City Council - Regular Meeting

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, to our city treasurer, to our chief of staff, our attorney, to all of the administrative staff that's here, to our audience, and to those who are viewing tonight's meeting via our social media outlets and cable channels, welcome to the City of Romano City Council regular meeting. And today's date is July 27th, 2026, and members of the public wishing to participate in this meeting may do so under two sections of the agenda. We have agenda item number two, which is public comment for items that are on the agenda only, and then also on agenda item number 10, which is public comment for any matter that you would like to discuss. Thank you. Tonight's council meeting agenda reads as follows. Number one, agenda. Number two, public comment. Number three, approval of consent agenda. Number four, discussion. Number five is petitioner. Number six is chairperson's report. Number seven is the mayor's report. Eight, clerk's report. Nine, treasurer's report. 10, public comment. 11, unfinished business. 12, new business. 13, warrant. 14, communication. And number 15, is adjourned. And a motion will be in order to accept the regular council meeting agenda that has been presented.

So moved, Madam Chairman.

Support.

Real quick, did we do roll call? I think we better do roll call. Okay. So our roll call is as follows. Councilwoman Abdo? Here. Councilman Jones.

Here.

Councilwoman Talley. Here. Councilwoman Roscoe. Here. Councilman Wadsworth. Here. And Councilman Wilhite. Here. Madam Chair, it looks as though Councilman Bullock has not been here. He's been excused. So noted. And therefore, we do have a quorum for tonight's regular meeting. Okay. And therefore, at number one, we need an approval of the agenda.

So moved for the approval of the agenda. Support?

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

Thank you, council. We are at number two, public comment, and this is a portion of the agenda. For the audience that would like to have comments on any Public comment for any agenda item?

Anybody would like to speak during this time? This is just related to items that's on the agenda that we're gonna be discussing this evening. So if you would like to speak at this time, please raise your hand. Going once, going twice. Let's move it on.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Number three, 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. Council, are there any items that you would like to remove from the consent agenda?

Any items from council? I'm good. I'm good.

Okay. Then the consent agenda reads as follows. 3A, approval of the minutes from the regular council meeting held on Monday, July 13th, 2026 at 7.30 p.m. Consent agenda item 3B. Approval of the minutes from the special meeting public hearing held on Monday, July 13th, 2026 at 7 o'clock p.m. to discuss the RFP process and RFP 2526-10 Van Boren Road properties. Consent agenda item 3B. 3C approval of the reappointment of Bill Toner to the Downtown Development Authority Board with the term to expire on July 31st, 2030. Consent agenda item 3D, to authorize a no-fee permit for all Pumpkin Festival and Parade of Lights activities during the Pumpkin Festival weekend of September 18th through September 20th, 2026. Consent agenda item 3E, to authorize the closure of Hunt street between goddard road and vibin street beginning at 12 o'clock p.m noon on friday september 18th 2026 and ending on sunday september 20th 2026 at 8 o'clock p.m for the primary midway of the pumpkin festival festivities consent agenda item 3f to authorize the closure of goddard road from gabriel street to east of the Post Office driveway on Saturday, September 19th, 2026, beginning at 8 o'clock a.m. and reopening at 8 o'clock p.m. for the Pumpkin Festival Car Show and the Pumpkin Chunkin' Competition. And the last consent agenda item, 3G, to authorize the closure of Goddard Road from Moore Street to east of the post office driveway on Sunday, September 20th, 2026, beginning at 8 o'clock a.m. and reopening at 8 o'clock p.m. A motion will be in order to approve the consent agenda items as presented.

To the chair, I'd like to make a motion that we approve the consent agenda items.

Support. It's been motioned by Mr. Wilhite, seconded by Mr. Wadsworth for the approval of the consent agenda. Mr. Wilhite. Yes. Mr. Wadsworth. Yes. Ms. Abdo. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Ms. Roscoe. Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Thank you, council. There were no items removed from the consent agenda for discussion. It takes us to number five, petitioner. Madam Chair and Council, we do have one petitioner on the agenda. This is the Celebrate My Life. The petition is a special event approval and no-fee permit. The recommendation is to approve the special event from Celebrate My Life for Saturday, September 12, 2026, from 9 o'clock a.m. to 9 o'clock p.m., and authorize a no-fee permit for the closing of Hunt Street from Bibbins to the entrance of the post office with access granted for emergency access. And we do have our petitioner here this evening. And I don't know if she'd like to come up to the podium. Yeah, you can come to the podium. Ms. Miranda Jones.

Thank you. Hi. Should I just start talking about the event? Okay. So we were here last year. This was, again, this is our eighth annual year, but this will be our second one here in Romulus. So it's the same event, but this time we're going to do it bigger and better. Last time, I think I underestimated how much space was there at the park, so... We're actually doing a full vendor show. So we have vendor applications already had like 22 just in the past week. So we're expecting a very big vendor turnout. But as you know, it's all about mental health. We'll have some music. We do have yoga instructors confirmed. So it'll be a free event where people can come out to de-stress, learn about mental health resources. And then there will be raffles, which we will get a raffle license from the state. And food trucks, Stello's will be there. It's a Romulus staple as a food truck. But we are hoping that for the safety of our guests, just like with the Pumpkin Fest, that we can close off the road.

Any discussion from council? And this is going from nine to nine.

So the event is from 12 to 5. I'm not really sure where the time came from, so it doesn't need to be. We'll be there at 10 a.m. to set up, so as long as it can be closed by 10 a.m., and then it could be reopened probably by 6 p.m. Gotcha.

Okay. Okay, thank you.

Madam Chair, if I may, I attended last year this event. This was her first year here. Having this event here, it was great. It was a success. Very well attended. I want to mention Miranda is an alumni of Romulus High School, class of 2008. Did I get it right? Yes, very good. Thank you. Class of 2008. She's also a member of the Romulus Rotary and she's just, she's come back and she's doing a fantastic job. But last year for her first time for that event here in Romulus was very well attended. It was a success and it was just a lot of great resources, especially in the areas for mental health. and even they had resources for veterans and things. So I just kind of want to support her and just put that in there, let you guys know.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Ms. Orozco?

I just want to ditto everything that the clerk just said because it was a very good event, and there was a lot of good resources and information, and I'm looking forward to seeing the bigger, better view of it this year. But it's very, very much a topic that needs to be out there and the resources available for our residents near and far. And I met a lot of people that were, like, not even from Romulus also that came to your event. So it was a really good event.

Thank you. Madam Chairman, if I can, I made an appearance there last year also. I did take a... a walk from end to end, and I was impressed what was there to see. Okay.

All right. Well, sounds good. Thank you for bringing it back. And so let's entertain the vote.

I'll make that motion, Madam Chair.

Ms. Roscoe.

To approve the special event for Celebrate My Life for Saturday, September 12, 2026. from nine till nine and approve a no fee permit for the closing of Hunt Street from Bivens to the entrance of the post office with excess granted for emergency vehicles. Support.

It's been motioned by Ms. Roscoe, seconded by Ms. Abdo to approve the special event from Celebrate My Life for Saturday, September 12, 2026 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and authorizing no fee permit for the closing of Hunt Street from Bivens to the entrance of the post office with access granted for emergency vehicles. Any discussion? Hearing none, Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Ms. Abdo? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Mr. Wadsworth? Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved. Thank you for coming.

Thank you so much. The support of the city really means a lot to us.

Thank you.

Miranda, we will mail out your permit to you.

We'll put it in the mail to you. Thank you. Thank you, council. Takes us to number six, the chairperson's report. All right, let's see.

We've got some good stuff going on today. We've got a presentation from Wayne County. You ready? All righty. Thank you for coming out.

Thank you for having me, and good evening. I am Judge Wanda A. Evans from the Third Circuit Court of Wayne County, and I'm here to talk to the community about what we do to talk about... accessibility to the court we are the third circuit court and we want our communities to know that we provide access to the courts and justice that's what we're about so we also are emphasizing jurors and celebrating our jurors within Wayne County We want to say thank you. And so if you haven't served as a juror, please do. We support many activities. This is one. We call this our 10 Minutes of Justice. We have our annual adoption day program, our reunification day. We swear in New York. We swear in new lawyers, and we have our law day and other things. I took my clicker, so I said I was going to use it this time. It just doesn't work for me. He's going to do it for me. Again, and we want to let everyone know that in the Criminal Justice Center, we have a new jury room. That is a new center, and it's on Russell Street. It's more spacious, has more lighting and technology. So when you come to the court system to serve as a juror and you are selected as a final juror and you're in a jury room, you have access to technology. You have access to the exhibits right there in the jury room. You have access to the court by just calling. That's a big improvement. from what we used to have at the old Frank Murphy. I sit in the criminal division. Now, as the slide says, over 220,000 residents were summoned for jury duty in 2025. Most of the time, jurors tell me that their experience has been good and that they promise to tell their friends, their neighbors, that it's not that bad. And I always give a certificate of appreciation because from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate you all serving. It's a necessity. If we don't have jurors, we don't have a jury, which is a constitutional right. Now, the Third Circuit Court sits above the district court, the probate court, and the municipal court. So every city, there are 32 cities within Wayne County, has a district court. And they handle most of the misdemeanors, the civil infractions, and traffic. They'll do the exams for the felony criminal cases. And they'll bind that over to the circuit court, then it comes to us. And if you don't like what you get in your district court, then you appeal to the circuit court. Now, the circuit court is reviewed by the Michigan Court of Appeals. So if you come to the circuit court and you're not satisfied with those results, you can then appeal to the Michigan Court of Appeals, and then all the way up to the Michigan Supreme Court. And I'll just say real quickly, we are celebrating 250 years of our United States. And that's important to the courts because we are operating differently than any other country for our judicial system. It provides an opportunity to be heard and to have justice, and many countries don't have that. So we need to celebrate that we do have this system. Sometimes we get upset with our system, our judicial system, our criminal system. So what other system would we have? to address some injustice, what someone may perceive as an injustice or a dispute by a jury of your peers. So our mission is to serve the community by providing accessibility and equal justice for all. And our vision is to be an exemplary and innovative court, leading with integrity and providing justice and public service. And I think that you'll find if you come into any of the courts within Wayne County, you'll find the judges maintain that same vision. And I would say the majority of us operate with integrity, kindness, which is crucial, and a listening ear. Because if you can't listen, you can't make a decision. There's always two sides to a story. And then there's a truth right here that we decide. Now, the Wayne County Circuit Court has 60 judges and more than 25 referees. And the referees will make a recommendation to the judge, and they'll handle things like juvenile delinquency cases, some of the print of the court matters, and if you don't particularly care for that, you can appeal that to the judge, and the judge will then make the final decision. That doesn't happen in the criminal section because only judges handle the felony matters. And in the Third Circuit Court, we have more than 500 employees. And our hours are from 830 to 430, Monday through Fridays. And we are set up to handle emergencies. And there's a telephone number that you will call if you have an emergency, such as needing a rent. The police often need rents. They need to go into a house and execute a search warrant. Those things we have 24 hours a day. The court is one court made up of four locations. We have the civil division and the family domestic division that sits in the Coleman A. Young Municipal Court. That's in the old city-county building. The police call it Woodward. We also have the Lincoln Hall of Justice, and they handle the family juvenile. matters, and that's on Forrest and Warren. So you have your abuse and neglect cases, and all juvenile delinquency comes through the family, juvenile section. And then, of course, the criminal justice center, the criminal cases, which is where I sit. In the Penobscot building is where the Friend of the Court is for all of your matters regarding child support, custody. You will start out at the Friend of the Court in the Penobscot building.

I'm sorry, you said the Criminal Justice Center, where's that located at?

That's at 5301 Russell Street. That's our new building. I think we've been there going on three years now.

Okay.

The Wayne County Circuit Court is funded by the state of Michigan as well as the county. And we work in conjunction with the Wayne County Sheriff's Department because they have to provide the security for the court's employees as well as the jail. We also work in conjunction with the Wayne County Clerk's Office. Every court has to have a clerk who is the keeper of the record. and also the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office is inside of the Criminal Justice Center. That's the department that brings the charges, and they approve the charges. And then, the Third Circuit Court is made up of four divisions. The civil division, as I said, resides or is inside of the city county building or the culminating young municipal building. And they handle all lawsuits involving a monetary damage amount of $25,000 or more. They handle all contract disputes, medical malpractice disputes, property matters, auto negligent cases in all election matters that's considered civil and that will go to the culminate municipal building the criminal matter all criminal matters all felony criminal matters where the punishment is one year or more will be dealt with in the criminal justice center that's on russell street And as I said, we handle all adult felonies that are bound over from the local courts. We handle all criminal appeals from the district courts. And then we have the family domestic division. That handles all divorce, child support, custody, parenting time, PPO's, emergency PPO's, and all alternative court matters. And then we have the juvenile, family juvenile, and that sits inside of the Lincoln Hall of Justice. And they handle all juvenile delinquency matters for children under the age of 18. Child protection cases, abuse and neglect, all adoptions, guardianship matters, and all truancy matters. Many of our constituents that come into our court system represent themselves and we do have some free legal resources for them and that's listed in your package take a look at that and also if you go to the wayne county third circuit court website and just kind of explore there are a lot of resources there for you to show you how to maneuver your new maneuver through the system and also it'll give you these legal resources that you can call if you need a lawyer We are the busiest court in the state of Michigan. And as you can see, we have handled, in 2025, over 20,000 civil cases, 552 appeals and reviews, almost 77,000 cases of criminal. That just seems so low to me. I think I said that before. I'm sure they checked, and this is best for lunch. I feel like I have 7,000 criminal cases in the home. But it is a busy court, and we also handle more than 28,000 family cases, for a total of 56,732 cases a year, divided up among 64. We are accessible. We are working hard to let the community know what we do and to let you know that you can contact the courts. Many of the judges will allow you to contact them or their JA and arrange for a group of young people, at least I do in my courtroom, to come down and visit because I think that it's important to have that contact. If you are a young person, if you have a school or group come down, we'll make arrangements so you can sit for half a day, watch the proceedings. I give you a script or like a trivia sheet follow along so it makes sense to you, so you know what you're looking at. And we have lunch together. I give you my card because it's important to know that someone is there and available if you desire to have any involvement in a career in the legal system. Not just as a judge, but as a deputy, a clerk. There are many jobs in the court system. And we are hiring. Anyone have any questions for me? I don't think you take questions. Any questions?

Any questions? So who handles monetary 25,000 and below?

That goes to your district court.

The district court, okay.

And then each city.

Okay, gotcha. Well, I just want to say this. As busy as you guys are, thank you for coming out and making these presentations because I think that's a lot. You guys have a busy caseload looking at these cases and 60 judges. So thank you for coming. Are you going to the different cities and making this presentation? Yes.

Most of the judges were I volunteered to go to various cities. This is my second one. I was in Harperwood about two months ago. Because we think it's important to let you all know that we're here. And sometimes people have never reached out or talked to a judge. But we want you to know what we do. Don't just sit back and say, the judge said I was lying, you know, probate. They locked up my family member. And you're mad. But we do more than that.

Yes, Stacy.

Thank you for your presentation, and I do have a couple questions. You mentioned that the court was hiring. For those that are listening in the audience or at home, can you give us a couple of the positions maybe that you're hiring and a contact if somebody's listening at home?

The website, you can go to our website, and it is www. The number 3rdcc.org. Go to that website, and it will tell you all the jobs that are available.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

All right.

Any other questions? Yes, thank you. Okay. Are you guys going to be around? If people in the audience have questions for you, will you be around for a few minutes?

I can.

Okay.

I didn't know if I could take questions now.

No, did anybody else have any questions up here? No, I think we're good. Thank you again. We appreciate it.

Okay, thank you all.

Okay, thank you. Okay, continuing on the report, we've got some reporters from our boards and commissions. Mr. Wilhite, police, fire, and safety.

Yes. We had a real light meeting. We talked about John Thede's third and fourth and fifth retirement party. We went to his luncheon. I was giving him a hard time. He had his luncheon over at Hook and Ladder. We talked about the new fire marshal that was hired, and we had a discussion about the possibility of creating a training officer position that's in the prelims. Fire department strength is at 25 with two vacancies. The fire department we discussed or the police department we discussed getting with the chief and talking with the fire department about the flock cameras. There's been a lot of discussion in here and directed toward us. So we are going to be meeting with the chief and get all the information so we can pass it along. We talked about the vehicle purchases and the fleet updates and moving the retired vehicles out of the city. And then we also talked about we are working on the rules and regs, code of conduct kind of thing, and we discussed different things that we wanted to do. It's in the prelim. So once we get it to where... We want to put it in our constitution and bylaws. It'll be brought to the council. And that was it. I've been busy. Thank you, Councilman.

Ms. Ethel, you have anything?

The library, we had the Friends of the Library had their book sale, and we're rescheduling another one for October. So when I get the date, I'll let you know. And then Cemetery Board, we meet tomorrow at 4.30. If you're interested or have an issue, please show up here at 4.30.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anything, Mr. Jones?

On the pitching, we know it's the 13th.

Right, the 13th. 13th of August. August 13th. Thank you. Ms. Roscoe, anything?

We actually did not have a meeting this month. Oh, wow. So we had nothing on the agenda to go over. And so everybody's busy out there. So I expect August and September will be a little bit busier with our meetings.

OK. Thank you, Ms. Roscoe. Mr. Wadsworth.

And we have a meeting coming up on August 13th. Oh, okay. Sounds good. Thank you.

Just a couple of things, events that's been happening in our city. We had a Great Eagle Alley event last Wednesday. Jerry, where's Jerry at?

Jerry, he gone?

Oh, okay. Okay. They did a great job. Anybody that came out, it was a great event. We celebrated. Not really, just had a good time fellowshipping out at Eagle Alley last Wednesday, I think. And it was just a really good time. So everybody that came out and supported, thank you for coming out and supporting. Kudos to Jerry and his team for a great event. So thank you. I think that might be something that probably is ongoing because it was really a good time. I have family coming from each side of town. I had a cousin come from Detroit to come and partake. I had an aunt from Ipsy who came, and we just all had a great time. And my cousin actually has been doing, they did the music in the park from us as well. So that's just spread the word, getting recognition from our city. So great job again for the Eagle Alley event. And as Mr. Wilhite said, again, congratulations to Mark, not Mark, to John Thie for his retirement. He had a great event at Hook and Ladder. Just celebrating his retirement. So again, just wishing him well in retirement. And they also had a great musical over the weekend. The last five years, great events. They got a lot of things coming down the pipeline, that hook and ladder. So please keep your ears tuned for different events coming up. They got a lot of things coming down the chain. And then just shout out to Bubbies and Polka Dots. They've been busy this week. They've had a strew of events this whole summer. A lot of different events going on. And then in addition to that, they do a great job marketing. And then they also are out there helping in advertising for other businesses around them and supporting other businesses as far as helping market their events as well. So thank you, Bubbies and Polka Dots, for all you do in our downtown area. And then I think those are all mine for this week. No, I did want to do a correction I had. We had a... backdrop we don't have it up there today like we had at the last meeting but deshawn was the um he was the creator of that and it was a really great professional look we didn't have it up there today though is that because he went huh okay okay he did a great job i gave credit to the wrong person but i wanted to give that uh heads up a shout out to the john for that backdrop so thank you and with that i'ma close my report

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

Support. Motion by Ms. Roscoe, seconded by Mr. Wosworth to accept the chairperson's report as presented. Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Mr. Wosworth? Yes. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Ms. Abdo? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Thank you. Number seven is the mayor's report.

report mayor mccreight could make it this evening but we have our chief of staff miss julie waitoko and she will present the mayor's report for this evening thank you madam clerk and good evening city council and madam treasurer and to our audience here this evening and those listening at home i'm happy to present the mayor's report this evening before we get into his action items though we need to share our upcoming events with you from our own vanessa tolliver from the mayor's office

Hello, I'm Vanessa Tauber, and here are some events happening in Romulus. Join us for one exciting evening featuring two free events at Romulus Historical Park on Friday, August the 14th. First up, Urban Muse will take the stage at 7 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. for an evening of funk, fun, R&B, and Motown favorites.

Bring your own lawn chairs and get ready to dance and sing along.

Immediately following the concert, turn your chairs around and enjoy a free show of Footloose Under the Stars on our new mobile LED screen. The Romulus BMW Post 78 is hosting a steak dinner on Saturday, August the 8th from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The cost is $22 per meal and proceeds benefit the building fund. Think you've got what it takes? Show us your talent and shine on stage. Join the Romulus' Got Talent show on September 20th during the Pumpkin Festival's Unity Day. Prizes will be given to first, second, and third place winners. Please call 313-408-3637 for more information. Thanks, everyone. And remember to like and share us on Facebook and YouTube, or visit our website for more information. You have yourself a great night.

Thank you, Vanessa. I'd also like to mention, most likely if you start watching your mailboxes before our next council meeting, you should be receiving the upcoming edition of our community newsletter, which is going to cover the months of August, September, and October. We have a lot still planned coming up, and that's going to include all of our details on Pumpkin Festival, but a lot of other fun events and things going on across the community. So please make sure you watch your mailboxes for that. And as always, it's on the website as well. We try to keep that updated as quickly as we can. Lots of great things happening in Romulus. Before I get into the mayor's action items, there was one other item that the mayor had wanted to share this evening. I'm going to defer to our city attorney, Dave Greco, and it's relative to the Wayne County public transportation millage.

Yes. Thank you, Chief of Staff, through the Chair. This coming up primary election day on August 4th, there will be a Wayne County public transportation millage proposal through the Mayor's Office and presented to the City Council. We have prepared a proposed resolution to inform the residents of the millage proposal and what will be on the ballot. I presented it to you, you know, to each of you to review. If you like, I could read it, and then the council can choose to adopt it or not adopt it, or the chair could read it through or however you want to proceed, or I could read it.

You can read it. Sure.

Okay. So the proposed resolution, which again is to provide information to the residents adopted by the council, provides as follows. Whereas the Wayne County public transportation millage proposal will be submitted to the voters of Wayne County at the election to be held on August 4th, 2026. And whereas the proposal concerns funding for public transportation services within Wayne County. and whereas public transportation services in Wayne County are provided through various transit systems, including services operated by the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, otherwise known as SMART, whereas public transportation services are utilized by residents throughout Wayne County, And whereas the smart bus routes provide additional transportation option or an additional transportation option for residents for employment, commercial, medical, educational, and personal travel purposes. And whereas the proposed millage includes public funding or includes funding for public transportation services as described in the official ballot proposal. And whereas according to the information provided by the Wayne County Transit Authority, the estimated tax impact for a homeowner with a home valued at approximately $200,000 is approximately $8 per month. And if residents live in a downriver community that already has smart bus service, this is a renewal and residents will not see an increase in their tax rate. and information regarding the proposed millage rate duration of the levy estimated tax impact authorized uses of proceeds and related election information is set forth in the official ballot language and election materials and the city council of romulus michigan desires to make factual information regarding the proposal available to residents and encourage informed participation in the electoral process. Now, therefore, be it resolved by this City Council of Romulus, Michigan, that the Wayne County public transportation millage proposal will be submitted to a vote of the electorate of Wayne County on August 4th, 2026, and residents are encouraged to review the official ballot language and publicly available election materials regarding the proposal. The City Council further declares that it takes no position regarding whether electors should vote for or against the proposal, that this resolution is intended solely to provide factual information regarding the proposal and the election.

Thank you. Madam Chairman. Mr. Wasware. I've got a question to the chair. It says in here that if residents live in the Down River, are we Down River or are we Western Wayne County?

So through the chair, we are a community that has smart bus service. So there will not be.

We do have smart buses, but when the public reads it, all right. Yes.

And this was, yes.

Okay. That's fine.

Do you have a question? Okay. Anybody else have questions? Okay. Do you want to take action on this, for this resolution?

Chair, at this point, if somebody wants to make a motion.

I'll make a motion that we adopt the public transportation millage resolution as written. Support.

It's been motioned by Mr. Wilhite, supported by Mr. Jones to adopt the Wayne County public transportation millage resolution as presented by our city attorney, Dave Greco. Any discussion?

Yes, ma'am. Through the chair.

Mr. Wilhite?

Yes. I just wanted to make sure that everybody's clear that this resolution is we're not saying yes or no on it. We are just giving you information that you can disseminate at home or whatever before you vote.

Thank you.

Okay. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Mr. Wadsworth? Yes. Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Ms. Abdo?

Yes.

Chair votes yes. Motion approved. Thank you, Attorney Dave.

All right, and thank you, Council. And now I'll get into the Mayor's Action Items for this evening. Item number 7A is a request for a Professional Services Agreement for Finance. and with Council's concurrence for requesting authorization for the Mayor and Clerk to enter into the professional services agreement with Plant Moran for temporary finance agreement for the City of Romulus Auditing Services.

Madam Chairman, I'm going to move that we adopt, it's a Plant Moran for a temporary finance agreement for the City of Romulus.

Motion by Mr. Wadsworth, seconded by Ms. Roscoe, to authorize the Mayor and Clerk to enter into the Tax Professional Service Agreement with Plant Moran for the temporary finance agreement for the City of Romulus. Any discussion? Hearing none, Mr. Wadsworth. Yes. Ms. Roscoe. Yes. Mr. Wilhite. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Ms. Abdo. Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Thank you, council. Item 7B is a request for disposal of obsolete, worn, or surplus property. With council's concurrence, that would be to authorize the DPW to auction off the equipment on govdeals.com. And as you'll see, those are some outdated Dixie Choppers that we have.

Madam Chair.

Ms. Roscoe.

I'll make that motion to concur with the administration and authorize the UPW to auction the following equipment on govdeals.com with the buyer to pay a 12.5% fee to GovDeals per vehicle with all other proceeds going to the appropriate city funds.

Support. The motion by Ms. Roscoe, seconded by Mr. Wadsworth. to concur with the administration and authorize the DPW to auction the following equipment on govdeal.com with the buyer to pay a 12.5% fee to GovDeals per vehicle with all other proceeds going to the appropriate city fund. Any discussion? Hearing none, Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Mr. Wasburg? Yes. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Ms. Abdo? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Thank you, Council. Item 7C is a petition for maintenance and improvements of the county drains, Hale Creek and Rosenworth drains. And we're respectfully requesting Council adopt the attached resolutions to formally petition the Wayne County Drain Commissioner for necessary maintenance and improvements to the Hale Creek and the Rosenworth drains in the City of Romulus.

and chair miss roscoe i'll make that motion to concur with administration and adopt the attached resolutions to formally petition the wayne county drain commissioner for necessary maintenance and improvements to the hail creek and the rosenworth drains in the city of romulus support thank you it's been motioned by miss roscoe seconded by mr jones to concur with administration and adopt the attached resolutions

to formally petition the Wayne County Drain Commissioner for necessary maintenance and improvements to the Hill Creek and the Rosenworth drains in the city of Romulus. Any discussion? Hearing none, Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Mr. Wadsworth? Yes. Ms. Abdo? Yes. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Thank you, Council. Item 7D is the Annual Community Resolution Accepting Long-Term Maintenance of Stormwater Management System. Okay. And we respectfully requesting council adopt the annual community resolution accepting long-term maintenance of stormwater management system in accordance with the Wayne County ordinance requirements. And that would be through the period of July 1st through June 30th, 2027.

Madam Chairman, I'm going to move that we adopt the Emanuel Community Resolution accepting long-term maintenance of the storm sewer from July 1st of 26th until June 30th of 27th.

Support.

Thank you. It's been motioned by Mr. Wadsworth. seconded by Ms. Roscoe to concur with the administration and adopt the attached annual community resolution accepting long-term maintenance of stormwater management system in accordance with Wayne County Ordinance requirements for the July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2027 fiscal year. There was a slight typo in here. I think it was addressed by Mr. Wilhite, if I'm not mistaken, with the city attorney. So just as it has any discussion. Hearing none, Mr. Wadsworth? Yes. Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Ms. Abdo? Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Thank you, council. Our next item, 7E, is a solar purchase from Bain Enterprises. And we are respectfully requesting that council authorize the purchase of the Enigma III hybrid locating system from Bain Enterprises at a total cost of $22,500. under the terms of the sole source purchases. And as you read through there, I had to look that one up. It's water leak and utility detection system that we're asking to purchase.

Chair Stephanie Sharp.

Madam Chair. Ms. Roscoe.

I'll make that motion to concur with the administration and authorize the purchase of the three hybrid locating system from Bain Enterprises at a total cost of $22,500 under the terms of the sole source purchases exception in section 39-11 D1C-1 of the Romulus Purchasing Ordinance.

Support. In motion by Ms. Roscoe, seconded by Mr. Jones to concur with the administration and authorize the purchase of the Ignima 3 hybrid locating system from Bain Enterprises at a total cost of $22,500 under the terms of sole source purchases exception in section 39-11, subsection D, subsection 1C1 of the Romulus Purchase and Ordinance. Any discussion?

Through the chair, I just bring it to your attention. I did do some research. I talked to purchasing and subsurface instruments are in Wisconsin. Their thing is it's American made, American produced, American parts. We're getting it from Bain Enterprises, which is in Ohio. And when I went through the quote, they quoted $1,000 tariff charge. So I laughed when I saw that because I'm thinking I didn't realize they charged if they come across Lake Michigan, but finance said that they were going to look into that.

No, thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing none, Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Mr. Wadsworth? Yes. Ms. Abdo? Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Thank you, Council. Item 7F is also a sole source purchase for Neptune Technology Group cellular endpoints with installation purchase. And we are requesting that you authorize the purchase of the cellular endpoint equipment with installation from Neptune Technology Group at a total cost of $110,781.75 under the terms of the sole source purchase.

I move to concur with the administration and authorization of the purchase of the cellular endpoint equipment with installation from Neptune Technology Group at a total cost of $110,781.75 under the terms of sole source purchase exception in section 39-11 D1C1 of the Romulus Purchase Ordinance.

I'll second it.

Thank you. There's been a motion by Mr. Jones, seconded by Mr. Wilhite to concur with the administration and authorize the purchase of the cellular endpoint equipment with installation from Neptune Technology Group. at a total cost of $110,781.75 under the terms of sole source purchasing exception in section 39-subsection D, subsection 1C1 of the Romulus Purchasing Ordinance. Any discussion? Hearing none, Mr. Jones? Yes. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Ms. Abdo? Yes. Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Mr. Wadsworth? Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Our next item is item 7G, and this is a request to piggyback on the My Deal contract for the purchase of one Ford Transit 350 12 passenger van for the Recreation Department. And with council's authorization, we'll be purchasing that vehicle through Gorno Ford for the purchase price for one 2027 Ford Transit 350 12 passenger van for a total cost of $64,298 for the Recreation Department.

Madam Chairman, if I can, I'm going to ask that we approve the piggyback MI deal contract to purchase one Ford Transit 350 12-passenger van for the recreation department in the amount of $64,298. Support. Thank you.

It's been motioned by Mr. Wadsworth, seconded by Ms. Roscoe to concur with the administration and consent to piggyback on the My Deal contract with Gorno IV for the purchase of one 2027 Ford Transit 350i 12 passenger van for a total cost of $64,298 for the Recreation Department. Any discussion? Through the Chair? Ms. Abdel.

Why does the Recreation Department need a 12 passenger van?

If they have activities where we have students or youth registered, they would be utilizing that van for that. This is much needed.

I called the state, and the person driving that van needs a special license for that. Are you aware of that? Yes, absolutely. And that person will have a bus driver's license?

Absolutely.

Okay. Because if not, the city is under a tremendous amount of liability.

Right. We wouldn't be able to get insurance through that otherwise. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, though.

All righty. Mr. Weisberg? Yes. Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Ms. Abdo? Yes. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Thank you, Council. Item 7H is also a request for the purchase of one Ford Utility Interceptor and one 2026 Ford F-150 4x4 XLT SuperCrew from Gorno Ford. And with Council's concurrence to purchase those vehicles, that would be at a total cost of $127,969, and these vehicles are for the Rhineless Police Department as approved in the current budget.

Madam chair, Mrs. Roscoe.

I'll make that motion to occur with administration and consent to the piggyback on the, my deal contract and made two four 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 9 3 with Cornell Ford for the purchase of one 2027 Ford utility interceptor and one 2026 Ford F one 54 by four. XLT Super Crew at a total cost of $127,969 for the Ramos Police Department.

Support. Thank you. A motion by Ms. Roscoe, seconded by Mr. Jones to concur with the administration and consent to piggy bank on the my deal contract with Gorno IV for the purchase of one 2027 for utility interceptor and one 2026 for F-150 four by four XLT super crew at a total cost of $127,969 for the Romnus Police Department. Any discussion? Hearing none, Ms. Roscoe. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Mr. Wilhite. Yes. Ms. Abdo. Yes. Mr. Wadsworth. Yes. Chair folks, yes. Motion approved.

Thank you, council. And our last item this evening is the final request is, again, to piggyback on the my deal contract. And this is for the purchase of two 2027 Ford utility interceptors from Gorno Ford. With council's concurrence, that would be, again, to piggyback on the my deal contract. with Gorno Ford for the purchase of two 2027 Ford utility interceptors at a total cost of $150,686 for the Romulus Police Department. Madam Chair.

Ms. Roscoe.

I'll make that motion and concur with the administration and consent to the piggyback on the My Deal contract in May 240000001193. with Gernot Ford for the purchase of two 2027 Ford utility interceptors at a total cost of $150,686 for the Ramos Police Department. Support. Thank you.

Motion by Ms. Roscoe, seconded by Mr. Wadsworth to concur with the administration and consent to piggyback on the My Deal contract with Gorno IV for the purchase of two 2027 Ford Utility Interceptors at a total cost of $150,686 for the Romans Police Department. Any discussion? Hearing none, Ms. Roscoe? Yes. Mr. Wadsworth? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Ms. Abdo? Yes. Mr. Wilhite? Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Thank you, council, and that will conclude the mayor's report this evening.

Thank you.

Number eight is the clerk's report. I do not have any action items, but I do want to make a few announcements concerning elections. First, I'd just like to acknowledge my team. The deputy clerk is off. I told him to go home because they've been working around the clock, especially early voting is taking place. I just want to just publicly acknowledge them. They've really been working hard these last couple of weeks of preparation, training, testing, and then just here bright and early and making sure things are running smoothly. So I'd like to just, again, give them a shout out for an outstanding job. Next, again, early voting is taking place. It started Saturday. We had a great start, and it'll run through Sunday, August 2nd. The hours are from 8 to 4 o'clock p.m., with the exception of this Friday, which the polls will close at 5 o'clock p.m. The clerk's office will also be open until 5 o'clock p.m. for those who are wishing to still acquire an absentee ballot. They can still do so, come in person. Also, that's the last day that we will be mailing out the absentee ballots, and so anybody out here who still has an absentee ballot, if you haven't made up your mind yet, I would strongly encourage you to not mail them after Friday. If you plan to mail them out, please take advantage of our drop boxes. We have three. One is located out in front of our senior center. We have one right out front here and also one at the clerk's office. And it's always nice to see you if you come by the clerk's office and take advantage of our drop box. And we always have something, some little treats there on the counter for you. And again, just encourage everyone to please come out and vote. There's still a very low voter turnout. And especially with early voting being available to everyone, we really wish, we're trying to encourage voters to please take advantage of that opportunity to vote early. Also, I want to announce that, just as a reminder, those that are in precincts 8 or 9, which normally vote at Ramos Elementary School, we have temporary polling locations as that building, the parking lot, is not accessible because they're going to be under construction. So for voters who vote in precinct 8, Your temporary polling location will be at the Mount Olive Baptist Church, located at 35565 Beverly Road. And those who are in Precinct 9, that temporary polling location will be at the Thomas J. Coleman Community Center, which is located at 351 Beverly Road. Notices were sent out to every household here in the community. reminding everyone of those changes. Also, for the middle school, that's precincts five, seven, and 10. There's also construction going on in the parking lot. So you will have to access your polling location through the back, in the back of the building closest to the football stadium. But there will be signage there directing you how to get in, how to access the doors and to get inside of the building. And, too, a reminder, when going to the polls, remember to bring your photo ID. Okay, remember to please bring your photo ID, a driver's license, a picture ID, a state ID, your employee ID. Those are acceptable forms of ID, your passport. And if you're not sure, just please give us a call. We do have information on our city website Also, sample ballots are available. Our city website is romulusgov.com, so a lot of the information that I'm speaking of this evening is there. Also, if you want to track your absentee ballot, if you want to know if we received it, you put it in the mail, like, did they get my ballot, you can go to michigan.gov forward slash vote, and enter your information and it will actually tell you the date that we mailed out your absentee ballot and the date that we actually received your absentee ballot. And again, give us a call if you have any questions, but I'm pleading with you, encourage your neighbors, encourage your family members, please get out and vote. This is a really important election. It's going to really impact our state. So sometimes we take these small elections for granted and we think, ah, it's just a small, it's just a primary. But these are very, very important elections. So thank you for listening to my rants on election. You know I'm very passionate about it. And with that, that will close out my report. Real quick, when did early voting start? It started this past Saturday. This past Saturday. This past Saturday.

How's the participation been?

Not very low. Okay. But again, our election inspectors, they are just awesome. And they're trained, they're ready. So we get excited when we get a voter coming in to vote.

So really make your day. Come on out.

Yeah, yes. But again, and even a shout out to our election inspectors. They have just done an amazing job. And so they are well trained and ready to assist with voting needs.

Thank you. You're welcome.

And that concludes the clerk's report, and that takes us to the next agenda item, which is number nine, the treasurer's report. Thank you. You're welcome.

Good evening. I just have one announcement, and that's the 10th Annual Veterans Resource Fair. Mark your calendars. It is for November 19, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., This is an event that Wayne County Treasurer Eric Sabry puts on, and I just want to say it's an excellent event. There are lots and lots of resources. So to all of our veterans out there, if you can make a point to go down there, if you need any service whatsoever, i'm positive it's down there there are so many booths down there and they even provide a breakfast and so if you can if you can make a point to go down i encourage you to do so i will be announcing this all the way up till november 19th as a reminder because it's a great event and you should attend if you can and that is all i have this evening thank you what goes on in that event from 10 to 3. So the biggest part of it is walking around to the different vendors. Vendors. For housing, for phone, for, I mean, Endless resources. It's absolutely amazing. And then he has quite a few speakers. There's a breakfast that is provided. It's just a really well organized event and it is meant for our veterans and it's just a great event. So I can't even encourage those that are veterans to make a point to go.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Treasurer. Takes us to number 10, public comment. And this is a portion of our agenda for those of you who are in the audience and who would like to address our city council. You can find the rules on the back of your meeting agenda. To address city council, please raise your hand. And after you've been acknowledged by the chairperson, approach the podium. You will have three minutes to speak. Any additional time will be upon at the consent of the chairperson. And please note that those who have submitted a request to speak card will be called upon first. The first card I received, Madam Chair, I have two written requests. The first one is Diane Carol Roy.

Good evening. It's good to see you guys. I am here to discuss Flock, again. Less than 1% of cars scanned by ALPRS are connected to any crime or wrongdoing. I don't think it's a good resource, a use of our resources for flock cameras in Romulus. One in ten plates that are scanned by these are misread. They misread the state. They must read the plates. There was a woman and her kids held at gunpoint because flock cameras tagged their car as stolen. And it was not stolen. This isn't against our police department. I have a lot of respect for our police department. But as I mentioned before, we don't control the data that is collected through FLOC, and anybody can utilize that data pretty much. really a lack of regulations into how they collect, store, and use their data. There is a lack of regulation that gives little insight on how to hold those responsible that abuse the flock system. So for any private or public actors that may abuse it, ICE and CBP have repeatedly used this to grab their immigrants without warrants. It's no coincidence that they show up in certain neighborhoods looking for certain cars and pull them over. We saw this happen in Portland. The gentleman in question was here legally. He was shot and killed by ICE. And that wasn't even the person they were looking for. So this kind of thing happens all the time. In Kansas, there was a police department that used Flock to pursue a man who wrote a critical op-ed Like I said, I don't think that our, I don't feel like our police department would do this, that would abuse flock, but the fact that we can't control where that information goes, and these cameras are in our community, I think that we need to get rid of them, and I strongly encourage you, and when you talk to the police department and the fire department about this, that you really strongly consider getting rid of flock in our community.

Thank you. Thank you, Diane.

The next written request is from Edna Talon Jamison.

Good evening, counsel, our counsel, attorney, our clerk, our treasurer, chief of staff. So I'm here on behalf of Fairways Gateway and the consortium, which is a combination of all five of our HOAs within our community. We also have the majority of our board for the consortium here for the ponds and the greens. I actually do stand for the other two, which are currently in development, which is the Oakmont. That was that group that left. We all have a combined problem, and that is feed. I will let the other presidents of their HOAs speak on their behalf, but now that we are becoming a completed subdivision, which will have, I don't know, around 700 homes, the speeding has become even more of an issue because now we have more open roads. I've been on the board since 2008, I believe, which I do deserve a retirement pension, but it's a free job, so I'm not going to get that. But if I could get some speed bumps for our residents, because it's no longer a want, it's a need. It's a safety issue. Our kids cannot walk down the street. They can't ride their bikes. We can't roller skate. Because the speeders are bad, check the police reports. We have several residents who think it's a speedway, and literally we have had residents that had to jump out of the street to prevent being hit. We have had one of the presidents in the ponds that a car stopped right before it was going to enter to her living room window. And that was labeling. And that was several years ago. She wasn't able to make it here today. She's not doing the best health-wise, but... If she had been sitting in her living room and that car did run into her front window, she may not be here, period. It's not an ask that's because we want it. We need it. It's a safety issue. Now, I cannot tell you how many times I've been before this council and before the mayor discussing this. This is my second time this year. And if I say 15 years at least we've been coming and we're not asking the city to do a thing except give us permission because we will pay for them ourselves. The mayor was concerned that it would be a problem with these snowplows. We will put down temporary ones and we will remove them so that they do not cause a problem with the snowplows because it's more important for us that we don't kill somebody. In the meantime, so we will fund it ourselves. We just need permission because we do not own the streets. The other issue that we have is that the mayor did have the stripey stripeys painted. Okay, after one or two passes, you know that it's paint. That didn't stop anyone. We put out the big sign that says, hey, you're going this fast. That did not work. Now we have a permanent post, just one in the subdivision, that says your speed. If there is no recourse, who cares what that thing says? People run stop signs, red lights on the regular. So a sign saying you're not going this speed is not really a deterrent. So I'm assuming that's my three minutes. I will yield because we have several others that will follow to say the same.

Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem, through the chair, may I? May I just comment? To the residents of Gateway and the person that just addressed this, last time when you were here, when you addressed the council last time, that was the first meeting that I was here as a city attorney to hear this address. I, by the chief of staff and the mayor, have been tasked with doing this. and this is on me that it's not done yet right now. I have studied the different communities, because we need to look at the different processes that are out there and pick one that's best for this community and for your community. So I have looked at and pulled Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Sterling Heights, City of Detroit, Kalamazoo, all those ones, because they all have different kind of things on how they are initiated and how they are accomplished, okay? And also looking into the issue on the fact that you guys are volunteering to pay for it, which I'm not necessarily I don't necessarily think is something that we may or may not be able to do based on the fact that it's a public road. But that is not going to stop this from being done. So where we are in the process right now is I have done it with that. However, I'm moving a little slow, but I will move faster, honestly, hearing from you again here, and I need to get together with the DPW so we can start to analyze exactly what is the best for the entire community of Romulus, but particularly your community. So it's on me. I was at the last meeting, but I have started the process of going through this. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Dave. Okay. Did we have any more written requests? That was the last written request. Okay.

Hello, council. My name is Willie Martin. I live at 31422 Augusta Drive. And this is my first time ever coming to a city council meeting in any place that I've ever lived in any state in this union. But it's important to be here because I was one of those people who was almost not here because of a speeding driver. I'm 63 years old. I'm a little too old to be going across hoods. I'm not the fall guy, I'm not a stunt man. But the impact to my family would have been traumatic. And I think it would be traumatic to anybody else's family to be struck by a speeding vehicle that we can actually do something about in our community. So kudos to you if you are looking into taking care of this because need these speed bumps. We've had a rollover accident just in the last year. We've had two light poles knocked down from speeding vehicles. We've had a vehicle flip over going too fast. And our previous vice president could have lost her life sitting in her living room. So I implore you to please get on top of this as soon as possible before someone is catastrophically injured or taken out. A life is more important than the vehicle being damaged by a speed bump. I think we all agree with that.

Thank you. It's my time. Thank you. I thought I saw another hand.

There's one over there.

Over here?

Hello. Can you hear me? My name is Peggy Askew. I live at 32396 Gateway Drive in Romulus. And you're looking at a Human stop sign. I live in the worst curve out there, I believe. And when I hear a car coming from the dead end, running a school, and once it gets to start up, I'm doing like this. I'm outside and I'm doing it. And this is our wrinkle interaction. They never slow down. And in the wintertime, it's really scary. And, of course, I have a dog. And, you know, it's just the worst corner. And I just want to say I appreciate your service. I appreciate you, Mr. Attorney Guy. I appreciate you acknowledging that you're kind of been moving. You're slowly moving the feet. So it's scary. And so I just appreciate you guys. I've been here before and I just want you to think about someone else, people that really need protection from the city. We need your protection. We need you to help us.

Hello and happy Monday.

Everybody smile. Don't get too quiet. So hello, council. Got two things. One, I've been walking the neighborhoods lately and our beautiful crosswalks, some of our intersections, But the buttons that we push, they're not working. So you got a couple of different neighborhoods. I'm not going to tell you where they all at, but I can tell you going down Wayne Road, I can tell you going down Romulus and Merriman that they're not working. I can tell you right by Amazon they're not working. I can tell you at Amazon they're not working. I can tell you at Van Boren and Merriman, which y'all take your battle of picking who's going to do it, Wayne, Westland or us. They're not working. So I just wanted to say that. And then Mr. City Attorney, I haven't received my questions answered. So I would like to know when those are gonna be answered from June. I know that we just met. And then I would like to know when it's going on the agenda so we can talk about it.

I don't know the answer through the chair to question number two. Last week when we met, I told you this week and it's Monday.

Okay. I'm moving fast enough. It's a joke between us all. It's a joke. So that's all I have, but I do want to know when we're going to be able to put it on the agenda so that we can answer each question on the record. That was an ask in my email when I sent it. Yes.

Ms. Bell, I do not know. Okay. I'm going to answer your questions, and then we're going to figure out what to do.

Okay. So we don't still put it on the record, right?

It's going to be in writing to you and answer to your questions and the ones that we can answer, as I indicated during the meeting, on whether or not it goes on to the agenda, if it's something that needs to go on on the agenda, is going to be between the city council, the clerk, and the administration. That answer I do not know. There's not going to be a firm commitment today, depending on what the answer is and whether or not they think it's publicly important to address it that way or not, since a lot of the information with regard to businesses and small businesses is on the website on what's there or what's not there. So I don't know if it's going to be an agenda item, but that's not necessarily up to me.

Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Any more questions from the audience? Come on up.

Hello, council. My name is Charles Dean Stanhouse. I'm a resident of Romulus and have been for 25 years. I live at 32889 Augusta Court in Robin Romulus. I'd like to go back to the speed bump issue, because I'm over at Gateway. But to give you a little background on this whole thing, Ellen and I have been on the board for the better part of 18 years now. I'm the treasurer, I guess by default, because I'm a CPA, a retired CPA. Anyways, that being said, I'm also in charge of beautification within the community. And so I think I'd like to talk about some of the safety issues, you know, as Peggy was speaking of, and even Edna. And will, for that matter. But it really is, I mean, you would be horrified at the speed that people would go through our subdivision in. And worse yet, the stop sign that, well, the running of stop signs that Peggy mentioned. She's probably about 200 yards from a stop sign that gets constantly, I'll just say roll through. But just the other day, I own a house that's right by, as a rental, I own a house that's right by this stop sign. My tenant told me, it might be an exaggeration, but someone ran through it at 60 miles an hour. Even if they're exaggerating, they ran through it at 40. You follow what I'm saying here? So we need, we desperately need these speed bumps or police patrol or something out there so that people will stop. Because as well indicated, someone's going to get hurt and maybe even die. And so I just want to make a strong appeal to council and to city attorney, please. And like I said, we'll gladly pay for it. So to give you some background, funds all of the entrances and all those subdivisions, all those individual HOAs to bring them all together. And that consortium is composed of the presidents from all these HOAs. And that being said, we're the HOA, I should say fairways is the HOA that's been responsible for all those entrances for the last, I'll just say 18 years. And I don't know if you noticed, I know Mr. Jones comes through there a lot. I'm working hard on these entrances. I just do it as volunteer work, but I like doing that kind of work. We put a lot of effort into those entrances. And I'll tell you another thing that kind of ties into the speed that people actually enter the subdivision in. I could delineate. There's been, does everybody know the entrances out there? There's one at Doral. That's the furthest west on Van Boren. That entrance, the wall has been ran into twice. Once four years ago and another time two years ago. The entrance on Lockmore, that's at Beverly and Lockmore in the back of the subdivision. That entrance, probably eight years ago, knocked over the entire wall. I don't know if anybody knows how big those brick walls are, but it's half the length of this desk here and it stands that tall. They knocked over the wall. Two years, three years ago, they knocked over one of the pillars. This is a four by four pillar made out of cinder block. They knocked the whole thing over. And this is the speed at which they are entering the subdivision. So you know that if they're already speeding by the time they hit the entrance, they're just going to keep right on going. So I hope I'm making a strong appeal to the board without even talking about, okay, I will talk about it. There was a guardhouse in the front of our entrance. Guardhouse, brick guardhouse, cinder block in the middle. Someone hit it so hard it knocked it off its foundation. I had to tear the thing down. Now this is, I'd like to say it's costly to us, but it's unsightly really. I've handled all the insurance claims so we're not out of pocket much. But the point is, is that these people are speeding through our subdivision and someone's gonna get hurt. someone may even perish from from from this condition that we have and they don't know why people think that they can speed in and out of our subdivision but they do so you know i we showed up here in the force today to try and make this point calm cool and collected how'd i do it okay good thank you so okay at that i say thank you very much thank you all right

Any other comments from the audience?

Good evening, everyone, council, residents. My name is Monica Miller. I'm a new resident in the Gateway subdivision, about not even two years. And I love it. It's beautiful. It really surprised me. I just didn't think I would. I come from Inkster, I just want to give a, and in Inkster they did put down the speed humps and it helped. They took them up in the winter. But I don't think they put them back down. I still go there, that's where I was raised. And it was really bad to where that's just what people did. They just speeded. And if nothing is done, that's what will happen at Gateway. It'll just be normal. This is just where you can just speed. Nothing's being done. There's no speed humps. There's no, what do they call them, monitors that tell you how fast you're going. Like I said, I know. I grew up in Inkster, and it was horrible. So it's a need. It's a need. I love, like I said, I'm a new resident. I love it. It's beautiful. It's quiet, except the cars. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments? You want to go again? Madam Chairman. A minute and a half. What can you do? A minute and a half. Okay.

I have to say this.

Okay.

I have to say this. It's only by the grace of God that nobody has That's it. We can play politics all night long, but it's only by God's grace that a life has not been lost on that gateway. And I want my city to be sued. I do.

Thank you. Mr. Weisberg?

If I could just make a quick comment. As a retired law enforcement officer, there is no doubt in my mind that speed kills. And once it kills, you can never back up the car and take it away. And I would urge the administration, and I'm sure they will, to work with these folks on the speeding problem. We have the same problem down on Barth Rover. I've lived, especially during school, they come flying down there. They got their coffee, their cell phone, and they fly down. So this is a problem that's just not in your end of town. It's in every end of town. And I'm sure that we're going to do something about it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Wadsworth. Any other comments at this portion? Well, didn't you go already? Yeah. How much time? You only got a few? You only got a minute. Okay. I only need a minute.

Okay. I just want to reiterate safety. It's not just for us. It's also, you know, we have a golf course right there where people, you know, coming in, spending money to go play golf. They go across these roads, too, especially in these dangerous curves where we've had a lot of the accidents. So it's not just for our safety that we're here with. But one of the golfers can also be possibly killed, you know. And I do think that maybe we probably need to get the golf course ownership involved in this, too. But we're coming to you guys, as she said, she's been here a bunch. And please, consider what we're asking. We don't want this. We need this. We've got to have it. We got it. We got it. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Jones. Like Mr. Wadsworth was saying, we have that problem over our city, even right next to Gateway on 4th Street. That's another problem. We'd be having to name the process of doing something about it with the speed bumps and stuff. So I know pretty sure that something's going to be coming to that because you said by the time they hit somebody, it's too late to back the car up. But, yes, that's a problem that we are facing in the city. And that right next to you, well, what gateway was that? Well, not when it was just woods. I used to play there when I was a little kid. So that's the whole community. We are dealing with people flying through the – neighborhoods, they stopped running the streets straight through neighborhoods because of that. Maybe it'll slow it down, but we got to do. In the city, we are concentrating on doing something that's going to try to permanently slow that down. It won't destroy your neighborhood, but we got to do something. And they're working on doing that because we're helping that, not just Gateway, even, like I said, the neighborhood right next to you. Where I grew up at, they're having that same problem. And what we can do, we putting our heads together, come up with something, make it permanent. And me, myself, I would love to see more policemen, but they can't be at the same place all the time. But we are working on it.

Thank you, Mr. Jones.

Ms. Abdel?

Bottom line is we need to listen to the people. That's why we're here.

Thank you. Well, we're still in public comment. Any other comments from the audience? Let's go ahead and close that out, and then we can address any other comments on the unfinished business.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Number 11 is unfinished business.

Okay.

Through the Chair, if I may. Yeah, please. And I think our city attorney's been very open and honest today. And, you know, Ms. Jamison, I absolutely remember the meeting that you were at the last time, and you can go back through our weekly meetings. This has been a pivotal conversation of this administration for a long time because... Mm-hmm. You know, there's two schools of thought on everything. Unfortunately, people are speeding through neighborhoods. We have tried some temporary resources in some of the other areas in the city. Some of those temporary speed bumps, because of course our, you know, fire apparatus and such is also a concern. But we have, Mr. Grocco has been doing some pretty extensive work because we know it's something that we have to have on a permanent basis. So I know it's not fast enough for you, and he was very open and honest with you on where we're at with it today. We will be bringing something back, I think, quite soon. So I didn't forget about you, Ms. Edna. If you check my notes, you'll see it's on there. And we'll keep council apprised as well. But I think, Mr. Jones, you know, we've put some out in some other areas in the city and tried it, but it's unfortunate that it's something that we need to do, but we definitely have to. So thank you.

Thank you, Chief Stafford. Let me just say that everybody left right now, so we couldn't hear the comments. I hope you can relay the information that's been coming in today, Edna, because everybody didn't left. This is a very serious issue, and I remember when you came in here last, and the thing that was unique about your situation is that you guys did bring a solution, that you guys were willing to do something about it, which is great. creative solutions. So thank you. And I know Dave, if he said it, and I trust we work with Dave quite a bit. He's been here, how long have you been? About a year or so? Six months. Is that what I said? So I know y'all want to give him a little grace.

Give him a little grace. That's it? Okay.

Give him a little grace. I know he's working. If he said it, I know he's working on it. So I'm sure you're going to hear more to come. So thank you. And thank you, guys. And make sure you tell them once they're left, too, what's, you know, the comments. All right.

Is there any more unfinished business?

Any other unfinished business? All right.

Number 12 is new business. Number 13 for approval is Warrant 26-14.

Through the Chair, I'd like to make a motion we pay Warrant 26-14 in the following amounts. General Fund, $121,364.52. Major Street Fund, $3,338.37. Local Street Fund, $608,300.06. Public Safety Fund, $75,458.96. Cable TV, $6,633.11. Merriman Road Special Assessment, $5,884.77. Community Employee Activity Fund, $471.78. Garbage and Rubbish Collection Fund, $114,009.60. Oakwood SAF, $172.98. Tax Increment Finance Authority, $29,756.09. Downtown Development Authority, $27,770.75. Michigan Indigent Defense Fund, $13,925.18. 911 Service Fund, $10,659.23. Drug Law Enforcement Fund, $469.37. Law Enforcement Federal, $36,217. Library Fund, $15,176.61. Water and Sewer Fund, $436,364.01. Motor vehicle, $72,565.52. Technology services, $11,619.73. Retiree insurance benefits, $13,593.04. Revolving Fund, $1,532. Impressed Payroll Fund, $31,155.20. Delinquent Personal Property Fund, $8,962.55. Totaling All Funds, $1,645,400.43.

Support. Thank you. It's been motioned by Ms. Abdo, seconded by Mr. Weisberg to pay approval of warrant number 26-14 for checks presented in the amount of $1,645,400.43. Any discussion? Hearing none, Ms. Abdo. Yes. Mr. Weisberg. Yes. Mr. Wilhite. Yes. Ms. Roscoe. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Chair votes yes. Motion approved.

Number 14 is communication. If there's no communication, takes us to number 15, adjournment. The time is 9.06. So moved. Support.

All right. It's been motioned by Mr. Wadsworth, seconded by Ms. Roscoe to adjourn this meeting. Mr. Wadsworth. Yes. Ms. Roscoe. Yes. Mr. Wilhite. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Ms. Abdo. Yes. Chair votes yes. We are adjourned.