacant buildings in the in the city and so it's hard to imagine not uh doing this because of that. So um I wonder we do have I think the owner of the building is here. Can we hear from them today or is that um something we can ask to do or this question. Sure.

Okay. Yeah. Do you want to come up to the podium, please?

Um, Sergio Best Mage 32371 Dwinder. I'm the current owner of the building and the current uh person who's proposing to use the US is here too. And I apologize for raising my hand, mayor and council. I just want to make sure that you guys also heard what the city council went through. Sorry, planning commission. So planning commission in the beginning was not for it because it went against the master plan. But then one of the councilmen pointed out that it was not forbidden in the master plan. It was just not a allowed use because that would mean that everything in the M1 would be able to use that use. And they said that's why there's a special land use. And if any property they discussed it and they voted 5 to2 in favor of it because they said if any property fit the criteria to get that was this property. One is because it's completely surrounded by industrial. There's no residents to worry about where a lot of other M1 properties have residential there and if they're going to do auto body, you know, they might be bothered by it. This is completely surrounded by industrial. Two, it's a very unique property where all the parking is in the back. So, there's a lot of properties that you guys have where the parking is in the front and when the bay is open, you can see what they're doing. You're not going to see any of that here. Three, this building was vacant for 5 years before I took it two years ago. So now it's a total of over seven years it's been vacant. There's going to be major upgrades to the property which are going to be a benefit for the city. Like the water in the back right now, there's constant runoff into the storm water. Uh and then that was a major concern. This the property owner or the new person is going to be doing major bio swells in there making it basically a lot more water retention on the property. I don't know if you want to pull that up. And I just wanted to make sure we talked because they went through the same thing and one person was against it or a couple people were against it but then sorry in the beginning there was majority of them then they went they talked about it because again it is not a forbidden use. It's a use where city council and planning commission will look at it and say, "Hey, is this something that fits into the plan and

they said again out of all the properties, this is one of the most ones that does fit for uh auto body and minor auto because again if you look at if you want to pull up the the the drawings, everything is in the back. It's got 100 parking spaces plus sometimes you have these auto mechanics that only have 30 parking spaces and they don't have a lot of room. So everything's in the back. All these asphalt, all that's going to get upgraded. They're going to do new signs in there. That building's been vacant for seven years and you're going to get major major upgrades to it. If you look at the new site plan, he's even talking about maybe doing nicer um curbside appearance to it. Tash enclosure. We're adding connection from the side street. Yeah,

we're adding bunch of landscaping islands and then we fulfill all the zoning ordinance requirements when we start discussing with the planner back and forth and we bought the site mostly to complete.

So, by the way, the one thing too when you were saying with the landscape, they were not restricting it. They were actually saying to do more landscape, but some of that landscape might come into the buffer with the neighbor. So, it was not where they're saying, "Hey, but our master plan says to do a lot of landscaping. You're getting letting this guy go away with less." Actually, if anything, there's more landscape being done here than probably a lot of the other properties that you're having. Because if you look at the drawing here, look at all these landscapes that are going into the parking lot. That's going to get all the water to retain on the property. All this in the front currently right now, all this is asphalt. And there's one sewer right here. And when you drive by there, this parking water going to be talking.

I need you to be by the microphone because otherwise those that are online can't hear you.

Sorry about that. So, basically, look, at the end of the day, obviously, it's city council's decision, whatever you guys want to do, but keep in mind there's a there's a master plan that was that was decided on. And again, in there, it was not forbidden. It was put in that as a special land use. And when city uh planning department reviewed that and had the discussion, they came back with a 5-2 vote that yes, if anything, and they went back and forth on it. They said that this property shields the this the viewers from what's going on back there. It's all in the back. And again, you take a vacant building that's not in use right now. You're getting major upgrades to it. You're going to get the tax benefits. And I believe me, I wish the previous use went through. But with marijuana with the new things that were going on, that guy flaked. I was just the building owner. I ended up losing money on it. So, I can't control the new taxes. It just became not financially economical for them to do this job. But this guy's already has a business like this and it's going to be major upgrades to the site. And again, it is something that is allowed with a special land use. And this one doesn't have any of the negative parts of what you guys are talking about as far as auto mechanic shop because it's shielded from the space. Everything's in the bag.

Yeah. And everything's going to be inside. Nothing's going to be done on the outside. You got 12,000 square feet. Your honor. Yeah. That's it. Thank you. Thank you so much for that that context. Um, and if you have any questions, he's the engineering.

Okay. Well, um, my thought was, you know, when we looked at this for the cannabis business way back when, you know, I recall some pretty awful, uh, you know, the the back uh, parking lot area was in really rough shape, crumbling, looking terrible. Um, you know, and the I was not in favor of that particular uh land use at the time, but um, you know, one thing that I was like positive about it was that these things were going to get cleaned up. There were parts of that property that really um, even though you can't see it from the from the road, it was um, you know, like kind of a an ongoing eyesore um, and a potential issue going forward. So I I like the idea that this is fixing up that space. Um and uh you know the increased uh tax revenue to the city also feel like is a major benefit to us. Um and so I I'm still not completely clear. I know what the reasons were on the on um in the motion to to decline, but I am inclined to approve this and not um and not vote yes on your motion to um decline. So, I'm just I'd love to hear more from our my fellow council members that that don't necessarily want to see this and because I I agree we have our our master plan, but if you look at this stretch of Dwinder, um there are not a lot of things there's not this this stretch I don't I don't foresee it becoming like a a bougie coffee shop area or anything like that. So, I am uh inclined to see like next it's next door to the to the gun range and the I think like a tire or a you know special what are those called? Wheels. Wheel hot wheels. It's it's in line with what what other things are kind of around there. So, um so that's where I stand on that.

I have a couple of quick questions for you. Um, number one, I I was told that at the public meeting there was some mention of the future of what this business would look like. And my understanding is that you would go from a a light car repair facility potentially to a used car lot. Is is that accurate? The owner, the new user is thinking about also doing new car sales in there as well. So ba not like used car sales basically doing cons uh repair now but because the building is so large and again you have a ton of parking in the back to do maybe in the future auto sales but again if that would happen he would go back in front of you guys and get approved for that. That's a completely separate use. Okay.

No, I would actually defer to Matt about that because I don't believe that that is accurate. I think if we approve the special approval that you're going to be approved for that as well. I still have another question so we'll let Matt speak to it first but Thanks. Matt Ler, city planner. Uh, auto repair is a special land use. Auto sales in this district is a permitted use by right, meaning it would not have to return to this. There are some use specific standards that would have to be met, but it would be as long as they're meeting those standards, it would be an administrative approval in the M1 Industrial District. Thanks.

Okay. Yeah, that's one of the things one of the one of the councilmen or planners, I don't know how to refer to him, said that I wish this was from from the beginning sales as well and that way it's be easier to approve, but he's not ready to do the sales now, but I thought they said that if you do sales, you got to apply for a new permit to make sure that that gets approved. Okay. Yeah. Right. Secondly, and this this business has been vacant um for a few years, but can you tell us why it's been vacant for the last two years specifically? You started to answer it, but Right. So, first of all, part of the reason why we won that well, whatever the license that didn't end up going through was because we pro we proved that it was actually vacant for over 5 years 2 years ago. Okay? So, now it's been seven years.

The reason why it was vacant now is because I was trying to get the person who was supposed to be the operator for the marijuana that he basically fell through. he didn't have the finances and then when just recently when Warren went opted in and then they passed that 20% tax it was like saying this is just not economically feasible but basically this last two years was going back and forth with you guys trying to get approved and then obviously okay thank you yes sir I just want to clarify that the marijuana license the marijuana license was actually revoked because they didn't comply with the settlement agreement we went into it wasn't because he quote didn't want to move forward with the business. Okay. Well, that that's why because we didn't move anything.

Okay. All right. Other discussion? Yes, your honor. So, a couple of comments. Um addition again I understand the I I appreciate the landscaping that you propose for in the parking lot and I know that you're there was some discussion over what you can do in front because of drought and and salt and um but the the borders the north south and and west border um under our our our use for that type of business should have landscaping So that's that's the landscaping that I was talking about. That's what you want. You can have that. Yeah.

Right now currently it's fully paid to the property line. You can say that he doesn't need 50% of this parking. So if you want that, you can obviously say it. The other the other concern I have and and I agree with councelor Rock that the parking lot is a mess. Um and it is stipulated in the proposed um from planning that it'd be torn out and start all over with it cuz you can't can't even patch it. Um so that would be part of of the agreement I think

that's going to be fully rebuilt. So originally per Matt or whoever was originally talking about where places that are going to be patched and so forth, but because it's going to be hodge podgeed there's so many sorry the whole uh one other back property was going to be fully milled. So I think they they've already decided that they're going to mill the whole thing. Yeah. Good.

And also because we are creating all these islands and the bioell, we'll need new slopes for the drainage. So we decided to tear the whole parking and get new ashalt, new new grading, new drain slopes. So that's what we're proposing. And also I submitted the uh details for the concrete curb and the bioell detention. Everything was mentioned in the site plan approval conditions. We send it back to Matt. Thank you.

The other thing uh as when we looked at that building a couple years ago for uh the cannabis place, um that building's a mess inside. You're going to be able to keep that. So I, as I understand it, your plan is you're going to keep that building and clean clean it all out and and only add one door that will allow the cars to come in. saying that he was having six bays or it's going to be too too large. I think it's six bays but only one door that they're all going to concern. By the way, uh city planning had a concern about that. Well, could this be repurposed? The the ceiling height is 12 ft.

So, yes. And there's only one really retaining wall on the inside. So, once you gut everything out, it's really like an open shell where once you get in there, you can drive around to wherever we Yeah. So, there's another overhang going to be there. So yes, that was one of the concerns of city planning. Okay. And then once they said it was not tall enough, they were satisfied with that. Y basically all the ceilings are coming down. And yeah, I just want to make sure that that everybody has that understanding that it's only going to be one door in and six bays, but not six doors in the back. So two doors. Two doors. Two doors. Adding another door on the other side. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Obviously everything in the back. Okay. Is there any other discussion by council,

your honor? Yes. Okay. First, while I'm thinking about this now, you say you're going to expose the ceilings. What do you What do you mean by that? Because, you know, uh some auto repair places the I don't know if this building will be able to handle the uh the load of the equipment that's anything is going to be hanging off of it or if it's going to be tall enough to have a vehicle on a lift or you know what I'm saying. Currently, it's it's it's um padding like this. Sorry,

they're all steel trusses, but currently right now it's all all inside. is just like this, like basically ceiling caps, meaning all that's going to come down because there's another ceiling back there and and expose the ceiling trusses and obviously anything that needs to get mounted again would get mounted to there and then that's when your department checks to see if it's properly done. Anyway, on that stuff,

basically the lifts will be uh floor mounted lifts, not supported off the ceiling system. Um I'm the architect that's supervising this as well. The intent is I should mention that the owner is wishing to have a dual purpose ultimately, but initially he wants to make this go ahead because that's what he's specializing in. But ultimately, we're going to hope if the dealership idea comes through, the whole front will be glazed with glass and look more appropriate to I think a nicel looking building where they'll showcase the cars they fix and sell. So ultimately that's the goal, but initially they want to run with the auto to start running it, but the front half will probably minimal use until later. So I I think his intention was to beautify the whole project, but he can't do it all initially at once. So it'll be a two-step process. Initially the auto in the rear and then ultimately a nice glass facade, all glass showcasing cars that he's going to sell.

Okay. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Yes. Can I continue? Okay. Thanks.

All right. So, uh, in continuing on here, uh, first I want to address that the there were some comments made about that we have a gun shop next door and a wheel and car tire place. And so, uh, small auto repair, which would include, um, you know, oil changes, brake services, uh, also fundamentally uh, is basically something that you would have in a B3 district. uh not in a light one and one light industrial which would be more for major auto repair and other larger industrial um types of businesses. So in other words, we're putting you're asking us to put a business that's usually going to be in the B3 district which usually that's where you know that's where they can be approved at without any question at all. Right. by right but then we're going to you know you're asking us to put that in M1 industrial which is basically for more an industrial you know businesses that would have you know trucks delivering part large trucks you know delivering uh business you know parts and stuff like that and other things also on top of that with with the traffic uh you know that's going to make a lot more pedestrian traffic or uh vehicle traffic that's going to be driving around that area and and you know with construction and everything else that's going on in Aquiner, you know, that may be be an issue, especially if you're going to be a dealership and there's going to be people that are going to be driving in there and stopping and parking on your driveway uh or wherever they're going to be parking at to look at the vehicles. Um that goes into the second point I had here. If you're going to have a dealership, by the state law, you actually have to have your vehicles on display and have them parked in the rear of the the property. You have to have them where people can actually look at them. So, I don't I don't know if you're you're talking about having a bio swell right in the be in the front of the

property property, I believe. So, that would I don't know what you're going to do in the future to have the vehicles going to be there so they could be displayed. And you have to have so many of them. I think it's like 10 or whatever in in the future. Um, also I wanted to say that um that yeah the the the have that and do you also know uh what kind of uh security would you be having for this in the future because we we've had actually in those industrial zones because they're not uh really I mean they're patrolled by our PD but there's a lot of them that are there and what kind of security would you be putting up uh for

anti address that but the one thing too just get back to your B3 three.

This one, unlike other M M1 industrial, is on the major road. So, yes, it is M1 industrial, but technically it blends harmoniously with all your other ones that are business uses on the major roads. So, it's not like it's industrial where it's inside, not on a major road, you know. So, so a lot of those other uses were intended for because the M1 M1 is a big area. So, a lot of those ones that are inside have those different uses opposed to this. It's very close to being a normal regular use. And I think obviously for security, they're going to have just a normal alarm system that they have. But it is on major road. So, like you said, if your police are driving by Dwinder, which they will be, they see everything. It's it's right it's right there. But obviously, whatever code is allowed and he's going to have alarm system in the inside. I don't know what else. Your

alarm, your honor. Yes. Um, uh, Councilman Fleming, I'm just when I when you were talking because everyone does, I pulled up Google Maps just to double check what I was remembering. And there's that there's right next door there's Barcode Automotive which has almost it sounds like maybe in a different uh uh vein. So, it looks like it's more um uh focused on on commercial use vehicles, but it looks like it's auto repair. potentially sales going on right there. It's almost identical uh usage in that space right next door. Bar barcode actually is no longer there. Oh, it's not there. It's just on Google Maps.

Okay. Like I said, I just pulled up Google Maps. I wasn't sure. I just I couldn't remember. That's why I only remembered the city or whatever. But but so it's certainly something that has been

not unusual for that stretch of road is what I Yeah. Any other discussion by council? All right. The only thing I want to add is I mean I'm I'm up in the air on on this because of a few reasons. Those that um mayor prom Bill Mir brought forth um and Sean uh Councilman Fleming brought forth. I have concerns on both sides of it. Like I said, the first part is it's an older building. It's been there for a long time. It needs to be rehabbed. I mean, we obviously know we want a business in there that's going to fix it up and it's going to make the parking lot and everything else look better. Um, at the same time, I'm not looking forward to yet another auto repair um car sales lot. um for a couple of reasons and and the major reason is the city went out and redid this zoning plan for a specific purpose and that purpose was to allow businesses by right to be in there and then to push anything that we really not that we didn't want but what we really wanted to review much more closely under the special approval. So, this did go through the special approval process, but my concern, of course, part of it is that I was not able to attend um the planning commission meeting. Um but part of my concern is that we put this special approval in place and now we're just waving right past it like immediately. And I'm not sure that I'm happy about the way that happened. I don't know all of the ins and the outs. I've heard it tonight. I've heard it uh um from the owner of the property, but um I wanted it to be clear that this business hasn't necessarily just been vacant. It was vacated because they refused to cooperate with the order that was given, the consent agreement or the settlement agreement. They didn't comply with it. So that's why it sat vacant for the last two years. But we do have an owner and they are paying taxes on the building. Is that correct?

Yes. Okay. So, there are taxes being paid on that building in essence and the improvements would change. Correct. It would change the amount. Correct. Um, but that's that's where I have some some issues on, like I said, I have issues on both sides because I wanted to improve, but I don't know if this is the right approval to do. So, without any other comments, um, we do have a a motion and a second on the floor. Um, and I think on this one I would like to ask the clerk to do a roll call vote on the current motion that is to deny the special approval. So, and just to clarify, a yes vote means no. So, if you want to deny it, say yes. If you want to approve it, say no.

Councilwoman Erin, yes. Councilman Fleming, yes. Councelor Geralds, no. Mayor Pro Tim Mir, yes. Council Robot, no. Council Wright, no. Mayor Haynes,

and I vote yes. Yeses have it. The denial goes through. Moving on to the next item. City Manager, water and sewer rates, fiscal year 2027. Um, the city of Madison Heights relies on the Great Lakes Water Authority, oh, hold on a second. GLWA and Oakland County for water services and wastewater treatment. Both of these entities annually pass on rate increases to the city. It's important to note that city council did pass a resolution opposing the proposed rates that was forwarded to Gleewa ahead of their public hearing and to our state representatives. And as a result to the public um showing up at that meeting and the statements from councils like ours, the um proposed rate was reduced, but there still is a rate increase being passed on to us. Um typically staff brings the water and wastewater rate adjustment to city council in May as part of the budget adoption. However, we're proposing consideration tonight to give time staff to communicate this increase to the residents and all the users of the system. So, we will be mailing out a postcard because this would take effect for bills that are processed on or after July 1st, 2026, which has historically been our practice. It is not for usage on or after July 1st. So, for some residents, their July bill covers the period of April, May, and June. So, it's important that they know that the rate is going up ahead of April usage in case they want to reduce the usage. Um the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget for this fund is 15.4 million. Um rates to support this budget are $51 per unit for water. That's a 5.7% increase. And 7.29 or $7.29 per unit of wastewater. That's a 4.74% increase. Combined together, it's an overall 5.128%

increase altogether. And again, that's for bills processed on or after July 1st, 2026. For the average user of 12 units, this would result in an increase of $828 per quarter, so every 3 months. Without this action, the city would need to reduce our investment in water main replacements. This would increase our liability, higher emergency repair cost, long-term financial imbalance. Um, the proposal maintains affordability while ensuring continued delivery of safe drinking water and dependable wastewater treatment services. Staff recommend that Sun City Council approve a resolution to adopt the water and wastewater rates effective for bills processed on or after July 1st, 2026 for $51 per unit for water, $7.29 29 cents per unit for wastewater with a 10 unit minimum bill for residential customers which are build quarterly and a 3.33 unit minimum bill for commercial customers build monthly and um we had in the packet and we were going to put on the screen but then we had to show the plans um there. So we get a lot of questions from residents about our water rates and I just want to start by saying no two communities are 100% comparable. You can compare our water system to Hazel Park to Ferndale. We all do things differently. We all build differently. So, it is not an apple to apples comparison. However, um we recently participated in an almost statewide study of water rates and we were eighth from the bottom of lowest. Um and this is just the comparison you see on the screen now. And I didn't count how many of these are, but these are the communities that surround us because in the statewide survey, it was places in the UP and stuff like that that maybe some of our residents have never even been to. But these are cities like Birmingham, Berkeley, Rochester,

Ferndale, Clawson, Hazel Park, and you see from the screen, Madison Heights is down at the very bottom of being affordable in Birmingham for the same amount of usage. And I know that's not comparable, but just to give the people an idea, if the same amount of water usage would cost $339. With this increase, it would cost $14760. I also want to stress the fact that one unit of water is like $728 gallons of water. So when you break it down to one unit of water costs like around $12, you're paying I think it's 13. It's pennies for one gallon of water usage. So, um, and this does not just pay for the usage. We're passing on the same increase that Glee is passing to us because we do buy these services, but it also pays for the infrastructure. So, a lot of our water manes are being replaced. And again, if this usage, this increase does not pass, we would have to reduce the capital investment in the system.

Okay. Thank you. What is the wish of city council? your honor. Yes. I'll uh recommend the city council approve a resolution to adopt the water and and water sewer wastewater rates effective for the bills processed on or after July 1st, 2026 for $51 per unit for water, $729 per unit for wastewater. Okay, we have a motion. Is there a second? Yes. Yes. A second. Right. We have a motion, a second. Any discussion, your honor? Yes.

I mentioned last meeting that um I had intended uh a a session on uh on this very topic uh through the Michigan Municipal League. And uh it was very enlightening uh that conversation that we had there. And I told city manager Marsh because the guy brought out uh one of the topics was comparing yourself to other cities. Um and he basically said if your city manager is doing that it's they're wasting their time because no cities are even close to being the same. So um so to say that uh we pay more than XY UD whatever the city uh it it's totally different and these these rates were increased to us from GW GLWA uh and and we have to uh pass that along as well as we have to prepare for you know water water manes that need to be replaced, water lines that need to be replaced. And so if you're not planning for that, then you're in trouble when those are happen because they're going to happen. So I I know it's rough um on some folks out there. I am on a fixed income myself. Um as city manager Marsh mentioned, it's turns out to about $8 every quarter. So, um, I hate again, I hate to see that, but we really don't have any other choice here. We we've got to we've got to be able to pay the bill that that we're getting charged from GLWA as well as having money to to repair and replace lines as needed.

Thank you. Any other discussion, your honor? Yes. um you know GLWA Gleewa has um their their water um processing facility has been responsible for a number of water marine breaks in our city and I'm wondering um have we made any like because they're asking for more because we have to invest in these we're spending millions of dollars to fix the problem that was caused by their facility. So, I'm wondering, have they um committed to any um financial recompense for the city for those issues?

No. And I actually will have Sean talk a little bit about that because we led the charge with Sterling Heights on calling them to task over finding out what the problem was. We're up to over 90 water main breaks. Sean would have the exact number because we had another one over the weekend. But we've been working on this for a year. We have weekly meetings and bi-weekly meetings with them. So, the technical committee meets weekly, the full group meets bi-weekly, and they have not come up with any reimbursement for us. So, last I checked with Sean, the total was over $600,000, but do you want to elaborate on that?

Yeah, that is um can't speak too much more to the fact we are in uh as we said task force that we spearheaded with Sterling Heights and Frasier. They were the most heavily hit. Um Troy was reached out to uh as you recall there was a major main break in Oakland Mall which was part of that issue but uh they chose not to pursue it. So we've been uh we're meeting weekly. We have a technical team. We have a whole steering team and the issue of reimbursement has come up at every single one of these meetings. Um particularly most recently we just had a meeting last Thursday and the question was asked because they're asking us for what are our costs. Um right now we are at approximately $641,000 in water main restoration which is attributed to their events. Um we have our normal water main breaks but uh these are specifically as they identify tied to their events. Um year to date we're at 104 water main breaks since July 1, which is an all-time record. We started tracking these uh they go back to 1992 93. The highest one we ever had was 103 for the whole fiscal year. So, um, and we, um, let me see. Yeah. So, yep. $641,000.

There is, oh, I'm sorry. There is another piece to this is that we're about to start negotiating our contract with GLE. Do you want to talk just a minute about that?

Yeah, they're doing a contract reopener process for all of the municipalities. the um our contract calls for I believe it's every three or five years to do a contract reopener because we're on a 20-year contract with Klewa. It's mainly to set our maximum day values and our consumption values. Like if we're locked in the contract for say 5 million gallons a day, but we're only using three and a half, maybe we can trim that down. It helps them project long-term capital increases in the system. So they're not just paying for pipes and expansions that they don't need if we're just not using the water. As far as a region goes, um, as part of that process, we could see further reduction in our rates because our rates are based not only on commodity, but what we might use at any given time, which is where the maximum day value comes in.

Okay. your honor. Um the 600 and something mill,000 does that include um that is that just hard costs or is that labor um overtime things like that? Is that included in that uh cost of repair? It includes everything except for the actual water consumed in the sewage disposed of because when we have all that water running through a water main break, it's water that's going through our meters that we do have to pay for and it's water that we pay for disposal of going down the sewers. So, we're paying for it. We're paying for the water that is spewing out of our That's fantastic.

Love that. Um, so that's an additional however much that cost is, but correct. hard to quantify maybe how much that is or do we have do we have a we haven't even tackled that yet. We're working on the cost and it I say estimated because we are working on a restoration cost based on um I think it was 64 brakes were restored at X amount was $2,800 per break. Um a lot of them happen to be under concrete just the way they've shook out. But we haven't done any restorations since October because concrete can't be poured in the winter. So, we'll have more harder actual costs once we get our first invoice back from restoration. And that does include uh staff overtime and things like that or cost. Okay.

Yep. Staff overtime, vehicle cost uh based on the act 51 rates, our contractor cost, and uh um materials, sand in um and the dirt out. Okay. Um your honor, I I mean, I understand we have we have to pay our own we have to pay our bills and the money doesn't come from anywhere. I'm furious as I know that most people who get their bill that you know it doesn't it doesn't feel like a lot but then all of a sudden you're like wait wasn't it $10 more last time and now it's another $10 more and it just feels like

everything is having that so my you know the internet is more the the uh water is more energy the DTE is charging more like every little bit and it turns into a lot more to everybody's individual ual budgets. Um, and I know we're all of us, most of us, all of all of us elected sitting up here are residents here. We all kind of are all in the same boat. So, it's it's a hard one to swallow, but I understand it's something we're going to have to do. But, I do appreciate that we're doing this conversation early and um,

you know, the communication to our residents about like this is coming. It's terrible and um we can't we like we don't have a choice over it, right? Like that communication I feel is going to be very important to residents, but giving it to them as soon as possible so that um they can plan plan ahead for the extra uh cost that they're going to incur and hopefully uh be able to to manage it. Thanks.

You want to say one thing, your honor? I did. So, I said 13 cents a gallon, but that's drastically wrong because I didn't move the decimal correct. It's less than 2 cents a gallon. So, if you think that each gallon is 728 gallons, this new rate's $12.30, which essentially is 1,230 pennies. So, that's less than 2 cents a gallon of water with our new water rates. So when you break it down like that, I know it's still ex is still $147 every quarter, but water is still one of the most economical utilities available um to our community. So

I just want to ask um city manager Marsh when we send out notice about the increase in the water rate, will we give a better explanation? Because I know what 2 years ago, 3 years ago when we did the water rate, everyone received a postcard in the mail just letting them know that the water was going up, but it wasn't an explanation, which threw a lot of people that were on fixed incomes, you know, frazzled dazzled, you know, and when you look at less than two cents, it does sounds like, oh, what are we fussing about? But as council um councelor Wbeach just said two cent here, two cent there, two cent these two cents ends up to be $200. And so when people are trying to be economically fiscal, it's really important that they know the reason and not just say council and the city raised our water rate and don't understand our struggle or what we're going through. So if we can just have a better explanation, you know,

yeah, we can do that. We've got the postcard is kind of laid out and marked it up today. So there is some more a little bit of room on there to put a couple of things. I mean the biggest driver of this is not only the commodity charge that we're getting charged. So the commodity is the water and the wastewater um that we're getting charged from Gleewa in Oakland County, but it's also our infrastructure investment

um which fluctuates. But we invest and I have the budget in here. I want to think around $3 million a year in water manes. Um, and we have been, you know, doing that for several years. It's actually $2 million this upcoming year. So, as we try to do the R3 road projects, there are six road projects. So, in order to save money when we actually have those roads torn up, we will go in and put in a new water man. And then there are two standalone um, water manes. So, I briefly can just quickly read through those. It's Shirley Avenue. There's a section in all these. It's not the entire street. Rose Street, Hell Street, Hatchet Drive, Hampton, and Linux would be getting new water manes on a portion of all of those with this um water rate increase or water wastewater rate increase as well as us paying Gleewa and um the Oakland County. So even though this is the same percentage that they're passing to us, it's not 100% for that pass through, but that is a big part of it. So that will be explained to the residents. Thank you.

Any other discussion, your honor? Yes. I just wanted to make a couple of comments. And to um my councilwoman to my left's comment, uh Councilman Aaron, I forgot your name for like two seconds. It I was like, "Oh my gosh, I do it all the time.

Forgive me. It happens. I know exactly who she is." She's great. Um I couldn't agree more with her sentiment whether it cost two cents more or $200 more. If you don't have it, you don't have it. But um I think it's important that we continue to like highlight to the residents through this conversation, through this video, through every way we can that like we do not want to pass forward any increase that we do not have to period. But at the same time, there's a cost to waiting and there's a cost to not taking action. And it can be more costly than taking action. And that's what we're choosing to do. And I just want to highlight that we're not choosing between yes and no. We're choosing between worse and worser. And so that is oftentimes what we're called to do on council. It's not better or worse. It's like you got a bad choice and you got a worse choice. And so we are choosing the worerer the lesser of two evils. And we wor so so I'm out of order. You got it. No. The lesser of two evils. And that's always what we have to choose from up here. Good and bad is easy for us. But that is not the case here. So, I I I think I can speak for us all and say that that's what we're trying to do. And I hope that the residents can understand that because um you know, as someone who helps people who deal with budgeting, I understand sometimes the difference between two bucks and 200 doesn't matter if you don't have it. So,

um just keep that message out there.

Okay. Anyone else? Um just a quick comment for myself. I mean, everybody up here has said exactly what I was thinking anyway, but um the last thing that we want to do is have to pass on increases on anything. You know, it's just the fact that this has come to us and and we have to pay this water rate and if we still want to continue our infrastructure repairs and rebuilds, we don't have a choice um but to do this. Um further than that though, you know, I am disappointed in Glewa. Um I'm disappointed that they did pass on yet another rate increase. In fact, in their report, um I believe in Manager Marsh, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that they even said that water consumption was down, so we need to raise the rates. Um I've never heard such a ridiculous argument before, you know, sitting up here and to say, "Okay, well, so you need to make more money because we're using less water." That doesn't even ring true. But unfortunately, we have to pay the increase. You know, that's the only way we're going to get water delivered. So, um, again, unfortunately, Gleewood chose to do this and chose to raise the rate. I mean, I guess we can look at the bright side that they did reduce it 1%. From what they originally wanted to pass along, but that's about it. So, um, all right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say no. Motion carries. Next up is bid awards and purchases. First one is director of public services 2026 R3 road construction. The

2026 R3 projects are modified sectional replacements as opposed to full reconstructs. Because of this, the successful bidder for the 2025 project, Delissio Contracting, was unable to offer a contract extension due to a variety of distinct and missing pay items between the two construction approaches requiring the project to be bid. Three sealed bids were received by the deadline. Upon review and as identified in the recommendation letter and bad bid tabulation from Norwick and Frraouse, who's the city engineer, Delissio Contracting of Clinton Township was again the low bidder. Staff concurs with the recommendation of our city engineer and recommends that the city council award the bid for the 2026 R3 residential road projects to the lowest responsible bidder delissio contracting of Clinton Township in the total project amount of 1,669,954.50. Funding is programmed in the upcoming fiscal year 2027 budget and subject to budget approval.

Okay. Thank you, manager Marsh. What is the wish of city council? Your honor. Yes. I'll make a motion to award the bid for the 2020 or 2026 R3 residential road projects to the lowest responsible bidder. Delicio Contracting Incorporated of K Clint Clinton Township project total amount not to exceed 1,669,000 $95450 funding is available and in the budget for that. Okay. Thank you. Is there a second? Your honor. Yes. Support.

All right. I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Right. Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say no. The motion carries. Next item, director of public services 2026 major and local road construction.

Due to ongoing fluctuations in the price of concrete materials and labor, the major and local sectional concrete program is typically bid on an annual basis. Three sealed bids were received by the deadline. Upon review and as identified from Noric and Fraouse, our consulting engineers, Delissio Contracting of Clinton Township was the low bidder. Staff concurs with the recommendation of our city engineer and recommends that city council award the bid for the 2026 major and local sectional concrete repairs to the lowest responsible bidder, Delissio Contracting, Inc. of Clinton Township, Michigan, for the total project amount of $625,583.90. funding is programmed in the 2027 budget and is subject to budget approval.

Okay. Thank you, manager Marsh. What is the wish of city council? Your honor. Yes. I move that uh council awards the bid for the 2026 major and local so sectional concrete repairs to the lowest responsible bidder, Delissio Contracting of Clinton Township, for the total project amount of $625,583.90. Okay, we have a motion. Is there a second? Your honor. Yes. Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All right. Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say no. Motion carries. The next one. Boy is the director of public services busy tonight. It is the contract extension for do all cleaning. As part of the annual budget process, expiring service contracts are analyzed at the beginning of the year and when it's determined to be in the best interest of the city, staff reaches out to those vendors to see if they are amenable to a contract extension. Do All Cleaning is the city's custodial contractor. Their service has been satisfactory and they have been a responsive contractor to work with, promptly addressing any concerns which were brought forward. They are amenable to a contract extension which has been prepared for consideration. Therefore, staff recommends that council approve the contract extension as presented by Duall Cleaning of Sterling Heights and authorize the mayor to sign on behalf of the city.

Thank you, manager Marsh. What is a wish of city council? Yana. Yes. I ask that council approve the contract extension as presented with do all cleaning of Sterling Heights and authorize the mayor to sign on behalf of the city. Okay. Thank you. Is there a second? Your honor. Yes. All right. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All right. Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say no. The motion carries. And the last item from the director of public services, contract extension for Sunday building.

As noted in the previous agenda item, as part of the annual budget process, we reach out to Sunday brothers to see if they would be amenable to a contract extension. Sunday Building is the city's long-term water and wastewater contractor. They're the people that repair all those water manes. And is once again amendable to a contract extension, which has been prepared for consideration. Staff recommends that council approve the contract extension as presented with Sunday building of Royal Oak and authorize the mayor to sign on behalf of the city. Thank you, manager Marsh. What is the wish of city council? Your honor. Yes. I move that council approves the contract extension as presented with Sunday building of Royal Oak and authorize the mayor to sign on behalf of the city. Okay. Is there a second? Your honor? Yes.

Second. All right. We have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Your honor? Yes. I have a question for uh city attorney Burns. Um since I'm pretty affiliated with Madison High School, the big league baseball in Sunday building is a uh sponsor for uh that that organization. Is there any conflict in me voting on this? As long as you don't have a uh personal financial interest. As long as you don't have a personal financial interest in it and you just affiliate with an organization that's connected to them, I wouldn't see that as a bias.

No, it's it's uh they they graciously support uh our little lake program that goes to the kids much like counselor Wright and uh and Councilman Fleming. So, thank you. Okay. Any other discussion? All right. Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

Those opposed say no. The motion carries. That is all we have on the agenda this evening. So, I will start closing comments. We'll start with Councilman Fleming. Um, okay. So, the only thing I have for tonight is that we talked about the water bills, how everything's uh all the bills are going up, all the rates. want to make uh sure that everybody everybody knows about the water residential assistance program that Kalia has and offers to various uh uh to our residents. That way that uh you're you can have a rate reduction and it stays on for approximately about two years and you can get that assistance going forward. So you just can apply for it if you uh feel that you need to do so. And that's all I have for tonight. Okay. Thank you, Council Gerald.

Uh, I have three things, please. Um, first, I'd like to thank Sean Valentine and um, city manager Melissa Marsh and their team for trying to stay on top of the GUA situation. I can't imagine how frustrating that is, but it is important. So, thank you. Um, secondly, the Madison Heights Women's Club is doing a fundraiser that will benefit the Haven on Sunday. It's called a meat ball and it is um Sunday afternoon raffle uh which includes um 18 eight rounds of eight packages of about a pound or a pound and a half of meat that are given away by raffle. Um it's an important cause and if anybody's interested in coming then um please reach out to me or to the women's club for more information. And then the last thing is um the Madison Height Citizens United uh group that does the Junth Festival is selling shirts as a fundraiser and it in claim uh includes a wonderful quote that um co-founder Kevin Wright used in an interview in 2021 which is that Junth does not compete with the 4th of July. It completes the 4th of July. and I love that it's on the back of the shirt this year. So, those are available as a fundraiser.

Thank you. Thank you, Council Roarbach. Um, nothing big except for mark your calendars for May 6th of 2026. We're going to have uh a native plant sale. Um, or not the sale, sorry, a native plant workshop. Um, it's going to be about uh how planting native plants can transform your yard into a yearround haven for birds by providing food, shelter, and nesting resources. It's a different workshop than we've done before. Should be a lot of fun. It'll be at the AAC cafeteria. Um, and uh, you know, keep an eye out for that. It'll be really cool.

Um, 6 5 to 8:00 p.m. or sorry, 6:00 to 7:30. It's on my calendar at 5 because I have to be here early. Awesome. Thank you, city clerk. Happy tonight. Thank you, mayor. Okay, move down to the other end. Councelor, well, actually, Councilwoman Toya Erin, I make that difficult for you guys. You are

um I just had a couple things. I know. It's really funny when I said probably in January I mentioned about March being National Nutrition Month and I said, "Oh, wow. I know that's a long way away, but we're in March already. So, when counselor Ruba just stated about the native plant sale in May, I'm sure somebody was like, "That's May." No, that's tomorrow. Yeah. These days are moving very fast. But we did have our our very first series on March 4th. March 4th. Yeah. And it was really well attended. Um, so happy nutrition nutrition month first of all, but we're learning about, you know, our diets, how to take care of our health, our bodies, and what to eat and what to put in them. And it is really, really a great series. So, if you can on March 18th, we'll have another speaker series, and both our speakers are Madison Heist residents that are nutritionists that are really about focusing on body. So that really makes us happy that we found people in the city um to come and speak. So March 18th, 6:30 in the flex space at the library, we'll be talking about that. Also, local restaurant Zero Zeros is offering 15% off a meal um which is a crusted chicken um sandwich. I mean crusted chicken crusted chicken peon crusted chicken and also a salad. I might got it wrong, but If you look on our Facebook page, there is a flyer. You have to mention the flyer and have it to receive the 15% off. So, let's try to support them as much as we can because, you know, again, another local restaurant in the city that's doing something for us to make sure that we maintain our health. And I want to say happy women's month. You know, it is ironic that nutrition and women's month are in the same month. And

I'm a woman and I want to be healthy. So, I'm very happy about that. And just shout out to all the wonderful women out here. We are really doing a lot. And you know, not to negate our men, but and I don't want to say but, but, but, but not to negate our men, but women, we are really doing a wonderful job. So, happy women's month to all the lovely ladies up on here and in our audience. And I'm not going to knock over my water or my computer like he knocked over his water. All

right. Thank you, Mayor Promir. Thank you, your honor. Um, so what? Well, lots of things. So, I was able to attend this uh speaker series at the library. Uh, look forward to the next one on March 18th. As I mentioned before, we got to help each other. So, it'd be nice to see uh some of other smiling faces out there supporting that effort from the library advisory board. Um, I think we had a great conversation tonight on several topics. So, uh, I'm glad as councelor Wright mentioned in his opening comments, uh, opening, uh, invocation that, uh, you know, we have to have good conversations like that and we've got to agree to disagree and and, uh, and move on. So, um, I thought we had some great conversations on that. Your invocation led perfectly into the evening. And so thank you for that. Um glad to see that Christina made it through her first day and that she's still here. So that's that's wonderful. Uh good luck the rest of the week. I know you got some challenges coming up, but uh we're we're here to support you. So um speaking of Little League, the opening day is May 16th. So we'd love to see uh as many council folks uh there if that we can. and city manager Marsh who uh who's got the great pickle ball throwd down. So uh hopefully you can make it out again this this year since you blew us off last year. I'm sorry since you're unable

you're unable to attend last year. My ball did not even make it to home base. Uh but I wanted to note that no one else's did either. So that's true.

Objection. So, so don't worry about that part of it as long as you don't I saw a funny uh clip where it was some some gymnast or something was throwing out a first pitch and she literally threw the ball about a foot and a half and it rolled. Uh so you're better than that. Um so hopefully we'll look see you out there. Uh it is National Women's Month. some of the statistics. Uh I I was just absolutely shocked by some information that I learned about uh um how recently it was that women could buy houses on their own and and uh and own their own businesses. That was like back in the 70s and 80s.

I mean, I just was astounded by that. So, uh more power to the women. Um and that's all I have tonight, your honor. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Wright. I agree with everything thing he just said. Absolutely. There are so many uh amazingly talented, gifted uh wonderful women in our city. Uh you know, our city manager is a fine example with the uh tactical logistical work her and her staff do to keep our city moving forward. Uh welcome to being a part of that team and we're we're very happy to have you. Um, I want to talk about some of the things HRC is doing this month. There is a adaptive game night on um the uh I just had the date up and I lost it. Um there's an adaptive game night coming up for the HRC. I believe it's on the 25th at 6:00 to 8. Uh it'll be in the Breen Ridge room. Uh please come on out. It's um for our ADA community, for the children. Um, some of the things that make it a little bit different is that the lights are a little bit dimmer. There's uh games are going to have some different type of sensorial uh feels to them for folks who have sensorial issues or or sensitivity. So, I would encourage you to check that out. Families come check that out. Everyone come check it out so you can see, you know, how easy and simple it is to be adaptive and be considerate. I know uh one of the things that Junth they do that uh my wife helps sets up is uh the tent for mothers to have a space to get away for kids to get away. So if they meet need a moment to chill out because you know some of us as I get older you know you don't always like the noise and the sounds as much so to have an opportunity to step away is always a cool thing. Uh the HC also speaking of which for the second time is having a Juneenth scholarship and some might say um can I apply? The answer is simple. Do you live in the city of Madison Heights and do you go to school? Yes, you can apply. So, feel free to apply. Applications are open to the 5th of May.

Did you bother? Um, and uh, you know, along the line of um, the HRC, I just wanted to wish our um, Irish-American residents a happy Irish American Heritage Month. So, with that, remember to just to be kind and, you know, take care of yourself. Okay. Thank you, city attorney.

Just briefly, I just wanted to expand on uh some comments by Councilwoman Gerald's. Uh there's a fundraiser on Sunday supporting Haven. Uh one of my responsibilities for the city is prosecuting domestic violence cases and Haven is a uh very valued partner in those cases. We have a dedicated uh victim advocate and she works with us on these cases to provide um assistance to victims. She uh is a voice to talk to. She refers them to assistance. When we go to trial, she actually works with us to help prepare their their testimony, make sure there's someone at the courthouse so that they feel like they're not alone. um makes a big difference in regarding holding people accountable for the types of bad behavior that you often see in some of these intimate relationships that really shouldn't be taking place in that sort of behavior. And we hold people accountable and in order to do that sometimes it's a very scary lonely situation and uh Rachel Zeta who's our uh adv victim advocate is just invaluable in helping us hold people accountable for their misbehavior. They also provide um uh transportation. Sometimes people don't feel like they can get to court and they get rides through Haven. And most importantly is sometimes someone is victimized and they just don't feel there's any place they can go. They feel they're held hostage by the other partner who might be paying for the bills, might be their home, and they feel trapped and there's a shelter where they can go to. We've had victims who've actually said they didn't want to testify when we said we had a safe place to help them escape the situation. They've gone and stayed at that shelter and then we've brought the Haven's brought them to testify and uh Justin's has been served. Funding fundraisers like this meatball

event is invaluable because it is a nonprofit organization and it, you know, has various funding sources, but the funding is never guaranteed. So, every dime helps and uh based upon my experience, I'm going to be supporting the event. And uh if you just hearing about it tonight, I hope you'll consider participating or maybe even making a donation to Haven if you can't uh attend the event yourself. Okay. Thank you, sir. Manager Marsh, I've got nothing today.

Okay. I'll get into my huge laundry list. Just kidding. I have a few things I wanted to mention. Um, first and foremost, I was able to attend a um, Eagle Scout ceremony, a Court of Honor for Landon Sandborn. So, congratulations to him um, on attaining Eagle Scout. I was also able to attend the U. Madison Heights Hazel Park Chamber um, along with the 168 group. They had a lantern event at Gadagotcha which is just on the other side of Dwinder um on Saturday and that was again just a fantastic time and and a great time learning about um a different culture and we also as as most of us were there um not all of us could attend but most of us attended the Lanir trivia night um which all the resources and money earned from that night go to scholarships for students at Lanir and what an awesome time you know the only thing that I felt bad about is that councelor Wright did not have every single answer on the pizza questionnaire that we had. But it was it was truly truly a great night. Uh a great time, you know, with council members where we didn't have to worry about anything that was on any agendas or anything else that was going on. Just a good time with um with good people. Uh we're going uh three of us, uh Mayor Prom Bill Mir, myself, and councelor Gerald are going to attend Capcom this week um in Lancing. We're going to go down there and and do some learning on some, you know, items that the MML, the Michigan Municipal League has to offer. Um, again, like everybody else has said, happy National Women's Month. Um, and welcome Christina. Uh, welcome to Madison Heights and like, uh, Mayor Prom Mir said, thank goodness you're still here and it's evening time. You did not run away your first day, so that's wonderful. Um, and I know you do have some things coming up ahead in the in the coming days. So, um, good luck to you and and we're here if you need anything. Um, one other thing in

reference to Glee and the water bill. I just I just want to I didn't say it at the beginning, but you know, that was one of the promises that we made to our citizens, um, early on when this council took over is that we would do our level best to make sure that if we did have to have pass through increases on anything that we would give you as much notice as we possibly could. So, as soon as we got this information, Manager Marsh and staff has been working on details so that we can get this out to our residents so that although we know that if you if the money's not there, the money's not there, but at least if you have a couple of months to prepare for it, we hope that you'll be in better shape and be able to at least know that that raise is coming and maybe adjust your budget um elsewhere if possible. Um so, we are doing that and that's all I have this evening. So, we will close the meeting at 7:48 p.m.