City Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening.

I'd like to call to order the July 27th Marquette City Commission meeting here at 6 p.m. and Commission Chambers. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

City clerk roll call please Commissioner Davis Commissioner Gottlieb Commissioner Hanley here Commissioner Larson here Commissioner mayor Mayor Pro Tem Ottaway and Mayor Schlegel here Commissioners motion to excuse Commissioner mayor Mr. Hanley I move that we excuse Commissioner mayor for personal reasons.

Thank you second Pro Tem Ottaway Thank you any discussion? I think it's admirable to mention that he is off doing his week service with the Army National Guard this week and thank him for his service while he's gone. With that being said, all in favor please say yes. Yes. Opposed, no. Motion passes 6-0. We've got an agenda in front of us. Is there a motion for the agenda? Commissioner Davis?

I move we approve the agenda as presented.

Thank you. Second, please. Mr. Gottlieb. Second. Thank you. Any discussion on the agenda? Seeing none. All in favor, please say yes. Yes. Opposed? No. Motion again passes 6-0. I've got a couple of announcements tonight. You will notice this week there's going to be a pretty heavy presence with the public safety training simulation that's going to be going on. Residents may notice an increased presence of emergency vehicles and public safety personnel throughout the area Monday, July 27th through Wednesday, July 29th as local, county, state, and federal agencies participate in a multi-agency public safety training exercise. Portions of this exercise may include simulated emergency scenarios, specialized equipment, and increased activity in or around Matson Lower Harbor Park, NMU, and Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport. There is no cause for concern as the activities are part of a planned training event and we appreciate the public's patience and cooperation as first responders work together to strengthen community safety and emergency readiness. Another announcement would be that early voting for the August election has started. Early voting for the August primary election is underway and available daily from 8 to 4 through August 2nd in the lower level of the Peter White Public Library. For additional election information, including voter registration, absentee voting, and polling locations, please visit City Clerk's page on the City's website. Thank you, city manager, for those tidbits. That brings us to our first public comment of the evening. Please note that comments may not exceed more than three minutes per person, and please state your name and physical address when making public comments at the podium. Anyone for public comment?

Fred Benzi, 1705 Harborview Drive, Marquette. I came today to introduce myself as the current precinct one representative on the Marquette County Board of Commissioners. I have been serving on the board since the end of April. My wife and I have lived in Marquette for almost 30 years, and we love our life here. Many people remember when I worked for the Marquette County Health Department for 25 years, and I have a long history of devoted service to Marquette County. During that time, I worked well with city officials to resolve many issues. On a lighter note, I was invited by Chairman DeRocha to ride in the parade along with Margaret Brum. I thought I was in for a leisure ride waving at the public, but what I didn't know was that I became the designated candy man in the rules state. You can't throw candy from the cart. They have to be handed out individually to more excited children than you have time or candy for, and Joe was a speed demon and left me falling behind. I had to run nearly the entire parade to catch up, only to be handed another bag of candy. I ran the entire route while Joe and Margaret laughed at me, and it was a good thing I ran track and cross country in high school. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of watching eager children waiting for their cannery. The other reason I'm here tonight is I wanted to tell the board, and especially Karen Kovacs, that they have done an exceptional job managing the city's budget. And during my time as the health officer for Marquette County, I was known as a known for my fiscal responsibility. One of the goals for the county is to achieve financial efficiency. Ms. Kovac's success on keeping spending within the city's budget encourages me to think that we can coordinate and collaborate on this goal. Both the city and the county need to be wise stewards of taxpayer money. Marquette City and Marquette County must collaborate to ensure we provide the necessary services to our citizens and to wisely manage their money. We're going to be faced with increased costs that will put our citizens at risk of losing services. And finding solutions to these issues will be a challenge, but I'm confident we can find them through collaborative efforts. We all love the city and the county of Marquette, and we all want the best of life for our citizens. I feel that my healthcare experience, education, and fiscal responsibility will serve the citizens of Marquette City, Marquette Township, and Marquette County well. If you haven't already voted, please vote for me on August 4th. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else for public comment?

Barb outside 1324 North Front Street. I have a couple just quick things and maybe you guys have done this already, but Just thinking about last week's Smoke thing I was wondering kind of what this if the city had any like procedures policies that they follow when there's like a natural disaster where the AQI is like you know, off the charts. And so I'm just hoping you will address that at the end, give us, you know, what the routine or what the procedure is. The other thing I wanted to point out, I've been meaning to write this, but this sounds really trivial, but you know how I am about pedestrian safety. So about, I think it was four or five years ago, I think it was, Front Street was redone. They, you know, tore up Front Street, put in all the new pipes and redid a bunch of stuff, put in a few sidewalks. The day that they poured the sidewalks, we had this torrential downpour. And some of us were kind of looking at that going, oh, those sidewalks are going to fail because, of course, they weren't covered appropriately. And now four or five years later, those sidewalks are starting to fail. It's not all of them. But the few that they poured between, specifically between, in the 1300 block. So I just want to kind of point that out because, of course, I don't think the city should have to cover poorly managed poured sidewalks. So I'm just bringing that up. And that's it. Thanks. Thank you.

Anyone else for public comment?

Good evening. My name is Jordan Myers and I rent a house at 1402 Altamont Street from Scram Superior Properties. I'm here today because my partner Bailey is at work right now, working as a doctor. She has been speaking at this meeting since March because our landlord, Scram Superior Properties, have refused to uphold their obligations under Michigan law to rent us a good, safe and clean home. I mean, I found nobody in the city or county of Marquette to help us or hold our landlords, Jesse and Laura, accountable. This is our first summer in Marquette, and we underestimated the speed of the growing season. During the month of June, my partner and I were quite busy with work, and before we knew it, our front lawn was over a foot high. We received a notice. from the city of Marquette on July 2nd, citing Chapter 22 of the Marquette City Code of Ordinances, informing us we had until July 7th to cut our lawn, or we'd be fined the amount of cost to the city to correct the problem. The letter informed us the high of our lawn cannot exceed six inches in private property in Marquette City. We had no problem addressing this issue. We got it addressed that day via Tom Services. And what we find interesting, however, is that the city doesn't hesitate to step and tell a private citizen about their lawns, but they can't help us with the issues with our landlords. Our hot water heater is plugged into a power strip dangling off the wall and was installed without permits or inspections. Our downstairs is an unvented propane fireplace, and that was installed without permits and inspections. And our downstairs is built into a former garage without permits or inspections, which has led to an insane amount of flooding from the snow melt this past year. We also have a heating appliance that was sitting in a puddle of water this whole time during the flood. And the market fire department refused to come out and inspect and say in the house already passed inspection. I come to you tonight to ask how it is possible our city sprang to the action of ER sick for grass height, but have no problem following the laws and... Sorry. We have no problem following the laws and ordinance in Marquette, and we're happy to make sure our grass is cut at proper height, but I don't understand how our landlords can get away with this. We're going to be in court on Wednesday, July 29th, against our landlords, and I hope some of you can be there. I have a copy of our statements and also some pictures and such to give all of you.

Can we go to the city clerk, please? Thank you. Anyone else for public comment? First round.

Hello, I am Brian Shire, 403 East Park Street. Many of you already know I am the Farmers Market Manager. I'm here today to invite you all to come out to celebrate National Farmers Market Week. National Farmers Market Week is August, the first week of August. You should be really proud of our market because for our community, our size, it should be one market, half the size, and a third of the vendors and customers. So to the fact that we have over 300 vendors at our market, we have over 3,000 customers coming each month or each year, and we have two markets of almost 50 and 70 vendors, you should be very proud and come out and celebrate with us. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else for public comment? Public comment is closed. That's gonna move us on to one of our two presentations for this evening. Really excited about the visit here and I'm gonna pass it off to Bill Grazer here. It's all about honoring the sister city delegation from Higashiyomi, Japan.

Good evening. Before we get started, this is Tomiko Inoue. She'll be translating for us tonight. Good evening, I'm Bill Brazier, Marquette Area Sister Cities Partnership Board Member. I want to thank the Commission for having us here tonight to welcome the delegation visiting in our 47th year of our adventure known as the Sister City Relationship with Higashiyomi Japan. During their visit here, the delegation saw and learned so much about our area and the city of Marquette and the Marquette area.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Bill Blazer, and I work for the Market Area Sister City Partnership Board. Ladies and gentlemen, today is the 47th anniversary of the sister city exchange, and I would like to welcome you to the Higashi-Omishi facility. Thank you very much. I will now introduce the delegates and their host families. When I call the delegates' name and the host family, please stand and then sit back down. We have our delegation leader, Kiyokazu Namikawa, Deputy Mayor of Higashiyomi City, hosted by Dan Oja.

We have our vice leader, Takashi Aoyama, the vice chairperson of the Higashiyomi City Council, hosted by Jerome and Megan LaBeouf. Yoshiyuki Futahashi, president of the Yokaichi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, hosted by Eric and Carrie Schweigert. Shigefumi Suzumura, President of the Higashiyomi City Chamber of Commerce, hosted by Mark Hefke. Mayumi Akaishi, hosted by Carol Bell. Junko Murata, of the Higashiyomi Friendship Association, hosted by Kathleen Conover, and was also hosted by John and Karen Sutton. Koya Mikami, from the Higashiyomi City Planning Department, hosted by Jean and Deborah Harvey.

Thank you.

Arigato gozaimasu.

Once again, welcome. I'm going to kind of go off script here a little bit because I didn't think I'd be having as much fun at the meet and greet that we had last week. These guys had everybody dancing in a circle by the end of it. And I want to kind of start off with that because I don't know if I was doing it right, but I was doing my best. And I thank you very much for that. It was a great experience. I'm excited to introduce the Sister City delegation from Higashiyomi, Japan. Last week, I was able to meet and greet with them at a welcome dinner and do some dancing. During that time, I talked about the beauty that surrounds Marquette and the appreciation for everything that makes Marquette who we are. I hope you were able to experience a little bit of that during your week here. whether it was anything from taking a walk on the beach and leaving a footprint, leaving your footprint behind, going up Sugarloaf or maybe jumping off of Black Rocks, which I heard our planner did a nice job. And it's just, you know, one way of kind of leaving your free fingerprint here behind and being a part of the sister city delegation. So with that being said, we wish you safe travels on your return, and I look forward to hearing about Marquette's sister city visit in a couple years in Haudgashumi. Thank you.

I'm sure you all know the dance part, so I won't translate it, but I'll start with the greeting part. I am very happy to be able to introduce you to the members of the Shimaitoshi Setsudan who came from Higashiyomi City. I am very happy to be able to meet you at the welcome party on Tuesday last week and have the opportunity to greet you. I talked about the beautiful nature of the market and the connection with nature. I would be happy if you could feel the charm of the market even a little through this visit. From the beach, Black Rocks, Sugar Loaf Mountain, and many other historical spots, we, the market and market citizens, will continue to welcome you with all our hearts. We pray that your return to Higashi-Omi City will be a safe journey.

また、姉妹都市訪問に関してお話する機会を心よりお待ち申し上げております。 I will now introduce Delegation Leader Kiyokazu Namikawa to now make a few remarks and present the City to City gift along with Mayor Schlegel. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. I am Kiyokazu Namikawa, Vice Mayor of Higashi-Omi City, Shiga Prefecture, who is in charge of the East Omi City Effective Renovation Facility. Thank you very much for this opportunity today.

Hello, everyone. I'm Kiyokazu Namikawa, Deputy Mayor of Higashiyomishiga, and I'm also the leader of this delegation. Thank you so much for making time for us and having us here at the City Commission meeting today.

Market City was established on August 13, 1979 by the former mayor of Yokai City. After becoming Higashi-Omi City, the exchange continued and this year is the 47th year.

The city of Make and former Yokaichi City signed a sister city agreement in 1978. After the merger of the cities, including Yokaichi, we became Higashiyomi City and have continued a great relationship. This year, we celebrate the 47th anniversary of our wonderful friendship.

In this long exchange, The fact that the fishermen have deepened mutual understanding and trust and have carved an effective history to this day It is an irreplaceable treasure and pride. I would like to express my deep gratitude to the former mayor and members of the committee, Dr. Price Deerfield, and Mr. Paulette Lindbergh, as well as to many market citizens.

We have deepened our mutual understanding and our trust between our cities all these years and making our history together. This is an invaluable asset and we are very proud to have this long-lasting friendship. We sincerely appreciate the effort of past mayors and commissioners, as well as the late Dr. Price Duhelfeldt, Ms. Paulette Lindberg, and many others who have made this possible.

Through the various opportunities we have had in this visit, I would like to return to Higashiyomi City and convey the beauty and richness of the culture of Market City that I experienced in this stay. I would be happy if you would come to Higashiyomi City next time.

During our stay, we believe that we have been able to strengthen our bond of friendship through many opportunities and activities. We will share our experience of the beauty and rich culture of the city of Maquette with our citizens in Higashiyomi. We sincerely, sincerely hope that you have an opportunity to come and visit us in Higashiyomi next year or in the near future.

I would like to commemorate and greet you by saying that the friendship and love for peace between the two countries will expand beyond the borders.

In closing, we hope to continuously deepen our friendship and wish our forever friendship and love for peace will spread beyond the border and make the world a more peaceful and beautiful place for everyone. Thank you very much.

This is from Higashiyomi City. Thank you.

Would you? Would you mind?

This year's gift from Higashiyomi City is a lantern which was made by a traditional lantern maker in Higashiyomi. Lanterns are very special and cultural to Higashiyomi and also to Japan. Our city has many Shinto shrines and each community's lanterns are presented at their local shrines during summer and other special festivals. In some areas, there is still a tradition of displaying large lanterns at the entrance of their homes during festival times. We are presenting this lantern with Higashi-Omi City Market City and Sister City written on the lantern. We hope you all enjoy our gift.

Yes.

But we don't have the translation, so I would translate it and then send it to you later.

Go ahead. You've got some experience with the visit that you were over there with?

Well, I have so much experience. I had the pleasure of visiting Higashiyomi in 2023, I believe, and what a wonderful time I had, and I so appreciate all of you coming here. So the city of Marquette would like to present a gift to you, and it's a picture of a snowy owl. done by one of our local artists and hope that we can hang it in your city hall.

Thank you.

We also have small gifts for each one of you that I will present. And you're going to say something more. That's fine.

We can do that together. As we kind of wrap things up with the. OK. OK. I just want to introduce the rest of the commission and city staff here with us tonight. On the end here, we have Commissioner Sally Davis, former mayor. We've got Commissioner Kerry Gottlieb, Commissioner Hanley, who is also a former mayor, Mayor Pro Tem Ottaway, Commissioner Mike Larson, and tonight who is missing with us this evening is Commissioner Cody Mayer. We also have our City Manager Karen Kovacs, our City Attorney Susan Larson, Police Chief Grimm, and our City Clerk Kyle Whitney. These are the guys that make everything happen, and I'm so thankful for all the work that they do for us.

Oh. Have you been up this morning at the school meeting?

as we transition into the later part of our meeting here.

Thank you all. With that,

Conclusion, we go to our second presentation of the evening, Police and Fire Pension Board. Mike, I'm going to do my best. Arch Kosky? Perfect. Thank you, sir.

Greetings. Good evening. Thanks for having me here. I appreciate the opportunity to present the status of the City of Marquette Police Fire Pension Fund to you. So if you remember from last time I spoke the The Marquette City police and fire departments are each funded have a pension funded For when we retire and move on to the next stage of our life the voters of Marquette City back in 1965 voted to make this option available for those who work in the police and fire department, so we've had that ever since 1965 and The purpose of the board is to Acquire funds We members contribute funds the city contributes funds we invest that and then we can get our investments and That's how we fund the retirement for the police and fire Currently on the board I've been the chair for a couple years now. I'm joined by Ken Lamar, who's a firefighter, City of Marquette. He's the secretary, and I'm also joined by Tara Barman here tonight. She's our city liaison and knows a lot more about this stuff than I do. I'm just here to talk. We have two openings. These are reserved for members of the public at large to come and fill in on our board, but we've been having these vacant spots now for about four years. So I encourage anybody who was interested in serving on the police fire pension board to join up We hold usually a meeting every fourth Tuesday This year we had I'm sorry the previous year we had eight regular meetings and then four were canceled just for lack of quorum Currently we are serving 86 retirees from the fire and police departments currently we have 59 employees contributing into that Our fund is doing quite well. We sit at 51 51.7 about million and We're about 79% funded We don't have the actual number in stone yet for this year, but we project it's gonna be also 79% funded. And if you can see all our numbers up here, December 31st, 2020 through 2024, we've been at 78% funded, 82% funded, and then steady at 79% funded. So as far as pension systems like ours goes, that's doing fairly well in the state of Michigan. The unfunded liability for our fund sits at about $12 million. We have taken that amount and amortized it over the course of 20 years, and that was back in 2018, so we're looking forward for another 13 years to try and spread that money out and hope that the investments have done as well as they've been doing. We've had our ups and downs years, but we still are doing well in that regard. The actuarials say that the more police and fire that live on, the more money they're gonna draw from our pension. So more people that quit contributing and go to retirement status, That's a draw on the pension. Usually we know that we can average about three people retiring from each of our departments. I'm sorry, a total combined three from those two departments every year. But back in 22 and 2023, we had eight retire and then nine retire. So that was kind of a hit on our pension board. Despite that, we're still bringing in earnings and bringing in Good investments As far as the status of the pension goes the city contributes a Viable amount enough to keep us afloat and we appreciate that very much that's gone up about 300,000 since 2022 and again, that's on behalf of the city and the taxpayers we that are in the system are contributing our Our contributions combined have gone up about $20,000 since 2022. And then the retirement benefits payments that we have to pay out for our retired members has gone up $700,000, about. So we are still doing good because we manage our money well and make good investments. We checked our math, figuratively speaking, last time in 2023, and we looked around to see if any other money managers could do a better job than who we currently had, who was Wells Fargo Advisors. We've had Wells Fargo Advisors since 2013. In 2018, we checked their math and put out a request for proposals, and they decided to stick with Wells Fargo Advisors. They were doing quite well with the money that they were bringing in and investing for us. stars compliment accomplishments goes also we broadcast our Assumed rate of investment return we broadcast the amortization Periods that we're working with and the assumptions that we use we put all that in a mailing and send it out to our retirees so that they know that the board is still working for them and we send that out every year and That's part of our due diligence as to maintaining the fund is to let our members know kind of where we sit. Also, when we went to our new, I don't know what you'd call them, but they are the company that writes the checks for us, Principal. They have an online portal, and we've had more and more members signing up with the online portal so that they can have direct access through the internet to their earnings, the status of their contributions, and the status of their tax documents and stuff. It's the pension board's fiduciary responsibility to maintain to our due diligence and make sure that we're investing appropriately and staying with our money managers to make sure they're doing their jobs too. Now we want to keep this fund viable for the future firefighters and police officers that come to work for Marquette City. So again, getting back to the purpose, that's what we're trying to do here as the board. The issues that we have are the typical issues that I've been bringing to the board for the past couple years. The two vacancies, we're looking to have citizens at large jump on the board, somebody who might be money-minded. We sit currently at 79% funded. Ideally, 80%. In a perfect world, 100%. But we'll settle for 80. 79, we're getting there. We've been there. We just hope that the market sustains at least something that we can work with, and this is doing quite well. Are there any questions that I could try to answer for you? Like I said, I'm not the money person, but I can do my best. If anybody had a question or...

pro tim ottaway mike thanks for your presentation uh i'd really love seeing that we've kind of flatlined it seems like as far as that number at 79 which to me tells a lot it tells a lot that you guys are really watching this where it needs to go i know i remember a couple years back we were worried that that number was going to dip below that 79 and um i guess my really only question to you is over the last couple of years how many we had retire in the two departments combined um Doing math on the fly isn't my strong point, but we've had quite a few retire. Yeah, because I know you said seven and nine or whatever it was. But I mean, I remember we've had numerous come in here for just things that we've provided, and basically when it comes to the retirement, saying congratulations during those periods. So I feel like that number's higher than three, you know? So it's higher than that average, and it's nice to kind of see that you guys are still maintaining that 79, given the market and just the inconsistencies of it. So I really think you're getting past that point of, And I think as we continue to hire people into the system, I would only expect that number to get closer to that 100% as quick as possible. So great job to you guys for just managing that fund and making sure that it's taken care of. It's a crown jewel for hiring, as far as I'm concerned. Trying to get somebody aboard on police and fire, it's really our number one asset that we can offer. And I think to continue to keep that thing fully funded is a must. So thank you.

Agreed. And thank you. But to answer your question, We had to retire from, this is police and fire combined, but we had two in 2024, eight in 2023, nine in 2022. I can go right down to 2019, but three per year, five per year, four per year in 2019. And you were right, this is a crown jewel. It's a way that we, fire and police, can try and recruit based on the person.

Good. Anybody else? Just, you know, I'm not the math guy like you said for yourself there, but I would be pretty impressed if I could have the history that you guys are having there, so kudos. Thank you very much.

All right, thank you.

Okay. Commissioners, that brings us to our consent agenda. Is there a motion for the consent agenda?

Pro Tem, out of the way. Move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Is there a second, please?

Commissioner Larson? I'll second. Any discussion?

Nope.

Seeing none, this requires a roll call vote, and I will kick it off to the city clerk, please.

Commissioner Davis?

Yes.

Commissioner Gottlieb?

Yes.

Commissioner Hanley?

Yes.

Commissioner Larson?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Ottaway? Yes. And Mayor Schlegel?

Yes. Motion passes 6-0. that brings us to new business we've got a couple of things here some good morsels of information the first item of business new business is our city hall labor agreement background or we can go right to the deputy city manager

I can read the background.

Go for it.

Thank you, Mayor. The City of Marquette has reached an agreement with the City Hall Employees Chapter of AFSCME Local 1852. The bargaining unit has ratified the agreement. The original agreement was effective October 1st, 2021 and was extended in 2023. The new agreement will be effective October 1st, 2026 and will terminate September 30th, 2029. The agreed upon wages for the length of the contract include increases of 9% for 2026 and 3% for 2027 and 28. The city's bargaining team commends the city hall unit of AFSCME for their willingness to work with us to negotiate an agreement that is fair to the employees and to the city. Fiscal effect, this increase in personnel cost will be budgeted for and reflected in the 2027 to 29 budgets. Recommendation approve the city hall employees labor agreement effective October 1st, 2026 through September 30th, 2029 and authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign the agreement alternatives as determined by the commission.

Thank you very much. Now I'd like to kind of pass it off to deputy city manager from happens. Give us some background.

Yes, thank you, Your Honor. I just wanted to state that this is a really fair contract that we negotiated with the bargaining unit. It keeps us competitive with the industry and with the other municipalities in our region and across the state, to be honest with you. And it fairly compensates our employees. I would just like to commend the bargaining unit. They have a couple of representatives here tonight. especially their chapter chair, Andrea Landers, for just committing to work collaboratively with us at the bargaining table and getting this done in a very efficient and cordial manner. But this is a good agreement for the city.

Thank you. Commissioners, any comments? Oh, yes, I'm sorry. Motion, please. Commissioner Hanley.

I move that we approve the City Hall Employees Labor Agreement, effective October 1st, 2026, through September 30th, 2029, and authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign the agreement.

Okay. Second. I approach Tim Ottaway. Second. Thank you. Discussion?

I just am very happy that it went well, and I have all the faith that the city worked great with the employees to make this fair for everyone, and I'm very happy to see it.

A huge thank you to Deputy City Manager. Sean, I know it's very important, obviously, for you to have these negotiations, and I think you do a really, really great job representing the city's needs and interests in this manner. I also just want to say I'm very happy to see the first year pay bump for employees. Our employees are what run this city. I mean, we can sit here as, you know, the city commission and act like we do a lot. And in all reality, the people that are doing things for you are the ones that work here. We're overseeing that, yes. But our city manager and the staff that works for the city, they're the most important thing about what's going on in the city. So I'm very happy to see that first-year pay bump. I think it's well needed, and I look forward to seeing what the next couple years after that bring. So thank you so much.

Mr. Steers, anybody else?

Okay.

um yeah i'll just echo i think um it's it's really quite the compliment to uh both parties that they were able to come up with the agreement as quickly and as uh i guess as cordially as possible and i just want to thank both of them for all the work that they put into it with that being said all in favor of the motion please say yes yes opposed no motion passes 6-0 Next item of new business is selecting a delegate for the Michigan Municipal League Convention. There's no motion for this, right? We just got to... On this one? Background, please, city clerk.

Thank you, Mayor. Each year, the Michigan Municipal League holds a meeting of its members, which includes the election of trustees, voting on policy, and other business. In accordance with Michigan Municipal League bylaws, each member municipality is asked to appoint one official voting delegate to represent the municipality at this annual meeting. The Michigan Municipal League annual meeting will take place in Traverse City October 6th through the 9th, 2026. Fiscal effect, none by this action. Recommendation, appoint one city delegate to attend the 2026 Michigan Municipal League Annual Meeting. Alternatives as determined by the Commission.

Thank you. Motion, please. Commissioner Hanley.

I move that we appoint one city delegate to attend the 2026 Michigan Municipal League Annual Meeting.

Thank you. A second? Commissioner Davis.

I'll second the motion.

Thank you. Discussion?

I I just want to clarify that you probably need to either designate that the mayor is appointing someone or you should actually appointing someone tonight yes.

I'd like to change my motion to I move that we allow the mayor to appoint one city delegate to attend the 2026 Michigan municipal league annual meeting.

And I will second that okay thank you. Discussion. Do you want me to do that now or do you want to vote on the first choice.

I would take the vote first and then if you'd like to point that person out if I thank you.

All right all in favor please say yes, yes, yes, yes, no. Motion passes 6. I did this last time last year and I'm going to do it again this year so enjoy doing it it's so it's an interesting component of the MML and I really appreciated seeing how the process worked and I look forward to doing it again this year. That brings us to our second public comment. Please keep in mind that comments cannot exceed more than three minutes per person. Please state your name and physical address when making public comments if you have not already.

Margaret Brum, 404 East Magnetic Street. I voted this morning. I picked this date to vote because July 27th, 2026 would have been my mother's 99th birthday. and growing up the stories of her parents' immigration from Poland and her father struggling to pass his citizenship test as a non-English speaking person who had to learn English the hard way. And the fact that he did achieve his citizenship and when he got citizenship, his wife automatically got citizenship. And after that, he proudly, they took the day off for voting in Iron County. They're from Gastra. He would put on his church suit and go down to the town hall where everybody voted. And he would literally keep a list of people as they went in to vote. It wasn't a question of who they were voting for. He had worked so hard and come so far. And in Poland... people from his part of the world didn't get a chance to vote, he would come back and tell his family who had showed up and who was too lazy to recognize that they had to show up because it was a part of being an American citizen. And I come to you tonight to remind you that Went to the League of Women Voters Saturday night and a gentleman who specializes in election law gave us a very gloomy speech on all the different ways different parts of our government, different parts outside of our government are trying to get us to basically substitute what we say on Facebook and on the internet for the vote. And I love the computer. I love Facebook. You may have noticed some of my posts. Sometimes I'm very popular. My dog is cute. But there's nothing, not one thing said, not one thing hinted, not one thing cross-connected. I don't care how many views you get. The power of this device is nothing compared to the power of going and voting. Voting is the one thing that makes a difference. And we need to remind ourselves of this and we need to teach our young people that it is a day to dress up and go in and vote. Now we have, thanks to our very active city clerk who pioneered early voting in the Upper Peninsula by volunteering Marquette for the first chance at early voting, you can early vote. You can be on the permanent absentee ballot vote. You can show up, you can have a poll worker help you vote. There's nothing in the way of getting you to vote except your decision to not vote. And so I'm here to tell you that the number of times I've run for election And people have come up to me and say, oh gee, I'm sorry you lost. And I said, yeah, what was it like when you went to vote? And then they look at me and I say, oh, I didn't make it. And I'm like, you didn't make it to voting and you have all these people getting in the way. So this is lovely, but this doesn't count. The only thing that counts is an immigrant coming to this country and dressing up on voting day to make sure that his neighbors got out and voted. And I'd encourage the same. Thank you.

Thank you, anyone else for public comment?

Matt Lutenberger, 1406 Garfield Ave, City of Marquette. I'm here tonight asking, well frankly, 2011 was the first time I ever made a proposal for the old hospital. So that's been 15 years. I put together a little proposal, put together some, you know, talking points and whatever, but I wanted to bring a science center with some integral housing into Marquette, into the center part of Marquette. And so here we are, 15 years later, and it's all been leveled. And we haven't heard anything since. So I'm wondering if you guys, the city, have heard anything from the NMU Foundation. Because I know it's a nonprofit, they've got some sort of internal things going on. But frankly, I'm kind of curious with Cam Benzie at this point, former state representative Cam Benzie, where did that money come from, where did it go, and what's it going to be used for? We've got a brownfield development plan. This has been called a brownfield. Last time I was up here talking about it, apparently there was a guy sitting back there who we've suggested turning it into a parking lot. That still hasn't happened, there's tall grasses. So I'm wondering who tells the foundation to cut the grass for one, because those parking lots are pretty, pretty ratty. Two, who tells the foundation we need to have an update as to what you plan on doing there? I've heard it's going to be transformational. Let's transform it into something other than a big open grassy knoll. Now last year I applied for a job at NMU to kind of address this. And so my thought was to put a garden out there and have every new student pick a plant that we can grow there and have until we decide on what to do with it. So again, we haven't had any improvements we haven't had any discussion the brownfield development plan or group hasn't been meeting and right now i'm curious if you the representatives know what's going on with it thank you thank you anyone else for public comment anyone else public comment is closed

That's going to take us two comments from the commission. We're going to start tonight with Commissioner Larson.

Thanks, so I think tonight I'd like to just raise an idea that I think the Commission should think about a little bit, and I know it's already been on several of our minds. Recently, the Traverse City City Manager has begun to encourage destination communities across Michigan to explore a local option that would allow overnight visitors staying in hotels that support public infrastructure and services that they rely on during their stay. And so rather than waiting to react to ideas that are developed elsewhere, I'd really like to see Marquette join and help shape those conversations, potentially from the beginning here. I want to make it clear that tourism is one of Marquette's greatest strengths, and we should continue to welcome visitors to our community. But as a destination community here in the UP, we also know that visitors rely on our roads, our parks, our waterfront, public safety, and other city services. And maintaining those services certainly comes with real costs that are borne currently solely by city residents. So I guess what I'm asking is I'd like to see Marquette engage with some of these communities and maybe the MML to explore what a local option might look like and how we can help shape at least that discussion. And so I'm curious if there's interest from my fellow commissioners in having our city manager think about those conversations and report back on what role, if any, Marquette should play, advocate or support. And if there is interest, what is that direction or support the city manager would need from this commission to make this more of an active policy discussion?

Thank you for Davis.

Commissioner Larson, that's a good topic to bring up. And if you are asking each of us, I say yes. I believe that the ambassadors have been engaged in this and maybe a little bit of the MML, but all that our city manager respond to that. I don't really have a comment tonight, but I would ask that the city manager do give us an update on what we as the city know about the old hospital because i think that's a question that we get often in the community and also um there was something about oh i know barb um barb was talking about uh maybe disaster or warnings of disaster times if we have any sort of a plan like that thank you commissioner godley

I really initially had no comment, but after Commissioner Larson's comment, I did not know the Traverse City managers said that. And I know I have when I first ran for city commission, that was like one of the things I was really hot on was a bed tax. So I'm all for it. And I know I bring it up with the city manager every time I meet with her. And so anything we can do to get a bed tax, I am for it.

Mr. Hanley.

Hi, yes, I'd like to first address what Commissioner Larson brought up. I saw the post as well, and one of the things that I find a lot of people are very confused about in this state of Michigan is how we can tax people. I'm consistently told to tax tourists, and I'm consistently having to tell them that it is currently illegal to do that in the state of Michigan, so we can't do that yet. So I would love to see a way where we could shift some of the burden off of the residents that are living in the area and onto the people that are using the infrastructure, our roads, our water, our sewer, all of our parks and open spaces. I would love to see it shift. I know personally, I go to many cities that have hotel taxes when you go to stay in them. And I've never once questioned staying at that hotel because of that tax. So I really find it hard to believe that it would limit anyone from wanting to come to our beautiful city. And I think it would help release the taxpayers of the area with some of a burden that we cannot handle currently. So, I would love to explore this more in any way we possibly can. Another thing, Mr. Luttenberger, we do know that the developer of Viridia, of course, is developing that property, and they came back to us not too long ago, from what I remember, with a change to the brownfield for possible underground parking. I would assume they have plans to start this year. I would like to hear from the city manager as well. We don't own the property, so we can't do much on that. And then I feel like that's all I had. Oh, Brian, thank you for coming. I love our farmer's market. I go as often as I possibly can to our market to get a breakfast burrito. And my son buys two baguettes, one of which he eats while we walk around the market. And then it's just it's such a great place. And you guys have made it so welcoming. And I've watched it grow over the years. And so you've done a phenomenal job. And I'm really excited to go during farmer's market week, too.

Thank you. Pro Tem Ottaway.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Barb, thank you for your comments. I'll let the city manager respond to those since Sally already brought that up. You know, sorry. Brian, thank you for being here. And also thank you for inviting us to the event to celebrate the farmer's market. I unfortunately won't be able to attend. I have to take my son to a fishing derby that day. So I've missed the last couple of years of the farmer's market celebration. But I will just say that, you know, as someone who served on the DDA, luckily enough, and kind of got to see what has kind of transformed that farmer's market, it's become one of the crown jewels of our city. And it's one of the first things that people who both live here and don't live here talk about. So thank you for all the work you put into that. I think it's amazing. And I think... It's just one of those things that I couldn't be happier about. I want to also mention the sister city delegate, as well as all of the folks that are associated with that. Just a huge thank you to them. I know Commissioner Davis has been our longstanding person that's been a big part of that delegation. Something that we don't tend to thank enough there, let's thank the host families. The host families seem to really be a big part of what's going on, and I feel like they just kind of get forgotten in all of this, so I just wanted to make sure I mentioned that tonight. I also wanted to mention, Margaret, your comment, dead on with voting voting so important i will even you know tout early voting is one of my favorite things about the the entire voting uh situation uh go to the library go early vote you will not be disappointed it is a great experience and i believe i would probably have to clear this with with kyle but they usually have way cooler stickers there. So check that out. Then the ones that just say I voted. Lastly, I will agree with Commissioner Larson. When it comes to what is happening and ultimately from a financial standpoint and the amount of people that come here, the number one thing I hear from people in the community is what can we do to get money from people that don't live here? It is a very tough challenge. Other communities have really tried and I can tell you that our city manager has explored this well since I've known her. It's not something that's simple, but it does not hurt to try and reach out and really bridge that with communities like Traverse City, potentially Grand Rapids, who has tried this also and maybe in a different way. And maybe it means we have to ask for the money to be utilized for a certain thing. That's where other municipalities have made this work. They've basically had a fund that this has went to, such as a convention center or something like that. Maybe we can move forward and see if the state can work with us to try to utilize this just for infrastructure, because our infrastructure is really suffering in the city. And ultimately, with the cost of how expensive it is to rebuild a road and add water to it, and it's Margaret has said on so many times, you know, sewer, septic, those are the most important things that you can have in a city. We have to address those things and we have to find a way to do so that it's not going to cost people even more. But as I always do, I've rambled on long enough. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'll stop talking and let you finish.

thank you yeah yeah I I'm I don't know if there's anybody in the commission I haven't had this conversation with but yeah I'm hotels the rbo's the whole gamut we need to have whether it's a flat rate or percentage something that's going to be able to go towards our general fund and allow us to put it into the infrastructure because that's really is the biggest hit that, in my opinion, that has occurred from the thousands of visitors that we get each season. So, yes, I would be very much in favor of asking our staff, especially City Manager Kovacs, to explore what's next with this topic and to have conversations with other communities that are destinations I I don't like using the term tax I'd like to say something along the lines of maybe a lodging assessment or some some term that is much more. I think easy to. Put on the visitors versus a term tax for some reason it's Texas it's been sent to the word but whatever happens there happens there. I did have a great time getting to know the Higashiyomi delegation. I wasn't kidding you when they said that they had a couple hundred people in that ballroom doing a dance that they brought with them. I still have two left feet. There's no doubt about it. But it was very cool, and I got to know a number of the delegates, and it was just, it was really eye-opening, and I feel that, you know, I'm not going to say it's going to be the next trip, but it's going to be something that I hope that I can maybe participate in in the future. It would be pretty special to go over and see Higashiyomi. I think with that, that's all I have. City Manager?

I'll start off with the question on the response to the wildfire smoke that we experienced last week. And it seems to be a growing trend each year. We do seem to have some of these events with this past week being the worst. So I just want to make it clear that we do have a plan and we work with the county. So the county does have a hazard mitigation plan that we we contribute to they're in the current process of kind of planning that update which we do work very closely with them but the city also does have a role for some of those responses to emergencies and if this is this would be you know potentially classified as emergency if it is hazardous to the health of residents visitors and infrastructure and things like that so with what we saw this past week we did contact the county emergency manager and work with work with him to kind of have an approach for that, which is why you actually saw a lead into closing of some of our city facilities because the air quality inside was also not at healthy levels for our employees to be sitting there or working in those for an extended period of time. And out of extreme caution, we did take that very seriously and shut down early for that day. And then monitored it the next day. So some of the things I don't want to necessarily be providing guidance other than just paying attention to those alerts that do come through. Making sure your alert systems that are on your cell phones are working or allowed and permitted because you do have some permissions to turn this off but paying attention to those i do remember that one day where it was going off probably every every hour or two um rather startling but it did get your attention um and it's created this situation where you're going to be informed So make sure you're checking with that. Watch the air quality indoors and outdoors, and then limit that strenuous activity indoors and outdoors. And same thing with employers and recreation activities as well. So we were in contact with all of our departments, and something we never really thought about either was the campground. That was something we were paying attention to. And we were working with those employees and they do have procedures for emergencies. So it was just one thing that wasn't necessarily on your mind for wildfire smoke necessarily. So paying attention to those things and really working with the county and our partners for that. Masks were offered and available for those that needed it. Those N95 masks and just being able to provide some of those resources if necessary. It's definitely something that I'm seeing is probably going to be actually specifically talked about in our future plans, as this is unfortunately not going away, it seems like. And if you want more information on that commission, I'm happy to continue providing that in writing. Moving on to the tourism assessment or tax question or topic, this is something we have been talking about for a number of years, I think since probably one of my first meetings here when we signed a short-term rental Resolution and there was. In recent, I guess you know updates for our community master plan. It was specifically noted that our population fluctuates with tourism as a large impact. I can't remember and I'm kind of just looking for over there at Brian. The 4th of July fireworks and festivities brought in 30,000 people in our accounts. Did we say? 30 to 35,000. And we are a population of 20,000. So when we talk about these things, we say that the population fluctuates with tourism as a major component of that. And that means we're required to build out our infrastructure and our response to include those fluctuations, even though later on in the year, our population may not be that large. So obviously there is a cost burden that the city does have because of tourism. Now on the other hand though, we all understand that's really important to our economy, our local economy. And so that is why we are talking and currently in the process of creating a sustainable tourism management plan. So while we don't want to necessarily wait for some of those suggestions or recommendations from our consultants, we would like to get started on that sooner. um that does mean we need to be working with our legislators and as i mentioned we've been talking about this since the beginning of my time here and some of our legislators have been unable to find a path forward for that some have not been willing to take that on um so i think that this is going to be one where we are able to partner with some other communities and look at a way forward for for all of our communities grand rapids recently received um uh you know a change that they were allowed to have some hotel assessment or bed tax assessment and was able to fund their their arena so looking at specific purposes for that might be the way forward but really trying to address that cost burden that we receive when we have to build out our infrastructure like water sewer and our response with public safety and recreation to accommodate the large influx of tourism So happy to perhaps maybe create a resolution to bring back before the city commission very soon here and maybe in the next meeting to be able to kind of give us that authority to start pedal to the metal kind of action. Now, moving on to the old hospital update, I want to kick it over to Deputy City Manager Sean Hobbins, who has been working closely with the brownfield side of things, but then also in a lot of discussions with the state, city, the staff, and then also the developer. But I did just want to take this moment to remind everybody that this was, you know, being referred to as one of the largest redevelopment projects within the Upper Peninsula. And the big win for that was getting those buildings coming to come down so that they are not sitting there in a neighborhood continuing to decay, as we have seen with previous buildings here in the city. So that big win was we're getting those buildings down. Now it's really trying to move forward into the next steps, which is the redevelopment phase or development there. And that will be covered, I think, in maybe an update with the brownfields. um side of things but we are discussing with the developer quite frequently what the status of everything is there are planned phased um components to this and one of those that we would expect to see this year were the the condos um i believe near piqua and um anti-magnetic i believe are or college, magnetic, yes. We were expecting to see those this year and that was delayed due to construction costs. There's some other economic things that are happening within the country that perhaps slowed that down and then they're trying to make sure that this is the right development at all times. So some of these plans do change. But they are constantly working on that and talking with city staff. So, Sean, I didn't know if you had some more, if you can kind of provide an update what you're hearing on the discussion side too.

Sure. I would just start by saying that the funding for the demolition is very, very clear. We received an $8 million community development block grant to remove a portion of the hospital and then the NMU Foundation. received $8 million in a state legislative allocation. And those expenses, I can guarantee you, have been exhaustively documented. And on our part, we manage the Community Development Block Grant with the help of our very talented grant administrator, Dottie LaJoy from QPAD. And every single expense on that project was documented and reported according to federal reporting and state reporting guidelines. And that portion of the project was extremely successful. Getting those buildings clear, as the city manager said, is the first and foremost win on that project. Those buildings were not able to be reused in any capacity and were very, very outdated. And we were able to get those out of our city without even touching the brownfield plan that the city commission did approve. The city commission, the brownfield authority really put a step forward saying we have a very deep commitment to this community development project and making this happen. And thankfully we didn't have to tap into the brownfield plan for reimbursements to get to the place where we're at now. Where we're at now is that the NMU Foundation owns no part of that property. They're not a player in this conversation anymore. They facilitated the transition from the hospital to private ownership through the Viridia Group. The city owns no part of that project, either, or that property. We don't really have any influence over little projects or anything that can be done on that site at this point. But there are big projects in store for that site. As the city commission knows, you approved a brownfield plan amendment last year to help facilitate what those development ideas are going to look like. I regret to inform you that the City Commission approval of a brownfield plan is not the last step in that process. It is kind of the last step of the first step, really, and it gets kicked off to the state entities managing the state tax capture from there. And we have been undergoing a pretty extensive review process with the NBDC to see what state capture will be allowed and The Verdea Group is basically refining their phased project approach to make sure it's within the guidelines of the MABC for that kind of state tax capture. So the city has shown up, the city has said we're ready for this to be redeveloped. We are committed towards this portion of Marquette and we've put our skin in the game and now we're just waiting on the state to approve those plans and work with us to get that redeveloped. The outskirts of the project are, which have been received by the, the plans have been received by the Planning Commission. I think the Brady Group is now planning on doing those at some time in the first or second quarter of next year, at least breaking ground on them. And then for the main interior development, you know, those plans have been shared, sketches of those plans have been shared at public city commission meetings when we were undergoing the Brownfield Plan amendment. But the gist of it is large-scale residential, senior housing, and multi-housing. multipurpose mixed-use development. They're really trying to provide a cohesive, large-scale, dense investment into that portion of Marquette and provide as much housing and opportunity as possible. So it's a long, complex process. I think everybody wishes that ground had been broken by now. But I drive by there and I see empty fields and I think of decaying hospitals and I'm happy with the work that's been done so far.

And I will make sure that we follow up on any of the tall grass in that area as well. I have heard from a few residents on that one.

I will say one thing that I'm very grateful they allowed us to use that property as snow storage over the winter. It was extremely useful.

That's all. Thank you.

With that, we are adjourned at 718.