City Council - Regular Meeting

City Council meeting will now come to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Good evening, honorable city council members, mayor, city attorney, chief of staff, deputy clerk, and to all of you that are here this evening, and also to those who are viewing tonight's meeting via our broadcast channel and YouTube live. Welcome to the City of Romano City Council regular meeting, and today's date is Monday, June 22nd. 2026 members of the public wishing to participate in this meeting may do so under the public comment portions.

It doesn't help our local businesses. Thank you, Miss Virginia.

Well, here today that are for this project are not citizens of Romulus and would not vote to have a truck stop in their backyard. You have 144 spaces you're talking about with trucks idling all night long, 365 days a year. Truckers don't sleep. The industry keeps going. What is that going to do to pollution? What's that going to do to the native wildlife? What's that going to do to noise pollution? You got people trying to raise families around here.

The next request is coming from Mr. Charles Miller.

Good evening. Good evening.

Former councilman used to justify this rezoning. The petitioner's traffic study was based on a single day of observations. One day of traffic data is now being offered to support a permanent zoning change that could affect this area for decades. That alone should raise concerns. The study also appears to ignore foreseeable future developments. Okay.

Good evening, Council and Mayor. I'm Brad also from Pilot Travel Centers. First off, I want to thank you for your time and diligent attention to this application and for the approval vote that we received two weeks ago after a really long process. And there's been some comments made tonight that

we're going too fast we've been working with city staff a minimum of twice a day five days a week I can tell you firsthand since construction has started on i-94 and there has been a mild increase in traffic nothing like a hundred and forty four foot truck space truck stop will bring a i'm sorry nothing like 144 truck space truck stop will bring that trucks have been pulling out in front of cars on vining road vining road between goddard and wayne road i personally have had two instances in the last two weeks where I have had to decelerate quickly to keep from hitting a truck making a left-hand turn. The distance between the stop signs is further than where the proposed truck stop will be. I truly feel this is an unsafe situation and why are we considering this? Ms. Talley speaks of trucks parked all over the place. I am on these roads at 6 o'clock a.m. and I very rarely see a truck parked and the rare instance I have. They have their hazard lights on. A truck stop will not prevent that. We only approved sheets to locations because they didn't have overnight parking. Why would we change that now? Will sheets now want to expand and also have overnight parking and we now have three truck stops in our city? Mr. Bullock remarked about he hoped there would be increased traffic downtown because of it. He is right. These trucks are already using Goddard and Grant to get around the construction. I had one. I had one. last evening where I kept seeing semis going down my street. In a three-hour period, I counted 11 semis, 11, on a residential street. This is a street where children play and young children are riding bicycles. This is not good for Romulus, our district. Our citizens need the city council to take a hard look at at these and many other concerns before going forward with allowing this to happen to our city. Thank you, Janine Barron. This is from Mr. David Hotz. Good evening, Mayor and members of City Council. I am here tonight to express my gratitude for a couple of key initiatives. First, I want to thank the Mayor and Jeff Kemp for their ongoing support and collaboration on manufactured home issues, which truly makes a difference in the lives of our residents. Second, I want to extend a sincere thank you to the Mayor for his foresight and unwavering leadership in opposing the ICE warehouse facility. a position he has consistently maintained from the start. Finally, I want to address the significant community concern regarding the proposed truck stop. We must recognize the well-documented increase in crime, prostitution and human trafficking that accompanies these developments. Additionally, the logistical challenges such as the increased dangers of trucks turning and more trucks on the road create significant safety and basic Romulus infrastructure issues. It's also troubling that five members of this council received money from a political action committee partially funded by the Truck Stop Initiative. If you truly are not influenced by big business donation, this is your opportunity to prove it by opposing this pilot truck stop initiative. This would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, David Hotz. And that was the last email that I received. And that concludes as far as written requests for this portion of the agenda.

So we'll open it up to the audience. If anyone has any remarks, they can come up at this time.

Hello, everyone. I just have a question. As I was coming in, I want to know what are the numbers that they will be getting for this property? What is the business yes to them getting this property? are being dealt behind the scenes that we as the public don't know about. How much is being given to them? Is there a tax cut? Is there a tax deal? I just would like to know that. And I know that it's kind of too late because y'all are going to vote on it anyway. But what exactly is the tax deal? What is the deal that is being made? And can that be publicly placed somewhere so that we as the citizens can see it?

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I think this gentleman wants to speak.

Did he want to speak? Right. He is for agenda item number 10 under the general public comment. Got it.

Okay. Anybody else from the plug that want to speak on these agenda matters? Okay. All right. Going once. Going twice. We're going to close that piece out. We can go on to the next thing, Madam Clerk.

Number three is approval of consent agenda. All matters listed under the consent agenda are considered routine by the council and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items. If discussion of an item is requested, it will be removed from the consent agenda and considered under the next agenda item. Items for approval under the consent agenda are as follows. 3A, approval of the minutes from the regular meeting held on Monday, June 8, 2026 at 7.30 p.m. 3B, approval of the minutes from the special meeting study sessions held on Monday, June 8, 2026 at 6 o'clock p.m. to discuss the quarterly investment report and at 6.45 p.m. to discuss amendments to the signed ordinance of the City of Romulus Code of Ordinances. 3C, approval of a public hearing request for Monday, July 13th, 2026 at 7 o'clock p.m. to review the RFP process and proposal materials from applicant as it pertains to RFP 235-26-10, Van Boren Road Properties. 3D, to concur with the recommendation of the Executive Advisory Committee and reappoint Brian Lloyd to the Romulus Board of Zoning Appeals with the term to expire on June 30, 2029. 3E to approve the second reading and final adoption of budget amendment 2526-15 in the amount of $322,210 to cover costs associated with the repair of the parking lot and roof at the municipal annex, which is the former 34th district court. This budget amendment was introduced at the June 8th 2026 City Council meeting and to approve the second reading and final adoption of budget amendment 2526-19 in the amount of $206,560 to recognize revenue that was received in the fiscal year 2526. This budget amendment was introduced at the June 8th, 2026 council meeting. And lastly, 3G to approve the second reading and final adoption of budget amendment 2526-20 in the amount of $85,000 to increase expenses associated with the MIDC program and fiscal year 2526 budget. This budget amendment was introduced at the June 8th, 2026 regular council meeting.

Madam Chairman, I'm going to move that we approve a consent agenda as a clerk read.

Support? It's been motioned by Mr. Wasworth, seconded by Ms. Roscoe to approve the consent agenda as stated. Mr. Wasworth, Ms. Roscoe, Mr. Wilhite, Mr. Jones, Ms. Abdo, Mr. Bullock, Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Thank you. There were no items removed from the consent agenda for discussion. And that takes us to number five, which is petitioner, Madam Chair and Council. We do have a petitioner on the agenda this evening. The petitioner is Jennifer Madison. Her petition is a request for a, it's a block party request, and she's asking approval. for a block party event scheduled for Saturday, July 4th, 2026 from 5 o'clock p.m. to 10 o'clock p.m. and the closing of Hearst Avenue from Chamberlain Street to Dexter Street with access granted for emergency vehicles. Thank you.

Good evening, City Council and elected officials. I am here once again annually. to request the closure of our street for the event that we have on the 4th of July. And so I'm here to request your approval for that.

Any questions? It says 10.30 on here. Is it 10 or 10.30? 10.30. 10.30, yes. Got it.

We do fireworks about 10, so it ends about 10.30.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Any questions from council on the petitioner's request? Okay.

all righty so we can move for um action take action we got a motion madam chair miss roscoe i'll make a motion that we approve the block party petition request for the 4th of july from 5 o'clock to 10 30 closing hearst avenue from chamberlain street to dexter street with access granted for emergency vehicles support

It's been motioned by Ms. Roscoe, seconded by Mr. Wadsworth for the approval of the petitioner's request for a block party event scheduled for Saturday, July 4th, 2026 from 5 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. and the closing of Hearst Avenue from Chamberlain Street to Dexter Street with access granted for emergency vehicles. Any discussion? Hearing none, Ms. Roscoe. Yes. Mr. Wiseworth. Yes. Mr. Wilhite. Yes. Ms. Abdo. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Mr. Bullock. Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved. Thank you.

Thank you. Number six is a chairperson's report.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. I'm going to start off with just kind of go around and see if we have any report outs from any of our council people on our committees. Let me start with the Pension Committee. David Jones, do we have anything? Okay, thank you. Cemetery Board of Trustees, Ms. Abdo?

Nothing from the cemetery. I have library. Library.

Can you go with that?

Yes, I just wanted to say that the library had their summer reading carnival on Thursday. We had over 600 people there. It was a great thing, and hopefully next year, if you haven't gone, you'll look out for it. It's really a great time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Thank you.

Thank you. Retiree, you said Mr. Wadsworth, you have him meet till August, correct? That's the retiree? End of August. End of August, okay, thank you. Police and Fire, Mark Wilhite.

Yes, I just wanted to, the fire department, Dave Allison is going to be retiring. His get together is June 25th. John Thede is also retiring. We received the pickup truck for the fire chief. It's being outfitted with lights and radios and what have you. It should be on the road within the month. The Ford 550 Rescue will be delivered by July 1st. And they hired a new fire marshal. Is he, I didn't know if I was overstepping. I knew he was coming. But anyway, so we will have a new member of the fire department. And the police side, they've sworn in two Oakland County grads from the academy and one from Wayne County. So they're looking forward to seeing. The chief said he was very happy with Oakland. their setup and everything. Also, they've been doing the SIMS training, which is simulated, minutious training where they use paint balls and stuff, and it's more realistic training. And they just talked about how happy they were that we approved the money for the public safety building.

That's the end of my report. Thank you. That's a nice full report. Thank you. And last but not least, Ms. Roscoe with the Planning Commission.

I don't really have much to report. We don't have anything coming up through the ranks anytime soon, and we may actually not have a meeting in July. We just have a lot of things in the works.

All right. Thank you. Let me just start off with just a piggyback off Ms. Abdo. The library summer kickoff was amazing. It's always a great event. I didn't realize how much WINGS was such a great sponsor. I learned that on that day. So thank you, WINGS Financial, for being a... strong supporter of the summer kickoff. It was a great event. And what I loved, what I loved most about the event was they had a violinist there. He was so amazing. So we're looking to do a violinist for the Unity Day for the Pumpkin Fest. And we were looking for a violinist. And so I walk up there and then who's slap in my face. He's a violinist. Not only was he a violinist, but he's a DJ violinist. So it was amazing. So great job. And it was a great event. So just thank the library and the team, everybody, for a great summer kickoff for the summer for the library. And then we had a great Flag Day. It was on Friday the 12th. And like everyone always said, we do patriotism well here. I want to do a shout out to Kevin Krause for his work and his team and everybody who assisted and participated with Flag Day. It was a great event. Our honoree, Mr. Horry, which we got some action with him later on down in the meeting, was the recipient of the flag and just a great guy. Just honored to meet him and how he has served our country so well. So more to come on Mr. Horry today because he's on our agenda for today. We had a great music in the park. It was alumni night. It was a great turnout. So thank you for everybody that comes out in support. And then hope that you will come out in support for our July event. And we have a Movies in the Park coming up, don't we?

Thursday.

Thursday. This is already at the Coleman Center on Beverly Road. So we do have a Movies in the Park coming up this Thursday. I think it starts at dusk. So just remember if that is something you can put on your calendar. We attempted to have a good kickball event, but we're going to hold that off for next year. It was a great fellowship, though. It was a great fellowship time, but I'll let the mayor address that more in this report. But great fellowship time with the St. John's Lodge folks and just sitting out there and just kind of having a great time. Last but not least. Juneteenth. I ain't going to say too much about it because I know the clerk has got things she wants to say about it, but this was our fourth annual, and it was a great celebration. So thank you again for our clerk for quarterbacking that. Did a great job with your team in the fourth annual Juneteenth celebration, and I want to thank everybody who came out to choose and participate with us on that day. So thank you. And I think those are all mine. Thank you, and I'm going to close out my report with that.

Madam Chair, I'll make a motion to accept your report.

Thank you. Support. Thank you. It's been motioned by Ms. Roscoe, seconded by Mr. Jones for the approval of the chairperson's report. Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Mr. Bullock? Yes. Ms. Abdo? Yes. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Mr. Wadsworth? Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

September 7th is the mayor's report.

Thank you. Good evening, City Council, audience here today, and those who are tuning in at home. First and foremost, I have a great announcement. We saw the news that came out last week regarding the DHS detention facility. In Romnus, we've learned that we don't count our victories until they're victories, and there was a lot of people who wanted to rush to those press releases last week, and we didn't feel comfortable until that document had been filed and signed by DHS. And thanks to our legal counselor and administrative team, that was addressed today, about 6.30 today. So it's official, it's been filed. Okay, we'll take some back feed for that. But, you know, I can't thank everybody enough who support the city of Romulus here, and I'm not going to go down the list of names, but a concern. We still haven't solved a problem yet, and as elected officials at the state, federal, local level, our job is to solve problems, and we haven't solved this problem yet, so we need to continue to work. We've addressed one little issue here for the city of Romulus right now, and I'm more comfortable as about 6.30, but we still got work to do. So I'm excited to announce that. Also, one small correction for movies in the park at the Coleman Center, because of our new state-of-the-art Rombotron, it's going to start at 6 o'clock.

Gotcha.

So it'll be a little bit earlier, and the movie they're going to be showing is The Goat. Oh, okay. So it's all about Mark Wilhite. Okay. And I also, another announcement on 625, at 11 o'clock, Asad Turfi from Wayne County will be doing a presentation on the upcoming election for the smart transportation and how crucial that is to our seniors and those who are disabled that need that smart bus to depend on it. We want to talk about that election that's coming up. So he'll be there, not to advocate for a vote, but just to talk and share facts and details so people know what they're voting on. Also to address a couple things that came up under open comment. No tax incentives were given for this property, no breaks, any of those things were cut on this property and also it came about team endorsements. I endorsed everybody but one person that sits on the city council and I've worked with all of you for years and I've never tried to sway a vote or tell anybody how to vote or presume to be that disrespectful to you. I will dig for information for you and settle heartburn if you guys have that. I've done that since I've been a building official for 25 years here. So I would never be disrespectful enough to tell anybody how to vote. I just wanted that on the record to say, hey, six out of the seven up here I endorsed, and I'm happy to work with the one that I did not because we've settled some issues, and I don't think anybody up here or any council member that I've ever worked with could say I've told them how to vote on an issue. So just want to get that straightened out. For action items I have tonight, the first one I have is for CDBG grant, Wayne County Subrecipient Agreement for HUD Community Block Grant. And let me back up a little bit. Has everybody on council met Ella Yochum, our CBDG director? Ella, stand up, please. Just want to put a face on that for you. Exciting addition to the team. She's already going to work trying to find those grant monies work to maximize the benefit with CDBG and we know how important that is so I respectfully request that City Council's approval to it the attached sub agreement with Wayne County for HUD community development block grant CDBG for fiscal year 2025 and 2027 in the amount of $20,000

Madam Chairman, I'm going to move that we approve the Wayne County Sub-Registration Agreement for HUD Community Block Grants called the CDBG program with the Wayne County for 25 through 27. Thank you.

Support.

Okay.

It's been motioned by Mr. Wadsworth, seconded by Mr. Wilhite to concur with the administration and approve the attached subrecipient agreement with Wayne County for HUD Community Development Block Grant, CDBG, for the fiscal year 2025 to 2027 in the amount of 20,000. Any discussion? Hearing none, Mr. Weisberg. Yes. Mr. Wilhite. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Mr. Bullock. Yes. Ms. Roscoe. Yes. Ms. Abdo. Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Thank you. The next I have up is a memorandum of understanding for Michigan Drones Association in the city of Romulus. I'd like to have Director Krause come up and talk to you a little bit about this program and how it aligns with the continued drone initiative in the city of Romulus.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Council. As most of you know, over the last two years, we've been working very diligently and slowly with the FAA, with Airspace Link, and a number of other community partners, Wayne County, Western Wayne, and Downriver Community Conference. and establishing a drone program. We knew it was going to be a difficult lift because of our proximity to the airport and having drones flying in low altitude below 400 feet around the 18th busiest airport in the United States is definitely a challenge and we wanted to make sure we were going about it safely. and moving forward with that program. So we really look at this fourth space or this airspace, this low altitude airspace as new infrastructure, just like a road or any other type of infrastructure, rail lines, electrical lines, water pipeways or pathways. And we're looking at how to build this out for the future. You may have heard recently Amazon has been delivering packages from the Hazel Park location and the Pontiac location, 12 miles from both of those locations in Oakland County already. And Oakland County cities are in a race to basically secure their airspace so they don't have to de-conflict with private companies that are utilizing it for private commerce and they can make sure they have priority for public safety. So as most of you know, we've trained a number of employees as part 107 pilots here in the city and we've deployed drones and training drones with those pilots and they're out there and they can deploy for single point incidents with visual line of sight deployment with those drones. We continue to work with our partners at Airspace Link to make sure that we have a certificate of authorization with the FAA to fly beyond visual on the site in the future for our public safety. And then also with our unified traffic management plan with the FAA, which will de-conflict drone traffic with manned aircraft traffic coming in and out of DTW Airport. So I say all of that to say that we are one piece of the big puzzle in the state of Michigan and we are on the map and we've done a lot of great things in the last two years to create this space, including drone sensors where we can identify drone flight real time, see where the drone is and also see where the controller is or who the pilot is of that drone and be able to track. and either deploy our police officers to kind of interdict that or the air marshals from the airport. We work closely with them as well because of the airport to interdict that pilot if they are in unauthorized airspace or flying above height restrictions that are allowed. So as we continue to do that, other cities around us are doing the same thing, but we don't have access to their sensors and they don't have access to our sensors. So in essence, what this agreement is, it's just like a mutual aid agreement that we have with our police and fire departments when Another city needs our resources. We can reciprocate those resources to them. This is the same thing. We're allowing them access to our data from our sensors, and they're getting the data from their sensors to us as well. So we can see as those puzzle pieces start filling in, we can see the big picture of the airspace around the community.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

So I respectfully request City Council's authorization for the mayor and clerk to enter into the attached memorandum of understanding between the City of Romulus and Michigan Drone Association, which will establish a framework for the formation and operation of a regional count UAS task force.

Madam Chair. Ms. Roscoe. I'll make that motion to concur with the administration and authorize the mayor and clerk to enter into the attached memorandum of understanding between the City of Romulus and the Michigan Drone Association, which will establish the framework for the formation and operation of a Regional Count USA Task Force. UAS task force. Okay.

Support. Thank you. It's been a motion by Ms. Roscoe, seconded by Mr. Jones to concur with the administration and authorize the mayor and clerk to enter into the attached memorandum of understanding between the city of Romas and the Michigan Drone Association, which will establish the framework for the formation and operation of a regional count UAS task force. Any discussion? Hearing none, Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Mr. Bullock? Yes. Ms. Abdo? Yes. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Mr. Wadsworth? Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Thank you. The next item I have up is the change order. It's part of our streets initiative this year. We continue to work in our neighborhood streets. I respectfully request City Council approve the change order to make a revision to the Wade and Superior HMA project with Roe in the amount of $623,329 to extend the bidding prices to Cogswell Street from Wade to Wabash as part of this construction. Maria Ferris, Finance Director, has verified funds for this acquisition have been budgeted for.

Madam Chair. Mr. Jones. I move to concur with the administration and approve a change order to make the revisions to the Wade and Superior HMA project with rolls in the amount of $623,329 to extend the bidding price to Coswell Street from Wade to Wabash as part of the construction.

I'll second it. Okay. It's been motioned by Mr. Jones, seconded by Mr. Wilhite to concur with the administration and approve a change order to make a revision to the Wade and Superior HMA project with an ROE in the amount of $623,329 to extend the bidding prices to Cogswell Street from Wade to Wabash as part of the construction. Any discussion? Hearing Mr. Jones. Yes. Mr. Wilhite. Yes. Mr. Wosworth. Yes. He said yes. He said yes? Yeah. Oh, okay. I hear him. Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Mr. Bullock? Yes. Ms. Sabdo? Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Thank you. The next one is another move to continue to update fleet. I want to purchase one 2026 Ford Bronco for the cable department. And I respectfully request the council's authorization to piggyback on my deal contract for the purchase of one 2026 Ford Bronco Sport in the amount of $36,295 from Gorno Ford. Maria Farris, finance director, has verified that funds for this purchase are currently available in the cable TV fund.

Madam Chair. Ms. Roscoe. I'll make that motion to occur with administration and consent to piggyback on the my deal contract number MA2400000001193 for the purchase of one 2026 Ford Bronco Sport in the amount of $36,295 from Gorno Ford.

I'll second that.

Thank you. Then motion by Ms. Roscoe, seconded by Mr. Wilhite to concur with the administration and consent to piggyback on the My Deal contract number MA2400000001193 for the purchase of one 2026 Ford Bronco Sport in the amount of $36,295 from Gorno Ford. Any discussion? Hearing none, Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Mr. Bullock? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Ms. Abdo? Yes. Mr. Walsworth? Yes. Chair Fosch, yes. Motion approved.

Thank you. And that will conclude my report for this evening. Thank you.

Number eight is the clerk's report. Before I begin the agenda items under my report, I just would like to have a few comments, remarks concerning our fourth annual Juneteenth celebration. It was a success. We had just members of the public just throughout the day just coming in. It was very well attended. We had over 34 vendors. The vendors, the food vendors, everyone said they did well. I really want to thank the administration, to you, city council members, to the administrative departments, you know, police and fire and all those departments. I know Jerry Frayer, his team, they came out to help, but I really want to give a big shout out to our DPW workers. Those guys had some challenges. We had planned to set up on Thursday, but because of the high winds, and they were dealing with fallen trees, and in the park there was A big part of the tree fell, and so they had to clean all that up. And the guys just did a phenomenal job with all the challenges that they had. That was a big part of helping set up the tents, the chairs. And this year, we had the rumble. I hope I pronounced that correctly. DeJohn did a great display which displayed all the vendors and those who made donations and just photos from the last, you know, three years that we've had the event. But it was very well attended, and so we had a lot of positive feedback and again I just want to thank everyone because it definitely was a team effort this is just another great community event that we're hosting and so next year will even be bigger and better so again thank you also I want to switch gears here and talk about voting And we will begin mailing out absentee ballots beginning this Thursday on the 25th. Okay, so if you're on that permanent ballot list, expect to receive your ballots. I'm going to kind of get on my soapbox here. There are a lot of important things. This is a midterm election. Okay. We need your vote. Your vote is your power. It's sad that we have over 20,000 registered voters and we might maybe get 20% of voters that come out. Your vote is important. We have safe, we have secured, elections here. You can trust the process. I really want to encourage everyone, get out and vote. You're going to be voting for a new governor this year. Your midterm elections are very important and impact you directly. I know we have the federal elections, which we usually have a larger turnout, but your midterm elections are extremely important You're voting for your state reps. You're voting for your state senators. You're voting for your congressmen. And again, new governors, secretary of state. This is very important, and it impacts all of us directly, our community. So please make it a point to vote. You have three opportunities here in Michigan. You can vote early if you don't vote absentee. You can vote early, nine days of early voting, if you don't want to come out on election day. So you have election day to come out and vote, you have nine days of early voting, or you can have the ballot mailed to your house. So please, please, please make it a point, make a commitment to vote this year. We can't tell you who to vote for. but I believe the mayor mentioned earlier there is a proposal on the ballot. Educate yourself on this. Ask. Ask questions. Educate yourself. You can call the clerk's office. You can obtain a sample ballot. But please, please, folks, whatever community that you live in, not just Romulus, we have good elections here in the state of Michigan. We're very fortunate than a lot of other states, and I'm really on my soapbox. I'm hearing what's going on in the state of Texas. I just floored over how their elections are conducted. But here in Michigan, we have really good election laws here, and you can trust the process. So please, August 4th, make sure you get out there and vote. Thank you. Get off my soapbox. Thank you. Okay, now for my action items. Had to get that off my chest. All right, 8A. requesting approval of the 26-27 proposed municipal fee schedule. So we're asking council to adopt the resolution approving the 26-27 fiscal year City of Ramos proposed municipal fee schedule as presented. The implementation of this fee schedule will commence on July 1, 2026.

Madam Chairman. Mr. Wasworth. I'm going to move for the approval of the 2026-27 proposed municipal fee schedules. Can I have a comment?

Support. Thank you. There's been a motion by Mr. Wasworth. seconded by Ms. Roscoe to adopt a resolution approving the 2026-2027 fiscal year city of Remnitz proposed municipal fee schedule as presented with the implementation of this fee schedule to commence on July 1st, 2026. Mr. Wadsworth.

If I could, to Mrs. Branglewooder, Could you revisit what we charge to euthanize an animal? And I will tell you right now, you have a dog 10, 14, 15 years old, and the dog dies. It's very devastating to people. Then you have to come in, and we would have to pay $500 to put that dog down. That seems... too expensive. I could see something like a buck a pound or $2 a pound. If a dog weighs 100 pounds, you pay $400. I think that's ripping off our residents.

What we will do, if I can, through the chair, Councilman Wadsworth, and each department submits their fees, their proposed fees. They submit them to us. So what we can do is reach out to ordinance to have them review.

Please do. And they're going to say, well, it costs so much. This is a service that we give taxpayers.

Okay. We will reach out to ordinance and have them revisit this and get back with you to revise this.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. We can move forward, correct? Yes, you can. All right. Thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing none, Mr. Wiseworth? Yes. Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Ms. Abdo? Yes. Mr. Bullock? Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Thank you, City Council. 8B, second reading and final adoption of the conditional rezoning request for RZ 2024-001, Pilot Travel Center. We're asking this request is for City Council to concur. With Planning Commission's findings and approved, the second reading and final adoption of the conditional rezoning request for RZ 2024-001, Pilot Travel Center to rezone 25.53 acres located at 10250 Binding Road from M2 General Industrial to MT Industrial Transportation for the purpose of developing a truck stop subject to finalization, number one, finalization, in execution of the conditional rezoning agreement by the city attorney. Number two, special land use approval for a truck stop. And number three, revised site plan approval by the Administrative Review Committee. This conditional rezoning request was introduced at the June 8, 2026 regular council meeting.

Madam Chair, I would like to make a motion to concur with the Planning Commission's findings and approve the second reading and final adoption of the conditional rezoning request for RZ2024001 Pilot Travel Center to rezone 25.53 acres located at 10250 Vining Road from M2 General Industrial to MT Industrial Transportation for the purpose of developing a truck stop. Subject to one the finalization and execution of the conditional rezoning Agreement by the city attorney to special land use approval for a truck stop and three revised site plan approval by the administrative community support

it's been motioned by mr bullock seconded by mr will high for the second reading and final adoption of the conditional rezoning request for rz-2024-001 pilot travel center and just else as already stated and rehashed by madam clerk and by james bullock um any discussion through the chair okay

I think a vote on this is premature when we get the history of the tax statement that Tony gave us. Why did this property go from being a value of 500 and some thousand down to 100 and some thousand, lowering the taxes from 33,000 to 6,000 over the time when, why is that? Can you tell us, Mayor?

No, that'd be a question for the assessor. If we'd had that information before tonight, I could have probably got an answer for you. But that's the first I heard of it.

Well, I don't think it should be voted on until we find out why all of a sudden that the property value went down when pilots started looking at it. I mean, the difference in the taxes is phenomenal. And until we get that information, I don't think we should be voting on it.

Mr. Weisbach, are you done?

Yeah, thank you.

I'm going to repeat basically what I said a couple weeks ago. First of all, Pilot is a good company. It's a quality company. They have a good product. But this is too much in a small space. We're going to have trucks coming off 94, 275 east and westbound. And then they have this tax thing that just came up tonight. And when... And when we approved sheets a couple years ago, that was a big thing that night at the council, no overnight parking. No overnight parking, and they agreed to it. And they were talking 10 or 15 trucks. We're talking 144 trucks. This vote is going to come back, and it's going to haunt us. I'm telling you, folks, it's going to haunt us. You know, now they just shut down 275 because there was human trafficking, there was drugs. that there was crime. All we're doing is providing them with a new space. All we're doing is providing them with a new space. And for God's sake, don't worry about the trucks, my friends up here. Worry about the residents that sleep in this town. And I'm done. Thank you.

Any other discussion?

Yeah, I have something.

Mark? Through the chair. They bring up the rest area. It was a rest area. Yeah, it was truck stop, but it was a rest area, government-owned, on 275. The pilot has jumped through so many hoops. I went back and looked at all this, and this started back in September 16th of 24. Everything that we have requested, they have done. Security cameras have been upgraded, security personnel on the scene. It's not like the truck stop. The area that they're talking about, is it ideal? No, but I think it's a good idea. The area now is zoned M2 and That's high intensity industrial. They could have stamping plants. They could put a forge there. It could be a hazmat location. That all meets the requirements. With the Gordie Howe Bridge coming through, the 94 improvements that they're doing that, you know why they're doing that? They're doing that to enhance the freight movement. Um, I have a thing here from the planning department. Number one, the planning department approved it. Okay. They went through it. They hashed it out. It was passed. So it came to us. I have the planning department development status report from April. Um, and they went over 46 things and I looked at it and I went through every one of them and 26 were related to trucking outfits. or trucking itself. So it is increasing. They talk about the traffic and stuff, and right now, Romulus is terrible with traffic because with the expressways, we've got the two industrial highways, and they're both being constructed. So our streets are going to... be inundated with vehicles. A gentleman talked about he's been driving a truck. He slept on the side of the road. And that's exactly what we're trying to do. We're trying to get a handle on it, centralize, and that way we can make ordinances. The police department, I brought this up before, they have two people going through commercial carrier enforcement. Once we have a place where they can go, then we can enforce. And just like in Taylor where they have commercial vehicle signs saying prohibited or whatever, they enforce that so that lowers the process down. But I wanted to take one step farther. It's a situation where everything that we eat, everything that we do comes by truck. And we're not saying anything about, that truck stop will provide a service to the truck drivers. And if anybody has ever gone out on Romualds Day or Cleanup Day and gone through and picked up a Pepsi bottle that's full of something, it's not burners. That stuff gets put everywhere. And I heard a thing about the TIFA, and as far as the TIFA goes, we just approved 45 million dollars for a public safety facility that is well needed in this town in places like that the revenue will go to help pay for that and if you break it right down i mean it could take 95 years but it could pay it off that's all i have to say thank you mr will hide any other remarks

Just one more comment. You shouldn't always believe what you read. Thank you.

We're going to run this vote. It's been motioned by Mr. Oh, we did the discussion. Mr. Bullock. Yes. Mr. Wilhite. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Ms. Roscoe. No. Mr. Wadsworth. No. Ms. Abdo. No. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

8C, requesting approval of an honorary street sign application honoring Henry Corey. I'm respectfully asking council to approve an honorary street sign in recognition of Mr. Henry C. Horry. On June 12th, during the City of Romulus Flag Day ceremony, the city honored Mr. Horry, who was a retired U.S. Army Navy veteran and a 49-year resident of Romulus. He was honored for his distinguished military service and lifelong commitment to others. Mr. Horry joined the United States Naval Reserve during his senior year of high school and entered active duty the day after graduation. He served 22 years on active duty as a chief quartermaster, primarily in submarine service, including service during the Vietnam War and numerous classified missions. He later served an additional eight years in the Naval Fleet Reserve before retiring in 1977. Since his retirement, he has continued to mentor and support veterans. There were no applications submitted during the annual application period, which was, you know, established in the honorary street sign policy. Mr. Horry's daughter submitted an application on June the 12th following the Flag Day ceremony. She wanted to honor her father. And so, as we know, the purpose of the street, the honorary street sign program is to recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to the community and humanity. Mr. Horry's distinguished military service His dedication to fellow veterans and longstanding commitment to service exemplifies the intent of this program. So, again, we did not receive any, you know, any applications this year, but we did receive this one application. It is after the deadline, but we thought just with his bio and his service to our country and him being honored that day. Therefore, I'm respectfully asking council if you would grant an exemption to the application deadline requirements of the honorary street sign policy and approve the honorary street sign application recognizing Mr. Henry C. Horry.

Can we get a motion for that? and cheryl i'll make that motion thank you for approval of an honorary street sign for henry worry and that will be at the corner of anthony and jamestown street thank you miss roscoe is in motion by miss

Roscoe, seconded by Ms. Abdo, to grant an exemption to the application deadline occurrence of the honorary street sign policy and approve the honorary street sign application, recognizing Mr. Henry C. Horry. Any discussion? Hearing none, Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Ms. Abdo? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Mr. Bullock? Yes. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Mr. Walsworth? Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Thank you, council. The last item under the clerk's report, this is a notice of determination of water and sewer rates and fee schedules. The finance department has submitted the official notice of determination for water and sewer rates and fees changes. Pursuant to Chapter 62, Article 5, Section 62-405 and 62-406 of the Romulus Code of Ordinance, it states as follows, the amounts of rates and charges and the intervals at which users of the wastewater system and of the water system are billed shall be determined no less than annually by the administration and presented to Council for their notification and review. The determination of the administration shall take effect 10 days following the date of the meeting in which the City Council was presented with the official notice of such determination, unless rejected by a two-thirds majority vote of the city council the fee schedule will be this this speech schedule will be effective as of july 1 2026 so no action is required by you unless you're rejecting what is being presented to you okay so this is basically for your information okay thank you all right thank you city council that concludes the clerk's report There is no treasurer's report this evening, so that takes us to number 10, public comment. And this is the portion, this is the second public comment period for those of you who are in the audience and who would like to address city council. You can find the rules to address city council on the back of your meeting agenda. If you have not submitted a request to speak public comment card and still would like to address the city council, raise your hand and after you've been acknowledged by the chairperson, you may approach the podium. We will call on those members of the public who submitted a card first. Please note that you will have three minutes to speak and any additional time will be upon the consent of the chairperson. Madam Chair and Council, we do have several cards that have been submitted. And I'm gonna call on Robert Bodice.

I'm here concerning DT Energy. On March 15th, our power went out. A tree from the woods fell, and it broke the telephone pole next door to me. Okay. On my property, I have a transformer. They're supposed to have a guide wire that runs from that telephone pole to the one that broke. Instead of replacing that guide wire, they tied it to my bush. Now I can show you a picture. I've been contacting DT Energy to get this resolved. I mean, they've come out even like, On May 21st, the man came out. He took the wire that they pulled down, but he never turned in a work order. I've been calling and calling. It's like I can show you a picture, but it's tied to my bush. I was at the mayor's office last Tuesday, and I asked for help. And she... Call in somebody from the safety, but nothing ever happened. I can show you a picture. It's real quick.

Okay, Mr. Bolton, we're going to let you out. We're going to have that addressed on the unfinished business. Did you have any more comments you want to have regarding that?

I can show you here. It's tied to my bush. That's the guy.

I can't hear. Oh, okay.

It's tied to my bush. Okay.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Boatman.

And I wouldn't say our service is too great. And it's just awful. And I've been trying to deal with them and follow them. Man come out, he took the cable, probably 75 feet of it, that went from, yeah, he never turned it into work order. Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Bolden. Can somebody? Okay. Can somebody? Can somebody? Can I?

Thank you, Mr. Bolden. Thank you. I've been trying to deal with them since March.

Hopefully the mayor can help you.

Yeah. Thank you. That's basically it.

Okay. Thank you.

Can I get any help with this?

Absolutely. We get your information. We'll check it out. I'll visit the site tomorrow myself, and I'll get a report back to you. We got the information?

I'll visit that site tomorrow myself, and we'll make sure we're getting...

You'll be here tomorrow?

Yeah.

Is there a visit made?

Yeah, I'll visit you.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Thanks, Yada.

Okay. Next, we have Mr. Jeffrey Warren. And, Council, you have copies here. Yes. He may be on.

Hey, good evening, Mayor, Pro-Temp, Council. My name is Jeffrey Warren. I'm here to request approval for a block club party petition for Saturday, January 4, 2026, from noonish to 11ish. And the closure of the following streets for the time of the event would be Martin Place from... July. Yeah, July and July 4th. Martin Place from Chamberlain to 2nd Street. 2nd Street from Martin Place to Forrest Jackson Street. Forrest Jackson Street from Dexter to 2nd Street. Just those three corners blocked off. Like we do every year, in one little area right there. We're a little late getting this petition in, but I just need a little push to try to get it finished.

Thank you. We're going to take action on the unfinished business, okay? We'll take action. Did you have any more you want to add to it, though? No. Okay. That'll do it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay.

next uh joan pence it just happens after i sit a while so we are western wayne indivisible um we have become somewhat familiar to this community in the last couple of months with the dhs and the warehouse and all of that disaster. So we have a letter here for Mayor McCreight, staff, Romulus City Council. Accept our sincere gratitude for your concern for your community and all your fine work to stop the Department of Homeland Security from opening an ICE detention center at 7525 Cogswell Road in Romulus and Wayne County. We cannot thank you enough for your decision to join with the carefully crafted lawsuit filed by the Michigan Attorney General Nessel. Your professional work with many citizens and companies and community groups, including ours, during this very difficult and sensitive time assured open communication and transparency. You were able to protect your community from federal overreach. It has been our pleasure to watch your city in action and to witness your very professional handling of a deal that you were not prepared for. We look forward to working with all of you in the future. And we'll count that one as a success. Thank you. Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

And we have one last written request. Who is that? Michael Calabrese.

Last time I was here, I glazed you guys. Now I'm not going to be so nice. I'm going to be cordial. Mr. Wilhite, you made a comment last time I was here about how if companies come here, they shouldn't have to jump through hoops. Well, personally, as a citizen, if I drop my pistol and it goes off and hits somebody, I go to prison for probably the rest of my life. If a company just doesn't feel like jumping through hoops, poisons an entire community, what do they do? They throw pocket change at it and say, sorry about your cancer pours. I went to Lansing, not trying to say any offense, but from a citizen's perspective, you are the only people that can hold them accountable for the most part. So if they want to come here, please try to take care of us. You know what I'm saying? It feels more like jumping through hoops is I mean, I have to jump through hoops to live. My job's getting harder every day. I went to Lansing to deliver a letter to, what's her name? Gretchen Whitmer? Yeah, Gretchen Whitmer, basically saying, hey, do something. You said you'd fight like hell. You're not. Eventually, they got together with Nestle, and they did something, and they're going to try to stop that. Now, I read a report that said, I love you, Mayor. Last, what was it, a few months ago, you came out and actually talked to me outside of City Hall. I was like, I respect him. I would probably vote for him based on that. When I read that you were thanking Tom Holman over here, it says, what is it? We want to thank DHS Secretary, oh, sorry, Mark Wayne Mullen for listening to us and taking into consideration the issues that we should make the wrong location for detention facilities. a bunch of stuff on there, but mostly it just sounds like your support, what they do, you just don't want to hear. Like, it's a NIMBY kind of thing, and also, you also thank other people, like the people that were in contact with you. I'd prefer it if you don't thank the DHS guy and me at the same time, because it's kind of insulting. I'm trying to be nice, and I'm I don't know exactly what to say, but it's very disappointing. Got a minute left. I also came here to talk about Alex Karp, the CEO of Palantir Technologies. Oh, man, you guys should really know about him. He said he wanted to spray lightly fentanyl-laced urine on his critics. It's weird. You know, he just seems like a guy from history, like 100 years ago. He speaks a lot of German. He calls for the demutering of Germany and Japan, and it just feels like a short little guy with a little mustache from 100 years ago. Yeah, I don't know. There's a lot of things I wanted to talk about. I took a bunch of screenshots. He thinks that having children would give... He feels it's so stressful it would give him hives. And I understand, because he's the type of person that would separate families because it makes him a little extra money because there's monsters in the world. Monsters like him. And I hope that you guys can do... Whatever you can do to make us feel safe, because I certainly don't feel safe and satisfied. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Madam Chair, that was the last written request.

So at this time, we're going to open it up. Ms. Yotta.

Hello. I just want to, I have a bit of a concern. Who's in my area? I live off of the Ecorse, Niagara, and Newcastle area. Who represents that area on the coast?

I would say I'd probably do that.

Okay. So Mayor and Mr. Bullock, I have some concerns. These apartments that's right at Ecorse and Niagara, Saturday into Sunday morning, My house was surrounded by police with big guns, big, big guns. Pistols off their heads, big guns. That happened between 1230 and one o'clock in the morning because there is some shooting that's occurring in these apartments that's been taken over by a new set of people. We haven't had that problem. I've been here over 18 years and I have not had that problem before. These are the apartments off of E course. Yeah, and so this new management has changed some things and whatever happened, my house was surrounded. I wake up to this, I go out, go back in at about three o'clock in the morning, I go to sleep. I'm getting bangs on my door because now I have another set of police presence in front of my house because somebody, I don't know what was going on, but they drove and parked in my driveway. And the police were doing their due diligence. I'm not saying that the police did anything wrong. But this person that they pulled over, they were in my driveway. And while in my driveway, police is barely telling us what's happening no one even informed me like what was going on either time and again i want to respect that they're doing their job but these concord apartments not only has the noise level gone up but now we're getting shootings we've had a death over there we had another shooting in the same exact area that this death happened a year before So Concord should participate in cameras immediately to help assist with the detectives in any work that they have to do. Concord also should participate in having some security. They need to start monitoring the people that they got coming and I think at this point I'm really asking that the city hold them accountable for changing some things because the type of people that we're getting now is not making that neighborhood safe at all. We got people coming through that's in that same concourse. Is that the name of the concourse? I don't even know the name of it. I just know that they were quiet for a long time and now they're not. That's doing donuts. If you come to the corner of New Castle and Niagara, donut marks all in the middle of the street. Anytime after 1230, because I know, I think they might know that there's a different type of shift that has happened within the police department. They're having a lot of donuts that's happening on E-Course. E-Course and Van Boren. Can I just finish this part? Okay. E-Course and, not Van Boren, but E-Course and Merriman. That area right there and everything is resorting back to these apartments. We really need them to pump it up. Like they need some cameras, they need some security, and they need to change the people that they're allowing in there. The shooting is unsafe. Anytime I got to hit the floor and then they come back and make the call and say that it was fireworks when that's not what it was. I even had to call because two cars was racing down the street and the one person was pointing a gun at the other person I called. But when the police came, because they were so focused on what was going on, they didn't even see me. I wanted to tell them which direction they went in. And it's all coming from the apartments behind us. So I'm asking that somebody please check into that because that's a very big concern of mine right now.

Okay. Thank you, Yada. Thank you. I'm sorry. Let me get Ms. Diane, please.

Hi, my name is Diane Carol Roy, and I just wanted to first off say I am Really happy about the way the city and the community work together on the detention center. It showed a lot of solidarity and a great community that we have and a great government, city government we have. And I want to thank all of you for being there and standing up with us in that. I think you guys did an awesome job. I also want to say Juneteenth was wonderful. This year, we had beautiful weather, and I enjoyed the day with my granddaughter, and there was a lot of stuff to do, and I'm just looking forward to more of that. I think it's a wonderful thing. It brings in people in the community and in surrounding communities, and I think it was an awesome event. The other thing I want to mention was on Ecorse and Vining, where Amazon is. um the bus stops there are not lit up there's a little sign there's no no place to stand and it's unsafe crossing there's not even a crosswalk that says you know crossing and so um now with the days longer it's more daylight hours so you see them easier But before long, we're going to be in winter again, and it's going to be less daylight hours, and you're not going to see these people crossing. You're not going to see them standing. And they're basically standing on the road because there's really no place, especially on binding. There's no cement there to stand on. So I'm really concerned about that issue because of the traffic and everything. And coming from Ecorse to turn left onto Vining, I think we still need to have better lighting there. I drive this all the time. And when it's dark or when it's stormy and there's rainstorm, it's hard to see where to turn left. You have to really, I mean, you slow down, of course, to turn, but you really have to look. and see where the other side of the boulevard is. And I think that we need more lighting in that area for people to see where they're turning onto. Because I've seen too many close calls in that area with all the trucks. And now you're talking about the truck stop and more trucks moving around, which The construction is causing a lot more traffic onto Vining and stuff, and I just, I feel like there's not enough safety with that. And the bus stops. That really concerns us, especially on e-course when they cross into the Amazon. There's nothing, there's the lights, but they're not crossing right at the light. They're crossing, you know, before the light. And once it gets darker, we're not going to see the people. So I'm really concerned about that.

Thank you, Diane. Yeah. Right here, yeah.

Hello again. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. I know everyone here probably has a family and it's late and I should be home because it's past my bedtime as well. But I just wanted to make a final statement. Tonight was really disheartening. You were talking about voter turnout. and people give up their time with their family to come out and speak on issues that they find close to their hearts and then there's other people that are emailing in and we just glaze right over it maybe that's why nobody votes because they feel like they have no voice because there's such a separation between the people who are supposed to represent us versus people who are paying to be in our city then nobody even cares why would you Everybody here stood up and talked about things. We had a gentleman give out information. We've had people on the council that opposed it. Hey, at least can we just wait and look into this? Nope. Immediately gone. What does that tell you? What does that tell you? That was valid information that was passed out and we just, we have no idea. Vote yes anyway. Something doesn't scream shady about that to you guys. We're just blowing through this. We all live here. They don't. You can do all the studies in the world that you want. And don't misuse what I said. Yes, I did say I slept on the side of the road. We do need more parking. You're absolutely correct. Not next to the neighborhoods. Not here in this city. Go to the outskirts. What about 275 and Eureka? What about the other side of the industrial park? All of that land is up for sale. But for some reason, we get this deeply discounted property, these deeply discounted property taxes. That's going to make a huge amount of money. For who? Not the citizens. Who here drives a truck in this room besides me? You? What about the other 27,000 people? What kind of a benefit is that to them? What purpose does a truck stop serve for the people that live here? None. Absolutely none. And I don't understand why everybody got up here and said something and then it didn't sway anybody's mind to even pause and maybe move this so we can do some investigation. We just went ahead with it. That letter that she read talked about the decades that this could impact this community. And she's right. But we just glossed right over it. Because we've been jumping through hoops since 2024, what does that matter? What if it was 2019? Does that make that family that's going to get killed by that semi-plot up any less relevant? It doesn't. It doesn't matter how long they've been jumping through hoops. How long have these citizens been here in this city, the ones that you guys to your positions. I'm speaking on behalf of myself and probably some other people in here, but when we no longer feel like you guys are serving our best interests, we're all gonna step up and start running. Thank you for your time.

Yes, sir.

Good evening, Councilman Mayer. Good evening. You all know that I was opposed to this project based off of the left turn of the semi and my experiences being a general manager for Pilot Flying J. I agree with the last speaker, you know, no family dying is worth any amount of money to anybody. While I was in the Navy, I witnessed death. too many times, best friends of mine. And I suffered from PTSD because of it, and I'm not afraid to admit it. I'm a disabled veteran that cares about my city that I'm laying roots in. I really, really strongly feel that that is the wrong location. And I have zero issue with Pilot. It was a great career for me. They do run amazing travel centers. I get it's voted in now. I get there's still time for the citizens. However, what I want to say is, will any of you be there that voted yes when the first family is rolled up under a semi and explain to them why you voted yes? Because that's all I wanted was an answer of why we voted yes. Jumping through hoops should have to happen If death isn't part of it. I mean, that's all I can say. But also what I can say is I respect each and every one of you. Through the mayor, through Kevin, all of you. I respect what you do every day for our citizens here in Rocklist. It's not an easy job. I voted for all of you. Every single one of you that sit here today, I personally voted for. to represent me, my family, and our best interests. I do appreciate everything you're doing for the city, and I'm not an enemy of the city. I'm not an enemy of any one of you. It's just this one project based off of the location. I wanted to make that clear because I do appreciate everything you all do, and that's all I'll say about it. And you'll never hear me talk about it again until it happens, because it will happen. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else from the audience that would like to speak? Going once, going twice. Let's close that part up, Madam Clerk.

Number 11 is unfinished business. Through the chair.

Mr. Weisberg. If I can, to the chair. Mayor, Metroplex, is that going to be done? Didn't we move along with that? I just went down it. I forgot how bad it was.

There's still some ongoing conversations amongst the property owners and the special assessment. They never finally executed, but now there's more conversation again. Okay, all right. They've been before this body a few times to talk about it, and it always seems to unravel. So hopefully they get it this time. Okay, fine.

Thank you.

Ms. Atto? Mayor, can you report back to us I'm sure the people out there want to know, too, why the property went from an assessment of $570,000. In four years, it was down to $114,000. The taxes went from $33,000 to $6,000. What changed over there? Why they would do that?

By all means, I'll get the information. If I had that information before today, we would have it for you today.

I didn't have it before either, so...

And I'll also try to work on projections of what's going to be the tax capture at that site when it's developed, because it's not going to stay at that level when that site is developed. Okay. I just thought that Pete would like to know. Absolutely.

Madam Chair, in regards to the request for the Black Party, I would like to make a motion requesting approval of the Black Party petition for Saturday, July 4th. from noon to 11 p.m. and the closure of the following streets for the time of the event. Martin Place from Chamberlain to 2nd Street, 2nd Street from Martin Place to Horace Jackson Street, Horace Jackson Street from Dexter to 2nd Street. Subject to approvals from all appropriate city departments in accordance with the city's block party regulations.

Support. Thank you.

It's been motioned by Ms. Rostow, seconded by Mr. Jones for a request and approval of the block party petition for Saturday, July 4th, 2026 from noon to 11 p.m. and the closure of the following streets for the time of event. Martin Place from Chamberlain to 2nd Street, 2nd Street from Martin Place to Horace Jackson Street, Horace Jackson Street from Dexter to 2nd Street, subject to approvals from all the appropriate city departments in accordance with the city's block party regulations. And just as a heads up, we're just waiting on one more department. So just want to give you that heads up on that. So any discussion? Hearing none, Ms. Roscoe. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Mr. Wiseworth. Yes. Mr. Wilhite. Yes. Ms. Abdo. Yes. Mr. Bullock. Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved. Thank you.

To the chair. Just had a couple items. Oh, sure. On unfinished business, yeah, we'll absolutely take a look at that. And if we find mail pieces that's going on there, we will definitely hold the management of that Concord Club accountable for it. We've been successful holding several properties to a higher standard, and it's their responsibility to police their site, so we'll find ways to do that. Also, you mentioned lighting on E-Course and Vining. You are 100% right. It is extremely dark and dangerous. I'd like to bring Kevin Krause, our Director of Economic Development, up real quick to talk about the plan we have in action already over there.

Evening again, Council. Just real quick, I believe he already left, but Mr. Botis, when he was at City Hall on Tuesday, Chief of Staff brought me over. He showed me those pictures. I immediately went back to my office and issued an email to DTE, Barbara, Walter, and Adrian, our two representatives and liaisons. He did get back to me and said it was forwarded out to the appropriate departments. It does take a little bit of time for them to respond to those. Tomorrow morning we have our hotel quarterly, and DTE is talking to the hotels about energy sustainability in the hotel district. So I'll see them again, and I'll follow up with them tomorrow morning as well on that. As it pertains to the lighting in what I'll call the special assessment district for the hotel, which is kind of Ecorse, Vining, Wickham, Merriman Road, that area, approximately a year, three months ago, TIFA approved the street lighting project for that corridor. So if you go through that corridor, it takes a lot of time in DT for planning, for energy, you know, getting the energy to that area if they don't already have energy for street lightings. This is one of the things I've also been on DTN. A year and three months is too long for this type of project to take to even get shovels in the ground. They have been through the area and staked out that area. So if you drive and look in the medians, there's white stakes with red tips on them. Those are where the telephone poles will be, or the lightning poles will be going for the district. So that whole district will be illuminated in the very near future. That kind of ties it into the bus stops and the walkability of that area. As everyone here knows, communities change over time. And as they change, we have to prepare for those changes and plan for those changes. And one of the exercises that we've been through over the last two years And most of the people in this room at some point in another, and at one level or another, have participated in the Ecorse Road corridor study that we did. We participated in the planning, the reissuance of our master plan, the reissuance of the TIFLA plan over the last year. We revamped all of these plans and updated them with kind of supporting the goals that came from the vision process that was done at the end of the mayor's term, his first term. So we took all of those, we revisited them, we went through, we had public comment, we had business and stakeholders come in and give all that type of information. So part of that was that larger area over there, if you look, are surrounded by walkways and pathways. So the North Point project has a bike path, an asphalt bike path that goes around it. And then Amazon has a walking path as well. We need Ecorse Road and that's what the Ecorse Road corridor study was part of. We have an LDFA developed through Aerotropolis with our partnering communities in Van Buren and Taylor to look at Ecorse Road in its entirety across the entire breadth of the city to primarily as an infrastructure project to look at the roadway, expanding the roadway to three lanes throughout the whole city. adding walkways, adding crosswalks and safety features and amenities at all of the individual intersections, looking at pathways and connectivity and how we connect our community as a whole and we can connect all of that area. So that's in process and we're working on that and it's a long process, part of planning and development, right? And we've got to find the funding for that as well, which that LDFA will provide for us. And lastly, Big steps coming in the very near future with the transit authority and what that's going to look like, the smart for this region. Everybody, if you haven't had an opportunity to get the information about that, that's part of that vote coming up. It's very, very important. Get out there. Romulus has been an opt-in community for a long period of time. We need it. We are a job center here for the Detroit region and southeastern Michigan, and we need opportunities for people to be able to use that public transit to get to and from work. We fought very hard about a year and a half, two years ago to get Route 280 opened and reopened into the city and we did that. There is, I don't know if you're aware, but there is a shelter, a bus shelter on Binding Road on the southeast corner, right by the Amazon location there. It's not lit, well, I'll agree with you on that. But we put that there purposefully to get them off of E Course Road and to get them onto the side street where there's less traffic there. and I thought was smart, during the Ecorse corridor study, they had bus stops that you had to pretty much wade through a jungle to get to because they were on the opposite side of where the ditches were with all the frag mites and all the cat pads. So we had to move those bus stops to places that were a little bit more accessible, but a lot of work that still needs to be done in the transit and appropriate places. If you did notice in the late fall of last year, SMART went through all of the locations in the city and where there was a bus stop sign that leads concrete from the sidewalk to the curb. That way it became ADA accessible and people that had ADA issues could move from the curb to the bus where they open the door and can get on the bus as well. So we're very in tune with that corridor and what's going on. And the improvements that are coming and lots of things being addressed, they're in plan and paid for. So Tiffin paid almost half a million dollars for that entire corridor area to be lit. It's just waiting on DTE to put the poles in the ground and give the electricity to it.

Thank you. Thank you for that.

I'm sorry, how was that funded? Through Tiffin. Through Tiffin, okay.

Any other unfinished business?

Madam Chair, if I can, I just want to let Mr. Warren know that we will have your no-fee permit prepared for you by Friday, this Friday. So we'll give you a call, let you know that it is prepared. Awesome.

I just want to just make a note right now. It's been a lot of stuff said, a lot of accusations thrown out here today regarding this pilot. I just want to make an item of note that they're still here. Even at the last meeting, they stayed till the end. I think that was a very, very long meeting and they're still here. And just to put that thing out into our community about somebody's going to die, that's very concerning to me. It's very concerning to me. I'm a Christian, and I don't like to put that kind of thing into the atmosphere, but he did, so it is what it is. But they're still here. They were here at the last meeting until I think we're here until 10 p.m. They were still here. They're willing to listen to any concerns we have. And the fact to say that we discounted what people have to say And I respect the people that got up and speak today. Totally respect our council people who were against the project. And one thing just bothers me is when people say we don't listen to the people. We got 27,000 residents in the city of Romulus. 27,000 that we're accountable for. 27,000 people here that we have to answer to. That's all I got to say. And for other people to say that we don't want to hear or hear their voice, I'm offended. I'm offended. We went all out for the ICE detention center. All out. Our mayor worked diligently on that project, along with our attorney general. All out. And this is what's funny to me. This is what's funny to me. I got so many emails, texts, voicemails. Oh, you guys did a great job. You did a great job. You did a great job. The council, the city, great job. And I said, just wait until something comes that they don't like. Just wait. Something comes that they don't like. That's all I'm saying. We're for the city regardless. We're looking out for the good of the city overall. Let's go. Yes, the residents put us up here. They did. And we listened to the whole city of Romulus. The whole city of Romulus. Not a few. I'm just saying. And I'm offended. I'm offended when somebody tells me I'm not concerned about the people of this city. I'm offended. I'm done. Anybody else want to speak?

We're going to close that piece out.

I was waiting until communications.

Okay. You want to go now? I just want to say that when I make a decision up here, I try to get as many of the facts as I can and unfortunately I use jumping through hoops. I trust our planning commission and our building department and our ordinances and my problem is when business comes in and it wants to bring a business in and We set guidelines or we tell them what we want and they do it and then when they come back We move the goalposts back farther and farther and farther. I believe in making the businesses that adhere And unfortunately the gentleman left but I drove a truck a straight truck for a number of years and and I retired as a captain paramedic, so I've seen more than a lot of people, more than anybody should ever have to see. So I take this job serious, and I think that Pilot's going to be a good partner, and if we have a problem, I'm sure that we'll be addressing it straight with them. Thank you.

Okay, if nothing else, we'll close that piece up, Madam Clerk.

Thank you. Number 12 is new business. Number 13 is warrant for approval of warrant 26-12.

Through the chair, I'd like to make a motion we pay warrant 26-12 in the following amount. General fund, $147,524.93. Major street fund, $39,031.55. Local Street Fund, $506,960.15. Public Safety Fund, $582,338.21. Cable TV, $511.96. Merriman-Rose Special Assessment, $4,855.17. Street Lighting Fund, $43,911.53. Community Employee Activity Fund, $5,500.35. Garbage and Rubbish Collection Fund, $136,351.28. Oakwood SAD, $206.11. Tax Increment Finance Authority, $654,291.25. Downtown Development Authority, $5,371.78. Michigan Indigent Defense Fund, $10,248.32. 911 Service Fund, $4,508.83. Law Enforcement Federal, $13,175.10. Library Fund, $8,331.30. Opioid settlement, $54,412.66. Water and sewer fund, $424,977.03. Motor vehicle $140,065.68 Technology services $9,446.33 Retiree insurance benefits $165,871.62 Profit and liability insurance fund $684,183. Revolving fund, $51,368. Impressed payroll fund, $359,991.09. Delinquent personal property fund, $4,772.81. Totaling all funds, $4,058,206.04.

You second? Support. Thank you. Then motion by Ms. Abdo, seconded by Ms. Roscoe, for the approval of warrant number 26-12 for checks presented in the amount of $4,058,206.04. Any discussion? Hearing none, Ms. Abdo? Yes. Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Mr. Bullock? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Mr. Wadsworth? Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Number 14 is communication.

So moved.

No communication. Takes us to number 15. Adjournment.

The time is 9.34.

Support.

Everyone seconded. I know. It's been motioned by Mr. Wasworth. Did you second that, Mr. Bullock? Yes. Seconded by Mr. Bullock for the adjournment of this meeting. Mr. Wasworth. Yes. Mr. Bullock. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Ms. Abdo. Yes. Mr. Wilhite. Yes. Ms. Roscoe. Chair votes yes. We are adjourned.