Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

Meeting for June 10th to order and we will start with the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

May I please ask for a roll call? Supervisor Riley. Present. Clerk Canvaldi. Present. Treasurer Epikhin.

Present.

Trustee Erta Thompson. Present. Trustee Jaffer.

Present.

Trustee Brabeck.

Present.

Trustee Karami. Present. Madam Supervisor, you have seven members present. We have a full house. Excellent.

May I please ask for the approval of the agenda? Madam Chair, I move to approve the agenda for June 10th, 2026.

Second.

Okay. Any discussion?

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right, the agenda is approved as presented. I will go ahead and open it up for public comment. Any person may come forward at this time to address the board. Anyone who wishes to speak is requested but not required to state his or her name and address for the record. And you have five minutes.

I've met some of you two weeks ago and I imagine you recall I'm the lady requesting a refund of $101.72 of a penalty due to my never receiving my tax bill as a new owner. At that meeting after I spoke, I came to you because I was told by Chris earlier that this board has the authority to rule over that statute. So that's why I came here two weeks ago. I came to you. I talked. Then Chris spoke to me, and it was very clear to me, I can't, I don't know your last name, sorry, so I don't mean first names. But I really, whatever he said made me think, oh, this was decided before I ever spoke to you two weeks ago. And that's when I said, do you guys have, I retorted and said, do you have the authority? And I wasn't allowed to, as you recall. Cool, okay, so I'm here again. So now it's my turn again, okay? I still think I'm entitled to that refund because if you have the authority to overrule the statute, which I think you might, I'd like you to review my timeline of facts and reconsider in my favor as this is fair and just. The reason I think that you might want to reconsider it is because I'm nervous, I didn't think I'd be nervous this week. And it's hot. Pittsfield Township revised their policy since May. Now when a new owner buys a property, that had a mortgage and the mortgage company had to get the money, the tax bill to pay it every year because they were responsible and they were, they got it but the new owner didn't get it. So now since me, both all new owners in Pittsfield Township and these mortgage companies are going to be able to get that tax bill and nobody will fall through the cracks but I did, okay. And it's my opinion, my strong opinion that changing the policy that Pittsfield Township already did is an obvious, blatant admission of error, or they wouldn't have changed it. You don't fix something if it's not wrong. They fixed it. So it really was an error, and I really was charged maybe inappropriately, and I'd like you to reconsider my case based on that.

There were some people who weren't here. Do you want to talk a little about? If you're comfortable, if not, then...

Yeah, I didn't get my tax bill. The statute says, and correct me if I'm wrong, the statute says in it that if you don't get your tax bill and you're a new owner or an owner, you're still responsible. You're still supposed to know it somehow. pay on time. I always pay on time. So when we found out in February, when they did a second mailing, I guess, for people, that's when I got my first mailing, we were like, ah, what do you mean our tax bill is late? We were freaked out. I was really upset. I'm an American history teacher, a retired public Michigan teacher. You know, like, no, I don't do that. So we went running over. We had to, we couldn't pay our tax bill unless we paid the fine because that would escalate it to another form of government, which would be a lot harder for me to get to and talk to the way I'm speaking with you. So I was fined $101.72, and I had to pay it as well as the taxes that I would do that I paid immediately. Like, yeah, I owe those. So any questions about that?

No, I was just going to make just a slight correction. I don't think the board doesn't have authority over state statutes. I don't think we ever discussed the board having authority. You asked where you could make an official complaint. We are bound by statutes, so that was the conversation back then. But also, there hasn't been an outright policy change, per se. And there hasn't been an outright policy change per se. And I think you said something about a policy change, meaning there was an error. All things I was told. Basically, the department now definitely focuses on situations like that, making sure they don't happen. The mailing, the second mailing that you mentioned, was already put in place. It was basically from county level that we are all advised that we should all have that double mailing. Basically, it just so happened that after your cycle was when we actually put that into place. So it was already an upgrade that was being put into place, having a backup tax bill go out. Because a few other cities and townships did it, some didn't. We just tried to basically draw a line over that and make sure everybody does that. So just wanted to make that correction. So we did say- Yeah, this board can, you know, listen, you know, further into that matter. But as of what authority we have, I think we made it clear right from the start. And you understood where, you know, what rules we were bound by and what you were bound by as well.

Am I allowed to speak? Okay, because last time I wasn't. I didn't just have conversations with you. I had conversations with your staff as well. You and I initially spoke in the beginning, and I don't disagree with what you said about our conversations, but I was told a lot of things after that that you maybe not have been privy to. And the things that I presented today are facts. I still don't know if you have the authority to do this or not. I'm not going to beat a dead horse here. I'm just, as a new citizen, I'm feeling like, wait a minute, put yourself in my shoes. This is not appropriate, and if there's a way that you can give me my money back as a new, you know, I would appreciate it a lot.

I don't know if we have the authority, and I don't believe we do, but I will look into it to ensure that, and I do feel for you. Obviously, you're a citizen who wants to repair taxes, and this was a, so thank you for coming back and talking to us about this, and I don't think so, but I will look into it as well.

Thank you.

I'm sorry. Anybody else have any comments or things to say?

I do have one comment. Oh, good.

I'm so sorry.

I'm really nervous. And thank you.

I know it is nerve-wracking.

Yeah, and I appreciate you coming up and addressing the board on this. My understanding of this, and I can help look into this as well, Chris, is there are two dimensions typically when there are late fees. There's interest that's incurred by the state, and we as a municipal board have no authority over that, but that doesn't mean that you couldn't reach out to the state like your state representative or the state treasury to navigate that portion of it. Now, if there's a portion of it that we have as a fee, that is something that we do have discretion over. And so we can look into that as a supervisor said, but this may be broken into multiple parts, but since we're not talking about this being very serious, like seriously delinquent, there's probably some portion of this that is, um, find by the state, and we don't have authority over that portion of it. But if there is a portion of this, this is something we could look into and look at our jurisdiction over. That's what I was going to say. So a little bit of an expansion of we're going to look into it.

Yeah, if you can share with me what you find out.

Yeah, and I do apologize for last time because it was confusing, and I wish I had stated it up front. So yeah, everybody kind of speaks, and then we respond afterwards. And sorry for not being clear about it last time. Thank you. Be well.

Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anybody else who would like to make a public comment? No. Okay. Any other response?

Okay.

All right. We'll move on to approval of the minutes.

Madam Chair, I move to approve the minutes of the regular meeting held on May 27, 2026.

Second.

Okay. Any discussion?

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. The minutes are approved. May I please ask for a motion for 5.1? Oh, sorry, am I just presenting it?

Proclamation?

Okay, sorry. I'd like to present a proclamation for the LGBTQIA and Pride Month Proclamation. I know that we have instilled our non-discrimination ordinance the last previous months, but I think it's important for us as a community, I know the county also did one for a proclamation, just to make sure. We talk about being inclusive, we talk about being non-discriminatory. I think these kind of things to recognize Pride Month and make sure people know that they're safe here in our community is important. So presenting the proclamation for that today.

Any questions or?

I was going to say I'm happy to read it if I would like to, but you know. Please. Okay. All right. Proclamation declaring June as LGBTQIA and Pride Month in Pittsfield to Charter Township. June 10th, 2026. Whereas Pittsfield Township supports the rights of every person to experience equity and freedom from discrimination. And whereas in of the Stonewell uprising of 1969 during which transgender and gender non-conforming citizens stood bravely in the face of state sponsored discrimination. Communities across the country designate June as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and asexual, which is LGBTQIA, and Pride Month. And whereas Pride Month affords the opportunity to reflect on the history and ongoing efforts of those who lead the fight for LGBTQIA and equity and justice and, I'm sorry, I left my real glasses in my daughter's car and so I'm having a hard time reading. Whereas the board, this is the last slide, seasons that are not quite as well, whereas the board acknowledges that no federal anti-discrimination laws to protect LGBTQIA and people from discrimination exist, and that local communities have an important role to play in furthering sex and gender equality, and whereas Pittsfield Township reaffirms its commitment to foster a community in which people from all walks of life can safely live, work, and recreate, and whereas the Board of Trustees celebrate the efforts and contributions of our LGBTQIA and community members of the Pittsfield Township, a more welcoming, healthy, and vibrant place. And now, therefore, let it be resolved that Pittsfield Charter Township hereby proclaims June as Pride Month and encourages residents to stand against discrimination and to promote self-affirmation, dignity, and equity for all. So sorry I stumbled through that, but we believe in it.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm sorry. I really, I'm like, these are like two seasons ago. All right. I had a hard time reading. All right. So I'll go ahead and present that. And if we want to move on to 5.2, we have the 2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report being presented to us this evening.

And we have Nate Balderman from Riemann & Associates to handle our financial audits. Thanks, Nate.

Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Tonight, I will just present briefly on the overall financial results for this year. We delivered three documents. At the end of May, you have the very large document. Yeah, not quite 200 pages, about 160 pages. The annual comprehensive financial report, the single audit report, and the communication with those charged with governance. For the annual comprehensive financial report, this document is very large. One of the reasons it's very large because the township makes the effort to go through this past year was the 15th year that they received the GFOA certificate of excellence in financial reporting which is above and beyond what's required by by the state of Michigan a township Township should be commended for it. It's the highest award you can get for this. And it's a lot of additional work to get it. But it should be commended. The certificate that's in here is for this past year. We fully anticipate you'll continue to get that award as well.

Wonderful.

So on that report, our part of that is like two pages. That's what our opinion is. And on that, that opinion was an unmodified or a clean opinion. It means that the financial statements are fairly presented in all material respects, and you can rely on the information in there, in our opinion. The second report is a single audit compliance report. This is really where you get the results of our audit in the form of any kind of comments, recommendations, findings, those types of things. There's two different parts to that that get included. The first part we talk about is our report on internal controls over financial reporting. So what we looked at when we were doing the audit on that ACFR, internal control issues that come to our attention considered to be material weaknesses or significant deficiencies, we are required to report in there. Happy to report. Once again, on the financial side, we did not have any findings this year related to the financial audit. The second part of that is your federal awards audit. It's what's required. Now the threshold is $1 million. Anytime you spend more than $1 million that's federal dollars, you are required to have The single audit this year and what's kind of happened to the township over the last few years is it's kind of changed what Grant has been pushing you over the top for that. This year we tested the coronavirus. state and local fiscal recovery funds. That was the major program that we tested. You had about 1.5 million, which is almost the entire amount of federal awards you had this past year. That grant, we did have one internal control related issue and recommendation related to the internal controls over reporting and having a review process and a documented review process. That's the one finding that's included. It was only considered, it was only a significant deficiency. We didn't consider it to be a material weakness. And there wasn't actually any noncompliance that we found. It was just, you know, looking at the internal controls over that reporting process, there needs to be that documented control in place. So, again, that's a, you know, An improvement over last year, last year we did have three findings. We did review all of those. All of those were cleared and not repeated in the current year. So very clean. And then the last document I would take you to is this communication with those charged with governance. For the most part, this letter just covers all those things under standards that we're required to communicate to you. So we put it in the form of a letter, talks about tries to make clear what our responsibilities under an audit, making sure that it's clear that, you know, overall those financial statements is the responsibility of management, not ours. Our responsibility is to perform an audit so we can give you that, the opinion that we talked about. There's other things that are highlighted in there, like significant accounting policies, if there were any, Significant changes in accounting policies during the year or new standards that were implemented That would be disclosed here. We didn't really have anything that significant this year Unlike what we've had in prior years And then there's also section talking about significant accounting estimates those types of things if there are disagreements with management those would be disclosed and so on and The one thing that I would point out is we do have a couple of management letter comments that are in attachment A and then in attachment B. And what I'd say about the management letter comments, those are areas, items that don't raise the level where we'd call them significant matters, but they're things where you could enhance your controls or something things to look into based on our procedures that we looked at during the audit. The next thing on attachment B is just really what's coming up in new auditing or accounting standards. There's three new standards. We're all the way up to GASB 105 now. The most significant one, GASB 103, is a change in the financial reporting model. It's not as bad as what they initially were going to do. They were going to change how the financial statements, your general fund was presented, those types of things. They didn't change that. But there is a reorganization of where things are going to be. Budget to actual is Disclosures and items related to variances and budgets those types of things formerly has been in management's discussion analysis They're moving that and enhancing kind of what they have in there So those that those changes you'll see next year and then there's also some terminology and some changes in like your enterprise fund So your water and sewer will look a little bit different next year and where things are organized and how things are defined we will work with the township to get those implemented. We have templates that we'll be using to change those, but it's just something to point out. It's one of the more significant changes we've had in the overall financial statements and financial statement structure in 20 plus, 25 years probably is really what we're looking here. But in the end, it doesn't change a lot about the amounts that are being recorded. It's more about how it's being reported and where it's being displayed. But that will be implemented next year and you'll see that in the financial statements. The other two statements shouldn't have a big impact on the township. But they are things we'll have to look at over the next two years. So didn't have anything additional to present. I will say this audit went very well. I will say Cory did a great job getting ready for us. It's one of those when you have a transition in that position, It usually is one of those where it takes a year to just get acclimated that type of thing And the level of preparedness and the ability You know with quarry and the whole township, you know things went very smoothly this year so very happy with how that went so If there's any question that I'd be happy to answer anything I would just like to make one one comment or maybe two

I just want this board to know and recognize that our finance director, Corey Schmidt, who's only been with us for a year now, I really think he has been doing an outstanding job. And of course, we have an excellent partner because we paid this job but we've been working with this audit firm for quite some time and I was glad that you guys were here to support and get things to be smooth along but our finance director does get a lot of accolades for how he has handled it and uh, specifically like addressing some of the minor issues that may have popped up during the audit, um, uh, and reviewing. And, uh, he, he definitely has a plan for going forward and addressing. And some of these, a lot of, a lot of the minor issues he's already taken control of and, uh, we've already discussed them. So I really appreciate that. So, um, Thank you very much. And I will pass on the good word to Corey, of course. So that's all I have. Thank you. It's right there.

Oh, is it? Yeah, it is.

She said all those good things about you even though you were here.

I thought you were gone.

To have a transition of this magnitude and to have this go as well as it did it's kudos, too Yeah, and thank you for your work on this as well And I know that the one deficiency we had I know the deputy Allmaker had been working with our director of finance too and I feel confident that that will be fixed as well for the next audit as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments or questions? I'm sorry.

Just to echo, you know, even though the transition happened so recently, I think we can all testify that nobody has felt any, there have been no speed bumps. Actually, it's been the opposite. So kudos again, and thank you for highlighting that. I really appreciate that.

Thank you. And Director Smith is also a pleasure to work with. Thank you.

Thank you. I just want to add, I want to pile on to that as well. Thank you, the team, for pulling this together. The reporting, you know, it's good to see the clean reporting and getting the awards and recognition for the transparency and clarity of the reports. But also we had a major transition as this board just recognized. But on top of the transition, we've also had some pretty large moves here. We had the threats of federal funding being pulled away from a large-scale public safety investment that we had to do. you know, thinking about bonding and some of our general fund concerns, and we've all been able to manage that and still have clarity that we all need to have to make the decisions we do. So I just want to, again, say thank you for your work. Thank you for your work during the transition. And it's not just the transition. We also had very big rocks that we had to deal with that are not easy for us to negotiate, and we can't make our decisions unless we have clarity of reporting. So thank you very much.

Yes. Thank you, Steve. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

And moving on to 5.3, Vance and O'Brien, Department of Public Safety. Do you need to recognize it or? I'm sorry. Oh, sorry. Okay. Vance and O'Brien, Department of Public Safety presentation. Very excited to see this. The floor is yours.

Thank you. Good evening. I'm Dave Brewer, Vance and O'Brien. Also going to be reading, which is not my strong suit.

Well, obviously not mine either, so there you go.

But I wanted to make sure I said all these things, so I'm going to read this. So thank you all for allowing us time tonight and the agenda tonight. It's an honor to stand before you on behalf of our team to present this very special gift to Pittsfield Township. It's a handcrafted American flag made from a retired fire hose created by Brotherhood Designs. Now we're going to save the reveal for the end. This flag represents far more than a piece of art. It's a symbol of service, resilience, and community values that define not only our first responders, but also the spirit of Pittsfield Township. In January of 2025, Brotherhood Designs became a 501 non-profit corporation that was funded with a simple yet powerful mission, to honor the dedication and sacrifice of firefighters, police officers, military personnel, and all those who serve their communities. They do this by repurposing authentic, retired fire hose into meaningful, one of a kind flags. Each hose used in their work has a story, having once been part of a real emergency response. protecting lives, property, and communities just like ours. Instead of allowing those hoses to be discarded, Brotherhood designs transforms them into lasting tributes. Their mission is rooted in giving new life to the materials that carried out life-saving work while supporting the brotherhood and sisterhood of first responders. Funds raised by the sale of these one-of-a-kind works of art contribute to charitable organization efforts and initiatives that benefit public safety personnel and their families. What makes this flag especially meaningful is its authenticity. The wear markings and texture you will see are not imperfections. They are proof of service. They represent the difficult calls, long nights, and unwavering commitment of firefighters who've put themselves on the line for others. Today, we present this fire hose flag to Pittsfield Township. It stands as a tribute to men and women of your wonderful team of first responders. A reminder of the courage and professionalism demonstrated every day. And a symbol of strong partnership between this community and those who protect it. Pittsfield Township has consistently demonstrated a commitment to public safety, community development, and service excellence. This flag is a small token of appreciation meant to reflect those values and the pride that comes with them. It is our hope that when this flag is displayed, it will serve as a daily reminder of the sacrifices made in the name of public safety and the gratitude of the community that stands behind those who serve. To date, there are 157 flags that have been created by Brotherhood Designs. On behalf of Anson O'Brien, it is my privilege to present fire hose flag number 156 to Pittsfield Charter Township.

Can we clap? There we go.

It also comes with this plaque. in which we'll have to get a picture of the dedication. I don't know if today's the appropriate picture. Maybe we want to get it on the wall, but we could take some today if the board wants to take a moment.

You can do both, maybe, and yeah.

And then if you wanted to see it, here's the hose that the fire truck, the fire, the flag was made out of. So I can.

That's pretty cool. Wow. Did everybody come up? And we can do like a, and I believe, yes, this will be hung proudly at our new DPS building next door, so. uh... we dedicate that to do dot additional picture additional we could do a a free one now and see what picture comes out that's kind of thing yes over there and and and and and and and and and and and and and I'm going to rearrange the whole board room real quick.

Get over here.

Thank you.

I guess I would like it.

They're the old lady shoes. They're good for your back. Actually, they're really comfortable.

Yeah. They're high quality.

I've had these for three years. Quality or dishonesty? Yes.

Always. Yep. All right. Well, thank you so much. That's so nice. OK. Moving on, now we have 5.4, Washtenaw Regional Resource Management Authority presentation. We have Theo Eggermann? Yes. OK, there he is. Theo Eggermann. Presenting on behalf of the county.

Awesome. So I'm the director of public works at Washtenaw County. I also serve in the function for WARMA. So I serve the WARMA board. Thanks for having me tonight to help explain what WARMA is, what we do, and what approach we're taking with education. So WARMA was formed in September of 2019. Members are Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor Township, Dexter, Pittsfield Township, SIO, Saline, Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Township. So Represents the majority of the population within Washtenaw County The goals are stated in the articles But I took the first couple that I think are the most important as well as the latter one Which is the board has several years ago described that as kind of our unofficial mission so the goals to coordinate materials management activities for members and provide clear and consistent messaging and outreach, and increasing the quantity of quality recycling. So we've got both, we want to grow the amount that we're collecting, but also make sure that we're collecting the right things, not the wrong things. When we formed, It originally came out of the materials management planning process or solid waste planning process. There was a goal of regionalization, right, of we are doing things and each municipality either could put more effort, wants to put more effort into this particular area, and we can pool our resources and become more efficient, spend fewer dollars overall on that. And we can do more better things depending on what the goals of the municipalities are that are looking to pursue that. So I think an important piece of this is, right, people are not stagnant. We move around all the time. You work in different places. You go to friends' places. And if you can't recycle the same thing in Ypsilanti Township as you can in Pittsfield, now you're putting something in the bin that then somebody else has to pull out, throw in the garbage at the material recovery facility. And then the material recovery facility has to send that to a landfill. And then you're spending a lot of greenhouse gases collecting the wrong things. It's inefficient. There's a better way to do it. And so we want to be coordinating together to say, let's all have the same thing recyclable. Or if we are unable to reach that goal, then let's at least help people understand what those differences are. So hence the increasing the quantity of quality. So education has really been our primary focus. We've since mid 2025 last year we had a several discussions about where do we want to go, what do we want to do. We've always had a goal of education, but we wanted to refocus in 2025. So why education? This is a graph from the recycling partnership. They're experts. They conduct a lot of research nationally. They put out best practices and reports. They recommend saying if you want to have successful recycling System you should be putting ten dollars per household into it. I'm not suggesting you do that That's a lot of money that can come from multiple sources hauler municipality County but it is They're recommending if you want to capture a lot of material that is recyclable and have a successful system, you should be putting money in education. And you can see the different bumps. The middle one is equitable access to recycling. You see the increase. That's including multifamily. Everybody's got very easy and convenient access. That's also very difficult. That's something that multiple municipalities have identified so many challenges with. It is hard and it is expensive for multifamily. I'm not saying that this is something that WARM is approaching. It's something that we would look for board members to say if we wanted to do something in multifamily, let's try to work on that problem together. It might be a useful thing to collaborate on. But the point I'm really trying to make is you get a big jump with education, right? You have to tell people, this is recyclable. This is where it goes. This is how it works. Right now, from curbside, we think we've got about a 23% based on the data that we've got recycling rate. We have room to grow. That doesn't include the material from drop-off stations. So that number doesn't reflect all of the data that I just gave you for 23%. Point is, it's important to invest in education if you want to have a successful program. So some of the things that Warma has done and continues to do. So after we formed, we got a grant from the state. I think it was about $250,000 worth in value spread across the Warma communities. That was before Ann Arbor joined. And so they were not part of that initial part. We did contamination audits. We wanted to see, what are we putting in the recycling bin that is not recyclable? And then we did. thinking about it as a science experiment. Have an experiment. What are you going to do? An intervention. So we did cart tagging, if you remember that. And then we put out mailers. We put out digital media. We put out lots of information to the public billboards saying, here's the thing that we found out of that audit was people were putting bagged material in. And that continues to be the largest source of contamination in the recycling bin. So we had dump bag material as a postcard, sent it out to folks. We also sent out a mailer that had what is and what is not recyclable, what you should put in the bin. I saw when I was here a couple weeks ago, you still have the magnets out, which are great. Those are helpful for people to have a reminder. on the fridge, hopefully close to the recycle bin. And then we did a test. We found that we were able to reduce contamination by 40% through those interventions. Education needs to be something that's continual. People move. People forget. They need reminders. So we've done continual audits after that. We have gone back up, unfortunately. hence another reason why we need to refocus on education outreach. And I pardon the typo, we did not do an audit in 2026, let's just say 2024, that was November. So we found in that audit, we've increased for contamination since we had those earlier audits. We also got in 2022, an app to action grant. So we looked at who are the households that are not setting out material or setting out their cart. infrequently. We sent a postcard to those folks, wanted to find out more. We asked some sentiment behavior questions. We found that 80% of those people agreed that recycling had a positive impact, but 40% of those people weren't sure if the recycling was made into new things. So that gives us some really good things to work on. One of the things that I'm going to be promoting in the next few months is we have success stories. It's almost 60% of what people put in the recycling, shown from the audits, is paper and cardboard, right? I think people get very confused about plastics, and then they may disengage, and they say it's not worth it, there's all these concerns. But my goodness, we're forgetting about paper and cardboard, and that is such a great, successful story to tell of you put it in your bin, it goes to Recycle Ann Arbor, they send it to Wapakoneta, Ohio, and They may get into cardboard boxes. It probably ends up on your doorsteps. That is a circular economy. We need to tell people that this is working. So I think we can demonstrate to people this is something working, that works. And the recycling partnership says, tell people that success story. It'll motivate them to recycle more than the people who are on the fence saying, eh, should I do this or not? We'll start doing that. I think we want to move in that direction. Some other educational efforts, recycling tours. We've got schedule one for next week. Your esteemed member has signed up for that. So looking forward to that. We've done social media kits. Again, trying to push information out to all the municipalities to use. Here's some messaging you can use. Having an efficient mechanism where one entity is creating it, distributing it to all the municipalities. Website reviews, we went through everybody's website and said, here's some best practices. Here's some things that you could institute for your webpage. We have a waste wizard on Warma. You can embed it on your website. People, when they are unsure if something can be recycled or not, they can actually just go on there, type in, you know, can I recycle this thing? If not, where should I take it? So it helps to provide some clarity. We're going to be doing a next campaign about Addressing our largest issue which is don't put bagged material in a recycle bin Because we found that bagged waste and bag recycling are the things that people are putting in that's the largest source of contamination So we're going to be doing a hang loose campaign to try make it fun And we've had lots of good edits at our last meeting So I think we're we're getting very close. You should see that in the next couple months We also worked in 2024, 2025 on a collaborative contracting process. That did not go through, but we developed an RFP that had a lot of best practices. Some of those things that we recommended have ended up in your current contract, like stipulated penalties. That can result in better service because you're able to have an enforcement mechanism leverage over your hauler so that hopefully that prevents some issues as well. But if you do arise with issues, you're able to have some financial compensation for the issues that you've had. So we hope to address that again in the future if the warmer board wants to move in that direction. But the theory behind that is really if you're increasing the number of households going out to bid together, you're increasing your negotiating power. You can leverage that for better prices, better service, or both because it's appealing to the contractors to have a larger number of households. So with that, I'll open it up for questions.

Thank you. Does anybody have any questions? I just have a question. In the slide, it says 32% of recyclables are currently being captured. But we're under that? Is that what I heard?

This is a national figure.

Okay.

Yep.

Okay, and so we're capturing about 23%?

That's just the curbside piece.

Okay. And so is that for all of Washtenaw or is that for a specific municipality?

That's just for the data that I've got for Warma right now. We're continuing to gather more data from municipalities and from haulers. We want to be tracking where are we at with our recycling rate.

And so we don't know through... through education, because this group has been around since 2019. And I'm wondering if there's any way to measure how successful or not successful, frankly, this endeavor has been. So I'm thinking, well, since 2019, we ought to have increased. I do remember the last campaign where They were tagging the recyclables, you know, and if you had contaminated stuff, they would put a tag on it and they'd be like, hey, we've got to come back. I didn't get the tag. Just for the record, I was doing it correctly.

Please let the record note. Please let the record reflect.

But I did hear about it. But that was done quite some time ago and so I'm wondering what is the big drive going forward and if this is an annual drive also because I'm not seeing a lot of, Traction annually.

Yeah, I would say so the last few years we certainly we've been focused on the collaborative RFP and the collaborative contract which would have grown the organization to be much larger and had full-time staff and so we we put our efforts there and we we did I feel like we took our eye off the ball on education a bit and so I We see that in the numbers, right, of we were not promoting education and outreach, and so we saw that contamination went back up. And like I said, it's something that needs to be, it's almost, think of it more as a maintenance program of you need to continually do education and outreach in order to have it be effective. And so the idea is that we put that together, and like I said, we somewhat lost our focus because we were focusing on let's move in this different direction that would grow Warma, which ultimately did not come to fruition. So now we're going back to, we need to refocus on education.

And so right now it's currently only like the four or five municipalities that are part of this group?

All eight municipalities are part of Warma.

Okay.

Yep.

Okay. So, but the members, the members are the Ann Arbor city, townships, Dexter, Ipsy. Okay. Yep. And so as part of the membership, we pay like whatever $5,000, right, annually. And so do you think that's ever going to be enough? I mean, it's like $40,000 a year. And if we're, you know, doing a lot of these auditings and like how – I'm just wondering like financially. I don't I don't know how well it's working, right?

Yeah, so the the mechanism is right if we want to do something more Then so we would create the material say we want to do like a mailer, right? Which is what we've been working on the municipality can choose Do you want to send that as a mailer or do you want us to provide those as digital resources? And you can push them out in other ways And then if it's something that's a mailer, you would take on the additional cost as the municipality and fund that through a different budget because that would be more equitable. Ann Arbor Township is less than 2,000 households. Other municipalities are much larger, so if you're you're distributing those costs equally, that's not a very fair mechanism to do it. So that would be the idea, right, is we create the materials, put it out to the different municipalities, even find the contractor for a mailer, get the mailing list, set it up so that it's easy for the municipality to do, and then the municipality would pay the individual costs of the incremental costs.

And so what stops the municipality from just... I mean, because what it sounds like is there's one very really good marketer, right, market designer, you know, let's get these flyers and posters where, as I think Pittsfield generally does a really good job at marketing their own stuff. So I don't know if, like, what is the additional, if there is any, because I don't know.

Yeah, and it may be to the point that the fact that, you know, obviously getting numbers in the future might be helpful to sort of like what the rate of return is, you know, ROI on this sort of thing. Because, I mean, obviously we can do this on our own, but you're saying there's value, and I think that the Waste Wizard seems like that would be a very big value, too. Maybe how many people are using that, and is that kind of what you're saying, too, in a sense?

Yeah, absolutely. So Waste Wizard is a good example. You know, it's We just approved a contract at the last meeting. It's $4,200. If you were to have that for one municipality, that's not a very good use of your funds. But collaboratively, you buy that in bulk and distribute it across your membership. there will be time, like Warma can do anything that the boards and the municipalities look to do. So if there's something that it's the vehicle that you could do other things, say if you wanna pursue organics collection in some kind of drop-off fashion, that could be something Warma could take on. Think of it both as here's what we're doing with it now, but I think it has a lot of potential as a vehicle in the future. If there's collaborative contracting, I mean, to me, the proof is in the pudding. Before this started, we were the largest, sorry, the most dense area of the state, at least I was told this, that didn't have some kind of interlocal agreement related to solid waste. And I think there's a reason for that. And if you talk to the different authorities, SACRA in Oakland County, RASAC also in Oakland County, MMWA, those authorities always seem to grow. It's very rare that anyone actually leaves, and it's because there's a great value in putting your resources together in that manner.

Okay. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Any questions? Yes. So this is going to be, you know, Michelle, I genuinely appreciate the kind of the lens of, okay, over the course of the last seven years or so, we've been, you know, there's this department or this unit has existed, What's the impact? What is the impact? How can we measure that, and how can we see that over time? I think that's well said. I'm going to ask something that's a bit adjacent to this, and if this is a thought that we can have offline, that's fine as well, so I don't mean to put you on the spot. Just two weeks ago, I was at the Mackinac Policy Conference, and I was talking with somebody, I'm just going to get my notes here, from the CEO of the Midwest Independent Retailers Association, because they're really pushing at a state level to get rid of the deposit construct and getting rid of really the can and bottle recycling that are in retailers because of two things. One is it's really costly for a lot of the independent retailers to have that infrastructure. Number two, you're talking about contamination. Well, they're thinking about contamination bringing open containers and things of that nature and putting them adjacent to where we all buy and consume our food from, and that creates pest issues and things of that nature for them. And one of the other things that they said that I found really interesting is with so many municipalities expanding recycle collection, they are saying that, and they have some data to support this, but I'd like to hear from others that are not vested in this, is if we made this as part of the single stream pickup, that actual recycle numbers would go up tremendously because it's not very equitable for folks that don't have access to go to the stores, things of that nature, so a lot of the recyclables go into the trash instead of back to the stores and retailers. So I didn't know if that was something that you guys had a position on or could help with any of the bridging of that or frankly if you're doing analysis if that would uh... have the impact that they're telling like i said i don't expect you to put you on the spot right here to have answers for that but if that's something if that's in the arena of things that you could help consult with or connect other municipalities with that would be interesting to explore as well yeah i can give you my like personal thoughts and just talk about a bit we haven't talked about that at warma so yeah the

changes to the bottle bill, there's certain advantages to doing that. If you send your materials, like aluminum cans have a high value. If those go to the MRFs, the MRFs, there's some value in it for that entity. So it could, in theory, drive some costs down. Those also would have to be sorted out at the MRF, right? So there's there's a processing, it would add to their processing costs, but they would probably make that up in the value of the aluminum because it's a high value commodity. It's often the highest, like typically if you want to point to a high value one, you'd say that's where you go. Um, and it's very recyclable, so it's easy. Um, the, the challenge with that is I think you actually will lose a fair number, um, amount right now. The, Even though it slipped from it was like 92 pre-pandemic, right, percent that was collected. That's a very high, like, that's an incredibly effective recycling program meant to be an anti-littering. I actually wore my anti-littering socks tonight. Don't mess with Texas. But the... We're down to like 70% now as return back. That's still incredibly effective. I mean, you think about there's probably a lot of places, even though that there is more and better collection and that's the direction the state's moving, I would be highly doubtful if you got rid of the $0.10 deposit and did away with the bottle bill. If you could reach 70% collection on aluminum cans, that would be miraculous in my mind. Thank you.

Yeah, I look forward I think Obviously there we have to have an engagement further on in in the agenda But I I look forward to the fact of us maybe To clerk ends all these point just making sure we can track this a little bit more and maybe have you back in the future Talk a little bit more about that. Sure. Yeah.

Thank you I Don't think we have any communications

Okay, they have a motion to receive and file communications madam chair, I would like to receive and file communications support All right all in favor opposed Okay, communications are receiving filed they have to motion motion for Okay Agenda Second okay any discussion All in favor aye opposed all right consent agenda is approved moving on to department reports updates we have Our community parks and recreation interim director Richard Wade which raid we call him here To give us a little presentation to talk about the work that they have underway on their comprehensive plan

Thank you. So this evening I'm just going to provide a brief update on the community parks and recreation plan. Since board approval of the agreement with Spalding Detector, township staff and the consultant team have completed the project kickoff meeting and officially begun the planning process. The kickoff focused on project goals, timelines, public engagement, strategies, and a review of the existing park conditions. As a reminder, the community parks and recreation plan will serve as the township's guiding document for parks and recreation planning over the next five years, helping to establish priorities for future improvements, guide capital investment decisions, and maintain eligibility for MD&R grant funding opportunities. One of the major components currently underway is the statistically valid community survey being conducted by ETC Institute. The survey is designed to gather input from a representative sample of township residents and will help identify community priorities and future needs. We recently received an update indicating the online survey should be available for review within the next several days. Once approved, ETC will move forward with printing and mailing with surveys anticipated to begin arriving approximately 7 to 10 business days later. Beyond the survey effort, The consultant team is currently conducting the existing conditions and park inventory review, evaluating facilities and accessibility, reviewing prior planning documents and GIS information, analyzing demographic and growth trends, and coordinating stakeholder and public engagement opportunities. Public engagement has also begun. Our first public engagement opportunity was held on June 6th at Lily Park. That coincided with our peewee soccer and fishing derby. The event provided a good opportunity for township staff and consultants to to begin interacting directly with the residents and families regarding Parks and Recreation priorities and future community needs. We did have a very good amount of feedback that they're actually analyzing right now, so we were happy with the feedback that we received. Additional engagement opportunities will continue throughout the summer and fall, including opportunities for board engagement as we proceed further. Overall, this project remains on schedule. Upcoming milestones include launching the community survey, continuing stakeholder and public outreach efforts, completing the needs assessment process, and beginning development of the capital improvement and implementation recommendations. Staff will continue providing updates to both the Park Commission and the Board of Trustees throughout the planning process as the community parks and recreation plan progresses toward completion public review, and eventual adoption. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

I'd say how important this is now. When this was actually done, the last update, it was COVID. There really wasn't a lot. This is actually going to be more comprehensive than we've been able to do in a really long time, and I think we all know that our parks are extremely important. We have a very engaged park commission, and with the new leadership, I'm looking forward very much forward to hearing about what the feedback is from the residents. So does anyone have any questions about the process or timeline or anything?

No.

OK. Yeah. I'm excited to see it. And I'm excited to hear the resident feedback on it. So thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Moving on to new business. May I please have a motion for 9.1?

Madam Chair, I move to adopt a resolution of support for Michigan Township Association's Robert R. Robinson's Memorial Scholarship Application, Nomi Claire Smith, Resolution 26-16. Do you have a second? Second.

Any discussion? I just want you to know that I read about this scholarship in the MTA magazine. We asked our staff to publish it in a social media post, and this resident came forward, and she had done some work at Scarlett Middle School. and gave me some information. And we were able to get the resolution so she can be considered for the scholarship. Part of the application has to be that it gets approved by the board and things. So I'm putting it forward for supporting the youth. May I ask for a roll call, please?

Supervisor Riley?

Yes.

Clerk Anzaldi? Yes. Treasurer Epikun? Yes. Trustee Erta Thompson? Yes. Trustee Jaffer? Yes. Trustee Brabeck?

Yes.

Trustee Karami? Yes. Madam Supervisor, you have seven yeas.

Thank you. All right. That is approved. May I please have a motion for 9.2?

Madam Chair, I move to adopt a resolution for appointments to township boards, committees, and commissions, resolution 26-17.

Support.

Okay. This one is actually to replace former Trustee Mills on the election commission with Trustee Brayback. Appreciate you stepping up to the plate. Any discussion or questions? All right.

We'll call. Clerk Anzaldi. Yes. Treasurer Eprican. Yes. Trustee Erta Thompson. Yes. Trustee Jaffer. Yes. Trustee Brabeck.

Yes.

Trustee Karami. Yes. Supervisor Riley. Yes. Madam Supervisor, you have 78.

All right. Thank you, and welcome to the Election Commission.

Very exciting. You will enjoy it.

It's definitely fun to see the process. May I ask for a motion for 9.3, please?

Madam Chair, I move to adopt a resolution approving the annexation of property located at... 2080 South State Street, parcel L-12-05-175-003 to the City of Ann Arbor, resolution 26-15. Second. Okay, any discussions or questions or comments? I'd just like to say this is an island in the City of Ann Arbor. It really does belong to Ann Arbor. There is a map, and there's not really... Ann Arbor is willing to accept them.

All right. Then I will go ahead and ask for a roll call.

Treasurer Eppekin?

Yes.

Trustee Erta Thompson? Yes. Trustee Jaffer? Yes. Trustee Brabeck?

Yes.

Trustee Karami? Yes. Supervisor Riley?

Yes.

Clerk Anzaldi? Yes. Madam Supervisor Savigny?

All right. A resolution is passed. May I please have a motion for 9.5?

Madam Chair, I move to adopt a resolution authorizing cancellation of uncollectible fees, Resolution 26-19. Sorry, 9.4.

I said 9.5.

Second.

Thank you.

I called the right one.

You did. Okay, any discussion on this one?

Did we have a second? Yes, we did.

Okay, I didn't hear.

Okay. Roll call. Trustee Erta Thompson. Yes. Trustee Jaffer. Yes. Trustee Brabeck.

Yes.

Trustee Karami. Yes. Supervisor Riley. Yes. Clerk Anzaldi. Yes. Treasurer Epikun. Yes. Madam Supervisor Seven Yays. All right.

Thank you. We're keeping you busy over there.

All right. May now have a motion for 9.5. May I move to adopt a resolution approving the second amended Articles of Incorporation for Washtenaw Regional Resource Management Authority, ORMA, Resolution 26-20. Second.

Okay. Any discussion? I know we just had a presentation. I had some questions. Okay. May I ask for a roll call, please?

Trustee Jaffer?

Yes.

Trustee Brabeck?

Yes.

Trustee Karami? Yes. Supervisor Riley? Yes. Clerk Anzaldi? Yes. Treasurer Eberkin? Yes. Trustee Erta Thompson? Yes. Madam Supervisor, you have 78.

All right. Adopted. All right. May I please have a motion for 9.6, please?

Madam Chair, I move to authorize the supervisor and clerk to enter into a three-year agreement with McAllister CAT for annual preventative maintenance on township-owned generators at a total cost not to exceed $84,690, subject to the township attorney approval. OK. Second?

I second.

OK. Any discussion on this one? We do have our director of utilities here today. If you have any questions? All right. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. Authorized. May I please have a motion for 9.7?

Madam Chair, I move to authorize the supervisor and clerk to enter into an agreement with Vanston O'Brien Incorporated for the remodel and the construction of the community center restrooms and multipurpose room for a cost not to exceed $306,348, including contingencies subject to the township attorney approval.

Second. Second.

Okay, any discussion on this one? This is actually part of the senior millage money going over to our senior center to improve our restrooms and our activity centers for the seniors. The restrooms are definitely very needed. They haven't even been ADA-compliant in a while, so we're happy to be able to use the money from the county, and thank you to Commissioner Sanders, who I see back there, for helping navigate that and actually being on the committee to hire the new director of aging. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. It is authorized. May I please have a motion for 9.8?

Madam Chair, we have to adopt a resolution approving participation in Clemmons Authority interlocal agreement subject to the Township Attorney approval, Resolution 26-18. Second.

Okay. Any discussion on this one? We do have our Director of Public Safety here. If you have any questions on this one? All right. Roll call.

Trustee Brabeck.

Yes.

Trustee Karami. Yes. Supervisor Riley. Yes. Clerk Anzaldi. Yes. Treasurer Epikun. Yes. Trustee Erta Thompson. Yes. Trustee Jaffer. Yes. Madam Supervisor, you have seven yeas.

All right. Resolution is adopted. All right. Please have a motion for 9.9.

Madam Chair, we'd like to authorize the supervisor and clerk to enter into an agreement with Brandel Roofing and Sheet Metal Company for the installation of new roofs as part of the public safety facility. Improvement project for a total cost not to exceed $91,882, subject to the township attorney approval.

Second.

OK. And then we have our director of public safety. She's coming up. So we'll have her give a little explanation on this one.

Absolutely. Thank you so much. And obviously, if there's any questions right off the bat, I can answer those. But if it wasn't clear, this is the roof over the old fire apparatus bay. And so in order to do remodel underneath and in the space that's underneath there for the use for the police department and to put rooftop units on that top of that roof, it is required. We do need to put a new roof on the old apparatus bay. Sounds good.

All right. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. There we go. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. I will go ahead and call for any liaison or trustee reports. I do want to remind everybody that next week on Thursday, June 18th, the Planning Commission will... DISCUSSING THE DATA CENTER ORDINANCE AND I DO ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO BE THERE IF YOU CAN. IF NOT, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU STAY UP ON THINGS, READ THE MINUTES. THERE WILL BE SEVERAL MEETINGS AND THIS WILL BE PRESENTED AS A DRAFT, BUT WE DO SEE THIS EVOLVING. WE HAVE DONE A SURVEY. And I believe we had 370 responses already to the survey. That's a pretty good engagement. And we went through that prior to the meeting so that we could bring that feedback from the residents to that meeting and really evolve that ordinance with community feedback. Even though we're bringing something that is a robust draft, there's definitely room for us to tweak it with our feedback. So everyone please get involved. And then, oh, June 18. This is Thursday, and I believe it's 6.30, that time, yes? Yep, Thursday, 6.30. Yeah, yeah. Are you adjusting? Yeah. Yeah, Jaffer definitely knows. Yeah, in this building, right in this room, so.

Is there anything else?

Okay. Also, I wanted to, during the first public comment, I did not address the public comment that came in via email. This is the same individual who has commented, I think this is the third time, about the People's Express. Deputy Allmacher has been working with People's Express to pass on these concerns. And as sort of a follow-up, now it's been about six months with People's Express, we have called for a meeting just to talk about how things are going. We'll address these concerns at that time as well. Comments to the public comment that came in via email, okay Then I will go ahead and open up public comment number two any person may come forward at this time to address the board anyone who wishes to speak is Requested but not required to state his or her name and address for the record and you have five minutes All right seeing none I will go ahead and ask for a motion to adjourn second All right meeting is adjourned at 738 Yeah, of course. Here you go.