City Council - Regular Meeting

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. Roll call, please, Madam Clerk.

Mayor Beagle.

Present.

Deputy Mayor Gottschall. Councilmember Behrman.

Present.

Council Member Gremlin-Fox? Here. Council Member Kennedy?

Here.

Council Member O'Day? Here. Council Member Simmons? Here. We have a board.

Thank you. Changes or additions to the agenda as presented tonight? City Manager Brown?

No changes or additions, sir.

Assistant City Manager Benson?

I have none, sir.

Anything from the dais? All right, seeing none, next up is the public hearing. I'll open the public hearing and at this time I will read the rules and call the public hearing to order. Anyone wishing to address the council first must first state their name and address for the record and speak directly into the microphone so that your comments may be properly recorded. Please note that questions from the audience to the council are not permitted during the public hearing and members of the council will not engage in dialogue with individuals addressing the council. Each person may address the council only once and will be limited to five minutes. At this time, I'll turn this over to City Manager Brown to provide an overview of the subject matter tonight.

Thank you, Your Honor. As you know, we go through an annual budget process, and as you further know, on April 21st, we had a budget work session where we discussed the proposed budget, and there were a lot of points of discussion that were brought up by council during the course of that budget work session, which led to a certain number of changes that were required in the budget. Since that time, staff, principally the finance department and principally our finance director, Angie Rapp, has been working working through those changes, making those changes, and getting the revised proposed fiscal year 2026-27 budget prepared for consideration at this council meeting tonight by council. And in line with that, we also have a public hearing that we hold for purposes of discussing the budget. And that's the only overview I have.

Angie, do you have anything you want to add?

Other than that, we're ready for any discussion that would come up.

All right. Any discussion? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing and we're gonna move on to the agenda as presented tonight. Approval of minutes, we got one set of minutes to approve tonight and that's the city council budget study session minutes from April 21st, 2026. Do I have a motion? So moved. Any discussion? Seeing none, I got a motion and a second to approve the minutes of the City Council budget study session minutes of April 21st, 2026. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Carries. We have two items of correspondence tonight. The first one is a program advisory from the Comcast Franchise Communications, and the second one is a notice of hearing for the customers of DTE Electric, case number U-22046. And that moves us to the first call to the public. I'll read those rules. They are as follow. The public shall address the council during the call to the public which shall be included on the agenda immediately after correspondence and again immediately after new business. The first call to the public immediately after correspondence shall be limited to agenda items only. A person shall not address the council in excess of five minutes unless the time is extended by a majority vote of the council present. Persons wishing to address the council shall identify themselves in a place of residence and shall state their reason for addressing the council. And all comments by the public shall be made directly to the council. Do we have anybody for the first call to the public? Seeing none. I'll close the first call to the public. City manager's reports, the departmental reports from April 2026. Any questions, discussion?

All right, very good.

That brings us up to the consent agenda. All items listed under the consent agenda are considered routine by city council and will be enacted by one motion. There'll be no separate discussion of these items unless a council member still requests, in which event the items will be removed from consent agenda and added to the regular agenda at the end of unfinished or new business. Do I have a motion? So moved. I got motion and support to approve the consent agenda as presented tonight. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Which takes us to unfinished business, and that's the recommendation to approve the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget and adoption of the requisite budget resolutions. Do I have a motion? So moved. Support. Very good. Finance Director Rob.

Good evening. We have a little presentation on the 26-27 budget. So the first slide is in regards to the changes to the requested budget that council made at their budget study session on April 21st. The following changes were made as a result of that session. City manager printing and publishing was decreased by $2,000. Economic development line item in the assessing slash economic development department was decreased by 10,000. In litigation and appeals, the tax litigation line item was decreased by 5,000 and the city attorney line item was decreased by $2,500. In general operating wage and salary adjustments, we had an original amount of $213,000. However, we lowered that to $110,000 for a decrease of $103,000. That was an error, excuse me, an error. That was the 26-27 projection in the 25-26 budget and we corrected that error. In fire, The salaries and fringes were increased. Salaries was increased by $71,995 and fringes were increased by $58,820. Those were increased as a result of adding a training coordinator position in that department. And finally, Zoning Board of Appeals, the conference and workshops line item was decreased by $1,000. The net increase to the budget as a result of those changes was $7,315. And the next slide. This is the capital improvement fund. And these changes were made. $25,000 was decreased in the parks and rec trail improvements. And the police special equipment was decreased by 20,000 as a result of moving an expense for a drone from 2627 to 2728. And the net decrease in the capital improvements budget request was $45,000. In other funds, In the special holding agency police continuing education, we increased that line item $20,000. We are getting $20,000 from the state to reimburse for that. And then in opioid remediation, we increased that by $35,000. And finally, miscellaneous expense in the wastewater fund was decreased by $15,000, so the net increase in the other funds was $40,000. Next slide goes over the millage rate for the city. That rate for 2026 is proposed at 13.2308 mils. That reflects a decrease from 25 due to the heavy reduction factor of .9981. The table shows the millage rates from fiscal years 2019-2020 through the proposed fiscal year 2026-27. Compared to millage rates provided by Oakland County Equalization for the 31 cities in Oakland County, The proposed millage rate for the city of Wixom is the 11th lowest when compared to the 2025 rates for the other communities. The rates for those communities range from 8.3481 mills to 34.7659 mills. And if you're looking at your budget document, the chart of all those communities is on page 23. The next slide shows the proposed revenue for 26-27, and compared to the estimated actual fiscal year, 25-26, the budget increases by 519,876, or 3.14%. Property taxes are going to increase by $488,144, and that's due to growth in taxable value, or new properties entering the tax roll, and also the CPI increase annually. And these amounts on this line include property taxes for real and personal property, the 1% admin fee, penalty and interest. State shared revenue and the LCSA. That line is expected to decrease by $42,816 specifically in state revenue sharing. That's per estimates provided by the state on the website for the Department of Treasury. Building permits and fees are supposed to stay the same from year to year. Miscellaneous income is due to increase $55,464. This line item includes business licenses, cable and franchise fees, compost fees, investment interest, police revenues, ambulance revenues, et cetera. The charges for the library are increasing by 3% or $2,319. And that annual increase is in accordance with the agreement that we have with the library. The contribution from the Downtown Development Authority is going to increase 5% or $13,952. There's another contribution from the library. This one is for third portion of the OPEB and pension bond payments, and that is going to increase $3,065, or 5.97%, charge for services for water and wastewater. Those are increasing $14,724, or 3%. major and local roads, equipment rental. That's a decrease of 15,246. That is decreasing because we're comparing it to estimated actual for 25-26, and we had quite a bit of snow and ice and weather in this winter, so our expenses were up, so that's why that appears to be a decrease. Finally, the charges for services for solid waste is going up $270, or 3%. So in total, there are revenues proposed of $17,090,725. That's an increase of $519,876, or 3.14%, over 2526 estimated actual. The next slide is proposed expenditures for 26-27, and those are increasing by a total of $287,948, or 1.64% compared to the fiscal year 25-26 projected actual. City Council expenses are expected to remain the same. City Manager is increasing $15,116 due to increases in fridges, supplies, printing, training, furniture and equipment, and dues. Finance is decreasing 103,427. 2526 was higher due to there being three months of duplicate wages and fringes for the retiring finance director and the new finance director. We had some overlap there. with those two being here at the same time. City clerk is decreasing by $2,713. Decreases in part-time wages are offset by increases in union step increases, so that's a net decrease of .95%. Information systems is decreasing by $976. Order review is increasing by $300. Economic development and assessing is decreasing by $111. Building maintenance is increasing by $10,000. Litigation and appeals increasing by $47,611. General operating is increasing by $414,256. That's due to increases in the wage adjustment line item, the MERS defined benefit pension, the HRA, and workers' comp and liability insurance premium increases, utilities, audit, and actuarial. Police is increasing by 25,394. Fire is increasing 294,951. That's mainly due to a new full-time position, the training coordinator. The building department is increasing 124,982. DPW is increasing 313,218. senior citizens is increasing 26 806 planning and development is decreasing eleven thousand nine fifty zoning board of appeals remains the same parks and rec is increasing eleven thousand eight thirty eight community center is increasing seven thousand seven hundred forty three Debt service pension is increasing 99,470, and the debt service for OPEB is decreasing slightly at a little over $1,500. So again, the net increase in expenditures is 287,948, or 1.64%. On the next slide, the general fund has an estimated balance at the close of fiscal year 26-27 of $6,622,581, or 37.06% of expenditures. New development and construction in the Downtown Development Authority results in increased and an increase to the capture taxes within that district. Therefore, the DDA capture continues to cover the annual DDA debt payment. The proposed general fund budget also reflects revenue from the DDA in the amount of $292,986 for the cost of services provided by the city, along with the continued funding of the average cost of one full-time DPW equipment operator. The Budget Stabilization Fund has an estimated balance at the close of fiscal year 26-27 of $1,409,923, or 7.89% of expected expenditures. Permanent full-time positions increase to 65 employees from 64 in fiscal year 2027. That should say 25, 26. The new position is the full-time fire department training coordinator. Solid waste and recycling service rates for 26 will be set at $192 per household. That's an increase of $9, and those will be assessed on the summer tax bill. Water and wastewater rates, the sewer utility rate at $32.70. And customer charge and special sewer costs will all remain the same as the prior two fiscal years. And the city's healthy cash reserves allow us to avoid a rate increase in the sewer fund. The residential sewer charge cap residential sewer only and industrial sewer only, customers will likewise remain the same as 2526 for the same reason. Water utility rates are proposed at $45.50, along with the meter maintenance and the customer charge. That represents an overall 3.5% increase from 2526. The budget includes a 10-year capital improvement plan, contribution from general fund in the amount of $1 million. The projects in 26-27 total $2,808,500 and include the following, $64,000 for the community center, which includes a portable bar, a podium, partition maintenance, painting, commercial vacuum, tables and chairs, landscaping, and real steel door repair. The building department is asking for $15,000 for a digital copier slash scanner slash printer. Facilities That's 575,000, that is for HVAC, fire step slash railing, DPW lighting, restroom replacement, city hall roof, electric upgrades, tables and chairs, and community center repairs and replacements. The clerk is requesting 135,000 for election tabulators for five precincts. Fire department is 143,000 for their auto pulse replacement. and a vehicle parks and trails 985 000 for parking lot resurfacing trail improvement landscaping athletic field repairs playground equipment trash receptacles benches pond resurface park trailhead shelter holiday decorations community center loop phase two and electric and lighting upgrades General operating is asking for 30,000 for computer upgrades. The police is requesting 331,500 for vests, weapons, records management, facility improvements, radios, vehicle equipment, and computers. And finally, public works is asking for 530,000 for a hook lift truck, storage building floor, a tractor, and drain improvements. For the capital improvements for major local roads and safety path, major roads is asking for $12,660,000. Local roads is asking for $3,762,000. And safety path is asking for $1,770,000. And if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

All right, any discussion, any questions? Council Member Kennedy.

I had asked during the budget hearing about fringe benefits and I noticed that right in the start of this there was a correction that our wage and salary adjustments went down because the projection was different than the budget. Is that due to the fringe benefits I was asking about or is that something different?

I'm sorry, which page are you on?

The first page, the highlights, general operating wage and salary adjustments, correct with the error, change to $110,000 instead of $213,000.

I believe that was what you were asking about.

Would it be possible to see a breakdown of what that actually, what fringes are increasing across where and how much and what the difference actually was?

This is not fringes, this is a salary adjustment line item.

So that was just straight the error then? Was there ever any update to the fringe benefits across the board?

As far as what? Because I don't remember that question, I'm sorry.

It kind of got rolled into one, but I was asking why it seemed like fringes and wage and salaries were going up so high. The wage and salary being just an error makes sense, but I never saw anything back about the fringe benefits.

In the general operating error or just overall? Just overall.

And I didn't know if this was being tied to that or not.

This part on the slide is not tied to that. Fringes went up. Well actually health insurance went down but then the rest of the fringes went up. So dental insurance went up. The defined benefit pension went up by $220,000 total just for 26-27. The defined contribution Pension for those people hired after a certain date, those percentages went up either from 12 to 13% or 13 to 14% depending on hire date. The FICA went up to match the salary adjustments. So overall, fringes did go up.

And yet they were adjusted accordingly as far as in relation to the salary. Okay. All right, that's my question.

Thank you.

Anything else? Okay. Council Member McGrath-Fox.

So I have a few questions. I'll try to go in the order. First, the CIP millage, when does that expire?

The CIP millage? You mean the major road millage. We don't have a dedicated millage just for capital improvements.

Oh, okay. So then the road millage is out for another several years, right? Because that was two years ago?

2035, I think, is when the end date on that is. Yeah, it was just recently approved at that higher amount.

Okay, so any capital improvement comes out of the general millage?

Other than the major local roads and the safety of that millage.

And those that are funded by one of our other funds, like the DDA or LDFA or something like that.

Okay. All the police vehicles, fire vehicles, they all come out of the jungle. Right.

Okay.

and then so I had the same question about the fringe benefits so you said healthcare went down but the DV I saw the DV contribution went up Delta went up or dental went up the DC you said went up I don't remember seeing that when did the defined contribution go up

By negotiations, it was included in collective bargaining or it was signed by the city. So last year? Yeah, it was all part of the, there was an increase on an annual basis.

Okay. So it looks like, and I'm voting yes to adopt the budget, but... our fringes and I know I brought this up before but typically fringes are anywhere from 30 to 35 percent of a salary and these here are over 50 percent so I would like a detailed explanation of what those fringes are just it's making up that super high percentage just so we can all see it so that's one thing I would like to see at some point over the next couple months definitely before we start talking about budget then I see here that there was a deficit in the fund balance But I can't – what was that percentage that it went down?

Which – Well, there was a use of fund balance for the budget, and it's the decrease between the estimated actual for 6-30-26 and what we're projecting at the end of fiscal year 2027. It's roughly about a 5% decrease.

So that's approximately $776,000 that we use from fund balance to cover. That's the gap?

Correct.

Okay.

As I said, if you look on your budget on page 18, it's got the percentages there across there. And if you look at the difference between the estimated actual and the 2026-2027 budget, it's about a 5% decrease a little bit. A 5.03% actually. Okay.

and that's projected obviously it's subject to what happens with the actual budget implementation sure so so i know i missed the budget discussions i apologize i was out of town i saw that administration recommended two positions council agreed to one position in the fire department my question is if our fund balance keeps going down like this How are we going to afford adding positions? Not even talking about the fire department issue, but what revenue source besides raising taxes is administration looking at?

Yes, so we actually, to my recollection, didn't recommend either position. Council asked for the training court. Did we?

I thought I saw it was recommended.

We recommended zero, right? And council decided, we talked about the fact that we were originally looking at two positions in the fire department, and council directed us to add the one position out of the two.

But originally there were two that were being looked at.

That were being requested in the fire department, correct. Right, okay. But when we saw the shape of the budget, we basically pulled back on both of those positions, and then council decided to fill the training coordinator position. Understanding.

um so i i would be looking at some point and maybe it's worth having a goal setting in january to talk about this but it just seems like with our expended extended expenditures going up which i know they're going up everywhere they're going up for everybody's personal household and the the revenues are going down We have a problem, and I see that problem just getting worse, and when we're adding positions, that's a concern, especially when we have fringes that are over 50% of a position.

So I think we should be talking about that. I think that's a great idea.

Okay. And then I see in the legal fees, specifically labor is going up. What contracts are coming up this year?

All the contracts are expiring this year.

Oh, they're all expiring this year? Okay.

And that's kind of how we've done business over the years. There's different schools of thought on that, but we've always had them. We had the fire department on a one-year different schedule, but we did a one-year extension of the fire contract in order to get them at the same termination point, so it's all of the contracts all up at once.

And there's four? Five.

Five?

Five. If I may, Council Member Grunfox, I just wanted to hop in. You asked a question about the revenue side, and I just wanted to make one point that we talked a decent amount at the budget study session. One of the core pressures we're facing is that a lot of the growth that we're seeing is within our tax increment financing districts, whether that's the existing brownfield at the former port plant, or within the Downtown Development Authority. So just to add on to City Manager Brown's point, we think that'll be kind of a key conversation point as we have future budget study sessions and really dive into the next fiscal year. We have some reasons to be optimistic on the Brown field. And the DDA tax income refinancing plan expires at the end of fiscal year 28-29. So that will be a City Council policy conversation as well at that point. So those are probably... the two key kind of revenue conversations that in the coming years, plural, that City Council, you know, that we can have some conversations on.

Do you have an estimate on what those revenues, I'm not going to hold you to it, but what those revenues might equate to percentage-wise?

Well, broadly speaking, and these are very rough numbers off the cuff, but the DDA captures just in general operating from the city around eight or nine hundred thousand dollars and the um the brownfield tip at the former floor plant also captures around the same number their taxable values are pretty similar so um again you know how those play out is a little bit different conversation um the brownfield we have less in some ways less control over but we're more optimistic about but again we're not in a position to to commit to saying hey you know these dollars are coming in tomorrow but

And I'm going to correct myself. I apologize. There's actually six CBAs that we're negotiating. It's two in ASPE, two in police, one fire, and one contract. I won't say which one. I forgot. I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings.

And the full-time fire and part-time fire are in the same group, correct? Okay. Yeah. So we have six bargaining groups? Yeah.

Yeah, that's why the number's up. Six contracts.

Yeah.

Sorry for my mistake.

Okay, I have one other question. Council Member Simmons.

Thank you. Quick question, I guess, for the line item of the drone being moved for the police category. I don't remember if we talked about this on a budget session. Do we have a drone right now in police or fire for the city?

We do not have one right now. We are budgeted to get one this fiscal year, but with getting them now, the wait is too long. We can't get it done. That's why we want to move the money to next year if we can. Got it.

So it's a wait thing? Yes.

It's just a waiting for delivery thing. Got it. We'll come to council, obviously, and ask for the purchase, but they're saying six months now. Got it.

Okay. Thank you. That was it.

Any further discussion? All right. Seeing none, I got a motion and a second to approve the recommendation to approve the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget and adoption of the requisite budget resolutions. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

No. Deputy Mayor Gottschall. No. Council Member Merriman.

Yes.

Council Member Grumman-Fox. Yes. Council Member Kennedy.

Yes.

Council Member O'Day. Yes. Council Member Simmons. Yes. Mayor Beagle.

Yes.

Six yes, one no.

Motion carries. Thank you. That concludes the unfinished business portion of the meeting tonight. We have no new business. We'll move on to the second call to the public. Since I see no public, is there anybody out there that wants to speak? Any department heads? All right, seeing none. I'll close this thing, call the public, move on to city manager comments. City Manager Brown.

Thank you, Your Honor. With my city manager update, the only thing we had was the work anniversaries that we're celebrating with people celebrating anywhere from one year with the city to 14 years with the city. And Tim Sigma, one of our department heads who's doing this council meeting with us this evening, is celebrating his 11 years of service in June. So congratulations to Tim and everybody else who's celebrating a work anniversary. We appreciate you and your efforts on behalf of the city, and I truly do. I think we've got a great staff, does a great work for us, and it's much appreciated. That's all I had.

Again. Assistant City Manager Benson, anything tonight?

Just wanted to remind, we sent out a calendar invite notification. Timberside Reserve, the new subdivision that's going in on the south side of West Maple, they're having a groundbreaking ceremony tomorrow and they have a pretty exciting celebration for a donation program that they do to... For injured veterans, there's an injured veteran who will be receiving a house there. So if you're able to attend, love to have you there. It should be a pretty cool event. Other than that, that's all I have for you tonight.

Very good. We'll move on to council comments. Council Member Kennedy. Congratulations, Tim, on 11 years.

That's all I have.

Very good. Council Member Barron.

I'll add is the flowers that went up downtown look nice this year. Variety in colors, and they seem to actually have been planted before they got hung, so they look decent.

Council Member Garland-Fox?

I too would like to wish all those employees celebrating anniversaries. Tim, congratulations. Crystal, congratulations to your husband. And thank you for all of the work that you do and I hope everyone has a happy and safe Memorial holiday.

Thank you. Council Member Simmons. Just congrats to Tim and that's it. Council Member O'Day.

Thank you. Again, echoing the congratulations to all, including Tim here tonight and Crystal's husband by proxy. A lot of the, some additional signage is going up around town, so that's looking great. Happy to see that. And again, happy and safe Memorial Day, recognizing those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Gottschall. All right, I just want to thank everybody who's celebrating our workiversary. Thank you for your service as a city. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's groundbreaking. It's pretty exciting and it's a great thing that the faulty does for the injured veteran to give them a house, which is pretty cool. I'm looking forward to that. And with that, do I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Support. We got a motion and a support to adjourn. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.

Good night.