City Commission - Regular Meeting

o . To hear all the friendly conversation happening in the chambers. I appreciate that very much, very positive way to get started here with people. Wanting to talk to each other. And that's nice to see my colleagues back. We just wrapped our five o'clock committee of the hall meeting in a few minutes ago, and now we're back for our business meeting. So. A few moments after seven, and I'm gonna officially Call to Order the Kalamazoo city commission business meeting. For Monday, April 20th. 2026, Kirk Burling, please call the roll. Commissioner Hess present Commissioner Hoffman, present Commissioner Praedel present Commissioner Slaby present Commissioner Wilson, present vice mayor Duncan here. Mayor Anderson here. Thank you, clerk poling. Well, we are blessed this evening to have pastor Brett lair here from the Calvary Bible church. To provide an Invocation. And this is the way that we start all our business meetings. Just as a reminder here. If you are interested in getting on the list to do this. We will take comers from around the city to do that work. So thank you, sir. For. Offering your services here. I'm gonna ask everyone in the chambers, please. To stand for the indication and then remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. That's free. Lord come be for you this evening. First of all, with a grateful heart Lord. For your love Lord, you are the maker and giver of life. You're the creator of all things. And so we pause to give you the honor and glory that you deserve. Lord. I know that in a room like this, certainly there must be hearts who are wondering if you care. Lord, I pray that they would remember. That Jesus Christ left the glories of heaven. To walk our

streets to live among us. To experience all of the hardships of this fallen world. So Lord, you do understand, and you do care. Lord. I'm confident. There are our hearts who are wondering if, if you love them. Lord the way that you served when you were here on earth is a reminder of your great love. Lord. I'm sure there are hearts who are wondering if there is forgiveness. Lord your death for sin on the cross. Opened a way for every soul who repents and believes the good news. To have complete forgiveness of sins. Lord. I'm sure there must be hearts that are wondering if there is any hope of eternal life. Lord your resurrection from the dead. Proved that you have opened a way. To eternal life for all who would believe. So Lord, we thank you for the demonstration of your love. I pray for the hurting heart. Lord the heart that is wrestling with spiritual things. Lord that you administer to them. And Lord, I pray for these commissioners as they. Serve our city that you would give them wisdom. Lord, they have a heavy load. There is weariness. There is there's. There's being tired, Lord, physically and, and emotionally as they, as they have to deal with so many different issues. So Lord, we pray. Both for wisdom and also for sustaining strength for them. Bless their meeting be with each one. And Lord, we give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag. Of the United States of America and to the public, for which it stands. One nation under God. Indivisible with Liberty justice for all. Thanks so much again, pastor Larry for being here. I appreciate that.

Well, I guess this kind of the old adage rules were made to be broken. Is kind of happening a little bit tonight. And I've mentioned before that I love proclamations. It's often a very high point. Nice part of our. Our BU business meeting here, but I. Had set an internal rule that we were not gonna have more than four proclamations at any given meeting. Well, that was just broken. So we have five tonight. And they're all great things to be recognized. And luckily some of the individuals who will be accepting one of the proclamations will also be accepting another one. So I guess that helps a little bit. As we work our way through this, but we have. Five great proclamations this evening. And they will be read by different members of the commission here. I will come down with the proclamations. Our first proclamation is national work zone. Awareness week, those of you accepting that please come forward. So I'll be reading the proclamation national work zone awareness week from April 20th to the 24th, 2026. Whereas recognizing the annual national work zone awareness week, N w Z a w. Being held April 20th through 24th, 2026. Is an annual spring campaign held at the start of construction season. To encourage safe driving through highway work zones. Zones. The key message is for drivers to use extra caution in work zones. And whereas the city of Kalamazoo recognizes that row construction and maintenance is vital for a safe well-maintained transportation system for all Kalamazoo area families and businesses. And whereas. We must protect construction. Maintenance and utility workers who courageously put their lives on the line to improve the safety and quality of life

of those traveling area roads. And whereas the 2026 national works zone awareness week theme is safe. Actions saves lives. And whereas most often drivers or their passengers are killed or injured in work zone crashes. And whereas. Most work zone crashes are caused by inattentive or tractive drivers. And speeding is the leading cause of fatal work zone crashes. And whereas work zone awareness week is an opportunity. To raise awareness for worker and road, user safety. By planning ahead. Reducing speeds, minimizing distractions and expecting the unexpected. When approaching and passing work zones. Zones. And whereas the city of Kalamazoo is dedicated to investing in safe and reliable road infrastructure. For the Kalamazoo community and call on our federal and state partners to bring much needed funding and innovation to protect and restore our critical road infrastructure. Now, therefore on behalf of the 56 city commission. I dressing myself. Okay. Sorry. Hi, Jacqueline SLA city, Commissioner of city. Camou do hereby recognize the work zone. Safety is essential to the life of our construction workers. And acknowledge the importance of education. Of educating the public about safe driving and construction zones. During the national work zone awareness, we campaign April 20th through 24th, 2026, and encourage all residents to pay attention, slow down and go orange Wednesday, April 22nd for work zone over awareness to day. Thank you. We'd like to behalf of all public services employees, we'd like to thank the city commission and our community. For this honor, we encourage folks to, to wear orange and to think orange. Please slow down and pay attention when you're in a work zone. Thank you.

All right. I'll be reading the proclamation for Arbor day. Next. And that will be on April 24th, 2026. Do we have any representatives to come up and accept this proclamation today? Oh, there we are. Correct. All right. AUB day, April 24th, 2026. Whereas in 1872, the Nebraska board of agriculture established a special day to be set aside for the planting of trees. And whereas this holiday called Arbor day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska. And whereas Arbor day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. And whereas trees can be a solution to combating climate change by reducing the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water. Cutting heating and cooling costs. Moderating the temperature, cleaning the air. Producing life, giving oxygen and providing habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees are renewable resource giving us paper. Wood for our homes fuel for our fires and countless other wood products. Products and whereas trees in our city increase property values. Enhance the economic vitality of business areas and beautify our community. And whereas trees, wherever they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal. Now, therefore on behalf of the 56 city commission. I do hereby proclaim, April 24th, 2026 as Arbor day and the city of Kalamazoo. And I urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor day.

And to support efforts to protect our trees in the Woodlands. Yep. Thank you. Just wanted to say that there are some bear root trees outside that folks in here free to grab on their way out and they can plant them at their homes. Thanks. Whoa, whoa. Earth day. Whereas earth day was first celebrated on the April two 22nd, 1970. Earth day is an opportunity to renew America's commitment to preserving and protecting the state of our environment through community service and responsible stewardship. And whereas new and continuing challenges. Challenges, including climate change pollution, sea level rise. And loss of forests, wetlands, and other wildlife habitats reinforced the need for adequate protections for the air. We breathe. The water we drink the land we inhabit and the animals we live alongside. And whereas the most vulnerable populations. Which are often black indigenous or people of color. Will be disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change. Exacerbating unemployment. Displacement in homelessness. And whereas communities, neighborhoods neighborhoods and residents mu most vulnerable to climate. Impacts tend to be the least prepared to manage and recover. And our youth in particularly will see the long-term results of a dramatically changing climate. And whereas on the earth, on this earth day, let us recognize the role that each of us can play in to increase awareness. About the importance of the environmental education and spur progress. Towards global environmental and climate literacy. And whereas earth day

reaffirms our responsibility. In the global effort to combat climate change and protect our planet. For all now, therefore on behalf of the 56 commission, I drew Duncan, vice SMER city Kalamazoo do hereby proclaim, April 22nd, 2026. As earth day in the city of Kalamazoo, it is critical for us to work together in confronting the climate crisis. And we urge a renewed commitment to the policies that invest in sustainable solutions. Resilience. And innovation to safeguard our future. Thanks again. I just told, I should introduce myself. I'm Justin Gish. I'm the sustainability planner for the city of Kalamazoo. Again, there's more gifts. Gifts folks here can get recycling information, recycling bags and compostable or compost containers. And I'm guessing the compost resolutions next. So I'm gonna stay up here. It is, is there anyone in the, in the, in the chambers who is going to accept. Compost week. See Zach. Oh, we're waiting for them to come up. I gotta say just like the Arbor day proclamation said for me, composting is a source of joy and spiritual renewal. So it's wonderful that we're. Doing this proclamation for international. Compost awareness week, May 3rd through May 9th, 2026. Whereas composting returns, organic resources to, to the soil. Restores soil health and supports the essential role soil plays in the carbon cycle. And whereas the use of finished compost.

Compost is a proven method to grow healthy food. Conserve water during drought. Reduce erosion and non-point source pollution. Decrease re reliance on chemical fertilizers. And improve resiliency during extreme weather events. Events and whereas organic materials such as yard trimmings, food scraps, bio salads, and agricultural byproducts. Byproducts can be converted into beneficial compost. Reducing landfill waste and supporting sustainable resource recovery. And whereas communities public works, professionals, farmers. Gardeners and residents can positively impact clean water. Climate resilience and local economies through composting programs that gain green jobs that create green jobs. And strengthen infrastructure. And whereas international compost awareness week is a public. Education program highlighting the importance of composting. In the 2026 theme. Compost feed the soil that feeds us. Emphasizes the connection between healthy soil. Nutritious food and thriving communities. Now, therefore on behalf of the 56 city commission, David, if Anderson mayor of the city of Kalamazoo, I do hereby proclaim May 3rd through May 9th. 2026 as compost awareness week in the city of Kalamazoo. And encourage all residents to recognize the value of composting. And sustaining healthy soil, healthy food, and a healthy community. Thank you for buying into composting in the city of Kalamazoo. Thank you. Hello. My name is Patricia burn. I live in Parkview Hills. I'd like to take a moment to express my sincere appreciation

to the city for supporting. And promoting composting in our community. This program has made a meaningful difference in how many of us think about waste? Instead of sending organic materials and food scraps to the landfill, we're learning how to turn them into something valuable. Nutrient rich compost that benefits our soil. And environment. I'd also like to give a special thanks to Chris broadband and Justin Gish, their guidance. Education and enthusiasm. Has been instrumental in helping residents become better stewards of our earth. They've empowered us with practical knowledge and inspired, real change in our daily habits. Habits, this composting program is not just helpful. It's vital to building a healthier. More sustainable Kalamazoo. I encourage continued support and expansion. So even more residents can participate and benefit. Thank you. I think we're all right, Les, but not least it feels appropriate with this marathon session of proclamations on the Kalamazoo marathon week. April as Kalamazoo valley community college month is the proclamation here. So thank you for being here on behalf of the community college.

Whereas more than a thousand community and technical colleges, public and private in the United States have contributed enormously to the richness and accessibility of American higher education. More than 40% of all under, under. All undergraduate college students in the nation today. Are enrolled in community colleges. And whereas by providing educational opportunities at no co at costs and locations accessible to all who are qualified. Community colleges have greatly enhanced the opportunity for very ambitious. Students to enter the post-secondary school programs. Programs as community based institutions, our institutions provide varied programs and offer specialized training for thousands of occupations. And whereas this community. Has been served by Kalamazoo valley community college since. 1966, supporting the advancement of Southwest Michigan by developing strong industry partnerships and providing state-of-the-art training and educational experiences. And whereas approximately 10,000 students. Students of all ages and backgrounds annually attend Kalamazoo valley community college. To receive superb education and earned degrees. Certificates and trainings that help them become skilled members. Of the workforce that propel economic growth and encourage learning culture. And whereas Kalamazoo valley community college has been instrumental. In revitalizing the city of Kalamazoo with the Arcadia commons campus. Center for new media, Kalamazoo valley museum. In Bronson's healthy living campus. Now, therefore on behalf of the 56 city commission. Due by here, proclaim April 20, 26 as Kalamazoo valley community college month in the city of Kalamazoo. Congratulations. Well, thank you, mayor. City manager, vice mayor. Any other members of the commission for your trust and. Belief in capital valley, as we stay steadfast and committed to our mission. To create equitable opportunities

for all to learn, grow, and thrive. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, thanks again, everyone who came down to participate in that portion of our meeting. I appreciate that very much. Just, just a reminder for anyone who hasn't heard it. Kalamazoo promise just made a me recent announcement. Where they are in essence, providing full tuition reimbursement. Not based on what prior arrangement was amount of time in Kalamazoo public schools. So that is more support for this very important institution. Of which I am alumni, actually, Kalamazoo valley community college. So great news in the community. Helping future students. Students take advantage of learning opportunities. Commissioners now we are down to the adoption of the formal. Agenda commissioners. Are there any items? On G the consent Agenda that you would like to move to H the regular Agenda. Okay. Scene none. The Agenda. Stands as presented. Communications city manager, Hankins. Hankins. Thank you, mayor. Just a note about our community, which many of our community members are suffering through some challenges with flooding. Want to acknowledge that we

recognize those challenges and. Our staff are, are outworking diligently to find ways to support the community. And provide assistance and resources where needed. So you'll probably be hearing more from us as a city about that effort. But our priority is first of all, people and the safety of the folks in our community. As we deal with some unprecedented. Water create, you know, creating hazards and conditions in home set. People don't often have to deal with. So. Just know that we are out and we're trying to do what we can to support our community in that regard. Thanks. Thank you very much manager Hankins. Very important message. Now we are at the point of our Agenda, where there's an opportunity for public comments on any topic that you desire. Just reminder here that the Public Comment period is four minutes. Please state your name and whether you live in the city. Gotcha. Two short people fighting for the mic. Good evening everybody. My name is Wendy fields and I stand before you this evening as the president of the Kalamazoo branch. Of the NAACP N AACP. P over the last probably week or two, we've had the opportunity. To meet with Kalamazoo or department of public safety. Around the issue of the flock camera. And the NAACP NAACP supports the use of the flack safety cameras. By Kalamazoo department of public safety. We also appreciate the measures that they've taken to maintain the integrity of information. That they've captured specifically. There is no national sharing. Of lock data. With the federal government law law enforcement agencies. Nor is any information reported or shared with ice?

As of June, 2025 council department of public safety, suspended information access to. Outside or federal agencies. The only law enforcement agencies with access are the Michigan state police. Portage police department. Kalamazoo township, Western Michigan university. And the council county sheriff department. It is and was our concerned about that based on some information that we got, but I do wanna reiterate that. They are not in any way in partnership with ice. Agency flock played a, the flock cameras played a crucial. Role in addressing several series crimes, everything from including murder. Auto theft, kidnapping trafficking. And mobile nuisance parties. Flock safety cameras have been utilized by Kalamazoo department of public safety for the five, the past five years. We do believe that a lot of this unrest and the reason some of this has come to surface again. Is because of the current. Political administration that we have. The mistrust misinformation. And playing out fear. Consequently, the NAACP intends to partner with other organizations to order and. Organize a community forum with calendar department of public safety. To provide an opportunity for the public to participate. Get their questions asked and answered and to. Obtain further information. We know that trust and transparency is huge in this community. We know that there have been gains that have been made with Camou department of public safety. And it is our fear and the concern that if those cameras are removed,

we're going to be taking a step backwards. And it's not where I wanna go. And if you listen to the news, you're listening to the murders and all of this other craziness that's happened. Happening the mobile nuisance priorities. We can't go back there. And I'm hoping that when we have this forum, that it will put a lot of these issues to rest. Thank you. Thank you. Next please. Good evening, mayor. City manager and commissioners Daniel Cunningham. Residents of the county of Kalamazoo. As a member of pastors on patrol, which is known as pops, which we celebrated. A few weeks ago here in this chambers and also CBI. Team, which is a crime initiative and intervention group. In working conjunction with the police department. The combination of these initiative and partnerships. With instrumental people that worked together. For us to continue. Reduce the number of crime that is. On our webpage on the public. Or on the Kalamazoo police safety department website. One of the tools that currently help us to achieve these. Reduction of crime is again, is flock. Flock is a tool. Flock is, do not and cannot track vehicles. Vehicles much less individuals. Individuals it displays images of. License plates on public. Roadways and does not track people or vehicles over time. Most of the data is never accessed and is deleted on a set resin time. There are organizations and people who do not live.

Or invest in this community. That are spreading. False information about flock. For those, for us in this chamber and those that live in the community. It has been a very positive. Aspect in our community. There are those in our community that may lean towards that noise of other. Organizations that are not part of our community. But I wanna say this. That could be misinformation. Or ignorance or just another Agenda that's on the table. Again, flock is not a mass. Surveillance, but mass, but flock is about license plate reader. It does not tell who owns the car. It does not follow individuals. Individuals and our department doesn't share with ice. Flock is a part. Of the general fund. Flock is already continuing. Being used right now, it's already in the funds. Flock is valuable too. When needed to be used for particular situations and circumstances. So I ask that this 56. City commissions. To continue support the uphill battle of this work that we do. Let us be that beacon of like, let us be. That community. That set the example with the support of flock. As a tool in a arsenal. In our community. Thank you. Thank thank you. Next please. Good evening. I'm pastor Greg Jennings and I am. One of our pastors on patrol leaders.

In Kalamazoo here. And what has been stated already? Is the use of flock and I certainly. Hope and pray that we can continue. Using flock because it is doing. Something that the neck that I cannot do. And in the city where crime is. Is happening a lot. We need to have all the advantages that we can. And one of the things and tools that we have is the flop. It does not. If you look at the transparency page, it does not share that information. With any, anyone who will harm. Any Citizen in any way? And so I, I'm not gonna be very longhand. I'd just like to say, we need to jam with the lamb and rock with the flop. And, and so, and when we continue to do that, we are doing something that Kalamazoo. Has in store and as we leave. This place. We leave with one shared conviction. Our city is stronger when we stand together. Unity is not a slogan. It's a responsibility. When we listen to one another. Look out for one another and work side by side. For the good of Kalamazoo, we become a community to our young people. And to all of us who deserve it. Let's choose collaboration. Over division. Hope over fear. And action over silence together. We can build a safer, stronger, more unified. Kalamazoo when all long to see. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Maddie

Jordan Woods. I thought I would be talking today about the biases of how property is being. Sold to small developers, particularly. Black developers in Kalamazoo from brownfield development to city staff, but two things happened. This weekend, one of them had to do with the tool about flock. And I was one of those residents that was here a couple years ago, asking for something to be done in our community. So yes, I stand with the previous speakers in saying, let's keep the tool. Let's protect people from ice. But let's keep the tool. And my last thing is to say is that we are talking about equity. And people getting out I'm here tonight. To thank the city manager. For taking the time to come to my neighborhood. Knock on doors, go down in basements. Where seniors, whose husbands have died, who worked all their life and paid taxes. Taxes in this community who needed the help. I'm here to thank James Baker. The Sergeant is going to kill me. His last name starts with a w. But I just want public safety to thank you guys for going door to door. And then the public safety workers who are going down in these basements who have on boots, no boots, shoes, but they're going down and they're helping in my neighborhood. So I'm here tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next please. Hello, everyone. Again, my name is Tina MCC Clinton. I live on the south side of town. I live in that lovely floodplain area. I've lived in Kazu all my life, but for first I wanna thank James Baker for coming out and welcome with my neighbors. And. Myself and taking us on a tour. And explaining to us what the army engineer said about the flooding and answering a lot of our questions. Questions. We learned

a lot about our neighborhood. And about the flooding problems we have. The last couple of days when our basement's flooded a little. We got this slimy orange around the inside of our walls. On the floor of our basement. My neighbor told me that he said it was just iron when the oxygen meets it, it. Slimes from the groundwater. It was all in the sub pump. So my neighbor helped me out. And clean the sub ball out for me. And got it back to working and thank you, David. We, we dodged the bad flooding this time. I'm still very worried about flooding. For as bound to happen sooner or later in my neighborhood. This year. I am glad you finally admit there is a problem. After eight years of me coming here. Asking for someone to listen and help us out with this flooding problem. For the storm drains, flooding our streets. Out pretty often lately. I hope that what James Baker said. You were thinking about doing, I hope that you stick to it and try to do something. See, it's hard for me to trust the city of Kalamazoo. For, I have been asking. For you and begging for you to fix this problem ever since. December 18th, 2017. And I have never got a response. So trust is an issue for me. I can only hope and pray that you do something and stop taking away. Natural. Spaces and land and don't mess with our last natural green space. Lake to Stockridge to John, like you did the 12 acres across the street. For KVCC now we flood man. And more, the more you build in our neighborhood, the worse it gets. For homeowners and residents. Residents all we want. We want the same thing. Everybody else wants. We want dry streets. We wanna be able to get home when it rains. I don't wanna have to go to my aunt's senior

apartment building. Pack up and leave so I can get out to get to work. Cuz I can't get home because the streets are blocked from the flooding. Can I have another question for baker? Is there somewhere online. On a city page to find a map of what river is gonna cross. In which rivers would affect our neighborhood while Kalamazoo. That would be something very important to know. So you can kind of try to be prepared. Because it is gonna happen. It happens two, three times a year. So it's gonna happen. I just hope that you guys stick to what you're saying and try to help us out for once with this flooding. Because it gets really expensive. And it's really tiring. Like I said, all we want is dry streets. That's all we want the rest of the neighborhoods. Every neighborhood in Kalamazoo should have dry streets. So everybody can get to their home. Where they feel comfortable and safe. Thank you. Thank you next, please. Hello. I'm Kay. So people are on the streets again, after the programs for the winter ended. And we continue this cycle of K D P S sweeping downtown. They swept around the mission. Just recently. And I'm just concerned. About how pro-police this community is. Especially the black and brown community. Like it, it's not real. And I'm glad somebody here said BA a bandaid mentioned something, a, a bandaid, because this is what things are. When we talk about crime reduction. When we talk about. Statistics and things going down, some of those, some of the neighborhoods aren't seeing this reality. I mean, I heard that like three times after the couple shootings that happened.

Over the week. It's like, yeah, they say crime reduction is down by where, where is it? And we need real efforts, real real efforts when it comes to policing. You know, back in the OYR report. When Katie PA PS was trying to. Defend themselves from seemingly supporting the proud boys and then pepper spraying. Protestors. They they cited. Pillars of policing models. And ongoing community programs, such as PA pastors on patrol. Street as well. Informal block parties, reading programs, ice cream control socials. Socials. And in a nutshell it said, while these developments are commendable. They often lack a meaningful public outreach component. We're not directly linked to addressing the. The 2013 study, which said that black motorists was, were twice as likely to be stopped by police, even though white motorists were more likely to have contraband, right. It says this was in spite of fact, that key recommendation of study that Katie PS regularly publicly report on the progress of its cultural change initiatives. Initiatives as a result, even though reforms are being undertaken by KD PS, many account MSU community. KA curly say that as far as they were aware, no reform of any important merge from that study or its aftermath. Instead, we heard a range of opinions about the ways in which KD PS is disconnected from its community, how its community relations efforts are inauthentic and how limited understanding of diversity within the department's range is problematic. Moreover, while these were the, there has been talks about undertaking another. Study to learn to what degree? Racial disparity, continuous success in KD P S. Enforcement activity that talk has remained a work in progress. Ensure the department sense of its own progress in the, this arena. Has substantive merit, but nonetheless did not necessarily resonate with the wider community experience. This struggles. Struggles, this suggest room for further ever by kitty PS

to prioritize not only constructive change, but also meaningful interactions with public. About those changes. We need to be brave. We need to be brave and stop depending on the, on policing as a source of, of. Crime reduction because the real issue is housing. The Rio issue is these. N jobs that don't pay a livable wage. The, the real reason is, is the housing crisis. People who are homeless, people who are couch, serving people who are in their cars, like. All of these things need to be addressed because if we continue to use policing as a bandaid to say, well, this is what we have now, then we're never gonna imagine something better than that. We're never gonna imagine communities that actually don't need to be policed. Just need resources to just need. Equity. Right? Because as we see in the statistics, why white residents have more privilege, have more housing opportunities have, are the biggest demographic of homeowners, all of these things, all of these disparities that we don't consider when we, when we just want the band-aids, when we have the privilege, right. As a person who is housed as. A person who can talk to people and, and all that. Like I know I have the privilege to be able to do more than just say, this is enough, right. Policing isn't because it is not. Thank you next, please. Good evening. My name's Laura living stone MCN, and I'd like to address some traffic issues in Kalamazoo. Specifically in the neighborhood where I live west main hill neighborhood. At the intersection of level street and Monroe street. I've lived here for 28 years. I've seen the traffic continue to worsen over that time. I've been here and spoken to the commission over the years. Many, many times I've been part of the complete streets commission. Before there was a complete streets of Kalamazoo for the city. And I've done a lot of work, trying to get data and make the changes.

One of the things that I've seen is that the constant flow of traffic from downtown. Westbound on level. Continues to increase. I live at that intersection and almost every day I get rear-ended or blindsided trying to get on my driveway. I've actually gotten hit backing outta my own driveway. My neighbor almost had the same thing just yesterday. Another issue related to that is that the speed bumps are located in places that aren't necessarily super effective. I'm not sure why they were placed for instance, on academy street, when that's not nearly as great a thoroughfare as Monroe street in people, literally gun their engines down Monroe street. I. Have a daughter with disabilities who has mobility issues, hearing and vision issues. Issues. She can't cross streets in her neighborhood. I have to be with her. There is no chance on the planet that she could cross safely given the volume and the, the. Carefree way people drive through our neighborhood, not stopping at stop signs that are there, and certainly not paying attention to people with disabilities. There are heavy vehicles that continue to traverse. Level and Monroe streets. I understand that a lot of this is for the construction at Kalamazoo college. I would like to suggest that those traffic routes be. Redirected they're going by our house and they're literally rumbling our house to the point where our foundation is rattling. The, the cement in our. Stone fireplace structure is literally cracking. I've taken photographs and you can see the changes over time. I've been here at 28 years. The house is over 115 years old. These changes are recent and it has to do with the heavy, heavy vehicles, cement trucks driving by our neighborhood in front of our house every day. Pepsi Cola, beer, trucks, whatever. Different trucks. Another big, significant issue is. In the parking on our street, there are signs that say no parking between certain hours. That's never monitored. People tend to park there.

Multiple way beyond the timeframes specified to the point where we're track. Trash collection can't happen. They. The people are parked in front of the trash. Dumpsters and they can't be picked up. This happened to my neighbor yesterday. She's elderly and her trash didn't get picked up. This last week. So I would like to suggest a yellow painted line on the Stripe, a striped line on. Monroe street between 3 0 8 Monroe and. Three 14 Monroe, where it seems to be the biggest infractions. People tend to park there and it also blocks visibility. We can't even see to back out. I put on my flashers and sort of pray to God. I don't get rear-ended as I back outta my driveway between the level traffic going up up and the Monroe street crossing back and forth. So if we had that yellow Stripe, that would. Maybe eliminate some of the visibility issues and related to that, the people who don't prune their bushes back as per city code. Lastly, I mentioned the speed bumps. Bumps. I think that that's one of the biggest things that was an effort that I fought for. And I know. Was eventually placed in our neighborhood, but unfortunately not on the street that I was advocating for. So I'm not sure why it was, but I would like to revisit that lastly, the traffic light at the intersection of stadium. And what used to be Michigan avenue slash ring road now by Jimmy John's, I've sat at that light many times in the morning. And it goes through several cycles and never actually turns green. So it's very hard to get out of our. Thank you next, please. Good evening. My name is Jen de whale. I'm here representing peace house, which is an intentional community on the east side of Kalamazoo. We serve the kids and families of the east side through an afterschool and summer program, and many other ways. The two families that created peace house have lived and worked on Phelps avenue.

For the last 20 years. On March 9th at 7:30 PM. The sky lit up from a large fire at the Kalamazoo metal recyclers. This fire went stories into the sky. Included frequent large explosions and burned until four in the morning. We have many concerns about why the fire happened. What was burning in the fire and what we can do better as a city towards the next time this happens. My understanding is that Kalamazoo metal recyclers provides Eagle with a list of chemicals and toxins. Toxins that can potentially be hazardous to their immediate environment that they work with. And that is what Eagle monitors for. The citizens of Kalamazoo need to see what was in the fire and what was on this list. I'm questioning how big the Kalamazoo metal. Recyclers retaining ponds are are they big enough to hold 1.3 million gallons of water that was used to put out the fire. Or did some of the water spill into the Kalamazoo river, which runs very near to the plant. What was being monitored in the river? That, to, to ensure that no toxins entered. I know it was shared through the news that oil was being monitored, but that was the only thing that was shared. And since we don't know what was in the fire. We know that there are possibly many other things like lithium ion batteries. Vinyls all sorts of toxins that could have been in the fire. My understanding is that was a fire of. Things that could not be recycled. So all sorts of random things from cars and metal and. Things that couldn't be recycled as metal. And so. Many, many different things were in the fire. I understand that we can't go back in time and test the water and air, but the city of Kalamazoo should be prepared for the next time. As one city official told me this happens once a year. The citizens of Kalamazoo. Deserve clear and timely

access to the data from all industries in Kalamazoo of which there are many. I suggest appointing or creating a position as liaison to industry that repo reports to the people of Kalamazoo. Air quality relations, history, et cetera. I'm hoping that the commission steps up for the citizens in the near future. As they, more than anyone else who does business in Kalamazoo deserve to know what they are breathing. Thank you. Thank you. Next person. Hi, my name is Amy TKI and I'm a resident of the city of Kalamazoo. And I volunteer with peace house and wanna join Jen in everything she just said. I'm also a PhD student studying environmental justice and air pollution. And I wanted to further express concern about the emergency response or lack thereof and what could have been done differently. The news coverage after only mentioned monitoring PM 2.5, which is a large category of compounds. Compounds without looking at specific compounds, such as heavy metals, you're not able to actually tell what is of concern to residents. And in addition, there are compounds that aren't captured in a P PM 2.5 measure such as volatile, organic compounds and polycystic aromatic hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons the article also only talked about looking for an oil sheen, which is the bare minimum. When you think about what could be in the water. There need to be air and water samples taken at the time of an event so that there could be more comprehensive analysis of what was in the air and water. After the fact and that is especially important. If there are reports of health effects, we would have to know what was there in real time, to be able to assess that there is a connection to the. Concerns that people have because without proper scientific study, so taking samples in real time, the wind blows away, the water flows away. And it's easy to just say, it's not a problem anymore. Like Jen said, officials can say, this happens every year

and it goes away. And then it becomes normalized and there's no accountability. And this is an environmental justice issue because it's no coincidence where these industries are located, that are at risk for this type of emergency it's in minority and low income communities by design. And if there's no proper monitoring or Bernstein response, then that becomes a way to further perpetuate environmental injustice. And a scientifically irresponsible. Thank you. Thank you next, please. Good evening. Manager. Mayor and city Commissioner. ATIs war pass the Maza church here in Kalamazoo. I rolls to self your words about the flop cameras. I'm just, I'll just read a letter that was. That was written just a few words and then. Moved from there. Very concerned about. Not using them. And so let me here it is. Dear mayor Anderson. City commission as a member. Of this community who lives works and worships on the north side of Kalamazoo. A right into port of. The Kalamazoo department of public safety's use of the flock cameras to assist. With criminal investigations and enhanced community safety. The implementation of this technology has a direct benefit. To me and my community. It offers a proactive and ongoing approach to addressing concerns. Concerns such as Mo mobile nuisance parties. Commonly owns as X train. Car thefts, drag. Racing gun violence

and other criminal activity. By improving the ability to quickly. Identify and respond to these responsible. This tool helps make streets safer. And neighborhoods stronger. I support thoughtful and responsible use of this technology. As a part of a broader effort to protect residents. Residents preserve peace and promote a safer. North side and greater community of Kalamazoo. Thank you. Thank you. Next please. Good evening to our mayor, our vice mayor. Commissioners city managers, city attorney. My name is Charla Davis with Isaac. First I wanna thank manager Hankins and his wife and his family for taking time out of their busy schedules. Schedules for the neighborhood meet and greets. There was one at St. Luke's one at the Douglas community association, and then also with our immigrant family members. And our community members were so happy to be able to meet their new city manager. It was a wonderful time of unity and community fellowship. So thank you. Also thank you to mayor Anderson. Vice mayor, drew Commissioner SL. I saw you at various meet and greets. So I wanted to send my gratitude as well. I want the next talk and just honor. The violence that has been happening and the loss of life here. Also in the us and nationwide. I wanna talk a little bit more about systems right now. You all, I'm not gonna focus on local because I know that we all love our community. We love. Kalamazoo. So I'm not gonna go there, but I do want us to, I do want to lift. About what we're seeing as far as federal.

Actions and those that continue to put our community in danger. Especially those who are impacted. So it is my hope that we, as a city can start shifting because times are changing. We have to shift with the times. And start planning. And preparing for what might be ahead. And that means we can't do things the same way that we've always been doing them. As I've been listening tonight, I've been hearing valuable community members. Talking about the flat cameras. And I honor that we wanna keep our communities safe. We wanna accountability for those. Who commit crimes, those who do. Harm to our communities. And if I asked everybody who is a survivor in some way, shape or form. I'm sure everybody would raise their hand. And so I wanted to lift that and honor that period. And you all for me, it does not stop there. I have to honor that they are also concerned and an increased risk for harm. Especially with this federal. Administration. And so I wanna send gratitude to the community member that figured out that our local cameras were being accessed. And we did not know that. So thank you to that person. And I think it's really important that we learn from lessons and learn from other places. That are being informed by best practices, few things that we can't ignore. White supremacy does not follow rules. I'm gonna say that again. White supremacy does not follow rules. Also as you, if you have been looking at other cities, they have been reporting unauthorized queries and tracking around immigration and reproductive health clinic visits. Visits and investigations, even in the CBS news. There was a title, technical glitches and slide door. Side doors. I'm sorry. And

looking at errors that bypass privacy laws and then also CBS news. The national lookup and the private two public sharing created avenues for federal access without explicit local consent. And I just wanted to lift that. So as we are talking about technology, which can be unpredictable, we're talking about an unhinged federal administration. You are we really, again? Need to prepare differently. When we're thinking about surveillance, especially in this troubling time, I don't think that we can forget anybody. We are very much in tune in knowing that crime is happening. And then we have other community members that might be put in, in harm's way as well. I want us to really start thinking about. And lifting the idea of oversight when it's coming to surveillance. Accountability and audits and looking at cities who are doing this as well with a anti-racism. Anti-bias lens so that all communities feel safe. Thank you. Next please. Good evening, Commissioner, city managers, and citizens. My name is Ashante Collins and I'm the community chair at Alpac Kalamazoo, which is advocates and leaders for police and community trust. Our purpose is to bridge the gap between residents within the county and law enforcement, who, who governs throughout. We are states supported group through the, through the. Michigan department of civil rights tasked with examining issues, affecting police and community relations and ensuring equitable enforcements of laws, including racial profiling police discretion. Use of force recruitment and training community partnering and other and other areas on speaking today and maintaining Kalamazoo's use of the flock system and also in support of something equally important and ensuring our community has access to clear education

about what this technology is. And what it is not public safety tools are strongest when they operate alongside public understanding. Right now, there is an opportunity not just to keep a system in place that assists investigations, but to. D to build deeper trust by making sure residents clearly understand how the system functions. Functions, what information it collects, how long data is stored, what can and cannot be shared and with whom and what safeguard. Guides it uses currently over the last three years. One thing I have consistently heard in conversations about this system is that people do not fully know what the tool is. Many are unsure, what it can do. What is capabilities are and what information is shared. At a time when our country is experiencing a broader climate of fear and uncertainty, we have a responsibility to ensure that the citizens who live here in Kalamazoo are heard. And I do hear you. I hope the commission is hearing more than just the words being spoken tonight. I hope you are hearing the message behind them. That message is that we need to come together as residents, elected officials and law enforcement to better understand the tools that are being used in our community. The FLOX system has helped identify and recover stolen vehicles, locate. Suspects connected to shootings in our city assisting cases involving the kidnapping of our children. And support efforts to identify human tracking human trafficking victims. These are real outcomes that affect real families in Kalamazoo. It has also been a part of the progress that mood Kalamazoo toward a roughly 90% homicide clearance rate compared to the statewide clearance rates prior to 2020, that were closer to, to 50% to 51%. That represents an increase of nearly, nearly 40% and that kind of movement matters. When we talk about safety and justice for victims and their families. While the city was once connected to a broader NA nationwide sharing network. According to K DPS today, the system

is connected only to local partners for information sharing. That distinction matters and it deserves to be clearly understood by the public in 2024. Our community also had the opportunity to hear from criminal psychologists in the AI policing expert, Renee Cummings, who's spoke about reimagining the legacy of law enforcement, that age of artificial intelligence or AI. She. Reminded us that conversations about policing and technology are not new, but they are evolving. She challenged communities like ours to think about the balance between reward and risk and what our rights are and where responsibility lies between citys and law enforcement. She talked about what her blueprint for the bill of rights, according to AI are the right to safe and effective systems protection from discrimination, the right to data privacy notifications when systems are being used and expert explanations of their implications. And I think that's where we are today. These convers. Conversations are necessary and they are being had everyone who has spoken tonight is coming from a place of wanting better for our community. Whether, whether you talked about being for it or against it, they are speaking from a place of deep concern for their home. And at the end of the day, we are all asking for the same thing. Safety transparency, accountability. And trust. So my ass tonight is simple that we come together as a community and have this crucial conversation. Thank you. Thank you next, please. Good evening. My name is Caleb iMac's resident. I want to talk tonight about an area where I think the city could improve and that's the boards and commissions page. I wanna be clear that this is about the tools and the systems. Not the people behind it. I do web work myself, and I know how fast this kind of thing falls down the list when staff is stretched thin. Cities have a handful of ways to shape the kind of community they want to be tax incentives to attract development. Social programs to strengthen the neighborhoods, grant funding, to support local organizations. The thinking behind all of those is the same. If you want a certain outcome, you lower the barriers and make it easier

for people to participate. I have been following the civil rights board closely for about two years. I have attended every meeting. And over that time, I've repeatedly known about vacancies on the board from being in the room months before that information ever showed up on the city's website. A resident should not have to already be engaged to find out there is an opportunity to get engaged. Kalamazoo has over 20 boards and commissions. These are the bodies where residents have direct input on civil rights, housing, public safety, pensions, environmental policy. The people, the city most needs on these boards are working parents, renters, and people with lived experiences in the areas. These boards cover. People who are not already plugged into city hall. Right now the path from curiosity to participation asks a lot of a person. Say I wanna stay informed about a board. I care about to watch a past meeting. I have to leave the board's page entirely and search through the city's YouTube channel. To find minutes and agendas I'm taking off the. Board page to another platform that is three. Different websites, a resident has to track and self-organize just to follow one board. The city already publishes all of this, the information exists. It is just spread across enough places that keeping up with it becomes its own project. Boards have had difficulty maintaining full membership. And I think a big part of that is a pipeline problem. Someone who is civically engaged today could be an applicant in six months if they knew a seat was opening, but right now they would have to call the clerk's office to find out upcoming vacancies. Term dates, meeting schedules. Schedules vacancy status. These are not just administrative details. They are recruitment tools. I sent an email to the commission on Friday with a link to approve a concept. I built that brings this information together in one place, organized by board using only information the city already collects. Collects, I'm not asking the city to adopt that site. I built it to show what is possible and to start a conversation about making these resources work harder for residents. Residents, I'm looking forward and hopeful to whatever comes from those conversations.

Thank you. Thank you. Next please. Good evening city manager. Mayor and Anderson and vice mayor Duncan city commissioners. My name is Jonathan Yarborough with N a C D. And just a simple Northside resident. First thing I want to just say is that I, myself, N a C D is in support of the flock cameras. As long as no information is shared with any. Of the federal or any ice. Or anything that has to go into harm's way. We wanna make sure that we're protecting our residents, our individuals that live in the city, Kalamazoo and Kalamazoo county. So we are in favor of that simply because it literally protects our neighbors and protects our city. It holds both sides of the party accountable. And again, especially since this past weekend, a young man was, has passed away just due to violence. And this wasn't on north side of Kalamazoo, by the way, this was in divine neighborhood and crime happens everywhere, but I'm not sure if flock had anything to do with finding the person who did it. And they found that person today, as I was looking on news channel three, but that's just one of the things that flocked can do. It can solve crime in a and acceler. Accelerator rate, make things easier and we definitely don't want to go back 30, 40 years. Where individuals do crime, and we don't know where they're at. They might be hiding someone's basement and they be there for 30 years and we have to find them later on. So I've been definitely in favor of the fly cameras. As stated before, obviously the flooding issue has been. An issue for the last couple weeks, maybe the last month. And really this past weekend, I was out of town when the flooding was really happening. And I got an email. From director Baker's staff members. And so I just wanna say thank you to director baker. If you hear, still hear, thank you. For supporting our neighborhood. I just heard, got word that

you were also going through. Our seniors, basements, and actually seeing. Just some of the things that we experience on the north side of Kalamazoo, we understand that we are on muck land, we get it, but it doesn't mean that we have to continue to deal with the flooding and we know there's flooding all over the place. And so, you know, I also want to encourage you to maybe move this. To a little bit more of the priority list because we might need to invest. Into fixing this issue, hopefully this summer. I'm also a believer of you have not because you asked not. And so. Maybe we can look into providing sunk pumps to those houses that don't have sunk pumps, just trying to be solution oriented. Don't want to beat this over the head or complain because I'm, I'm all about solutions. So if that's a possibility, I will love to have conversations about that. I know I have sunk pump in my basement. We all, we're not new to it. Yeah, that is all I have. And then also I just wanna lift up again. North side is happening August 8th. So I would like for everybody to participate in that, that's gonna be an amazing day where we have a five KK Walker running the morning through the north side neighborhood where have a community celebration at Laron park. And we'll have a nice evening festival that evening. And so I just wanna reiterate too with the flock cameras. It is going to be a very. I don't wanna say it, but it's gonna be a difficult summer if we cannot keep the crime rate down. And so. We're going to have a community celebration at Laro park and it will be the first event that we've had since the previous shooting. Five to six years ago. And I know. That that is a, a risk that I'm taking, but I'm willing to take, because I love my community. I love my park. And there's not gonna be anything happening under my watch. I'm definitely gonna have Katie PS there gonna be security. And other things that are going to keep us all safe. So just wanted to lift that up and share

with that with you guys. Thank you. Thank you next, please. All right. Good evening. My name is Lexi Jones. I'm here representing the, get out of the flock. Get the flock outta Kalamazoo campaign today. I first wanna appreciate our community members efforts towards trying to reduce crime and addressing our community concerns. Concerns. However, it is a fact that the data retained in the flock safety cameras are property of the flock group itself and not at the discretion of K D P S. Has the February 16th, 2026 block has updated its terms again with the following flock has perpetual irrevocable licenses to all customer data for all purposes. Purposes all disputes must go to Georgia law arbitration. Liability is hard, kept regardless of fall. And the non appropriation exit for government customers has been narrowed to the point where it may not function as intended. These contracts create unconstitutional debt obligations for the municipalities that sign them. And as much as local law enforcement can try to regulate and limit the a L P R data, it is still under the oversight and over, over ownership. Of the flock surveillance system itself to sell the data to third parties. Regardless of the local regulations and ordinances. Ordinances, the stands from K DPS is that the data is accounted for, and then it should be a problem for them to plug into the transparency portal that allows for public audit of the data so that we can see where these searches are being made. What crimes that we're investigations are being prioritized and who is requesting the data. If K DPS is collaborating with multiple agency. Agencies within Southwest Michigan on data sharing, even with pres provisions, then our privacy is already compromised grand rapids, which is only 30 to 45 minutes away. Has already been shown to misuse the cameras for political persecution of protestors in their complicity with ice, you can try to regulate the hell out of 'em, but they're already licensed under flock. It does not make us safer or more welcoming for the, those who are already facing this discrimination and racial profiling from the police. There is

also no strong evidence that these cameras. Prevent crime or make us any safer. Is it a tool to solve crime, but it also comes with a lot of extra add-ins and expenses. Expenses the work that I see towards abolition and reducing criminality in juveniles, people with mental illnesses and addiction and high risk of criminality are done by social workers, psychologists, teachers, neighbors. Neighbors underpaid, unrecognized and unrewarded people in the community. Not those who police the behaviors of others and flagged, desirable, or suspicious behavior. The decision for the city to choose these specific cameras over the already pre-established traffic cameras that did the exact same thing, but without the federal overreach and bypassing the need for warrants, which is part of what keeps our law enforcement accountable or with the use of AI, AI shows the department's priority of convenience over safety and privacy for the rest of us. Block and ring cameras, providing easy access, set up and subscription to use the services at the cost of the privacy and protections of our rights of neighbors. Neighbors more and more cameras or more and more cities are removing their cameras. And I hope that city, or I hope that Kalamazoo can be an example from Michigan on the front against federal overreach and mass surveillance, making us more inclusive and welcoming without fear of prosecution. Thank you next, please. I live in Kalamazoo county. As you may have heard from other members of the public. Fox safety is demonstrating a pattern of behavior. I would characterize as deceptive. Well, I would like to go into further detail on this point. Many of the facts they'll remain obscure. The details of the city's contract with flock safety are as unknown. As well as the overall nature of the relationship between this vendor. And Kaeo public safety. I hope that this meeting is the beginning of a process that will bring vital facts to light that will allow us to make informed decisions as citizens engaged in

our communities. Recently the city rejected a grant for 1.2, 5 million from the office of community oriented policing services. Services. I believe that the reason for this was straightforward. The grant in its design was adversarial and contradictory to the mission of community policing. Allow me to quote at the time, deputy chief David Boyan in an article from nlife published in October, 2021. We can use this technology flaw cameras in places where we don't need witnesses. If we can utilize technology to help solve our cases. That really is the goal. I have to ask a question. Is this technology undermining the community partnerships that the police department should be building? I believe that this technology will further disconnect police officers from their environment and the communities they serve. Now don't get me wrong. I can see the utility of this technology for law enforcement, but we have to ask ourselves some hard questions. Questions is the use of this technology ethical. Do the benefits outweigh the harms. Harms right now, there's no solid research that shows that this technology is effective at preventing crime. All we have is marketing from flock safety. Where should we go for reliable information? When you go to the K Kalamazoo public safety website, you find an F FAQ, which sounds more like advertising for flock safety. Rather than anything, objective. This company has resources to hire PR firms for ideal messaging. And lawyers for expert arguments in their favor. What about those who are afraid to visit a clinic or hospital, go to a church or even leave their house for fear of surveillance and repression. Who will speak for those who suffer in silence? I ask that you members of the government. And us members of the public. Consider these critically important questions. Questions. We should take a pause on this technology and any others like it, the post such a high ethical risk. Automatic license plate readers,

facial recognition technology. And AI systems, which not even the engineers working on them. Could honestly inform you how they work and to who's benefit. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next please. Hello. My name is Kyle pat NAD. I'm a lifelong resident of Kalamazoo. I live, I've lived in the Edison neighborhood for six years. I'm just gonna read some facts here for you. Mr. Representative of the G the flock out of Kalamazoo campaign. There are over 100 flat cameras around the city of Kalamazoo and they're they keep popping up. Flock cameras utilize an AI system, which not only has been proven to misinterpret data, leading to false arrests and searches, but also poses a much broader ethical and environmental risk. With the use of data centers, which use massive amounts of drinkable water and create noise and heat pollution in the affected communities. Law enforcement agencies. Can indu share flock data to federal organizations like ice. Earlier this month, Florida's fish and wildlife con conservation commission were caught performing dozens of license plate lookups on flock cameras for ice. The a C L U warns that. At minimum, this drag net surveillance means warrantless tracking of everyone on the road at worst. It means a digital police state wearing law enforcement officials in far flowing jurisdictions. Jurisdictions contract protestors, political opponents, immigrants, patients, and others, not suspected of any crime and use the information to hurt them. Fox claims it protects people's privacy and legal rights by requiring all law enforcement offers to enter a search reason. Before accessing database results. However, this is not monitored and there are a record.

A record number of entries simply stating the reasoning is. Search or look up **** network audits revealed thousands of searches of local organizations, networks by other organizations would do, which do not appear in either their network sharing report lists of networks I'm sharing with or transparency, portals lists, or external organizations with access. Meaning that despite despite the claims that the data gathered by KD PS is not being shared with anyone outside of Portage. Say Portage police department or those other organizations. The there's no reason to believe that is true. Even when a police department chooses in FLOX application to restrict data access to its own officers, the user agreement. Gives flack the right to disclose the local police department's data, both to law enforcement, nationwide and federal agencies for investigative purposes. Purposes since flock safety began partnering with law enforcement. A growing number of officers have been found abusing the surveillance system. This includes personal searches that have resulted in charges for stalking. 75% of flock's law enforcement customers have enrolled in the national lookup tool, which allows information sharing across the country between all participants. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you next, please. Hello. My name is Trevor I've resided in Kalamazoo county. Since I was in grade school. I'd like to bring everybody's attention to information readily available on our city's own public. Safety flock camera FAQs page. There are a number of what I consider to be troubling and misleading justifications for the presence of the flock cameras, which one could choose to focus on. And with respect to time constraints, I'll stick to one that being

the claim that since 2021, when the cameras were installed, we've seen a 51% decrease in the homicide. Rate while this might be true. If we cherry picked 2025 and compare it to 2020 arbitrarily there most synonymous with the height of the COVID pandemic wherein substantial increases in criminality of all sorts were observed and with no apprised, given the macroeconomic shut shocks of entailed. As I intend to show this incredibly parochial lens falls. Apart quickly at the explaining. Sorry. Quickly at explaining the reality. When we zoom out since 2020, the homicide rate per 10,000 people in Kalamazoo are as follows. Follows 2020 19.6, 2021 17.1. 2022 15.1. 2023 30.3. 20 24, 13 0.7. In the previous decade, 2010 to 2019 in half of those years, the number was under 10. By contrast 2025 represents the first year of the decade to do so at seven. This is welcome for sure, but I think it begs the question. How can one feel confident in the way attributing this decline to the flop cameras as opposed to am mere outlier or perhaps more optimistically a return to the norms we're used to a decade ago before flop group is a company had hatched to it itself into a existence. Had one set themselves out to be as bad faith as the city's official purporting of the data, would it not be just as easy to conclude? Cherry picking 2023, for example, notable as a year taking place after they were installed in 2021. That the effect was to significantly increase the homicide rate. It might, but this is not my goal. Anyone with an elementary statistics background would likely caution against inferring cause and effect in either direction as do many studies. This being the case, what particular section of society would this piece of propaganda service to benefit and why? For an amateur communist like me, it is clear. It is capital which computes in such a fashion, which is blind to the products of structural impoverishment, which has been Al sorry, which has been allowed to seep just under the surface of our streets and to its solutions. Seeing not occur crisis of growing pop as in need of relief, but of a choice of Vega boundary by NA by.

Nefarious and lazy types who can only be dealt with through greater levels of discipline. Capital Chase's blindly and anarchical profit in the form of commodified, guns, surveillance, technology, and cameras, which are demanded by the wealthy, just, just as anarch and who's outsized grip on aggregate cash flow or credit or credit worthiness of the very least credits out whatever demands signals may exist for increases in educat. Education housing or healthcare for people at the lowest stratums of society. It is these broad lessons in conjunction with the local espoused by many individuals today, which we should bear in mind. When we ask how as a community, it makes sense to propagate the existence of the cameras further. And as we consider the ways in which we seek to reorganize society for the prosperity of everybody. Thank you. Thank you next, please. Hello. I am also, my name is Matt Griffith and I've lived in Kalamazoo for 15 years. I'm also here with the, get the flock outta Kalamazoo. Project to speak out against flock and other a L P R cameras. The create a surveillance net that can be used to track everybody throughout the city. That gathers data that is then. Harvested and sold that's. That's we try, we think that. The data will stay just for our law enforcement uses. Uses, but in fact has been shown that it can and has been abused. Abused by other federal agencies. One thing I wanna to point out is that K DPS has made statements. About flock's safety in particulars. Particular's security. Cybersecurity. They claim that flock safety has not been hacked and neither have their cameras. This is misleading at best.

So even Senator Ron Wyden in congressperson. Roger Kisha. Maruti. Wrote an open letter to the FTC. FTC asking them to hold a flock. Responsible for negligent cybersecurity practices. Practices in which the outline, how them not requiring multifactor authentication. Puts the data that the police officers can access. At risk to bad actors. They point out that there was one instance. Where 15 police accounts were stolen by a male wear called info ripper. And if these accounts did not have the two factor authentication, it would be much easier for them to just with the logging credentials. Credentials gain access to everything that officer would have access to. And then be able to. Store and use that data for their own means. The cameras themselves have been shown to be. Hacked. There was a paper at the end of the last year written by. John Gaines called examining the security posture. Of anti-crime ecosystems. Ecosystems, this details 51 findings in which even flock safety themselves have. Reported to Mitter. M I T E R. Even indicating some of these vulnerabilities. As critical. In which it shows that these cameras can be remotely accessed. Here that I will talk about is that there's a button on the camera that you can press four times in a row. It then opens up a wifi access point. In which has the password across all of their cameras is just the word security. In all lower case. And then from there speaking on that network

is an administration of API. That you can just ask its to give you complete access to the camera. These security researchers were able to show. That this data is in fact accessible. And there are no protections on the device to prevent. The attacker from manipulating and sending it wherever they want. These cameras have not been shown. Shown to reduce crime. And I believe it is just K D P S who are trying to convince us. Because they want access to all of this data. That is all. Thank you. Thank you next, please. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the commission. My name is Audrey and I'm a lifelong resident of Kalamazoo county as well. And I'm also a two time combat veteran. I'm here to speak out against the, the flock cameras that have been going up in our community for some time now. And I understand the need for security and all that. But my concern is when does the crime change in the goal? Post change? When does running a red light become a felony. And then once you rack up three of those that they start coming after you. At this point, they can pick and choose who they wanna come after. I don't know if we're understanding that on a grand scale. Scowl, because even if flack has to delete their stuff, where's that information go Palter. Do they have to do it? Or is it a national security risk to delete that data? These are things we all need to think about. Thank you. Thank you next, please. Hey, everyone. Just, I will. You Simpson I'm with the, get the flock out of Kalamazoo

campaign. I don't have anything massively prepared. Just like to kind of. Reply to some of the statements that have been made about this technology before. And I firstly want to appreciate everybody who was speaking foreign and against these cameras. I think it's important to have an open dialogue. And I think ultimately it was that dialogue that was missing before these cameras actually got implemented. So, you know, we're doing a lot of catch-up stuff, I think from most people, you know, they are coming from a place of wanting to not do harm to our community, whether that's immediate harm that's happening in our community by using this so-called crime fighting tool to kind of stop this. But what we are trying to do is stop, you know, potential. Potentially more serious harm, which we're using, you know, providing a fascist government, this technology that can be used in horrific ways. One thing I did wanna respond to is that somebody insinuated that this campaign, you know, is coming from outside of the city, that it isn't necessarily local thing. No, that's untrue. We are, you know, local, we have a petition of 400 plus people that's growing every day who are not happy, believe it or not, but those people exist in this community. And we are not part of a national. Campaign either. We are just one of many. Local groups who are realizing that we want this technology removed from our, from our city. Interestingly, one of those groups that have been successful in removing flock cameras from their city is the great city. Well, the, the great area of the Silicon valley. Now it might make you wonder why we're perhaps the community. That is most versed from a technical perspective about this technology. Why would they want it removed from their city? It gives me. Pause to think, hang on a second. Do they know something we don't? So I think that's just a really interesting thing. A really interesting thing as well, that a lot of people were saying is they're all far this technology, as long as you know, we're not sharing it with the baddies, we're not sharing it. We're I and other fed agent agencies. And at the end of the day, I do appreciate that concern. But you know,

that's not something K DPS is in control of. They have. Opted out of a checkbox, they have opted out of an online program, but at the end of the day, K DPSS aren't in control of the hardware. They aren't in control of the software. They are clients to a wider thing. And at the end of the day, we have to ask to our community. It doesn't matter if we trust KD PS it's do we trust flock safety? Do we trust. A Silicon valley tech company. Do you trust Mac Zuckerberg, mark Zuckerberg. Do you trust Jeff Bezos? I ******* don't. You know, why would you support flock safety and trust them that they're gonna hold this data nice and secure. Of course, they're not, you must be so naive to think that and to trust them, it's it's, you know, it's. It's you just gotta think about it for two seconds, in my opinion. Really the, one of the more important points as well is, you know, about saying that KPS no longer shares this data in this national system. We no longer share that data. We have to realize that for the longest time, the police department, wasn't aware, aware that they were sharing this data on an, a national scale. And that's a appalling that is UN. Unbelievable. And it shows that the department of public safety doesn't actually have a firm grasp on this technology and how it's used. So they're not actually, you know, qualified to talk about these technical points and say, oh, the data is secure and saving. Don't worry. They delete things afterwards. So I think we just need to take this all all into context at the end of the day, you know? The tech industry is in bed with the trumpet administration, they're making a lot of money. And by allowing these cameras to continue in our community, we are setting this community up for. God knows what we have a midterm election coming up. We will see. What you know, this administration, which has, you know, let's just say a bad record with ensuring election security. We will, we will be seeing these cameras used in a fashion that.

Hurts people's democratic rights at the most basic level, as well as going on to hunt immigrants, hunt down our trans brothers and sisters hunt down some of the most vulnerable people in our community. So I do want to just make sure that we do get the flaw out of Kalamazoo. Thank you very much, guys. Thank you next, please. Hey, I'm also here for the, get the flock outta Kalamazoo movement. I would just like to address some other concerns about the infrastructure on the side of the road, people driving these cameras have gone up. The poles are really close to the curb. I don't know if they're being put in with concrete foundations or if they're just being driven in. But there's a concern about safety, right? People aim for mailboxes, soft bushes, you know, they're, they know not to aim for a tree, right. That's not safe. I'm not gonna win that. So I do wonder the safety of mounting. These cameras so close to the road. On top of all the other security concerns. Concerns they're mounting on public infrastructure. I don't know if you guys are approving that. I know. Other public municipalities. Aren't a fan of that. Even state government, isn't a fan of, you know, adding extra infrastructure components, two signs and pulls. Poles. So I'd just like to. Talk about that. Interviewing with the local construction, right? They're in the way, calling miss dig for a pole in your front yard, who's responding to that. Is there infrastructure you're gonna hit damage? Who, who repairs them, you know, not great, further than Ferris tracking in the wrong hands that doesn't build trust for the community where police are tracking behind the desk, rather than being out, working with the residents and the community that they serve. I'd also like to talk about the additional concern of the cost of this. You're getting it for free or reduced or whatever contract they talked you into and what you signed, but did you read. I mean, I'm sure you've read it, but what didn't they include? Right? What is beyond that contract? That they're doing behind the scenes that maybe you aren't aware of, you know, and similar to Uber and Lyft and even Netflix, it starts out cheap and

then it keeps rising in costs. So where's the ceiling. How much are we gonna keep collecting this data? Is it safe? Is it secure? And then just, I mean, if you're getting it for your cheap, you are the product. You know, is it worth being sold and selling out more and more data of the residents? Residence, especially cuz it's a third party company. Out of Georgia, which is interesting. We don't have a local. That we could support, you know, you guys are just. Going for this big company that came outta Georgia and was like, here, this is a good idea. So not a fan of flock. That's all. Thank you next, please. What's up. Y'all Alejandro Rodriguez. Good to see you guys just wanted to read a few. Examples of the benefits of flat cameras and reducing crime. Homicide investigations of the last eight homicides solved by K DPS. The LPR, which is the license plate reader. Data was instrumental in every case since 2021. LPRs have played a critical role in solving 23 homicide investigations. Overall murders are down 53% compared to five years ago prior to implementing these cameras. Gun violence reduction. LPR data was, is reviewed following. Virtually every shots fired a non-fatal shooting incident since implementation assaults with firearms are down 49%. And overall reports of shots fired have decreased 57% compared to five years ago. Child abduction recovery in 2021, a vehicle was stolen. Stolen from a convenience store with two children inside ages, 18 months and five years old using this data officers located the vehicle under two hours, and both children were safely recovered and returned to their families. Property crime and theft, following a series of storage unit burglaries involving over a hundred thousand and stolen property. This data identified the suspect vehicle. Leading to arrest and recover of a significant portion of the stolen items. Overall property crime is down 39% compared to five years ago. Human trafficking investigations LPRs have been used multiple times to

identify and upper hand individuals involved in the sex trafficking of women and children. Auto theft reduction, flock cameras have significantly improved the recovery of stolen vehicles and identification of suspects. Motor vehicle theft is down 35 compared to five years ago. Prior to LPR implementation. Drug overdose investigations in April, 2023. Officers responded to 18 overdoses resulting in seven deaths. Deaths flagged data was instrumental in identifying the individual responsible for distributing the drugs. Leading to multiple convictions for overdose related deaths. Deaths kidnapping response in July, 2023. A suspect assaulted residence and kidnapped an infant belonging to his ex-girlfriend. A flat camera captured the suspect's vehicle, leaving the city within 25 minutes, the vehicle was stopped and the child was safely returned to the mother. Mobile nuisance party's flock cameras have become a critical tool in addressing long-standing issues with mobile nuisance parties using LPR data to identify and track vehicles involved in repeated violations. I'm in favor of, of keeping this system in our city over the last 15 years of my life, I've been doing everything I can to combat against crime in my community. And that goes for the, the 15 years prior, which, you know, I was an individual helping lead that crime. I think God, for changing my life and allowing me to, to, to live my life differently, I get. To raise my children differently. And you know, I got my son with me, so I'll be able to teach him how to do this as well. So for generations to come, I'll be in favor of system like this because they're helping us reduce crime and save lives. And my biggest point tonight is that, you know, when, when those children were found. In, in that stolen vehicle. They would return to their mother. And so not only are we reducing crime, but we're also keeping families whole. Thank you. Thank you. Next please. Good evening. My name is Esteban Juarez, former city Commissioner. I'm a pastor in this community. Football coach advocate. Mentor. And I, I was here for the community of

the whole meeting and. Commissioner SLA said something important about. Former commissioners doing work and us not just coming in and changing that stuff. And if it does get changed, how do we. Kind of manage that in doing the right thing and you can see the, you can see it it's online and you know, I'm not gonna put words in her mouth, but. What I took from it is I was one of the individuals who supported flock up on the Dias. With many other things like station two. Pals the cultivation center and all the work we did together. To make this community better now. Some people are concerned about flat, but you heard Alejandro speak about some statistics. And flocks is just another tool. Like a screwdriver in my tool bag. But I also have a drill. So when that screwdriver doesn't work, I can use my drill and these are simple tools to help keep our community safe. Now in regards of policing. I've never met. Another chief of police who has. The humility that David Boysen has. And how he is cultivating. Humility in the department. And changing practices. Practices by partnering what community members. And organizations and people, it is an honor to be part of this community. And I'm one who's been affected by gun violence. On father's day when my, my three year old son was shot in the leg. 10 years ago that affected me flock was in the round. The individual wasn't caught. And so I, I, I wish that was. Now we have a system that's working, it's a tool that's helping. Making our community better. It's not the end. All be all. There's other tools that are gonna come along the line. That we're gonna support or not support that are gonna be helpful or harmful. And we get to determine that and you see the statistics. You read Alejandro, just read a bunch of statistics. And that's one

way that the police department. Is reducing violence and crime in our city. Right. Not just that I remember going through the police citizens academy. And that was so helpful to understand. The dynamics of being in the position of a police officer when it comes to these things. Right. And so I, I urge you guys. To please continue to look closely. At what's taken place in our community. To take the walk in the community like manager has right to see what's really happening. Iron the people who are affected by gun violence. Black and brown communities more than anything. But you had a bunch of white people come up here against flop. Right. That's a form of white supremacy. You had a bunch of colored people coming here in favor of flock. So I'm saying, we gotta think about this clearly. And, and use the intelligence that God has given us. To create a better Kalamazoo. And I think you guys can do it. That's why you guys are elected, right. We believe in you guys. And so I'm for the flock cameras, cuz it helps. It's just one way that helps. I know one statistic that hasn't been towed. The amount of times since flock has been in existence. How many times ice has used it. Or the police department has allowed ice to use it. You know what that number is? Zero. Zero. Okay. Now that means, do we trust what the police department is doing? Will we see the transparency that's happening. And can we step into that more? Right. So there's statistics that show that. But I build a relationship with the police department and many people in the police department. And I'm in support of that. Thank you. Thank you.

Next please. Hello, bill Carmel 17, 12 green lawn. In Kalamazoo, a lot of important things being discussed here tonight. I almost am embarrassed to bring my topic up, but. This seems to be the only venue. Open. So the closure of peak street from two years ago. In June of 2024, the commission voted to. De-certify peak street, the so-called play street. Straight mainly it was a housekeeping action. Since the city was still receiving act 4 51 funds. For a street that had been closed to traffic for almost a year. However, recognizing that the survey of residents showed a very. Close split between foreign against closure. The mayor and several commissioners recommended continuing community discussion. Regarding a possible hybrid or compromise option. The then city manager recognized quote. Need to have staff reengage around the hybrid solution. And Dr. Mitchell, excuse me, director Mitchell. Recommended a one, maybe two year trial to see if activation of the street actually happens. And if not come back and reconsider recertification and reopening peak street. We're back. In August of that year, a small group of us. Got together with director Mitchell to discuss our ongoing concerns. Concerns. He agreed to discuss our concerns with staff. But wanted to see what the committee was developing. The new neighborhood plan would come up with. It. So to stay engaged, my wife and I joined the neighborhood board. We've attended almost every meeting of the committee. Working on the neighborhood plan. Unfortunately to date, there's been no official word from the city about any discussions. Regarding a possible hybrid or compromised option. There's also been no official

discussion in meetings of the neighborhood plan committee. Regarding a possible compromise. And the west main board. Continues to take the position that this is an issue between the city and the small group of neighbors who initially proposed the idea of a play street. And not an issue for the board to be involved in. In the past one to two weeks. The temporary board barriers on peak street have been replaced by a somewhat more permanent, larger planter boxes. Boxes something the board had been told two years prior. Would not happen until the issue had been resolved. Resolved, however, based on comments left by neighbors. Neighbors at some of, at the recent imagine Kalamazoo 2035 event at K college. There's still seems to be an interest in exploring, exploring a hybrid or compromise option for peace rate. The bottom line for me is it's been quite frustrating. We've stayed involved, attended many meetings, patiently waited to discuss compromised solutions. Only to see planters placed. Placed and no discussion. My hope is for. Increased transparency from city staffed. Regarding any discussions or decisions about peach street? Also my hope is to recognize that there continues to be very little activity. On the play street, other than the three to four planned events a year. And finally, I hope for a commitment from the city to look into finding a possible compromise solution. That could include the essence of the play street concept. While acknowledging and addressing the negative effects of the street closure. Thanks very much. Thank you next, please. Hello, thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak with you. My name is Maureen cart mill. I live at 1712 Greenlawn avenue

in direct view of Jones park. And what was peak street now considered play street. I wanted to give an update on the Jones park clay street area. It has been almost two years. Since the street was de certified. And since we addressed the commission, Greenlawn and grand avenue on the base of six Hills. Winners to say the least are difficult to navigate, especially for those living in the bank of the neighborhood. Previous winters. Winters a school bus slid backwards at the stop sign at the top of Woodside. A call had been made to the KP to KPS for assistance. This year, a garbage truck attempted to stop at the stop sign, slid backwards in over a curb. They rocked the truck for 20 minutes. And left a 12 inch rut. Rut, I think we need peak street open. A family parked on Woodside to go slutty and Jones park. Their car could not navigate the hill to leave. They had to back through the play street, barricade, go halfway down this street. Gun the engine, make it up the hill and blow through the stop sign. Neighbors and city workers. Driving through the neighborhood. No, that's stop sign because they know you can't stop without backsliding. Neighbors head use peak street as an alternative exit. I think we need peak street open. Snow removal and leaf pickup are huge headaches. Now the peak street has been closed without access snow plows, leave Hills of snow and ice to the entrance of the park, climbing to gain access to the park. Over these mounds is dangerous. Snow and leaf removal teams work hard and they do the best that they can. I've spoken with them. I think we need to have peak street open. Jones park has become a dog park with many dogs. Running unleashed. I love dogs, but I've spoken to neighbors who have stopped going to Jones

park, do dogs running loose. Neighbors and dogs have both been charged by unleashed dogs. When peak street was open, occasional traffic kept dog. Owners more alert and their dogs leashed and in check. Jones park has always been used in prized. Prized the gr it's a beautiful open green space, picnics, Frisbees, egg hunts, wildlife viewing, or daily activities. We used to have young soccer teams practice in the park, but now they have no, there is no adjacent parking. There's a tight lap playground, a beautiful play area and gathering place. The city renovated. One street over from the play street. It is central to the neighborhood and the play street. We observe walkers. Walkers, not bikers daily. But there's always been walkers, dog work and strollers because it has the greatest field of vision in the entire neighborhood. Cars are visible coming in both directions. So here's a timeline to consider. 2022, the place street pilot was initiated 2024 peak street was de-certified and we were told to give it a year, 2026. It's been four years now. There are three to four observed organized activities a year. On peak street or clay street. I think we have demo. We need peach street. Open or, and to discuss solutions to beat all neighbor's needs. I have to say, I just recently attended. The peace house and Oprah Rome's presentation. One of the statements in. Course amazing things that they do. We're. We've always been supportive of them. Is a comment that they made that in the neighborhoods we need to be. Listeners, we need to listen to people's needs and all of a sudden it struck home. We need more people to listen. Within our

very own neighborhood. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next please. Edward Nickerson city of Kalamazoo. For the ladies question on the metal recyclers. Nerves that property. In several properties around there. Or highlight toxic. Took so they would have to dig down. Real deep and haul off all of the toxic. Stuff, because I dug down pretty deep and it's nothing but black. Dirt. There's no way you'll get rid of that toxic out of air. All them. I understand that they're gonna put in these little islands in the middle of the street for people. Use to get across the street. I know several years back by Pope one over on Patterson street. Where the Cal have been trail is. Oaks and they only brought it up. About those high as a curb on the road. And near in the winter, everybody would smack into it. Because they didn't put up the. Suctions. So people would know that it was there. So. I'm sure you guys are gonna define it right this time. That way they don't have to rip it out and redo it. And here's look back. Obama. Signed executive order. By any president in the future.

Can call the military. Into any state and they can federalize all police forces. There. Ain't no way you're gonna get around. It might not be this president, but it'll sure be another president. Thank you next, please. Good evening, Toby Hannah Davies from Isaac. I was really very pleased to be at the groundbreaking. For the Cal recovery. Building newly named the William Shme house. And I was particularly pleased. I wanna thank you, mayor Anderson for your comments there. When you talked about how. Long it has taken. For the Cal recovery house to get. To this stage and also Matt Hollander's previous. Project the Creamery, which took nine whole years. And I think this is a direct quote that you said. Let's figure out a way to make it. Not so doggone hard. And I agree with that so much. And I am hoping you had a really good discussion. I'm at the work session earlier committee of the whole, I'm hoping that you would make it one of your goals. One of your smart goals. To expedite the whole development process. I know the Cal recovery was a very complicated. Process and project with many. Wonderful features with different kinds of funding. But most of them are not that complicated. And I'm hoping that if a project is. Including some good. Affordable housing truly

affordable, more deeply affordable, like Cal recovery. And if it's in an underserved. Neighborhood or brownfield. Recovery area that you could incentivize those projects. Projects. And I'm just wanting to make sure that, you know, that LA has done something. Really cool called LA expedite.com. Check out that website, LA expedite.com. And I believe they made the site planning process. 60 days. Maximum for projects that were priority. For them. And I think grand rapids has done something similar and also Canada. So there's some good models out there that we should be looking into. And it seems to fit smart goals really well. I had to look up what it stands for. Goals that are specific measurable. Achievable relevant and time-based I, I really support that for this. Incentivizing before I go. I wanna thank you for the composting. I wanna thank Justin Gish and the others in sustainable. Work for the composting. Every single one of the free gifts is gone. And I've been doing the composting. Regularly every Sunday from my church's coffee hours from events that I'm at. And from the heritage community, senior living where I am, there's a lot of participation. It's really easy to take. Compost to the city drop-off site on Stockbridge, which is open to everybody. And it's so important. Did you know that food, if

it gets in the landfill. Cannot decompose. Because there's no oxygen. It turns into methane, which is a worse gas than CO2. CO2 for the environment, worse greenhouse gas. So composting is really important for us to do. I know you're all really tired. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the chambers who would like to take advantage of this Public Comment period this evening? See Nolan. Public Comment period is closed. Question commissioners. We do have a presentation coming up. On our program year. Action plan. And of course, more business to do after that, which includes not only. Our consent Agenda, but a couple items on irregular Agenda. We'll have another opportunity for Public Comment. Is everybody okay with keeping going, do you wanna wanna take a quick. Bio break here before we head on quick break. That's what I like to do. So we're gonna take just a 10 minute. Re break here and then we will jump back into it with renewed. Energy. I do wanna say thank you. Most people are gone now, but thank you to everyone that did take the time.

Made the effort took

advantage of Public Comment.

Time this evening.

All right. Okay. We're all back. I hope that little break helped everybody. And I was just reminded here. As before we get actually started on the public hearing. By Commissioner Praedel here is that we actually have a. A a room full of. Very patient. Executive directors of a variety of organizations. And staff. I see you. Been hanging with us. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart. I, I know you didn't realize that you could have. Could've gone home, had supper taken a nap and come back at nine o'clock for this part of our Agenda. But you didn't. So you're here with us, we're in this together. And I appreciate that. And thank you for reminding me about that Commissioner Praedel. So now we're down to F on our Agenda, which is. Public hearings. Hearings. And I would like to now open. A public hearing to receive comments on the program. Year 2026. HUD action plan required by the us department of housing and urban development and manager Hankins. Is there a presentation on this item? I assume there is. Yes. Ma'am. There is a brief presentation. We have statute John Johnson compliance specialist, as well as our. Community development manager, Cheryl Parsons. Parsons welcome. Thank you. Mayor vice mayor city commissioners. Tonight. I am going to be talking about our program year 2026. Action plan. The city of Kalamazoo has been a participating jurisdiction of the department of housing and urban development. Or as we all know it, HUD. HUD for over 50 years receiving community development, black grant and home investment partnership funding to address community needs. The community

development, black grant. Program or CDBG has been around since 1974. To allow a more locally driven approach to community development. The goal of this program is to support communities through its three basic principles of providing decent housing. A suitable living environment. And expanding economic opportunities for low income households. Households to ensure these principles are followed. Any activity funded must meet a national objective. Which is to either benefit low income families. Prevent or eliminate slum or blight or meet an urgent need. The home investment partnership program was created in 1990, under the national affordable housing act. It is the largest HUD grant designed exclusively. For the creation or rehabilitation of affordable housing. Is also the program grant that allows us to do a tenant based rental. Assistance program. Am. There are some specific rules. Related to home, which include a primary focus on assisting those that make 60% or less of the area, median income. Requirements for long-term affordable units based on the amount of home investment within each unit. And a requirement to match funds from our nonprofit and development partners. Partners while the city of Kalamazoo is considered an entitlement community. Which means we do not have to compete for these grant funds. There are still regulatory requirements. We must complete to receive the dollars. The first is a consolidated plan, which identifies local housing and community development needs. And creates goals

and strategies and expected. Outcomes for the five year period of the plan. Around those needs, the city adopted a new consolidated plan in 2025 after a significant community outreach effort. The plan includes three primary community development goals. And a fourth goal related to administration of the grants. Grants the community development goals and no particular order. Include attainable and affordable housing. Which prioritizes preservation of existing housing stock. Providing affordable rental housing. Ensuring that housing is safe and stable. And increasing the diversity of housing types. Expanding access to public service grants, which help the underserved. Support stability of low income households. Households advocate for programs for the unhoused and for violence prevention. And finally providing funding for neighborhood solutions, beautification and improvements. Particularly in our core, C D B G eligible neighborhoods. Neighborhoods the next regulatory requirement is an annual action plan. Which outlines the HUD funding, how HUD funding will be spent to support the goals, priorities, and outcomes. Outcomes that we've established in our consolidated plan. For program year 20, 26. HUD is allocated 2.1 million from the CDBG and home programs to the city. In addition in any given year, we may have some funds that need to be reprogrammed. And this year, the majority of these funds came from a housing loan repayment to the city. Finally, we expect to generate an additional 178,000 in program. Income in 2026 for a total budget of $2.8 million.

The requested projects and their associated budgets for program year 20, 26 are outlined on this slide. You'll note that in the action plan. There are public service activities that actually total 220,000. Even though this slide indicates a hundred thousand to public service. From the 20, 26 budget. That is because an additional 120,000, which was approved in the 2025. Action plan is, has been included in this action plan. And that was due to HUD's timing. And that these dollars were recommended to a potential activity. I'm sorry, these dollars were not recommended by our community development act advisory committee to a potential activity until 2026. So there those dollars and their outcomes have been added to this plan. So the outcomes under housing. Include critical repair to 79 owner occupied single family homes. Homes through community homeworks, milestones, senior services, Kalamazoo valley. Habitat for humanity and Kalamazoo neighborhood housing services. Services housing resources will provide 40 to 45 households with rental or security deposit assistance. Three rental units will be rehabbed within new village park and affordable housing project. And at least 1500 housing inspections will occur within the eligible neighborhoods by our city's code team. For public services, the community development act advisory committee has recommended funding. For Catholic family services, arc drop in shelter, which provides weekly prevention and supportive services to homeless runaway or in crisis youth. Community aids, resource and education who will provide rental assistance to those living with HIV aids. Legal aid of Western Michigan.

Who provides legal services with a focus on housing for low income families in the city. Kalamazoo literacy. Council's parent literacy together program. Which is to help low income parents become first teachers of their children. Through multi-generational learning activities. Casey ready fours, expanding equitable pre-K access for low income families. Which is address, which addresses. Equitable and accessible. Pre-kindergarten. Learning to promote school readiness. And then finally the Y w C a Kalamazoo survivor stabilization initiative. Which addresses survivor safety, violence prevention, and housing stability for low income residents experience. Experiencing domestic or sexual violence. And then finally under our neighborhood solutions. Goal. We're proposing funding to the north side neighborhood for a public improvement project. A bla elimination project at 3 22 east Stockbridge within the Edison neighborhood. And code inspections within our C D B G eligible neighborhoods. Neighborhoods the action plan, public process. The public hearing this evening is the final step in that approval process for the plan. Final submittal to HUD can be no later than May 15th. At the conclusion of the public hearing. Staff is requesting approval of the 2026 action plan. As it continues to support the goals, priorities, and outcomes that we've established for our community. And our five year consolidated plan. Thank you. Thank you, Julie. Commissioner's questions for staff at this time.

All right. Thank you so much. Seeing no questions. I just did wanna remind people. This is an abbreviated version that we saw this evening. And I know everyone doesn't. Doesn't, you know, we're gonna be acting on this. Everyone doesn't have the opportunity. Necessarily, you know, to go there quickly tonight, although you could online, but if you go. To the city website and go to our agendas and the Jennifer tonight, you can see an extremely detailed version of this action plan there that has more specifics in it. So anyway, appreciating that is there anyone here in the chambers that would like to comment. On this item, you'll have three minutes. Please state your name. And whether you live in the city. Thank you very much. My name is Eric Kerman. Good evening, mayor Anderson. Vice mayor Duncan and commissioners. I am the program manager for case management at housing resources. Resources. And I'm here to speak in support of the program year 2026. Action plan. And to thank the city's com community development act advisory committee. And the community planning and economic development team for the work that went into it. This plan clearly builds on the housing. Neighborhood and public service goals. The city has already committed to. And it reflects what we're seeing on the ground in Kalamazoo. These investments matter. They help keep housing affordable. Strengthen neighborhoods and make sure people aren't falling through the cracks. Cracks in particular support for tenant based rental assistance is critical. Through programs like I's home forward. These resources, help people cover security, deposits, and rent. While also working toward long-term financial stability. We truly value the city's partnership with community. Organizations and shared commitment

to real practical solutions. Approving this action plan is another important step toward more stable housing and healthier communities here in Kalamazoo. And we strongly encourage the commission to approve. The program year 2026 action plan. Thank you. Thank you next, please. Good interviewing everybody. And thank you for your time tonight. My name is Tricia Kelly, and I'm the director of housing here at care sexual wellness services. Services. We are a local nonprofit that services 10 counties in Southwest, Michigan with offices locating in Kalamazoo as well as Benton Harbor. We provide medical as well as non-medical case management services to people living with HIV. As well as preventative services such as HIV and STI testing. We offer personal protection items and medications such as prep and doxy Pepp to the community. We also have our own clinic called iridescent health, which provides L G LGBTQ plus specific healthcare to our clients, as well as the community of Kalamazoo. We pride ourselves in being a safe and welcoming agency for people's sexual health needs. And we are very honored for this opportunity. So with that being said, we were very excited to learn of the, of HUD funding received by the city. As we know there is a great need in the city of Kalamazoo for affordable and stable housing. Housing stability is essential to ensure a person's physical, financial and mental health. Or what we like to say at cares, housing is healthcare. This additional funding will assist underserved populations, access services, and resources in the city of Kalamazoo. This funding will support economic development and stability for low income households and will only

further benefit the community's need for safe and affordable housing. Cares housing department would utilize these funds to provide rental assistance, utility assistance, and permanent housing placement for low income clients who are living with I V. And are phasing housing instability. This program would ensure that our unhoused and housed clients. Are able to maintain sustainable housing. While also maintaining adherence to their HIV treatment and clinical appointments. These funds will assist our clients and their household with eviction prevention. Utility bills, moving costs in security deposits. Deposits. Therefore we would be able to assist low income households in maintaining their housing or assist them with moving into affordable housing. Care serves multiple vulnerable populations in this funding would provide further access and housing stability for those at risk. Thank you all so much for your time and consideration. We truly appreciate this opportunity for cares. Cares. Thank you. Thank you. Yes next, please. Hello, everyone. I thank you for your time. My name is Trina Martinez and I serve as the director of. And I serve as the director of housing initiatives at the Y w C a of Kalamazoo. I know it's been an extremely long evening, so I will keep my. Statements brief. I wanna start by asking you all to imagine something with me for a second. Imagine that you're escaping an abusive partner. And after years of enduring abuse, you finally make the decision. To take your power back. And leave maybe with your children. Maybe just with what you can carry in a small bag and you walk through the doors at the Y w C a you're scared. Exhausted and unsure of what comes next. But you know that you can't go back. In that moment, what you need most is safety. And right behind Matt, you need stability.

You need safe housing. Not weeks from now, not months from now. You need a plan that starts today. That's where my team comes in. At the Y w C a we don't just provide shelter. We build pathways to stability. We work with survivors to find secure housing. Cover rent and utilities navigate barriers like past evictions. Or debt and build relationships with landlords willing to give families a second chance. Not every family that we serve needs to relocate some need support in creating an individualized safety plan. Others just need access to safety tools like ring cameras. Door alarms window locks. Locks others need support and advocating to their landlord that they need to transfer units for their safety. Our role is to meet survivors where they are and make sure that they can stay safe, wherever that may be. For many of the families we serve. Safe housing is the difference between moving forward or going back to harm. And that is why timely, consistent support matters. The Kalamazoo county prosecutor noted in 2025 that their office typically sees. Sees about three deadly domestic violence cases per year, locally. This is not rare and it's happening right here in our community. We also know that the most dangerous time for a survivor is when they are trying to leave their abusive relationship. And the risk increases even more during pregnancy. This is the reality of the work that we do. And the truth is the intimate Parler partner violence does not discriminate. Every person in this room has either experienced it themselves or knows someone, a friend, a family member, or colleague who is currently dealing with it. Or has this work is intensive and it requires coordination, trust, building, and resources. Resources recently we experienced staffing reductions. And have had to close entire programs. And I wanna be honest about

what that means for survivors. Survivors. It means that when someone is finally ready to walk through those doors and regain their power back, there's fewer people available to support them. It means that our most critical supportive services are at risk for going offline. All. The city has made it clear that how stability and homeless prevention are priorities. And that by passing dollars outlined to services. Thank you. Next please. Good evening. And thank you for the opportunity to talk about the parent literacy together program. Of the Kalamazoo literacy council and partnership with the adult education and training program. At Goodwill industries. My name is Michael Evans. I'm the executive director and chief literacy advocate of the Kalamazoo literacy council. We serve adults throughout Kalamazoo county. Who want to improve their literacy and language skills? And what we are so pleased is to be included within these wonderful programs that are about our city. Supporting the parents who are the first teachers of their children. The parent literacy together program. That was part of this wonderful suite of. Of initiatives is really designed to help those who are on their literacy and academic journey to be more confident and capable in their role as the first teacher of their children. In Kalamazoo county, 13% of our adult population. Struggles to read within our cities, particularly those. With the most challenges, our core neighborhoods is as high as 20%, one out of five. Adults who struggle to read for those who are parents?

We are looking to make sure that they have the skills to make sure that their children are prepared at every stage of their academic development. That means that early childhood education does not begin at preschool. It does not begin in school. Itself. It begins at home with a mom, dad. Caregiver who can read the parent literacy together program is designed to increase. Access to services to help those parents to be equipped in those areas as that. More confident and capable for his teacher. These are for parents who have not yet completed their G E D. These are for parents who are reading at below that fourth grade level. These are for parents who have yet to be able to acquire their English fluency. And yet they have the awesome and sometimes daunting responsibility of being the ones who guide their children through every state of their academic development. This is a program. That we have for every parent who comes into our services, but it's designed. Specifically to make sure that not only are they working on their academic skills, but there is a pathway to becoming part of the solution. Because we have a career pathway to help train some of these parents to become early learning professionals and to serve in childcare centers in the same neighborhoods. Neighborhoods where their children are going to school and receiving childcare. We also provide for these parents. Free childcare in our little scholars, child development center. And monthly and weekly. Activities in many places in our community, such as the wonderful literacy lane, also known as a play street, along what we call the Albert White literacy trail. And so many others. We are very much appreciative and urge you to consider and support the plan for this year's action plan, but also understand that literacy is the root solution to great many community challenges, especially for those parents who struggle the read. Thank you very much for your consideration and for your support.

Thank you. Next please. Good evening. All right. My name is Sharia van spar, and I am the executive director at Kalamazoo county. Ready fours. Just wanna thank you guys for the consideration of this action plan. And our mission at Casey ready, four S is to ensure equitable access for all three and four year olds in Kalamazoo county. To be able to attend a high quality preschool program. We partner with 54 different preschool programs in Kazu county alone, representing over 90 classrooms. Classrooms. We are serving low to moderate income families in partnership with headstart and GS R P. But very unique to Kalamazoo. We know that there's many, many families who do not qualify. And really need that support. So right now, a family of four making $28,000 a year makes too much for headstart. Headstart. So at 28,000 for your annual. Annual income for your family. How would you pay the average cost of preschool of $10,000 a year? And at that high quality program. So making sure it's more than just a really great daycare. But making sure that your child has their needs met, that your child is learning. And developing and growing and getting what they need to start kindergarten. Oh, sorry, you got a phone call. one of the things I would just like to add personally. You know, coming from a single parent household, I, myself, without programs like Casey ready, four S would not have been able to attend preschool and get where I have been able to today with my passion for education and

a community lead with our non-profit. Nonprofit areas. We work with families as well. So in, in addition to giving them the support that they need to actually pay for pre-K, we are also ensuring that they have the support that they need, whether it is a referral to community resources. Resources, parent workshops that we do, employability services. We make sure they have the needs. They. That they need as well through our family advocacy. And the teacher retention rates we're looking to reduce. Is really beneficial as we know that that's a really challenging position and a very high turnover. So we are constantly reflecting on the different programs and services that we offer. To make sure that the teachers have what they need. Very specific this year is we are working really intentionally with our partner programs to provide a classroom stipend. So we know that it is an underpaid underpaid profession. So we are providing a stipend in a minimum pay requirement. For every lead teacher that is within, within one of our classrooms, making sure that. They have more of a livable wage. Then, if there's any remaining funds, they can use that to increase the wages for their associate. Teachers, their parapros offer bonuses, medical. Health coverage and monitoring how they're able to. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next please. Good evening. My name is Jennifer Dobbins and I'm honored to be here representing Catholic charities, diocese of Kalamazoo. I have two of my colleagues in the audience, Shauna Henry director of arc services for youth and Nicole Cody, director of clinical and family services. Services Catholic charities has been serving the Kalamazoo area for 50 years providing social

service. And in that time, 48 years, we've been committed to serving homeless youth and their families. The arc services for youth serves hundreds of precariously housed youth every year. Through three different programs. We have an emergency youth shelter located on Kilgore road that provides shelter up to 21 days. We provide outreach prevention services in the community. And we have a transitional living program. That provides housing up to 18 months. While you with are enrolled in these programs. They have access to our bridges, mental health counseling program as well. These programs all have a similar goal. To find safe and stable housing for these children. Develop strong and healthy relationships and lifestyle. Learn positive decision making skills. And to attain self-sufficiency. We're here today in support of the 2026 action plan, which includes our project, the arc youth homeless shelter drop in services. Services, this will provide homeless runaway and in crisis youth. Weekly drop in services at our van Dolan center building. Located in west edge avenue in Kalamazoo. At these drop-ins youth will be able to provided food, personal care and hygiene items. Clothing they'll provided one-on-one consultation with a case manager who can connect them with community resources and the completion of coordinated entry, housing paperwork. They'll have access to a shower and laundry facilities. Counseling services by a licensed therapist. And the ability to participate in therapy groups and life skills classes. They will also be connected to our other agency programs like our bread of life food program. Emergency utility assistance and our caring network support services for pregnant and parenting individuals. Individuals, we can help them with the initial intake for our emergency shelter. Or complete the application for a transitional living program. These rapid services will provide youth who are struggling with

homelessness. Mental health issues and substance use a place to come for support and help. It will provide low barrier. Caring non-judgmental space. Where they can come and get basic needs met. From a trusted provider and hope that they'll be more open to. Additional services of counseling and support and therapy groups. To improve their overall health. We thank you so much for your time and consideration of our drop in service project. Thank you. Thank you next, please. Good evening. My name is Jonathan Yarborough and I'm representing the north side association for community development. N a C D. And where we focus on workforce development, housing and economic development. The city's action plan makes it clear that the funding is essential to advancing affordable housing. Housing stability, neighborhood investment and public services. Services initiatives like blight reduction, homeowners repairs. Repairs and neighborhood improvements are critical, but their impact is strongest when paired with trusted community-based organizations that do the work on the ground like us. So we are the neighbor association that wants to see our community grow. And to see entities within our neighborhood, including. Organizations churches streets. We wanna see them thrive. So our work directly aligns with the city's vision, creating stronger neighborhoods and improving overall quality of life. So we appreciate the city's continued investment in affordable housing. Community driven solutions and we encourage ongoing support for programs that truly meet the residents where they are. So we're in fully support of this neighborhood or the city's action plan for 2026. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Beth McCann with Campbell zoo neighborhood housing services. Services for over 45 years. K, N H S has served low to moderate income residents. Residents helping them achieve and maintain home ownership through education, financial assistance, critical home repair. Single family, new builds and whole home rehabs. Rehabs K H S has been fortunate to receive CDBG and home funding for many of those years. It's helped our organization replace hundreds of roofs that are leaking, which is a particularly relevant. The last couple weeks, the phone has been ringing off the hook. And finish single family new builds in our community. It, it helps us. Maintain and keep affordable housing for those that need it the most. It's also provided down payment assistance in the past to help people get to that final. The last little bit to get their home ownership goal met. So we support the 20, 26 consolidated plan. And we urge the city commission to do the same. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Hello, my name is Hannah Clark. I'm here with drew Duncan. We're from community homeworks. Community homeworks is a home homework repair. Non-profit here in Kalamazoo, and we have a long history of receiving CDBG dollars. In fact, the first grant we received back in 2009 was a CDBG grant that really got our work started. We do support this action plan, which will continue our partnership with the Citi by completing critical home repairs. The majority of which will be in the core neighborhoods of Kalamazoo. These repairs will be everything from a furnace in the dead of winter to a ramp that can be, make a house accessible for a family at again. These repairs and these grant dollars will. These, the repairs that these grant dollars allow us to complete can be transformational for a family and remove the stress of

an unexpected home repair cost. This action plan, which proposed 79 homes be completed through the CDBG allotment. 50 of those homes will be completed through community homeworks and 100% of the CDBG dollars that we get allotted will go directly into homes, either covering subcontractor invoices, material costs. Or our in-house crew hours on a project. We got nothing to add. Awesome. Thank you so much. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Be Hannah Davies from the Isaac housing task force. I just wanted to. Express full support for this. Action plan. And for all the amazing. Agencies that are doing all different kinds of housing related work. I was struck. That there's $400,000 for rental housing. Inspections under code and property standards. Standards. And I wanted to take this chance to ask you. If all units can be inspected in large housing developments. Or really any low-cost housing developments where there are complaints. Complaints. I think, you know, the ones I'm worried about. I'm not gonna say what they are right here. But I believe that city inspectors are. Not seeing every single unit. And giving certification to a, a. Large number of apartments. Apartments. And I think people are afraid to complain. And we need to be very sensitive to the fact. That we're not hearing. About the inspections that really should be made that are not being included because the. City's requirements aren't for every single unit to be

seen by the inspectors. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else here in the chambers that would like to comment. On this item, the 2026. Action plan for our HUD dollars. I see no one else. I will now. Close the public hearing commissioners. The recommended action is a motion to approve. The program year 2026. Action plan action. Plan budget. And budget amendment. Is there a motion? So moved motion made by Commissioner Hoffman support. Supported by Commissioner Hess. Hess discussion commissioners, Commissioner Hoffman. Thank you mayor. I just want to say to the city staff, thank you for the good work you all did on. This plan, it is in direct correlation with the blueprint for peace. So. These six outcomes are matching the six goals from the blueprint for peace. And that is powerful. We talked, we heard a lot today about tools. These are tools, the blueprint for peace. This action plan. Y'all did a good job on this one. Other discussion. Commissioners. Okay. Scene none then. I am. I'm just gonna say in advance. I sit on a community housing development. Or organization called a Chodo, which happens to be included in this plan. As a consequence, I'll be abstaining on the vote. Kirk poling, please press your slate. I don't know when a good time is, but I have to abstain from this vote based on. Connections with organizations I received this funding.

Okay. Just to clarify that I happen to sit on the board as a volunteer position. I'm not in any way financially connected to it, but. Chris Praedel yeah, I was gonna wait till the boat, but my employer is one of the employers list in the plant as well. So. Be abstaining. Okay. So everyone else gotta step up then. all right. Quick barley, please call the roll Commissioner Hoffman. Yes Commissioner. Praedel. Again, I'll be abstaining as my employer is. Included in the program year 2026 action plan. Commissioner Slaby Epstein. Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice mayor Duncan. Yes. Mayor Anderson. I'm abstaining because I'm member of the Choto board. Commissioner Hess. Yes. Thank you commissioners. The motion passes. Now we are onto our consent Agenda. Manager Hankins. Thank you, mayor. The following items are submitted for your consideration and approval. Item G one approval of a contract extension with eCOA Inc for two. Thousand 26 spray patching in the amount of $129,600. At mg, two approval of a contract with L and T painting for the beach water storage tank. Rehab project and the amount of $222,000. Item three approval of a two year professional services agreement with Stantec for water rate and water. Financial consulting services in the amount of $229. Excuse me, $229,000, $258. Item four approval of a professional services agreement with nice wonder environmental LLC for the spring valley dam improvement. Improvements project and the amount of $355,000. And in five approval of a professional service agreement with preen, excuse me, pry and new Hof for construction

engineering services related to. The 2026 drinking water. State revolving fund non copper service replacement project in the amount of $400,000. At mg six approval of a contract supplemental and change order. With TetraTech Inc for phase two of the pump. Station's phosphorate. And electrical and instrumentation upgrades project in the amount of $542,000, 505. Item seven adoption of a resolution. Authorizing a community planning and the community planning and economic development director. As the city's official representative and certifying officer for us department of housing and urban development grant documentation. Item G eight approval of the following appointment and term extensions for boards and commissions. The appointment of Seth Chapman to the parks and recreation advisory board for a term expiring on January 1st, 2028. The extension of Melissa paddocks term on the historic preservation commission for six months to expire on September 31st, 2026. Or whenever a successor is appointed, whichever comes first. The extension of Fred Edison's term on the historic preservation commission for six months to expire on September 31st, 2026. Or when a successor is appointed, whichever comes first. Item nine approval of a utility easement agreement with K S R R LLC. For sanitary sewer installed as part of the Kalamazoo event center project. Item G 10 approval of a non-motorized path's men agreement with CD arena, LLC. LLC for a non-motorized path installed as part of the Kalamazoo event center project. And item G 11 approval of the minutes for the city commission meetings on April 6th, 2026. Thank you manager Hankins commissioners. The requested action is a motion to approve items. One through 11 and authorize the city manager to sign all related documents on behalf of the city. Is there a motion?

Motion motion made by Commissioner Slaby support supported by Commissioner Praedel clerk. Borrowing. Please call the roll. Commissioner Praedel. Yes. Commissioner Slaby. Yes. Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Upstanding from items nine and 10 due to an employer conflict. Vice mayor Duncan. Yes, mayor Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Hess? Yes. Commissioner Hoffman. Yes. Thank you. Commissioners the items on the consent Agenda. Are approved. Next is the regular. Agenda city manager Hankins. Thank you, mayor approval. Excuse me. Item H one approval of the sale of 8 0 8 Simpson street in Kalamazoo neighborhoods. Neighborhoods housing two, excuse me, Kalamazoo neighborhood housing services for the sale price of $500. And an amendment to the housing program's budget and the amount of $970. Thank you manager Hankins. I presume there's not necessarily a staff report on this item. Are there any questions for staff on this item from commissioners? Scene none. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to comment on this item? This item H one. If, so please come to the podium, state your name. You'll have three minutes. See, no one, the recommended action is a motion to approve the property sale. And budget amendment. Is there a motion? Motion motion made by Commissioner Slaby. Slaby support supported by Commissioner Wilson and any discussion commissioners. I see none clerk Barling. Please call the roll. Commissioner Slaby yes. Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice mayor Duncan. Yes. Mayor Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Hess? Yes. Commissioner Hoffman. Yes. Commissioner Praedel. Yes. Thank you. Commissioners. The motion passes next on the Agenda is I item H two city manager Hankins. Thank you, mayor.

Item H two authorization for the brownfield redevelopment authority to accept a brownfield redevelopment grant for the Michigan, from the Michigan department of environment, great lakes and energy in support of Cal recovery housing project in the amount of 1 million. Dollars and approve a budget amendment to score that same amount. Thank you again, manager Hankins. Is there a staff report on this item? Yes. Is not no chef report necessarily, but an opportunity for questions, any questions? Questions on this item, commissioners. All right. Scene. None. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to comment on this item? This item H two. If so please come forward. State your name. Where you live in the city, you'll have three minutes. Seeing no comments. The recommended action commissioners is a motion to authorize grant acceptance. And approve the budget amendment. Is there a motion motion? Motion made by Commissioner slabby, supported by vice mayor Duncan. Discussion. Scene nine clerk Barling please call the roll. Commissioner Wilson? Yes. Vice mayor Duncan. Yes. Mayor Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Hess? Yes. Commissioner Hoffman. Yes. Commissioner Praedel. Yes. Commissioner Slaby. Yes. Thank you. Commissioners. The motion passes. Passes next reports in legislation, city manager, Hankins. Do you have a report? Yes, mayor just briefly today, the. Staff from fair city departments, public works. C P. Public safety conducted damage assessments in an area where impacted by flooding. 36 impacted residents. Residents, they completed assessments and also assisted those residents with support with draining out water from backyards. Backyards and basements as, as allowed. So I just want to, you know, reiterate that we understand the impact. This is having. Thank the staff for the work that they're doing. They will be out, I believe against tomorrow to continue that work. So thank you. And just wanted the

community to know that we are. Giving the support that we can to support you in this time. A few other items, the farmer's market. Is scheduled to open the regular farmer's market on Saturday, May 2nd. There will be a meeting, an open house with vendors hosted by the new operator on Wednesday, April 22nd. At this time they've made contact. The operators made contact with well over 400 vendors. All of whom have been contacted about the April 22nd meeting and the open house. So just wanted to share that with you. There are a few other things that. Are important to imagine Kalamazoo. Work continues the community dialogue for the design it phase. Continues with this month and multiple locations downtown. From plans in place will kick off on the Tuesday event. April 28th, from five to 7:00 PM. At the downtown catalyst center and other design events continue through May 4th. So residents can learn more about this and go to the website. At Kalamazoo city.org Fords slash IK 2035. Thank you. Thank you very much manager Hankins. I really appreciate your efforts and the efforts of your team. Clerk, barley, do you have a report? Thank you mayor. I do tonight. Mayor vice mayor commissioners in the Agenda packet for tonight. There is a clerk's report. Which includes two communications from the environmental concerns committee. One regarding the ECCs involvement in decision making processes for the governance. Of asylum league preserve. And the second, a communication regarding the fire at 1525 lake street on March 9th. And so those are there

as informational items for you. Thank you clerk barley. Next on our Agenda, our Commissioner comments. And I just wanna remind everybody who may be watching. And those of us here is that we also do have a closed session this evening. And unlike some of our closed sessions where we go into closed session and then. We basically adjourned. We will be coming back to take action after our closed session. This evening, so we'll be gone for a minute and then we'll come back before we actually close it all out. So with that in mind, commissioners. Anyone wanna take advantage of this opportunity for Commissioner Cummins? Cummins Commissioner Slaby. Slaby thank you, mayor. Just wanted to say that I really appreciate our city manager being out and interactive, even over the weekend to connect with our residents on the north side and Edison. With city staff to assess flooding. We were added to. One of the counties by the governor. For emergency. Support. And so, you know, I appreciate us being very responsive in this matter. As people are trying to deal with, you know, what has gone on and how that may have impacted them in their house. I wanted to also acknowledge the shooting. That transpired a few days ago. At our Davis street park in the vine, right down the street from where I live, I actually. Passed by the park as it happened. With police coming onto the scene. And I'm very sad that the gentleman did not make it. I think that there's certainly opportunities. For parks and rec for K DPS. PS to work with the neighborhood. I'm glad that we apprehended.

The suspect and, you know, just, I think there could be more discussions around how we can make sure people after this incident feel safe. At the park moving forward. I wanted to acknowledge, we had a couple of residents from west main hill speak up on the play street. Which is a project. One of my first projects I led as a neighborhood activator when I worked for the city Kalamazoo. And I, I think that we can definitely do a lot better. As a city to listen to these concerns and provide a timely response. I don't think. That it is acceptable that. We've kind of left it in limbo, the way that we have. You know, staff transitions. You know, that just happens. But I know that the last time we kind of left, it was saying, you know, the response is gonna be included in the neighborhood plan. Well, if there's no progress on the neighborhood plan. Then it kind of just stays stuck. And I think that all residents. Residents those that, you know, want to see the play street continue to be open. Those that wanna hybrid model, those that wanna just completely evaluate it. Think west main hill residents do deserve timely responses. Responses and consistent communications on the progress of this. So we can ensure that people just feel included. Included and understand where we are with the project. So I look forward to hearing an update on that from our city manager in the future. You know, we heard a lot from people. In the audience about flock cameras. Vice mayor Duncan. And I had the pleasure of stopping by KD P. S and actually firsthand taking a look at the interface. Which was to me really helpful just to even understand what. This system looks like on the back end. And so, you know,

a woman in the audience spoke to this idea of having a form, having an education piece. Component to this. I know that we have an FAQ online that anyone could go to. If they have internet access to look through some of these questions. Questions, but I do understand the value of having a dialogue community conversation around this. And I, I think it's important for people to better understand exactly how Kalamazoo is using this technology. You know, what is flock? What is a L P R, which is the AI, you know, license place reader. Technology, which there are several different vendors that provide that type of technology. What is our policy, which is a available to the public. And I think that, you know, the more conversations we have. I think it allows people to just have a better understanding. You know, not every community is using it the same way. Reasons why certain communities have decided to. Remove it entirely. If you look at what they've done, they've just moved on to another vendor. Or the reason why they removed it. Was because you know of things that from. What I can understand through the work that we've done with connecting with KPS on this. Is not what we do. And so I wanna be. I want to listen to all constituents, their perspectives on this technology. Using it as a tool, understanding exactly what we're doing as a community to use this tool. And I think that there's. There's room for us as a city. To steward those conversations with our partners, with our residents. Residents with other stakeholders to get a better sense of understanding around how this is being used. And then lastly, a gentleman in the audience also brought up about boards. Boards. I totally agree. I think we would, it would be awesome if we

had a on-ramp into civic life. Where more people than just the traditional people that come on, these boards that have the time and, and confidence to get on these boards. Boards, you know, feel like they can be a part of this and share their voice and contribute. In this way. And I think we could do a lot better with the user experience. You know, I know how our retreat retreat, one of our colleagues mentioned an app. Maybe this is another reason why. We should have an app. And I think that just as part of the boards, making sure everyone knows what boards are out there and what boards have. Open positions related to fly camera and just getting involved. With oversight, you know, we do have the Citizen. Public safety review and appeal board. And I think there's like several seats open. And you don't necessarily even have to live in the, in the city. There's like seats open at large. And so, you know, I would just encourage people. If they do wanna be more involved. With oversight or, or contributing to policy. And just, you know, being more involved and understanding how it works. There are opportunities available. Right now that people could take advantage of. So just wanted to lift that up and make sure people are aware of those. In the event that they are interested. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Slatey other comments, commissioners. Commissioner Hess. Hess. Sure. Thank you so much, mayor. And. Excuse me in response to Commissioner Slavia. Yes. I, I believe that an app is a great thing. We would love to have it, but until then, until we have an app. For the city, you actually can download the app. As a, as an on your phone and you can, you can put it on your phone and it is optimized for phone use. It is not quite an app yet, but. You can have all this city information right there at

your fingertips. Fingertips and regarding the Davis park shooting. I want to also acknowledge the work of our public safety officers from the time of the shooting. Late afternoon into the following morning. They worked all night long to appreh to. To track and apprehend the suspect. Including with canines and including all the technology that we've been speaking with here tonight. And he has, he was arraigned today. And probably won't be seeing the light of day for a long time. So thank you to our public safety officers for, for their good work on that. This particular thing came to me in the, in the mail. And you may have received one as well. It's addressed a current resident from the center for voter. Information your voter registration form is enclosed. Do not discard. And in here is an envelope to send your information back to the city clerk. And it's addressed to the city clerk. And the city clerk assures me that. If you are registered, you need not. Re-register, this is something that, that you just don't have to do. You can put this right in your recycle bin. And to be sure that you are registered, go to mi.gov. Gov slash vote and make sure that your registration is current before. The the Regis the, before the. Elections in may and August and November. A few things happened in the community. The the, this cultivate 2 69. This, I don't know if you're gonna talk about it, mayor. You were there. This was a fantastic event. And earlier today at the five o'clock committee, the whole. We had Western Western student assembly, present to us about some good things that Western is doing and how they're continually interfacing with the city. So cultivate 2 69 was, was a. Collaboration between the Kalamazoo forward ventures group. And Western

Michigan university, where. They had taken it down to nine applicants. Applicants and nine applicants made a four minute pitch with two minutes for questions. Questions regarding their entrepreneurial inventions or, or thoughts and, and what they were gonna do to improve life in Kalamazoo. And the winner was a young man. With his, his invention was called one shot. AI. This is a good thing about AI, where he's using AI to translate. For to do a medical translation from a patient to a doctor and, and back and forth. So he won a hundred thousand dollars. With his idea to further his idea and hopefully keep him in Kalamazoo. Along with his, his talents. Talents the other, the other eight were wonderful. I happened to meet with another one yesterday. To get his or the other day to, to get his. Great ideas about volleyball. So I, I there's, there was, there are nine, they were all wonderful. So kudos to Western Michigan, kudos to. To Kalamazoo forward ventures for putting this together, it's going to be hopefully an annual thing. We did mention the or city manager Hankins did mention the imagine Kalamazoo. Design it downtown stuff. That's happening. And between April 28th. And May 4th. And if you would like to. If you have some information to share. With the city about downtown. And don't tell me you don't because. I read online comments and I know that there are people who. Believe that downtown can be improved. Improved. And we want your information so online again, go

to imagine Kalamazoo 20, 35. Online and find all of those dates from April 28th. And then there's, there's a. All kinds of things happening at the, at the art hop. And meetings and an arts and culture panel discussion. So please go to that and have your input on downtown. The Saturday we've been talking tonight about compost. We've talked about, we gave the proclamations to composting and earth day and Arbor day. Today on or on Saturday from 10 to one. At mayor's riverfront park, bring your E P S foam large pieces of cardboard, dental, plastic. Plastics old electronics. Electronics you're used water filters. Filters and documents for secure, shredding and new for this collection are textiles. Textiles used clothing and fabric scraps. Do not throw that away. That is, is not a good thing for our. For our landfills. So love what we're doing with environmental awareness. And especially for earth day. Next I do have the communication to the city commission from the environmental concerns committee. Where they recommend certain things and I'm just gonna request city manager. And public services to actually CR craft a response to them with their four questions below, especially that they are related to the fire of March 9th. If we have that information. And then lastly, I would like to give a big, big shout out to our own. Chief operating officer Laura Lamb. Laura has been selected as a 2026. Woman of achievement award for the Y w C. A, and I'm really proud of her for her accomplishments, what she's done in her career so far.

And she will be honored at a dinner. On May 21st at the Renison. Reticent. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. Commissioner Hess, other comments, commissioners. Looking like no, no one else at this point. So I just wanted to comment on a couple things here quickly. And somewhat related to, well, two things that happened tonight are action plan, but also. Calorie recovery now Shme house, which is gonna be built. It took. Eight years from start to. Groundbreaking. Year and a half or two years before to actually open, it's gonna be a 10 year timeframe for this project. And I appreciate the comments about how to help these things move more quickly. And certainly that's up to us to figure out how our process can be as supportive as possible. And. As fast as possible, but I would say. In circumstances like this, where you're creating. Deeply affordable housing, which this is. That the hardest part of it is getting the financing to do the project. This is a 22 million project. All in and the best we can do, you know, we don't have $22 million to throw our own here and there on projects. Obviously the best we can do. Is we can leverage. And that's exactly what we did. If you look at the capital stack. Of all the sources of funding that help this project come to tuition. I mean, it is mind bending. And in addition to that, every single funding source comes with its own regulatory. Requirements, which may not be in sync with another funding source. So it is a, a complete.

Challenge to do this. As, as well as a fact, as some of these funding sources have come and gone. During this project. So it's been a total. Shuffle to get here. I'm really, really happy to say that. Actions. We took just very recently, just a meeting or two ago. We approved a little over a million dollars in loans for this project. Wouldn't have happened without that. You can have 21 of 22. You still can't do the project. You need to have it all. Nailed down before you're gonna get all your paperwork signed. So the city was able to do that. And tonight, you know, with no fancy talk about it. We accepted a grant from Eagle. To our brownfield authority. Which will also assist with helping this project happen. Happened. The last thing I wanna say about that project is that, and I don't think anyone has done this in Kalamazoo county. It is certainly the case that they're generally speaking are only two political jurisdictions in Kalamazoo county, that gray pilots in, I would say one of those jurisdictions, pretty much grants pilots on the. Consent Agenda because nobody here argues about it. And, and that we have a pilot in this, which means we are. Giving up the opportunity to collect. Ad valor, property taxes, which, what is that fund? Fire police. Fixing the roads plowing the streets. On and on and on. So we are giving that up. We're accepting a pilot instead. A pilot in lieu of taxes. Taxes and our commitment, I think timeframe on that particular project. Is 50 years. So we have committed to 50 years of governor property taxes, which. You know, if you were based on the valuation, this is hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of time as well. Some people don't think about that, but that, that is one of the critical pieces that.

Were it that in this project? Project wouldn't have happened. So I'm just saying about that. Is that. For the young members. Of this commission. If you're so blessed to still be around, you will be Don Cooney's age. By the time that this 50 year pilot runs out and you can come down here and talk to the. Current city commission about that, when that happens. I need emotion to go. Into closed session. So commissioners, the recommended action is a motion to go into closed session. To discuss labor negotiations. Is their emotion motion. Made by Commissioner SLA. Slaby support supported by Commissioner Hess. Hess, Kirk Barling. Please call the room. Vice mayor Duncan. Yes. Mayor Anderson? Yes. Commissioner Hess? Yes. Commissioner Hoffman. Yes. Commissioner Praedel. Yes. Commissioner Slaby. Yes. Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Thank you. Commissioners. The motion passes. We've been going

to close session. We will

come back into open session

to take action. Thank you.

Okay. We are back out of close session. In, I'm gonna ask attorney Lee. Post motion. Clearly up. Is there a motion? Sorry, my mic was off. I'll say that again. We're back out. Of closed session. And I'm gonna ask attorney Leo. To read proposed motion for us. Attorney Lee. Out motion to approve the K M E a collective bargaining agreement. Effective January 1st, 2026 through. December 31st, 20, 28. Thank you, attorney Lee. Is there anyone who would like to make that motion? So moved motion made by Commissioner Hoffman. Is there a second? Support supported by Commissioner Hess discussion commissioners. Commissioner Hass. Sure. I would like to thank all of the members of the bargaining unit. And our bargaining team for coming to this. This contract. Thank you. Thank you. Other discussion. Commissioner Slavey wanted to thank you the, to everyone that participated in negotiations and, you know, I just look forward into the future that we continue to pursue. The effort to make sure that all employees make a living wage in Kalamazoo. Thank you. Vice mayor Duncan, nothing. Okay. Anything else? Clerk borrowing, please call the roll. Mayor Anderson? Yes. Commissioner Hess? Yes. Commissioner Hoffman. Yes. Commissioner Praedel. Yes. Commissioner Slaby. Yes. Commissioner Wilson. Yes, vice mayor Duncan. Yes. Thank you. Commissioners the motion. Passes. Well, this wasn't what the chambers looked like when we

started, but they're empty now. So I just wanna thank everyone who has hung with us. And appreciate the work. Seriously, all the questions, all the work that everybody brings to the table here. On this commission. I love you. Kalamazoo. We're adjourned.