City Of Muskegon Commissioners - Regular Meeting

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Each person has up to three minutes to provide remarks. We'll take public comment in person and we'll take public comment by phone. Uh I'll give that phone number right now so people can have that at the ready, but please do not call just yet. That phone number is 231-724-6721. When we get to phone in public comments, I'll announce that number again and we'll have it scrolling at the bottom of the screen as well. If you are in uh wish to give public comment in person, I encourage you to complete a public comment form at the back of the room. Uh please provide your name and home address. Uh note, I will not be sharing your home address or asking you to announce it. That's for our records. I will be acknowledging if you are a city resident or not a city resident um when we um invite people to come up to speak. um complete the public comment form and hand it to our city clerk uh down there at the end of the das. Now we are going to start our meeting with prayer followed by the pledge of allegiance. If you wish us to join us in either of those activities, um I ask that you stand if you're so capable of doing so. And we're going to be led in prayer this evening by Pastor Riley of the Preswood United Methodist Church. Good evening, Pastor.

Good to see you all. Let us pray. Heavenly [clears throat] Father, we thank you this evening. We come lifting up our commissioners to you. We ask that you grant them wisdom to face the unique challenges of this community. Give them discernment to make the best decisions for the people they serve and the insight to see the needs of every resident, especially those that are v vulnerable. Now God, we thank you for wisdom. We thank you for unity. We thank you for allowing them to come together. They may have differences, but yet understand that the people are the ones that we're concerned with. We thank you now for unity and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. [clears throat] 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. Thank you, pastor.

May roll call, please. Commissioner Kilgo, present. Vice Mayor Keenir, absent. Commissioner German, here. Commissioner Jackson, here. Commissioner Cochen, here. Commissioner St. Clair here. Mayor Johnson here. Thank you. We have quorum. We do not have any awards and honors or presentations this evening. So, we're going to jump right into public hearings. Our first public hearings on the establishment of a commercial redevelopment district for 1937 Lakeshore Drive. Good evening. Kindly introduce yourself and please report out on this item.

Absolutely. Isabella Gonzalez, development analyst for the city of Moskegan. So, today this public hearing is for um the establishment of a commercial redevelopment district for 1937 Lakeshore Drive. the former Harbor Theater. Um, so creating this new district will enable the property owner to apply for a commercial facilities exemption certificate, which is our next public hearing. If approved, the certificate will freeze the taxable value of the building and exempt the new real property investment from local property taxes. So, the proposed redevelopment of 1937 Lakes Shore Drive will convert the first floor into commercial suites with upper floors uh used for residential housing.

Thank you for that report. Uh this is a public hearing, so we're going to uh go to the public first, take input um and pour any questions. We won't answer them immediately, but we will uh take any questions that people have, and then commissioners will have an opportunity to address those questions or staff um when we get beyond the public hearing and consider the motion itself. Uh is there anyone in the audience that wishes to give public comment um or give comment with regard to this public hearing for the establishment of commercial redevelopment district at 1937 Lakeshore Drive? All right, we're going to go to the phones. Uh, the common number is 231-724-6721. Uh, this [clears throat] is an opportunity to phone and comment specifically with regard to the establishment of a commercial re rehabilitation district at 1937 Lakeshore Drive. Right. Does not sound like we have any callers for this public hearing. Uh, commissioners, I would entertain a motion. I move to close the public hearing um and approve the establishment of a commercial rehabilitation district for 1937 Lakeshore Drive and authorize the mayor and clerk to sign the resolution

support. Thank you. I just realized I was misspoke misspeaking when I was saying rehabilitation. It's redevelopment. So it's commercial redevelopment district. Um I'm already thinking about that. Yeah. Any uh we have a motion by Commissioner Kilda. Did we get a support on that? Uh from Commissioner Sinclair. We got a motion by Commissioner Kog, supported by Commissioner Stlair. Commissioners, Commissioner Kilgill,

thank you. Um, I was having a conversation this week, um, and someone was saying, "I wish that more older buildings in the city of Moskegan people would do something with instead of them just sitting there and rotten, rotting." So, I personally am glad to see that the theater's not just going to sit there and rot away that someone is going to um redevelop the property and it something good and useful can be done with the building. Thank you, Commissioner Kilog. Commissioner Sinclair Porter, do you have anything to share?

Uh just that I agree. I um spend a lot of time in uh downtown Lakeside as it is and uh that um that building leaves a a big hole in the in the community down there and I'm very much looking forward to it becoming um something alive again. So, you're here. Commissioners, anything else to ask or add? Nope. All right. Uh we do have a right after this we have the consideration of a commercial facilities exemption certificate for the same property. Um and hopefully we'll hear from is the developer here? Yes.

Yeah. Okay. So when we get to the next item we'll I'll call them up and they can uh present on the the project. Um all right we're going to go to roll call please. Commissioner German. Yes. Commissioner Jackson. Yes. Commissioner Cochen? Yes. Commissioner St. Clair. Yes. Mayor Johnson? Yes. Commissioner Kilgo? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. And next up, we have a public hearing on the issuance of a commercial facilities exemption certificate for the same property uh in which we just established the district at 1937 Lakeshore Drive. Um care to report out on this item, please?

Yes, absolutely. So, Lakeside uh Development Properties LLC plans to rehabilitate the 17,000 foot former Harbor Theater um into a mixeduse development. So, beginning in April 2026, this project will represent a $3.6 6 million investment and is expected to host uh commercial and office suites on the first floor followed by two floors of uh multiple condominiums ranging from one to three bedrooms and one to two baths. So um the internal tax committee has reviewed this application and based on its findings and calculations recommends approval for the attached resolution for a term of 8 years for real property. So the applicant has submitted all required documentation and we do have the developers here.

Thank you analyst Gonzalez. Um before we hear from developers, I'm going to open it up to a public comment both in person by phone. Um and then we'll close the hearing and get update from the developer and address any commissioners questions. Um hear your thoughts before we go to vote. Um is there anyone in the audience that wishes to speak on this item um aside from the developer um with regard to the issuance of a commercial facilities exemption certificate? Seeing no takers in the audience, we're going to go to the phones. That number is 231-724-6721-724-6721. There's an opportunity to phone in your uh comments specifically with regard to the issuance of a commercial facilities exemption certificate at 1937 Lakeshore Drive. does not look like we have any takers. Okay, I'm starting to watch the the TV screen to see what the lag is because there's considerable lag sometimes and it varies and so um looking to see for the TV to get caught up to where we are. Um okay, no takers for phone and comments. Commissioners, I entertain a motion.

I move to I move to close the public hearing and approve the issuance of a commercial facilities exemption certificate for Lakeside Development Properties LLC and authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign the resolution. Support. We have a motion by Commissioner Kilgo, supported by Commissioner Coochin. All right. Um before I go to either of you commissioners, I'm going to invite up the developer to first present um and share about the project. Kindly come to the podium and introduce yourself.

So I'm Jill Bourdon with Randers CNC and uh yeah, I'll take we'll field any questions. I I just want to say we're uh Moskegan and Isabelle's group and everybody has been and the department of public has been great to work with and their support's been tremendous and uh we're lifelong residents of you know Moss County and we remember the Harbor Theater and I think it's a neat thing that we could revitalize it and kind of carry some of that history into the into the present here. So um with that um any questions fire away. All right. Thank you, Mr. on. Um I'll give you the opportunity first as the motion maker. Commissioner Ko, you have any questions?

Yeah. Um [clears throat] uh I guess my only question is kind of a comment and question. The city of Moskegan um is is is one of the leaders in the state right now as far as um building um building housing, right? So there's low-income housing, workforce housing, high-end luxury housing. We're kind of building it all here in Moskegan. One thing I encourage all developers to do is um

do you have any plans to work with local lenders or local real estate agencies or um associations for the education piece so that we can when your project's done and your property is done, we can fill it up and put people in there.

Okay. Um I'll say yeah, we're going to use local. We've got a local real estate group that's going to help uh with the sell the condos. Uh we're going to use local lenders. We've got a local lender that we're going to partner with for the final enduser financing for the for the housing part of it. Um and we've got a we've been we've got a lot of support from the community and just different people uh in support of the project. Um we've got a commercial tenant that we're in discussions with that's um very strong and I think would be a good fit for Lakeside too. So um yes with the whole local and we're a construction design build company Anders. So uh we're going to use local subs and all that for that component of it too. So we're going to keep the the constru the money in in in the area here.

That's good to hear. Thank you very much. Y yeah, absolutely love to hear that. Keep the money circulating here and multiplying here. Moskegan. Uh, Commissioner Cochen. Yes. Thank you. Um, first off, I'd like to thank you very much for for taking on this project. Um, when I was going through my packet and I saw your name, I was kind of like, "Oh, wow. I think I live in their old house." [laughter] So, the fact that, you know, you're local. Um, it's it's very true. You are very local. Um the one question I wanted to ask specifically in regards to the lower half of the building because I know everybody's been asking is uh the type of retail that we could be anticipating. Um do you have any idea of what that might look like? What you're kind of envisioning?

Uh yeah. So on the lower half we've got a parking garage. Okay. And then from there, we're doing a podium style uh structure and then going to go up with wood framing up above for the um the re or the condo part of it, the housing part development. And down below we're going to have the up front we've got call it 1500 square ft that's going to be the commercial use. And yeah, like I said, we do have a tenant we've been talking to uh that's pretty strong and I think will be good for uh they'll be a long-term tenant and I think that'll be good for the area, you know, for the for the building in the area there. So,

that's excellent. I really appreciate hearing that. I know that Lakeside seems to struggle a little bit in the wintertime and so seeing something that could kind of perk that place up a little bit would be fantastic. Yep. and and the tenant that we're in discussions with, they're they're pretty um they like the they're local where they like the um the old Harbor Theater. They like that whole idea, too, and kind of marrying the the past and the present type deal. I love that. Awesome. Thank you so [clears throat] much. Thank you, Commissioner Coach. Commissioner, is anything else to ask or add? Commissioner German. Oh, yes. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you uh for being here tonight. Thank you.

And um bring your business and keeping it here in the city of Moskegan. Um, I heard you say you were a county resident. You've been here for quite some time. And how long has your business or your uh company been in? So, Randers um I could speak to an exact date. 26 years. 26 years. 26 years. Great. Great. So, we're located on the corner of Seol and Henry there. Okay. So, you're not new to this then? We're not new to there. Okay. twotory brick building.

Mhm. Okay. I know exactly where that's at. Oh, great. Okay. A historical building there if Okay. Okay. We personally have grew up in Moskegan, went to school here, high school and all that stuff. And um this is a $3.6 million project. Yeah. We're we're kind of finalizing estimates. We're we're into the design where we want to do a good job on the design so that we got that set and then we'll get final numbers. But that's the the initial estimates. Yes. And you're asking for 8year NZ um incentive. Is that eight years? Uh I I think that's what the program eight years. Yeah. Correct.

Okay. Just want to make sure. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And you also mentioned keeping business here in the city of Moskegan local workers and that was one of my questions. You already addressed that. I'm very um adamant about that um when it comes to you know approving any incentives. Um also I address you know contractors um that we have an equal opportunity you know um process. I'd like to see black and minority contractors um get a fair opportunity. Absolutely. So, so we're gonna, you know, we'll

obviously if there's a something that doesn't not in Moskegan that we need to go outside for, we will, but we're going to use locals and everybody's going to get a fair opportunity and, you know, all the subs. We manage the whole project process with all the subs and so we'll have a lot of people involved in it and um yeah, everybody, you know, we'll have a opportunity if they have to be qualified, but yes, 100%. Right. Right. And I guess this um question is for the city manager. Um how can we track that? Because we talked about this before and um we've had these conversations where um we talked about equal opportunity um contractors and we have a lot of projects going here in the city of Moskegan. And more we talk about this, the less I see um minority contractors and also black contractors um who are not getting a fair shot at some of these projects, whether it's u concrete or um other um [clears throat] you know jobs. So, I would like to have some type of u structure where when they contract with these businesses that we're g giving these incentives to that we have something on file.

Mhm. Um so, is that something you you can um add to or if that's something that we could if I ask can you uh reflect on that and we'll bring that up under any other business stay on on task with regard to this certificate? Sure. Right. under. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Because I know we talk about these things, but you know, the data needs to reflect what we're talking about. So, and I'd like to see something like that, but no. Um, thank you for um addressing those uh my questions for you. Well, thank you. Yep. Appreciate it. All right. Okay. Any other questions?

Uh, so with regard to you said you have a potential tenant for the um front portion on on the street level, is it active retail versus like office space or is it active retail? It's more office. Okay. Uh financial services. Gotcha. Okay. I was really hoping it'd be active retail. What I guess the definition of that stores be like selling something um product service. I mean services would be financial services, but like something that is um like like a restaurant, a gift shop, you know, something that you're actually selling product to and you're going to have a a good amount of traffic and it's going to be a poll. Um I fin have some people come down obviously. Hopefully they spend money at the businesses

surrounding and I think it will complement the the rest of the development with what we're putting in there and with the other retail near there. I I think it's a positive. I think it'll be a posit. I think you'll be happy. Yeah. Well, it'll be better than uh than [laughter] vacant, that's for sure. I think there'll be a long-term tenant that it stays in it keeps stable thing where you won't have a lot of turnover. And I know there is a lot of retail space available that needs to be filled over there, right? So, I think it'll be I think it'll be positive.

Yeah, you're right. The dynamics right now is there are uh other retail spaces available. So, it's not a situation where we have um no other retail uh spaces down there. Okay. Well, I really appreciate um your interest in investing in this and um happy that we're going to see more housing come online and um see that space activated even if whether it's retail commercial or office space or or what not. just to see it being activated. Sure. Overall, so thank you so much for choosing to grow with this. Yeah. Thank you again and we appreciate all your support. All right. Any questions for staff? Any final comments? Nope. All right. Roll call, please. Commissioner German, yes. Commissioner Jackson, yes. Commissioner [clears throat] Cochen,

yes. Commissioner St. Clair, yes. Mayor Johnson, yes. Commissioner Kilgo, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. And thank you, Analyst Gonzalez. And next hearing and our final public hearing is with regard to the issuance of an obsolete property certificate for 1185 Third Street. Good evening. Kinduce yourself and please report out on this item.

Good evening. Jocelyn Hines, development analyst here for the city of Mskegegan. This public hearing is being held for an obsolete property certificate, also known as a Oprah or a PA46 for the property at 1185 Third Street. The property is currently being acquired and renovated by three local investors, Jeff Cowitz, Frank Peterson, and John Whitten. They will then lease the space to the end user, which is an engineering firm. The engineering firm will use the property for office space as well as research and development. As you all know, this space has been obsolete/vacant for quite some time. The investors plan to make some significant investments to the property such as interior reconfiguration and buildout, exterior and facade improvements, as well as accessibility upgrades. They are looking at about a $4.9 million investment to the 21,000 foot facility. They plan to retain about 80 jobs in the space, which will be a great asset to our income tax base as they promise high-paying jobs. And Oprah is designed to encourage the rehab of older, underused, or vacant buildings. and Oprah freezes the taxes at the pre-rehab level of the building. After consideration of the amount of investment, cost of rehab, and local ownership, the internal tax committee recommends a 12-year abatement.

Thank you, Anna Science. Appreciate that report. Um, this is a public hearing, so we're going to um open up to the audience first, then we'll go to the phones, and then we'll close public hearing and consider the question at hand. Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to give comment with regard to the issuance of an obsolete property rehabilitation certificate for 11853rd Street? Seeing no one in the audience, we're going to go to the phones. That's 231-7246721. All right. It does not sound like we have any takers for phone in comments for this public hearing. Commissioners, I'd entertain a motion.

I move to close the public hearing and approve the resolution for the issuance of an absolute property certificate for 1185 Third Street and authorize the city clerk and mayor to sign support. All right, we have a motion by Commissioner Coach and supported by Commissioner Kilgal. And do we have a representative? Okay. Development representative, could you kindly come up, introduce yourself, and uh please uh share some information about this project from your perspective?

Absolutely. So, uh my name is John Whitten. I own Spark 43 Architects. I'm also uh one of the partners in uh the 1185 Third Street redevelopment team. Uh it's a pleasure to be back in front of you. It's been at least a year and a half. Um so, we appreciate your consideration in this matter. Um Jeff, Frank, and I sort of stumbled into this project. We came out, we were we brought a commercial real estate um broker out here just to show off the city to him and took a look at the building. And there were a couple conversations that happened that hey, there's this international uh company. It's a $ 1.5 billion uh gross company a year looking to relocate. They were interested in Moskegan. Uh their representatives happened to be in town the next week. We scheduled a meeting and it just kind of all fell into place. So, um, as was mentioned previously, uh, the the project is scheduled right now, uh, assuming everything goes forward the way we hope it does, to open in September, and we, at that time, there would be 85 new, um, jobs coming into downtown Moskegan. The payroll currently represents $ 8.5 million of payroll annually. So, it's a significant investment into the city. Um certainly, you know, I have to imagine the small businesses in and around uh the third and and Merryill intersection Nelson neighborhood are excited to have a bunch of new hungry people uh that are intending to shop and stay and participate in life here in Moskegegan. And certainly um the things we were excited about showing off, they obviously got to see firsthand and agreed. So, um my team and I are really excited about this building. As many of you probably know, the building has sat vacant for quite a while. the windows are boarded because most of them have been broken out. I don't necessarily think that's all from vandalism. Part of it is because kids are using it as a back stop for soccer balls, you know. So, it's just it is a part of life and we're really excited to revitalize it and also honor the history of the neighborhood and this history of the building. Um, so we're not planning to come in and do an ultra contemporary renovation on the building. We are really really interested in honoring the

the building and its beauty and some of the grime we're going to leave inside. You know, there's some great details about this building and we're really excited to open it back up so that it's not boarded up. There's a lot of foot traffic up and down Third Street as you guys know. Um, and so we're just really, really, really excited about um, the opportunity it presents for the city and certainly, you know, between Jeff, Frank, and I, we're all committed in this community and seeing it thrive. So, um, with that, I'd open up any questions you have. Uh, one couple things I want to mention. Um we are really committed to hiring minority subcontractors and not only subcontractors but engineering team as well on the design side. Currently about 75% of my team as subconultants are minority and womenowned businesses. So we're committed to um carrying that theme through and encouraging businesses not just when it gets to construction before we ever get there as well. So

excellent. Thank you Mr. Whitten. U first we'll go to Commissioner Koshan.

Yes. Thank you. Um, you answered some of my questions already, so thank you so much for that. Um, I appreciate you, you know, considering Mskegegan, especially Third Street. Uh, it's got a soft spot in my heart. It's a fantastic little corridor. It's a great neighborhood and, um, that building there has has sat for a long time. Um, I had a conversation with our planner earlier about like the history of the building and they apparently housed cars there for a car dealership at one point in time, which kind of blew my mind. I didn't know about that part of the history. So, you know, I think your plans to really honor the architecture of the building um is important because it's just it's not inside of the historic district commission um area and it's such a beautiful building. So, I'm glad that you're planning on preserving some of that. Um some of the other questions I wanted to ask were uh in regards to um the plans for the actual building. So, who like who's going to be going in there and what exactly will be they be doing? So, the we have a tenant that has signed a lease, a long-term lease, 10 years uh with the option to renew. It's going to be um part of the this particular tenant who's not ready to announce who they are yet. That will be shortly, but uh they have 85 engineers that work on projects worldwide. So, there's going to be f uh 85 engineers to start. The building can accommodate more people than that. Uh we've space planned it in a way that if this tenant ever leaves after the terms of their lease, we can easily reconfigure this into multiple um retail spaces so that it doesn't end up falling back into the state that it has lived in for the last 15 years. Um but it it is a like I said an international company. It's primarily um engineering team but this company a couple of the statistics 26% of their workforce is um a diverse workforce and they are committed to continuing to hire diver diverse workforce. Uh so the engineers that sit in Moskegan could be on a phone call with somebody in

Southeast Asia collaborating on a project that's happening in uh central Europe. Um, so it's a really cool opportunity uh for the city and to encourage growth um housing development here. Um, I'm not sure how much else I'm allowed to share, but we have signed a lease with them. Obviously, the the Oprah has a pretty big impact on whether or not this is a financially viable project for us because we're not professional developers. We're really good at being an architect and a construction manager and a finance guy. So, um, you know, we're not in this to just try and like make a quick buck and get out of Moskegan. I think as most of you know, we're here for the long haul and uh we're very committed to this community and seeing it thrive.

I appreciate that. Yeah, one of the the reasons I asked that is because there's were some people who had reached out to me with concerns and um they were like, "What what's going on with this? Why is it so vague? Is is it going to be another animal testing facility?" I was like, "I don't think that's going to be the case. Can you confirm that that's not the case?"

That's not the case. No, this this particular um tenant does uh they do industrial logistics. So the R&D space is they're they're building some of the product that they would deploy at scale and just making sure that it can actually uh deliver the things they're doing within a warehouse setting. So there's no animal testing. There's no ethical concerns around you know pharmaceuticals or anything like that. There's no off gasing or any production of chemicals. In fact uh we actually just got our um environmental report back. There is some remediation because it was a car dealership and a repair facility. There are some things in the ground that we are intending to remediate. Um it's not widespread, but a little bit is a little bit and we want to make sure that it's right and um we get the ACMS out of there, the the asbestous containing materials out of there as well. So,

excellent.

The goal is to make it transparent. We're not trying to wall this off and and hide everybody behind curtains and and opaque glass. The idea is that this really ends up being a very friendly and welcoming streetscape and that people can see in and um participate. And one of the things we're working on coordinating with um DPW, we've had some conversations with Jake and with Mike Franzik already about, you know, it is an old building and because it's 100 years old, there's no barrier free access. And so we've actually developed a strategy to figure out universal access into this building that would um hopefully also help some of the navigation on the sidewalk as well. So, there's some really good conversations going on with city staff about how we can really make this a win, not just for the people sitting inside the building, but for the people that are, you know, moving around Nelson into Midtown and downtown. So,

awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Coach. And Commissioner Kville.

Thank you. [clears throat] I have some really good friends that live in the neighborhood and just thinking about it. So, you all are building, redeveloping the property and then [clears throat] you're going to lease it out to this international tenant. I've been in the building. Being in real estate, I've been in the building. I envisioned the building. When I went in there, I'm like, this would be a great event space, right? It's just all the glass and kind of open floor plan. I'm glad to see, again, like I stated earlier, I'm really glad to see something being done with the building. Couple of questions. Um, parking. Are you all purchasing the lot across the street or the lot across the street or have any plans for parking for the employees? If there's 85, maybe they won't even all be there at the same time. But if there's 85 just workers there, they're going to have someplace to park. And if you go down to Third Street right now, cuz one of my best friend lives on Third Street, right down the block. Um, you know, with the plows and the snow, it's not much room there on the street. Have you figured out parking?

So, yeah, that's a great question and it's a question that uh comes up in every community because it's really important, especially since um the the business to the north is a quick service kind of stop, right? So, um, the the the real estate deal does include the two lots directly south southeast on Merrill.

Um, so that will those parking lots if you've been by there, obviously not in the last couple of weeks, but you know, the plan is to light those gently because we want to be really sensitive to the neighbors immediately to our west and immediately to your south. We've been in conversations with everybody. In fact, we've we've helped out uh already with some of the clean up in the dumpsters to let people get things they were trying to get rid of. Um, and the trees next door, the crane guy really wanted those trees down, so we kind of helped him out as well. Um, but the plan is that we will accommodate employees with off- streetet parking.

You know, I can't guarantee you that if somebody's running late after their kid didn't want to get out of the house that morning that they won't occupy a street space. I just can't um because we all know that people will take the path of least resistance. But the intent is to not um displace people from their driveways or from street parking in front of their homes, right? We want to make sure we're being really good neighbors because, you know, we want to see this as a win for the whole community, not just for the people that are showing up between 8 and 5.

Awesome. And and that's definitely a a good start. Those kind of that that lot to the south there um could accommodate a good portion. So that not possibly 80s something cars were on the street right there on that corner. So that's good. Um and since you're since you're not the tenant, but you all may be in contact with the tenant, um the you know being international or a company that's not from Moskegan or not from West Michigan, I'd encourage you to introduce them. Um, and we're happy to make the connection here at the city, but introduce them to Moskegan High School, Moskegan Community College, the CTC, so we can have some future Moskegan engineers

who may be able to intern or work there one day. Also, yeah, that's a great idea. I um hadn't thought about that, but I Ken James and I are really good friends from Moskegan Community College, so I'll reach out to Ken, too, to make that introduction. That's a great idea. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Kilgo. Anything else, commissioners? Commissioner Sinclair.

Thank you. I would also encourage you to think about um Moskegan public schools. They have um the Ford Next Generation Learning Program that they've just kicked off and um that might be an opportunity um for one of themies. I um I love the Third Street corridor. some of my very favorite businesses and some of my very favorite people in the world work and live and um occupy that space. And I appreciate um your thoughtfulness around trying to be a good neighbor and trying to integrate in a way that benefits your tenant and the community. Um, I can see that there is potential for this to chafe if it's not carefully done. Um, that's a big footprint to suddenly have occupied. Um, at the same time as the old Catholic Charities building is being renovated and I know you guys know about that too. Um, so there's um there's a lot of activity happening there and I I think it's going to be a blessing for um that community and those business owners as long as everybody is careful to move forward in a thoughtful way. So um please keep that in mind.

Thank Jackson. Mr. German. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening. Good evening. Um, a lot of the uh concerns and comments that I wanted to state been addressed. Um, I want to thank Commissioner Coaching for actually asking a question about what's going to be in the facility to make sure we don't have anything unethical or unsafe um within that community. Um I know the former city manager you said Frank Peterson if we're talking about the same Frank Peterson who's um partnering with who uh

um was instrumental in in redeveloping that area um getting the streets and some infrastructure there. So, uh kudos to him um with this partnership uh that you all have and looking to um revitalize that that space or partner with this international um developer. You say 80 full-time jobs and as um I think Commissioner Kilgo and Commissioner um St. Clair mentioned about the schools and um students at community college, excuse me, community college. I'm an employee there and I work with um students as a student success coach and I'm also a leadership coach and purpose of my job as a leadership coach is when these students get out of school yet they have some form a career path to land them a job and you talk about engineer and that's a real hot um job right now you mentioned several engineers um so it would be great to see some of these students come out of school and to be able to land jobs and um this is an opportunity or a starting block. So, I'm really grateful for that. Um you also mentioned um local contractors, minorities, and when I say minorities, I have to state that, you know, um black contractors as well. Um, again, I'm not seeing a lot of contractors that look like me, you know, or getting jobs and I have dedicated uh equal and fair process in my votes to make sure that I'm businessfriendly. Um, but I definitely would like to see that. So, I'm glad you did address that as well. We I can't remember. Did I mention that we've already identified about a half a million dollars that's uh been allocated to minority and locally owned contractors already and we're looking

for more. Great. Great. That's that's great. Great. And that that's that's good news. So yeah, um good luck on your um project and your partnership with the city of Moskegan and I'm looking forward to that. Thank anything to ask? No, I'm just super excited to see it continue to be developed over there on Third Street and excited for the project and to bring higher paying jobs to Moskegan.

Thank you, Commissioner Jackson. Yeah, that is thrilling the prospect of getting 80 plus engineers downtown. Um, not only bringing that payroll, I was very happy to hear that payroll number. Um, you know, even if we do just a half percent, uh, that's a nice bump in our city income tax. Um, which is, uh, very, very helpful. um but moreover supporting the local economy right there on Midtown and downtown and having um that that workforce there. Um and I'd love to hear about the prospect of partnerships with our local schools um and the intentionality of seeking out local uh contractors and local businesses to work with um with special attention to um folks from marginalized communities that don't necessarily have um those opportunities. And so I really appreciate the thoughtfulness um that you all are um deploying and and moving this project forward. Um I I'm excited to see that space get redeveloped and and and activated again um and have such a strong workforce down there. So thank you Mr. Whitten. Really appreciate you being here this evening and thank you all for uh choosing to grow with Mskegeegan.

Appreciate your consideration. Right. Any final uh thoughts or questions of staff? No. All right. Yes. Commissioner Cochen. Yes. Um I I wanted to hear a little bit why this was recommended for 12 years versus the eight years.

Um understanding that the building has been vacant for quite some time and understanding that some of the um investor company is local. We went by the rubric that um commission established several years ago. That's what the internal tax committee goes [snorts] by. So based on investment um local um what's some other things I think investment local and um I think number of jobs is what we quantify to establish um how much we give to each um construction project that we present to you all. So it's a rubric that you all um decided on. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. If there's nothing else, roll call, please. [clears throat] Commissioner Jackson. Yes. Commissioner Cochen,

yes. Commissioner St. Clair, yes. Mayor Johnson, yes. Commissioner Kilgo, yes. Commissioner German, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. That concludes our public hearings. Do we have any federal, state, or county officials or partners uh in the audience that wish to give updates? I don't see any. All right, we're going to go on to public comment on agenda items. Um, Madam Cler, do you have any comment forms? I do not.

Proceed. Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to give public comment on an agenda item or items? Seeing you got public com No. All right, we're going to go to the phones. Uh that's 2317246721. This is time for folks to give comments specifically with regard to one of the remaining agenda items. Good evening. You're with the city of Moskegan City Commission. Please state your name and which agenda items you wish to speak on. They hung up.

Oh. All right. Maybe they were thinking it was general public comment and not just consent agenda, so they weren't ready to speak. All right then. Um, sound like does not look like we have any public comment on agenda items. So, we're going to jump right into our consent agenda. Commissioners, you've had an opportunity to review the consent agenda. Are there any items that you wish to have removed and uh given separate consideration and vote? Commissioner German, item E and G. And oh, no, that's the same. Yeah.

Have one more. Uh, mayor. Yes. Item K also. Okay. Um, with regard to that, Commissioner German, do you have questions about restrictive covenants in general or something specific with regard to each of them because they're both on the same topics just different properties and so just wanted to get clarification if you're looking just to um speak on these workforce housing restrictions generally or for there's something that you want to differentiate between just want to um speak on them generally and also enlighten the public of what's going on in that community since that sides of my ward.

Okay, that's um the case. Would you mind keeping just for in terms of expediency of tonight the efficiency of tonight's meeting would you mind keeping K on the consent agenda since so we're not um duplicating if you follow me because they're both workforce housing restrictive covenants and that two different developers. Yeah, the different property developers but I was just wondering if you were speaking generally on it we could maybe move the meeting forward. We can do them both. We can do them both. I'm just trying to Yeah. be as efficient as possible. I understand and make it quick. Okay. So, you still want um K? Yeah. Okay. Any other items, commissioners?

All right. Uh I would entertain a motion to adopt the consent agenda minus items E, G, H, and K. So moved. What do I miss something? I just didn't hear who pulled. I didn't hear H. I didn't hear H either. Oh, I'm sorry. H was legal counsel suggested we pull H at the same because they're tied to G. They should be pulled at the same time. They want to be doing the same then for each of the others cuz everyone is true. L I mean

well it's the dilemma is if because you're pulling item G. If we approve item H on the consent agenda, but for some reason we don't approve item G, those two are intertwined. Yeah. And so we could potentially be giving them a tax exemption without giving them the requirement that they have the workforce housing. And so they're they're linked. Yeah. Right. Let's let's go with item E and then we'll do G and then um so not not K.

So then we'll just do G and H because those are tied together. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner German. Excuse us. So, I'm going to repeat my request for a motion. Uh, may I have uh I've entertain a motion to adopt the consent agenda minus items E, G, and H. All right. I have a motion by Commissioner Kog, supported by Commissioner Cochen. Um before we go to vote, I just wanted to acknowledge that I did have conversations with our DPW director specifically with regard to um item D, pedestrian warning system on Port City Boulevard. Um specifically with regard to the the different components, the cost, if there are ways to to to defay cost or reduce cost even further. um he explained uh the complexity of this and and the the the components as to why it cost what it does, but we also had conversations around um the need for pedestrian warning signals elsewhere in our city. Um and we spoke about some specific areas. And so those are things he's aware of. Those are things that he's actually uh been working on in different capacities and engaging our community. So I just want to acknowledge that um we are looking at um improved pedestrian warning uh signal systems elsewhere in our city as well. So, if there's nothing else on our consent agenda, roll call, please.

Commissioner Kosan, yes. Commissioner St. Clair, yes. Mayor Johnson, yes. Commissioner Kilgo, yes. Commissioner German, yes. Commissioner Jackson, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Item E, 1183 Pine Street Home Rehab Project. Commissioner German. Yes. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Move to approve the selected contractor for the home rehab project at 1183 Pine Street. Support. We have a motion by Commissioner German, supported by Commissioner Kilgo. Good evening. Kindly introduce yourself and please report out on this item. Good evening. I'm Rhonda Klein. I'm the grants program coordinator for the uh community and neighborhood services department here at the city [snorts] and one of the things that I'm in charge of is the home rehab projects.

Okay. Uh thank you for being here tonight and um one of the questions and just also enlighten the public of what's going on with this uh this property here and the grant and what it's going to be used for. You want me to I'm sorry I missed the first part of that. Just explain to you what the property is. Right. And is this located downtown? It's 1183 Pine Street. It's right on the corner. It's just a residential house and it'll it's vacant and in very bad disrepair and so the city purchased it off the foreclosed property tax role and then we will rehab it and we'll sell it to an income eligible family.

Okay. And um this two three bedroomedroom home or currently it's a two-bedroom one bath and we've reconfigured the floor panel plan. It'll be a threebedroom one bath. Okay. Is that price point what we're looking at? Um once this is u rehabbed, we have to stay um the house has to be affordable to someone who is at what's called the 80% area median income bracket. So typically you can't really sell much higher than 185 in order to be affordable to somebody in that 80% bracket. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

You're welcome. I think Commissioner German Commissioner Kilo is supported with the motion. You have anything to ask or add? I do, Mr. Mayor. Thank you so much. Um, [clears throat] so in the packet, it had some information that we received multiple bids for this rehabilitation. Yes, we received three. And that one or possibly two of the bids didn't have all of their proper information when um when they submitted it. Correct.

And then because all of our bids are sealed until after the deadline, we didn't know that not everyone had all their proper information until after we opened all of the bids. Correct. Correct.

Um so I did have some discussions with Mr. manager earlier today. Something the commission can look at in the future. Um may I if we do possibly in the future move to like an electronic bid um service or something. Um maybe being able to have a popup window or um something that says, "Hey, are you sure you submitted? like here's a checklist so that everyone's bid will count when we get to open them because in this case we picked one of the bids that was I mean they were all well two of them were relatively close to each other but um we would actually be able to have that competitiveness when picking the bid because we kind of gave a reminder but to everyone that we need your list of materials and your you know how much this will cost.

There's a physical checklist in the RFP packet is there. Yep. And it's spelled out um multiple times in the RFP packet that they have to submit a complete bid. Gotcha. And that complete bid, the second page, there's a a list of everything that needs to be included. Okay. Thank you. My second thing is is um do you happen to know and if you don't know, it's totally fine. I can ask staff or the manager later uh who all we put the RFPs out to for the rehabbing of homes. Yep. The RFPs go out on the city social media.

Okay. um just like any city RFP packet. And then um we also um based on the trade any eligible like any contractors in our in the CNS approved contractor list we um we send that information tell them here's a link there is an RFP out in case you want to take a look at it.

Okay. So, for the public to know, these are these RFPs. Well, first of all, let me say, I know you haven't been doing it for years, but the city has the city rehabs homes in the city of Moskegan better than anyone because we put a lot of money into them. I don't want to use the words too much money, but just for contractors or people who know contractors who may be listening, um the the amount of money that um won this bid was around $275,000. Is that correct?

278. Yes. So 278 on 1183 Pine Street, which means if it if this was like open market and we weren't selling it to 80% AMI people, if I put 275,000, I'd sell the house for at least 300,000 or more

if I put that much money into it. Now, just also so everyone knows, part of that 270,000 is lead removal and asbestous removal, which those can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for different stuff depending on what it has. So, so taking into account that we are doing asbestous and lead removal, we still put a significant amount of money into these um properties that the CNS department rehabs. So, I'm just bringing this up and saying it so that more people who may not already be on your list as approved contractors may throw their hat in the ring and be like, "Well, my team, we can rehab a house and make it nice and check all the boxes that need to be checked and get their bids into just so we can have a ton of competition and maybe even rehab more houses. especially if we can do it for a little bit cheaper. Now, I say that because I am super happy to hear that the city's spending more money than they have to to provide a lower income family a nice house. But if we could do it for cheaper, then we could provide more families with nice houses kind of thing. So, uh, hopefully the word will get out there and we'll be able to rehab even more homes and those who put in the bid process, make sure that they dot all their eyes and cross all their tees. Um, so continue to do what you do. I really thank thank you very much, Ra. And that's all I have.

Thank you, Mr. Ko. Yes. Uh and just to expound on the uh question or answer to the question about um how we uh put out the RFPs or or share that in addition to the social media, we do have it on our website um under the the bids page and then we also put it under the news um section under the on our homepage and then we also um email it out so um people can sign up for um getting notifications about any bid opportunities or RFPs. Um, I know I regularly because I've signed up just to make sure that it's being distributed and so I regularly get those emails saying here's a bid opportunity. Here's our RFP. Um, so we try to spread it widely.

Sorry, I didn't should have mentioned it's on it goes it gets posted on mive too if anybody reads print anymore, but that's the public notice is there also. Yes, manager. And I just uh confirmed there's about 500 people on that email list that when the bids go out. So, thank you, Mr. Manager. And um Oh, any other uh questions or comments, commissioners? No. All right. Thank you, Miss Klein. Thank you. Roll call, please. Commissioner St. Clair, yes. Mayor Johnson, yes. Commissioner Kilgo, yes. Commissioner German, yes. Commissioner Jackson, yes. Commissioner Coochin, yes.

Motion passes. Thank you. Uh, next item, G. Workforce housing, restrictive covenant, leaderbore family, letterboard leaderboard. Kind of tricky letter. I may I have a uh Commissioner German. That goes to Yes. Uh, thank you, Mayor. I move to uh motion to approve the workforce housing restricted covenant between the city of Moskegan and Jeff and Nicole Lee the board if and to authorize the mayor and clerk to sign support. Okay, we got a motion by Commissioner Germans supported by Commissioner Kilgo. Uh kindly introduce yourself please report out and let us know how to pronounce that name. Let all right

my name is Jake Ekhol. I'm the director of development services for the city of Moskegan. Um these this item and the it the other item pulled off the agenda immediately following it are a restrictive covenant and resolution related to um MISTA's newish uh statute update which allows for scattered site workforce housing targeted payment in le of taxes projects. So we've done I think with all of them that are on the agenda tonight plus the ones that are already done we're approaching 70 to 75 units of housing um all done with smaller format incremental developers. So, um, some folks are just doing one of these parcels, as you can see. So, a duplex with an accessory dwelling unit, uh, which is, uh, allowable under our recent zoning reforms. Um, these have to be under 120% AMI. They can be, uh, targeted as low in rents as can be accommodated. These particular units, I believe they are looking to do the 70 to 80% AMI range uh, for the three-bedroom, threeb duplexes. So, there's two uh units in the duplex, both three-bedroom, threeb uh and the accessory dwelling unit is a onebedroom, oneb. So, that would be uh just under $800 for the one-bedroom, one bath, which is uh comparable or below um some of our multif family one-bedroom housing stock such as Glenn Oaks, uh Moskegan Town Homes, places like that that offer that one-bedroom, one bath unit uh in a similar geographic area. And then I believe the 3-bedroom 3b units which are,00 ft² they are going to be $14.95 which is substantially lower than most of the rent for similarly sized existing housing stock. So

happy to answer any questions. Mr. Chairman.

Yes. Uh, thank you, Mayor, and thank thank you, Director Ekon, um, for um, giving us an update and um, some insight on what AMI percentage that we were looking at for these um, housing. Um, which was one of my main concerns because um, that area, I'm very familiar with it. Um, actually grew up on that street, so I'm very familiar with it. Um it's good to see some development um finally happen um with the actual um leasing options for um the onebedroom and the three bedroomedroom. Are these duplexes going to have basements or anything like that on

No, I believe they're uh slab on grade. So they have a ground floor unit and an upstairs unit. Okay. Um, will any of them have a alley behind them? Uh, no. They're not alley loaded in most cases. Well, they are alley served in some cases, but they always have the accessory dwelling unit in the rear of the the property. Yeah. And for reference, I think I I mentioned um I don't want to throw any multif family housing stock under the bus. So, um I did check the most recent listings on Glenn Oaks, which is a nearby and it's our largest multif family housing development in the in the city with 660 units. And I think their one-bedroom units range between $8.93 and 11:15 a month right now. Okay. Which is bananas if you grew up here, but that's [laughter] conversation.

Right. Right. Right. So I um you said 70 80% AMI and this is through the like Mista program. Yeah. The MRA rent tables. Okay. So Okay. Thank you. Thank Commissioner German. Commissioner Kog who supported this motion? Yes sir. I think Commissioner

Kog um Director Elcom um I'm looking at the 2025. I'm not sure if the 2026 MISTA limits are out yet. They're not. Okay. I didn't think so. The 2025 has Moskegan County a threeperson 80% AMI would be just under 60,000 $59,40 a month. meaning uh if I was a family of three, I would qualify for any of these um units that are being built in this this pilot.

Yeah. That I you know, when I'm explaining it to neighbors, I often kind of come up with scenarios that exist in the real world. So, you know, two f two full-time employees making $15 to $16 an hour or one uh you know, a single income provider household with two children um can make up to $30 an hour and still access these rental units. Awesome. And um I don't know if there's a way for you to explain um the payment in L of taxes in a easy layman's way,

but basically that's what this program is. The the pilot is a payment in L of taxes. And if you do it this way, you're promising to keep these rents at that that limit. Correct.

Uh indeed, that's correct. So yeah, really quickly an overview of a payment in lie of taxes. So most of us that own traditional homes or even landlords that rent out traditional homes, um we pay what's called advalorum property taxes or taxes based on the value of our property. Um what this our part of this arrangement in exchange for the owner and the developer having to keep those rents uh at those MISTA levels for the affordability period which is 15 years in the case of these households um we agree to accept and instead of the value of the property we accept uh 10% of the collected shelter rents is how the statute defines it. So um that equates to anywhere depending on the format of the property roughly a 50 to 66% tax abatement. Um, and we agree to that in exchange for the affordability requirement on the new construction. Yep. For a period, as I said, it's 10% of rents for 15 years.

Awesome. [clears throat] Thank you. Thanks, Commissioner Kilgo. Commissioners, anything else to ask or add? Nope. All right. Thank uh Mrs. Novak, do you wish to share anything with us before we go to vote? You don't have to, but you're welcome to.

Good evening. Um, I just appreciate the momentum. It's really exciting to hear. I love to even just stay after my agenda items because I really appreciate the strength of the city, the strength of your support growth. I think that's huge to support the community. So, if you have any questions, let me know. Um but this is a really exciting um project. So thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate your commitment to Mskegegan and growing with Mskegegan. Thank you. Roll call, please. Mayor Johnson, yes. Commissioner Kilgo, yes. Commissioner German,

yes. Commissioner Jackson, yes. Commissioner Cochen, yes. Commissioner St. Clair, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Uh next item, H. resolution for housing tax exemption uh for the same property that we were just discussing. May I have a motion? Anyone for this one? Oh, well I Oh, okay. Which one? Okay. Uh let's see. Motion to approve the resolution establishment for the workforce housing annual service fee as presented and authorized the clerk to sign. support.

I have motion by Commissioner German, supported by Commissioner Kilgo. Um, would you care to report out on this for us, please?

Yes, sir. Uh, all the same stuff that I just said, but this is the other document that we have to pass. So, they they [laughter] effectively work in concert and both have to be submitted to Misha um to basically certify that the city has approved the housing tax exemption and that the developer has agreed to enter into an affordability period with us. Mistra then reviews those um files them and sends along something I think they call it a certificate of eligibility that they send to the developer. Um the developer has to share that with the tax assessor in order to get placed the units placed on what they call a special tax role uh which prevents them from being taxed advorum like like most houses are and gets them into that pilot arrangement. Thank you, Dol. Commissioner German, do you have anything to ask or

uh No, no, that was uh pretty straightforward except Thank you. Commissioner Kilog, anything commissioners, anything else to ask or add? No. All right. Thank you, Dol. Thank you. Roll call, please. Commissioner Kilgo, yes. Commissioner German, yes. Commissioner Jackson, yes. Commissioner Cochen, yes. Commissioner Sinclair, yes. Mayor Johnson, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. So, that concludes our consent agenda. We do not have any unfinished business nor new business at this time. So, we'll go to any other business. Um, so

um so we we do have a list of minority contractors. We're always looking to keep that updated. Um so, if anyone has recommendations for that list, uh you can reach out to Kim in my office. I know um you all have her contact information or anyone watching at home, you can call the city manager's office uh and give that to Kim um or Dana uh would be another source to get that to um so then we can uh provide those to people who come in uh who are looking for those type of lists um from us. Uh the um deputy manager Mike Cell, uh Director Grant, and um Miss uh Dana Thompson and I have all been talking about doing some tweaks to uh her duties that would allow her to to do a little bit more on the um getting the word out about um options within the city for different contractors. Um so that is something that that we're looking at too. So

Okay. Yep. Yeah. Yes. And is it any way we can keep track of that? um when these contractors uh bid or get these jobs, we have the data to back it up and to see the uh actual um outcome of uh like someone that's doing concrete, you know, get a contract and we can say 2026 um this on this project um such and such company contract company from or whatever, you know, you know what I mean?

Yeah. So in depending on the type of contract are there are reporting requirements that come in for federal contracts and things like that that's obviously tweaked a little bit recently. Um but uh development services and and different uh divisions within the city are getting better at tracking uh a variety of different things through programs. Director Ekholm will be not specifically on this but on our infill housing program. We'll be reporting out uh in the next couple of months about the success that we've had in our uh previous waves of housing and including who's who's living there um where they lived before and things like that. So, we are working to track those type of things um more diligently.

Right. Right. And and just a followup there um because I I truly believe we have to be intentional u when we look at um who's getting these contractors and make sure that it's equitable and fair. Also, um I talked about before um a lot of these infield housing projects that's um that took place and who's getting in those houses, who's buying those houses, um um you know, what ethnicity and um to make sure that, you know, we're not looking like we're gentrifying areas. um we're having a fair and equitable opportunity for people to buy houses from all walks of life. So um I'd like to see data on that also

and that's that's exactly what Director Ecom will be reporting out on in March I believe is the plan right now um to get some of those questions answered. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you Mr. D. Thank you Madam Chair. Commissioner Koko.

Yes. On this topic and then I do have one other um piece of business. Um, as far as my minority contractors go, uh, I I know almost every minority contractor in our area and I talk to them on a regular basis and every single one of our minority contractors know that if they weren't getting a fair shot that they could reach out to me or any of our commissioners. So, I don't want to So, I'm directing my works to the chair because we're supposed to direct our works to the chair, but I don't want the public to think that minority contractors in Moskegan don't get a shot. Minority contractors in Moskegan are so busy that sometimes they're putting off business for weeks because they're fooled up. If minority contractors feel like they've been slighted, um, burned, been discriminated against, please contact me or our offices at any time because we wouldn't stand for that if that was happening.

As far as who's buying houses, it's almost like it's almost like minority contractors, right? We have to continue to educate. We have to continue to educate people so we have more electricians, plumbers, contractors, uh just like we need to educate people on how to buy houses. We cannot discriminate on who buys houses, but we can educate the people that live, work, and already play here in Moskegan to buy these houses. There are houses, there are new construction houses under $200,000, which you won't find anywhere else in West Michigan, but we have them here in Moskegan, and they're still sitting there, and they're just sitting there. We have to educate people who want to buy a house. Here's how you buy a house. And there's tons of ways to do that. I'm not plugging myself. I'm saying that between all of our nonprofits and different programs like the equity empowerment program and other nonprofits in our community, we have ways where people can learn how to buy houses. That way, people that already live here can get into those houses. You all know I preach about housing education all the time. It's not for any of my own benefit as far benefit so that those people that grew up here and live here can buy these new houses that are going up. The train of construction is not going to stop in Moskegan. We're going to build affordable housing. We're going to build workforce housing. And those out on the lake, we're going to build that luxury housing. And every house is not for every person. But if someone wants to buy a house, whether it's a house in the historic district or one of the new constructions in in the Angel neighborhood or uh in the Nelson neighborhood, we can teach people how to buy those houses so that our community continues to remain diverse. And if I may, Mr. Mayor, I have one other piece of business.

Yes, please. At our last meeting, there was a citizen who spoke at public comment, and I thank her for speaking up at public comment. She had some she didn't name names against me, but I do know that she was talking about me. Um, and I was told that um when I'm out at a public forum that I should not curse. I was uh at a public forum speaking about ICE and it was a memorial for Renee Good who was shot and killed in Minneapolis. Since that meeting, there's been another American citizen shot and killed, Alex Pedi. And I want to say his name and I want to say her name because this may not be Minneapolis, Minnesota. It's Moskegan, Michigan, but we are still a border state. ICE does operate in our state and they could be here in our city next. So, we have to remain viligent. We have to remain diligent and I will continue to speak out and maybe I can do it with more tact so that I don't hurt people's feelings but I'd rather hurt people's feelings and use the language and use the words that I need to use to get the point across so that American citizens remain safe so that our law enforcement our federal law enforcement officers follow the constitution. Why? because our local officers here in Moskegan and our state officers and the Michigan State Police follow the Constitution and they follow the law. Our federal officers should do the same thing and we have to um we have to be consistent across the board. If we only defend rights when it's convenient or benefits our side, then we don't actually believe in those rights. So, we have to be consistent across the board at all times. Thank you.

Thank go. Yes, Commissioner Jackson.

First, I would like to agree with what Commissioner Kilgo just said in the sentiments about um ICE in our community and taking a stance. But then to go back to to go back to home buyer education, um there is going to be a home buyer education class um Saturday, January 31st, 9:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. at Moskegan Heights Library. So that would be a very good opportunity for anyone who is looking to purchase a home to um take place in that um opportunity. right here in our neighborhood. Um, so I just thought that would be a good opportunity to bring that up. And if anyone didn't hear, I did say I echo exactly what Commissioner Kilgo said um, in his words about ICE in our community and staying true to who we are in Moskegan community here.

Thank you, Commissioner Jackson. Um on that um subject do want to uh this has been communicated before. It was communicated last year um just about a year ago actually a year ago to the date to the day uh January 27th 2025. This was um first shared by our public safety uh division and by our our chief um as well. And so I do want to share it again now and um nothing has changed in terms of our position um on this and that is that the Moskegan Police Department is not an immigration enforcement agency. Our police department has not um had contact with federal agencies regarding immigration. Have we had any recent contact since then? No, we've had no contact with federal agencies regarding immigration enforcement in the city of Moskegan. The MSG Police Department will not arrest or detain anyone based on their immigration status. We do not ask that as part of stops. We do not um enforce on that independently. The Moskegan Police Department does not check immigration status during any interaction with public. If immigration related documents are shared with the MSG Police Department, they will not be shared with other agencies or entities. And to quote our chief, uh the city of Moskegan is a multicultural and welcoming community. The MSG Police Department is aware of the anxiety and concerns surrounding federal changes in immigration enforcement and policy. Um, Chief Kos stands committed to protecting all members of our great community. We are committed to ensuring every person feels safe and supported when interacting with our department. This trust is critical. Um, and that the mission of the MS MSG Police Department is to quote to serve and protect the diverse community of the city of Mskegegan with integrity, professionalism, and compassion. We are committed to fostering trust, promoting safety, and enhancing the quality of life for all residents and guests through proactive policing, community partnerships, innovative solutions, and providing a safe environment for growth and prosperity. Um, we do have that statement um still on our website um and in Spanish as well. Um so it is available for um us to communicate and

share that um with members of our community to to reassure as to our um stance and how we uh conduct ourselves here in the city of Michigan. But uh we are definitely a diverse and welcoming community and we wish to uh continue to be a welcoming uh community and safe for all. Commissioner Kosan, did you have something?

Uh yes, thank you. Um I I agree with everybody up here and I appreciate you, Mr. mayor for um reiterating u what Chief Kosell said. Um I think that's something that's really important to our residents. Um that they know that the city of Moskegan is going to uphold the constitution. They're not going to be racially profiling and they're they're not going to be cooperating with ICE. We have enough on our plate. We do not need to add anything else. So, uh I'm I'm really thankful for that. I also wanted to mention and and thank um Miss and Miss McKinley and several of the commissioners and Mr. Mayor um for stepping up and helping out with the recent community outreach in regards to the unhoused during the cold weather event recently. The things that you guys did helped save lives and it is really appreciated. Um there are still people that are at the church in the Heights. Um they will be there through Saturday at this point and they have shelter in the evening as well as during the daytime at another facility and transportation because of this community effort. And I would love to see us continue working towards a cold blue type of emergency plan because as you've stated before and I know I've stated before, climate change is real. It's it's happening and part of that is extreme cold and we are going to see more people out in those elements as we're seeing the economy slow down and some people struggling with housing. So, it's really important that we have a plan in place and I appreciate everybody who stepped up and helped.

Thank you, Commissioner Coachin. Um, as was mentioned just now, the Covenant Community Church over at 134 uh East Barney Avenue will continue to serve as a temporary shelter through Saturday morning. Um, if you want to help with that, you can contact the church. You can contact um there's a a Facebook page um the giving table um and so you can reach out to them. they are in need of volunteers to to stay at uh the the temporary shelter um as well as breakfast uh this week. Um like you said, they they stay overnight and then go to another facility. Um so that is an option for folks right now. And then of course the Moskegan Rescue Mission uh continues to operate its men's shelter as well as its women's and um family shelter. And they also have the community resource center there. and they're always in need of uh support as well, whether it's, you know, resources, financial contributions or or volunteering. And so, we do have opportunities in our community to to to step up and pitch in. And I really appreciate that we have such a kind and generous community and we saw our community step up um when needed and it's community helping community and that is beautiful to see and it is a reflection of the magnificence of our city and our greater Moskegan community. So, thank you um again for that, Commissioner Coachin and Commissioner Sinclair. I'll go back to you, Commissioner Go, but Commissioner Sinclair.

Thank you. I um want to wholeheartedly support everyone's um thoughts about ICE in our community and in our world and the the need for people to use all of the words available to them even if you are sometimes uncomfortable. Um the these are very uncomfortable times and it's important to speak in ways that people hear. Um so I I will offend people and I understand that and there is nothing that I can do that isn't offensive because I will be offensive if I keep my mouth closed and I will be offensive if I open my mouth. So again, I will use all the words available to me to speak out. Um, I also wanted to um uh let people know that there is another opportunity to help um with the unhoused population. Tomorrow is the um pit count, the point in time count. Um they are still taking volunteers if that is something that is available to you. I know not everybody is able to go out in the middle of the night in these particular uh weather conditions and and trump around looking for people. Um but if you have that capacity, you can go to the United Way website. There's a banner up at the top. It's very easy to sign up. The shifts are three hours. Um expect to be outside about an hour and a half. So um it's not all night and it's um for many people it's doable. Um I did get an email today saying that they are still open to more volunteers. So um what that consists of is people going out into the community and

um doing a manual count of anyone that is unhoused. Um, and that information goes to um provide us with with as close to an accurate count as we can get. It's never accurate enough. And if you are aware of of places that you know that people are sheltering that maybe isn't widely known, I would encourage you to reach out to the United Way and share that so that it will get put on the map. Um, but that uh historically our pit count is never very accurate because it's really hard to find people and there's never enough volunteers and this always happens in the middle of the night in the middle of the winter and it's it's hard to do but um it is it is one of our best opportunities to get an idea of what we're really working with. So again, if that is something that is available to you, it is tomorrow night. um runs from 9:00 in the evening until 6:00 in the morning. So, I

think Commissioner Zinc there. It's going to be an adventure when Yes. you and I go out there tomorrow night. Oh, it's going to be cold. Uh Commissioner Kilo returning to you. Wait, before I return to you, um well, we already we've already heard from everybody once then. So, I'm going go back to Commissioner uh Kilgo. Yep. I just wanted to shout out Vice Mayor Keenir um for her efforts. I know that she uh has been cooking meals for some of the unhoused folks and and stuff. So, thank you uh Vice Mayor here. Here. And also um yeah, cuz she was just doing breakfast over there uh the other day at the church. Um also wish to um that's where you're Oh, cross. Okay. I didn't understand the word. What is that word? Um

I got to write clear. [laughter] I do also want to um recognize our uh team at city hall uh for stepping up. There was a need um with the temper shelter at the um Covenant Community Church. Um the have 35 to 40ish people that have been staying there. Um there was a need for showering facilities. Um they did not have showering facility at the church and so needed showering facilities. Um and so talked with our city manager and um DBW uh director Dan Vanderhid stepped up to make some of our facilities available um today and tomorrow on this temporary basis um for showering um and our public safety um director Chief Kel also supported that um with from a public safety perspective. Um so I just want to say thank you to our public works our public safety our city manager um for quickly coordinating to to make these facilities um available. Um, thank you.

And thank you to the staff who volunteered to Yes, we had we had to ask staff to stay late uh for that. So, thank you. I don't know which exact staff members did that, but please um convey our appreciation. Thank you. All right. Yes, Commissioner German. Yeah, thank you, Mayor. Um I didn't get a chance to say anything about um the topic on ICE, and I share the same sentiment as my fellow commissioners. Um, you know, we we start our meetings out with prayer, you know, and I heard uh Commissioner St. Clair say she's going to speak up, you know. I feel that same way. You know, I heard heard Dr. Martin Luther King say it comes a time with silence become betrayal,

you know, and I've always tried to advocate and speak up for the less fortunate. And I continue. You know, there's a scripture that talks about the immigrant. Uh Matthews 25:35, I was a stranger and you welcomed me. Jesus connects welcoming the stranger with welcoming him. Then Ephesians 2:19, you are no longer a foreigner or stranger, but a fellow citizens with God's people. And when we start to pray and have godly like minds, we should act like God's people. And I think the city is doing a good job putting that information out, leading by example. And we have to get people to come together because we, like Commissioner Kilgo said, we can be next. You know, I've met um Attorney General uh Keith Ellison and uh did some demonstrations since the marches um down in um Minnesota um several years ago and I know what that area is like. And actually, I'm not going to lie, I was scared for my life, you know, but this is things that Dr. Martin Luther King talked about. um a lot of the other leaders um you know Malcolm X you know he talked about things that would happen in our communities and um Gustapo tactics and whether don't care whether you're you know rich, poor, black, white, um we could be faced with these same type of situations. So we really have to come together and unify as a city um as people and and support one another. So, um I just want to say um I stand with my fellow commissioners and the city of Moskegan and to um continue to work in the best interest of this community and the people. So,

thank you, Commissioner German.

All right. Anything any last uh items to share for any other business? None. Okay. We're going to go to public comment. This is an opportunity to folks to give um public comment directly to the city commission sharing your perspective and input. It is not time for Q&A. We're not um we're not going to go back and forth. We're not going to have that uh necessary dialogue. If you do have questions, you're welcome to pose them. Um and we can, you know, follow up if you want to have a dialogue. We can also schedule specific meetings so that we can sit down and have that that dialogue. But public comments, uh more an opportunity for uh members of our community to speak directly to the city commission and share their perspective and input. So I see we got a taker for public comment. Please uh state your name and if you are a city of Moskegan resident, which neighborhood you're coming from and if you're not a city resident, which other where else you might be coming from?

Sure. Uh Eric Payne. I'm a resident of Hudsonville. Um we have been remodeling and had rental homes in Moskegan for the last 20 years. Um currently have rentals in Ottawa, Moskegan, and Clare counties. Uh our construction company employs roughly 24 people. Um, this is more of just a sentiment to to chat about a problem without a solution. And you guys prompted me to come up here and just mentioned that minority owned businesses are very important. Um, I've taken classes at Davenport and uh, Moskegan Community Colleges, but we are very limited on who applies for various programs in order to help them. I'm the past president of the Lakeshore Homebuilders Association. I'm on the board of directors of the Better Business Bureau. And I think our problem actually is not trying to award work to different classes. It's trying to educate different classes on how to get into business. Um, and it's not a Q&A. I just felt the need to mention that that is where we should be focusing some of our efforts.

Thank you, Mr. Payne. Appreciate you sharing that. Is there anyone else in the audience that wishes to give public comment at this time? We're going to go to the phones. That number is Oh, yes. Mr. Riley joining us from the Sheldon uh park neighborhood. Yes. Uh Pastor Dwayne Riley, I just wanted to uh sitting here. I just want to commend this uh commission commissioners for what you said about the situation and the condition of our country. And uh it energizes me to do more. And I just want to tell y'all, you're doing a great job and I thank God for you. Each and every one of you. Thank you.

Thank you, Pastor Riley. All right, last call from audience. We're going to go to the phones. That's 231-724-6721. Uh when you're calling in, please turn down any audio in the background. State your name. If you're a city of Moss resident, which neighborhood uh you're calling from, and if you're not a city of Mskan resident, where else you may be calling from? We have a call. Good evening. You're with the city of Mskegan City Commission.

Hi there. This is Angel calling. I am a resident of Moskegan County, but I have my business downtown on Third Street. I wanted to just quick commend all of the commissioners that spoke up to ease the community's fears on what is happening at a federal level. And I just wanted to add some further context. I know that, you know, it's important to stand up for the people, but it's also important to stand up for the veterans. I feel like the government, you know, our government in general has long used the military as kind of a talking point, but now we're at the point where it's time to actually stand for what veterans were willing to give their lives for. And what I see is federal um agencies violating constitutional protected rights left and right. In addition, it just came out in M Minneapolis that the police chief went to Israel to train um with their military. We don't know for sure what he was training or what he was there to learn, but if it's happening directly, I think I said it was Milwaukee. If I didn't, it was it was not Mayus. It was Milwaukee. Directly across the lake, there are police chiefs being propositioned to go to Israel to receive training from an entity that is committing a genocide. And so, it's not only concerning for our people that are being disappeared or being murdered in broad daylight, but also for the military that you keep on sending off to to protect these rights and then we're just going to let the fascism walk in the front door. Our oath was to protect this nation and this constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. And I think that it's important to just have plans and be

ready and, you know, hopefully our the law there, the legal representative can potentially have lawsuits ready to file on behalf of our people so that we can try to slow the administration down and stand by the people and stand by our military. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Appreciate you phoning in or Miss appreciate you phoning in your comments.

Thanks. I'm still taking phone calls. If anyone wishes to phone in uh their input number 7246721 would hit it. All right. Does not sound like we have any additional callers. Commissioners, I entertain a motion to adjurnn.

Some moved. All right. We have a motion by Commissioner Kilgra, supported by everybody [laughter] to adjourn. All in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. I. All oppose, same sign. We are journ. Thank you. Take care and be well.