City Council - Regular Meeting

Can you come here for just a second? All right. [clears throat] Welcome everyone. We'll call the city council regular meeting to order. It's Monday, November 10th, 2025, 7 p.m. Would everyone please rise for the invocation given by Councilman Curley, followed by the pledge of allegiance. Our gracious heavenly father, we come to you tonight and ask your blessings upon this council. And indeed, Father, we ask that you would bless this city. Uh we know sometimes we have our problems, but we're East Pointers, Lord, and we stick together and we love we love our community. We love our neighbors. Lord, we ask a special blessing upon this country that may we reunite together once again. We ask all these things in your name, Jesus, the heavenly father. Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Thank you everyone. Please call the role. Council member Baker here. Council member Curley here. Council member Demono here. Mayor Kleinfeld here. Council member Shadlick here. All right, moving on to approval of the agenda. Um, for this I would make uh two suggestions. One to omit the item B from the close session and um to add under I suppose it would be unfinished business item A discussion on city manager uh contract.

I'll second that. Any questions? Please call the roll. Mayor Kleinfeld. Yes. Council member demonaco. Yes. Council member Curley. Yes. Council member Shadlick. Yes. Council member Baker. Yes.

All right. And we'll move into the proclamation. Proclamation. Reco recognition of Margaret And um would council be willing to join me down by the podium. And I believe Councilman De Monaco is going to read out the proclamation. I'm sorry. Let's see now. Hello everybody. All right, we've got a proclamation uh today for Margaret Smith. Uh she was a longtime member of the beautifification commission. Um, and Chelsea here, who's currently a member of the beautifification commission, uh, put a beautiful event together, um, that you'll hear about in the proclamation. Um, and that there's a flower bed in memory of Margaret. Um, and Chelsea did a fantastic job putting that together and has done a ton of work for the beautifification commission. So, if you read the proclamation,

thank you. All right. Uh, city of East Point proclamation recognizing Margaret N. Smith. Whereas, it is with great honor that the city of East Point recognizes the creation of Maggie's butterfly garden for Margaret N. Smith's dedication s dedicated service to the community of East Point. And whereas Margaret was a commissioner of the East Point Beautification Commission from 2004 to to 2010. And whereas in that time Margaret created beautiful garden spaces for the community to enjoy. And whereas Margaret was appointed to the East Point Housing Authority in 2009 and served until 2017. And whereas Margaret was thanked at that time by Mayor Prom Mayor Prom Kleinfeld for her eight years of service on the East Point Housing Authority. And whereas Margaret was also a volunteer with the Humane Society, Kuowanis and East Point City Elections. And whereas Margaret gave her time and presence to the St. Clair Shores Senior Center and Redeemer United Methodist Church. And whereas sadly Margaret passed away on March 5th, 2024 at the age of 87. And whereas Margaret's family came to the East Point Beautification Commission to request the creation of a butterfly memorial garden. Now therefore, the mayor and the city council for the city of East Point proclaims that Maggie's butterfly garden is hereby recognized for Margaret's many years of dedicated public service on East Point's beautifification commission and many other public services and we extend our condolences and well wishes to Margaret's family. May this memorial

garden spark joy and fond memories of our beloved community member proclaimed this day the 10th day of November 2025.

All right. Yeah. Thank you again. That's Chelsea Head from the beautifification commission. Then actually Craig, don't walk away yet. He's the chair of the beautifification commission. Wanted to recognize him also. [laughter] entrance.

Oh, sure. Yeah. All right. Thank you very much. And we will move right into the first hearing of the public. The first hearing of the public is now open. Thank you, Mayor. I'm here today. Oh, first of all, Sarah Lucido, East Point resident. Um, I'm here today to speak on behalf of, uh, Cardi De Monaco. I'd like to start out by thanking you for your 11 years of committed service to the East Point City

Council. Um, I remember when I started on city council, Cardi was my very first helper of reviewing our budget and let me tell you, he has been and since then the most dedicated person when it comes to going through that budget. I mean, he would go through it with a fine tooth comb front and back, every page, every line item. I'm sure Mr. Bumpkin contest. I agree with that because I'm sure he got a lot of emails from Cody during budget season. Um the city will miss you. You are um an asset to this community and you are definitely an asset to making sure that East Point stayed on the right financial path and I do thank you very much for your service and for your friendship. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Craig Wadeki, East Point citizen. Um, unofficially part of that proclamation should also say u thank you to Mr. De Monaco from the commission because you were at most of our meetings and especially most of the time at our cleanups. You were always there with a shovel, a brush, a garbage bag in your hand. Whatever we needed done, you were there to help us and probably more than anyone else would ever do because your truck was usually full with about 40 garbage bags that you took to the job. So, thank you for that. Thank you for your service. Um, I know a lot of times people did or didn't agree with you, but you were always there. You always answered the phone. You'd answered emails. And, um, you'll be missed. and your service was appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Hello, Mayor and Council. Um, I just wanted to say, Cardi, serving locally is the hardest service to do. Um, I know I've been through several iterations, and serving locally is very hard. And we've agreed with each other on a lot of issues. We've disagreed with each other on some issues. Uh, but I never questioned whether or not what you were doing is what you thought was in the best interest of the city and um looking at a vision towards the future and attempting to accomplish that. Um, so thank you for your 11 years of service. Very much appreciated. And thank you for being here for the right reason. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to guard? Good evening, council. John Silera, Kelly Avenue, Kelly Road. Um, good evening to Senator Kleinfeld because it's her I wish to address tonight in my comment. Uh, Senator Kleinfeld, a couple weeks back, you put a video on your Facebook page where you compared Donald Trump and ISIS uh removal of im immigrants to driving while black. And somehow somehow you associate that with racism and that was a disgusting speech actually. Uh many blacks in Chicago and in Memphis are very glad I is there. ICE in Chicago has been ambushed I think today or yesterday. Uh Mayor Joe B uh Judge Joe Brown, the old TV host who was actually a judge and served on the uh civilian trial of Martin Luther King says Memphis is one of the most dangerous cities in the world and there have been heavy busts down there with drugs. Uh, that was a disgusting speech. And and to point out that white people have some kind of advantage, that's that's that's lunatic. Uh, so I denounce that speech and if I'm going to listen to anybody on race politics, it's not going to be Senator Kleinfeld. I listen to Joe Brown who had a lifelong history of black politics in America and

he feels it's necessary and uh I think you should resign Senator Kleinfeld. Uh there's no there's no other thing to say about it. It was a disgusting speech. Thank you.

Anyone else wish to be I've only been walking with the king for a couple days, so excuse me. Um, Cardier, I came here special because I remember well the day you were appointed. We had so much excitement waiting for somebody young that wasn't grayhaired to make our way. And you proved it so many times. you would come up with great ideas. It didn't make any difference whether we were talking about beautifification or so many of the other projects that you had lined up in your mind that East Point couldn't live without. So, I've also come because I want to recognize you for standing up for things you believe. And it's not it's not betraying the minutes of a meeting to say that we had a lot of special counsel meetings and we were all in agreement until one hand went up and those of us on council always knew that no matter what we would do, Cardi would say, "Excuse me, but let's talk about a different thing." and that's creativity. And we always depended on you to bring up a point that we might have missed. So, good luck to you in your future. I know that you're going to have a long life ahead of you and I know that you're going to be back on the political angle again. So, have fun. Enjoy a little bit of time off. It always makes a big difference. Thank you for all your work.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?

Good evening, mayor and city council. Carol Carol Reid, lifelong resident of East Point. I just want to thank you for acknowledging Margaret Smith Chelsea and beautifification commission. I was on the beautifification commission for at least three terms and I'm still a member of BCSEM and I really learned a lot about um planting things and we we did a lot of projects and they were very good and I did um a presentation on conserving water, believe it or not, a long time ago and it rained for three weeks so only four people showed up. my mom and the beautifification commission. But at the time I was trying to explain to people how water was going to become very expensive. Even though we're surrounded by water, it was going to be something very expensive. And so I remember being with Margaret all the time she was on the beautifification commission and she was such a good person and such a hard worker as we all were. And the beautifification commission is really a wonderful group of people. I probably am going to join them again because everything they did was for the benefit of East Point and I just want to thank all of you for honoring her because she was a very dear friend of mine and we actually had a little group of people that of girls that went out to dinner at Villa we that were all associated with the beautifification commission. So they're actually having an event in Frasier for BCSEM and I think myself and one of the guests here is going to attend. So thank you for acknowledging her. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard? Anyone else? Right. Seeing none, the first hearing of the public is closed. We'll move on to approval of the minutes. Uh item A, regular meeting minutes from October 21, 2025. Mr. Mayor, I move that we accept the minutes of the regular meeting of October 21st, 2025. Second that. Please call the RO. Council member Curley, yes. Council member Deano, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Sadlick, yes. Council member Baker, yes. Right. Item B, close session minutes from October 21, 2025. Mr.

Merrell, motion we approve the close session meeting minutes of October 21, 2025. Second. All right. Please call the RO. Council member Demono, yes. Council member Baker, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Curley, yes. All right. Item C, special meeting minutes from October 27, 2025. And I'll motion we approve the special meeting minutes of October 27, 2025. Support. Please call the RO. Council member Demono. Yes. Council member Baker. Yes. Yes. Council member Shadlick. Yes. Council member Curley. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld.

Yes. All right. We have no scheduled hearings. We'll move on to unfinished business. Uh we have an added item a discussion of the city manager contract. Um I suppose uh maybe Mr. Albbright, I'll just kick it over to you and you could just mention the I suppose three issues that council needs to make a decision on today. [clears throat]

Mayor, I'd be happy happy to uh Mr. Mattis did communicate with me. Um he's had a chance to review the uh proposed uh employment um agreement uh that our office prepared and um uh council has does have a copy of that. Um he uh Mr. Mattis is looking under um the termination and severance pay uh he's looking for uh something in excess of the uh proposed three months uh salary. Um he's also requesting under um professional memberships dues and conferences uh for uh the addition of an additional um association uh that would be included uh with that. And um he's also looking for um uh the ability to uh bank some uh paid time off. Those are the three uh areas that he did after reviewing the proposed agreement did uh speak to me about and we had a a discussion um last week as well and I told him that I would be bringing uh his proposals before the city council.

Thank you. Um so I guess moving on to item one, the severance issue. Um I don't want to jump in before anyone has a chance to speak. So did anyone want to offer up their opinions on that one? What if we did something like four months instead of three council? I would be fine with that. It's okay if you're not. I mean, just a thought. I have no argument. Have no disagreement. All right. Four. Four months. Four months. Yep. Anyone disagree with that? No.

All right. Up it to four months. Uh the second thing was the I believe it was the association fee for the mission association of planning. Um council I have a quick question on that too. Could is um could you tell me the cost on that membership? Anybody know approximately like a ballpark figure even in his email to me uh he indicated he didn't believe there was any uh fee for that as well or at all. Well there were annual dues. That's an easy one. I say yes. I mean that he could do the membership if it doesn't happen. I thought the reason he was asking for the it contract was that there was a fee associated with it.

He said there there might be fees associated with any annual trainings but the uh the dues itself he he said there was he didn't believe that there was any fee associated with that. Oh that was the assessing the assessing part was about maybe dues. Sorry. Uh, Miss Hullman, did you have clarification? I don't have the exact number. It's my understanding that that Mr. De Monaco is correct that the assessing doesn't have dues um just the trainings. Um, but I believe um it's doing the Michigan Association of Planning is more expensive.

Okay. Is that something we typically have in the contracts or is that something we just hand it handle with the budget um sort of amendment? Okay. All right. Well, I'm happy with leaving that out of the contract then just leaving it out as is. Uh and then the last one was the uh carrying over the PTO. Um personally, I think the the the offer was 30 days to begin with. I'm I'm comfortable with leaving it just as is and how we offered it. Oh, under section four compensation. Uh I don't have it in front of me. Which section? Okay. How's council app? Sounds good. Yeah.

All right. And mayor, I believe uh council member Demonic said that the uh the fee he looked it up just now in the Michigan Association of Planning, there's a what, a $75 annual fee? Yeah, it looks like it might be 75 bucks for an individual for Michigan Association of Planning, at least on this brochure. So, I didn't know if we just wanted to add that in if it was that small of a a fee. I'm fine with that. The the fee for the Michigan Association of Planning if it doesn't exceed $75.

Okay. All right. Um well I will then make a motion to uh finalize an offer contract uh as presented changing the severance from 3 months to four months um including the fees for the Michigan Association of Planning not to exceed $75. And those are the only two changes and further uh authorize the city manager or interim city manager to execute and finalize the contract. Okay. Thank you. I'll second that. All right. Any questions? Please call the role. Mayor Kleinfeld. Yes. Council member Baker. Yes. Council member Curley. Yes. Council member Demono.

Yes. Council member Shadlick. Yes. All right. And we'll move into reports from administration. Uh we will move into city manager report. Miss Doom.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have a few things tonight. Um first of all, I'd like to say our election went very smoothly. Um I'd like to give a kudos out to our deputy clerk, all of the clerical help that uh assisted in this. We had a lot of folks that came in that have worked with us for many years working on the election. So uh great job. I just want them to be recognized for all the hard work that they've done. Uh, next year's going to be a really busy year election wise. Um, so they're really going to be on their toes. There's a couple of elections going on. Now, I'd like to also um give you some good news that the state of Michigan has uh indicated that we will receive $1.3 million towards our roads next year. And in the following year, we'll receive $2 million towards our roads. So, that's a real positive and that'll continue. Um, we need all the help we can. We hear quite often about how people would like us to please fix the roads. Um, and we'd love to we'd love to put new roads in everywhere throughout the entire city, but uh there's always budget constraints and concrete goes up in price and so do engineering fees fees and I know that uh the council does the absolute best with what they have and the funds they have available to them. So, this is going to be a really great boost for us. And then I'd also like to uh congratulate our police chief, Chief Haynes. He now has an additional title uh to the chief. He is now the mayor of Madison Heights.

So, congratulations, Chief. And uh we're very proud of him. We know that he's been working hard here for us and he's also uh been working hard campaigning and he finally take a deep breath because as you know all of you elected officials, you know what it's like to campaign and it takes a lot out of you. And then on a saturn sadder note, I'd like to share that um we lost one of our DPW workers, a young man. He was just now turning 39 years old. Uh he passed away. He had health issues that he could not overcome. So he was a great worker. He'll be greatly missed and I'd say the DPW is very sad to have lost him to illness. And that's my uh report for tonight.

Thank you. Thank you. Any questions for Miss Doom? All right, we'll move on to finance director's report. Mr. Blum. Uh good evening, mayor and councel. Uh Miss Doom stole my thunder. [laughter] I was going to mention the road funding as well. Uh the one thing I did find out from MDOT is they're still working with Treasury to figure out if it's major or local because they're not sure in the legislation and is not clear. So they're working through some of the finer details, but starting uh in January um the uh gas tax will go up and some other things will shift around and that's where the extra money will be coming from. But that's all I have for tonight.

All right. Any questions for Mr. Blunt? All right. City Attorney's Report. Mr. Albbright. Uh, thank you, Mayor uh, Cardi. On behalf of the city attorney's office, just want to thank you for your service all these years. Um, I learned a lot from your predecessor, uh, who sat here, uh, back who unfortunately passed away back in 2014. I learned a lot from him and I've certainly learned a lot from you these past 11 years. So, uh, best of luck in all your endeavors. I'm sure I'll see you around, uh, including the, uh, spring cleanup every spring. So, [snorts] but uh the best of luck to you and uh mayor uh council's in receipt of our monthly status report. I'm happy to answer any questions. Great. Any questions for Mr. Albbright?

All right, we'll move into uh new business. Item A, uh approval of reappoint to the East Point Housing Commission. Uh Mr. Mayor, I I would be honored to move to approve the reappoint of Craig Waldki to the East Point Housing Commission with a term to expire October 1st, 2030. Support. Right. Any questions? Please call the RO. Council member Curley, yes. Council member Shadlick, yes. Council member Demono, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Baker, yes. All right. Uh moving on to um approve uh creation of delinquent special assessments. Would anyone like to make a motion?

Sure, Mr. Mayor. I'll motion we authorize the finance director to place delinquent special assessments the 2025 winter taxes as uh as requested by him. [snorts] Support. All right. Any questions? Please call the roll. Council member Deano. Yes. Mayor Klein, I'm sorry. Council member Baker. Yes. Mayor Kleinfeld. Yes. Council member Shadlick. Yes. Council member Curley. Yes. All right. Uh item C, discussion on memorial trees. Uh Councilman Demono, did you want to Sure. Start off.

Thank you. So, yeah, I added this to the agenda. I was at uh uh city hall dropping off absentee ballots and uh just saw the um our uh greenpoint initiative flyers on how we're planting free you know free trees in the boulevards and a lot of people have taken advantage of that and I was thinking about the beautifification commission didn't run this by you yet Craig or uh I know Chelsea's not not here now but um I thought if we are planting those trees for free we charge for a memorial tree and part of that fee was the planting of it of course buying a tree and then um the labor of planting it and then also the plaque of course. So the plaque will still of course cost us money but I thought maybe we could reduce while we have that program going on reduce the fee for memorial trees and maybe we can get more memorial trees but that seemed reasonable if we're planting those other trees for free and they're all in the public. It's not time to go yet. All the lights are going off. Uh, city hall here. [laughter]

Um, uh, my train at the hunt now. No. Um, so we've been planting those for free. Uh, why not at least reduce that? I don't know what the fee would be. I didn't ask, you know, city administration to look into this yet or anything, but I thought at least, you know, we could discuss that or you could uh, you know, city council could do that at a future meeting or something if that sounded interesting. I can speak to it just a little bit, too.

Yes. Uh Cardi, after you had brought that up with me, um Kim and I spoke for a little bit and you know, we've been holding off um kind of cleaning up around city hall till the road work was done on Grasset cuz they made quite a mess. Um and so we do have a budget that will allow for fresh landscaping, replacing the trees that have died. Uh we still have most of the plaques here and we haven't discussed the cost of people buying additional trees, but we certainly can look into that. But know that our goal is to replace every tree uh whether it's here at city hall or around the city uh that people have paid for and those trees have died. So there'll be a replacement on that. It'll be cleaned up. It'll be nicely mulched and um looking really good at no additional cost. Those people paid for it once. We'll take care of the rest. And then the future ones, right? We're uh I mean that that sounds great. I'm glad we're doing that. Uh the current fee is 350. So I guess we can probably reduce that to some some amount then for a memorial tree, right?

We'll take a look at the actual cost of buying the trees and planting and uh the cost of the plaque and then we'll be able to uh give you a better price. Kim, I see her head kind of tilted. You good with that? Okay. She's a little hard to see over there because she's little and then she's tucked into that corner. So we we can't find her a lot of the times. We have to look for her. Um Kim, have you have you looked at the cost of of new trees today of replacement trees? Do you have a cost or an estimate?

Um there's a couple different programs that we've been involved in with the county and some other greening initiatives through our fellow. Um my belief is that trees can run from like 125, 150 up to, you know, maybe higher 200s depending on the type of tree. Um, we've been lucky to get um the ability to benefit from the free tree program and we've been leveraging the labor costs against that. Um, some of those programs come with restrictions that they have to be in the residential rightways and but we're definitely willing to look into other programs that would um allow us to do memorial trees perhaps in the medians or in the parks that um could save the family some some of the cost. Okay, thank you.

Yeah, I'm happy with that. If perhaps at the next meeting or so, admin can take a look and let us know how that looks. Sounds good. That's all. Right. Any other comments? All right. Uh, payroll and bills. Mayor, I would move that we pay the bills in the amount of 1,667,748.54. Second. All right. Are there any questions on that? Please call the role. Council member Baker, yes. Council member Demono, yes. Uh, Council Member Shadlick, yes. Council member Gurley, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld,

yes. Uh, moving on to the second hearing of the public. The second hearing of the public is now open. Would anyone wish to be heard? I'm very happy to hear this uh that you might replace the memorial trees because my husband George Reed passed away in 2010 and I bought a tree for him. It was planted at Spindler Park. It was a k a crimson king and when they put the big mud hill in for lack of word the tree got disappeared. So, I think I would I want to get another tree for my husband. And my husband George did put the cupula on Aaron's schoolhouse when he was alive because he was a a a commercial roofer. And he paid for that out of his own pocket, over $1,000. And um I'm just really happy to know that maybe I can replace his tree because I really got bummed out when I saw that tree was gone. So, thank you. Good news.

Thank you.

Uh just a clarification on a few things. The gas tax did go up, but the sales tax on gas went down exactly the same amount that the gas tax went up. So, that's revenue neutral for the state and for the residents. there is a revenue fund on a new marijuana tax. Um, at least for now, that may be uh there may be a fight in court over that. Uh, but I just wanted to to clarify that for folks and to point out uh and want to I came last year and talked to you guys about I got money for 10 mile road to be redone and it hasn't been redone. Um, from Grashet to Hayes, the money is aotted, but the county had other projects lined up for this year, and that's why it didn't get done. I certainly hope it gets done next year. And then the last thing is I I want to I we were able to secure $130,000 for the city of East Point for the machine that fills the firefighters tanks with air. Um, the was aging. And I I want to give a shout out to uh your very own fire department's Matt Sar um for pushing and making that request. Um uh any anything we can do to help the city receive things that are necessary like that is that's the reason I'm here and I just want to give a shout out to him for that. And then the last thing is uh please thank a veteran tomorrow. Um, my son will probably speak to it, but we lost two veterans recently in the span of a week in our family and uh, we cherish our veterans. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard?

Council, Mr. Mayor, uh, police chief, I I noticed on a scanner channel that I watch on Facebook, I saw a couple of your officers wrestling down uh, some suspects of some type down on Churns in Detroit on the bank of the freeway. I congratulate you and your men. Uh, and I'd also like to speak to the uh the planning commission and this new document we have that's supposed to regulate our future. Uh, I forget what you call the document already, but you guys probably know what I'm talking about. And you know, you know, uh, Chief, that document doesn't me, uh, even mentioned police, which is which is really odd. Uh, independent reporter. Now, let me go back. We border Detroit and the great de that's not a problem. The people of Detroit are great. It's a government that stinks. It's a democratic government. I'm going be I'm going to be completely honest. And uh independent reporter Charlie Leidduff says their crime statistics are all rigged. They don't even report murders. And this planning document that we have doesn't do anything to beef you up. Not you personally, your your department doesn't give you any electronics to work with. And I was also extremely disturbed to learn from other citizens in the last week or two at at at meetings, you do 25,000 runs a year. And um that's a lot. Uh 25,000. I had another statistic in mind, but I'm not good at that stuff, so I forgot it. But, uh, my focus for the next year is going to be

for this council to beef up this police department and get serious about it. They need to they need to have a cooperation agreement with ICE. Regardless of what anyone here thinks, even our state senator, I don't care. You guys need to have a cooperation agreement with ICE because ICE has I mean the Biden administration would put purposely immigrants into black communities and Detroit happens to be a black community. It's the same in Chicago. It's the same in Memphis. It's the same 30 seconds.

So that's going to be my focus for the next year is to beef this police department up. give them. You know, I'm also the other statistic I was thinking of, this council has denied you flock cameras, which I didn't know that stuff has to stop. It does have to stop. And I'll leave it at that. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard?

Jennifer Nicholas, East Point resident. um the master plan I think is what he's referring to. And yes, everybody should get involved. There's a survey for the master plan. I believe there's a QR code somewhere for people to um if they have input for the master plan um please get involved. Um Councilman De Monaco, thank you for your years of service on city council. Um it's unfortunate that things had to go to this extreme for people to feel that they were being heard. I personally wish that you had allowed residents to help support you and guide you in some of the decisions that you were making on council. I hold no ill will against you. I truly believe that you have thought that you were doing the best for the city. I know um just from listening to how hard you work and uh your attention to detail and as a resident of East Point for almost 60 years, I appreciate it. So, thank you and hope you have a good night. Larry Edwards, East Point residents. Um, afternoon, council, mayor. Uh, I was out as I was sitting listening and what have you, the outlaze that was uh passed on in regard to u uh Mr. de Monaco and what have you uh uh in the years that he's spent on council

seat and what have you. Uh I don't doubt it totally and what have you, but uh it comes to a point to where uh uh when you think that you can overrun stuff that uh you're the boss that uh your uh consideration is the only thing that matters and uh uh and you begin to where you don't listen to the people or anything, it's time for you to leave and what have you. And uh and I'm glad of the outcome of the of the uh citizens that's waking up that woke up uh to that need and what have you because it's not only the Nine Mile Road situation. There's a lot of other instances and what have you uh that's been going on as well. And uh uh as a lot of people say karma has caught up to it. Uh the truth has now come out uh to a small degree and it need to go even further beyond that. And then to uh Miss Doom uh I heard you mention some giving accolades to uh uh deputy manager uh deputy clerk uh and what have you. So my question to you and I hope to get a response tonight. Uh well, who is the the uh city clerk? If she if uh the lady the young if the lady is uh the deputy clerk because I've been under impression for a good while that she was the clerk and so uh uh I would appreciate if that would be answered tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Mr. Okay, [snorts] Gary Myron, East Point residents. Um, thank you, Cardi, for all your hard work. Um, the problems that, uh, we had lately, that's, um, should have been more studied. Um, I mean, we'll take N mile and Hayes. Um there they got rid of the parking lot in front of the buildings and put grass. Okay, looks good, but you took away three businesses. Um and I'm sure Rogers Candy is not doing well. Um it should have been studied back in the day. That parking lot in the front of the buildings were there for a reason, and that's to keep the little businesses running. It's a very busy uh block, very busy stores in there. There's no hardly no parking in the back. Um the people around there, the businesses know that. That's why that was done. And um the other thing is um when the police and fire needed things, things were kind of questionable and rejected. And I think they should, you know, they're trying to do their job and um maybe the gun range will come back, but I wish you well. and good luck and I know you'll do well in the future. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be here? Anyone else? Seeing none, the second hearing of the public is closed. We'll move on to uh mayor and council reports. I'll start with Councilman Baker.

Thank you. Um I'm also going to echo the sentiments of the city manager, thanking the election workers. I know they put in a lot of hours. They work hard. Um so we thank them for their hard work. I'm glad to hear about the uh money that we have forthcoming for our roads because that's been a talk for quite some time in different point parts of the city. So I'm glad to hear that we have funds coming in that regard. Uh Chief Haynes, congratulations on your win in Madison Heights. Um, also I would like to offer condolences to the family that uh of the DPW worker that passed away. Um, I know losing a loved one is is difficult. Also to the Kleinfeld family. I had heard of your your loss and I want to offer my condolences to you as well. Um, also Cardi, I'm I'm I'm not going to get all mushy. Uh, you and I had opportunity to talk a little bit at the uh polls. Um, and when I first got on council, you and I sat down. I remember we sat down and talked at Tim Hortons. Uh, and over the years I picked your brain about certain things. We bounced some ideas off of one another. I know there were things that we didn't always agree or see eye to eye on, but then I know we also had a joke one meeting. It looked like every we were kind of riding the same wavelength. Um, I know you have a love for politics and I know that you've dedicated a lot of time to this city. Uh, you even got me out there cleaning up on 8 mile, you know, and I know it was a thing for you to to count the bags and and each year to do more. Um, so that was I know that was a personal goal of yours and found that you you found some interesting things out there. So, um, for sure

I wish you well in your future endeavors. Uh, and I know that with your love of politics that you're going to keep being involved and that you're going to keep working in the community. So, uh, I just wish you well in what you do moving forward. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Curley.

Oh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have a have a few things. Uh, first one is um our new building for the um police department and the court. Um, I'm I'm not sure where we're going on that if we're going to bond it or not, but probably wouldn't be a bad idea if we get it on an agenda soon. And also the gun range. We've had a discussion on that, differences of opinion, but I'd like to see that put on the agenda as well. U they need it and u it's something that uh every police department probably should have it too. on the lighter side. Oh, come on in. On the light on the lighter side. Help me out here. When you when you're on the expressway and you get up up on the ramp on 10 mile road, right, visual, and you turn right, if you look to your right, you see this beautiful sign that says Roseville, right? Are you are you looking at it now? On the left hand side, all you see in our city is a fire hydrant and a tree and grass. You know, it would be nice when somebody gets on 10 mile road and they're going west that they would know that on the right hand side it's Roseville because they got a sign and on the leftand side we don't need a council to vote on that. administration just needs to whatever. Put the sign up there. Whatever. But we really need a sign up there to say we're we're East Boy. Um appointment of commissions. Uh we appointed Craig today. Very welld deserved. Uh but there's a lot of other ones that we haven't appointed for a long time. So maybe administration can map out something that this is what the

mayor does, this is what the council does. And so we can we can kind of get on that local roads. You know, I've been talking about local roads for a nine time long time and I only got two years left. So I'm going to talk a lot more. Uh 1.3 million. Thank you, Senator. Um, I'd like to get a list uh if I could um of the streets that AEW thinks should be repaired and it what year they think we're going to get on. But that 1.3 million is going to be great. And then also um if if you could let let us know what funds are now free in the major roads and could we transfer those to local roads and however that might be. You could kind of let us know uh about that hearing of the public. We talked about that couple of meetings ago that uh I said that I was in favor of having two hearing of the publics. two at the special meeting and two at the regular meeting. So, I'd like to have that put on the next agenda if you could. And um there might be people coming in on a special meeting. We maybe if you only have one or two agenda items, they might not have the time to stay 45 minutes or an hour and a half. So, I'd like to have that put on the agenda and see if that would uh would pass. Um, lastly, I I believe that everyone has a right to say what they want to say when they come up to the hearing in the public. But I got to tell you, uh, it'll be a cold day in hell when I sit here and agree to have the police department work with ICE. Um, we don't need ICE.

Maybe some other I don't think anybody needs ICE. I'm just going to say that right out loud and sue me. But the our police department doesn't need to work with ICE. If we the police department needs something, they'll let us know. We'll try to get a get it for them. And Mr. Cardi, 11 years. That's a long time. And you don't have to agree with each other all the time, which we didn't, but we agreed on a lot of things. Uh the citizens don't really realize 100% what that takes out of a politician, especially local politicians because you are you're right there. They know what you're doing. I talked to one of a gentleman who was our representative years ago and he started to tell me how many bills they passed. I said, "You know what? We passed one bill in East Point and everybody knows about it and if they don't like it, they're going to come out at the hear of the public and I don't think people will drive to Lancing and complain about a bill that they passed. So, you went through a lot and I just hope that uh well, you got your best you your best supporter sitting in the front row and so you guys are a great pair and compliment one another. So, whatever you decide to do, you'll do well. And so, God bless you.

Thank you. That's it. Thank you, uh, Councilwoman Pashadik.

Um, first, I'd like to extend my condolences to your family, Mike, as as well as Senator Kleinfeld. Um, I remember Major General Mlan. Um, he had such a phenomenal sense of humor and he was such an amazing family man. um who I'm sure is deeply missed and loved. So um I do extend my condolences to you guys during this time, especially um with your other grandfather as well. Um Ira was a really great guy as well. So I'm sorry for your loss. Um I'd also like to um speak about the community garden. uh they had posted on Facebook the amount of food that they've donated and it was approximately 28 um thousand 2800 pounds of food which is amazing from a small little community like ours. So I'd like to commend that group of individuals because they're all volunteers there. They work very hard at what they do and it's it's um such a a good thing to see that kind of compassion, kindness coming out of our community. So, I'd like to commend them for all their hard work and efforts. Uh, lastly, I would like to um say goodbye to Cardi as well. Um, it's been a pleasure serving with you. We haven't always agreed on everything, but I do admire the um determination, the amount of time that you put into um decisions and and the um thoughtprovoking questions that you've put out there and um you know, given consideration to. I I truly um I'm going to miss you. I think you are an asset to this community and um I hope that you continue to be the asset to this community, not only on beautifification, but I know you're very active in the Memorial Day parade. There's other things that you do as well, but just those are just a few of the highlights that I know you're truly active in and I'm sure we'll see you around.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Um first I want to say uh congratulations to Corey Haynes. Um, and I want to uh uh extend congratulations to our employees, too, who ran a a well-run election. Uh, to the clerk's department. Uh, thank you to everyone who came out and voted and everyone who showed up today. Um, uh, I know my mom came up and spoke and and touched on it briefly. [clears throat] Over the last two weeks, uh, both my grandfather's passed away, my mother's father and my father's father. Um my mom's dad uh my grandfather uh Timothy Mlan passed away 89. He was the 40th quarter master general. Um and again that was my my mother's uh father my my father's father Ira Kleinfeld also a veteran. Um passed away 86 uh after he served. He was a Detroit police officer. Eventually made his way up to the uh homicide detective unit there. Um so between between the both of them there was a a sort of a long example and a long s certainly history of service there. I learned a lot from both of them. Uh please keep your parents and my family in your thoughts especially my parents who are both going through uh losses at the same time. Um Cardi so uh first um well first don't tell people that when I was saying goodbye I got all teary eyed.

[laughter] Um,

when I joined I I joined council when you were here and uh I just have to say I've always been impressed with your attention to detail. You put a lot of time and effort into this job. Um, and it is a job and uh really it's it's volunteer and uh we didn't always agree on everything. You certainly uh brought good arguments to the table. Everything you did was well thought out and you brought new ideas here, too. You paid attention to what other communities were were doing. You you always looked around for things here that were um in need of improvement. You weren't just up here rubber stamping anything put in front of you. You were looking for things that we could actively do to just make this a better place to call home uh for the residents here. So, I certainly learned a lot from you. Uh I certainly have tremendous respect for your work ethic and what you put into this job. So, thank you for your service and uh I appreciate it. And with that, the comments are yours.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and uh yeah, condolences to you and uh Senator Kleinfeld and your whole family. Um yeah, I can't imagine. So, um my condolences and then condolences to uh Leon Man's family also from the DPW. um uh [snorts] rough rough couple weeks in East Point there. So, um yeah. So, first like to uh congratulate Councilwoman elect Karen Scott. If you don't mind, I'm going to be taking a couple minutes of your time here before we get to the 8:00 meeting. It might be like, you know, 8:10. [laughter] And congrats, uh Councilman Baker, on your reelection. Um you know, I wish you luck. Wish you both luck. uh if you need anything, I know you both have my phone number, so feel free to reach out anytime. Um second, I'm happy that uh the charter change that was on the ballot uh passed. Um I feel like Councilman Baker, that was kind of yours and I kind of uh discussed back and forth on that come to a compromise and I think that'll help with future city councils hiring uh city managers. So happy to see that that passed. I've been thinking back to my uh first council meeting. Um uh as Karen, you'll soon have your uh first meeting here. Uh biggest thing that stands out was storm water standards. Um I was thinking like what does that even mean? I'm I'm going to need to do some research on this. So 11 years later, we're still talking about storm water. Um at some point our civil engineers estimated be to $400 million to really fix the issue. So, we've got to split those sanitary sewers and storm water sewers. Really do that. Right now, when it rains, we're processing a lot of the rain water. Uh, and every time we do that, every ounce of rain water is costing us money. So, if we split those,

we'll save some money. The rainwater, you know, should be going to the lake, soaked up in some rain barrels or bio retention areas. Um, and it just makes me think about all the things that are in front of us. Uh, 99% of the stuff is not going to be making a headline. Well, you know, you all know we make a lot of decisions that are not front page, you know, even on the East Sider. Uh even though I do remember one East where there was a new street light going in in front of like Kroger and Roseville and that made the the front page one time. [laughter] Um so yeah, we discuss and vote on budget and ordinance changes can be anything from like funding our pension, retirey healthcare, death benefits, all of Ry's favorite stuff. uh water manes, sewer lines, lead service lines, roads, garbage, police, fire, library services, elections, and thank you to everybody that uh runs the elections here. We we do a great job. Uh parks, uh when we get sued, what to do about that, uh hiring the city manager, hiring the city attorney, and that's just a that's just a subset. Um, so yeah, I'm proud of all the things I've done and been involved with over the last 11 years. Uh, most proud of fighting for safe drinking water, uh, by getting all the lead service lines removed. And I didn't really plan this, but this is perfect. I have a prop. Our DPW director gave me a a foot of lead service line. I did ask for it. Uh, just as a reminder of our project of getting rid of all these. Nobody's got nobody's going to have lead have the potential of having lead in your water. You know, we treat it. We've treated, you know, in Metro Detroit, we treat it and it is safe to drink. I drink it without a filter, but that'll be a reminder for me of this project. Um uh when we received 3 million um from the federal government due to the COVID pandemic, Congress was intending on those funds being used for public health

related priorities. Um, so this was way back before we even started this project. Only due to a loophole in the law could the city accept it as lost revenue and then use it for anything. Um, leading our city manager at the time to propose it, propose using it to repave a road. I fought against this partially winning. We put 500,000 of it towards removing lead service lines then. And thank you to our state senator here in the back there. She hooked us up with $10 million to finish the job. and then Darren Paluchcci and the DPW and the contractors did all the heavy lifting and we've received or we've uh you know replaced more than a couple thousand lines. And then also speaking of a couple thousand lines though, had it not been for discussion with the mayor, um we we had a thousand lines not originally on our list because I was talking to him and um he we knew he had a lead service line and he wasn't on the list. So because of at least that conversation, we uh uh were able to move forward. And then even at one point, um if people don't know, I'm a software developer on my own time. I wrote a uh program to compare five different spreadsheets and found a couple inconsistencies as we were going spreadsheet to spreadsheet and shared that with the uh city manager and DPW director and and those were addressed. Then um I'm also proud of some other things. Some things very simple back in like 20145. Um, we weren't using credit cards at the city. So, I proposed that we use credit cards and get into the 21st century. So, we literally weren't able to buy things off the internet back in uh 2014. Ordinance uh proposed an ordinance to outlaw in the city puppy mills. Uh, and you know, similar for cats, rabbits, and ferrets. I know uh we talked about that a lot uh Mike [laughter] when that was going on. Um facade improvement program that I proposed 5 years ago. uh still happen in the DDA district initially starting with five matching matching loans of $3,000.

Uh I proposed body warn cameras um something the city didn't have implemented till 2021 helping to promote a good relationship between the police department and community. Uh initially our police chief at the time was against it and there was a lot of push back but we eventually uh got that through and uh we've had those since. Uh we've got better side streets, I think, uh by doing a joint sealing and patching program to manage the decent roads so that those stay decent or better. And then we do reconstruction for the failing roads. And of course, there are still some to do. We've got some additional funds, you know, just heard tonight on the way uh to hopefully fix a few more of those and then hopefully we can maintain them without any of them falling into that. Uh we've done some park improvements, you know, new playgrounds, new sidewalks in the park like Rain Park, Spindler Park has some new sidewalks. We've got a disc golf course, first basketball court in the city in decades. Um two parks [clears throat] went from what I called a field park to a community park. Um they used to just be grass and now we've got some other things going on at them. We've got a dog park that was way back when I first uh uh was on city council. Uh so that's been here a while. updated fiscal management plan updated long not after the recession happened in previous city councils were able to bounce us back. Uh we moved the pension system to MS which of course you know I I I I'm pretty sure we've never had someone come to city of the uh hearing of the public and talk about a pension or uh uh or retirey healthcare but that's a huge thing and we've also gotten money from from the state on that. Um I way back I was discussed to keep the shamrocks on our side street signs which I think's a nice little touch for our city. We did print a few without them and that's when I was like speaking up like why' we why' we get rid of these? And then I got the giant shamrock. We had it at city hall for a while now at the DPW but it was sitting in storage until the DDA to take a look at that. Had dozens and dozens of trees planted like we've talked about

even tonight. Um I've helped plant some of them. I know other council members and people have helped plant those too. Converted all the street lights in the city to LED uh promoting energy of efficiency and environmentalism. Updated the ethics policy. Brought back the ethics board that in theory enforce ethical violations. Um we have some electric cars charging stations here at city hall. You know electric cars will soon be ubiquitous. Uh we've got a splash pad coming. actually uh our uh county commissioner Sarah Lucido originally uh he threw that idea out there and we threw that in the budget I don't know how long ago [laughter] and again I guess state senator Kleinfeld again hooking us up with some money for that project. So that's um if you've driven by Kennedy Park you know that's coming. Um sometimes the answers up here are easy, sometimes they're hard. I believe that's why legislative bodies have more than one person. You can discuss come up with better solutions than any one person can. Um, and sometimes you got to go about things on your own. Um, like when the uh city hired a police officer that at a previous department had punched someone for no reason. Police chief at the time said he didn't know anything about it. Our city manager refused to do anything about it. And I eventually went on the news calling for this officer to be fired. Even then, nothing was done. And this officer was only let go once the state pulled his law enforcement license and was literally not able to be a police officer. Um so I hope the public um fights as hard as uh did about nine mile for issues like that in the future. We'll have I'm sure other issues uh to look at like that. Um and now flat cameras which was mentioned earlier they are installed in the city. I did not vote for them, but sometimes you lose a vote and I think can continue to fight for what's right. I voted against them because um you know they read every license plate that drives by. There's 18

of them in the city. ICE is now using these cameras that basically are across the United States. I think I read over 5,000 departments have them. You could be tracked as you drive across the country right now. and ICE is supposedly supposed to be finding uh illegal people in the country, but time and time again we're seeing they're arresting and detaining Americans who are legally in the country and the flock cameras are helping them violate the Constitution by doing that. Um I believe this concern alone strongly outweighs any positive benefits from those and and they're expensive. 18 licenses are about 54,000 a year plus uh you know installation costs and stuff that we've had before. Um still my belief that the 9M lane reduction be positive for the community. I believe this because planning experts say so not because a previous police chief said he stares out his window. I'm speaking all right. Thank you. Stares out his window. You know, our previous police chief said he stares out his window for hours a day and says it won't work. Or previous fire chief said we can't possibly turn a fire truck on onto a three-lane road. Uh this is when we've said that public safety is against it. Um I don't know, all side streets are a three-lane road or smaller. Our master plan also says to use road diets when capacities are ideal. Not knowing at the time if they were ideal, I asked the city council if we could do a traffic study. Uh we did do a traffic study and the study showed that your drive would be the same in terms of time. All right. So that 9 seconds that just passed was the greatest time difference in the study that you'd get from like one end of the city to the other. and

most of the times were actually faster than that. And then another issue was queuing on that. And just with a few minor changes to the initial proposal, we'd be able to fix like a queuing issue where you'd have twice as many cars maybe at a stoplight. Um hope the community doesn't let even the thought of inconvenience cause them to fight against something. It's my hope that we do things to improve the community as a whole and people are not thinking only about themselves. Use facts to guide them. Um, saying the same false thing a hundred times does not make it true. Um, and also [clears throat] instead of arguing only against things, bring some possible solutions forward. Um, hope that doesn't stall our own progress by not being willing to look outside the box. Appreciate Mayor Kleinfeld and Councilwoman Pashadlick and previous Councilwoman now, County Commissioner Sarah Lucido for being willing to look outside the box. Uh, of course, thank you to the residents who were and are speaking up about how the project can be positive. Um, so I've joined a band recently. Um, I play the drums. Telling John in the band, who's also an East Point resident, uh, about how much city council is paid. Like the mayor said, it's a volunteer job. Uh, basically I hope you knew that, uh, Miss Scott. [laughter] um comes out to about 555 an hour with the amount of work I put in. Um and he said you may not get paid much, but at least you get publicly slandered every couple weeks. Some things you wouldn't expect prior to becoming a city council member. Uh another member calling the cops on your wife or code enforcement targeting your house had an address had address numbers that were written out in English. Most likely since the house was built, they'd been there. now all of a sudden was an issue we had to resolve immediately and this only happened apparently after

I had irritated our uh building director at the time. Um we recently got security cameras because I had to put a police report in on a resident that had threatened me. Um so my hope in the future being a public official is again you know viewed as a public service not as the enemy. Um, the point of these positions is to make a better society. Less and less people are going to want to run for city council if the pay is about six grand a year and you get attacked day in and day out. Um, and no one's appreciative of the service. I am eternally optimistic though and believe things will work out. I don't think that will happen unless we do work every day to ensure it does. I think it's time again to think about this saying, how the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. So, think about what you can do for your community. Uh, speak up, of course, when necessary, but also ensure you're making positive change. Um, and now to the Memorial Day parade committee. I I've been the treasurer of that, um, and coordinated the raising of funds and for the last four years, um, helped raise those funds and I'll continue to do that committee. And we do have a the committee also does a Veterans Day event. So, come out 6:30 to the military museum literally tomorrow on Veterans Day. Um, uh, Sarah Luc will be there. I don't know if I confirmed RSVPs with anyone else, but I at least know she'll be there. So, come on out. You know, I'll continue giving blood when Rare has blood drives. I'll continue volunteering with the litter cleanups that were obviously mentioned. Uh, yeah, we got to beat that record of uh, of bags. I I want to say it was 50. I think 50 is the most we've had. Um, and I'd like to thank all the board and commission members over the years. Um, takes a village to run the city. I want to thank my wife Alyssa, uh, for all her early work on the arts and cultural division diversity

commission, Gary Sassic for all your work on the parks commission, ethics board, Craig Wedki earlier for beautifification commission, housing, library. Know there's a lot of others. Picked out a couple recents. um had a good time as liaison to the planning commission. I know you have that good time now, Councilwoman Bashadlick, being able to chitchat about city things with Sheila Yolinsky, who was sitting next to me. I want to thank Chelsea Head earlier for us doing that proclamation uh and and she put together that beautiful event for Margaret Smith. And thanks to group like groups like Urban Seed again that you just mentioned a minute ago. I I don't know if I caught that 2000 2,800 pound pounds of uh food. They just keep upping it every year. Uh he it's an awesome community space and donating large amounts of food. And I want to specifically point out Bill Randazzo. He puts uh an insane I wrote I made sure to write insane here. An insane amount of work up there. Uh you know, thanks to Chris Cosley running the military museum bringing up a you know, recently bringing a monument tank to the museum. Uh, and thanks Betty Bishop uh for all the time uh she spent with me doing our flower bed uh up on Kelly that we shared. Um, just want to thank the uh school board too for being a great partner in the community. They've been a great partner over the years. Uh, President Sheneva Early, Vice President Robert Rosco, Secretary Ed Williams, Treasurer Darlene Whitby, Trustees Ian McCain, Shelley Chopa, and Addie Richardson. Uh, they'd all be up here, but they literally got a meeting tonight also. Um, want to thank uh, Judge Galen and Mark Muscowski for their running of the courts. Uh, I'm glad we've been able to, you know, improve our relationship over there. Maybe except for maybe a few finance kinks here or there. Glad you've improved so many things.

Uh, thank you, Eli, for stepping up being city manager. uh while we search for a new manager. Hopefully hopefully we've got one uh coming coming up. I don't know. I wonder if he's watching live right now. Hopefully. [laughter] [gasps] So, I'm confident Ryan Mattis will become a member of this community, take us to the next level. Look forward to seeing him pushing city council's vision forward and and not, you know, fighting the city council. Uh thank you, Rich, for being a fantastic attorney for the city. And it's funny here because I said one willing to even pick up trash with us and you mentioned that earlier already. [laughter] So, no excuse for anybody. Rich comes out and uh picks up trash with us. Um, thank you everybody for the nice words at the hearing of public. Good to see you, Mayor Pixley. Been a while since I seen you. Thanks for coming out. Um, it's been an honor to be city councilman and mayor prom for the city of East Point. treasure these 11 years. Uh believe I've been an ally to the employees of the city over these 11 years and our government only improve if the city council supports them. So thank again my wife Alyssa Dybolt and mom and dad and my aunt Carla and cousin Michael are here too. Thanks for coming out um putting up with all the insanity that follows even a spouse or family member of a council person and someone trying to improve their community. Thank [snorts] you, Mr. Mayor. All right. Uh, we don't have any closed session items left. We handled that all open in the open. So, how about an adjournment?

So moved. Support that. All right. Please call the role. Council member Baker, yes. Council member Demono, yes. Council member Curley, yes. Mayor Kleinfeld, yes. Council member Shadlick. Yes. Uh meeting adjourned at 8:17. Um we have our second meeting, but how about we give it about 10 minutes to 8:27 and begin with the swearing in