City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Roll call, please, Madam Clerk.

Mayor Beagle.

Present.

Deputy Mayor Gottschall. Here. Council Member Behrman.

Present.

Council Member Gronlund-Fox. Here. Council Member Kennedy. Present. Council Member O'Day. Here. Council Member Simmons. Here. We have quorum.

Thank you. Changes or additions to the agenda as presented tonight? City Manager Brown.

No changes or additions, sir.

Assistant City Manager Benson.

I have none, sir.

Any from the dais? Moves us on to approval of minutes. We've got one set of minutes to approve tonight, and that's the regular city council meeting of May 19th, 2026. Do I have a motion?

So moved.

Any discussion? All right, I got a motion and a second to approve the city council regular meeting minutes of May 19th, 2026. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. One item of correspondence tonight, that's a notice of hearing for the customers of DTE Electric, case U-22109. And that brings us to the first call to the public. I'll read those rules. The rules are as follows. The public shall address the council during call to the public which shall be included on the agenda immediately after correspondence and again immediately after new business. The first call to the public immediately after correspondence shall be limited to agenda items only. A person shall not address the council in excess of five minutes unless the time is extended by majority vote of the council present. Persons wishing to address the council shall identify themselves and their place of residence and shall state their reason for addressing the council and all comments by the public shall be made directly to the council. Do we have anybody for the first call to the public? Seeing none, we'll close the first call to the public and move on to city manager's reports. We have two tonight. The first is the fire report, April 2026. Any questions? The second is the police report from April 26th. Any questions? Very good. Moves us to the consent agenda. All items listed on the consent agenda are considered routine by city council and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a council member so requests, in which event the items will be removed from the consent agenda and added to the regular agenda at the end of unfinished or new business. Do I have a motion? So moved. Support. Okay, I got motion and a support to approve the consent agenda as presented tonight. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We have no unfinished business tonight. Moves us to the first item of new business. And that's a recommendation to confirm the Mayor's reappointments of Jessica Buck and Leslie Payment to the Downtown Development Authority with terms to expire June 30th, 2030. Mary Ann Chupa, Anna Betchell, and Steven Grootman to the Parks and Rec Commission with terms to expire June 30th, 2029. Michael Dornan, Sandro Grassi, and Mark Lotta to the Planning Commission with terms to expire June 30th, 2029. George Carty and Anna Contaras to the Senior Citizens Commission with terms to expire June 30th, 2029. And Steven Winters to the Zoning Board of Appeals with a term to expire June 30th, 2029. And confirm the appointment of Tom Resnick to the Cemetery Board with a term to expire June 30th, 2031. And John Chupa to the Zoning Board of Appeals with a term to expire June 30th, 2027. Do I have a motion? Thank you, and I'd like to thank everybody who is stepping up to either renew their positions with their associated councils, and also to Tom and John for stepping up in their new appointments. So do we have any discussion on any of these? All right, I gotta read this again, huh? A recommendation to confirm the mayor's reappointment of Jessica Buck and Leslie Payment to the Downtown Development Authority with terms to expire June 30th, 2030. Mary Ann Chupa, Anna Betchel, and Steven Grootman to the Parks and Rec Commission with terms to expire June 30th, 2029. Michael Dornan, Sandro Grassi, and Mark Lotta to the Planning Commission with terms to expire June 30th, 2029. George Carty and Anna Kateris to the Senior Citizens Commission with the terms to expire June 30th, 2029. Steven Winters to the Zoning Board of Appeals with the term to expire June 30th, 2029. and confirm the appointment of Tom Resnick to the Cemetery Board with a term to expire June 30th, 2031, and John Chupa to the Zoning Board of Appeals with a term to expire June 30th, 2027. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you, motion carries, thank you. New business number two is a recommendation to accept the proposal for water resource recovery facility upgrades to the ultraviolet disinfectant system and lift station from CMS Mechanical LLC of Milford, Michigan for a total amount of $1,857,245 from use of capital reserve account number 590-538-960.413 and accept the proposal for construction engineering services from Hubbell, Roth and Clark of West Bloomfield, Michigan for $179,600 from consultant services account number 590-538-801.140 and authorize the Mayor to sign the agreements. Do I have a motion?

So moved.

Mr. Sikma, might as well get a chair. You're up there all night tonight.

Hey, if somebody could let me water, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. We are always looking for ways to improve our wastewater treatment plant and this is, I think, one of the more expensive ones that we're looking to do this year with the UV disinfection. The system that is there presently has been there for about 15 years and is beyond its useful life and we are very happy to recommend this installation. One of the things on this report that you obviously probably or should have probably noticed is that the adopted budget was zero. In reality that's only partially true. We have a 10-year capital plan and this UV disinfection system was in the capital plan. The portions of the OF THE BUDGET IN THE LINE ITEMS WERE NOT INCLUDED IN THE BUDGET. BECAUSE WE TYPICALLY WAIT UNTIL WE GET THE BIDS, AND THEN WE PUT A NOT TO EXCEED INTO THAT PARTICULAR ACCOUNT. SO WE PULL IT OUT OF THE ENTERPRISE FUND OF THE WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT AND PUT IT IN THAT LINE ITEM. AND ANGIE HELPED ME DO THAT A COUPLE WEEKS AGO, AND THAT'S WHY WE HAVE THE BUDGET AMENDMENTS AS PROPOSED HERE TONIGHT. With that, we also have HRC looking at, they already did the design, and they'll be doing the construction services or engineering services for us. And we feel that CSM Mechanical out of Milford will do a good job for us, and we're looking forward to working with them at the wastewater treatment plant. With that, I'd be open to questions.

Council Member Garland-Fox?

Hi Tim, thank you for the explanation for the budget. That was a question I had had, so thank you. And then another question, how long, you said it's at the end of its life, the system. What is the life span?

So life expectancy's usually 10 to 15 years, and we did get 15 years out of it. One of the things that this, or the old one, had problems with was lot of the humidity in that room and I think about I don't know seven eight years ago we were able to solve most of those problems with heat and you know air removal systems and yeah we think that this new system will be able to be protected a little longer but we still yeah it's electronics so they do fail and the nice thing is they fail in pieces so we were able to replace them the uv lights should should last about a year so we'll have to continually do you know 15 to 15 to 30 000 worth of lights each year with maintenance that's typical of these systems and we've done that we've done that every year for that okay thank you yeah

Any other questions, discussion? All right, seeing none, I got a motion and a second to approve the recommendation to accept the proposal for water resource recovery facility upgrades to the ultraviolet disinfection system and lift station from CSM Mechanical LLC of Milford, Michigan for the total amount of $1,857,245 from use of capital reserve account number 590-538-960.413 and accept the proposal for construction engineering services from Hubbell Roth and Clark to West Bloomfield for $179,600 from consultant services account number 590-538-801.140 and authorize the mayor to sign the agreements. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. All right, you're welcome. New business number three is a recommendation to award the municipal complex janitorial service contract to Cleantech LLC of Denver, Colorado in the amount of $127,548 annually for the first year with a 2.5% increase annually over the length of the contract from multiple accounts. Do I have a motion?

So moved. Thank you. Mr. Sigma. Thank you. So one of the most difficult contracts to maintain and manage is the janitorial services for the city of Wixom, in my opinion. And last year we put that out to bid and we had a number of groups interested. I think we had 15 different groups that made proposals. We interviewed five of those groups and if you remember, we had considered two as being the top two of that and the one that we chose last year was because of budgetary reasons and I still stand behind that decision, but you work with a group for a year and we tried to do that and we were not as successful as we would like to be with the cleaning services that they provided. So with that, we went back to our last year's proposals and we contacted Cleantech And we talked about different ways of organizing their staff so that we could have a little bit of time each day that staff here at City Hall and the Community Center can meet with them on a general or a normal daily basis. We kind of call that a day porter, but it's not like they're here all day. It's just an hour or two in the evening so that we can touch base, see what needs to be done, and those kind of things. And with that, there was a little bit of an ad. I believe it's about $2,000 per person. per year to add that on. And if you add in the 2.5% that they proposed last year, which is a year later, for CPI increases, they came back with a number of 127,000 annually, is what you see in your budget. I did the same calculations with RNA, and if you add in the 2.5% interest with We did not add in the proposal for a day porter, which was another $2,200 from them. That comes out to roughly $129,000, so with that, they are actually cheaper again. So we're back to deciding what to do next. This is a professional services and we'd like to try this group. We feel that they can do a good job for us. We are hoping that it will be less intrusive to the management aspects of it, and they seem to think that Cleantech are, you know, the money's in, I guess, the details of that, and they have to prove that. And we'd like to give them a try at this time. With that, I'd be open to questions.

Do we know anybody that's used Cleantech before?

Yeah, they're... They've worked in the area a little bit. Plymouth, they've worked in Plymouth, and they have a contract with Wayne County, but also Delta Airlines has used them, and St. John's in Michigan.

Because, you know, the RNA came with good DNA. and obviously they left those reviews out our front door because they didn't do a very good job here. So I just wonder why are we going through, we're not that tough. I don't think anybody, and I've seen these officers, nobody's a pig or anything like that. It doesn't take a lot to clean, and they still didn't do it. So we do still have the clause with this company that if we're not satisfied, we can zig him.

Yep, and we did that with RNA as well. And that would help for maybe a couple weeks, and then we'd revert back to different things going on. So yeah, no definition of insanity. We're trying the day porter this time, so we're trying a little bit different. But yeah, we're going to run out of janitorial services here at some point.

Council Member Behrman?

I guess my question would be, It's not something that maybe perhaps at 127,000 we should eventually discuss bringing it in-house and just hiring a full-time janitorial employee ourselves that we can train and have them do it the way that I almost feel like it might be cheaper. I mean, how many full-time people would we need to

That's a very good question and we are reaching that point. The trouble with that is the vacation times and different things that are all part of that. We've looked at three different or a scenario with three part-time employees which cuts back on a lot of the you know the the fringe benefits of that and you know it we're getting we're getting to that point and the that would potentially be our next step.

I'd say if the strikeout with the third company, maybe it's time that we start looking at other options.

Yes, and we feel that we'd have more control at that point with our own employees than this. Thank you. Yes, thank you.

Council Member Simmons.

Yeah, I would agree with Council Member Berman. So this would be our first time with a cleaning company having the day porter option?

Yes.

How many companies have we gone through in the last five years?

The last five years, four companies.

Yeah, it seems like it's something to look at because the day porter is going to have how many hours will they cross during the day?

One to two.

for all the facilities that one to two hours is supposed to?

Yeah, so they'd start, let's say they start at four and they'd start here one day and then police the next day and yeah. So it's a few hours earlier than what they would normally work.

Yeah, I would be in favor. I mean, if this is our last go around to look at trying to figure out how we can bring that in house. Yeah.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Council Member Kennedy.

First question I had was about the difference in price. We already went over that. I'd be interested in seeing the contract to see what services are different or if they're the same services across the board as what we were supposed to be getting.

They are the same services that we were supposed to be getting. It is the same RFP that was proposed for both.

I also want to say that I don't think a day porter is going to do it. especially if you're going for a couple hours. In my mind, instead of doing that, put the hours into cleaning at night and just have one of their supervisors come by once a week, review what's going on, and then go fix it at night. So for me, I would like to see the day boarder taken out just to save a little bit on that cost and just have a supervisor from the company come down and actually review what's going on. And if it adds more cost on their end to do it right, that's on them. Is there an actual breakdown of what they're supposed to be doing at each department?

Yes. Each area has its own task list, and we have one over in the janitor's closet. It's written out pretty clear for each janitorial closet that we have.

And is it normal to just... go down the list and award to the next person, next person, next person as we get a failure?

Usually we bid it back out and rather than do that we're trying to, it takes another month and a half to do that and yeah it's just the time commitments from our perspective. But with it only being 11 months ago, we felt that it was prudent to just utilize the same ones, only a different company.

Just to clarify, if I can, this is the second company that we're going to on this solicitation. We had a prior company that was the winner of the prior solicitation, or the people that we landed on last, and that was the solicitation. And we moved on from them with a bid process. Yep. We went with the RNA first, the second lowest price bidder was the company that we had moved away from in the prior solicitation, and now we're on to Cleantech, which is the third company that was on our list this time, but only the second one, if you will, and I don't wanna say only, like this isn't getting a little crazy, but it is just the second company on this solicitation that we're going to, so. All right. We all agree that if this doesn't work out, we have to change our MO, do something different.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Blast drum. Be willing to give it a shot and then try to move something, change something, move in-house, something different. You're welcome.

Council Member Gretel and Fox.

I don't have a question. I agree with everyone here that has spoke, but I just wanted to add that my day job, we have the same issue. They're hard to find. Once you find them, they don't do a good job, so you end up circling and trying the next and the next, so it's not just here. It seems to be a lot.

Every municipal. Thank you.

Any other? Council Member Gottschall. Thank you. Or Deputy Mayor Gottschall, excuse me.

What sorts of issues are we running into consistently with the provider for the last few? Because this is the third and it's been five and five years or four and five years, but this is the third in like two years. Right.

There's mopping issues that crop up at different locations. Vacuuming is another one. We'll have We'll have areas that folks know that there's something there, not that we leave it, but it's there for a number of days before it even gets noticed and then it would get vacuumed. The nooks and crannies, if you will, we're looking at behind the doors, for example, or something like that. It rarely gets done. We have cobwebs or something collecting there. In the police station, the mopping there, if you go along the sides of the hallway, there's about a three to four inch gap there that doesn't get touched for a number of days. So we do those. The urinals, the toilets don't get done every night and we need that.

Is there not a way to have everything performed during office hours so there's staff on site instead of doing it? I know it's more intrusive to have a vacuum running, but that seems... I mean, this is $27,000 more than our current contract. It is. I had the other one pulled up from last year. It was $100,000. Yeah.

So I had... That was $102,000 But if you do the, it was 102%, and then if we did a day porter with it, it was another 26,000 is what it comes out to. So it's 102 with the 2.5% increase from last year. So you're right, yeah.

Have we asked the current contractors to do it during office hours?

We did, and if we did that, it was 26,000 more then that's where I got the 129,000 total with the RNA group. Yeah, we did that math.

That's everything performed during office hours, not just day quarter?

No, that's just with the day quarter. With office hours, that would be more.

I guess I'm confused. So if we kept the current provider, ask them to come in a few hours earlier, that'd be $26,000. Correct. Yes. Okay. Do we have the ability to ask that? I'm kind of tired of the churn, and obviously this is more expensive than 11 months ago. I'm just trying to figure out, like, is it... Is it that the providers are the issue or are standards maybe a little nitpicky for what we're paying for? Because some of these bids went up to $300,000. Correct.

And there is a balance of that. You do get what you pay for to some extent. And that's the other thing that we're trying to rationalize. But if I stood up here with $300,000 ask, I think for janitorial, you'd say go hire three people and... Yeah, which maybe I should do, but I can't necessarily, fair point, point taken.

Is it just like, the stuff that doesn't get done though, is it like we can't live with it no matter what, like staff absolutely can't maintain what we have going on?

Staff works with housekeeping as well. I mean, we all do a little bit of housekeeping on our own and Yeah, if we're paying people to do that, that ends up to be a problem as well at some point or another. You're asking the right questions.

yeah it just i don't i don't like the thought of paying an extra 30 for what we voted on a year ago right because we aren't happy but maybe it's an us issue not a them issue like if we're paying main brigade to come in we're going to get main brigade to versus getting our car detailed. So different expectations. So I just don't know if it's our expectations or they're living up to what they've agreed to do.

I think that I have explained the expectations with a number of people when we did the RFP walkthrough. We had over 30 people here and we pointed those things out. with those groups. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

I think it's more of they're not providing the services that we're asking for. We're not asking for a whole lot. And we're not getting what we are paying for. If it was somebody else, not necessarily, but maintenance, but if it was another contract that we have issues with, we would do the same thing. If we weren't satisfied or they weren't coming up with their so-called plans and doing what they needed to do, we'd ziggy them too. So this makes sense to me, but it also, I think in the back of our minds, we got to think if this doesn't work, what's our next step? Council Member Kennedy.

The 30% increase for the couple hours at Dave Porter was a little bit of a surprise. How much work would it take to actually go back out to the business?

If I can clarify, the 30% is not, the increase that we're experiencing from this company is not 30%. That was the increase that we were going to experience if we stayed with the prior company and asked for that service. The increase that we're getting from this company, we looked at what they bid in the first year, and I can go through the individual dollar amounts or just provide the math. So the first year bid was X amount of dollars per month. and the second year had a 2.5% increase. So we're in the second year of the contract, so they're taking their second year pricing and giving us that second year pricing at the plus 2.5%. When we asked for the day porter, that resulted in an additional increase of just over 1.5%. So the total increase compared to their first year, is about 4.04%. But the actual increase for the day porter, when you factor in there was going to be an inflationary 2.5% in the second year, it's really only 1.5% more for that day porter. It's not a 30% kind of thing. They actually kept it a lot more reasonable, and that's why this deal is better than trying to work with the existing provider, which wasn't getting the job done to our expectations, plus they were going to ask for a great deal more of an increase for that day porter arrangement. So just a finer point, it's about 1.5% is what we're paying extra for that day quarter on just over a $10,000 a month bill.

I just see some benefit in going back and really kind of restating expectations with someone if we've not had them met twice. Right.

I can give you a little bit of anecdotal information on this. I've got people that I know that are in the business and they don't bid on our projects. They don't bid on community projects because we're treating it like it's a commodity. We're treating it like it's a widget. A widget is a widget is a widget. And you're trying to drive the price down to the point where you're going to get what you pay for. I've been told this on multiple occasions by people in the business. You're going to get what you're paying for, which is not good service. But we're in the business of where you put these things out for bid and try to get the best price and try to follow that MO. So what we're doing by going on to the second and the third bidder, in this case the third bidder after the second bidder was already a prior swing and miss, you're just trying to see if you can get a better combination of price. Yes, it's slightly more, but will you get the service that you're expecting? And that's the other thing, getting to Deputy Mayor Gottschall's comments, I suppose we could just sign a contract that says they're going to do 10 things, and when they do four of those things, just ignore it. But we don't do that. We say, we told you we needed you to do 10 things. We explained it to you during the RFP process, and you're not doing it. And ergo, we're not going to pay you any longer to not meet the service expectations that you assured us at the RFP that you could meet. So that's, in essence, what we're doing. I get the frustration if you think you're frustrated. I feel your pain, trust me. We spend more time talking about this contract than I would like. And it's a giant time drain for everybody involved. This is our last attempt to try to see if this bid can result in a combination of services that meet our expectations for a decent price. And if it doesn't work out, we're going to have to go to something different. And we've talked about the different alternatives. If you want to pull the plug on that and go do something else and do a new bid and or do the other thing, we're probably going to have to do something in the interim anyway because of the fact we've told this company we're moving on. So we'd have to do something in the interim. But if your direction is to do something else, I get it. And we'd be willing to pursue that. Not good with that response. Thank you. Thanks.

Council Member O'Day?

Thank you, a couple things. I also agree with Council Member Fromland-Fox that it is an ongoing issue in the business setting. You will have a salesperson or a team come in and sell the world and the actual workers carrying out the tasks are not quite up to snuff. would also state that again have if you work in a traditional office setting during daytime hours it's far too disruptive to have cleaning done during the day especially one where the public can come in as well so I don't think I would support that type of situation I also just even from looking at body language from the peanut gallery have the impression that it is a very noticeable issue, not staff, but that things are not being done up to snuff. So I guess I would just say I am in support of giving this new company a try. I don't believe in paying someone, you know, keeping the old company and saying you get one more try. I don't believe in that. You didn't satisfy what you promised. you're gone, so now we'll let the new person in, and if that doesn't work, I would say, you know, so that there isn't an interim situation, maybe have plan B ready to roll.

Council Member Simmons.

With the current company or the previous companies, is there a turnover issue? Like what is the relationship of the same person cleaning day to day?

We have not had a major turnaround issue with this company. I think most of it is supervision and getting, responding to what we're asking for on a daily basis.

That's one more thing that I'd add is a little bit of a detail. We put a form out where we say, hey, X, Y, and Z didn't get done last night. We need X, Y, and Z done. And for one to two days, things get better. And then it's back to the same situation. So we do go through corrective actions to try to fix things.

I'm not clear on the response. So with the companies that we've had, how does it work? Does the same person come clean? per person's people come clean is there a turnover issue in those people? How long do they last? Or it's been the same people? It's been the same people for the most part. Sorry, I didn't... No, that's fine. Thank you.

Clarify that. Thank you.

Council Member Behrman?

I guess the only thing I had clarity on is the city manager mentioned that they already told the existing contractor that they're moving on. Is that something that the city manager should be telling the existing contractor when city council approved the contract? I should have said we told them they were moving on.

They figured out that

I mean, it's not the agenda this evening, so I assume that if they... We have given them notice in the past.

We have not told them that... We told them there were issues, and unless you fix things, we're going to move on, and they know that we're moving on is my point. We didn't tell them anything. Fair enough.

I understand. I just wanted clarity on that. No, we're following your guidance on that.

Any further discussion? All right, seeing none, I got a motion and a second to approve the recommendation to award the Municipal Complex Janitorial Service Contract to Cleantech LLC of Denver, Colorado in amount of $127,548 annually for the first year with a 2.5% increase annually over the length of the contract from multiple accounts. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. New business number four is a recommendation to award a bid for gutter replacement at the community center and city hall to G1 Services Group of Westland, Michigan for an estimated cost of $84,320 from other facility improvement account number 401-283-974.322. Motion? Support. All right, one more time, Tim.

One last one. We would like to repair the gutter systems that are here at City Hall and the Community Center. If you look on the rooftops, the metal portion, there's about a foot gap before the rest of the roof starts, and that's a gutter system that holds most of the water and pushes it off site. that has a lining in it that we need to replace. We replaced the roof about almost eight years ago now and at that time we we'd elected just to repair those those sections that needed repair in the gutter systems. Now it's to the point we'd like to replace them and we put that out to bid and G1 Services Group out of Westland was the low bid on that and we did put the soffits in there as well but we'd like to make sure that the gutter systems work before we replace or repair the soffits. So we'll do that at a later time depending on how well our systems work. We'd like to open that up to see into that area before we decide to repair any soffits. So yeah with that I'd be open to questions.

Any questions? All right, seeing none, I got a motion and a second to approve the recommendation to award a bid for gutter replacement at the community center and city hall to G1 Services Group Incorporated of Westland, Michigan for an estimated cost of $84,320 from other facility. Improvement account number 401-283-974.322. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thanks, Tim.

Thank you.

And that concludes the new business portion of the meeting tonight. We'll move on to the call to the public. It's the second call to the public. The rules remain the same with the exception that you can speak whatever is on your mind. Anybody for the second call to the public? Step up. State your name and address for the record, please. Yep, right up here, please.

Good evening. My name is Roy Madsen and I live at 1402 Trailside Boulevard. I'm going to read you a timeline regarding the Birch Park Hunt Club. Dates and facts from city records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act and what happened since then. I want to hold one thought as I read this. A fire has not happened yet. A child has not been hurt yet. An accident has never occurred yet. In 1991 city meeting minutes, the club president told told the council there had been an accident and police chief responded that they had been simply lucky. Here is the record. 1984, city of Wixom enacts local ordinance 58 regarding firearm discharge outdoors. The police chief at the time chose to ignore it as it applied to Birch Park Hunt Club. Seven years of documentation, non-enforcement starts here. 1991, Police Chief Holland tells Formal City Meeting that the previous police chief ignored Ordinance 58 since 1984 and that the existing firing range at that time is not safe. The city attorney stated that the city faces liability for its negligence to enforce an existing ordinance. both agree that the proposed solution to create an indoor range is not to protect residents, but so the ordinance would no longer apply. That building, the firing range, stands behind my home today. 2003, formal complaints are submitted by homeowners to the city manager. Concerns include health, safety, decibel level, quality of life, and air quality. The official response, there is little the city can do. A handwritten note on the record reads, state law supersedes Wixom law, something that is still referenced today. When neighbors ask about upgrades to the facility, the home club states they have no funding. March 12, 2004, City of Wixom, Trails of Loom Lake, and Birch Park Hunt Club have a formal meeting on city record. Concerns at this meeting are lead seepage, health concerns, safety of children, range safety officer not always being present, shooting after hours, and decibel ratings over 100. They're labeled risks, damage to property, death of children. Sorry, the labeled risks are damage to property, death of children, adults, and pets, hearing damage, and lead poisoning. These concerns were acknowledged by the city in writing, but there is no remediation plan that is enforceable timeline. There was never a follow-up if the noise reduction requirement was met, or if any of the addressed concerns were mediated. The same day, an internal email from Jen Moore to building official Lipcheck regarding serious soundproofing questions includes a handwritten comment on the file. Big deal, eh? This is the city's attitude towards concerns in 2004 and seems to still apply today. April 2004. Building permit issued for rear retaining wall and roof required by a city municipal code. Money appears when the city formally requires action. It does not appear when residents are at risk. 2006, last fire inspection of the storage facility on partner property 1485 Belconi. The firing range has never been inspected. I will say that again. The firing range has never been fire inspected. 2011, building official John Lipcheck confirms in writing that the club was trespassing on HOA park land. Civil matter, March 2012, six days before HOA easement is signed by sign for trespassing or trespassed land, the Wixom City Council holds a meeting where elected officials discuss paper road removal for those adjacent to the club property. April 2012, Trails of Loon Lake HOA Birch Park Hunt Club signs a recreation easement agreement. Section 6 requires the club to carry liability insurance, naming the HOA as an additional insurance. When we asked, the club never produced proof of insurance. June 2013, police respond to a neighbor's complaint about a wedding reception at Hunt Club at 11.33 p.m. with very loud music. Police make contact to shut off a documented commercial event at this facility. There was no special permit required or enforced. This is... One minute left. This is the first police documented events. I'm trying to skip by. July 2005, neighborhood calls about automatic fire from a range with no safety officer in sight. This response officer to club has paperwork authorizing automatic fire. Okay. May 19th, 2026, the Walled Lake Consolidated School Bus arrives at a bus stop at the end of my home. Our property is 50 meters from the range and there's been shooting at 1135 and it did not slow down when the bus arrived at noon. The firing range behind the bus stop has not been fire inspected, has never had ventilation Permit issued is classified as a vacant lot that houses a gun range and automatic weapons. A range that is operated by a corporation dissolved by the state in 2024. Are the parents of the children on the bus aware they are stopping next to an uninspected gun range?

That's five minutes, but I'm going to ask if any council would want to extend the time on this. I think we'd like to vote to extend the time.

Okay, keep going. Thank you. June 5th, 2026, another one of our neighbors attempted to contact a new branch of the city code enforcement. Code enforcement officer Maureen tells neighbor to get a life. what looks like a pattern of cities' attitudes spanning decades when residents bring up ballot concerns. As of today, Michigan State Records confirmed the non-profit Birch Park Hunt Club was dissolved in 2024. Their IRS non-profit status revoked in 2011. No confirmed liability insurance. No GAOP or safety compliance ever verified. No fire inspection. No electrical or mechanical permits ever issued. No confirmed lead disposal process. No confirmed business license. Multiple delinquent tax periods going to 2021. Even when they are shooting, even today while they are shooting at 10 a.m., there is no confirmed working ventilation. At the same concerns document in 2000, sorry, 1991, 2004, 2003 and 2012 unresolved. Private when it comes to laws and regulation and commercial when it comes to money and record. Nothing has happened yet, nobody has been hurt yet. Yet is not a safety policy. It has been on city record that we relied on luck and nothing has happened since 1991. We're asking for a formal meeting on public records where the community gets written answers to 30 years of documented questions. One thing that is true about an accident that has not happened yet is that once it does, it cannot be taken back. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else for the second call of the public? Step up, state your name and address for the record please.

Good evening, my name is Alexis Madsen and I live at 1402 Trailside Boulevard. My husband and I are both disabled veterans and we bought our home in 2024 using our BA loan. I want to be direct to this council that this is not a second amendment argument. This is a safety and accountability issue and tonight I'll be talking about a few things. The first is what the city is getting wrong legally. Since 2003, Wixom has operated with the statement that state law supersedes local authority. It's been repeated in writing again by the current assistant city manager and police chief in regard to the hunt club. It's an incomplete reading of the law. If you read Sports Shooting Range Act MCL 691-1543, it states explicitly that this act does not prohibit a local unit of government from regulating the location, use, operation, safety, or construction of a sports shooting range. The SSRA removes your authority over the noise and for using new zoning to close down a range. It does not remove your authority over fire safety and building inspections. It does not remove your authority over business license compliance, outdoor event permits, and liquor permits. It does not remove your authority over occupancy standards and code enforcement. It does not remove your authority over wetland activities under Wixom's own Chapter 17.08. Wixom has been using this noise immunity statue as a blanket reason not to act on safety and public concern. The statue itself says the city of Wixom does have the authority, no matter private or commercial, despite what I'm told by city staff. Second, what this facility actually is versus how it's being treated. The parcel where the range operates, 1489 Belconi, is classified as a commercial vacant lot on tax records. A building classified as a vacant lot has never been assessed on occupied structure, meaning it's never triggered a fire safety inspection. It's never had occupancy limits established. It hosts weddings, graduation parties, baby showers, and more for many people next to the gun range. where Wixom's own tax system says this gun range does not exist. A firing range that has never been expected next to homes and has an elementary bus stop at the end of my driveway. Now here's a contradiction that I want the council to know. The Wixom Fire Department confirmed in writing April 23rd, 2026 that they do not inspect this facility because it's considered private club and not a business. But the document they produced in that same FOIA response emergency systems registration form lists City of Wixom business license number 796 for this facility. The fire department's paperwork contradicts their justification for them not expecting. Business licenses, though, are maintained by the city's licensing authority. The fire department saying something is not a business does not determine whether the license exists. Business license 796 was not returned as a confirmed active license when I submitted a FOIA response for it. Under Municipal Code 5.04, a business license requires annual review. I'm asking the council to answer in the future if business license 796 is currently active, because if it is, how has a licensed business gone without a fire inspection for 19 years or more? Third, this is what choosing not to act actually means. In 1991, the Wixom meeting minutes showed Chief Holland saying the existing range is not safe and local ordinances are not enforced. The club president responded that there had never been an accident. The chief said they've been lucky, and that was 35 years ago. In those 35 years, this facility has never had a backstop rated for the weapons actually being used or for their competitive shooting training. It's never had ventilation or electrical systems permitted or inspected. The firing range has never been fire inspected. It's confirmed to use automatic equipment confirmed by police records. and it sits adjacent to state-regulated conservation easement wetland. There's a school bus stop on the other side of the fence, and it's operated by a corporation the state of Michigan dissolved in 2024 without any confirmed liability insurance. Every year without a fire inspection is a year that this council chooses luck over verification. Every year without a ventilation inspection is a year that this council accepts unknown wet exposure for our neighborhood, the people inside, and wildlife. Every year without GAOP compliance verification is a year this council has extended legal protection to a facility it's never confirmed meets the requirements of the Sports Shooting Act. The city has the authority to change this, and Michigan law gives it to you explicitly. City ordinances also give it to you. The only question is whether we will use it. I'm not asking you to close this range. I'm asking the council tonight to agree to a formal meeting on public record where a full 30 years of FOIA documentation and neighborhood concerns can be reviewed and where the city commits in writing to answer questions and develop a plan moving forward. Not a phone call, not another referral to the club, not another suggestion to sell my home, not a private meeting with the club as city council. Written answers on public record. The building at 1489 is being used both as a gun range and a commercial event venue with an active outdoor space used for alcohol serving gatherings. If any other business in Wixom operated this way without licenses, inspections, and permits, they would not be given the same level of leniency they are. We are asking for the same standard to apply here. An accident that has not happened yet is the only reason this feels like it can wait. If something happens before this council acts, the record will show everything needed to prevent an accident was documented, presented, and ignored since 1984. That's it, thank you.

Anybody else for the second call to the public? Step up, state your name and address for the record, please.

My name is Ronald Marcel. I live at 1468 Lakeside Court here in Wixom. I'm also here to talk about Birch Park Hunt Club. So just a background, I'm a U.S. Army veteran. I spent 35 years in law enforcement from the local to the federal level. My last few years I was in charge of a division that included contracting ranges. and dealing with ranges and range safety and firearms. So that's my background and what I'm about to talk about. So recently I had to call the police because I heard automatic weapons being shot at the gun range, which is something that shouldn't be happening in a residential area. I could see the officers arrive. I was expecting being the complainant, you know, I gave my name, my phone number, my address. They never got to me. So I had to come over, request FOIA to the department. They came back that the officer said that the individual had permission to shoot an automatic weapon or firearm in an indoor range. There is no such permit. There is a class three permit to possess an automatic firearm or a silencer. There's no permission given to shoot at a range. So my concerns are for the safety of myself, my neighborhood, my family. I see individuals arrive, from my backyard you can watch them arrive, go to the range, I can't see them shoot, and then I watch them leave. And I watch single individuals come in and shoot, so you don't have a safety officer or a range officer. You know, where locations, again, one of the contracts I had to do was with Multilakes, if you're familiar with Multilakes. So, I had five firearm instructors, but we still had to have Multilakes personnel there, and we had to sign in on a Multilakes, you know, document along with ours. You know, they also operated between 10 and 3, so we couldn't start shooting until 10, and we had to stop shooting by 3, because they were in a neighborhood, and again, they recognize the issues of being you know the type of facility they are in a neighborhood and they work with the neighborhood and it just doesn't seem like we've had that and again just looking at past records from this from the city hunt club doesn't want to really work and so i've really asked the city does uh you know regulate the range as they're authorized to they're authorized by the state to do this you know this the the range says that they have an exemption under mcl 691.1542a which is a noise uh issue But again, that doesn't apply because really when the range, when that law was passed, the range was operating outside of the city ordinances anyways. And they don't operate under the generally accepted operating practices. Like my neighbor said, I'm not asking them to shut it down. I'm just asking it to be hours of operation. We're at 6, 7 o'clock at night. When I'm sitting down to eat, I'm not having that constant shooting going on, which is lead exposure. No matter what they say, every time a firearm is discharged, the primary discharge is lead. I'm asking that we have a safety operator present every time they shoot. So it's not just one individual shooting. You have somebody that's controlling the range. And it's just common sense, it's what we're asking for. So again, if we could have a meeting, if we could set something up separately, we would appreciate it. And that's all I have to say, thank you. Thank you.

Anybody else for the second comment? Step up, state your name and address for the record, please.

Hello, my name is Mary Kay McCacken. And I live at 1465 Lakeside Court, and that's in the trails of Boone Lane. And I would also like to discuss the Birch Park My house runs parallel to this hunt club, so I'm able to hear when they have parties and when they're firing their weapons. And I bought my house in 2010 and have been trying over the years to get the city to do something about the hunt club's safety standards. And each time, you know, the response has been, we can't do anything, or the city, doesn't want to do anything so I don't get am I missing something as it stands now your ordinance doesn't cover the hunt club so anybody at any time can shoot any weapon and it's like go ahead check your check your ordinance it's like so think about that a felon can come over there and it's like well semi you know automatic or semi-automatic So if that doesn't scare you, I don't know what will. So now that you have all the information that we told you about, I think it's time for the city to step up and make some changes to the hunt club standards. At least to help us, to help protect the residents of Wixom. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else for the second call of the public? Seeing none, I'll close the second call of the public and move on to city manager comments. City Manager Brown.

Thank you, Your Honor. Normally I don't like to do this MO when it comes to my city manager update and just give a verbatim reading of it, but in this case I'm going to advocate that I do that and I'm going to do that. I provided an update in the city manager update regarding the status of the new Wixom Elementary School situation with the Walt Lake Consolidated School District. um and i'm just i'm not going to read it word for word but i'm going to try to summarize all the main points that i can in there just to get the information out not just the council but anybody that might be watching the meeting so we've been a very consistent communication with walt lake school district regarding the new woodson elementary and the concerns that were outlined in the letter from council dated February 24th. Many of these concerns have been satisfactorily addressed including information requests and plan updates that were provided or filled that satisfied issues that the fire department had and that's been taken care of. There was an issue with a grease interceptor that wasn't provided or called for in the plans on a sanitary sewer line. The district has agreed to do that. The one remaining main item, well, one more thing I should say that they have accomplished is adding of a sidewalk. They've agreed to the adding of a sidewalk along the frontage of West Maple Road in the front of the building, which was something that the city definitely wanted to see and had requested. So we're pleased with all that progress. The remaining item that needs to be handled is the improvements to West Maple Road. We've made some pretty good progress on that as well. There's been an agreement from the school district to cost share on that project. They have a figure in mind which I provided in the report of $450,000 worth 50% of the cost of the improvements, whichever is less. That's likely to be the $450,000, by the way. So that would include a couple things that we're looking for, including a center turn lane, including a rectangular rapid flashing beacon to handle pedestrian traffic, kids' traffic walking across the street. There's a variety of things that would be involved there, and the next steps on that front is basically the school district and the city having a meeting of the minds on the scope of the project and coming down to something that we can agree on. We expect to make that final progress and bring something to council in the coming months. weeks or months depending on when we can wrap it up with the school district. So we'll have a proposal for council to consider that will involve a projected cost minus the $450,000 more than likely and then How do we want to proceed on that from a council vote standpoint? So that's relatively speaking a pretty comprehensive update as to where we're at and I just wanted to make sure that we provided that information here at this public meeting and have it reflected in a couple of different places including the minutes next time around so that people can see the information. Summary is we're very pleased that we've made a lot of progress with the school district on addressing some of the concerns that we've had. In fact, most of the concerns that we've had. And it really just comes down to handling West Maple Road in a way that's going to be something that gives us a better chance of not repeating the mistakes of the past that we consistently deal with in existing school situations or school locations in the city of Wixom. We all know that those schools are subject to very serious traffic problems and tie-ups and we're hopeful that the work that we're going to come to an agreement on for West Maple Road will allow us to have a better chance at success on that and not have those issues repeated to the extent that they are at other locations in the district in the Wixom. So that's pretty much all that I had in my city manager update. There's a variety of dates to remember that are provided. We just recently had our first concert in the park, so congratulations to Parks and Recreation for another exciting kickoff to that season and successful kickoff to that season. And there's a variety of other things in there. That's the only thing that I wanted to cover in my update. Happy to try to answer any questions if any come up or get you an answer if I can't do that this evening.

Thank you. Assistant City Manager Benson.

It feels so odd not talking for a whole meeting. You're all welcome. But I hadn't intended to say much, only based on some of the public comments tonight, I imagine some city council members will have comments and questions, and we'll be interested to hear that. I just wanted to add that one of the things that we can look at or talk about with city council is looking for a formal legal opinion from our representation about what would the most appropriate way be, what are our options to regulate existing uses for gun ranges and what might be the most appropriate mechanism, whether that's zoning ordinance regulations or similar things. Again, I thought members of the public did a nice job on the research. I think there's things I learned as a part of the longer term history. Birch Park Hunt Club has existed since 1950. The city was incorporated in 1957. I couldn't tell you what the gun range looked like back then, but for what it's worth, just to know that myself, Police Chief Langmeier, we have spent some time and communicated with residents. Clearly, we've maybe not met the marker expectations there, but just to offer that I think we have some ideas if city council wants to explore what our options are, we probably would need some kind of additional legal help to help us navigate what we can or can't do. That's all I have.

I agree 100%. Let's make sure what we do is legal and what we can do and move on from there. So move on to council comments. Council Member Behrman.

First and foremost, thank you to the city manager for the update on Wixom Elementary. I appreciate that. That was really nice to see that we were getting some quick response from the school on that. As for the residents that came this evening, I'd be interested in having your dates and your memo you put together. So, I mean, our email is, I'm sure many of us on council would probably like to read that as well. So, if you wouldn't mind, if you have it in, like, a Word or PDF file, send me an email, or if you want a copy, everybody else might be helpful. Some of the things I found interesting that was discussed was the fact that the nonprofit that's there is no longer tax exempt and they're not filing their reports for the state of Michigan. So they're not even a legal entity. So if that's the case, I mean, the first thing the city should be doing is putting them back on the tax rolls and collecting property taxes until they fix that.

I believe we have been collecting property taxes from them.

Okay, so they weren't tax exempt from property taxes?

That's my understanding, yeah.

Okay. But yeah, they're not filing their proper paperwork with the IRS, they're not filing proper paperwork with the state of Michigan until they get in line. With that, I think we would have any, I think we should ask our city attorney whether or not we have the right to shut them down for that. I do agree with everyone saying they've been here since the 50s. Probably can't get them on the sound thing. They were here clearly before any of us were. But... but it doesn't mean that they shouldn't, should be operating outside the scope of the current standards that are required as well. So, I mean, I for one appreciate you bringing it to our attention this evening. I've never heard, I've heard people complain about the sound before, but I never heard what you brought up this evening. And the only other thing that I would like at least the city manager and city manager to look into is the specific allegations that were mentioned regarding maybe some unprofessional conversations from our staff and whether or not you agree with someone or not I would expect that all of our staff should always be professional and if we do have staff members that are not being professional I think that needs to be addressed internally because no resident should ever be getting an unprofessional response from one of our staff members

Council Member Kennedy.

I wanted to say thank you for the update on the school. I'm glad that's moving along. I hope that we can do something with that road there. Everything else I wanted to say, I wanted to say that this is the first time I've heard about the, what is it, Birch Bark Hunt Club. I live kind of nearby there too, so I'm interested in it. I don't think I am near qualified enough to speak much about it without seeing all the documentation you put together, which I would very much like to be cc'd on that when you email that over. But Council Member Behrman summed up a lot of what I would like to say with that. That's all I have.

Very good. Council Member Simmons?

Thank you, Mayor. Also, thank you to the City Manager for the update. I like it when you read your updates, so thank you for that information. Congrats to Parks and Rec for a great family fun night, concerts in the park, encouraging all our residents to show up on Thursday nights and have a good time. I also want to congratulate all our seniors from Walt Lake Consolidated Schools. I had big graduations this weekend, including my son. But they're moving on. And then thanks to the residents who came and spoke. I think we all learned a lot. And it's good to hear collectively It's kind of like you gave a nice little tutorial for anybody else coming to speak. It's nice to hear collectively what is going on. So I would also like to be copied on the email. Please make sure that you send it to us directly and not just the general email. Send it to each of us individually, please.

Thank you. You're welcome. Council Member Grell and Fox.

Thank you. I too would like to be copied on the information. Thank you. I didn't know... guess I should have but I didn't know anything about that club either so you raised some interesting questions so I I would like I don't know if you need a vote a formal vote because I know it's going to cost money to have an opinion written but I would like something from legal just advising us what we can and can't do angry thank you too for the information about the school I'm glad that they're responding to us question the the road piece the center lane and any enhancements that would have to take place so if they're gonna contribute up to 450,000 do we have an estimate of what that would cost to do that a ballpark I'm not gonna hold you to anything

it at the moment we're looking at including engineering costs approximately 1.4 million we're still working out the exact scope so don't please don't quote that number in perpetuity but just in in yeah somewhere in that wondering how much that this was gonna I knew it wasn't gonna make much of a dent but I just didn't know how much of a death

We've looked at different options. Potentially a less expensive approach as well would be less than that, but the number to do it the way that we originally intended would be about $1.4 million.

Okay. And then lastly, I would just like to thank all of those residents that were appointed this evening. Thank you, Mayor.

You're welcome. Council Member O'Day.

Thank you. I too thank the residents who came here this evening and educated certainly myself and I think others. It's obviously obvious you did your homework and I'm sure it was a lot of work for that. So again, appreciate it. Please email all of us. It's something I think we really need to look into now that it's on our radar. So I appreciate that. And then also I'll just kind of shout out our newest restaurant, Piazza. I was able to go to the ribbon cutting there as well as eat there last weekend. It was fabulous. I think they're a great addition to our community. So encourage everyone to check them out.

Thanks. Deputy Mayor Gatcho.

Thank you. I also appreciated the city manager's update as much as we like seeing the work anniversaries. I do appreciate getting actual updates about things that are a topic of our focus. I know you had shared the the road costs, I believe we had talked about if the school district was going to add the sidewalk in front that we were going to commit to adding sidewalk from the corner as well. When is their expected timeline for having the school open?

If I remember correctly, they were aiming to be open for the 2027 school year, so fall of 27.

Okay, so when would we begin discussing and setting aside money for the sidewalk and the road and all of that?

Ultimately, that's all part of what we need to figure out. We don't have a set recommendation for you yet, nor do we have an inter-local agreement worked out directly with the district. So this is tentative and this is preliminary for the moment. It is our expectation that by the time we bring a more fleshed out proposal to you you know hey here's what the cost would be here's the timelines you know we would have all of those details figured out as city manager brown mentioned we're likely still a month or two away from that but at this point i believe we we feel it is possible to get improvements done in advance of the school opening again we may have to coordinate construction timelines we there's a lot of variables there but given the amount of time until they open

you know i think we feel positive about the where we stand at least as of today okay the anything you bring in front of us will include the side like the full project the sidewalk and the road yes okay all right thank you

All right, and thank you, Steve, for the update on the schools, and hopefully this summer we can work on taking care of some of the traffic issues on Charms Road and Loon Lake Road, so we got the one out of the way, let's get those done so we start out the next school year without any issues.

Thank you to the residents for coming in tonight.

I just wanna say that we'll talk to our legal people and we'll figure out what we can and can't do. So until we hear from them and get an opinion on that, just hang tight. I'm not shocked about things, but I'm surprised at the way things are operated there and we need to change that. So thank you for your information tonight. Thank you to everybody who stepped up my reappointments to be on a Board of Commission. I appreciate it. Like I said at the picnic that it's you guys are what makes this city the city that it is, the great community that it is because it's your guidance that's helping promote and move this city forward and thank you Deanna for a great employee and volunteer picnic as well and we had a great crowd for the concerts and Hope to see everybody there this Thursday and every Thursday after that. And with that, do I have a motion?

One thing, if I can. No. I'd like to clarify something. Can I? Go ahead. Let me agree. I was going to say something earlier, and I hope it doesn't run afoul of what Councilmember Simmons was speaking of, but I was going to suggest to the people that were looking to provide information to council, there's an address, council at Wixomgov.org, that includes every one of you directly. So it's going to go directly to you without individual addresses. But you could go through the process of looking up the individual names if you want to get conversant in that. But if you use council at wixomgov.org, it'll go to all seven. Will we get that?

I think that what has been expressed to me in the past by other residents is that we're not necessarily getting, there's an email where we're not getting those emails.

That email goes to you in all things.

Sure. I'm only commenting back to what I was heard. Okay. I think for clarity, if you could send it, just make sure you send it directly to us, I will respond. So you'll know I got it. as i said it goes individually to all seven council members so yeah i'm only saying that i've been told by multiple people there have been emails and it may be something just a disconnect on the website or what it is so yeah it may be it may be a typing error so just for clarification because if that's what's been done in the past i know i get emails directly to mine

I've never typed, I've sent dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of emails to council utilizing council, and I've never had a council member say they needed the email. They were just trying to save time, they can do whatever they want. Doesn't matter to me.

All right, with that, do I have a motion to adjourn? Support. I got a motion of support to adjourn. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

Motion carries. Thanks.