City Of Muskegon Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat. Yeah, I didn't get the email that it was happening. What happened? Good evening good folks and welcome to the city of Mskegegan city commission work session for this Monday February 8th 9th yes February

9th 2026 uh may we have a roll call please Commissioner German here Commissioner Jackson here Mr. Coin here. Commissioner St. Clair here. Mayor Johnson here. Commissioner Kilgo absent. Vice Mayor Kenir. Yes. All right. We have quorum. We're going to get right into our business. And first up is intend to bond conversation with regard to our sewer system that's being led by our city manager.

Yes. Um, so we are going to have our um both individuals who help with our bonding um uh Pat McGau and Warren Kramer. They're going to be joining us uh by Zoom. Uh and we're going to be having a conversation about the bonding process that we go through. Uh so this is the first step in the process which is called an intent to bond. And so, um, Pat and Warren will kind of talk through what that process looks like, why we do it now, how long that lasts for, uh, why the amounts are what the amounts are because they're they're larger than what our individual bonding amounts are, and just kind of uh, walk through that because we do have a number of commissioners who have not done an intent to bond before. um it is a little bit of a different process and I just wanted to walk through that and then also so that you can uh get to know Pat and Warren who do great work on behalf of the city and then um we also have Pria Newhoff here as well to answer questions about different things and then Dan is here as well. So cool. So I will um I see Warren there. Um do we have is Pat here yet or we might

not Patrick Macau is here? I I'm here. I'm trying to I'm not getting video. So, I'm trying to do it from my second video. Technical difficulties. No problem. So, bear with us for one moment. Okay. Okay. Okay. Nope. I'm echoing echoing.

Unmuted. Unmuted. Okay, that should work better. That should work better. Can folks hear me now? Folks hear me now? Folks hear me now. Yeah, we can hear you, Pat. We're working on a working audio issue on audio issue on audio issue on audios.

Well, that echo might have been my two things open at the same time.

It worked great this morning. Hey, it's, you know, this is technology. We just roll with it. We call our children. All our children.

Try talking. Try it now. Try it now. Still a little bit of an echo. Sounds like sounds like Pat and Warren, why don't you try talking and see if there's a feedback there? Any feedback now? I'll speak to anything uh Yeah, we are getting a little bit of an echo. We've got our IT folks just walked into the room, too. We did test this morning and it worked.

Yeah. Yeah. Testing. One, two, three. Sound check. Sound check. should be here. Can you try talking again? I don't think they can hear you. Was it on mute? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Yeah. It's still not It's still coming out.

So, you want the audio?

Yeah. Get rid of that.

So, so just this one.

So, this one says That one's green. speakers instead. So turn out just one USB audio.

This should be audio also. This is day two. I should be sending out these rooms before. Yeah. But I say I say there's

Hey Pat and Warren, we're gonna start and hopefully that will solve the problem.

I mean, it's kind of cool. It's kind of cool. It's kind of cool, right? Hey, Jonathan. Hey, Jonathan. Jonathan. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Signed off. Yeah, that that that's what we're going to do. That's what we're going to do. That's what we're going to do. Admiral as well. Admiral as well as

so dry rehearsal this morning went well. Um and then technology has other things still. Oh, I know why. So, one of the reasons that both Pat and Warren are joining us virtually is uh Warren's uh out of a law firm in Metro Detroit. Um and Warren lives in Traverse City. Um so rather than them having to come in for a 30 minute meeting, this would be a little bit easier. So yeah,

you did it to go to Detroit for the conferences education. Are we still getting a little bit of echo in here? No. Okay, it stopped. I practiced it this morning. No, I just I p No, I practiced this morning. It all worked great. Yeah. And it worked really well. Like first time. Yeah.

Yeah. Don't open Zoom yet. I'll look at it real quick. Make sure one moment before you do anything. Go in here. sound settings. These are correct. See, it says join instead of start. Can I end it and then start it? invited them

there. See, it was on there.

Wait, wait. Is it opening the app? No. Okay, I didn't push that. It did. The app's open down there. So, you got two of them going on, but I didn't tell it to. So, the web one started and the Yep. We're going to close this one and then we're going to go into Is it in the browser? No. See, app. Okay. Start there.

I'll do the audio real quick. So, there were two um Yeah. participant. You already in there is in there. Return to me. Return to meeting this.

That's that that's something else. Yeah, that's the next meeting.

This is what you're in here. This one. I knew it.

Okay. Good morning. Um, I think what we might do is try to do a conference call on our system. Uh, and see if that works. Although, are we getting are you guys still getting feedback right now?

Not from you, but it's Well, it wasn't as bad as it was when someone else was talking a minute ago. Hey, Warren, can you try and talk? Yeah, happy. I'd be happy to send our teams invite and maybe we can all join with that. I think the issue is something with our audio on our end. So, I think we would still have the same issue, but it seems a little less um it seems a little less of an issue right now. Yeah, we're hearing you pretty clearly right now. I think we just

Okay, cool. Awesome. So, now it looks like we've got our technology issues figured out. Um, so I'll reset for everybody involved. Um, for those watching at home, uh, we're going to do uh a presentation. This is kind of a uh a bonding 101, if you will. Um, with uh Pat and Warren. Uh Pat is our uh bond counsel and he is in Detroit. Uh Warren works on our bond placements and he is up in Traverse City, which is why they're joining us virtually. Uh because we have several commissioners who have not done an intent to bond before and this is the first step in the bonding process. I wanted uh Pat and Warren to walk us through what it is we're doing, why we're doing it, why the amount of the money that we're going to intent to bond for is uh higher than the amount that we'll actually do individual bonds for and how that works. So, um, Pat and Warren, I will pass it off to both of you and then when we get to the end, uh, that's where we'll have questions for the commissioners.

Great. Well, I'll I'll kick it off then and then I'll let Warren chime in after that. So, uh, my name is Pat McGau. I am a bond lawyer, uh, which means that I represent cities, counties, villages, townships, all kinds of governmental entities on, uh, projects to raise money, uh, financings to raise money for projects. So I have worked with the city of Mskegegan for about the last 15 plus years. I did work with a lot of the TIFF entities before that. One of my partners had worked with the city for a number of years. So I'm very familiar with the city's bond issues. Had a little feedback there. Are you hearing me? Okay, Jonathan. Turn the volume down. Yes. Yes. Okay.

Okay. So, uh, what I want to do is just tee up the item that you have before you tonight and just kind of talk about bonds generally in two different categories. Uh, many of you have probably seen bonds. Some of you obviously have on your city commission tenure. Uh, but bonds are often in a couple different categories. Um, many of you are used to seeing school bonds which require people to go to the ballot and approve them at an election. That is not what we're going to be talking about tonight. Most city bond issues are not approved by the voters. There are a lot of different statutes that authorize cities to issue bonds to raise money to build projects. What we're going to talk about here tonight uh are the issuance of revenue bonds to pay for some water and sewer projects. I just want to start by saying that the city currently has uh both general obligation bonds, most of which are capital improvement bonds that paid for things like building projects. So, the convention center, uh improvements to the 911 facility, road improvements, uh other infrastructure improvements have been done by the city, housing projects through the issuance of general obligation bonds. What we're going to talk about tonight uh is the issuance of revenue bonds. Revenue bonds are bonds which are backed by the revenues of your water system or your sewer system. So the idea is that the city pays them with the user charges from the utility bills and taxes are not used to pay back those bonds. Uh right now the city has um a variety of water and sewer bonds that it's issued over the last decade or so to pay for water and sewer projects. And the process uh is um the bonds may be issued without a vote of the people. However, the statutory process allows

voters to submit referendum petitions if they want to trigger an election on the issuance of the bonds. So the really issued in two steps. Uh tonight you have before you the first step uh for for the sewer project which is the authorization of a notice of intent resolution. This is the first step in the bond issue which is essentially the city saying we in intend to issue revenue bonds in an amount not to exceed X dollars over the next several years to pay for various sewer projects. The bonds can be issued without a vote of the people unless a referendum petition is signed and filed within 45 days.

Are you getting feedback from me there? Yeah, we're getting we're getting uh try again here. Um yeah, it looks like maybe if you're muted that might reduce that.

Um So, what you have before you tonight is a notice of intent resolution for sewer bonds in an amount not to exceed $15 million to pay for various projects. Now, the city has been taking advantage of a state program that the state runs for water and sewer projects called the state revolving fund that offers lowinterest loans subsidized by federal funding and offers grant and principal forgiveness. So, this has been a great deal uh that the city has done really this program the city has used several times since 2020 for both water and sewer projects. And so, each year the city applies for funding and the state has a priority list. Lately, the city has been doing about 3 to5 million worth of projects each year uh for sewer. And what we're asking for tonight is to authorize bonds in an amount not to exceed $15 million for the next several years worth of projects that the state may do through this revolving fund. So even though uh the expectation is that this year's project is only about $3.4 million and some of that is going to be forgiven uh through principal forgiveness. We're asking for approval of a notice of intent for not to exceed 15 million because that will cover the next several years worth of projects. We are not on the agenda asking for authorization for water projects tonight because the city did uh this step for uh water last year when it authorized not to exceed $30 million actually I'm sorry in 2024 $30 million to projects for the next several years. So, the city has some remaining capacity under that that it is able to use for this year's water projects. So, tonight's action item is to authorize the notice of intent resolution, which would authorize up to

$15 million um for the next several years worth of projects. This doesn't obligate you to borrow at that amount or even to issue the bonds at all. Uh but it does satisfy that first step requirement. we would come back to you in late June or July to authorize the bonds for this year's financings for water and sewer and it would indicate the dollar amounts for this year's projects at that time. So that's essentially what's before you tonight. I'm going to throw it over to Warren and then we can maybe take questions after that to talk a little bit about the city's debt and how that this process works from the financial side.

Well, Patrick, you got me looking. I I realize I actually think we did our first sewer SRF deal in 19 and our water was 2019 as well. So, um just to back up, uh my name is Warren Kramer. I'm a municipal financial advisor with MFCI. We are regulated by the SEC and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. uh we assist um you know the the city uh with the necessary application requirements to participate in the uh clean water and drinking water revolving loan funds. Um so we do a lot of work again with your engineer prihog Pat McGau again with all parts of you know one and two of the loan and we assist in finalizing uh part three of the loan for both programs uh with pride and newhoff. Um we assist uh in preparing bond specifications uh with bond counsel. Um we prepare the materials necessary to apply and attain um an investment grade rating as required for participation and the pro uh in the programs. And we also assist the working group uh with the closing of the financing.

Patrick, you covered most of it, my friend. You did great. Well, it's my I prepared the resolution that's before you tonight, so I had most of the talking. Um I thought maybe we'd want to turn it over for questions about this financing or other financings in particular. uh as long as you have the team here and again uh we work closely with obviously the city manager's office, the finance director and the public works department in kind of putting these projects together for the financings. So uh with that we'll be happy to answer questions from folks. Thank you gentlemen. Thank you gentlemen. Commissioners commissioners Commissioner German. Yes. Thank you mayor and good evening.

Good evening. Well I got to echo here. Um um on the project scope and necessities. Um, you mentioned um that the bond won't exceed $15 million if I heard you correctly. Um, but the project that we're looking at is about, did I hear you say 4.5 million? Uh, so this year's project is estimated to be $3.4 million. Oh, 3.4. Okay. That's for drinking water. Okay. No, that's the sewer project. I thought the loan was 4.3 uh with principal forgiveness of 650.

Oh, you know what? You're correct. I had them flipped. Thank you. Okay. So, which which number are we talking about now for the project? Warren, what's the amount of the sewer project? Uh sewer project uh total loan uh net loan it's well 5 million uh with a net loan of $4,350 after $650,000 of principal forgiveness.

Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. um far as an interest rate on these um bonds, what are we looking at? How would that be determined? 2%. Yeah. So, the the state revolving fund program has a fixed rate. It's a subsidized rate of 2% for both the water project and the sewer project, which is significantly less than what the current market would be. And that's because it's it's a special rate through the state funded by federal funds. Okay. And that 2% is over 20 years or 30 years. 30 years.

Years for the clean for the drinking water financing. Okay. That's all questions. Thank hard to hear. Anyone else have questions, Commissioner Coach? I do, but I Okay, I hope you can hear me. Okay. Um, I the big question I have for the constituents at home are what are some of the pros for this type of bond versus some of the cons? Well, immediately I think Pat just mentioned was the subsidized rate.

Um, In today's market, given the city's current outstanding rating for its revenue bonds, uh we'd be looking for it, just just use a 20-year financing as an example, we'd be looking at a rate of approximately 4% and your effective rate through the state's program is half that. And the other benefit is that going through this program, the state in is providing federal grant funds or principal forgiveness, which means they will give you the money that you do not have to pay back. Um, a couple years ago when there were a lot of federal funds, that was up to 50% of some of the projects. Now, it's a smaller number, but it's still a significant amount that you wouldn't be able to get through any other type of financing other than going through this program through the state. So, and that that's why the city has been doing several projects a year because it's really a way to not only get a low borrowing cost, but you're also getting free money in terms of grant money from the federal government in the state.

So, I'm not hearing any downsides. Are there any downsides? You got to pay it back. Fair. Yeah. The downside is that the rates need to, you know, be set in order to pay back the debt service. So, obviously, every infrastructure system has a lot of needs and I think one thing that the city has done is is do the periodically and take advantage of these programs to reduce that cost as much as possible to the rateayers. uh if you did nothing uh then you know you might not need to raise that revenue but your system would deteriorate quickly and it would be much more expensive to repair and make those improvements later than it is today.

Thank you. Anything else to ask commissioners? You got another thing that maybe Yeah. Um I guess this would be to the city manager. When was the last time we did assessment or um on our sewer um infrastructure? Uh so we've done well as we go through and do uh different projects, we're assessing where things are at. But um the last time we did a systemwide one, yeah, was 2017. 2017.

And that and that we're using as a basis for for as we move through our projects on where we're going to be doing different projects in the system. Um, and we also couple that with other infrastructure needs that we're looking at regarding whether it's road, water, sewer, all those different things together. But and that that was a saw grant. Yeah. Yeah. So, we're asking for a $15 million bond intent. Intent. Yeah. So, so it's the intent to bond just saying so it'll cover us for that period of time by through that legal notice and then we'll come back for smaller bond amounts until that is exhausted. Okay.

So, yeah. So, so we've done this in the past and we've exhausted that not that intent to bond notice from the past. Okay. How many years are we looking to repay this? Um I believe Warren said 30 years. 30 years. 30 years. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds about your maximum amortization period for the clean water program uh is 30 years and the maximum amortization uh for the drinking water is 40 years from the date of issuance.

And and just a clarification thing for those watching at home and for the commissioners, clean water means sewer. Drinking water means the stuff that comes out of your tap. Um, so sometimes because it says clean water, people think that's the drinking water. But yeah, the city has typically done these warrant over 20 years. Correct. Yeah.

Okay. a question on um you stated mentioned the petition um that voters could actually uh act on if necessary excuse me or if they choose to got a cold um what is the timeline for that?

Yes. So, this bond statute says uh that once the commission adopts the resolution uh if you take action at your meeting uh on February 24th, then the city clerk is authorized to publish the notice in the newspaper, the Moskegan News. And once that is published, that starts a 45day period. So during that period uh citizens could prepare a petition, get signatures and it would have to be filed with the city clerk within 45 days of the date of publication of that notice and it would need to be signed by at least 10% of the registered voters of the city in order to trigger uh an election. uh that has not happened in the past. And if that 45day period expires, then we just continue to proceed uh with the project design and then we would come back to you this summer once the construction bids come in and we're ready to move forward with the financing.

Thank you for that. That does align with my notes. Um as for let's see for financial structure or negotiation or competitive sales. Um how will the bonds be sold to get the best interest rate? The bods are actually purchased by the state.

Yeah. So, this is considered a placement. It's kind of a negotiated sale except we already know what the interest rate is. And the interest rate is that 2% program rate. They announced that at the beginning of the year, which as Warren said is significantly better than interest rates in the bond market today. And if we had to finance this publicly, there are additional costs associated with a public offering of these bonds outside of the state's program. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have nothing else, mayor.

All right. Uh thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate you joining us this evening to present on this letter of intent and the process for bonding. Um looks like we've exhausted the questions from the commission. So, uh, enjoy the rest of your evening. Thank you. Great. Appreciate you. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, gentlemen. Take care. Be well. Take care. Be well.

All right. Moving on to the next item, unless there's any uh final questions for staff or thoughts to share before moving on to the next item. See? No. Oh, did you have something? You want a quick piece of clarification? I know that's not echoing so much. It's true. I didn't want it to take up everyone's time. Um I thought I heard them saying that this is not something that the constituents are going to be seeing on their water bills. Is that accurate?

So this is this is paid through um revenue bonds or sorry through revenue through the system. We have a debt service fee. And so anytime that we issue any bonds on a project, one of the bits of information that we put is how much it will impact that debt service fee. So what the action you're going to take on the 24th doesn't impact anybody's rate or any debt service fee. It's just saying we have the ability to um you know our credit card can go up to this amount for these type of projects and then we go out on individual projects um and that's when that will get put onto the bills for the following year. So, um, so we're very transparent about how that works through when we actually go to bond. Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. And that'll be known each time before we go to bond, what the impact on the debt service fee would be. Um, and then once the principal is forgiven, we adjust the debt service fee uh to reflect the correct the principal forgiveness as well. So, it will be reduced. Yeah. And that's that's one of the reasons we do it. If I may. Yes, please. M. That's one of the reasons we do the debt service fee as opposed to adding it into the rate. Um, so then that way we make sure that it's it's falling off when that debt is paid off and we're not just keeping it in there. So yeah. Thank you. All right. And if there's nothing else, we're going to move on to the next item. That's the beach warning system update and it's proposal and our Good evening, sir. Kindly introduce yourself and please report out on this item.

Hello, my name is Cochesky, director of parks and recreation for the city of Moskegan. I was going to zoom in, but I don't want to do that. Um, we're going to pull up the presentation and then we're going to have Jacob um from Swims Smart call in. He's calling now. Okay. So, he can be on the line with us and help out and and jump in um where we may need him. All right. Excellent. He's on. Okay. All right, Jacob. Uh, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Can you hear me?

Yes, I can. All right. Great. Well, we'll go through the presentation and um as commission has questions, we could we can uh work together on them. Wait till you pull it up so we can have the visual here. All right.

Is that in the work session packet or is it not? Yes, it's in the packet. you maybe want to give a little bit of intro on how we got to where we're at right now while she pulls that up.

Yes. So, you know, as I've we've uh brought up a couple of times the we had a very big car um parks capital improvement plan in 2024 where we had about 40 items of park improvements that we wanted to make. Um one of the large items on there was beach safety upgrades. And so what we have currently is we have two of the the stoplight warning systems at Pier Marquette. Um one at each bathroom. Um one is is going to be turned. Uh the other ones faces uh is at Beach Cove right over by the deck. So, what this proposal is is we really wanted to to make an upgrade of those so that anyone who comes to our beaches, no matter where you park, where you pull in at, uh, you're going to get a good idea of what what Lake Michigan is doing at that time. Um, as we all know, a lot of times there can be rip currents, there can be other things going on in the water that that you can't really tell um, just with the eye. So, Swims Smart is the only group that that is involved um in the whole country with this automated beach safety warning system. They work with Noah in Grand Rapids to give real time updates. Um and it's it's fully automated this whole system that that they do. So, with those two lights, um this proposal that we have plans to add five more um to our existing to the beach. If you could scroll down to, um so just to give you a visual, uh I know that in Grand Haven they had a different system which was the large orange tubes. Uh this is a a smaller system that we think stands out a little more than the the warning systems we have on the buildings. It seems like the freestanding lights would be more seen by the public. So, if we could scroll down a little bit um to the proposal.

There you go. Great. Thank you. Okay. So, that's a good visual to have up right here. So, the two red X's are what we currently have. Those are our current beach. Those are the only beach safety uh or the only beach warning systems that we have on our beaches. The yellow is what we're proposing. So when you pull into Pier Marquette by the ovals, that curve right at Margaret Drake Elliot Park on your right is where you'd see a a new sign. We really want anyone pulling in to see the beach conditions. Then after that, we'd put one in between the two existing beach warning systems. We'd also want one on each end of Beach Street. Uh that's a large, very popular beach that we have there. And then also Cruisie Park, which is also on Lake Michigan, very popular dog beach. We'd like to warn us, put a safety system there as well. The pink X you see, that's where we'd like to have uh our our our operations tower that would have a camera that would really help us to improve this next layer of safety. Uh if you can go to the next page. Uh next, please. And so what you see right there, what we want is people to be able to to zoom in. uh whether you're coming from Grand Rapids or you're coming from just down the street, uh what the conditions are, what the temperature is like, what the wave action is like um on our on our beaches. And uh we there's a lot of ways that we could have this out there. We've al we've also discussed having it part of the um the when you buy a beach safety permit you that that website will be to have a link to bring you right to this so that you know we're trying to make sure that anyone who's coming to our beach or thinking about it knows what the um the wave activity is going to be like when you get here. And so, Jacob, if you want to give uh more of an overview on what I may have forgotten or left off or if you want to go a little more into the um the hardware as a service. I I guess that's one of the differences. We currently we

have two of their systems. Uh but whenever there is fixes, repairs, we have to have a it takes a lot of conversation and um pricing back and forth. what this partnership as the the the model of this pilot program for for a four-year program would be it'd be a constant update and improvements to our system um constant monitoring um by Swims Smart instead of just five years ago when they sold us these two lights and we said thank you. So whenever anything's down we have to call them and it's we're really hustling to get it fixed. This is um real time monitoring, updating and upgrading of our systems. Kind of like as if you had a cable system. They're always, you know, they're they're always changes and um making updates. But um yeah, Jacob, you can chime in.

Yeah. Uh thank you, Kyle. I appreciate it. And thank you, city council. Um so I'll just kind of briefly cover a little bit more on how the system really um helps the community. uh the the beach flag warning system that uh many beaches around the Great Lakes use, just a cloth, red, yellow, green flag, and typically somebody in the municipality will go out and change that flag whenever conditions change. Well, really what that requires is somebody to almost be constantly tracking weather changes and making that determination in real time, driving out to the beach, changing the flag, and then back again next time the conditions change. And this process repeats pretty much from the beginning to the end of the season with one to two changes um per couple days. So, uh what this system does is it connects directly to the weather forecast and it changes when the weather forecast changes. So, what that allows for is a handsoff flag system more or less where now the municipality isn't tasked with having to monitor weather constantly and have to drive out to the beach to change the warning. And actually we um this solution, this product was actually created as a result of talking with beaches in the Great Lakes region um for a long time. And actually the city of Moskegan was our first customer 5 years ago in 2020. So you were actually the first to adopt this system in the Great Lakes. Um, so we're just here coming back with a an upgrade, if you will, an upgrade in terms of um, functionality, covering new access points, you know, where people are driving in, getting that information, but also trying to make the forecasts and and make the the actual um, hazard warnings better. Um so if we can collect that that weather data in real time, we can guide the weather service to make more proactive and more uh effective forecasts which in turn

makes the public advisories more effective and and hopefully people will heed those. They'll feel that they're more connected to the reality on the ground and then they're more likely to make a prudent decision um whether to swim or not to swim. So really that's the goal. The other thing is we're not just planning on adding more signs. We're trying to tie that to the online component that Kyle said. And really the goal is to give people information before they they go to the beach. So know before you go, um it's a saying that we want them to know the swim conditions before they get into the water, whether they're at the beach or driving to the beach or even just looking online. We want to provide that information readily accessible. And that to me is the low lowest hanging fruit in terms of improving the water safety of the community. is providing people with actionable information that's updated as much as possible and as accurately as possible. Um, and then allowing them to make that decision uh in an informed decision. So really that's kind of the the the background in terms of the program. Uh traditionally how we do it is um the equipment is sold up front usually in in a big grant and then over the years the equipment begins needing maintenance. And part of our how we operate our business is we partner with the community and we actually make sure the system is running um basically through a software and data plan. So we actually operate the equipment, make sure it's functioning day over day and as it begins to deteriorate that's when we work with the municipality to make recommendations on fixes. Well, what we kind of found over the years is as equipment gets older into the fourth and fifth year, it begins needing maintenance exponentially more. And what that results in is systems that are down in very unopportune times, usually during the summer. And then, as Kyle mentioned, there's some back and forth getting quotations, getting in a budget

line item or what have you, some emergency funds, and it just makes the experience for both parties um harder. So, what this program attempts to do is to bundle in those expected maintenance parts over the life of the product and then just sort of have it as a handoff thing where as the equipment ages out, there's replacement parts so that there's minimal to no downtime for the safety system. Um, so I think that is about everything. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have and I appreciate your time. Thank you, sir. Commissioners, Commissioner Kener.

Yeah. Um, first question. 100K, it sounds like a very significant number to me. Um, when we utilize the our parks or our beach maybe like four months out the year. And um, so I necessarily could see that money going somewhere else like into our policing department. Um, where is this money coming from? Is it coming from the funds that are picked up um from the the fees that are paid on the beach or is this from general fund? If you could explain a little bit more.

Yeah, so this is currently we do have the the parks capital improvement plan was $6 million and 4.5 of that was from ARPA and 1.5 million of that was uh the investment that the commission made from um parking revenue and the naming rights. And so it's with within that funding um we are that we put $100,000 aside. Um and so what it is it is $100,000 but it's it's it's basically uh $25,000 per year. So it's that would be the cost and that's you know it this pays for us for four years of it and it's in in four years we'll we'll be having the convers or probably in about two years we having the conversation of if if we are happy with this pilot program what that looks like going forward whether it's beach parking revenue or some other um some other source that the parks department uses.

Okay. So we could potentially be paying $25,000 per year for the next ongoing years until we decide to not have this. Correct. Okay. Yes. that don't I I guess it's just just to the commission's attention that that's I feel like that's a lot of money. Yes. And and that's we're because we have this kind of special time right now with the um with all the capital money that parks has to kind of to to jump start everything. Uh and it works out perfectly. We we just decided to put $100,000 away a couple years ago for this uh for for for beach upgrades and that's that's what exactly the type of system we wanted came in at.

Okay. Thank you. Um and just to give some some context because this is a multi-year process um born out of community input that we've received from residents and guests to our community. Um but also the uh members of our parks recreation advisory committee. This has been something that been important to them um and wanting us to look at how we can improve uh the systems that we have to ensure uh folks can have a safer experience um going going to the beach. And uh we did that water safety audit um as a precursor to this um and then this is what's been brought forward to the parks and rec advisory committee's review and consideration. And so at the last um PRAC meeting, they they reviewed it, asked questions, gave input. Um and then what's notable is what was just mentioned that um when we did a capital improvement plan, we anticipated having to spend $100,000 on in a new or upgraded system. Um kind of as a oneoff um and that this model is something that's um while it's still $100,000, it's over four years instead of just one off. um and includes a discount because they're talking about um anywhere between 8,000 $14,000 a year and included ancillary um software services would be an additional discount. So um looking a 15% discount alto together um on here. So but it's a fouryear and it's entirely paid in advance.

Yes. Okay. And after that, it still goes. It still would be after that we would renew the contract. Um, and we would know at what rate we'd be paying if we wanted to continue that. Is that correct, Sarah? Yes. And we did talk about what would that maximum uplift be and that it wouldn't be above the inflation rate. Okay. Uh, Commissioner Jackson, it's more of a question for Jacob, but uh just if there was any data regarding if there's been improved water safety in other towns that have the Swim Smart um safety solutions installed at their beaches.

Yeah, that's a that's a very good question. So we don't necessarily have um measured data, but we do have subjective data from surrounding communities that it does improve it. I would say the biggest um anecdote we have is just really how the community receives the information and that they feel more confident going to the beach. So really a lot of the I would say the impact is felt in how the community receives it and takes that um information every time they go to the beach. uh we are working to with the university to do an empirical study so that we can measure that but um it's difficult to quantify um how providing information will sway um whether or not people will get in the water um so I I don't have any um objective data

that still answers it. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Jackson, Commissioner Cochen. Yes, thank you. Um, Director Sharchesky and also Jacob, thank you so much for bringing this to the commission. Um, I personally have talked a lot about doing something like this. Um, because there are fatalities every year. Um, and it's something that if we could prevent it, I think it's worth it. Um, I understand that there is a a fairly hefty upfront cost with the installations. Um, but I would hope that continued maintenance over time, if this project does work out, would be significantly less. And since we have that money set aside, I think this would be a great way to communicate to people who aren't from here, right? Um, our residents are are mostly familiar with this, but it's our visitors who might become future residents who have no idea about what is going on down there. and our two little tiny lights are not cutting it. So, I'm very happy to see this proposal. Um, and appreciate you guys putting it together.

Yeah, and that's a you might have more. That's a good point you bring that up. So, what this allows us to do and a big part of, you know, reimagining, you know, how we get this this communication out is having a dynamic QR code that can be, first of all, it can be put anywhere in the beach. we we don't we think there's a hole or maybe by the pier if we don't want a big light right there you know you can have that by you know anywhere you want and also you can put it out in hotels and restaurants you know you people can have the QR code and have the link who aren't familiar with it or someone in Airbnb you know we're trying to push pamphlets and information out there to you know give people every option as they can possibly have even you know we're going as far as like developing a beach safety mascot so when kids walk by things like this with their parents they're they're drawn to it and drag their mom and dad over or you know their their parent over to it uh just to because we want to attract people and we we've really been uh put a real um a lot of effort into just trying to find out what what the best way for communication is. So um there there's a lot of things that we're planning but the QR code and the the the offbeat stuff is just as important as the on beach stuff. And there's um there's a lot of moving parts to that and we you know we we had it ready about end of the summer last year because this is a lot of moving parts and you know we'll be ready by by the beginning of the summer this year to have that communication out even on the bus you know on the transit going to the beach you know there will definitely be pamphlets and and ways that that everyone can can know what the weather is like before you get there. So

thank you. Thank you Commissioner Coachin Commissioner Sinclair.

Thank you. Um, I think that this is a reasonable investment for us to make in the safety of our community. I think that um, Commissioner Coochin makes a good point about the visitors coming to our lake don't understand how dangerous it can be. And we benefit greatly from the visitors who come to the beach. they are the ones who buy the parking passes that um we utilize to do these improvements. So it I think it is incumbent on us to make sure that they are as safe as they can possibly be. Um and this seems like a reasonable step forward. It's not it's not no money. Um but in the in the scheme of government spending um and If someone dies because we didn't do something that we could have done when we had the money in hand, that's a really hard thing to square with. Um, and people die every year. You know, it it people don't realize how dangerous the lake is. It's beautiful and it's inviting and we want them to enjoy it and we also want them to be safe. There's been um a lot of years that people have been displeased with the system that we have. It's not great. It's hard to see. It's hard to find. Um I know where it is and I still kind of have to look around like, wait, what's the conditions today? Um so I think um I also love the idea that it's going to have other information. I always want to know how warm the water is before I go to the beach because um and it's really hard for me to find that. So, I I really appreciate that this has some value

added besides being a safety component. Um, and uh I just I don't have any particular questions um about this and this may predate you. Do you have any idea what the investment was in the current system that we need to upgrade or replace? Does anybody know that? Jacob, you might know. I thought it was like $5,000 when they event, but it was just a a sign and a stop light, a light on a pole. Um, back then, I'm sorry, the question was uh,

do you know what the the initial investment was when uh, Moskegan first got the two signs? Oh, um, I think it was about 12 to 15,000. um that did not include uh the electrical contractors, but it's been about five years. So, I'd have to I'd have to get back to you on that. And there's been several times when, hey, Jacob, we need you immediately to help us fix this. And so, that's happened. Yeah. Several times. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Sinclair. Uh before I go to follow up with Commissioner Kenir, uh Commissioner Jackson, do you have anything to ask at this time? No. All right. But Vice Mayor,

I'm sorry, Vice Mayor Keenan. Thank you, Commissioner Jackson. Um, Commissioner German, do you have anything to ask before I return to Vice Mayor? All right, Vice Mayor Kener.

Yeah, just a question maybe for city manager or anyone who p pretty to me being on the commission. Um, have we ever invested in just water and swim safety for residents and kids in the community? because I think that's a a a even better investment. It doesn't matter what the water temperature is or what the degree of the waves are if cuz I' I've seen and known personally lots of people that that water has just taken away and it was a lack of um any kind of water or swim safety. So, I wonder if there are any kind of any information on if we've invested in our community to teach people how to swim.

So, um so we've you just recently restarted our wreck program. Um and uh you know, prior to that we didn't have any recreation programs for swimming that I'm aware of. Um, I don't know if Yeah, I I did approach believe I approached the school about this and I I tried working with the YMCA and then I found out that the school has a I don't want to misspe I believe the school has a program where basically I didn't want to reinvent the wheel. I was trying to reach out to our partners to see, hey, can at a certain grade can we make sure all kids have some type of swim safety? And there are those programs in our community from what I heard feedback from through the school system. I believe um I'm not saying that

I still wouldn't you know open to us being involved in it but um used to be a requirement but but I I have heard there's a certain grade um through the school systems that you have to learn some type of basic um and I remember I I also

um when Moskegan Heights have even asked us about using um if if we ever wanted to use their pool I said only thing I'd be interested in is maybe running safety and and they did confirm for sure that they with that their pool for sure has um a program where you can't you don't graduate until you have some form of until you've hit certain benchmarks for swimming. So, um, I do know how local schools are, but that's, you know, that's that's a good reason why we have a parks and recre advisory committee and we have the president of the school board on it to, you know, to always be having those conversations and make sure that, you know, the community and and if there's any, you know, support we can add to that. Um, we're we're all for it because that's that's what's huge is that these kids in grade school levels that it's not just, you know, it's it's one thing running a a you know, we do a learn to swim in 12 kids sign up, but really like what needs to happen is the entire school system is where it needs to happen at. So, every kid can, even if the ones who can't afford it or can't get a ride to up to the pool on a Saturday, you know?

Correct. So if it could if um someone from um from the city could do some followup on that to ensure that that is something that is available because I know when I went to middle school it was a requirement that you had to learn to swim

before you pass on to the next grade and I think that's why we had so many kids that did know great water safety and even to this day utilize the beach um without a whole bunch of dust and things like that. Um, but I would really like to see if we're going to do something like this, I would rather see money go into um, ensuring that these kids know how to swim and they know about water safety and um, even pamphlets on teaching parents water safety because often when I'm at the beach, I'll see kids just running off by the sails, which scares the daylights out of me. Mhm. Um, and there's like just literally no

Yeah. No, they just don't understand how dangerous Lake Michigan really is. There's a whole documentary on it about the dangers of Lake Michigan. So,

um, I would really like to see funding go towards things like water safety, education, and um, paying attention to um, our great, beautiful lake, but dangerous lake. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Uh just note the YMCA because I remember doing as a kid um YMCA training uh swimming lessons and the like. And then yeah, the middle school offered it as well. Um or we had a pool at the middle school that that was incorporated in gem and the high school um it was a requirement um that you had to uh do swimming in order to graduate high school. Uh but the Y I was checking to see if the YMCA swimming uh program is still available and they still do swimming lessons. Um and the MSG YMCA does have a safety around water program that teaches third grade children enrolled in partner schools the safest way to play and explore in and around water. Um so yeah, we can double check with our partners um and local school districts to see if they are participating um in that. And um and the Boys and Girls Club also, now that they're on the old Y, have a pool and they also have swim um training lessons as well.

So, did I see I was going to say the same thing about the Boys and Girls Club and also um as recently as my kids graduated, they had to pass swimming to graduate from Moskegan. So, five years ago, six years ago now. That's still the thing. Fairly recent. Uhhuh. more reason than when I graduated. Didn't know that's continuing. I didn't know how to swim.

All right, commissioners. Anything else to ask or add at this time? This is on our agenda tomorrow on the consent agenda for formal approval of this expenditure and the four-year contract with uh this company. So, seeing nothing else. All right. Thank you, Director Keski. really appreciate your work on this um over an extended time frame um and moving this forward. There will have been a lot of moving parts and I appreciate um all all your dedication to this and uh the continuous improvement because it's not going to stop here. You know, we're going to incorporate this if pending commission approval tomorrow. We'll um make these improvements to our existing system. Um which I really did like that the the the immediiacy of being connected to Noah data. had reliable data uh that updated immediately but

the system wasn't the greatest in terms of how it was communicated, how visible it was and um h and awareness around it. So this really takes it to another level. Um so and I I that is important having the the quickness of understanding the the changing conditions having that be communicated um quickly and clearly. Um, and I do like the uh dashboard being added to it, the dynamic web page, so we can um have other information available uh to guests to our community and to our residents who want to go out to the beach. So, I think there's a lot to like in here, but there's, you know, certainly opportunity for continuously evaluating how we can um tweak it and um improve it. And that's what we're doing too here because it's a pilot program. So, we're working with the the company on um perfecting the system. So, thank you. All right. All right, moving on to legal services RFP timeline and process. City manager.

Yes. Um, so we are at the point in time with our agreement with Parameter that we need to look at either u renegotiating extending or doing an RFP. The city has done both uh in the past. Uh what follows this memo is the most recent RFP that we did in 2015. Uh prior to that, it looks like it was 2003. Um and there's a timeline from that 2003 uh process that the city went through at that point in time at the end of this item. So legal services, uh this is a a product or a service that we contract for with a law firm. It's not necessarily one individual, although as you are all familiar with um we would see um Mr. Shrier or Mr. Gorman here. uh for our meetings. Uh there is a team of attorneys that work with them who work on city um matters. So uh most recently we just we did an extension of our agreement with Parameter. Um like I said in 2015 uh we went through an RFP process. That RFP is there outlining the type of services uh that the city would would be expecting from uh from their legal council. Uh and then the process that we would go through which generally consists of u a subset of the commission usually two commissioners participating in interviews uh with law firms and then making a recommendation to the commission if we go through an RFP process uh which would be uh most likely about a three-month process from the time it starts until it would be completed as is outlined in the 2003 um proposal. Uh as is also um somewhat uh standard in uh legal services, uh the current uh attorneys uh have provided a letter uh outlining the services that

they have provided for us as well as outlining an hourly rate that they're willing to commit to now um if we were to forego the the RFP process and move forward with uh continuing with Parmentor um for uh the next five years through 2031. So I emailed that out to you this morning. There is a hard copy on the dis as well. The um uh the costs uh the hourly rates are listed there on page three on the top of page three. I do want to note that that is a substantial reduction from their private billing rates which run between 300 and450 an hour uh where we would be getting them for around $200 an hour and that is a flat rate. um per attorney, not really um dependent on who's working on it. Um and also for your reference, uh there have been some other uh cities and counties that have gone out recently for uh quotes for legal services and we know what their um their hourly rates are and those are listed out as well from um Parmentor. Um Mr. Gorman is also here tonight not um sitting on the dis as our legal counsel but here to answer questions. Uh if you have questions of parameter uh this is a contract with the city with the city commission. So this is your prerogative on how um we uh should proceed. Uh so I open it up for discussion and questions and see where we go.

Thank you Mr. Manager. Commissioners, you all had an opportunity to review the letter that is provided by Prime Mentor as well as um consideration of our past processes um for hiring and when we've done um RFPs in the past. Do you have any questions at this time before getting into commentary or thoughts or suggestion how to proceed? Do you have any questions for um staff? Commissioner German.

Uh yes, thank you, Mayor. um kind of a comment um more or less the question is um okay the last RP uh RFP was 2015 correct correct

okay um I was three years into the commission on my commission seat um still here and um the tremendous work that mentor law has done um is to be commended Um but also um given the um the I say process that the city has moved on to make changes to be more inclusive um to be more transparent um equitable and fair opportunities. Um I would think it would be in the best interest to um do another RFP. It's been a while and um serving on this commission and seeing the work that um has been done by uh this law firm. Um not to take anything away, but um I don't think we want to be viewed to just a city that don't allow opportunities for others also

to give them that opportunity whether we choose to stay with this law firm or not. but at least have the um I would say um fairness to allow others to present you know themselves uh to the city as well. So that's pretty much my take on it. Thanks Commissioner German. Commissioner Coachen. Yes. Um, in that same kind of vein, I mean, has there been any other uh law firms that have reached out to the city of Moskegan in the last 11 years requesting to be considered?

No. Um, so that just the way that the the legal profession works with a legal council for municipalities, um, you have your contract with with your legal counsel. um and you uh you wouldn't take solicitations from other councils during that period, unless you were to go out um and request. Uh in in my experience, um you know, most municipalities don't generally end up changing legal services unless there's a problem. Um and so and uh and then there's a agency that has the capacity to bring them on. Uh so um but yes to answer your question no there's not been other law firms that have approached us.

Okay. I was just thinking that you know 11 years is a long time and if there were new law firms you know coming to the city of Moskegan in that time if they had let us know hey we're here.

Yeah. So, in 2015 when we did the last RFP and process to hire, um I was one of the the commissioners that was part of the review committee. We received a few different bids. Um at the time, I'm trying to recall some particular I going back a decade now, but um I didn't go back and try to look at my notes or anything from back then, but I don't recall any bids from firms with as robust of capacity as Parmentor. There were a couple individual attorneys that had applied or submitted bids. Um, one of which was quite cost competitive, but the question was the concern was like, okay, this is very cost competitive, but you're a single attorney. Will you be able to provide the same caliber um and scope of service as a a firm with much larger team and and a greater breadth and depth of skill sets and knowledge. Um so the commission opted to go with Parmentor and key parameter who has been the city's attorney for at that time it was over over a half century. Um and it's been I don't know do we know when

I think it's 80 years

it's been so it's been going on a century now almost. um you know we're past threequarters of a century in which uh Parameter has been the city attorney. So there's a great um well of institutional knowledge um contained there. And so when that contract expired and about 5 years ago when we considered whether or not to do an RFP or put it out to bid um and the county had just completed um its process. they had done a competitive bidding process for its attorney and so the the city manager at time and the commission concurred that rather than going through um this process of bidding and RFP that we'll just look at what the county just did um rather than duplicating that process and we'll look at their results and we'll look at you know the bids that they got and and the structure and the like and it was determined that what we were what was being offered by Parmentor for renewal was uh competitive with all the bids that the county had received. And so that's why the city opted to continue with parametro tool for another contract cycle. And so ultimately we are now here deciding whether or not to do that bidding process or do a contract renewal based upon the terms that were provided in this letter that we just recently received. Um, and I I'll have to I'll say that going into this before today when I talked to the city managers last week, I was like, I'm more inclined to do a bidding an RFP. Um, considering the last time that we did a competitive process was just over a decade ago. That was my inclination. Um, receiving this letter today gives me a little bit of pause just because these are this is really good terms.

Um, and we have the potential to lock in good terms for another contract. So, I'm a little torn now. um seeing seeing the what's being offered here today as to the best way to move forward and part of what I think will help me understand influence my my my viewpoint on that is understanding how much time it's going to take for staff that's

to do an RFP if we were to do an RFP we were to put this bid out how much time and effort is that going to take on staff's part to go through that entire process um and then um also we'll have a couple commissioners be part of the the review and just if you can you can elaborate on the process and how much that's going to take both from staff and commission for consideration of um new new bids.

Um so it it would definitely be a significant project to undertake. So we would um we would draft up a a proposal of what we think we would want. The commission would have to weigh in on that. Uh and then you guys would approve whatever that language is and we would then send it out. Um and uh you know whether it's just going out on our regular um you know social media and up on our website or or if we push it out to specific law firms, we would you know do work to make sure that it gets distributed as widely as possible. Uh just like with any bid process, there would be a time uh where the clerk's office would open bids. Uh and then and then we would take the process uh and that it would really be uh probably myself and Leanne would be uh sorry, deputy um city manager Mike Sal um would go through uh would go through those bids and try to figure out like are we, you know, are they offering the same type of service that that we currently get from Parmener? Do they have a deep enough bench to be able to provide us with the legal services that we need? Um what's the hourly rate? How, you know, where are they located? How um are they going to be able to be present um at city hall at least one day a week? Uh which parmener currently is every Tuesday. They're here all day. um are they going to be able to provide, you know, not just the municipal law side of it, but can they also provide the HR law side of it? Can they also provide um the contract side of it, things of that nature? Um and and work through to see how that works and then uh narrow it down to get either a handful for the the subset of commissioners, which I believe the last time it was the mayor and commissioner German. I believe I saw your name on a list of interviewers like from 10 years ago.

It was Commissioner Sparo.

Oh, Commissioner Sparo. Okay. I'm thinking Okay. Um, so uh but so u the mayor and commissioner Sparo went through that interview process and then you know and then making recommendations. So it it would be it wouldn't be an unsignificant undertaking on the part of staff. It wouldn't just be refreshing what we have here. um our our legal needs um have evolved a bit and actually and I already started making some notes on things um up in my office, but that would want to that would need to be looked at for this. Um and and that this isn't actually as part of the question you just asked, but something else that I would um or two things I would ask the commission to consider is so the the mayor brought up the county um and having done theirs about 5 years ago and just looking at what their rate is right now at 270 um and the rate that Parameter is off offering us for um the 26 27 year at at 195 is a different you know that that that's a pretty significant savings there. Um, so just keeping that in mind, but then also and and this is something I can't stress enough and it's it's it's touched on in the letter is that it's not just Mr. Shrier and Mr. Gorman that you're seeing on a weekly basis or bi-weekly basis at the meetings. It's this deep bench of attorneys that they have that have a wide variety of of expertise. And when you start looking at law firms that have a connection in Moskegan, have a history with the city, have attorneys that live in the community, and that have a deep bench that um those options start to get narrowed down. And so in is there something that significantly changed in the past couple of years that we would want to go someplace else? um and especially considering the the prices that they're putting out here. These are just all things that I would ask you to consider. Um so, and keep in

mind, yeah, thank you for uh pointing out the particularly because we follow the county's leader the process five years ago and looked at what bids they got and who they selected and uh what where the parmentor um offering to us compared to that and so we have the opportunity to compare again today. you said it's a much higher rate um that the Musk County is is paying relative to what's being offered to us today. And then the annual increases, the county's committed to 5% pay increase every year for that. And um what's being offered here from Partorm comes to approximate 2 and a half% or 2.6% annual increase. Um so that's not Thank you,

Commission. Um I'm sorry, I've lost order of who has already spoken. So, I'm just going to go to Vice Mayor Keener and then we'll go to Commissioner Coachin.

I just want to say thank you um city manager for clarifying that. Um and I do also see where Commissioner German is coming from too because we don't want to get in the habit of showing favoritism and um but I they've been with us for so long. So, you know, sometimes as my granny would say, it's cheaper to keep it. And so, you know, just them knowing all of our ins and outs and the great work that they do here, I can see why. But I just don't want us to be in a habit of where it even looks like favoritism. But I appreciate a city manager ex explaining and detailing why this would be more of a preference for us because of the longevity of the relationship

and the commitment that they have given to the city as a whole and as well as their commitment to our community as a whole as well. So um but so I see all sides just so the community knows I see both sides and no we don't want to get in the and and be active with favoritism and it's not favoritism as far as I see it this way and I would like to see RFPs come out um for numerous um activities that we have going on in the city but for this one it's it's it's kind of hard to you know beat Um and so yeah, I just wanted to put that out there. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, Commissioner Coach.

Yes. Thank you. Um I I would also like to echo that sentiment. You know, we don't want to set a precedent that we're going with this person every single time. Um I think that it's important to understand the history, but I think it's also important to look at opportunities. There may be, you know, other law firms that have moved into the area. Um, but then looking at the numbers and the information from the county, um, it does give me pause. The one question I do have for legal team is I'm I'm seeing numbers all over the map on here. Um, can I get some clarification for why these numbers are so different?

You from like the other municipalities? Yes. From the other municipalities, shores to how to state. Why exactly are we getting offered 195 when the countyy's getting 270? Absolutely. Kind introduce yourself, please. Brennan Gorman, uh here tonight on behalf of Parameter Law.

Uh good evening. I can't say for certain uh why individual uh law firms are quoting what they are. Uh, one thing I would note is that in the now it's not an annual survey anymore, but in the last survey completed by the bar association as to the hourly rates for uh, municipal attorneys that the average was about $217 an hour. Uh, and right around that 2023 is is that time where you started seeing significant jumps in inflation. And I think that many of the examples that were provided in the packet are now quotes that were coming out postinflation as many firms were trying to catch up with uh you know 8 n% inflation in backto-back years. Um so I'm sure that some of it's factored in there. Uh some of it whether it's the county probably has different needs than any of the individual municipalities there. I sought to try to include as many local examples who went out to bid as possible in in recent time. Um, but I think there's ultimately different approaches as well. If you'll note, uh, some of them are flat rates for attorneys. Some of them have different rates for shareholders versus associates. Whereas our bid is just across the board. If you have somebody with 40 years of experience, you're getting the same rate. Um, you know, ultimately our perspective is probably different than most law firms. Uh many of the municipalities I chose to include here uh and I didn't want to call out any of the law firms by name, but are from law firms that the city may have an interest in or had previously sought bids from. And I did that intentionally uh to kind of foil where those other sized law firms are coming in with their rates relative to what we're willing to offer. And truly we view ourselves as uh part of the fabric of Mskegegan. Uh for our entire history, we've been in the city of Mskegegan. We've represented the city of Mskegegan for almost as long as

my grandmother's been alive. Um for us, I think we treat our local communities different than maybe some of the firms out of Grand Rapids that have comparable sizes, large book of municipal business. For us, it's more personal than that. Uh, and I hope to illustrate that with our community involvement with different nonprofits, the amount that our firm gives back to the local community. Uh, yes, this is no doubt a career. No doubt that this is a law firm, a private law firm. Um, you know, for me it's it's a little bit different even getting to do this work because it's it's a passion in addition to a career. And so for PAR mentor, we understand the value of our community. We understand the value of what really separates Moskegan from other communities and we want to be a part of that. And so for us, while we could be asking for higher amounts and we think based on recent quotes that we'd probably be justified in doing so, that's just not how we operate as a firm. And we want to continue that same path that for the past 10 years, we've I believe moved up about $5 a year every year at roughly about what inflation should be. uh we're around that point again where inflation is and so at the moment we're not asking for more. We know that the city is going to have a couple tight years coming up. That's why uh we actually also included a rate freeze uh not this year because we already had one this past year. Um but we want to be growing with the city. When when the city es we eb. When the city flows we want to flow with it. And I think that that's been a huge part of why uh this relationship has worked for as long as it has. Thank you.

Thank coaching. Any Commissioner Sinclair?

Thank you. Uh in the four years that I've been on the commission, you know, we've we've gotten very familiar with Mr. Shrier and now Mr. Gorman um being regular uh faces um that we interact with. But there's also been multiple really complex issues that we've benefited from other attorneys from parliament or is this expertise and they've been able to come in to our legislative policy committee meetings and to um work sessions, excuse me, and explain really complicated things in ways that I was able to understand. and um they already knew our community and and how we functioned and there's a lot of value in that. Um, I think that there is a lot of value in longevity and history and while I I totally understand the need to be transparent and inclusive and open, um, I think we have to to weigh the cost in, uh, bidding is costly. human resources is costly. Um, you know, uh, I like uh, Vice Mayor's um, quip about what her granny says, but what comes to my mind is is is the juice worth the squeeze, right? Is that um is that something that is going to make the most sense for us to spend that kind of time and energy um when we have a very good and established relationship with a local entity that is deeply rooted in this community and um is giving us a very good deal. I have a hard time finding the problem beyond like do we need to give somebody else a

chance and um nobody's knocking on the door with this kind of um you know historical context and I also understand that we have not invited people to do that but excuse me um much like the mayor I was like pretty ambivalent about what makes the most sense. I think that there's a lot of value and and opening to new opportunity. Um, I'm not sure that in this case that makes the most sense. So, thank Commissioner Sinclair.

Commissioners, anything else to ask or add at this time? Okay. Yeah. Oh, I think I hear a consensus forming of moving forward with city manager bringing forward a new contract or renewal with parameter or tool. But it's not a it's not a a blaring consentus. So I just want to I want to um I guess we'll just do it by show of hands of members of the commission who support tasking your city manager with bringing forward a new contract reflecting the terms presented by parameter tool. Um, in this letter here, if you support moving that forward, raise your hand, we could you raise your hand a little bit higher over there just so we Okay,

so we have four members who do think it's appropriate to move that forward. Okay. Anything to Nope. I will ask of us or share, Mr. Manager? Uh, nope. I will um work with Mr. for Gorman to come up with a new agreement and we'll get it on a future meeting for consideration. Okay. So, okay. I appreciate the conversation. I have to go to my next notes. So, thank you. All right. Uh, moving on. Parking enforcement overview and beach subtle service conversation.

Yes. Uh, so I'm going to move up to the podium. And this is going to be a group presentation um with uh several of the division heads. Okay, here we go. You pulled right up last time.

Technology is challenging today.

So, it's not up on your screen yet. It's It says it's thinking. So, is the screen on duplicate or extend? There we go. Okay. Um, so we're going to give a a presentation uh between some of the various uh department heads or division heads and myself about uh the parking program. And one of the objectives here is because we're going to be talking about the bus service program. And when it and because it's related to parking revenue, which is also related to parks, we kind of wanted to have a bigger discussion just so that you guys could have a refresher on where money comes from, where money goes to, and things of that nature. Um, big caveat here is revenue from the parking program flows into and out of the general fund. It's not it's not its own separate fund. It's not a dollar in dollar out type of a situation. Uh you'll also notice here I say paid parking, not beach parking. And that's because this is inclusive of our parking program citywide because the same folks who do parking enforcement for the um public safety department throughout the city are the same ones who do um parking out at the beach and ticket revenue that we receive away from the beach is also in this same bucket of money. So, we're trying to make sure that everybody uh can get a clear picture of that um and how also how

things impact on parks. So, prior to my arrival, June uh 5th of 2020, beginning of COVID, beach parking, paid beach parking started. Uh this was the first day of beach parking. I do want to note something. When you look at the first year numbers, recall that our fiscal year ends on June 30. So those first year parking numbers are only inclusive of that first month of parking. It's not for an entire year. And historically, a lot of times when we give in these numbers about beach parking uh and parking revenue in general, we're looking at the season and not the fiscal year. These numbers are all looking at the fiscal years because that's how all of our other budgets are done. So this might look a little bit different than some of the numbers we've been given in the past. Um but we're looking at it from a fiscal year. When this started, uh the key objectives were to increase revenues for parks and launches. Another caveat here, launch ramp, uh parking fees existed prior to the parking program at the beach. Launch ramp fees go into an enterprise fund with launch ramps and Hartshorn Marina. So there's the marina and launch ramp fund that you see in the general fund or sorry in the budget. It's not in the general fund. Uh those launch ramp revenues are separate and not included in this conversation. But this was a key objective. So we kept it in there because this is um point for point what the commission was looking at when this program was instituted is also to improve amenities at parks and launches citywide. We'll talk about the investments that we've done in the parks and wreck program and specifically how that's changed uh over the past six years. We also wanted to support healthy outdoor activities, enhance the city's image, and strengthen our ability to

attract visitors, residents, and businesses. So, this is also an economic driver tool, uh which is something we're going to start talking about uh at the beginning of the presentation. Also just for historical purposes, this is the fee structure that existed in 2020 when we started and the program began. Uh then from 21 to 24, the fee structures were there in uh the middle column. Residents have always received two free passes. The weekday passes and the weekend passes adjusted in 21. Um the season pass remain the same. uh between 21 and 24 on two separate occasions. We tried uh some discounted neighborhood uh sales to neighboring municipalities. That was a little logistically challenged. It didn't work great. And that's how the BOGO sale was born uh through a conversation with the commission. And then last year in 25, we did the second adjustment to fees where we're at today with weekdays at 10, weekend at 15, and season passes at 40. Um and then the BOGO sale continues and uh last year was the first year with Beach Shuttle Service and uh deputy manager Mike. So we'll talk a little bit about that in the presentation. So first we're going to start talking about our visitors, where they're coming from, um how far out, and that will be Director Ekholm.

Good evening.

Good evening. Jake Ekholm, director of development services for the city of Moskegan. And I'm here to talk about a little bit about who the folks are that are visiting the beach and some trends that we've seen from when we started beach parking in uh 2020 up till uh last summer 2025. Um so you'll see a lot of the stuff that we pulled in development services. We started with the baseline as the year before we started paid parking at the beach. Um I think this is fascinating. So, one of the main concerns that the community had uh in 2019 and that some commissioners shared at the time was that paid parking would uh cause the beach to be underutilized, that less people would come and that it would not be enjoyed. Uh which led to some of the policy decisions that the commission made at that time, which was to provide free resident passes and things of that nature to safeguard the residents ability to enjoy the beach. And what we found uh the blue line is unique visits. So their trips to the beach, think about them as not people but visits. And then the orange line is unique visitors. And so um separate folks that visited the beach in a given year. And so what we found was despite the paid parking, there was a very significant increase in both uh visitors and visits uh from 2019 to 2025. Um it peaked somewhat in 2024 um with actually a million unique visits just under 998,000 and then we saw a slight decline last year. We think that's because there was uh some really cold water stuff going on in June and so we think that that inhibited uh early summer visitation. So and then we saw uh pretty substantial about a third of an increase in both uh visits and visitors. So where are they coming from? Who are they? Uh I think that's kind of the question mark that folks have had um as the beach becomes more and more of a regional attraction and less of a local attraction uh or less of only a local attraction. So this graphic indicates where the major zip codes uh for

originate from for folks that are visiting the beach. Um 57% of visits uh are from the area shown. So sort of the regional draw um you know Tri City represents uh northern Ottawa County, Ottawa County at large is on here. the metro area of Grand Rapids, which is our second largest single uh benchmark. And then when we say Mosskegan local, we mean the zip codes that make up the Moskegan County area. And so those include uh Norton Shores, White Lake, all those types of places. So, and we actually can break that down um based on individual zip code and have that heat mapped, which you'll see in a moment. Um so 2020 growth uh is in continued to be driven by regionalization. So, more and more uh saturation into the Kent County market. Uh people are starting to kind of discover the beach as an option for recreation. Um and then as I mentioned earlier, we're seeing some regional softening in 2025. We we're not sure if that was just weather related or what the case may be. And you'll note also we started our analysis against 2019 and 2023. The reason for that is because COVID did some really weird stuff to tourism and travel. And so there were really odd spikes in the the visitation data and we think that some of that data was impacted by the pandemic and wasn't necessarily reflective of a normal recreational year for uh the beach. Um a little bit more that's not in the slides, but I want to make sure folks understand. So things I really am pleased to see uh in visit uh visitorship to the beach is you're seeing a broad diversity of incomes economically. And so they're really broken out uh they stratify widely with effectively about 5 to 8% of the visitorship in all these different income brackets all the way down to less than $10,000 per year um all the way up to in excess of 150,000 per year. there is some concentration in sort of these working wage ranges. So between 40 and

$70,000 per year, you see larger percentiles. Um about one in five people that attend Pier Marquette Beach are non-white folks. And so that vacasillates between 12 to 14% black visitors, about uh 7 to 8% Hispanic, and then there's much smaller cohorts of other um um ethnic minorities, and then about four out of the five people that visit identify as Caucasian. So, um, one thing that's noted on here, and you'll see in this slide, which I think this is an interesting, uh, sort of visual representation of how the the asset is beginning to regionalize. So, in 2019, you can see heavy concentration of visitorship from the metro Mosskegan area and some utilization from other counties. And then from 2023 on, as you see that purple tone start to darken, that indicates more visits originating from those zip codes. And so more and more people from these areas outside the Moskegan metro area are discovering the the asset and starting to find their way here and obviously utilizing that that paid parking system and providing revenue for our general fund for us to deliver public services to our residents. So I'll hold there for a moment just so you can kind of see that progression over time. Um you know particularly in 2024 and 25 you really start to see more visitor saturation into the the Kent County metro area. And I think we haven't done a placeer report on it, but I'm interested to do it. Um, traditionally what we've heard in previous like convention and visitors bureau visit Moskegan surveying is that a lot of people in Kent County are utilizing beaches in Ottawa County for their recreation. I think we're peeling some of that market share away. And so we further analysis is needed to prove that, but that's what we think is happening. And so th those are really kind of the a snapshot into the people that are visiting the beach in both in our community and visitors to our community. Um but what it indicates is that paid

parking has actually we think drawn more visitorship um both through the public engagement that the community did to establish it and also the annual reporting and the transparency that the commission and staff have done uh in the media. And we actually think that people in some ways discovered the beach because of the the emphasis on our parking system. So with that, I believe it's Director Vanderhy up next with park maintenance. Thank good evening. Dan Vanderhy, director of public works.

Good evening. So, I'm going to be talking through uh the component of uh the presentation about what we do at the beach in order to keep it uh in its award-winning state. Um so, this is uh just the labor cost associated with the work that we do at the beach. Uh so, this is divided um the other than the the cost at the top, it's divided into two different categories. Uh we have our full-time employee costs and our part-time employee costs. So the part-time employees are our seasonal folks. They work uh just during the summer and uh they do tasks uh all sorts of different things, but the main component of uh that amount of hours is cleaning bathrooms and carrying uh trash or changing trash cans. Um a lot of that down there, particularly the bathroom cleaning. Um, and we have a little uh fun fact there. So, if you spread that out from Memorial Day to Labor Day, it is uh during the day shift, so so daytime regular hours, it's about 12 people working every day, all day at the beach that entire time. So, that's what it takes to keep the bathrooms clean and keep the trashes uh empty and various other tasks uh that they help us with as well. The full-time employee uh work is a little different. And just to be clear, um that's the total of amongst all of our full-time employees, any time that they may spend at the beach. So we have nine full-time parks employees. Um not any one or two of them are devoted to the beach. They work in various capacities. That's the total number of hours that those nine people together have worked at the beach. And those hours are are associated more with um cleaning sand is one of the big tasks. So, sweeping the sand off the sidewalks, scooping the sand off the roadways with loaders, things like that. It also

includes a good portion of the beach raking that we do. Some of that is also in the part-time employees uh as well. Um, so that's a little bit uh of what the folks uh do down at the beach and and how that's divided up. We also have uh the cost associated with the equipment that we use at the beach. So, over $200,000 there. And then I we've got just a list of some of the things that are included. So loaders, I mentioned scooping the sand up off the streets, um sometimes off the parking lots and even the sidewalks with those loaders. The beach rake tractor uh that runs every day during the summer, raking at least a portion of the beach every day. Uh we rent a bulldozer in the spring to flatten the beach after it's been moved around by wind and waves all winter long. Uh it includes lots and lots of carts and pickup trucks that help with the bathroom cleaning and trash uh removal and then as I mentioned sand sweeping equipment. So getting those sidewalks and and uh other areas clear so that folks can enjoy the spaces. Then we've got just a few more things that are associated. Um big belly trash removal. So, we have solar-p powered self-compacting trash cans uh in certain locations at the beach, the high volume locations, and Big Belly is the brand name of those trash cans. So, that's what that uh is showing there. Portable restrooms. Uh we um during the winter, but then also in certain locations during the summer, we have portable restrooms that we uh put there and then uh have serviced by a local company. and then custodial supplies. So the bathroom cleaning supplies, trash uh can liners, things like that. So that is the total uh amount that we estimate we spent in fiscal year 2425

uh to take care of Per Marquarette and the areas the other areas within um we'll call the beach vicinity. So any anything including cruisy per Marquarette Margaret Drake Elliot Harbortown beach um those areas that is our annual cost to maintain. Uh just highlighting a few capital improvements uh that have happened over the past uh few years. Uh the first uh kind of big capital project out at the beach in modern uh times was putting up the Watch us go playground and that came with upgrades to the uh restroom and concession building that's right next to it there, the old bathroom if you will. Uh and we've got a cost of about 466,000 associated with that. We replaced the playground at Margaret Drake Elliott recently using ARPA funds for a little over 160,000. And then uh just this past summer, we finished up the new restroom building, the south restroom. And we also uh made some improvements to the building that most folks know as the kite shack or where Mac Kite uh does their um equipment rentals out of. That was a combination of a a grant from the DNR and public improvement funds for a total of 685,000. handing it off to our uh deputy city manager for discussion on the beach shuttle.

Thank you, Director Vanderhid. Keep having to adjust this microphone.

So, I just have one slide to review with you. Um and I brought some notes because I um wrote down some observ observations from the survey that we did. Um, as you all remember, we piloted a free shuttle to assist people in getting to and around our beaches last year. Based on the data collected, trips were geared toward destination and sightseeing with very few people transferring from one route to another, and riders often lacked other transportation options to get to the beach. Service was deeply appreciated by survey respondents. Uh you can see on the slide that our cost for the entire season was a little over $70,000. Based on the ridership that we had last year, we spent about $31 per ride per person. Um our proposal for the coming year will certainly include more marketing to get more people interested in using the service and that will then bring down that per ride per person cost. Um, I have been working with Matt on a proposal for how to handle the services in the coming year and you will see that from me in very short order.

Next up is public safety. Thank you, Deputy City Manager.

Good evening, Tim Coal, public safety director, city of Mskegegan. Talk a little bit about our enforcement. So, we used to only have Julie back in 18, 19, and 20. Um, back in 21, we wound up adding a couple full-time with her, and then now we're currently at staffed at four full-time. And and the blue will indicate our crossing guards. Say, well, why are we paying for crossing guards? We have to pay have to pay for crossing guards. The schools do not pay for the crossing guards. That's our staffing levels. Our expenses have have gone up. Um, as you notice on the last slide with the addition of full-time uh employees, they have gone up and you'll see a a steady increase as we go per contract per the amount of money that we're paying for them. And for our expenditures as far as um kiosk, upgraded kiosk and such, we have it up to the fiscal year of 2425. It's going to be interesting where we'll be at since we switched, as many of you know, to the T2 parking systems, which hopefully will give us a little bit of a um break on our expenses for our parking as far as the contractual services. breaking that down our salary and benefits um talked about with the uh contracts processing fees as city manager might be able to talk a little bit more on that but that's sort of the money that um you'll get charged when you utilize a card but it's pretty much an in and out it comes into us and we have to um push it back out then our supplies this past year still 2425 I'm getting ahead of So, let's look at our comparison in our revenue with our city citations and our beach citations. One of the questions that always comes up, well, how do we do this

during the summer? Well, we concentrate a majority of our staff at the beach during the summer. So, you'll see our full-time staff there pretty much all summer. We do rotate one um of our parking officers out and we'll be in the city every week. So, we're trying to maintain and being um you know proactive in the city and also reactive to the the complaints that we get inside the city. Some of the things that um we also look at is our expenses or I'm sorry, our revenue from our beach pass has gone up and that's reflective of that new amount of money that um we put towards our season passes at $40. One thing I'd just like to note, it's not reflective on this. One of the things that we have found in looking at this, you can buy a beach parking pass for $40. If you fail to buy a beach parking pass and you get a citation from us, you come down here and you only get fined $30. One of the things that probably I'll be revisiting you at some point in the future, it doesn't seem like much of a penalty to only have to pay $30 if you didn't happen to buy a beach parking pass. something that we'll we'll look at which could be additional uh revenue expenses and um revenue um differences. As you can see the uh revenue is continues to go up. Our um expenses sort of a little bit flat here over the last last three years. Our expenses should remain flat. might even um go down when we start looking at what we're doing as far as our T2 systems. One thing that's going to assist us tremendously out there is switching over to our Verizon cards and all of our our kiosk that we've done. Hopey that is going to be a really good bonus for everybody out there trying to get trying to get something out of our kiosk and it'll help us with our new LPR systems that our parking um enforcement officers also use out there to be able to um maintain.

Back to the city manager. Thank

you everyone. Um Jonathan Cybert, city manager back up here. Uh the reason I had a a variety of staff present is because this does touch multiple divisions. Um and then this financial breakdown. Uh Director Grant helped me with this. Um I'm going to go through this part of the presentation. Um he's here to back me up. He's got his computer if there's questions. So we'll see how fast he can go if those questions pop up. Um, but what I want to uh talk about is uh now I'm going to switch over to parks a little bit and talk about our parks trends and then how it relates to parking fees and the in the budget overall. So, one of the commitments that this commission has made in the previous um commission was an increase commitment to parks and an increase expenditure in parks. And what this chart shows is that you have kept that promise. Uh looking at 2018 19 and 20 uh you know in 20 uh fiscal year 2018 it was uh just over 1.5 million 1.6 million in parks. And that number has steadily uh increased to now we're uh well over $3 million a year that we're spending um in parks and recreation. And those are the budget numbers up there which represent recreation, park maintenance, um forestry, and then m uh McGrath Park um which has its own special fund. Um and that actually in that 24 to 25 slight dip, what that is representative of is that McGrath Park um grant. We had spent some money in that one fiscal year and the next fiscal year that grant money wasn't there. That's that's what accounts for that dip there. So, the commission um is keeping its commitment to increasing spending in our park system in the general fund. Uh and we believe this is helped by the parking program that we have. Uh and I

also want to note that if you look at your budget books, these budget those uh department codes up there, those um five codes are the same ones that are in your budget book. So, I wanted to make sure we were looking at that same number. Uh and now this is a a slide that uh Chief Kosel just showed with one more line on it. So the orange and green line on the bottom or red and green depending on your screen uh is the parking enforcement expenses that we have and then the parking revenue that we bring in and then the parks and recreation expenditures are the black line on top. And another line that we could layer in here would be the um uh the numbers that director Vanderhyde was talking about with our beach park u maintenance costs and staffing costs of over a half million dollars, but that's built into that parks and wreck budget. So, it would kind of be duplicative if if that was pulled out differently. Um but the big takeaway is that over the past six years from fiscal year 19 to 20 the general fund budget expenditure budget has increased an average of 8%. Parks and recreation has increased an average of 12%. So it's a little more than 50% higher than where we sit in the general fund. These two numbers are rounded. It's actually I think it's 7.8% is the number we rounded up to eight and the 12 is just actually a little bit over 12. So, we're spending more in parks and that the those operational areas are growing at a fast rate because of deliberate decisions that are being made to invest in our parks. This is our parking revenue um versus the expense. And this is both beach parking and the maintenance expense. And the reason that we're putting this out here is because prior to us having a and if if you look at the 18/19 year right

there, um we were spending a half million dollars a year in our beach parks at at Cruzy, at Pier Marquette, at Margaret Drake Elliot, at Harbortown Beach. We were spending that half million dollars there and we weren't having other revenue come in. And one of the objectives of this parking program of having parking fees at the beach was to cover those costs and allow us to invest in other parts of the system. And what this shows is that is working. So the if you look at the current or the year that ended 2425 beach parking um expenses and maintenance expenses together were about 1.1 million and we were bringing in about 1.3 million. Now keep in mind that is not just beach revenue from passes or tickets at the beach. That is also revenue from our other parking programs throughout the city. And that's because it's all handled in one budget. it's handled by the same team members. You have to look at it holistically, but that that is showing that we're bringing in more through parking revenue than than we're spending in beach parking um and maintenance out at the beach. So, the big takeaways that I want the commission and the public to have from this conversation is um parking revenues have increased annually um despite the parking program that we have in place and um and in a lot of cases because of the changes in in our revenue structure for those um beach passes. Paid parking has not reduced visitors. This is the reason we're bringing this up is cuz this was a concern when we put that into place. As director Ekholm showed, that is not a um a concern that has been borne out. Um parking investment has uh nearly doubled in the past six years. So again, the commission has kept its commitment to the public to invest in our parks and

that's that park investment is systemwide through all of the parks throughout the city, not just at our beach parks. Park and recreation expenditures have exceeded parking revenue. So questions about is that money being used the way that we said it would be used. Yes, it is. Um when you look at how much that parking revenue has grown and how much the parks and recreation budget has grown, that money is being spent in the way that the commission has said it would be spent. Um the parking program revenue covers ongoing maintenance costs out at our beach. That is another really big point um that we should be proud of. the folks who are coming from away to visit us here are helping to carry the cost of the asset that they're enjoying in our community. And this is something I really want to make sure that we're aware of is the original parking program costs that existed prior to this are being covered by the non beach citation revenue. um that was, you know, for that one person and those two part-time um crossing guards uh was about $100,000 a year and we're um I believe that was $150,000 a year that we were getting from non-be revenue. So, uh we're not subsidizing the parking operations in the rest of the city that existed prior to the program. So, that's kind of a quick overview of that. It's a little bit different than the conversations that we've had in place because the as staff um and as I have had conversations with the commission we we've been trying to figure out how do we tell this story in a different way that makes it easier for folks to digest where is this money going because it is in the general fund and like I say in our budget presentations in the general fund you're taking one cup of water you're dumping into a big bucket and you're taking another cup of water and you're dipping it out and you can't say where this one drop came from necessarily but we were able to distill

this down in a way that shows we're investing in our park system. Uh we're covering our costs for programs that existed prior to the parking system existing in its current form. And now I open up for questions because I'm sure there's some.

Excellent. Thank you. Uh very uh insightful. Um really appreciate this affirmative presentation. Uh commissioners. Oh. Oh, and I should say uh thank you to Deborah for helping us make this digestible and having another set of eyes look at this and to Pete uh as well um for uh you know looking at this with fresh eyes and saying well this doesn't make sense or you should say this that way or those graphs don't match. Um so yes take it commissioner coin.

Yes. Thank you. Um first of all thank you everybody the whole team for working on this because it is a a very big issue that a lot of people come to me and ask me about and I you know I can get a little bit from Mr. Manager and a little bit from um finance and a and a and a little bit from the DPW but to have it all in one place is very helpful. So I appreciate that. Second of all I would love to have that PowerPoint available. Yep. because I think that would be helpful to also share. Um, one of the things that I was kind of questioning during the presentation um, in regards to the public safety presentation was uh, the dip in the 2324 parking expenses. You can see it on this one too. Actually, that relates to my other question as well. So you can see the expense trend line and on on the slide before this and this one you can see a drop between 23 22 23 and 2324. Did we have an understanding for why that was the case?

Um I there was some staff changes that occurred at that point in time. I believe we had a part there was one of the parking people left and we did have time we were down to two for a while. So we just had a little bit of less expense for our I see. Okay. Um, does that also explain the dip in the city citations? That I mean citations are what they are if you're going to have those violations they're going to they're going to site. But I I would say it could be a little bit indicative of that, but not probably totally.

Okay. Because that was my other question was why we saw a drop in the city titations between those two years as well because all the other ones look like they're kind of coming up for the most part. Sometimes that can be indicative of it. Sometimes it could be issues with our system. That was a couple years ago just when it started here. So only thing I'm really familiar with is the we did

I see. Okay. All right. Thank you. Um I don't have any other questions for Chief Kosal at this moment. Um maybe for Mr. Manager and maybe potentially finance. Um the you had mentioned that the parking enforcement fees are not separated from the beach fees, the revenue. Um and I think that's the one thing that everybody has been asking me for is can we figure that out? And I'm sure there's got to be a way we could figure that out.

Well, it's it is separated out here like we because the the fees are different amounts. Um but they go into the same budget. Um so it's uh revenue line into parking enforcement. Uh, and that's that's one of the reasons that we called this the parking presentation and not the beach parking presentation is because the city has for decades had a parking enforcement program. Um, and it used to be housed under the police department. Uh, and when this program came into existence, uh, Julie was moved out of there and then we hired additional folks. The reason we're able to get this this breakout in the number is because the citation amounts are different. And so we can run a report on what that is. Uh we wouldn't want to not have that revenue going into the same bucket because it's the same people doing the job, but we can say what those revenue differences are.

Okay. Thank you. That that helps explain that a little bit more. Um, in regards to the the launch ramp fees, you said those are not included in this and that's in a separate enterprise fund. Um, I didn't see anything in the presentation that talked about improvements to launch ramps, but that was part of the goal. Do we have that as So that because this is really focused on parking, this was not focused on the launch ramp conversation. Okay.

Um, and that that is an enterprise fund that is also housed um in conjunction with the marina. uh and launch ramp fees have existed long before uh the parking program did. We did do changes to the launch ramp fee when the parking program came into place. Um prior to 2020, um it was an an envelope and um kind of honor system where you you would go get the envelope, put the money in the envelope, drop it in the box, and then put the little slip in your window. Um we still do that for tournaments uh or we historically have done that for tournaments. That might be something changing in the future. The um with the advent of the parking program, we put kiosks in so you could buy your passes there or you could get them here at city hall um or other city facilities. So that's that's existed for a long time.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Coochin. Commissioners, is there anything else to ask or share at this time? No. All right. Well, thank you so much. uh really do appreciate all of the input um and insight shared in this presentation. So I do look forward to being um having that at the ready as well. Um so thank you. All right, this brings us to public comment. Any takers in the audience? We're going to go to the phones. Uh this is time for public comment. The phone number is 231-724-6721. If you're calling in, please turn down any audio in the background. Um, and state your name and if you're a city of Mossian resident, which neighborhood uh you live in, and if you're not a city of Mskian resident, which other township, village, or city you may be calling from. Everyone has up to three minutes to provide their remarks. This is a time for giving direct input to the city commission, not a time for Q&A or back and forth uh dialogue. We can arrange separate times to do so if that is uh desired and needed. It does not sound like we have any takers for phone and public comment at this time. Commissioners, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. So move.

All right, we got a motion by Vice Mayor Kenner, supported by Commissioner German to adjurnn. All in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. I. All post, same sign. Thank you. Take care. Be well. We are adjourned. We do.