City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the August 10th, 2026 regular meeting of the Rochester Hills City Council. Call the meeting to order. Miss Bowen, will you take roll?

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, our youth council rep will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

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 Vice President Mangioli and seconded by Councilman Blair to approve the agenda. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, we have an agenda. First up tonight, Council and Youth Committee reports. We'll kick it off with our Youth Council Representative, Yuna Wu.

Thank you, President Carlock. Good evening, everyone. My name is Yuna Wu. I just graduated from Stony Creek High School, and I'm finishing up my fourth year here on Rochester Hills Government Youth Council. I also serve as the youth representative for the Public Safety and Infrastructure Technical Review Committee. I'll start off with some updates for the Youth Council. We have a busy week this week. We're looking forward to volunteering at the Brooklyn's Block Party this Wednesday, where we'll be running another tie-dye station to celebrate America's 250. And then right after that on Thursday, we have our August monthly meeting, where the planning department's going to come in and conduct a focus group with our youth council members. And it's also the last meeting for our seniors. On Friday, we have our orientation for the Youth Council members for the 2026 to 2027 year. And finally, I just wanted to thank Erin, Councilwoman Neubauer, and the rest of City Council for all that I've learned throughout my amazing four years on Youth Council. And congratulations to our new members. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We do have some Council reports. Vice President Mangioli.

Thank you, President Carlock. So my first one is to go to Clerk Scott, because for those of you that are 18 and older, you got to vote last week. So thank you very much for doing that. There is a ton of work. I brought my poll book. A ton of work that the clerk's office does every time we have an election. Days and weeks of training that they do for staff and community members who work at the elections. I will say I've been hearing some reports from a friend of mine who's on the Oakland County Board of Canvassers and she would tell me things about when they would open up a bag and ribbons would be stuffed in the things and the list of voters wasn't available and they were calling clerks and telling them, You need to come back to our office and bring this information. I was like, that doesn't happen in Rochester Hills, because we have the best clerk's team in the county, if not the state. And I would say the country, because I know where your predecessor has now gone and trained people nationally. Thank you very much, Clerk Scott and the entire clerk's team for all the work that they have done making sure that our election went smoothly, that everything was done according to the rules, the laws of our country and our state. So thank you again for everything that you've done and the entire clerk's team for the work that they've done. So thank you and thank you, President Carlock.

Thank you very much, Vice President Mongioli. I don't see any other council committee reports tonight, so we will move on to presentations. I think this is what most of you are here for. 2026-0347, Rochester Hills Government Youth Council 2025-2026, final report and presentation of certificates and of recognition, Councilwoman Neubauer.

Why don't the kids do their presentation first, and then we'll do my section.

OK. Come on, kids.

Let's have our students that are going to be presenting the report. Come on. Make sure your microphones are turned on. We're ready for you.

Good evening, President Carlock, Vice President Mongioli, Mayor Barnett, council members, and citizens of Rochester Hills. My name is Sasha Joshi, and I'm the current chairperson.

My name is Christina Wang, and I'm the current vice chairperson. So RHGYC has had a busy but extraordinary past year. We have volunteered at countless city events, hit a record-breaking attendance for the cultural fair, and made impactful connections with city council, representatives, and citizens.

In August 2025, the Youth Council was sworn in for the 2025-2026 year. We said farewell to our outgoing seniors and welcomed new members. We hosted our orientation for our RHGYC members and had a chance to get to know city council members and department directors.

In September, the Youth Council volunteered at the Rochester Hills Bike Show, where we helped manage the bounce houses and the various vendors in attendance. We also attended the State of the City, where we helped out the mayor's office in greeting guests, helping Mayor Barnett's dog, Hills, and made the magical world of Wicked come to life for all the attendees.

In October, we volunteered at the Rochester Hills Fire Department open house where we helped run the activities and famously wore the Sparky costume to hang out with the kids. We also spent our time helping at the Community Foundation tailgate where we distributed the raffle prizes and helped raise funds for the Community Foundation. We are thankful for our friends over at the Community Foundation for their support of the Youth Council. We were also at the Stonewall Pumpkin Festival where we assisted with various crafts and activities such as pumpkin carving and other games.

In November, the youth council attended the city council's swearing in ceremony, which was a great opportunity to welcome and familiarize ourselves with the dedicated leaders who represent us. Then later in the month, we went to the village lighting ceremony where we handed out glow wands to light up the night for our community. A few of us also helped with elections that month too.

Moving into December, the youth council attended the Christmas parade and showed our love for the community. Our December monthly meeting was one to remember because we began our meeting at Meijer buying gifts for children at the Rainbow Connection. Later, we had a potluck at the Van Dusen Museum and we also had a chance to see the model train exhibit. Quickly after the holiday season, we had plenty of special meetings and worked hard to organize our Super Bowl event, which was held at the Rochester Hills Public Library. Having over 80 attendees, we collected cans and raised and got over 246 pounds of food for the neighborhood house, a key resource for our community.

Following that, in February, we headed over to Lansing for our annual legislative day, where our youth council got a chance to meet Senator Weber and Representative Tisdell to see the Capitol. We also had the chance to have lunch at Midwest Strategy Group, where we learned from Adam Wright and Mike Campagnoni about what lobbyists do, as well as learning the true meaning of service at the statewide level.

In March, we began planning for our biggest event, the Cultural Fair. We wanted to make this one our biggest hit yet, so we spent hours making calls, having meetings, and pulling all the strings to make sure we planned a flawless event that highlighted the immense diversity and culture in our community. With over 600 attendees that came to enjoy the live music, performances, food, and vendors, it's safe to say that this year was one we can never forget.

May was a fantastic year for us as we wrapped up the cultural fair and discussed how we can continue to improve and expand this event for next year. But we also spent time helping out at Oak in the Hills, and despite the rainy day, we had a blast telling people about Youth Council, checking people into the event, and helping out in many other ways. We also took on the Van Heusen Cemetery Beautification Project. This project was truly the highlight of our month as the Youth Council got the opportunity to give back to their community by planting flowers and getting their hands dirty.

June marked the beginning of the application process, which consisted of reading and reviewing over 40 applications, and then an extensive interview process spanning over a couple of weeks. We also had Clerk Scott and Deputy Clerk Brown come in and tell us about the different jobs the clerk's office does. We ended this insightful meeting by playing a fun but super competitive game to see how much we learned. At the end of June, the Youth Council started their summer by attending the Festival of the Hills, and despite a little rain, we showed up to celebrate America 250 with our community.

Serving on the youth council has been pivotal to our learning. We are excited to welcome the city's planning department and clerk's office to our youth council meeting where we felt that the city values youth input as they shared their master plan with us and asked for our feedback, including on projects like Nowiki Park. The clerk's office showed us the many ways they serve our community behind the scenes and all the different roles that play a huge part in keeping our community the safe and connected place it is. As youth council members, we also have a unique opportunity to serve on technical review boards and serve in city council meetings, giving us a firsthand experience with how our local government functions. We have had and continue to have so many opportunities to learn more about the city we reside in, which we could not be more grateful for.

Last but certainly not least, we would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Advisor Mims and Councilwoman Neubauer. You've been so much more than our youth council liaison and city council liaison. You've been our mentors, advocates, and a constant source of encouragement. Thank you for being the people we can always count on no matter what, and your kindness and dedication are something we will carry with us long after this year. Thank you for your time and have a good evening.

Thank you very much. You make presentations look easy, I will say that. I don't see any council comments on the presentation. Councilwoman Neubauer, you want to say a few things?

I THINK IT WAS KIND OF A MISTAKE THAT I HAD YOU GUYS GO FIRST, BECAUSE OF COURSE YOU MADE ME EMOTIONAL. I'M SO PROUD OF YOU, ALL OF YOU. YOUR PRESENTATION IS AMAZING. ALL THE THINGS THAT YOU'VE DONE FOR THE CITY IN THE LAST YEAR, HOW YOU'VE GROWN. IT'S JUST SO AMAZING TO SEE, AND I AM SO PROUD OF YOU. I'M A LITTLE HEARTBROKEN THAT OUR SENIORS ARE LEAVING. um you have to come back you have to come back and talk to us and let us know how you're doing um you know you guys grew up with us and we're just we just want to see you and you know we want you to remember us because we will never forget you guys they should never have the mom do this ANYWAY, I'M EXCITED FOR THE NEW STUDENTS THAT ARE COMING. I'M REALLY PROUD OF YOU GUYS. I CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS NEXT YEAR. I GOT TO MEET SOME OF YOUR PARENTS BEFORE THE MEETING STARTED. I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT WE LOVE YOUR KIDS. WE'RE PROUD OF YOUR KIDS. WE WANT TO INVEST IN YOUR KIDS, AND WE KNOW THAT YOUR KIDS INVEST IN THE CITY. WE HAVE THE BEST OF THE BEST, AND WE'RE JUST SO THANKFUL AND SO PROUD OF ALL OF YOU. SO THAT'S ALL I HAVE.

Thank you very much, Councilwoman Neubauer. Being an elected official is something that's not for everybody. And it's good for you all to have done this. It's a good experience. And I hope that you'll consider serving the community in some other way as you move on in your lives. I don't see any further council comments on this. SO WE'LL MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ONE, WHICH IS 2026-0346, THE ROCHESTER HILLS GOVERNMENT YOUTH COUNCIL 2026-2027 SWEARING IN CEREMONY. SO COUNCILWOMAN NEWBAUER WILL STEP DOWN TO THE PODIUM HERE.

I should have lowered this before the meeting started. Okay. Welcome parents, students and graduating students and our new students and welcome citizens of the city of Rochester Hills. I was appointed to serve as the city council representative for the Rochester Hills Government Youth Council in December of 2025 and has been my great privilege and probably the best part of being a city council person. If I'm being honest, it's the part that makes my heart grow the most. This summer, along with youth council liaison Erin Mims and some of our youth council members, we interviewed 41 candidates for the 2026-2027 term. We had an opportunity to read candidates' essays and letters of recommendation, and each candidate was individually scored based on their interview answers, essays, and presentation. The rigorous process reflects the degree of honor associated with being offered and taking a position with the Rochester Hills Government Youth Council. Tonight, the 2026-2027 Youth Council members will take an oath of office administered by Clerk Scott. They will solemnly swear to support and defend the United States and Michigan constitutions and the Rochester Hills City Charter. and to conduct themselves in a manner to maintain the integrity of this appointed position and to honor the city of Rochester Hills. As representatives of the city with a specific charge and obligation to maintain and enhance the honor of Rochester Hills, these students will have the privilege of serving the residents of the city of Rochester Hills. As the city council, We are here to guide, mentor, teach, and lead by example. And we are here to serve our residents as well. And we want to be a good example for you. We want to be people that you can reach out to at any time. I want to begin by congratulating our recent graduates, some of whom are here. Isabella Blakely, who's from International Academy, going to University of Michigan to study women's medicine. Lucas DeGrande from Notre Dame Prep from University of Indiana. Janelle Hayes from Stony Creek High School, who's going to Michigan State University, James Madison School. Eliza Pozzuti from Rochester Adams High School, going to University of Michigan. Sid Saith from Stony Creek High School, going to University of Michigan to study medicine. Eliza is doing medicine as well. Andrew Thomas from Rochester Adams High School, going to University of Medicine. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN FOR DENTISTRY, AND YUNA WU FROM STONY CREEK HIGH SCHOOL, GOING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN FOR ENGINEERING. WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU GUYS. SO LET'S GIVE THEM A ROUND OF APPLAUSE. OKAY, AND NOW I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO INTRODUCE THE 2026-2027 ROCHESTER HILLS GOVERNMENT YOUTH COUNCIL MEMBERS. AND WHEN YOU HEAR YOUR NAME, IF YOU COULD APPROACH. WHERE DO YOU WANT THEM TO STAND, LEANNE? IF YOU COULD COME AROUND HERE SO THAT YOU GUYS CAN TAKE YOUR OATH TOGETHER.

OKAY.

ROSELLE ARKHAN FROM STONY CREEK HIGH SCHOOL. OLIVER BLAKELY FROM ROCHESTER HIGH SCHOOL. SACHI DANAKAR FROM ADAMS HIGH SCHOOL. BRENNAN DEAL FROM STONY CREEK HIGH SCHOOL. JACKSON DEAL FROM STONY CREEK HIGH SCHOOL. KISHO JIRI FROM STONY CREEK HIGH SCHOOL. Sasha Joshi from Adams High School. Annika Cannadale from Adams High School. Juwan Kim from Adams High School. Saisha Panikak, sorry, I'm so sorry. Say it for me. Putnak from Rochester High School. Carson Pavloff from International Academy. Noura Khedri from Rochester High School, Dev Shah from International Academy, Divya Shah from International Academy, Divya Sheth from Stony Creek High School, Sophia Thomas from Marion High School, and Christina Wang from Adams High School. Can we give them all a round of applause? Clerk Scott will administer your oath of office. And after the oath is administered, we'll take a quick break for a quick reception to celebrate our former students and future students.

OK, I'm going to move this out so I can see you all. Congratulations to each and every one of you. And if you would, raise your right hand, and I'm going to have you repeat after me. I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Michigan, and the Charter of the City of Rochester Hills and that I will faithfully perform The duties of the office.

The duties of the office.

Of Rochester Hills government youth council member.

Of Rochester Hills government youth council member.

In and for the city of Rochester Hills.

In and for the city of Rochester Hills.

Oakland County Michigan.

Oakland County Michigan.

Conducting myself in a manner.

Conducting myself in a manner.

Designed to maintain.

Designed to maintain.

The integrity of my office.

The integrity of my office.

And the honor of the city of Rochester Hills.

And the honor of the city of Rochester Hills.

According to the best of my abilities.

According to the best of my abilities.

So help me God.

So help me God.

Congratulations, everyone. Stay here for a minute. I'm going to move this back for you. And I have to lower this again.

Thanks for that.

if city council could come down and congratulate our youth council and then we'll take a couple pictures and parents can take pictures and then we'll break for our reception, okay?

Thank you. Congratulations. All right, go towards this area here so that they can get a good picture. And then we're going to look at where did he go?

Okay, look in the middle first, and then we'll look at moms and dads. Is he going to adjourn the meeting? Okay.

So at this time, we'll take a quick 10-minute recess. So if council people want to go outside and congratulate the new youth council.

but future leaders of our country out there.

Next item for presentation is item 2026-0352 Midwest Strategy Group Presentation. Mr. Adam Wright.

Good evening, President Carlock, Vice President Mangioli, and council members. It's good to see you all, good to be here. Excited to just come and give you an update on what's going on in Lansing or what's been happening in Lansing. So first, pardon?

Sure, absolutely.

So the 2027 budget process is done. Didn't get it done by the statutory deadline of July 1st, but was very close. On the early... morning hours of July 3rd. I think I left the office about 6.30 a.m. after going all night watching the legislature do the budget. They did get it passed, and approximate spending was about 86.3 billion. As you remember, the governor had originally proposed about $88 billion. For some policy initiatives that we'll talk about, we've mentioned this before, but last year, the governor signed about 76 bills into law, which was the fewest enacted laws since 1842. So far this year, the governor has signed about 40 into law, and most of those have come as part of the budget deal. As most of you I think are aware, at the end of the last legislative term, there were nine bills that were not transmitted from the House of Representatives after passing the House and the Senate to the governor. And there were a lot of legal wrangling that went on around these nine bills. And recently, the Supreme Court made a decision that they had to present these to the governor. And so the governor was presented the nine bills and she actually vetoed all nine of them. So what we expect, we've already seen legislators reintroduce some of these bills. We don't expect there to be action on the nine bills that were vetoed this term, but we do expect them all to be reintroduced next term. Continuing on with the budget, What we saw from January revenue estimating conference to May is that revenues were slightly higher than January but still down overall. So there was some reductions that had to be made in the budget because of HR1 at the federal level and road funding changes at the state level. And so as we talked about, the budget was sent to the governor. It contained no new taxes, didn't draw down from the state's rainy day fund. It also did not include any property tax negotiated deal. And the governor did sign the budget on July 21. This year, for legislatively directed spending items, there's approximately $125 million in requests that were included in the final budget. That number is about half of what we've seen over different years, especially last year. For us specifically in local government, revenue sharing remains equal or current to our current funding year. Public safety revenue sharing also remains equal to the current funding year. The election equipment reserve fund that the governor put into the budget and the Senate supported was not included in the conference report, so not included for local governments to get that funding. Pure Michigan, all ongoing revenue was eliminated. There was one time dollars that were included in the budget, nine million, and then a two million dollar one time funding for special events. One of the things that we saw with the budget, it doesn't always happen, it does on occasion that we have policy bills that are included with budget negotiations. This is probably the largest number of policy bills between 40 and 50 that we've seen included with the negotiation of the budget. Some of them that are important for us to look at. Senate Bill 732 amends a transformational brownfield economic development statute. So it'll eliminate the sunset, so it'll continue, and increases the annual captures for that program. So for economic development purposes, that was a good bill. Senate Bill 721 and 722 extended the sunsets on the Commercial Redevelopment and Rehabilitation Acts. The reason why these were so important are both of these acts had actually expired December 31st of 2025, and local governments utilized these for redevelopment and rehab in their towns. And so when these expired, many of those projects that were in the hopper had to stop. So getting those taken care of was good, and extending those sunsets was important. And finally, there was a housing package of sort that passed. Senate Bill 966 was part of that. It creates a low income housing tax credit. But the housing package that the governor signed and that she took a victory lap on wasn't anything that we were fighting against. So that's positive. Some of the legislative policy initiatives I want to just touch on about things that are going on in Lansing and what they're talking about. There have been several bills regarding data centers that have been introduced. And we're not certain what will happen with these bills. Republicans have introduced some. Democrats have introduced some in each chamber. At this point, it's possible for them to pass their respective chambers. Whether or not the other chamber will take it up remains to be seen. So some of the initiatives that have been introduced, uh, first one is the statewide moratorium, um, that would temporarily halt the construction of new data centers and the issuance of state or local permits until April 1st of 2027. Um, my guess is because we're getting further in the year is that if they did something with that bill, they would move that date from April 1st. Um, but they would have to amend the bill to do that. There's also legislation to address pumping and usage limits of data centers to protect drinking water and lakes. And that would require prevailing union wages and project labor agreements for data center construction. Would ban public officials from using strict non-disclosure agreements to keep big tech deals hidden from local communities. And there are proposals mirroring guardrails established by the Public Service Commission that aim to guarantee that data centers do not increase energy costs for everyday rate payers. It would require data centers to pay out front for necessary grid infrastructure and mandate commitments to renewable energy and peak demand power reduction. So those are some of the bills that have been introduced. Don't see a whole lot of energy behind them in committees and getting done because there's not a whole lot going on in Lansing right now. But we'll see as they return. The other thing is Governor Whitmer has launched Michigan Affordability and Responsible Growth Pledge, and this is asking any sort of incoming data center developers to commit voluntarily to environmental compliance, local hiring, and strict nondisclosure transparency. But again, this is something the governor has launched, and this initiative for developers is voluntary. Next, on housing, I mentioned housing just a little bit, but want to update you on the local preemption bills that are before the legislature. Just as a reminder, some of those bills would state that you guys could, there would be a minimum lot size that you could set, minimum home sizes that you could set. It would make accessory dwelling units and duplexes by right, as well as institute a shot clock for local governments to approve applications. These efforts to take away local control and make a statewide policy have really stalled in Lansing at this point. Since they broke after the budget, I'm not having weekly meetings on it, but I am having biweekly meetings on it to make sure that we continue to understand if they want to try to move these at all later on in the year. I would actually be surprised if they put a ton of effort into this, as I know local government officials all throughout the state have been very opposed to local preemption bills that take away their local decision-making ability for their own jurisdictions. And I give you all credit because you have done it, and many other local governments throughout the state have also done it. and spoken to their legislators and spoken to other legislators that they know and just said taking away local control isn't going to help housing. It's not gonna decrease the cost of a house. It's just going to have one statewide policy that actually favors developers. So we will continue monitoring all the housing legislation on your behalf and continue to update you as things progress. Now, the last legislative policy initiative on this slide I want to talk about is the Revenue-Sharing Trust Fund. This is something that's been important to local government for some time. It was included with the Senate's budget. However, the Senate, it was not included in the final budget, so getting this over the, finish line and getting it done may be a little more difficult now because it's not including the budget and they did revenue sharing a different way. So what's next? So some of these slides I submitted prior to the primary election. But the primary election did happen on August 4. Thanks to Clerk Scott for all of her efforts in gearing up for November. The general election will be on November 3, and we'll decide control of the Michigan legislature and the other top offices in the state. And we will watch this election carefully. We will see who controls the Michigan House of Representatives, if Republicans maintain majority, or if it flips to Democrats. We'll also watch the Michigan Senate, to see if Democrats maintain control if it flips to Republicans. And we will obviously watch who wins the governor's race as all of those factors will go into how we sit down and work with the mayor and his team on developing a strategy for Rochester Hills for the next term. And so we will continue that after the November elections, everyone's like, okay, we can take a breath. And that's really when we start, right? To understand all the nuances of the election and to develop a strategy with you. So fall session, legislators are scheduled to be in session some random days in August, September, October, but it's unclear how many, if any, days legislative action will occur. Now we just heard today actually that the last week of August they could be in, so that week of August 24th, 25th, What will they do? I don't know. But hopefully we'll get an idea of what's gonna be on the agenda when we get closer. And then I always have lame duck question mark, because after the general election, I'm not certain what they're going to be able to come together to do. It's always like, raising a mountain to try to get, in a divided government, things done, and I think it'll be no different in lame duck. The only thing that I could see lame duck happening for is if there's some sort of financial issue, if there's an emergency that the legislature has to come together to address. Otherwise, I think chances for a robust lame duck are low. And the election year, again, we get to remove some of these photos now from, from this picture. Um, as the governor's race is between, uh, secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, Congressman John James, um, us Senate race is between Abdul Al Sayed and Mike Rogers. Um, the secretary of state's race is between Lieutenant governor Gilchrist and Macomb County clerk for Alini and the age use race is between, the Washtenaw County Prosecutor Savitt, and Doug Lloyd on the Republican side. There will be Mop Up Michigan on the ballot, which is money out of politics. It's aimed at targeting the big utilities in the state and ensuring that they can't unduly influence Michigan elections. And there's potentially a citizens voting initiative, but we've not seen if that will make the ballot yet. And with that, I'm happy to take any questions that you may have.

Thank you very much, Mr. Wright. As you can imagine, there are a few questions and comments. One thing that I can say, there are a lot of people here tonight that are probably interested in hearing what we're going to talk about with the data centers. And like you mentioned, the state hasn't decided what they're going to do. So there's a high probability that we won't do anything until the state makes some decisions. So we're watching very closely to ensure that we don't make ordinances or policies that would then have to be changed or undone if it's in conflict with what the state comes up. So thank you for that update. We'll go down the line here. Vice President Mangioli.

Thank you, President Carlock. So yes, Mr. Wright, I have a whole bunch of questions here. Data center is one of them. But first, you talked about lame duck. But when does the next legislative session start? I mean, I know the governor gets sworn in at the beginning of January. But do they start meeting right away or?

They won't start meeting right away. So after the election, so November 4th, you'll see the election be done. The new legislators will come to town that week and they'll do leadership elections. So we know who will be the Speaker of the House, the Senate Majority Leader. But they don't officially start until after the first of the year. and I believe it's the second or third week in January constitutionally they're mandated to be there to begin session. But they will have to adopt rules and as part of those rules they establish committees and then appoint members to those committees. And we normally don't see a lot happen in Lansing as far as committees meeting until after the governor has given their state of the state or budget presentation so that there's something to act on. Now you will see right away hundreds, and I mean hundreds, of pieces of legislation introduced. So a lot of, every piece of legislation that doesn't get passed by the legislature and signed by the governor dies after December 31 of this year. So there's something called Project Blueback where they will list the bills that they would like to reintroduce and all those get put back in and as soon as they can They start lining up at the clerk's office or the secretary of the Senate's office to introduce those. So you'll see those, a lot of bills being introduced right away in January.

So that goes back to those data center bills. If they don't get passed this year, then we would have to wait until session starts up late January, early February before they would be reintroduced. Correct. Once they pass a bill, let's say they just passed the data center bills this year and they put a moratorium in place until April 1st, then they have to get committees to start working on the data centers at the legislative level, or do they just say, moratorium until April 1st, go ahead, local communities, you deal with it now?

Well, I think if there's a moratorium, local communities wouldn't be able to deal with them, right? But it would just depend on however long that moratorium lasts. And if they want to extend it or if they want to do something different, they would have to act. And that's only if that legislation were to pass before the end of the year.

So later on our agenda this evening, we are talking about extending our moratorium on data centers. Right now it would be in March as a six-month proposal, which is before the April 1st date. So we would be before the state would allow their moratorium to lift potentially, but no direction may be given to us as to, what could happen with those data centers at that point, correct?

That's correct.

So could they extend their moratorium beyond April 1st? Sure. And then how often, how long do moratoriums usually last? Six months, a year?

This is new for me. I'm not sure. I've not seen them do moratoriums with a certain segment of, you know, a certain sector of the business community before. Okay.

And maybe more of a question for Mr. Christ, which we'll come back to later, is if there's a moratorium in place, no data center is being built, can we be sued if we don't allow a data center to be built? And I'll come back to that one later on the other agenda topic. But that would be a concern because we often hear that there's someone going to sue us if we don't allow them to build a data center. So I'm going to put... LAWYER CHRIST ON THE HOT SEAT LATER. YOU MENTIONED THE ELECTION EQUIPMENT. I KNOW OUR CLERK HAS BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO NEW ELECTION EQUIPMENT. DOES THIS MEAN THE STATE IS NOT PAYING FOR NEW ELECTION EQUIPMENT?

YES.

THEN I'LL TELL THE AUDIENCE AND THOSE WATCHING TO MAKE SURE THEY COME TO OUR COUNCIL MEETING NEXT WEEK WHEN WE TALK ABOUT our budget and possibly talking about paying for new election equipment. So thank you very much, Lansing, for not giving us the money on that. So the LDSI, that's the local bills, what other impact is there to Rochester Hills with those bills or the lack thereof of the LDSI ones? Those were the local ones, weren't they?

So the LDSI are projects that legislators put in for their communities to get.

So Nowicki Park got money, I think, through the LDSI. Correct. So is it going to be harder for us to get funding through those requests in the future?

It could be, and it depends a lot on the economy of Michigan and how revenues come in. So as I talked about earlier, the revenue picture was a little rosier in May than we heard in January, but not a ton. And so there is less money to operate with because of some of the tax changes that were made at the federal and state level. And so as you see that continue to slow and revenue slow, there'll be less to be able to do things like legislatively directed spending items so that we can, as a state, actually fulfill the obligations that the state has.

Okay, great, thank you for that explanation. Last question for me, I understand school funding increased from last year? We're getting more per pupil or is it ones that are specifically targeted to certain areas of their budget? Is it a per student increase?

Yeah, so all schools got a $250 increase per pupil. I think it brings it up to like $10,300 per student. There are other increases and schools will get various other categoricals and so there's like school safety, mental health. I think that was like 250-ish million to 300 million that will go to them. But there's a ton of individual categoricals that schools can apply for to receive.

Okay. along those lines for the mental health piece. If it's in the school funding, but can the city partner with the school districts on efforts? Because I think our youth council wanted to focus on mental health for this coming year. It would be great if there's latitude for us to be able to do that, Councilman Neubauer, so I'll let you. Follow up on that one. So thank you very much. I always enjoy having you come and appreciate your information, late breaking information from Lansing. So thank you very much, Mr. Wright. Thank you, President Carlock.

Thank you very much, Vice President Mangioli. We do have some additional questions and comments. Councilman Blair.

Thank you, President Carlock. Adam, I'll echo Councilman Mangioli's comments. It's always a pleasure to have you present to us. And I wanted to specifically thank you for speaking to our youth council. They obviously are on their way to hopefully pursue public service in some capacity. I'd be shocked if they didn't. And we really value the opportunity to mentor those young people. But They go through, most people go through their lives and when they hear the word lobbyist, it conjures up some pretty undesirable aspects. And to have someone take them under their wing and show what good and what advocacy communities can get from Midwest Strategies and other similar firms is extremely important. And the local preemption, the horrifying effects that it would have on communities statewide if that were to pass is the perfect example. So the fact that they called you out by name in their remarks is really special. And I hope you take that back to the office and know how

and proud we are that they said that and that you are. I will for sure and I'll share that with the team. We were so happy to be able to host them at the office and speak with them about what we do. I shared with Clerk Scott earlier that when I was a staff person in the legislature, My very first boss was my high school government teacher. And so I got to work in his office and I always joked with him that I learned more in his office than I did in this classroom. And it was true. But getting the Lansing perspective is so much different than we were just sitting in the classroom. And so always happy to have the students down and kind of show them what's going on. Thanks again. President? Thank you.

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

Thank you, President Kerlach. Thank you so much. We had an opportunity to speak right before the meeting started, and you extended another invitation for the new kids and all the kids to come back this year. And I appreciate that. I mean, you see how amazing they are. It's good when we just don't see how amazing they are, when everybody gets to see how great our kids are. And thank you for pouring into our kids.

Um, just real quick on that. I mean, I think one of the things that I want to point out to them when they come again is, uh, we have state legislators that are in their early twenties.

I mean, that's amazing.

And so it's important for them to see this isn't just something you do after you've retired. You can take part in the legislative process at any age. And maybe what we do is we sit down and see if we can get some of those younger legislators. I know in my home area, I think he's 23 or 24. He'll be a new state representative. I'm sure I can get him to come over and talk to them. But to get that perspective from a younger legislator, I think would be good as well.

Yeah, because they hear from the moms, right? It would be good to hear from moms and dads. It would be good to hear from somebody close to their age. And that would be amazing. We can definitely, I'm excited about that.

Let's talk about it.

Yeah. Okay. So I wanted to say thank you for that. And then I also wanted to piggyback off of what Vice President Mangioli said about the mental health funds that would be going back to our kids. Is that something that only the school board can apply for, or is it school programs or youth programs that can apply for grants to foster that with our kids?

It's the school district that has to apply for it.

Okay. Okay, now with respect to the preemption for the housing, gold star. You know that we've been very vocal about that. Our planning department's been very vocal about that. Whether it's the government, Lansing, telling us what we can build or what we can't build, whether it's a data center or apartment buildings, that should be our responsibility. We know what our city infrastructure is. We know what we can handle. We know what our master plan is designed for we, the planning department just got an award for going out into the community and gathering data. And frankly, there's no purpose in us doing these surveys, gathering data, listening to our residents if Lansing is gonna come in like a big old bully and tell us what to do. So I appreciate you advocating for our residents and letting Lansing know that we're not here for that. So Gold Star, very thankful for that. And I know that a lot of our residents and a lot of our council was very vocal about that. Our planning, like I said, our planning department and planning commissioners do not want these bills to pass. And we want to have local control. One of the things I did this summer is I got to travel with my kids' baseball teams, and it took us all over the state. And we don't need to figure out a way to give developers a new opportunity to build. It would be nice if the developers redeveloped these places that are falling apart and that have these boarded up houses and these subdivisions and neighborhoods that are completely disheveled before they come in here and tell us what to do with our housing. So you can pass that along to whoever will listen. I'm not sure anybody will, but you can tell them to stay out of Rochester Hills from me, just me, so that nobody else gets in trouble.

I can tell you the Michigan Municipal League has put forward a plan called the My Home Program, and it does a lot of that, right? It will set up a revolving loan fund to be able to put money in there for affordable housing, workforce housing, but also for rehabilitation. because that's also critical. You bring that point up and it's very good because the bills that we see before us, um, don't do anything for rehabilitation and they also don't do anything for affordability. It just, makes it easier for a developer to do what they want in everyone else's community.

So this is another thing that you and I discussed before the meeting started, right? What is affordability? What if a developer comes into your neighborhood and says $3,000 per 800 square feet is what's affordable? And that's not what I view as affordable. And I don't think the majority of people would, but that's what they put on their application, right? So I think a lot of people are probably sick of me saying this, but I'm a data person and a definitions person. And I want to know exactly when you tell me what affordable... You're going to tell me that this is affordable housing. I want to know who it's affordable for, what that means, what's the range, and how is that going to be paid for? Is that something that's subsidized? Is it not? Is it you have to come up with your own funding? I want to know... WHAT THAT MEANS, AND NOBODY CAN EVER PROVIDE A DEFINITION. WHICH BRINGS ME TO THE DATA CENTER THING. ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I'M HAVING A LOT OF TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING, AND THIS IS WHY IN PLANNING WE CAME TO THE DECISION, IT WASN'T ACTUALLY BASED ON THE STATE'S MORATORIUM, IT WAS BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH INFORMATION TO PUT AN ORDINANCE TOGETHER, SO WE NEED TIME TO RESEARCH. and nobody can tell me what the range of data centers are, whether it's as big as an air condition unit or as big as this building, and what the energy draw is and all that kind of stuff. And so I would like to know what Lansing, how Lansing is defining all these things, because you put in, I think it was the first slide. That's not true, hold on. slide number five, that several bills regarding data centers have been introduced and most appear to be messaging bills designated to use during the general election campaign this fall. So my question is, is where can I find the information that actually defines the definition section for these bills? Like where can I find that?

Sure, I'm happy to send you a list of all of the bills that they've introduced so that you have them. I know also we do a lot of work as Rochester Hills does with SEMCOG and SEMCOG has had some great presentations on data centers and they've had some experts come in and I think can answer a lot of those questions.

Whatever you can send me, I'll pass on to our residents. Okay, thank you so much. You're welcome.

Thank you very much, Mr. Wright. It's always informative when you come out and speak with us, and we really do appreciate it. So thank you. Thank you.

Have a great evening.

Thanks.

You too.

Next up, consent agenda. All matters under consent agenda are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion without discussion. If any council member or citizen requests discussion of an item, it will be removed from the consent agenda for separate discussion. We have had a member of the audience request to remove the items associated with the easements for Auburn Angara Oaks. So I will remove items 2026-0350 and 2026-0351 from the consent agenda and we'll discuss those immediately following. I have a motion by Vice President Mongioli seconded by Mr. Blair to approve the remaining items on the consent agenda. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? That motion passes. So we will discuss item 2026 dash zero three five zero request for acceptance of the amendment to sanitary sewer easement granted by Roger G stone as sole trustee of the Roger G stone and Beverly a stone revocable living trust dated August 25th, 2025 for Auburn and Gara Oaks. Uh, speaking on behalf of the city will be a director balance.

Good evening. All right. Good evening, City Council President Carlock, Vice President Anjali, City Council, and Mr. Jovich. I'm here this evening for actually two easements, but the first one is we are requesting City Council's acceptance of the amendment to the sanitary sewer easement from Roger G. Stone and Beverly A. Stone for the parcel identified as 1532-201-007. This is an offsite sanitary sewer easement. It's an amendment to the easement as it was, The developer had recorded the document or went to Oakland County prior to construction plan approval and the easement was shifted during construction plan approval. So that is why this, um, is amendment is being requested. Um, we had city city plan reviewed that allowed Auburn anchor Oaks development to connect to the existing sanitary sewer at a revised location. The agreement has been reviewed and approved to us by our city attorney and by the city and the Department of Public Services recommends approval at formal acceptance tonight's meeting. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you very much. We do have one citizen comment on this. Ms. Pounders would like to speak. Reminder, Ms. Pounders, you have three minutes.

Yeah, I was just here for the data center discussion actually when I was looking at the agenda I noticed that Auburn Oaks was mentioned on there and being that there's been so much amendments to filling wetlands and Changing this and that I just thought I was curious as to what this amendment was all about too and I actually emailed Chris McLeod and he kind of told me that The engineering like he doesn't have any part of that but engineering and and building department maybe does or something.

It's just engineering.

Yeah, okay. So that's what I was curious about, like if this was just another amendment to the development, but you're just saying it's an amendment to the easement agreement. He recorded it when it shouldn't have been recorded.

Yeah. So he recorded it and then we had not approved. Engineering had not approved the construction plans. So it shifted a little bit to make a better connection on the sewer easement. And that's why we're requesting the amendment to the easement.

Okay. I didn't know. Cause I like see, like I contacted him cause I'm seeing somebody trenching back there with a bulldozer and they hadn't paid their $70,000 bond, uh, landscape bond yet. And I'm like, should they be doing that? And he's like, um, no. But then I thought, well, Maybe they just want to look like they're doing something, you know, because I know the building department. But then, like I see, was that buyer's wrecker out there pulling out construction equipment that sunk into the holes or something?

Yeah, I don't know.

I'm not familiar with that.

I can follow up with you on that. Okay.

Yeah, so that's what I was. I was just curious as to what. is going on with it. But you answered my question. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Ms. Pounders. And we do have some council comments here. Vice President Mangioli.

Thank you, President Carlock. First, I want to congratulate Director Tracey Balint. She's no longer interim, but she's officially the director, so congratulations. Thank you. Yay. And thank you, Ms. Pounders, for pulling this off of the consent agenda. I know it's specifically addressing these two items, but I think Ms. Balint's been on some emails that I've been having with residents from Walton Oaks, And I just want to make sure that we are continuing to hold this developer's feet to the agreements that we have and that he's going to follow them because we don't want Ms. Bounders to come back because they're not keeping up with all of the approvals that were done in planning. I'll follow up more with emails going back and forth. And yes, Ms. Roediger is on those as well as Jody and building and I don't know, there's like six other people in the city on those, but it's important.

We're all communicating between all the departments as well, which has been very helpful. So everyone is aware of each department working together. to make sure everything's in compliance.

Yes, so when I meet with the residents in Brookdale West, which happens to be the subdivision just west of me, I'll let you guys know if you want to come out and join me and take a look at their retaining wall that's not a retaining wall. And we can talk some more about whether or not this builder is meeting their requirements so this way Ms. Pounders doesn't have to worry about why there's somebody digging up in a backyard when they aren't sure they should be. But with that, President Karlik, I will move the resolution in the packet. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Motion by Vice President Mangioli, seconded by Councilwoman Neubauer. I don't see further discussion on the item, so I'll read the resolution here. Resolved that the Rochester Hills City Council, on behalf of the City of Rochester Hills, accepts an amendment to sanitary sewer easement for the construction, operation, maintenance, repair, and or replacement. of a sanitary sewer on under through and across land more particularly described as parcel number 15 dash 32 dash two Oh one dash zero zero seven granted by Roger G stone, as sole trustee of the Roger G. Stone and Beverly A. Stone Revocable Living Trust, dated August 25th, 2025, whose address is 35194 Poppenstein Drive, Clinton Township, Michigan, 48035 for Auburn Ongara Oaks. Further resolved that the city clerk is directed to record the easement with the Oakland County Register of Deeds. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. And the next one, item 2026-0351, request for acceptance of the amendment to sanitary sewer easement granted by Louie R. and Janice L. Lekic as co-trustee of the Lekic Family Trust, dated June 6, 2023, for Auburn Angara Oaks. Ms. Ballard.

Thank you. The Department of Public Services is requesting City Council's acceptance of an amendment to the sanitary sewer easement for the Lake Family Trust. This offsite easement amendment modifies the legal description to allow Auburn and Guerra Oaks development to connect to the existing sanitary sewer at a revised location. The document has been reviewed and approved by our city attorney and the department recommends formal acceptance. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you very much. I don't see any council questions. And a motion by Vice President Mangio is seconded by Councilwoman Neubauer. Resolved that the Rochester Hills City Council, on behalf of the City of Rochester Hills, hereby accepts an amendment to sanitary sewer easement for the construction, operation, maintenance, repair, and or replacement of a sanitary sewer on, under, through, and across land, more particularly described as parcel number 15-32-201-023, granted by Louie R. and Janice L. Likich as co-trustees of the Likich Family Trust, dated June 6th, 2023, whose address is 5074 Beltmont Drive, Oakland Township, Michigan, 483064 Auburn, Ongara Oaks. Further resolve that the city clerk is directed to record the easement with the Oakland County Register of Deeds. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next up, ordinance for introduction, item 2026-0070, request for acceptance for first reading an ordinance to amend Article 5, Schedule of Regulations, Chapter 3, temporary moratorium, Section 138-5.301, temporary moratorium for data centers to extend the moratorium, suspending the city's processing and acceptance of applications and plans for development and improvement of data centers. to chapter 138 zoning of the code of ordinances of the city of Rochester Hills, Oakland County, Michigan, to prescribe a penalty for violations and to repeal inconsistent or conflicting ordinances. Director Roediger.

Good evening, President Carlock, Vice President Mangioli, Council, Ms. Sudovic. I'm here this evening to talk about extending our moratorium for the data centers. As you know, we started off the year, kind of kicked it off with our joint meeting where data centers were identified as one topic that we definitely needed to look into further to make sure we are protected here at the city. And from that meeting, we went ahead and counsel you approved a moratorium back in February for 180 days. And so since that time, the planning department has been working to study what other communities are doing. You heard from our MR. WRIGHT AT MIDWEST THAT THERE'S A LOT OF CHANGING DIRECTION AT THE STATE AND WE'RE NOT EXACTLY SURE WHERE THEY'RE GOING TO BE LANDING. AND JUST THE TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATED WITH DATA CENTERS IS CHANGING RAPIDLY AS WELL. SO WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT ANY ORDINANCE THAT WE DEVELOP IS THOROUGH AND PROTECTS THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CITY. SO AT THIS TIME, WE'RE ASKING FOR AN EXTENSION OF ANOTHER 180 DAYS, WHICH WOULD PUT IT UNTIL NEXT MARCH. SO WE CAN CONTINUE TO INVESTIGATE AND MAKE SURE THAT if and when an ordinance is adopted, that it is as thorough and complete and protecting the best interests of the city. So if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

Thank you very much, Ms. Roediger. We do have quite a few citizens that would like to speak on this topic. So as I call your name, please approach the podium. Please remember you have three minutes to address your topic. First off is Tara Donnelly.

I'm assuming I don't use, okay.

You can leave it there. That goes for the news in the back.

I'm sorry. Hopefully that doesn't shave off my three minutes. Good evening. My name is Tara Donnelly. I'm a lifelong resident of Rochester Hills. First of all, I wanted to start off by giving huge thanks to all of you on City Council, City Planning Department for being so proactive in terms of bringing about the moratorium and extending it and looking into what's going on in other communities because I, as a resident, am extremely concerned about the proliferation of data centers, quite frankly, across the state, across the nation. I think, I mean, hearing the legislation, in my opinion, as just a community resident, it sounds largely performative to me, quite frankly, the legislation, and so I would encourage you as a resident to continue to be proactive and not rely on what's going on at the state level. Keep doing what you're doing and looking at what's going on across the state. I'm just voicing my support for everything that you're doing because I think people need to understand what the community feels like. The second thing I wanted to talk about, as a resident, I want to help you guys if I can. So if there's something that I can do beyond speaking in support of you and attending the meetings, getting the word out. Please let us know as citizens how we can assist you because this is, I mean, I have kids in this community. I want to protect the green space. I want to protect our natural resources. So anything I can do to assist you as a community member would really appreciate it. We have especially two council members who've done a fantastic job of keeping at least me informed. I knew to show up at seven 30 tonight and I knew that the moratorium was going to be on the agenda. So, Thank you for keeping your community informed. The final thing is that the pathways to data centers, we need to be watchful because, yes, there are the city ordinances, but we also have Oakland University that has a data center. So for community members who may not know this, we have multiple pathways to get data centers into our community. So please pay attention to what's going on at the Oakland University Board Trustee, the data center that's going on. That falls outside of the jurisdiction of Rochester Hills. So on June 26th, they did vote yes to move forward with the due diligence phase of their data center. So please keep an eye on that as well as these meetings here. One final thing is I recognize that you are kind of, your hands are tied with respect to a threat of a lawsuit, and I view it as kind of a bullying lawsuit. The Michigan Zoning Enabling Act kind of prohibits the outright ban of data centers. if we as citizens can do something to talk to people in Lansing and to communicate that we need to look at that piece of legislation specifically, because all of these moratoriums don't address the root cause of the problem. And, you know, as an engineer, I always look at the root cause. So thank you. Have a great evening. Thank you again.

Thank you very much, Ms. Donnelly. Uh, next up, uh, Matthew, I soapy.

Sorry, I got to put it up here a little bit more.

No, it's a tough act to follow. Wow, very good. Just one second.

Good evening, Rochester Hills City Council. My name is Matthew Isope. I'm a resident here in the city. I've been for about three years, and I wanted to just come out and just be involved in the civic process and being engaged with our meetings and just share that I am in favor and thankful for all of you wanting to extend this moratorium further on the data centers. I recognize that there's a lot of factors that are above us in the air in terms of how we're trying to manage and go through all of the steps in this. And I really appreciate all of you and just wanting to make sure you have all your information, you have all your ducks in a row, before you make any real concrete decisions on what you might want to really do here. All of this technology is very new and it is seizing a lot of public officials up in terms of just the sensationalism of it, but I really appreciate that. All of you are taking the time and effort to really just go line by line on what we're really trying to understand about getting this in here, how is this impacting our city infrastructure, our water resources, our land use, all of the things that are coming forward with the potential consequences both environmentally and civically with these kinds of operations i also want to appreciate just the desire to make sure we have our legal frameworks in order as well you know i think if we play too fast and loose with the laws here and we have other things that are happening i understand that you know we might have some very hairy lawsuits on deck with that. And I'm no legal expert. I'm just a guy. I ultimately just want to make sure that, you know, my city doesn't, you know, get their feet held to the fire for things that we could have avoided and we could have taken the time to, like, figure out and yes, okay, 180 days, kind of rough, kind of annoying to deal with, but hey, you know, I'd rather take the extra time to get this down and really put everything forward versus having potential years if not decades worth of headaches that we have to worry about if we move forward with this um you know again i wholeheartedly recommend and thank the you know planning committee and the planning commission apologies planning commission for their you know time and effort and diligence on this matter way more involved and way more plugged in than i am on this but you know i wholeheartedly recommend that you know we trust the experts on this operation and We vote to continue extending this moratorium, and we continue to get our operations in order for this. So thank you very much for your time, and I appreciate it. Have a good day.

Thank you very much, Mr. Isopi. Next up is Mr. Huffman, John Huffman.

Good evening, City Council. My name is John Huffman. I am a resident of Rochester Hills for my whole life, past 27 years. I'm at 180 West Auburn. I actually had a whole speech written out for you guys, but you guys actually really... quashed all my concerns that I had coming into this about the data center moratorium. And I just wanted to really bring up the, uh, the lawsuit situation that we're dealing with. Um, and I want to put forward some sort of project that I'd like to hopefully start with you guys of, because we are Oakland County Macomb County, Wayne County, we are way more politically relevant in Michigan than a lot of people realize. And I really want to get some of these cities and townships around the area to start some sort of coalition and bringing all these communities together and really taking it to the state of Michigan and their legislation problems that are happening right now. So that's really all I had to say, because you guys are doing a fantastic job. And I think a lot of people here can also say the same, that we are very glad to have you guys really stepping forward and putting the right foot down when it comes to everything that's happening lately. So I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Mr. Huffman. Next up, Ms. Kinpa, Christine Kinpa.

Good evening, Council. I understand that data centers aren't going anywhere, and there are some positive aspects of advancing this technology. However, the cost and negative aspects must be taken into consideration. Striking the right balance is critical to the well-being of future generations, as we all know. I ask and pray on behalf of our grandchildren for the extension of the moratorium. This decision should not be rushed, as I appreciate you are doing, as I learned today. And in the myriad of issues to be reviewed in depth, I ask that future considerations include mandating that AI firms collect and desalinate our rising ocean waters in lieu of tapping into our inland, life-sustaining fresh waters. We've been told that it's too expensive, but we the people should not be forced to suffer the consequences of short-sighted, insatiable greed. Might does not make right. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Kempe. Next up, Ms. Wallace.

Good evening, Council. My name is Pam Wallace, and I live at 168 Cloverport. And I want to thank you for your work on the motorium here. And I want to also say that I'm delighted that you're considering extending it and that the planning department has come to that conclusion as well. Um, I am a 57 year resident of the city of Rochester Hills. Um, professionally, I have also for the last 15 years worked with the leading environmental, scientific tech professionals, legal professionals on environmental policy and law at the federal level. And I want to begin by sharing that because I would like that to inform our conversation this evening. And I've heard a lot about what Mr. Wright said is on the docket at the state level. I think that that is exceedingly important. You also want to be aware that there are hundreds of lobbyists every single day currently advocating for the tech industry at the federal level, and they're expecting preemptive legislation that is going to really significantly limit your control over this issue within the next couple of months. And so while I wanted to give you some background regarding this and why we want to say no to data centers at this point, what I think I want to point to is some recommendations that I give to communities all over the country and actually the world on this issue and other professionals that I work with. The first thing is you need to understand this is a significant issue and we're at a pivotal point. We're at a point where the needs of big industry are starting to basically become so large and significant that they may not be sustainable. Whether you're looking at it from a community impact viewpoint or whether you're looking at it from a resource viewpoint, there is real doubt within the expertise in the legal tech and environmental communities that this is sustainable and it's not, it's outpacing our ability to meaningfully get educated and to create meaningful policy on. So this is a huge challenge for communities. It's a challenge that you have never been faced with. At the same time, you are dealing with laws at the state and federal level, that like never before, that are coming after your local control because you are conflicting with the industry objectives. And what I want to say about data centers is it's not just about our future and it's not just about powering AI, it's also about keeping all of the data that you're getting on your smartwatch, your smart meters, that is monetized and sold by the industry or used by the industry and they make hundreds of billions of dollars a year on it. So if you kept every box from your Amazon shipments in your house and never threw anything away, you'd need a bigger house, bigger house, bigger house too. So there's some decisions to be made about how we're gonna go about handling the situation and how we are going to, as communities, inform industry and our policy makers about what steps we need to take to make these types of things safer, to retain our local control. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Ms. Wallace. Next up, Ms. Yates.

Good evening, my name is, is that better? Good evening, my name is Rhonda Yates and I live at 56 Texas Avenue. I'm here tonight to support the 180 day extension of the data center moratorium. So I understand that the Michigan Zoning Enabling Act prohibits you from outright banning data centers. That makes it even more important that we take the time to create strong zoning regulations before a proposal gets in front of you. So I'm gonna share with you some of the things that citizens have been sharing with me. One concern is water. As you know, Rochester Hills has already experienced two major water disruptions this year, including water advisories and AI data centers consume enormous amounts of water for cooling. So I would ask that the city planning department require these closed loop systems and have strong no discharge policies to protect the Clinton River watershed, along with meaningful enforcement and penalties for noncompliance. The second thing is setbacks. The 500 foot buffer from residential property doesn't go far enough. We need a minimum of a 1,000 foot setback and I would encourage the city to also require 3D acoustical modeling funded by the developer to certify compliance prior to construction. Low frequency noise can create structural vibrations that pass through standard walls and it isn't always captured by traditional sound measurements, but it can affect residents and wildlife. I got Southern there for you, Jason. The third thing is lighting and energy. The ordinance should include strong lighting standards and protections against the facility's enormous electrical demands. Depending on their size, some data centers can use the same amount of electricity as 1,500 private homes. My neighborhood alone this year has experienced six power outages since April. Residents shouldn't bear the cost of increased demand through reduced reliability and higher utility bills. And finally, I believe the ordinance should prohibit data centers on former landfill sites. Combining methane gas with large industrial facilities creates an unnecessary and unacceptable risk to the community. Further, the city should require a decommissioning fund or equivalent financial assistance to cover demolition, site restoration, and any environmental cleanup. Those costs should never fall to the citizens of Rochester Hills. So please use this time to adopt regulations that put the health, safety, and quality of life of Rochester Hills residents first. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Yates. I'm going to butcher this one. Annette Guycon?

Gilson.

Gilson, okay.

Hello, thank you for taking all of our comments. My name is Annette Gilson. I'm a professor of English at Oakland University. I live on 559 McGill Drive across Adams from the university. I echo everyone's sentiments, looking forward to seeing these issues studied more carefully and echo what other citizens have said. But I wanna just add that in terms of creating policy, we could, mandate clean power. We could, as Bill McKibben describes, create policies that force data center developers to help finance and deploy clean tech, to supply local grids. One example Bill McKibben gives is that some communities have partnered with data centers that put solar panels on, and heat pumps on surrounding community roofs and backyards, which could do an end run around the diesel problem, right? I mean, often it is legal for, you know, energy companies to bump the data centers off and then the data centers employ the diesel backups and then that appreciably contributes to more pollution, whether it be noise, water degradation, et cetera. So really, really excited by the possibility of bringing solar into our community. We just got, my husband and I just got solar this past December. It's extraordinary to pay 31 cents to DTE. And I can't tell you no sweeter feeling than that. But McKibbin also points out that solar is the cheapest electricity in human histories. Why wouldn't we turn to that when we could bring Rochester Hills into both state and countrywide recognition for innovation. I think that's something that you all are doing really well and I would encourage you to explore further. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Gilson. Next up is Steven Pui. Was I close?

Thank you. My name is Stefan Pogue, Rochester Hills resident, and I'd just like to reiterate that we would like you to support the moratorium. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up, Kim Zonka.

Thank you City Council for listening to our concerns. My name is Kim Zonka, second generation Rochester Hills resident. As a concerned citizen for the future of humanity and our precious environment, I am against data center moratoriums and I ask for your support for a full ban. No citizens want this. Only dystopian tech oligarchs want this. And if we don't stand up to them now, we won't be able to. We're at a very important time in world history. This is going to change all of our lives forever and most definitely not for the better. There is no benefit despite the propaganda coming from the developers that would like you to believe that there is. We can't eat or drink or breathe data. Do you want your kids and grandkids to have water to drink, clean air to breathe, fresh food to eat, wildlife to enjoy, lakes to swim in, or just flock camera surveilled streets that record their every move and eliminate all expectation of privacy? Private for-profit companies do not have a right to own all of our personal data and track our movements. It is unconstitutional. We have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and this data theft dystopian hellscape will eliminate all of that. And I don't even have time to get into the cost, but I'll just say how dare they expect our tax money and utility bill money to pay for our own authoritarian surveillance. When I read Orwell's 1984 in high school, I never thought I'd be living it in my lifetime. Please do the right thing and join me in fighting these data centers. Do not be bullied into thinking you can't fight it. We all can and we all must. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Zonka. Next up, Theresa Pounders.

Hi, Teresa Pounders again. Um, I like their best are, I'm totally against these data centers. Um, we truly don't know the environmental cost, um, that this, this is going to take on our community. Obviously we know it's going to destroy property values. Um, but it's kind of like profit before people all the time. You know, like we, Look at the plastic industry. We now have fast food in our water. We have it in our fish. It gets to the point where we can't breathe the air, drink the water, or eat food. We're in trouble. I was checking out the weather, and they were talking about the weather patterns and this El Nino effect that was going on, and now they were predicting Michigan, our area, to be super hot. And I'm not a hot weather person. I like my spring and fall, and I like, you know, 70s, 80s. And I was like, Lord, I hope not, you know, because I like to be outside. And it was. It's just been just so hot. My grass is almost crunchy, burnt up. But I was listening the other day where they were saying this super El Nino pattern is going to continue. And the last time we had this was like 40 years ago, which resulted in famine, water shortages. This is the biggest resource that we have at the Great Lakes. We don't need to take a chance on polluting it. Just, I wish we could extend it for longer, but I know that there can be lawsuits involved if we try to do that, but just whatever we can do to try to slow this down until we truly know what it's gonna do to our communities. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Pounders. That's all the blue comment cards I have for this topic. We do have some council comments and questions on this issue. We'll start with Vice President Mangioli.

Thank you, President Carlock. So for the residents, I've got all kinds of different resources, including University of Michigan Center for Empowering Communities. There's also data center examples that are out there. I have a draft version of what the Mackinac Center is putting out regarding data centers. as well as our own extension here. But before I get into all of those, I did want to, I said I was going to ask Mr. Christ about lawsuits during a moratorium. So I just wanted to see if there was anything we have to worry about during a moratorium relative to being sued about these.

Thank you. Through the chair, I mean, the issue is the question of reasonableness with respect to a duration of a moratorium. And the courts have either has to be or the best recommendation is that the moratorium be for the period of time in which an active study towards the particular regulation is taking place. Six months has been upheld by the Michigan appellate courts and the proposed extension for an additional six month period of time at this point, based on the record that's been developed of what the planning commission has done thus far and continues to do with respect to exploring the appropriate types of regulation that might be appropriate for this city, uh, makes these, this additional six month proposed extension of the moratorium more reasonable and more defendable from, uh, a potential challenge. And so this next proposed six-month increment for the moratorium I think would be very strongly able to be defended should somebody challenge it.

Thank you very much, Mr. Crist, which leads me to one of my first points. I originally, sorry Ms. Roediger, I originally wanted to do it for a year. Give us more time. Based on what Mr. Wright had said earlier, you know, a governor comes in in January, legislature doesn't really start working until February, maybe they get something out there in March, and then here we are with an extension and have to do another extension so that we can be aligned with what the state tells us is appropriate for data centers in our area. That was my position until about the time I read Mr. McLeod's email back to me and Councilman Neubauer relative to the data centers. And then I decided I wanted to do it for six months because I want to get this done. And I want to have the ordinance in place as soon as possible. And if the state legislature decides to do something in April, May, June, then fine, we'll adjust it based on any state law, but I would think a state law would supersede our ordinance anyway. I'm back to the six months, so I will be moving that motion. If you want to put that down, I am moving the resolution in our packet to extend it for the six months. When it comes to items, so just so the residents know, I did send off to Ms. Roediger and Mr. McLeod a whole list of data center requirements that I have. And I have talked to people who've designed data centers as well as David Stevenson at the Mac Center who has said all of these things that I am suggesting can be mitigated by a developer who is bringing in a data center. So they can... look at, first I wanted to make sure it includes the types of data centers, small, medium, large, what those requirements are. Put a restriction on the size. The zoning, 1,000 feet? No, no, no, I want like a half mile or longer, far away from any residential development. and that any height would have to comply with our current height restrictions as far as three feet on the acreage. Water needs to be a closed loop system and adhere to the EGLE standards relative to the water being consumed or discharged. It needs to be closed loop. that we have to make sure that the heat that is dissipated from the building, regardless of where the opening is, through the roof, through the doors, out the windows, out of basement, heat has to have a standard for it. Heat, sound. I've been using the example for some of my neighbors. If it makes the sound of a hummingbird, that might be fine. But a hummingbird 24-7 might be truly annoying. So what is the sound that I want to hear? What decibel level can it be there? Power. They must be able to create their own power source. It's not something they take from my grid. I don't want my power to go out and and I wanna find out about that solar power, what, 31 cents, is that what you said, Ms. Gilson? Because my electric bill was up over $300 for two people in our house. So power needs to come from their own power source. Fire, they need to make sure that our fire department is in alignment with what they're doing and that all fire suppression needs to be in-house and that our local fire department is able to handle anything that they can't do. Noise, again, noise with sound but that, persistent loan noise, I'm sorry. Local employees, if we're going to say that an existing business is going to want something or that they're going to build a new data center, that there needs to be residents that are from our immediate area, that they're not importing employees from around the area, that they should be able to support our own residents and our existing commercial businesses. To decommissioning. That building needs to have a life after it's no longer a data center. We have too many brownfields, superfund sites here in Rochester Hills from mistakes that people made before we were a city. And I don't want to find out that some building that was created during our watch is now 30 years later now unusable because of the way it was constructed or where it was constructed. So decommissioning. needs to be important. Air quality, penalty for noncompliance. If we need to put in an escrow account that says, hey, you guys need to leave us money because when you make more noise than a hummingbird, when you dispel water out into the Clinton River, we're going to fine you through our ordinances to make sure that they have to pay for those things and that they can't think that they get away with it and that all these items probably plus others cannot be impacted by backup systems because when they lose power at their site as was mentioned by some of our residents we need to make sure that they are not dispelling water because there's no power guarding the outlet areas that the noises of a robin instead of a hummingbird because they don't have the dissipation for that. So all backup systems must be contained so that we're not impacted during any power outages and that we don't make an exception to any of these requirements for existing businesses that may want to add a data center to their their property. There's many different businesses that we already have here. I understand that our planning department does a great job keeping the businesses here, having them bring employees in, new technology, all the different things that we want to do, but I want to make sure that we're just not giving them an exception to any of these because they have been a great partner with the city for the last 10, 15, 20 years, but they also need to adhere to the standards we set for anybody new that comes in. And while we're doing all of this discussion, yay, I want to have some public hearings so that the residents can tell me that Robin makes too much noise, I want the sound of a hummingbird. So this way they can give us input on those different items because it's extremely important for our residents to be able to give input on things that are going to impact our community for decades to come. I will say, all of you, you all came up with your cell phones. And believe me, the data centers are using your cell phones. I don't know how many times in the last 48 hours I have been asked by different apps or websites about the cookies that are on my phone, whether or not I want to have something saved. please make sure you're using your technology responsibly so that you're not adding to the data center burden in our community. And so with all of that. I moved the resolution in our packet for six months, and hopefully we can get it all done in that time period. Thank you again, Ms. Roediger, for all the work that you and the planning team are doing on this. Back to you, President Soto.

Thank you very much, Vice President Mongioli. So I have a motion by Vice President Mongioli, seconded by Mr. Blair. We will continue council comments with Councilman Blair.

Thank you, President Carlock, and thank you to residents that have showed up to voice their opinions tonight. This is an important topic. JOHN, RIGHT? YOU MENTIONED THAT DATA CENTERS ARE NEW, AND THESE HYPERSCALE DATA CENTERS, WHICH I'LL TALK ABOUT, ARE INDEED NEW, BUT DATA CENTERS HAVE BEEN AROUND FOR A LONG, LONG TIME, AND I'M VERY FAMILIAR WITH THEM, ACTUALLY. ONE OF THE PLEASURES OF SERVING ON COUNCIL IS YOU'VE GOT SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS UP HERE. WE'VE GOT ATTORNEYS, WE'VE GOT EDUCATORS, ENGINEERS. council vice president yeah i want to see what you're going to do yeah she only and i we're kind of the techies uh i'm hardware she's software but um i appreciate your comments um those are those are very um very poignant um but no data centers aren't new and there are probably 100 of them in Oakland County, and I would bet that you drive by one every single day and don't even know it's there. And that's kind of the way I want to keep it for Rochester Hills. What's been covered by the media extensively are so-called hyperscale data centers. The one that was proposed for Saline was a 250-acre site. And just for context, the one at Oakland University, the one that was proposed, is 15 acres. 6% of the size. Now, when you're building a hyperscale data center, the ones that consume a ton of power, a ton of water, they vibrate the nearby communities. They are devastating to the local environment. These huge facilities, the developers want cheap land. They want, ideally, a huge power line running through it. big parcels that are undeveloped and a government that's going to give them a subsidy. And that's why they're disproportionately targeting rural communities. And thankfully, in Rochester Hills, we really don't have any of those things. We don't have huge parcels, we don't have cheap land, and we sure don't have a government that's going to give them any kind of a subsidy. So as far as a hyperscale data center is concerned, I'd be very confident to say that you're never going to see one in Rochester Hills.

Don't say never.

I don't think we're attractive to that type of development. Now, as far as a more modest data center, what I would not want to do is have our legislation prohibit FANUC Robotics from putting in a computer center that they'll use to continue innovating, or Henry Ford Health from putting in a data center to do radiological AI or for Oakland University not to be able to build their computing facility, that would be terrible for our local economy. So we need to have balance, right? I HAD A CONVERSATION WITH OUR CITY ATTORNEY, MR. CHRIST, ABOUT SOME OF THE LEGAL CHALLENGES THAT WE FACE. AND IF I'M NOT STATING THIS PROPERLY, PLEASE JUMP IN. BUT AN APPLICANT WOULD NEED TO DEMONSTRATE THAT A DATA CENTER NEEDS TO BE IN A PARTICULAR AREA, CORRECT? SO IT'S NOT A SHOPPING MALL. It's not a gas station. It's not a stadium that would have to be here. If you're streaming Netflix at home, that content doesn't need to come from Oakland County. That content can easily be in a data center that's in RURAL IOWA, IT DOESN'T MATTER, RIGHT? SO I THINK IT WOULD BE VERY DIFFICULT FOR A DEVELOPER TO DEMONSTRATE THAT THEY HAVE TO HAVE A FACILITY HERE IN ROCHESTER HILLS. BUT I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOUR PROPOSED RESTRICTIONS OR ORDINANCE. I THINK THAT THE AMOUNT OF RESEARCH THAT WE'RE PUTTING IN WILL BE IN THE RESIDENTS' BEST INTEREST, AND I'M HOPEFUL THAT OTHER MICHIGAN COMMUNITIES CAN LOOK AT WHAT ROCHESTER HILLS IS DOING so that they can protect themselves from developments that might harm their residents. So thank you, Sarah. Thank you, Chris. Thank you to all the city teammates that have been working on this. And back to you, President Carlock.

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

THANK YOU, PRESIDENT CARLOCK. I JUST WANTED TO, SO I SIT ON, I SAY THIS EVERY TIME, BUT I SIT ON THE PLANNING COMMISSION, AND THIS CAME BEFORE US IN MAY. AND I WAS ACTUALLY THE ONE WHO MADE THE MOTION TO EXTEND THE MORATORIUM BECAUSE I WASN'T COMFORTABLE PASSING AN ORDINANCE. SO MS. DONNELLY ASKED WHAT CAN THE RESIDENTS DO. PLEASE COME TO OUR MEETINGS. OUR PLANNING COMMISSION MEETINGS AND CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS ARE USUALLY EMPTY ROOMS. I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S BECAUSE OF DATA SETTERS OR BECAUSE WE HAD AMAZING KIDS HERE, BUT IT'S GOOD TO SEE OUR RESIDENTS HERE. WE ALSO GOT A LOT OF EMAILS, WHICH I'VE RESPONDED TO MOST OF MINE. I THINK I HAVE ONE LEFT. BUT WRITE YOUR PLANNING COMMISSIONERS AND WRITE YOUR RESIDENTS. IT'S IMPORTANT FOR EVERYBODY TO BE IN TOUCH WITH THE RESIDENTS AND THE RESIDENTS TO BE IN TOUCH WITH THEIR REPRESENTATIVES. and be noisy about it so that they can't say, well, I didn't know that, or I don't think that's what they think. So that's super important. I also wanted to say, as Mr. Blair said, a lot of us have our own expertise. And when I went to law school, they had taught us to do things in anticipation of litigation, but not in fear of litigation. And one of the things that this moratorium does is allows us to do the research so that we don't have to be in fear when we take a position. And so I appreciate the planning department doing research for us and being able to present that research. There are going to be public meetings about it because it is going to come back in front of planning after the moratorium, well a little bit before, so hopefully that we can get something in place to protect our residents, to protect community so please come to that I will post it on my social media I'm hopeful that others will as well I also wanted to say some of the chatter on social media was that we have data center applications currently or they're coming in that's not true as of 420 today I checked at 420 today WE DO NOT HAVE A SINGLE DATA CENTER APPLICATION IN THE CITY OF ROCHESTER HILLS. I DON'T KNOW OF ANYONE THAT IS APPLYING AND THERE HASN'T BEEN AN APPLICATION COME THROUGH, SO WE ARE BEING VERY PROACTIVE BY TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE SOME SAFETY PRECAUTIONS IN PLACE BEFORE ANYTHING DOES COME IN. So I wanted to clear all of that up. I am in favor of extending the moratorium. I was in favor of it in planning. I'm still in favor of it here. Our community has spoken, and I'm confident that our representatives will listen. All right, that's all I have. Thank you.

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

Thank you, President Carlock. There are absolutely no data centers in Rochester Hills at this point?

We've got a few. That is incorrect. We have data centers. We have at least four.

We have four data. I just wanted to make sure. Vice President Mangione, you made the point of something being obsolete like the buildings. which if you look in your pocket at those little devices that we all like to use, the speed that technology has been offered to us is incredible. My biggest concern is what do we do with obsolete buildings? You said 30 years, I would say five years. I'm not an expert, but I mean, That's what I'm worried about. I think there's going to be better technology to handle data that doesn't really affect our environment. That's my biggest concern. We've got too many deer, but it's... I don't want to see our water. I live on a well. I have groundwater that I use. All this can get affected. Then the third thing, and then I will be done, is the young lady over there, she talked about the lobbyists in Washington. I think when I was listening to that, I thought, the old saying all politics begin locally okay it it percolates up okay and i think you know the young the other fellow who talked about the three counties getting together you know that's local politics it's just local people everyday people that just go to work like you and me well i'm retired but i mean everybody else it's just it's there you can make a difference and um Yeah, I don't know that much about data centers. All I know is that it's an issue for people and we're up here to listen to what you have to say. So hang in there and hopefully we'll get more information on this. Thank you.

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

Yes, thank you, President Karloff, and again, thank you all for joining tonight, and everybody that spoke tonight. It's very clear there's a lot of passion on this issue, and I think everyone on council's in agreement. We want to do this and do it the right way. So my question is for Sarah to make some comments. For me in particular, I would like to get a level of confidence because this is such an important topic that we're bringing in all of the resources that we need to execute this ordinance. to the top level. There's a lot of technical expertise that we probably don't have on staff that we may need to go to the outside. Opinions, there's a lot of information. Theresa, Vice President Mongioli read off all those criterion. I know that you're working on that, but that requires a lot of work, a lot of resources, and I guess I'm telling you or asking you to comment on that and letting you know that we are here to support in any way we can for resources that you may need to execute this within six months. So go ahead and make some comments.

Yeah, I appreciate that. One of the first things we reached out to was noise. I know that is a common concern about the kind of, it's not a loud noise, but it's an annoyance noise. And so we actually do have a local noise engineering firm in Rochester Hills that we've been in discussions with. And so we are talking about the vibrations and the frequencies and goes way further than any other ordinance that I've seen in terms of data centers. So we are pulling our, we have ASTIs, our environmental consultants, obviously we have our legal consultant, and we are lucky to be in the SEMCOG region and all of the work that SEMCOG is doing A LOT OF THE PUBLICATIONS THAT WE HAVE THE SAME PUBLICATIONS, WE'RE REVIEWING ALL OF THOSE. WE DON'T WANT TO DO A KNEE JERK REACTION. THE COMMUNITIES THAT HAVE ENACTED ORDINANCES ARE ESSENTIALLY MAKING THEM CONDITIONAL USES. I THINK WHAT AT THE END OF THE DAY WILL BE GOING DOWN THAT LINE FOR ANY ONES THAT WE WOULD ALLOW WOULD HAVE TO BE A DISCRETIONARY REVIEW AS PART OF A CONDITIONAL REVIEW. wanted to go beyond that though, not just make it a conditional review, but have a conditional review and you have to meet these, you know, 10, 15 items in addition to being a conditional review. So, um, one thing, one word I always use to describe Mr. McCloud is thorough. So I guarantee you we will be thorough.

Okay. Again, the offers out there, if there's something that, that the planning and development needs, please don't hesitate as we go through the process, so that we end up with the best and the most, I guess, advantageous to this community for the ordinance.

What I think I'm hearing, Mr. Snyder, is I should up my budget.

Thank you very much, Ms. Menino. Next up, Mr. Lindberg.

And thank you, President Karlak. Like the others, I would also like to thank all the residents that took the time to be here tonight and speak and voice your concerns. Of course, as a resident myself, I share your concerns. I love living in Rochester Hills, and I want our way of life to remain as wonderful as it is. But as we know, we are living in a rapidly changing world. There's legislation coming down from the federal government, from the state government. And so here at our local government, we are going to take the time to get this right and get this right the first time to protect the Rochester Hills that we've all come to know and love. So thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Lindberg. Mr. Blair.

You know, we are a pretty innovative city. And the other emails that I have been responding to have been deer related. I think I may have solved both problems. Emma, would you share my screen for just a second? I think this is, we're gonna kill two birds with one stone. I think it'll solve the deer problem and if we can get the data center legislation to just include that, Sarah, so we can get them off of the backyards and the common areas and just put them to work.

With AI. Yeah, absolutely. That's how that image came up, right? Thank you very much.

Back to you, President. Thank you very much. So I'd like to echo what everybody has said up here. We're not taking this lightly. Please don't think that this is something that we haven't considered. I have faith in our planning commissioners that they are going to take the time to ensure that what the city of Rochester Hills puts together is thorough and is what's best for our community. The planning department and their guidance on the ordinances will be thoughtful and in line with the governments above us, but also the legal frameworks that we can work within. But as Mr. Blair stated, an outright ban is something that we should really, really think hard about. Everything you do today on your device is going through some AI thing. All those pictures you've saved, they're somewhere in a data center. Google Photos. All that iCloud data, it's sitting in a data center somewhere. So does it need to be here? Yeah, probably not. But we as consumers are the reason why these data centers are being built. We are using these things for generating photos of deer working in a data center. You know, the comment was made, be judicious. Let's be judicious as residents, as citizens here in the United States of what we're doing with this system. I've said it to a couple different people now. Let's put down the device and go touch grass. You know, people are so enthralled with our devices right now that we forget to go outside and enjoy the Paint Creek Trail. We don't walk down the Clinton River Trail. We don't walk through any of the, I don't know, how many acres of parks and green spaces we have in Rochester Hills. We have tons of natural beauty here. You know, we can influence whether or not we need a data center in Rochester Hills by reducing our usage of it as well. Thank you. I have a motion by Vice President Mangioli, seconded by Mr. Blair. I do not see any further citizen or council comments or questions on this topic, so I'll read the resolution. Resolved that the Rochester Hill City Council hereby accepts for first reading an ordinance to amend Article 5 schedule of regulations, Chapter 3 temporary moratorium, Section 138-5.301, temporary moratorium for data centers to extend the moratorium suspending the city's processing and acceptance of applications and plans for development and improvement of data centers to chapter 138, zoning of the code of ordinances of the city of Rochester Hills, Oakland County, Michigan, to prescribe a penalty for violations and to repeal inconsistent or conflicting ordinances. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Next up, Ms. Roediger will move seats and go to item 2026-0318, request for conditional use approval for Adiago Dance, a health, recreation, and physical education facility under 5,000 square feet to occupy space within the EC Employment Center's zoning district at 1775 West Hamlin Road, Unit B, located on the south side of Hamlin and east side of Crooks. Tony Haddad, Adiago Dance, LLC applicant. Ms. Roediger.

Thank you.

There's a button at the bottom there.

Can you hear me okay? Yes. All right, so Adagio currently resides at 1659 West Hamlin, and we're requesting recreational zoning to open a secondary studio, which is on 1775B West Hamlin, which is... Going down Hamlin Road, coming off of Crooks, it's one turn before where we're currently at. Our current spot doesn't have any more space to grow into, so we're looking to hop over to this other spot, take the end cap, and continue growth.

Got it. That's the little area where, like, the Friendship Factory is? We are where the Friendship Factory is right now, yes.

Yeah, that's over here. I can give a brief overview if you'd like. Perfect, yes, please. Just to give you a little bit of background. So as you indicated, they have an existing dance studio located two parcels to the east here. This is on the south side of Hamlin Road between Crooks and Livernois. And they're looking to expand to kind of a second location, if you will, to occupy the northern portion of this southernmost building on this parcel. And as you know, recreation uses are a conditional use in our employment center district. And so this did go before the planning commission and had a public hearing at the July meeting where they did recommend approval of this application. As you can see, this may be a better view. So, again, the existing facilities here, the Friendship Factory is here, the new volleyball is here, and then this would be the new dance studio area. Just for context from a zoning standpoint, purple is Employment Center District. So, as you can see, they're smack dab in the middle. Residential is probably one of the areas that the residential is the furthest from this site. IN TERMS OF THE ACTUAL USE, THEY'VE CREATED A DETAILED LIST OF WHAT THEY ANTICIPATE. OBVIOUSLY, THEY HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF DIFFERENT HOURS THAN THE TYPICAL 9 TO 5 BUSINESS. THEY'RE LOOKING TO ALMOST ESSENTIALLY DOUBLE THE SIZE OF THEIR CAPACITY OF THEIR STUDENTS. AND THAT WOULD ALL BE ESSENTIALLY INDOORS WITH NO EXTERIOR IMPLICATIONS. So I'm sure you're all very familiar with conditional use. There's a number of criteria to look at as you're considering a conditional use to make sure that the use is appropriate in the location that they are proposing. So if you have any additional questions, we will best answer them.

Thank you very much. We do have some council comments and questions on this. We'll start with Councilwoman Neubauer.

Thank you, President Carlock. Welcome back. It was good to see you at planning. We did unanimously approve this, but I do want to just say a couple of things for the record. It's a conditional use, but one of the reasons why we thought that it did promote the intent and purpose of this ordinance and that it was harmonious with the areas that even though it's... because he has another location two, what is it, two site, not two, two buildings down. So he's already in the area with a similar business and it's not a disruption to what's out there. We did discuss that if, there's a need to address zoning for industrial uses or whatever it is that that needs to be done. And this was one of the projects that brought that back to the surface. But because he's so close and already has a business there, there's waiting lists for kids to have this kind of training in Rochester Hills. We thought that it would be appropriate. Also with the hours and the parking and everything, being fine with what we were looking for and that it wasn't going to be a burden. We thought it was an appropriate use. And so we did recommend, I think everybody approved it. I think it was unanimous. So with that, I'd like to move the motion for approval of this development. Thank you for your patience. I know it was a very long meeting to get to your items.

Thank you very much, Ms. Neubauer. I have a motion by Ms. Neubauer, seconded by Mr. Lindberg. We do have additional council comments. Mr. Lindberg.

Yes, thank you very much, President Carlock. Long time no see. Just a full disclosure for everyone. My oldest daughter, who's now away at college, she's an adult now, She actually used to dance at Adagio Dance Company when she was in elementary school, and we were dance dads together. There's three dance studios later and a lot of time. It's great to see you again. Good to see you. I do have just some questions for you. You're going to have two sites that are separated.

Correct.

I think I read in the package that there will not be dancers moving in between them.

No dancers going in between, no.

So then will it be... Help me understand, perhaps younger dancers in one building all the time and older dancers in the other building all the time, or will it be by dance discipline?

The only time we're really right now going to be using both is going to be when we have the heaviest load, which is going to be on Wednesdays. So it'll be the younger kids, which are going to be the four and five-year-olds, which will be in the old studio. Everybody else will be over in the new studio. So there really isn't going to be any cross-lapping. Yeah, it's just whatever day you're in, you'll be in that studio and there's no moving. And really, so far as the schedule looks right now, it's only going to be Wednesdays when we're using all four spots. Four spots as in four studios.

Very good. Thank you very much. And it's great to see you doing so well.

Long time.

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

Mr. Haddad, thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you for continuing to invest in our community. I mean, you could have opened a second studio in Shelby Township, but you chose to expand here, and that's great. We had made dance and gymnastics type activities businesses a conditional use in our industrial zones, mainly for safety to make sure we're doing due diligence and you're not dodging forklifts and have good parking and things like that. So I support this. I wish you the very best. What type of dance? I saw that is a competitive dance that you do?

So it's a competition studio. They compete in tap, compete in hip-hop, contemporary, lyrical, and different genres.

Well, that is super popular among residents, and I wish you the best of success. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Blair. I don't see any further comments or questions from council. I have a motion by Councilman Neubauer, seconded by Mr. Lindberg, read the resolution. Now resolved that the Rochester Hills City Council hereby approves the conditional use to allow for a health, recreation, and physical education facility, Adagio Dance, at 1775 West Hamlin Road, Unit B, based on documents received by the planning department on July 2nd, 2026, with the following six findings and one condition in the resolution. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Next up, public comments for items not on the agenda. Public comment is limited to three minutes. However, I think we've gotten through all of the comments from the public today, so we will move on. Legislative and administrative comments. First up, Councilwoman Neubauer.

Thank you, President Carlock. I wanted to start again by saying Leigh Ann Scott and her team are amazing, and thank you for all the amazing work that everyone did on the elections. It's long, long hours and lots of work, and you guys are the best of the best. With that election, I... was advocating for the fire millage, and I just wanted to thank our residents for supporting our city and our first responders. I'm sure the administration's going to say something about that, but we were super happy and excited, and we're thankful that we can support our first responders and keeping them safe so they can keep ours safe. So thank you for everyone who came out and voted and supported the fire millage. And then I'm sure, again, the administration will say something about that more. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Councilwoman Neubauer. Next up, Vice President Mangioli.

Thank you very much, President Karlik. Ms. Bowen, could you share my screen, please? So I am the former council rep to Raya, and I got this email, and I just wanted to make sure I put the plug out there. Raya is one of our nonprofit organizations in our community. They help strengthen families through community involvement or REACHING OUT TO STUDENTS TO DEFER THEM FROM LEGAL ISSUES, HELP FAMILIES IN NEED. THEY HELP COVER THE COST OF CAMP PROGRAMS FOR RARA SO THAT STUDENTS CAN BE INVOLVED IN CAMP. BUT THEY'RE LOOKING FOR BOARD MEMBERS. THEY HAVE A REQUIREMENT FOR 21 MEMBERS ON THEIR BOARD AND THEY HAVE SEVERAL OPENINGS RIGHT NOW. So if you are interested or know someone who's interested, their board does meet once a month and they do have different community events throughout the year. So if you're interested in being a board member, please reach out to Lindsay Wood who works in the mayor's office. She is the chairman of Raya and she is the one who helped share this information. But being a board member, if that is not the thing that you wanna do, I couldn't find the flyer fast enough, they do a placemat. So all of their community events, they put a placemat on the table and they put your business card in there. So if you have a business or just want to let people know who you are, because I've had a business card ad on their placemat for many years, you can also contact Lindsay or at rara.rochester.k12.mi.us and find out more about having a business card on the Raya placemat and help support the organization. So two ways to help Raya. Give them money or give them time. Thank you very much, President Carlock.

Thank you very much, Vice President Mangioli. Clerk Scott.

Thank you, President Carlock, Vice President Mangioli, City Council. I appreciate the thank yous for the job well done on the election. It takes an enormous team to do that. And I want to take just a moment to thank all the people who've made this super successful. Starting out with the hundreds, and when I say hundreds, we employ hundreds and hundreds of residents in our city who work our elections. And my deputy Sheila Brown and myself worked two full weeks just training those individuals to work at our early voting center, in our absentee counting room, and in the precincts throughout election day. So they are crucial to this process, and I thank them profusely. In addition, city staff is unbelievable. Our DPS will deliver our equipment, pick up our equipment. MAS has helped us with troubleshooting on election day. Facilities team goes above and beyond in helping with so many things that we need. Throughout City Hall, the department, teammates here have helped stuffing ballots, working on our receiving team, Council Member Mangioli, past Council Member Carol Moreland both worked on the receiving team, and just couldn't do, couldn't extend our thanks more for the time that they dedicate to doing that. We have a partnership, a great partnership with the Rochester Hills Public Library for our early voting. That is huge for us. So kudos and thanks to them as well at the Rochester Hills Public Library. So I just, you know, with all of them, the last but in my mind most important team to thank is my team. I have an amazing team here and I have amazing support from city council and the mayor to do this. Thank you all, and thanks to everybody who's helped us.

Thank you very much, Clerk Scott. It doesn't go unnoticed, I promise. Emma, can you share my screen real quick? I just wanted to point out to the 37 people that are watching. Yeah, my mom's watching. Hi, mom. Yes. We have added a page to the Rochester Hills web page. So I've gotten multiple emails over the last several weeks. If you haven't seen an Amazon drone, you're lucky. We have residents that are in the flight path for Troy out of Auburn Hills. And they have lots of drones flying over their homes. Right now, it is only Amazon right now. But we've put a page up that gives the residents some information. One thing to note, we have absolutely zero control over these drones. They are in the air. They are completely under the jurisdiction of the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration. And not only are they under the jurisdiction of the FAA, the state of Michigan actually has a law in place that says local cities and townships cannot make a more restrictive ordinance for these drones. So on the webpage there is some information, there's places you can give emails directly, Amazon directly, you can call them. I've actually heard that people will answer the phone and take notes on your concerns. I've actually heard that Amazon will adjust flight paths depending on the frequency of the concerns in the area. But rochesterhills.org forward slash residents forward slash dronedelivery.php. So that's all I have. We'll turn it over to the administration. Ms. Sudrovich.

Thank you so much. Emma, if you could share my screen. I will be brief. Good evening, President Carlock, Vice President Mongioli, members of Council. My name is Erin Cedrovich. I am Chief of Staff for Mayor Barnett in the City of Rochester Hills, and I'm happy to present this report on his behalf. Of course, we wanted to start with a huge thank you to our residents for voting in the August 4th primary election and also A big thank you to our clerk's office led by Leanne Scott who just every year do a monumental job year after year making sure that our elections are fair and our residents' voices are heard. So kudos to them. Of course, we are absolutely thrilled that both of the Rochester Hills millages that were on the ballot passed. The pathways renewal passed with the 74% of the vote and the fire millage passed with 71% of the vote. This represents the highest support of any fire millage in the county. We are of course very very proud of that and grateful to our residents for supporting our city in such a meaningful way. While we're talking big numbers, I'm also excited to report that our Wet and Wild Wednesdays at the museums had a record high this year, 4,511 attendees this July. This is now the museum's largest annual event, believe it or not. So that's pretty cool. If you missed out, Fear not, Stream Science is happening these Thursdays, the last few Thursdays of the summer at the museum through August. So you can grab your kiddos and grandkiddos and be sure to check that out before the close of summer. Finally, the Brooklyn's Block Party is happening this Wednesday. Join us in the Brooklyn's neighborhood on Auburn Road on August 12th. From 6 to 9 p.m., we're going to have a climbing wall, putt-putt golf, a foam party, live music, food trucks, you name it. It's going to be a lot of fun, and of course, the rising market is returning. We look forward to seeing you there, and that concludes my remarks. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Ms. Sudrovich. That wraps up legislative and administrative comments. That brings us to attorney's report. Mr. Crist.

Thank you, President Carlock. No legal report tonight.

Thank you very much. Next up, nominations and appointments. Item 2026-0360, designation of voting delegates to Michigan Municipal League business meeting to be held in Traverse City, Michigan on Wednesday, October 7th, 2026. Take that, Clerk Scott. Yeah, not me.

Do you want to go with it? Go with it.

So typically the mayor is the delegate for the MML and the president of council is the alternate. So tonight we're requesting that we rename the mayor as the delegate and myself as the alternate. I have a motion by Vice President Mangioli, seconded by Mr. Blair. I don't see any council comments on this, so I'll read the resolution resolved that the Rochester Hills City Council are hereby names Mayor Brian K. Barnett as the City of Rochester Hills official representative and voting delegate, and Council President Jason Carlock as alternate for the annual meeting of the members of the Michigan Municipal League to be held in Traverse City, Michigan on Wednesday, October 7th, 2026. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Next up, new business item 2026-0341, request for acknowledgement of receipt of fiscal year 2027 proposed budget and fiscal year 2028-2029 projected budget and establishment of a budget public hearing date. Mr. Snyder.

All right. Well, thank you, President Carlock, Vice President Mangioli. Good evening, City Council and Ms. Cedrovich. Well, in accordance with our city charter where the budget is to be delivered to the city council at their first meeting in August, I am pleased to present and submit to you tonight the City of Rochester Hills fiscal year 2020. You got it. Look at those beautiful books. The City of Rochester Hills fiscal year is 2027 and fiscal year 2027 proposed and fiscal year 2028 to 2029 projected three-year budgets. In Rochester Hills, the budget process essentially starts and ends with the City Council. City Council started this process with the approval of your fiscal year 2027 goals and objectives back in June. Department directors then used that strategic vision to develop their departmental budget requests, which were then presented before the mayor. After discussion and deliberation, the mayor utilized those departmental requests to craft the proposed budget that is presented before you tonight. The proposed budget is now in the hands of the residents of the City of Rochester Hills and the City Council for additional discussion, deliberation, and public input. And tonight's submittal marks the start of our formal public review process. So I just wanted to brief you on a few of the financial highlights that are contained within this plan. The fiscal year 2027 proposed budget totals $213 million across all funds. That represents a net decrease of 12.8% or a $31 million reduction as compared with our current fiscal year 2026 baseline budget. And in keeping with the success of prior city budget, 66% of that budget is dedicated towards our core, top three core operational pillars, public safety, public service, and capital outlay. First, regarding public safety. So to match the growing service demands upon our fire department, this budget does incorporate that 0.5 mil fire millage increase that was approved by 71% of voters on August 4th. This dedicated funding source allows the fire department to add 12 additional full-time firefighter paramedics per our proposed budget. This addition would put in an additional ambulance in the city in service 24-7 with the intent to significantly reduce the frequency of times our fire department was without an available unit to respond to an emergency. Now with the 0.5 mil adjustment, our total bottom line millage rate is proposed at 11.7753 mil. And that would continue to hold the city of Rochester Hills as the third lowest millage rate among all 21 cities within Oakland County with a population over 5,000. And just FYI, the city of Rochester is number four at 12.8 mils. So our 11.7 is still over one full mil below the nearest, next nearest community. Now regarding public service. In addition to the 12 firefighters proposed, there is only one other full-time position proposed for fiscal year 2027, and that is a new full-time park ranger at Nowicki Park, as Nowicki is anticipated to open to the public in the fall of 2027. And there are also a few part-time seasonal staff also included for Nowicki Park. Regarding capital outlay, another robust year, we are proposing $40 million of cash-funded infrastructure improvements, which i.e., no debt, for next year, led by water and sewer with $12 million, over $6 million of major road improvements. Much of this is for funding for the MDOT-led reconstruction of Rochester Road. another $6 million into our local street network, and $7 million in city facilities and park improvements, including a brand new playground to replace the aging playground at Bloomer Park. and one item I'm particularly excited to highlight really as a first time is a major initiative for our city's pathway networks. Thanks to our 74% approval of voters for the pathway millage renewal on August 4th, we have funding secured to operate and maintain our 100 mile pathway network for the next 10 years. And as shared during my comments during July's long-term forecast and Mr. Wright's update earlier this evening, the city is also seeing increased Act 51 gasoline tax revenues from the state of Michigan, which can be utilized for non-motorized thoroughfare, i.e. pathways. So combining the renewed pathway millage with this new Act 51 revenue stream will allow us to quadruple our annual pathway rehabilitation program from $400,000 to $1.6 million next year. This expands our rehabilitation capacity from one mile per year to at least four to five miles per year, which would place Rochester Hills on a very sustainable 20 to 25 year cycle to continually rehabilitate our entire 100 mile pathway system. So next steps. Well, we look forward to meeting with the City Council on August 17th at 530 for our public budget workshop. And this is where each of the department directors will present their respective operational budgets to address any questions. Between now and then, feel free to contact myself, phone call, email, stop by for a visit to talk about anything regarding the budget. And keep in mind, any and all council questions that are received by staff will be answered in full by city staff and all those answers, Q&A, will be included into the budget agenda package at the end of this. So tonight, I respectfully ask city council to formally acknowledge receipt of the fiscal year 2027 proposed and fiscal years 2028 to 2029 projected three-year city budget. and to set a public hearing for the proposed budget plan for September 14th of 2026. Thank you, and I'm available for any questions.

Thank you very much, Mr. Snyder. We do have some council comments and questions. We'll start with Vice President Mongioli.

Thank you, President Carlock. Mr. Snyder, thank you very much. I have a stack of these now. I keep your proposed one and then the approved one. So the stack, you can imagine, is getting quite high. For those who are trying to wonder, it is 200 and... sorry, 337 pages just in this book alone, not counting the technical appendices that council will be going through and comparing with our strategic plan as well as our capital improvement plan. That on social media, we get comments from residents about different things that we could be doing and little do they realize it was in the budget that we approved a year ago. or two years ago much like the new wiki park design so if residents want to understand what the city is planning for 27 and saving money for 28 they need to come to the meeting next monday in this room 5 30 we'll even have some food for you too so please come and join us ask questions and make sure that you understand what the city is planning to do with your tax dollars that you give us through your property taxes or your water bill or any other fees that you provide to the city over the course of a given year because it's your voice, it's your money, and we spend it the way you tell us you would like to see it spent. So with that, Mr. Snyder, I move the resolution of the packet, President Carlock, and I look forward to seeing all of us next week. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Mongioli. I have a motion by Vice President Mongioli, seconded by Councilman Neubauer, we do have some additional comments. Ms. Menino.

Yes, thank you, President Karluk. Mr. Senator, just a quick question. So when we're going through this, you want questions directed directly to the directors or running everything through you?

Ideally, if it would be a departmental, like a question to Clerk Scott. You can ask the question to Clerk Scott, but please CC me. One thing we will not do is reply back to everybody as the questions come in. What we will do is collect all of the questions with all of the answers will go out, I'm hoping mid-afternoon on Monday. This will give you a couple hours to review all the questions and answers, just so everything is in one package. of all questions and all answers.

Okay. Is a second question, is there going to be, um, some type of summary, uh, overview? I mean, I, you're going to, I'm assuming you're presenting on Monday. Okay. Can we get a preview of that? Is it, um, to look through versus trying to digest, um, We're looking for a high-level overview of what the changes are.

I'm going to give you a little hint that we include in your package. It's called significant notes. That's the best one to go with because I understand going through all this is quite overwhelming. The way I would do it if I was you, I would open up the technical appendix. That's the line item budget. along with your significant notes, and it goes department by department by department, cost center by cost center. Here's anything we deem significant. Now, what do we deem significant? What do I deem significant? Anything greater than 5% or $5,000 we try to explain. Okay, good.

Thank you.

That's the cliff notes.

Okay, good. Thank you.

And you can look at the plan book for the pretty charts and graphs and pictures because that's really the one that goes to the highest organization in land, the Government Finance Officers Association, GFOA. We have to provide that for their Distinguished Budget Presentation Award.

Okay.

But it's very pretty.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Oh, and one other thing I was going to mention. So tomorrow we will have all this information available up on the website, and we'll send one to the library and the resource center and the clerk's office, disseminate it. Also on our city website, there's a really cool thing. It's called the Budget Transparency Portal. And what we're going to be doing is basically linking that document, probably through a little bit of AI, through our budget software provider, where you can basically ask any questions in a little chat thing, and it'll pop up the answer to it. So that's very helpful. So that will all be enacted tomorrow.

Perfect. Thank you very much, Mr. Snyder. I don't see any further council comments or questions. I have a motion by Vice President Mangioli, seconded by Councilwoman Neubauer. So I'll read the resolution here. Whereas the city of Rochester Hills City Council has worked to develop city goals for the fiscal year 2027. And whereas based on those city goals, the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget and the fiscal year 2028, 2029 projected budget was developed. And whereas per city charter at the August 10th, 2026 City Council meeting, the mayor delivered the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget and the fiscal year 2028, 2029 projected budget. plan beginning January 1st, 2027. And whereas at the August 10th, 2026 City Council meeting, City Council set the budget public hearing date for September 14th, 2026. Be it resolved that the Rochester Hills City Council acknowledges receipt of the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget and the fiscal year 2028, 2029 proposed budget and hereby gives notice of a public hearing to be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, September 14th. at Rochester Hills City Hall 1000 Rochester Hills Drive for the purpose of discussing the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget and fiscal year 2028-2029 projected budget and providing an opportunity to all interested parties to present comments therein prior to formal adoption by the Rochester Hills City Council. Be it further resolved that the publication of the notice of public hearing is hereby authorized. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. All right. Thank you, City Council. Thank you much, Mr. Snyder. That brings us to any other business. I don't see anyone chiming in with any other business from the dais. Next meeting date will be a City Council special meeting Monday, August 17, 2026 at 530 right here in the auditorium at City Hall. And our next regular city council meeting will be Monday, August 24th, 2026, 7 p.m. here in the city hall. I have a motion by Councilwoman Neubauer, seconded by Vice President Mangioli to adjourn. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We are in adjournment.