City Of Muskegon Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening, good folks, and welcome to the City of Muskegon City Commission General Session for this Tuesday, June 9th, 2026. Before we get started with our meeting, I want to remind folks we do have a few different public comment periods. One is going to be a public hearing, and then we're going to have public comment on agenda items, so IF YOU WISH TO GIVE INPUT ON ANYTHING ELSE THAT WE'RE GOING TO BE DISCUSSING TONIGHT AND CONSIDERING FOR VOTE. AND THEN WE ALSO HAVE GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT AT THE END OF THE MEETING AND AN OPPORTUNITY FOR FOLKS TO GIVE THEIR INPUT DIRECTLY TO THE CITY COMMISSION, WHATEVER THAT MAY BE. IN EACH OF THOSE PUBLIC COMMENT PERIODS, EACH INDIVIDUAL HAS UP TO THREE MINUTES TO PROVIDE REMARKS. WE ALSO WELCOME PHONE-IN COMMENTS If you're going to be giving public comment in person, I encourage you to complete a public comment form at the back of the room. I already have a few here. Please provide your name and home address. Note, I'll not be sharing your home address, nor asking you to announce it when you approach the podium. If you're a City of Muskegon resident, I will be acknowledging which neighborhood you're joining us from. And if you're not a City of Muskegon resident, which other township, village, or city you may be joining us from. And as a reminder, during public comment period, it's time to give input directly to the City Commission, not necessarily back and forth engagement or Q&A. We can arrange that for a separate time and place if so desired. Now, before we get into our meeting and starting with public hearing, we are going to have a... I don't see the... faith leader leading us in prayer, so we're going to just have a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. If you wish to join us in either of those activities, I ask that you stand if you're so capable of doing so.

Thank you.

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

May we have roll call, please?

Mr. German?

Here.

Mr. Jackson? Here. Mr. Cochin? absent Commissioner St. Clair? Here. Mayor Johnson?

Here.

Mayor Delgado?

Present.

Vice Mayor Keener? Here.

Thank you. All right. We don't have any honors, awards, and presentations for this evening, so we're going to get right into our first public hearing and our only public hearing this evening, which is with regard to PA-198 Industrial Facilities Exemption for American Fabricated Products at 331 West Laketon Avenue. This is going to be... Who's reporting out on this?

Ms. Hines.

Our development. Good evening. Kindly introduce yourself and please report on this item.

Hello. Good evening. You all were moving so fast I couldn't catch up. My name is Jocelyn Hines, City of Muskegon. This is a public hearing for an industrial facilities exemption, IFT, for 331 West Lincoln Avenue for American fabricated products. IFT reduces property taxes on eligible real property improvements by 50%. The City Commission approved an industrial development district for this property at the April 14, 2026 meeting. American Fab is a manufacturer who specializes in welding, metal forming, laser cutting, CNC machining, and other services. They have a diverse customer base such as defense, automotive, agricultural, medical, and food service. American Fab purchased the building late 2025 and plans to move their operations from Spring Lake to the city of Muskegon as 40% of their workforce lives in the city of Muskegon. In addition to their current workforce, they plan to add an additional 20 to 30 jobs with this expansion, starting at $21.50 an hour. In the supporting documents, you will find a letter of intent stating that they will provide equal employment opportunities in an inclusive workforce development process. You will find the document was updated by our EEO director, so I placed that updated document on you all's data. So you should see that. They plan to rehab the 64,000 square foot facility with a total investment of about over $665,000. The Internal Tax Committee review AmericanFAB's application and is recommending a nine-year abatement based on number of new created jobs, resident hiring, and taxable value of the investment. The company is here and can answer any questions you may have.

Before we consider any questions or thoughts from the City Commission, we're going to first go to the public as part of the public hearing. Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to give input on the consideration of this industrial facility exemption certificate?

Hi, I'm Emily Morgenstern, the business development manager with Greater Muskegon Economic Development, as well as a Nelson neighborhood resident. GMED has been working with American Fab on their relocation from Spring Lake to the city of Muskegon, and I just wanted to voice my support for this company. These projects are what we really love at GMED. They are committed to being in the community, they have great paying jobs, as well as the great quality products that is touching people from all over the world. So I just wanted to thank you for your consideration for American Fab tonight.

Thank you, Ms. Morgerson. Appreciate you joining us this evening. Anyone else in the audience wish to give input as part of this public hearing? Seeing no additional takers, we're going to go to the phones. That phone number is 231-724-6721. If you're calling in, please turn down any audio in the background. State your name, and if you're a City of Muskegon resident, which neighborhood you're joining us from. And if you're not a City resident, which other township, village, or city you're joining us from. This is specifically with regard to public hearing for an industrial facilities exemption certificate for property located at 331 West Laketon Avenue. All right. It does not sound like we have any takers or phone-in comments as part of this public hearing. Commissioner, so that we may proceed.

I move to close the public hearing and approve the issuance of an industrial facilities exemption certificate for a period of nine years for the property located at 331 West Laketon Avenue and to authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign the application and resolution.

Support. We have a motion by Vice Mayor Keener, supported by Commissioner Koga.

Vice Mayor Keener, do you have anything to ask or share at this time? Yes, can we hear from- The applicant? The applicant?

Yes. Would you kind of come to the podium and introduce yourself, sir?

Yeah, absolutely.

My name is Russell Glenn. I'm the Vice President of American Fab. All right. Vice Mayor.

Thank you for your time and also bringing more viable income to Muskegon, employing more people, super necessary here. especially within our city limits. I did have a question. We were provided with a report on your staff, current staff, and it shows that I would say probably 96% of your staff is currently Caucasian. Are you planning to diversify when you come to Muskegon so that your company looks more like Muskegon looks?

Absolutely. That's what we're hoping for. You know, we're really hoping by coming to Muskegon, it's going to open the door for the diversity that we invite as a company.

And how do you plan on soliciting to get a more diverse staff?

So we're currently registered with Muskegon Community College job board. We're working with Michigan Works right now as well as some other local organizations that help source some of the local talent and invite some of these people that are interested in what we have to offer as a company for employment.

And are you a felon-friendly company?

Yes, absolutely.

Okay, that's good to know too. Thank you.

Yeah.

Mark Keener, Chicago. Thank you. What kind of experience would I have to have if I wanted to apply for a job with American Fab?

Any type of general manufacturing experience, factory experience. Our biggest thing is attendance, punctuality. You know, really, we're willing to train and work with just about anyone that walks through the door. You know, we currently are working with the Michigan Go Pro grant to offer different, you know, trainings and provide different, you know, opportunities for people that might not have the skill sets that we require based off just sole qualifications. So pretty much anyone that's able-bodied, you know, is really a an applicant at our business. That's someone that we would consider.

Okay, awesome. And how would I go about applying to American Fair Applications?

So right now we have job postings listed on kind of the major websites, you know, Indeed, ZipRecruiter. We also have on our company website page career opportunities. That offers everything from, you know, office staff to shop floor jobs to engineering jobs.

You all have already moved to the Laketon location, or you're still in transition from Spring Lake?

Unfortunately, we're still, you know, in the transition. So it's been, you know, it's been a heavy lift for us there. There was a lot of different things we needed to do with it as far as infrastructure goes. So, you know, our target move date hopefully is early next month. Early, okay. Yeah, so very quickly. Okay.

Yeah, I think that's all I have for you. Good luck with the move and welcome to the city of Muskegon.

Thank you, Commissioner Kilgore. Commissioner Jarvis.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening and thank you for being here today. Some of my questions have already been answered, but thanks to Vice Mayor Keenan for her question. As a commissioner, I've always been an advocate for diversifying and putting it out there, just having our city, and even our government body reflect the city that it serves, but when it comes to equal opportunities and fair hiring practice, I advocate for that strongly. So I'm glad to hear that you are looking to diversify, and I think that's something that has to be intentional. There's a lot of companies come in front of us, and they ask for these incentives, and is just talk because years later I don't see, I see the same. So being intentional is definitely one thing I think that is necessary. Also you mentioned, you know, partnering with the college. I'm an employee at the college. I work with students all the time who come in to college and want to get a degree and have a successful pathway to the workforce. So I think that's a good opportunity to partner with the college. And then you also mentioned workforce. So those are good entities to be part of. And I wish you success. And you also mentioned that being felon friendly. Those are some of the questions I would ask also because a lot of times people make mistakes through the hardship and that thing called life. And none of us are perfect. You know, so, but to be able to have a place where you're going to be accepting people to give them a second chance if they made those mistakes is definitely huge. So, thank you. Absolutely.

Thank you, Commissioner German. Commissioner Jackson or Commissioner St. Clair, anything to ask her at this time? Mr. Gronenbach, we, um, Thank you for being here this evening, returning as part of this consideration, and more of a thank you for your interest in investing in Muskegon and growing with Muskegon. We heard in terms of how you are attempting to recruit new hires and employees and the like. Have you had any conversations with Muskegon Public Schools?

Not at this point, no.

Okay. I would encourage you to reach out to the superintendent there, Cortez, Muskegon Public Well, one, Muskegon Community Education Center is not too far from where you're looking to operate. Muskegon Public Schools has also launched the Forward Next Generation Learning Model, inclusive of the Innovation Academies of Muskegon. One of the academies is the Academy of Industry, Technology, and Design, and it's really emphasizing career exploration and obtaining those skill sets that are going to be important to get into that industry. So I think there's opportunity for collaboration and partnership in that regard. And they also are looking at establishing a career exploration center for fifth through, starting at fifth grade even, I think, and that's going to be at the middle school. So there's going to be a lot of opportunities, I think, both in the existing program they have as well as programming that they're going to be coming online. So I really strongly encourage you to reach out to Muskegon Public Schools and see how you might be able to partner for the benefit of both organizations.

Absolutely. And I mean, that's one of the things with Muskegon that has attracted us majorly here is there's such a strong manufacturing base. There's a lot of different programs and resources and things that the city and the schools and, you know, these people are doing to want to be involved in the industry. And that doesn't really exist in many other places.

Yeah, manufacturing is very important. It may not be as dominant as it once was in our economy as we build out a more broadly diverse economy, but we still want to have a strong manufacturing sector. in our community. It's one of the ways that we're able to import wealth into the community, make things here and sell them elsewhere and bring the money here and get it circulating and supporting our community. So thank you again for your investments in growing with Muskegon. Thank you. Unless there's anything else, commissioners, we're going to go to roll call. Thank you. Roll call, please.

Commissioner St. Clair? Yes. Mayor Johnson? Yes. Commissioner Kilgore?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Keener? Yes. Commissioner German? Yes. Commissioner Jackson? Yes. Motion passes.

Thank you. All right. That brings us to public comment on agenda items. And before we get on with that, do we have any updates to our agenda?

Mr. Manager? Item J is being pulled by staff's request. Yeah, and that closed session has been removed as well?

Yeah. Okay, so item J on the consent agenda as well as our closed session have been removed per staff. Yeah, that was a carryover error from last night. All right. In which case, I don't think I have any public comment forms on remaining agenda items. Of the remaining agenda items, is there anyone that wishes to give public comment? Okay, don't see any takers in the audience. I did have a public comment couple forms regarding the items removed, so not considered under agenda items, but we could welcome that under general public comment if you wish to give input at that time. Or wait to see how things evolve. All right, we're going to go to the phones. My phone number is 231-724-6721. This is an opportunity to give public comments specifically with regard to agenda items. When you're calling in, please turn down any audio in the background, state your name, and if you're a City of Muskegon resident, which neighborhood you're calling from, and which items you're speaking on. All right, does it not sound like we have any figures for phone-in comments and agenda items? No, there's a section missing. With regard to our federal, state, and county partners, but I don't see any federal, state, or county partners, except for one who does. Any county, state, or federal electives, at least, in the audience, or tribal partners. So we're going to move on to consent agenda. Commissioners, you've had an opportunity to review the consent agenda. Are there any items that you wish to have removed for separate consideration and vote?

Yes, Commissioner Kilgore. Yes, item H and item I.

Any other items, commissioners? All right, I would entertain a motion for adopting a consent agenda as presented. Minus items H and I. Move. Support. We have a motion by Commissioner Germans, voted by Commissioner St. Clair. Before we proceed, rather than taking off this item and having a separate discussion about it, I do just want to get one clarifying question with regard to financial policies. Director Grant, would you kindly?

I would probably be...

It's either going to be Director Ekholm or Director Grant who's going to be able to answer this question, specifically with regard to the asset sales. The additional language, let me pull it up. So proceeds from sale of city-owned real estate, we have one caveat. Right now the policy is that when we have asset sales, the proceeds go into our public improvement fund. There's an additional paragraph of instances where the specific property sold is a part of the city's infill housing program. Proceeds from the sale of the property shall be retained in the city's infill housing program fund so as to further continue the program. So I welcome that addition. I like that addition. I just want to get one clarification with regard to... THE PROSPECTS OF 881st STREET. I KNOW THAT DIRECTOR ATCOM HAD INTEREST IN GETTING THE DEVELOPER HOUSING, WHETHER THAT WOULD BE CONSTITUED AS PART OF HOME INFO PROGRAM OR THAT STANDS OUTSIDE OF IT. THE REASON I'M ASKING IS I'M GETTING NODS AS IF IT STANDS OUTSIDE OF IT.

Yep, that's how I was going to say the same thing.

Okay. I just want to make sure all of our expenses into that project, if it's 88 First Street, both acquisition, demolition, and so on and so forth, that we are reimbursing our public improvement fund from any future sales or development of that property.

Yes, Jonathan and I and Jake have all noted that. Okay.

That's the expectation. Good. I just wanted to make sure on the same page in that regard that we'll be able to make ourselves whole, or at least our public improvement fund whole for its expenditures on that project. Yes, yes. Thank you so much, Director Grant.

Any other questions?

I just wanted to get confirmation on that. You're good. Thank you. All right. Unless there's any other thoughts with regard to the consent agenda? Roll call, please.

Mayor Johnson? Yes. Mr. Arkelgold? Yes. Vice Mayor Keehner? Yes. Commissioner German? Yes. Commissioner Jackson? Yes. Commissioner St. Clair? Yes. Commission passes. Thank you.

All right. Item H, approval of the fiscal year 2026 to 2027 budget. Commissioner Kilgill.

Move to approve the budget resolution for fiscal year 2026-2027, which begins on July 1st, 2026. Support.

All right. We have a motion by Commissioner Kilgour. Support by Commissioner German.

Would you like that? You reported on this a lot. We talked about this last night and in the first meeting in May during work session. And so this would be the budget that would start July 1st. As noted last night, this is largely a similar budget to what we have this year as revenues are targeted to be about the same amount. We will be running a deficit this coming fiscal year, or dipping into our savings account is another way to put it. Some of those investments that we're doing include transfers to other funds, the election equipment, and other non-salary staff benefits that are leading to that deficit. So structurally, the general fund is in good shape. The overall budget is about $135 million. A good chunk of that, sorry, $132 million, a good chunk of that increase from last year to this fiscal year is the housing fund. So the housing fund has $10 million in it, and that's what we're projecting. That will change a little bit as we move forward, but that's what that bump is from the previous fiscal year. I also want to note that in that total number, there is money that moves back and forth between different funds, which I've talked to some of you about as we talk about the budget. So some of that money is in there twice, but because it's actually being spent and moved into another budget, it gets counted in the total number.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Commissioner Kugel. Thank you.

I do know that we spoke at length about this yesterday at our work session, so I pulled this for two reasons. One, to make some comments about the budget. Two, I know some of our commissioners weren't able to speak on it yesterday at work session, so I wanted to give them the opportunity if they had any questions about the budget. The comments that I want to make are we have to have a budget passed and going one time before July 1st. we're gonna get that done but as we move into next year and following years some of the things that I would like to see are I would like to see us get a stronger feel on how we're going to fund our parks and recs department and fully fund our parks and recs department and how we can fully staff our police department and our fire department to have full patrols for the police and fully filled trucks for our fire departments when they go on call. As we've seen changes at the federal level, we may not be getting federal dollars from certain places. And as I stated last night, just making sure that we Continue to do what we have to do to build up a cushion so that we if additional monies are taken away at the federal level or if we have Which we do have I know we have a list of more capital improvement projects that we would like to do But we don't have the money to do Building up a fund a cushion so that we can get those other capital improvement projects taken care of, like the roof over our heads right now, stuff like that. And then lastly, I just wanted to say I appreciate staff. I know all the department heads and all the staff have put a lot of work getting their numbers in and your work on the budget. Mr. Manager, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Kugo.

Yes, thank you. And the staff, I know that I'm the one up here talking about it, but The staffs are the one that puts all the effort into this and threw a couple curveballs at them this year. And Director Grant in particular always came through and smiled and said, we'll get it figured out. So thank you, everyone.

It's not a quick and easy process.

No.

You guys usually get started in February. It's a multi-month process to get through all the numbers and make adjustments and bring us forward a well-considered budget. for our next fiscal year. Commissioner German, you made the support for that motion. Do you have anything you wish to ask or add at this time?

Yes, Mayor. Thank you. To Commissioner Kilgore's comments and statements, I concur. But I can honestly say that as commissioner, the years I've sat on this commission, the finance team, the leadership, from the top, from city manager, continues to be strong and focus on sustaining the finances here and balancing the budget here for the city of Muskegon. So I'd just like to say keep up the good work. It shows that we are being responsible for our city and how we choose to operate and what we fund. Due to some of the questions in the meeting last night, we talked about some things, and one that I asked was some of the cutbacks for professional development. I feel this is essential because, again, as employees age out and younger ones come in fresh out of college and getting into the workforce, they're looking to move up and So I'd just like to see more funding than that and be more intentional about that also. So we continue to support and have our staff knowledgeable and grow where they can move in and transition into upper management positions. Or if they choose to go into the law enforcement piece, they will have that education piece behind them and that development. So that's all I have to say.

Thank you, Commissioner German.

Mr. Manager? I completely agree with you, Commissioner German, and we've definitely still maintained professional development opportunities within the budget, and we've done a couple of innovative things this year. You all approved the degree pathway program with Cornerstone University. And we're working on getting another one of those agreements with another four-year college so that folks can have that opportunity because that's, you're absolutely right, we hear from folks about wanting to have the chance to get that two-year degree or four-year degree so they can apply for that next job. And Director Thompson makes sure that we still have money in there for tuition reimbursement because we do get that as well in case they're not going through those other programs. It is definitely important. We want to make sure that we're giving our folks that opportunity. Thank you.

Commissioner, is there anything else to ask or add? All right. Thank you, Commissioner Kogo, for your comments, particularly with regard to Funding our Parks and Rec and doing so in a sustainable way, as well as public safety, police and fire. Parks and Rec is very special to me. It led the charge to restore our Parks and Recreation Department during my time as mayor. And so I'm happy we've been making good progress on building out our Parks and Rec system. Not only investing in our facilities and our parks, but also more programming. To identify more sustainable revenue streams is going to be important to continue that work, particularly as our ARPA dollars dry up this year, and we're not going to have the same level of capital investment going forward. But we still have additional investment needs in our park system. And so identifying more revenue streams is going to be important for that. Now, with regard to police and fire, I think there's opportunity for additional investment and in exploring how we – evolve both those departments with regard to police. We are budgeting above what our force compliment is right now. We've been perpetually below that budgeted force compliment. But Chief Kozol, could you perhaps come to the podium? Because if I recall correctly, you mentioned that you are cautiously optimistic that we're going to be able to hit our force compliment, our budgeted force compliment this fiscal year. through a number of different ways. Could you speak to that and how are, you know, able to get to that fully staffed force complement?

Certainly. Tim Kozel, Public Safety Director of City of Muskegon. I think first I'd like to thank our team. Our team's been working very diligently at doing this and partnering with our HR department to make sure that we're continually always promoting the jobs that we have, as you said, to get up to that number of 72. So we have two individuals that are currently in the academy. We have one individual that we just swore in today as a lateral transfer into our PD. And we just are shoring up our second round of interviews today to hopefully get six into the Recruit Academy in August. My goal is as we go through the rest of the year, maybe we can latch on to one more lateral and we'll be right around that 72, maybe just one shy of it come January of next year when that six graduates and gets into our fold.

Okay, excellent. Good progress. Thank you for your diligence on that as well as bringing forward policy adjustments and compensation adjustments for the city commission to consider so that we can strengthen the attractiveness of our police department for both new recruits and laterals.

I appreciate that. I appreciate the support. I know our teams appreciate the support of the city commission and leadership in everything that we've done with building out the first floor, their compensation. But also, you know, I reflect back on when I started, not only is the team working on our recruitment, but our team within the police department, it's a heavy job to always have FTOs, always have someone in your car as a police officer. So I commend them for every day coming in and doing that training that they need to do to get our officers ready. Absolutely.

Thank you for that. And then could you speak to, I've had a number of conversations with our city manager as well, and so he might want to chime in. in this regard, and that's with regard to the staffing of our fire protection services. And so I was very happy that just recently we were able to bring aboard three new firefighters in these three new positions. That was a result of our successfully securing that Safer Grant last year, whereby we're splitting the cost. The federal government's picking up essentially two-thirds of that, and we're paying for the one-third for the next three years, and then we're going to have to pay full freight for that. And so it's moving in the right direction, We still have a ways to go, from my perspective, to get us to a more appropriate or staffing that's in alignment with what the National Fire Protection Association's recommendation is, and that's when we go out to the safer ground, it's meant to bring it in alignment with the FPA. And so some ways to go. And so I'm wondering if you can speak to why we're not pursuing that safer grant this year for additional firefighters. We can just weigh in on that perhaps.

If I may, and I am in communication with the city manager about this item, and the biggest thing is knowing coming into this fiscal year, this upcoming budget cycle, and looking at a possible, I think we were initially looking at a 1.5 in the red, it's pretty hard for me to push forward saying that we need to have another 130 available for another firefighter right now if we were awarded that safer grant. So is this trying to be fiscally responsible, number one? I think if we look at it, I think city manager and I have agreed we'll look at where we are with our revenues next year, and I've also talked to the team over at the fire department, so hopefully, we'll see, just that the numbers allow us to be able to put in for it next fiscal year. But again, the revenues have to be able to afford us that opportunity. We'd love to be able to get up to those standards, but I also, as I tell them, I don't want to be letting firefighters go in three years if we just don't have the funding once we come to full balance.

Absolutely. And could Mr. Manager, could you speak to how next year going for the Safer Grant and onboarding additional firefighters and that three-year cycle aligns with where our fiscal outlook is, particularly relative to our contributions to our defined benefit plans?

Absolutely. So one of the things with the Safer Grant application window is I believe it's like right now is the window, and then you find out later in the calendar year, and we brought our folks on in March of this year. And so what we're looking at is in two years, the amount of the grant reduces slightly, and then in three years you're paying full freight for everybody. So what we're looking at, you know, three years from now will be the plateau of the MERS payments, and then they'll start coming down. And if we go for the grant in the next cycle and the current predictions hold true, we'll be in a place where we'll have flexibility in the budget to carry the full freight of those three firefighters that we just brought on and plus the additional third that we were paying for the next three as those cycles continue to move forward. And as we look into two fiscal years out, And certainly three fiscal years out, the budget picture improves significantly, both with projected falling MERS obligations and modest revenue increases. But the MERS plateau and fall is really where the big flexibility comes in. So we just want to make sure, as the chief noted, that we're making the – the smart fiscal decision so that when we hire somebody, we can continue to keep them on the books, which is something that with the safer grant that they also ask about, is it your intent to keep these folks once the grant expires? And it definitely is our intent to do that. So we want to do that in the most responsible way while building up the cushion that Commissioner Kilgo talked about earlier on the capital side and within our fund balance side so that we can weather these type of storms like we are this fiscal year where there were changes to state contributions. There were some things that fell out of the revenue cycle this year that were unexpected. And the fund balance is allowing us to continue on with operations and status quo. So that's why it's important to keep that in a healthy spot.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Appreciate those insights as well. Thank you, Chief Kozol. So right now with those three new firefighters that were just onboarded, we're now at 30 or 31? 30. 30 firefighters on staff? Okay. All right.

One of the goals, and I apologize, Commissioner Kogel, one of the goals, and I talked to the team about it, I want to have a minimum of three. I know our standard is four for the NFPA. Okay. But I want to have a minimum of three, but I also want to have a couple extra because we need to keep affording our team to be able to take their time away. And just sticking at three I don't think allows us that flexibility. That's what cuts us a little bit short, and we have those two on those other apparatus. I appreciate the support that the city manager has for this endeavor and looking forward. But we don't just focus on NFPA standards. We're really digging into the weeds and starting to look at not only our call volume, but our call load. what is our response times for both of our divisions so we can really have that data to be able to bring to the commission when we start asking for those support for additional personnel.

Yeah, that's really important to have that data. And I also concur with you on the need to get to that minimum of three, and it being a hard minimum of three, not just we target for three, but then there's call-offs or sickness or vacations and whatnot that drops it down regularly. to two per engine, but getting a consistent minimum of three per engine, and on the road to getting to that four per engine, as the NFPA recommendation calls for. But that is important, and that leads me to my next piece, which isn't currently budgeted, but it is us pursuing a public safety assessment and strategic plan. And it's understanding what our capacities are now, what capacity we want and need, and understanding what's the ideal from a policing perspective, what's the ideal from a fire protection services perspective for a community of our size, for the dynamics of a community like ours, what specialty capacities or capabilities we might want or need for our community, and then developing a roadmap to get there, and understanding what the trade-offs would necessarily be if we wanted to get there sooner. Would we have to sacrifice this or that or the other to get there? Would we have to pursue a public safety millage? Would we need to, you know, look to three, four years from now? And if the MERS calculations, our actuaries are deliver as expected, you know, then we have more flexibility in our budget to be able to staff up. Because not only in the fire protection side where we're looking to add staffing, I think there's an interest to, once we hit that force complement, potentially add more police officers to our force complement as well. And so I think that public safety assessment and strategic plan would help guide us in that regard. And so it's not currently in the budget, and I was contemplating asking the Commission to stipulate a number for this budget, but I don't necessarily think we need to do that right this now. I'm going to continue to advocate for that unless Mr. Manager has a number, because I did mention it last night. I was like, hey, what's the number? But I think we could always revisit this and amend our budget to include this number as well.

Sure, and I think one thing I do want to point out that the Chief and Director Wills have been working to kind of do an internal assessment, and we have been working talking to a couple of different third party entities to try to get a number. The numbers are a little bit bigger than what we were expecting in some instances. So we're trying to figure out how to tailor that so that we could get a number to do something like that. Because I do know that it's something that the chief is is committed to as we look forward to understanding what what the needs of the department are um as you were talking about earlier and and as and as the chief was just talking about response times and things of that nature i want to take away from commissioner kilgore i know that he has some questions uh we we've already been meeting uh we have a work group between the police and fire myself and director wills and uh deputy director paulson and

and having conversations about what we can do together to try to develop data. And we're really digging into the weeds on that. I presented the budget and how we are in revenues. I want them to know the entire picture. I want both our divisions to know the entire picture on revenues so they have an understanding of why we're at where we're at. And then we can, I think, then look honestly at the data, at the call volume, at our call load. Call load, I think, is something we really got to look into hard, is that the amount of time that you're on that call, the amount of people that are available to take the next call. Those are the things that we're really going to start trying to analyze internally, and I think we have a pretty good work group put together to do that, and we've already met a handful of times. Looking forward to what we are able to get towards.

Excellent. Thank you, Chief Kozo. Commissioner Kildare.

Thank you. Just a couple of questions for you, Chief. Do you know what percentage or could you say what percentage of the public safety revenue is parking enforcement? Here's why I ask, right? How much is parking enforcement versus the rest of public safety revenue is parking? speeding tickets or violations type things? Those are two different buckets. Two different buckets. Yes. Okay. So, um, is it, I bring this up and ask because I agree with the mayor that a public safety strategic plan, I think would be good. I do want us fully staffed, but I also feel like we could, I understand that the officers don't like to do speed enforcement and stops because it takes them away from other calls that they might have to take but we need it we need more speed enforcement in the city even with orange cone construction season i hear every section of the city from the lake all the way to the east side speeder speeder speeder speeder deterrence are great speed signs and speed traps are great but I think it's time to start laying down the law and handing out some tickets to get people to slow down. That's also going to add to public safety revenue if we're handing out speeding tickets. So that could be part of the conversation for a strategic plan, but also add to the safety of Muskegon. So that's why I asked that question.

I think, if I may, I think we... We try to do our best with speed enforcement. I think I might have commented here before that we had some OHSP overtime, which is the state money from the Office of Highway Safety and Planning, and we were out there in force, and we did very well for about a month, but it's money that's available to the entire county. We try to use as much as we can, but it's dried up, and we have to wait until the next cycle to open up. That is our best avenue to be able to do this, because right now, When we have four or five on the street, it's very difficult for our officers to, let's be honest, to normally take a traffic stop to take them away from possibly backing up their partner. In a town of our size, with as large as we are at this time of year, they think about each other and each other's safety a little bit. Not trying to say they're turning their blind eye to violations, but this past weekend we had four on the night shift. We can't have that. We need to have our full complement up there at five, six, and seven. And I can tell you when we get up to there, that's when they feel comfortable to be able to do the stops, to be able to take care of business, to be able to handle our situations that we do have that pop up. Thank you.

This is all the more important why we want to get to that full complement that we're budgeting and consider potentially expanding that. So, thank you. Any, Commissioner, any other questions you might have for Chief Boesel? No? All right.

May I real quick? Yes. I would encourage the commission to ride, to ride along, especially on a weekend night when we have four or something like that, to be able to really see what happens between calls. What type of downtime do we have? What is our actual call load? I always recommend that the best time to do it is when you get a little taste of our white collar, which is our first shift, right? It ends at about 5 o'clock. And then our blue collar time, which is your 5 o'clock on, I like to say. So get a little split of that. I encourage everybody to ride, and not just ride once. Be out there. It gives a chance for the commissioners to talk to our citizens, too, when we're out there. So I encourage our commissions to take us up on that, and I will assist you with getting those ride-alongs.

Excellent. Thank you for reminding us of that opportunity. And so anyone who wants to avail themselves, just reach out to you directly then, Chief? Anyone that wishes to avail themselves of the opportunity, they should reach out to you directly to coordinate that? Yes, sir. Okay, excellent. Thank you, Chief. All right. Unless there's anything else, Commissioners? Roll call, please.

Commissioner Kilgore?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Keener? Yes. Commissioner German? Yes. Commissioner Jackson? Yes. Commissioner St. Clair? Yes. Mayor Johnson? Yes. Commissioner Passage?

Thank you. And thanks again, Mr. Manager, and all of our department heads and division leaders and all the staff for pulling together this budget. Much appreciated. Item I, contract for legal services. Commissioner Kilgore.

To approve the contract with Parmenter O'Toole PC for legal services through June 30th, 2031.

All right. We have a motion by Commissioner Kilgoss, voted by Commissioner St. Clair. Mr. Manager, are you reporting out on this?

Yes. So earlier this spring or late winter, we got a letter of engagement, which is an attachment here, sorry, back in February, from Parmenter regarding legal services, which outlined the hourly rates for attorneys through 2031. There is also some reference material regarding what other communities had just recently gone under contract for legal services for. At that February meeting, the commission directed me to bring forward a contract from Parmenter for legal services for the next five years. That would commence July 1, so this is just part of our annual time to do that type of stuff. So in the budget summary, or sorry, in the memo summary, it gives a summary of the hourly rates starting July 1st, which starts at $195 per hour through the end of June 2031, which would escalate to $210 over that time period, noting that the first two years, the hourly rates are the same. And just so everyone on the dais knows, a number of years ago, we started doing a retainer, so we pay $35,000 a month and then quarterly we do adjustments based on what the actual incurred costs were. This does have a termination option within it. Really, there's a 30-day notice in here that we would start a cure period, and then if the issue cannot be cured, then there would start the 30-day termination period. So, yeah, that is what we have before us.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Commissioner Kilgore? Thank you. Mr. Manager, you said in our February meeting we requested or we approved something?

You requested that I bring forward an agreement from Parmenter based on the letter of engagement that they provided in February.

Okay. Do you happen to remember, was that a consent item?

No, we talked about it.

I think you had a work session that we discussed. Oh, yeah, it was a work session.

Was that, because you were, I think you might have been asked on that one. I got married in February. It probably was the one I was going. How long are we currently contracted with Parmenter Tool? Five years.

So the, and this is an interesting quirk, I guess, for lack of a better term, is the most communities just do letters of engagement with their attorneys. Um, and it sets the rates out for a period of time. Uh, Muskegon at some point in time started doing contracts and they were for five year period. So it's for the same period of time, um, that, uh, that most would be for.

So, okay. Yep. Um, yeah, I mean, I'm comfortable, no offense. I think our men are, you all do a great job, but I do like that. There's the 30 day cure period. And, you know, just in case the, If the city ever wanted to go a different direction, that there's an out for them. But I guess because I was absent from that one meeting, I wasn't aware of this. So I just wanted to pull it up and get some clarification. So thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Kogel.

Commissioner St. Clair, support of the motion? Anything to ask or add?

No.

Commissioners over on this side, anything to ask or add? Yeah, I do have some.

Thank you, Mayor. I guess for city manager, how long has the city been partners with our mentor?

That goes back to the... It's in the letter. For 80 years. 80 years. Wow. That's a long time.

I knew it was over 50. Have we had any other interest parties or express interest?

No, because we didn't go out to bid. And so the... The tradition has been, and what in this case was that the current firm offers up, and that's not unusual for current firm just because of the nature of legal representation for municipalities. The consistency of the same law firm over time provides a lot of value to a community. You've got institutional knowledge. They have all of our records. If they need to go back and look something up, they have copies as well, and usually context. Mr. Schreier, who sat on this dais for many, many years, is still active at Parmenter, slightly less full-time than he was before, but we still benefit from his institutional knowledge and as well as other attorneys who work on our files. You see Attorney Gorman here at our meetings, but I can assure you that there are paralegals and other attorneys that Mr. Gorman leans on and that Mr. Schreier leaned on as well that have good context for us. So that institutional knowledge is something that's very hard to put a price on. Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you.

And at the same time, the rates that were... And the rates are... Highly competitive. Yes. But yes, that continuity and that institutional knowledge is important. But as Commissioner Kilgore noted, there is a cure period and opportunity to determine if we're no longer They're not living up to our expectations, and I'm not serving our community and city well enough. We could go in a different direction. The last time we renewed this contract, the county had just recently, at that time, put out to bid for their legal counsel. And so we were using that as a reference point, and we renewed the contract. That was, I think, five years ago. And the rates then were competitive with the bid process that the county had done. And what's been presented for this opportunity for renewal is also highly competitive, which we appreciate. And if we can save money and that still be effective, the better. Commissioner Jackson or Vice Mayor Keener, anything to ask for that?

Nope.

Okay. Roll call, please.

Vice Mayor Keener?

Yes.

Commissioner German?

Absolutely.

Commissioner Jackson? Yes. Commissioner St. Clair? Yes. Mayor Johnson? Yes. Commissioner Kilgore?

Yes.

Motion passes.

Thank you. That concludes our consent agenda. We don't have any unfinished business, no new business. Commissioners, anything for any other business? All right. Seeing none, we're going to go to general public comment. We've got a few forms here. And first up, we have Mark Flamone joining us from the Nims neighborhood. Good evening, sir. You have three minutes to provide your remarks.

I'm sure most of you have seen the social media post about Pub Pedal. And I think somebody's here to talk. I hope he's here. But if not, read it on social media. It's been an ongoing problem for many years. I happen to live on Lakeshore Drive, own properties on Lakeshore Drive in the business district, and it's a great charity fundraiser, but I think we're getting close to it being a tragedy coming in the near future because it's out of control. There was points toward the end of the event that you couldn't drive down Lakeshore Drive because of bicycles. I don't think there's a lot of planning going into it. There was insufficient or zero outhouses for probably 3,000 people in Lakeside alone. They were using behind buildings to go to the bathroom and do other personal hygiene things. We've had to clean up I Think there needs to be better planning by the organizer or this event probably shouldn't happen Especially when they're putting the city's name on it being that they got a Event permit for so please reach out to the businesses in the city that are not alcohol related and see how this event affected them because it did and And I'm sure you'll be getting a letter from the Lakeside Business Improvement District also talking about how bad this really was. So keep that in mind. Feel free to reach out to any business owners downtown Lakeside, get their opinion. I sat in two meetings in the past week that the business owners are not happy. So keep that in mind, and hopefully the organizers of this event can restructure it so it's a little safer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Flamond. Next up, we have Nathan Smith-Manley joining us from the Jackson Hill neighborhood. He'll be speaking on the same subject. Welcome, sir. You have up to three minutes to provide your remarks.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. My name is Nathan Smith-Manley. I am a Jackson Hills resident and a cyclist who regularly uses our roads and shared trails for transportation. First, I want to thank the City for the cycling improvement infrastructure that have been made in Muskegon, including Apple Avenue and Terra Street projects. These investments matter. They make cycling safer, more practical, and more visible as real transportation. I'm asking the City to review the Muskegon Pub Pedal and deny future Approvals unless it can be operated with a real public safety control. The records I received from the city show that this was not simply an informal private ride. The event paperwork listed the event site as the bike path from North Muskegon to Vikings or Dockers. It listed no private security. It requested no street closures. The records also included insurance documentation naming the city of Muskegon as an additional insured. Most importantly, the city manager review included a concern about the route, stating that the bike access from the roundabout out to Dockers is not very good and that there were concerns about this segment. That matters. The city's own record showed the public bike infrastructure part of the event site. No private security was listed, no street closures were requested, and a route safety concern was identified before the event. Since I raised this issue publicly, other residents have also described safety concerns, avoiding the route, riders falling, blocked sidewalks, conflicts with families and pedestrians, and concerns about riders moving unexpectedly near vehicles. Those are not just complaints about inconvenience. Those are warnings about foreseeable risk. I respect the charitable purpose of the event. Helping families is indeed good. Supporting businesses is good. But charity does not erase public responsibility. Other Muskegon events have defined areas, permits, traffic control, police presence, sanitation, insurance, and rules. If a puddle is allowed to use public streets, sidewalks, and shared trails, it should meet the same standards. At minimum, the city should require a permitted route, a known participant estimate, event insurance, designated bike parking, open sidewalks, traffic control where needed, police or trained marshals, clear rules for riders, and accountability for unsafe behavior. My request is simple. Review the city's promotion and approval of this event, review the use of public bike paths and right-of-ways, and do not allow the Muskegon Pub Pedal to continue in its current form without enforceable safety controls. Muskegon can support charity local businesses in cycling without allowing an alcohol-connected group cycling event to create unmanaged risk on public infrastructure. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Smith-Manley. Appreciate you joining us this evening. Next up, we have Jeanette Raquel. Raquel?

I would have had it lifted.

Welcome from the news neighborhood. Hi. You have up to three minutes to provide your remarks.

Jeanette Reckle, and I've been a full-time resident in Muskegon for 11 years. My parents are full-time here on Beach Street at 1430 Beach Street from 2000 to 2021. They sold it to another gentleman who uses it as a rental. It's completely different from that. I come down to the lake every day, and approximately May 14th, I was driving by the property, and there was a sidewalk that I've now found out has been put in there for ADA from the street to the right middle of the front of 1426. And I did my due diligence, and I spoke to the city engineer who also forwarded me to the deputy city manager, Leanne Misko, who said that they had to put it in for ADA, but I would like to have somebody go down there and look to where it's at because she said that it was for the bus that's going to go down there once an hour all summer long and drop off on the east side of the street for them to cross over to go to the park and go to the lake, but there's no There's no sidewalk that's marked. It's right in front of a curb. It's like literally right in the middle of the lot instead of on a property line or down about eight houses there where it could be attached to the city park instead of right there. My sister owns that empty lot right there at 1426 and had intended on at some point building Has the plans and everything hasn't submitted them yet did it three years ago But if that was gonna stay in there that would definitely detour Because she would have to redesign otherwise all summer long She's gonna watch people come in and off the bus there But if you could take I mean I've got a bunch of pictures if you just have someone go down there Which I've requested go down there take a look. I mean, there's there's not even a sign or a marking on the street, so if If that's supposed to be ADA compliant and that bus stops or drop off somebody in a wheelchair, they can't even get across the street. I mean, they have to, I mean, there's no place. They'd have to go kitty corner and there's a huge curb. So I think it's, you're opening up yourself for an issue from the public, let alone the owner of your property. I don't know what else to do. I mean, like I said, I've talked to Leanne twice, and there wasn't much budging in that, and I don't know what else to do. So at least send someone down there, because my solution would be to leave those people that would be dropped off on the bus, and then when they come back around and drop them off where they have it in the park area, because it's safer. I mean, why drive somebody up in a wheelchair on that side? You can't get across.

Thank you, Ms. Reckle. Thank you. Appreciate you joining us this evening and sharing your perspective. And I see your city manager jotting down some notes on the situation. All right. I've got a couple of more forms. Mr. Rooks, would you still like to speak? All right. Mr. Rooks, if you'd like to kindly come up to the podium, introduce yourself, and thank you for joining us from Norton Shores by way of downtown with Parkman Properties.

Thank you for letting me speak. I was going to leave when you said it was off the agenda, but I'm pretty passionate about it, and I thought of a few comments that I didn't include in the letter that I submitted earlier, only an hour before the meeting. I'm John Rooks, 920 Washington Street. At the Shaw Walker building is our office now. Thank you, Mayor Johnson, City of Muskegon commissioners, and city staff. The reason we're here is because we are the owners of the Delta by Marriott and the Shoreline Inn. We're also the private partner that developed the Van Dyke Mortgage Convention Center with the city and the county of Muskegon as a three-way partnership. We're writing regarding the proposed expansion of Rad Dad's Taco and Tequila Bar. I'm assuming that'll be at your next meeting, but you're going to be working on potential revisions to the plan in between now and then so I just wanted to say we are very supportive of rad dads and their success and their continued growth in Muskegon We believe another rooftop bar would be well received and are generally in favor of the approximate 4,000 square feet of space that's added above the existing patio of the arena That's the area between the arena building and the sidewalk on Western Avenue and being considered for this potential use. What we're not supportive of is any expansion of the bar that blocks the view of the convention center from Western Avenue and encroaches into the convention center plaza that's used in conjunction with the convention center both for entry and for events. or encroaches into managed areas of the convention center that were funded, improved, or are being maintained by the convention center financing. It's actually easy. There's 75% of what they're proposing that's between Western Avenue and the arena. The other 25% is the 1,500 square feet that blocks the entrance to the convention center. 4,000 of it doesn't block it. So basically 75% of it seems logical and fine, does not intrude on the convention center. You could actually go up higher if you wanted. You could go to the top of the building and have it three stories, and then you'd actually have a view of the lake. So there's solutions, I think. But typically, cities consider their convention centers one of their most prized public assets. The convention center is a project that was funded by a municipal bond that's paid for. by that bond, and it's not subsidized by any other taxes, DDA, or grants. So we have been funding that by increasing the room tax on our buildings and our hotel rooms, and then also we donated half the land under the Convention Center. So I've submitted the letter with all the details. I created an image, and you've got it in front of you. So thanks for letting me speak.

Thank you, Mr. Oaks. Appreciate you joining us this evening. Next up, Bob Lukens, joining us from the City of Northern Shores by way of downtown. As our, well, you can share your title.

Good work, Mr. Lukens. Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. Thank you. I'm Bob Lukens, Community Development Director for the County of Muskegon and Director of Visit Muskegon, the Convention and Visitors Bureau for the County. And I'm here to speak on Rad Dad's proposal also. to develop a deck and expand the restaurant's footprint onto the concourse of the Van Dyke Mortgage Convention Center. The proposed expansion will constrict pedestrian access to the Convention Center, block the view of the main entrance, and impede vehicular access to the Convention Center and Legend's service road and parking area. It would also have an impact on visibility at the 4th and Western intersection, and that should be a concern for the City Commission. But most importantly, the concourse was an integral part of the design of the Convention Center. The Convention Center is funded, as Mr. Rook said, with PA 59 and PA 263 lodging assessments and taxes, and that funding is specifically allocated for the Convention Center, not the expansion of a restaurant onto the convention center property. I'm in support of restaurants and building the business community and restaurant community here in downtown Muskegon, but the convention center is a very important part of our attraction as a destination here in the city of Muskegon and Muskegon County. I think a better solution would be to extend the deck along the east wall of the current arena building. and then extend it along the railing at Rad Dads. This would still allow for a good view of the convention center and access to the entrance, the main entrance of the convention center. It would provide for a large deck for the restaurant while maintaining that pedestrian vehicular access to the convention center itself and the service road. and it would maintain the integrity of the original Convention Center entrance design. I just urge you to take a closer look at this, and I'll be back when you consider it again. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Lukens. Appreciate you joining us this evening and sharing your perspective. Is there anyone else in the audience that wishes to give public comment at this time? All right, seeing no takers, we're going to go to the phones. That phone number is 231-724-6721. This is an opportunity to phone in your public comments on any items you wish to share with the City Commission. Turn down any audio in the background, state your name, and if you're a City of Muskegon resident, which neighborhood you're calling from, and if you're not a City resident, which other township, village, or city. And it looks like we have our first caller. Good evening, you're with the Muskegon City Commission.

Hi, this is Brian from Ward 4. Last night, I encouraged the Commission to consider a draft standard operating procedure the clerk's office could deploy to broadcast and record all public meetings. Currently, 71% of our meetings are only accessible to those who can attend at the precise meeting time, either in person or via Zoom. Because most meetings are not recorded, Residents facing barriers to real-time attendance have no way to stay informed or participate meaningfully in city business. Before the commission entered closed session last night, Commissioner Kilgore made the following statement.

The city of Muskegon goes above and beyond what's implied with Open Meetings Act. Every meeting where we have a quorum of the city commission, those ones are broadcast live. Our other subcommittees meetings do not have a quorum of the city commission. They may have a commissioner or two or the mayor placed on those subcommittees.

In response, while Open Meetings Act compliance is important, the main goal is giving residents broader access to public meeting information. When I cannot attend live, I use the YouTube recordings to understand the discussion and prepare input for future meetings. This option does not exist for the 71% of meetings that are not broadcast or recorded. Commissioner Kilgore stated that all meetings with a quorum are broadcast and recorded. This is not accurate. In the final week of May, three meetings with all seven commissioners present were not broadcast or recorded. The special meetings on May 29th and 30th and the Legislative Policy Committee meeting on May 27th. Legislative Policy Committee minutes from recent years show this meeting consistently has a quorum of city commissioners. I attended the May 27th meeting where all seven commissioners discussed federal funding for the deepwater port of Fisherman's Landing, solutions for our unhoused population, whether to support moving the USS Silversides downtown, and other meaningful items. I disagree with Commissioner Kilgore's statement, but agree with his sentiment that at bare minimum, every meeting with a quorum should be broadcast and recorded, including every legislative policy committee meeting. Even meetings without a full quorum contain valuable discussion complete archive would benefit future commissioners. Last year, in her campaign for re-election, Commissioner St. Clair noted it took a good portion of her first term to overcome the learning curve every new commissioner faces. Public meeting recordings would give freshman commissioners an incredible knowledge base to overcome that curve and provide better representation from day one. Thank you for considering these ideas. I hope a commissioner among you will champion the initiative to broadcast and record all public meetings. Thank you.

Thank you for your phone and comments. Appreciate the suggestions. Do we have any other? I didn't hear anyone else trying to call in during the time. We'll give it a few more moments. Again, the phone number is 231-724-6721. It's an opportunity to give input directly to the City Commission for up to three minutes. It does not sound like we have any more takers of phone comments. We did get one more form though for in person comments. So I'd like to welcome up Dr. Rainey Starr joining us from the city of Northern Shores by way of the McLaughlin neighborhood.

Ask, I only have three minutes. Dear City of Muskegon Commission, according to our insurance company, the City of Muskegon received $131,250 of our insurance proceeds under the Michigan Fire Insurance Withholding Program. Although I requested policies and procedures, On May 26, 2026, to date, I have received no notice of the city's request for those funds, no copy of any mailing, no statutory 10-day notice to object, and no explanation of why the licensed contractor's exception was not applied to our organization. According to the Michigan Fire Insurance Withholding Program, losses caused by the perils referenced must also meet the following guidelines of the program. Damages exceeds 49% of insurance on the real property and the property is located within the boundaries of a municipality that is participating in the program and the insurance company has no evidence that the insured has hired a licensed contractor for repairs to the property within 15 days after agreement on final settlement. We are licensed contractors and we have contract with Open Gates of Grace. I am requesting immediate disclosure of all records showing the city's compliance with the statutory requirements and the legal basis for withholding our funds. I, Dr. Renee Starr, pastor and executive director of Open Gates of Grace Ministries, am also serving on public notice that I object to the withholding of our funds of $131,250 to the City of Muskegon Fire Insurance Withholding Program. I am giving you my objection now, even though I have received no written right for that objection at this point. Open Gates of Grace Ministries is an active Michigan nonprofit religious organization 501c3 entity that is actively engaged in reconstruction, rebuilding, restoration, and continued community service operations. The property is not abandoned and reconstruction efforts are ongoing. All fire damage will be cleaned and repaired by Friday, June 13th.

Thank you. Appreciate you joining us this evening and sharing that input with us.

I have also provided a FOIA If I need to put the FOIA on the form, could you let me know? City Clerk, do I need to put it on the form or I can legally give you the FOIA on the back of it?

Yeah, please confer with the City Clerk's office. Anyone else in the audience wish to give public comment at this time? Did not sound like we have any additional callers either. Oh, yes. Welcome, sir. If you could introduce yourself.

I'm Nathaniel Williams. I've been living here for about a year and a half from Grand Rapids. I just wanted to bring something to the attention. I'm reminded by the youth or the community development block grant funding that was allocated toward the youth in Muskegon. I had an idea, and I was thinking about the vendors that could potentially serve in the soccer or volleyball industry. that they'll be having at the beach. And I recall you talk, Mayor Ken, talking about we don't have a lot of vendors that's beating down the doors or trying to, you know, become vendors or, in a sense. I'm hoping, I reached out to Kyle in the Public Works Department to see Is there any way or anyone trying to reach out to the local food vendors who may be able to serve in that capacity at those events? I do know that that's a person who's got a permit for that event. And so hopefully, Muskegon can possibly take advantage of that opportunity to secure funding for their youth. That's not something you probably can enforce on the person who's having the volleyball or soccer this summer. But that may be something that we can bring up to them to set aside funding for it or also to be inclusive for those individuals who may want to be a vendor, a food vendor at that event at the beach. So yeah, I did stop at the office in the Public Works Department and They was also willing to make adjustments if they had to for those fees to become a vendor. There are $1,000. So hopefully that's something that can become equitable in a more streamlined process as someone helps to guide them in that process. That's just something I wanted to bring to the attention. All right, thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate you joining us this evening and sharing that with us. Anyone else in the audience? Nope. Doesn't sound like any additional phone calls. So that wraps up our public comment. Commissioner Kilgore?

Yeah, just a couple of things I'd like to say. First of all, the Pride events from last weekend went off great. And to the organizers of those events, thank you. Coming up on June 19th, there will be a festival and a parade from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the festival will be held at Heritage Landing, and the Black Business Expo is June 21st at the Muskegon Farmer's Market. Please make sure to check out, everyone is definitely invited to all of those events. And other events, Taste Muskegon is also coming up here in the month of June, so please take advantage of all the wonderful events we have in the city of Muskegon. And we do have a beautiful entrance to the convention center. I encourage those front doors to be unlocked for more events because they're always closed and you've got to go through the hotel. But I understand why they're closed sometimes. But, yeah, I just wanted to share a couple of notes about those upcoming events here in the city of Muskegon.

Thank you, Commissioner Kugel. Can I indicate a motion to adjourn? Support. We have a motion by Commissioner St. Clair, supported by Commissioner Kugel to adjourn. All in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. We are adjourned.

Thank you.

Take care and be well.