City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the July 27th, 2026 regular meeting of the Rochester Hills City Council. Recording secretary will take roll please.

President Carlock. Here. Vice President Mangioli. Here. Mr. Blair. Here. Mr. Lindberg.

Here.

Ms. Menino. Here. Ms. Neubauer. Here. Mr. Scalzi.

Here.

President Carlock, we have a quorum.

Thank you very much. If everyone will rise and our youth council representative will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Approval of agenda. I have not been made aware of any changes to the agenda. I have a motion by Councilwoman Neubauer, seconded by Vice President Mangioli. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, we have an agenda for tonight. First up, council and youth committee reports. We'll kick it off with our youth council representative, Ms. Joshi.

Good evening, President Carlock, Vice President Maggioli, Mayor Barnett, council members and citizens of Rochester Hills. My name is Sasha Joshi and I'm a rising senior at Rochester Adams High School. I'm in my second year of being on the Rochester Hills Government Youth Council and I currently serve on the Historic Districts Commission. This past month, Youth Council has continued to diligently serve on their technical review committees while also selecting our newest members for the upcoming year. As we prepare to welcome them at orientation in their swearing-in ceremony, we're also looking forward to volunteering at the Brooklyn's Block Party. At the same time, we'd like to thank and recognize our graduating seniors for their dedication and service as they prepare to conclude their time on Youth Council. Our next meeting will be Thursday, August 13th at 6 p.m. Thank you so much for your time and have a great evening.

Thank you very much, Ms. Joshi. I do have some council comments. Mr. Scalzi.

I was told here by Councilwoman Neubauer that if I'm going to chair for my committee, now is the time. Yeah, so I don't do slideshows. I was up for three hours trying to figure this out. I'm terrible with technology. Help me. Anyways, so I didn't even go to this event because I was working and Councilwoman Neubauer went in my stead instead of me being there. And so, oh, there, look at up there. There's my very small graphic if you have... Eye problems, I'm sorry. Anyways, so it really was a very neat event in that it focused on the mental health of children. When I was driving in today, I was thinking, You know, our kids are exposed to so many things that are out to be negative towards how they look or what they wear or whatever it is. And it seemed like this event was just about being yourself. And I think kids need more of that, that it's okay to wear what you want and do the things you want to in a healthy way. I wish I had gone, honestly. But again, my small business is a weekend business, so I couldn't. And it looks like it was a good time. I'm going to try to scroll. Look at that. I'm scrolling. There's small children right there. And what are these kids doing? I think it's tie-dye, I hope, because it was red. And I'm thinking, yeah, it's got to be tie-dye. So they look like they're having fun. Getting a little messy there. This was out at the farm, correct? Yes. Yeah, it was out at Van Hoosian Farm. This little girl had her face painted, and hey, there's some dogs. If you got dogs, then it's always a great event. Then we move on to our fire department, and if you got a fire engine, it's always a great event. Then they capped it off with this band. I don't know what their name was.

It's from the local music school here. So it's from the School of Music that provides lessons for kids in Rochester, Rochester Hills, and the Serrano area.

Okay, cool. So yeah, it looks like they had a good time. And that is it.

Thank you very much, Mr. Scalzi. Next up, Ms. Neubauer.

Thank you, President Kerlock. Just to tag team, Councilman Scalzi, one of the things that we discovered during our youth council interviews is that one of the biggest areas that youth said they wanted to focus on was their mental health. They wanted to take on projects about mental health and wellness. They were concerned about things that was being shown on social media. you know, the things they're exposed to, the pressures, the fact that they walk in the school hallways and kids are doing Snapchats of them posting that without their consent, things like that. So it was a really good event and I would urge our community and hopefully this council to see how we can support our youth in this kind of initiative. Maybe this is something that we can adopt some kind of programming. We can maybe work with youth council to do this because out of the over 50 kids we interviewed, when we asked them what was the most important issue that we want to address or you would want to address or take on, I would say probably 97-ish percent of them said mental health for kids. So I am thankful for Mr. Scalzi and him serving on the Rochester Auburn Hills Community Coalition. They go into the schools, they work with our kids, and anything we can do to support the health and safety of the citizens of Rochester Hills we do. But this is the next generation, and they need help too. So that's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Neubauer. I don't see any further council or youth committee reports, so we will move on to public comment. Public comment is for items not on the agenda. Public comment is limited to three minutes. We do have one member of the public wishing to speak. If you would just approach the podium here, Mr. Gabe McCoy.

Good evening. My name is Gabe McCoy, and I am vice president and media director for Friends of the Clinton River Trail. For a decade in the past, the Friends held an annual fundraiser called the Fall Classic. After several years hiatus, I'm excited to let Rochester Hills know that the Fall Classic is returning this September. This Ride or Stride event is family friendly for all ages. There will be cycling routes ranging from eight to 25 miles, some traveling through all five of the Clinton River Trail cities. Walkers and runners will have options of one to three miles. This is not a race. All are welcome to participate at their own pace. What's really exciting about this year's event is it will showcase several projects expected to be complete by event day. The Elizabeth Street Respite Area in Rochester, the long-awaited North Spur Edition in Pontiac, and of course, the repaired Rochester Washouts. The Fall Classic will take place between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Sunday, September 27th, The start and an event headquarters will be Kiwanis Pavilion in Rochester Municipal Park. Registration is $35 and includes a t-shirt, food, and fun. Proceeds go toward helping keep the Clinton River Trail a premier path throughout its 16 miles. We invite you and all Rochester Hills residents to join us on Sunday, September 27th. Spread the word and go to clintonrivertrail.org to register. Thanks and see you all on the trail.

Thank you very much, Mr. McCoy. That sounds like an interesting thing. So you may see me out there. Thank you. I don't see any other blue comment cards or anyone looking to approach the podium. I do have another comment from Council. Mr. Blair.

Thank you, President Deal. And Mr. McCoy, thanks for bringing that to our attention. We love the work that you guys do on the Clinton River Trail and wish you the best on that event. Emma, would you share my screen, please? Just a couple announcements that I wanted to make sure are top of everybody's mind. We had quite the heat wave a couple weeks ago. I don't know how easy it is to make out the details of that temperature map that I found on Facebook. Maybe this is an easier one. I found this on WGN. Much above average, which is not a time to have this happen. I don't know if you can recognize what's in that picture or not, but that. is a blower motor from an old furnace, a Snyder General furnace from 1987. It's been kicking in my basement, but finally decided to give out. The coils inside the motor gave out, couldn't replace it, which stuck me with a 98 degree house in 104 degree heat. Now, necessity being the mother of invention, I was able to cobble together a carpet dryer, a leaf blower, and a bounce house fan. Yes, it was a little loud, but I'll tell you what, the son of a gun worked, and it kept the house comfortable. But you know who won't like this? The building department. We got a brand new furnace and called up the city to get a permit. This is John, one of our newest inspectors. He joined the team back in March and you'll notice we got the green tag there. He checked everything there is to check and this is my, my message. You know, if you're getting the new appliance, whether it be a hot water heater, a furnace, or you're doing electrical work or having a contractor come out to service your deck, You need to get a permit for that work. It's not a cash grab from the city. We really want to make sure that these projects are done safely. And that's the whole reason we have inspectors that are well-trained. And almost all of our inspections, I think close to 100%, right, are done the very next day. So we don't make you wait around. Also, another announcement, this from the Parks and Natural Resources Department. Anybody recognize what those are? If you drove by Tinkin' and Squirrel Road, you know what those are. Those are Phragmites. Those are an invasive species, and they are a constant problem in a lot of our HOA common areas, and in fact, is a part of my backyard where the fragmites grow, and you may not know that the city has a fragmites treatment program. This is the last week to sign up for that. All of the applications need to be in by August 1st, and you can utilize the city's contractor to treat your fragmites problem. It's very reasonable. I think it's like 140 bucks to do my house. It's a one-time treatment. It's very effective. My Phragmites are practically gone. I saw a couple new ones come in this year, so I put in for another treatment, but this is the last year. So if you or your HOA is interested in Phragmites treatment, go to the city's website, rochesterhills.org, search for Phragmites, download that form, send it to Matt in our Forestry and Natural Resources Department. They'll take great care of you. Back to you, Prez.

Thank you very much. Legislative and administrative comments. Well, we do have some more legislative comments. Ms. Neubauer.

Thank you, President Carlock. So today is the last city council meeting before the August 4th election. There are three millages that are being proposed, two of which are specific to Rochester Hills, which is the pathway millage and the fire millage. And when I say specific to Rochester Hills, meaning that millage will be paid for by Rochester Hills residents and then the money goes directly to Rochester Hills. It's not in a pool where it goes to the county and then they figure out where the money goes. I'm going to address the fire millage really quickly. And basically what I'm gonna do is remind our residents of some of the facts that our fire chiefs presented to us during the April 18th meeting, the week of the April 18th. In 2025, the City of Rochester Hills had 9,048 incidents that required fire calls. That comes to about 745 calls a month on average. That is up almost 1,000 from 2023, which is a significant jump. The problem, one of the many problems along with the increase in the number of calls is that we have concurrent calls. Concurrent calls means multiple calls at one time. And in 2025, so last year, we had 224 concurrent calls that we were unable to respond to our residents, meaning 224 times our residents called for fire EMS and we weren't able to respond. The majority of our calls, an estimated 84 percent are medical emergencies that require our EMS. We have an increase in our aging population and those that are aging in place, which is requiring obviously more calls and a greater burden on our fire department. Um, yes, we have mutual aid. I'm going to try to answer some of the questions that I saw posted on social media this week. Yes, we have mutual aid, but unfortunately a lot of our neighboring cities are in the same situation. We all are and are understaffed. For example, last week there was a fire in Troy where our firefighters had to go respond because they needed our help. Um, If the fire millage passes, we'll be able to hire 12 additional firefighter paramedics, which is an additional four per shift, and staff an additional ambulance. Again, the millage will be for Rochester Hills residents. It's earmarked, so it's not one of those situations where we're asking you to pay for a millage and not telling you where the money is gonna go. We know exactly where it's gonna go. So a lot of people think, and I'm usually one of those people, that an increase in taxes is just a money grab. I never support an increase in taxes. I am supporting this increase in taxes because it's an issue of public safety. If you live in a house that's assessed at about $400,000, this will cost you $8.79 a month. So I have two teenagers. And that is one-fourth of my McDonald's bill when I'm running to get them food while we're driving. So it's worth it to me, $8.79. I know everyone is struggling. I understand that. But I think we can all figure out a way to sacrifice $8.79 for the sake of not having 224 of our residents not get medical care or fire care when we need it. So that's our education. If you want any more information, you can go to the city posted, the city of Rochester Hills posted a video on my private Facebook page. I've posted videos. If you need anything, please reach out to your city council members. We're willing to provide all the information that you need. I'm sure if you stopped any of our firefighters, they'd be willing to answer anything that you need. So it's important. Please vote. April 4th is a big day for us. Oh, one of the other questions on social media is why did we put it on the August 4th ballot and not the November ballot? it was not for a nefarious reason. It was because we have a grant that we're eligible for that if this passes, we're able to claim and use those funds with our staff immediately rather than having to wait a prolonged time to get that grant money. So that's all I have. Please go out and vote. It's super important. And that's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Vice President Mangioli.

So thank you, Councilman Neubauer, for bringing up the election because we have early voting is going on right now at the Rochester Hills Public Library. And I'm sure Clerk Scott can give us more information about that. But I want people to know that you're sitting home, you've got your absentee ballot, and you found out the person you were voting for is not running anymore. They suspended their campaign. It's past the deadline where you can come to the clerk's office to spoil the ballot, but you can go to the early voting site or to any of the polls on election day and say, I want to turn in my absentee ballot, spoil it, and get a new ballot. So even though you can't come to the clerk's office necessarily to pull back an old ballot, if you still have your absentee ballot sitting at home and it's marked a name of someone who has suspended their campaign, Bring that ballot over to the clerk's team that are at the Rochester Hills Public Library. Tell them you want to turn it in, spoil it, and get a fresh one, and then be able to vote for one of the people that are still running for that office. The other piece is Thursday. July 30th at the Rochester Hills DPS building on Auburn Road. There is a hearing about improvements being made to Rochester Road starting in 27 and then going into 28. They're looking for public comment that that meeting is from 5 to 7 p.m. at the DPS building. They're talking about making the lanes narrower. They want to try and find ways to make the speed lower. This is your time because that road, once it is improved, it's probably a good 20 years before they're going to change it again. So please, if you have the opportunity, Thursday night, July 30th, 5 to 7 at the DPS building on Auburn Road. That's all I have, Chair, President.

Thank you. Clerk Scott.

Thank you, President Carlock. Vice President Mangioli, State Council, and Mayor Barnett. Just a quick election update. As Vice President Mangioli mentioned, early voting is taking place right now, and it is at the Rochester Hills Public Library. The hours are 8.30 to 4.30 every day, including the weekends. But Thursday is noon to 8 p.m. Now, early voting goes through Sunday, August 2nd. And then if you don't go to early voting, which we would love to see you all show up at early voting, you can show up at your precinct on Election Day. And the polling hours are 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and you can find additional information on our website at rochesterhills.org forward slash elections.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. I don't see any further council updates, so I'll pass it over to the mayor.

Yes, thank you, President Carlock, council, to our residents, thank you for being here. Emma, if you could show, oh, you're on it, thank you. Mr. McCoy, thank you, first of all, for the work that you and your team do. It's so wonderful to have organizations. We have a lot of them in the city that stand up alongside, whether it's the library or, in your case, the trail. It means a lot to us. You are able to do a lot of things that we can't, and we really appreciate it, and hopefully we'll get out and echo the support of that event coming up in September. So thanks for being here. And by the way, Councilman Blair, I noticed in your slide, You showed a picture of the inspector, but do you have a picture of the inspector there when you had the bounce house connected to the air blower? Because I'd be curious what that looked like from an inspector standpoint. Thank you for that mention to our team. I'll try and move quickly through my presentation. Some of the council has mentioned a few of the items that were on my docket tonight, but I'll start with a little bit of a double whammy we had 10 days or so ago. You recognize the picture on the left. That was when the air quality was exceptionally poor because of the Canadian wildfires. And that's a picture at Borden Park. And, of course, that same day we had, unfortunately, another boil water alert to a section of town that's had a couple of them so far. We, on the Canadian wildfires, obviously it's something that we're working with. I brought this up to SEMCOG when I was there earlier or late last week about a more regional approach. We're not out of it because the wildfires are gone. We're out of it because the winds have changed and they haven't put them all out. So this is likely something that we may have to deal with later again this year or even in years to come as there seems to be some seasonal changes there. So we're looking at some opportunities to do some regional responses. It's Very challenging. It's kind of like school districts. You kind of want to all close school together at the same time, you know, or not. You don't want to kind of be the one hanging out there still having events. And so we ended up calling around. We had events that day. We had a groundbreaking that day. We had a Mayor's Business Council event. So working on that to try to figure out a more regional approach. Rochester Hills is taking a lead on that. And then with the boil water alert, you know, obviously, again, unfortunately, The city gets the brunt of the complaints. We have nothing to do with the reason that it happened. It was, I believe, an electrical surcharge that frizzled something, and the pressure went down for just a few moments and came back up. But, of course, you have to go through a 48-hour period of testing. It's very inconvenient for our residents. I spent a lot of time on Zooms that day with the leadership of DTE and Great Lakes Water Authority. expressing our frustration, expressing our restaurants, our residents' frustration, although restaurants may have shared it as well. And they've all pledged to look at what they're doing and continue to make this a priority. So we'll continue to monitor that. But we really want to thank both our team. There's nothing like coming in to the office and all of a sudden it happens like just a deluge. You get one call about water pressure and then the next four hours are nothing but calls And so our team did a great job. Our staff, the DPS team, does a great job monitoring it. This went into the weekend. And I just want to thank them. They're kind of the ones that get a lot of the complaints from it, don't have anything to do with it, but they fix the mess. And I want to thank them for that. As soon as the weather got better, we had a lot of stuff going on. We welcomed a new company called Big Frog Custom T-shirts. I mention this one because it's kind of fun. He's a young entrepreneur from Mexico. His parents are both entrepreneurs from Mexico. And he opened up this business that's just across the street from Rochester High School. We wish him well, but he's a young guy that got involved in the chamber and now is starting his own business. I think he's 26 or something like that. So really good story. We really appreciate him, and get a chance to check out Big Frog. That next day, we had a great event hosted by RARA and members of our fire department, sheriff's department, DPS department. Tons of trucks. It's always a fun event for kids especially. You get to climb in these big things, and hopefully while we get a chance to show off some of our technology and tools, The hope is that you inspire somebody, a youngster, maybe one of these young folks here to think about a career in public service someday because of course we always know we need fired up passionate people who care about these sorts of things to take over in the future and this great event is one of those great ways or one of those many ways that we try and do that. We had another wonderful event last Friday. This is a partnership that the City of Rochester Hills has with Major League Baseball. and the US Conference of Mayors. MLB pays for all of this. Everybody gets a shirt and a hat, and they pay for all the snacks and everything. And they compete in a pitch, hit, run competition. Whoops, pitch, hit, run competition. And we've had many of our students or children from the community go on. In fact, two years ago, we had a young lady, I think a 13-year-old, go all the way to the World Series and compete on behalf of Rochester Hills. So kind of a fun event, we think, MLB and the US Conference of Mayors. This is another great event that we had last year. It was rescheduled because of the air quality at first. And I want to thank the council for a great turnout there as well. These are proof that no one looks good in a yellow vest and a helmet. But this is a really iconic moment and a really critical moment for our city. This is kind of a core memory. It's the groundbreaking of Nowicki Park. As you've seen the dirt start to turn there. This was a chance for us to welcome the Nowicki family, that's bottom left, and a couple of our donor groups that were there that were a part of this, of course, the city council being the biggest contributors to this. So we thank everybody. And the work is starting. The work is progressing. I get biweekly updates on how things are going. And I really appreciate Dennis and his team for their leadership on this. And we'll all watch Nowicki Park come out of the ground together. And we're excited for this. Thank the council for being there. This was kind of an interesting one. I mention this because I'm about the farthest thing from an engineer you'll ever see. We just got this ranking that the city of Rochester Hills was the second best place in the Midwest for engineers. And we know we are chock full of them. Some of you were them. Some of you are them. Some of you are married to them. There are many of them in our community. But it was interesting because I wanted to read this. These were based on four criteria. They reviewed opportunity, where the jobs are, earnings quality, what they pay, growth and demand, where the market is heading, and career acceleration, how far you can go. And Rochester Hills scored obviously exceptionally high on those, given those four criteria. We know that the number one job in this city is an engineer, according to the census. And so I think this is kind of a cool. Another thing that we can kind of talk about is kind of what we're doing to maintain that and find so many living here. They also noted at the very end that their quality of life is really important, saying, quote, the city is full of pristine tree-lined neighborhoods, great infrastructure, and has a family-friendly reputation. And I think the council agrees. and I couldn't agree more, so we're excited about that recognition. A couple other recognitions here, and I know that I'm trying to push some of you into winning and some of you into losing as to how long this meeting will last, but always make time to recognize excellence. Our planning and economic development team was very honored to have this recognition from the Michigan Association of Planning. It's their Outstanding Public Outreach Award. And it really recognized that this particular quote I think was interesting, quote, city's multiple complementary methods to reach residents, business owners, and community stakeholders, and to remove common barriers for participation. By organizing conversations around neighborhoods, you remember how we kind of did them around the schools, Rochester Hills helped residents connect citywide goals to the places they experience every day. So they're recognized as one of the best efforts in all the state of Michigan. And we really recognize and appreciate that. And I use that to lead into the next one because we're doing it again, although differently and bigger than we've ever done it before. This is called Blueprint for Innovation. The council knows about this, but this is our sort of chance to do all of these strategic plans at one time and to really have them work together. So we're doing the city's Parks and Recreation Master Plan, the Transportation Master Plan, The first ever safe streets for all plans and the city's stewardship master plan. All of these, there's a survey open. You see the link there to the end of next month, August 31st. And we'll have more information about that. But certainly we solicit and would love to have more resident input. Say, for example, you love our trails. If anybody out there may be a fan of the Clinton River Trail, who knows? They would jump on the site and put all that information about why they like that. And of course, that helps us in how we prioritize that. budgetary spendings and so forth. So Blueprint for Innovation, really unique way for us to all move those plans together. As Council Member Mangioli mentioned, the MDOT plan is moving forward. I think it's important to note, as she noted in her comments, this is not the city's plan to rebuild Rochester Road. We are a small, minor partner, a pay partner. We pay 10%. We make essentially zero final decisions. It is a MDOT road. They're very clear about that. But they do ask us to opine on, you know, they want us to see what they're planning. And, you know, obviously if they've missed something, if there's something strategically That's wrong. You know, we have an opportunity to participate in it, but this is not the city's meeting. It's not the city's plan. It's not the city's project. It's not the city's road. I want to say that because a lot of the social media conversation has been city. Why don't you break at a boulevard city? Why don't you make the speed limit 15 miles an hour city? Why don't you make it wider city? Why don't make it narrower? And it really is a discussion for MDOT, but this is a great opportunity for you to go there. It is at our DPS facility on Auburn road. This Thursday from 5 to 7, come and have your voice heard on a project that we will all be talking about next year. I won't overspeak what Councilmember Neubauer mentioned. Obviously, we have two important questions on the ballot that we really encourage our residents to research and understand. There's lots more information. on both the fire millage that you see here as well as the pathway millage renewal. August 4th is a big day for the city in terms of the residents giving us direction on how they want to see their city move forward. And we hope that all of our residents will participate and be educated voters on August the 4th. And finally, one exciting mention coming up, because we're really excited about this, the Brooklyn's Block Party is back August the 12th from 6 to 9. We close the street and just have a good old-fashioned block party. There'll be music and entertainment and freebies, and all of our friends will be there, including Sasha and her friends from the Youth Council will be helping out with various aspects, including a fan favorite last year, which was the rising market. This is a chance for our community's young entrepreneurs, think under 18, that are kind of crafting or making fun things in high school, doing unique things in middle school, to put their wares out for the community to see. This was an absolute blast before the rain came last year. We thank our sponsors for helping us out with this and hope a great number of people come out to join us for the good old-fashioned block party down in the Brooklands on August 12th. That's my report. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mayor. We do have one additional comment. Ms. Menino?

Yes, just a quick question for the mayor. On the blueprint for innovation, how is that going to be solicited to the residents? Are we distributing that just via social media or will there be some type of a mailer or just maybe expand a little bit on how we're going to get the participation because it's very important.

Yeah. Well, I think, you know, I don't know the complete answer. I know that in the past what we've done is a sort of a mix of fixes, right? We We have social media. We have sort of old school meetings. We work with the neighborhood associations. We've done that with the homeowners association meetups that happen here. I will seek a more thorough answer and email the council with that. But based on what we did for the last one which was a singular one which was recognized for the diverse way in which we you know we use the youth council. Usually we take the show to the OPC. We have a very, very diverse approach to try to get to all the pockets of people that are interested. So, I mean, you never get to everybody, but the survey, for example, is something everyone can fill out between now and the end of August.

Okay, good. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And since we're 14 minutes past my estimated time, we're going to shift down a gear now and slow things down. Not really. Next up, attorney's report. Ms. Crist.

I have nothing this evening.

Thank you very much. That brings us to new business. Item 2026-0328, request for purchase authorization facilities, blanket purchase order for janitorial supplies, paper products, green cleaning products, and other items in the total amount not to exceed $160,000 through September 30, 2028, Imperial Brady, Rochester Hills, Michigan. Mr. Vizenko.

Good evening, President Carlock, Vice President Mangioli, City Council, Mayor Burnett. Facilities is looking to get approval tonight to get into a two-year contract for janitorial supplies and cleaning products for the city buildings. And I'm here to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you very much. We do have some council questions. Vice President Mangioli.

Thank you, President Karlak. Mr. Vaisenko, thank you very much for the answers to the questions that I sent to you relative to, hey, we just renewed the janitorial staff contract. Why didn't it include the supplies? And you replied back and said that's because we can get them cheaper. yes so we do it that way so we can save money for the city by buying our own supplies i was concerned that you know the janitors we have metrics on how clean they make our buildings so i wanted to make sure they had a voice in what was selected so this way we're not saying oh the floors aren't clean because but we got them an inferior product So you said, yes, of course. They're part of the evaluation committee to pick the different supplies. And then I was concerned also because we buy the supplies as opposed to their company about any liability that we might have. And you mentioned that, no, we're covered. We're good. Yep. So I don't have to ask to put that into the minutes because I've just summarized everything that Mr. Vysenko had sent. I appreciate you looking out for us financially, making sure we're good partners with our janitorial company and that our staff are safe when they use the different supplies. So thank you very much, Mr. Vysenko. And with that, President Karlak, I move the resolution in our packet.

Thank you very much, Vice President Mongioli. I have a motion by Vice President Mongioli, seconded by Councilwoman Neubauer. I don't see any further discussion on this topic, so I will read the resolution here. Resolved that the Rochester Hills City Council hereby authorizes a blanket purchase order for janitorial supplies, paper products, green cleaning products, and other items to Imperial Brady, Rochester Hills, Michigan, in the total amount not to exceed $160,000 through September 30th, 2028. It's further resolved that the city's acceptance of the proposal and approval of the award of a contract shall be contingent and conditioned upon the party's entry into and execution of a written agreement acceptable to the city. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next up, item 2026-0329, request for purchase authorization parks. A contract blanket purchase order for Parks Wayfinding Signage Project in the amount of $265,390 with a 10% project contingency in the amount of $26,539 for a total not to exceed project cost of $291,929. Postima Signs and Graphics, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mr. Andrews.

Good evening, President Carlock, Vice President Mangioli, City Council, Mayor Barnett. This agenda item advances a goal identified and prioritized in the department's current master plan, and that's to implement a consistent wayfinding signage program throughout our park system. The signs were designed to complement the city's established brand as reflected in the gateway and park entrance signs. and also providing a clear functional and user-friendly guidance to our park users. The signage array, which you can show on the screen there, and it was also attached in your packet, it consists of a trail kiosk that'll be placed in main access points in the parks, the vehicle pedestrian directional signage that'll be throughout the park system as well, trail wayfinding signage with maps, park facility and amenity ID signs, as well as park rule signs as well. The signage system will serve as a standard toolkit for implementing the park's wayfinding signage program. And with your approval tonight, we'll begin to start to fabricate and install these signs throughout our park system. This will kind of help maintain a consistent look and feel throughout our park system and make it easily accessible as well as easily to navigate our parks for years to come. And with that, I'll open it up to any questions.

Thank you very much, Mr. Andrews. We do have a litany of questions here. We will start with Mr. Lindberg.

Thank you very much, President Carlock. Mr. Andrews, thank you very much for your exchange of emails today answering my questions. I'd like to comment that I ACTUALLY REALLY LIKE THE DESIGNS. THEY'RE VERY COLORFUL. I LIKE THE CONSISTENT THEME ACROSS. BUT IT IS A VERY SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT FOR THE CITY, FOR SIGNS. CAN YOU PLEASE PROVIDE SOME CONTEXT AND THOUGHTS ON THE LONGEVITY OF THE SIGNS? ARE THESE SIGNS DESIGNED TO STAND THE TEST OF TIME?

Yeah, absolutely. So we worked with a design company that was familiar with working with signs in Michigan, in the state of Michigan, up in Traverse City. We went with an aluminum sign that should last about 20 to 30 years, but I'd like to say 30 plus based off the clear coating that we're planning on putting on it, that UV and graffiti reflecting a resistant coating that we mentioned in the email. That should help kind of stand that test of time, as well as one of the things that we thought about as we were going through the design process is when something happens, somebody runs over a sign, can we easily replace these in the future? And so most of these signs will be able to be replaced by our in-house sign shop as well. So that'll help in the future as far as replacements. Very good.

Thank you very much. And with that, I move this resolution for passage.

Thank you very much. We have a motion by Mr. Lindbergh, seconded by Mr. Blair. We do have some additional comments and questions here. Next up, Ms. Neubauer.

Thank you, President Carlock. So if you look at this graphic, there's a guy there that's using height as some kind of measurement, and I'm assuming he's not my height.

He's not.

So how tall are these signs?

Six foot. So he's a six foot man.

That's a six foot man? Four foot ten girl didn't work?

Yeah, you'll still be able to see it. It's just kind of the standard kind of measurement.

So the one he's standing next to is six foot. The one that's the large one that says K1, how tall is that?

K1 is about nine foot in total with the roof.

So the shortest one is going to be around five foot, is that correct?

That's correct.

All right, thank you.

Thank you very much, Vice President Mangioli.

Thank you, President Karluk. So Mr. Andrews, thank you. Between you and Mr. Elway, I got an answer to a bunch of my questions on the parks, on these signs. Asked about the UV stable and lifespan. Asked about colorblindness, because The company I work for, we always have to make sure that somebody can read the signs. There was a follow-up question I had on for those that are visually impaired, and I guess there's a considerable investment for us to do any kind of auditory signage. That's correct. So that might be something we want to look at in the future. I had also asked where some of these were going, because there's a lot of signs that are here. It's very expensive. And we had 25 examples, but 35 items on the bid sheet. And I just wanted to make sure I understood where everything was going and why maybe some things were not in there. There was a statement in the bid sheet about the green spaces signs were not being installed because we are doing those ourselves. That's correct. Save some money on that one. Yay, save money. So because I am doing a very quick summary of this, I would ask President Carlock if we can put the answers to those questions in the minutes from today's meeting.

Of course.

Okay. So I'm thankful for you. The last one was making sure there's a QR code on there. So why not promote the city on the signs at least where it's appropriate, though it does look like the R3, 4, and 4A might already have the QR code on there. And I also wanted to make sure there is a you are here sign because those trailways up at Bloomer are quite expansive. And if you don't know where you are on that map, it doesn't matter what way the wayfaring sign tells you to go. I don't know if it's a mile that way or 20 feet that way unless I know where I am.

Absolutely. And that was one of the precipices or reasons why we started this process is you know because Bloomer folks were kind of getting lost in the trail ways back there.

So. With the fire millage, there have been questions on where the city has been spending our money. And there was questions that came up about the whole sign package that was out there. And my understanding is while this was the design and the intent for us to do these wayfaring signs as part of that initial package, the design piece, not the bid piece. So we, because we wanted to make sure the signs that we have in our parks are consistent with the signs that we have in other places in the city. But that this is a new expenditure that we are having at this time. It was not part of the original wayfiring sign bid piece when we put the signs all over the city at the city entrances.

It was not a part of that gateway signage program, no. But we utilize the same guidelines and the branding for these signs. OK.

because it is expensive and given the fact that we are dealing with a millage increase right now for our fire department, I just want us to make sure where, how can we assure the residents this is because this is in the budget for 26 or the budget for 27 because I think I also asked about the split, maybe that was Avon, that's the Avon Nature Center, never mind.

Yeah, Avon.

but how is it fitting into our budget and what we already planned on spending for this year?

Well, it was identified in the master plan and the budget. It was a CIP as well, so those are all the components that went into it, and it was something that is, trails are our number one rated use and our number one rated interest by our residents and visitors, and so the investment goes towards those trails, and

Yeah, it's a it's a it's a priority investment that was identified through those plans And and that's why we're carrying out and there were no other items a higher priority than this that we are funding at this point That's correct all of everything else that a higher priority is already done.

That's correct.

Okay, and when you talk about Trails we're talking about because this is always I I asked this question about the pathways millage. A trail is internal to our park and our bike paths or pathways are the ones along the main streets?

Yeah, so our trails are internal to our parks, essentially. We have pathways that are inside of our parks as well. That's usually like the concrete sidewalks people like to refer to them. But yeah, our trailways are trails within our park system.

Okay, so we're not gonna see these signs out at, or even just at the traffic circle at Livernois and Tinkin, where it's telling you to go that way or go that way.

No, just internal to our parks.

Internal to the park, okay. Absolutely. All right, thank you very much, Mr. Andrews, I appreciate it. I'll have more questions for you on that Avon nature study.

Okay. Thanks. Thank you, President Carlisle. Thank you very much. We do have some additional questions. Ms. Menino.

Yes, thank you. I'm going to continue on with Vice President Mangioli line of questioning. Just to talk a little bit about the scope of this. I checked, it looks like the budget amount for this was $450,000. We're kicking off about $300,000. Is this the full scope or are you guys coming back for more to do more signs later?

No, this is a full scope. Uh, we don't plan on coming back for any signs, um, at a later date. Um, yeah, from a parks perspective.

So this though, the, the, the package that we're approving tonight then would fully sign all the parks in Rochester Hills.

Absolutely. So all the parks, um, one, uh, project that we do have in a budget is our museum signage. Um, the, the, uh, sign to the entrance as well as the Stony Creek village. that's a separate package that's in the budget as well. And so that's.

Okay, that's separate though. Then these signs here. Yep. Okay, have you seen an actual physical prototype yet of the sign? Do they provide one for you?

That'll be provided once we get approval from you guys tonight. That'll be provided right before we actually give the sign sealed and delivered. Yes, you can order.

All right, good. Because it's a lot of money and I want to make sure that you guys are looking at a physical object before we kick this off.

Absolutely.

Okay. Um, any reason why our in-house sign group couldn't do the whole thing?

It's the volume. Uh, it's over three, a little under 300 signs at once. And so, yeah, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a lot of signs.

So did they quote it or did, were we, did you, do you know if we asked them to look at, at doing this in house versus a, an outside quote? Did they look at it even?

For our team, it just wouldn't be feasible. We did ask our in-house team to see if that's something that would be feasible for us to do. We don't have the resources and manpower to do it.

Okay. That's all for me. Thank you. Thanks, Dennis.

No problem.

Thank you very much. Next up, Mr. Scalzi. Thank you, President Carlyle. Question. Maybe I missed it. It's part of the budget for replacement of these signs because ultimately some of them are going to get vandalized. I've walked a lot of trails myself. I've run on a lot of trails. And it's nice to have signage out there, but there's no getting around vandalism. I mean, even if they're graffiti proof, whatever. So is that part of the budget then?

That'll be handled through our regular operating and maintenance budget. But we did include a lot of posts. What we'll see is probably some people running over signs, especially at Bloomer Park, unfortunately. And so we'll have a lot of replacement posts just on the ready and ready to go for our team to go in and replace it so the downtime wouldn't be as significant.

Right. And then do you guys have something in the plan where you guys are going to be monitoring these signs? I mean, that's the worst when you get out there and you... Think there's going to be a sign and it's not there?

Yeah, absolutely. We have our staff. That's kind of one of our, I guess, daily checks. They check out all the infrastructure. They check all of the safety components of the parks. And that'll just be added to their responsibilities. OK, thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up, Mr. Blair.

Boy, I didn't think you were going to be up here this long. Just a question, because they were so helpful with the cemetery irrigation project. Do we have GIS in on this, Denise and the team? Are they going to be plotting the exact location of these? Because Mr. Scalzi raises an important question. And if we have all this stuff in GIS, it'll make it that much easier to track this stuff.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we work with Doreen and her team in GIS to- Doreen?

I said Denise. Sorry, Doreen. You're not watching.

She might be. I'll tell her. But yeah, we worked with her team to actually, the consultant group actually put it in as a part of, they have a system separate to, I guess, identify the locations of where the signers would go. We actually had them utilize our system just so we don't have to go back and do double work or manual work to enter that into GIS. So it's already in there and ready to go. And that'll be a part of that overall asset management program that we'll have in a couple of years as well.

Awesome. They look really sharp. Can't wait to see them. Thanks, Dennis. Yep. Thanks.

Thank you very much. All right. Well, at this time, I think everybody has spoken. So there's no more questions or comments. I have a motion by Mr. Lindbergh, seconded by Mr. Blair. I will read the resolution. Resolved that the Rochester Hills City Councilor hereby authorizes a contract blanket purchase order for Parks Wayfinding Signage Project to Postima Signs and Graphics, Grand Rapids, Michigan in the amount of $265,390 with a 10% project contingency in the amount of $26,539 for a total not to exceed project cost of $291,929 and further authorizes the procurement manager to execute a contract on behalf of the city. It's further resolved that the city's acceptance of the proposal and approval of the award of a contract shall be contingent and conditioned upon the party's entry into and execution of a written agreement acceptable to the city. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Next up. Item 2026-0333, request for purchase authorization for parks, contract blanket purchase order for the Avon Nature Area improvements in the amount of $475,980 with a 10% project contingency in the amount of $47,598 for a total not to exceed project amount of $523,578. Warren Contractors and Development Inc., Shelby Township, Michigan, Mr. Andrews.

All right. Good evening, President Carlock, Vice President Mangioli, City Council, Mayor Barnett. This agenda item is for the improvements to the trail system here at the Avon Nature Area. As a part of the independent inspections completed in 2023, several of the trail features, including the wooden stairs, boardwalks, and overlook were identified as being in poor condition and in need of replacement. The proposed work includes removing those existing stairs, boardwalk and the overlook and replacing them with new timbers as well as a new block wall for the overlook and additional improvements including picnic benches and picnic tables and to increase the accessibility and kind of improve the visitor experience here at Avon Nature Area. The construction is anticipated to happen sometime this fall, late winter. or late fall, early winter. And the project is expected to be completed in spring of 2027. So the improvements will kind of help provide a safer, more accessible trail system here. And with that, I'll open it up to any questions. Thank you very much, Mr. Andrews.

And for those that don't know, this is the Avon Nature Area right here. We went out on our green space walk two months ago out here and walked around. I will say I do not recommend walking on the stairs or boardwalking flip-flops. I didn't read the packet carefully enough, but I was out there, mosquito bites and all. The stairs need some work for sure. We do have some council comments and questions. Vice President Mangioli.

Thank you, President Karlak. So, Mr. Andrews, this was the next series of questions that you and Mr. Elwert helped me with. And so, President Karlak, I'd like to ask that these be put into the minutes for the meeting because they are more extensive than the last set. Yes, of course. Thank you very much. Yes, Avon Nature Area. We're so used to the bigger parks and not the small ones. So I was concerned about, so what are we doing here? Because you can see part of the pathway or the wooden timber stairs when you come in Rochester Hills Drive. And yes, they do look unsafe. So I'll be glad to see that they're being replaced. There is a map that's associated with this as well. So if we could make sure that's included with the minutes because it shows all the different sites within the park where things are going to be done. Again, those trails getting the number one priority. So folks, take that survey on the blueprint piece. Because I also asked the question about the official name of the park Because when you go to the city's website, it's one thing and when you look at the bid packet It's another just wanted to make sure we were talking about the same park and that there wasn't another one hiding out over there someplace So thank you very much for saying we refer to it as the Avon Nature Park But study it is included in the official name The bid sheets had options in them, and I was concerned about, all right, so are we taking some of them, not all of them? And you said we're taking all of them. The audiovisual piece is because we're having the vendors record the work that they're doing so they can restore everything back to its natural piece. To me, the bigger question on all of this was the budget because it is part of the 26 budget this year and the 27 budget next year, which was a forecast budget, not an approved budget. And so we won't actually start talking about approving the 27 budget. until August of this year. And so I was very concerned that we are now being bound by a bid tonight for this work when we haven't approved the 27 budget yet. We may have approved the forecast, but not the actual expenditure. So I will be watching to make sure that we don't go over the cost of this. And while I've got you on this topic, it's the blueprint for innovation survey. I started taking that survey. And then I was wondering, because it starts with parks and natural resources, a lot of the questions look like they were very similar to the survey that was done three years ago for the master plan. because you still have splash pads in there and you have an aquatic center on there. And I haven't heard that there's still a desire to do an aquatic center or to add more splash pads. I also noticed on the list of parks, the Tinkin Park is not on the list. So no one even thought about doing something to that park, which is between, So it's next to Adams High School along Tinkin Road west of the high school. Not even included. So if I wanted to improve it with signage, or Pathways, because it's a passive park, it's not even on the list for me to say, hey, go do something with Tinkin. Now that Nowicki is done, go do something with Tinkin. And it may not be high on the priority list, but I've still got that survey open because I had a lot of concerns about the questions and who wrote them and if they were new for this time around versus, the master plan that we were just finishing. So I will get ahold of you and Mr. Elwert to follow up on those questions, but just know that that survey is gonna remain open and sitting on my computer at home until I, I get more answers about where these questions came from and why aren't some of these, why are some things included and why are some things not included like Tinkin Park?

I'd be happy to answer those. And just to expound, we do have a website that's associated with Blueprint for Innovation. There's a mapper on there as well that you can go to the website and actually put in exactly the improvements that you want at a Tinkin or some of these undeveloped parcels as well.

Because when we started talking about the option for an aquatic center, I was beginning to wonder where we were going to fit that in, in all the parks that we currently have available to us and that have been already put into the master plan for improvements. So just I'll follow up with you on that one. So with that, President Karlic, I move the resolution in our packet for the Avon Nature Area improvements. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I have a motion by Vice President Mongioli, seconded by Mr. Blair. We do have additional comments here. Ms. Menino.

Yes, just to follow up, Dennis, which I didn't catch this earlier when I was reading this. So this covers spending over two, you're saying two budget cycles. So do we know the amount approved for 2026? 2026 is about 296. So basically 611 was basically 300 in each year approximately.

Yeah, and that's a part of a CIP that was already established for trail access. It's a reoccurring improvement for trails.

Okay, so though, but from a 2026 perspective then, if we approve this right now, we're approving an overspend of 300, approximately 1,000. That's what I'm saying, we haven't approved the 27 budget. But on this previous one that we just approved for the signs, you had a budget of 450 and we're kicking off 300. So there's 150,000 pickup there. And I don't want to get into the thing, but we really need to try to reconstruct this to where we can move money from the 26 budget and cover it off for 26 versus splitting 26, 27. That's my question. I don't know if we can do that. I know Joe Schneider isn't here, but I don't know if that's possible that we can redo the resolution to where it shows full budget in 26 and basically nothing for 27 then.

And the way it's kind of structured like that is because most of the work will be taking place in 27. So that's the reason why it's kind of structured in that fashion.

But the commitment's made in 26 though. That's correct. So the PO will be issued in 2026. That's correct. So that's a question, President Kerouac, to the council is what do we do here since we're approving something that's on a budget by $300,000?

Yeah, we have a motion and a second for as it stands right now. So you can vote no and dissent. Our options are vote on what we have before us. There's no way to change the resolution at this point.

Can we amend the resolution to where that we restructure how the budget, how it's paid for in 2026?

I want you to second. Yeah. So the mover and the second would have to agree to change it.

Because the resolution itself does not call out the budget year in which it's encumbering. So we could modify the resolution to say that it's in the amount of X with a 10% contingency total not to exceed project of to be paid for. So we could add to be paid for from the 2026 budget AND FURTHER AUTHORIZES THE PROCUREMENT MANAGER TO EXECUTE THE AGREEMENT ON BEHALF OF THE CITY. SO I WOULD BE COMFORTABLE INSERTING THAT IF YOU ARE, MS. MENINO.

YES, I DEFINITELY WOULD LIKE TO MOVE FORWARD WITH THE PURCHASE REQUISITION AND KICK IT OFF. I'M MORE CONCERNED ABOUT JUST MAKING SURE THAT IT'S BUCKETED PROPERLY IN THE PROPER YEAR WITH THE BUDGET.

So Vice President Mongeau, you're rescinding your motion as it stood.

I will amend my motion. Amending your motion. Amend my motion to on the resolved in the second to last line. It says total not to exceed project amount of $523,578 and insert the words from the 2026 budget. and then keep the rest of it and further authorize the procurement manager.

Okay. So because Mr. Blair seconded it, Mr. Blair has to agree. Mr. Blair has given me the thumbs up that he agrees to this. So I have a motion by Vice President Mangioli to amend the resolution that she made a motion on. We do have a further, and Mr. Blair seconded. We do have further council and administrative comments.

I'm going to give you a challenge parliamentary wise. Because it's amended, we have to vote on the amendments so that this way any other comments that are made by council right now would have to say, do they agree to the amendment? then we would pass the amendment and then go back to the resolution as amended for any additional comment. So it's a motion in two steps here. Sorry.

So there has to be a vote on the amendment. We have to vote to amend it.

Yes.

Okay. Okay. So we have a motion by Vice President Mangioli to amend the resolution that she had previously motioned, and Mr. Blair has seconded. So all those in favor of amending the motion to include from the 2026 budget wording after the total project amount, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, so the amendment passes. So now we go back to the amended motion.

Yes, the amended motion, knowing that it's coming from this year's budget year. So Mr. Snyder will probably have some challenges ahead of him in order to modify the third quarter budget amendment to allow for the $300,000 that should have been next year into this year. And it might be a saver item to pull from. So I'm sure Mr. Snyder will be able to figure out how to do all that.

Smart guy. I'm sure he will. So bringing it back to council comments on the amended motion, Councilwoman Neubauer.

Thank you, President Kerlach. I just wanted to say that we do have a budget workshop meeting on August 17th that we can address these kind of things and work on these things with the entire team there. So if this is something that we want to Obviously, I support this initiative. I have no problem with it. I have no problem with the amendment. But I'm just saying if there's anything that we want to do to work on that kind of stuff, we should probably address them together before our budget meeting so that Mr. Snyder can be prepared and that he's not taken off guard so that proper preparation is made. So that's all. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up, Mr. Blair.

Thank you, President Carlock. And just to dovetail on to what Councilwoman Marvie mentioned, this is not the first rodeo with a project that spans a couple budget years. Infrastructure projects happen all the time, especially when engineering is really separated from when the shovels hit the ground. And this is, if we look at the percentage of the actual parks department budget, like if you split it apart between the two years, it's like 2% of the budget or something. I have nothing but confidence in the staff to sort this stuff out. So I appreciate you bringing it Dennis. And I apologize if we put you in like the deer in the headlights here with the budget questions, but looking forward to this project and thank you for presenting it. President.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Blair. And we do have some comments from the mayor on this topic.

Yeah, thank you. I've been trying to text Joe. He's on vacation this week because I feel like, wickedly confident that there's an answer to this that, uh, I just, I don't know what it is, but you know, Joe and his team run a very tight ship. Um, and I imagine that if he, if I get, if I slow talk long enough, I'll probably get it. Um, but, uh, you know, this will be no problem. And in fact, I wish, um, I wish I had had that question earlier because I, uh, I'm, I'm, I'm very confident that Joe would go that's because this and this and this, and that's it. So, Because I don't have it, I'll refrain from that. And the only comments I would make, obviously we can deal with this and we'll get an answer to council much before the 17th. Just relative to the comments about the survey, we'll take a look at that, Ms. Mangioli. Obviously, when you're looking at a future survey or looking at what the community should look like in 10 years, there might be people that want an aquatic center. That has been one of the top rated things in the city over the past number of years. We've never moved forward on it, but we, there's no doubt we'll get a lot of comments on it. And there's even talk of additional splash pads, as you know, for future consideration at Spencer Park was one of the things that they were looking at. So they might never move. It's kind of those ideas like, what are your ideas? What could the city be in 10 years? But I think it is important to take a look at those and at least be open to what the residents might think about that. But I did not have an answer from Joe yet, so I'll close my comments now. But I hope that probably by tomorrow morning we'll be able to have an answer and this will all make more sense.

So Mayor, I had asked in my questions about the two fiscal years, and Ken said they wouldn't just come back and ask for us for approval of the second amount in 2027. The question will be, and I've asked in previous budget workshops about money that we have encumbered already in the budget to make sure that here's $200 million, but we've already agreed to spend 50 MILLION OF IT ON PROJECTS BECAUSE THEY SPAN MULTIPLE YEARS, AND THEREFORE OUR FLEXIBILITY AS COUNCIL IS A LOT LESS WHEN WE'VE ALREADY ENCUMBERED MONEY IN FUTURE YEARS THROUGH PROJECTS LIKE THIS. SO THAT WAS MY CONCERN ABOUT THE MULTI-YEAR PIECE OF IT, AND SO I APPRECIATE COUNCILMAN MONINO BRINGING THIS BACK. On the blueprint for innovation, the survey piece, I have a hard time asking the community questions when we're going to say, oh, this is the second time we've asked you about an aquatic center because we had lots of little dots on the maps previously when we did this, and then we ignore them again because we don't have space for it, we don't have budget for it, it's not a priority. And maybe the Aquatic Center is just an example, but if we're going to ask questions, we should be willing to make the commitment to it. Don't ask a question if you're not going to do something. And if we have no intention of putting in a pool somewhere in our current park configuration, then we also need to make sure that we recognize as a council that when it becomes back as the number one thing that people want a community pool, that we now need to go and say, we're now going to dedicate $100 million to the purchase of property and the building of an aquatic center. That's an exaggeration on the amount, maybe. I don't want to be asking questions where we may say, we're not doing it. Thank you very much for your opinion. city residents but we're ignoring you and that to me sends the wrong message to our community when we ask them a question they overwhelmingly say they want something and that we say oh we think better than you do up here so That's why I want to make sure the questions, because I haven't gotten past the first, maybe the second page, haven't gotten past that yet, but I want to make sure that the questions that we're asking for all of the items, because we're doing one survey, everything, and I only got to parks, so I'm sorry, Mr. Andrews. It's okay. But we're asking questions that we are willing to execute and that we will make sure we're going to put budget to, because telling the residents thank you, but no thank you, to me is a wrong way of handling it.

I guess I would just say I respect that response. I think I disagree with it, though, because I don't know how you would answer, you know, that's basically telling the residents we're only going to ask you questions that we feel comfortable with. And I think that any group, any future mayor, any future council should be open to whatever the residents suggest. If the residents suggested in overwhelming fashion that they desperately want more than anything else, more than trails, more than dog parks, more than anything else that they want, an aquatic center of some kind, then it would be pretty smart of us to try to figure out how we should do it. Maybe it's not a new build. Maybe it's a partnership with, I mean, we're completely spitballing here, but maybe it's a partnership with an existing pool, or we have a partnership with the Heart of the Hills, or we work with Lifetime Fitness to try to get a, you know, I mean, I think the goal of this is not to say we're only going to ask you things that will support. That really limits the residents' participation, right? I mean, we should be open. They should drive the process, not the council or the mayor driving the process. We may come up to say, listen, at the end of the day, in order to accomplish this, it would take a one mil increase. Would you be supportive of a one mil increase? And the residents go, yes, we would, or lots of them fall off and say, no, we wouldn't. But I think generally from the idea standpoint of seeking to throw a wide net, I don't think that you should only ask things that the eight of us are supportive of because who knows, there may be someone that traveled and saw a really cool idea out there that we, you know, uh, drone soccer field that could be used by kids who are engineers who wanted, you know, and we might go, we've never even thought about that in the budget, but that's a really good idea. We should, we should, um, we should pursue that. So understand your perspective. I agree that there's always a challenge that cities ask a lot of questions that we, you know, the state asks questions that the nation asks questions that not every of them, that all of them can be funded or even, makes sense because people provide responses that cities don't control or that states don't control or that can't be done. But I'm always in favor of casting a wide net to get all those responses. you know, see where they go and that's directed us I think pretty well so far. Certainly understand your points but just a different perspective.

It's political season and there's a lot of candidates out there making promises for things that they can't do, can't do on their own or need to have legislative changes made. and I don't want us because we have been very responsive to our community over the years. I would hate for us to put ourselves in a position of saying, oh, look, they said an aquatic center. We put all kinds of dots on the maps in the past the last one, and we didn't do it. So we then need to make sure that this council, as we go into the next year and start looking at the capital improvement or the results of the master plan, that we are also willing and interested in looking at what our residents want and that we're not just in a political season where we don't make, where we allow for suggestions but then don't follow through.

if you looked at our current capital improvement plan, we have a lot of things in there that we will probably never do and probably never be able to afford, but you have them in there because you could get a grant or you could find a donor that says, boy, I'm passionate about that. Or, you know, so, so if someone were to look at our current capital plan and say, you have, you know, you have, the council has voted that this is a priority. Why isn't it done? And then you have to have the narrative. Okay. You know, we have, probably $500 million of projects in our capital improvement fund and maybe $20 million a year to fund them. So we'll never get to those and someone could make that argument. But I think part of that, as this council has done successfully, is building trust. with the projects that we do, hopefully that the administration has done with building trust with how we manage money. But I understand your point. I have a different opinion of it. Hopefully you understand mine and we'll keep moving.

I do. I appreciate it. It's the one thing about this team up here is that we're able to have discussion, dialogue, debate, differences of opinions and still work together, which is an important piece for us to be able to do. Again, something that not all elected officials can do, so I appreciate your perspective. I just want us to keep an open mind, but also make sure that the residents are aware that not every wish list item gets put into the budget. When we're talking to our residents about a fire millage and the things that were needed for safety, which is our number one strategic objective, I would hate for them to say We're now going to put safety versus parks. This is something we need to be able to balance overall, and it gets to bring our entire council into that discussion. Sometimes at our meetings, we don't get a chance to discuss philosophically where we want to go directionally. We get it at the budget workshop, but we don't get that in a lot of other opportunities when it's all of us together at one time. So thank you for the conversation. I appreciate it.

Thank you very much. We do have a couple more council comments. Mr. Blair.

Thank you, President Carlock. Vice President Mangioli, something that you said struck a nerve, and I'm not sure if it was the passion or the tact with which you said it or perhaps just the way that it landed on my ears, but when we issue a survey of our residents, I mean, I don't think it is perceived as let's decide what we're going to do as much as it is. We'd like to collect your input. That's the way we're framing this. If it were, you know, a strategic plan, for instance, and we are going to come up with, you know, uh, here's how we're going to spend money over the next, you know, uh, three, four, five, six years. That's a whole different story. That's a, that's a budget with a budget is all about, but this is activities for like, two or three councils from now, right? And aquatic center is not going to happen. But if you were to ask a council from 2004, if we'd be spending $4 million on an accessible playground, they never would have seen that coming or a dog park or, you, you, you fill it in a splash pad. So, you know, I would just ask that you keep an open mind. Um, I probably would never vote for a pool, but that's me. You know, if this survey turns around and we can find the funding, there's interest and we can find land. I mean, my gosh, if there's interest, we might be able to have the ingredients to make something happen. I don't think it's going to happen. I probably wouldn't support it if it came through. but this is why we're having the conversation because the dog park is a perfect example. I never thought we'd have a dog park, but we found a place, we found some money, we found interest, and it's going to be one of the best amenities in the, well, heck, your neck of the woods, right? So I appreciate your comments, respectfully disagree with some of them, but again, that's why we...

why we have the conversation back to you president carlock thank you very much mr blair uh miss neubauer thank you president carlock so we've held mr andrews hostage just let's remind everybody that it was passed and that you're okay and that we're going to move on in a minute but i don't know no no no oh just kidding we have to vote we're going to vote yeah We passed the amendment. We're going to vote, and everything will be fine, and then you'll be released from your hostage chair. But I just want to say I understand what Ms. Mangioli was saying, and I think that actually everybody was saying the same thing, but it just came off kind of different. I think what she was saying, and I think one of the ways that this could be, what this shows is that maybe there should have been some clarity provided. I've already taken the survey, right? And I have heard actually that they want an aquatic center. I've heard that for a long time since I've been on council and on planning commission. So maybe the way to resolve this is to have some more instruction at the beginning of the survey saying these are not guarantees. These are just information gathering. This may not be something that we are going to be able to pass now, but we're trying to plan for the future because we have a footprint. in the city and these are the things that we're considering in development for the next 40 years because we're 40 years old and we like to plan for the future. So I think that would resolve a lot of, provide some clarity. did like that was said and i'm going to take this back to planning because we have a master plan that we just approved for planning is that the residents have provided us guidance on what they want for the city and it would not be good for us as a council to say we do know better than you we're just going to disregard what we're doing and we're going to approve this or not approve this or whatever it is When we do a master plan, we just got an award for taking all of the residents opinions. It's important for us to discuss it and take that into consideration when we're making our decisions. And I think that's the goal of this survey. I think that Vice President Mangioli was basically saying, let's not provide false hope to our residents if we're not gonna do something. And I think Mayor Barnett was saying, let's gather as much information to see if it's even possible to do it. So I think everybody was saying the same thing. It just came off kind of weird. And if we maybe put some information in the survey or update the instructions or provide kind of like context for the survey, that could have all been resolved or can be resolved for the future. So anyway, we're like an hour past the time we said this meeting was going to end. So back to you, President.

Thank you very much. So I don't see any further council comments on things that are not on the agenda at this point. So we will have a motion by Vice President Mangioli, seconded by Mr. Blair, amended. I'll read the resolution resolved that the Rochester Hills City Council hereby authorizes a contract blanket purchase order for the Avon Nature Area improvements to Warren Contractors and Development Inc. Shelby Township, Michigan in the amount of $475,980 with a 10% project contingency in the amount of $47,598 for a total not to exceed project amount of $523,578 from the 2026 budget and further authorizes the procurement manager to execute an agreement on behalf of the city. Further resolve that the city's acceptance of the proposal and the approval of the award of a contract shall be contingent and conditioned upon the party's entry into and execution of a written agreement acceptable to the city. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? That motion passes. Thank you. That brings us to 2026-0334. Request for purchase authorization parts contract blanket purchase order for construction engineering services for the Avon Nature Area improvements in the amount not to exceed $68,784. Spalding Dedecker, Rochester Hills, Michigan. Mr. Andrews.

Good evening, President Carlock, Vice President Mangioli, City Council, Mayor Barnett. Yeah, this is for the contract administration for the Avon Nature Area construction project that we'll be utilizing. The same team, Spalding Dedecker, who designed the project for the contract administration to help us carry out the specs. And with that, I'll open up to any questions.

Thank you very much. We do have some council comments and questions. Ms. Menino.

Do we have the same issue on this one as we had on the prior one? We're pulling from two different budgets from two different years. I think we need the same wording in the amendment. That's all I'm saying. No, it says here it's pulling from the 2027 projected budget. It's the same issue.

I can't make a motion.

So if you're going to make a motion and I would like to make a motion to just amend the wording of the resolution to say that it will be pulled.

I think the resolution has the year in it. I think that's in the.

Yeah, we added the year saying that it would be. From 2026.

So you have to make a motion and tell me what you want in the resolution.

I would like to amend the resolution to stipulate that the budget funding would be pulled from 2026.

Okay, so we'll put it in after amount not to exceed $68,784. Okay, so that's your motion. That's my motion. Do I have a second? Yeah, Vice President Mangioli. I don't see any further council comments or questions on this, so I will read the resolution as amended. Resolved that the Rochester Hills City Council hereby authorizes a contract blanket purchase order for construction engineering services for the Avon Nature Area improvements to Spalding-Dedecker, Rochester Hills, Michigan in the amount not to exceed $68,784 from the 2026 budget and further authorizes the procurement manager to execute an agreement on behalf of the city. Further resolve that the city's acceptance of the proposal and approval of the award of a contract shall be contingent and conditioned upon the party's entry into an execution of a written agreement acceptable to the city. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Thank you very much, Mr. Andrews. Yeah, go as fast as possible. This brings us to any other business before the Rochester Hills City Council. I do not see any other business being proposed. Next meeting date is regular meeting, Monday, August 10th, 2026, 7 p.m. I have a motion by Councilwoman Neubauer, seconded by Vice President Mangioli to adjourn. All those in favor? Aye. All righty, the meeting is adjourned.