City Council - Regular Meeting

good evening garden city like to call the order regular city council meeting for monday june 22nd 2026 at 7 pm our first order of business is our opening ceremony which consists of the national anthem followed by the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence for those service members who have given their lives for our country if we'd please rise

We could do it, we could do it. Audio.

okay we're back live now uh that's about how the last hour's been going but uh mr smith if you take roll call please mayor jacobs here mayor pro tem dole here council member hughes here council member witt here council member king here council member dold here council member care photos here you have a quorum of seven thank you item four is our approval of the agenda mayor i'd like to make a motion to approve the monday june 22nd council meeting agenda as presented

Support. Support from Council Member Hughes. Discussion from table? Public? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0. Okay, tonight we have a lot of recognitions, and we're going to start with the Police Academy.

Oh, there he is.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Thank you for this opportunity to recognize our residents and neighbors that participated in the 5th Garden City Citizens Academy Class of 2026. On behalf of the department, we want to congratulate each of our graduates tonight. This program is about building relationships and strengthening trust between our department and the community we serve. Each of our graduate now plays an important role as ambassadors of that mission. I want to thank everyone who participated for their time, their energy, and their commitment to this experience. I want to recognize two people, the Citizens Academy Director, Officer Pavlov, and the Community Resource Commander, Lieutenant Cover, who without those two, we couldn't put this on. You guys want to come up?

thank you mayor mayor pro temp dole and council as the chief has mentioned programs like our citizen academy help strengthen the relationship between our department and the community we serve tonight we recognize 11 citizens who complete our 2026 academy Over the past 10 weeks, participants gained first-hand insight into modern policing, beginning with Robert Peel's principle, the police are the public and the public are the police, coined in the 1800s. 18 members of our police department taught these students where they learned the working dynamics of our canine, traffic, judicial, and school resource officers. They've learned investigative techniques by our detectives, transparent lectures covering our use of force policy, our defensive tactics, and our firearms training unit. They've experienced our working technology tools we use during our day-to-day operations, such as drone first responders, license plate readers, and our milo. While it's impossible to highlight every aspect that makes the academy unique, The program provided an inside look at the responsibilities, the challenges, and the dedication of the men and women who serve this community every day. As we conclude this academy, we celebrate the relationships built, strengthened trust, and again understanding. Through these relationships, we've met Peel's principle by reinforcing our hometown partnership based on pride, trust, and a greater sense of shared commitment to the city of Garden City. With that being said, congratulations to the 2026 Citizens Academy.

All right, first we're gonna have up Emma. Diana.

Roxanna?

Joyce? Oh, thank you. Can you not hear me? I'm sorry. Michael? Councilwoman Karen Hughes? Thank you, ma'am. Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Dold. Councilwoman Kim Dold. Sue. And Tammy.

Oh, I skipped there.

One more, sorry. And Darren. I didn't mean to skip the answer. Thank you.

Three, two, one.

So now we had a bunch of high school athletes, different teams, four of them that won conference championships this year and we wanted to make sure we recognized them. I think a lot of them are here. I'm not sure if all of them are. It's been a hectic last hour here. So I'll start with the girls' high school softball. And the girls, come on up if you're here. And if the coach, Corey Dolan. I know Sophie's here. Thank you. You get to accept for the whole team so come on up congratulations So on behalf of the Garden City City Council and the city itself we want to congratulate you on winning your conference They finished with a 16 and 0 conference record And this is the second year in a row that they were undefeated in the conference so congratulations And just so everyone knows, these are not their official plaques. We had another slight snafu earlier, so these are temporary ones. It's been a fun day so far today. Next, I don't know if anyone from the boys' golf team is here. Okay. Anyways, they had their coach by Ron Pummel, and they won their Western Wayne Athletic Conference, so congratulations to all of them. And we will get their plaque over to them. Girls soccer team, coached by Steve Racine. Coach, bring. I at least knew they were here. Coach Racine and the girls, they won their WWAC Championship with a record of 8-0-2. And there's a common theme of a lot of zero loss teams out here. So congratulations, girls. And I will ask the coach to read off the names of the roster. Yes, sir.

We have Abigail Mendoza. We have McKinley Dror. We have Emma Blackburn, Avery Kamola, Lila Stevens, Kira Krasinski, Kelsey Hale, Ashlyn Donnelly, and Eva Taylor. Very good. Congratulations.

Come on up here.

Ready, three, two, one.

Okay, and we also have the Garden City High School boys baseball team. The head coach couldn't make it, Avery Emerson, so assistant coach Jeff Marsicki.

That's okay. Come on up here. You can hold this thing.

This is yours. You're going to announce them. Okay. Do you know them all?

I think I know them pretty much. I got them all.

Okay, the boys baseball team, they finished their conference at 15-0 with an impressive overall record of 31-6-1. They also lost a hard fought game in extra innings, won nothing. to divine child for the district championship and uh it was in nine innings and from a lot of people that were there they said it was one of the best high school games they've ever seen so congratulations to you guys on a great season and i'll let

Let's start this way. Johnny Jillian, Dominic McHugh, Brandon Lewandowski, Parker Dutri, Nick Reed, Dallas Collins, Austin Mack, Jake Reed, Ethan Mandel, Peyton Zichen, Ethan Krull, Peyton Lewis, Lehman Lewis, and Ethan Armstrong.

All right, congratulations, guys.

And if you want, stand over.

We have one more available. We're going to take a picture first. Thanks.

Thank you.

Okay, and last but not least, we have an individual award, a recognition, so I'd like to call up at this time Ethan Armstrong. So for those of you that don't know, Ethan had a phenomenal year on the pitching for the baseball team. So on behalf of the city council and the city of Garden City, we wish to congratulate high school senior Ethan Armstrong on being named the 2025-2026 Gatorade Michigan Baseball Player of the Year. and the 26 Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association, Mr. Baseball. The Gators. The Gatorade State Player of the Year Award was established in 1985 to recognize the nation's most elite high school student athlete for their athletic excellence, academic achievement, and exemplary character. The Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association Mr. Baseball Award has been presented annually since 1986 to recognize the top senior high school baseball player in the state of Michigan. as you know it's a lot of players and kids in the state as a member of the garden city high school baseball team ethan helped lead the cougars to a thirty one six and one record in an undefeated western wayne athletic conference league championship on the mound ethan posted an incredible zero point two one e r a He had three shutouts, including a no-hitter, while recording 70 strikeouts and only walking three opposing batters. At the plate, Ethan contributed with a .388 batting average, six home runs, and 26 RBIs. Not bad. Not bad. In addition to his success on the field, Ethan has excelled off the field through his volunteer efforts with the Miracle League, which provides baseball opportunities to the intellectually or physically challenged and in the classroom where he maintained a 3.21 GPA. The city of Garden City congratulates Ethan. It went up? Uh-oh, 3.1. 4.0? All right, we don't want to undercut you there. 3.4 GPA. You're even smarter than we thought. We wish to congratulate you on your accomplishments of being named Gatorade Michigan Baseball Player of the Year and Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association Mr. Baseball. We wish you great success in your bright future and as you continue your career at the University of Michigan. I'd also like to say that I've met Ethan only a few times and as you can tell by his moving around, he's very humble and he's very respectful and a very, very nice young man. i have been greatly impressed with with him every time i met him and that's a compliment to his parents brad and sally who are out here he's just a deserving young man so congratulations Yes, come on Brad and Sally. Grandpa's here too, come on up. Oh no, that's fine, I'll seal off baseball. It's not your official international. Once you get that out, it's great.

Is there an actual council?

Yeah. Come on up, council. we're gonna do a group phone are we getting out no

See what's the question?

Sorry, I'm not cutting in. I'm gonna go in the back. You went out of stage.

That's probably it.

Thank you.

At this time, we're going to take a short recess for all those that don't want to stay for all the rest of the excitement. So we are now in recess. Okay, we're back in session. We're on item six, comments from state and county officials. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, would you? Yes.

Thank you so much mayor and council members for this opportunity as you know Every budget cycle we are able to present a number of projects Our members of Congress get 15 projects and luckily Garden City is incredibly responsive. So I appreciate that so much we were able to get 1,000 and 1,000 1 million $1,092,000 for the garden city water system rehabilitation project is a big larger project so we got that that's already signed into law it's coming your way if you haven't been contacted by the federal agency before that of course we got the $2.1 million for our uh... rec center of the community uh... center of rehab project which you call the rec center now and then for this year so you know it already went through subcommittee uh... but we were able to get seven hundred forty six thousand eight hundred sixty eight dollars for uh... another water main project and as you all know garden city residents really want us to focus on infrastructure to get them clean water And so thank you so much for applying for that and prioritizing. Again, I don't get to pick the project necessarily. You all come to me and tell me what the priority is for the city. So I just appreciate the partnership. And again, we've been successfully been able to get now a total of three projects in the federal government that are direct earmarks, direct project to the city. And we'll continue this work as the process expands and we'll be able to do even more, I think, next cycle for 2028. With that, I do have, I... grew up watching the publishing clearinghouse as a kid. No, you remember that? It used to make me cry. And they used to come with the balloons, I know. Larissa doesn't let me bring the balloons, but I do have the big check. So if I can, I would like to present it to the mayor and the members of council.

No.

I don't know. It was just a little statement.

Ready? Three, two, one. What? Yeah.

Thank you, thank you Thank You Congresswoman to leave we appreciate it I

Thank you.

Okay, I don't see any state or any other state or local officials. We have no community events tonight, no petitions or communications, public hearings. Item 11 is our consent agenda.

Mayor. Council Member Lee. I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda items A1 through 7 as presented. Support.

Or for Mayor Pro Tem Dole, discussion from table. From the public. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0. Okay, on to action items. First item is our fiscal year 2025-26 budget amendment. I will call our treasurer up, Ms. Shannon Shepherd.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Today you have in front of you the budget amendments for fiscal year 26. Just a little rundown. We've got four funds that need amending. First is the Downtown Development Authority. We have equal amounts of revenues and expenditures. No impact, net zero impact to the fund on that one. For the Neighborhood Stabilization Program Fund, there was no budget in this fund originally, so this just establishes the revenues and expenses for that fund, both in equal amounts, so no impact on the fund balance there. For general fund, there are a few departments that have equal amounts of increases in revenues and expenditures. There are also a handful of expenses mostly related to the fire station improvement project, and that is to transfer funds to the capital projects fund because that's where those expenses are being recorded. And then lastly is for the capital projects fund. There was no budget for that fund to begin with either. So this amendment establishes the budget for that fund. And that is, there's two projects going on there this year. One is the sidewalk improvement program. And that is reimbursed through grant funding. So all the expenditures there will get reimbursed for it's just that the general fund has to front load that money to them until it gets reimbursed. and then the rest is related to the previously mentioned fire station improvements. And that is going to be funded through, I believe there's a little bit of grant revenue coming in from that. We're going to be using the existing fund balance in the capital projects fund, and then the rest is coming from a transfer from the general fund. Specifically for the general fund, the... The use of fund balance, it looks like a really high number. I can see why that might be scary. But that is just in order to make these amendments balance. At the end of the year, that's not going to be the amount we're actually going to transfer because we're going to see some savings from other departments that didn't spend what we originally thought that we were going to spend there. So that amount, that $1.9 million, again, is just to make the amendments balance, essentially. We're not actually going to transfer that amount. And then if you guys have any other questions, I'm happy to answer.

Mayor? Council Member King. Just a little bit more regarding that fund balance. Do you predict or you estimate that we'll complete the year somewhere between the $370,000 and the $1.9 million or...

So if you take the fire station project out of it, which is approximately $1.4 million, $1.5 million, we're projecting, like if you took that completely out, we would have had about a $650,000 surplus. So because we're front-loading $1.5 million, we're going to see, I would say, probably around a million-dollar use of fund balance. But again, I don't want to say for sure because that totally depends on how much savings we'll have within the other departments.

All right. Thank you.

Any other questions? Okay, motion is in order.

Mayor. Mayor Pro Tem Dole. I so move to approve the fiscal year 2025-2026 budget amendments as presented. Support.

Support from Council Member Karifotis. Further discussion from table? From the public? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0, thank you. Okay, item two is a zoning ordinance amendment. I will ask Mario Ortega from McKenna, who's our planning consultant, and Mr. Miller.

Good evening. Mr. Mayor council members So currently the zoning ordinance permits both therapeutic massage facilities physical therapy facilities and massage parlors in all commercial zoning districts And as with other types of regulated uses the zoning approach to these type of land uses is to allow them in districts that are the most appropriate that they can promote the best compatibility and with adjacent uses and not see a proliferation of them throughout all zoning districts. So the Planning Commission considered this issue, took a look again to approach another approach to regulating them, and they did propose and consider an amendment to the zoning ordinance to permit therapeutic massage facilities and massage parlors as a special land use in C3 zoning district. They would no longer be allowed in C1 or C2. They would only be allowed in C3 and they would have to go through the special land use process. Physical therapy facilities in which where patients receive services under the direction of a doctor or a licensed healthcare professional is basically a doctor's office and they would still be permitted in all commercial zoning districts. So the Planning Commission held a public hearing on May 14th regarding this issue. There were no comments from the public. And at that meeting, a motion was passed that recommends that City Council adopt the proposed zoning amendments. So should the council, we just want to point out that should the council adopt these new location requirements of the zoning ordinance, further measures can be taken to ensure compliance with these new standards. Chapter 120 of the city code of ordinances requires a business license for massage parlors and therapeutic massage facilities. So this was, though, adopted in 1972 and then amended in 1983, and then the licensing involves approval from the Wayne County Health Department. However, state law no longer allows that to occur. So we'd like to take this opportunity to update that licensing requirement as well because we do feel it's an appropriate method of, once again, confirming compliance with our zoning standards. So that is an item that will be coming for you later down on the agenda. But before you, currently at this time, is the proposed zoning ordinance amendment.

I'll take a motion.

Motion is in order now. mayor councilmember whit like to make a motion to approve the proposed zoning ordinance amendment to amend section 154.005 154.167 154.271 154.301 and 154.352 of the garden city code of ordinances to regulate the definitions and locations of therapeutic massage facilities massage parlors and physical therapy facilities support

Or from councilmember Hughes further discussion from table any questions for the store take our mayor Councilmember care photos So basically as a special land use they're only gonna be allowed in c3, correct They would be allowed in c3, but they would have to not by not by right correct.

Okay Okay, and is are we putting a Number on the limit

we don't have a number of what we do have as a regulated use is uh... separation there's well i guess i just that back the separation requirements are number related so no more than two regulated uses can be located within a thousand feet of each other so in addition to separate to making sure they're in c three which is jet generally on ford road from harrison gangster and then on ford road from uh... merriman ish to uh... the west uh... to Brunei, just to Brunei, and then a node on Warren and Middlebelt. In addition to only those locations, which are C3, then there would be a 1,000-foot separation requirement. And regarding their license, until now, we haven't required a business license? We did require a business license. As I mentioned, it started in 1972. Back then, it was in compliance, and the city could rely on the Wayne County Health Department. However, there was a state law passed later on, actually, as an amendment to the state public health code that took that power away from the local counties and put them in the hands of the state. So currently, any therapeutic massage facilities, they have, for certain services, massage services, they go and get a license from the state. And that's the only way.

All the ones currently in Garden City have that state license.

Yes, as the best of my knowledge, they are intended to have that. Those that have come in and have recently applied for a certificate of occupancy, we do require them, because it is city ordinances to make sure that they have a state license, a valid and current state license.

So they're only inspected by the state?

Correct, that's correct. For compliance with the massage licensing facilities, the city still has building code and fire code inspection powers over those facilities.

Thank you. Other comments, questions? Table. From the public. All right, Mr. Smith, since we need five votes, if you want to take a roll call, please.

Council Member Witt. Aye. Council Member Hughes. Aye. Council Member Karafotis. Aye. Council Member Dold.

Aye.

Council Member King. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Dold. Aye. Mayor Jacobs.

Aye. Okay, motion passes 7-0. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Item 3 is going to be Western Wayne County Fire Department Mutual Aid Association dues. Our Fire Chief, Mr. Ray.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. What you have before you tonight is our annual membership into the Western Wayne County Mutual Aid Association. So a little backing behind this. This provides us mutual aid for times we have multiple incidents or large incidents we can receive and also provide that for the communities that participate. Some other opportunities are grant opportunities and training opportunities like the SCBA grant we got in 2024 It gives us opportunity to to get a grant together rather than individually trying to secure those which is a little easier sometimes we have larger grants as well as we have a USAR team, Urban Search and Rescue, and a HAZMAT team. Each department is required, based upon population, to have members on that team, and it depends on how many members is based upon the population. We have one member on each team, and what that does is that provides us access to those teams. So we don't have to provide all those things like HAZMAT, if we have any spills or trench rescues, we can call them and they come in and they'll actually provide those services for us. But it gives us the ability to have access to those teams without actually having to provide them solely based on Garden City so what you have before you tonight is the the dues which is a $3,500 year per agency and then 25 cent per capita cost based upon the latest census Motion is in order.

Yeah, I was member Hughes I

I'd like to make a motion to approve the payment of annual dues to WWC FDMAA, Western Wayne County Fire Department Mutual Aid Association in the amount of $10,345. Support.

Support from Council Member Dole. Discussion from table?

From the public.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0. Thank you, Chief. I don't for in City Hall H fact unit purchase.

Mister givens their Council as Council is aware recently the air conditioning unit the services about 25% of City Hall, including administration. Rather dated. We discovered that the 10 ton air conditioning unit City Hall had failed it was relying on some of the smaller units, the one small failed uh... so we uh... examined all options we had quality air our uh... contractor who does our conditioning and provided the attached quote for twenty five thousand seven sixty dollars to replace the ten ton air conditioning unit that will then hopefully give life to the rest of the system not only service the city hall smaller units that are functioning a little higher so uh... looking to do is invest in the system right now so that we could stave off any further and conserve energy. We're using portable fans in the work environment right now. Because we contract with Quality Air and we did some research into it, we find that the price is comparable and the only 10 ton unit within our area within the next five to six weeks. Both as an emergency and a sole source purchase, I'm requesting the approval of this today.

Motion is in order. Council Member Dold.

Move to approve the purchase and installation of 10 ton air conditioning unit at Garden City Hall from Quality Air Systems of Ann Arbor according to the attached proposal for $25,760. Support.

Support from Mayor Pro Tem Dold. Discussion from the table. From the public. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0. Okay, item five is police station evaporative fluid cooling tower control and panel replacement. Chief Arnosky is here to explain.

Tonight, I'm up here with a request to complete an upgrade to the police station's cooling tower system. Originally, it was approved February 5th, 2021 council meeting to replace the cooling evaporative tower. When they replaced it, they just dropped it right into the spot from the old one, but they didn't update any of the control panels or the electronics. So tonight, I'm asking that we update the control panel and electronics. And then we also add the ability now with technology that the contractor can remote into the station and fix the problems as they occur on the spot versus we make a service call, they have to come out, diagnose the problem, and then fix it. So those are the two things that I'm asking for tonight. The update to the control panel and the controls is $9,600, and to add remote access to the building is another 2,000, so $11,600 is the total. What is gonna happen with this project is it will improve our reliability, it will increase efficiency, and it should reduce long-term maintenance and service costs. So what we're looking to do is just save on energy and the ability for everybody to be cool and comfortable or warm and toasty depending on the season versus warm and toasty so we have the windows open in the middle of winter because it's too hot. So we're just trying to get normalcy at the station through this tonight, so thank you.

Mayor.

Councilmember Dole.

Move to approve the purchase and installation of new controls and control panel for the police station's evaporative fluid cooling tower from Quality Air Systems. The city's current HVAC maintenance contractor in an amount not to exceed $11,600. Support.

Councilmember Witt. Discussion from table. From the public. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0. Thank you, Chief. Item six is to call for a public hearing on the utility easement. Mr. Miller, the brief explanation of what we're talking about? Mr. Miller, our community development director.

Good evening again, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. We're calling for a public hearing to do a utility easement vacation at the location at Ford and Hubbard, which is the proposed or the planned Sheetz gas station at that location. Part of our ordinance actually requires the public hearing process to do a utility vacation. And so this is kind of the first step is to call the public hearing, notify the people, put a notice in the paper, also online, so that anybody that has any issues regarding the vacation can come forward at the July 13th meeting, I believe. and voice our concerns regarding this. The easement is in place actually along the Hubbard Street right-of-way, kind of on their property per se, just to the east of Hubbard. So it is in place for gas and storm sewer easement there. But there is also additional easements on their site that cover gas and the sewer line that are further east. And so they're asking actually to vacate the one that's not used. They are agreeing to keep both the other ones in place. So this is kind of part of the process of development. I always want to say development isn't easy in a built-out city. So we always find things that are a little more difficult as opposed to turning over a farm field or something like that. When something's been developed once, there are always things that we need to work through.

Thank you. All right, motion is an order just to call for a public hearing.

Mayor.

Council Member King.

I move to approve calling a public hearing for Monday, July 13th, 2026 at 7 p.m. to consider utility easementification at 32300 Ford Road, parcel number 35-004-99-0026-700. Depart. From Mayor Pro Tem Dole.

discussion and just calling the public hearing from the public all in favor aye opposed motion passed 7-0 thank you mr miller and you might want to stay in you might want to do this one too although mr ortega called sure this is the call for a public hearing and uh to consider an amendment to uh chapter 120.

so we have been uh... like mister take it did say we have been working on massage parlor specifically the zoning requirements which will be a a big reduction actually in the number in the permitted uses but we also want to align the ordinances so that the our general law ordinance chapter one twenty uh... which talks about business licensing for those uses and to make necessary changes that will line with the zoning ordinance changes and also the change from the county to the state review and licensure there, including our general business license also that we have on the yearly business license for those uses.

Okay, motion is in order to call for a public hearing.

Mayor. Council Member Witt. I'd like to make a motion to approve calling a public hearing for Monday, July 13th, 2026 at 7 p.m. to consider a proposed ordinance amendment to Chapter 120, Massage Parlors.

Support. Councilmember Hughes discussion and column of the public hearing table from public All in favor aye opposed pass the 7-0 Thank You mr. Allen okay we have no other business item 13 public comment three minutes to speak mr. Jones

I wanna thank the community for their support in Music in the Park and Autism for Autism. Both were very successful events. I understand we raised, what, $38,000 for Autism for Autism? So that was the highest one ever. And I have one other comment. I still haven't received a shirt for attending the academies.

Hey, I would give you mine, but I don't think it'll fit you.

Thank you, sir. We will work on that shirt. Further public comment?

Hold on, Mr. P. Farnosky, I'm sorry. Just one second. You'll just have to take the class again, and then you'll get a shirt.

Just sign up. Thank you.

I just want to take a minute and remind everybody with the semi-quincentennial 4th of July coming up, the firework laws are still the same. We just ask that you use common sense, be courteous to your neighbors with the noise when you're doing it, use caution if you decide to do it. And remember in Garden City, they're legal from the 29th of June to the 4th of July. But the 5th of July, they're not legal. They become illegal again. And if you do decide to use them, you have until 11.45 p.m. at night to complete your shows, and then it's quiet time. So there's also really not any place in Garden City to ignite them. You can't put them in the streets or public property. And if you do choose to do them on private property, such as a church parking lot, you need permission from the owner of the property to do it. So again, we would just ask that you use common sense as the season approaches and people start to enjoy their time outside. so everybody can enjoy their time outside. So thank you.

Thank you.

Any further comments from the public? Okay. City Manager's Report. Mr. Gibbons.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. First, I just wanted to discuss trash pickup in Garden City. Ourselves and many communities surrounding us are not happy with the performance prior to Wednesday. been monitoring and actively working with them to get them to fulfill their obligations of the contract to pick up waste in a timely fashion. All of it, including the compost and the bulk, which seems to be the biggest concern. been tracking those uh... just this week just are just last week uh... i consulted with a new city attorney uh... we drafted a letter uh... demanding better performance and we're gonna start collecting uh... into requesting the penalties under contract for late pickups so we really like from our citizens is to continue or any missed pickups it helps us track them although we are doing as well but we want to make sure we don't miss any missed pickups as we go back to them to demand accountability under the contract. They have expressed many assurances that they will get this on track and they are doing the right things. They have an influx of capital that will help them purchase the equipment. But as far as we're concerned, our garbage needs to get picked up and needs to get picked up. timely fashion. And we have a contract that says they'll do so. We're expecting performance and we're expecting us to carry out the contract and them to carry out the contract as it's written. And that's what we'll do.

And we'll continue to focus on that. But please...

we'll install our information desk at 734-793-1600 or going and submitting a fix it request at gardencitymi.org fix it that helps us track not anything i like to have to have our residents do but if they can help us we can help get their coverage picked up even faster and exercise our rights under the contract

Other than that, I just wanted to congratulate all the Garden City sports teams.

I watched that district championship baseball game and armstrong is the source of two of the best baseball games i've ever watched i watched him pitched in 2024 in a game in a district championship game and i watched him pitch again this year and when you see him like that it's not too often especially in high school and just congratulates him the family and the team because no one player is the whole team with all of them getting that 30-some win record which is really impressive and to all the teams uh great job and high school athletics is a blast

City clerk, Mr. Smith.

Two quick things this evening. Absentee ballots, my staff and I have been diligently getting those prepared. So if you've requested absentee ballot for the August election, it should be going to the post office late this week. So you should have it by the 4th of July, which gives you one month. to get your vote filled out and get it back to the clerk's office. And also, if anyone is interested in working the polls on election day, come see me at the city clerk's office, fill out an application. I am still looking for poll workers for both August and November. If you've never worked an election before, don't worry. We do have a good required training program. I don't want to brag, but I think it's a pretty good trainer uh who does it he tends to do multiple days um weekend trainings to kind of accommodate everyone's schedule and i'll kind of give you the tools you need to succeed thank you not to brag

uh mayor pro tem dole thank you mayor i have one thing i want to recognize officer h whitton for being named police officer of the year by the police officers association of michigan congratulations that's all i have thank you

councilmember hughes thank you mayor um i just want to um thank uh lieutenant cover and and officer pavlov for hosting the citizen academy and if anybody you know i'd encourage everybody to take this course it it connects us better i think to um the people who protect us every single day and gives us a better understanding what they go through and um i think um you know we can offer grace to people if we know exactly what they go through on a daily basis and what it takes to actually make a city safe it's it's what we see on the surface is just a small portion of the entire job and to chief ardowski for allowing this to have this course thank you so much thank you councilmember wayne thank you mayor

um just a lot of congratulations out tonight between all of the sports teams for the high school as well as the citizens academy attendees i just want to say also i was at the game that mr gibbons was at living right across the street from the softball and baseball diamond is really nice being able to just stand on my porch and be able to see some pretty high level ball playing out there for Garden City as somebody who did play sports in school seeing somebody like Ethan Armstrong how he led with all of the students had a chance to go to some other schools that we won't talk about but chose to stay and play with the teammates that he grew up playing with somebody who has enough you know, the chance to make that decision and chooses to make that decision to stay and play with the childhood friends that he grew up playing with is obviously great to see. And then on top of it, just the amazing career he had in high school, because that .21 ERA that he had was for pretty much all of high school. He stayed under a 1.0 ERA the entire time he pitched in high school. And such a great talent love to see you know potentially if this year the draft picks him or you know maybe if he plays a year or two at u of m before declaring but yeah it's just a once in a lifetime talent being able to watch him play and it was interesting and the way he just melded with all of the students that are all the other teammates that he had and the way he could uh you know avery would walk away for a little bit and let him you know have a chance to coach his his peers as well as but it was awesome to watch so Congratulations to that entire team as well as Ethan Armstrong. That's it tonight.

Thank you. Council Member King.

I'd just like to elaborate a little bit more on that 2025-2026 budget amendment and the reason why I bring up the fund balance with us 2024-2025 ending using a million from our fund balance and then the presentation from Plant Moran in January saying we're at about 14%. which is considerably below our 25% threshold we set in August of 2025 when we set up the fund policy. I just wanna make sure that we're eventually building money into the fund balance and not keep spending out of it. I know for our 2026, 2027 budget, we did approve a hundred thousand from the fund balance. And so I'm hoping really we end 25, 2026 much closer to 370 than the 1.9. And that was the reason for my questions and concerns. That's all I have today, Mayor.

Thank you. Council Member Dole.

Ash, there's so many people to thank. Thank you to Congresswoman Tlaib for advocating for our community. Police Department for putting on the Citizens Academy and everyone that was involved with it. And I do want to say too that our officers look very dapper in their dress whites. I like that. I wanted real quick. If anybody remembers Pete Taverna who owned Misty's cards and gifts over by Plato's. He was longtime Kwan Ian. He passed a few weeks ago and I just wanted to send condolences to his family. We get, every month we get monthly reports from all the different departments and without going into any of them in particular, they've all been very busy, very busy. So I want to, you know, commend all of them for doing the work that they do and doing it quickly. I know I personally did a click it, fix it thing and they were out the next day and they had no idea who was doing it. So, you know. Last but not least, this little blight problem that we have, and especially downtown. I know they came in and they boarded up the windows that were broken again at Orens, but the building looks terrible. period, it just looks terrible. And you go down Ford Road, you see all this, wherever they're doing development, they're doing construction, we have issues, continuously we have issues where they're not getting, it's not being cleaned up, it's not being, barricaded properly, different things like that. And I know you drive into these other communities and you're not seeing that. So we need to double down on what we're doing with these property owners. Just flat out, if they're not following our ordinances, they're not keeping those things up. Even Oren's building, I understand that he's working on getting financing and things like that. But in the meantime, Our residents have to put up with this building looking like it does. People driving through Garden City to get to the other communities because that is our main thoroughfare right there. This is what they see, and it's horrible, and we need to fix it. So we need to, as a city, we need to be doing literally whatever we can, really pushing the limit on what we can do to these property owners to make them comply with our ordinances.

And that's all I got.

Okay, thank you, Council. Council Member Dold. Council Member Karifotis.

Well, I also wanted to echo on what Councilwoman Dold said. A lot of residents have been talking about it and talking about blight, and they're just fed up. They're fed up with having to call to report things, but I think that's a very diligent way to do it. If you see blight, call and report it, but they feel like it's not happening fast enough. We've talked about this many times. So we also talked about adding ordinance officers. Is that happening this year, and how soon?

the chief and i have discussed that except part-time but just you know a history of um since 2018 prior to 2018 it was a dpw as you know what i can't believe taken it as a sense of pride that this this community

has come a very very long way from organs enforcement progress and while we have had seasons where we've had more staff members of the ordinance department are very hard working and they don't um you know i did a work study of ordinance officers in garden city when i first took over to understand where's the workload how many people we need and certainly the more organizations you have the more time you have to do it therefore more money you can get to But just based on call volume, our ordinance officers are pretty busy on a consistent basis. Oh, for sure. When you add in the amount of time they have to spend in court, the documentation, probably the winning court, the follow-ups, and the amount of effort they have to put in to make these things happen, I just want everyone to understand that there's a lot that goes into it, including rental enforcement.

Up until the time the rentals are, the enforcement of our rental ordinances reflect. Now we have monitoring and evaluation of it.

What the frustrating part is and what always comes to be the frustrating part is that even if we go out and we take action on a property, the time between when our enforcement is effective to make a change at the property is usually hard to become fed up with seeing it. And that is the purpose of the Administrative Hearing Bureau.

And that is what we look forward to that sort of changing the game for us is to be able to get quicker word of life enforcement. Because I can write as many tickets as I want.

If there's no back end to follow that, it's very difficult to get compliance. So we are moving in 100% the direction, the right direction.

It will only continue to improve and we will continue to invest in whiteboard.

It's always been something that I always take very seriously. We don't need to look across the street. But what happens over time is they come back and we continue to force them. i'm positively encouraged by is what i feel is our citizens standards that continue to rise what they would have what as a person who's driven around garden city for 20 some odd years in a police car um i know the condition of the city we are getting better is it satisfactory no no we always have to get better and i'm glad that people are concerned about it in some please know the full effort of our or department rentals are our building department. Faction sites many visits Council put in a fact a compliance fee when we have that's being executed are being charged to the permits so they can. Beneficiary of a lot of construction projects but a lot of mess that comes with it. but even with them we get them to clean up for one day another week of construction there's a penalty for them for that

And I just want to say really quick, I did not mean to imply in any way, shape, or form that ordinance isn't doing their job. They are probably extremely overworked because we only have a couple officers doing it. What I would like to see is stricter penalties because when you hit a property owner up that's doing millions of dollars worth of development and you're giving them a $250 fine, who cares peanuts they don't care we need to increase we need to do something that they feel the impact of so it doesn't continue to happen they make sure that their contractors are cleaning up on a regular basis that that's what I wanted to to put out there so just to be clear okay

all right so confirming we are getting a part-time ordinance officer the blake court is starting in july and do you think with the blake court starting that our officers will have you just said a lot of their time is taken up by the court stuff do you think that's going to be lessened because it's going to be faster i think on one end yes that particular what the most important part is we'll get adjudication with an administrative report And I agree with Councilwoman Dole that it just seems like the bigger the property, the more time that we spend taking care of it instead of those property owners. And that just has to stop. I mean, at some point we have to get them where we can, which is the wallet. And I think that maybe we should look into doing it by the size of the property. So if you have an acre property or a 10-acre or there's 13-acre properties that aren't well-managed in Garden City, that... It should go up from there. It shouldn't be the same for everybody. So if every time I call about this huge property, it shouldn't be the same as the guy that has half a block of stuff. So I think that's something for us to really look into. There's got to be a better way for us to do it. Other cities are able to do it, and we should be able to do it. when you know it's just not uh buildings either it's like the kmart property it's empty and it looks like crap it just does so you know getting on them more about keeping the fencing up you know treating the weeds in the parking lot whatever they have to do to make it look decent until we get somebody in here so i also wanted to thank uh congresswoman rashida talib for actually caring about garden city and that we need that water rehab and that it's pretty important that she gave us over a million dollars to work on our water system because we needed it so that was it

Thank you. I just have a couple things. Some of it's just echoing other council members, but Autos for Autism was a huge success. I know last year they had over 400 cars, and they said this year was even bigger. They didn't get a count on the cars, but if you're there, it was a beautiful night, and just a ton of cars, some really nice ones. Like the best ones best one yet so and it all went for a good cause so that that was awesome I also want to thank Congresswoman Tlaib for And coming through for us and getting us some more money Done a lot for the city I again Probably some of the most enjoyable moments of this job is when I can recognize people, and especially the youth of our community, whether it's a non-athlete that's done something good, like earlier this year, tonight, the four sports teams, and Ethan Armstrong for all they've done. They work, they don't get paid, there's no NIL licensing coming through. They do it because they love their school and the sport and it's fun to... acknowledge them and recognize them. Today was a little hectic at the end, but it all seemed to come through and work out well for them. Not all the teams were here, but I do want to congratulate all of them, and we will get their plaques over to them. Also, I want to congratulate Captain Steve Ray for going through the National Fire Academy as Executive Fire Officer. It was a long, hard road, I know that, a lot of work put into it. There aren't very many of them. I watched the live stream of the ceremony and there weren't a lot of people there or a lot of candidates that graduated. You were one of them. You represent the city well and congratulations and we will be recognizing you at a future, we haven't forgotten you. But congratulations, sir. That's all I have. I would at this time entertain a motion to go into closed session.

Mayor.

Council Member White.

I'd like to make a motion to move into closed session at 8.13 p.m. for strategy and negotiation session connected with the negotiations of a collective bargaining agreement pursuant to MCL 15.268C related to contract negotiation with Command Officers Association of Michigan.

Support.

Council Member Hughes.

That's if you take roll, please.

Council member Witt. Aye. Council member Hughes. Aye. Council member Karifotis. Aye. Council member Dold. Aye. Council member King. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Dold. Aye. Mayor Jacobs.

Aye. Okay, at this time, we are in recess to go into closed session. Okay, at this time I'll take a motion to come back into session.

Mayor. Council Member Witt. I'd like to make a motion to return to open session at 8.53 p.m. Support.

Support from Council Member Hughes. Mr. Smith, you take roll.

Council Member Witt. Aye. Council Member Hughes. Aye. Council Member Karapotis. Aye. Council Member Dold. Aye. Council Member King. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Dold. Aye. Mayor Jacobs.

Aye. Okay, we're back in session. Motion is in order for the closed session.

I'm sorry, Mayor.

Council Member Dold.

I'd like to motion to authorize the city manager to negotiate a two-year contract with the Command Officers Association of Michigan with terms as discussed in closed session on June 22nd, 2026. Support.

Support from Council Member Karifotis. Mr. Smith, take the roll, please.

Council Member Dold. Aye. Councilmember Karifotis? Aye. Councilmember King? Aye. Councilmember Witt? Aye. Councilmember Hughes? Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Dold? Aye. Mayor Jacobs?

Aye. Motion passes. Okay, no further business before us. This meeting is adjourned.