Remarks by Kerry Ebersole Singh
106 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 5
“I just want to take a moment, again, to thank you both for the time. You mentioned the four meetings with the LAPOC policy subcommittee regarding these policies. I also want to thank our city attorney for the time as well. I think, you know, This, just as we went through finance policy on the agenda item prior to this, I think it's important as you are required to maintain your certification to do policy review every three years. And I think it's an important process that, and I know I mentioned to you the Costco parking lot, how much I appreciated your listening posture through the meetings,…”
“Is that something you're interested in, Mayor?”
“Yes, and I am going to try to mention a few things that came up during public comment. One comment regarding the song contest from last weekend. I am a liaison to the Arts Commission, and I want to give a shout out to our chair, Allie, CR toe and it was her idea about bringing the song competition to the city of East Lansing and so I think it's appropriate to give her a shout out as well or as well as Heather Mangiano who is the staff support to the Commission so Secondly, on the suicide prevention, I know we applied for a federal grant, I believe, and that was rejected to help supply fencing…”
“Has there been a change to the barrier that we were going to do by Trowbridge and the Red Cedar neighborhood?”
“I'm chasing down hearsay and rumor that I heard rumor. Yeah, yet to be confirmed. So if the neighborhood no longer wants that barrier, and the state dollars are going to be purposed towards Evie and I don't if I'm sharing bad information, please correct me.”
“Helpful. So it is true the neighborhood no longer wants the original purpose of the funds.”
“My reaction to this is that you know a six-figure fine does it's steep it's real but 26 trees and the inches of is significant as well I will say whether it should be part of this equation or not and this quasi-judicial process we're embarking upon is you know if we were putting affordable housing in there Guess what? I would probably feel more forgiving about some of the trees that we lost. And I think in the last hearing in a similar issue, we were able to get to a middle ground of replacing some of the trees in the easement. that's a long way of saying that's my two cents like I would love…”
“More details. Yeah, that's a big... That's fair, because I'm starting to get uncomfortable with how this is set up, like, in our ordinance. You know, it's one thing if it's a formula, and then we're just reviewing the formula, but as we're reviewing these case-by-case scenarios, it feels... I don't know. I'm starting to get uncomfortable with how this is set up. Anyway, I don't know if others have further comments, because I heard at least two individuals that sounded like they were looking for another path, another option.”
“You're delaying it? I couldn't, you mumbled.”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“So you mentioned using state thresholds. I'm just curious, since the state's budget is much larger than ours, just the rationale for using the state's threshold.”
“And I'm curious on the last piece in terms of a qualification-based selection, how do we handle engineering services today?”
“I just feel we have gotten community feedback regarding the amount of firms we hire, especially for some of our DPW services. I'm a little uncomfortable removing an RFP and taking that off the top. There's still... ways to design an RFP where you're getting now the value for the project as well as qualifications so I'm just I'm struggling again you know federal projects is just a whole different ballgame compared to what we're doing within our budget so I'm struggling with this one so it's not necessarily for federal projects but if federal funds are being used we have to follow those rules…”
“But if we change, we don't have to factor in price.”
“But you can still figure that out through an RFP process?”
“every RFP process I've been a part of, you can determine that.”
“Like for Harrison Road, we had engineering services out a few times that people complained that we did a number of different rounds with engineering. So that would or would not be included. Was that part of a larger construction bid or I guess we did a couple of different rounds to get to where we ended up on the Harrison road, um, pedestrian walkway. But I mean, we've done, I mean just a lot. So, and I know, so I, anyway, I've, I've expressed my concern here. So if there's additional presentation to go through,”
“They wouldn't have to under this if we accept these changes.”
“Yeah, I would just be curious, what does that threshold look like for other similar sized municipalities?”
“But on this, I mean, but we also have or the mayor has control widely on what goes on the consent agenda versus what needs a vote as well, regardless of contract amount.”
“Right, but it can go on a consent agenda. Correct. It could go on consent. That's what I'm saying. And then I guess I'm just struggling a bit. I know it may be a hindrance at times, but having The memory issue for staff having to remember twenty thousand dollars and fifty thousand That's a little bit of a struggle for me and then also a project management standpoint That that is a little bit foreign But at any rate And then it would be helpful to understand municipal, uh, communities of our size. What is a standard there? Um, that would be helpful, um, to compare.”
“I mean, that's where I would be to maintain an RFP for those services to have that practice today.”
“I think for me, what would help me is like-sized municipalities, what their thresholds are, either by budget or by population, to help understand that level. Even if it's retro, like even if we get notification, well, guess what? We have no, you know, say, you know, a notification.”
“I move to approve a request to unfreeze and fill the vacant deputy director of parks, recreation, and arts position and approve a related budget amendment.”
“I just want to add, he does all that impressive work while completing his master's at GW, right?”