City Council - Regular Meeting

Call this meeting to order. Stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

So before we start with roll call, there was a lot of paper dropped off in front of your places. Um there are several documents regarding the audit. There is a document regarding the rental housing certification and there is also an update regarding metric marketing that's at your spot that we will discuss each as we come along. Moving on to roll call members present Mr. Gerba Mr. Co Mr. Besh Harmount and Mayor Prom Dylan from staff we have city manager Swallow clerk Royal treasurer Finch community development director Atkin

oh and then we have Mr. Briggs Superintendent Briggs. Uh moving forward approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as submitted or amended? I'd like to add um rec center update to um the reports and announcements. Rec center update that. So moving will you move as amended? Yes. [clears throat] Second. Okay. Thank you. So the motion motion was moved by Gearbot, seconded by CO. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Now we need a motion to excuse the absence of council member Rice and Mayor Marl. Thank you, Mr. Lash.

Second. Second from Mr. Se. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Moving on to public comment on agenda items. Under the Open Meetings Act, any person may come forward to make a comment or ask questions about any item on this agenda. Comments will be limited to three minutes per person. Those wishing to speak are requested but not required to state their name and address for the record. Before you begin with your comments, please clearly state the specific agenda item you are addressing. Please note, council will not answer questions during public comment. Is there any public comment from the audience?

Hello. Good evening. Uh my name is Hans Lechner. I live in the Wildwood subdivision here in Seline. And the item I would like to address on the minutes is minutes from the last uh meeting, November 17th, specifically the item in the minutes uh regarding the flock cameras. Um I I wanted to speak at last meeting, but personal issues drove me away. Anyways, I would like to go on record as um in opposition of the clock cameras and I have three reasons if I may share them with you why. First is cost of those cameras. I mean $24,000 a year may seem like a pittance but it seems somewhat unreasonable to use taxpayer dollars to pay a private company company to collect our private data. It also seems strange that we would pay to outsource police work to an AI. And I would think we could better spend that money uh investing in pro programs that have a proven track record of reducing crime such as community outreach, community engagement, green space improvement, domestic violence intervention and counseling, uh uh economic development, social development, etc. All of these have been shown time and again to reduce crime. The second uh second reason is there is a potential for abuse and misuse of those cameras. Uh there are documented cases of law enforcement individuals misusing those data for their own purposes, their own individual selfish purposes. Now those may be outliers. It has happened and there is possibility not beyond the realm of possibility. Additionally, these cameras seem like a clear violation of our fourth amendment rights which are by which by bypassing legal warrants and probable cause and as the country seems to be edging closer

and closer to an authoritarian state uh with police surveillance, does the city of Soon really want to act as a stepping stone to get us one bit closer? Now, while these abuses may be real or perceived, this certainly does open the city up to the potential for litigation. Some instances of litigation that are currently occurring right now or have occurred do these flock cameras, Norfol, Virginia, the state of Washington, Richmond, Virginia, and most famously Aurora, Colorado, which settled for $1.9 million for abuse of the flock cameras. So, does Seline want to open itself up? And third, our data. AI is fallible and has been proven to be fallible. Um, secondly, the major investors in the flock company are venture capitalists and data brokers and their primary objective is to make money by selling data. When will they decide selling our personal data is better for them. Um, our data is also susceptible to theft and hacking. I would also like to know who has access to that data. Who will Seline PD share that data with? who will flock share that data with. Since it's our tax dollars paying for it, I expect to have access to it as well. And I would greatly appreciate the the city council to not approve of the block cameras. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. Any other public comment? Nothing else from the audience? Clerk Royal, were there any comments received?

Yes, we had one. Um, it says, "Dear council members and city managers swallow, I hope that as each of you consider a water and sewage rate increase for the citizens of Seline, that you also consider the fact that not only will you be increasing the cost of living for every every residents, but you will al you will be asking residents who still don't have clean water or who are still plagued by the stench from the treatment plant to pay more for a subcar service. Clean water is a right and unless we plan to refund or exempt residents still expens experiencing brown water from this rate increase is borderline disrespectful to ask more of our citizens financially who we continue to let down. Not only do I urge you to vote no on this rate hike. I challenge you to go a step further and put a multi-year freeze on water and sewage rate hikes until every citizen can enjoy clean water and fresh air. There has been a lot of talk recently on how we can keep Seline affordable. Well, here's a chance to walk the talk. Do right by the citizens of the city and vote no. Thank you for your time and your service. Tummaine Hos, council member elect city council. Thank you very much. With no further public comment, let's move on to one our first of two presentations this evening from Plant Moran. Gentlemen, welcome.

Thank you for having us. Uh my name is Barton Elenik. I'm the engagement partner for the audit. With me is Josh Edy, who was the engagement manager. Uh we'll be going through some of the documents that were passed along to you earlier uh this uh evening. Uh I know you've received them electronically prior. Um we passed out basically a book of documents earlier. Um there's probably about five or so uh deliverables. Uh the main two items that we're going to focus on are the graphs which are basically the highlight of the financial statements that are in front of you which is like a 70page document. So again we're going to focus on the graphs and Josh is going to go through those and I'm going to cover the post audit letter uh subsequently to that. Uh the couple things I did want to mention before is um the financial statements themselves the opinion letter uh which is the only piece of the document that belongs to Clamaran. It's an unmodified opinion which basically in the county world means you can rely on the numbers that are presented in front of you uh based on our testing procedures etc. Again you can rely on them and it's exactly what we should expect every single year which is the cleanest opinion that we provide. Uh so with that I'm going to pass it on to Josh and then at following I will cover some of the other documents that are front.

Thank you Mark. So if you look at the graphs so this is the document with all the colors on it. I will walk you through that. Uh the first slide here shows the general fund revenue history for the last five years. Uh as you can see here, total revenue increased 1% to $13,813,000. The largest increase there was property taxes, which is up 7% uh to $8,677,000 due to higher taxable values in the current year. The next slide will show the other part of this five-year history of general fund expenditures. Uh total expenditures increased 8% to 12,32,000. Largest change there was in general government which is up 15% and that is due to some vehicle equipment replacement costs as well as uh increased salaries and benefits. The next slide then shows a history of the general fund fund balance. So this is the equity if you will of the general fund and it goes back to 2015. And so this shows the amounts that are unassigned versus those that are designated elsewhere. Uh fund balance increased this year and a large portion of that fund balance is allocated for future expenditures. You can see there um in that gray box that's the assigned portion of fund balance. The next slide shows a six-year history of capital expenditures. Uh as you can see that has gone up in the last two years in that green portion which is the water and sewer improvements and repairs. And as you're probably aware that's mostly uh the wastewater treatment plant. Uh there were some other capital expenditures this year, Wildwood Trails, some HVAC things and vehicles, but really that's the bulk of it would be that wastewater treatment plant. The next slide shows a breakdown of the property taxes in the city of Seline. And so these would be paid by principal and non-principal residences in the

city. Um I do want to point out that the portion that stays within the city totals 17.75 mills um that's made up of the operating debt uh solid waste street improvements and the fire special assessment. Um also want to point out that that green bar there that 18 mills that is exempt for those that have principal residences here. The next slide would show then the mills levy comparison over those last six years compared to other communities. Uh and you can see that Selen there that's that red line is uh comparable there to some of the other communities that we're showing here. The next slide shows a history of the recreation complex fund. Uh this is before any contributions from the general fund. Revenue was up 1% this year. um $1,427,000 and expenditures were up 7% to $1,879,000 for a net decrease of $452,000. The next slide shows the water fund. Uh revenues are up 6% to $3,257,000 and expenses are up 26% to $2,990,000. And you can see on the next slide the sewer fund which has revenue up 12% to $6,756,000 and expenses up 5% to $3,979,000. And I do want to point out that neither of these slides does show uh the investment capital assets that the city is making. So do keep that in mind as you're looking at this and seeing hey the revenues are more than the expenditures. That's because that is being invested. The next slide would show the legacy costs. So here you have um pension and the oped and the idea here is to show the impact of the assumptions that are um inherent to calculating these. So the

assumptions are really driving a lot here. Those are estimates and we talk about those a little more detail in the letter. Uh but you can see here pension is at a little over $10 million using a 7.18% discount rate that sees to the financial statements. Um but if that were to decrease to 6.18% that pension liability would rise to just over $14 million. So that those assumptions do have a significant impact. Uh you can see retirey healthcare using a 7 and a half% healthcare trend rate as a net op asset of about $429,000. But if that increased to 8 and a half% that would move to $873,000 of a net op liability. With that, I'll hand it back to you.

We're happy to address any questions you may have from the grants or I can proceed with the letter and then we can kind of address questions at that point. Preferences.

Uh, a couple things and I did mention that I was going to cover the post audit letter um during this part. I did want to point out too is that there's a couple other documents that are in front of you. They're related to the federal single audit that was done this year. It's again related to the water the sewer project that's ongoing. Uh since some of the money is related to federal funds, we had to go through a process that actually test the procedures that are in place within the city just to make sure that you're in compliance with the federal guidelines. I do want to point out that instead of going through the page by page of the document that it's I would say one of the simpler documents because there's no findings or anything like that to be disclosed. Uh therefore um everything that we based on our testing etc. Um the city was in compliance with uh the grants exactly what we should expect. It's the same result as last year. Um and I just want to make sure that you're aware of that. Uh and with that the post audit letter uh so this would be in relation to the pre- audit letter that you would have received a couple months back. Uh this uh discloses the process overall [snorts] uh that occurred throughout the audit. Uh there's two sections um for the post audit letter. One is the required communications governance which is the city council and then some legislative items which are in section two which are essentially items that would impact the city uh similarly to other communities within the state of Michigan. um mostly it's um items that are within the state as well as some federal items. So first the section section one uh again talks about some of the uh items that have occurred during the audit just kind of in response to the pre- audit letter. I did want to point out that it is a relatively u plain letter um to note that there was no disagreements with management. There were no significant items that we noted. Uh there were no significant um journal entries or anything like that as a result of the audit procedures. So the records that the city maintained were within

compliance with what they would have expected. Uh section two uh again some of the legislative items. I will not go through point by point uh on those items. Uh for your reading pleasure if you're having a hard time falling asleep or anything like that. Um but I do want to point out a couple things that are in here. Uh a couple things that are um I would say top of mind for a lot of folks. Um on page four, cyber security information technology items. Um this would be a very hot topic within a lot of communities and businesses around the state as well as the country just with a lot of the cyber attacks etc. Um just want to make sure that the city keeps a focus on u overall security within and I'm not saying there was anything that we found that was wrong or anything like that but just want to make sure that you're aware that uh you know keep an eye on it and if there's any help that you needed from plant brand or anything like that we'd be happy to assist. And then uh one of the last items um on page six, I believe the documents are in draft form, which I'll explain momentarily why they're in such u why they're in draft. Um on page six, uh there's a new Gazsby pronouncement that's coming out for next year. It's related to financial reporting and model improvements. I did want to point out that really doesn't have a impact on what the city does from day-to-day operations perspective. It's more of the reporting perspective, what's going to happen next year. So, it's more of an impact of how the financial statements are going to be presented, but has nothing to do with the budgeting or anything like that. So, I just want to make sure that you're aware and uh we will definitely uh help the city and implementing the um as I mentioned uh earlier, the documents are technically in draft form. Um the reason for that is we were waiting for a couple pieces of information um over the last week or so in order to wrap up the audit. The numbers that are presented within have not changed or anything like that. And actually, I just received notification within the last couple of hours that they are finished and out of our processing department. So, you'll be receiving the finalized copies within

the next day or two. So, with that, uh, concludes our presentation. Uh, if you have any questions, we'd be happy to address those. Thank you very much. So, we can start. Mr. Le, would you like to start with questions? Uh, you know, all things are cut and dry. Thank you, Mr. Seal. I'm always happy to be bored with a penel report. Thank you very much uh for all your help. Mr. Gwa,

um just to make a statement, we've already talked during the pre- audit. Some of my concerns I've always addressed with related to payroll audits, we had performed that this year. Some other supplemental activities that were done to validate some of the information and I know we got some of that information and data back. I believe what we look at is the biggest concern for us is that when we looked at the budgettobudget um analysis that we were under budget this past year which meant that projects weren't completed. That explains one of the reasons why the fund balance has probably increased although some of that's unassigned but we will likely be assigning that in the future. Um for me the only thing is um when we look at this are there any concerns that we should be aware of from either a federal perspective or a state state perspective at this time that you believe that we should be on the watch for?

So I would say nothing that would like keep me personally up at night or anything like that. I think the biggest things that I'd be keep an eye out for are um the sewer projects just given the magnitude of the dollars being spent. uh making sure you're uh you know staying on top of it, making sure it's within budget, etc. I know how construction projects can happen. Even like at my own house, there's overruns even with a small construction project. So, I can only imagine with a significant project like this, there could be something that um ends up happening over time. So, just making sure that you stay on top of that. And the other item is uh the pension uh liability. Overall, I think the city has done a very nice job of maintaining uh a certain percentage that's funded, which is around 70%. This is a very good percentage to have to be funded. There's a lot of communities that wish they could be at that level. Uh but it's something that's, you know, clearly the liability is not fully funded and something that needs to be budgeted for and uh money uh put aside over the future years just to make sure that the liability can be paid for. And then lastly, you had agreed with some recommendations that would help us address some property losses that we had in the past year and um related to theft that occurred in the DPW and some of those aspects and do you feel that those are being addressed at this point in time?

At this point in time, yes. Um but I I believe I had some suggestions of, you know, what to do just make sure that you're within the policies, maybe fine-tuning some of the policies within the city, uh just to make sure nothing like that happens again. um maybe individually the items are not significant but clearly if kind of accumulate etc could become a more significant dollar amount so I just want to make sure that policy are follow and so we should make that as a re recommendation from our council policy to make sure that occurs with our staff and so forth okay thank you thank you thank you SA

um I heard you about the on budget with the project that's as big as the wastewater treatment plant which kind of brings me to my second question is the debt service risk if we are not to approve the um rate increases what what does that do to our port portfolio?

Yes. So I've not seen the uh sew the water and sewer rate analysis um per se. I do know that based on performance over the last couple of years within the fund as well as some of the projections from what I've heard um there's definitely a certain dollar amount that's needed to fund the debt u payments. The debt payments are going to be pretty significant over the next few years and without having the rate increases typically without having the money set aside that puts the city in jeopardy of not being able to meet someone's dead obligations. Are there other sources that we should be looking at um that would offset that?

So within water and sewer funds typically the users have to pay for those services. Uh the other potential would be literally coming from the general fundament property tax bure if we're specifically talking about the debt service portion of it. So the debt service portion for the sewer fund comes from the rate user from the users of the system itself. The other potential is always you know federal funding or state funding which I know the city's already been giving some of those funds but unfortunately cannot be paid for full. So it does come down to the rate condition that all thank you. No, that's it.

Thank you. Um thank you very much for your presentations. I think that I had a couple of questions. Um and things I just wanted to touch upon if other people were watching this from the outside one and I think Mr. Yearbot touched upon as did you Martin which was that our fund balance number is so high and it's tied to incomplete projects. We know that we've got a couple things like that. The other um thing that I would be remiss if I didn't mention was slide number eight, which was the wreck complex slide. Um looking at the numbers for that, I mean it's it's something that we are going to have to address as a city. Um when you start looking at the general fund contribution, the debt service contribution, um those numbers are not sustainable. So, thank you for bringing those numbers to our attention. Before we move on, is there anything else from council? Mr. Swallow, do you have anything?

Okay, treasure, anything? No. Thank you very much. Gentlemen, thank you very much for your time and your presentation this evening.

Thank you so much. And uh thank you again for the opportunity working with the city. Appreciate it. Thank you. Tech's going to switch to the next presentation which will be from people's express which is trans public transportation. Good evening. Thank you for having me. Um, I'm Evelyn Taylor, the interim managing director of People's Express. We're an organization driven by purpose, empowered by people. And tonight I'm here to talk a little bit more about our services and um hopefully renew a contract we've had um actually since the early 2000s, but the latest contract was from 2018 to 2021. And during the pandemic, we really prioritized keeping everyone safe and prioritizing residents. So we between the city council and people's express decided to maintain structure and continued on verbally through that contract and now we're here entering 2026 and we want to talk about ways we can improve services and also um revisit the price structure. So there's a quick overview. I'll go through the background about People's Express, touch on what transportation means to community, an overview of our services, looking at estimated costs, details of those services along with implementation, and then we had some appendencies for you guys to look at supporting data insights you look at and then finally discussion and next steps. To touch on our mission, People's Express is dedicated to providing safe and reliable public transportation to empower all individuals to maintain the

independence and enhance their quality of life with attention to un underserved populations. We are definitely missiondriven organization. So I wanted to highlight that. And I also want to highlight a little bit of background on our agency. So we've been a nonprofit since 2007, but we take a little bit few steps back. We actually originated in the 90s as a program of our local food pantry when we're like area human services and that's really led us to an advantage of our county being our backyard. Today we flee 130 vehicles that allows us to scale services to meet local demands and we provide demand response community based transportation that allows us to accommodate that non-emergency medical uh employment grocery stores and social trips. Pretty much you name it, we got it. We're a one-stop shop for transportation. And I also wanted to highlight our commitment to data sharing and regular performance reporting to funding partners and local governments, especially as we're a direct recipient of state funding. When you look at over to your right this mobility leadership circle, you'll see essential resources such as food, education, housing, employment, social and community, even access to healthcare and elected officials like yourself. What we look at is how it all starts with transportation. what it means for a community [snorts] to stay connected to one through one another and how the the leadership circle are all in interwines. One of the big reminders of us in our communities is to look at how we can all become transit dependent tomorrow and how we have to think about transportation as a community utility like your garbage pickup. Looking at your current services, we're providing [snorts] residents transportation Monday through [clears throat] Friday 9 to5. those who are able to um we provide services within boundaries for the general public at $4 and seniors at $2 per trip. For out of boundaries when you go past the Jude uh Judell textile and moon driving boundaries to Ann Arbor and if $6 and then per mile pricing we do offer

discounted um pricing for seniors and [snorts] individuals with disabilities at $1.25. Looking over some writership data first starting at 2024 we had 2,888 trips we provide annually with October um year to date for 2025 being at 1,892. Looking a little bit closer at that we have a year-over-year comparison of the October month in 2024 we provided 292 trips and this last October is 143. I think one of the things I attribute to that is our relationship with the township or with the city and really forging um awareness and education on the resource that residents have for them. The total wrership for this year can be broken out for our demographics of 12% general public, 75% seniors with 7% people with disabilities and then 6% with seniors that have a disability. When we look at trip purposes, we see that we have 32% um education or 5% medical, 32% 5% educational, 32% medical, 36% uh personal with 20% work and 3% grocery. Looking at a little wider scope, this is a map that kind of shows you how there is um out of community traffic [snorts] happening outside of Seline, particularly in the Ann Arbor and Ian area. Um this this past year's data, there's actually more out of community um trip happening than in community. And we have a scale of high, moderate, and low density that's comparable to the data itself. If we look a little bit closer at the ridership within the city of Seline, you see our top destinations of Lyn Square, Selene Rec Center, and Bushes. And you see again um congestion around US12 and other corridors. Tonight, we wanted to look a little bit

closer at um cost starting January 1st. One model is looking at demand response services Monday through Friday at 9 to 5:00 pm. And that's the current service hours being um provided now at um at $72 per hour. We're providing a a total cost of $187,200 uh dollars, but we're able to reduce that leveraging this local older person service millages that People's Express has been recently awarded and able to reduce the price by 35,000 there. We're also leveraging state funding to contribute to services at $20,000. And then working with the city manager, we're looking at a 20% reduction for the first six [snorts] months to really phase up and that would bring down the cost down to the total to the city of 1,00 $118,980. Another model that we wanted to look at um which is similar to Pittsfield Township and Nurse Services being offered Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. That offers more flexibility for those who have needs um work or medical beyond that traditional 9 to5. At that cost, it would be 200 $262,000. But again, leveraging both older adults, millages, state funding, and having a 20% reduction, we're able to look at a cost of $186,372. To dive deeper into community comparisons, we [snorts] wanted to look at one of our existing cities that we provide services to, the city of South Line. We have a population of 11,746. And in the last 12 months, People's Express has provided over 10,000 rise 10,000 rides to the city of South Lion. With that though, we have some key indicators of offering 7day a week ser 7 7 day a week services with 5 to 9:00 p.m. services on the weekdays and also our driving boundaries across communities allowing more flexibility and uh fairs um and also mobility as

well. When we look at that and compare it against the city of Selen's population of 8,948, we're seeing that we could have an estimated demand based on that ratio of 7,759 trips a year. Here we're kind of indicating there's a significant likelihood of an unmet demand for Selene residents when it comes to transportation. Another neighbor comparison, Pial Township. Again, they provide 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. services Monday through Friday. Um we're starting we're actually transitioning from AATA to People's Express January 1st. We're pro providing one vehicle to support those demands in the cost of that township after the markdown is going to be $27,000. More on our service details. So People's Express provides safe, reliable and affordable transportation for residents. We really wanted one importance is no miss appointments especially those medical that are for diialysis and chemotherapy that demand response services we provide we provide both doortodoor and curb to curb options. We allow our um booking 3 days in advance for our call center being open 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. All of our vehicles are ADA accessible and one thing that is unique to us is we provide 37 inch wide lifts with a th00and pound capacity and that allows us to accommodate multi-ype of wheelchairs. Our drivers are um receive robust training and background checks as well as our dispatchers, our professional staff who are able to respond to community needs and really have personalized customer services. oftentimes those who are on the phone sometimes that those conversations are the only ones are having that day and we're also able to recognize maybe other community resources that we can refer them to beyond just the need of transportation. [snorts] Looking at the fair structure um we wanted to kind of model what we're looking at with Pittsville Township and other um communities with within county

uh just general public being $2 one way and the discounted price being a dollar. the city of Ann Arbor and it's landing being right now at um $6 and $3. We were looking to reduce it to four and two and then those who wanted to travel one township a city away um and our capacity dependent on People's Express would be $6 and $3 one way. Um and then that rest of the county with a per mile pricing at 250 per mile and $125. With reporting, we want to work with the uh city to understand more what kind of insights you guys want to look at further. We can provide township uh total wrership, trip demands by weekday, Saturday and Sundays, breakdown if we were to explore weekend services, passenger demographics, those trip purposes in community and out of community movement. Understand what important places are for access, top destination data for that, as well as trends between the data. And we can look at even visuals of heat mapping of trip points as well as cancellation rates. We do take um a closer look at the master plan and how there were several areas that mentioned transportation access and expanding that um allowing those to connect to residents to nearby communities, having safe and efficient and smooth flow for all as well as um the wanting the eager to identify opportunities to expand public transit options. And that brought us back to that option two, the contracted training service hours for implementation. Um, we want to work more closely with the city to identify areas of joint communication including updating the websites, social media platforms, really pushing out to the community that this resource is available, having brochures available in the rec center, the senior center, the city hall. Um, even considering infographic mailers. We found success in our other communities with that. Um and also reaching out to the SLE post and

SLE reporter outreach is also really important to us. I know um this past year we did touch a truck um that the Sleen Area Social Services hosted and we were very um appreciative of us being invited to attend forging more relationship with with um local organizations and connecting with Story Point and Mr. Sel's library. Um again we want to talk with more uh organizations and local businesses and connect with the community further. to those um orchestrated events. Thank you. You guys have questions. Thank you very much for that information. Okay. Well, Mr. Wes, I'll start with you again.

U just just one question. I don't know if you have the answer for this. Um I'm looking at that demographic slide. You know, who who has been using it? Everything was going up except for the people with disabilities. said there was a 4% decrease in both uh seniors and is there another service that's come in that is helping more with disabilities now or one could one thing that could offset that um look at the data real quick that one thing that could be offset of that is a decrease in ridership um and more attributing to the senior doesn't necessarily mean that those might be seeking other [snorts]

Thank you, Mr. Se. Several questions, please. Thank you. Uh, your writership data, the same page you're on now, is the 1892 2025 through October, is that just for the city of Seline or is that Washington County? That's just for the city of Seline. Okay, good. Thank you. And then um the estimated cost option one and option two uh you show vehicle hours a week is 50 operating eight hours a day 5 days a week. How do you come up with 50 hours? Yeah. So there is a hour. So our drivers do pre-insspections and travel time to get to the city. So there's included those costs as well.

Okay. So the same thing then on the next page option too. Okay, those are [clears throat] my questions. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Seal. Mr. Gearball,

um just a few. When you go back to the actual writership, um it seems that we're down a thousand riders, you know, according to through October, they anticipate a thousand riders. I I'm looking at the reasons why we've dropped. And do you have any explanation as to that significant decrease? I think it's more like if I'm looking at the pandemic times, we had a vehicle parked at the senior center. We had vouchers that this um this the senior center also offered to residents which really boosted up ridership. Um since the pandemic, we really just had held a steady ground on existing um passengers using our services and I think a lack of awareness of this being a resource has kind of decreased the ridership. Do we have any additional trend information from 23 and 22 and 20?

We can all we could put that together and provide like a graph because that would be helpful [snorts] to understand that. And then the other piece of it is um when I'm looking at some of the information looking at the destinations in county I guess in my understanding we were thinking that more of the trips or I was thinking that more of the trips were between the facilities in Ann Arbor Nellani and not necessarily there's one trip all the way to Northfield Township. Um, do we understand what those are or how those occur?

Um, the offshoot ones that could be because of uh community events going on or someone visiting a personal connection. But you are correct. The Ann Arbor insulin mostly attributes to work trips and also um people seeking medical facilities. I will say when you're looking at trip trends uh the 2024 year we had more in community movement and this past year we had more out of community movement for the city of Seline which could indicate people are seeking resources outside of the community in the dependencies there is an area where you'll see um commuter time is about 68% have a community time more than 20 minutes really indicating people are accessing work outside the community and then we also look at when they're leaving [clears throat] between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. People's Express, even though it's not forged in our contract to provide services at that time, we do try to do our best when someone calls us and in they're in need for us to be able to service those um clients. But um so that also attributes to the out of community traffic. And then I also wanted to point out when you're looking at snap retailers, um there isn't necessarily affordable grocery stores besides the Walmarts outside of the city. So people are most likely traveling there um or other locations to access healthy food.

And when you were looking at that the trends regarding the the hours distribution is that information available for Seline to understand what we're Yeah. So this is looking at census data that um in the American community survey putting that together and looking at forecasts and trying to do a deeper dive of why the transportation uh could correlate to your guys's community trends. Okay. So, it's not our specific details or what's happening. One of the things I'm looking at South Line and I see that they have a much greater wrership, but is that more due to probably the commuting because they have a 7 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. more people riding it that way?

And I will say, so actually Oakland County, they have a transit wide millage that they passed in 2022. Prior to that, we had a community based contract with the city itself and we were providing those like 9 to5 services just as we were in Seline. When we open up the doors to allow more travel across driving boundaries and reduce fairs to be more affordable and even operate operated during the weekends, we really saw a huge increase in ridership showing that the demand was there but maybe the resource wasn't meeting the needs of those people. So the city of South Line is receiving subsidies from the Oakland Village. Correct. Okay. Yeah.

Um and then I guess just for me is understanding it really is that issue of what we're providing and who's using it. And I I see your your indicators and just understanding more of how and where people are actually going and what it's using because that drop for me is a big concern that we're almost a thousand less than last year. But I mean we'll have more ridership but seeing that kind of a 10 to 20% drop if that's what the final numbers are seems something's off. So understanding that would be best for us at this point.

Yeah. And uh one of the things with our current contract, so we offer one vehicle for availability between 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Uh what often happens though is if the multiple people need to be in the same different places at the same time, we will try to leverage our vehicles that are available in the nearby areas to be able to support those trips. But People's Express has been expanding, so we haven't been as lenient or flexible as we have in years past. So being able to leverage other vehicles. Okay. Our hope though is with the older adults millillage and more community um transportation across the Walsh County area would allow for more efficiency and cost savings that we could be more connected as communities.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Gerba. Miss Hut. Um [clears throat] so it looks like it's if my math is correct, it looks like it's about $70 per trip if we're looking at this 288. So that's pretty stout. um in most of it within you know like the area. So if the increase of rider if the ridership increases would that offset the city's part of it of 186,000.

So the cost is to operate a vehicle. So whether the ridership is increasing or decreasing it would not change the pricing model. Um, one of the things I know like the the heavy costs and people have the argument of like why not Uber or Lift but um with our services we're providing drivers who have deescalation training. Uh they have for say in CPR their professional drivers who go through background checks and safety sensitivity. They have wheelchair securement that a lot of uh privatized companies do not offer wheelchair ADA compliance support. Um so that all adds up in cost and that's unfortunately why transportation's [clears throat] often subsidized.

Very good. Um are there also an increase? So there's a reduction in use so there was a decrease and and the question has been why like what what's the cause of that? But are there cancellation increases? Have we seen increase? The cancellation. That's one thing we can look at a little bit further. And I'd like to piggyback another question off of that is what are um folks if is there complaint like if there's something that people are not happy with in the service or what are some things that the people are complaining about?

I think the biggest thing so we actually have a mobility manager that if we can't we don't like telling people no especially if they're going through hardships the last thing when they pick up the phone is they hear the answer no. So our mobility manager will try to connect them to other resources so they fall outside the boundaries of what the city offers. Um, but with that being said, that's probably the biggest mistake [snorts] is them not meeting their needs of where they need to go. Whether it's my insurance is taking me outside of the county for um, my specialized doctor's appointments or I want to get to the airport. So, things are outside the bounds of the city is one of those um, more common uh, feedback we receive. Okay. And then what about the increase? Were there an increase in cancellations?

I don't have that data on hand, but we can provide that back to the council. I can provide to the city manager who can distribute it. Okay. Thanks for your information. Well said, Miss Herma. Thank you. Um I've got a couple of similar questions that I was just going to kind of try to roll through very quickly, which is for a while we had two buses. We had an in town loop and then we had an external loop because what we were finding was the bus was leaving town and there was no service in town. So, I guess first of all, I'm not sure what happened to the second vehicle. If our contract hadn't changed, do we know like why we were down to one bus?

That might have been from I'm not quite sure historically because it's 2018. I was unfortunately there during that time. But what I can say is um we probably had it informally outside the existing contract. We were providing a secondary vehicle. What we are able to still do informally though is we do leverage other vehicles in our neighboring communities. Um that way we can still have a sling bus in the sling area for those who need trips [snorts] to Ann Arbor and I especially with the um the Pittsfield Township contract starting for those who also might need to be going to Ann Arbor slammy. We can kind of run a route between the two communities to bring them outside.

Okay. And then do you find that your vehicles are one passenger or are they multi-passenger? Like is it like a bus where it's picking up people? And then depends on our scheduling system and where they're going. Um sometime we do double load or triple load. Sometimes it depends of whether they have a oversized wheelchair and how many we can fit. Um so it fluctuates between one to four passengers. Okay.

I appreciate that. Um I'm hoping that we can find the balance. um and find the right mix because transportation has always been an issue in our community as we don't have access to normal public transit. So providing private public transit I think is is crucial for us and especially those that are able to accommodate uh wheelchairs or other mobility devices is very important. um understanding how it's being used and that it's being used by city of Seline residents and whether it's because when I start looking at some of these I'm trying to figure out if they're inbound or out of bound outbound some of these location

data we provided are residents uh I think in the packets were the data ship packets distributed to city council just this presentation just this presentation okay so there is another packet that shows actually uh data of communities outside of the city that are going into city lane is factoring into some uh table of ours and then the other one is strictly the city slain residents. So the data here tonight is just residents. Okay. And the drive in this the driving boundaries is to establish where those residents can go while they're maintaining a flat fair.

Understand. Thank you very much for that. And um city manager Swallow, do you have an idea as to what our current pricing structure looks like? This will be a sign of increase because we haven't had an increase since uh 2021. So if I recall 2018, I think it was when the last time our contract Okay. Um and I I appreciate that. I think that uh we're going to need to have some further conversations and and work through some details. We are not taking action on this item this evening. Thank you. This was very informative. We appreciate your time this evening.

Thank you so much. And if there's any lingering thoughts or comments, we're more than happy. We have some tonight that we'll come back with you guys with more um information on. Thank you again very much.

We're going to wait till it clears the monitors and then we can start to move on. Okay. So, moving on now to the consent agenda. The following items will normally be adopted without discussion. However, at the request of any citizen or council member, any item may be removed from the consent agenda for council discussion. Are there any items to be removed at this time? Move to approve the consent agenda as submitted. We'll second.

Thank you, Mr. Seal. With that, all in favor? Any opposed? The motion will carry. Moving on now to new business. Uh, item number 25-179, water and sewer rate resolution. It's going to be a motion to acknowledge receipt of resolution 25-179 and to approve or not approve the resolution establishing water and sewer rates effective January 1, 2026. Move to acknowledge. Okay, Mr. Gro, is there a second to that?

Thank you, Miss How? Okay. Um, Treasurer Finch, did you want to take the lead? City Manager, I'll take the lead.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor Propam and council. Um, it is that time of year where we take a look at not only water tour rates, but all our fees and obviously that's later on in the agenda. We take a look at some of our other fees as well. But for water and sewer rates, there are obviously three uh primary components of that. We take a look at operation maintenance costs. So those ongoing costs from year to year that include uh labor include uh regular maintenance include uh regular uh contractual items obligations for operating supplies, electrical power, treatment, chemicals, meter costs, repair costs and other maintenance activities. So those are uh the first consideration we take a look at and those have been increasing and generally see in the reports about 5 to 6% annually. The second component of course is our long-term debt service. Um this is significant particularly because of our wastewater treatment project but also their preceding debt prior to that. There's a whole debt schedule that was included in the rate study uh by Bazinski uh and and associates uh that you can take a closer look at. And then finally component uh looking forward as to what uh what additional capital improvements that we may need to make in the next several years. Uh so taking that into account um we did conduct a rate study last year in 2024 uh that was attached with the uh with the agenda packet this evening and that combining those takes takes a look at what what should the rates be going forward and how do we how do we determine that based on those three primary components. The recommendation from Bazinski Associates is to for our water rates that we increase those six and a half percent and for our sewer rates that we increase those seven and a half percent. And that is to keep up with uh again maintenance costs, long-term debt as well as future capital planning. To take a look at what does that mean for a typical resident, uh if you look at the increase in water uh commodity charge and there's two components uh to the rates. There's a

commodity charge which is for the the what people use on a per thousand gallons basis and there's also a fixed charge or a readiness to serve charge that's established on a quarterly basis and that's to even if there's not water flowing or sewer flowing to a residence there's still costs associated with maintaining the system. So the recommendation uh for on the water side is to go on the commodity usage or per thousand gallons is to go from $559 per thousand gallons to $5.95 uh per thousand gallons. For the [snorts] wastewater or the sewer side, the recommendation is to go from $14.92 per thousand gallons to $164 per thousand gallons. Associated with that, the readiness to serve charges. Uh those also increase uh on the water side $30.13 per quarter to $328 per quarter and on the on the sewer side $56.69 per quarter to $60.94 per quarter. So what does that mean for a typical resident? Uh so with with that that would be about if you assume a 6,000 gallons per month usage and that's actually fairly high uh relative to a lot of our users are under that. uh but uh you know thinking conservatively what that would mean to a user be about $10.95 per month increase uh for a typical user or a $32.85 per quarter. So that is a recommendation and we realize that uh nobody likes to increase water and sewer rates uh but without an increase as we discussed at the uh our audit we will have difficulty meeting uh all of our financial obligations from an operation maint standpoint as well as from a debt service standpoint. So [snorts] that's an overview. Uh we can dive into the rate studies and or take any questions that council may have.

Thank you very much, Mr. Lesh. Going to start with you again. Um as as you said, nobody likes to raise rates, but uh we we have seen the cost of everything increasing. I mean, you can't buy a box of chocolates for less than 7% increase anymore. So, um I it's [clears throat] something that we knew was going to come and we knew we'd have to eventually deal with the debt service for the city and that I think keeping it this level is probably the best we can do. So, thank you Mr. Seal.

I think these are basic commodities that people expect and along with that expectation ought to come the expectation that eventually you have to pay for it. So, uh, I guess I'm in concert with the recommendations and I'm willing to vote to approve them. Thank you very much, Mr. Gearbball.

Um, I [snorts] know we have these concerns and we have addressed these issues about attainable housing and cost of living in Seline and what we need to do. Um, I have voted for these increases for the last 20 years because we needed to do it and it's required to do it. Um, what I look at this is that when we look at the value of our water, just producing water and to clean it, when you just look at the commodity cost itself, it's 22 cents per gallon. What else can you do for 22 cents? I mean, you look at milk, $3 a gallon, or you look at pop or you look at alcohol. For us to have the most clean water and to provide that type of thing, we need to provide the proper equipment and we need to to accommodate for that. That price is good. Yes, we have a right to serve charge, but that distributes across thousands of gallons that you use. And so when you really get down to it, our cost of water, yes, it seems like it's expensive, but when it's the reality of what you're using and what we can do and what we need to do in this community, this is the cost to provide the services, to provide this commodity, and to build a system to which we can not only produce the water, but to use the water. What I'm concerned is when I look at the rate studies, the water study seems fine. I've seen our cash flow increase and we have maybe a deficit every year or so, but it seems manageable within $10,000 and that can be addressed either through increased users or water. Where we get the concern is we're reliable and liable due to one heavy user in the community, which is American soy. So for us to address our issues and concerns with water isn't so much about production. It's about users and growth and addressing that issue. I look at the studies and the studies for me don't account for potential growth that's going to happen. We're taking a very conservative approach to it. So that is a good way to look at it. Hopefully when we move forward some of

these increases could be less. But when we look at our w our sewer analysis, that one has me very worried. When we start going out into the out years, we're talking deficits of nearly a million dollars and don't know what's going to mean in four to five years from now. I need to see projections that take us out past 28. Um I know they're speculative, but we don't understand what that's going to mean. And so at this point, doing a seven and a half percent increase is needed. I'm concerned that it should be higher. I made this exact concern a year ago when I looked at those cash flows and that million dollars concern. And that's why at that time I had requested a million dollars be set aside in the general fund for a potential loan to the utility fund that we do not miss that first payment. Looking at it, it seems that we're going to have cash sufficient unless something significant happens or we don't have the water usage or the sewer rates that we have per currently. Um, but if we don't do these increases, we will have a problem. And I think Mr. [clears throat] Swallow and as former uh uh deputy manager Cole had stated and how we have said in the past, these sewer increases have happened. I look at the numbers. I feel confident that we're looking at these. My biggest concern is that we do not know what could happen with commodity costs and supplies and things that we're having going forward in addition addressing how we will handle growth in the next 3 to four years related to other necessities that we have to fix in our system. So without these increases we cannot achieve what our public wants and how we can achieve it and we have to do it through utility rates. It's the only way we can do it. So, um, this may be a long speech, but I feel that we said, we set this on a track 5 years ago to bring this forward and start going on it. I'm disappointed other individuals did not support this, did not vote for it because they didn't want to make a stance to show that they wanted to support this type of

development and this type of infrastructure for our community. Moving forward, voting for this is the right thing.

Thank you, Mr. Gerbal. Mr. I feel like that speech was for me because um I'm having a really hard time with this. Um it's like assets not being managed now. We have to pay the piper situation. So um the water rates, yeah, we're totally in line to have an increase and I don't dispute that and I think that it's definitely reasonable. Also, it's in align with the other communities around us. Um, I really have a hard time with the sewer. Our sewer rate, uh, per, you know, is going to go up to $164 and that will put us, you know, Ann Arbor is at $8.99, Pittsfield Township 758. I mean, where all the other communities are significantly lower and so um, you know, it's almost like a multiplying effect. every gallon of water that you use is a multiplying effect with this the impact on the sewer and our sewer rates are super high and we're talking about affordability in the housing. It's really it's it's unfortunately not fair to the folks that are you know you know moving in now and and now having to pay these increases of the you know 7.5%. And so, um, I personally am being stuck in a position where I I'm not I don't want to see rate increases, you know, that are 7.5% year-over-year. Um, and maybe more than that. Um, and I'm not really sure what the plan is to help um, mitigate that. Um, so I I'm not really sure where, you know, we we're going to have to. So,

but take a close look if I may. Um, one of the things that uh I think is important if you take a look at the uh rate study uh there's a table that talks about uh the uh schedule cash reserves and so um we are going to be able to build a little bit uh have been over the last few years with the uh uh with the uh with the rate increases. However, uh our debt peaks uh in next fiscal year. So fiscal year 28 is when our our debt peaks. So that's about $4 million a year in terms of debt service for uh the sewer side. And so I think that unfortunately is what we're seeing. Um and that it is to in large part, you know, pay for the capital improvements that are being made. And guess you could argue that could you spread those out over time a little bit more, but when you rebuild the entire almost the entire wastewater plant, that's uh some of the some of the issues we're facing.

Um I guess I would like to make one request. I know that in our bill we're charged to the thousand um you know thousand gallons. I I since our water meters have an ability to read more exact information than that, I think that I would um like to, you know, on the record request that we look into what that would uh entail. I have talked with the treasur's office about that based on previous question. Uh we do round down and so uh in terms of the uh and they've verified this with the billing system. Uh so you don't get charged for that next thousand until you reach that full thousand gallons,

right? But then it would roll into the next period and if there was a rate increase then that would person would be charged for the previous period a new at a new rate. So it did one of the challenges we do face is it would require reprogramming the meters and how they how they report uh into the billing system. So it is a significant challenge to go down to that next level say 100 gallons but uh we will continue to look at that.

Anything further? Thank you. Um, I've got a couple of quick questions that I'd like to add to the conversation. Um, I appreciate the the memo and getting back into the rate study. Will there be another rate study being done? Did did you mention that, Mr. Swallow? We are looking at uh just updating existing rate study to do a a less significant uh overall but just to make sure that we're still in line and also make sure that we fully understand all of our debt service is the other um the other item we want to make sure that it's all covered. So it would be just an update to the existing study.

Okay, I appreciate that. Um because one of the things there's a reoccurring theme when you start to um and it it's just sort of um just basic contract language I think from the consultant that created this document which is that they're basing their information on the information in which we're giving them. We've had changes in leadership and so I want to make sure that our current position still aligns with the information which was previously given to them. I think there were some assumptions made about growth and just understanding if we're still on track and um and I would like to sort of see a number in which you know if there's a threshold that we have to have x amount of users come online per year to keep on track to make sure that our numbers are are matching up the way they're supposed to. So I I would hope that we could get something like that from it. Um I do I would be remiss if I did not mention that the comment that had come through from public comment um regarding water quality. I mean we are still struggling with that and I think that needs to be a top priority for the city moving forward. I think we've made some some headway with it. Our flushing processes are helping but there are still significant people in this community that are dealing with brown water. um definitely not as frequently but the expectation is that we will not have that. So I'm hoping that we will continue to make uh forward motion on on resolving that issue as we move forward. I will say that in line with what Mr. Gerba had mentioned um when you start looking out it's frightening to see that we are going to sort of turn upside down at one point a bit and so understanding

are are the rates actually high enough and I know that's it's not what people want to hear is just sort of understanding though but I don't want to be in a position where the next generation of people that are sitting here are looking and saying well why was this not done Um, and so I I think having that information in front of us so that we're making the best decisions for today and tomorrow is is absolutely um imperative at this point. [snorts] Um, that I think there was an effort to kind of smooth the rates. Uh, yes. I think for years there was an effort to smooth and we over smooth and so

based on information we were provided. So we didn't have that clarity that I think we have now that that doesn't work. Building up a little bit of cash reserves is it accommodates for those future years where there is negative cash flow.

Yes. And just for clarification, I think at a previous meeting quite some time ago, I think there was um a motion made by or at least an uh um something brought forward by Mr. Gearbaugh about earmarking a million dollars from uh fund balance. has that been done? Um I I remember us having robust conversations about it. Was an I guess just understanding if that action was taken. So the short answer is that generally speaking, you do not want to utilize your general fund dollars for you know water and sewer enterprise fund uh support. However, uh there is obviously uh significant uh fund balance in the general fund for a potential loan or something,

right? And I think that's what it was. It was definitely meant to be a loan, not a funding source. There are there are other and we'll take a look at that as we take a look at the uh designated fund balance as to uh exactly what we want to do with that. There are other items in there for example legislative changes and things that uh could be reallocated to a to a reserve fund for uh any potential shortfall. [snorts]

Thank you, Mr. Gerb. If I may, there may be other expenses that we attribute to infiltration and such that storm water and things like that that potentially maybe those costs could be handled related to some of those issues in the future. So, we could look at that too because I know we're trying to put all these costs into the sewer system and everything, but some of those activities may need to be handled through general fund activities just because of redevelopment streets and as we do that work for that type of thing. So hopefully we can achieve some of those storm water work and if there's a crossover to prevent INI or filtration inflow uh that could be covered under general fund dollars. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions from the deis?

Okay. So we just need a motion to acknowledge all those in favor. I any opposed? Now we're looking for a motion to approve or not approve the water and sewer as a water and sewer resolution. Move to approve. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Seio. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Um, continuing on, we are moving to item number 25-182, the 2026 feebook update. And this is going to be a motion to acknowledge receipt and adopt or not adopt the calendar year 2026 fee book as amended with the proposed changes to become effective January 1, 2026 to acknowledge and adopt second. Okay. Thank you Mr. Le and Mr. Se. Is there any discussion? Mr. Derba

just to highlight I I know majority of these fees are associated with the rec center and I know you're making a recommendation based on some analysis that was done again I feel that the rates that we charge and not providing for an increase that's significant again doesn't address the cost of inflation or the significant increases that are costing at the rec center. So there's a problem there. We can bang the hell out of the fees, but we know that it's still going to be a shortfall. And my biggest concern though is we provide incentives to encourage people to renew at an old rate and we lose out on the advantage of the increase not only from perspective of the increased revenue, but because you're delaying it and not addressing the inflation that could have happened and could be offset by that increase. I think we need to reassess how we do assess how we do incentives to renew people. If we have to do those kind of discounts in order to get people to renew, it just reassures and reaffirms there's a significant issue with generating revenue for this facility. But I will be approving these rate increases because they're needed.

Any other questions? Seeing none, we're ready to vote on the motion moved by Lush, seconded by CO to acknowledge and to adopt the calendar year 2026 feebook as amended with the proposed changes to become effective January 1, 2026. All those in favor? I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Continuing on, item number 25-183, Clear Flow Asset Management. This is a motion to acknowledge receipt and to approve or not approve the acquisition of a computerized maintenance management system program for the water and wastewater plants vertical assets with an initial cost of 29,135. This cost will include initial purchase and setup of the program at 15,895 and the first year maintenance cost of 13,240 to acknowledge.

Thank you Mr. here. Okay. [snorts] Not as fast as Brad was writing stuff down. Uh [laughter] since you move to acknowledge Mr. Gwell, would you so like to start the conversation?

Uh thank you. Um uh Mr. Swallow, if you could give a little oversight of what this means. And you've had we've had discussions, I've asked my questions. Um, one of the things I'm having right now is that we're going to have a transition for a DPW director and he made this recommendation, I believe, but it's going to happen in our wastewater and our water plant. Um, can you describe to us how this would be implemented? I mean, it's we only have we have a year test on this as I read the documentation, whatever, and we could cancel it, but how do you see this being implemented? Who's going to be responsible for it? And really um does this provide the kind of support considering this is a fairly new startup company?

Uh thank you uh see um council councilman. Uh so with that uh this is something we've taken a close look at. Uh we do have a current asset management system uh basically asset essentials that has been used primarily for the water sewer distribution and collection system. Uh what they found is they use those it does not work very well for the vertical assets. there's some shortfalls in uh how the data is collected and so did start looking for a new system for the water and wastewater plant specifically and while the DPW director was involved in uh evaluating this company uh supernova rigs uh is here tonight obviously was also very much involved in evaluating the company and what would be usable for them specifically at the water and wastewater plant and so with that this system was specifically designed and there's different components to it but for the vertical assets for the the builtup assets rather than your horizontal assets like the pipes and in the ground. So this was uh customized for that. Uh even though the company is relatively new, they did go through six years of uh development. It has been adopted by the city of Grand Rapids as a position customer. [clears throat] So they do have a growing customer base uh within the state of Michigan. And this is the other reason we take a look at that take a look at this program is it ease of implementation. uh and it is designed to be very user friendly, very graphic oriented. Uh they have actual QR codes that uh will be on each piece of the equipment. Uh the company will actually u imple implement in terms of entering all the data into the original base uh database and then as we get users they can literally scan the [snorts] piece of equipment know what uh previous uh previous work was done have some details on the equipment itself. So ease of implementation is part of that. Uh training is included in this initial startup uh as far as training uh specific staff that will be responsible for maintaining the database and

[snorts] it is uh also able to be integrated into our GIS system. So we have been using uh some of the you know some of the similar components uh to this uh and so we do have people that are already familiar with GIS system that are on city staff that have been utilizing that. So I think uh that's helpful as well. Uh so ultimately as we invest you know as we just talked about significant resources in our wastewater plant in particular but also looking at expanding and updating we talk about maintenance you know water quality concerns making sure that certain maintenance is done on filters etc system reverse osmosis system with water I do think this is an appropriate investment and talking with superintendent braggs even though um we will lose Mr. uh he's comfortable that his staff will be able to implement this program.

And just a couple questions I have. I was reading through the contract and it talks about we're going to get bronze support, but there's other levels of support in which it says enhanced support, whatever. And then there's like only a half an hour a month for some type of um specific support and then it's $200 an hour if you add a new component or do something like that. um do you anticipate that being a concern or an issue that we would have more needs for support as since this is a startup or do we feel that there's enough um I guess expertise that's going to be done because one week of training and then having all the followup and knowing everything that's coming online with our new plant. I I'm just a bit concerned that there may be a lot of back-end requirements needed in order to make sure that everything works. when are we actually implementing this considering is everything in our inventory because that was a concern with the administrative consent order that some of that maintenance and stuff happened to happen. These may be questions that I'm just putting out there. The other thing that I looked at was appears that the um devices or whatever that are placed on the equipment or everything are proprietary and that they belong to the company and should we decide to terminate after a year how much effort are we placed into everything and and who's doing all this effort? So there's a number of things that I looked at this just trying to understand that we've always had difficulty with implementations and we look at new software. how much work is going to be placed upon our own staff to assist with this or is all that information available in the databases because it kind of looked like they were asking just for a dump of data into that and I'm trying to understand how much of our existing equipment is already in a data set all ready to go or do we need to have something coming from our you know construction companies or that kind of stuff. definitely had uh significant amount of information coming uh new online with the with the new plan and so

a lot of that will come from uh design engineers uh for what components are there uh and what uh adding to that. So obviously the training and setup is uh on them to begin with. uh it is as you mentioned you know just uh a few weeks of training and setup uh for that but uh there's six weeks if you look at remote staff training go live ongoing support um services so I think there's there's total time there is more than a week in terms of setup with that ultimately though we'll rely a lot on us maintaining it and entering the work orders uh city staff do a lot of that work so Um I guess I don't know for sure exactly what we may rely on but uh there is that support service that is included and there may be some expense uh to go above and beyond that

and that's the piece where I'm I keep reiterating I think just to wrap it back up is it's this implementation preparing the information before it gets into the system so that we're not backtracking trying to fix things. And the other concern is when does the service date start on that one year? Is it when we just start putting information into it or is it year after we're fully online with the new wastewater treatment plant and it [snorts] starts at that point? I'm assuming you're going to start doing this immediately and that the one year start at the water plant. Uh water plant. Okay. Yeah. So that we'd have a leadup time until we'd be ready for the wastewater plant to start bringing that online. So the whole test will be on the water plant and then Yes.

We'll implement later. Okay. Again, what way I look at this is it seems like as you mentioned earlier, like we're like their fifth client and as you start adding more and more clients, attention starts getting spread thick and if they don't add enough additional support, we may have a concern. So, if you feel comfortable with what we've designed in this contract and we'll account for that. I don't want to have Bill Bill, I don't want you struggling or Craig or Ben a year from now and not having the ability to get what you need to come out of the software. So [snorts] thank you. Thank you. Any other questions?

Yes. Um so we talked about this in the asset uh I'm sorry in the agenda setting meeting about this uh this is not a redundant right to GIS. This is there are not redundant services that the GIS currently has right this is this is a separate um build on top of the GIS system. U so it is valuable that we already have an existing GIS system ready to go. Um, and so adding to that and really utilizing this for more asset management and tracking maintenance is the is the key,

right? And more vertical assets. So we're we're using the GIS right now for the horizontal assets. Um, so what happens if uh if we cancel the services? What happens with the information? Do do they just take everything or what happens with the what what happens with what we've already paid for? don't get to keep, you know, we own the data, but there'll be no more updates and obviously there'd be no more utilization of the the actual ongoing software updates. Okay. Okay. Any other questions? No, I don't have any other questions. Thanks.

Okay. I'm going to ask a couple of questions on this one because this one sort of got me a little bit. Um, do we have the number of assets that we are going to even at one like just at the water plant like the the the actual number of assets that are going to get tagged and then I guess the the the the flip side to that is how long is it going to take to tag those, inventory those and then populate the information. And I guess I know we've been having this conversation, but I I guess I'm just trying to understand because the one thing that I don't understand with this company is it talks about, you know, this astronomical like 2,000% return on investment within months, [laughter] which when you start looking at that, you know, they're they're calculating it at like $1.8 million. um and trying to understand, you know, oh, you're going to be saving all this time with, you know, eliminating paper and things like that. I mean, this still going to need data entry, whether it's on paper, whether it's into a tablet. So, I I just want to make sure that we I'm understanding like where this whole $2.2 million that they're projecting that we're going to save by implementing this is coming from. I think that's an exaggeration. I'll be honest. Uh in terms of uh you know in terms of they look at it as the key not only in labor and entering it but also in you know protecting your asset and and replacing on a regular schedule and maintaining the asset so it doesn't fail at some point in time. So that's that's the bigger savings is actually you know the equipment that uh you prevent you do all those preventive maintenance and prevent you know a potential failure on those. So that's probably the biggest savings uh as part of that. the the smaller savings is in in labor and and uh understanding exactly and producing those work orders so that you know what

you're doing throughout the the entire day. So I guess I would you know submit someone to Chair Briggs if you have any comment on you know kind of the the number of assets. I know that we've we built started to build that uh as far as knowing the plans at the water plant and the wastewater plant but uh there is a maximum number as part of this uh but we'll continue to build over time. So initially we have I want to say about 230 pieces of equipment that that Jim came in for us and used that information sent that to these guys and so they're they basically have that set up started in their program. have to tag everything obviously but um so [snorts] the amount that we're I think when you talk about savings I think same [clears throat] a lot of it's going to be how much we're going to save on maintaining the equipment sure that it's greased properly so we don't have to we if you remember the last year and a half two years we did a lot of work We had high service pumps we had to fix because they were, you know, pretty much junk. And so if we maintain [clears throat] that stuff, take it out of service and do any maintenance on it, we'll save a lot of money in the long run. That type of thing. As far as the uh wastewater side goes in, um, one of the reasons we're that we really waste water not just myself but Craig and Ben the other guys um was the fact that

we can actually use this information the asset essentials that's designed for for horizontal assets not work at all well for us we can't get it's very difficult to get a just a a work order printed out and it has to be printed out and it has to be entered back in and you can't archive it it's always there. So for that piece of equipment, you went down through all the works, find them you want and it's they actually came down the water plant and previewed it with some of Rapids information or show us how it work and a new piece of equipment. It took about 5 minutes scan a QR code what it was and it was in there. Now again you have to put in you know [clears throat] your maintenance intervals and but you also you can also link um manuals actual manual to this pull a manual on your on your iPad or whatever so that you can have that information right there will tell you what you need to do. So, we're, you know, yes, they're young, but these guys um came out of this this part of the industry water way realizing that this this wasn't out there and that's why they're doing it. I think some there's some others that are trying to these guys are local for Michigan. That's an upside. Um, I think it's an upside that we have a one-year limit on it because right now with asset essentials, there is no way in the contract to get rid of it if you don't want it anymore. So, if this if this works like we think it will in the next year, we're going to be way way ahead of where we are right now. As far as wastewater stuff goes, [snorts] we've got we don't have that many pieces

of equipment, new equipment going online yet. We have a few But um Craig spent keeping spreadsheet of all that stuff. So it's be a lot easier to integrate into this instead of going back and saying, "Okay, what we got?" It's it's actually be more difficult to go back the older equipment that we're keeping to put that in. Fantastic. Well, I appreciate that. Um, so the only other I've got a couple just sort of trying to read through this contract and just sort of learning some lessons from um from our past experiences. So this is completely cloud-based. Correct.

Correct. So, is there any issue with cyber security and does anyone else have access to this and could it be detrimental to our water supply or anything like that? This is all just it's just maintenance data. There's nothing that controls any of those mechanisms tied to it. Fantastic.

Okay. And then the other thing is if we decide this isn't the right fit for us is just sort of understanding um the the early termination clause in here I wasn't sure about and it says that to provide flexibility ensure success the customer may terminate this agreement without cause after the first year by providing at least 60 days written notice. So, which means that we're committed to at least a full year, correct, to this um and I think they take a full year just to evaluate, you know, is it functioning properly? Right. They wanted a fiveyear contract.

Okay. And I was like, well, we want to spend [snorts] $5 years worth of money up front. We want into it more. That's was my suggestion to do some type of out clause. [snorts] It wasn't going to work for us. Okay. Um, and then the other thing, and I think that council member Harmmont a asked about it earlier, is just for clarification, we own the data. It doesn't matter whether or not they commentate the QR tags off of the equipment. That data we will still have access to, correct? We may have to get a download, you know, right, from the cloud base, but yes, we will still, but we would still have it would it would be usable. Take the the QR codes off. We buy the Q QR codes from them,

right? And we use them to link the equipment. So the QR codes we pay for [clears throat] up front.

Mhm. Okay. Um I my only question would be I would love to have this come back to us after about 6 months and sort of see what it looks like in process and if it's a good fit. Um then we know to kind of, you know, go full steam ahead on it. if it's not, maybe there's an opportunity to tweak things on the product side, but also understanding that if it's not the right fit that we cut our losses and start looking for something that will be like you had said with asset essentials, you very quick to realize it was not the right product for your needs. And so this sounds good and just whether or not it's going to work for our size community, our type of equipment, whatever the case may be.

Just one more thing. I think sure partly because they are an up and cominging company and they really want to get their product out there. I'm pretty sure in this first year we'll have really good support. Communication. Support. Yeah, customer support. They want they want us to succeed. They can succeed. I appreciate that. Anything else on deis? Okay, then I think we are ready to vote. Right now, we currently just have a motion to acknowledge that was moved by GearBosa, seconded by Haramount. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. Now we're looking for a motion to approve or not approve the acquisition acquisition, excuse me, of a computerized maintenance management system. Motion to approve. Okay. Thank you. I'll second that with the recommendation that we have a review of this 6 months in July of 2026. Miss Hermont, are you okay with that amendment? Yes. Okay. So, July of 2026. Clerk Royal, do I need to kind of figure something out or can you work your magic down there as to what the motion?

I have the regular motion with the recommendation of a review in 6 months for July of 2026. Okay. With that, all in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. Moving on to our last action item, which is item 25-184, the Carile Wartman Associates, Inc. rental housing certification services contract renewal. Uh we are looking for a motion to acknowledge receipt and to approve or not approve the Carile Wartman and Associates Rental Inspection Services contract renewal for January 1, 2026 through December 31st, 2028. Acknowledge and approve.

Seconded. Okay, Mr. Seal, Mr. Leash, any discussion? We made Mr. Raznik sit here this whole time. I think he's got to come up and present to us. [laughter] Good evening everyone. I give you copies of a very brief [clears throat] Oops. I think we need our tech to work his magic. [snorts]

[snorts]

It's on the thumb drive.

Yep. We've got a copy of this front of you. It's just a brief overview program and where we're at state. So we started this program. The ordinance got adopted I think close to three years ago. Um we didn't start u intaking registrations and processing things getting the ball rolling for February of 2023. So it's been about two and a half years. We held a town hall meeting in early February of that year. If you recall for the landlord this room was quite packed. It was [clears throat] a very robust discussion and we um began receiving applications for registrations within about three weeks after the town hall meeting and then um we began scheduling inspections and started inspecting in mid-Marchch and issued the first certifications in early April. So the certifications that were issued in the first 6 months after that start time are now in the renewal process because they're into their next cycle. Um the next page shows you uh as a reminder that when we pitched this program [clears throat] to uh this body u we thought pretty confidently that we would be able to operate the program within the incoming rapid and that has turned out to be the case. Um it was quite close uh but we

did come in under the revenue projections according to the BSA data um for all of the incoming revenue from the city's own database aboutund just under $188,000 in the last two and a half years. That would be fees for registrations and inspections and some ancillary things. your contract expenses. And this is based off of our actual invoices to the city for that same time period was just under 163. Um there's a separate line item um in our invoicing system for anything that occurs related to the program outside of processing, registrations, and inspections, enforcement. mostly meetings with with some of the larger landlords and a lot of court expenses. district court for some of the smaller landlords and of course the circuit court case that this council approved with apartments that is still uh in progress but I'm happy to report that Chris would expound on it perhaps that uh your attorney is getting ready to file a an amended stipulated order putting the new ownership under the same circuit court order with a new timeline. Um, and we're hoping when you talk about this a year from now, it will be 100% compliant, coaching plan. That's the goal. Um, so when you mixed in the uh $14,000 that was invoiced to the city for court and other ancillary things, the expenses came in just under $11,000 less than the revenue. Um, and that helps account for some of the city's overhead, BSA costs, so on and so forth. I'm very pleased to report when we did the two and a half year look back. As you recall, the ordinance was set up to give landlords an incentive to

perform well and get an extra third year at no additional cost for single family homes and the two family duplex homes that are rented out in the city. Just under half of all those landlords performed to those expectations got the three-year certificate. And surprisingly for the multif family apartment communities, it was 85% so far. The big player in that piece of data was uh six trails apartments. Um we went in early before the actual inspections began. We did walkthroughs with their management and their maintenance staff to help prepare them. And uh this they were under new management at that time. These people had just recently taken over when they walked into this along with us and uh they performed extraordinarily well. So six trails has been 100% certified for quite a long time and I think that's a really good thing to see. Um, just some quick numbers. 141 single family homes in the city registered as rentals and they've all been inspected and certified. 34 of those are in the renewal process. Now, two family duplex homes that are rented. Uh, we registered and certified 39 of those duplex homes. Total of 75 dwelling units. You'll notice if you double 39 because it's a duplex, it doesn't come out to 75. And that's because a handful of those were owner occupied in one half of the duplex. So, they didn't get inspected [clears throat] and several of those are in the renewal process. Now, the multif family units, um, 75 buildings containing 650 apartments.

51 of those buildings and just under 500 of those apartment units have been certified and there's quite a few still pending. The majority of which was Thornest apartments. The next page breaks that down for you. So you'll see who the long holdouts have been. Thornrest has 15 buildings and 120 units. It's currently under circuit court uh consent agreement and under new ownership for about the last month or so. There's a 9-unit uh building at 103 West Russell that is currently in district court and their certification has been suspended for a good cause and we're working with the landlord to correct all those things. And then there's three small three-unit multif family properties that are also still trying to achieve certification. Milon Manor, as of today, we have not yet touched Milon Manor. Um, we decided to tackle Thorncraft first as the number one uh ask from the building department in terms of property maintenance complaint and we serviced everyone else that voluntarily registered complied with the new ordinance. We have been talking with Mil Pond Manor. We've done our inspectors gone out there and done walkthroughs with them to help prepare them as well. A total of 47 apartment units. They will be inspected sometime next year, early next year, and we'll bring them into compliance. And then um some quick inspection data. As you can see, the numbers speak for themselves. About 78% of all the inspections that were originally scheduled were actually conducted and performed. And [clears throat] we had uh over 700 cancellations. Um, a lot of that was six trails cancelling on us the day of when we were planning to be there all day. So, that accounted for a big part of this, but a lot of the other ones were just people

that called and canceled at the last minute. And I will mention too that our staff when that happens, we try to ask them for more information. What what's going on? wired. If it's some emergency, some life event that was out of the landlord's control, we wave the fees. We don't build the city for that. And then finally, there's enforcement data. above and beyond the actual um inspections of the units when we run into cases some of the hard cases where they just won't comply um we open up enforcements and those records are in your BSA system as well under enforcements rather than certificates and we open 61 of those cases since we started this program. um half of them, a little over half were for were unregistered rentals that we discovered that the landlords just would not reply. So we ticketed five of them um and they eventually did comply. Quickly interesting story and I won't use addresses or names but uh there was a father son duo that owned five rental properties in the city and they registered they got inspected they got certified with very little problems originally. It came up recently for renewal and they decided to transfer the properties into a trust and said we're sovereign citizens. we don't recognize the city's authority and we're not going to do this again. So, we went to district court. Uh the case the city won the case in district court and earlier this week they or I'm sorry just before Thanksgiving last week.

Uh the son came in and essentially apologized and registered and said let's let's go. We made a mistake. So that's good news. [clears throat] That's an update on the actual program and the status of it. I'm personally quite pleased with how it's gone. I think it's gone as expected and as designed [snorts] and with your approval, we're looking forward to continuing on for the next three years. And I'd be happy to answer any questions regarding the contract. Thank you very much. Questions from the deis.

Okay, Mr. Gearbball. uh just give us an idea of how render landlords have been responding to it. What have been some of the most common concerns and issues in the rental department that haven't been significant or you know kind of the things that people need to just look out for in terms of you know violations or yeah um smoke detectors has been number or not I wouldn't say number one but it's top five and we used to have an ordinance for that or we do have an ordinance for that don't we functional

smoke detectors whether depending on when the uh building was put up if they're hardwired or if they're battery operated. So, anything that lasts 15 years, I think, is required to be hardwired. Uh otherwise, battery power, but just make sure that they're operational. That's that's been a big one. Since 2018, the property maintenance code the 18 edition required carbon monoxide detectors in any residential structure that had a fuel fired appliance, propane or gas, or had um an automobile garage with a pedestrian passageway into the living quarters, like an attached garage. Um the city didn't uh you weren't able to enforce that until you adopted the 2021 code which got adopted at the same time the rental ordinance got adopted. So we've had to um give tutorials on the importance of carbon monoxide detectors and where and when that they're required. As Chris said, the smoke alarms is huge. I can't I couldn't begin to count the number of uh rental units that now have operable smoke alarms that didn't before. And that that's really important. Um we have found in some of the single family homes, we found um some pumps that were connected to the sanitary sewer system and we require them to disconnect and reroute it to a suitable approvable location. So that's another plus. So, I heard you're talking a lot about your wastewater system. So, that as tiny as that data is, it's helpful. Um, really can't think of anything else other than landlords are now crystal clear on when they're required to pull a building permit because we uh furnaces and water heaters are the two big ones, mostly water heaters. Uh

when the inspector goes in, when they do the inspection, you have the luxury of your housing inspector through us also is a licensed mechanical inspector. He doesn't do mechanical inspections for our company, but he is knowledgeable enough to call it out when he sees it when it requires a mechanical inspector through the city's building department to come out and look at. We have found countless installations that had been done without permit. The city's policy on that is um if it was installed within the last five years um they essentially uh are required to retroactively pull that mechanical permit and the city will send their mechanical inspector out to make sure it's been installed correctly, it's vented correctly, there's no carbon monoxide damage. And then every five years, regardless of age, we require anything that has a heat exchanger like in a furnace with a fuel fired appliance like that because if the heat exchanger is cracked, which our inspector could never detect with the naked eye, it will leech carbon monoxide into the home and could kill somebody. So every five years they're the landlord is required to hire their own mechanical contractor come out and give an inspection then sign off on its safety on a form provided by the city building department. So we we take that very seriously because that's considered a serious life safety. The other thing is the state um changed the housing law a couple of years ago that requires anytime we inspect and we find anything dangerous or a life safety violation, we are required by law now to notify the state of Michigan and to give the tenant um something in writing to

inform them of what the circumstances are in their unit. At the same time, we're working with the landlord to hurry up and quickly get that repaired. Um, I don't know exactly what the state does with it other than I know they they cross reference it with their section 8 data and if it's at an address where they have a section 8 voucher in use, then Michigan's involved separately from the city. Okay. Um, those are the only things I can Yeah, that it's helpful to know that because we're always kind of wondering what's happening. We knew about the major concerns we had at Thorn Crest and even at six trails, but knowing that those are resolved. Is there any of that kind of information that we provide for landlords or common issues that we provide on our websites or stuff

we do to communicate that to them?

Absolutely. Um we give every landlord a detailed checklist when they register. These are the common things that people fail that we're going to be looking for. We give them a photo copy of chapters 3 through seven of the property maintenance code. We say the checklist is not all inclusive, but here's the code sections that are in play here. So, familiarize yourself with them. Um, and those are also on your website. Like I said, for larger multif family installations or an especially problematic single family or duplex, Brandon Bogs, the inspector, will go out and do at no cost to the city or the landlord will go out and do a walk through to help prepare them for success and the end the end game is to make it as safe as possible for people living here.

Thank you. I'm glad that we're having that kind of relationship and that's working that way. So, I appreciate all the work you guys are doing. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Arm. Um, okay. So it it looks like we have um let's see uh over a thousand renter occupied units and only 8 830 registered. What um what's the plan to identify the red um and register the remaining units that we have not?

We look for them every week. Um, the way we do that is, um, our staff is constantly searching the internet for advertisements, rent advertisements, and they cross reference the city's database to make sure that they're in the system. Occasionally, a tenant will come file a complaint. It turns out not to be registered. And, uh, we try our best to cut the tenant out of that so that there's no retribution on them. We become the complainant on behalf of the city. and we compel the landlord to come into compliance. Uh those are the two primary ways. And then we also we ask people every time a landlord says, "Gosh, you're coming after me, but what about all these other ones that aren't playing ball? Tell us who they are." Um, the good landlords surprisingly will because they know that it helps level the playing field with the other landlords that defer maintenance constantly. They're providing clean, safe, sanitary housing that's code compliant and these others aren't. So, it helps level the playing field for rent competition for good tenants with that landlord. So they very very easily will tell us I don't want to say you know tip us off but they're they're helping us find the unregistered. Yes.

Um so for some of these that you mentioned um that they're trying is there a schedule like so how long have they been trying? Like feel like a couple of these addresses have been trying for a long time. So is there clear next steps in a schedule and what happens when they don't meet the schedule?

There there is a process in place that has been replicated over and over and it is successful. Um if they cancel on us most of the times what happens is an inspection gets scheduled we probably have to chase them first to get them to register. When that happens, they pay the higher uh fleet registration fee. Then we schedule the inspection. Quite often they'll call and cancel. They'll try to cancel a show. We'll show up and it turns out to be what we would call a no-show lockout where we're there. The tenant may or may not be there, but no one from the landlord. there's no representative of ownership there and we will not go in when there's just a tenant unless the landlord has made previous arrangements with us for the tenant to represent the that purpose. Um sometimes we show up and there there's you know there's nobody home, there's no landlord. We usually wait 20 minutes or so, try calling the landlord and then so when that happens more than once, we engage a little bit more sternly and try to find out what the problem is. Um, and if it's if we get the feeling that they're just avoiding us and kicking the can down the road as far as they can, we issue a citation. We post the property first and in the fee schedule, there's a posting fee. Brandon will actually go out to the property and put an official do not tear this placard down posting that says this rental property is is out of compliance and a savvy tenant will know that they have the right to escrow rent at that point. Um we do that once we still don't get compliance. We issue a ticket to go to district court here in Seline. And when

we turn the ticket into the court, we do it in such a way that the landlord can't just run down there and pay the fine and keep doing what they're doing. We schedule a hearing, a formal hearing in front of the judge. We bypass the magistrate, go right to the judge because the judge has equitable legal authority to issue orders. and then your city attorney will come to court with us prepared to ask with a court order to ask the judge to sign compelling them to comply. That's happened I don't know a dozen or more times so far but it's it usually only happens once per landlord because it does get costly for them and in the end once they comply they almost always say I wish I knew it wasn't so bad I would have just done it.

So from the first I see some like three appointments. So what is that duration? So, I'm looking at one of these pending certification properties and there's three different appointments. So, like I if they haven't met, what what's the time period that they have to meet? Uh, I want to make sure I understand. So, they're in the process, but they haven't yet completed it, and it just keeps dragging on. I I'm just looking at multifamily here, and it says we've got three three appointments. So, that means that they Maybe if at how long are the durations, you know, like are we talking three appointments in a three-year period? A three.

I'm sorry. That acronym is apartments. Oh, a three apartments. Okay. So, so what I mean I guess my question is from the point where they need to meet compliance to us, you know, issuing them citations and going to court. What is that duration of time? It's never more than a couple of months. Okay. Um, okay. I would say that,

but also please be aware if they register, we send them a scheduling notice for their very first inspection. Say it's today, December 1st. Cancel, cancel, lock up, record. Eight months later, we finally get them certified. their two-year cycle, certification cycle starts the day of the first scheduled inspection, December 1st. They can drag it out a whole year and then one year later we're right back to ser reertify them. Okay. They don't earn extra they can't get out from under it, I guess, is what I'm saying. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. And my apologies, Mr. Atkin. I did not yield the floor to you. Is there something you would like to add to the conversation

uh with the fee schedule that was approved earlier this evening uh for rental that those have been updated to reflect uh any increases that are in this proposal and we'll continue to do that uh for the next three years at this point to represent the 5% increase in certain uh fees. Thank you. And then I just have one question. It can be for either of you, which is does the city have a mechanism or the CWA where tenants like a confidential number that they can call, is there a contact number for you or the city if they want to sort of self-report that there's an issue? I know that for years what sort of brought about Thornrest was people were going on social media and that's not really necessarily the best avenue the direct avenue to get your attention. Um and so but I think there's also that I want to make sure that they have that confidentiality aspect so that they're not in fear of of of retaliation for them. So, I don't know if that's something we have or we could do moving forward if there's if you even feel like there's a need for it.

Typically, they call the office directly and if Brandon or uh Stacy are in, they request them. Otherwise, if there's a complaint, um something that needs immediate attention, you know, this time of year, heater's not working, uh we'll notify Brandon or Stacy and they'll get on it right away. Uh but it's difficult to remain anonymous. Yeah, we need details for certain things, right?

We do get calls, but they're not so frequent that uh it's overwhelming at all. Um so they have Brandon and Stacy's contact and uh email. So we haven't ever said they never heard back from us. That's awesome. and our staff hands out their cell phone numbers like that to everyone. I appreciate that. And as you had mentioned, actually heat was the one thing right now that I was most concerned with because that's it's it's hitting that point of the year where understanding whether people have um heat or hot water is very important. So the ordinance ask also has a section on harassment.

Okay. If the tenant does file a complaint and get some kind of retribution, harassment from the landlord, we can pick the landlord and get them in front of the judge to answer for those behavior. It works the opposite way too with tenants and nobody can harass the [laughter] make one comment.

Absolutely. You know, I have to say in my short tenure on the uh city council here, you know, you guys uh between the community development director and yourself, you know, this is one of the few programs that I've actually been here for most of the uh and I can't think of any program that I've sat up here and listened to that has achieved the uh the amount of stuff that you have done for residents of the city in such a short amount of time under budget that I've I've heard. So I I give you guys lots of credit because I if everything ran this smoothly in government, we wouldn't have to be here for two hour meetings. So

thank you, sir. I appreciate that. Well, if there is nothing else, then we will just uh vote on our motion that was moved by CO second in by Leh to acknowledge and approve the Carile Wartman and Associates Rental Inspection Services contract renewal for January 1, 2026 through December 31st, 2028. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. And that is the last of our action items. So, we move on to the discussion portion of our meeting. Uh, we'll start with Mr. Lesh. Do you have any reports or other announcements?

Uh, fireboard meeting this Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the fire station. We're going over audit. [snorts] Thank you very much. Mr. Seo, do you have any reports or announcements? The only thing I would say after my last experience during the last few weeks is that anybody who takes the People's Republic of China as a second rate power or entity does so at their own peril. Those folks are on the move. They're on the go. They're very capable and I was very impressed by what I saw while I was there. Thank you very much, Mr. Gearb.

Uh just a couple items. Um planning commission will meet on the 10th. We're going to be discussing Ann Arbor [clears throat] Soccer Club, special use of a building or Annary soccer club. It's 1271 North Industrial, the uh one of the facilities that housed Bank Supplies. It's right next door to Selen Area Social Services. And um we will not be hearing anything on lot 28 at this time. Correct. Not this at this week.

Not next week. No. Um, and then I just want to invite everyone out to the um farm this weekend on sun on Sunday, December 7th, I believe it is, from 12:00 to 3. Uh, Santa and Mrs. Claus will be arriving at 1:00 and um, we hope you'll come out and and celebrate the holidays with us at Christmas at Wrenchler Farm. I don't have any updates.

Okay. Uh the only one that I have got right now is just an announcement which is to just make sure that everyone is aware and invite everyone downtown this weekend. Uh we've got the Cocoa Crawl happening that Main Street sponsored event which will be all day on Saturday followed by the Christmas tree lighting which will be at 5:00 p.m. Followed immediately by the Merry Mile race followed directly after that by the parade uh which starts at 6 pm. And so, um, I think that's it on discussion. So, moving on, we have two items. Uh, we'll go start with metric marketing. I think there was a handout that people received. Mr. Swallow, did you want to take the lead on that or was that justformational?

Uh, thank you, mayor, foring councel. Uh, this is, uh, just a brief written summary of where we stand with this contract. In essence, we are starting month three uh of the of the contract even though it's been delayed uh somewhat uh initially started off with. So during months one and two uh basically we had the kickoff of Sling communications team documenting current communication channels, wins and struggles that's been ongoing uh but preliminary review has been completed audit of the city website. One of the things that uh we're working on there and Mr. Shank is working with we have a refresh uh through our contract with revise which is our website provider and so trying to coordinate those two uh looking at the uh looking at the website and what information needs to change and obviously this metric marketing information will will up will provide information as to what we want to change on that website. uh survey uh provide you a copy of the draft survey that was prepared by metric marketing uh and submitted to the city gathering marketing assets and and city managed communication platforms uh that is completed. They actually are tracking traffic on the website tracking our social media. So starting uh with that uh just starting now is developing brand guidelines and logos and fonts. So give you some examples of attached to this of some of the preliminary information that they have submitted and also they have started analyzing our internal commun communication tools. That's a brief update on where we stand on that contract and we are delayed uh in uh this contract. So we have uh suspended payments uh as as of month three because that's where we're just starting that work now.

Thank you very much for that update. Were there any questions from the deis? Mr. GB, just real quick, can you identify again who the leads are with this in terms of staff and um council reps or anybody else? The Chris Shank and Sarah Massie are the leads and uh I've been meeting with them pretty much monthly to try and get an understanding where we stand. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Hormont, did you have a question? Yeah. So, where it says um I see the different logos, we're not directing them to change our logo because that would incur a lot of like asset updates and costs associated with that. That is not part of the directive, right? I know that was one of the questions that a lot of us were concerned about that they were spending time on reloing.

They did spend some time on logo, but they've been directed that you know that's not going to be changed at this time. Okay. So, we're just talking about the guidelines of our brand and the usage of our logo. Okay. Got it. Thank you. Just one point, by the way, the date is wrong again on this handout related to this founding of the city. It's 1866, not 1886. I pointed that out previously. Do we know when this survey is going to hit and how it's going to be disseminated? I'm looking at that right now. And so that is under their contract that they would be responsible for that. Um I think uh probably after the first year.

Okay. And when it says it's submitted for review, who's reviewing? Is that under are you signing off on that or is that uh Mr. Shank or is that so marketing is doing the original reviewing? So Sarah uh in particular Massie, Miss Massie and Mr. Shank and then I will ultimately see this as well. Okay. I got to correct mistake. village 1866, not 1886. We were founded as a city in 1932. Oh, thank you very much. Um, the other item under discussion, Mr. Gerbra had added uh rec center update.

Um, I'm just again asking what's happening with the I guess there was going to be a task force or something addition. Have people been identified for that yet or what's going on with that? First [snorts] step uh at uh your December 15th meeting uh we will be presenting the you know formal recommendations from the recreation task force. Obviously already did the presentation asking you to acknowledge the receipt of that. Uh yes we'll be transitioning the task force into members that want to take more of an implementation role. We have identified subgroup of that as well as additional potential committee members uh that have been asked to join [clears throat] that implementation team. Um the other item that I think you've been updated on is we have met with uh three potential partners, schools, Pittsfield Township and County uh on potential partnerships and way they may be able to help or assist the city on that. So those are the three main areas that we've been working on.

Um and I understand that you provided some of the information previous but I believe going forward that because of the seriousness and the significant deficit that's affecting our operations of the city um rec center needs to be on every agenda. Thank you. Second that.

Yep. Are there any other announcements that need to come before us? Okay. So, we'll move on to our last public comment. Under the open meetings act, any person may now come forward to make a comment to city council. This comment period will be limited to three minutes per person. Those wishing to speak are requested but not required to state their name and address for the record. Please note, council will not answer questions during the public comment. Gentlemen, do you have any questions? Clerk, was there anything? No. Okay. So, we have none. So, we are moving on to the highlight of our evening, which is adjournment. I'm looking for a motion in a second to adjurnn at 9:08.

Thank you, Mr. West. Thank you, Mr. Seal. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you very much.