Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

I'm doing well. How are you? Good. Test testing. Candy, can we I I don't hear us in the room. I just hear us in the hallway. Do you guys uh Greg, do you agree with that? Yep. We're We're just getting it in the hallway, not in the room. So, the hallway is very loud, but there's no audio in the room.

I can hear you on Zoom. Testing. Testing. Still really loud in the hallway, but not in the room. Can you hear me, Ashley? Hello. We're not getting audio in the room. We're getting in the hallway. Can you help? We're not getting

We're not Audio is not coming in the room. It's only going in the hallway. Ashley, can you hear me? Ashley. Testing. One, two, three. Can you hear me? Hello. There we go. Testing test. You okay?

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better. Thank you,

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testing one two three. Ashley, can you hear me? Hello, Ashley, can you hear me?

Andy, can you please uh try again? I am. Can you hear me? Can you hear me now? I'm talking. Testing one, two, three. Can you hear me now? Hello. Hello. Hello. Testing one, two, three. Can you hear me now, Ashley? Can you hear me? Testing. 1 2 3. Can you hear me now? Hello. Hello. Candy, can you please try again?

Yep, sure can. Testing one, two, three. Can you hear me now? Hello. Yes, we can. Awesome. Thank you, Candy.

Just an announcement to our friends who are online. We're just having a a little bit of technical difficulties here. We're going to have to restart the system. Um so if you're online now, you will likely be kicked off. Uh but we will restart it as soon as humanly possible and get the streams back up. So sorry and thank you.

Check. One, two. Uh, just handy. We're checking to see if the sound works.

Testing. One, two, three. Can you hear me? Good evening. I'm going to call this work in session to order. I want to just briefly before we get to the roll call apologize. We had a bit of a technical reset we had to do with the computers. Uh so please forgive us for the delay. We'll uh move on to the roll call.

Commissioner Bean present. Commissioner Hodgej here. Commissioner Labar here. Commissioner Light. Commissioner Macheski here. Commissioner Robbie. Commissioner Sanders present. Commissioner Scott. Commissioner Somerville here.

Great. Thank you. Move then to uh our public participation opportunity. At the working session, you have one minute to give public comment. You will have the standard three minutes at our next meeting at 700 p.m. I'd ask at this time if there's anyone in person wishing to give public comment. As you make your way up, please let me just say uh we need your name and the community within which you reside for purposes of the minute.

My name is Bruce Reeve. I reside in Salem Township. I'm also the uh treasurer for Salem Township and I'm here to comment on what the uh landfill means to the residents of Salem Township. Um the uh landfill currently uh saves the homeowners of Salem Township just in tipping fees $460 annually in property taxes. And if it was not there alto together, replace revenue that the landfill brings in, it would add another $1,716 per homeowner onto their taxes. Uh, this is slightly concerning to us because we have a lot of aging in place, uh, residents on fixed incomes, and this could be considered a hardship for them. Thank you very much. And also full disclosure, I am a member of the MMPC um in case anybody needs to.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anyone else uh who wishes to give public comment in person here tonight? Okay. Um Ashley, I don't see anyone anyone else in person. Is there anyone uh via the internet? Uh no, there's not, chair. Okay, great. Uh we'll move then to item three, which is the report from the county administrator. No report, chair. Seeing none, we'll move on to item four, the report from the director of board operations. Uh no report tonight, chair. Great.

All right, we'll move on to our two discussion items. The first is the materials management plan, which uh Theo Edggermont from uh Department of Public Works is going to walk us through. Theo, would you prefer that questions come as they come to commissioners and and while you're presenting or would you like us to let you get through this and then follow up with questions? Let's go through it and then ask questions at the end. Okay, commissioners, if there's one that you just can't wait on, let me know. But we'll try and do that. Thanks.

Great. Well, I'm going to talk mostly about the good work that my team does. I have an excellent staff and so I'm going to talk about the programs that we have and I'll have a little bit on the materials management plan um at the end but I kind of anticipate that's where the questions will be. Um so the Agramont director of public works um came here in 2014 for grad school got an MBA and MS in natural resources and then was going to go back to Minnesota and stayed for a girl. You know how that goes. So um been with the county since 2018. Um we'll go to the next slide. Oh, I've got the clicker. Thank you.

Thank you. Technology. Um, so overview of the materials management division. We're part of the water resources commissioner's office. Uh, we have a team of six and we have a part-time, so twothirds. We have a seasonal in the summer, four casual labors in the summer as well because we do a lot of events. That's how we work with the public and reach people because often people are available at weekends and at nights. Um, two of our staff also have responsibilities under the public works uh board which is allows us to do some assessing and we do lakes management and also uh WWR8 uh funding which I'll talk a little bit about later. Big picture, we try to get stuff where it should go so that it doesn't have a negative impact on people. Um and we are a have county because we have sufficient funding and 95% of that funding is a host through a host community agreement with the landfill. Um we get about 1.2 1.2 or up to 1.4 million annually. Part of that is tip fees and so it can vary up and down. Our kind of program that we're known for was started back in the early 90s. household hazardous waste program actually started with an intern project. Um we moved to all appointments uh kind of COVID time um because people were getting long waits and this ended up evening out the flow a little bit because we'd wait then there'd be long lines and then we'd wait and so this makes it a lot more reliable for people both staff and the public like this a lot better. Uh we collect over a half a million pounds annually of paint, stains, all that stuff underneath the kitchen sink and in the garage, the stuff that should not go down a drain or um get thrown away. Uh we provide that through two different programs. We have the home toxic center over on Zeb and we have 16 Saturdays. We serve 4,000 people

a year through that program. Uh very well-liked. And then 2023 we added the HHW center. That's weekday appointments. We've got Tuesday and Thursday. We've served 2,000 roughly people last year. Um that's through the consent judgment. So that's not part of our budget. Um they could have done a supplemental or sorry they could have had a fine. I think it was like $750,000. They chose to do something instead that was um a supplemental environmental project. By my estimates over 10 years that that'll be in place. That'll cost them about $2.5 million. Um, so they pay for the disposal. Um, and we get reimbured for a staff member. Um, again, amazing team. Um, we do a survey and last year we had almost 2,000 surveys from people out of the 6,000 that use these services, which is a really, really high response rate for any survey. So, we consistently get 4.7 out of five stars on the metrics that we're asking about, information, did it meet your needs, that kind of stuff. Um, I'd put those stats up against any other government program and be very proud. So, um, about 25% of the people who go to the HHW center are from Northville, Northville Township. Um, so it provides support to folks in neighboring township and city as well. And just looking at longevity for our program, this program's taken and we also collect through the county cleanup days hazardous waste um over 9 million pounds um which is 4,500 tons. That's a wrap bore every 3 days by our current metrics. So it's a lot of material of stuff that should not get thrown away. We're keeping this out of the environment so that it doesn't hurt people or the environment. Our county cleanup days uh also very popular. We've have four to six events around the county. We try to go north,southeast, and west. Um collect

things like electronics, scrap metal, tires, bulky waste, uh white goods, refrigerants. Um 2025 we collected almost half a million pounds. Um we do a couple of different events. Uh we partner with the conservation district to do a um an eggs hire event. That was something that we found was a a need. We do it out of Freedom Township often. Um, and we that's we have a great partnership with the conservation district. They provide some things that we can't provide. We provide some things that they can't. Works out helps out farmers a lot. Those are hard to get rid of, very expensive. We can pull our resources and do it in a way that works better for everybody. Um, waste reduction sponsorships. So, this is something that started um around COVID times as well. um early days. We provide matching funding for things that meet our solid waste plan goals. Um so businesses, organizations, municipalities um apply for those. If it meets our goals, we've got a pot of money that we use um and ask for a match. So it helps to leverage partnerships to achieve things that we would probably not be doing on our own. Um we just an example of a few prior sponsorships that we've done. um recycling arbor for their dropoff station. They were looking to do some new things at the Jackson Road facility. Um for an eco park, a study of what they could do. We sponsor the trash talk tour. Um a mattress recycling pilot, city of Ann Arbor, lots of municipal cleanups. Dexter, Bridgewwater, Manchester, Selen Townships, often focusing on tires, bulky way, scrap metal. Um, Augusta had one to when they started using their blight uh ordinance or enforcing their blight ordinance last year. Uh, our largest sponsorship was Ipsilani Township when they moved to recycling carts. So, um, and one that I'm excited about seeing how it goes this year is, uh,

Zingermanman's is doing front of house composting. So, we're supporting the infrastructure um, that they'll need. They'll do operations throughout time. So, it's something that with the kickstarting of that project can be a model for other businesses in the area to start doing that as well. Um, just a note on tires. Um, we used to get a scrap tire grant. We didn't get it last year. So, you may have seen me one less time this last year than you would have in the past. Um, we decided to continue that program. kind of sparked the municipal track that we're launching this year in part because Manchester Township uh the supervisor said, "Oh, you're not doing that. We really rely on that. That's like a really helpful thing for us." Um he said it all has but eliminated discarded tires in the roadside ditches um that they manage. So very important um and it's a lot more cost-effective to manage that early on as opposed to once it's in the ditch. our school recycling program. We're in 36 schools in six different districts. Uh we provide holistic education and support. Um so we pair the infrastructure and the um and the education through the ecology center. Um it's a flexible program uh collected in recycling carts and we recently worked with Wisdy um two three years ago to have a collaborative contract so that they could save costs on um things and then we have a corresponding contract uh with the the different schools, the districts. Um we even do an art contest. We used to do a the winner would get their art on a billboard and we started to change it to a pizza party because third graders lose their minds when you give them a pizza party. A billboard's kind of exciting too, but it's a little more fun. Um, but we have in the schools a 22% diversion

rate. Um, a lot of it's paper and cardboard and varying schools have varying levels of input from the kids. Some of them are actually wheeling out the recycling cart. Um, so there's a lot of involvement at certain schools, but in order to get reimbursement for the recycling, they have to have some education. Um, and often that's like a green team is doing things and then bringing it out to their peers. So the whole point of the school program is if we teach kids, they're going to bring it home to their parents. That's going to affect the culture. So, uh, wasten not we, we have a business waste recognition program. Uh, so we want to recognize those who are doing things that we want to see and model and support and lift up. Um, we provide some advice on on-site visit, but that's been pretty limited as far as our availability to provide technical advice. Uh, we're going to start doing more of that because we've got a new hire that started in December. So we're looking to really work with businesses because a lot of the waste generated in the county is from business industrial. So providing guidance on things like purchasing policies. Hopefully we can do something in CN D because that's a lot of our waste as well. Um but I think anything like an ordinance is is years down the road. But we can provide some best practices to try to get voluntary um support. We have a zero waste program. Um zero waste washing. This is for events. Uh so we provide the materials as well as consulting to like larger events. It's anything from small neighborhood barbecue to the Greek festival. Um goal is to try to divert 90% of waste and we work with the event organizers to give them the best practices on here's how you can actually achieve that goal. We had 22 events uh last year. So that's been growing in popularity.

Uh our medication disposal network. This is a success story for government. We used to provide the funding for the disposal of sharps um unwanted medication. Um but pharmacies started taking that on on their own and so we were able to to not fund that anymore. So now we just do the education and outreach. Uh we create flyers, we distribute them toarmacies. um assisted living centers, uh municipalities to try to get people to be aware of where they can take unwanted medication. Uh we have a very cool tool at don't flush.com where you can type in your address and you can find out if you're looking to get rid of sharps or a liquid medication. It'll give you the nearest place where to go to get rid of that stuff. We had 1500 5,800 page views in 2025, so it's a pretty wellused um system. And then we do a lot of other things that doesn't fit into a program. Um so we provide support to two different authorities in county. We do the funding for uh western recycling through a special assessment through the board of public works. Uh we started Wma Warma does mostly education. Uh but it's also at some point the goal is to have a collective contract for those municipalities and try to leverage the negotiating power of large municipalities um to do more and that can be more services like organics within curbside collection because that would be a big way to elevate and increase our diversion rate. Um we've done some organics p uh pilots. We've we got a grant last year. We're in Dex uh sorry, we're in Ipsellani. We're working on getting into Dexter and Salem Township. Um so looking to have drop off food scrap material. Um we did a pumpkin pilot um drop off where people drop their unwanted pumpkins, goes to farms that feed them to goats or other

animals. Um so doesn't get landfilled. It's a good thing. Uh we do a lot of education and outreach, tableabling. Um, we answer a lot of phone calls about, hey, I've got this thing. Where do I take it so that it ends up at the right spot? Uh, we support the Ann Arbor drop off that needs some public funding. City of Ann Arbor provides some, we also provide some. Um, so we've done that for a number of years. And then the uh, Ann Arbor drop off, which serves the region, uh, needs to be replaced. I call it the 20-y year pro or the five-year project that's taken over 20 years to get going because it's a challenging piece of infrastructure to replace. We've got a soft commitment for 1 million to 1.5 million depending on the total cost of that um to get that replaced and the city of Ann Arbor is driving that. We've helped with grants um supported their their efforts. Uh we also worked with a lot of municipalities on their projects. uh Dexter Township. Uh we got some funding from the state to uh help them move to single hauler and um they went from open market where you've got multiple contractors going up and down the street um and put out a RFP, got bids that's going to start uh in April and it's driving cost down for residents. I talked to one of the residents. They said their cost went from $190 a quarter to $60 a quarter. And that was for service, better service uh with recycling every week instead of every other week. So, and it'll be the second municipality in Washington County to accept organics as a part of their yard waste, which is a big strategy for us. And I think it's the most convenient and best way to get organics out of a landfill. and then materials management planning.

Uh so it's a three-year planning process. I talked to a county today. They're actually planning probably to take closer to five. It's a new process. Um we're all trying to work through it together and we're collaborating with our peers, but it's a new law. Um and we're getting resources from the state on an ongoing basis. Um so we're working through it. It's a new thing. Um, so I expect even though that we are ahead of most counties right now, we will also need an extension from the state and there is a provision in the law that allows that. Um, it's prescriptive for the committee. Um, we elected to offer Northville Township a seat. We didn't have to do that. Um, so we have a member from Northville. We also have an exeicio from the conservancy initiative who also sits on the committee and has um ability to participate during the meetings. Um, and we have a lot of um, requirements that the law needs to include within the plan. One of those is goals. That's what we're at right now. And I see that as the most important part because in five years that's what we'll refer back to. Um, so right now we don't have very good data about what is our recycling rate, are we doing the right things that's moving the needle. So we need to do that. Um we also have a lot of goals related to uh reduction reuse um partnering with different municipalities obviously recycling food waste reduction is a big strategy that's where I want to focus a lot of our efforts um and then the other things that we already do like safe disposal of home toxics um CN is something that's going to be down the road but we wanted to address it and then policy is going to be important piece of it as well um there's There's a lot of public feedback as a part of the process. We have to have a public hearing. We have a 60-day public comment period. We're going to have some additional public

input. I've sent an email to every elected count official in the county um asking for what are your input um concerns? Do you have any input at this time? Thank you, Commissioner Mean, for filling that out. Um appreciate that. Um look for an email from me if you haven't filled that out yet. Um but also reaching out to residents um will be part of a future process. Right now we're looking to township officials, city officials. We are looking for a city official. We currently have a vacancy um because our other our city official um did not seek re-election. So if anyone knows someone who's interested, please send them to me. Um and then I'll send them back to you for approval. Okay. Um and one of the things that came up in the survey anorobic digest biodigesttors that's something that our approach is to not allow them to be cited. We um are seeking clarification from the state that our approach of being able to site compost yards which we see as a better use of that material and process for that material. Um so we're waiting for response from the state to confirm that approach meets the law and is available. Um let's see. So with that um we have we do have other requirements. We have to identify capacity for our waste recycling organics. We have to have a sighting process. Um I know there's been concerns about timing. When is this going to happen? How's this going to happen? I'm probably going to dodge some of those questions because it's a little bit unclear because we have different paths that we can take and we need a couple months to regroup, look at the next steps in the process about what is the right approach for county for sighting. Um because we could have the MMPC be the committee that um hears those. We could also create a separate sighting committee. We don't know which

path we're going to take, but that will impact our timeline. So overall budget is 1.25 for the current things that we do. Um I know there's been talk about landfill not landfill. Um if we we currently get that funding right now. If we don't get that funding, we want to keep doing the things that we're doing. We need at least 1.25. We're going to do new things in the plan. We probably need another million to do that. And a lot of that's based on education to residents because that's how we're going to get less stuff in the wrong bin. So, I'll take questions. Theo, thank you. Uh, we'll start off with Commissioner Scott.

Thanks, Theo. Thank you. Um, I love the emphasis on the medication. Also, um, trying to think about to do that. Just as a matter of note, we don't actually dispose of medications in the sink or the toilets at the hospital either. We have an RX destroyer because there's an issue of medications being in our water also. So, um, thanks for the emphasis on that. Um, I want to pick up on the last thing that you said about if we don't have that revenue from the landfill, how much can you just what's the amount of funding dollars that we'll have to consider? Um, 1.5

to do the things we're currently doing about 1.25 if we want to do anything new, which we would want to do as part of our plan. Yeah. Um, based on the goals that we've got, we're in the ballpark of threequarters of a million to a million in new things in order to meet the goals that the committee's decided we want to do. What kinds of programs would have to be cut? I mean, not doing the new things and then I'm assuming we'd have to cut things. Also, we would need new revenue in order to do anything. Right now, we get, you know, 70,000 in donations. And so if you don't have new revenue, what kinds of things could not be done that we do now?

Everything. Um we we don't have I mean we get you can't do anything with $70,000. Okay. That's that's a fraction of a staff person. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Commissioner Breamman.

Mine is more of a statement. I just want to thank you for all that you do and all the work that's going into the MMP and I appreciate the focus on the biodigesttors that's impacting my community, but I do truly appreciate all the efforts you've done um specifically for the egg and rural residents being able to access this and dispose of things properly. We know unfortunately when we have a lot of land, we can kind of tuck things away in corners and it's not as safe as it should be. So, I really appreciate all the effort behind it. Thank you. Welcome. go to uh Commissioner Sanders.

Um so am I to understand that the toxic um receiving center um at the landfill is open for Northfield Township residents as well? Yep. And Northville City. Um, you don't by chance have have data on how much they deposit versus how much county residents deposit. 25% of our customers from at that center from Northville or Northville Township.

Thank you for that. Um, let's see. What happens to the tire recycle? So, when you had that picture up, the thought that came to mind was that's um a lot of uh um I'm having senior moments today, so just bear with me. A lot of my norm now utilize recycled tires instead of putting down, you know, like mulch. So, what what happens with the tires? Do is that an do we make any revenue out of recycling it? And if not, how come?

Yeah, there's there's no money there to be had. Um, so we have to pay for it to be recycled. Um, they do reuse that, but a lot of the cost is transportation, right? We're getting it, collecting it, sending it back. They have to chip it up. They can turn it into new products. And we we worked with Recycle Ann Arbor. We're always talking about is there a better use for this? Is there anything that we can do? Chipping is one of the best uses. Okay. It's one that I think it it always pains me walking by a playground where it's not kind of aggregated because it starts to flow into other places and that's okay. Not the best. Um so it's best when it's like okay

congealed so much um somewhat. There's a lot of effort by the state to start using it in roads and asphalt because it actually can extend the um longevity of roads. So that's hopefully a place for tires to go. Um so we we prefer companies that do chip and put into reuse like in playgrounds. Um if there isn't any availability for that, they will um use them for fuel. So essentially incineration with proper environmental standards. Um, so

and have you ever thought about offering receptacles that residents could come and either rent or pay a deposit for in order for them to bring you some of the more toxic items from their household that they may not have a way maybe they don't have a a box big enough to hold it or did I lose you? help me understand better. Can you say

okay? Let's say I I got a ton of uh unused paint or something. I don't necessarily want it just in my car. Have you ever So, you know, the containers that the post office uses, the clear Yeah. Have we ever thought about maybe purchasing some of those and then renting them out to residents so that you get your cost back and it's something that would be helpful for them where they could come and rent it, put all of the stuff in it that they have at their house and then bring it back for recycle and leave the container with you.

Gotcha. We often encourage people to put it in a cardboard box just because if something spills in the container, kind of ruins the container. Um, but we do get a lot of material in like Rubbermaid totes and people don't want them back often. So, sometimes we'll have some of those laying around and if people want them, we'll they can just use them and have them. So, we don't we don't particularly want them back, but we do try to help people in that way. Okay. Um and then my last question was just uh more information about you mentioned Zingerman was doing the front of the house sort of what what does that look like? What do Yeah. So it's understand that

right now they have back of house that's already done. That's a lot easier. The front of house is harder because you need to have containers for you have your trash recycling and then you have compost and you need to have really good signage and education. So, we're working with them on the both the receptacle to collect the compost and the the education. Move to uh Commissioner Masheski. Thanks, Chair.

Uh Theo, thanks for being here tonight. Um, I always appreciate your accessibility and the information you provide not only at the MMPC but the board of public works as well and to water commissioner uh the water resource commissioner Griscoll as well. Um, I want to talk a little bit about education. And so we've learned at the MMPC that really a successful plan to implement that and and achieve the I think aggressive goals that we want to have. There needs to be an education component that is on average about $10 per household annually. Um, and that's kind of at a minimum, right? Um could you talk about why education is important and um you know I know from my time in the WWR board um the conflicting messages that might come out of WWR versus other places in the county and about what you can recycle and what you can't. So could you talk a little bit about why education is important and how that lends itself to success?

Yeah, I think um we have so many products that we get and use every day. It's very confusing for people. Um, and it can vary by location, what's recyclable. Generally, there's a pretty stock list of things that are. Um, but it's confusing because we have so many products and I think most people are trying to do the right thing. Um, but you need to pair the education with the infrastructure. We know that we have pretty accessible infrastructure in county. Um, there's something in the plan called the benchmark recycling standards that you have to meet a minimum threshold. I'm pretty sure we meet those and we're going through that process right now, but pretty sure we meet those. So accessibility is much less of an issue than the education. And so we need to provide people with the resources and get to them about here's where things go. Here's to remove the confusion, but also to remove the doubt because I think a lot of people don't think that what they put in the bin actually gets recycled. We hear that a lot of, you know, it doesn't matter. It all just gets thrown away anyway. And there's been instances where there's been bad actors where occasionally that has happened and that really hurts the rest of the industry um and the environment. So we need to we need to have funding in order to do that and reach people. And right now we do some of it, municipalities do some, but we really need to amp it up if we're going to actually get less stuff to go to a landfill. So, I would I would suggest that in order to have a successful program that meets the goals, we really need to be above $10 per household in terms of education. And we as a a commission need to think about that when we get to that to that point. Um, and the second thing I want to touch on was, um, it's been interesting being on MNPC to learn about some of the statistics and where we need to go to be successful, uh, especially in terms of organic material composting. And you referenced CN D in the

presentation. For those who don't know, that's got right, construction, demolition. Yeah, thank you. um which is actually a a pretty significant part of the waist stream uh and something that we're looking at as well. But in order to get a really good understanding of where we are with all these efforts, there's a lot of data that's needed. Uh and one of the ways to get that data, especially in solid waste, is to do audits of garbage trucks, right? Um which is an expensive proposition. Could you talk about what's involved there, how often it's done currently and what might be a a better rate uh in terms of those audits?

Yeah. Um so right now Warma's the only group outside of City of Ann Arbor. City of Ann Arbor does um an audit that's part of their contract with Recycle Ann Arbor. So they do theirs I believe um every year for um recycling, but they aren't doing the the waste audit of the trash trucks of what is getting thrown away that could be recycled, right? Um and so I had a conversation with their resource recovery manager. Um they said three years is kind of what they're looking to do and I agree with that. Seems like a good cadence so that you're once every five years seems like too little. you could have a lot of variation in there. If you're doing once every two years, it's a lot of money to spend on those things and it seems like you're always just in the same loop and not actually being able to take action on the things that are coming out of that audit. So one to three years is what would be a I think is a good cadence for a waste audit. But you're actually getting like 50 garbage trucks and dumping them out and sorting everything in a sample of that truck into different categories to find out could this have gone to a different place.

Thank you. Thank you very much for for your time tonight. Move to Commissioner Robbie. Thank you chair. Uh thanks Theo for the presentation. I was just going to riff off of what Commissioner Sanders said because I actually think that's a really good idea. I think what I was hearing you say was basically like selling bins that people can selling bins to residents that people can put their home toxics in and then like bring to the home toxic center like once you've bought the bin it's like you know you get basically get free disposal if we have to go a route of not having free disposal anymore. Um, it's a way to like potentially raise revenue like is what I that's what I was hearing, right, Commissioner Sanders?

Purchase or rent. Yeah. But it it just seemed like a I think that's a really good idea. I mean, it seems like I mean some communities like in the county even you have to pay per bag of like waste that you're disposing. So, I mean, maybe it makes sense to do that. like you you offer these bins, you know, you buy them or rent them for 15 $15 or something like that and then every time you bring them in, you pay five bucks or two bucks or whatever. Kind of like the drop off center. Um I feel like I would I'd be down for something like that if that's what it came to. Um I guess on the revenue side too, like uh how many years left in the landfill? I guess we're going to talk about this later too, but two to three. Two to three years.

Yep. And with the expansion, how many years would that add to the It would depend on what was permitted and allowed. So it that could be anything. Um

I guess I'm kind of asking because like I mean to me it's almost like maybe we should start doing something like this sooner rather than later. Um because the landfill is not infinite anyways. I mean you're not going to be able to keep expanding and expanding even if this next expansion is approved. eventually you're going to not have landfill capacity at some point. So maybe it's worth like the county planning ahead and generating a new revenue stream, saving some money, squirreing it away so that we can keep subsidizing it. But maybe maybe it's something that we should consider that we can't fully provide for free anymore given the limitation regardless of what happens with the landfill on the revenue stream.

Yeah. Just my only comment is I'm I'm really apprehensive to have a service that can have so much environmental damage if things are handled incorrectly to put up a barrier of cost because if if 10 people in the county do the wrong thing with that material that blows by our budget tenfold. Um it does not take much of the wrong thing to get in the wrong place to have a really high cost. So, I my my strong goal and preference would be to not have the HHW program um be a service that we charge for. I guess you could have like a sliding fee scale if people can't afford it or whatever, but um I do I don't know. I think it's I'd be willing to pay $15 and I think a lot of people probably would. Some people probably can't afford that, but that's where the sighting fee scale comes in.

Sure. Commissioners, any other uh questions with Theo, Commissioner Light? No question, just comment. Thank you for coming out. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Commissioner Somerville, thank you.

Oh, that was that was not a question, but I echo that. Yes. Yes. Sorry. Um, Commissioner Haj, any questions from you? Great, Theo. Thank you, sir. We appreciate your time tonight. Welcome. Move now to uh item B, which is the Arbor Land Arbor Hills Landfill presentation. Uh Tony, is it is it Peltier? Pelier.

Pelleter. Uh who is V VP for uh postcolction support is here with us. Um Tony, I'm going to turn it over to you, but the same question uh that was asked of Theo. If you'd like us to wait for you to complete the presentation or if you'd like us to hit you with questions as they come. I think it might be better to wait till the end. That's okay. All right.

Um thank you very much. Again, uh my name is Anthony Peliter. I go by Tony. Uh I work for Green for Life GFL Environmental. Um, I'm the vice president of post collection support. What that term means is I'm in charge of engineering and construction for all of the landfill facilities in the United States. Uh, as well as dealing with permitting and also compliance of the with the permits that are in in place. Um, I wanted to run through some general information about the Okay, it's live. Okay, thank you. Um, information about the landfill itself. Uh Arbor Hills uh landfill has been in uh Salem Township since the early 1970s. We have um GFL acquired the facility in October of 2020 through a devestature when the prior owner was sold. Uh we acquired the site through that process. Our current landfill property is 337 acres. Uh within that property limit, 242 acres is permitted for waste disposal. Um we have additional property in Salem Township of 586 acres. That includes um approximately 126 acres south of the railroad tracks u between 5 mile and and the railroad tracks. Um north I'm sorry, east of the Napier road is 220 acres of additional property that is owned by the landfill. Um we have a couple ponds over on that property. There's no other landfill activity on that property. North of the facility, north of 6 milesi is another 240 acres which we use for ancillary operations at the landfill being our composting operations, maintenance. Uh we have soil that we uh borrow out of there for our daily cover. Um and then any other uses that we have to store

materials and such at for our use during construction. Uh since GFL took over the landfill, we've invested approximately $150 million uh into the landfill. Uh landfill development is an ongoing construction project. there's always something being built or going on to think of it as a building that's always um we're just expanding the building as we go and making sure that all of the systems inside in a building be HVAC systems, electrical, plumbing, um that we're managing any contaminated water and methane production that comes out of the the trash as it decomposes. Um, within that, besides building cell construction activities or closing the landfill, we also install methane collection systems, uh, we extract methane landfill gas under a vacuum out of the landfill. We collect contaminated water out of the bottom of the landfill and, uh, we have a pre-treatment system on site before that discharges to the sewer, uh, which ultimately goes to the, uh, Yaka wastewater, uh, facility. Um and then add additional improvements that we would do um over time as things are identified whether it's for storm water infrastructure um wetlands uh mitigation projects um anything that that we need to keep up on the site is is maintained. Um in addition we do uh have a lot of heavy equipment on the property in the landfill business again with uh the activities around placing the trash every day and moving soil for cover. So, um we do have a lot of yellow iron on the property as well and we do the maintenance there. Um some statistics about the the landfill from um the prior year, we took about a 1.6 million tons previously. Um last year, uh overall

um within the southeast Michigan disposal area, about 23% of that is uh goes to the landfill in uh Salem Township. Uh we are the only landfell in the county. Uh we operate the composting facility as well. We process about 90,000 tons of organic material a year. Um and that becomes as we as we mulch that compost it uh becomes product that can be uh either donated to communities or go back out in in bulk sales. We operate a material recovery facility, also called a MURF, um on the southern parcel um south of the railroad track. Uh that was originally proposed or designed for 20,000 tons of recyclable uh comingle materials a year. We recently uh went through a permit modification and expanded the capacity of that to add another 40,000 tons of capacity uh for additional paper and cardboard sorting. Uh Theo spoke about the household hazardous waste facility. Um as one of the conditions in our consent judgment, we uh we helped them put that facility in place. Initially, our investment was about $400,000. Uh by the end of it here and over even some improvements the last year and a half. Uh we've spent a little more than $900,000 to date on helping that facility uh run continuously and be ready to go. Um we have a separate citizen waste dropoff facility um that is located on the southern parcel as well. Uh Salem Township that is a free service for them. Uh other surrounding communities there is a fee for them to bring in and then place material in a bin which we then can then dispose of or put to the recycling uh center from there. Uh in 2023 we constructed a renewable na natural gas facility on the property. Um we take the previously we were converting the land uh we had a

partner that was converting landfill gas uh using that to power uh generators to make electricity into the DTE power grid. Um the industry has shifted to producing renewable natural gas pipeline quality gas. So, we undertook that with a partner in 2023 and now we have a facility designed for um what we 10,000 standard cubic feet per minute of of gas which would fuel 1100 CG trucks or power um or natural gas for 22,000 homes. So, it's a substantial project. It's one of the biggest in the US currently for a project like this. Um other things that we've done, we do um we do support the local community significantly through a lot of our efforts um regarding purchase of good and ser goods and services um not only for our construction but there is a lot of things uh going on dayto-day that require us to to procure uh materials. We have uh we do employ uh many local individuals and contractors in the area. Um we do we do local um contributions for various community um events and other activities and um as well as uh participating in in other state programs. Uh Mr. Seager, Dave Seager, our general manager. He uh he and his team locally helped out with some of the residential projects within the community. Um we do we do have several uh people that call on us for assistance. We send over helping hands at various times to do various cleanup things and or help out. Um so Dave's always wanted to pick up the phone and and uh you know call on any services they might have. Uh the main part that I'm here for this evening I wanted to speak about was some

of the items that were included related to odor and to the um POS um items in the environmental resolution from a couple weeks ago. So I wanted to kind of walk through some of the history on a few of these things. Um starting with the odor uh AQD's air quality division. Um again, Arbor Arbor Hills became a GFL uh landfill in late 2020. Prior to that, um they had struggled with some odor issues under the prior ownership. Um shortly uh within a couple days of us purchasing the landfill, um Eagle uh issued an enforcement uh initiated enforcement action to start that consent judgement process. So for roughly two years, we worked with Eagle to address the prior concerns and come up with the plan that would move forward under the consent judgment which was executed uh by Eagle and ourselves in March of 2022. Um, but as you can see, I think what I wanted to illustrate with this, there's been some information out there that we continue to have violations um, related to air, related to odor, and our record shows that since we've been there running the facility, while we have had a couple of those violations since 2021, um, they have decreased significantly based on our efforts to expand the landfill gas collection system, get a better handle on the odor abatement methods that we take uh that we look after every day. And um and it shows um it's showing great improvements right now. It's been uh roughly two years since we've had a violation uh with AQMD right now. Uh what this is a uh so there is a a group called Carbon Mapper. Um they fly

they have historically been flying with fixed wing planes over landfills across the United States. Uh they would fly and look for emission plumes and they have recently transitioned to satellite data. Uh they they've put a couple satellites up now. They've moved to that instead of fixedwing. But what I wanted to show here um this is public information. This is right off of their website um that um you can go out and find anything on any landfill right now. But we pulled the six landfills that are in the we call it the metro area here. And uh when they did their last scans, they post that data for the public to see. And again, we took over in 2020 uh Northville. So that's Arbor on the lower right. Um you know, our the measurements they found off of us immediately once we got here, we knew the gas system was um needed additional effort and support. We immediately began our activities to to improve that gas system and and it showed immediate results over the last several years. But our scans compared to the other facilities in the area um shows that we've you know we have sufficient and and good coverage of our methane collection system over the landfill. Um industry standard would say you have one well per an acre of landfill. We have almost two two wells per acre at this point um with what we have going today. The uh one of the key points of the um consent judgment that we agreed to um and have implemented successfully is a a permanent perimeter monitoring system. Uh we installed six fixed monitors which detect um they detect methane and hydrogen sulfide and then they also uh monitor all the weather conditions at

the time uh wind speed um barometric pressure uh wind direction and we record data uh minuteby minute and then we are measured on a 15-minute rolling average of um for those parameters for the methane and the H and the hydrogen sulfide. So that if we exceed the action level the action level um then it in then we have to institute a root cause situation as to what caused it to be above the action level. Um these monitors were proposed to be only solar powered. We did end up connect hard wiring them with electric. We found that in the winter time with as much sun we had some issues with the solar panels. So we immediately uh went to hardwire the after the first year so that we had electricity all the time to the units collecting data. Um that data is managed by a third party uh engineering firm that helped us uh design the system that Eagle approved. They still manage the data and the website that we report that information to the public. They also compile all of the records that we have to submit every quarter and every well quarterly, semianually and annually. Um, we report all the data points that we measure. We report uh if we do have an exceedence of the action level, we do a root cause. We have to compile all that information and send that in as well as all of our wellfield information off of the landfill itself. Um, it results in uh I think one of the reports we had was like 12,000 pages in a quarter. It's a lot of data um that we that we make available. Eagle uh is the recipient of that. that we've made also made that available to Northfield Township now for their review. Um, but this this is the the um first line of defense. Uh myself and the staff at the landfield, we get an email uh immediately if we trip trip

an action level to to be aware that something might be happening at the perimeter um so that we can then immediately go to investigate. Um what we all we also um tracked the conservancy initiative uh website. They have the uh odor reporting um website that they allow you to if uh you sense an odor or sense an issue that please fill out a form and send it in. And uh many of the staff uh including myself we get these as they come in. So I wanted to illustrate here the trend over time. Again uh noting that uh GFL acquired late 2020. You can see this the decline over the years uh the last five years of these uh reports. Um we do we do often try and correlate this with a uh action level exceedence if one occurs. Um they don't always align. We've had a few of them align for various reasons. We've also had a few of them that um that make note of uh we'll get a certain calls if something is if someone becomes aware that something's happening at the landfill. So the example I use is in 2023 there was a spike uh midsummer into the into the fall. Uh we went into a new we went into our new landfill cell and we were in there for 10 days operating and nobody the neighbor didn't the neighborhood didn't know that yet. But the minute they found out um we got a series of calls um for a week or so right after that. So it's the perception is you know it's there. It's it's a tool. It is helpful at times. There's sometimes we question if the wind direction is going the other way because we we have the data now off of our monitors to know which way the wind's blowing. Um as well if there if there is an alleged odor, we can we can track that down. So,

um, the next thing I wanted to talk about was the POS, uh, some of the POS items. And what I'm showing here, this is the southern, uh, part of our property. The, uh, blue lines, uh, that's approximately where the railroad track is. The, uh, road to the south is five mile. Napier Road is on the right. Um there was a fire at the material recovery facility in 2016 under the prior owner. They had leased the building uh to someone who was going who was operating the the material recovery facility. Um multiple fire departments replied to that fire. They um ended up uh some of them were using the aquous film film forming foam af which uh does have POS in it. The uh as they fought the fire that material um made its way into our storm water controls and uh every everything kind of flows up the page from the building. If I can does it work on the if it's going to work on the there it is. So the material recovery building is the building right in the center and the drainage uh the surface drainage flows towards these two water features uh northeast of that building. And so what we found was that uh as a result of the firefighting effort, anything that hit the surface and then ran off into the through the storm water system accumulated in those two ponds specifically. Um over several years uh and again and and so that was in 2016. In 2021 2022 um when GFL uh was assumed ownership, we

began the activity to look at the remediation of those ponds. Um we did publish a report that looked at and this is a figure from that report in 2021 2022. We had worked with Eagle on a few things related to this. Um, and what we found was that the the kind of greenish pond on the right was um, which was a storm water pond was able to be remediated uh, relatively quickly. The darker area next to it is actually a regulated wetland that uh, abuts the railroad track. So, we focused our efforts initially on uh, what we call pond number two. We removed all of that liquid uh took hauled it by truck to the wastewater treatment facility. Um then we removed all of the soil uh out of the pond, placed it in the landfill and verified that it was uh clean and then resumed regular use of that pond for uh storm water. We have not touched the wetland area because again that requires some work with Eagle to get that approved to to mitigate. We're currently working on that uh with with developing an action plan to start that remediation effort as well. Um but that is a an activity that relates to the the POS uh incident that has um some of the water did make it into the uh our our outlet channel um over time. And then this is also a figure from that study in 2021. The landfill property is outlined in the in the green uh in the middle. What we did was uh we took uh we used a third party and we took samples um up and down the uh Johnson Creek uh

upstream and downstream to verify levels that are in the creek. And what we found with that was that upstream of our property uh prior to our discharge that there was there was indications of POS in the watershed already um as well as downstream um from our property uh from our discharge point. So this is information that is public. This is in an eagle report. Uh the conservancy has actually posted the same report um and their supporting information online as well for their constituents to see. Um again we use third parties to help us uh grab this data and verify what is is going on um with the POS. Um we are not a generator of POS in the landfill. Uh the landfills are passive receivers of POS. POS is in many uh household materials and products over time. If you have your Gortex jacket or your waterproof boots, um, Teflon pans over the years as that stuff makes its way out of someone's house carpet, it may end up in the landfill and the landfill acts as a filter, uh, which we then capture the contaminated water and we we pre-treat for that. We actually received a new permit with Yaka um in July of 2025 and we are now uh monitoring and for a specific level of POS in our discharge. Okay, that's it. That was that was my last uh might have a slide on that. So, thank you.

Tony, thank you. Uh, we'll open it up now for, uh, commissioner Q&A. Any, uh, commissioners with questions? Commissioner Sanders, I see yours go to you. I'm curious about you mentioned, and I didn't write it down, but you mentioned um, a service that you provide. I think that people can pay for Norfield was utilized that service. Do I want to ask you the same that I asked earlier, which is do you know a breakdown of like what revenue do you receive from Norville as opposed to um I I do not have that number. Uh my general manager might have that number. Okay.

Um but I think you were speaking to the recycling drop off area or the uh the the customer um residential customer drop off. Yes. Yes. Um, are you the only Does Northfield have somewhere else to take their stuff or are you it the uh So I believe that their place in their proximity that I mean uh for trash disposal um I believe the contract comes to our facility. It's not our collection contract. Okay. And um you said you've spent about $150 million. Yes, ma'am. Since is since 2020.

Is that since Mr. Secret took over? Yeah, Dave joined uh J Dave joined roughly about that time. I joined the company in 2022. I was actually uh Dave's site engineer for a year and a half. Okay. 2022 through 2020, end of 23. And so even the first thing I did, I got there in June. Um, the first thing that I did when I got into this was the consent judgement activities with Dave. We were all about gas and odor control. So, since we have you on the record? Sure. Um, is it will it continue to be the case that if he says something needs to be taken care of, you will take care of it? We will. Uh, he will. Dave lives on the property. I'm going to have him send me a check later.

Yeah, he he uh he occupies a residence at the northeast corner of the property. he is right there in the event something uh happens or occurs, he can he can head out there and uh address the issue as quickly as we can identify it. Okay. Thank you.

Other questions? Commission Commissioner Summerville. Thanks. I don't have a question. I just wanted to thank you for the presentation because I think everybody should be able to discuss this issue whether they want the landfill expanded or not. And so, thank you for being here. Sure. Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Ravi, thank you. Um, in terms of the expansion that you guys are contemplating, it's the site in the maps you were showing site to the south of your current landfill. Uh, to the north.

North. Okay. And it's currently a compost facility. We have a compost facility on uh a portion of it, the eastern half of the property and then we have soil borrow uh we use that property for soil um for our daily operations. So you you currently pull Sorry, go ahead. No, go ahead. I was going to say the composting facility will continue into the um expansion. It will it will it will be reoriented onto the property um to be still still part of the um ongoing operations at the facility. So you're going to move you're going to move it basically. Okay. Yes.

So how many acres is this new parcel that? Uh we're anticipating roughly about a a 90 acre footprint at this point. And how many years would that extend the life of the land? uh current projections have it roughly at about 11 years additional to the we're actually our life is roughly 5 and a half at the moment. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Um

how how is that like calculated projected? I assume it's like included in that is the volume of waste that's coming in. Yes, we have a uh we we we estimate what the incoming tonnage would be and we have a conversion factor we use to convert it to cubic yards because landful airspace isn't measured in cubic yards and then we can determine how much u we know how how big the envelope is. So therefore you can um determine how many years it is.

Okay. Uh, and I guess in terms of when you're determining that it, you know, I guess how do you because to a degree it's like, you know, you you own you own the landfill, right? And so you're the the revenue that you're making is based on how much is disposed in your landfill, right? I mean, it's it's on a weight basis, I assume, or do you charge per truck? Uh, we charge by the ton.

By the ton. Yeah. And so as as you're thinking about how much you can take in a given year, is it like I guess what I'm trying to figure out is like you are, you know, there's a certain amount that's coming in at a certain time and uh you're projecting based on the current the current amount that's coming in, the current loads that are coming in that you have five and a half years. But that could change if there's an influx of trash that's coming in from say Canada for example and you guys decide to accept more waste and that could shorten the timeline, right?

Uh it could we have a limit um we have a a roughly an annual limit of about 2 million tons? Uh that like a self-imposed No, I believe that's a that's a Eagle that's within our Eagle permit. And then over a five-year period as well, we have an average uh a not to exceed value in the five-year as well. And do you meet the not to exceed value? Uh we are within our permit limits, I guess. Like how close to it do you get? Like is it are you like bumping up against it every year or is it uh I mean we're we're close. We're close. Yeah.

Gotcha. Um okay, that makes sense. I just was kind of wondering in terms of like how the math was done on that because I I feel vaguely, you know, in terms of the conversation we've had about this in the past that it's been said to me before like there's about six years left on the landfill and I feel like that's kind of been the running thing that I've been told for a long time and I just didn't know how I don't know if it's like a math thing like well it's a math thing but also the landfill uh there's settlement over time so um it does as uh as it as it um consolidates that we can then recapture that airspace. We're per permitted to a grade, okay,

in an elevation. So, as long as we're under those elevations, we can continue to operate up until that point. Okay. So, basically decomposition helps to create more space. It does. And as the methane is that anorobic environment, no oxygen, the the bacteria starts doing its thing and um and it generates methane gas and then also as voids are created, it it you know settle settles and consolidates and therefore it creates a little bit more air space. Yes. I gotcha. Okay. So that so to some degree that's why I've been hearing six years for a while probably is because there's some space that's being created over time in addition to Okay. Yes, that's helpful to know. Thank you.

Commissioner Sanders has another question. Anyone who hasn't asked one at this time, Commissioner Sanders, yours.

So, um earlier it was mentioned um by uh during public comment uh about how much um Salem residents save property tax. Do we have a ballpark figure that we could share with the public about exactly how much GFL covers that our residents don't have to pay? I asked that because the the um the guest the resident was sharing how much is related to him. But what is the total amount when you com when you look at all of the homes that are

Yeah, I I' I'd have to defer to Dave Seager and probably to Gary Whitaker. Okay. The township. Um I know we we have a host agreement. Mhm. So there's um you know there's there's revenue that they get from that um as well as from our we've historically have have shared some of the natur the landfill gas okay incentives um which are available and through the RNG project um as we went from electric to RNG we continued that sharing with them and it helps them fund uh various programs in the township and other things for the community.

Okay. So, but again, I would I would defer to that that question to the operations side. So, one more question. Um, since this is also an election year, I'm going to ask you a question like I would ask a candidate asking me for endorsement. Um you're you will continue to operate in good faith and good neighborliness um after or if you receive permission to expand. Yes. So yes, you're this isn't just like a honeymoon thing and after we say I do, you're like h

we're we're invested in the in this market. We've been here a long time. Um, you know, we also as as GFL, we're the fourth largest landfill uh company, recycling company in in North America. So, we have an invested interest in this um being successful and and it's up to, you know, my team and Dave. Uh we're we're here to do it right and and get it done and and make sure that it continues in that fashion. Okay. I just wanted you to be able to answer that publicly. Sure. I know Mr. Seafford knows that I I won't disappear. Sure. Well, I've been doing this for 30 years and uh I'm a professional engineer in seven states. I'm, you know, my ethics dictate certain, you know, the way I do my job and and this is how we're going to do it. So,

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Robbie. Oh, yeah. No, it's it's No, it's okay. More of a question for us than a question for him. Gotcha. You're good. Okay. Thank you. Uh so I I guess my quick question is for all of us is and maybe more to you chair. Are we going to have a working session where we invite the conservancy and the environmental council to give us a presentation as well?

I think that the short answer is I don't know yet, but I'm certainly open to uh suggestions on that. Um, I do think that the discussion last meeting uh necessitated some additional followup and so I'm open to that in the future, Commissioner Robbie, but that that that's sort of to be determined.

I guess just feels different to me as a, you know, commissioner to have citizens showing up speaking their mind versus having an official spot on the agenda for one side of the issue. So, I'm just thinking it would be fair to have the other side have a formal spot on the agenda as well. Obviously, anybody can come and speak during public comment, including folks that support the landfill.

Um, fair. Uh, this was also requested by the water resources commissioner as a component of uh tonight's meeting and so there was some accommodation for that ask. I guess I would request then as the county commissioner that we have the environmental council and the conservancy present at a future working session. Uh consideration heard and considered and we'll try and facilitate that as best we can. Commissioner Robbie, you bet. Thank you, Chair. Shouldn't be too hard. I'm sure they'd be willing to come. Uh Commissioner Light,

I just didn't want to throw it all on our uh on our water commissioner. I was very much so um interested in having um GFL and um individuals to come out for more in-depth explanation and information um just for uh I really would like for my Salem residents to be able to have this information not along um let alone with the rest of the the board. So it was very important that they are able to come and present the facts um the the real life the real numbers um the real amount of violations and so we don't want to just put it all on our water commissioner but I was very much so interested in wanting them to show up and I appreciate it.

I appreciate any time anyone anywhere in the world talks about a working session. So um so thank you for that. Any other uh questions or commissioner comments on this time on this agenda item? Great. We'll move then to uh item six. Any items for current or future discussion? Uh seeing none, chair uh I'm assuming a 7:00 start. Okay. I'd entertain a motion to adjurnn. All those in favor say I. We are adjourned.

Oh yeah. Oh. I'm sorry. Oh, it's okay. Grab the How much space?

Hi, good evening everyone. Um, welcome to the Wednesday night uh February 16th board of commissioners meeting. Um, every meeting we start with the pledge, so we'll rise now for that. Thank you. Commissioner Hodgej was trying to give me a heart attack. Um, Brendan, could you call the role, please? Commissioner Bean, present. Commissioner Hodge, here. Commissioner Labar,

here. Commissioner Light. Commissioner Macheski here. Commissioner Robbie. Commissioner Sanders present. Commissioner Scott, I am here. Commissioner Somerville

here. Fantastic. Thanks, Brenda. Um, at this time in the meeting, we have public participation. So, if any members of the public would like to participate, we ask you to come to the podium. You have three minutes to address the body. We'll ask that you state your name and the city or township in which you live and the markers on the podium will give you your time. It will be green means go, yellow means wrap it up, red means your time is up. I will interrupt you not because I'm rude, but in the interest of fairness. Thank you. and at the end of the aggregate comments at that's when commissioners will respond. Welcome to the meeting. Thanks.

Thank you for having me. My name is Delaney Dunovan. I live in uh Councilman Sanders. This is probably the first and last time I ever address any public forum. I'm not terribly uh sure. About uh two months ago, uh my neighbor Ricardo was put into a van at the corner of our golf side. I'm out of things that I can do about that individually. So I've come here to address uh the collective of the county that is relevant on something that is also relevant to our local community. City of city of Romulus, Robert A. McCrat dated February 16, 2026 to the honorable Christy Gnome, security of Homeland Security and Tyler Lions, acting director information uh immigration and custom enforcement uh commission. Uh, dear secretary and acting director, as mayor of Romulus, I've recently become aware that Ramulus has been selected as a potential site for a new ICE detention center, the only one in the state. They have a couple of administrative offices and other things going on, I'm sure, with 150 billion of our dollars, but that's the only one that they're designated as a place to forget people. an address for elected weeks ago was in contention and now I'm pretty sure money has changed hands. The letter goes on. I don't know if how widely it is online yet, but it uh it goes on to talk about US code and certificate of occupancy and a whole bunch of rules that I'm sure myself and other people in this room would care about because they were made for a reason. And I got to go back to my life and I have a job too as you all do and you know have to find things important that other people don't and they're going to care or they not and that's just being a person in the world. Um, but uh it's 30 miles away. It is a literal concentration camp 30 miles away and I I I just I can't find anything else as relevant. I understand

it's a different jurisdiction. I understand it's not on the Dallas or this body. I understand that there's not much this group can probably do about it, but you all go to a lot of the same cocktail parties and country clubs or whatever you do with your free time. I don't know. just they haven't signed the certificate of occupancy yet and hopefully we can do something to stall or I don't know I I I don't know what your old business is. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Anyone else in the room for public comment? Hi, my name is Kathy Wyatt and I live in Pittsfield Township. Um, I attended the board of commissioners retreat on human services and so I wanted to come here not just in my personal capacity but my individual capacity as vice chair of the community action board for county to thank you all of you the board commissioners who spent six and a half hours working on issues related to poverty. The community action board is charged with advocating and re making recommendations to OCED and the board of commissioners around issues related to poverty and advocating for people living in poverty and the work that you did uh at the retreat around talk expressing your commitment to housing, health care and hunger. really ex um made me uh proud to be um that you are my commissioners and I think it is important to recognize in uh the capacity of the community action board member and vice chair um how m how important that work is to taking care of those living in poverty take care of the least of these. Um I am

also a big advocate for literacy as most of you know. I actually did um search online for a word that started with H that would be for education and I couldn't find one. Um though uh Superintendent Jazz Parks from Ann Arbor schools did say, "Well, what about homework?" um at a recent forum. But basically, that's all I'm here for is to thank you. Um I think you all did a wonderful job. I thought uh Bridget Herman and Pam Smith from the United Way did a wonderful job facilitating and I really felt the commitment that every single one of you had to making sure that the residents of Washington County are safe and cared for, that they have that they're not out there with no roof over their heads, that they're not going hungry, that they're getting basic health care that their basic needs are served and taken care of. So, thank you.

And that's it. Thank you.

Anyone else in the room for public comment? Good evening, Jeremy Haley, Hipsy Township. Um, couple weeks ago, the Ann Arbor City Mayor Mayor Ed ad with fever admittedly was saying that this country was founded by white supremacy. And he said it multiple times. And I'll just leave it at that. Um, when I lived out near the Lancing area, I delivered pizzas when I was able to work and do such thing. and I won't say the name of the business, but I took an order uh to South Lancing off Jolly Road and I, you know, just rung the doorbell, open the bag, deliver the pizza. A woman, elderly woman opened the door like most elderly people at that time and probably still do. They just gave exact change. And she said, "Hold on. Let me go get your tip." I waited. She came back. I held out my hand. She dropped two pennies in my hand. This woman was an elderly black woman. And what did I do to deserve that? All I did, the guy at the pizza cutter said, "Hey, order up." I took the order, checked it out, and took there and rung the doorbell. The reason why I bring this up is

Dr. Martin Luther King said, you know, judge me by the content of my character, not by the color of my skin. And there's a rise of what people call the gropers with Nick Brontes. This young white men feeling that they're being the brunt of all this hate because you hear white pricing, white privilege. I'm just letting you know what's out there and what's going on. And that's you may not feel that here, but trust me, it's out there. And Nick Fuentes does have a quite a large following. And the reason I bring that up because these young men are being told they're they're the ill of the world just because the the color of their skin and they're thinking, "What did I ever do? You know, I haven't done anything and I'm being blamed for this." Then you say young black men are saying being told it's young, you know, white men or white people are their problem and it's dividing things more and creating more division amongst people than bringing people together. I just ask people to look at people's character and not at the color of skin and how they treat people. Please. Thank you. Anyone else in the room for public comment? Hello, my name is Sheila Powski and I live on North Territorial Road in Webster Township. I am worried about political violence with trying to save these trees.

I was recently warned to watch my back, make sure I'm not being followed since I'm messing messing with the road commission. Well, I already know this to be true because I have been harassed and threatened before by two road commission employees back in 2019 when I was trying to save the trees on my street, North Territorial. I did report this to the road commission at a public meeting and I reported it to my county commissioner, Sue Shank. Now that I'm in this tree battle again, I am terrified. The trauma of the past has never left me. These threats, being worn to watch my back again, has stirred up some serious fears. So, let me tell you my story. I was walking down Main Street one afternoon with my family. We were going out to dinner when I heard two strangers yell out, "Oh, it's the tree girl." I thought they were tree supporters, but these people were not friendly. One became quite angry and aggressive. I thought I was going to get jumped or beat up as they got in my face, pointing and spitting. And this is what they said to me. You better stop messing with the road commission. We own the road and we do whatever we want. We know where you live. That cute little wood house way back in the farm field. You know what happens to wood houses. We have stalked your Facebook page. You're pretty good photographer. You're the tree leader and you need to shut the f up. Stop messing with people's money. I screamed back at them, "Why the f do you care about the trees in my front yard?

What do you work for, the road commission?" And one responded, "Yes," with a smile. I was in shock and I immediately looked through the members of the Washna County Save the Tree Facebook page and there they were. These rogue commission employees joined our save the tree page and now they are stalking me and threatening me to my face. I was terrified and as a photojournalist I stopped using social media. I stopped proving events in fear of making it look like I might not be home because I was afraid they were going to burn my house down. I had to get security cameras and an alarm system. I've dealt with this trauma for years and now it's stirred up all over again. And you know what? I have met others. Others that have been threatened or harassed by road commission employees or tree contractors when their trees are being cut down. But these people are too afraid to come and speak here today. I have begged these people to come share their stories, but no one will do it because they're terrified and scared of political violence. Sheila,

everyone is scared of the rogue commission. Sheila, that's time. I'm sorry. I refuse to let my silence my fear silence me anymore. Thank you. Anyone else in the room for public comment? Hi. Uh, I just like to, you know, take a moment and, uh, appreciate the weather we got out there today. You know, it's a really nice day and I think we just, you know, we should look forward to the spring and the the sun coming out. You know, we haven't seen it for a while. So, yeah, that's all I got. Don't forget to tell us your name and and city or township. Uh, I'm William Van Hton and I go to Seline High School. I'm from Seline. So, yeah. Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks.

Somebody from outside. Okay. All right. Anyone else in there they go? That's amazing. Uh, oh my gosh. Please come to every meeting. Anyone else in the room for public comment?

Hi, good evening. My name is Renee Quinn and I live in Dexter. Regarding the trees, residents want our road commission to have oversight. Not all road commissions in Michigan are independent operations. Wayne, Mcome, Jackson, Ingred, and Calhoun County have dissolved their independent road commissions to merge road operations into their county departments, creating a public works department. I think it's time Washington County dissolves our road commission. In 2019, we went In 2019, we went from three board members to five board members, which are appointed, not elected. I think it's time that these positions are elected by voters because I have not seen any of these appointed officials stand up for the environment. Isn't that why we added more to the board? On zip reccruiter reccruiter.com it says the average salary for an Ann Arbor road commissioner is $228,000 a year. Since we have five road commissioners, us taxpayers are paying over a million dollars for their salary every year. I have seen no improvement with caring for the environment from adding extra road commissioners. In 2020, they wanted to spray the herbicide on North Territorial to kill the weeds instead of cutting the weeds. This herbicide spray was parakquat and uh and agent white, which was used in the Vietnam War. These chemicals not only kill the weeds, but they also kill the trees and they kill us. And not one of these row commissioners rejected this toxic herbicide until the public outcry. Now we have this worker road project and none of these road commissioners are speaking up to protect the old native

trees. Only the public outcry has some being spared, but they still want to widen the road by 8 ft total and cut approximately 48 trees. When asked if a traffic study was done, they said a one-day study was done two years ago. A oneday study. That sounds ridiculous. What is the real reason they are widening the road by 8 feet? I drive country roads all the time and there are not many rural country roads that have a 4-foot shoulder. What is the reasoning? Why won't they tell us? Are they only trying to widen the road so they have an excuse to cut the trees? When they cut five When they cut 500 trees on North Territorial and 500 trees on Mass Road, how much money in lumber was made? A thousand trees times a thousand dollars in lumber value? $100 million. We have a housing shortage. Lumber values are at a high all-time high. And we are giving away millions in lumber and exotic hardwood lumber to tree contractors.

Please. Thank you. That's please make it make sense. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else in the room for public comment? Ashley, anyone online for public comment? Uh, yes, chair. First, we have Christina Luronus. Hi, Christina. Welcome. Go ahead. I'm sorry, chair. Oh, sorry, Chair. Give me one second. Yeah, no worries. Sorry, chair. Having some technical difficulties. I'm sure don't have the permissions to um take them off of mute. Oh dear.

I'm just going to run up over there. Where's the permissions? It should be me. Here comes parents. We're gonna we're going to get to the bottom of it. Sorry. Technology is always evolving and being interesting. We're a flexible body, understandable people, understanding people even. I'm feeling time. I don't know. Maybe more students want to talk to us. Yeah, I know. I know.

You're let you're letting the out of room students show up. The in of room students. See? See how I'm trying to pit them against each other? Okay. Okay. Have we hit allow to talk for Christina? Allowed to talk. Christina, I don't know if you if you can talk yet, but Oh, ask to unmute. I think we've asked you to unmute. Okay. Hi. Hi, you're there. Hi. Is it Is it working? Working. Welcome.

Oh, thank you so much, Commissioner Scott. Um I My friend Sheila Palowski asked me to attend tonight's meeting in um Defense of the Trees on on Workner Road and I'm I was happy to see both her and Renee Quinn here. Renee was reminding me of the date that I was trying to remember. There was a period of time where we had a very strong we had a very strong group of people working toward dissolving our road commission and incorporating it as a department of the county board. You know the the typical county government and instead we ended up adding two more road commissioners making it even larger and it's uh really hasn't changed at all as far as I can tell. Part of the reason that we had gotten so far down the path of the possible potential ability to have some oversight for the road commission by incorporating it as a department of the county government was because the road commission had just gone wild. This was in 2017, 2018 and 2019. I live on Textile Road in Pittsfield Township and our road where we live, where our home is, where our our Civil War era farm is, was absolutely destroyed. My home has never been the same. We were treated incredibly cruy by the road commission. We were sued and a group of us were sued to widen the road and chop down all of the trees. And these were these were ancient maples and oaks, just beautiful trees. It was a beautiful treelined road. Um, they never cared at all. There was no environmental consideration, but even more so, no consideration of the people who live on the roads in county. And I and I'm I'm sorry to see that

we're seeing that again. Uh, we ended up being sued for condemnation. And our neighbors were also sued for condemnation. We were told we could either sign agreements and give away our trees basically and take a nominal sum of money and they would chop down our trees and uh grade up into our yards and make it into a 55 mileph paved commercial truck route which is bypassed to Michigan A which it is now or they would sue us for condemnation. Well, we fought and we were sued and they sued an an 85year-old widow who had had a stroke. They sued my neighbors who were a young couple. They sued uh my husband and me with our disabled daughter. It's her farm in the future. So all of our futures were lost. The road now runs through the Pittsfield preserve as a 55 mileph commercial truck route. It's never been home again since this was done. Trees were supposed to have been replanted. This was a promise of our township, but that wasn't done. the the project ran wildly over budget because they ended up having to buy so much property. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Okay. Could I add just one more thing very quickly? You can. My only point would be that I believe that roads should be seams and not divisions. Seams that we all live on and travel through. It shouldn't just be for the motoring public's convenience. Thank you. Thank you. I I I have my permissions back, Cherry. I apologize for that issue earlier. Uh, next we have KJ. K, you said KJ. KJ. KJ, welcome. Hi. Can you hear me? We can hear you.

Great. Thank you so much. Um, KJ Pedri here, City of Ipsy. Um, I'm not here to say much new, mostly to reaffirm some of the things that I have been telling you, um, as often as I have visited. Um, it is vital that we get shelter on the east side of the county. I know that those processes are in motion. Um, but the need is urgent and we all have to work together to step it up and make it happen. Um, we desperately need a long-term home for our daytime warming center, which honestly needs to be expanded into a yearround program. uh providing resources, providing cooling uh and providing a sense of community for those on the street, newly housed and at risk of homelessness. Um I feel like sometimes we ask too little of you and I know those things feel like big lifts. Um but at the same time, I feel like we get so focused in on these asks that we don't talk about how big the picture of need really is. um how many services we need in our community that we don't have. Um I am a big advocate of continuing to expand the houses of hospitality model um which are a grassroots model that have provided needed alternative spaces when our traditional systems have failed. um programs like Purple House uh through mission which provides winter weather amnesty. Um they are fully loaded with people who are trespassed from Delonus. um volunteers, unpaid volunteers with uh a small amount of grassroots training perhaps or perhaps they're pulling from professional careers. Maybe they're a barista are dealing with the folks who Delanis is not willing or able to accommodate. Um and providing just that

alternative site can be an amazing opportunity for them to get their needs met in a different space. But we need not just another shelter but many little shelters. We need peer respit for those who are in mental health crisis. We need crisis centers. We need both grassroots and formal institutions because there is an array of needs and so many are going unmet. Um I would love to talk to you more individually about what these plans look like. Um many of you have my contact information already. I'm easily accessible through um homelessness solidarity network social media website. Please reach out to me. Please take meetings with me. Please learn about what a lived experience-led uh system of programs could look like in our county. And please invest in bringing other lived experience voices to the table. Um we are vital to this process. You cannot do this without us. We may need more investment and more accommodation, but that is the nature of doing business in this.

I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you, Ashley. Anyone else online? There's no one else online, chair. Great. Um, so we'll move to commissioner followup to public participation. So far in the queue, I have Sanders, Hajj, and Labar. Commissioner Sanders,

I was trying to take notes right quick. Uh so to the uh young lady that spoke about um being threatened uh for speaking up from the for the trees. Um first I'm sorry if if you know that actually has occurred to you. Um I am I you know I'm sorry that you are feeling unsafe. Um I am um the commissioner that sits on the Washington County Roads Commission um as part of u my assignment. I would encourage you to reach out to me and let me know if anything like that happens. I understand that in the heat of the moment you you're not always thinking clearly uh when you're feeling, you know, intimidated or scared. Um, but if it's possible to try and and gather your wits about you, so that you might be able to provide uh me with information about, you know, what did the individuals look like? What was the vehicle that they were driving if they were driving a vehicle? Um, if you're ever approached again and you feel safe enough to say it, not trying to be uh facitious, um, you should let them know that you are going to report them. Um, it it it is not something that I would u sit quietly um and not try and find out or get to the bottom of if these were if it was anybody. but let alone if they are employees of the road commission or contracted uh service providers for the road

commission. So you do have um a form of recourse. Um and I also would quite frankly make a police report. So if you if you're feeling comfortable, you are welcome to send me an email uh sanderscott.org for um and I will have a communication with uh the county road commission chair and their board. You are also always invited to attend either in person or um by phone or virtually uh their meetings. They meet uh twice a month. I don't want to lie because I just put it on my calendar, but uh Tuesdays typically um 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. uh every other Tuesday. I want to say it's the first and the third, but uh don't quote me. Um so that was that. Um and I uh hope that you will, you know, be able to get some sort of peace and that this will not continue. Um, in terms of the there was a comment about the Washington County Road Commission stipens that I need to correct but because it was woefully incorrect. The last time I checked, I believe that those commissioners were receiving a stipen of approximately $20,000. No other benefits. Um, and they have not had a raise in 23 years. And I know this because I had some communications with the chair um and I was advocating for them to receive an increase. I thought that it was absurd that you've got people serving um and they have not had a raise in 23 years and they have increased uh their

outreach to the community whether or not it was by choice or by consent agreement. they have increased the service that they provide to our residents. Um, and so I wanted to clarify that because I I know um I've been guilty of it and I am on the receiving end of it. We take for granted our elected officials, especially the ones that are not full-time, do not get benefits, um, uh, face harassment and threats, um, for simply trying to do good works for our residents and on behalf of our residents. So, I am, if you haven't already figured it out, I'm very protective of employees. um and people's ability to be able to come and do the work that they are hired to do without being harassed by the general public or their supervisors. I don't care which it is. I have zero tolerance for it. I know what it's like to be bullied on a job and I do not put up with it. So, I just wanted to clarify they are not making the money that was um um stated at the podium. Um, and if you divide that $20,000 a year stipen by the number of meetings that they have and the other requirements that they are expected to participate in, you should ask yourself whether or not you would be willing to do that and whether or not you would be willing to take the lashes that they often take sometimes without being fully informed about what the facts are. Um having said that, the other part that was mentioned was

the road commission uh going from three to five members. That was purposeful because there was no represent. There was no minority representation and there was no representation basically um on the east side um or um more meaningfully on the west side. And so that was done to make sure that all of the residents were being represented and had representation on that commission. And I am not I don't make apologies for that. I think it was needed. It happened before I became a commissioner, but I absolutely think that it was needed and I quite frankly am not certain that they might not need another representative to make sure that the entire county has a voice at that table. Um, but I'll conclude by saying just as it is so with our meetings here, all of the meetings that we have by appointed and elected bodies are open to the public. And we encourage you to show up and voice your opinions. So, please don't let that be lost on you. um you are you you do have a an opportunity to voice your opinion and I think it has a little bit more weight when you do it in a public setting and it is a recorded documented um appearance. So that's what I have to say about that and thank you for coming.

Thank you Commissioner Sanders um Commissioner Hodgej.

Thank you chair. Thank you to everybody that came to give public comment especially uh the students from Seline High School. So thank you for coming out. I know these can be I find these meetings entertaining, but I know you this may not be your cup of tea. So, thanks for taking the time to come out. Uh, and to everyone else as well and to our treasur in the front row there. You're just hanging out, I guess. You know, nice to see you. Hey there. Uh, going to go through my notes here. So, the I don't see the person that made the comment about the detention center in Romulus. Uh, but thank you for making those comments. It's very disturbing to I know it's right over the county border into Wayne County, but it is deeply disturbing to have that so close to here. Uh, I believe the county government and then municipalities within Washington County are trying to take appropriate steps to limit ISIS's act ability to act within our area and I think we have demonstrated through our actions over the last year plus uh that we will act to the extent of our legal authority to do so. Um, so it's terrible that it's happening, but you can I think rest assured that Washington County government will continue to behave appropriately uh and to protect our residents. to Kathy over there. There you go, Kathy. Thank you, Kathy, for coming out and thank you for sitting and enjoying it sounds like the six-hour retreat. She's nodding in the affirmative. She really enjoyed the retreat. Uh I greatly appreciate your service on Community Action Board, and I am also grateful that you continue to uplift the work that's happening there and the need for us to continue to focus on economic inequality in county. I think there's been no greater champion of that than you. So, thank you for continuing to do that and for taking the time to come out here tonight. Uh to Jeremy constituent, I typically enjoy your comments. I didn't enjoy the comments today so much. Uh and here's why. I think that and and I understand uh the sentiment and and where it's coming from, but I think comments like that demonstrate a lack of understanding around structural racism, structural inequality, uh and some of the distinctions between prejudice and systemic power in our community. Um, I

find you to be a very well-intentioned person, though. So, it's uh, and other people feel the way or feel similar to what you expressed, and I think that we can all continue to try to learn. Uh, just a few books that I think may be of interest to anyone looking to learn more and to have a better understanding of systemic racism in our country. Uh, a few of those are books could be How to be an anti-racist, The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, racism without racist, colorblind race, racism, and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States, and another book called So You Want to Talk About Race. Uh, happy Black History Month, everybody. So I I think in thinking about that comment and this kind of sentiment uh many of you know that I have a lending library on my lawn uh and I live on Andrea Street and Sugarbrook. I will be purchasing some of those books to add to the lending library for anyone that would like to go and you know take one of those books and keep it if you want or you can bring it back for others to read. But I think that uh could be a good start for anyone looking to have further education on uh issues of race and structural inequality in our country. to the comments about uh rogue behavior of road commission employees. I find that to be deeply concerning and certainly something that I would want to learn more about. Uh and about the road commission more broadly, too. Uh I, you know, the board did take the step to add additional road commissioners in the past. It's certainly something we could look into. Again, I'm intrigued by this idea of having elected road commissioners. Uh I would talk to corporation council to see if that is a a possibility for us. I don't think it is. I think you have to have a a county with a population size larger than ours to do that. Um, but there is always the option that if things are truly uh occurring in a way that we would not want in county that the board could absorb the duties of the road commission back into the board of commissioners. Certainly something that we could talk about. Um, but thank you for the ongoing advocacy related to the trees and I received many emails about the trees.

So, thank you for continuing to to make your voices heard about that. And yes, the weather is very nice. Thank you for the comment about the weather and thank you for coming out again. Hopefully it stays nice and hopefully you keep coming to our meetings and that's all for me. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Hajj, Commissioner. I've got Commissioner Labar and then Somerville. I have round Oh, and Light. I see I saw you Sanders, but we'll do round one of everybody light and then I see Bean and Oh, and then I see Machias and then I see Robbie and then we'll start round two. So, everybody is going to talk and then we'll do round two. Okay. Um, Commissioner Labar, go ahead. Thank you, Chair, and thank you for that uh auxiliary information. It will inform my comments. Thank you.

I I there were serious things said at public comment. They've had serious responses that I agree with and thought were well said. I did just very briefly want to say the first gentleman who spoke and spoke on the detention center uh spoke as a citizen and a resident and an American who seemed upset and not sure how to voice that. Yes. To an institution of some authority and I just wanted to recognize on a human level that many of us feel that way can empathize with him.

And I don't have a solution to that. The best I can come up with is whenever possible if we can voice our collective opinion as a body. I understand the feds aren't going to listen to us, but I think there is value in stating that. And I guess I'd also say for the nine of us as human beings with a life that extends beyond this boardroom. Uh the minutes of history will also point to where we stood on some of these issues. And so I think it's never a bad thing to make sure those minutes reflect that we think this is wrong, bad, and something to to push against and fight against as best we possibly can. Thank you, chair. Thank you, Commissioner Labar. Commissioner Somerville. Thank you, Chair.

I accidentally muted myself. Um, I want to cosign the response that Commissioner Haj gave to the comments that were related to the topic of white supremacy in this country being built on it. Um, I don't think that my colleagues up here who are black should have to def like discuss this, especially during Black History Month. But, um, the entire like everything in this country was built on um, literally like forcibly like eliminating like people who were native to this land and then bringing people who were not native to this land to be used as like in slavery. So, um I just I have to say that and I this like is something that I keep with me in everything I do whether it's work or just in my life that like everything we see in this country was built on the backs of other people who were not white and who didn't benefit and still don't benefit because there is structural and systemic racism that is just prevalent in everyday life. Um it's just yeah it's a you know it's one of those things that I I feel like there's a lot of work to be done both um in uh settings like this when things get addressed that need clarity and I respect that my colleague gave some um opportunities for people to look into to better understand um this issue because clearly there's still a lot of work to do and we I mean we've seen a rise in white supremacy in the last decade which is is pretty devastating. Um, and I have great fear for young people who are growing up, who are either in this room right now or watching this meeting at home, who might think it's okay to just turn a blind eye on American history. And there are efforts right now to erase history, to

not teach people about what we what our country did to Native Americans and people um who were literally forcibly brought to North America. Um and so it is really important that people who um believe in facts and truth continue to make sure people know what happened in this country for hundreds of years because there is an administration right now who is literally removing things from our museums and removing evidence of things that happened um by our ancestors. So thank you Thank you, Commissioner Somerville. Commissioner Light, thank you and happy Black History to everyone. Um, as I say, it's Black History every day, all day for me. Um, and what I do during Black History Month is I represent um and wear something of um the African or black or brown um descent. So today is black excellence and that is um myself and those who represent um not just being of the black uh race but who understands and supports um our black and brown folks. So happy black history. Um I just wanted to address who I believe is my constituent as she called herself the tree lady. Uh thank you for coming forth and providing us the information. Um, I absolutely do not um condone you being feared uh for advocating for um what you believe is the best environmental decision. And so I would love to speak with you. Um, and it's

just it's totally not tolerated from this board for someone to threaten you and make you feel like you can't come here because you can come here and you can express and advocate how you need to. Um, no one can take that right away from you. Um, and so if you come to every board meeting and you want to make sure that you continue to voice your opinion, you can do that. And you can also do that at the road commission meeting. And no one is to come and to bother you and to threaten you when you're out on your time with your family. It's not acceptable. It's not okay. And we going to have a discussion on how we can um get this together because if there are some employees, which I don't believe. I think they did that just to try to put more intimidation and fear into you. But if they are, hopefully they will not be working there. So, we are going to talk, but you know, you can come here and you can voice your opinion whenever and however you may need to do in those three minutes that they provide. So, um that's just concerning and I just want you to know from myself as my constituent, um we are going to talk about it and we going to get to the bottom of it.

Thank you, Commissioner Light. Uh we are going to move on to Commissioner Bean.

Thank you, Chair. I want to thank everyone who came out tonight. Um, echo a lot of what my ear commissioners have said in terms of addressing issues with ICE, focusing um, on housing, healthcare, and hunger. Thank you, Kathy, for bringing that forward. And I want to also just take a moment to thank my fellow commissioners for participating fully in that session. I think we brought a lot of really good ideas to the table. and don't know that I got to thank you all publicly for your time. Uh Sheila, I'm horrified by your experience. Um I hope that we can get to the bottom of it. No one should feel unsafe in their home. No one should feel unsafe speaking out uh to protect the trees. None of that is acceptable. So would definitely like to um piggyback on Commissioner Sanders and however I can help. I want to be helpful in that space. Um, to echo and support my fellow commissioners, you know, white supremacy isn't about extremist groups or people using slurs. It's an ideology in a system that was historically placed white people at the top of social, political, economic hierarchies. That's still something that we are dealing with today. Last year, I attended a meeting where elected officials didn't understand how recent Jim Crow laws were. And that was devastating to me as my mother lived through those in the South. um decision makers that aren't understanding history, it's so much harder to make an impact um on how it's still influencing the disparities that we see today. So talking about this, recognizing our past, understanding that

there are wrongs that will never be right, uh but acknowledging them and moving forward from a space with equity. We can only move forward honestly if we're willing to understand where we were. Thank you, Commissioner Bean. Commissioner Machias.

Thank you, Chair. Um I also want to note the first speaker tonight. Um I think there were multiple speakers tonight who expressed frustration um in their comments and um I will concur with Commissioner Labar. When history looks back at what we did, it's important um for us, even though we may not have power over a particular thing or uh the ability to immediately impact it in a tangible way, it's important for us to um nonetheless be on the record at times. Um so I want to acknowledge his frustration for um what's going on in our country right now. um the hundreds of millions of dollars that are being spent um of taxpayer dollars to undertake these activities, which

just the Minnesota operation alone has resulted in an incredibly small amount of actual illegal criminals being deported. but yet rights of Americans being violated on a regular daily basis. Um, I want to concur with Commissioner Hajj in his thoughts. I'll just cosign on to that. I also want to recognize, you know, I I was a teenager in the 1980s. Um, this where I first got interested in government and in history. And I want to recognize um Reverend Jesse Jackson. He was um for those of us who lived in the 80s. Um I'm one of them. You too, Carol. Commissioner Sanders, I think maybe. Um

me too. I am too.

Talked about it last meeting. So um his his his emergence on the political scene was such a dynamic moment. Um especially for you know me just as a teenager getting involved in in politics. Um I just wanted to note his passing as well. Um he was an incredible figure um not only in the political world but uh as an and as an American. Uh and finally um Sheila on the work the road thing I I strongly encourage you to connect with Commissioner Sanders um so we can look into this situation. Again, unfortunately it's not the first time I've heard these things um uh but we do need to look into them. uh and take a hard look at at the way the road commission is operating again. Um I I do I there have been comments periodically about well we should take the road commission back in. Uh I do believe that that window closed several years ago. Um and that is currently statuto statutoily not an option anymore. Um um so I I do appreciate the sentiment um around that though. I will say that um the road commission did hold two sessions on work in the road, two public sessions. Um I do want to acknowledge the fact that I I encourage them to include public comment um at their inerson session which they did uh and uh I I arrived kind of at the at the very end of the meeting. Um, but my the feedback I got on it was that people appreciated the opportunity to talk to the road commission again in that forum and then interact with them on a one-on-one basis is there were at least a half a dozen road commission employees at that event. I know um Andrew Doo from administration was there as well. Um so I do appreciate the engagement on that. Um I do appreciate that the road

commission is has taken another look and dialed back their original plan. Um, I do encourage everybody who's interested in that project to continue to voice their opinions on it um as it moves forward. Um, but uh, thank you, Chair. I appreciate the time. Thank you, Commissioner Machi. Um, we are now at Commissioner Robbie.

Thank you, Chair. I guess the, uh, the disadvantage of going last is that everybody's already said the things you wanted to say. So appreciate all the comments that were made. I'm going to mostly uh cosign on, you know, what everyone has said. Few other thoughts that I did want to add into the mix. Um I guess this is related to both the comments about immigration and the comments about race. Um you know, in our country, uh it I'm glad that we are having this conversation. Um and that everyone that spoke up said something. Um, I think it's really important in the context of the moment that we're living in, um, to recognize the history of our country, uh, and that, as Commissioner Beamman said, that history is very present today. Um, in everything that that happens around us, that everything that's happening at the federal level, um, what ICE is doing is uh is not new. It's not a novel concept. This is an organization that's been around for 20 years that's um trained uh that emerged from a racist moment in our history as we talked about uh you know at a previous meetings. And a lot of the actions that they're taking and strategies that they're using are built off of uh you know strategies of ingrained racism in our country that have been used for generations to oppress people of color uh in this country. Um and to we think about the context of what's happening in around ICE and the connection to voting and the connection to the Trump administration saying give us your voting roles and we'll leave you alone. Well, that feels a lot like what was experienced in the Jim Crow South around voting and around the um intimidation tactics and pilling and lynching and um uh murders uh you know that were conducted, bricks being thrown through windows, houses being set on fire um to intimidate people uh into not voting into not participating to to

kill um and maim and injure entire communities. Um, and we're seeing uh a replication of those strategies. And I think that as we know from our history books from and from many of the books that Commissioner Hajj, you know, pointed out that we should all read, uh, we know that our country was and and as Commissioner Somerville said, built on genocide and it was built on slavery and everything that we have around us here now, like every part of this building, um, the streets outside, the the wealth that we have in this country, and the fact that we are living in a wealthy country. Um that wealth was not something that like God gave us. I think there's this fallacy in this country that God somehow has imbued this country with special powers and that's why we're so great. Uh the we have what we have because we stole it. We stole the land. We stole the resources and we're we stole the people and we are currently stealing land resources and people across the world as we speak. That is a reality that we face and I let we talk about it in terms of oil, talk about it in terms of Venezuela, we can talk about it in terms of Iraq, Afghanistan, all these countries across the planet that we have um exerted a neoc colonial doctrine upon through force, through militarism, through military bases. Um we are seeing it in Cuba right now. We've had conversations about Cuba at this table. Um, Cuba is a sovereign country that has resisted American imperialism for generations. And, uh, the Trump, what the Trump administration is doing is they are trying to commit, uh, starvation, genocide on an entire people that happens to equate to the population of Michigan. About 10 million people live in Cuba. Uh, and their their biggest

defense is that they've refused to comply with American neoc colonialism. um and what we saw in Venezuela, what happened there, uh with the removal of, you know, their president. We have no business being the world's police. But it goes deeper than that because it is about the resources. It's about we went there to steal the oil so that we could get it for cheap so that our, you know, rates at the BP gas station would be less for political purposes. Uh we when we want something, we steal it. This country is built on stealing. This country is built on rape and murder and genocide. And like until we actually face that reality and we start to see like this these computer screens, the chips that are in it, the wood on this desk, all of this stuff is it's we didn't earn this. It was stolen. And I think we need to like internalize and understand that as a country um before we can make any progress because what we really need to do is stop stealing this We need to stop colonizing people and oppressing people and killing people overseas. People are dying mining diamonds in Africa and South America for people to buy at jewelry stores in in Ann Arbor. That's an unacceptable reality. But we've somehow we've internalized the normaly that that's like okay instead of internalizing the normaly that that's like deeply up and we need to change that reality. But in the current status of the capitalist society that we live in, if it's making money, it's okay to breeze it over. It's okay to not think about it, but it's all around us and everything that we have. And we need to remember that. And it's happening in the streets of our country, too, because it's happening with what ICE is doing with what they're proposing in Romulus to build this facility. I'm so grateful that the gentleman came out and spoke up about this, and I hope that everybody will attend. There is a rally coming up. I believe it's next week, Friday, this Friday in Romulus. People should go to

that. Um, you know, we need to rally. Oh, Commissioner Somerville is going to give you details in just a little bit. Oh, there is an Ann Arbor rally on Friday and there's also a rally in Romulus, I think on the 23rd. Pretty sure. Anyways, look online. There's plenty of opportunities to get involved, to speak up, and to say uh that we as a community are opposed to this. Even though Romulus is not in county, we do need to be speaking up because it will impact our community. It's a park. It's a they are Why is it in Romulus? There's an airport in Romulus. Easy to send people out on a on a plane. Uh because you're putting them right in that facility right there. And I do just want to say that the piece about like, oh, they're just, you know, we're just arresting, you know, criminals. Uh to Commissioner Machi's point, one, that's not the case. And two, even the quote unquote criminals that are being uh taken, uh I can tell you from experience because I've been working with some of the individuals that have been taken, they are they have they may have a criminal record, but in many times, especially in Michigan, we've had several instances of this, people's criminal records are over 20 years old. They were misdemeanors that were expuned under our laws in Michigan. They were expuned records. They should not have a criminal record anymore. They were minor crimes. And these people are being treated like murderers. Um and that's just not the case. So um and and we're seeing families getting separated. We're seeing people get deported to countries that they have no connection to anymore. And in many cases that they partic they they worked with America America to help American interests and then came to this country and are now going to be punished being sent back to their to their um country of origin even though they have no connection there anymore. Um, so it is deeply messed up and uh I'm encouraged by the comments that were made. I'm encouraged by the comments of my colleagues. We need to be organized in this resistance uh and in this moment. Uh and we have to draw a line in the sand as communities. And I do I will

just quickly say I feel like there's a rising uh ground swell in this moment of popular resistance and of resistance at public boards. We're seeing this all across the country of, you know, of public bodies resisting Trump through official action. We participated in that and others are participating it in and across the country. I think this is something that we can keep building on and pushing the envelope of resistance. Uh and I think it will have a contagious ripple effect in other parts of the state and the country on the trees. Again, very much supportive of your efforts. Uh you need to file a police report if you haven't done so already. Please file a police report. Please document everything that happens. Uh that is not okay. Um and uh uh I'm marginally unsurprised by what you're saying though because I do think that there's some culture uh that needs to change at the road commission generally. Uh and uh I hope that um it never happens to you again. I hope that if it does, you can document it, record it, do audio recording, whatever it is, video recording, whip your phone out, make sure your phone's always charged. Um, document it and uh, file police reports because that's not okay. You should not be intimidated. You're on the right side of this. You're fighting for the trees and these trees have been there for, you know, over a hundred years in many cases. Who are we to come by now in 2026 and say, "You're not valuable anymore. We're going to cut you down." It's messed up and you're on the right side of this. Stay the course. Stay strong. We love you. Thank you for coming out.

Thank you, Commissioner Robbie. Um, we're back to round two. Commissioner Sanders. So, I I I wanted to make sure that I had my information correct, and I in my mind had the road commissioners making 20,000 because I had proposed a $10,000 increase for them. It didn't happen. Um, but just for uh specific information, they received $10,500 a year as a stipen, and that is across the board. The chair does not receive more. Um, and so if you if you do the dirty math on that, um, that divided by 12 months is $875 a month. If you divide that again by three meetings a month, and I I'm going to give you their schedule in just a second, it's $291 per meeting divided by approximately eight hours because that's about what they spend in a month. Um, you know, that's a stipen of like $37. Um, and I I don't know how many of you would would uh do the work that they have to do for that amount of money. It's not just showing up at the meetings. They have to actually read the packets and be prepared as we are expected to be. Um and then they also hold a once a month um session where they make themselves available for the general public in their districts to be able to reach out to them to ask them in questions andor share concerns or complaints with them. So that said, we're talking about um a commission of five that receives $10,500 a year as a stipen. the currently I think the highest paid road commission is Oakland County um um and I believe theirs is 15,000 and

they when they are serving actually get benefits healthc care uh benefits so I just wanted to correct that so people could be you know more correctly informed um and be able to put the work that they do in in some sort of perspective and in relationship to their meetings uh they meet the first and third Tuesday of every month. Uh the first uh meeting or the first meeting in the month is at 1:00 p.m. and that's the board meeting. And then the third meeting um uh which is you know the middle of the month they actually meet at 9:00 a.m. and typically go until 11, but oftent times they run over um and then they come back and they have a 1 to 3 p.m. and sometimes that runs over. So, um, and I I want to say this because a lot of people don't understand, um, many positions that we have, especially when they are elected, they have a history in and of themselves, where they typically have been designed for people that are in positions to be able to take these jobs, not necessarily work full-time, um, and have sleepless nights. So, um, you know, when we say public servants, um, or servant leaders, whatever you want to call us, um, and whether you like what we do or not, we are committed to doing the work. And we do do the work. Um, and when you look at the history of some of these positions, they are set up so that the average person cannot afford to do them. They can't afford to run for office. They can't afford to to do the work. The majority of us that sit around this table have full-time jobs

in addition to the work that we do for the commission. And you all have seen it. It's rare that we're out of here at 9:30. It's a standard joke. Like, don't dare put a time limit on it because you're going to jinx us. But our average meetings when we're really taking care of business 11:00, 12:00, we've gone as late as 3 a.m. and still have to drive home and get up in the morning to be at our other job, the real job, right? But we do this because I won't speak for everybody else. It is a labor of love for me. It brings me joy, but also heartburn. And so I wanted to put that in perspective for people um as they you know consider trying to beat us up for something that we've we've done instead of you know just trying to approach us and have a conversation as my pastor used to say decently and in order. So I I wanted to correct that information that I gave earlier. Um and I will restate again that I can be reached. Um I don't you can if you if you pull all of us up I believe when you pull us up on the website it shows which committees we belong to. We are asked at the beginning of every year to sign up and we have a plethora of vacant spots because there's only so much that we can do with other obligations. So um I think that was it. I just wanted to correct that so people know. I'm not, you know, defending or but I I'm I'm I'm gonna speak from my heart. I know that I did work. And so if you see me not, you know, crying or looking weepy eyed uh because somebody doesn't like something

that I said, um I don't apologize for that. I do my work and I am responsive. I just don't put up with a whole lot of bull. So, thank you. Thank you for noting there's vacancies on other committees in case anybody's interested in signing up for any of those. One of them is the road commission. Okay. Um, Commissioner Hodgej part two.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll be quick on this one. Thank you to all my colleagues for your comments. I just want to add some context to my comments about the road commission. Uh, I was interested in this potential for us to reabsorb it. Um, because I was getting a lot of feedback from constituents last year. Um, and I went through and then read through public acts 14 and 15 of 2012, which would be the ones that would talk about whether or not we could do that. There wasn't anything in there that mentioned that uh we could not reabsorb. So, I ended up asking Michelle uh Michelle can jump in to a stealing my thunder.

Well, I mean, I I did this in July of last year. So yes, Michelle, you could jump it or I'll just read the email that you wrote me, but yes, the in 2020, the sunset language was removed, so we could at any point in the future take it back if we wanted to. Uh, so thank you, Michelle. That is accurate. Are your words accurate in this email from you that I'm reading? Yes. Okay. Excellent. Thank you, Commissioner Beaman. Round two.

I'm just going to be really brief. I got a little passionate and I forgot to say thank you to the students from Seline who came out. Go Hornets. My little hornets are in bed right now, but thank you for coming out and participating. I doubt your hornets are in bed.

Uh thank you listening to the comments. Thank you um everyone who came to the meeting. Thanks, commissioners, for followup. I'll be super brief. Um, Commissioner Hajj, first of all, took my stole my thunder because I was going to say that yes, the the option of talking about road commission being part of the county is something we can discuss again and perhaps that's something we should discuss. um and for the ins and outs. I have concerns about um elected road commissioners because I think it's really important that we see road commissioners from outside of the county rather than just in Ann Arbor. Don't hate me, Ann Arbor. I know I represent you, but um I think that if somebody from Ann Arbor said they wanted to run for road commission and the the just by the mere population of what happens in Washington County, those people might win the election. And I don't think that that helps the road commission. Um, sorry again, Ann Arbor. Um, but I'm I'm for everybody in the county. Um, I am very disturbed by the concentration camp and Romulus as well, and I appreciate the fact that those comments were hard um to say because it's a frustration that we all feel about not knowing what to do. I think people around this table feel that way sometimes and we're even more plugged in. Um, I'm not exactly sure what we do, but I do again agree with Commissioner Labar, who I think said it best here. Um, I think I've noted this before at different meetings um, we've had as commissioners, we can be Vichy France or we can be the resistance. And I think we're all committed to being the resistance. So, um, what else? Uh, I want to thank Kathy Wyatt for coming to talk to us. Um, and thank us for the work. It's nice to feel appreciated. So,

I appreciate that. Back in return, um the trees. Um I think that talks about the road commission. And then just finally, just to talk about where Commissioner Hodgej started, I want to endorse that entire reading list that he had. And um I want to note that prejudice can exist in any direction. Um I think, but it's important to think about the terms. Racism is about how power and prejudice operates within systems of power. Um, this is what I always taught my child that racism exists because there's a power differential. And that's what racism is. In the US, race, concepts of race and racism developed alongside laws and institutions that advantaged white people and it disadvantaged people of color. and understanding that now helps us understand how power works and how we can rebuild and build fairer systems going forward. So, um that's all I have to say about that. Next item on the agenda, liaison reports. Any liaison reports? I see none. Thank you. Oh, Commissioner Machi, every time I think I'm gonna get away with it. Just when you thought you got away,

head commissioner. I thank you, chair. I do want to thank you for the correction on the road commission um status. So, I I appreciate that. I had not recalled that. So, thank you both.

Thank you. Um the county board of public works uh met this morning and I wanted to just note for everybody that the cleanup days for 2026 have been announced. Uh the first one will be in Pittsfield Township on April 4th and I believe that the registration for that opens on February 23rd. It's on the website. Um so you remember you have to pre-register for these cleanup days and you get a time slot. um assigned to attend. So, April 4th in Pittsfield, June 27th in Northfield, August 8th in the city of Ipsellani, and November 14th um at the uh county facility on Zebroad in Scio Township. Uh and so you have to pre-register for all those. There's different dates to where the pre-registration opens over the course of the year. Look at the um water resource commissioner's site for further information. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Macheski. Any other liaison reports? Commissioner Lavar, just briefly, uh, we did have our first initial space plan committee meeting. Um, and Commissioner Rashi in a vicious campaign prevailed as our new vice chair of that uh of that committee and so I wanted to congratulate him on that and uh, Commissioner Summerville as well. Thanks. Thank you. Any other liaison reports? Okay. Congratulations, Commissioner Machi. Yes. Um, uh, I'm going to move on to report from the county administrator. Uh, administrator Dill.

Thank you, Chair. Good evening, everyone. Uh, I want to start with a thank you to Commissioner Lebar. He uh the early edition of the chamber breakfast happened this morning and he was a gracious host to both administrator Milton Tony from the city of Ann Arbor and myself. I thought it was an excellent conversation, a lot of feedback afterwards and in the parking lot. So, thank you for hosting us. I do want to I I don't know if Milton is at home listening, but I do want to fact check his one statement about him being older than me. I want to make sure that that is indeed correct. So, I think at a at a future early edition, we need to set the record straight. Just a couple of real quick updates. I spoke last Wednesday with the director of parks, uh, Megan Bonfiglio. We talked about a couple of things and wanted to make sure that we had a strategy for you all moving forward. Uh, I was able to review some very, very preliminary schematic designs and site site development work. So I I say that to say that we are making good progress uh in that area and hope to have something to share with you all very soon. We also had talked about the financials and and at some point we will owe you an updated financial uh accounting of where where we we stand. So stay tuned. I feel really good about that. Second item is uh the administrative team is going to embark on our annual planning retreat on March 25th. Uh we were anxiously anxiously awaiting you all you all's event and uh we we felt really good about what we heard and we know what our charge is after after hearing from you all. In addition to that, our team has gone through a uh survey of our operation, our work together, our relationship together.

We're going to unpack that at our retreat and we're going to try to develop a framework for applying resources to your priorities. So again, that that date will happen on on uh March 25th and look forward to reporting out on that. And then last but certainly not least, and uh it kind of pains me to say this. I think you all know that I have received the uh retirement notification of our CFO, Tina Gavalier. Uh and I do it with much sadness. She has been around for 35 36 years, quite a long time. and and what I say to you all is she has been just a tremendous colleague and I just want to take just a moment to walk you through some of the things on her on her resume, her county resume. Uh she started in 1991 as a student intern, moved to deputy district court clerk, district court probation secretary, budget analyst, human resources manager, management analyst, financial analyst, budget and financial reporting manager, budget operations director, finance and budget operations director, and then in 2021 uh after uh a thorough process became our CFO. uh she has been just a stalworth in the financial area. She has overseen a four-year budget, the migration from the two to the four-year budget and our AAA bond rating. Uh she has been just a wonderful jewel for our organization and I'm so grateful to call you a friend and colleague. Thank you, Tina, for what you've done. This is your opportunity. If you want to say something, this is this is certainly your opportunity. You said you were not I would not see

tears. So I said I hope to not cry. Um I'll be here for six more board meetings. Not that I'm counting. Yeah, but I'm looking at um forward to um sunsetting my labor of love. Commissioner Sanders, thank you for the words. Thank you. That concludes my report. I I think people will want to say a lot of things, but you have six more meetings, but I'm already crying, so that's ridiculous. Um, I'm very excited for you. Um, but I'm crying for all of us and the work that you do.

Yousef's crying, too. You just Okay. Thanks. Uh, do Okay. All right. We're gonna we're gonna move on. Um, next. Thank you, Administrator Bill. That's it. Yes. That concludes my report. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Um it's hard to know what to say after um hearing things like that. Okay. Uh next item is report from the chair of the board of commissioners. I have no report this evening. Um and so the next item is a special order of business. We have three public hearings and one resolution to set a public hearing. So I will open the first public hearing. the first public hearing to receive comment on a proposed building inspection civil infraction ordinance. The hearing's open. Anybody here to comment on that? I see none. Then I'll call the hearing closed. And the next public hearing open. I'm going to bang that g a lot. Is to receive comment on the proposed transformational brownfield plan for 350 South Fifth in the city of Ann Arbor. Anybody here to comment on the transformational brownfield plan? Oh, good. Come forward. I think we still have three minutes to comment. Is that correct? Three minutes.

Yep.

Good evening. Jennifer Hall, Ann Arbor Housing Commission. Uh, this is a Ann Arbor Housing Commission project in partnership with the city of Ann Arbor. Uh, it's known as the old Wot. It's adjacent to the Blake Transit Center. Uh, it's the largest project we've ever done. I've developed over 20 projects of affordable housing. This is so complex. Uh it's over $200 million. We have a very complex capital stack. So I have two folks here with me. Uh Jake Austraman with Plant Moran. He's here if if you do have questions at some point about what a transformational brownfield is. Uh and Doran Gibson with Related Midwest, which is our development partner uh for the public. This is over 300 and apartments. We have 330 apartments ranging from 30% of median income to 80% of median income. So 100% affordable project. And I'll be in the audience as well if there's questions you have for me. Thank you.

Anyone else here for comment on the public hearing on the transformational brownfield plan?

Jeremy Haley, Ipsy Township. Um question on the tiffs. They're usually 30 years and there is around the country there's been waves in the property tax system and you're assuming that the same property tax system in the state of Michigan is going to be in the same place and at the same state in the next 30 years. I'm saying that it may not be in the same place that it is today. And when you make those assumptions that it's going to stay the same for the next 30 years by the rule of 72 as just out out of this world that and if it changes and it goes away, what happens to all these properties that you put these tips on that you expect these incomes to come back from? And that decreases what happens. That's something to think of as you go forward because there are cases around the country in Texas Supreme Court on the 16th amen on the 16th amendment on property taxes as being an unrealized game and that's happening now and the defendants had to respond by February 17th. So that is going on. There's cases in Ohio and all around the country. people are suing their counties county assessing office on property taxes and I'm saying there there may be a change in it and you're assuming that the same system that you're doing now is going to be remaining in place then I'm asking you think outside the box and think what if it is not thank you

thank you any other comments on the hearing on the transformational brownfield plan for 350 hi welcome uh Thank you. My name is Sarah Loren. I'm the executive director of the Ann Arbor Community Land Trust. Um you'll be hearing uh our item soon, but I just wanted to speak in favor of this transformational tiff. This I've been following this for years now. This is a remarkable achievement. Uh 330 units uh new homes uh in such a wonderful location. Um, I just applaud the housing commission and all of the effort that has gone into this.

Thank you. Any other comments on the transformational brownfield plan? Okay, I hear none. So, I'll call that hearing closed and the next public hearing I'll open. Uh, this is the public hearing to receive comment on the proposed county homes brownfield plan in the city of Ann Arbor. Would anyone like to give public comment on this item? Hello. Hi, I'm Sarah Loren. I'm the executive director of the Ann Arbor Community Land Trust. Uh, we are really pleased to bring this proposal to the county. Uh this has also been uh several years um in the works uh about two and we have had a tremendous amount of support ourselves from community members some who are here right now as well as elected officials. Um and it has been really a pleasure uh for me in particular to get to know many of the people who are seeking housing. Uh we now have over 800 people on our waiting list and so uh 26 of them will be able to get homes but we are hoping to build homes for all of them and uh we assume that there are many others who wish to live around the county. Uh we proposed to be uh starting this within the city of Ann Arbor so that we could deal with one municipality um for this proposal, but we're hoping to expand throughout the county. And we um believe that there are many other folks that are not on our buyer list because uh we're not um saying that we're operating around the county. Um, but I would look forward to um speaking with all of the commissioners about land that they may have in their districts and we're hoping to uh provide housing

for everyone who needs it, either rental or home ownership.

Thank you. Hello, my name is Melissa Gaul and I actually currently live in Oakland County, South Lion and I commute about 25 minutes every day to park in a commuter lot to then bus in to my job at um University of Michigan. I work for University of Michigan Medicine and I've worked there for about two and a half years now and I still can't afford to live in the city that I work in. Um and that's why the need for affordable housing I feel is so extreme. And it also would be extremely beneficial to the environment to reduce all that commuting. Um parking is really tight in some of those lots and instead of building new parking lots, moving the workforce into Ann Arbor, I feel like would also be very beneficial. There are so many people like me who have experiences similar to mine and I really think that the work that A2CLT is doing would be just extremely life-changing. Um, I implore you all to consider people like me when you make these decisions and thank you guys so much for all your time and the hard work that you give.

Thank you.

Hi. Um, my name is Parker Gluchen and I'm a teacher at Pioneer High School. Uh, I teach physics there. Um, and I'm also with A2 CLT. Um, I thought it was impossible for me to ever possibly own a home in Ann Arbor. Um, even though that's always been a dream for me as a teacher, I really feel a need to uh invest in the community where I'm serving and I want to live in the space where my students are living so I can go to their events, go to community events that they're interested and passionate in. Um, it's a really important aspect of my job and it's very difficult for me when I can't live in the city. Um, and then I heard just about a year ago with the um about the Ann Arbor uh community land trust program and they've made really great strides into making housing um affordable housing like a reasonable dream for some of us who serve in the community. Um so it's super important for us that uh the TIFF uh is approved so that people like me can also live here and continue to invest in their communities. Um so just wanted to say thank you for for hearing us tonight and I uh hope you'll consider approving the the tip. Thanks.

Thank you so much. Let me just say I'm loving this queue for the public hearing. It's fantastic. Thank you. Welcome.

Hi, my name is Eastston. I live in Wayne County, uh, Brownstown, but I commute daily about 45 minutes on a good day with traffic. Sometimes as bad as like an hour, hour and a half, especially with these winter conditions we just got over hopefully. But, uh, I work for the athletic department at the university and I love what I do. I'm really good at it. I love being in the city. Never been here before this job. And I've been working here for about four years. Never really thought about owning a home in the city because I just thought it was too expensive until I discovered what the community land trust was trying to do. And just knowing that it's a real possibility is just something that's very exciting to me. I really hope this does get approved because these commutes coming in and out are just a drag. I've been here since I want to say 7:30 this morning. I'll probably get home about 9:30, 10 o'clock tonight just to turn around and be back. I love supporting the city. love supporting the university and just believe that the land trust is doing something great for people of my age to get us affordable housing in the city that we work in, making us an actual part of the community. So, I really do hope that this gets passed and thank you guys for your time.

Thank you so much.

Hi, I'm Lynden Kelly. My wife and I live in Ann Arbor. We are We used to be the people that just spoke here. We're lucky enough that we're old. We were able to buy a house in Ann Arbor at making 750 an hour working driving a forklift on a food warehouse out on Ellsworth Road. We would like to give we are so excited about the land what the land trust is doing that we found a way to prize some money out of our retirement to invest in the land trust so these folks can have the opportunity to do what we've had a chance to do and live in Ann Arbor. So I encourage you to vote yes on this. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Tom Stalberg. I just happen to live in the oldest schoolhouse still standing in the county built in 1839 and it's an underground railroad site. So, I'm also a bit of a history buff and was on the cities bysentennial. So, I want to wish you both a happy birthday and happy Black History Month as well. Um, there is an organization that I think is very wonderful and has an incredible website. It's the African-American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washaw County. They have a physical location on Laura Road, but everybody should go to their website and check this out. It's aacm.org and incredible amount of content including um a lot of oral histories. Uh so I got to get to what uh um I came here for, which was to support the Ann Arbor Community Land Trust. Uh I am also one of the uh supporters who's uh helped I'm a real estate professional. and I've helped them acquire land um that will be built on for the homes for these people and other people. Uh this is really something wonderful. It there's other wonderful things for affordable housing like the project at the old white lot

which I'm very happy to see be 100% affordable housing up to 80% AMI. There's very few things that allow attainably priced home ownership and that's what's special about the Annun Land Trust and what's different about it and unique. Um, these are homes that will be attainably priced and stay that way when the homeowner moves on. Um, it's designed to stay attainably priced and I I will let the Sarah Laurens uh explain that more if you have questions about how that operates. Uh, so I just offer my support. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else in the room to comment on this public hearing?

Uh, I'm Peter Allen from Ann Arbor. Two quick points. When I've been in the real estate business for 50 years, one of my great memories was driving Bob Gunzel around Ann Arbor to trying to find a location for the Delonus building

and I remember showing him he wanted to be downtown. He needed to have a big footprint and uh we drove to that site last. He said, "This is it." And there were a lot of things to get he did beautifully to get it accomplished, but may he rest in peace. Wonderful person. Uh secondly, I've known Sarah uh for about uh seven eight years. I taught at uh the school of architecture, urban planning and the school of business for 42 years. Had 42 years. I had 4,200 students. She's in the top 1%. She is an amazing person at getting things done. She's got about a 100 balloons in the air all the time. She's trying to manage and get everything uh in place for these first 26 homes. So you can rest assured that she knows what she's doing. She will fulfill her promises. She'll make those people really happy. It's an incredible concept. So thank you very much for your support.

Thank you. Any other comments for the public hearing? Going once, going twice. Okay. Thank you. That public hearing is closed. Um, next item is a resolution to set a public hearing on the proposed transformational brownfield plan at 350 South F. Uh, would anybody like to move that? Commissioner. Thank you. Commissioner Lavar moves. Commissioner Hodgej supported. Um, any discussion on this item? Okay. Uh, we'll do a roll call. Brandon. Commissioner Bean. Commissioner Hodgej. Yes. Commissioner Labar. Yes. Commissioner Light, yes. Commissioner Machetski, yes.

Commissioner Robbie. Commissioner Sanders, yes. Commissioner Scott, yes. Commissioner Somerville, yes. Motion carries. Great. Thank you very much. All right. Next item on the agenda is appointments. There are none. We'll move to the consent agenda. Support. I have moved by Labar, supported by Hajj. Any discussion on the consent agenda? Okay, that's a voice vote. Uh, all in favor? I.

Any opposed? Fantastic. That item passes. Before we move to the resolutions, I am going to move our closed session up so we can send the lawyer home and stop paying. Um, so, uh, Commissioner Hajj, I move that we go into close session to discuss Fox versus at all. Do I have a second? Moved by Hajj, seconded by Labar. That's a roll call vote to move into close session. Brendan, yes. Commissioner Hodgej, yes. Commissioner Labar, yes. Commissioner Light.

Commissioner Machi, yes. Commissioner Robbie. Commissioner Sanders, yes. Commissioner Scott, yes. Commissioner Somerville, yes. Commissioner Bean, yes. Motion carries. Great. We're going to go into close session. We'll be back hopefully in not too long.

All right, let's come back to order so we can go home. Um, thank you everyone. Uh, I'm looking for somebody to move the first readings. Commissioner Labar.

Sure. Chair, under first readings, A, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a resolution adopting the town h homes brownfield plan. B. A resol resolution adopting the transformational brownfield plan for 350 South Pit. C. A resolution authorizing the strategic traffic enforcement grant from the sheriff's office. D. A resolution authorizing the secondary road patrol grant from the sheriff's office. E. A resolution creating one FTE program manager for the youth assessment and resource center. F. A resolution approving the agreement with POAM county and the sheriff's office. G. A resolution approving the tenative agreement with TPAM clerical and supervisors for 20267 compensation.

Support. Okay. So moved by Labar, seconded by Hajj. Any discussion on any items here? Commissioner Robbie. Thank you, Chair. I do have a few questions. um about both of the brownfield projects. Um can we take them one by one? So start with a Yeah, thank you. That's what I was planning on.

Uh all right. So the first question is um I know that Sarah, you and I have met before uh and talked about this, but um so in terms of the Brownfield Authority, and I know Nathan's here, too, I think. So, um, in terms of the Brownfield Authority, it sounds like the there is a 30-year affordability, um, supervisory period, I guess, where the Brownfield Authority has the ability of, uh, basically approving the sale price. Is that what it is? Or what's the mechanism through which the Brownfield Authority for the next 30 years will ensure affordability? Maybe that's a Nathan question. Um, I believe we're going to work with the Brownfield Authority. Um, we're under their supervision for the 30 years of the TIFF agreement that we will adhere to the um, resale of the homes being at affordable levels. Um, and then our intent is that the community land trust that we've established will hopefully be in operation forever. um and will oversee these homes in perpetuity and that at some point, you know, maybe they'll be 150 years old, they'll be torn down and then the community land trust at that time would rebuild new homes. So that we're creating a housing stock in Ann Arbor for uh critical employees and others um that those homes will be there and affordable for them.

Nathan's leaning in like he has an answer, too. Yeah, this this was a topic of discussion at the authority meeting because some of the people on the authority have the same questions. How does this work? Obviously, the Manchester project was a for sale, sorry, was a rental. This is a little different. It's for sale home ownership long-term and the statute is 30 years like we talked about earlier. So, we have 30 years of responsibility and we're some of this we're going to have to figure out with Jim Reach and with Corp Counsel and we're working on that now reviewing some of their deed restrictions. Uh they're going to be there's going to be notification requirements to make sure that as a house comes up for sale. uh the land trust is notified, we get notified, then we work together on a new buyer, making sure that buyer meets the income requirements at that time for that unit. 30 years would be our involvement.

Yeah, that So, uh I would like to learn more about how that works. Sounds like you're still working on some details. Will we have answers to that in two weeks? No. Okay. Yeah. I mean, it's we're we're working on it. I mean, we have a lot of we know that, you know, the deed restrictions. We have master dean bylaws. Sarah has worked a lot of this out, but we need to make sure that on the county side, we feel everything's in place to guarantee the 30 years because we are ultimately responsible, not the land trust. I mean, they're responsible, but we're responsible to Misha. So, obviously, we care about how this all works

and how it's enforced. M okay. It's a little weird to like vote on it and then to have like the system laid out of like how it would be done. I guess I'm not saying I'm going to vote. I support the concept of this. I think this is great. But

I um I think you could view this as with any brownfield project, the reimbursement agreement comes later. And for example, in the Manchester project, that reimbursement agreement with the affordability provisions was drafted afterwards. In fact, we just got their red line back and and Michael and I are looking at that. So, it's it's sort of the same thing, but it's a little bit maybe more complicated, but I think um to some extent you have to trust that, you know, I'm going to lean on corp counsel to and Jim Reach to make sure that that we're going to have adequate protections. I just can't tell you it's not going to be two weeks. It's going to take, you know, a couple months.

Yeah. Uh I'd be interested in once this all passes uh getting followup on what the mechanism is that you all are using. Yeah. Um and as far as the land trust itself, um what type of organization is it? Again, can you remind me?

Uh the land trust is a Michigan nonprofit corporation. We've also received 501c3 status from the IRS. And uh right now we're in our early uh startup phase, but we are intending to transition over time into what's considered a classic uh community land trust model that would have community governance. So um we have a founding board right now, but uh eventually we'd like to have a tripartite board, which many community land trusts have, and uh a third of the board members are residents of the homes. A third are um representative representatives from anchor institutions and a third are uh you know experts in various areas that would serve on the board. And we feel like having that kind of community governance model um as opposed to some of the um housing in Ann Arbor that was um affordable for years. uh co-ops. Um their uh their homeowners associations voted to um not be co-ops anymore so that they could all take a um a larger um profit when they sold, which was understandable for the people who lived there. That was um financially beneficial for them, but then we lost those co-ops. And so we think that having a community governance board will be beneficial to oversee all of the eventual properties um in this trust.

Yeah. No, very acutely aware of what happened with the co-ops after the 40-year um you know, HUD money, you know, restrictions went away. Uh, which is part of why I'm asking all these questions because you know um I you know I what I'm trying to drive at is understanding like what the protections are in place through the land trust that will ensure affordability in perpetuity. Um and you know what you said is you want to make sure that they're hopefully going to be affordable. That's not very strong language to me and I um I don't remember saying hopefully in that context so I'll retract that hopefully.

Yeah. I mean I just you know I'm not trying to like put you on the spot or like you know anything like that but I mean you're not going to be around in you know in 50 to 100 years. I'm not going to be around. None of us are going to be around. I'm eating very healthy. So

well maybe you will be. Maybe you will be. Who knows? Uh, but this is this is typically, you know, a a concern that I have of like as a legislator, as somebody who's looked at a lot of contracts and laws before, it's we want to make sure that there's as ironclad of protections as possible for people. And so I'm trying to drive that like, okay, we're approving this public subsidy and I want to understand like how do we make sure that this retains its affordability in perpetuity. What is the mechanism to do that? We have 30 years where there's another level of protection over it. what happens after that 30 years. Um I understand that the the way that you've s set this up is it's basically like a condo association essentially.

Yes. So we have two protections right now. The first one is the deed restriction and we're using um our our tailored deed restriction that we received through our technical advisor from the grounded solutions network which is the national network of community land trusts. there over 300 community land trusts. So, they've provided um what they believe is a really top-notch deed restriction that's been developed over time from many many community land trusts. It has um a 99-year deed restriction that will renew for a second 99 years and then there are clauses that describe what happens after the second 99year expiration. It details um exactly what happens when a homeowner decides to sell and the procedures. Um we have uh our board has voted to adopt a 1.5% per year appreciation uh rate for the homeowners so that they can build some equity but the homes stay affordable. um the land trust has the right of first refusal to uh buy the property back from the homeowner or to line up the next buyer and um arrange that transaction. Um so for the homeowner that's beneficial in that they don't have to hire a real estate agent. They'll pay a very small fee for that transaction and it can be tailored exactly to their timeline. Um so um we we have a lot of confidence in that deed restriction. our attorney that we've consulted with here said that title companies will find that deed restriction um that we can have a lot of confidence in that. Um right now we're we're required by the city zoning to create all of these homes as condominiums because land costs because home costs in Ann Arbor are high. land

costs in Ann Arbor are high and so to buy a single uh parcel of land is anywhere from 100 to 200 I mean or you know much higher. Um so if we're able to um get a parcel of land one of the keys to our affordability is to put two homes on that parcel using Ann Arbor's uh accessory dwelling unit ordinance. Um but because we cannot split the parcel further and we have two units, we have to create a condominium. Um which is frustrating because it is adding a lot of cost to the um the home and then um homeowners also have to have a um a homeowners association fee which is required by their mortgage lender. Um, so it's not ideal, but the benefit of having a um, homeowners association is that our deed restriction is also embedded within the master deed. And so that provides a layer of protection as well. In the future, if we through the uh new zoning that may be coming under the comprehensive plan, um if we can get a single parcel of land that is smaller, then we can actually retain ownership of the land and um the homeowners own their home, but the community land trust owns the land forever. That's also a very good model and that may be something that we can use throughout the county where land costs are a little bit lower. So, we have several options to maintain control.

Yeah, that's really exciting that you're talking about that. I mean, that that's a model that I've really looked into a lot uh and I've been talking about a lot of the underlying land being, you know, owned. Uh, and it sounds like some uh zoning and planning changes need to happen uh that are pretty restrictive to you guys. I watched some of the like zoning board of appeal debate that happened over your ADU attempt on I think South Maple maybe. Um and yeah, it's I mean some of the city rules are just completely ownorous and unacceptable and don't allow for you know what you guys are trying to do which is unfortunate. Um so hopefully that all changes. Uh so um in terms of the uh are you then just to clarify are you then saying that by doing the condos it actually helps to add additional layers of protection on the deed restriction? It does because condominium bylaws can have restrictions in them which can be a negative. Um but in this case um it will alert um future buyers or lenders if there was someone who was trying to circumvent the uh the deed restriction. Um, there's a second chance for those restrictions to be identified because someone buying a property would need to acknowledge receipt of those bylaws. And the um uh the title company and the lender may uh note that as well. Qu question for next time because I know the chair's I feel like she wants me to stop asking questions but uh

the question for next time is uh and maybe you could bring bring you know bring back an answer is uh what the enforcement mechanism on the deed restriction is like say somebody violates deed restriction what do you do what's it going to c like assuming there's attorney costs and stuff like that that are included did you guys budget for that those are questions that I have but the last last question I want to ask that hopefully you can answer here is around um the property tax component and maybe you don't have an answer but maybe we can get an answer but anyways property tax component um if there's a cap on the on the on the appreciation of the value of the home um that is different than the cap on the appreciation of the taxes on the home was is there potentially a scenario where I mean property taxes could go up up to 5% in any given year but the property values only increasing one and a half percent have who anticipated this scenario and how it may impact the property owner. Also, how is the city going to assess the value of the home? If like the the sale price is lower perhaps than the value of the home, will they assess the value of the home as being the true cash value of the home or the the price that you sold it at? Typically, it's the former, not the latter. So,

yeah. So um we've had a meeting with the Ann Arbor assessor and the assistant assessor and discussed this and they agreed that um actually there is precedent uh with other affordable homes that the assessed value would be at the sales price of the home the affordable sales price. Um and then um I have a request in to get in writing um hopefully agreement that the um the rise in the assessed value would not exceed the 1.5% appreciation. So they've verbally agreed to that but yes. Okay. Sweet. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh Commissioner, we're on item A. Asking questions on this one. Commissioner Sanders. So, um, the projected capture, I just tried to do the quick math. So, the for the I may just be lumping your stuff in, but for the $470,000, that's roughly $15,600 a year for times 30. That's I believe so. Okay. And then for the 70,000 is 2,33. 70,000 I think is for the other. Yeah, I was saying I'm lumping you. Yeah.

Okay. So, help me help me figure this part out. You you said that the trust would maintain the ownership of the land, but the home owner would own the home. How are they they Well, we're not doing that yet. Okay. But we can do that in the future if we have lower cost land um or larger. How do you separate the two though if if I got a house built on land that you own?

So there are actually a lot of examples of this. Um so manufactured homes in um uh manufactured home communities um people own their home and they pay lot rent. Um so that's an example. Um there are other examples I believe um we could ask some of our um other folks about uh municipalities that sell that allow um a building to be built but they retain ownership of the land. I believe the university has an arrangement like this all over.

I can't remember exactly which location it is um but and I think most of England does it that way. Is that does anyone The dog the dog and cat shelter is univers I can't say I but many folks left England for a reason. Okay. So the queen owns all the land and you rent rent the land. I don't know it's working out too well for him right now. It's not really common around here but it is possible.

Uh there was one other question I had for you. Um, I don't know what it is at Oh, this is I I did I was trying to Google this and so are you now the Legacy Land Conservator? No, that's someone else. That's something separate. I get their mail a lot, but I don't know them.

So, so I asked because I was trying to look up as I do for, you know, everybody um what your board makeup looked like. What is the diversity of the board? Uh our board president uh is a African-American woman. Um she's a local business owner who's just an amazing powerhouse. Um she's a civil engineer, so she's been very helpful with her uh varied background. Um our uh vice president um is a believe he's of a Pakistani descent. Um Okay.

And so we do have some nice diversity on our board. And is what what would you say the level of diversity is related to um income economics of your board members? Um do you know what I mean? Is it is it it are you comprised majority majorly of people who can afford to live here or people that you know struggle? Um yeah I think there's some diversity there. Okay. I'll I'll talk to you later about the board chair. I might know who that is, but I'll I'll ask you later. Uh thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Hodgej.

Thank you. Uh thank you for speaking with us tonight. Uh about the comments you've given already and then what you spoke to earlier. I've got a different set of comments. I'm familiar with community land trusts and you said something earlier about how you could see there being potential for your organization to work across the county and other areas outside of Ann Arbor. Could you talk to me more about that because I'm very interested in this as a as an opportunity.

Yeah. Um our board and some of our supporters um we had founded uh another nonprofit about five years ago and so we had been working uh for five years discussions, research, community meetings. We've had hundreds of community meetings. Um and we had been researching what to do about our housing crisis. And so we have many ideas. Um but one of the most important that emerged was this idea of a community land trust. Um I actually have a background as a house flipper. And so just um you know maybe 10 or 12 homes that I had flipped, some of them my own home um which actually I shouldn't have done, but at the time it was so alluring um to to sell that home and to get that big um cash out. Um and so I knew that there was a huge demand from flipping homes. I got my real estate license. I was working with buyers um and seeing the um amazing people that were moving to Ann Arbor from all over but from very expensive markets

and coming with cash and buying. Some of them were moving to Ann Arbor just because they wanted to because it was a nice place to live. I had several people who say, "Well, my parents live up north, but I don't want to live there. So, we're going to buy a house in Ann Arbor because it's a half day drive." Um, so we're moving here from the coast, cashing out of our California home for $2 million, and then we're moving to Ann Arbor. So I I knew that there was a huge amount of demand and that just um more supply getting in the pipeline that that would help, but it wouldn't remedy the situation right now for some of these buyers that you saw that need to buy a home now and soon at an affordable price. And so the idea of this community land trust where you create affordability and what we call that um in some areas is shared equity. So what you're doing right now is making a decision to put tax dollars in. That's the equity that you're deciding if you're going to put into these homes. And then these home buyers that you saw, they're agreeing to forego equity that they might have in a market rate home. And so that's called shared equity. It's a it's an agreement among the homeowners and the municipality that we're going to create this affordability and we're going to make it permanent. Um and so we think that that's an amazing and beautiful thing. Um and for our home buyers, many of them they just have no other options. um you know, their option is driving from Jackson, driving from Detroit, like the young man you heard, driving from Brownstown. Um I actually spoke to someone who works for the county. Um she's had to move out to Jackson. Um got priced out here and she said that she uses up most of her um paid time off now. When she needs to go to her doctor in Jackson, she has to

take a half day because it's an hour drive there and then her appointment and then to drive back. um if the weather's bad, but it's kind of iffy and she feels like, well, gosh, do I take a day off and stay home and make sure I don't get in a car accident on the way to work, but she uses up all her PTO and she doesn't have any time for vacations anymore. Um, so those are the kinds of sacrifices that folks are having. Um, really difficult if you have kids and you live 45 minutes away. Um, so we need um more affordable housing throughout the county and um I think the approaches that we're developing uh can work. The tiff is critical because there is no other source of subsidy that is going to be there for every single home that we build. We cannot rely on MISTA grants and there just isn't enough money to meet this need right now. So, we do believe that we definitely need more supply, but we really want to scale up what we're doing with this nonprofit development approach. Um, and I think there's opportunity outside of Ann Arbor where the land costs are lower and if commissioners could um work in your districts to identify land uh maybe excess land from uh public entities that we could get for free or very low cost. Um, it has been a delight to work with Norfolk Homes, which is a large home builder headquartered in Ann Arbor. They are doing fantastic work in Jackson building these hundred homes that I emailed you about. Um, but they have very high capacity. These small homes are quite easy for them to build. They said that they can build as many as we want them to build. And um we could have partnerships like that with multiple homebuilders in the county and we could start having um you know pockets of development throughout the county um to

kind of relieve the pressures um in other areas and I think we could scale up quite quite quickly that approach. Okay, that was that's helpful. That was a lot of background. I'm gonna ask a question in a different way. So, are you interested because right now we're only talking about working in Ann Arbor. Is the current nonprofit structure set up to be able to work across the county and and is there there is interest in doing that too? Yes, absolutely there's interest. Uh, one other question. I'm also familiar in some other places there can be creative use of community land trusts along with uh a county land bank as an example. Nathan knows what I'm talking about. Are you familiar with that and is that something that you would be interested in us exploring? Yes.

Can you say more? Um, I mean, most land banks um that I'm familiar with are in working in disinvested communities where there's excess land that no one wants. That's not a problem that we have in Ann Arbor. Um, but we believe that there's hidden land uh throughout the county um that's underutilized and so I think if we could discover that um I would need to know more. I've been really dug in on trying to get these 26 homes built. Um, but I need to know more about what other land is available. Okay, this is good answers for now. I'll take it. Well, let's talk again some more another time. All right, thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Somerville. This isn't really a question for you, but I know that um based on some of the comments I was hearing, I I think a great example of kind of this model is half of Dorsia estates in my district is essentially a community land trust. Those 23 homes that the county invested in are permanently affordable. That was written into the deed and there were people on council at the time who were trying to oppose that because they thought that like folks should be able to gain as much equity as possible. But like the argument on the other side was of that was that we wanted to preserve the affordability long term for the future in case somebody does decide because they were would be able to save and gain equity in other ways. So I just wanted to point that out because I know that some of my colleagues are very familiar with Dorsy estates and that's essentially a community land trust but it was a government land in the city of Ipsy and a public private partnership and I know that some people get a little it's not looking never mind. Um, that's a great,

but it was more of like this is great because it's a nonprofit. Um, I think it would have been even cooler if that project was a nonprofit community land trust. It wasn't. It still worked out great and the homes are very affordable, but that's essentially what Dorsy Estates is and half of Dorsia Estates. So, thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Robbie. Thank you, Chair. Um, first of all, I want to say thank you for your comment that you made in response to Commissioner Hodgeges about the supply issue versus the immediate need. That's spot on. and thank you for focusing on that issue through the land trust. Couple other questions that I forgot about. One is the rental versus homeowner. How many of these are going to be rentals? Uh these are all home ownership.

Okay. In the memo it says something about rentals, but um I guess they're all home ownership. So they are. Uh and then in terms of the price range for the houses, um it looks like in here it says 125 to 350. Yes. Right now we have them priced at 125, 225, and 325. And um we're waiting for final construction costs and hoping that we can stick with those prices for the 320. So 325 would be the high end. What What do you get for 325 in a

um you get a threebedroom home with one and a half or two and a half bathrooms. Um the size is either 1,232 square feet um or the side byside town home. It's a little bit larger um just to get three bedrooms in there. Um that one is 1374 square ft. Okay. All right. Uh and we have some that are going to be 800 square feet um because of the ADU restrictions. I don't know if any of those will be 325.

Assuming those will be priced less. Yeah. Um Okay. I I was just trying to So, just for everybody's awareness, too, one of one of your parcels is in my neighborhood right next to my house. Uh so, I that's I was kind of like wondering for like price and size comparison to like what uh at least Zillow tells me my house is worth because the the three once you get into the 300s, I feel like that's kind of what my neighborhood is going for now anyways. Um but a lot of the houses are not 12 and 1300 square f feet. So um maybe somebody at and the AMI range you said it goes up to 90% AMI.

Um yes right now. So we've got about half the homes reserved. Um and then the other half will are will be sold by lottery. Um when we did we actually reserved all of them last April because we wanted to have buyer real buyers that we were working with. Um so we did sort of very soft reservations with people after a lottery so we could really learn okay are we designing homes that you actually want to live in and in places that you want to live. Um, so when we had all 26 of them reserved, um, we had people from 30% up to maybe 100% AMI, but the average of all of them was 59% AMI. Um, and the when we chose the prices of 125, 225, and 325, that was really deliberate because 325 is is kind of where the homes start disappearing in Ann Arbor. You can still get homes uh above 325, although they may need some work. There are some condos um under 325, but when you add back in the association fee, it's basically equivalent to that or more. Um so, we felt like we could sell them at 325 and we found that the biggest demand is for the 225 price point. That's where a lot of people have the ability to get a mortgage. they've got enough income, there's nothing for them almost in the entire county that doesn't need a tremendous amount of work. And then the 125 price point just does not exist hardly at all. But there are people who could get a mortgage. You know, they've got a solid job at the university or for the city or the county or another the schools. they're making um you know 20

to $25 an hour as a custodian or um you know a pair of professional um but there's nothing for them to buy but they do have the financial stability and the ability to get a mortgage and so we really do want to try to serve that um that price point. Thank you. Great. Any other questions on that? A you answered a lot of questions. Thank you. Um, any any other questions, comments, and concerns on items of the first reading here? Commissioner Robbie. Thank you, Chair. Questions on the Ann Arbor Housing Commission site, the transformational brownfield plan item B.

Yes. Hey, so I know you and I are going to meet before second reading. Uh, excited about that, but I had some preliminary questions that I just wanted to get off

uh into the universe here. So, you're going to at some point explain to me how this new development arrangement works with the for-profit developer and the housing commission. Uh my question though in terms of reading the brownfield plan uh and trying to understand the rental component on the ground floor that's which is so few questions on that. Who's going to own the rental the commercial rental space which is supposed to be for a grocery store on the ground floor building? Um, first I wanted to say if anyone else would like to meet separately, happy to meet with anyone if you have some really detailed questions. So, uh, back to the question that Caroline had, we actually always do a ground lease. So, every property that we own and develop, we own the land and we do a ground lease for the uh, improvements is what it's called. And we do that because the legal entity that we have to create in order to use low-income housing tax credits requires us to partner with an investor. Like that's how you get the money. And so we wanted to make sure we had as much control and protection as possible. And so we want to make sure we own the ground because like that's the most important uh part and controlling it. We have permanent deed restrictions um all of our properties. Um and so that improvement is going to be owned by our partnership. So us uh related and then our investor and then we will rent that space to right now we're talking to a ger.

So the land housing commission owns yes our nonprofit. Yeah. The nonprofit that's controlled by the housing commission owns the land. The building will be owned and operated by the partnership. Correct. the commercial space owned and operated by the partnership. We'll be owned by the partnership and then we'll operated by a growth. Yeah, we'll lease it to an entity on the ground floor. Correct. Okay. Um when we meet maybe you can explain to me how the partnership works in terms of like revenue from the lease space like I what's the breakdown? Where does the money flow to which entity in the partnership or

Yeah. Can we talk about that privately because I am not the best person to answer that question. Let's No, that's what I was saying. Let's let's talk about that later. That's two in the weeds probably. Yeah. Yeah, that's in the weeds. I'm asking these questions because I'm trying to understand. I'm going to write that down though. Yeah. I'm trying to understand the Oh, maybe somebody has an answer. Okay. We can talk about it later. Okay. Uh Doran just reminded me that what happens is first everything goes to debt service. So you you project how much your rent is going to be. Mhm.

as well as from that ground space as well as your rent from your apartments and that and you look at your operating costs and then what's left is what you can take on as debt. So that determines how much debt you can take on and that's what gets paid back first. In terms of the bonds that the city's issuing to

so the the city's issuing a bond uh up to 35 million. The total project cost is about 215 million. So, of that 215, we have I want to say I wrote it down in one of my documents, um about 15 funding sources, um including $4 million grant from the city of Ann Arbor's affordable housing fund. Um up to $35 million bond from the city of Ann Arbor. Um the office of sustainability is providing a million dollars towards sustainability. We just uh were approved for a Washington County Brownfield Authority grant for 625. Michigan talent grant 858,000, the DDA, Ann Arbor DDA 500,000. Um we're about to apply for an Eagle grant, a state eagle grant for a million dollars. Um and then we have tax credit equity. We have equity that we'll be getting from um our grant. We're going to have uh geothermal, so there's a federal uh equity for that. Um, and then we have mortgage and um, loans from MISTA. And then this complicated transformational brownfield, which I cannot answer, but

I I know all about transformational brownfields. Uh, and I I truly despise transformational brownfields. I'm I'm really sad that this is one I'm going to not I'm not voting no today. I'm voting yes. But, uh, but I hate transformational brownfields, but this is for affordable housing. It makes sense in this case. Uh but they are I voted against the law being in existence to begin with because they're very problematic and especially in accelerating uh private profits. That's not what's happening here. It's one of the few with actual affordable housing and you know transitorian development.

Right. Right. and and also so um thank you for that answer and so just to get back to what you were saying so the from the commercial grocery store the um the rent from that basically goes to the partnership to pay down the debt service first the debt service being the city's bonds up to 35 million or not the city's bond it'll be our our loan from I got you our loan from MISTA the city's bond is going to be paid back with affordable housing mill future mill. I got you. Understood. Future mill. I'll pause for other commissioners. I have more questions. But

Commissioner Lavar,

thanks. Sure. Um I just wanted to speak in support of both of these items. Uh I'm going to support them and I just wanted to say I think two things. one um you know the innovation that is present in both these projects and Miss Hall certainly in yours uh is a credit to the work you've done to put in but is also I think a testament to the um the sad realities of the system we exist in I think one thing that doesn't always get said when we discuss housing is the unfair position municipalities are put in and that you know certainly home buyers or people in need of housing are in where they're not able to do anything about the price of construction about the price of materials

a and and all those things that exist in a world that is bigger than our ability to shape just in terms of of forces and so hearing you Jen talk about these litany of you know funding mechanisms crushing crushing that you you've strung together. I appreciate it, but I also sort of just want to lament publicly that um that it's necessary in the first place given where we're at. And so, uh I'll be supporting them and just wanted to say that because I think nobody gets into running a housing commission because they like financial mechanism development. They get into running a housing commission because they want to help people. So, thank you, Jim. Y

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Robbie, you have other questions?

Yes, thank you, Chair. Um, echoing his sentiments, you're awesome. You're doing great work. Uh, and so thank you for what you do for the community. Uh, in terms of the payment in leu of taxes, um, why is that something that's typical on h that's on all housing commissions? So, and it's the one is it $1 for per unit basically. So pilots are typical for low-income housing tax credit projects having nothing to do with housing commissions. Very few housing commissions do development like we're doing. Um typically a housing commission would be tax exempt. Um but when we do these redevelopments of our sites or these new developments with this funding mechanism, low-inccome housing tax credits, um we need to get a pilot, a local pilot. It's typically not $1 per unit. That is a very generous pilot that the city of Ann Arbor has agreed to for these kind of

but it's required by Misha basically to do that. Yeah, Misha requires us to get a pilot. It's typically something like 4% of your sheltered rents is what they call it is is your taxes. What is the affordability mechanism with this?

Uh we have multiple um so we have our deed restriction which occurred when we acquired the property from the city of Ann Arbor. Um, we're going to have a affordability covenant we're going to layer on top of that that's going to be more specific to the uh AMIs that we have. Um, we have a 45 year tax credit compliance period. Um, that's a ad that's something that MISTA is essentially the administrator of assuring that we're complying, but our staff do all the compliance. So we have a small percent of the ownership and we have like 99% of the responsibility to comply with all the rules and regs and uh make sure that properties managed. Um we have different rules for all the different funding sources. Some are low and some are high. And I'd say the highest is probably the MISTA tax credit. Oh,

and I would like to say we will name our building after this entire board, every one of your names, if you give us $200 million, so we don't have to do this anymore. Sold. I'm in. I don't know what he was saying. I'm in. Let's Let's make it happen. Um, that's really helpful. Thank you for explaining that. Uh, very helpful context there. Um, and so the for the first two pieces, the land and the covenant, is that like a 99-year affordability or is that permanent affordability? I mean, we call it permanent. I'm not an attorney, but I think I've heard our attorneys say that you are limited to 99 years. 9 years. Okay. Yeah. Is that Are you doing like what the land trust did where it like auto renews for another 99 years?

Oh, I'm sure we will because of our, you know, governmental entity. I'm certain that will happen. Yeah. Okay. We'll talk more later. I have a list of other questions. We'll set up a time. Thank you. Okay. Great. Thank you. Any other questions on B? I have a quick question. Um, you just it just hit me when Commissioner Robbie was asking, so Misha has a requirement for a pilot, but you said Ann Arbor is doing a very generous pilot. What's the difference? What's the MISTA requirement compared to what Ann Arbor is doing? I don't know if Mista has a requirement, but it's typically 4% of sheltered rents is what I see all the time.

Yeah. And so I don't think MISTA doesn't lay out a minimum. It just says yeah something. And if our rents are I don't know. I'm going to make this up. So let's say that was our rent was $1,000. So what would that what's 4% quick? 40 bucks a month. Okay. All the way. Go ahead. You can talk. The pilot can range all the way from a dollar to 10% effectively. That's how the statute works fundamentally. Okay, great. Thank you. Any Thank you so much. Thank you.

Uh any other questions on B? Okay, let Jen Hall sit down. Thank you. Um any other questions, comments, or concerns on first reading items? Okay, I see none. Uh, that's a roll call vote. Um, all No, sorry. It's a voice vote. Jeez, it's getting close to bedtime, kids. Uh, all those in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose? Uh, all those items pass. Would somebody like to move the final and single readings? Commissioner Labar.

Sure. 2. A, final reading, a resolution approving the tenative agreement with ASME 2733. B, a resolution approving the tenative agreement with the Michigan Nurses Association. Three, under single reading, we have A, a resolution celebrating Black History Month and declaring February 2026 as Black History Month in Washington County. B, a supplemental resolution to resend resolution 25249. C, a supplemental resolution to reassign Sheriff's Office human resources functions and also move approval of claims. Support. Okay. So, I have those moved by Lavar supportive AJ. Would anybody like to pull anything for separate consideration? Commissioner Robbie.

Item C under single reading. B under single reading. Item C under single reading. Anybody else want to pull anything else? Okay, let's talk about item C under single reading first. Commissioner Robbie.

Um hoping that corp council can explain how this uh interplays with the pending litigation against the county and the board. Is this how does this interplay with the fact that we're being sued over this exact issue? I don't think it's appropriate to get into too much litigation strategy, but this supplemental resolution um I'm sorry, the sheriff's office human resource resolution is um fundamentally different from the earlier resolution. Can I just clarify the litigation is about item B which we are rescending. This is a whole new resolution.

I mean, I'm certainly no attorney, but I I feel like the spirit of this resolution is pretty closely aligned to the spirit of the last resolution. Um, I don't know if a court will be as meticulous in splitting that hair. Personally, it's possible. Um, okay. Is there any other like context to why we're doing this that commissioners may be able to provide. I don't know who sponsored this or put it forward.

I He's just wondering if there's any other context. I think it's withdrawing item B which was broad and triggered a lawsuit and C is a different resolution that came with thought about comments about item B. Um I guess my last question is uh for the county administrator since it's directing the administrator to act. Uh what how do you perceive this therefore be it resolved which just says to take any and all actions necessary to reassign the sheriff's office human service uh human resource functions. Do you have a plan of what you intend to do if this resolution passes? How it's going to be implemented? Like logistically, how are we going to be moving those staff over

there? There are two FTEEs that we've been discussing. Those two FTEEs would go through a process of transfer no different than we do in any other department. uh working with the uh director of the executive director of HR uh we will reassign those FTEEs to his office and they will perform their duties and take their supervision from the staff in in HR. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions about item C?

Okay, we'll vote on that separate as a roll call. Brendon. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. Start item C. Let's just do item C separate since it was Wait. Go ahead, Shannon Bean. I just have a I just have a point of order. Does B have to come before C? What's that? Does B have to come before C in voting? Mhm. No, cuz I think because we vote on things pulled for separate consideration often. Thanks for the clarification though. Um, yes. Roll call vote on item C and then we'll roll call the rest of them for discussion on the rest. Commissioner Labar, yes. Commissioner Light, yes.

Commissioner Macheski, yes. Commissioner Rowi, are you thinking Commissioner Robbie? Are you going to vote? Commissioner Robbie is a no vote. Commissioner Sanders, yes. Commissioner Scott,

yes. Commissioner Somerville, yes. Commissioner Bean, yes. Commissioner Hutch, yes. Motion carries. Thanks. Thanks, Commissioners. I applaud you for your courage. Uh, discussion on any of the other items. Okay. Uh, have a roll call vote on those items. Commissioner Light. Yes. Wait. Commissioner Light. My turn. I really genuinely want to apologize. I I I thought you said Commissioner Labar. I'm sorry. Commissioner Lake. You know what? I was going to say yes. So, it's correct.

Okay. It's getting late. Commissioner Majeski, yes. Commissioner Robbie, I am not voting on item B and final reading on the Michigan Nurses Association U changes due to a conflict of interest. And yes on the remainder. Okay. Commissioner Sanders, yes. Commissioner Scott, yes. Commissioner Somerville, yes. Commissioner Bean, yes. Yes, Commissioner Labar this time. Yes. Motion's carried.

Thank you very much. Um items for current and future discussion. We already did the close session. Any other items for current and future discussion? Commissioner Lavar, one item just to flag. maybe we can address uh between now and then, but the districts in Washna County do have spring break the week we are scheduled to meet October or October April 1st and so in the past we've uh moved that uh I just want to flag that for folks while we still have a month.

We Thank you, Commissioner Olar. We are already talking about potential for moving that date. We had talked about moving it to the day before, but that doesn't help with the spring break issue. Um, so Commissioner Bean helpfully pointed out to me that there are five Wednesdays in the month of April and that maybe the best uh course of action is to have our meetings on the third and fifth weeks of April. Um, and so I will let you know, but I think very much that might be the solution to the problem. Thank you. Any other items for current future discussion?

Go ahead, Commissioner Sanders. I I was going to say something on behalf of those EMU alum that are sitting around the board table that we have a new incoming president at EMU by the name of Dr. Brendan Kelly and I just wanted to welcome him and hopefully we could have him come and actually speak to us at a working session and give us an update. So, um Okay.

Thank you, Commissioner. Uh I think that sounds like a lovely idea. Brendan Kelly, what a fine Irish name as we head into the month of the high volley holy day. Thank you. Any other items for current and future discussion? Uh, Commissioner Light reminded me we that we did not have a liazison report just to say that the new police services steering committee did meet last week. We will continue to meet and it is a loted a lot of information gathering in advance of the new police contract. So, um, you're welcome to join the meeting if you're not on the committee to just get more information and learn. um be a nerd like me. Uh Commissioner Rowdy, Commissioner Rowdy motions to adjourn.