City Council - Regular Meeting

Um, is the one in the office yours? Clerk Royal, are I'm sorry. Are you good, city manager? It's an extra. I'd like to call this Selen City Council work meeting to order at 6:02 p.m. Members present. We have council members Delorco, Dylan, uh, Gearb Hal, um, Harmount, Mayor Prom Rice, and Mayor Marl from city staff. We have the city manager and city clerk um and two members in the audience. Um at this time, the chair would entertain a motion to approve the agenda as submitted unless there are amendments. Moved as submitted. Moved by Gearbot to approve as submitted. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Harmount. Uh all those in favor of approving the agenda as submitted. Signify by saying I.

I. Post say nay. Eyes have it. The motion carries unanimously. Excuse me. Uh we move on to public comments. Under the open meetings act, any person may come forward at this time make comment or question to city council. This public comment period will be limited to three minutes per person. And anyone who would like to speak is requested but not required to state their name and address for the record. There are any citizen comments? I would defer to the city clerk. Were there any written comments provided in advance of tonight's meeting which the individual wanted the remarks read at this time? Easy enough. Then we transition to the one and only discussion item which is um Selen Fireboard articles of incorporation. Again an email that was sent from both the city manager and from myself. Uh we're trying to get consensus this evening because I believe the uh Selen Fireboard would like to vote on this uh matter at their upcoming meeting which is this Wednesday um February the 4th. Um city manager um Swallow would you like to begin and then I would welcome comments from um first Lori Champion um one of our fireboard representatives then council member Gearbal and then finally I'll defer to um council member Deloro if he has comments. Then we'll open up for questions.

Yeah. Thank you mayor council. Uh as uh council's aware, over the last several years, uh the city has been working with our township partners on the governance structure for the Selen area fire department. Um this has been an ongoing evolving effort uh even to the point of uh changes to state statute to make it possible for a partial township to join a fire authority. Uh so with that uh there's been a lot of look close uh investigation into uh the option of forming a fire authority uh with the uh with the three townships and the city and specifically that was uh studied as part of in 2025 the city commissioned a study uh hired an expert consultant to review the options of uh the restructuring of the Selen area fire department uh what would it be the best structure going forward and the general consensus from that study was uh that the should consider a a fire authority under the public act that's now public act 57. So with that uh that is kind of the direction that has been taken over the last several months. Uh the fire board and more specifically the steering committee which make is made up of several or a member from each of the communities uh has been taking a previous draft of uh articles of incorporation uh that were worked on. This is the foundational document of any fire authority. You start out with the articles of incorporation. There are certainly other documentation including bylaws and other policies and procedures potentially even ordinances uh the city will have to adopt but the art of incorporation are essentially the the basis document for that uh that fire authority. So uh they've been working on that. In conjunction with that the city also did a review uh taking a look at it at their October 6 meeting. I presented a analysis of the various options uh specifically looking at fire authority looking at just regional cooperation looking at the status quo and based on the analysis of the city representatives uh which included city staff uh the

recommendation was to proceed uh with the uh fire authority. So again uh the fire board as well as the steering committee has been working on uh the articles incorporation. you received the latest version of that. It's gone through uh various iterations and development. It has been reviewed by all of the fireboard members as was mentioned. Uh the fire board voted to distribute it out to the communities for hopefully what we're will be uh some of the final edits to that so that it can be move forward for adoption. Um, with that, once the fire board recommends adoption of the articles, we'll go again back out for formal action uh by the council and the township boards. So, this is not obviously the final say this evening. Uh, this is a discussion to try and get those those final edits and the final version of this uh these articles uh moved forward. So, there are a lot of things that the the committee the board has looked at. Uh, you'll notice that the powers of the authority in the board are enumerated in the document. The number of board members has been reviewed and discussed. Uh whether or not to include an ATL large board member that was reviewed and the decision was to include an ATL large board member. Uh things like what constitute quorum uh what alternate members are allowed to vote on and when a super majority may be required uh for a vote or for certain decision. Number of officers and who's eligibly an officer. Oversight of the fire chief was discussed at length. the budget adoption process and time frame funding of the authority and keep in mind currently do not obviously have a dedicated millillage but so what that would look like without a millillage you know go and also with a millillage uh in the goal long term uh is to put this to a ballot really not that long term really in the next uh next next election cycle uh to put forth uh if the authorities form put forth a mill

request what that funding structure would look like uh again, uh hopefully not, but if a board if a community uh were to withdraw, what what are the provisions for that? And then also what you know what are provisions for hopefully potentially growing uh the fire authority in the future? Uh there's been some discussions relative to uh with the townships adjacent uh and with uh current relationship with Milin, what would happen there and then the need for some specific bylaws and policies and pre procedures to implement uh the articles. So with that we want to maybe uh go through that's a very brief summary go through kind of article by article uh or take questions uh that and we can focus in on particular issues.

Yeah let's take questions and uh um concerns from the deis in just a moment. I I do want to provide again our our representatives to the selenior fire board an opportunity to share some remarks in particular uh Miss Champion who's uh worked on this a bit longer than our other two uh council representatives who were just recently appointed to the fire board. uh and began their terms in January of 2026. U Miss Champion, is there any um additional um comment that you would like to make pertaining to the draft articles of incorporation?

First of all, I'd like to um comment that thank you um city manager swallow for your comments. I agree with that summary. Thank you for that. I do want to thank the council as well for the investment you made in that report last year which was incredibly helpful and really helped to point the way forward and to verify some prior analysis that had been done with some additional facts and information which was very helpful. Um at this point I chair the steering committee of the board which is tasked with the fire board with um you know spending many hours uh discussing these topics and then bringing it back to the board for further discussion. So there has been a lot of conversation with the full board as well as within the steering committee with the attorneys around uh the documents. It's just to let you know that we have really worked hard not only to produce a document that has been thoughtfully considered but also to build consensus. U one of the things that's really important to me in chairing that steering committee with that particular task and then also representing the city on the overall fire board is to make sure we don't leave anybody behind as we're moving through the analysis. So at any point in time where there were concerns or questions, we would take the time necessary to go through that together. Um I would also point out that um this is just the the next stage. Uh so now we're at the articles of incorporation. After this we would need to do the bylaws which will contain more details. Of course, as you know, we are also focused on a path where we'll look at the um control environment, the policies and procedures, many of which have been built up over the last 12 to 18 months by taking those to the next level where

they need to be. And so, I'm not saying there's anything wrong or missing today. I just want you to know that's part of the buildout. As we think about moving to the authority as a form of of entity and the governance that's required around that, there is 100% alignment within the board and the four for municipalities that make it up that we want to be sure that our processes and procedures mature as appropriate. you know, to support that that next step into the future. So, that's a lot of preamble, but it's just to let you know what some of the thinking has been to date. Great. Yep.

Thank you. Appreciate your leadership and hang tight, Miss Champion, because there might be some questions that are best addressed by you. Uh, Council Member Gearbaugh, anything else you'd like to add uh to uh to this discussion.

Yeah, I believe our last meeting that we had was very productive. All the township members were part of it and contributed significant input in things. There were a number of things that we talked about from my concerns being the administrative oversight and reporting needs, but that we do realize that the articles of incorporation are really more of a an oversight an oversight type of thing where we will move more into the bylaws where we'll put more information. But there are some things that I believe should be in the articles of incorporation to make sure that proper controls and administrative aspects of who is appointing to or who's reporting to whom are included. Um couple things that we did review more is the process of how um a millage would be asked. um the idea that you know in the future should we get approved or millage and then if um you know you go for renewal that those type of procedural things the way they were listed in it um didn't allow for a lot of time so we moved those time scales up so it's similar like what the schools would do you ask a year before it reexpires you don't ask it two months prior to it um and then the other thing really is just looking at concerns regarding um York is talking about potentially wanting to expand to the full township which is a little different than what we have talked about previously ly and then the other thing of some of it is that we as a city will be committing as a guarantor for whatever happens in the future. Should the millillage not get approved then we are guarantored and we will have to figure out how to pay for that at that point. My concern was trying to figure out is there an issue related to how do you then address that concern or are we automatically having to pay it and how do you address the issue within the the unit itself. So how do you reduce costs? How do you address for deficits? Those type of things should that need appear. And then the last thing is to making sure that the debts and liabilities that are currently up the um operations are absorbed by this unit and not by our city.

Thank you for that. Um Council Member Deloro, anything you'd like to add before we open up for questions?

Uh thank you, Mayor. Um I think city manager Swallow, Lori, and Council Member Gearball did an excellent job summarizing what was discussed at the uh fire board meeting. Um I had a chance to attend. I thought the meeting was very meaningful um very productive. All the townships had some meaningful contributions to the word smithing of this document. How they wanted to be phrased um how it was important to not have it be too defined in the sense that we didn't have flexibility to change things as the fireboard grows. Um a lot of things were moved into the the bylaws which we'll look at later um which is more easily modified. um some of the language was um removed just referring to Act 57 because a lot of things are laid out in Act 57. So this is really an opportunity for everyone to ask questions about the language as it as we see it in front of us and it's it's been through several drafts at this point. So um I'm I'm eager to hear people's thoughts.

Very good. Thank you for that, Council Del Council Member Delo. I'm going to start with questions uh today for both the work meeting and for the special presentation. I'm going to begin to my my right uh and far right and end to my uh left. I of course I'll conclude at the end if I have any additional questions or comments that haven't been asked by my colleagues. So I will begin uh this evening with um Council Member Halsh. Um if you have questions for the city manager or three representatives to the uh the fire board.

Awesome. Um thank you mayor. So I had uh one question that I had was specifically um in the appointment section of appointment of officers I think 11 uh no I'm sorry is section nine nine is board members

yes yes board members um it mentions governing body um of the city of the two representative or yeah the representative board members um is by governing body is that the entirety of council or is that going to be similar to our current sort of boards and commissions process where you know it's kind of an application that ultimately we approve or do you want to address that miss champion so this intended to be the the city council andor the board of trust trustees of the municipalities. Just make sure in the future you speak at the microphone. You're good for now.

I'm just going to come stand here. Yep. Perfect. We clear on that. Council member Halsh. Yes. Okay. Um and then my Oh, I'm sorry. Did I cut you off? No, I Yes. It is intended to be the city council. Obviously, uh we may be looking for ideas from, you know, whether the community and or from council as well as to who may want to serve. So, Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um and then So, yeah, that's for D it will be at the recommendation of the mayor. Okay. And then council will have the final authority of approving it.

And just for some context, council member Hal, I believe it was uh two years ago now, we changed the existing uh governing structure to permit private citizens to serve as board members uh of the Selen Fire Board. Prior to Miss Champion's appointment, uh it required that um it be the the chief presiding officer of the four participating municipalities, which is three supervisors in the mayor and then one member of their board of trustees or city council. It was modified to say it shall be at least one member of the elected body and another member of of your choosing.

Okay. Thank you for that uh context. Um, and then I guess may and as I'm hearing you say, um, some of this may be hashed out in the bylaws, but one of the questions that I have was, um, well, actually it's a multi-part question. So, the first part of it is, uh, what happens if for some reason a municipality falls into a rears or has a grievance with the authority? um how will those disputes be handled or is that something that is appropriate in the articles of incorporation or is that something that will be kind of expanded in the bylaws?

Take a stab at that, Miss Champion. Happy to. Um in terms of uh the obligation under article 20 there is an ability to withdraw from the uh from the um fire authority and there is a procedure laid out for that. The debts and liabilities continue and are an obligation of the entity um as defined in terms of a dispute mechanism. really have a dispute mechanism. That's something we could put in the bylaws though.

I just figure, you know, and and part of where I came from with a rears is let's say and I don't let's say we as a city, I'll use Selena as an example. Um let's say we withhold money because we don't like the service from X YZ or you know we don't like this aspect or this policy or procedure. um you know at what like will we still receive service from the authority even though we're technically in a rears or during that period of dispute was is was kind of where that thinking came from.

Thank you so much. Um there have been occasions uh in the past where one of the municipalities did stop payment during a period where they felt that they um should have an adjustment. For example, the way this is laid out, it says your your obligation is it's it's mathematically determined. We all agree on the budget and then we've all agreed on the formula for how everything is allocated and there used to be a formula that was quite complex in its nature and sometimes confusing. And so we have a a simplified approach which is based on adjustable tax value as the end of each uh period. And so we know those numbers. We'll know them uh finally the beginning of or the middle of this month. So that's formulaic. It also says that you you need to pay according to the payment terms. So that's also formulaic. There is not today um wording in here that says what happens if somebody doesn't pay. And I I would like to talk to the attorneys about that and see if if we should add any further um language into that or perhaps again that could go in the bylaws.

It was just to me I I just I thought it seemed missing or odd that we didn't have any sort of or anything like that. So that was all of my questions. Um, I'm really excited to see the bylaws and and kind of see this build out and you know, I trust the people that are on the committee and and so yeah, I I'm excited to see the work. Thank you so much. Very good. Thank you, Council Member Hullsh. Um, Council Member Delco, do you have any questions at this time? Not at this time. Okay. Council member Dylan,

thank you. Before I start, I wanted to ask if there anybody would be amendable to sort of changing the process right now and just going through each of the articles so that we're all on the same page of okay, we all agree to this and then move the document forward instead of random questions in different sections. Does anyone have a preference on that? I don't we've got two people who probably don't have any additional questions at this juncture. Um um Okay. Well, then I'll just Okay. So, I think just proceed.

That's fine. Um, so one of the first things is kind of going through the document when we talk just really basic at the name of the organization. We're changing it to fire authority. Is that just its professional name and will it forward facing still be the Selen Area Fire Department? Not changes to fire authority. That's per the statute. And so, but we can't use that as the layman's name. And so we're going to have to rebrand the fire department. We have to change the name of the fire department.

So the entire like so all branding, all the the names on all of the trucks have to be changed. All of their gear has to be changed. Everything like that will have to be changed. Um there's no requirement to my knowledge that says if we become a fire authority tomorrow, you know, by Friday we have to have all the names on the trucks changed, right? So I do think that's an operational question add to that you know that obviously the legal name right area fire authority right um you know I think by concurrence you know the the members could agree not to rebrand uh and the name

and that's where I I want to understand because it's going to be an expensive rebrand I and one time this came up the idea was that we would simply change it over as we bought new vehicles. So

that's I'm just trying to understand that aspect of it. Um kind of going through I'm going to sort of go through in sort of some of the order in which I have stuff. The fire chief under definitions it says means the fire administrative officer of the authority. Is he an administrator or an operational? Because I feel like those are two totally different positions. And are we having a secondary person?

So two things. Much like the way the city operates, you have a chief executive who has operational and administrative responsibilities. So the way this is set up, your fire chief has both both responsibilities. It's not bifurcated into two different roles. I believe the statute does refer to chief administrative officer and so that language is pulled into these articles in order to make sure it's consistent. But the idea here as it stands is that you have a fire chief who has operational and administrative responsibilities. um one person responsible to the board and to the community for the operation of that fire department and for making appropriate reports and all of that kind of thing. There is an administrative position that is defined and filled by Natasha Smalinsky today. And so I know there's been discussion and I'm sure we'll um we'll talk about it some more about uh the possibility of in the bylaws ensuring that that person has direct reporting ability to the fire board or at least to perhaps the chair of the board and the treasurer. Um and I think that you know we could put that on the list for the bylaws and certainly you know take care of that. We did debate the possibility of splitting the role and the uh strong viewpoint in the group was that we're just not big enough to afford two highly compensated chiefs if you will. Um in that structure right now when we are really have been struggling to fund having enough firefighters, you know, to to run the department properly. So, you know, if we had a

bigger budget, could we split that into two roles? We probably could. Even then, you know, we we'd have to be careful about, you know, how those operations are um delineated and coordinated.

I appreciate that. One of the concerns I know um having sat on the fire board for over 10 years was that you have someone that's approving their own expenses that is doing something that way. Um, and so just sort of understanding where the checks and balances is, whether that's physically a person, whether that's an offshoot of that board, the treasurer role of the board where they have ownership in things. I I I just would like that to be a consideration to make sure that there is a process that goes and I do like your idea that the administrator has a direct line of reporting to the board where it's not just a parallel to the chief

and you know do that as well and there I know in the meeting there was a lot of discussion around the treasur role and basically you know encourage well expanding the role of the treasur and you see as it's defined it shall be the custodian of the funds um shall be bonded uh and you know shall have the responsibility to basically oversee uh the funds of the authority so I think there's an expanded responsibilities for the treasurer uh that's outlined in the articles as well yes and and indeed indeed um my thought there in in comment is that um it is actually the treasur's role to check the expenditures and a checkbook in the past. It just wasn't being done.

And like I said, I know that since you've joined on there has been some changes and just making sure that it's continuing down that same path. He comes in every month and sits down and goes through everything and he showed me his his way of doing it. So I'm comfortable he is doing a good job with that. But to your point, this is part of the the maturity of the process and the rhythm of the culture to make sure that those things actually happen correctly.

Right. I appreciate that. Um, so when we because I'm still in definitions right now, municipal emergency services, it's sort of an an is that a defined term in Act 57? Because it has a weird meaning. It means an emergency service performed by a municipality rather than by this authority. I guess I was just trying to understand what an example of that would be that comes out of the act.

Okay, that's fine then. And then moving on to municipality which says means a county, city, village or township. And I guess I was wondering should it also say or portion thereof because this kind of goes back the the reoccurring theme and Mr. Gerbot did mention it is it's implying that York is fully covered that the entire township is covered. There's wording later on that allows a partial municipality

five jurisdiction uh shall determine the territory under the authorities jurisdiction. So the municipalities, you know, kind of have that ability to designate a portion of the lounge in this case cuz that was the question I had too is trying to make sure that we could still operate, you know, with that. I'm sorry. What do you mean we can still operate with that? I I missed the first part with a partial township. Okay. I mean, that was the whole reason that they became an authority was to be a partial township. So I feel as though there should be an acknowledgement of a portion of a township.

But if we change municipality to partial to allowed partial, then you're saying okay, the partial municipality does not itself have a governing body. So the municipality that's that's part of the authority is the full municipality, but they have the right in the document to put a portion a designated portion of territory into the fire department. We also wanted to preserve that even though there's discussion of York bringing the full township in, that's not done yet. And we could wait forever to get this done until we knew what everybody was going to do and then it would change anyway. So the idea here is to give flexibility

to allow partial today to allow partial to expand to total and frankly in the future 10 years from now none of us might be here but presumably that you know sitting in these particular chairs hopefully we're here watching and and providing wisdom and guidance. Um sorry for that. I didn't mean to foretell anything. So um the um the um situation though is that that you know in the articles part of what we thought was important was giving future boards and fi future governing bodies of the municipalities the ability to perhaps accept an additional partial um addition.

Okay. I I guess I just want to understand because and what I was leading to is article 3 specifically says that it's the incorporating municipalities are including the the charter township of York as an entity as a whole entity. I just am trying to understand if we're carving out that in today's at this point in time the fire authority only encompasses a portion of your township. But you have to look at it. We we've got two ways to think about it. I think one way is who's making the decision. That's the municipality in its totality. So York is deciding to be part of the fire authority. Second question, what portion of its territory, total or partial, is being put into the service area of the fire department? And today that's partial.

Okay. We can't have a partial municipality making a decision to join. The whole municipality joins and then decides how much to put in. Okay. State in article 52 that they will create a map and that incorporate M fellow shall advise if there's any redistricting.

Right. And I I've got some notes about that. So I do understand that. Um and so I'll kind of move off of that so that I can make sure I get through this. Um, article six when we talk about powers um, under corporate body and it says you know that the authority now has the power to sue or be sued. Are we now separating the municipalities from the authority? So we can be named in lawsuits but we are not necessarily a automatic party to lawsuits. Correct. It's its own entity. It's its own entity. Just clarifying that. That was really part of the point. Let me go back to the earlier point of some

no that well that's understanding that um then looking at still in article six when I look at F just FYI um you still have a Roman numeral article there instead of a a numerical number because I know that things have changed. Um and then same in that in H of that same uh section just understanding the word gift.

This is in the act too. We went through this. We had the same question. So a gift could be someone donates land to the fire department as a bequest or something like that. Okay. Just understanding. And who has? So the authority would have to accept that as an authority. The the chief no individual has authority to do anything outside of the authority and we have reminded the chief of that. Okay. Yes. Um obligate the fire department today or the fire authority in the future. Mhm.

So, um, kind of going back to the member at large concept, can you just talk quickly about what the pros are of keeping that member at large?

The main pro, and we can talk about the cons too obviously, is that if we see, first of all, it it helps break a tie because you have an odd number. two, um, if we it g it gives the opportunity for the board and again we've put in a a defined structure here where the board will appoint a nominating committee made up of the board. Fire chief is not on the nominating committee. Anyone can put their name forward or submit somebody else's name to the nominating committee, but the nominating committee has to review and vet and approve people not to join the board, approve them to be put forward to the board for the board's consideration. So, a three-step process there. It's the board's job to then vet and decide if someone is is right to come into that position. The major pro is the ability to find people with expertise um who um would be valuable to the fire authority um where we might need some additional um experience or wisdom or background that would be beneficial to do that. Now, we went back and forth on couldn't we rely on the municipalities in total to help make sure that those people who are appointed to the rules from the municipality. So, those eight people um would cover whatever experience might be appropriate or necessary. And of course, you would want that to be the case. But there are other considerations such as we may not have uh depending on

how a municipality's governance body is formed, you may not have someone on the city council or the board of trustees for a a township that has um you know the experience that we need. We might not have that person. One of the examples given was to have somebody with law enforcement or emergency services background who sits on the board and helps to bring that kind of experience to the table. You know, Craig is a great example of that today. Okay, that make sense?

It does. Thank you very much. Um, I want to make sure that I'm mindful of time. I do still have a lot of questions, but under terms and it says that like a member at large can serve two-year term. Do we have term limits? Can you only serve one term for like all of like eternity? Put term limits in. Is it intentional or I just feel like it either should say that there's term limits or say that there is no that someone can serve more than one term instead of leaving it silent right

I don't know there's thank you for that I mean we could take it back we did debate this question I believe the lawyer's advice was to leave it as is as opposed to defining it as there are no term limits uh the thought process was probably not necessary to put that into the document. Uh we could always modify though we could always add that in future. The idea for the member at large is that has to be approved every two years. And so the wisdom of the of the board will will rule in terms of you know is this person somebody that we want to keep or is it time to make a change.

Okay. Um I also wasn't sure whether there was clarification that every every cycle it has to rotate in from a different municipality. It doesn't say anything. It doesn't say anything because it was something that we had talked about in the past. Yeah. Was that should that member at large rotate between the different the four different municipalities where we only seek at one point and you can see it from both sides. Sure. Um, I just wasn't sure whether that was a conversation that was ever continued. The other conversation that was brought up that I'd like to make sure to bring up just to say it was, but it comes down to how many qualified people do we have. Correct.

Okay. Thank you. No, absolutely. Um, and the other aspect was that at one point the city was advocating that for qualified from the city that city staff should be considered. um not just geographical residents of the city. And that sort of was a debate that sat out there for a long time that it was something the city was pretty adamant about. The city can put that person in for the member at large. That's another another benefit of the member at large. You um Okay.

Right. Well, for the member at large would just be a vote of who's they're putting up for that position. Correct. Well, if the city had someone on staff that the city who is not a resident of the city, but is a resident of one of the townships, the township could put them could nominate them forward or the city. Well, excuse me. The township could just appoint them directly any but as the city's represent nominate them. Oh, as a city representative,

right? Because if you remember last year when we were changing this, that was part of that conversation was that we had asked that city staff be included within that. And there was some buy in, there was some push back and I didn't know if that conversation had continued at all. Right now there's no prohibition. I mean, I think the it's our more our internal rules that would conflict with that where staff can't necessarily serve an appointed position. It's more our internal rules that would not necessarily these articles that would prohibit that. Where to be very specific at what point we had looked at putting the city manager

in as the board representative, but the city manager was not a resident of the city of Seline and so by board standards didn't qualify for the position. our internal rules. There's nothing in here that says you have to be a resident. Yes, it does. It does. I think it's in the bylaws. Yeah, you have to be a resident. It's 9.6, I believe. Thank you.

Okay. Each representative member and alternate member shall be a qualified elector residing within the territorial boundaries of the incorporating municipality who appointed him or her and within the jurisdiction of the authority or an elected official.

So, okay, I'm going to stop there. Let others we'll see if if there three we got about 20 minutes here, folks. Mr. GB, any additional comments or questions?

Just a couple comments. I mean, one of the things we talked about and didn't get much buy in was the idea of term limits for officers. Um, respective being that shared person being the same year after year after year, which in a lot of situations at some point you would have a term either three to five years and have that turnover just to make sure you're in compliance with that. I still think we should consider that and discuss that further. It's just a it's a good practice and um really the ability to make sure that leadership and everything is not put into a situation especially when we're expecting more controls upon like the treasurer and those type of things. And then the other issue was we talked about audit is going to be a very key indicator in this and that the auditors need to be a very highly and qualified one. We can't pick a small audit firm and expect them to do the same to a level of expertise as a municipal auditor. So, um I'm hoping that'll be part of the bylaws of some nature and then and then go ahead Laura.

I think that belongs as a policy. So, we have a policy on who's qualified to serve as a a vendor, you know, in certain areas of professional services. I feel that way about engineering firms and other types of firms as well, right? Uh term limits for officers. I think we could put that in the bylaws unless I'm mistaken. For officers, yes, we can because that and actually I think we could add in the planning one similar to that situation. Yeah, you could you could use um a number of our board and commission bylaws as an example, but there there are there are a number that that mandate a term limit.

So that one we can take care of in bylaws in policy. Okay, Dan. And I think um one other when I was reading about the municipality you know the idea is that this authority will be able to levy its own millillage but it also reads that either the municipality or the authority. So the intent that should the um authority not be able to or renewal is not voted upon then the municipality can have and step in and make a separate as they do today as they do today. But our goal though is that they will issue it and then we'll just serve as a collection for it, not necessarily um this uh council member Hash's statement about that, you know, we hold back payments. That shouldn't happen in this authority situation,

right? Yeah. It only happens under case two. If the mill fails, we have to go back to the current way and then each municipality decides how they're going to fund it from general fund or raising a millillage. Right? And that's where my concern was is that that then that that authority can just say we need $5 million, you need to give us your component of it without actually going in and saying we need to rescope. And we were talking about the issue is should you at some in the future if you had to scale back the size of the the apartment department or what we addressed that I think we did address that somewhere in here wording in the fix that wording because that's a concern that if the millillage fails then the budget goes back for reaffirmation. is good. And then it will be aortioned according to the formula.

Good safeguard. Um I think that's really all for me right now. Um we'll continue to do some more of these reviews as we work on it on Wednesday. Very good. Uh council member Rice, questions for um staff or our leons to the fire department.

No questions. I just want to make one comment that um in my fourth year of being on council, the last nine months have been the most productive, calm way forward with this fire department than any years in the past. And I attribute a lot of that to Miss Champion. I think from the moment you stepped into to fill in um your abilities to kind of see the whole picture and then um you know meet with everyone and sit down with everyone and sort this out for us. I like if we could pay you for this it would break us because your time and energy is priceless. Um, so I just want to put that out there to the community that this is a this is a long time coming to get to this point where we have hopefully a great way ahead with this authority and um I feel like everyone the trust is back amongst everyone and just can't thank you enough for that.

Well, I am just going to say thank you so much. That's so kind of you. Uh I get paid in in uh the uh teamwork and productivity of the team and the fact that you can see people coming together and it's the it's this whole team working together. Everybody's had a part to play and but you're kind to say that. So thank you. Good. Thank you both. Uh council member Harm, you have some questions.

Um yes, I do want to echo what council member Brace said. I was able to witness it and I was also very impressed by your ability to um bring parties to the table to move forward with a productive solution. Um I do have a couple I do have a couple questions if you don't mind. I I kind of look at this as a three-prongong. It's the financial impact, it's the service quality, and it's the governance. And those are the three things that I um those are the three things that I'm, you know, concerned about and just want to kind of re reiterate for the public that may not know just some items that I I'm probably privy to. But um just to to clarify um the ser service coverage and quality is not changing from our current situation. Correct. other than maybe improving, but we will not have it's not this moving in this direction is not going to leave anybody in our city in the city of Seline at a um less advantageous position from a um coverage standpoint. Correct.

That is my understanding. We spent a lot of time on that. What the mission is, what the service standards are and the agreement to that. And of course, all of the municipalities have come together to help raise the funding. you know, last year was a significant move and that helps us achieve that that goal. Okay. So, keep an eye on. So, thank you for clarifying that. The other question to go along with the finances. So, I was looking through here if there is a municipality that were to leave. It says that their assets are are stay with the authority or they can take their asset this that what happens to their assets? The assets stay with the authority.

Okay. Yeah. So is there any limitation of that? Like if there's a municipality that that signs on and two months later they're like, "Oh, this is not what we thought it was." Or, you know, there's no reverber, right? So it's we're moving forward. They're everybody's committing their assets including bu buildings as well, right? Whatever assets that

what we have today. So the idea is the things that we own today, building equipment, etc. will transfer into the authority and become the property of the authority. And this idea where if the fire department or somebody left or the fire department didn't um exist anymore, everybody would get, you know, a portion back that goes away. This is now the authorities property. There are specific uh notice provisions for each of the entities which require some time of uh notice before anyone can leave. Yeah.

So by this we're committing forever our building our our um firehouse. Correct. So we're in the authority and so is our firehouse. So if we were to leave we would have to have our own firehouse, build a new firehouse. Is that maybe buy your own equipment? Okay. All of that. Okay. Um the the third question that I have is uh the governance. So this is not changing anything with regards to the vote. So every municipality has the equal amount of vote regardless of how much money is going in. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. Those are the questions that I have. Thank you.

We did insert two votes that require supermajority. Sorry. Um a defined additional what do we call it? Sorry. It is actually super majority. Super majority. Yeah, thank you. I was just checking. Um, so, um, thank you, Dan. Um, so if we decide to, uh, raise taxes, that requires an additional level of majority, if you will. Okay. Okay.

I just like to echo too, I mean, obviously the goal with the governance structure and having, you know, a more uniform approach to things is that service will improve. Um, and even I think if the if the mill is passed, it also provides some additional funding uh that would come to the fire service or emergency service. So, I think that's helpful. The other thing I'd like to point out in debts and liabilities, you know, if someone withdraws, but they still there's still a a debt, so they bought a new fire truck on with debt, they're actually still responsible for their portion of that debt. Uh, so there's some protection that way as well. So, going into it, right? So the

on the board or your part authority, they bought a new firet truck, you know, um you'd responsibility for your proportionality of that whether it be, you know, based on the tax liability. Um and then even if you withdrew, you're still responsible to help pay for that, pay off that debt. So there's some addition and all of your debts going into the authority would need to be paid off before entering into the authority as well. No, they become the responsibility of the authority. I don't know that there there's no outstanding um bonds or anything that I'm aware of. Uh any additional questions? No, I'm sorry. Okay, go ahead. Council member Dylan,

thank you. Um so big question is will have there has there been any feedback from the other municipalities about like what they've seen? Are we the last to to to review this in a public meeting? So, have we seen any feedback and is there any concerns from those three other municipalities at this point? Nothing material that I'm aware of. And by the way, all the lawyers reviewed it, lawyers for all four municipalities previously and several of the municipalities had the lawyers come in and talk with them as part of their work meeting.

Okay. And um Council Member Harmmont talked about this and I just wanted to sort of clarify that you know what you brought to the party now becomes community assets. So there's been a long-standing issue about the city owning part of that land that the firehouse sits on and stuff. Are is the city going to be are they buying any of that out from us? Are we gifting it in? How is that working? So, I looked at the property records. There is just one, you know, vacant piece that uh still has the city's name on it. Uh I think that was really uh when it was originally, you know, turned over to the fire department that was an error that that piece remained vacant. Uh that that was not, you know, changed over name. So, in my mind, that that vacant piece would go with the uh with the building.

I thought that it was more than that, but I may be mistaken. So just understanding that um and just to understand that if anything that we have put in as as as a city asset the building or the property understanding whether we are being compensated for that prior to the authority I'd like to understand that piece of it um and then I also wanted to understand will the steering committee go away

if the board votes for the steering committee to go way it's a steering committee is a creature of the board has been appointed by the board to do strategic planning and then subsequently to work on the authority I think largely because the group as a whole was able to make progress it you know if it outlives its usefulness and isn't needed anymore I would imagine I would imagine making a motion that we that we close it down we do need to finished the strategic plan which is nearly done but we turned attention to the authority as a next step. Frankly, it helped to get the articles of um incorporation done and it helped solidify that everyone is aligned that that's that we want to do. So that goes back in the strategic plan and we finish that next.

No, I appreciate that. This is something that we've talked about. I mean, we worked on getting to the point to become an authority for that was a several year process and then it just sort of sat there. Um, and then the other question that I have is sort of understanding how does the authorities relationship work with HVA and such. Is that all stay the same? And so that's like we don't have a part to that at all. It still stays all with with that entity. We the city or we the city. Yes. It stays with the fire department which then becomes a fire authority. Okay. So, thank you very much. Any additional questions, comments?

I have just one really quick, please. Um, what happens if there is some chance that a city ordinance supersedes or conflicts with a policy or ordinance with the fire board? Do you mean like a building ordinance? A building ordinance or you know a situation arises that causes council to act and pass an ordinance that may in some way conflict or overlap with the authority of the fire board.

That's a great example, a great question. And I have I'm aware of a situation where a city passed an ordinance relating to curbs and the curvature of a curb without realizing that it made it hard for the fire trucks to go around the corner. And so that had to get fixed. And so yeah, and thankfully so I think they caught it before they, you know, built any new curbs um or corners. So, um I we have not put that in the in the language of the document. We could certainly write a procedure for how that works, but basically I would certainly hope that if that's the case, again, we always have the two appointees from each municipality who come to the fire board. And if something like that happened, each of the appointees knows that part of our job is to bring new information to the fire board and then to bring feedback to our municipality. And so really working to help make that as productive as possible, we ought to be able to solve that. The other thing is we do have in here wording that says we are going to commonize our fire codes which just makes it better and safer for everybody.

Um I guess I I think I can articulate where the heart of that question came from was particularly with hiring practices. So, let's say Seline has a non-discrimination ordinance that another municipality doesn't and they're a part of this authority. Like, where do we kind of sort out that difference? Well, the authority hires and manages its own employees. Add to that. I mean, they are an independent entity when the authority is formed. So, I mean, some of those internal practices they would not necessarily have to follow. They would have to develop their own. Correct. Right. Correct. Okay.

But the the city's appointees could take to the fire board. Here's a new and best practice. We think this is something the fire board should adopt. Okay. Okay. So, we can we can facilitate it that way, too. Awesome. Thank you. It's a pleasure. Very quickly, real quick, because I want to wrap up just a few minutes early. That brings up another point, Mr. Swallow. um that uh sort of operationally we always include the fire chief when we go through um community event planning, things like that. Operationally, will you still have the ability, the flexibility to do that with the chief?

The short answer is obviously we want to cooperate and will cooperate. Um but the end of the day, I guess the fire board would, you know, if for some reason they disagreed with the request from the city, they they could override that. But why would we? Yeah. Yeah. Why would we? Yeah. Imagine the circumstance in which that would occur. I I agree with with Dan.

Okay. Um, Miss Champion, thank you. City Manager Swall, thank you. And we acknowledge the service of our two uh uh board reps, elected board reps as well, council members Gerba and Delorco. Keep up the good work and we look forward to an update subsequent to your next regular fireboard meeting on uh uh Wednesday the 4th. Um at this time, the chair would entertain a motion to adjourn this work meeting at 7:57. Moved by GearBuzzer, a second. Seconded by Dylan. All those in favor signify by saying I. Post say nay. Eyes have it. The meeting is journ. Thank you all.

Now verify like to call the SE city council meeting to order. If you please rise and join us 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. Thank you very much and and welcome. There are copies of the agenda on the back table along with um a signin sheet and listening devices if you require them. Um roll call. Council members present this evening are Delarco, Dylan, Gearb, Harmmont, Halsh, Mayor Prom Rice, and Mayor Marorrow. from city staff. We have city manager Swallow, Deputy City Manager Cole, and City Clerk Royal. Um, at this time, the chairman entertain a motion to approve the agenda as submitted, unless there are amendments.

So, move as submitted. Moved by GearBot to approve as submitted. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Rice. All those in favor of approving the agenda as submitted signify by saying I. Oppos say nay. I haven't. The motion carries unanimously. There are no absences. So, we'll proceed to the uh one and only presentation this evening, which is an update on the proposed downtown town square. And I would invite Mr. Kinley to come forward. I believe your presentation is on the screen. I will move out of the way and you may begin when ready. If you want to take uh maybe 10 15 minutes to provide us an update, Tyler, and then we'll entertain questions.

Sure. Yeah. Uh thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Um so, I've had a chance to meet with a number of the city council members here. Uh so thank you very much for your time. Um a lot has happened since about a year and a week ago when we were here previously and the city committed uh $500,000 towards this project and I wanted to provide an update because I think it's about time. So um an update. A lot has happened in a year. Uh after the city committed uh we then finalized our application and took it to the MEEDC. At the same time, roughly the same time, the state announced that this was the last year for this revitalization and placemaking program. So unfortunately for us, that meant basically everybody that was trying to put together a project for this year, next year, the year after all submitted. And what that meant was a delay in when we could get seen. Basically, their agendas got full. So it created a bit of a delay in our being able to be presented to the MEEDC. So by about April, we finally got on the agenda and we took our project forward and the MEEDC loved it. They really like the placemaking opportunities that they see. They like it being in the downtown core. They like the combination of retail uh mixed with uh new housing that's going in, but they said that the request, which at the time was $4 million, was too high. So they require above 4 million or sorry above $ 1.5 million to be considered regionally transformative and they had already set a precedent of denying projects that were substantially larger than this one from that. So they didn't feel comfortable offering more than 1.5. So they came back and said, "Can you make this work with 1.5?" So

that was a substantial cut in what we were asking. So we had to go back to the drawing board a bit and figure out how to make it work. Uh that consisted of downsizing a couple things, making some changes to what what money went where. Uh we put in additional money and we resubmitted and they were again very excited. uh we've gone through a lot of design changes. We've gone through a lot of conversations with all sorts of stakeholders and I think we have a project at this point that we're pretty proud of and I think I've I've laid it out for most of you uh in pretty great detail because these things are complex but this is a good opportunity to sort of provide a more public face to the project. So what you can see here is not exactly what it's going to look like but a lot of the bones are there. Um it will for the most part look like this. And I'll advance to the next slide. This is an overview of the project. Um at the top you'll see a building going, you know, left to right and then off to the side a building going top to bottom. The building going left to right is the Murphy's Crossing building that has Carrians Cafe um RMD Hair Salon, Cobblestone Rose that's facing Ann Arbor Road and that's where the work is happening. So here you'll see below that is is the green area. That is the majority of that's that's grass at this point and it's a lot of the social gathering space and then below that the the red brick area the staircase that's the city property and that's also going to be encompassed in this. So today I'll be talking a little bit about the financials the timeline and basically what is what we look at going forward. So, the money um I wanted to give a real quick overview of how the money is spent here. The city has committed $500,000 and previously that

was going to go into a larger scale development of the public space and in pairing it back it's actually simplified how we're doing the financials. So, I'll show you here next slide. This shows the city of Selen's commitment and the blue or well it's blue or purple I'm color blind. So the area that's highlighted that's the city portion and all of the city funds will go onto that site. So no funds are being spent on my property. The city funds are going directly into the project as a whole to make it happen. And it's a it's a major reason that the state is so excited about it. um they don't see projects where public private partnerships work together like this and they see it as a huge win-win. Um and we've really created a a fine or a a bright line between our property and the cities just so everyone feels comfortable about how the the community's uh funds are being spent. Um what we'll do is basically segregate the costs so that any money spent by the city goes from the city directly to the contractors doing the work and we can we can make that happen and be very transparent about those those bills. It also pays for a storm drain inlet that just manages the water on the site. So this shows you can see the city property encompasses the staircase that's in front of the PAS building. uh what's currently the the pull through um for drop off, for deliveries, etc. The the changes there are not major. We want to keep that access so that vehicles can continue to come through. They're important. They're important for access to the parking lot. They're important for vehicular drop offs of either

pedestrians or retail merchandise. We do have a lot of tenants in there that rely on that. So we wanted to maintain it. However, the changes you'll see we'll instead of having a curb, we'd like to make it completely flat and separate it with ballards so that when it can be transformed into more of a public use, it has a public feel. Uh we'll also change the hardscape from asphalt to something that denotes to a pedestrian this is a pedestrian environment. So that if you do close that down for an event, let's say the farmers market or sling music series or any other event you may have, that can easily become a very pedestrianized area. Uh the area on the other side of the ballards will get the same treatment and what that treatment exactly is is going to be planned by the city. So our landscape designer is Beccan Raider. His name is Brian Bareric. He's a fantastic landscape designer. He has been working on our side. That's who Dan Swallow has also hired so that it'll be a seamless transition and and we're working back and forth. There's a lot of talk back and forth just to make it all work. Um similarly on on our side we're talking to Main Street to the chamber to anyone that may be hosting events to make sure that on our side it also perfectly you know offers whatever uh in a flexible way uh those uh events may want may need. um whether it's hosting a music event, giving them a flexible stage uh with some sort of a covering gen. Um that was a request. Uh but something that's that's flexible uh so that you're not creating a bunch of

hardcape that prevents a lot of different uses. It's sort of a canvas, but one that that is nice enough that even if it's not planned, it can be utilized by by anybody. You can bring a picnic, you can make it a social gathering space. Uh we'll plan to have some sort of seating, but it'll be movable so that you can take a chair, take a table, or even just sit on the grass. Um so that's that's the city portion. Looking at our portion, uh we will put in four new apartments. So above Carrians, above cobblestone, uh some people have seen it. It's the former opera house. It's a grand space. It's gorgeous. It It's vacant. And it has been vacant for well since the the property was redeveloped 30 years ago, 31 years ago. And it's been on our mind to try to make this this happen for a long time. So we're looking at putting four apartments in there. Uh we'll have the outdoor gathering space. There will be a separation between what is uh city and what is used by the tenants just outside their space. But the tenants won't have a ton. Uh most of the green space there will be leased to the city. So the city will have a substantial portion of our property and the city property to plan to program. um and how that's programmed, who programs it would be decided by the city and it would be managed by the city. Um we'll also be putting in a cocktail bar in the lower level that will face the the public space, the social gathering space. Um we have a tenant in there that's excited to go in. We've been planning it. Uh we've been talking to our contractors to make sure that it all works and so far it does. And then we'll be doing upgrades

to the existing conditions on max patio and just throughout the property. So you know as we do this we want it to sparkle when it's done. Um moving ahead to the timeline. Um we're in submittal stage. So the MEEDC has we have to have everything in by March 9th. And the plan is to get everything in even before then. Um we have all of our ducks in a row for the most part. Um and what we're working on now is construction documents. So finalizing how everything is is being put together, the the floor plans of the apartments, the layout and the mechanical requirements per code for the cocktail bar. uh they don't require us to have the final plans for the outdoor space which is really nice because we're working on that you know with the city with stakeholders so that's something that allows us a little bit of flexibility afterwards. Um so March 9th we'll get everything in then the MEDC reviews it. Uh so far they've been extremely receptive. uh one of the uh one of the members of the board said it was the poster child for placemaking and it's gotten a lot of kudos from that level. So, you know, from the MEEDC side, they've said basically as long as you get everything in and everything checks out, we're excited about it. It looks like it's going to get approved. So, March 9th, we get everything in uh everything looks good. They will issue a uh it's a memorandum of understanding that basically in their language they they make a a a wedding analogy where what we've gotten so far is a letter of intent and that's the engagement. So you

know you proposed they said yes. So that's where we're at now. uh the memorandum of understanding that we get is them B their analogy continues with that's when you book your venue so you're getting there it's not I do yet but you're you know you're really far down the line and they've said a number of developers most of them in fact will start to spend money at that point in April or May we would then receive the final go-ahad at that point they're committed We're committed. That's when construction can start. So, we'd see that starting sometime May or hopefully earlier. And construction is the hard one to to know because there are so many question marks around construction. Not not only just the timeline for getting things done. Whenever you start digging stuff up and opening walls, you can find surprises. Um, but also just getting steel uh can be a challenge. and we're running into that. We're trying to get everything uh bid already so that we can kind of get ahead of the game, but the the construction timeline here shows about May till about it's about a year. Um we feel confident that should everything go well, we can cut that down to 11, maybe 10, maybe even nine months, but we're being conservative here. Uh, and then come May of next year, we'd be going through those last items and then having a grand opening. So, if everything goes smoothly and there's no hiccups, we could be opening next April, next March. Um, but suffice to say, I think next summer uh will be a summer when we can really start to to activate this space and see it enlivened. Um,

I don't mean to interrupt, but your years are incorrect on this just for the public's edification.

The 26 saw that earlier today and emailed in to say, "Hey, can we get that changed?" And it looks like it it didn't make it in. Uh, but but no, construction's not currently going on. Um, so yeah, sorry about that. Uh, so imagine you're seeing 2026 and 2027. Um so yeah, we would see a grand opening sometime next summer. Um and that that encapsulates what we expect for the timeline. Again, construction timelines can can fluctuate. Uh there's a lot of things we don't know. I mean, tariffs uh can make things kind of crazy. Um, and we just, you know, we don't know exactly what's going to happen there, but this is a fairly conservative timeline. Uh, moving ahead, this is the tax request that we're going to be making. Uh, this is new. I've had a conversation with most everyone about it. Um, but the challenge on our end has been that reduction in $2.5 million. Um, it's a challenge to work with and on our end, we have put in more money. Um but it is a cash flow issue and basically the bank says in order for us to give you a loan you have to make enough money for us for the risk to be mitigated. The nice part for you is that the MEEDC says we will not loan you money if you make too much. So we have this sliver in which we can make enough to make the bank happy and to make them feel comfortable loaning us any money and we can't make any more than the MEEDC says we're allowed to make without them saying this is not a need based request anymore. At this point we are teetering at at the very first year

teetering on not getting a loan and in subsequent years going below that. And so our request here is not want-based but need-based. In order to make the project financially feasible, we are requesting a tax freeze. And so this is not an abatement of current taxes. This is us taking the current taxes and just holding it them at their current level. Um I know Jen would like to know exactly what the number is that that's being talked about here in terms of what we're being given, right? the delta between what it would be and what it is. And I can say a lot of that is determined by what the assessor values the improvements to be. And we don't know that just yet, but based on Dan and I's conversations, it's somewhere in the range of like Dan, what would you say like 240 250,000

total over the 10 years?

Total over the 10 years. So the total value of that in the 10 years equates to about $240 $250,000. Um but again that's that's over 10 years and it is the difference between financially this working and it not. So I was asked to be as as brief as possible. I've been trying to get through this quickly because it's a very complex project. Um, but I also wanted to allow for some opportunity for questions. So, uh, I guess I'll open the floor uh for questions. And also, um, I do imagine you'll want me to come back uh to discuss this more. So, don't feel like you have to have your questions now. I'm available uh offline uh for any questions or concerns. And uh, the MEEDC, the the the individual that I'm working with there is named Holdman Branch. He has said he is available to answer any questions and concerns as well. Um they see this as a very viable project, but also they have seen all I mean they look at every all my numbers. They comb through everything. They've got experts that look at all these all day and they have also assessed yes this is a legitimate request. The project doesn't work without this and so they do support this request. So, uh, that being said, um, I'm open to any and all questions.

Good. We appreciate your time. That was a a thorough presentation, but also pretty abbreviated. We appreciate you checking Yeah. checking both boxes there, my friend. Um, thank you for your your leadership on on this. It's a long time coming, but it's glad I'm glad to see we're making some uh some forward momentum. Um, as Mr. Kinley indicated, I know he'll make himself accessible and available to you uh after tonight's meeting and he will definitely be coming back to to share more in the ensuing weeks and months, but we will do a a round of questions. Um again, I'm going to start to my uh far right and end to my far left. So, uh Council Member Hal, you have five minutes. Do you have any questions for um Well, actually, before I get to if you'll if you'll uh um pardon the um pardon me for just a moment, Mr. Mr. Mr. House, I would like to provide an opportunity for the city manager or deputy city manager who have worked quite a bit on this over the past 12 to 14 months if there's anything you'd like to add for the public's benefit or for council's benefit.

Just appreciate uh Mr. Kennley's obviously offering up this investment and le and us able to kind of leverage that with our own improvements on the city side. Uh we're working on a couple things right now. Development agreement that would spell out in more detail exactly how that construction will occur and what the city's committing to and what uh Mr. Kinley's committing to. So I think that will be clear as we move forward as well as you know as he talked about uh you know kind of uh streamlining exactly how that public access will be granted and how this space could work in conjunction with the city property. So it's been u very valuable and I think it'll be a tremendous improvement uh to downtown. Very good. Deputy city manager Kohl's anything you'd like to add? Perfect. Thank you very much.

Very good. Um Council Member Hal, I apologize for the impertinence. Uh you have five minutes if you'd like to ask any questions or or make any comments. Um just one really quick question. You mentioned that the um the city still has some designs to do uh and working with the same designer. Um who ultimately has in the event of a conflict with designs, who ultimately has that final say on this is what the design will be? Uh on my property, me. On the city property, Dan, I believe.

Yes. I mean I think we'll be bringing back the final design to council for your review. Uh but uh you know it is you know intended to be coordinated between the two. So using the same designer hopefully you know they'll be relatively straightforward and uh obviously we'll bring it back for council to review and if you have changes we'll incorporate those. And then one other question that just popped in my head was um is it going to in in the event that ADA laws are updated or changed or there you know those things are required in the new space is that going to also be a partnership between the city and implementing those uh ADA updates or is it going to be dependent on like the space in which those updates are necessary?

It's a good question. So for the most part, ADA requirements are requirements as of being built and then subsequent requirements get implemented uh should changes occur. So we would be building to the current code to the most up-to-date code. If if things get changed, a lot of times things get grandfathered in. However, if there were if there was a substantial project done that would change it, it would then get re-updated. And you know on our site it would be us and on the city site it would be the city.

Just to add to that you know in the conceptual design we're actually removing hopefully curb lines and so actually improving ADA access to the site from the parking lot as well as uh some of those uh uh ramps that are currently uh accessing site will also need to be uh re basically redone uh and so they'll be brought up to current ADA standards. So actually be a an improvement uh for access to the site. Awesome. Well, I'm excited to see see the project as it continues to progress. So, thank you for your time.

I think I'll just add real quick that we have worked very hard to try to make everything as ADA accessible as possible. So, we're going to be adding a ramp from the Salt Springs alley that is currently not not available so that you can access the site. Um the site itself to get from the parking lot into the space will be barrierfree. No stairs. I mean that was like a a requirement on my end. So I appreciate the question. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Council member Deloro. Any questions or comments? You have five minutes.

Uh yeah. My first question is uh for the city manager and I don't mean to put you on the spot. If you don't have the information, that's perfectly okay. Um in the ca in the examples given of um Imagine and Lee Bear. Do we know um what those tax abatements amounted to and over what period of time by chance? Sir, I mean Lee Bear probably would have been the industrial facilities exemption. Uh slightly different act and that's a 50% exemption over a period of 12 years. Okay.

Uh that was I have not seen the numbers but much more significant significant than what's proposed here. Uh imagine probably was a commercial rehabilitation act. That's one of the same acts that we plan on utilizing for this site. Uh there is actually actually at the state level right now they're renewing the act. So, we're hopefully that happens soon um because the expiration date had passed, but we're working and that our state legislator indicated it would be. Uh but again, depends on the value of the uh taxable value of the improvement. I again have not seen the numbers, but I imagine imagine theater was a higher value uh improvement and so that was a larger abatement as well. This is relatively small compared to those two.

Okay, that's the main thing I wanted to get it. And Mr. McKinley for the uh MEDC restrictions on the caps for how profitable it can be before it's no longer a need-based. Are we is there a comfortable window there or is it really tight? How the sliver of this window of opportunity that you're talking about? I don't have a conceptualized time frame in how this is fitting into the equation.

Yeah. Well, I can tell you it's confusing. Uh, and for the most part, the way that the bank looks at this is they say, "Okay, how much debt are you paying for?" Right? You you take out money. Let's say you're paying debt on $100,000, right? That you pay $100,000. They say you have to be have an income of 1.2 to that. So, you'd have to have an income of $120,000. The MEDC says the most you can have is 130,000.

Oh. So you have a window that is actually pretty tight. And currently on a I think it's a 20year cash flow, we are at 1.24. And so we actually at certain points actually dip below 1.2. And should we not get the tax freeze, it would average, I think, 1.11. Okay. Okay. So, it really is um the case that without the tax freeze, it's no longer a viable project, it sounds like.

Yeah. And that sliver is tight, right? It it you you have a a small window within which because the MEDC doesn't want to give people $1.5 million or more and have those people walk away $1.5 million richer just because they get got the money. Right.

Just because they could. That's what they look at very with a very fine tooth comb and you know they they go through your numbers really diligently. I mean they're they're looking at every every aspect of the proforma. It's operating expenses. It's income projections. I mean they they'll look at and say that looks high, that looks low. I don't know about this. And so we I've gone through it in great detail uh with their essentially auditors and they're they're great. I mean they're they're very rational but they will say this doesn't look right. And then you work with them. And and what type of projects are receiving the um designation of regional impact? Is that something on a much larger scale? Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, this is going to be roughly a $6 million project and there are like $40 million projects that they turned down and said that's not big enough. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, I was a bit surprised that our representatives say, "Hey, go for it." Uh knowing what I do now. Um but here we are. Okay. Well, it's it sounds like um the the MEEDC is truly in the intent of making this an economic stimulus for uh the grants that they fund. And I would like to see this project move forward. Um it it seems like it could be just a shot in the arm that the downtown area needs and it would potentially be transformative for the community. Thank you.

Thank you. And council member Delarco. Uh Council Member Dylan, you have five minutes. Thank you. I just want to start by saying, Mr. Kinley, thank you. You and I got to an opportunity to sit down and talk for several hours the other day about the project. So, most of my questions are going to be geared more towards city stuff, but I will start with asking. So the the drawing that's on the board right now seems different from the previous page and understanding how does that look compared to the initial drawings that we saw like what's been cut out of your project costwise as far as the green space. Well, on our site, um, one of the challenges has been I I wanted to do turf grass. Um, and I don't know if that's going to be financially feasible anymore. So, it's probably going to be just grass, uh, or a hardcape that's a little more economical. Um, there were other additions onto the city property that we were going to fund with that extra money. Um, it was essentially all going to be going towards that that public space. Um, I was going to put a decent amount of it onto Max patio. Um, I think we had talked about, you know, that you'd seen a larger structure there, more of a covering really enlivening the outside. Very little has changed to the apartments or the exterior steel. Uh, those remain. Um, but we have simplified some of the public space. But frankly, I don't think it's I don't think we're losing a lot because a lot of that uh the vitality and the vibrance that comes from it really comes from creating the space that's that's planned, that's programmed. Um, and you don't necessarily need to overbuild it uh to make it to make it wonderful.

That's Thank you very much for that. Um, and so most of my questions, like I said, will be directed towards you, Mr. Swallow, and you and I have mentioned this before. I've mentioned it to you. Why is it that this project doesn't need to go through planning because it seems as though the green space is a significant change from the original site plan for this project.

So, obviously, there's the existing uh development out there currently. Um and you know there there's not any additional parking there's not additional utilities there's not you know some of the additional uh municipal services that you know would be required uh for a full site plan review. So we are actually discussing you know we believe that it qualifies for administrative review uh by so the city will be reviewing it the community development department will be reviewing it um and you know it's at their discretion they could forward it on to planning commission uh as well. Okay. Because the original, am I correct in saying that the original site plan included a another building which is where the green space is going to be?

I do understand there was a previous site plan that did not move forward. Right. So, okay. So, under I'd like to understand that a little better. Um so just real quick I just can I just ask that this is without the the city portion uh shown that was developed a little bit after this this essentially is what we took forward a year ago. We didn't we didn't have any u additional buildings when we when we talked about it a year ago. No, I'm talking about when this property was initially developed. Oh, I see. Way back. Sure.

So, just understanding that. Um, and so, Mr. Swallow, you've talked about having this development agreement, and I guess I would like to understand, we keep moving down this path, but we've not seen what that agreement looks like. And one of the biggest pieces to it is who controls the space and really understanding, we keep saying, "Oh, this is a public gathering space." Well, it's actually private property. And so understanding who controls that, how can it be used? And I I know we've had discussions among ourselves, but understanding that in writing of what that's going to be and what that's going to cost the city. We've talked about now leasing this property. You know, is that a dollar a year or is that a significant dollar amount? Just so that we're all on the same page as we keep getting closer to these deadlines. Um I'd like to understand, I mean, if we're saying that this is going to be moving forward at the beginning of May, at what point is this stuff coming to council?

So, there's two parts uh that we're have to look at. One is just uh once we understand the design of it and how it's going to be built out uh just committing you know to the city will do X in terms of you know the development of the public space and the private developer do Y the development of the uh the private property. So that's kind of just defining what's going to complete it and how it'll be coordinated. Uh secondarily to that, we do need a use or a lease agreement uh with uh uh with Practis Properties. And you know, that's we've talked about, you know, what would go into that east agreement and how it would be handled, whether it's, you know, whether practice properties handles the management or the basically the maintenance of it or the city handles that. Uh we are still in negotiations of that and it you're right, we need to bring that to a conclusion. Uh but obviously we want to handle design first and understand what it's going to be um before we before we really got into the who's going to manage which piece of it.

Okay. I got to stop you there. That's five minutes, but we'll have time probably for a second round. Um Mr. Gearwell, you have five minutes if you'd like it. Um thank you. I do like this project. I think it's going to be interesting to come forward. I need to abstain from this because of my continued interest in the reverter clause on the existing property pending legal actions and what potentially could be a financial impact on myself. So, at this point, I won't be asking any more questions. Sure enough. Thank you for noting that for the record. Um, Council Member Rice, you have five minutes.

Thanks so much, Tyler, for bringing this to us. Um, the one question that I It's not really a question. And I kind of just want to lead a conversation about what the benefits to um those who are currently renting from you or those who will potentially rent from you. Should you should we approve this this tax freeze for 10 years? What does that look like for your renters? Will you then have the ability to, you know, say this property is assessed and it's activated and it's busy. Um will you have the ability to sort of maintain rent levels, you know, things like that? Um, one of the one of the things that we get from the community is that um, you know, due too much, you might price people out. So, what does that look like from you as a property manager? Well, our rental projections aren't the tax freeze is a request because the rental projections are what they are and the rental projections are based entirely on current leases and they don't have any exorbitant because we couldn't bump them. Um, frankly, if we started to bump every rent, we would just start losing tenants. Um, you know, we we haven't really lost tenants due to uh rent increases in large part because we've worked with tenants, but also um Seline's rent for the most part has stayed pretty steady over the last 20 years. And it comes down to if the rent's too high, a tenant will say, "I I can't pay this." And they'll either close or we'll adjust it. and we've adjusted a lot of rents to do so. Uh, part of the reason we're doing this is to try to add vibrancy to a downtown to allow the tenants to prosper more. Um, and only then could you see rent increases. Um, I think the rent will often reflect the vibrancy of a downtown

and you see that when you go to downtown Chelsea or downtown Dexter, which they're they've done quite well in the last 10 years and their rent for downtown space is, you know, 1.5 or two times our rent right now. Um, so we do not have any major rental bumps planned um because it simply wouldn't work.

Thanks for that. Um, one of the things that I've been really excited about for this space is that kind of ability to use space that just hasn't been I mean, it's not been used. It's, you know, we we stand back there and we look at it and we realize how much space there actually is, but we just walk past it. Otherwise, we don't think about it. So, I really appreciated you kind of getting us out there. And I recommend that the community do that. Obviously, it's cruddy outside. Not right now. But, um, you know, even as construction starts, you know, walk past there and take a look at the scale of this is actually a lot larger than I think um, what some people some people see. So, when you look at the city investing $500,000, you know, yes, that's a significant chunk of money, but in the grand scheme of things, this is what the community has been asking us for for so long. and your ability to kind of mesh with what the community wants is saving us a ton of money. We would never be able to do this on our own. So, the the the city investing $500,000 into this um is almost a miracle. Like, we would not have been able to do this in any of the other spaces that we've talked about on Hall Street, in the other parking lot. Um it would have been significantly more than that. Um, so just, you know, for the benefit of the community, I wanted I wanted to bring that up because when we look at these numbers and we talk about, you know, freezing taxes and things like that, the benefit to the community, the benefit to the businesses that are going to be there, the traffic increases that they're going to see, sales increases, things like that. Um, you know, I really believe very strongly in that. So, um, you know, if the if the community has any additional, uh, input that they want to provide to this or, um, questions, do you have some availability to perhaps sit down with the community and and chat this out? Um,

I mean, I'm happy to I This is what I'm doing all the time. That's great.

Um, and I'm I mean, you may randomly see me walking around there just meandering and looking at stuff just because I'm trying to do the same thing, right? like envisioning what what could be. Um, and yeah, there's a lot of potential. I mean, we're we've already seen uh some success from it. I mean, across the street, we leased a new space to a new company called Miss Merkantile, who was considering going to Howell. And when I told her about this and showed her the plans, she was like, "Oh my god, this is awesome. I'd like to come here." We just leased uh vacant space at 101. So, right when you walk through the space, the vacant space there to Boulevard Market. So, I we released to them last week, they'll be opening soon and they're coming because of this. So, people are excited. I mean, retail is excited about this and that's that's the whole point.

Yeah, I really appreciate that. Um, again, I just I appreciate that you're the kind of the face for this and you're willing to be the face for this and I do encourage the community if they see you out and about um to chat with Tyler. I've learned so much more about how this all works and and understanding the value that we're committing towards this project and how we're going to see that value um over the next 10 to 10 to 20 years. I mean, we've already had other developers talking about, you know, being excited about this project because then they're going to get excited about their own project. So, um yeah, appreciate the update. Really looking forward to seeing some more tangible things. I know this past year has been paperwork galore. So, thanks for that. Thanks, Council Member Rice. We have to stop it there. That's about 5 minutes. Um, Council Member Hermmont, you have five minutes if you'd like it.

Yep.

Um, yes. So, this is a social gathering space. And I know that we we talked about um the purpose of what we're looking for from a social gathering space. And I would want to make sure that the plans incorporate the activities that we plan on doing in this space. And um we, you know, talked about some of the just some of the questions. Thank you for your time. I really appreciate it. I know sometimes I have a lot of questions and we talked about but just to kind of go through some of the questions that I had that we talked about was just to bring for the for the community's um efficacy. We talked about restrooms and you said that we have access there would be access to restrooms. We talked about lighting and safety and how that would be addressed and um uh we talked about stage programming and how that would be addressed with you know with the incorporation of Main Street. And um I know we're going to get a little bit more into what the leasing portion of that looks at. Uh when we talk about like when people keep referring to this as a green space, I'm I'm assuming we're talking about the the turf or um you know grass. And I just wanted to say uh two questions for the city manager. One is I if we're going to be talking about maintaining grass, I'd like to make sure that we're not in a like a lull where there's it's going to turn into a mud puddle if people are there. And then the other question is if we're looking at the maintenance of the grass versus the cost of the turf. I understand the cost of the turf is more expensive, but um we also need to look at the cost of the maintenance and and the manpower of the maintenance so that we're we're weighing those two things equally. Um, and the the final one thing I want to ask the city manager is, is it feasible that we can transform the city's portion of this for 500,000?

Yeah. So, just to address the maintenance uh question first, uh, we actually had a productive meeting with the city engineer as well as a DPW deputy superintendent uh to go over kind of uh storm water drainage to make sure uh we understood that so it doesn't turn into a quotequote mud pit. Uh so that is uh being carefully uh looked at as part of the beginning uh part of this. Uh obviously we're also as part of the kind of that use agreement. That's one of the things we're still discussing is you know does it make sense to uh have the private entity you know practice properties maintain it and may we contribute to that or is it city maintaining it? Um so those are some of the discussions that uh would are going on currently. So uh we're trying to nail that down. Is $500,000 enough budget to complete all the public space improvements? It's it we don't have you know detailed designs yet so it's hard to predict. I could see this you know exceeding that number and having to take a closer look at that. Uh but right now we believe it's you know certainly adequate for some of the the basic improvements that are planned. It really gets into um if you bed back there some of the steps some of the planter beds or things are in really bad shape. You know how much of that do we have to replace could increase that cost but it's replacing existing stuff or areas that already need work.

Yeah. I just want to make sure because I know when we talked about this 500 was a stretch for us because we were more comfortable around the 250 range before. So I I just want to make sure that this stays on track with what we originally budgeted and then um with regards to the imagine the precedents have been set uh for tax abatement with imagine was that for 10 years as well? Yes. Okay. That that's um that's all I have.

Yeah. I will say just one thing to address the costs. Part of the thing that I was excited about with the city property is that a lot of it is already usable as pedestrian space, right? It is hardcape currently. And so if you wanted to keep some of it and just focus on certain parts, I think you could still achieve the goal and you could also phase in any changes. Right? So once this is created, there is an opportunity to continue to build on it should you want to.

So if we're talking about, you know, we've talked about programming this for um the music series or for, you know, I don't know, farmers market or whatever, but a lot of those type of venues or those type of events are going to need some sort of stage. Um, so being purposeful about what we're going to use the space for to make sure it's not an afterthought where we're gonna oh where are we going to put a stage or where we so we thinking about you know how is it going to be covered if we have people is does it need to be permanent or can it be like a temporary and and you had mentioned that that portion of it is going to be on the city's portion to pay for was I wrong about that

well we I I'm happy to get into detail but the currently I would envision there being a few different sort of state like event sizes. And so on our portion, if you look at the wherever you're looking, um the leftmost portion of the current grassy area, I could see a the paved area there becoming a stage that is a walkway, but it's extended and flat. and you would have uh electrical outlets and the opportunity for sort of a a temporary uh overhang that could be created into a stage for a medium to smallcale event. And for a stage that you'd want for a much larger event, I don't think you'd necessarily want to build one uh permanently because of the cost and the the sort of lack of use overall, right? And so to me that would still be probably putting in a temporary stage that's much larger and you could easily do that in the turnaround spot right here where the car is that plays back to the whole space. So I think that there's we're trying to like essentially that's what we're talking about when we're planning the space and trying to create it is how do we work with Selene Main Street, the chamber, the city to talk through what events could be here, how could we best put them in in a flexible way so that it's not a massive stage dominating it and yet it can still host those events. Thank Thank you. Uh, Council Member uh, Harm Janet or excuse me, Council Member Dylan, did you have some additional questions?

I did. Um, just very quickly, um, just for clarification, city manager, when we're talking about the task request, the $250,000 approximate tax abatement over 10 years, are we doing that as a per year or is it a lump sum upfront? So the way yeah basically it's there's no cash that you know uh is transferred it's basically just a reduction in the tax bill and so that would occur each year.

Okay just clarifying that. Um the one thing that I you know the design is the design and we can work through it and this is part of the conversation that Mr. Kinley and I had is that I think less is more because it gives a lot more flexibility. I think that was the one huge flaw when we were looking at the parking lot across the street was we were just I mean there were rock walls and swings and I mean there was just way too much stuff and we kind of get caught up in that. So I like the blank canvas approach to it. The one thing I will say about design that makes me very nervous is that you are still indicating that the roadway is going to be a loading unloading. Now, we're going to have a zero entry of no curb. We'll have some ballusters there to separate, you know, traffic from pedestrians. And I assume that those ballusters will go up and down to activate more of that parking lot space, that brown space where there's a car. But in the meantime, what I'm concerned about is the actual safety of that. And you know, we've all just seen that somebody drove through a ballister at the airport. Um, are we sure that that's the right safety measure of having pedestrians and and automobiles in such close proximity?

So, obviously the ballisters could be removed uh if need be. Uh, but they would be uh mostly in place throughout uh most of that. And they're I mean they're designed to obviously stop a vehicle. I mean, if someone, you know, uh, decided to, I guess, speed through intentionally, that could be an issue. Um, the other thing that we talked about during events, uh, that we would close off a portion of that parking lot, uh, to basically prevent cars from going through that area.

Okay. Um, I I just want to make sure, and this is this was a big part of the conversation that we had had, is that we're very thoughtful on the city's aspect. What Mr. Kinley does with his property is, what he does with his property. I appreciate the input that he's allowing the city to have in that. In ours, I want to be very mindful of the surrounding properties and that parking lot of what is the long-term vision because it's it's a weirdly designed parking lot in that we've got the alleyway entrance. We have a bank that has a drive-thru that still needs an access point. We have loading unloading. We have a lot of different pieces going on. And so I'm hoping that in this Beckaden Raider study, it's going to show us what exactly is the best way to utilize that space um and how to utilize it in a safe manner. So when will we expect to start seeing those Beckett and Raider reports coming through?

So we had a design meeting the other day to talk through you know kind of this is the how we are going to alter the central uh drawing here. Thankfully, they do have, you know, some basis to start with that was done prior to uh so I think we'll see that within uh probably the next month. Um you know what that what that looks like. Now they're not you know going to take a look at the the other portion of the parking lot necessarily. They look at the access points as you mentioned by the bank etc to make sure those still function. Uh but uh we we'll start to see that in within a month.

Okay. Um then as we I would be remiss because sort of you know the elephant in the room that nobody is talking about right now is the gearbot issue and when is council going to be brought into the loop and understand what that issue is and if there's a price tag attached to it. I mean I just feel like we're looking at things in in a lot of different pieces but we're not seeing the whole picture at this point to understand what we're committing to. Um

I think uh councelor Gerbos shared what he could at this point in time. Uh there is a rightverter that was established years ago when the city purchased the property. Uh and so we are working through that and what that value is for that and that I you know again that's something that we're going to have to work closely with the the other party and I can't reveal a lot of that at this point.

No. Exactly. But I I think that council needs this is a a major factor in decision making and so at some point all this information needs to funnel to council to understand. Um one of the last things I will say about it is that um when we were talking about this project initially a representative from Gunther Properties came and spoke with us and said well if you do this you know we're going to do 147 we're going to start building on that. This is what we need. And so understanding has there been any conversations with Gunther about whether they are going to activate their property?

Uh so I I have not had direct conversations with Gunther but I have secondhand information that yes they are continuing to um take a look at this investment as a as a catalyst for what they want to do uh further obviously to the west there. Okay. Um so there's definitely ongoing interest in that and okay they have been in contact you know with the city and other representatives. Okay. I I'm very optimistic that we're going to work through all these details and that this is going to be a very successful project. I think that it's something that's going to benefit our community long term. I just think that right now we all need to be on the same page and make sure that we're working together for the same goal. Anything else you'd like to add, my friend?

No, I really appreciate everybody. I mean, we're incredibly excited about this and frankly, uh, yeah, Germaine, do you

Yeah, I I would be remiss. I've heard three of my colleagues say that it was hard to make the investment in something that was presented to us with a clearly outlined plan, with a clearly outlined timeline, and with clear guidelines as to the road to completion. and it was hard to invest $500,000, but we're voting on an acquisition of $3 million with no plan. So, I my question is, what was hard about this decision that wasn't hard about the decision we're making tonight?

Go ahead. If you have anything else else you'd like to add, not to that. No, just in in closing. In closing, uh I appreciate everybody's time. I mean, we we have been working on this for multiple years. Uh it is a passion project as much as anything else and again I just appreciate everybody's attention to it and uh we're going to keep working at it. We're available whenever. Um so we'll be around.

Very good. Thank you, Tyler. Appreciate your leadership on this. Look forward to continuing the dialogue. important project, timely project, and like I said, glad it's finally coming to fruition. Uh we come to the first public comment period. Um this is limited to agenda items. Under the open meetings act, any person may come forward at this time make comment or question on an item that appears on this agenda. Comments will be limited to three minutes per person. Uh those wishing to speak are requested but not required to state their name and address for the record. Before you begin your comments, please clearly state the specific agenda item you're addressing. Please note that council does not answer questions during this public comment period. Are there any citizen comments on agenda items this evening? Mary, please. You will have three minutes once you begin. Is there anybody else in the audience after Mary? Clerk royal. Do we receive any written comments? Okay, please proceed. Mary,

thank you. Uh for the record, um I'm Mary Dling of Selen Main Street and on behalf of Selen Main Street, I just want to say how incredibly excited we are about the Town Square project coming to downtown Seline. We can't wait to see this happen. Um to see this vision become reality and honestly, we're already thinking about the possibilities. Like Tyler said, we are working together to figure out what the best areas and space and setup will be for for the Salty Summer Sounds concert series, as well as other events that we really want to see happen there in the near future. Um, but this space is going to give us new opportunities to bring people together in the heart of our city. So, we're also thrilled to see this unprecedented investment in our downtown. Investments like this send a clear message uh that our community believes in a vibrant, thriving downtown and wants to see it grow and succeed. Uh, that kind of commitment is powerful and it sets the stage for a strong future for our businesses and residents alike. So, thank you very much for that.

Thank you, Mary. Appreciate your comments. Would you like to comment? Go ahead. You have three minutes. I just want to make sure and I I think I overheard you guys say that uh 2623 is was was removed from the from the consent agenda. Removed from the agenda tonight alto together because it's still on this agenda. We haven't gotten to that part yet. The agenda we're not there yet, but I believe it will be removed. Okay. Okay. Great. Great. Great.

Any additional citizen comments? Okay. Then we proceed with the consent agenda. The following consent agenda will normally be adopted without discussion. However, at the request of any citizen or council member, any item being removed from the consent agenda. I believe that uh uh agenda item 26-23 will be removed tonight and we'll come back at a subsequent meeting and I believe that mayor prom Dylan or excuse me, council member Dylan uh wanted 26-20 uh removed and placed under new business. Is that correct? Correct. Is there a motion then to approve the consent agenda as amended? Moved by GearBos. Is there a second? Seconded by Hermount. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda as amended signify by saying I. I

oppose say nay. Eyes have. The motion carries unanimously. The first item that uh first item under new business now is 26-20 Davenport Curtis House working group. Uh this will be a motion to create the working group for the Davenport Curtis House and to appoint the members as recommended by Mayor Marl. Uh would you move to create and to appoint Mr. Deloro? Yes. Okay. Is there a second to that motion? Second. Seconded by Rice. Um, my memo pretty much speaks for itself, but I'm happy to address any questions, concerns that um that uh council members may have. Go ahead.

Thank you. Uh, just very quickly, what I wanted to make sure is that this body is setting up some parameters in which we'd like that committee to be working on like specific buckets of direction and timelines associated. I'm very concerned with right now the only thing that's in there is an end date of three years. Um I feel like there needs to be benchmarks, there needs to be report outs, there needs to be other aspects of this. Um because if we are going to exit at some point, it would be nice to know in advance or if there is a different direction in which the group thinks that this needs to go. just having that timeline and understanding we've looked at, you know, options A, B, and C. A we know is off the table and understand that right up front. So, I would like to have a more concise understanding timeline um for what this body expects from the working group.

Um assuming that the motion passes this evening, I believe we have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow with some key stakeholders. um and we can certainly talk about um benchmarking some some goals and objectives um and identifying some some clear guidelines for the the committee moving forward. I would note that as part of the memo um between council members Gearbaugh and Delorco, they are to provide reports to this body and to uh to the community when appropriate. Um, it's also further required that a comprehensive report be provided to the community and council at the six-month mark, which would be August of this year, and then um no less than one annual report in the subsequent first quarter of every um succeeding year, which would include uh 2027 um and 2028 and then uh hopefully we would have a final recommendation um and report out from the body um by February of 2029. Um, and that that I should also note that in the memo it does talk about doing surveys, polls, and community engagement when when appropriate to uh to identify the thoughts and opinions of those those that we represent in the community, both business owners and and private citizens. Any additional questions?

No. No. Uh, any comments? Uh, I'll start on the end with Harm, then jump to Rice.

Um, I agree with council member. uh I'd like to see maybe that we utilize the uh subcommittee process that I created so that we understand what the criteria is being judged by for the options that we're looking at. Um and so and then also there's a period in there to get um you know stakeholder feedback so we'd understand um who is being in you know involved and and what kind of feedback we're soliciting. So if we're missing anything we have an option to get weigh in on that. Um I I see a lot of really um familiar faces that are on the working group. I just was curious is was there a certain criteria you were looking for as far as judging um the members that were on the working group assign appointed? Well, first and foremost, for this particular group, um I I tried to meet with or chat by phone, um every individual who was who was um um uh not up for consideration, but but a viable candidate for for appointment. Uh because I wanted to stress the the time commitment and level of engagement that that I was expecting and that I ultimately think council and the community is expecting. Um, at first blush, as I've said previously, the amount of work that lies ahead for this group and for the the broader community is pretty overwhelming. Now, I'm optimistic that I it can be done, but there's a lot of work ahead. So, one, I was I was emphasizing um or determining rather that each individual was going to invest the appropriate amount of time and be be engaged, that they were passionate about about the subject. Um, then then that they brought some additional acumen to the table. So organizational management, strategic planning, uh event planning, um finance, uh community engagement, uh etc. So I would say uh the the criteria was was really three-fold. Uh had the time, was going to invest uh robustly their their time and energy into the project. They had a passion for um for historic preservation and uh preserving this this

iconic one-of-a-kind asset. And then third, that they brought another skill set or expertise to the table that would enrich the decision-m process. And then the followup is that will they be utilizing the subcommittee report out process I created? We can certainly discuss that um at the organizational meeting um that we have later this week and at the the the working group's first uh regular meeting which I hope to be convened probably next week or the following. Thank you. Council member Rice.

Yeah, I was just going to um ask of my council colleagues, Mr. Gearbod and Mr. Delico um to remind council that you are sitting on this committee and check in with us and then we can do the same. Um as we uh you know as members of council when we have council members sitting on these subcommittees or these task forces um we're reliant upon them to kind of you know guide the groups as far as the the um strategic plan of the city and what the goals of the city are. But at the same time, as um council members who aren't in part of that committee, um the responsibility on us to to keep in touch with you all and say, you know, here's something that I've seen or or have questions, things like that. So, I think um the responsibility goes both ways. I like that we have two council members sitting on this committee because I think that helps drive the boat toward the city's mission. Um so, I feel that this is a a good group put together. And then as a reminder, the the mayor and I talked about this. Um this committee can also have subcommittees with other experts. So if there's a certain project you're looking at or if there's a certain um uh activity you want to do or or a group that you know that has helped funded these things before, you can have other people involved in this. It doesn't just have to be on the shoulders of these committee members. These are just experts within our community or people who had passion with our community. um but use their connections as well to bring people into this group. So um I think this is a great group of citizens who have uh really broad expertise but also um uh really care about this community and will do the best that they can for this.

Very good. Council member Gw. I just would like to say that um you know effectively I've been able to bring information back to council generally from all the committees I've been in and um you know we haven't had that success with some committees in the past. So I'd like to say that um just for clarification it said the first quarter. Do we need to report back in April and then we have also August 26 first quarter of each calendar? Yeah. No, I I think that would be great for us at least in talking to our chair um that we would bring back an an initial um report. So, that may answer council member um Dylan's

Yeah, I think that's a fine idea. I don't see a problem with that. I'm not sure how much I'm not sure you're going to have a ton of tangible information to share by the end of March, but I think we could probably um arrange to be on the second agenda in in March 2020 um six to provide a an initial update uh as to the group's activities. I would note too, and this is a this is a wonderful thing. It mentioned it in the memo. Um actually I'll go back to the consent agenda tonight with the appointment to um the zoning board of appeals. All of our board and commission positions are are filled in the city of Seline, which is which is wonderful. And that has not that has not always been the case. Um for this particular uh uh working group, um the advertisement or promotion went out about two weeks ago. Um and it was always my um um um desire to establish a group of between seven and nine members. I think generally when you get above nine it becomes a little bit unwieldy and unmanageable. Um we had I think 22 applications uh turned in which is which is wonderful. Um so there is interest and and enthusiasm for for this project initiative and I will note assuming the motion is approved this evening I'll be forwarding all the applications on to the chair and to the committee. Um, and I think most of those people will be able to be engaged and may subsequently be appointed to to subcommittees if the group decides to to establish them. Additional questions or comments? Council member Hal.

Yeah, I have a question. Uh, excuse me. Uh, Mayor, is as a part of that community engagement, is there any intent or any plans for the final final recommendations of the working group to be put to a public vote? Um, that would be something that the the the Curtis or the excuse me, the Davenport Curtis working group would have to debate and determine. Um, and then a recommendation would would come to this body and if the body wanted to to proceed with a a public vote or some sort of poll or survey, it could certainly be done. Okay.

Any additional questions or comments, debate on the motion? Uh, we have a motion on the for move by Delorco, seconded by Rice to create and to appoint. All those in favor signify by saying I. I post say nay. Eyes have it and the motion who is the nay? I was n two nays. Okay. So the motion carries um five to two. Uh thank you very much and uh

congratulations uh to all of the individuals who are appointed. I actually think the entire group is is here this evening. So thank you for your uh your commitment. We will we will be in touch soon to uh to to schedule your first meeting. Uh we move on to agenda 2624 agreement uh with public safety management group. This is a motion to acknowledge receipt to approve or not to approve the two-year service contract with public uh safety management group LLC to provide management service for county emergency communication consortium and the county project oversight committee. Is there a motion? Move to acknowledge and to approve. Move by Gearbot to acknowledge and approve. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Deloro. Uh city manager uh Swallow. Do you care to make any comment?

Thank you, Mayor Council. This is the next step in the process. Uh as you are aware we agreed we approved the uh agreement with county for the funding uh for this project. This is to manage basically the 800 megertz uh radio system uh throughout the county that is housed here uh at the city of Selen and we basically utilize the public safety management group to manage that project and uh obviously the pass through from the county funding uh then goes to uh goes to that group. Uh so this would be the agreement uh for uh for that uh for that group to continue uh through uh the next uh next two years uh through December uh 2027. Uh with that uh there is also a fee uh the city will receive $2,000 a year to help administer that contract.

Very good. Are there questions? I'll start with Mr. Boy. I'll go Gearb. I think I'm going to go in order of the ants I saw. I'm going to go Gearb Dylan Carmel Halch. Just a couple questions on um when you're reading through this and it talks about you know this our projects include the Apex radios and the fire and emergency and 800 megahertz system notification pager system. Some of these items seem like they've been on here for a while or has this is this a new contract or is it just a review of the same old contract? I feel like they're previous agreement. Okay. So none of some of these projects haven't been completed yet. I don't know. I can't tell you for sure. my understanding that they're all still active. All right. It just seems I wasn't sure why. Can you can we get clarification?

Can you confirm Mr. Gearbo's point and disseminate that information via your weekly communicate? And then the only other thing it'd be interesting it talks about reports and some of that type of information. I don't believe we've seen some of that and it'd be if we could actually receive one or two of those documents to understand exactly what is being achieved and what's happening. Thank you. Uh did I say Dylan next? Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Thank you. Just for clarification, when we talk it, you know, on our cover sheet memo and it says amendment required and it says yes. So why are we operating this at a loss of 3,000? Is that what that's implying?

So basically because this comes at the calendar year, we budgeted obviously in our fiscal year July 1. So the in there is an increase in this particular contract. Uh so we are receiving the funding from the county uh the full amount. However, our budget needs to be amended uh basic because we're starting midyear. Okay. Thank you for that clarification, Council Member Harmount.

Um, so for contract increases that are forecasted, or are there caps or cost controls on that? You know, um, do we have any control over like is there any sort of indication about like how that can be escalated or capped? Uh the short answer is obviously this is somewhat a negotiation with the county uh because they're the funding agent and the funding comes through uh basically the millillage from the from the county. So there's no additional expense to the city. Um we are really a pass through agent uh for that. But yes, we are involved in that discussion to make sure that the city is made whole uh by the funding through Washington County. And along with um council member um I'm sorry with Dean's question is that uh are we going are we going to be having reports and in um direct reporting about the performance?

I'll speak to Mr. Swanson specifically about that. Um obviously he does work closely with our police department. Uh Chief Radi does receive, you know, informal reports. Uh but if you'd like more formal reports to council, I'd make that request and I don't see an issue with it. Thank you.

Council member Halsh. Um my question I just have one question with the uh working meeting and and the fire board. Will there be at any point uh at which there is any kind of conflict between the ultimate establishment of the fire authority and our sort of renewal of this agreement and that will the fire authority potentially either need to make that decision or come to the table when we make this decision?

Um short answer is no. it will not have impact on the fire authority. Uh this is a separate agreement that handles all the communications for for all of the emergency services throughout the county uh sary fire department from it and the authority will also benefit uh through their you know through the cooperation uh across the county on emergency communications. So I don't see any negative impact um with the form of the authority um just possibly just obviously the same individuals be involved u just make sure that they make the connection with this group. Okay, thanks. Any additional uh questions or comments? Any discussion on the motion? It's been properly moved by Gearbox, seconded by Del Orco to acknowledge and to approve. All those in favor say I. I.

Post say nay. Eyes have it. The motion carries unanimously. And moving on to new business item 26-25 bioolids contract. This will be a motion to acknowledge receipt of the memorandum and to approve or not to approve the contract with biotech uh ergonomics uh for a three-year term for land application bioolids at a rate of uh 0.052 0526 to 0.0558 per gallon ranging from 2026 through 2028 plus sampling and testing as required as stated in the attached proposal. Move to acknowledge and approve. Move by Gearbot to acknowledge and to approve. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Harmount. Um, city manager Swallow. Anything you would like to add for the public's benefit.

Thank you, Mayor Council. This is really a a renewal of a contract we have with biotech. Uh, we've utilized them for the past three years. are proposing to utilize it for the next three years. They are reputable company. Our experience has been good with them. Uh basically just to make sure we're still receiving competitive pricing. Uh we did put out uh proposal requests for proposals uh to uh the competitors uh in the area that service this area. Uh so obviously Neutri was the one competitor we did receive uh counter proposal from. This is the this is the lower cost proposal and recommendation uh to continue with biotech agronomics. Very good. Are there questions for the city manager? Um, council members Harmount and then I'll jump to Delarco.

Um, I just wanted to say thank you so much for answering my last minute questions. I'm sorry I didn't get those to you a little bit earlier. Um, some of the questions that just for the public's sake, some of the questions that I asked were, you know, is it with this this difference is it is there any sort of identification or any sort of coverage uh are we leaving oursel um, you know, at risk? and your response was no that we have the right coverage and we have um and you weighed some of the capacity questions that I had. So thank you for that.

Yeah. So they basically this company as well as their competitor but this company actually has higher limits for uh liability insurance as well as environmental liability insurance. You know god forbid something did slip through the system um was applied to the land had to be removed. There is insurance uh to cover that eventuality.

Additional questions on the day. Uh Mr. Delero. Um my my question is for city manager. Um it focuses around if there are any changes to the upgraded facility that that would increase the volume of bioolids produced as compared to previous years. Um I know in the past the headworks building was sort of a problem because the bar screens allowed too much debris to flow through into the processes of the plant and we want to prevent that from happening. But now we have to figure out now that it's catching everything going through. Before we were just taking that debris and putting into it a dumpster and I don't know what the process is now for how to dispose of those things or if there's any ramifications for generating more of that type of waste.

Yeah. So this is basically the sludge at the end of the process uh that uh is needs to be disposed of because it can't be uh processed you know in either removal uh as you mentioned at this at the headworks with the uh removal of some of the trash that gets dumped down the sewers. So u that should have little or no impact on that. Um obviously um we want to remove as much of the trash from the system. Uh this is at the end with the bioolids. Uh and long story short, the new process at the plant would actually reduce our bioolids a little bit. Uh because right now a lot of the uh a lot of the activity take car takes place in the rotating biological concentrators and the breakdown of the organics. The new aeration system should actually break down the organics further. So we should have less sludge being produced by the uh the plant. So uh hopefully we'll see a decrease.

Okay, that's good. And then the only other question I have is relating relating to um I remember from my prior term on council there were some pending potentially pending legislative changes on the horizon that may or may not uh prohibited us from continuing the practice of land application and disposal of bioolids in the near future. Are those things kind of fallen off the map now or are they still being considered? Uh so based on what I've seen uh land application of bioolids is still you know proceeding still being permitted by the state. There was some discussion just concern for you know what you know what could be applied to the land you know discontinuing that in the future. That's why in the design of our new wastewater plant we actually have the capacity to dry the sludge and make what they call cake which is basically dried sludge. Um and that can actually be taken to the landfill as opposed to uh land applied.

Okay. So we have the option to pursue the option now with the new plant design. Uh but so far the state has continued to permit uh bioolid land application and the testing of that material is part of what we're paying for in this estimate. Right. Correct. Test it before obviously it leaves the facility to make sure there aren't any contaminants of concern. Okay. All right. That's all I have. Thank you, Council Member Dylan.

Thank you. Um, great segue into what my question was going to be, which was about the cake and about disposal because I thought that was actually a big part of of the new plant was that we were going to start moving in that direction. Is that only going to be the case should we not be able to land apply or will we be looking at like do we cost evaluate both processes?

So, currently it is still less expensive to land apply bioolids. Uh, to be dried as well as um or pressed into cake and then also the landfill rates are generally higher to dispose of material in a landfill. Uh so you know with the anticipation that you know uh the state could act to remove the ability uh to land apply bioolids. That's why it was incorporate that incorporated into the design a new plant to uh basically produce you know the the dry them dry the the bioolids and take them to landfill if needed. Uh but right now it's still more cost effective to u go this route.

Okay, I appreciate that. And then my other question, I'd be remiss if I didn't say it because it's it's sort of a constant theme for me is once again we have an expired contract. Um it seems as though this should have come to us three months ago and sort of understanding we keep allowing contracts to expire before we activate a new one. And in this one, it's saying that our contract expired December 31st. And in the biotech um statement, it's showing that the contract duration is shall remain in effect from March 1st of 2026. So, do we have a three-month period where we have no contract?

So, if you're familiar, obviously we only take loads out at certain times a year, three or four times a year. Uh usually uh the spring and the fall are the largest uh quantities that go out. Uh so we actually do not need this service right now. Obviously um by spring, March 1st, we hope to have this contract in place. Okay, I appreciate that. Considering this document is due November 17th, it seems as though it should be coming to us sooner to make decisions. Thank you. Any additional questions or comments from the deas? Any debate on the motion? Uh a motion moved by Gearbos, seconded by Harmount to acknowledge and to approve. All those in favor say I.

I. Post say nay. Eyes have. The motion carries unanimously. We move on to new business item 26-26, budget amendment for purchase of Davenport Curtis Home. Uh this will be a motion to acknowledge receipt to approve or not to approve the amendment to the general fund budget. uh line item uh 101-900-985-014 by increasing it from 50,000 to uh 3.1 million for final due diligence and acquisition of the property located at 300 East Michigan AB, otherwise known as the Davenport CUR home, noting the increase will be uh allocated from the unassigned fund balance and further to authorize the city manager to work with city bond council to develop a capital improvement bond issue to finance the purchase of property and reimbursement of the general fund uh for the purchase price, restoring the uh unassigned fund balance. balance to the policy directed uh at 15 to 20% for the annual fund balance expenditures

to acknowledge receipt and to approve and I would like to add and further assign unassign a dollar amount equivalent to um reestablish an unassigned fund balance of 15% from legislative um initiatives restate that for the clerk's benefit have it written down yeah I said and further unassign a dollar amount equivalent to re to reestablish lish in our unassigned balance of 15% from legislative initiatives and that was an item that we discussed I believe at the last meeting or maybe even at the last two meetings. Okay, you clear on that clerk royal? Okay, city manager you you good with that? Okay, everyone clear on that motion? Is there a second to that motion? I'll second that.

The delic will be the second noting the added verbiage offered by Mr. Gearb. Thank you. Um, again, this matter has been uh um uh not directly discussed, but u talked about um over the course of the last month. Um, city manager Swallow, anything you'd like to add? Uh, no. Again, this is just uh making sure we have the budget available and approved by council prior to uh closing on the debris house. Okay. And again, I would defer to the deputy city manager since you worked pretty tirelessly on this initiative over the last uh oh, 100 days or so. Uh, anything you'd like to add? No, not at this time. Okay. Um, are there questions from city council? Council member Halsh.

Uh, thank you, Mayor. Where, uh, one of the first things that I noticed is in 2626, um, we're increasing from 50,000 to, uh, 3,100,000. Where is the additional 100,000 coming from or or where where did we incur that cost?

Uh, so where we incur the cost is uh some of the due diligence. So, uh, obviously we had consultants do the environmental review. We had the, uh, structural engineer review of the structure. Uh, we had some other, uh, inspectors go through the house. So, we have had, uh, a number of expenditures related to the due diligence. Um, whether we'll hit that 100,000 or not, you know, this is a budget amount. Uh, and we may have some some additional costs, you know, uh, related to closing. Uh, so with that, that's where that extra 100,000 is requested. Uh if that makes

that makes sense. I guess with then the the follow-up question to that and maybe we'll get to it in 2627 is that the bond amount that we're not to exceed is uh 250 3,250,000. So again like where does do we need 3.1 or do we need 3.25?

So we need 3 million uh to close on the house. Uh we need up to $100,000 to complete all the due diligence on the house. And then there was uh some discussion about having some funding available and this is amount not to exceed in the next agenda item. Uh some funding available to uh make some improvements to the property that may be immediately necessary being uh sidewalks for example, security, those types of things uh to the house. So uh the bond notice of intent is set a little bit higher uh just and that is an amount not to exceed. we don't have to proceed with that amount. Uh but it could be cost associated with the house once we acquire it.

So just for clarification sake, we're looking at the total estimated financial commitment for our unassigned fines could be upwards to that 3.25 and not the initial 3 million that was presented to council and the public. total cost for acquisition um closing costs uh as well due diligence and potential improvements uh for the site. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Additional questions. I just have a Oh, please. I'm sorry.

A point of clarification. So, in that just a followup from uh council member Hal's um concern in that amount that's being allocated, does that include the funds available for engaging professional uh services like real estate, economic development, planning, finance experts that we want to consult with as part of the working group for the Davenport, Curtis Mansion. So, planning could be an ultimate concern there as well. Yes. Okay. So, if we need to hire some of these paid professionals and we're we're gonna have the ability to do that. Yes. Okay. Great.

I I would also assume, Mr. or Council Member Deloo, from conversations I've had with the city manager, we may be making some accommodations in this upcoming budget to reserve and allocate funds for the working group in the years ahead. Thank you. Additional discussion on the motion. We're all good. Okay. Okay, it's been properly moved by Gearb, seconded by Del Orcco to acknowledge and approve noting the additional language that was offered by uh Mr. Gearb. And again, clerk Roy, you're clear on the the new language. Okay. Uh all those in favor of the motion say I. I. Post say nay. Nay. Eyes have it. Who are the nays?

Three nays. Okay. Motion carries four to three. Uh we move on to new business item 26-27. Resolution number 2627. Notice of intent for issue of capital improvement limited tax general obligation bonds for the purchase of the Davenport Curtis home. This will be a motion to acknowledge receipt to approve or not to approve resolution number 2627, notice of intent to issue capital improvement limited tax uh limited tax general obligation bonds for the purchase of the Davenport Curtis home uh in the amount not to exceed 3.25 million. And further to confirm Miller Canfield as the city's bond council for the proposed bond issuance in accordance with the attached engagement letter to acknowledge and to approve. Moved by Gearbut to acknowledge and to approve. Is there a second? Second.

Seconded by Dylan. Um again, I would defer to the city manager. Anything you'd like to add for the public's benefit?

Uh thank you, mayor council. As was discussed during the due diligence and the presentation uh prior to uh deciding to acquire the Dport Curtis House, one of the items we looked at was financing uh to restore the fund balance, make sure there's not you know there's sufficient fund balance, restore it to our policy guidelines as well as you know basically re reimburse ourselves uh for the cost of the acquisition. So this is the first step in issuing capital improvement bonds. We are required under the state law uh to first issue a notice of intent. Uh so this is an again uh what this resolution would accomplish. Uh subsequent to that we would advertise in a local paper uh or paper of local distribution uh this notice of intent. Uh there is a 45day referendum period in which time uh if there are objections there could be a petition uh to basically uh reject uh the bond uh issuance. Uh however if there is no petition adequate petition filed then this would proceed to the next resolution which would be the bond authorizing resolution which will come back uh to city council before proceeding.

Very good. Uh questions from the deis. Uh actually let me defer first to the deputy city manager. Again you've worked on this uh initiative. Uh anything you'd like to add for the public record? Just just note that we would have uh 18 months once this is I believe 18 months to act upon the bonds from the time point of this. Okay. Very good. Uh comments, discussion, easy enough. All right. Uh moved by Gearbox, seconded by Dylan tock acknowledge and to approve. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay. Nay.

A show of hands. Was again three. Okay. Uh motion carries four to three. Thank you very much. Uh moving on. Agenda item 26-28 resolution number uh 26-28 adopting state treasury required deficit elimination plan for sewer fund. This will be a motion to acknowledge a receipt to approve or not to approve resolution number 26-28 to adopt the Selen sewer fund deficit elimination plan as required by the Michigan Department of Treasury due to temporary deficit and working capital of the city sewer fund at the end of 25 fiscal year. Move to acknowledge, receive, and approve. Move by Gearbot to acknowledge, receive, and approve. Is there a second? Second. Oh boy, I'm going to go with Hal on that one. Um, city manager Swall, the floor is yours.

Yes. Thank you, M council. This is really an artifact of timing. The issue was when uh our fiscal year ended uh in June 30th of 2025. Uh there was a deficit in working capital due to the fact that basically we had paid the contractor at the wastewater treatment plan uh to complete the work but had not received the reimbursement from our state revolving fund our bonds that we issued for the project. Uh so the fund did appear in a negative uh stance. Uh it was our opinion this has actually already been corrected once we received the funding from uh the state through the SRF. uh the uh we are back in positive territory. Uh so it's our opinion we did not need a deficit elimination plan that had already been resolved uh in communications with the state treasury. They're still requesting us to submit that. Uh and that is required to be reviewed and approved by council. Very good. And I'd also note for the record that the city treasur is here. U Miss Finch, is there anything you'd like to add?

Uh no. Okay. Uh questions, comments from the DAS. I'll start with Delero and then jump to Gearb and um Harmount. Yeah. My only question is we're going to have these bills keep coming at us. So is there a mechanism now in place to have that draw come through before we go into the negative on paying the contractors? Uh so no we have to it's a reimbursement basis. Uh basically we have to expend the funds and we submit the reimbursement request to the state. It was really unfortunate timing as of June 30th. We had a couple of bills you know outstanding and we've not received reimbursement from the state yet. So it was really uh you know unfortunate timing at the end of the fiscal year. So, is it a one-off or is this likely to happen again where we're going to have to go through this with the state?

Uh, hopefully it's a one-off and the timing won't hit us. We'll we'll be very careful looking at the end of this fiscal year uh to make sure when the timing to the payments are going out and when we'll receive reimbursement from the state. So, okay. Um, we'll make sure that we know that ahead of time. All right. Thank you. Council member Gw. Just a clarification, was this triggered by our audit because we have to submit our audit and then they reviewed it. So, unfortunately because the way timing is, it's just a timing thing and stage requirement. So thank you. So as of again audit when it was submitted uploaded to the state it showed uh sewer fund uh at a negative standpoint even though it already been reimbursed from the state and we're already back in positive territory. Council member Harm

uh does having this de um the elimination plan impose any restrictions over um oversight or reporting requirements that we need to be aware of? Uh the state does have to approve or certify the plan. Um and so the the risk the only risk is if uh if it's not approved even though again we're already positive territory. Uh if it's not approved they could uh restrict uh state shared re revenue sharing. Uh but at this point you know since it's already positive territory there should be no further reporting. How would that impact us if that happened? Well as long as the plan is approved then there will be no impact. Uh if they did not approve it for someplace we'd have to re resubmit.

Thank you. Uh, may council member Dylan. Thank you. Um, are there any long-term ramifications, short-term ramifications, like are we blacklisted on anything? Is there any kind of penalties that we're going to now incur? Not necessarily financial. Um, just as in like our ratings have gone down or anything because of this? No, as I stated, the state treasury does look at this. So, I guess if anything, you know, um if they didn't certify it, uh I guess that would be a concern going forward. Uh but we do anticipate approval from the state and how long before they certify it? I guess we'll submit it uh hopefully tomorrow and uh uh hopefully that'll be within a couple weeks.

Thank you. Additional comments, debate, discussion from the day. I just have one quick question. Do we have any like I with clear gov or assign do we have anything that would give uh v more visibility into like when these things are due or or kind of when contracts are up like does our IT department or do we have software that allows us to have visibility into that?

Sure. I mean we do see the pay applications from the contractors and we could predict you know you know probably within you know every quarter they're going to submit you know additional pay applications uh but it is it's dependent on for example how much uh we pay the contractors obviously dependent on how much work is completed right uh so we do have projections out when things will be completed that uh we can can watch if there's nothing further we'll call for a vote it's been properly moved by Gearbust seconded by Hal to acknowledge and to approve approve. All those in favor say I. I.

Post say nay. Eyes have it. The motion carries unanimously. Uh final action item of the evening is um agenda item 26-29 resolution number 26-29 to authorize execution of the closing documents for the purchase of 300 East Michigan Avenue, otherwise known as the Davenport Curtis House. This will be a motion to acknowledge receipt to approve or not to approve resolution number 2629 to authorize execution of the closing documents for the purchase of 300 East Michigan Avenue, otherwise known as the Davenport Curtis House. I will move to acknowledge and approve. Thank you, Mr. Gearbball, seconded by Dylan. Again, I would defer to the city manager. This one's pretty cut and dry, but if there's anything you'd like to add for the public record, we we would welcome that.

This officially authoriz authorization from council to complete the closing for the Dport Curtis House and some of the documentation does also authorize city manager to sign if needed. Very good. Deputy City Manager Cole, again, anything you'd like to add on this subject? Thank you.

Okay. I'd just like to uh acknowledge the the efforts of of staff and uh and my colleagues and also the cooperation we received from the Curtis Richards family. Uh consensus has now been reached. I'm excited to to move forward and close on this property. I'm also excited that earlier this evening um council by a 5 to2 uh vote established a Davenport uh Curtis House working group. Um they have a lot of work ahead of them, but it is a a wonderful group of of dedicated and talented community members. And I'm I'm really optimistic. I I think um I think they're going to hit the ground running probably next week and I look forward to to to assisting them in their efforts as was stated I think by one of my colleagues a few weeks ago. Um I think we all um have have a role to play in this process moving forward and I hope everyone is committed to making this a successful process and trying our best to turn this into a viable community uh asset that can be not only sustainable but enjoyed by Seline residents for for generations to come. Uh additional discussion from the deas council member Hal. So, I first wanted to say that um I am fully invested in making sure that this project is a success. Um I'm I'm fully invested in seeing the working group um do all the great things that they were appointed to do. The question that I asked earlier didn't come from just anywhere. The reason why I asked the question of what was difficult about making the decision with the downtown space and the ease with which it seems we've made this decision because when I look at the the the green space I think that there's a lot that we as a city should learn especially when a lot of the the uh a lot of the suggestions that I've heard about how we move forward with the rec center with the Davenport house is through public and private partnerships.

And so I I know there was a chuckle but I like my question really is how do we moving forward ensure that the that the due diligence with citizens that we that we are getting citizen input. How are we going to make sure that this doesn't happen the next time we have to spend say on the dam or on the rec center? Like, and I open that question to council. I open that question to to deputy city manager and city manager. I don't feel as though we've I don't feel as though there's been accountability to citizens for the lack of input that citizens had in the decision. And what I find funny is that I bet that if the citizens have been pled and asked that an overwhelming majority of them would have supported this. But it's hard as someone who is radically transparent and and believes in the radical transparency of the job that we have to do up here. It's hard for me to support this when it seems like, hey, we just gonna make the decisions in the vacuum and like the citizens will deal with it. So my question and I I really hope I get an answer is moving forward, how is this body going to ensure that before we spend three million something dollars, before we go into debt that we know that it is at the mandate of our citizens.

And I can attempt to answer that. But I think the short answer is we'll never know for sure that uh short of you know u put out to a vote if you will and that is obviously not feasible for every decision that this body has to make right and so we are a representative democracy if you will even at the local level here and it's incumbent upon I think council members incumbent upon our committee and commission members incumbent upon myself uh to try and seek that public input throughout the process I know I attended a number of public events where this was a topic of conversation and I attempted to answer those questions. It was at the I know the senior um the senior breakfast at the and day at at the senior center uh a couple coffee hours as well as just in my members of the public. So, uh, I think we all have to make that effort in trying to get feedback from our constituents, uh, on decisions we make and we can't always have 100% knowledge of, you know, do they fully support this or not.

Right. Okay.

The only thing I would add if if I may, Mr. Germa, um, with respect, I I don't agree with the the characterization. Um, let me answer your your initial question. Um, and I'm only speaking for myself here. Um I did not have any difficulty coming to a conclusion on the proposed um downtown gathering space. I've been enthusiastic about it. I think it is a wise allocation of resource resources. This has been a goal of our community for for for many many generations and we're not only getting a green space but uh new housing downtown and a net positive of one additional business with most of the expense being incurred by a private developer. So I think it's a a phenomenal initiative and I've been enthusiastic since it was uh first proposed. Um, again, uh, I I actually I appreciate Mr. Swallow's comments because it was actually, uh, four separate public events where this item or this issue of the acquisition of the Davenport Curtis home was discussed at my annual senior conference um, at a a coffee hour, town hall event I had with council member Leash at uh, Breen Village for all of the res residents of the Breen campus along with Mil Pond Manor and then it was discussed at two separate coffee hours. In fact, the the last coffee hour that I hosted um in December with Commissioner Beaman um as Deputy City Manager Cole will recall, she was the the main presenter and the bulk of that conversation was focused on the pros and cons, the potential benefits and ramifications of the of the um Davenport Curtis acquisition. So certainly in the future, can and should we consider um additional opportunities to engage our citizenry? Absolutely. But I think the characterization that that little or nothing was done was it was was not accurate. Um, I I think that a fair amount of engagement was done on this issue and over the course of the past five months, I've talked to dozens upon dozens of residents, business owners, and community stakeholders about both the benefits and the potential downsides of of of acquiring this property. Again, as I stated previously, I think this is not only prominent, but it's it's the most um iconic, the most um valuable historic asset in in our community. Um, whether you like it or

not, there aren't current protections on the property. Um and um there's nothing that would prevent the the the home being or the property, the parcel being sold and the home uh and outuildings being demolished. And I think that would be a a loss. Um and as I stated previously, I'm not sure if we're going to be able to make something work here. But um I would rather try and fail than look back 20, 30 years from now and see the the home and outuildings, the property lost and know that we missed an opportunity to try and make something really transform really try to make something really put put in effort to to to make a a transformative change uh in the Selen community. Mr. Mr. Gibb, anything you'd like to add? I

I can just state from my 22 years of this community and serving in the role that I have, the input and information that I've received as a representative about protecting that property has been significant. If you really want to come down to dollars and cents, we're putting $500,000 into maybe about a 5,000 square foot piece of property. We just bought six acres for $3 million. And that for me is a feasible aspect of which we also are going to be protecting an asset that is detriment that could be detrimentally destroyed for our community. And I believe that when we look at things, there's been things done in the past without voter representation. We acquired the land for the rec center with a number of restrictions and everything on it that did not come to a vote and now we're dealing with that issue in terms of how we have to resolve that. So where we have transparency and where we have things and we look at value, things can be done and we're done by this board. Um I can tell you about lack of transparency on that property over the last 50 years. And um there's a lot of things that could be asked, but we're moving forward on something that looks like it's going to be beneficial to the city and we have to put dollar amounts for it. But when I look at the Curtis mansion and the property underneath it in the land, similar to when we purchased the land for our industrial parks, we made a significant investment and those investments have paid off immensely for our community. So this is for the future and I believe this is an appropriate way of dealing with that's why our expertise that's why we're elected. We're given this empowered this by our representatives to make these decisions for them. Yes, we make mistakes at time but I don't believe this is a mistake. Council member Herman.

Um I just want to go on the record of saying that um I am not opposed to anybody on the working group. I think there's a fine group of folks and I'm um definitely think that the Curtis Mansion is a beautiful piece of property. Um I my trepidation about it is um what's in the best interest of the house um and what is in the best interest of what's financially responsible for the city at this point in time. Um there's some risks with this that we don't have with the social gathering space. We could risk losing several million dollars if this property is not valued. Um we did just buy six acres for about 650,000. So, I mean, I just I um I am definitely um supportive of of you know, making sure that we have a viable plan moving forward that it whatever the um working group recommends that it is actually going to be sustainable and not a um burden on our general funds for the future.

Thank you. Any additional comment or discussion? Okay, we have a motion on the floor moved by uh Gearbox, seconded by Dylan to acknowledge and to approve. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay.

Eyes have it. The motion carries four to three. Thank you very much. We move on to the discussion portion of our agenda and I actually um u city manager Swallow, Mayor Pertm Rice will be able to to confirm this, but I had actually asked that you give a brief update on US12 traffic enforcement and weight limits. So maybe you can do that at the end of of board and commission announcements. Uh before we get to reports and other announcements, however, um I know that uh Deputy City Manager Cole will be departing in in just a moment. Um that card and flowers there are for you. Um so we wanted to acknowledge you on your last official meeting with the city of Seline. Um thank you for your dedicated service as treasure, deputy city manager, uh and acting city manager. Um it has been a great pleasure working with you. Um and we know that um great things are lay ahead for you personally and professionally. Um, we know that you'll do great things at the city of Chelsea and we consider Chelsea a partner and so hopefully we'll find opportunities to collaborate um in the months and years ahead. Is there anything that you would like to add for the public record?

Yes. First of all, thank you so much for the flowers. I've been smelling them all night long thinking that the person going home with those is very lucky. So, I'm very lucky this evening. But the real blessing and the real luck came in the gift of working with all of you and the team here in Seline. And I am just so proud of the work that is still being accomplished and I hope that you carry all the projects forward and I cannot wait to come back in a year or two and see the new green space and see what you've decided to do with uh the Davenport Curtis House and many more things. Um I just hope to see Seline continue to thrive and I know you're in wonderful hands with city manager follow.

Thank you very much. Yep. We look forward to celebrating your tenure later this week as well. Very good. Thank you for your time this evening. Uh, all right. I'm going to start to my right again and end to my um my left. So, uh, Council Member uh, Hal, uh, reports, other announcements or updates from boards, committees, commissions, or task forces?

Uh, yeah. So, I have two. The first update is from arts and culture committee. Um, a subset of the committee met this past week with um, city manager Swallow to discuss the venue location. And I think that what's come out of that um because we have the the potential for the Mill Pond uh construction to interfere with Jazz in the Park, we're looking at the possibility of moving the venue. Um I think the consensus that I've gathered um is that we're seriously considering um using Curtis as a potential venue for Jazz in the Park uh using the mansion. Um there's still some logistical hurdles and there's still stakeholders that we have to reach out to in regards to parking and that sort of thing. Um but from what I gather it was a very productive conversation. Um and then my second update is from youth council. Um youth council met for the first time this past year. Um and one of the the major things that came out of that was sort of setting the agenda for this coming year. um I was able to introduce myself and sort of what I hope my role can be with youth council and um from the kids they're an amazing group of teens, young people and they are really um more than anything beyond their volunteerism they're looking to really um become more civically engaged which I think is amazing. Um so one of those ways in which they they want to be engaged is their annual toy drive. Uh it started yesterday and I think um I think boxes will be out at uh the rec center and at the library. So if you happen to go shopping and and uh it's called the spread the love toy drive and it's meant to um kind of cover that gap from Christmas to the rest of the year. Um

it's all donations will go to Mott's Children's Hospital. Um and so yeah, if you happen to be out and can grab another toy or just something to make a kid's day better, I would definitely encourage you to do that and uh drop them off at the rec center or the library. Thank you, Council Member Helch. Uh Council Member Deloro, any updates from boards, committees, commissions, or task force or other community announcements? Uh not until next week. Okay. Council member Dylan,

thank you. Um, we've got lots of good news. The from the cable commission, um, channel 18, our local public access channel, um, is back up and running. It was, uh, a monumental feat working with Comcast and construction companies and the schools in the city, but we were able to coordinate and find where the break was and repair the fiber line. So, the channel is back up and running with content, new content on it. Um also cable commission will be here at our next council meeting doing a presentation our yearly uh presentation. So if there's any specific information in which this body would like from that body um please let me know so we make sure that it's included in the presentation. um uh urban county met uh we had a meeting last week and as you may remember I've talked about it at a couple of of report outs they've changed their funding model and it's basically what had happened is a lot of communities uh including Seline were banking our yearly distributions because it was an a small amount of money and so we were able to bank it up to five years to make it a sizable amount to put towards as a project. Um they've had some push back from the federal government about banking money and the government sort of threatened to claw back the money saying well you guys obviously don't need it if it's all just sitting in an account. So a new system has been developed. um city of Seline got sort of shuffled into a new tier and instead of getting our yearly allocation, what we will be doing is one community will be getting the yearly allocation for all the communities within that tier.

And so for within our tier, it's it's about $50,000 a year. Um but with that it means that we would only be getting money every third year. Um and so we were sort of surprised on Wednesday when they said hey city of Seline you guys are up first. Uh so we are working on what kind of projects there's very specific guidelines as to how that money can be used generally ADA um and um some other things and it has to be within certain areas within the city. So city manager Swallow and I are working through that right now. Um there is the opportunity that if we don't have a project ready or we just have too many other things going at this time to meet the deadlines, we can forego and just sort of get back into the rotation which would mean that we would either get the money next year or the year after depending on the agreement with the other communities.

Very good. Thank you. Uh council member Gearb reports or other announcements updates from any boards, committees, commissions or task forces? Um, just one group met, the covenants group for the sock trail. We met to talk and discuss about the potential change for the well the town home development and the commercial area that will be on what we call lot 20 on Michigan Avenue. um part of their setback requirements uh for the residential section would cannot be met because of the height of the building and the setback, but because of the way R3 works and because it's an underlying um zoning, we were able to recommend that that that that allow that the reduced setback be allowed. So hopefully that'll move forward. We also had the opportunity during that um meeting to discuss more of the concerns that we have about traffic flow and some other issues related to um how that property will be utilized and potentially what's going on with Michigan Avenue and and access across some of the other properties. Um the only other thing I want to let everyone know too, as you may have noticed, um North Ann Arbor Street and Michigan Avenue have had street lights out on both sides and it's very dark. Um city manager um Swallow is working to get DTE to address these. They've been out for a long while. I'm concerned that they are a safety issue at this point in time. And so hopefully, mayor, if our representative from DTE that works with us um can address and have this fixed sooner than later, I would appreciate it.

Did you already email them or um you want me to do that tomorrow? So yeah, we've gone through the uh online reporting system and made sure that they're all included, the ones that are out. Uh but obviously to councelor Gerba's point, it's been a long time. It's almost been three months. So follow up with Yeah, but remind me tomorrow. I would I would send it to to to Molly and and her two peers as well. Um but I find that generally if you email them directly, you get better traction. Okay. Thank you. Uh Council Member Rice, uh reports, other announcements, including updates from committees, commissions or task forces.

Unfortunately, I've been absent from all of my committees and commissions over the last couple of weeks as I fight this respiratory virus from god knows where. Um, but I do want to acknowledge that in our consent agenda this evening, we did pass a resolution for um, Black History Month. I want to read the last part of that resolution, then I want to um, discuss something briefly and then give the community some information about an upcoming event. Um, so the last part of that proclamation says, "Whereas remaining hopeful and confident about the path ahead and time to acknowledge the courageous fight for rights, liberties, and freedoms for all Americans, the city of Selen observes and honors Black History Month and encourages educators, students, and families to learn about the heritage and achievements of African-Americans through appropriate programs and activities that reflect the theme for 2026. um not to overshadow Black History Month, but I want to talk to all of our community um who are black, brown, or otherwise non-white and stress the importance of safety in the city of Seline. I've spoken with the sheriff and the police chief. We held a forum about two months ago at the library where we brought in um some immigration experts and we discussed how to keep our community safe. Um some of the laws and regulations on how we can speak up for each other. Um so I encourage folks there is an event um through county um Sheriff Dyer law enforcement other elected officials and immigration rights organizations um on this Thursday February the 5th at the learning resources center which is on avenue in Ann Arbor.

I think the sheriff sent me an email but I'm not sure she sent it to everyone on council. Would you forward that email to everyone on council? Absolutely.

Council member Rice. Thank you. Um, so the things that they're going to talk about there are the role of law enforcement, bystander education and policy, and know your rights. Um, I these were really, really educational when we went through them a couple of months ago in our forum. Um, and then also they're going to discuss how leaders are preparing at the local and state level, public safety updates, and other um, topics. Um, I really encourage anyone in the community to attend this so that we know how to respond in the event that um, ICE continue to detain people uh, unlawfully. Um, know what our rights are as far as um, recording ICE, as far as helping our community members. Um, now is the time when we as elected officials and we as members of this community really need to stand up for the oath that we have um sworn ourselves to to protect the constitutional rights of everyone who steps foot in America. Um, those rights do not exclusively belong to citizens of the United States. They belong to everyone who walks into our country. um no matter how they got here, no matter where they come from, no matter their background, and especially no matter the color of their skin, everyone deserves the same opportunities um to be um uh allowed to have healthy and safe lives. Um this is not a political issue. This is a humanitarian issue. And so I want to make sure that all of our black and brown communities members um feel safe and that we do our part. And so uh with that, if anyone um has any questions, does not feel safe, I have made some good connections over the last couple of months um through some of the work that I've been doing. please feel free to

reach out to me um and I can make those connections for you um so people who are more eloquent and more educated in this topic can answer them for you. Thank you for those comments. Much appreciated. Uh council member Harmout reports, announcements or updates from any boards, committees, commissions or task forces?

Yes, the environmental commission met um this is my first meeting for the year so that was exciting. um met on the 21st of last month and um we were able to reappoint uh our chair and vice chair as well as establish a subcommittee for um Earth month planning and we have some ideas for collaboration in the city. So that'll be um good to hear from them. Um, we did they did want me to bring uh maybe a bring back to the the dis uh the idea of for vendors and the vendor guidelines to um maybe look at the the fees and waving fees uh for vendors that are in compliance of the the guidelines that will help um support a recycling or um reduced uh landfill contribution. So that's I said I would bring that to the diet.

Much appreciated. We can revisit that. Well, I want to make sure that does everybody have those guidelines a copy of the the guidelines. Can that be sent out maybe as part of your or you could send it out directly to councelor or give it to the city manager to make it part of his weekly communicate. Make sure everybody has that policy. Those are included when you know vendors apply for special events and things like that. We include that with their packages. Yeah. I know in the past they haven't always we haven't had a lot of success always in getting that to be consistent and so we'd want to have the most success of that. So um I definitely would love to work with some of the event planning. Uh I know that arts and culture maybe has the first first up but to talk about maybe ways we can collaborate to get those results.

Very good. Um and then last uh Mr. Swallow. Um we obviously have a meeting coming up with our state representative and senior officials from MD DOT which hopefully uh most if not all of council will be able to attend. Do you want to talk a little bit um uh in addition to that that forthcoming meeting? You want to talk about some increased enforcement that's being done on 12 specific to heavy truck truck traffic?

Sure. I think uh everybody's familiar with unfortunately uh with the the truck traffic as well as heavy traffic that we see on uh State Highway 12 or uh Michigan Avenue. And so uh in particular there have been some recurring uh discussions around you know how do we have long-term trafficcoming measures? Are there ch changes we can make to the roadway? Are there changes we can make adjacent to the roadway with uh landscaping or other uh standards that uh that could be adopted to try and uh slow traffic down. Uh so that discussion uh will be occurring with some of our downtown business owners uh this coming Friday the 6th at 10 a.m. And so we are again uh council's welcome to attend that as well to have that discussion with MDOT kind of those longerterm measures that we could look at over time uh changing that roadway as well as maybe some short-term lowhanging fruit that might be possible. So the other discussion obviously that's going on is related to the truck traffic increase that we've seen uh particularly related to the data center development uh uh to the west of us here and there's been a significant increase in obviously truck traffic uh concerns about speed uh concerns about other standards u related to those trucks. Are they are they traversing through the community safely? Uh you know obviously we've heard reports of you know speed concerns as well as you know stopping uh appropriately at a controlled intersection. So, uh have been working with Chief Radzik to uh hopefully well we are focusing more on US12 with uh with some of those enforcement concerns uh putting patrol cars out there uh making additional stops uh taking a closer look at those commercial vehicles or those trucks. Uh and so uh she has uh communicated that to the officers. We're also working on our own internal uh process for weight uh control. Uh we do have scales. we do have uh the ability to stop uh those trucks for weight concerns and so updating officers with that. Also improving training uh so that if and when we do stop them we are

following uh proper procedures there. Uh Chief Rick's also been working with Michigan State Police because obviously once you get outside the juris jurisdiction of the city uh that is either the sheriffs or the state police department there uh they do have a more developed motor carrier division that is well trained uh in uh we you know dealing with trucks dealing with uh safety standards with trucks. Uh so um I my understanding is mission state police also met with the project sponsors related to digital uh to talk about you know uh the vendors that they're using the trucking companies that they're using making sure that uh uh that they're following proper uh safety protocols as well as following laws in terms of speed. So they actually welcomed maybe some additional patrols uh for and making sure that their vendors are properly uh following you know laws, traffic laws and and standards. So with that, um, there is an effort by our local police department, by the Michigan State Police to try and manage this. I know that, uh, the volume probably cannot be addressed. We can't stop them from utilizing a state highway. Uh, but we can address some of the safety concerns that have brought up. I I appreciate that. and you know subsequent to this this Friday's meeting I think um some additional communicates and maybe even a a a specific an issue specific video um similar to the PSAs or weekly updates that we do on this topic would be uh would be advantageous. Um again looking forward to the meeting with senior MDOT officials and our state rep on on Friday and continue to make progress on this this issue because it's it's timely and important and people are people are concerned about it as as they should be. Are there questions for the city manager on on this this matter? I'll jump to I'll go Dylan and then Rice.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Um obviously this is probably one of the biggest issues right now in our community. It's it's receiving a lot of feedback um on social media directly, people contacting us. And um one of the biggest things I have is is in addition to speed is the fact that we've got these trucks that are running red lights. They're not semi- red. They're not I mean they are clearly the light going the other direction is green and it's going to be something catastrophic that's going to happen. I've seen it personally. Many people have seen it personally. And that's where the biggest concern lies right now. And I'm hoping that um that related digital can can convey this to its vendors and understand the seriousness of in this community we don't tolerate that. Um, the rules of the road are the rules of the road and it's it's really becoming just no holds barred right now.

Thank you for that. Uh, Council Member Rice, um, I just want to also put on the radar that especially as we get into the warmer seasons, North and South Ann Arbor Street, there are just an outrageous amount of double haulers. Um, you know, as we get into the warmer months and we start programming the downtown and sometimes we have street closures or detours or things like that, I'm about two blocks from the four corners and I can hear them Jake breaking because they have to slam on their brakes when school gets out um cuz traffic gets backed up. So, as it starts to get warmer and pedestrians are out and about, I'm getting really nervous looking out my front door.

Appreciate the feedback. Council member Harmout and then I'll jump to Delorico. Um I just wanted to revisit I'm trying to it was brought to my attention about the num the amount of water to mix the concrete or to mix the cement and and and how much that that would equate to about 1.9 million gallons of water is what my estimate is. So does that align with what they told us that the water usage that they were going to have on site was going to be? I honestly don't know. I mean the discussions I've had with them is you know ongoing water use once the site is constructed. Uh we did not discuss construction.

I don't remember I don't remember anything specific being shared about water usage for construction activity. It was water usage or the lack of water usage as a coolant once the facility is operational. I do know a water truck came up south in Arbor Street today. A water hauler. Council member Delarco.

Yeah I was just everyone's frustrated by the the gravel trains. They are certainly loud and um unruly, but I think it's going to get significantly worse when they do start pouring concrete. I don't know if they're planning on putting a manufacturing the concrete on site or they're going to truck it in with um cement trucks, dump trucks, but those are going to be heavier, louder, and coming from all different directions. So, we should have an eye toward that as well. Mr. Just curious, did they adjust any of the signals to accommodate their traffic going through town?

No, not that I'm aware of. There was about a month ago there was a concern that actually the um there was more backup in downtown in terms of the signal timing. Uh and so I know we did reach out to MDOT um and they were going to come out and check make sure there wasn't some sort of error in the programming uh that but I'm not aware anything was been done for that related to the project. Oh, and you wanted questions from us if you if we had any for Friday's meeting. Yeah. If there are specific questions that I can forward to that in advance, obviously, we'll get a better answer.

One of them would be is what do we need to do to reduce the speed going through because I know trucks are coming in 55 miles an hour into our 45 mph zone. And I almost got clipped on turning into a drive the other day. It's like you can't judge those things coming into town. So, um, yeah, this is a major safety concern. Okay. Thank you all for that. Um, we come now to the second public comment period. Under the open meetings act, any person may come forward at this time make comment uh to city council which will be limited to three minutes. Those wishing to speak are requested but not required to state their name and address for the record. Please note, city council generally does not answer questions during the public comment period. Are there any citizen comments this evening? Please come to the the uh uh podium and you'll have three minutes once you begin.

Before I begin, I have some pictures here that would helpful help you understand what I'm doing. Please, if you like to provide them to my council colleague, we will make sure that they're distributed. Okay. This is everything was brought from this uh this booklet from the NAH. I don't work with the NAH and uh I'm here to address some really serious issues and I I went to great extent to provide these for you. I think you need to uh understand what's going on. Thank you. Okay. Um, it took me 30 hours to do the research and it comes to 30 three um 3 minutes and 30 seconds. So, I'd like to let me start over. I'll give you exactly three minutes, but I got our rules are three minutes. So, please go ahead.

Members of city council, thank you for allowing me to have the opportunity to speak to you. This is a matter of civic duty. I believe I represent the majority of Selen residents and their concern regarding the threat the data center presents to our water supply. The remarkable amount of water required by the data centers is well documented. The data center in Selen Township will be bigger than any data center in the United States. So, we should expect Seline Township's data center to use more water than any other data center in the United States. Think about it. Just north of the data center on higher ground is Galman Sciences. Gelman was given license by the city of Ann Arbor and the EPA to deep well inject 14 dioxin waste many years ago. One mile deep into the ground. A plume of 14 dioxin was discovered in resident wells near Galman several decades later. Excuse me. 14 dioxin has entered the aquifer and was beginning to flow. And as we know, all water flows downhill. Downhill from Galman Sciences is Scio Township. This past summer, 14 dioxin was detected in Scio Township's residents wells. Several weeks after this made the news, Scio Township issued a notice to their residents that they had raised the toxicity of 14 dioxin. The message was you could continue drinking the water even though 14 dioxin had been detected in their wells. Residents of Scio Township are currently receiving bottled water from Galman as per court order. The data center is downhill from Scio Township. The negative pressure created from the data center pumping out large quantities of water will cause a negative pressure on the aquifer and cause the aquifer to flow more rapidly downhill in the direction of the data center. A few miles east of the data

center are the city of Selen's four wells. A few miles east of the data center are the city's four wells. Yes. Where all the residents get their Seline All the residents of Seline get their drinking water from. Excuse me. These wells are located between Scio Township and the data center. Everyone is worried about the data center using so much water it will deplete the aquifer. This is a concern for many. But I'm here to tell you the poisoning of our water with 14 dioxin is a clear and imminent threat. The data center said they would dig four wells. On January 29th, 2026, I learned a data center had drilled eight wells. City council may have already considered cons um considered an emergency action plan this past summer when one of Seline's wells went down. considering a solution. If the problem got worse and wells failed to provide water to Seline residents, a water alert would be broadcast and residents advised not to drink the water, a water alert would be broadcast. The city would then have to begin the process of hooking up to the big big water pipe from Lake Hiron, laying water pipe from Seline to Detroit, tying in somewhere in Detroit. This would cause taxes to skyrocket. The people of the state of Michigan own the aquafer and are the stewards of the aquifer. We must not allow two outofstate Fortune 500 companies to seize control of our aquifer.

Let me I got to I got to stop you because we reached the end of the three minutes. We appreciate the comments. Why don't we make sure that uh before we end tonight, if you need your materials back, we're happy to provide them. I guess I do. I'd like to collect them when I'm We'll we'll give them back to you and then if you can we'll make sure to get your contact information so we can continue the conversation. Okay. I only have two sentences left. All right, if you got a few sentences left, go for it.

This is a real and threat to our water supply and requires urgent action. A threat of this magnitude requires an immediate special vote by Seline residents. A society that protests a society that protects data centers before drinking water has lost its priorities. And that's I have so much more that would be of interest to you that the size of the plume six miles north of here down uphill on Wagner Road is 4 miles by one mile. It's the site of a EPA super fun site, right? You know that, huh? Yep. Well, let's make sure we get your contact information so we can we can continue the dialogue. We appreciate it the opportunity.

Thank you for your time this night. We appreciate the patience. Uh any additional citizen comments? Uh, clerk war, were there any written comments provided in advance of tonight's meeting which the individual wanted their remarks right at this time? Yes. Then if there's nothing further to be brought before city council this evening, the chair would be delighted to entertain a motion to adjourn at 9:14. So moved. Moved by GearBot to adjourn. Is there a second? Seconded by Deloro. All those in favor of adjourning signify by saying I. Oppos say nay. Eyes have it. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you all.