Remarks by Mark Meadows
98 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 4
“Questions? I don't have a question about the policy itself, but, you know, there was comments at the microphone this evening. I can't remember whether you were in the room or not, but it seemed as though I need to know a little bit about the process and procedure and how this came to us. In other words, did the group that developed the policy unanimously asked that this be the policy that be approved.”
“That's what I'm asking. Yes. So even though there was somebody on the – committee that came to the microphone to sound like she was objecting to the policy. It was a unanimous decision to forward these policies for our consideration. Correct. Thank you.”
“I'm going to move to approve and adopt both updated policies and authorize the Chief of Police to sign and implement the policies.”
“I'll just respond. You know, under our charter, we have the authority to approve all policies. And I think this is a unique situation because we're addressing an issue within our community that has been consistent over many, many months in front of us. And in the past, we have not approved police policies, but we've always had the authority to do that. And I think we have the authority to approve all policies of all departments if we choose to do so. So even though this is a departure and maybe one of the only times we actually do this involving police activity, I think it was important for…”
“Just a couple of quick things. I can't remember who suggested that we engage with Advance Peace, but that was a great idea. And I appreciate that you will be here through October on our weekends. That's extremely positive for us. And I'm just wondering whether we have a plan to have you come in after that and give us a report on the entire period I'm hoping that happens and then we've got to talk about next year too because I think this is a very, very positive advancement and anybody who's been downtown at 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock, 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock in the morning knows how…”
“I've got a couple. Number one, I guess, I think we need that 10 year rate model to be made public so that the public knows what's going to happen. But that only takes care of, as I understand it anyway, the DPW project. So where's the cost to the public on an annual basis or through their property taxes for the rest of these? Do we have that?”
“So those general fund revenues are being used for other things right now. What would we be switching?”
“If I'm going to vote on this on the 22nd, I need a little more information on how we're going to pay for all this. And then I do have some, number one, you know, I do feel that Based on the Financial Health Committee's recommendations, I really support the idea of us bonding to do this type of work within the community. But, you know, we've got $17 million or so, almost $18 million of DPW stuff, which I have zero problem with. They have a plan on how they're going to pay for it. So I don't know why we're going 10 million and not taking care of that, like right in the get-go, if this is the…”
“And before you respond, let me just say that on other bond issues that we've had in the past, we have bonded even though we know we're not really spending that money for two or three years. And we've earned it, so we had a bigger pot of money. At the end, are you saying that this will not produce some revenue on these funds or we are prohibited by some law from obtaining earnings on this?”
“And then I know you had something to say, so come on up.”
“Yeah, and then just a couple of personal comments here. I don't have any problem with anything on this list, but I do have questions regarding the City Hall investments. I mean, if we're still thinking about moving City Hall, We're talking about putting another $3 million into City Hall with significant upgrades that we haven't really had the discussion about what are our other options with regard to this building and that location. I think we need to have those. In terms of... of the building we're in right now, I don't have any problem with, you know, we're committed to this building. I…”
“Well, that's very interesting. We have had a child care program operated by the city in the past, and we've run into trouble with the state. So I think we can operate a better child care program. This might be the location. It may not. But certainly, we've given that a chance before. Bottom line, I need to know what this is going to cost our citizens overall. So if it's program fees that are expanded, I need to know what those are going to be. This is a time within our community and all across this country where it costs a lot more to live right now than it ever has in the past, and mostly on…”
“Yeah, and I think that's a pretty good argument for us to look at what are we gonna do about City Hall as we go forward.”
“Okay. Let me say one last thing, which is that I think the message that we give to our citizens is extremely important with regard to this. If there's a 45-day referendum, we have never had a single citizen who isn't willing to sign a petition or to get this on the ballot or for a referendum. And that means they've got to be convinced, our community has to be convinced that we're headed in the right direction. Right now, I don't think we have enough information to make that argument.”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“Yeah, I think it would be very useful, and I know you're doing this now, so we will have that information. But, you know, this helps us in our relationship with the university as well in talking about maybe the contribution that they need to be making to maintain our station on campus and the service that we're provided. So I think the fact that you're getting that information or accumulating that information at this point is very important. And then just one comment on the the mutual aid received and given. As we've talked about stronger relationship or a different way of us providing fire…”
“I'll just note that, you know, I do remember being fully encased in a very heavy fire department outfit, crawling up the steps into the third floor of Hanna Community Center, which was full of smoke because I was in citizen training that the police department was offering. So that's a really good suggestion. I'll just note that it's a hard job. And that type of training will demonstrate to people in the community just how hard this job is. I think we cut open a car. I'm not sure. I think maybe the clerk was hanging from rafters on something during that training as well.”
“So if I get an unredacted report, I don't see any reason why every other council member shouldn't be getting an unredacted report. In fact, I assumed that those reports were distributed to other council members, so I apologize, or I would have brought this up a long time ago. Let's talk about Flock just briefly. Because one of the questions is what data, and you've already identified that, that you're using it as a plate reader, you know, some kind of a discovery item, and that the information that you would receive from the Flock camera would be something that you would buttress with further…”
“And so the, you know, when we look at my truck parked out in the parking lot and somebody walks by, they could write down my license plate number.”
“They could contact the state of Michigan and say who owns this thing. It's public information, correct?”
“And so my question is really in terms of the other, I guess, the real worry that was exhibited in the person who was contacting you is, you know, what about these other agencies that get this information and how do they use it? I mean, this is just the information. And my question really relates to FOIA because if I can get it from the state of Michigan, by making a FOIA request, then this is information that theoretically would be available to any of our citizens within the community by making a FOIA request to us. But there is section 13 of the FOIA which provides that a public body may…”
“Yeah, and I would expect, you know, what I was going to suggest is that I think the flock issue within the community is worth having another presentation with regard to it at some point so that we get a better feel. for the entire, we don't have a lot of flock cameras, obviously.”
“And I think we had, this is for a period of time so that we can check it out and see if it's useful to us, right?”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“Okay, I just want to suggest to the city manager anyway that, you know, this is the type of training, ethical policing, building trust, professionalism, obviously good training. But one of the questions I have is, can we offer that type of training to, say, members of LAPOC so that they would know the training that has become more, I guess, knowledgeable about the actual training that is that is being presented to the police personnel. And I look at some of these other ones like Joe Samara, the advanced de-escalation, I think that's coming up, but trauma recognition, mental resiliency, all…”