City Council - Regular Meeting

With liberty and justice for all.

City Clerk Norris, would you call the roll? Yes. Mayor McClellan. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Edgar. Here. Council Member Radner.

Here.

Council Member Crawford. Here. Council Member Berman.

Here.

Is there a motion to approve the agenda? So moved.

Second.

All those in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carried. Thank you. Item five on the agenda is administering the oath of office to our newest council member, Rebecca Berman. So what our city clerk, Ed Norris.

Should we, do we want to, we want to stand up and go around and you're going to do it? All of council? Council members, what I would, okay, what I would recommend is we come down off and then you guys are in for a picture, but we get off the dice while we're doing it.

Come down. Yep. Photo op.

Mm-hmm. Anybody ready? Okay.

I, take your name, do solemnly affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Michigan, the Charter of the City of Will Park, and I will endeavor to secure and maintain an honest and efficient administration of the affairs of the city of Elkhart, free from partisan control or distinction, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of councilman of the city of Elkhart to the best of my ability.

Thank you.

You're the focus, so let's scoot you this way a little bit and you're centered.

two over here two over here but you're centered and you on this side are going to be like this and vice versa on this side or you i'll be on the next one

I was the only one standing in the right place.

All right, here we go, everybody, right here.

Good smiles. Hold it. All right. Can we get one for Paris? Yeah. Okay, smile. We'll take an organizational photo. So council and the city manager. Is this where you sit and we stand around you? That's right. Because I'm the queen.

Right, that's right.

Yes, you are. Are we doing this now? I don't know. Are we lining up like how we sit or balancing? We're balancing. Are we doing the picture now?

Yeah.

Can we move those chairs out of the shot? Because this is our organizational. The only person who gets to sit is the mayor. Anything visible on the camera. No, hold the hammer.

Swing it. You see, hold in the gap. What do you push that like down?

Stay one. Is that good? Benny, get some of them without me. Don't, don't. We can do just counting now. Is that good, Ben? Okay, everybody hold that.

Here we go.

Hold it. Hold it.

And then city manager.

As long as I don't have to stand next to Council Member Ratner, I'm good.

Okay, here we go, everybody.

All right, good smiles. Okay, one more. All right, see you.

Okay, here we go.

I think you, last time, you were behind.

Behind? Oh, there you go. Yeah, that makes sense. All right, right behind her.

Here we go. All right, here we go. Give her a smile. And we try one more. Here we go. And we get one more on the phone. Okay, here we go. Just smile. All right. And last time y'all did something silly.

No. All right. Thank you.

All right.

All right.

Next item on the agenda is our consent agenda. These are routine items presented for approval without discussion. Any council member can ask for an item to be dropped from the blanket motion and considered separately. A, regular city council meeting minutes for July 6th, 2026. B, payment request from Newman Smith Architecture for architectural services on the Event Hub project for the total amount of $2,461.00. C, payment request from the 8 Mile Boulevard Association for the Greenfield Gateway project in the amount of $10,000. D, payment request from Newman Smith Architecture for services on the Community Center project for the total amount of $279,518.82. E, approval of invoice number seven from Giffles Webster for master planning services in the total amount of $5,823.75. Request to renew the smart municipal credit and community credit contract for fiscal year 2027. Request to approve payment application number nine, final, for the 2025 block pruning project to Lim Walker's Tree and Snow LLC of Kennecke, Michigan, in the amount of $1,275. H, new and renewal licenses for July 20th, 2026. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carried. Item seven is recognition of visiting elected officials. Seeing none, we will move to item eight, special recognition and presentations for Father Paul F. Chateau, who has been our favorite resident. You're not supposed to have a favorite. he's the best he is just wonderful accepting warm helpful and humorous we all need a good laugh and if you go into father paul's office you will find yourself giggling at his plaques um Misbehaving children will be given a puppy and a cup of coffee is one of them, and so on. And if anyone needs help in the city of Oak Park, for the last... many decades, they go to Father Paul. So we are delighted to have him remain as a resident in the city of Oak Park after his service to the church. And we know he's going to find lots to do because that's the kind of guy he is. We have a plaque. for Father Paul, which I can read, a proclamation, whereas the city of Oak Park proudly recognizes individuals whose lifelong dedication strengthens the fabric of our community. Amen. And whereas the Reverend Paul F. Chateau has faithfully served as pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Church for more than 50 years, offering spiritual leadership, pastoral care, and unwavering commitment to the people of Oak Park. And whereas through his decades of ministry, Reverend Chateau has guided generations of families, celebrating their joys, supporting them in times of sorrow, fostering a spirit of compassion, unity, and hope. and whereas his leadership is extended beyond the parish enriching the wider oak park community through outreach service and a steadfast dedication to the common good and whereas the city of oak park wishes to honor reverend chateau's extraordinary five-decade legacy of faith service and love for the people he has shepherded for more than half a century Now, therefore, be it resolved, the Mayor and City Council of the City of Oak Park, Michigan, do proclaim their profound gratitude to Reverend Paul F. Chateau for his more than 50 years of devoted service to the Church and to the community of Oak Park and extend their heartfelt appreciation and best wishes upon his retirement as he enters this new chapter of life. In testimony whereof, I have signed my name, cause the seal of the city of Oak Park, Michigan to be affixed this first day of June, 2026, which was the date that he celebrated his last mass. So a round of applause. Picture with counsel. Picture with counsel. Photo up, everybody. Get your steps in.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Item 9 on the agenda is accounting reports. A, approval for payment of invoices submitted by Garen Luca Miller, PC, for legal services in the amount of $16,757.51. Is there a motion to approve payment? So moved. Second. Thank you. Discussion? Roll call, please.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Motion carried. Thank you. B approval for payment of invoices submitted by just a Kaplan for legal services in the amount of $6,500. Is there a motion to approve? So moved.

Second.

Discussion. Roll call vote, please.

Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Edgar? Yes. Mayor McClellan? Yes. Council Member Radner? Yes. Council Member Berman?

Yes.

Motion carried. Thank you. Item 10 is the city attorney. And we get our old friend Ebony Duff back tonight. Welcome back.

Thank you so very much.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. It's great to be back. We do not have any appeals this evening. Thank you. Thank you.

Item 11 is City Manager Eric Tungate. Madam Mayor. Yes. I just wanted to ask about an invoice.

I think, have we already approved the Garrett Locale statement?

Yes.

Okay, so it indicates that this was for a case, litigation, City of Oak Park versus Janice Dent, et cetera. Can we get a little summary of that case?

I'm sorry, Council Member Edgar, which case is that you're referring to?

This is the Oak Park v. Janice Dent, Robin Dent, Ada Anderson, and Sharon Dent.

I'll tell you, I'm not familiar with the status at this point, but I can provide you with the report after this meeting.

I was curious because it does have the name of the case on it, as does the next invoice. That's Linda Dunwoody and Deshaun Williams versus City of Oak Park. and Mayor McAuliffe. What was that about?

We will hear very soon.

Okay.

Thank you. City Manager Tunge.

If I could, Madam Mayor, just to speak to that. So almost I don't want to give the wrong impression to our residents. So the city has at any given time an entity of this size is going to have certain number of lawsuits for whatever reason the mayor and myself get named in every single one of them so not abnormal okay I want to talk director Cooper if you could join me at the podium I don't think you can hear me but we're gonna talk about the public safety millage renewals and I there is a graphic I've asked our communications staff to put up on the screen Okay, so before we talk a little bit about the details, I do want to remind everyone, and this information is on our website and on our social media channels. We did host our first City Manager Town Hall Q&A.

Oh, South Alton.

TODAY FROM 5 TO 6. AND THIS IS TO DISCUSS THE TWO PUBLIC SAFETY MILLAGE REQUESTS THAT WILL BE ON THE BALLOT FOR THE PRIMARY ELECTION. OUR DIRECTOR OF ELECTIONS IS HERE AND WE'LL BE TALKING ABOUT THAT AND JUST THE ELECTION ITSELF IN JUST A MOMENT. BUT I DO WANT TO POINT OUT WE'LL BE HAVING A TOTAL OF FIVE OF THESE. THE NEXT ONE WILL BE THURSDAY, JULY 23RD. from 9 to 2 p.m. and that will be taking place running in conjunction with the Farmers Market in the Event Hub. The one after that will be Sunday, July 26 from 1 to 4 and that will be occurring simultaneous with our Touch a Truck event, which will be occurring at Public Safety. from one to four. The next one will be Wednesday, July 29th from 11 a.m. to noon right here at the Event Hub. And I'll be hosting that one. And then the last one will be Thursday, July 30th from nine a.m. to two. And again, that will run in conjunction with the Farmers Market in the Event Hub. As far as the requests, we talked about this at the town hall earlier today as well. The two ballot initiatives, Director Cooper is here to talk a little bit more about them, but I want to make sure that, I want to stress that these are not increases in our residence taxes. These are straight renewals. These are not increasing their taxes. Both of the millage requests are public safety millages. Director Cooper, do you want to talk a little bit more about the renewal, the first one, which is ballot number 2026-01, which is a renewal of a millage to fund the public safety retirement system, otherwise known as Public Act 345? All right.

First, like I did earlier, I want to thank the council. Is that on? Yeah, it's on. Can you hear me? I'm talking with my voice. I wanted to thank our residents, most of all. They've always supported our Public Safety Department through thick and thin. The two millages are obviously critical for the continued operation of our Public Safety Department at our optimal levels that we've been functioning for decades. Obviously, I don't have the liberty to tell residents how to vote, but I just want to make sure that they understand that Their support is critical with both of those millages. The first one, as the boss had alluded to, is the 345, which obviously provides funding for retiree health care and some other benefits that allows the general fund to be freed up to support some of the critical infrastructure and things that our public safety department needs. Mainly staffing levels are at an all-time high. We have managed to kind of dig ourselves out of a hole. In 2012, we went from 57 officers to 42, and we started to climb out of that hole. We're now at 58 officers, and our budget manpower strength is actually 61, which is a significant increase from where we have come from. So...

flip it back over to you boss and then maybe yeah i just just want to piggyback on some of that so again i want to stress and i said this literally 100 times in the town hall earlier today this is not a tax increase it is a straight renewal and so public act 345 the first ballot initiative is a straight renewal of seven mills limited to seven years I will tell you that a lot of other communities around us have Public Act 345 in place, and they have put it on their ballot as an unlimited resource to their city, whereas our council here has put it on as a limit to seven mills to seven years, which is why we're coming back to our residents and asking them to renew this. Someone asked this earlier in the town hall, Director, and maybe you can comment on this too, but they asked me what would happen if it didn't pass. And I know there's someone going around telling people not to vote for this. If they didn't vote for this, and I'm not telling you how to vote, but I'm just telling you the facts, if either one of these ballot initiatives did not pass, it would be catastrophic to the city's finances. Seven mills represents about $5.6 million to our Public Safety Department that if we did not have through that millage, or the other one, about one mill, We would literally have to cut, we wouldn't cut public safety services. That'd be our last thing. That's our top priority, of course. We have to cut all of the other city services. So it would be catastrophic to the city if it didn't pass. And the same goes for the other one, which is a public ballot proposal number 2026-02, renewal of our partial Headlee override millage for public safety purposes. This one is a direct operations millage, and the millage rate would be 0.9850, so just less than one mil And this one would run for 10 years. And so we were just 10 years ago, we were sitting here talking about it again. This one doesn't actually kick in until 2028, by the way. The other one would kick in in the summer bill, summer tax bill of 2027. And I think, Director Cooper, just one more thing. You know, I think if either one of these did not pass, what would that be for your department? I mean, you've heard my opinion, but give me yours.

Yeah, I mean, literally, I think you're probably being a little bit kind when you're trying to say that you'd have to cut other departments to the bone. There's no way you're going to make up that kind of funding without chopping into your public safety department and staff. We're the largest department here in the city. We provide three services, police, fire, and EMS. And obviously, when you provide three services like that, it's costly to run an operation. But in saying that, one thing that you have to keep in mind is that if you go to a... Other silly cities or townships that have separate police fire and EMS services. I guarantee you that the Funding to operate those cities are would would double when you're just looking at paying a police officer a firefighter salary need don't even start talking about Retirements and retiree health care and those things so, you know, it would be it would be it would be devastating like I said There's various pieces of equipment that we have to purchase. Two years ago, we just purchased, the city authorized us to purchase a ladder truck, which was over a million dollars, came in probably about 1.3 million. And at that time, when we purchased that truck, we actually needed two. So we're finally able to city council was able to, with the city manager, we were able to approve the second truck, which is coming in probably just under a million dollars. And that's, those are just two vehicles that we have. We have patrol vehicles that we operate 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, you know, uh, seven days a week, so those cars are running nonstop. There's firefighting equipment that we have to have as far as the protective outer garments that we have to use when we go in and fight fires. The vehicles have to be equipped with computers and radar detectors, and there's just, it's an endless amount of equipment and equipment that you just have to have just to operate. Obviously, the city council and the city manager has always made public safety a top priority as it relates to providing, when it comes to the budget and providing services for the city, and that's much appreciated. And like I said, I stand here just extremely gracious to our residents, like I say, I said it earlier, we got the best residents anywhere in the country. They've always supported us, not only financially, but in every effort or every way that they can, and that does not go unnoticed.

And I want to, if I could, Director, I just want to piggyback on some of that, and I want to just make a couple other statements, and then we can move to the next item on our agenda. You know, people wonder, people ask why we're funding pensions and retiree health care, and I want to address that. Our public safety department is not unlike others, where it's a mostly union environment. And in those union collective bargain agreements, they have negotiated over the last umpteen years for certain benefits. And those benefits are mandatory. Those are not optional. We're not overpaying. It's not the glamorous government gig I think people make it out to be. But I do want to say, as far as our public safety department goes, I can say this because I've worked in many other communities and been other places. I think our residents generally know this, but I think it's worth saying again. we have, in my opinion, the best public safety officers and department in the entire state of Michigan. And because we have that standard, we have to maintain, in order to maintain that standard, funding is necessary to do that. And just like some of the most recent things that we've seen in terms of crimes in our community, people outside of our community, when they come into our community, I want them to know that if you come into Oak Park and you attempt to commit a crime, we will find you and you will be prosecuted. And these folks have the best resources and are the most adept officers in the entire state of Michigan out here doing that. And you know what? That means something. There's a value to that, not only for the well-being of our residents, but also for attracting new businesses, maintaining our credit rating, our fire rating, which, by the way, plays into homeowners insurance rates, et cetera. And I would just very much hate to see that being knocked down. And if anything, again, we've done a heck of a lot with a lot less since the Great Recession. And it's all thanks to you guys and your hard work.

No, we appreciate it. Again, like I said, we appreciate the support from the community and from this council. And I echo the sentiments that you just mentioned, boss. Like I said, it's an honor and pleasure to serve the residents here and you wanna make sure that you provide the level of service that they're accustomed to and that we'll continue to do that. Like I said, we've had a number of retirements and we have a lot of new officers that have staffed the department since then and they have stepped right in and have not missed a beat as far as the level of service that this community expects. They have been lockstep with this administration and it's much appreciated. and we won't compromise those standards for anyone. So just want to thank council, want to thank you again, and don't worry, like I said, I consider it an honor to serve as a director, and as long as that I'm in a position, and we'll continue to give you everything we've gotten in some, so thank you.

thank you so much okay um we're going to move on to uh 11 a 2 which is city council member appointments to boards and commissions madam mayor i'm going to turn it over to you on this one thank you uh we have um we rearranged some of our uh council member assignments uh council member is appointed to each of the board's commissions I am appointed to the Planning Commission, the Employees Retirement System, the Public Safety Retirement System. I also go to Oak Park Youth Assistance Meetings and South Oakland County Mayor's Association Meetings and 8 Mile Boulevard Association Meetings. Councilmember, nope, this is Mayor Pro Tem Julie Edgar, Parks and Recreation, Corridor Improvement Authority, and Traffic Safety Board. Council Member Solomon Radner, Public Safety Retirement System and Library Board. Council Member Stephanie Crawford, Planning Commission, Juneteenth Commission, Arts and Cultural Diversity Commission. Councilmember Rebecca Berman, Beautification Commission, Recycling and Environmental Conservation, and the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority as needed. These are the new council appointments to boards and commissions, and we look forward to attending your meetings. We need a motion to accept these council appointments. So moved. Second. Second. Any discussion?

Yes. Just listed on the appointments, they had planning under, if you look under mine, second Monday, but isn't it always first Monday, correct? Say it again. that planning listed a second Monday, but it's always for the record that to be changed. Thank you.

Also, we're going to change mayor pro tems. Yeah, title on it.

We missed out. Sorry about that. And it should be mayor pro tem. Pro Tem will fix the typos. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carried. Thank you.

OK, we have 11B1. We have our director of elections, our deputy city clerk and director of elections, JoLynn Williams, is here to talk about the August 4th, 2026 state primary election. Good evening.

Good evening, everyone. I want to remind or inform some that there will be a state primary held August 4th, which is fast approaching. And you don't have to wait to cast your ballot until that date. You can actually visit our early voting center which will open this saturday which is august 25th and it will run until august 2nd that is the sunday before election each day the early voting center is going to be open from 8 30 to 4 30 with the exception of the thursday before election that that date That timeframe will go from 12 until eight. So Thursday is a late night for some people who work late. Thursday is a day for you if you want to take advantage of early voting. But our early voting will be held in our city, community center, which is located at 14 300 Oak Park Boulevard. So again, I want everyone to know that that is an option. You can vote at our early voting center starting this Saturday. However, absentee ballots have been mailed And that is still an option as well, so you can take advantage of voting absentee. You can send your request to the Dropbox or in person here at the city clerk's office, and we will give you a ballot in person here if that's what you would like. So absentee voting is an option until August 3rd. If you wait until August 3rd, however, you have to vote your ballot on-site. If you wait the day before the election, you cannot take your ballot with you. Also, I want to update or let everyone know, especially for precincts six and precincts three, there are temporary polling location changes. So precinct three normally votes at Pepper Elementary School. However, for this election, they will vote at our community center. I did send out mailings that let voters know. However, I got a bunch back, returned mail. So I want to make sure everyone is aware that if you vote at precinct three, excuse me, that your polling location for this election only will be at the community center also for precinct six voters that's normally at einstein elementary school but for this election they will vote at oak park high school and that is across the street here and the address is 13701 oak park boulevard so again there were mailers sent to voters in those particular precincts also this information is available online Also, I mentioned absentee voting. If you have an absentee ballot, we sent out over 7,000. We do have about 24% back. So don't delay. Get your absentee ballot turned back in today. All right. So thank you so much.

I have a question.

Yes.

Yes. If that's okay with you, Madam Mayor.

Of course.

So if let's say somebody is going to be turning 18 sometime within the next week, but before August 4th, what should they do?

they can actually come register to vote in person. So starting tomorrow, if somebody wants to register to vote, they have to do so in person here at City Hall. So they have to bring their proof of residency as well.

So as long as they- Proof of residency meaning a A driver's license?

It could be a driver's license, state ID. If they don't have that with their current address, if they have a utility bill, something that just proves that they live at the Oak Park address, that would be considered proof of residency.

So when my son turns 18 on Thursday, he should register to vote?

Yes, and he doesn't have to wait until he turns 18. He can register now. It's called pre-registration, but it won't be effective until he turns 18.

It'll be more fun if we do it on his 18th birthday. I agree.

But that is an option to do before then.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, JoLynn. Okay, we've got 11C1. We have our Deputy Director of Municipal Services, Dan Fairless is here. Hi, Dan.

Hello, thank you, Mayor, Councilmember, City Manager. This item before you this evening is a request to approve Pay application number four and change order number one to Mearswell Construction Company of Pontiac, Michigan for the multi-campus buildings demolition project M796 in the amount of $67,189.89 and $25,692.10 respectively. Provided before you and attached is the proposed pay application number four and proposed change order number one for the multi-campus building demolition project M796 by Mearsworth Construction Company of Pontiac, Michigan. This project includes demolition of multiple city complex buildings and amenities to prepare for the new community center project pursuant to the enclosed demolition map. Change order number one is related to unforeseen field conditions, which was extra concrete footings and extra asphalt material. that were unforeseen under the ice arena area and were not shown on any historical plans or were not prepared for.

Dan, can I just ask you to elaborate a little bit more on that because it was, council members, this asphalt slab that we're talking about, correct me if I'm wrong, was literally underneath the old foundation.

Yes, it was underneath. The old ice rink was an exterior ice rink. And it was on top of an asphalt parking lot. And there was parking around the ice arena or ice rink. And they built the arena around that and left the asphalt remaining. So it was unforeseen. And it would have been built in the 1940s or so. Sometime before 1962, I believe, we had pictures of it.

Where's the new ice arena going to be?

If you drive up to Rochester Road and Big Beaver, you'll notice one.

That's how cold it gets outside.

You need to start carrying those posters around with me. So I would also like to mention that this project is approximately 95% complete. So with that, it is recommended by the Municipal Services Department that pay application number four and change order number one for the Multiple Campus Building Demolition Project M796 by Mearswood Construction Company of Pontiac, Michigan be approved for the amount of $67,189.89 and $25,692.10 respectively. Funding is available in the community center construction fund for this.

Okay, we need a motion to approve the pay application and change order. So moved.

Second. And then a question.

Discussion or questions?

I just had a quick question. So the additional... Council Member Crawford. Thank you. The additional concrete from the ice arena, was that the one around 14,000-ish?

Actually, I'm sorry, Council Member. The additional asphalt that was found under the ice arena was an additional amount of... $14,817. Okay.

Thank you. Any other comments or questions? I do have a question. Mayor Pro Tem.

When was the ice arena enclosed?

We believe it was around 1967. I'm sorry, I have to defer to the indoor one of the outdoor one. The previous outdoor ice rink when it was enclosed was probably around 1967. Sounds right.

Thank you.

A long time ago.

Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any further questions?

Roll call, please. Mayor Pro Tem Edgar. Yes. Mayor McClellan. Yes. Council Member Radner. Yes. Council Member Berman. Yes. Council Member Crawford.

Yes. Motion carried. Thank you.

okay thank you dan uh 11 c2 we have a request to approve and a facade grant for quality car wash and our esteemed colleague michelle bishop our manager of authorities is here tonight hi michelle good evening good evening mayor city council city manager the cia has a facade grant request from quality car wash up on 11 mile at one four four two one

The business owner is using the grant to purchase new upgraded awnings on the outside of the building. The business has met all the requirements in our eyes for the grant. We're asking that the city council approve the matching grant in the amount not to exceed $2,288.54, and it is currently budgeted in the CIA funds.

Is there a motion to approve the facade grant? So moved. Second. Any questions or discussion?

Madam Mayor?

Council Member Solomon-Red.

We in Oak Park love our car washes. Oh my gosh.

Amen. I will say. Roll call, please.

Mayor McClellan. Yes. Council Member Radner. Yes. Council Member Berman. Yes. Council Member Crawford. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Edgar.

Yes. Motion carried. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Michelle. Okay, and finally, we have our returning champion, David DeCoster here, our Deputy City Manager, to talk about 11D1. Hi, Dave.

hello good evening mayor city council city manager tungate before you tonight is pay application 13 and change order 11 for the event hub project the construction manager architect and city administration have all approved this payment the change order is for construction related issues that were unforeseen in the field our construction manager frank rewald will disperse these funds on behalf of the city to all the vendors This is for a period ending June 30th, 2026. And now that the Event Hub is open, we're still about 80% or so paying the contractors. We hold retainage to make sure they do things, warranty things, and provide closeout documentation. So we still owe a little bit of money on the project. But it's recommended that pay application 13 and change order 11 for the Event Hub project be approved in the amounts of $696,402.02 and $0 respectively. Funding is available in the Event Hub fund, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Okay, we need a motion and a second.

So moved.

Second. Thank you. Discussion or questions? Questions.

Yeah, I do. I do have a question.

Mayor Pro Temp.

So the change order. Oh, it's for construction field changes. OK. When is the project going to be totally complete?

I would say we'll probably balance this out in maybe two more months. We're holding a lot of money, like I said, retainage-wise. We have some contractors that haven't filled out their obligations with providing warranty documents, release of surety, closeout documents. So we hold that money until that all comes in. We won't pay that out until then. So typically, I would say another probably two months, two pay estimates. We should be rounding that out. We're still purchasing some minor things for the hub as part of our city budget. So all in all, I would think... Maybe by October 1st we'll have a final all-in budget where I'm pretty confident at this point to say we'll be bringing some savings back to the city.

Is all the work done now?

The work on behalf of the contractors that are doing all the work is done. There are still some minor punch list items out there. Like when you buy a car or a home or build a building, there's always things you're gonna find. Sometimes a door may not work the way you think it's gonna work. or the window may not slide perfectly. So what we do is we're communicating with our vendors. They're coming back out to fix those things. So very minor things. Everything went very well in this project, so we don't have a lot of those. But there are a couple of things here and there.

I don't know if I mentioned this, but the gentleman who sharpens knives at the farmer's market before in a previous life did construction for large companies. He said it is an extremely well-built building and the kitchen is the best he has seen and he's done restaurants and hotels previously so he was giving you kudos for The kind of job you did supervising this building and I think we ought to give him a round of applause. Yeah

Well, I appreciate that. It's certainly not me. Like you said, I may supervise a little bit, but the whole team here is involved in the design and the input through the residents and through our communications and our community outreach. So it's definitely a team project.

Madam Mayor, I do have a question.

Yes, Mayor Pro Tem. Now, I know that you're probably not in charge of this. I think this is within the purview of the Parks and Recreation Department, but what do our rentals look like? Do we have a lot of them at this point?

You're right, I cannot answer that question.

Because people have to use it, too.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council Members, City Manager Tungate. Addressing that question, we are on the verge of launching our registration program for the Event Hub, as well as the Commercial Kitchen. And that should be launched fairly quickly, maybe in the next week, week and a half. And then we will be ready to go as far as getting some inquiries in, concrete inquiries, so that they will go ahead and pay and get those events registered. And we're looking forward to a full complement because we've had a lot of interest. Looking forward to that.

Wow.

And so will people be able to do most of this online? Yes.

Mm-hmm.

We have an interactive registration program called Triple Seat for the Event Hub, and they will be able to register and make payment online. Excellent. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. What have we next? I vote.

Roll call vote. Council Member Radner?

Yes.

Council Member Berman? Yes. Council Member Crawford?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Edgar? Yes. Mayor McClellan? Yes. Motion, yep.

Thank you.

Okay, and this isn't on the agenda, Council Members, but I do, I know we're expecting some, maybe some difficult weather tonight, overnight. So Dave, I'm putting you on the spot. Don't say that. What are we expecting? We're expecting some pretty heavy storms, I've been told. So what can people do, you know, cleaning out, cleaning our streets, preparing themselves. And I want to just also say, it came up earlier about the power outages. People, I think most people know this, we are not in charge of the power grid, but we are, I can assure you, advocating on our residents behalf. And quite frankly, some of these power outages in the timeframes are absolutely ridiculous. So I want everyone to know that the elected officials of our community, certainly myself and our administrative staff are pressing DT very hard. In fact, I'm in constant communication with their government rep, Liz Vogel. But could you talk just a little bit about preparation for?

Sure. So according to the last check I had, early tomorrow morning, we are supposed to get some possibly severe weather. At a minimum, we're supposed to get heavy rains. And obviously, everybody in the community knows when we get heavy rains, our streets do tend to flood. We've explained it before. The streets are designed to flood in Oak Park. And many of the 12-town drainage communities, part of the Georgia-Becune drainage, What that does is it allows the water to sit on the surface of the road and not in the sewer system. So all of us would rather have the water on top of the surface and not in your basement. So that's how I always look at it. It will slowly dissipate in the sewer system. That process is designed so all the communities as part of that drainage system drain slowly so it doesn't overflow the Madison Heights facility, go into the Red Run drain and go untreated into Lake St. Clair.

So if your street floods, that's okay. It means that water isn't in your basement.

Correct. Now, we also ask, if you're willing and able, you can clean the debris off your catch basin. There's usually, you know, a typical catch basin cover will have about 24 holes. Many in Oak Park only have four or six. We will disperse crews all day tomorrow, probably clean those off, depending on when we get the rain and what time things happen. We will have crews out tomorrow cleaning those off. We'll stop by. We'll have a guy in rain gear and boots. We'll shovel it off, throw it off to the side, and continue on to keep up progress. but we will be doing that obviously we'll be responding to any downed trees down limbs blocking traffic typically during a storm we will not cut down full trees we will make it safe for emergency vehicles to pass we will wait for the next day when the storm passes when things are light when when our crews are well rested and things so if we get those situations where branches fall into the street for a free to call the non-emergency line at public safety Public Safety will then reach out to our general foreman, and we will dispatch a crew to take care of that for you. I'm hoping it's not as bad as last time. As the city manager indicated, we don't have much power over DT. I know the mayor has called. Eric has called. Myself. We've all called to advocate on behalf of our residents. We don't have the power to flip a switch, unfortunately.

we we don't i i just want to reiterate um so not only i know the mayor's called a ton but you know i'm in constant communication um with liz vogel who's our dt rep and i want to criticize the work she's doing she's doing great work she's working within the context of what she has it's unfortunate Now, Dave, I have one more thing before we pass this back over to the mayor. Can you solve the Canadian wildfire smoke forest, please?

No. Sorry. Thank you, Dave.

Thanks for your candor. Thank you.

Madam Mayor, members of council, that completes the city manager report for this evening.

Thank you. Thank you, City Manager Tungate. It's always exciting. Next, we have call to the audience.

Okay.

Here are some rules.

Each speaker's remarks are a matter of public record. The speaker alone is responsible for his or her comments, and the City of Oak Park does not, by permitting such remarks, support, endorse, or accept the content thereof as being true or accurate. Any person, while being heard at a city council meeting, may be called to order by the chair or any council member for failure to be germane to the business of the city. for using vulgarity or personal attacks on persons or institutions. There's a three minute time limit on comments.

Thank you. Anybody like to speak at this time?

Mayor McClellan, I have a card from Ken Sherman.

You're aware of this.

Good evening, Ken Sherman, 23840 Jerome Street in Oak Park. Two things, one, which I didn't put on the card. As a member of the library board, I want to welcome Salman Randner back as our representative from city council. Hope to see you there tomorrow. And then as a member of the recycling commission, I want to say we'll miss Councilwoman Crawford, but welcome Councilwoman Berman to our August meeting. And then my second question is, maybe this could be an item for a future city council meeting. I know Orient Township has had issues with their water tower, and I know we have a water tower, and I wondered if you could explain, like I said, at maybe a future meeting, what that water tower does for the city of Oak Park and are we in the same predicament as Orient Township was when there was problems with the Great Lakes Water Authority and DTE where everything dropped and they went to a boil water, you know, advisory and all that good stuff. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Yes. Yeah, that's so the people at home can hear.

Keep on talking.

Michael Hochheiser, Rebecca Berman's proud father. You need my address and all that stuff? No? Good. Resident of Oak Park for over 40 years. And I commend the council on their wisdom on appointing our daughter. I think you'll find... Thank you. Think you'll find that she'll do the work of all five of you if you let her We try teaching her the word no but early on in life she never learned that word even though it was only two letters But she's a hard worker and she'll make you proud. I know she makes us proud She's a wonderful daughter wife and mother, and she'll be a fantastic council person to this council. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else? If there's no one else, we have called the council. The Oak Park Youth Assistance held a perfect pancake breakfast. Usually, they're outside under the shelter. And if it's hot, it's really uncomfortable. This year, it was in the new event hub. It was cool. It was perfectly organized. It ran very smoothly. We didn't have enough customers. You have to help us out next year and come to the pancake breakfast and support the kids that Oak Park Youth Assistance is supporting. So we'll start nagging you early on next year to come on and support. It's a great breakfast. It was delicious. We just need more of you to come. We had the grand opening of the new water tower district upgrade. It was a potholed parking lot at one time and now it is stellar site for outdoor activities and special events. It is warm and inviting and we are lucky to have it. Let's see. I just came back from the Soo Locks. Spent a few days up there. It was kind of fun. I went to the Taquamenon Falls, and there was a sign that said, older than dinosaurs, which I posed in front of. A so-called friend told me that 80 is not old. if you're a tree. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, everybody, for coming. And just wanted to Welcome again, Rebecca. Welcome to City Council. You're going to hate us in about three months. I also wanted to mention that the grand opening of the social district was really just so fun. And I want to commend Michelle Bishop for making this happen. Really just such a good vibe and just a lot of fun. It's got a lot of personality already. It was wonderful to talk to Desiree, the artist, the mural artist, and I would urge everybody to go and look at her work.

Really good.

Dog Day Afternoon, we had to postpone it. It was set for yesterday, but because of the air quality, we have pushed it to Sunday, August the 18th, and that will be from noon to 3. That should be a really fun event, even if you don't have a dog. We have more vendors every year, and it's just a riot. It's just so much fun to see people with their animals. I wanted to just remind everybody how important it is to vote. And we have significant issues on the ballot. But even if we didn't, it's really, really important to vote. It's meaningful. And you just got to get in the habit of doing it. So and we've made it easy. So everybody, please get out and vote. I did want to talk a little bit about fireworks because we've had some residents complain about noise and they've complained about mainly the noise. I personally don't like them and I don't understand them. But state law supersedes local law, so we can't outlaw fireworks, but we could limit them. We have in our ordinance, we allow them on every federal holiday or legal holiday. That includes Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Washington's birthday, Labor Day.

So you can set off fireworks. Isn't it state law?

Well, the state law only, the state law limits fireworks to three holidays. New Year's Day, Memorial Day, and July 4th. I don't know why we allow it any more than that. And I understand it's not so easy to catch violators because you can do it anywhere you want and then just move on. But this is a real problem. First of all, Conditions are so dry, if one spark ignites, that's it. And we've already seen what happens with wildfires. The noise for people who are neurodivergent, people with autism or any other issue, It's a problem, and of course, for animals, it's really a problem. They're hiding under beds, people put special vests on them and give them Xanax to calm down. If I had my druthers, we would just do away with this ordinance and just disallow, or we could limit where we could do it. So it would be wonderful if we could investigate whether we can limit the use of fireworks to a specific area that might be better because now it's all over the place and and again our ordinance allows it on every legal holiday but not the state so whomever is the next state rep from our area I would encourage them to propose that we banned all fireworks thank you anyway thank you for coming

Thank you. Council Member Solomon Redner.

Good night, everybody.

Council Member Stephanie Crawford.

I'd like to echo and welcome and welcome again. Rebecca Berman, happy to have you here. Farmers Market Day is this week, and I understand this is Farmers Market Day in which if you have SNAP or WIC They're gonna give you an extra $5 toward the purchases. And as we all know, times are hard. So I went to the last one. It was, or the one before the last, because I was nervous about the air quality. It was great. I was thinking if I was gonna get lettuce, I think I'd get it from the farmer's market as opposed to a bag of lettuce. And the vegetables look very fresh. They had all kind of vendors. So come on out, make your money go a little further. Farmer's Market Day this Thursday from 9 to 2 p.m. in the Event Hub. Today is also the last day for the Oak Park Resident Survey. today so um it does take about 20 minutes but it's great questions it is going to assist us in um the master plan of what you would like for your city so i'm if you haven't done it today's the last day get in there and complete that resident survey so you can have a voice in your city Also, I just want to echo how important that Oak Park Public Safety Millage is. A lot of people don't understand. They're saying, oh, you don't have to. That, especially Proposal 2601, all of them, but that's state mandated. We have to provide those retirement obligations. And again, it's not an increase in your taxes. If that millage was not to pass, it would be devastating for our city's budget. Very important. So when you go to the polls, make sure you support that millage. And with all of the storms going on, the air quality, everyone remember, look out for your neighbors, see if anyone needs any help. And remember, as I always say, be kind to one another. And I'm not last anymore. I'm going to throw it over to Councilwoman Berman.

Thank you all for the warm welcome. And I look forward to making this amazing city even better.

Well said.

Are we done?

We are.

Thank you. There being no further business to come before this council, before I hammer you adjourned, remember to vote. It is important to vote in the primary. A lot is resting on this primary. We need you. We need your voice. We need you to vote. Thank you and good night.