City Commission - Regular Meeting

I don't believe you. I don't believe you.

Okay. You mind?

Oh, big fake?

Big faker? OG faker?

Yeah. Did you guys get this? Yeah. Sound check.

It is 7 p.m. I would like to call to order the regular business meeting of the Kalamazoo City Commission for Monday, June 15th, 2026. Clerk Boylan, please call the roll.

Commissioner Hess. Present. Commissioner Hoffman. Present. Commissioner Prado. Present. Commissioner Slaby. Present. Commissioner Wilson. Present. Vice Mayor Duncan. Here. Mayor Anderson.

Thank you, Clerk Borling. Can I have a motion to excuse the Mayor and our missing Commissioner?

So moved. Support?

All in favor?

Aye.

Motion passes. Thank you, Commissioners. The Mayor and our Mission Commissioner will be excused. Thank you for being here tonight for our opening ceremony. We will have the invocation given by Chaplain Michael Kimpel from Missional Chaplains. Please rise for the invocation and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Community?

Oh, there's a...

Audio is on. No, I really count it a great privilege to be invited to be here. We have a diverse community, and it's wonderful how many different ways people choose to live their lives, philosophy and so forth. I've been asked to do this, so I do it in the tradition of my faith as a follower of Jesus. So with that being said, I would love to pray. Lord God. I thank you for this commission. I thank you for the wisdom that you've granted each and every man and woman on this commission. Lord, I pray that you would lead and guide all the proceedings tonight. There are topics that must be discussed, things that people have concern about. We live in a wonderful community, and I'm so thankful for those who stand in the way of lawlessness. I thank you that Chief Boyson is here representing the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety. I thank you for each and every person that's going to be in this room and listening to these proceedings. Lord, please bless them. Please keep them. Please let them know that they will know who we are by the way we love one another. In Christ Jesus, I pray. 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.

Thank you all for being here. Next, we would like to introduce Sean McBride, Executive Director of Kalamazoo Metro Transit for presentation on the Central County Transportation Authority and the Kalamazoo County Transportation Central County Transportation Authority in the Kalamazoo County Transportation Authority. Thank you.

Hi, good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. I'm Kurt Artema. I am currently serving as chair of the Central County Transportation Authority and Kalamazoo County Transportation Authority. We're excited to be here and share some updates. Sean's going to get into some of the details of what Metro has been working on over the last year. City of Kalamazoo has been a great partner with Metro for MANY DECADES, I THINK 1967 WAS THE START OF METRO AND THE COLLABORATION WITH THE CITY TAKING OVER FOR PRIVATE SYSTEMS THAT WERE HERE IN ADVANCE OF THAT. AND TODAY WE HAVE A REGIONAL SYSTEM THAT RUNS ACROSS KALAMAZOO COUNTY. and all over the City of Kalamazoo. The two boards that we have, one is an urbanized area, that is the Central County Transportation Authority, and that's the entity that is intended to run the fixed route bus system. It services the City of Kalamazoo as well as the City of Portage, Kalamazoo Township, Oshima Township, City of Parchment, Comstock Township. And that was in an innovative way, really broken out from the county as a whole to provide or link the services that were being provided in those areas with the funding source. And so the outlying areas in the county also have their own millage, the KCTA and their own board and authority. And that is the on-demand service, primarily the Metro Connect system is the door-to-door services provided. The two boards work together jointly, and we have representation from around the county. There's three of us from the City of Kalamazoo, myself, Greg Rosine, who's here in the audience tonight, and then Gary Lee McCormick, who has been with serving transportation for probably close to 30 years now, I believe, as a member of the former City of Kalamazoo Transportation Authority Board, and now with our Central County Transportation Authority. We have new services that have come online recently. The Metro link service, Sean will get into that. It is an on-demand service that's intended to be an extension of the fixed route bus system. And we were anxious to see kind of how that continues to grow. You'll see some of the numbers of that from a growth standpoint from Sean as well. We have really a charge of providing mobility options for everybody in the Kalamazoo region as best as possible, trying to close gaps so people can get to work, get to school, wherever they need to be. And medical appointments, all sorts of uses for the system. We have about 5,000 rides a day that take place. AND SO REALLY IT'S A SERVICE THAT IS WELL UTILIZED, IS GROWING IN DIFFERENT WAYS AND BRINGING NEW SERVICES AND OPTIONS TO THE COMMUNITY. AND WITH THAT, I THINK I'LL TURN IT OVER TO SEAN MCBRIDE WHO WILL GET INTO SOME OF THE DETAILS AND AGAIN, APPRECIATE THE COOPERATION AND COLLABORATION WITH THE CITY OF KALAMAZOO. We are here to partner with the city and other entities around the county and the region to provide, again, that mobility solution and transportation access for the broader community for economic development and recreation or whatever it might be. So thank you.

Good evening, commissioners. I want to thank you for allowing us this time tonight to provide an update on public transit. We truly appreciate the long-lasting partnership that we've had with the city of Kalamazoo and that we continue to have. So I'll give you a brief update on services that are being provided, a couple of the new programs that we're working on, and the millage that's coming up this summer. So as we evolved as an organization over the years, one of the key things is looking at everyone's transportation needs and mobility needs are different. They may change on a daily basis and we want to provide solutions and options for all. This past year we did nearly two million rides. We're seeing strong growth moving into next year. And impressively, there's been over 127 million rides provided on public transit since the city of Kalamazoo started this service in 1967. And we're very proud of that. So our key... Our largest service is the fixed route bus system. 1.7 million rides last year. That's nearly 5,000 rides per day. We have an extensive system that operates seven days a week that's accessible for all. And it's affordable, $1.50 per trip, or 75 cents if you're a senior citizen or an individual with disability. And we operate out of a hub-and-spoke system, so most of our routes are generated out of the transportation center at 15 minutes after the hour and radiate out from there. Our highest ridership routes are the key corridors that head south, east, and west, called Road West Main and Westnage. And Westnage, for example, we did about 230,000 trips last year. One program that we're exceptionally proud of and we're proud of our partnership and leadership from the City of Kalamazoo is the Youth Mobility Program. This was started in 2019 and it started just out of conversations with the Foundation for Excellence of there's a need to connect youth to getting around the community for a variety of reasons. So that's how the program was born. It's funded by the Foundation for Excellence through the City of Kalamazoo. And since inception, we have over 310,000 rides provided to youth, and we're proud with your partnership to grow the program. We're growing the program to 635 passes being passed out next year to not only Kalamazoo Public Schools, but also Kalamazoo Prep Academy, which is a new partner currently. And our partnership's not complete without the involvement of KIDNET. They really are working directly with the youth and helping educate them about how to use public transit and navigate it wisely and be just good customers of public transit now and into the future. MetroConnect is what a lot of communities call a dial ride. It is available for anyone to go anywhere in the county. We also service one area outside the county, that's the VA hospital in Battle Creek, and we see extensive ridership on that. Last year we did about 150,000 trips. Last year we had a 9% increase over the previous year and impressively last year 45,000 of those 148,000 trips were generated out of the city of Kalamazoo. And we're seeing very good growth in the city of Kalamazoo so far through the first five or six months of this year that I have data on 11% growth in this service. So it's very important. This is a service that if I recommend to anyone that's never used public transit, get signed up for this. Try this program because it'll be available for those unique times where you need it. Your car's broken down. You have a doctor's appointment that no one can pick you up with. You have an eye appointment. Your eyes are dilated and you don't know how you're going to get home. So sign up. Try it on a day that you're... not pressed for time just to feel it out. With this program, one of the barriers of success in the community for medical services is mobility. So we're partnering with the United Way of Southwest Michigan and the Blueprint for Peace, which I know the city of Kalamazoo is very much involved in. And through that program was how can we start moving the needle on some of these challenges and barriers for getting people to medical appointments. So we're starting a program where we work directly with providers. They identify riders that may have mobility issues and then they're provided free public transit fares on any of our services. And part of the program is that we're also training the providers of those medical services on the public transit services that are available so they can be good advocates and navigators on how to access the system. So we're excited with that and that's going to be, we're going to try and reach out countywide. We have quite a few new medical providers that we're working with. MetroShare is our van share services. We partner with non-profit agencies. We have nine vans available. We work with about 30 agencies. You can see some of the agencies are our highest ridership there. And then our newest service, which was a started in April 2024, is Metro Link. It's kind of like Uber for public transit. The difference is that it's often a shared ride. It's an affordable ride. It's the same fare as a bus route, so $1.50 and it's structured in three zones. There's a South Zone, an East and a West Zone. Kind of works its way around the city of Kalamazoo and There's two way it works. It either connects you to the fixed route bus system, so you have access to the whole system, kind of a first mile, last mile service is what it's called. And then, or if there's a point to point within each of the zones, you can go directly from where you are to that point. Rides are usually available within about 15 to 20 minutes on the top end. It's affordable, $1.50, and it's open. It's available the same hours as the fixed route bus system. We've had excellent growth of this service. When you start a new program, you want to kind of see a chart like this with good solid growth month over month. We're averaging about 10,000 rides per month at this point. And kind of the nice thing as we're seeing growth, it's a combination of both existing riders that are continuing to use it, and we get a good fair share of new riders every month. About 15 to 20% on a monthly basis is new riders that have never tried it before. This is my favorite side to talk about. I really love providing value-added services to the community. Just this winter, I got a call from city staff as well as county staff that we're going to have a long period of cold and cold weather. And being here for a while, it was the coldest stretch of the winter since about 14, 15. So it's been a while. And so we're... between the county and you all, you open up a variety of warming centers throughout the community that were highly used and our role in that was providing free transportation to the warming center. So we did 1,200 trips using all of our services, connecting people from all parts of the county to the warming centers during the, it was about a two week duration. And just today I was working with operators emergency operations staff with the city and just looking at warm weather scenarios and just how we tighten up communication moving into the future so we're always available when we're needed. Coming up in August 4th, we're on the ballot. The absentee ballots will be going out probably in a couple weeks now. Clerk Borling's working hard on that, I'm sure. We just had a millage last fall. It was for our fixed route bus service just in the urban area of the county. That was approved by the voters by 68%. And this falls millage is a little different. This is countywide millage. It funds our Metro Connect service and our Metro Share service. The millage is for 0.36 mils, and it's going to be for a seven-year duration. And it raises a little bit from our previous millage rate of 0.32 mils. What was approved last time was 0.324 mils. It's now up to 0.36 mils. Our millage is a essential key piece of our funding to sustain the level and quality of services that we have with the community. We're able to leverage state and federal funds, apply for a variety of federal grants to help supplement the local funding through the millage. And I'm proud to say just this last winter we received a very large federal grant, a competitive grant from the state of Michigan to change our fleet composition a little bit. We're going to be able to purchase about eight new hybrid electric buses coming up with our next round of bus purchases, so about seven to eight buses depending on how much they cost. And then with our Metro Connect program, we're going to venture into utilizing either electric vehicles, pure electric vehicles or propane vehicles. And so thank you for your time today. We really appreciate it. And as we move ahead, what we're really focused on as an organization is number one, mobility solutions for all, continuing to innovate to grow ridership and enhance the rider's experience, continuing to cultivate and grow community partnerships and build public confidence through service excellence. Thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate it, have a good evening.

You as well, thank you.

Thanks.

It's not, no, yeah. Commissioners, you have before you the agenda for tonight's meeting. Are there any changes you'd like to see to your agenda? Seeing none, next are communications. But before I hand it over to City Manager Hankins, there's a quick statement I want to give to folks. The City of Kalamazoo has not received a formal development proposal to establish a data center development, nor has a data center project been approved. We are aware of the concerns regarding data centers among residents and communities throughout the nation and the city, including several communities here in Southwest Michigan. If a proposal to build a data center moves forward, it will be reviewed through the City of Kalamazoo's established planning, zoning, and environmental utility and public engagement processes. Thank you. City Manager Hankins.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Just one communication. The city of Kalamazoo will observe Juneteenth on Friday, June 19th. So city offices will be closed except for essential services.

Thank you, Manager Hankins. Now is the time for public comments. If you would like to take advantage of public comments, please make your way up to the podium. Say your name. If you live in the city, you have four minutes.

Good afternoon. My name is Ray Sweeney. I'm a resident of this city. I'd like to patch together a number of issues. First, on Monday, April 27, we had a windstorm that brought down several trees in our neighborhood. It left several other trees damaged, still standing, but endangering nearby structures. This included our neighbor's silver maple that had a limb that was split along its length about 12 feet high above our roofs. The city crews were active in removing these threats, The city spent nearly a full day at that tree, first scoping the damage and then taking it down piece by piece. I watched the whole process. I was impressed by the chatter between the man in the bucket of the cherry picker and those on the ground. Safety was a major concern. Strategies were devised, then they talked about what could go wrong. After they hitched a major segment of the branch down, The man in the bucket shouted, the house is safe. Next length came down, free fall. It hit with a thump that shook our house. Great job. Second point. I have, on occasion, watched you on laptop at home. It has never been easy establishing a connection to the live stream. The city's website led me in circles from one place to another. It was not unusual to scream and square. A month ago, I mentioned my frustration to Caleb Beiter, the technology guru of Isaac. He told me he never uses the city website to establish a connection. He opens Facebook and then searches for the city commission. Since I don't have Facebook, I assumed that I would have to locate the live stream from the city's website. Not any longer. I'll be watching from home as Ann Sweeney on her Facebook account. The goal for you should include improving the website. Not everyone can get advised by Caleb when they have trouble navigating the city's website. Caleb is behind me if you have questions. All right, third point. I embrace the city's plans to establish a network of streets allowing two-way traffic. I note that the Academia Street is blocked and has been blocked for a long time as it approaches Stadium from the Kalamazoo College campus. That increases the volume of travel on Lovell, which feeds the campus via northbound Monroe. I'm not sure when the city plans to replace the culvert at Arcadia Creek, but please do it before Lovell becomes two-way. Please reopen Academy Street for all the reasons networks make sense. Fourth point, be diligent in striping the pavement, especially when we are all trying to keep up with the switch over to the network of streets. In the dark with wet pavement, is Anything Goes, Demolition Derby. So thanks so much for your attention.

Thank you. Next resident to the podium, please.

Hello, Dan Prochko, resident of Millwood and homeowner. I'm speaking to express my and my neighbor's strong concerns regarding the rezoning of the Harbor Farms 32,000 square foot facility located on Full Circle Drive to operate as a data center. So I appreciate your comments today, Vice Mayor. While I'm generally supportive of commercial development and bringing new business to our city, the unique nature of data centers can pose severe long-term risks to our local infrastructure and community's well-being and the financial health of a residence. In speaking with my Millwood neighbors, I urge this commission to seriously evaluate three primary areas of concern before approving this type of rezoning. One, resource consumption. The continuous drain on local utilities, specifically power and water, is staggering. The current facility rated for one megawatt continuous load equates to powering 750 homes a year. If expanded to the available 15 megawatts, that jumps to the equivalent of 15,000. That's about the same number of single-family detached homes in Kalamazoo and half of all residential units. Water, typically 30,000 square foot ag facility uses six to 12,000 gallons of water a day. A one megawatt data center can use upwards of 12,000 and if expanded to the 15 megawatts, 180,000 gallons per day. Where is this water coming from? Two, quality of life and noise pollution. Data centers are exceptionally loud operations requiring massive continuous HVAC cooling systems running 24 seven. Operating a data center introduces persistent industrial-grade hum to the surrounding two-mile radius. Within that radius are schools, parks, obviously our neighborhoods and homes. But beyond the audible noise is what's known as infrasound, low-frequency noise below the threshold of human hearing, and is documented to cause physical discomfort, sleep disturbances, and headaches in humans while severely impacting health and behavior of household pets and local wildlife. Three, the financial impact on local residents. The burden of this type of facility has so far fallen on the shoulders of local taxpayers, raising a critical question, do the economic benefits of a data center truly outweigh the financial harm done to the community? When a single private entity draws the equivalent power of 750 to 15,000 homes and hundreds of thousands of gallons of water, it severely strains our municipal infrastructure. The costs for necessary grid upgrades, peak demand power generation, and expanded water processing are historically passed down to residents through utility rate hikes. The combination of continuous noise pollution and infrasound may depress property values of surrounding areas, which may outweigh the tax benefit the city gains from a facility like this. So we cannot allow local taxpayers to subsidize the extreme resource needs of a private tech company while suffering a degraded quality of life. I respectfully ask, and thankfully heard some of this, that this commission will hold all rezoning requests of this type until a comprehensive independent environmental utility impact study can be completed. Thank you for your time, your service, and your dedication to protecting the interests of our community. Thank you. Next resident.

Sorry, I'm a little short. My name is Amanda. I'm a lifelong resident of Kalamazoo. Looking at you guys up here, I'm very grateful that we have the opportunity to have public comment like this. It's important that you understand that we have four Superfund sites in this city already. The site that's proposed for this data center is a half a mile from the closest resident. It's 1.1 mile to Millwood Middle. You guys know where that is, right? Yeah? Okay. So it's hard for me to understand the bait and switch that's happening. And I say bait and switch because, yes, this was a marijuana growing facility. It's already outfitted with a lot of these things. But when you change that over into a data center, are you aware that those super conduits are baked in PFAS and then submerged in dielectric fluids? No?

Okay.

So we've spoken with a lot of residents here and I think we all know that we voted for you to be our voice. We want you to understand that we have really big concerns about the groundwater, the ground itself. Data centers can raise the temperature around them by 16 degrees Fahrenheit. Do you know what that does to things that grow in this area? It changes their growing patterns, changes it to they don't grow at all. Did you also know that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services still, to this day, recommends that you don't eat fish out of Portage Creek or the Kalamazoo River? Even though you guys can stock it, you can't eat it. But there's no signs at any of those locations. Tell me what's going to be different. Tell me that you're going to keep our kids safe. I want to know that. How are you going to do that? How are you going to ensure that? My husband has a class three heart failure. Do you know what that infrasound does to someone with a class three heart failure? Look up vibroacoustics. It stiffens your heart muscle. It thickens your blood. I'm going to assume no one wants to have to deal with that with a loved one. A child? You want to have to look at a child in this city and say, yeah, we made the wrong choice and now you're sick? That's not safe. We voted for you. Show us why. or I will happily work with every single person in this room to make sure that your seats are recalled without question. Have a good night.

Thank you. Next resident.

I'm Thelma.

I'm a city resident, lifelong resident.

I'm Jeffrey Fry, city lifelong resident. And we have some concerns. I speak on behalf of residents on the north side. And on the north side, this is one of the main concerns right here. On the north side of Kalamazoo, there is constant and consistent surveillance of its residents. in april a flock camera was removed and replaced with a 24-hour man surveillance camera placed on the city property equipped with blue swirling lights that are non-stop flashing through bedroom windows in every direction directly and menacing voice commands that are loitering if decided to take a late night stroll these things is on next door to houses which is disturbing because there are police lights all through the houses. There's cameras and there's also recordings that they can get on the mic and they was on the mic for five in the morning one night. And it's concerning because It's kids that stay in these houses. These kids have to go to school. And then we don't know if these cameras is looking through the windows. It got kids frightened. This is not supposed to be in neighborhoods. This is supposed to be downtown or where there are restaurants or things like this. It's other ways to fight gun violence. You don't put cameras next to people's houses to actually sit there and put the police lights in their houses flashing all night when people have to work, people have to go to school, and all these things. We have talked to the chief of police who they don't care because it's not their family. This is these families that don't deserve to be punished. They don't deserve to be punished. They go to work. They go to school and all that. So if somebody pulled up and put the police lights in your house 24-7, when they come outside, when they go in, you already got flock cameras. You already got all these surveillances. You got drones. What do you need to pull a camera outside people's houses for? And it's not just a camera. These are flashing lights. These are things that you see in supermarkets at Meyers. This is not supposed to be in our community next to our houses. There's other ways to fight violence if that's the case. But the families that are suffering in these households, they don't have control of what happened outside. That's why they count on public safety. So they shouldn't be punished by being in a house when somebody is just flashing lights all in their house and they got to explain to their kids. I don't know what to say to them. My nieces know. They can't even have no friends over. Perception is everything. I'm not letting my child go over there. Look at that police camera right there, just flashing lights all night. So yes, it's a big concern. Some kids having seizures because of these lights. Do you think they care? No, because it's not in their community.

It's not just one camera. Within the next radius block on the same side, it's another one. And last week they came and put up a third one, not at the major intersection, but just at the next light, at the beginning of our neighborhood. It's one camera, and then you go, not even half a block, there's another license plate reader, a speed hump. Not a half a block, another speed hump. Before you can get out the neighborhood, another radar, license plate reader. I mean, it's absolutely, you know, psychologically, it's insane. I didn't grow up with it. My children didn't grow up with it, and I just think this needs to stop. No one ever said that they couldn't have surveillance and do all that, but this is 24 hours a day.

And we have reached out to KDPS, and we have told them they can put a patrol car right there. Who's coming through shooting with a patrol car? It's senseless. Why would you keep a camera up right there?

Thank you. Next resident, please.

Hi, I'm Kay. So, yeah, I was going to talk about the data centers and kind of shift it to something else. But I really, when I was reading the articles about it, I didn't really know the difference between the hybrid data centers and the interface data centers. And so I did a little research and the hyper data centers are the big, massive data centers that basically train the AI. So that's why they need more electricity, more capacity, because they can take weeks to process information versus the interface data center that is being, or not being considered, but you know, is the conversation is uses AI that has already been trained. Trained in who knows what. And so there's not really any oversight with the access to this information. It's really concerning, especially with this high end violence with ICE and getting $70 billion more. And people are already experiencing this violence. I just had another friend that was detained by ICE over the weekend. And I really feel numb. I feel angry that $70 billion are being prioritized for a domestic war. I mean, how much money is that for ICE, for cops, for... deputized agents in cities and communities and terrorizing communities and destabilizing communities so I definitely from from that angle I really like oppose data centers AI mass surveillance because the truth is that we are not in in Like, this is a crisis. I mean, if the house was burning down before, the house has burnt down with this administration. And it's time to see this for what it is. He's unhinged. He's going to do whatever he can to continue to disenfranchise communities and put put more money into mass surveillance to make things easier for crime reduction. All this crime reduction without resources is a farce. We see with the flock cameras, they're boasting that vehicle thefts are down, violent crimes are down. And then we have this press release by the YWCA regarding the alarming rates of escalating intimate partner violence, including over 200... percent increase in assaults, including strangulation. And the tax are closely correlated to increase risk of eventual domestic homicide. As we see this increase, right, we see the real need here is stable housing, is resources, is equitable distribution of resources, you know, people not being most of the community here being renters, and all of these issues that really are not being addressed. And as we see this administration not prioritizing this, we see a city too. I think back to the ARPA funds, I think back to where those funds were supposed to go as an emergency, right? Back then in 2020, we came, the common theme was the emergency. of the of the pandemic and now we're coming here saying this is an emergency now this mass surveillance is not good for communities what we need to do is focus on housing focus on resources focus on setting a foundation for people as Trump is snatching people's safety nets from under to fund genocide to fund war to fund global wars and domestic wars and so we this city really needs to, and this county, I say, because this is gonna affect the county, this is gonna affect the communities, right? It's gonna have an impact. Because these little data centers need to be close to urban places so they can have access to networks, so they can transmit information faster. And that is so dangerous for a community who is about, for communities that are being.

Thank you. Next resident, please.

Good evening. My name is Maddie Jordan Woods. I came to the commission tonight to just hear what was going on, because I think it's important that people know what is going on in their neighborhoods. And so I'm glad I'm here tonight. I'm not here speaking for anybody but Maddie Marie Jordan Woods, who live in 902 West Patterson. And I am going to say that, yes, I support the surveillance coming into the neighborhood. People think that everything could be OK to come on the north side. But they want to live someplace else. I'm not saying anyone who was up here saying I'm not talking about anybody else. I'm talking about me. And I am saying that, no, I don't want to see the X train. And whatever is being done in downtown for the restaurants to make sure that they're safe and people want to be there. I want the same thing on the north side. Another north side resident, she says she's too far away. to come and make her comments, but I think that people who have, that they have valid comments, if they've asked public safety, and public safety isn't responding, that's something that you all can look at, but I'm telling you, me as this one resident, and I think as some other residents that would get up and say, no, we want the same thing that's being done in any other neighborhood. It's just like people, everybody wants to put affordable housing only on the north side. I don't think so. Affordable housing needs to go everywhere, just like middle class housing. And we believe everyone should have a safe place to live, period. Thank you.

Thank you. Next resident.

Hello, good evening. My name is David Knutson. I'm a senior, I'm sorry, lead software engineer at Streamline Healthcare Solutions. It's a software company that used to have more staff in town than we do now. We've been using AI for about six months to a year now. From my position as a lead on the team that I run that does software development, we've only really seen 10% improvement in productivity. For the most part, what we use it for is for documentation, formatting documentation. effectively just a better autocomplete for code. Oftentimes we find difficulty in using it in our area because of the nature of our legacy code base. I came up here to talk about not only my experience as a software developer in charge of a team that uses AI to do software coding, but also as an artist. I'm a lighting designer. I am also a board member of Queer Theater Kalamazoo. I'm their treasurer. The AI situation right now is one where I believe that it's a speculative bubble. I think the way it's marketed by these different AI companies is it's intended to be a sort of panacea to solve all our problems. It really doesn't work that way. It's been used to effectively steal from creatives and artists nationally. None of these artists where their art was scraped from the website. really had good informed consent that that was happening. Places like DeviantArt from Archive of Our Own, where a lot of creative writing was stolen. So the generative AI that all these companies have been pushing is poisoned water that's been fed back to us. And that's how I feel about it. For this data center, physically, I think that we are capable of handling it, this community. I've seen that it doesn't necessarily take, that this inference data center isn't going to pull groundwater to cool it, that it's going to be able to use AC cooling. 15 megawatts is 1,500 homes, as my friend back there said. which is a lot, it's a lot of homes, but it's in the grand scheme of things, we generate something like seven gigawatts or 70 gigawatts of power. So it's an order of magnitude difference. But all of that said, I have deep ethical concerns with AI generally. I think the AI is a speculative bubble that's going to collapse at some point. And if any history has shown us when speculative bubbles like that collapse, it's not places like us in the Rust Belt flyover states that end up richer for that. So that's all. Thank you.

Thank you. Next resident.

Hi, everyone, again. My name is Tina, and I live on Lake Stude. I live in that lovely floodplain area of Kalamazoo, the south side of town. And I've been coming here for eight years trying to get this flooding issue addressed. And you, you get to leave, you got to leave our last natural green space along Lake Stockbridge, John, for it helps us with flooding. When your storm drains flood out the streets, they back up the sewers. I'm glad you finally admit there is a problem and are doing different things in our area finally. And doing something with the broken pipe on Burdick Street, something to do with the groundwater. see in our neighborhood the infrastructure under the streets is not working hasn't been for a long time the question is are you doing this finally for the residents that live in my neighborhood or for a developer who wants to build in a flood plain area see we have been at NOAA for eight years so it's hard to trust and believe me to trust the city of kalamazoo for we have learned You only hear about the money train, and you have never listened really to the residents. You normally do what you want, planning and dumping in our neighborhoods, especially in the poorer neighborhoods. So it makes it really hard to trust city leaders. I'm sorry. Well, it's becoming time for fireworks again. And the city of Kalamazoo puts out a post of the rules of fireworks, the do's and the don'ts. And one of them rules is you can't shoot fireworks off in a city park. Upjohn Park is a city-owned park. They shoot them off all night, late into the evening. They shoot off fireworks in the park, big fireworks. We watch ambers drop on the grass where KVCC's grass is on the side by Lake Street. Last year they set the dumpster on fire. The year before they set the dumpster and they set the grass on fire three times. There's no water to put the fire out. You call the police and you get, ma'am, they can shoot off fireworks till 1145. There's nothing we can do. But again, it's illegal to shoot them off in a city-owned park. There are so many cars going in and out of that park, you'd think it's drug deals going on, because they trash the park, they leave fireworks all over the place, and then they leave. And you need to bring back public call-ins so every resident can have a voice in the city of Kalamazoo, not just the ones that can make it here. Because there's some people that just can't make it here. And everybody needs to have their voice heard. Are you really going to let them build a data center in Kalamazoo by a middle school? Do you know how noisy they are? Do you know how bad the environment is? I know the city. If I know the city like I know the city from being here for eight years, you probably will, because Kalamazoo is all about money. Kalamazoo doesn't listen to the residents or the safety of the residents. To build a data center in a neighborhood by a school, think about this. Think about it this way. Would you want a data center by any of your homes? Data centers are very noisy. They help pollute the air. And we already know. GP, the city plant, traffic calming projects that makes lights timing so bad that cars sit idled at every light in town, sit backed up for blocks. Data centers use a lot of water, use a lot of chemicals. to the water and the land in the air that we breathe. It helps destroy and confuse wildlife. We really have enough problems in Kalamazoo. Please don't add any more. Crime is out of control, shootings are out of control, and running red lights are out of control. Flooding is out of control on the south side, and all we want is dry streets. Homelessness is happening more and more because rent prices are so high, people can't afford to live. And all you do is waste your money in the rich man's playground downtown. That's the most important thing for the city of Kalamazoo, is the rich man's playground. Thank you.

Thank you. Next resident, please.

Good evening to our mayor in his absence, our vice mayor, commissioners, city managers, city attorney. My name is Charlay Davis with Isaac. Over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, Brother Ed Genesis hosted It's a Trap, Trauma Reducing Applied Practices. with the guest speaker, actor, Brother Antoine Tanner and his wife. And so I did want to just go on record and to say thank you to Mayor Anderson for taking time during that busy holiday weekend. That was also a prime weekend as well and for making time to attend. So thank you, Mayor. It was an awesome event and we look forward to Brother Antoine and Sister Tiffany returning to Kalamazoo again soon for our next community event. Where Orange is this month, and again, I want to honor the violence and the loss of life and loved ones here in the US and nationwide, and all of us who are survivors and who have been impacted. I next want to say thank you to Vice Mayor Drew for all his work in helping to bring the Democracy Defenders Roadshow here to Kalamazoo. We are so excited. They are traveling to various cities and coming to Kalamazoo, so thank you, Vice Mayor. the collaborative event with el concilio our el concilio family who will be offering interpretation and so many other supporting organizations and congregations have been invited and many awesome leaders and organizations are here in chambers tonight the event is july 1st and you all are invited to share space with us in community and the two focus are gun violence and voter suppression. So we just have to look around you all, the US, and see what's happening and how the work of pioneers like the late Representative John Lewis, who bled for voting rights, and many who lost their lives for voting rights. such as Jimmy Lee Jackson, Viola Liozzo, Medgar Evers, James, Andrew, and Michael from CORE, the Reverend George W. Lee, Lamar Smith, and the list sadly goes on and on for valuable lives who were lost so that we could vote. So on July 1st, after dinner, we will open with a panel of awesome international leaders, Minore, Ali, and Elena, with expertise in community-based peace-building initiatives, human rights, and dismantling structural racism. Following our panel, we will move into smaller brainstorming groups, facilitated by local gun violence prevention and intervention workers, and then also voting rights activists. So while remembering our ancestors' fights for civil rights and democracy, this year we are called into deeper collaboration, communication, and then also organizing. And through the sharing of lived experiences and brainstorming, we believe that we will be able to come up with even more solutions as we think about what faces us later this year. I want to say also that I appreciate the statement that was read, so thank you all so very much. If this comes to you, I would just ask that you use a lens of environmental racism when looking at this, people over profits, the physical health of community, anti-racist lens, and then the risk of unintended consequences. Of course, I'm talking about the data centers. And then we ask, like you already said, that you all please keep us posted. Thank you for allowing community members to have a voice in this process. And we look forward to seeing you all July 1st. Thank you.

Thank you. Next resident, please.

Hi, my name is Shona Espinosa and I think us as a community and you as the board, we need to come together to understand and be able to fix and find different ways for our unhoused that needs to be housed. Nobody should be out on the street when it's cold, when it's hot. Like that's not okay. It's not only just adults out there. There's children out there. There's so many children out there. There's babies out there. Those that are disabled, those that are veterans, those that are single parents, this is not a new concern. This is something that we have been bringing to this board time and time again. And what are we finding that other things are put first over housing, like changing two way streets, making sure that our city manager has money for housing. There are so many things that should not be going on that are because it's not about making sure that everybody in the city is okay. It's about making sure that you guys are changing the way it looks in Kalamazoo you want the money aspect but not what people matter money is just something but people matter you can replace money but you cannot replace people everybody should be treated as equals but they're not because people that have money seem to be the most important people that this board and other boards seem to think that are important. But guess what? We all are the same. We all have the same needs. We all need housing. We all need food. We all need make sure that we are safe and our children are safe. That's what's important. We bleed the same at the end of the day. We live and we die. Why can't everybody seem to understand that we all are equals? It doesn't matter where you work, how much you make. We all deserve a house. We all deserve food. We all deserve safety. But it doesn't work like that, and it should in Kalamazoo. If you're white, you have less barriers. If you're black and brown, you have too many barriers. When is enough enough? How many times do people have to come up here and ask the same thing? We all deserve a place to live, food on our table, resources that are accessible and able to be reached. But it's all a big confusion when you're trying to go through the housing system. It's bullshit. You cannot navigate through it. You get tired. You don't get communicated back. You get told the same thing, even by those that sit in these seats. Reach out here, reach out there, and guess what? They're telling you to come to this board or talk to the mayor. And it's a big runaround, which is not fair. Nobody deserves to live out on the street. It's too cold or too hot. There's too many things out there that are causing harm. Everybody deserves the same. thing in life in different perspectives. Do better, because I'm really tired of coming up to this damn board expressing my concerns. Do better. Do better in so many different ways. Or guess what? We will vote your asses out.

Thank you. Next resident, please. Anyone else wishing to take advantage of public comment?

Hi, my name's Maya. I am a resident of the city. I am also here because the cannabis producer, Harbor Farms, wants to sell their industrial property on Full Circle Drive to be used as an AI data center. If and when the time comes, I really hope that you will use the power that you have to prevent this from happening. I believe that AI and the machinery that supports it have no place in our community, and I actually bet that all of you believe that too. While I was putting this together, I was trying to play devil's advocate and look up like, why are AI data centers good for local communities? The Google AI was very excited to tell me that they are great, but wouldn't you know, that wasn't really backed up by any real sources. What little I could corroborate were economic benefits, like more jobs and tax revenue. But between rising utility costs and the tax breaks that data centers often get, even those benefits are speculative at best. And we all know that there are things that are more important than money. The costs of AI data centers are not speculative. Anyone who understands AI understands that it poses high near-term risks to the world and the people who live in it. And I'm also willing to bet that it goes against each of your individual moral compasses. Commissioner Hess, you believe in spreading joy to your community. AI data centers spread air pollution, noise pollution, high electricity and water costs, and utility shortages, which are the opposite of joy. Commissioner Wilson, you believe that every family in Kalamazoo deserves an equal opportunity to thrive. People who live closer to an AI data center have lower quality of life because of air and noise pollution. Commissioner Pradle, you are passionate about children and literacy, and so am I. AI is terrible for literacy, and its environmental impact will leave this community's children living in a worse world. Commissioner Hoffman, who is not here, is committed to serving the underserved. AI exacerbates inequality in our systems, our access to resources, and in the physical communities around data centers. Commissioner Slaby, you believe in building strong connections with neighborhoods. Neighborhoods across America are in open revolt against their city leadership because of the negative impacts of AI data centers. Vice Mayor Duncan, I think you're probably already on my side, so I'm not going to come for you. Mayor Anderson, who is not here, has invested a long career in this city, and so have many of you. Don't prioritize this money-making scheme over the people you've promised to work for. It is not our fault that Harbor Farms entered an oversaturated industry, and it is not your responsibility to bail them out. It is your responsibility to take a stand against AI data centers and AI surveillance in Kalamazoo. Do not let this happen. Do not take this genie out of the bottle. Say no to this data center and every single one after it. Thank you.

Thank you. Next resident, please.

I only need 10 seconds, right? I spoke earlier. My name is Jeffrey Fry. I spoke earlier on behalf of the residents of the north side.

But it's different. Sir, I'm sorry. You only get one time to speak in public comment.

But I just wanted to show you all a visual. And when you're next to somebody's house.

Thank you. Any other residents wishing to take advantage of public comment? Seeing none, next is the consent agenda. City Manager Hankins. So are you looking to make a comment? Okay, sorry.

I know most of these points have been addressed. My name is Justin Wood. I'm a resident and I live down in the Edison neighborhood on Vine. Like many have pointed out, data centers are certainly a waste of, I think, a lot of our time. They don't provide anything meaningful and I think anybody If I may, Vice Mayor Duncan, the statement that you made at the opening of this regarding data centers is, I guess, much to the point that the already existing processes, permit processes, land use processes, environmental impact studies, all of those things in the background are the issue. They aren't a sideline. They aren't a dodge. They are the responsibility of each of you to make sure exists and continues to exist in a way that does protect the interests and desires of our citizens. And some of those citizens are homeless. I've, for the last few weeks, been working to serve the homeless community on Fridays, feeding them in a location downtown. And I've seen firsthand the suffering and I've seen the demographic makeup of that population. And one of the things I will say is that they are frankly hard workers. They work harder to stand and be available during the time that that food is served with no choice of theirs. They work harder to carry what they can through that line. Probably best exemplified if anyone wants to look up what happened at the recent longest breakfast table clearing out in 20 minutes is people said, yoink, let's go, I'm hungry. People are starving in our community. I watched somebody get through that line trying to carry three people's worth of meals because of their loved ones who weren't physically able to be there. When most of the proteins had run out, they were grateful for the pat of butter I could put on a cheap piece of bread for them. And the thin baby that sat on some man's lap while he tried to work through a small amount of his own meal and take care of that child happened less than a couple miles from where I live. And meanwhile, there are two pieces of property on my block that are in the Kalamazoo City land bank holdings that are perfectly eligible properties for small home development, again, with possible changes in a few background rules for the benefit of the citizens. But those land bank spaces are sitting next to rental properties where those Residents are not eligible to use them for so much as a garden. They could buy them, I guess, at some market price that no one will ever pay because it wasn't worth the tax payment for the people that owned them before. So anyway, I would just remind you that when this meeting wraps up, your work doesn't stop with rules, and it doesn't stop with meetings, and it doesn't stop with listening to the public. It stops when we stop having babies dying because they're not being cared for by us, their community. Thank you. Any other public comment?

Hi there, my name is Delaney. I'm a resident of Millwood neighborhood and sorry all this is my first time doing this. So bear with my nervousness. I came to speak against the proposed and I know y'all said it wasn't like an actual proposal, but the Harbor Farms Data Center thing. I agree with the the research done by other community members, and so I was curious. We've all pretty much heard that there's a data center now in Dowagic. It's a hyperscale data center for AI purposes. So in my own little journalistic journey, I went to go see what the noise was like, and I have a recording, so I'm gonna play it for the room. And this was not, like, right up next to it. It was a few... So obviously, I don't want that type of noise pollution 24-7 in my neighborhood. I live less than a mile away from the Harbor Farms weed factory. So I just came here to plead with you guys. Please think of the residents as you're seeing proposals. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Going once.

Hello, my name is William Perkins, and I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to make some words here for you. This is hard, I'm sorry. I assume that you've all made your decision about this project. And I also assume that there's a lot of money involved. But I wanted to express my feelings that there's also a lot of people involved and our environment. I understand these things are devastating to our environment. And it's not just my environment, it's your environment, your children, your grandchildren, your neighbors, your friends. I understand that almost everybody will be affected by this in one way or another. Excuse me. I hope that it's not bad if you choose to do this, but I have a very bad feeling that it will be. down the road, this will hurt us better than help us. So I hope that you all make the right decision for the benefit of everyone in our community, including yourselves. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Any other public comment?

Seeing none, next is the consent agenda. City Manager Hankins. Thank you, Vice Mayor. The following items are submitted for approval. Item G1, approval of a contract extension with Fishbeck for Brownfield Redevelopment Consulting Services, bid reference number 91843-004.2. Item 2, G2, approval of a contract supplemental change order with the Michigan Department of Transportation for the Stadium Drive project for final accounting in the amount of $112,396.10. Item G3, approval of a contract with Davey Resource Group Inc. for 2026 tree planting in the amount of $112,759.70. G4, approval of a contract supplemental and change order with R.W. Lapine for the galvanized water pipe project at City Hall in the amount of $150,322.00. G5, approval of a sole source agreement with MJM America for professional and technical engineering services in the amount of $168,042.24. G6, approval of a one-year license renewal for dark trace cybersecurity software from SHI International through the MyDeal Cooperative Purchase Program. in the amount of $169,169.75. G7, approval of a contract supplemental and change order with Tetra Tech Inc. for the water treatment plant number 39 chlorine upgrades project in the amount of $71,500 for a total contract amount of $193,500. G8 approval of contract with division seven building contractors for the roof replacement of section four of the administration facility at 415 East Stockridge Avenue in the amount of $216,390. G9, approval of a professional services agreement with elite companies for construction management services of Phase 1, 1A, and Phase 2 renovation of Arcadia Creek Festival Place, any amount of $562,500. G10, adoption of a resolution approving amendments to the fiscal year 2026 budget. G11, adoption of a resolution authorizing the community development manager as the city's financial, excuse me, official representative and certifying officer for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant documentation through June 30th, 2027, the remainder of the 2026 HUD program year. Item G12, Adoption of a resolution establishing Zone 32 NEZ District at 825 Porter Street and 810 North Pitcher Street in the Northside neighborhood. G13. Adoption of a resolution approving the Act 381 Brownfield Plan for the Zone 32 Phase 2 project located at 825 Porter and 810 North Pitcher Street. G 14 adoption, excuse me, approval of a housing development fund loan in the amount of $350,000 to zone 32 phase two LLC for gap financing to construct affordable housing units as part of phase two of the zone 32 apartment project. G15 approval of the third amendment to the subrecipient agreement with the local initiatives support cooperation for rental rehabilitation to extend the time frame for project completion. And G16 approval of the mayor's appointments and reappointments to the following boards and commissions. The reappointment of Lucas Middleton to the Economic Development Corporation and Brownfield Redevelopment Authority for a term expiring on March 31, 2032. The reappointment of Michael Guerno to the Economic Development Corporation and Brownfield Redevelopment Authority for a term expiring on March 31, 2032. The appointment of Mark Dunham to the Historic District Commission for a term expiring on January 1st, 2029. The appointment of Elijah Rimes, excuse me, Elijah Ish to the Historic District Commission for a term expiring on January 1st, 2028. The reappointment of James Johnson to the Historic District Commission for a term expiring on January 1st, 2029. and the reappointment of Christie Brissac to the historic district commission for a term expiring on January 1st, 2029.

Commissioners, the requested action is a motion to approve one through 16 and authorize the city manager to sign all related documents on behalf of the city. Is there a motion?

So moved. Support.

Clerk Boylan, please call the roll. Commissioner Prado. Yes. Commissioner Slabey.

Yes.

Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice Mayor Duncan. Yes. Commissioner Hess. Yes.

Thank you, Commissioners. Items on the consent agenda are approved. Now we are at the regular agenda. City Manager Hankins.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. H1, approval of a contract with SWT Excavating Inc. fiscal year, 2026, non-copper service time replacements in the amount of $4,135,936.10. Thank you. Is there a staff report on this item? There is not, but we are available for questions. Thank you.

Any questions for staff commissioners? Seeing none, are there any questions from the audience at this time? Time for public comment on regular agenda item one. Seeing none, item H1, please, sorry.

I make a motion.

Yeah, thank you.

To approve and authorize the city manager to sign all related documents.

Support.

Clerk Borden, please call the roll.

Commissioner Prado. Yes. Commissioner Slaby.

Yes.

Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice Mayor Duncan. Yes. Commissioner Hess. Yes.

Thank you, Commissioners. The motion passes. Next agenda item is H2, City Manager Hankins.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Approval of an 18-month contract extension with waste management for the loading, transport, and disposal of biosolids, any amount of $20,892,000. Thank you. Is there a staff report on this item? No, there is not. But we do have staff available for questions.

Commissioners, do we have any questions?

Sure. Question for you. I noticed this is a 18 month contracts extension and so I'm assuming that might coincide with some of the solid waste technology that we're hoping to implement. But I did want to check on that and then it was also hoping director Baker if you could just kind of speak about the trends and increase in these costs that we've seen and what we're trying to do to mitigate those costs because they've gone up significantly.

Yeah. Sure. Thank you, Vice Mayor, City Manager, City Commissioners. Commissioner Prado, I'll answer your last question first to kind of help introduce the conversation. So sludge disposal costs have continued to escalate for a number of years now. If we go back to prices before 2018, we were paying somewhere around four and a half million dollars per year you see the contract in front of you today it's actually a year and a half so it's it's the rest of half of this year and then all of 2027 for 20 million dollars so certainly a tremendous increase from where we've been We've seen these increases over a number of years. Staff have been working for three years now on a Kalamazoo sustainable biosolids alternative. So we've gone through extensive engineering research and product evaluations to kind of locate the next best process for Kalamazoo, considering multiple factors including environmental concerns, concerns about odors, air quality, cost, kind of a whole matrix, cross-section of items to look at and focus on. That work culminated in the city commissioning and approving a design contract for technology. That design is underway right now with anticipation that we would be ready to bid that work out around February to March of 2027. So we're around seven to eight months away from being able to bid that project out. That project would anticipate about a three year construction trajectory to get up and running and then would be operational sometime between 2030 and 2031. So this contract that's in front of you today is just a one year extension to get us kind of, well a year and a half, to get us kind of out into the future a little bit so that we've got some better understanding on what our final product is going to look like and maybe some additional opportunities to bid out disposal when we know a little bit more about our future and also the future of this large disposal market.

Given the nature of the length of the construction project and before we'll actually be able to send it out to bidding, do you have any concerns about further expense increase, volatility in the coming years? Is there any benefit to potentially looking at longer or further multi-year contract? Or in your view, is this a better approach just to kind of better understand what our timelines look like and what our needs are as we get closer to that project?

Sure. You know, as we look at where we are today and where we plan to be in the future. So today we're manufacturers of the process. It's not that we manufacture intentionally. It's just that, you know, our work at cleaning water results in this byproduct. And so that byproduct is a wet product. It's about 25% solids with about 75% water. Through the construction project that we plan to embark upon under the Kalamazoo Sustainable Biosolids Alternative, we'll be transitioning to a dry product. So we'll be going from about a 25% cake salad product to about a 75% to 80% cake salad product. So that change or that variation from that wet product where we are today to that future dry product is going to kind of put us in a different market for sludge disposal. So this bid in front of us right now, this contract extension, it's really just kind of a bridge to get us to a future state where we can confidently bid out where we know we're going to be. And part of that is that construction timing. We don't have any bids in place to build that project yet. We're not going to bid that out until probably February, March of 2027. So we want to get out into the future a little bit more so we have some better understanding of that construction timeline and some better understanding on what some of those final outputs are going to look like from dryness and some of those other factors. Thank you. Any other questions, commissioners? Seeing none, thank you, Director Baker. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Seeing no other questions from the commissioners, is there anyone in the audience that would like to comment on this item? H2, please come to the podium. Give us your name and whether you live in the city, you have three minutes for your comments. Seeing there are no comments, the recommended action is a motion to approve and authorize the city manager to sign all related documents. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Support.

Clerk Borling, please call the roll. Commissioner Slaby.

Yes.

Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice Mayor Duncan. Yes. Commissioner Hess. Yes. Commissioner Pradel. Yes.

Thank you, commissioners. The motion passes.

Next on the agenda, item H3, City Manager Hankins. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Adoption of a notice of intent resolution for the issuance of 2026 capital improvement bonds in an amount not to exceed $9,400,000. Thank you. Is there a staff report on this item? No, there is not. Well, we actually have a brief overview if you want to share it. I'm sorry. He looked really ready.

He was ready.

I just knew he didn't have a long one.

If you were going to let me off the hook, I'd take it. All right, I'll just speak briefly on items H3 and H4 together. This is just the first step of our bonding process. It's our notice of intent. After this, we publish in the paper as well. The public has 45 days to do a petition if they want to take this to a vote. If that petition does not come through, we're able to then authorize bonding in August. I'll come back with an actual notice of approval to bond in August as well. So this is just kind of that first step in that process. Just kind of talking quickly about our bonding here. you know we have our general capital improvement bond item h3 it's 9.4 million that covers our general fund capital improvements and our local and major street capital plans that are the bond portions of those and the general fund just a few of the projects that are in there you know it's replacement fire breathing apparatuses for kdps safety improvements at striker field other park improvements in millen park and city heavy equipment then item h4 is covering our water capital plan and i will say that that's a 44 million dollar capital plan of which 36 million is planned for out of bonds or reserves we have on hand So doing that calculation, we came up with, you know, based on the execution rate of the projects and then also reserves that we did have on hand, only bonding 21.2 million of that plan. That is in line with the approved rates for 2026. So this is no change to the rates that have already been approved for the year. And everything is in line with or under what we anticipated for budget for the year.

Thank you. Any questions for staff at this time? Seeing none, thank you. Seeing no questions from commissioners, is there anyone in the audience that would like to make a comment on this item, H3? Please come to the podium. Give us your name. Whether you live in the city, you will have three minutes. Seeing none, the recommended action is a motion to adopt the resolution. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Support?

Clerk Boylan, please call the roll. Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice Mayor Duncan. Yes. Commissioner Hess. Yes. Commissioner Prado. Yes. Commissioner Slabey.

Yes.

Thank you, Commissioners. The motion passes. Next agenda item is H for City Manager Hankins.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Adoption of a notice of intent resolution for the issuance of 2026 water supply system revenue bonds in an amount not to exceed $21,200,000. Thank you, Manager Hankins.

As we heard from city staff, this is in connection to the previous item. Do we need another presentation? Thank you. Any questions from commissioners concerning this item? Seeing none, any questions in the audience? If there are, please come to the podium, give your name, whether you live in the city, and you will have three minutes.

Thank you.

Do I have a motion to approve?

So moved.

Support.

Clerk Boring, please call the roll. Vice Mayor Duncan? Yes. Commissioner Hess? Yes. Commissioner Prado? Yes. Commissioner Slaby?

Yes.

Commissioner Wilson? Yes. Thank you, commissioners.

The motion passes. Next, we have reports and legislation.

City Manager Hankins, do you have a report? Yes, I'll just call out a few things from the report that I've shared with you already, the written report. The City of Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo's All Things Possible program is a free summer opportunity for Kalamazoo youth entering into the ninth grade this fall. And it's designed to help prepare students for success in high school and beyond. It combines life skills, development, work readiness training, career and college exploration, recreational activities, and hands-on learning. The program runs Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. There are two summer sessions, June 15th through July 10th. July 13th through August 7th. The registration for the first session is closed, however there are spots that remain available for the second session beginning July 13th. So I wanted to make sure that information was out there. You can find more information available through the KZU Parks website. Just a few things. Over the past week I had the opportunity to attend a number of events showcasing our community, the strengths in our community. I joined attendees at the inaugural Women Veteran Conference hosted by Veteran First at the Radisson. And the conference brought together veterans, advocates, community leaders to provide support, resources, and network opportunities for women who have served in our country. I think, Vice Mayor, you helped to welcome participants and open the event. I think it was well attended and hopefully in the future it'll get even larger. Also had a chance to tour the city and Love Where You Live bus tour with the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. Took another visit to the Boys and Girls Club. It just keeps getting better every time I go back. So it highlighted organizations, initiatives, making a positive impact on the quality of life in our community. And so I'm glad that we can now go into the Boys and Girls Club, take some shots. shots basketball basketball shots yes uh jump shots thank you thank you uh so later that day also attended the black and brown connect mixer at western michigan university hosted by southwest michigan first this event is one of many it's brought together businesses community leaders from across the region to build relationships and share experiences and strengthen connections that support continued growth and collaboration one of our very own bobby boyd helps to coordinate these events i think and so thank you it's a good experience i believe vice mayor actually was there along with me at that event this past week so that's all i have thank you city manager next we will hear commissioner comments commissioners commissioner slavery

Really last two weeks have been jam-packed. I really love to be at Pride all day. I think it was our largest outpouring of support that we've had there. So saw fellow commissioners and vice mayor there. I would say that I'd love to see the city have a table next time. I didn't really notice them be present and I know the county was there. I think it's really important to ensure that we're connecting with all communities and having an opportunity for them to engage with us around our programs and services. So maybe something we can add to the list for next year. I don't know if we've done that previous times, but I just couldn't recall seeing them last week that day. The other thing was this past Saturday, I got to really enjoy my time at Bronson Park. We had Michigan Nurses Association and National Nurses United come together to put on a red alert rally. This is to raise awareness on the proposed federal Medicaid and Medicare cuts. And that would significantly impact our services, especially at Beacon Hospital, where 85% of our patients in this community rely on those programs. So it was a great time to connect with nurses and other medical practitioners who's bringing this to our attention and continue to advocate it at the state and national level to do something about it. Also, love that we celebrated the 75th anniversary recently of the KIA. I know Commissioner Hess and I were there with State Representative Julie Rogers, and we also had an awesome art fair all at the same time. So lots of things going on. One thing that I just want to raise, because I know a lot of our people in the community have brought this to our attention, and I just want to echo their concerns around the idea that we've had a wonderful opportunity to have this Arcadia Festival site for so many years as a space where we can gather as a community, not just during festivals, but every single day throughout the year. Recently, within the last year, we fenced it off. The idea was we had to do some soil testing and other things as part of the larger development. I know that it's been an issue with some of the mainstay festivals that we have in the area to find a place to call home while we're in this construction phase. So we've accommodated some of them to be able to come back momentarily. But for me, that raises the question, which it has done amongst the community members, why we have it fenced off in the first place if really we're not doing anything. It looks like the soil testing has wrapped up. and if we're able to take the fences down for these festivals we can keep the fences down until we engage the rest of the construction phase so I really hope that city staff can take a look into this and figure out what we can do because I think this is really important to ensure that we're sending the right message to the community that this will continue to be a space where anyone and everyone can gather no matter what And I also look forward to seeing a better transformed space that is welcoming and allows anyone to belong in that space. So I'll continue to look forward to having this conversation with everyone. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Slaby. Any other commissioners? Commissioner Yes.

Sure, thank you, Vice Mayor. Again, like Commissioner Slavy said, it's been a crazy two weeks since our last meeting. So much has gone on. Let's see, so I was able to be at Kalamazoo Foundation to present a proclamation from the city to Dr. Kathy Katari. If you know Kathy, she's amazing. She had a career of great significance here in Kalamazoo. She is a pioneer of Cradle Kalamazoo, whose work has been instrumental in addressing the black infant mortality rate here in our city and our county. And in her retirement, we proclaimed her greatness and her transformative ability. So we're really grateful to Dr. Katari. Following then, we had a jumpstart weekend, which included Pride, the KIA, Art on the Mall, and the Doodah Parade. A lot of working together from a lot of different groups, and it's a great start to the summer. We welcomed a lot of people from around the country to Kalamazoo. And so I'd like to give a big shout out to Director Baker and his crew and being able to address flooding in Bronson Park on a moment's notice with our new Vactor truck. We voted, I don't know when we voted for that, a few months ago. It's pretty new. And the vector truck rolled up into Bronson Park and opened up that storm drain and it was really wonderful. And I'm really grateful to that crew that showed up and helped Art Fair be successful. And then Thursday night, Thursday night, June 11th at Kalamazoo College at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, our Public Safety Department partnered with Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership and was host to a new film that has won awards around the world. and in my humble opinion, should win Oscars. This is a documentary that was the brainchild of Kalamazoo College alum Michael Sunen, class of 92, and he was actually in town to do the commencement speech at K college this weekend. But he brought three of the primaries that were in that film actually from LA, from the Watts. The name of the film is Nothing to See Here, Watts. Please look up the trailer, it's on YouTube. Look up the trailer and imagine it as a two hour documentary. No one in that room moved. It was standing room only and it was powerful. when they were addressing this issue of gun violence in Watts and unnecessary deaths. We had the talk back and questions and answers on both sides. What was very clear to me though was their affirmation of what's going on on the other side of the country regarding gun violence. that we are doing good things with our public safety and with our gun violence workers and community violence folks that we're doing very many of the same things that they're doing to get that success rate from so many deaths down to zero. And we won't be successful until there are zero in this community. So we will continue to work on that. And we're really grateful to Michael for sharing his talents, but coming from Kalamazoo College, going out to LA, seeing a problem, addressing it, and then making a difference around the world with his ideas. So Nothing to See, Hear, Watch is a great film, and I would encourage you to look it up. We were able to open many facilities, like Manager Hankins mentioned, the Boys and Girls Clubs. A beautiful facility will affect young lives in Kalamazoo for years to come. There are over, it can serve, it has a capacity of over 100 youth at one time, but it can serve over 100 youth a day during the summer and in after school programs. And I'm really grateful to the staff and all the folks at Boys and Girls Clubs who are giving their lives to the youth of Kalamazoo. Also opened the KNHS homes on Ada Street. Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing has nine new homeownership opportunities on Simpson and Ada Streets on the north side. That includes five newly constructed homes and four rehabilitations, and all will be sold to KNHS clients on a shared equity model. So no project like that to make things affordable for folks is done without collaboration from the state, from federal government, from city government. So city and county also put into that project as well as our foundation for excellence from the city. So I'm really grateful for our folks at the city being a part of that. Then on Friday, the Kalamazoo Community Courtyard had the ribbon cutting. The YWCA and the county housing and partners, including the city, had 19 units of housing development designed to support survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence. Again, this is collaboration, getting the work done. We get the work done. We are asked up here to do the work, but we are a hub. We are a collaborator. We work to get the work done. And then with an exclamation point on collaboration. This Friday and Saturday, I was blessed to be able to serve at the dental clinic at Wing Stadium, the free dental clinic from 6 a.m. It went from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and served over 800 people with free dental care from cleanings to endodontics to fillings to oral surgery and that people got their smiles back. This was in Kalamazoo but it was for it was it attracted people from out of state from from Farther north in the state. So this is a once every two year event and Kalamazoo had it this year and Kalamazoo showed up as volunteers, as dentists. I'd like to thank Dr. Kate Nelson for being the head dentist from Kalamazoo. excuse me, for all of these folks, it was moving. And when we think about visiting the dentist, it's not ever a pleasant experience, but everyone there had gratitude. Everyone there was willing to do the greater good for the greater community and to provide this free. It's actually with the Michigan Dental Association Foundation. provides the support for it. But it's really incredible. It was incredible to see, incredible to tour through, but also incredible to experience as a volunteer and being with those folks who are receiving that service. It's very moving. So thank you, Kalamazoo. But I say all this to say we are better together. that everyone achieves more together. We don't have to look far to see the goodness or the generosity of Kalamazoo. Our big little city is punching above its weight in terms of what we do and what we're doing. Are we perfect? No, we are not perfect. but we are a yes and city. Yes, we see this. Yes, we are aware of this and we listen and we work on it together. Thank you.

Thank you. Sure.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. I'm going to put my Parks and Rec liaison hat on here because this is a great time of year in the city of Kalamazoo. So Lunchtime Live is back, effective last Friday. So on Fridays in Bronson Park from 1130 to 1, there's lots of food trucks and music, games for folks to come down and enjoy if you get a chance on Fridays throughout the summer. Also, I know this week is slightly cooler than it was last week and will likely be in the future, but We have the Kick Pool, it's back open. It opened June 3rd and is open through August 9th. In addition, we have two recently renovated parks that have splash pads in Flort Street Park and La Crome Park splash pad. We've got Woods Lake Beach and, like I mentioned, the Kick Pool. If you were not aware, Verberg Park is going through a pretty major renovation right now at 669 Gull Road. So they are getting a bicycle pump track. I don't know if you know what a bicycle pump track is. I had to look it up, figure it out, but it's super cool. My kids are excited about it now. It's basically a looping circuit around the park and it has paved rollers or bumps and then banked turns. So basically what you do is you don't have to pedal your bike. You just like lift up and down your body and it builds momentum as you're going around the track. So super cool thing. It's the first one in the city of Kalamazoo. That park is getting a new playground, a pavilion, and a new kayak launch. And that's just one of the parks that we have that we're working on among other projects going on as well. And then last, we do movies in the park during the summer that are free and open to folks. And there are different engagement opportunities if you show up at six o'clock, but they start at seven o'clock. There's one coming up on June 26th. That one is in Frays Park. There's one on July 24th that's at the Oakwood Neighborhood Association. And then there's one on August 21st at Spring Lake Park. And so I definitely encourage you to check those out. And you can find the schedule of movies or when there's voting to pick which movie you want to watch at our Parks and Rec website as well. So that's all. Thank you.

Thank you. Oh, that's me. Well, I am last night. So one, I wanted to lift up yet again July 1st across borders, communities against gun violence and voter suppression. Join Isaac and our very own El Concilio and myself at the Douglas again July 1st from 6 to 8 p.m. That is going to be a great conversation. And we're going to have great Afro-Latina food there. So it's going to be really cool. And you must RSVP because the spots are filling up quickly. I want to thank Tony Kennedy and the Veterans First and all of the people who took part in putting on the Women's Veterans Conference here in Kalamazoo, the first annual ever. So welcome. Thank you for hosting it in the city of Kalamazoo. And we hope you continue to do that. Again, I did get to attend the Black and Brown Mixer from Southwest Michigan First, and what a great discussion. Got the opportunity to meet some students from WMU, and they asked us questions about how can I get more involved in city government. So I told them to come talk to Commissioner Hess. So on the doodah parade, I want to be on the record. I hope, because we have received criticism about this, that if we are going to attend parades, that we bring candy for the kids. They do not come to see us. They come for the candy. And then lastly, this community this weekend lost one of our local champions for voting rights, for advocacy, for anything that you have fought for in this community. This lady has been at the forefront of it. So Ms. Betsy Rice, this community loves you. We miss you. Long live the queen. So again, I say with great appreciation as your vice mayor, thank you for the opportunity and the privilege to serve you. I love you, Kalamazoo. This meeting is adjourned.