City Council - Regular Meeting

Hello, everyone. We'll call the City Council regular meeting to order. It's Tuesday, August 11, 2026, 7 p.m. Would everyone rise for the invocation given by Councilman Curley, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Well, our gracious Heavenly Father, we would ask that, especially tonight, that you would be with all of us here. Let the discussion be sensible and And let our decisions be not for us, but for the citizens of this beautiful community. We ask that you would be with all of those who are watching today and on television. And we ask that you would be with those who need your help physically to heal them, Lord. We ask all these things in your son's holy name. Jesus, the living father.

Amen.

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

All right. Thank you, everyone. Please call the roll.

Council Member Baker.

Here.

Council Member Curley. Here. Mayor Kleinfeld.

Here.

Council Member Shadlick is excused. Council Member Scott. Here.

All right. We'll move on to approval agenda. Can I get a motion? So moved. Mr. Sport. All right. Please call the roll.

Council Member Baker.

Yes.

Council Member Scott. Yes. Council Member Curley. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld.

Yes. And we'll move right into presentations. We'll start off with a presentation regarding the school resource officer and who should I turn it over to?

Good evening. Thanks for the invite. I am Marcel Prude. I'm a school resource officer for East Point Community Schools, and this is a little information about my three-year review. My role as a school resource officer differs from day to day. Our presence matters. Having the SRO on campus helps improve school safety, deter criminal activity, and helps promote a climate that is beneficial to all. I'm assigned to the East Point Community School District as a trusted partner in to address issues such as safety and security, crime prevention, mentoring, emergency preparedness, and to bridge the gap and help build positive relationships between students and law enforcement. One of my roles as a school resource officer is to help provide a safer learning environment for members of the East Point Community School District and its visitors. This is a team effort that requires input from school staff members, students and parents who help identify potential safety issues. When safety concerns are identified, my role as a law enforcement officer is to protect students and staff from harm, respond to emergencies, facilitate a faster emergency response, coordinate with local agencies, and investigate criminal activity. Some of the safety issues we encounter within the school district that needs to be addressed are school fighting, I'm sorry, school shootings, fighting, gang activity, weapons on campus, threat assessments, and reports of suspicious behavior. Another is bullying and harassment, which covers issues such as physical, verbal, cyberbullying, mental health issues, behavior concerns, identifying students in crisis, suicide prevention and awareness, self-harm, and connecting students with counselors and support services. Another issue we talk about is student education. Expert speakers will be called in to address topics such as vaping, illegal drugs, fentanyl awareness, overdose prevention, the do's and don'ts of safe social media use, online predators, sexting, identity theft, cyber threats against schools. Some of my daily responsibilities include patrolling school grounds, attending school events, monitoring arrival and dismissal of students on school campus, meeting with parents, assisting administrators, investigating criminal complaints, conducting safety checks, and helping resolve conflicts before they escalate. Most people think an SRO's job begins when something bad happens. In reality, the most important part of my job is preventing those situations from happening in the first place. Every conversation with a student, every classroom visit, every lunch period spent getting to know students have reinforced a climate of trust and mutual respect. Preventing problems before they occur is key to maintaining safe space and welcoming environment for our deserving students This goal is accomplished by communicating with students parents and school staff members will inform me of potential issues That have been brought to their attention This effort gives me the chance to intervene and gather relevant information and then meet with the individuals involved to help resolve the issues I also attempt to recognize warning signs connect problem students with counselors, and encourage reporting of safety concerns. As I mentioned earlier, one of my responsibilities, which is very important to me, is to continue to build positive relationships with students, which leads to open lines of communication. Students understand I have an open-door policy. By building these relationships, students are more likely to report concerning issues when they trust the adults around them. That trust encourages students to report concerns early, helps us resolve conflicts before they escalate, and creates a safer environment where students can focus on learning. As a school resource officer, I understand some students are hesitant when it comes to reporting school-related issues due to a variety of different reasons. Some reasons include fear of retaliation, loss of friendships, or being seen as someone who cannot be trusted to keep secrets. To address this issue, I encourage students to use a program that was curated and monitored by the Michigan State Police, which is called OK2SAFE. This program allows anyone to submit confidential tips on criminal activities, potential harm directed at students, school employees, or schools. Tips can be submitted 24 hours a day, seven days a week via text message, phone call, or email. Students and parents have used this program to report their concerns without fear of being identified. Incidents that are directly related to members of the school district are then reported to myself or other members of our department so that we can immediately start our investigation process to address any reported concerns or issues. As a school resource officer, it is important for me to build strong community partnerships with school administrators, teachers, parents, Navy and law enforcement departments, which includes the SROs, East Point Fire Department, MedStar, which is our local responding medical personnel, SARISA, our local dispatchers, Macomb County Juvenile Court, and other community organizations who are also dedicated to helping make our schools safe and learn environments. Another role that aligns with being a school resource officer is to serve as an informal counselor. Frequently I receive calls from frustrated parents who express their need for additional family services that our schools don't provide. One common problem that is discussed is fear that their child is demonstrating a lot of bad habits and appears to be heading down the wrong path, which puts them at risk to be criminally penalized for their actions. To help parents address these issues, I provide them with a list of family services that are offered to families who reside in Macomb County. Some of these organizations offer services such as youth counseling, parenting classes, mental health evaluations, sermon camps, and prevention services pertaining to drug abuse and suicide awareness. Some parents communicate the need for a more aggressive approach when faced with dealing with a child who may be considered beyond their control, which translates to displaying behaviors that put themselves or others at risk. Behaviors such as habitual truancy from school, violating curfew, repeatedly running away from home, consistently disobeying parents' rules, and continue to exhibit negative behaviors that cannot be managed through normal discipline. When parents reach this point and assume they are out of options, I refer them to notify the 16th Circuit Court Juvenile Division and file for incursibility. Filing for incursibility is a process of asking juvenile court to intervene and provide services and supervision to help direct disruptive behavior. This effort helps connect families with the appropriate resources rather than simply enforcing laws. All of my efforts as the district SRO are geared toward improving the school climate. I fulfilled this objective by focus on forming trusting partnerships, mediate conflict resolution, promote student engagement, and ensure respect and inclusion of my guys for achieving these goals. This report emphasizes SRO's greatest impact is often seen in incidents that never occur because of the positive relationships that were created and the prevention tactics used to address potential issues before they allow to transpire to something more. As a district SRO, I'm called upon to provide law enforcement services to all the schools in our district. The cost of service range from fights on school property, which includes the school buses and students on their way from school, reports of bullying, students in possession of weapons or contraband, such as marijuana vapors, reports of assaults that occurred off campus, threats towards the school, students and staff, building alarms, traffic complaints, missing children, medical emergencies, trespasses on campus, which majority of time are former students who were expelled or a group of teenagers from other schools and also parent meetings. My days are busy and always full of adventure. Due to the serious nature of some of these calls for police service, at times I'm forced to request additional assistance from my fellow officers who help me handle these tasks safely and in a timely manner. Daily, I'm summoned to assist school staff and administrators when a potential crisis presents itself. Some schools require more assistance than others. Over the past few years, I've collected relevant data that demonstrates a need for a continued partnership between the school district and the police department. The next few slides show the data for the cost of service for the high school. I'm not going to bore you with all the exact numbers, but as you can see on the board, the first year, there were over 200 calls. The second year, there were almost 300 calls. In the third year, there were 170 calls. And the majority of those calls were for students fighting on campus and minors in possession of vapings. As SRO, when I'm called upon to address situations that occur within the school district, I'm tasked with enforcing state laws and local ordinances. When violations are verified, the responsible party is issued the appropriate citation. Before issuing citations, I make contact with those individuals responsible to inform them of what was reported and what the penalty is. Some incidents require me to issue not only the student citation, but also their parents. Students 10 years of age and older are held legally responsible for their actions. There are multiple violations that allows law enforcement officers to issue citations that directly affect the school environment. The most common violations that are repeatedly issued in a school setting are fighting on school property, minor possession of vape products, and public nuisance. These are considered minor offenses that are addressed locally at the 38th District Court. Other violations that are considered more serious offenses are addressed through the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office. When students continue to disrupt the school environment by displaying violent acts of aggression, they also issue their parents a citation for parental duty. This effort forces the parents to get more involved in the process of finding solutions to help correct their child's negative behavior. The first year, I issued 156 citations throughout the district. The second year, 167 citations. And the third year, 117 citations. Beginning the last two years of this assignment, I've been called upon to sit in on student threat assessments. These assessments are used to determine whether a student is a serious threat to himself or others. Assessments are conducted by multidisciplinary teams which are made up of administrators, school counselors, mental health professionals, and sometimes law enforcement. During these sessions, my responsibility is to determine if a student has direct access to firearms at home. This task is completed by conducting a records check for registered firearms. If registered firearms are found, I contact parents to ensure they are aware of following protocol for Michigan's secure storage law, which became effective February the 13th, 2024. The new law mandates unattended firearms are properly stored and secured if a minor under the age of 18 is present on premises. I immediately share this information with school staff members who then document my findings to determine the appropriate discipline and or what type of services are necessary to help this family. Throughout my three-year time spent as the SRO, frequently I'm called upon to interact with parents and students to address concerning issues that require police involvement. Monthly, I average approximately 50 parent conferences and 55 students counsel. These meetings are conducted in person or via phone. During these meetings, parents are informed of what issues their students are having in school. These productive meetings give parents a chance to share their own observations about their child's behavior, which leads to two-way conversations that help build positive relationship and encourage ongoing communication. Students are also allowed to give their personal input and realize that my job is to work in collaboration with their parents and school staff to address issues, I'm sorry, to address any challenges they may face in school. As of last year, I was tasked to go into a classroom at the high school and teach an introduction to criminal justice class. This sector is part of the school's career technical education program. This program is designed to give students an understanding of how the U.S. criminal justice system works in their community. We focus on three main components, which are law enforcement, courts, and corrections. Students explore how individuals from each profession work together to address criminal complaints, ensure justice, and manage offenders. I help students maneuver through this course using an educational platform called ICEV. This online resource helps provide a comprehensive curriculum and educational tools that help ensure student success. During this course, students are challenged with assignments that will allow them to develop career-rating skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, personal management, leadership, and communication. Students will explore public safety careers and have opportunities to connect their educational decision with career options. Career awareness and training will include field trips, guest speakers, and possible job placements as part of this course. Currently, I'm working with work with an organization called LASPEN to help students earn industry certified credentials. LASPEN is an organization that helps educators ensure what is being taught in class aligns with real world expectations. Their goal is to connect education to employment by setting clear standards and partnering with industry professionals to identify what credentials are needed. Earning industry certified credentials shows that students are not just learning about public safety, they are prepared and ready to succeed in this career field. To help brings more awareness to our CT programs, I along with other CT instructors from culinary arts and business management sponsor an annual CT takeover. This event was curated to highlight the many different career opportunities that are available in each industry to our students. Students love hearing from people who are actually doing the work, I invite many industry partners to participate, such as 911 dispatchers, K-9 officers, members from the East Point Fire Department, paramedics, military personnel, and so on. This event gives students the opportunity to speak directly with public safety professionals and ask questions and hear about their experiences. Sometimes many professionals from this industry motivate students by helping them envision themselves and careers that may interest them. This event will help students gain a better understanding of the many different career...

The name of that program? Do you know... Is there a website address that you... For that or where people can get information?

Yes. I believe it's just... Michigan State Police is the website. Okay. They actually monitor the program. It's their program. Okay. And we use it... It's used statewide.

I just want to make sure that people know that they can look that up and know where it's available for kids to make reports Councilman curly yeah I would ask the city manager if there's any way that we could get a copy of the presentation yes sir it's incredible You're going to, you're incredible. I'm trying. Thank you. Yeah. So if you could get a copy, I don't know if every council person wants one, but I certainly do. And the other question is there's the young people back there. Are they, we're not done yet, right? You got a presentation to make the young people. Okay.

We'll hear from them in a bit.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hey, thank you.

All right, and we'll move into our nine mile presentation from AEW.

good evening mayor and council since city manager mattis was not here when nine mile was planned I got elected to be the historian and give some background city planner spent 2021 creating the nine mile strategic corridor plan This involved input from residents, business owners, staff, and others. On March 3, 2022, the Planning Commission reviewed and approved the plan. On March 22, 2022, City Council reviewed the plan and approved Resolution 22-1938, which adopted the plan in its entirety. I will note that three of the five current council members were not on council at that time, but it did get passed. With City Council's adoption of this plan and resolution, it became the directive for which administration was to proceed with any activities along the nine-mile corridor. The plan was utilized by City Manager Walton and others of her administration when planning the nine-mile reconstruction, and we worked with AEW to ensure they incorporated the plan as best they could for each phase. The Building Department is also to incorporate this plan in any new developments throughout the corridor. The adopted plan has overarching corridor improvements with green space, trees, lighting, safety improvements, and the elimination of parking conflicts. The idea was to make Nine Mile comfortable and safe to walk and bike. The plan contains specific actions for the city to take, both currently and with all future developments, streetscape, zoning, strategic action, and all other areas to be focused on. Traffic calming was a directive which was able to be implemented west of Gratiot and is planned to be implemented from Kelly to I-94. This stretch will also benefit from the safety of the new design. For those like me who drive that stretch every morning rush, or Ms. Holman who drives it every evening rush, there's a lot of stupid that happens in that small stretch of nine mile. And I think a lot of it has to do with being so close to a 1960s interstate interchange that is not built anywhere near where it should be by today's standards. The new lighting along Nine Mile in Phases 1 and 2 and scheduled for Phase 3 are directly inspired from this plan. Access management has to do with entry and exit points along a roadway, whether that is a driveway or a road. As you can see in the plan, MDOT recommends curb cuts at 245 foot of separation for a road of nine miles speed. Our average is only 30 feet. The plan includes eliminating the number of driveways and separating driveways and conflict points. Throughout the planning for the nine-mile reconstruction, excess driveways were removed and excessively wide driveways were shrunk. Driveways closest to side streets were the preferred ones to eliminate as those were the ones that create the conflicts. We looked at closing side street access points, but realistically only found two possibilities in the whole stretch of nine miles, so nothing was done with any of that. The plan also contains specific issues with parking placed in front of buildings as it creates conflicts with pedestrians and moving traffic. The actions adapted or for the city to eliminate parking on nine mile to allow wider sidewalks and eliminated service parking lots with the corridor plan as our marching orders, the administration and a w spent numerous hours walking and driving all three phases of the nine mile reconstruction. to identify areas that could be improved and matched with the plan. We only affected areas where the problems were in the city's right of way. The rest will come through redevelopment requirements. During this whole reconstruction process, AEW took direction from administration, and administration took its direction from both city council and planning through the adoption of the corridor plan. AEW and administration did not go rogue, we just followed the plan. At this point, I'm turning it over to Ryan Kern.

Thank you, Randy. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My presentation is separate here. There we go. All right, so we have begun phase three of the nine mile reconstruction project as of today We completed the main line paving of the eastbound lanes from Tuscany to Kelly Will be later this week going back and filling in the gaps that were left for those businesses that had no other access While the construction is taking place. We're currently removing this section from Kelly to i-94 eastbound and and hope to get that start paving started here fairly soon. Originally this project this phase was actually supposed to be two separate phases Tuscany to Kelly was going to be built and then Kelly to 94 is how it was going to be and that was going to be through the federal aid committee the city did get a federal earmark instead to cover this project and therefore we were able to combine both phases into one project so the city is getting 4.38 million dollars in a federal earmark the total project cost came in at just under 5.5 million dollars so the remainder of that's coming from act 51 major road funding the project the scope of the project from tuscany to kelly is basically an in-kind reconstruct as five lanes and then from kelly to i-94 would be two lanes in each direction with a center median and turnarounds at each end of the center median so as brandy had mentioned with the nine mile corridor plan the recommendations that we have implemented throughout the entire corridor from beechwood all the way to i-94 include the elimination of duplicate drive approaches or several businesses that have more than one approach out to nine mile and some of them even have approaches out to side streets as well so we tried to eliminate as many duplicate driveways as we could There's also several driveways that were excessively wide. Some were as wide as 80 to 100 feet wide and we were able to reduce those down to 30. Typically you see about a 30 to 35 foot width for a commercial driveway approach. We eliminated, there's several areas where there was concrete between the sidewalk and the roadway within the city right away. That was in some cases being used as parking. It wasn't designated as parking but it was being used as parking. trying to work to eliminate that and create more green space we've added more tried to add more green space throughout the entire corridor the installation of rain gardens which is going to be a separate project that's going out to bid here this week that's going to be implemented here over the next year but there's several locations throughout the corridor we're looking to install rain gardens to reduce the stormwater runoff add center medians where feasible addition of trees on-street parking and also the lighting the decorative lighting that we' re putting in on the south side of the road. Just a little history as far as the first two phases that we did with the implementation of the corridor plan in phase one we did eliminate four driveway approaches there were several drive approaches in that section this is from beechwood to grass where we did reduce the width of driveway approaches we did establish green space on the south side of nine mile across from hayes road where rogers candy and There was addition of green space where we had brick pavers and concrete that existed between the street and the sidewalk that we were able to turn into grass. We did add a center median east of Grove about a 400 foot section there where there was only one access point to a church there. We were able to work in a median there and planted trees and plantings within that. There has been an establishment of one rain garden as a pilot last year there in front of Bank of America, and we have other rain gardens planned within that section as well to be installed later this year and modernize street lighting. So similarly in phase two we had ten driveway approaches that we were able to eliminate and several drive approaches where we reduced the width Again, there was elimination or modification to parking areas within the city right away Added green space by eliminating concrete between the street and the sidewalk We maintain the center center medians on both sides of Gratiot More rain gardens will be established within that section as well on the street lighting. I And now with the current phase that's currently under construction in Tuscany at I-94, we'll be eliminating eight driveway approaches. Again, several driveway approaches where we're reducing the width. There's elimination and modification to parking within the city right away, which I'll get into in more detail. Addition of green space again between the street and the sidewalk. We're implementing a center median between Kelly and I-94. Rain gardens again will be established within this section as well as the modernized street lighting. So from Tuscany to Kelly the cross-section that's proposed is to remove and replace in kind so there's five lanes now It's gonna be five lanes going back similar similar cross-section. That's there now eleven foot lanes And again, we'll be making it green between the street and the sidewalk making it as green as possible Most really all the parking modifications in this phase are within this section and on the south side between Wilmot and Rosalind where the family dollar enterprise is there's parking within the right-of-way there that's currently angled parking the proposed project is to convert that into parallel parking and that's in order to be able to maintain a 12-foot drive aisle that's separate from the road we want to separate that parking area and there's also the addition of a sidewalk through there as well so that we don't have enough room there to make that angled parking work that's there now there's other areas again along the south side where there is concrete between the street and the sidewalk that is being again being used as parking it's not designated as parking but people are parking there we want to eliminate that. the north side there' s currently parallel parking that' s not the current code in front of conflicts the current ordinance is for parking for parallel parking the city's ordinance is 23 foot in length as the minimum for a parking space 8 foot and width as the city ordinance M dot does allow for 7 foot width for parallel parking Angled parking 20 feet in length 9 feet width and perpendicular parking is 18 feet in length and 9 feet width for the city ordinance and the original plan did not call for any parking to go back in we were going to make that all green space what we' re looking at now is to put six parallel parking spaces within that block to provide parking back currently there' s 11 parking spaces there now but they' re not to code they' re only 18 feet in length and six feet in width. and then also to accommodate for sight distance from both almond street and the parking lot to the east of duroni hardware six we could possibly squeeze seven in there but no greater than seven could fit in in that section but right now we are proposing six parking spaces to go back there. There is a rendering here this is what it looks like currently in front of the hardware store and then what it would look like afterwards. then on the next section from Kelly to I-94 we are proposing a center median so there would be two lanes in each direction with the center median there would be a turnaround if you're going westbound nine mile there would be a turnaround before you get to Kelly Road to go back eastbound if you're going eastbound there would be a turnaround at beacons field to come back around to the west there's there's decelerations on both sides that can stack up to 12 vehicles and there is a lot of work to be done to accommodate those turn arounds. A few reasons for considering the center median it' s the entryway to the city that section has the largest amount of there' s a lot of left turn movement within that section especially towards the i-94 end of that phase. There are currently left turn restrictions some of those signs are not there currently but there are left turn restrictions if you' re going westbound on nine miles from i-94. There are certain times of the day where there are left turn there' s also a lot of access points right at beacons field and i-94 too where a lot of weird movements take place and we' re trying to clean that up and avoid that by having the center safety considerations as well we took a look at the accidents that have taken place within that corridor since January of 2020 but with covid we took out the data from 2020 and 2021 from January 20th since January of 2022 there's been 152 accidents within that section we were able to get a hold of the what they call ud10 reports the crash analysis reports for each accident that took place 38% of those accidents were angle crashes or t-bone crashes or people turning you know they're turning and someone's hitting them 20% of the accidents were side swipes and the rest were all miscellaneous different types of accidents and 10% of those crashes within that section were considered in a severe category the most accidents happen at the two ends of the project but there's also several accidents that take place at Raven out of the residential streets along that corridor Raven has the most accidents so we definitely want to consider we're definitely considering safety as part of the reason for the center median try to reduce the amount of left turn movements that are taking place in that corridor this is a cross section of what that would look like you' ve got two 11 foot lanes in each direction and the median is 19 feet so the deceleration lane would be 11 feet and you would have 8 feet left of the median where the deceleration lanes are proposed. Next couple slides show an aerial view of those areas, which is probably tough to see. This is the Kelly Road end that shows the turnaround just before you get to Kelly Road if you're going westbound. We did design it so that it can accommodate for truck traffic to turn around as well to head back eastbound on Kelly Road. The next slide is in between Kelly and 94, which shows that median widened out to 19 feet wide. then the last slide of the plan view shows the I 94 and 2 with the turnaround at beacons field so you could turn left directly on to north beacons field or turn around to head back westbound and then we have a couple of renderings as well as what that would look like this is what it looks like currently if you're looking westbound in front of sheets this is roughly what it would look like afterwards and then there's another picture right at 94 with that end with the end of the median would look like Those are the those are the features that we're proposing here in the in this project the current schedule is to complete the Eastbound lanes here in September and switch over to the north side and be fully complete with the project in December Depending upon the weather we may not be able to finish the vegetative restoration until the spring but they would they would grade everything at the top soil and be ready to basically that' s the case. I want to point out that mdot is also planning on doing bridge rehabilitation on several bridges between 8 mile and 11 mile in 2027 with 9 mile being one of those and there will be a period of time where the 9 mile bridge will be closed in 2027 in order to do that bridge rehabilitation which will be followed by the reconstruction of I-94 in 2028 and 2029 if the bids that' s supposed to go out to bid here at the end of the year so as long as the bids come in decent that' s the plan for If you have any questions, if council has any questions, I'll be willing to entertain them. Sure. Any questions from council?

The two, and my verbiage is not going to be correct, the turnarounds on west of Cali, there's one right near Cali. And then the other one is all the way down by Beaconsfield, is that correct?

There's two, one in each direction. So, yeah, eastbound, if you're going eastbound towards St. Clair Shores, there's one at Beaconsfield. And if you're going westbound, there's one just before you get to Kelly Road. There's no median or turnaround west of Kelly.

Is there a reason why the one when you're going east is all the way down near the Beaconsfield? I'm just hesitating for any other council. Yeah, I have a couple other questions, but I want to have the other council members a chance to ask a question.

Sure. I did have a couple of questions. With the car accident data, you weren't asked to look at this, so I don't know if it's something you looked at. Did you review what time of day those accidents were occurring at?

I did not, but we would have that data.

And then I guess I had a question about the turnaround. design is there enough space to have is it gonna be a really narrow turnaround I guess because if there's a median and A space for a left turn lane. I think essentially we're adding where there were already I guess a tight fit for five lanes Does that make sense?

Yeah, it is a narrow it is it is I would say it is somewhat narrow, but we've accommodated for, you say traffic when they're turning around, there's going to be an extra width of concrete there in front of us. So say if you're turning around a beacons field, there's going to be extra with the concrete at sheets to where you'd be able to make that left left turn easily. It wouldn't be a tight turn. Okay. Um, so I guess it's similar if you go down Kelly road between eight and nine mile, it's, it's set up similarly where there's a, there's extra space as you're coming, on that turnaround to make that so it's not so tight.

Is it true that east of Kelly Road there are going to be possible other turnarounds on Nine Mile Road west of Kelly?

West of Kelly no not there are no turnarounds or medians west of Kelly.

Okay simple question why why are we doing all this?

for safety considerations mostly there' s a lot of left turn movement that happens within that section that' s causing most of these accidents that are taking place. There' s currently left turn restrictions that are there they' re not necessarily being enforced some of the signs are missing now but we' re trying to eliminate that and make it a safer route.

Couple weeks. Well, I guess the last council meeting and maybe you but we're talking about nine mile roads Maybe the city manager can answer the question. I Would talk I was talking about the Roni's How I felt very strongly that they should maintain the parking that they've got and Then Michael made a motion that to support it, but added something to it. And if you remember, I was sitting here trying to figure out what the hell we were doing. And now I understand that by your presentation, it's not gonna be 11 parking spaces, it's gonna be six. So in detail, I'd like to have, I don't know, either you or I guess the city manager would be more appropriate since it's part of administration. Why are we... I guess I was disappointed because if you remember I sat here trying to figure out should I support that motion and there was something added to it. So I went home assuming that the 11 parking spaces were gonna be...

Maintained now mr. City manager if you can explain in detail Why that's not going to happen Gladly the minutes from that meeting reflect the motion was to direct AEW to provide counsel with a list of parking spaces that will be eliminated in phase 3 which we discussed this evening and to explore an alternative design for the area in front of true value hardware to maximize parking That was the motion that was made here's your presentation related to that we have looked at several design alternatives six is the recommended number based on the area and the conditions there we as mr. Kern said there's a possibility to go to seven if we were to go to eight spaces there based on the length that's required and everything else it would become a hazard for traffic on either of the side streets

If you go to eight parking spaces you would no longer have the site distance that' s required. If you' re on almond street or coming out of the parking lot on the east side of the hardware store you wouldn' t have proper site distance to see up and down nine mile road.

you' re suggesting that the spaces aren' t long enough?

the current spaces are not long enough, correct. they are what now 11 feet? currently 18 feet. and it needs to be what? 23. That's by state rule? That's by state and city ordinance. And city's the same thing? Yes.

Just another question. I wasn't going to ask this, but I'm not going to be here that much longer. Someone explained to me... Why you guys, you and city manager, why you guys got such a thing up here, you know what, about sidewalks? I don't know what's wrong with the sidewalks we got, unless you want people to be able to walk four at a time together. What's the big deal about sidewalks? What's wrong with the sidewalks we got now?

I'm not sure we're not doing anything. We're not doing any improvements to the sidewalks as far as widening the sidewalks. That's not a proposed in this project.

So you think the sidewalks dislike we have them are perfect.

They're not going to be changed. They meet the code.

Yeah. I don't know if I'd say perfect, but they meet the code and what we have currently is what will continue to exist for sidewalks.

Because every time I read something that talks about sidewalks, And of course you're going to put trees and roses and type of flowers all around the turnaround, right?

That's yeah, that's to be determined as far as what's going to go in the median, but we're talking trees are right low, you know, ground plantings.

Um, so, uh, I just, and sometimes we've talked so much about phase two and three, sometimes the information bleeds into each other. The, um, The plans for this did have to go through and are to the Department of Transportation right to be approved so that even though this phase is the earmark, different than the funding for the last phase, it goes through the same process with the state requirements? Correct.

Even though you got the federal earmark, it still has to go through the same process as if it went through the Federal Aid Committee. They still release the funds? Yeah, the funds go to MDOT, correct.

Okay.

Yes.

Did anyone want to ask any follow-up?

I guess you say that potentially we could do seven spaces, but per state requirement, we could not preserve all 11. That's correct. 11 would still be deemed Well, we would still have enough sight distance and everything from the east side parking lot and the side streets, correct? Yes Seven or 11 up to seven we got up to seven.

Yeah, okay And I had a one more question I think this is probably less at issue but last time I walked that parking lot the The Dollar Tree parking lot is, I mean, it's not, it's terrible the way it's designed. If I recall, the current design is you go into the parking lot, you drive over the sidewalk to get into those spaces, correct? That is correct, yes. So the redesign with parallel parking there, will that just be parallel parking from Nine Mile rather than driving across the sidewalk? Yes.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

That is correct, yes. Okay. Yes.

I have a question. Now, is any of the grant funding contingent upon the mediums in your original layout?

The median? The median is eligible under the grant, yes. Nothing changes with that.

And based off, you said the median is there for safety reasons. Do you have any evidence that would support that it would solve the accidents that we are currently experiencing? Because I have surveyed many of the exits, and there's no median there. And so putting the median there on Nine Mile, knowing that it's much more of a heavy traffic flow, I'm seeing like a backup. Do you have any evidence that would support that it would eliminate maybe a traffic backup to I-94?

Traffic backup to I-94? Well, we did do traffic studies of that corridor that showed us what the level of service is back when we originally did the the entire corridor if you will we' re not eliminating any lanes with the median we still have two lanes going in each direction so that wouldn' t change at all really what we' re eliminating is the center turn lane and instead having the two turn around or deceleration lanes will have enough vehicles there that can be stacked there to wait in order to turn. Specifically for that section I can' t say that we have we did a study of that specific section but the level of service won' t change regardless if we put the median there or not the level of service will still stay the same. With the median that will reduce the majority of the accidents are angle crashes by having that median you no longer have those left turns taking place which will greatly reduce the number of angle crashes.

So help me understand this. So I'm coming from work, coming up off of I-94 from downtown, and I either live on Raven or Marine or Petersburg. As soon as I turn that, am I able to pull into my street or do I have to go up by Kelly and turn around?

You have to turn around just before Kelly Road, yes. Those three streets currently have left turn restrictions. Well, we should change that. Well, that's up to the city to make that determination.

Well, I'll ask the city manager, is there... Is there any thought about opening that up since we're going to have the turnarounds and restrictions that the people that live on those three streets don't have to go all the way down to Kelly, turn around and come back into their street? Can't we just eliminate the no left turn there and let the people pull into their street?

There have been limitations to that, to my knowledge, for some time.

I know that, but I'm not asking you that. I'm asking, is there a possibility that we can... Well, we can do that. We can make a motion. Is there a possibility that you would lift that note left turn so those folks don't have to go all the way down to Kelly after working all day, and they got to go all the way down to Kelly to turn around and go home?

Not to minimize the hardship, but all the way to Kelly is about 500 feet, Harvey. It's not... It is a reasonable, it's far safer to go to the big intersection at Kelly than the currently restricted left turns that are there. Why? I'd be happy to take a look at that. I would consult with Mr. Kern about what is possible there. I don't know off the top of my head, but I'm happy to take a look if that's what council would like to direct.

Well, I don't know about, I know I do, but I can't speak for the council.

So if they're able to make a left turn there, we would be removing the median.

Well, I think what Councilman Curley was asking or suggesting would require the median to be taken out of the plans is what he was proposing. All right, are there any more questions at this point? I know this was just kind of a presentation to counsel. If anyone has any further questions, I think now would be the time.

All right, so if we remove the median, that would affect the grant funding, correct? No, it would not. Okay, it would not.

All right, any other questions?

I'm thinking. Okay. I asked you why the turnaround was all the way, all the way up on the Kelly and all the way down to the beacons filled. And did you get any thought at all about putting one in the middle of that area? There's not enough room to do that. There isn't. No, but there is that beacons filled in Kelly.

That's why they're at the two end. Yeah, right.

Why? Why is there not enough room?

There's not enough room to put another deceleration lane in.

Okay, I'll ask you, what's your thought about opening up the no left turn in those three streets?

I would be against that myself. So that's just creating more conflicts, more turning conflicts if you eliminate those restrictions.

Even coming from the west? Well, if they pull up off the expressway, The barricade, I'm going to call it a barricade because that's all it is, is a barricade. They couldn't turn anyway, right? If they're coming up off the expressway and they're going to go west, there's no left-hand turn because of the barricade.

If the median's put in, that's correct. They would have to go up to just before Kelly Road and turn around, yes.

Any other questions? All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. And with that, we'll open the first hearing of the public. The first hearing of the public is now open. Would anyone wish to be heard?

Hello, I'm David Daroni from Daroni Hardware on 9 Mile. Hello members of the council. I'm hoping the council will make and approve a motion for my family business to be allowed to continue to utilize the parking along 9 Mile in front of our building with no changes to it as we have been for 36 years without incident and as Morley Candy did before us for years. On the city website our building is listed as having a floor area of 20,540 square feet. The city ordinances adopted June 4, 2024 require a retail establishment to have one parking spot per 300 square feet plus one per employee. Even a retail space of 15,000 square feet would require 50 parking spaces plus one for each employee. Some days at our store with shift changes we could have 15 employees for a total requirement of 65 spaces. We currently have a total of 53. Only nine of which are at our main entrance on the almond side of the building. 20 of our spots are at the east end of the building on Courtland. We have 11 spots along Nine Mile, which if they are 18 feet, we could consider reducing it to 10 spots and make them longer, larger. But we can't afford to lose those spots out front. the proposed change would render those spots useless to any customers traveling from the west so right now customers can pull up if they're coming from the west or if they're coming from the east again i've mentioned in the past how the east point police department utilizes that area to park their radar unit there and they can roll out at each end of the building um to get out onto nine mile to capture speeders um please continue to grandfather our parking in and keep our parking as existing. I'd be all in favor of, like if we did reduce it to 10 and maybe put a bike rack in out front there or something and with the new lighting, it would look great. Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else wish to be heard?

This is really becoming all nine mile all the time. Leave this man's parking spaces alone. This is ridiculous. You know, this isn't just about Nine Mile and the construction. Y'all are not doing your job. How is all these changes on Nine Mile and taking his parking spaces away and other businesses, their parking spaces, how's that going to fix the crime problem here, huh? What about all the shootings and the stabbings and the fights spilling out onto the streets? And why, Chief Haynes, why don't we have reserve officers in the parks? Because the fireworks is ridiculous. I mean, there's no excuse for this. You are not representing the citizens of East Point. It's all about your damn self-serving interests, what you want. How many meetings have we had where residents have spoke out against what you're doing and you've ignored us every single time? Then there's the animals. Good God. I mean, y'all don't know your ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to proper rabbit care and you morons are writing and setting public policy? that is disgraceful i walked up here okay so it meets the temperature requirement but it is really humid out and the rabbits don't do well with that and neither do dogs and it's interesting whoever wrote the backyard chicken ordinance that thing's pretty extensive And I don't believe anyone here wrote that. I don't know where it came from, but at least that one's really extensive. And it does prohibit pet chickens from being slaughtered. Well, guess what, geniuses? The rabbits here in this city are pet rabbits. And you didn't do a damn thing to prohibit the slaughter of them. You just went along with some silly-ass copy-then-pasted dog ordinance, which is embarrassing. And then, Chief Haynes, I'd like animal control out tomorrow morning to deal with that vicious dog next door because I'm tired of that dog charging at me every time I'm in my backyard. I'm not going to be bit. And all of you are on notice about this. So something needs to be done about that dog. That dog needs to be muzzled or it needs to be confined. Something instead of doing nothing at all. And last of all, water bills. Start doing something about all these deadbeat freeloader tenants not paying their water bills. Thank you.

Um, is it, where's that gentleman? I want you to explain something.

So I'm going to just pause you right there. So everyone at the hearing, the public has three minutes to speak.

I'd ask you to ask a question to him to explain something.

You could pose it now, but he won't be able to respond. So, okay.

Can you answer it?

Cause I live off beacons during this time you you'll speak and then we can answer after we let, let everyone speak. So I'm going to start your time now. You have three minutes.

Okay. I live off Beaconsville. I'm trying to understand the media. So if I'm trying to go across to Sheetz or the dollar store, so does that mean I got to make a right, go over 94 and come back around?

We're not going to respond right now.

Oh, okay. That's one question. Next question is about, I know you guys can't do anything about it, but the squirrels. I am sick of buying garbage cans. I am to the point. I have nightmares of opening my garbage can because I'm afraid the squirrel is going to jump out and bite me on my neck because they chew through, you know, our squirrels are horrible. What can we do about it? Because it's not like the garbage cans are $25. And this is like number three. I've been out here for 16 years and to continuously keep buying garbage cans like every other year. because they chewed through it and said it's for garbage. What can we do?

So, that's it. Thank you. Could you state your name for the record?

Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Judith.

Oh, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Would anyone else wish to be heard?

Good evening, council members, mayor, and other folks in the audience. I'm here again. I got some good news, though, this time. Especially, I want to thank you all. I finally got my certificate of residency. However, along with that certificate, I continued to get a bill for $900, even though I started this process when it was $300. I wrote a letter to John Myers three or four times asking for the waiver that they're responsible to give you. Once he does the inspection, well, they finally did the inspection. And what troubled me is that the inspection had a finding. It says your furnace and boiler certificate shall be maintained, installed in good repair. Well, go all these Shazam Shazam. I got a brand new furnace, a brand new furnace over $5,000 in February of 2025. There's nothing wrong with the furnace. The guy that left there, Javante, said, what's nothing wrong with my furnace? Brand new. I'm not a slumlord. I'm a resident of Wayne County. My name is Howard Robinson. I own the property on Cortland. And that finding upset me a little bit, along with the bill, a 950. We've been trying to get $300 waived since the very beginning because John Myers, the building manager, claimed... that I own the property in 2022. Not true. I gave evidence of that. I gave the closing documents. I had the realtor send you the closing documents. I own the property in 2023. And then I gave you the court order that had the place locked up until, because I was in court over a tenant failure to pay. The minute I got access back to my property, then I come down here and paid the money with an old check. The check had been in there since 2023. We finally got inspected. Can somebody do something about the waiver? I'm not here trying to fund Nine Mile Road or Eight Mile Road. I already pay an extra thousand and some dollars because I'm a non-resident taxpayer. This is ridiculous to keep doing this stuff over and over again. I hate wasting your time, and I'm sure you hate wasting mine. Can somebody get this thing waved so we can move on? By the way, they only gave me 20 months on the certificate instead of 24 months, like everybody else did. I have no further questions, and I can't stay today. I really spent a lot of time here already.

Can you just state your name for the record? Howard Robinson. And would you mind? I think we already have your name. You've got it? Okay.

the city manager finally hired got everything okay I'm hoping we can handle this thank you very much anyone else wish to be heard anyone else good evening mayor council Walter Kubiak he's point resident this is a pain

There's no reason for it. That median hasn't been there in the last 100 years. Why now? Nothing, you know, all the accidents that you're talking about, I'm going to get a FOIA. And I'm going to go look at the police station and I'm going to look up all those accidents you've been talking about. I've lived there 56 years and I have never seen an accident between Kelly and the freeway. Never. The only accident that comes to mind was on Nine Mile just before you get to McDonald's. It was westbound. It was a head-on. I think there were two people that were killed in that accident. Harvey, do you remember that? No. OK. That's the only accident I've ever seen. So if you lied to us, you're going to pay. I'll do something, because that median doesn't need to be there. And leave this man's parking spots alone. Your objective is to replace the road. That's it. Nothing else. Just replace the road and leave him alone. He's got a good business and I don't want to see him lose it. There's no reason for taking all those parking spots. That picture that I saw of what you want to do there, what the hell's the matter with you? That's crazy stuff. Just leave everything alone and put the road in the way it was. That's all you need to do. Leave it alone. Because I see this as a real problem down the road. Thank you very much. Thank you. Council, make sure that his spaces are left alone.

Anyone else wish to be heard? Anyone else?

Jennifer Nicholas East Point resident the nine-mile strategic corridor plan that was pretty much cherry-picked when we were talking about the road diet I believe the intention of it the main thing was landscaping and beautifying and maybe putting in it wasn't it wasn't all this and we kind of warped it when we were doing the road diet and planning commissioners Disagree with what was tried to be what we tried to do with the nine-mile strategic corridor plan So that's just neither here nor there My issue is the safety this median Right now you cannot going eastbound on nine-mile. You cannot turn left at Beaconsfield It's too close to the freeway. It's it's that's a very bad area to turn this median would require everyone to turn left at beacons field whether they're going to cross all the way across to beacons field or turn around and get in front of oncoming traffic that's coming off of i-94 that's flying over the overpass trying to make the light at the intersection there additionally you have now we have a driveway where sheets is that comes out onto beacons field where they are only allowed to turn right going toward nine mile so at that end of the median where you want everyone to turn you've got three different access points of traffic coming at you and i don't care you can have a deceleration lane for six miles worth of cars those cars are not going to be able to turn there safely Same thing at the other end of the median, between Petersburg and Kelly. Nobody turns there. I think there's yellow lines across that section right now. Nobody turns left there anyways. It's too close to the intersection. Again, you have people that are at the light at Kelly Road that are waiting to turn right onto 9 Mile, and you have people coming 9 Mile headed toward the freeway, and you're expecting... people traveling westbound on Nine Mile that want to turn back around and go to the freeway to manage all of that oncoming traffic. It's unsafe and unnecessary and I don't think it's going to look pretty. If you want to look at the one that's west of Gratiot, how pretty that is. Two weeks ago I drove past there. There's weeds three feet tall. Half the trees are dead. The sign that is indicating that there is a median there is not over because I'm sure somebody drove up on that median it's it's a bad thing my question also is with mr. gironi's parking is it required is is MDOT requiring that that parking be eliminated is that is the funding contingent on eliminating his parking right now it is safer the way he has the parking than trying to parallel park in front of the store there thank you very much thank you

Anyone else wish to be heard?

Good evening, council. I noticed that the civil service meeting was canceled last night. I'll be keeping an eye out for the next and see where this goes. where this thing goes, because I think there's a lot to talk about there. Mr. Bloom, you began your presentation with a history of this road business, and I think you incorrectly spoke, or maybe you lied, I don't know, that citizen input was involved in this plan. Well, if there was any citizen input into it, it was 100% damn near 100% negative. They didn't want any, and we're still doing it tonight. All these years later, we're doing it. So... I would like to ask our gentleman from AEW a few questions and maybe somewhere along the way tonight he can address them. I read in the paper or in the website that a gas main was hit on Nine Mile Road. And I'm wondering how does that happen? Are gas mains, your crews don't know where the gas mains are? Similarly, in the last... Before this council took place, I'll note that Ms. Scott was not on that council, this gentleman asked the council to vote on a contractor list, which included a contractor, according to Cardi DeMonaco, that was fined or whatever for... bid-rigging Nobody has ever asked Was an East Point contract ever bid rigged? Why would you why would you offer that to our council and why as our council would you approve that? I have no idea the other the other thing about nine mile road is is every time I've drawn nine mile road, you are finishing the road now, but there's never any workers on it. You tear stuff up and you leave it for whatever reason. I don't know. Maybe you don't have enough workers. You're doing two different projects or something and we get the leftover labor. And this gentleman's parking space. We need his jobs. I don't care whatever Mr. Madison is safety. His fallback is safety on everything. You need garage three feet for safety, this, that for safety. We need his jobs. So get out of his way.

Okay, thank you very much. Anyone else wish to be heard?

Wanda Moody, East Point resident. I actually just wanted to speak on something totally different. However, listening to Detective Prude and his presentation tonight, I would like to encourage the council and the finance director, the police department, whomever, to find a way to generate funds into that position because there's absolutely no humanly way possible that one person can do the job that this man is doing. It's just absolutely unreal. And I was just speaking with him just for a second, just to get some background information on what he's doing. And, um, It's sad. It is absolutely sad that this one person is trying to take care of seven schools in our city And the only thing we have to do is take the time to sit down and listen to what he is saying Possibly what the the chief is saying. I don't know the school board I don't know but it has to be a way that they can find funds and to generate into that program that they can get more of those officers in these other schools to assist him with all of the craziness and the foolishness that is taking place throughout the school system, throughout the entire time that the school is in session. So this, that's the only thing I have to say, forget everything else I was thinking about saying today, but just to hear that one man is trying to do all of that for seven schools in our city, in our city and East point, school system is much smaller than Detroit or Royal Oak or someplace like that. It has nothing to do with the officer. There's craziness, foolishness with students and parents throughout the entire United States. So it is our responsibility to our parents, to our students and to our residents to get this man some assistance and some help to get our school under control. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard? Anyone else? Seeing none, the hearing of the public is closed. We'll move on to approval of the minutes. Item A, special meeting minutes from July 21st, 2026.

Mr. Mayor, I would move to accept amendments of the special meeting July 21st, 2026. Second. All right.

Please call the roll.

Council Member Curley? Yes. Council Member Baker?

Yes.

Mayor Kleinfeld?

Yes.

Council Member Scott? Yes.

All right. Item B, closed session minutes from the special meeting July 21st, 2026. So moved. Support. All right. Please call the roll.

Council Member Baker.

Yes.

Council Member Curley. Yes. Council Member Scott. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld.

Yes. Item C, I'll entertain a motion to approve the regular meeting minutes from July 21st, 2026. So moved. Support. Please call the roll.

Council Member Baker. Yes. Council Member Scott. Yes. Council Member Curley. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld.

Yes. Lastly, I'll entertain a motion to approve the closed session meeting minutes from the regular meeting July 21st, 2026.

Move to accept the minutes of the closed session of July 21st, 2026. Second. Please call the roll.

Council Member Curley. Yes. Council Member Baker.

Yes.

Mayor Kleinfeld.

Yes.

Council Member Scott. Yes.

All right, we have no scheduled hearings or unfinished business. We'll move into reports from administration, so I'll turn it over to our city manager, Mr. Ryan Mattis.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. A couple things to report on this evening. I wanted to thank our clerk's office for a great election last Tuesday. Our team did very well. If anyone's interested in helping with future elections, we would love to have some more help with that. You can find more information on the website. I wanted to acknowledge that six of our union contracts have been completed and approved by council at this point, which is very exciting. Special thanks to Mr. Blum for all of his help with that, as well as the input of all of our department heads throughout that process. A couple events coming up. We have a Velocity Roadshow here tomorrow, speaking about... Preparing for financial capital for small businesses. So anyone interested can be right here in chambers tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. We have two more summer concerts to go. So the next one will be on the 20th with the Warren Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet. And then on September 3rd will be Half Step Down as our final show of the year. So those are right out here Thursday nights. More information on the website. And then there are lots of projects going on as we speak. Nine Mile work is being done. The eastbound main line from Tuscany to Kelly was completed today for paving, and then driveways and gaps will be filled in the coming days. Work on Lexington continues from Nine Mile to Semreau. They're removing concrete this week, and it'll be... we will see the fence and hardware this week. We will see the fence and hardware this The splash pad, we're still waiting on a couple of things. We're hoping to open in a couple of weeks. So yeah, in August, more to come on the splash pad. And then the haze concrete pavement repair, we are starting to see the contractor mobilize for that. So there will be work coming on haze as well in the very near future. we have lots of movement going on with the court and police building so there's lots of action over there as you go by on nine mile you'll see that many thanks to our neighbors over there we've had to accommodate some parking so special thanks to the muffler man as well as the pentecostal church of jesus christ they've been very accommodating to make sure there's Parking and we know it's tight there if you're conducting business at the court That the parking that is available right next to the building is handicap only But there are alternative spots to park very nearby on side streets in other other places as well We know it's it's exciting but we appreciate your patience as we work through the construction process and then just a We aren't going to meet again before the return to school, so that's coming. We welcome back all of our ECS friends and neighbors as the school year gets going. So that's all for me, unless there's questions from council.

Just regarding the splash pad. Do we have a specific I guess list of what what we have to do?

Yeah, we've got a couple punch list items that we're waiting on they've taken longer than we ever could have dreamed But we're working through those things now. Okay, the balls in our court though. We're not waiting on a goal No, we're waiting on Eagle for a couple things including the final inspection before I call him a goal I heard you but yeah, I've heard him called much worse.

So I go is totally fine Not from anyone here I have no other questions anyone else Thank you. All right. We'll move on to our finance director's report. Mr. Blum. Yes. Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Got a report on the new road funding. We started to see a little bit of it, but there is another chunk, a neighborhood road fund that is out there. The state has collected a little over $90 million of Unfortunately, the first 240 million is going to earmarks within the state. So until they've collected more than 240 million, the cities won't see any of it. It is anticipated, though, that before the end of the year, we will start seeing additional road money coming in. So we're in decent shape now, and it'll get better here soon. The other thing is... Some of you may or may not recall, back in 2021, we got a little over 3.3 million from the feds for ARPA funds that was designated as revenue replacement. I've had to do annual reporting on that. And finally, got the final closeout this morning. We are done. Even though it's already been spent. But it's amazing how long these grants take to actually close out. But we're done with that one. And that is all I have for tonight.

Are there any questions for Mr. Blatt? All right, we'll move on to our city attorney's report. Mr. Albright.

Thank you, Mayor, Members, Council. I recently received a request by the Police Department to amend the city's ordinance regarding minor curfew violations. Currently, that is a misdemeanor, and the Police Department is requesting that that section be decriminalized and reduced down to a civil infraction. I've drafted that ordinance amendment. I've circulated it to city administration as well as the Police Department, and I hope to have that on the next city council meeting agenda for first reading. Council is also in receipt of our monthly status report. I'm happy to answer any questions, Mayor. That's all I have for this evening. Any questions for Mr. Albright?

Thank you. We'll move into new business item A, cancellation of the August 18, 2026 regular meeting. Would anyone like to make a motion to that effect or does council have any feelings on it?

I'll make the motion. Motion to cancel the regular meeting of the East Point City Council scheduled for August 18th, 2026.

Second. Any comments? Please call the roll.

Council Member Curley?

Yes.

Council Member Baker? Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld?

Yes.

Council Member Scott? Yes.

And what does that make the next meeting regular meeting date? That'll be September 1st is the first Tuesday in September. Thank you. All right moving on to item B introduction first reading of addendum to the ordinance number 1051 pilot for Oakwood Manor senior living housing development. I guess I'll turn it over to you Mr. Mattis because I think there's some people here to speak to that.

Sure yep we would like to invite Van Fox and the MHT team as well as our partners from Chemtech as well to come up and speak to this. There's an existing pilot ordinance and Mr. Fox will speak to what MHT is interested in pursuing at Oakwood Housing. There you go.

Mayor, council members of East Point, Ms. Kim, thank you Ryan for having the MHT team here today. Oakwood, the former Oakwood Elementary School, just west of Gratiot along Nine Mile, was demolished and a new 40-unit senior development was put in place, independent living. Today, our proposal in partnership with PACE, P-A-C-E, we are looking at the construction of 26 individual cottages on the north end of our property. We are looking to have team pace recognize that these units here will be fully ADA compliant. That we are looking to service our elders here in East Point to build and construct in partnership with Macomb County. and to highlight this development with the City of East Point. We do have a short video of what to expect when expecting, knowing that our anticipation would be to build and start construction in the fall of 2026. Ms. Kim, do you think you can click it for us? team chemtech a east point architect the white building is identified as oakwood phase one the infrastructure is in place with the road there will be appropriate two-person walkways We will be working with Ryan and team to highlight the hardy plank siding. We will be working with the building department on all of the appropriate exterior colors we will be working with the neighborhood for color selections and we're Recognizing that this development will be taking care of some of our most vulnerable seniors who will have contract with team pace of Macomb County you'll recognize pace has a large footprint here in the city of East Point and The objective is to tie in phase 2 into the phase 1 pilot. The phase 1 pilot for 2025 was just paid a couple weeks ago in the amount of $34,000 and it is identified that phase 2 of the 2025 six units that there will be conservatively an additional $27,000. We do have a video, I believe Matthew of the interior as we're going to now zoom in for the, um, the shared kitchen, uh, along with a shared community space, along with two bedroom, two bath, 1100 square foot cottages. We will be having pace on site full time to offer any and all needed medical assistance. At the same time, we will be Utilizing and enhancing our community space in building number one our primary oakwood building This development here will take approximately nine months to build and construct and We will be targeting our extensive wait list that we have at Oakwood phase one along with recognizing our pace clients that we will be managing. My organization has never had a default, a foreclosure, a deed in lieu. I house a little over 30,000 residents of the great blue license plate state of Michigan. And we are fully compliant with rental registration and all matters. And here we are ready to, you know, pop this in. And we are totally stoked about this development. How about some question and answer? Mr. C, you are biting your lip, so I know you must have something.

I think it's going to be an incredible addition to our city, particularly that we are highlighting for senior citizens over 55 years old. Thank you, yes. It's going to be incredible. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms in the units?

Correct, and fully ADA accessible, so we're going to be able to take care of your walker, your wheelchair. You'll be able to put your lady in one room and you in another room. Wow. Not me. Okay. Where I go, she goes. All right. So no visitation hours.

No. My prediction is that every unit will be sold within 12 months.

We will be doing this as a rental development, and bam, bam, it will be fully leased in 30 days, wait list. But our priority is East Point. My wife is a St. Veronica graduate, and you know those ladies are crazy ladies, and I got a hall pass to be here tonight late, and she knows anything for East Point. She grew up on Juliana Street, her and all the Irish crowd and had family that did go to Oakwood. So East Point's been very good to my family. And this is just all about giving back.

God bless you.

This will be probably the first of its type four pace, number one. And number two, this does not have the low-income housing tax credit. sources this does not have federal or state funding so this has some home funding from the Macomb County along with owner equity.

So at full occupancy you'll have that these two residents?

Ms. Karen my wife's name is Karen I love you yes I love your question it will be fully occupied yes ma'am.

Any other questions?

Sounds good. Just to speak to process. The original pilot was adopted by ordinance and so to amend the ordinance we get to do a first read. This is considered the first read and then a second read at the next meeting which because we cancelled the meeting for the 18th would fall on September 1st if council wants to move in that direction.

I have a technical question. maybe the city attorney can we proceed with the first reading and make a motion to eliminate the second reading could we not just do that tonight and finish this?

I would not recommend that we do that. Why? because I think it sets a precedent for future matters and I think given the time frame I don' t think the applicant is having a problem with waiting a little bit longer I think the September 1st meeting would be fine.

September 1st would be great and at same time we can get Brian to grab City Council members and give a tour of Oakwood phase one and at same time I can show you a model of this particular unit in Brush Park at the old Brewster Wheeler Recreation Center that I own and and we can spend some additional two weeks, three weeks together.

Thank you, Mr. C. Okay, well, I certainly wouldn't want to set a precedent. I would never want to do that.

Thank you, Councilman Curley. Thank you. Mr. C., as the applicant states. Yes.

Only his friends can call him that, yes. You ready for a motion? I'm ready. I would move to introduce and give first reading to the addendum to ordinance number 1051 to include the development phase two on the parcel of land commonly known as 14825 Niles parcel ID 021336227034 and to extend the tax exemption and service charge in lieu of the tax for for Oakland Manor and to schedule the second reading adoption on September 1st, 2026. Thank you.

Any other questions? Because we have the second read coming, if there are more questions, please forward them to me. I will connect with Mr. Fox and get answers in the meantime.

Thank you, Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Kim. Thank you, Council. Thank you, Mayor.

Leah, please call the roll.

Councilmember Curley? Yes. Councilmember Scott? Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld?

Yes.

Councilmember Baker?

Yes. All right, thank you very much. Thank you. And we'll move on to item C, approval of smart municipal credit and community credit contract for fiscal year 2026. Would anyone like to make a motion?

I move to approve the municipal credit and community credit contract for fiscal year 2026 and authorize the city manager to execute the document. Support.

Any questions on that one? Please call the roll.

Council Member Baker.

Yes.

Council Member Curley. Yes. Council Member Scott. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld.

Yes. Item D, approval of renewal of video franchise agreement with DirecTV. Yes. anyone like to make a motion?

move that we approve the renewed video service local franchise agreement for direct TV for a period of 10 years and authorize the city manager to execute the renewed franchise agreement on behalf of the city.

And I know there wasn't a recommendation. Did you have any input on this at all, Mr. Mattis?

Yes. I'll defer to Mr. Albright if there's any additional input on that.

I don't think I have any additional input other than it is a 5% franchise fee to the city, and I know that it's 0%. I know that some other communities have been able to get upwards of 2%, but that's because in their previous agreement, they had the voting on it this evening. I don't know if council feels differently.

Let's do it tonight.

All right. Please call the roll.

Council Member Baker?

Yes.

Council Member Curley?

Yes.

Council Member Scott? Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld?

Yes. Item E, approval of purchase of three trucks for the DPW.

Motion to approve the purchase of a 2027 Ford F-350 pickup truck in the amount of $49,963 and two 2026 Ford Rangers in the amount of $32,968 each. for a grand total of $65,936 from the lowest bidder, Lunghamer Ford.

I support that. And if anybody read the financial impact and saw $49 million, that was a mistake. So it's only $49,000.

All right. Any questions on that? Please call the roll.

Council Member Scott. Yes. Council Member Baker.

Yes.

Council Member Curley.

Yes.

Mayor Kleinfeld.

Yes. Item F, approval of Council Member Baker's attendance at MML Convention.

Mr. Mayor, I'll move to approve Council Member Baker's attendance at the MML Convention and to utilize the City Council's education and training budget. Support.

All right. Please call the roll.

Councilmember Curley.

Yes.

Councilmember Scott. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld.

Yes.

Councilmember Baker.

Yes. All right. Item G, designation of representative and alternate at MML convention. So I'll ask this first. Obviously, Mr. Baker is going. I plan to go to that as well. Does any other councilmember plan to go? All right, well, since we have yours already approved, how about I would suggest designating Councilman Baker? Councilmember Curley? Yes.

Councilmember Scott? Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld?

Yes. All right, item I, which is labeled discussion of potential appointment of construction board of appeals member. I'd be happy to entertain a motion to appoint Zachary Lewis to the construction board of appeals as an alternate member for Turnbix by August 11th, 2023. Mr. Mayor before I make the motion I would just indicate that oh just one point you know get to you Councilwoman Scott said so moved.

Oh So do you want to support? I'll support it, but I want to mention that set of Zachary Lewis is a licensed electrician With East Point code enforcement Experiences has submitted the application so I would support her Motion any other comments?

Please call the roll.

Council member Scott. Yes. Council member Curley.

Yes.

Council member Baker.

Yes.

Mayor Kleinfeld.

Yes. All right. Payrolls and bills. Would anyone like to make a motion?

I move we pay the bills in the amount of $3,006,607.42. Support. Okay. Are there any questions for that? Please call the roll.

Councilmember Baker?

Yes.

Councilmember Scott? Yes. Councilmember Curley? Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld?

Yes. All right, we'll move into the second hearing of the public. The second hearing of the public is now open. Would anyone wish to be heard?

Hello, David Daroni from Daroni, Trevelyan Harbor. Jennifer pointed out a great point that I failed to touch on with our existing parking. Again, we've been using it for 36 years without incident. And I feel, and 36 years without an incident would probably back that up, that it's much safer than having parallel parking on a busy roadway. You know, myself, when I go someplace, if I'm up on Mack Avenue, you know, I don't like to park on Mack and worry about opening up my door and somebody can actually get in your car. Out front, you can get in your car, you can pull to the apron where you're going to pull out, you've got plenty of time, you can look for traffic, and away you go, instead of having to dart right out into the traffic. So again, I would hope that somebody would make a motion that we'd be allowed to keep our existing parking. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening. For the record, Richard J. Goodman, I just want to get this opportunity to thank the people in charge of putting on the summer concerts. They've been excellent. All the groups have been excellent. I can tell you East Point loves jazz, and I just want to give a special thank you. Keep it up. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard? Anyone else?

Walter Kubicki's point resident. Um, I see that gentleman left. I wanted to ask him if, um, Mr Doroni was able to keep all of his parking with the world come to an end. And I don't think so. And I see no reason why that has to change. For beautification, I've seen some beautification farther down Nine Mile, and nobody's taking care of it. And it's dying and rotting in place. So let's be reasonable and sensible. You people want to keep as many of your businesses open. I just noticed the paint store in Nine Mile is gone. And I wasn't a big fan of sheets.

I'd like to denounce the library millage. although it did pass, uh, the library millage was, was put on us more like a school millage time, a time it. So it's in the, it's in a primary and they get to pick their audience like the school system. Do they have a set of special election? So, uh, That kind of stuff when you're raising people's taxes like that. Those are taxes. We're talking about I believe that was 750,000 I believe I heard mr. Blum earlier say that putting solar cells on the library was fine because they had the money. And two weeks later, we get a proposed library millage. So for 750,000, I don't know what that's about. Those kind of tax increases need to be in general elections where everybody has the opportunity to vote on them. AEW is gone. They need to get more labor because that road sat empty a lot this year. Those businesses are being pummeled. They're losing money hand over fist. And I hope they blame all you guys because these guys, they tear stuff up and they go on vacation for a week. Regarding our school system in policing it we may need more more police officers in our schools recently I Tried to turn in the school When I saw a video online of a gentleman at a school board meeting saying that Well, Christina grips allegedly Christina Gibson was having an affair with an employee and they were fighting outside the office and

And, uh, recently a person was arrested on the, I'm asking one of you all for the next meeting, September 1st meeting to put something on the agenda regarding, um, the median on nine mile and also Mr. Jerome is parking. Um, you know, the nine mile strategic corridor plan, brings back bad memories. I can't remember how few people in the city actually participated in that. It was less than 100. I believe that parts of that were just so blown out of proportion. I believe part that we were referring to tonight was talking about moving parking to the rear or side parking lots for businesses if it was available. I don't believe Mister Geroni has that available so eliminating parking spots in front isn't in line with the strategic corridor plan that nobody supports anymore anyways. The problem with this I know we said last meeting that Council approved this five-lane version But what has been posted on the city website for the past couple years is a link that's labeled five-lane version Nine Mile Road construction plans Tuscany to Kelly Road this actually shows construction construction plans from Tuscany all the way to i-94 and in those constructions plans plans I don't see a median you can look at pages 28 32 36 and At the October 15th 2025 public forum Ryan Kern discussed the design for the proposed road diet only he did not present or discuss the five-lane plan while he was discussing the road diet he talked about eliminating some driveways specific to the road diet plans, not the five lane plan. He also mentioned a center median between Kelly and 94 as part of the road diet presentation, but said that we were not commenting on that section that night. During the presentation, he showed a slide of the intersection of Nine Mile and Kelly, much like what we saw tonight, which shows the west end of the median as it pertained to the road diet. It was on the screen at that presentation for 12 seconds. At the November 18, 2025 City Council meeting, Council voted to move forward with the five-lane design and end discussion of the road diet. Mayor Pro Tem Baker said, I know there was discussion also about the median, but I feel like we can revisit that because I have a few questions about that. It was never revisited. Almost eight months go by with no update from AEW. The design for the five-lane plan with the median was not given to City Council. It's got a ton of support.

So you go ahead and you screw around with his parking spaces. This is a damn good man who runs a really good business. We don't need to be chasing out any more good businesses. We've lost all kinds of businesses. We've lost all kinds of good homeowners. You got all kinds of half-ass animal ordinances that aren't even enforced. Chief Haynes, I sent you videos last night. Animal control should have been out this morning dealing with that dog. You could see that dog lunging and growling at me in a very vicious manner, unprovoked. those ordinances need to be enforced that dog needs to be muzzled that dog needs to be contained and they were just in court yesterday for two tickets animals at large. Now I don't know what in the hell you're doing with all these animal ordinances but they're it's like hit or miss which ones get enforced. and you're all just going to sit there and do not a damn thing to amend that rabbit ordinance that is piss poor public policy you have done absolutely nothing to protect these pet rabbits you put them further into harm's way chief haines told you before you voted Three rabbits froze to death because the negligent owner did nothing to refill the frozen water bowl and didn't check on them for days later. And so the poor rabbits and trying to escape froze to death. And I'd like to know why didn't that hit the news? What do you want to do you want to take something like that and sweep it under the rug. And then your animal control officer lies through admission to the media. doesn't say a damn thing about the rabbit ordinance. 30 seconds. So I'll say it again it's piss poor public policy really who's going to go around you think the cops are going to drive up and down every block every night looking in everybody's backyard make sure the rabbits aren't out from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. or that they're not outside if it's over 82 degrees or below 43. Are they going to go around checking garages and sheds? Nope. You didn't do a damn thing to protect these rabbits because you don't know what the hell you're doing. You ignored the drafts I sent you which had life-saving protections.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard? Seeing none the second hearing of the public is closed. We'll move on to mayor and council reports.

I'll start with Councilwoman I would ask the city manager to whoever you have to meet with sir to remove those damn No left turns for those cars going into the residential area You know everybody says well, it's not safe Well, they'll wait for the car to pass and then you know, and then they don't turn into the street It's not dangerous And I would take the advice that on our agenda for September 1st, I do want one of the items to be Duroni's hardware. And last time I made a motion that I went home saying, all right, I made a motion and it passed five to nothing and it was bullshit.

Please oh, I'm sorry. It makes my job a little harder.

So please refrain. All right. Thank you. Anyway, I Will discuss it again and I'm gonna feel the same way September 1st as I did the last council meeting and for folks forgive me for swearing I'm going home go to bed Thank You Councilman Baker

Thank you. I just have, well, one, I want to compliment Mr. Pelucci on his snazzy attire for today. It'll make more sense once I stand up. And to Fire Chief Clark, I want to say this word is for you. Pneumonal ultramicroscopic silicovolcanoconiosis. That's my word of the day for you. It's a lung disease, but don't try to say it too fast. So that's all I got.

Thank you. Well, I guess Chief Ains, please pass on our gratitude for Detective Prude coming in and giving us a presentation. I know we've been meeting with some members of the school board talking about things we can improve. So I think if he has creative ideas, we'd love to hear them. And I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved.

Support.

Please call the roll.

Councilmember Baker?

Yes.

Councilmember Scott? Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld?

Yes.

Councilmember Curley?

Yes. Meeting adjourned at 8.57.