Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

May I please ask for a roll call? Supervisor Riley? Present. Clerk Anzaldi? Present. Treasurer Eppekind?

Present.

Trustee Erta Thompson? Present. Trustee Jaffer?

Present.

Trustee Brabeck?

Present.

Trustee Karami? Present. Madam Supervisor, you have seven present. I do love a full house.

All right. I will go ahead and ask for a motion to approve the agenda.

Madam Chair, I move to approve the agenda for August 12, 2026. Second. Okay. Any discussion?

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right, the agenda is approved as presented. Now I'll go ahead and open it up for public comment and board response. Any person may come forward at this time to address the board. Anyone who wishes to speak is requested but not required to state his or her name and address for the record. You have five minutes to speak. OK, seeing none, I will move on and ask for an approval of the minutes.

Madam Chair, I move to approve the minutes of the regular meeting held on July 8, 2026. Second. Okay. Any discussion? All in favor?

Aye. Opposed? All right. Minutes are approved as presented. There is nothing for public hearings, presentations, or proclamations or communications, so we'll move on to a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Madam Chair, I move to consent agenda 7.1. To 7.12.

Second. Okay, any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right, consent agenda is approved. We have no department report reports or updates. And moving on to new business, may I please have a motion for 9.1.

Madam Chair, I move to receive and file the August 4th, 2026 primary election update.

Support.

Any discussion or do you want to go over it a little bit? I just want to say that, you know, we had a very high, rather unusually high voter turnout for this election. I have some historical on the back page. We had a 44% voter turnout, which was very nice. It is the highest August voter turnout ever. So that was pretty interesting. I don't know why. We did have one major, very significant event occur during the election. Our QVF, which is the qualified voter file that holds all the election information of every voter that is run by the state, went down for 45 minutes in the evening on election day, which means we were unable to register voters during this time period and check absentee ballots and do other election administration stuff. We did My office handled it like a champ. They worked really hard, and the election workers were working with voters as much as we can without having access to the system. The state says that they are working on a permanent fix, but we shall see about that. Everything else pretty much went smoothly. But like I said, we had an unusually high voter turnout. Every election after the election, just so the new board members know, I do write this little memo up so you can capture and see how early voting was versus absentee and in-person voting. And I think it's just some useful information to have. So I do want to thank Deputy Clerk Mitchell, Keller, still to this day. Keller, for all the work that she does during elections, it's truly outstanding. And of course, my staff. And many thanks to all the election inspectors who I know my staff and I put in about 18 hours in a day, and it makes for a very long day. And so I really appreciate all that everybody does to make sure that elections run smoothly.

Thank you. And I'd like to say from the county side, my previous job before this, that Pittsfield is extremely well run and lends themselves to be an early voting spot for multiple jurisdictions, helping out the surrounding areas.

So thank you for that. Thank you.

Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. It is recorded. It was filed and received. May I please have a motion for 9.2?

Madam Chair, I move to approve the purchase of a 2013 Pierce platform fire truck from Garage Technologies Incorporated at a cost not to exceed $670,000, subject to the Township Attorney approval.

Second. Okay, discussion. We do have our fire chief and our director of public safety to come on up and give us a little background.

Thank you. Good evening. This purchase. I was hoping to have a better update for you tonight from the insurance claim that we had from the 2011 platform that was damaged in 2024. The insurance claim is complete, but it is still under review, so we don't know how much money we're going to receive in that claim yet. We will be working closely with the finance director. If we don't reach a certain threshold, though, we would not make this purchase.

So understand that I want to make sure that you know that full disclosure We don't have that dollar amount and that the due date for this purchase is Friday So if we don't have that number from the insurance company by Friday Our finance director we're working on our budget for next year and we're looking at the numbers and so there's a threshold that has to be made in order to us to be able to do this so But we want to be able to not be able to stop it for if we can go forward to vote on its night But again, if we don't hit the insurance claim, we will not do it. Correct Any questions?

Okay.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay. There we go. We'll do that. May I please have a motion for 9.3?

Madam Chair, I move to approve the ESS subscription renewal for the fire department for report writing, EMS data collection, fire inspection reporting, training documentation, and scheduling at a cost not exceed $23,397.50. Second. Second. Okay.

Again, it's going to be sort of like the public safety show for a little bit. So if you want to give us a little background while you're up here.

I'll let the fire chief speak on ESO.

We'd love to have the chief speak.

So this is like our lifeline. This is how we operate on the back end. So report writing, all of our inspections that we do on all our businesses within the township is documented. Our scheduling for our staff. training, all of that is the component of this programming. So it's an annual subscription, and we're just asking for the renewal.

Any questions on this? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. Approved. And we'll ask for a motion for 9.4.

Madam Chair, I move to authorize the supervisor and clerk to sign a contract change order 12 with Blue Scope Construction at a cost not to exceed $21,000 $394 for the public safety facility improvement project, subject to the township attorney approval. Second.

And we do want to talk a little about this. Director Gray and I have talked about this. Per Trustee Brabeck's comment at the last meeting, which really made us stop and think that really it should come back to the board. We have approved a blanket amount. We keep coming back with sort of transparency information. But to keep you updated where we're at and why change orders are coming in, Director Gray is going to kind of go through the next couple of things and explain it to the board so that everybody's kind of informed, not just saying yes to everything blindly.

Right. And going into this project, yes, we wanted to address the concerns. And it's an understandable question. Part of the way that we started this project with the budget that we had or didn't have Certain selections were made certain choices were made that really was kind of kicking the can down the road and somebody's going to have to deal with this later and so we're dealing with it now. I did meet with the finance director and Kurt Weiland and I met compared all numbers and we are still well within budget so I just. We knew that some of these things would happen. Anytime you're renovating an old building, you're going to discover certain things. And there was also certain concerns with decisions that were made early that really, when we get to that portion or those portions, you'll understand. We don't want to move forward without doing this right.

There wasn't an architect involved in the beginning. Correct.

Which is going to cause problems later on. Right. And some of the times that I'm coming to you and asking for different things, The reason we're doing that is in an effort to save money. If we would have done some of these projects through Blue Scope and not done them on our own through Vance and O'Brien, the markup would have been significantly higher. So it's causing me to come to you and ask a bunch of times versus one big bill, but that one big bill would have been significantly higher had we not done it this way.

And we are still waiting on the release of funds from HUD. So we're just watching all of that diligently as well to see if we can reimburse ourselves for any of this or use it for other things. But we are within budget of the main project.

So things like furniture. There's an antenna for radio communications. So I'll be coming back with some other things. But that was done intentionally. Had we done it all through the construction company, it would have been 20% markup on all of those things. And so I do have several.

And if there are questions, if you have specific questions too, please feel free.

I have several.

Or if you want to go, wait for, go through all this and ask at the end, that's fine too.

Right. I guess I was going to ask, do you want me to just work through each one and then call them or do you want to call them and I'll work through them individually?

Yep. I'll call each one and we'll work individually.

Okay. So, so this one's a change order number 12. This is for sightline issues. So similarly without an architect, certain things were, In construction, certain walls and doors were placed in places that created sightline issues. One of them is the east end of the men's and women's locker room for the police department. From the hallway and really from both locker rooms, you can see directly into the locker room, so we have some sightline issues that need to be corrected. That's change order 12.

Okay. Any questions on that? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay.

Please ask for a motion for 9.5. Manager, I move to authorize the supervisor and clerk to sign contract change order number 13 with blue scope construction at a cost not to exceed $20,503 for the public safety facility improvement project subject to the township attorney approval.

Second.

Okay.

So contract change order 13 is involves drainage from the Sally port. So the last fire bay on the south end of the building will be left as a bay for police vehicles to drive through. And if we have an arrestee, you can bring them in in a secure location. there's floor drains in that Sally port that run to an oil water separator. That way you don't pollute the, yeah. So that oil water separator is actually in a location where an office will be. So we need to remove that. We need to put new lines in and put in a new oil water separator.

Okay, any questions on that? Okay, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right, may I please ask for a motion for 9.6?

Madam Chair, I move to authorize the supervisor and clerk to sign a contract change order number 14 with Blue Scope Construction at a cost net to exceed $156,208 for the public safety facility improvement project, subject to the township attorney approval. Second.

So this is one of the blind spots that when we were doing the original planning, decisions were made about construction materials. And I think it had more to do with an oversight. It's a large project. Concerns about those materials when we were looking at the plans more closely, the holding cells were built with drywall and steel studs, but drywall similar to an office space. The doors in that space were wood doors and not steel solid doors. Really in an effort to make that space safe both for staff and for any arrestees, it really should have been done with masonry walls, solid doors, and then stainless steel like jail grade toilets and fixtures.

Okay, any questions on that? Okay, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, that's passed. If we could ask, or authorized, for a motion for 9.7.

Madam Chair, I move to authorize the supervisor and clerk to sign a contract change order number 15 with Blue Scope Construction at a cost not to exceed $17,917 for the public safety facility improvement project subject to the township attorney approval. Second.

Um, so contract change order 15, uh, it involves the, there's a bathroom on the west end of the building that is remaining and there's another bathroom that's going to be added. The sewer line from that, um, from that restroom is will be the, would be the last of the old, um, pipes from the building and we're fine we found the construction found that the condition of those sewer lines was uh was found to be inadequate they were lacking proper pitch and the pipes were deteriorating so they're looking to tie into the new sewer line with this change order any questions or discussion all in favor aye opposed all right that's authorized may please ask for a motion for 9.8

Madam Chair, I move to authorize the supervisor and clerk to sign a contract change order number 16 with Blue Scope Construction at a cost not to exceed $14,124 for the public safety facility improvement project subject to the township attorney approval.

Second.

Thank you.

Thank you. Change order 16 involves efficiency of use of space, but then also a safety and security matter. So we discovered that if we could create an extra interview, a soft interview room in the main hallway off of the lobby, we could both do soft interviews where it doesn't necessarily need to be in a secure lockup area, and also we could do court-ordered fingerprints or even fingerprints of an offender. Say if we have a juvenile offender, we can fingerprint them there without having to bring them into a lockup. where another offender may be. So having a separate place to do fingerprints, but then also a separate private place to do an interview was the intent. So adding a wall, moving a wall, and then adding another wall in a much larger office then creates two office spaces. So we're trying to, you know, maximize the amount of use that we can get out of the building. So that's what the change order, those were change order 16 or four.

Okay. Any questions or discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, that's authorized. May I please have a motion for 9.8? Did we just do that one? Yeah. That last one?

All right.

9.9. 9.9, sorry. My glasses were off when I looked at that.

It was like, oh, yep, that it is. 9.9, please. Okay, Madam Chair, I move to authorize the supervisor and clerk to sign a contract change order number 17 with blue scope construction at a cost not to exceed $45,690.00 for the public safety facility improvement project subject to the township attorney approval. Second.

Thank you. Change order 17 goes along with doing renovation on an old building. You're going to discover things, and the construction company has found that there was inadequate insulation within the attic of the building, and that several holes were found in the existing drywall where they meet the attic. So in order to achieve R49, they're going to need to add in blown-in insulation. Additionally, while doing that, we're looking to add four solar tubes, which are similar to skylights, but they're not actually skylights, to bring some natural light into locations where people are working. And these happen to be places where people work all day. They're not officers going out on the road. These are spots where detectives and records people are working to bring some natural light into that location.

Okay. Any discussions or questions on this or anything else? I think this is the end of the Director Public Safety Show. So if you have any questions about the project in general. And then our project manager, Kurt Weiland, is also here if you have any questions.

Director Gray, are we still on track for completion? And I don't remember when that is going to be.

So truly optimistic answer to that is sometime in December or January. But I could foresee it being March or April.

If they say December, you say March or April.

And depending on how the HUD money gets released, whether or not we can incorporate that or have to do another project or how we figure that out, it may be extended to a different phase or that sort of thing. We don't know yet.

And really, once that was signed, as long as we do it right or the purchases that we make are done under the rules of the HUD grant, we can retro with some of those funds too. And that would then bring the bond money back to the township.

Which would be helpful, yes. Thank you. We will definitely do a celebration when that's all said and done. All in favor? Aye. Opposed?

All right. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

May I please have a motion for 9.10?

Madam Chair, I move to authorize the Supervisor and Clerk to enter into an easement agreement with Jamie DeFlorio of 1479 Cobblestone Court establishing an easement for a new sanitary force main. Subject to the Township Attorney approval. Second. We do have our Director of Utilities here. If anybody has any questions or...

Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. Authorized. May I please have a motion for 9-11?

Madam Chair, I move to authorize the supervisor and clerk to enter into a five-year agreement with Hydro Corp. for cross-connection control software at a cost not to exceed $117,235. Subject to down payment.

Second. Okay. Any discussion on this? Again, our director of utilities is here.

Okay.

All in favor? Aye.

Opposed?

All right. It's authorized. May I please have a motion for 9.12?

Madam Chair, I move to authorize the supervisor and clerk to enter into an agreement with Signs by Craney for the fabrication and installation of two park entrance signs at Montebello Park at a cost not to exceed $35,746, subject to the township attorney approval.

Second.

Okay, we do have our director of public parks and rec here.

This is basically we're just replacing our signs at the parks, and I know we have one sign already started over at Graywall, and this will be the Montebello one. I think in the packet you saw a picture of it. But if you have questions, we do have our director here. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. Authorized. Moving on to unfinished business.

May I please have a motion for 10.1? Madam Chair, I move to adopt a 2026 Freedom of Information Act policy, procedures, and guidelines. Second. Okay. Any discussion? I just want to mention that this was previously brought to you in draft form. There have been no changes to it. And it's just an updated to a 2015 policy that we had previously.

That looked good. Appreciate you doing that. Okay. May I ask for a roll call for this one?

Supervisor Riley? Yes. Clerk Anzaldi? Yes. Treasurer Epikin?

Yes.

Trustee Erta Thompson? Yes. Trustee Jaffer? Yes. Trustee Brabeck?

Yes.

Trustee Karami? Yes. Madam Chair, you have seven yeas. Thank you.

Adopted now moving on to liaison and trustee reports.

Do we have any I do ma'am? I'd like to share a summary of action, which is August 6 2026 Planning Commission meeting the Planning Commission held a Public hearing and voted to recommend the data center zoning regulation to the township board with the following amendments address the issue of flooding add the word quality after water. Amend Section B.2 to remove planned unit development reference. The Planning Commission held a public hearing and voted to approve the resolution of approval for COP26-05, the World Golf Club, with following condition. Applicant to confirm the location, the Planning Commission voted to approve the resolution of approval for CSPA 24-11 and RZ2402, Sam's Club Fuel Expansion. The next meeting will be held August 20th, 2026.

Thank you. And so as Trustee Jaffer said, at the Planning Commission meeting we had A good attendance. It was very nice to see a lot of residents come out, 30, 40 people, and it was good discussion. I just have to say we have very intelligent and engaged residents. We were able to take some of the information that was provided by experts and add some things to the ordinance. Our staff and the Planning Commission have done a great job making sure that we are putting in every possible regulation we can. We do want to help our... Jurisdictions around us. We will be sharing everything we have we have used several different legal Companies to vet out our ordinance We have taken our time worked with the county work the state worked with environmental groups Our entire staff has really been involved in this so I just like to commend everyone and know that most likely in September that will be coming to the board. So please take time to look at it as well. We have opened it. There's still time for people to make comments publicly before, up until that time, and then at the two public hearings for us to still make changes. I do believe it'll be a living and breathing document. There's really no expert in data centers. We'll have to stay on top of things and make sure we're looking out for our community. And again, I just think any information we have, we share with the communities around us. And we work with everyone to do this. What happens in Saline and Ypsilanti and Augusta affects us as well. So yeah, this is something that I'm happy for us to lead. But I really want to make sure we leave no one behind as well as we do this. And so please keep informed. We'll modify things as need be. But that will be coming in most likely in September.

Yes, Riley It's my understanding that at this time.

We do not have any Current correct we do not have no one has approached us They would have to go through our planning department through supervisors office promise you no one is called or any inquiries We are not necessarily a target for a large large scale data center This is basically if we we had the moratorium in place. I think the biggest question was is Why not just leave a moratorium in place? And I think that's the problem is that you can't. It's not legally defensible. So we're putting the guardrails in place, and we're making sure our community is protected through these ordinances as best as possible. Again, it's wild, wild west and uncharted territory. So we'll have to just keep watching it. And as it evolves, we'll have to evolve. But our most important thing is our resources and our residents. And we got 350 responses. from our residents, and the majority are not in favor of opening up to large scale data centers. And we have not been approached by any, nor do we feel we're a target, but that doesn't mean that next evolution or something else won't make us a target. So it's preventative, and it's just to make sure that we're vetting out everything before we are in a position where we have no authority. Thank you. Yep, thank you.

Thank you. Any other reports?

I do want to say that we did last week do a video with SEMCOG for our community. So we went to different locations, and we had a lot of our partners, including our Commissioner Sanders, was there to help us, and the Chamber, and just some of our planning commissioners were there. Our trustee, Earl Thompson, was there as well. So hopefully, and Treasurer Epikin as well. So hopefully we'll have something in a couple of weeks. And it'd be nice to be able to maybe at this meeting show a video that kind of highlights the experience of Pittsfield Township. And we can share that with everybody to share how wonderful our community is with others. So it was one of those that came with our membership. So why not take advantage of it? All right. Well, if there's nothing else, I will go ahead and ask for a motion to adjourn.

Oh, I'm sorry, public comment.

Sorry, so sorry. I'm going to open up for public comment. Any person may come forward at this time to address the board. Anyone wishes to speak is requested but not required to state their name and address for the record. I apologize. Okay, now I will ask for a motion to adjourn.

Madam Chair, I move to adjourn.

Second. All in favor? Aye. All right, meeting is adjourned at 6.56.