City Commission Meetings - Regular Meeting

Go ahead and get started. Well, I think that, um. Our guests would like to address. The board 1st, and then maybe we have some solutions or. Some other discussions. Do you want to go 1st or.

Not a public speaker, so I just brought some notes. I'm John Bartelt and CEO part of aviation. We've been operating in Sturgis since 1983. We employ 9 people. We're actually celebrating our 50th year being in business. Like, thank all of you for allowing me to speak here tonight. Appreciate it very much. I'm here to enlighten you. The issues that I'm experiencing. Not to point fingers or pick on people, but hopefully with the idea that if you have the information, we can move forward together as a team and fix stuff. The city is extremely dysfunctional. When it comes to providing routine business services. Examples are transferring property ownership. So your assessor department has a problem. I have a hanger that was. I inherited from my mother and I can't obtain an airport land lease, right? So typically on airport property, you own a building, personal property, but you rent land from the city for that. And there's a fee associated with that. And the other issue we have problems with is we can't complete airport improvements to get started. The one question I have for all of you being a citizen paying taxes is if I go through multiple layers of management, this is not to throw people under the bus because everybody was nice to me, but nothing gets done. Examples would be the airport manager. I met with Ken and the former city manager. If all three of those leadership roles fail, what are we supposed to do as citizens to get help? Do we have a protocol for that? I can tell you that after I went through the top layers of command, and this is not a situation where I'm supporting any one person, is I remember my dad having problems. He used to reach out to like John brand to get things done, I reached out to the mayor. And explain the situation, and he did express interest in helping. So, there was a meeting with the airport manager, the mayor and. The city manager, and I can tell you that that person, the mayor was the only 1 that followed up to see if things were getting done. I had to keep telling them. No. The land lease that I started to try to obtain, I'm on my 13th month trying to get one from the city of Sturgis. So the issue, the dysfunctionality is whoever's going to run the various departments needs to assign people to do things. Ken would meet with me, was very nice and compassionate when I had issues with different situations. But I don't think Ken was in a position where he could actually help me, even though he was nice and met with me. So How do we run our business in the town is the concern that I have. The dysfunctionality that I have witnessed and the horrific experience I had with the assessor department, which was only going to cost me more money because something was coming on cap, made me put a half a million dollar expansion on hold indefinitely until either people get cleaned out or management decides, hey, we don't wanna run our city like this anymore. We wanna be nice to our taxpaying citizens. We wanna grow business and we wanna get things done. So where I need help is I need to get a land lease. The airport manager can't get it done. It's not Ken's responsibility. He just met with me. I started to meet with Andrew We had a general game plan in place, but he didn't execute either. The simplest process for the commission to think about is to let my attorney, Bodman Law Firm, meet with the city attorney. The city attorney is used to doing airport land leases. Let the two attorneys work it out. Bring it to the commission for final approval. Then we might be able to take a step forward. Most people don't understand how airports work or the land leases. It doesn't make you dumb or incompetent. But that guy knows how to do it, and so does my attorney. And then instead of waiting another 13 months to get it done, maybe we can get something done in two weeks.

Do land leases typically need to come to us in the first place, TJ?

Am I missing something? They are approved by the city commission. Okay. Because Mr. Bartelt is correct. So the way it works is under the law, the city has to own the property, meaning the dirt and the land in which those buildings sit on. Um, a lot of those out there, correct? He actually built. In the company built and improve those. Buildings and they pay a land lease, so they lease the dirt underneath and then they're taxed for the improvements that they make. I mean, there's restrictions and in the lease that requires that it be aviation related. Public, you know, it's inferred that a lot of those will be for public benefit and public, you know, it meets those criteria. But, yes, the once the leases are done, it's like any other lease in which the city has an interest. The condition ultimately has to approve them or give. The city manager authorization to execute the lease.

And I'm 2nd question I'm sure. To his last question, I'm sure you both. We'll get together at some level. And get down a path of approval. I don't know what next steps are. I guess that's the elephant in the room question, but a 3rd question. Or maybe an observation. I'm not sure what you mean about property transfer. Deeds, as far as a property transfer, as far as I know, would go through the register of deeds. But are you talking about the follow-up forms?

I'm talking about working with Dale. You're talking about the forms that go along with the sale that go to the... Just transferring the ownership of the property so that the tax roll entity that gets assigned to that property for the taxes and responsibility can get changed.

It's different than buying a house just because... No one owns the land except for the city. So what's changing hands is the personal property. Yeah, it's a building on leased land is how it's defined. And so there's ownership, but it's different than selling a house.

So you don't go through a register of deeds and title and all that stuff.

I didn't know what you were referring to exactly.

Strictly meet with the assessor, say, hey, the property has changed, fill out a form and try to get things accomplished. That took over a year to get done.

Give me an idea.

How is that possible?

I mean, I know Dale to be responsive quickly, so I don't know what the missing link is. I've never seen an assessor go to his or her bodies that they represent like Dale does. I've never seen it, so I don't know the missing link.

I can just tell you my experience, and I have spent $20,000 so far on attorney fees trying to get... property titles changed, as well as getting a land lease. What we don't want to do is hash out all the little things. What we could do down the road, maybe is meet again. We want to go into it further, go into a certain topic and come up with a plan to become better.

So, John, just to clarify, you had scheduled a meeting with Andrew and I on February 11th. And after that meeting concluded, Andrew said he needed two weeks and it would be resolved. And then I've been checking up on you. It seems like it was never resolved.

And the airport manager, I met with him in July a year ago, and it doesn't get done. I think Tom is a good human. I think the city has too much on his plate, meaning he can't be an airport manager anymore. And then run the whole municipality maintenance. And I don't even know what his title is exactly. But I'm not throwing him in under the bus, but we don't have enough help to conduct business in an efficient way. And I'm saying we, because I'm not pointing people out and saying you're bad. I'm just telling you we're dysfunctional. When you run a business, you got to figure out what's wrong and fix it. And here's an example. Another example, our airport needs help. Does anybody here know how much money we received in grants in February of 2025? $378,000 from the MDOT to improve our airport. $150,000 to rehabilitate six T-hangers. Now, when we rehabilitate those 16 hangers, then the city can get revenue off those tea hangers because you can put airplanes in them and rent them. We received $92,000 for a 17 foot finished mower and snowblower attachment. I do not know if we got those or not. We might have. The hangers have not been fixed. We received $90,000 for a new fuel farm credit card processing equipment. which would allow the city to sell more fuel. They make about a buck a gallon. Sometimes the credit card machine doesn't work because of the technology and the round wires. And we received $46,000 for surface and pavement joint sealing because we have four and a half inch cracks at the airport and a beacon upgrade, which is the light that flashes in the evenings or the dark so you can find the airport. The beacon's been out two years. We have done none of that maintenance. So my question as a taxpayer is why? So if Tom's not getting it done, again, not throwing him under the bus, who is responsible for Tom or to give him help to get this done? Because all we got to do is get two quotes, I believe, do the work and then turn in the paperwork to the state and we get reimbursed. It's free money. $378,000. Doesn't make any sense to me. So I need help with that. How do we fix that? The last thing or my idea, and then I'll be finished, is I have formed a Cursed Municipal Airport Association. That association is going to be made up of business owners, pilots, aircraft owners, hangar owners, and people who use the airport. My idea, if the city commission would be receptive to it, is to give us once a month time at the work session so we could report to you What the issues are still outstanding, or I can get members of my association, the team to help the city facilitate and get things done. Meaning, if someone we need to get 2 quotes to fill cracks and get rid of weeds that are 2 foot tall out there. With the city's commissions approval, we could say, okay, that person from the association is going to go get the 2 quotes. Under this direction and this format, and then we bring it to you and then the commission can say, yes, we'll do this bit or that bed and we actually get something done. We just don't have enough people in charge that manage things well. And that's all I have for right now. I mean, I could go on and on and on. If anybody wants to meet with me personally or walk to the airport, I'd be happy to show them. But do you have any questions for me tonight? Yes, sir.

I have one. Thanks for being here tonight, John.

The land lease.

You said it's been 13 months you've been trying to do. Is that? Is that because of, is that any way related to a building that's on it currently? Yeah, so. Because there needs to be things done with that before a lease can be processed? No, no.

So we have had a land lease for years because we've been operating out of here for our north building, our north hangar. The problem with that land lease is both my parents are now deceased. So that land lease should reflect who is owner of the personal property.

Yeah.

The leases are standardized. So there's not a lot to fix on them or change because you have to treat everybody the same due to accepting federal and state money. So if the city management at the time, all the different people I've worked with would have said to TJ and given him direction to work with my attorney, those two guys would have had that done in about a day. And then they would have brought it to the city commission. They would review it with you. Here is what the proposal is or what we're going to do. Here's a new entity. Do you approve or disapprove?

So let's talk about a lease transfer from your parents to you.

Right. But I have to change some things in that lease slightly. We're going to change the footprint a little bit because the footprint we have had for years was based on the Kirsch company. They own the building before us. In the old days with working with the airport, the city really didn't care too much about the airport. So they would just pass on the lease and whatever curse was renting, you rent, so on and so forth. The rule is 10 foot outside the building. And I'm leasing much more than that. So I'm requesting a little bit smaller footprint so that my lease is consistent with the other leases on the airport. But I mean, that's a five minute change. The only other thing I'm looking at doing is getting my land lease set up. So when I do my operating agreement down the road, which is a separate document, right? So I'm in the business of providing services. There's an outliers agreement that the city allows me to do that. so that when I retire or at some point, if my son takes over the business or employees take over the business, that we have the ability to either transfer that lease or have some leeway where we just wanna rent the building to somebody else other than myself. So right now, the land lease, the way it works is I own the personal property personally, And then I sublease to Bartelt Aviation and the city has approved that because it's really one and the same. But let's say you wanted to buy my business, but I'm not my buildings and I want to let you lease my building and run the business. There's no provisions to allow me to do that at this time. So we're trying to make it so that down the road, if we take the effort and time to get all this done, that it's a simple process for the commission to approve down the road. And I'm not trying to do anything that favors me. Just want to get it done. It's a simple affair.

Is the one thing that's holding it up that changing of the law?

No, it's just lack of execution by your management.

But I mean, is that a sticky point in it?

There's no sticking points, virtually none. And I've got emails I can share with you with Andrew. He's already approved the size. He just wanted time to measure it to make sure it was accurate or close. No, it's just lack of execution by your city manager and your airport manager.

Well, I'm only hearing one. I mean, I'm hearing one side, which is yours. I haven't heard anything else. So I'm like, I've still got a lot of questions, but I don't. I don't really understand.

It seems like it should be simple. It should be simple. And in Tom's defense, who is your airport manager, it's out of his wheelhouse to be involved in the land lease. It's that guy's job. And then he says, yes, this is ethical. It doesn't violate anything that would hurt the city and explains it to you and then you approve it. It's really straightforward and simple. It's just we don't have the right people. Moving things forward simple.

Yes, sir. No, it's advice, but have you been. Approached with any things yet?

Yes, I'm aware. So it started different. It started as a tax assessor issue on the transfer. It did turn into a lease modification. I don't get involved with the leases till after the city department generally send it to me for review. So I don't review them until because I generally wait for the city departments to put their input in on all things. And then I review them because what I don't want to do is review something. And then have the city go, well, wait a minute, there's other issues that need to be. Put here, so generally, I, once all input is there, I then do the final review.

On behalf of the city, you don't do least modification those 2 words. Is that anything to do with the changing of the.

Is that I'm not saying that I don't do those, but all of the modification languages in the city. Departments will still have to be ready for me to review them. Um, and so. I can agree to disagree with some of the things in terminology that's been used. But yes, I don't think that it's a complicated process to transfer ownership or to transfer the named entity on one of those leases from one party. That happens all the time. These leases are generally cannot be more than 50 years. Most of the time, they're long-term leases. And if something happens in the interim, I think that's what John's alluding to. This lease started back when his dad took it from Kirsch Company and they just assigned the lease from Kirsch Company to Bartelt. And so whatever was in the original, it just continues like making a copy of a copy at times. It becomes antiquated and maybe not necessarily reflecting what is actually on the premise right now. So if there's been expansions that were done over time and not... put the paper or redactions, it's not maybe reflecting in the actual lease in which John's talking about. So I would agree that a fresh look at any of those when you're trying to do succession planning as a business owner is important. But again, I think all of these are very fact specific. Every single lease out there is a little bit different as far as what the use is. They're uniform leases because they have to be. So the thing we have to be careful of as the city is I can't take a lease that Bartelt Aviation puts forth if it's different in key provisions from all other leases out there. Now they have some unique advantage or different lease. And I don't believe that, you know, for my brief discussions, I don't think that's what the requests are, but that does have to be looked at. So in these leases, some of them are old. And so the language is a little bit, Older and again, we have to look at all those things.

So just not as simple as his attorney getting with you and getting it done. You need certain things from. Staff before you can do what you need to do and the staff work with another attorney on that part. No, no, no.

So. Generally staff when they're ready and say, we're, we're good. This is our concerns here, the issues we may have, or here are the things that we may have. I can take a look at those and incorporate those into my review.

My attorney had prepared the lease, Andrew has reviewed it, and then there was some questions that he had, and he said that he had to review it with council to make sure it's okay. He thought it was okay in principle, but he wanted that final approval. I don't think Andrew asked TJ or any other attorney that the city may work with for that guidance. So if the commission, I don't want to step on TJ either, but if the commission would grant approval for TJ to work with my attorney to finish up the lease, it's 95% there. I'm sure he can say if there's something in that lease in the city, he could say, you know, this is not in our interest. We don't want to do this. Or I'd advise against that. But there's nothing in that lease that gives anybody a competitive advantage. And that's what he's talking about. So when Kiskorny was here, I had to fix all the leases then. They were all different. One guy paid three cents a square foot. Another guy paid nine cents because he was outside of town. I fixed all that stuff years ago. The reason I fixed that is that if you got caught with that, the federal government and state government could make the city pay back every nickel they got in federal and state funds because it's discriminatory or giving AFBO a competitive advantage over another one. That's what TJ's explaining to me. There's nothing in that lease that does that. That would be more of an operating agreement Situation because the land lease rates are already set. So, that's what I need help with it. The city would allow him to work with my attorney. I think we can get it done pretty quickly.

So, okay.

I just want to make sure that I. I'm understanding all of this 1st thing is because of this, we have a loss of development.

100%. I don't feel comfortable.

The other thing is there were numerous grants that you had mentioned, minus the equipment.

Which we may have already got.

Are any of those not finished?

No.

Those grants?

They have not.

None of those you mentioned?

They have never been done.

Okay. Just a second. And then one of those, actually, you're saying would be an increase of revenue for gas, for fuel. If we were to do the credit process.

Well, the credit card, we have one, but a lot of times it's down. It doesn't work. Therefore, you couldn't sell fuel on a credit card. Okay. And then we have six T hangers that need to be rehabilitated and we have money. Assigned to those, which means the city, if they rented all six, they could get more revenue.

We didn't mention it, but a couple of months ago, it came to our attention that jet fuel was a problem, but I understand that's been taken care of. I believe that's been resolved.

Yeah, that's been resolved.

And then the other thing is, um, you mentioned about 1 of those projects with the beacon light. We haven't had for 2 years. My question, maybe it's unfair to ask any of you here, but I'm curious. Not having that has that been a problem for any of our businesses.

Or in any way, shape or form, I don't know if it'd be a problem for a business because it's night flying, but that beacon would identify the airport. So the only savior that we have had is is at last. Is that building like, but I have put a call into the Michigan aeronautics commission. The head person, and my plan was to discuss the issues that we have here that we discussed tonight. And see if they also could put pressure to help us get it fixed. I'm guessing that they won't be real happy when they find out that we've had money for a beacon and hasn't been fixed for 2 years. We had similar problems with runway lights that we're now.

For a long time, wouldn't he can be required?

Yes. It is.

So what's the, what did we know was the holdup for the ?

Yes. During, remember Dodge Department of Government Efficiency?

Yeah.

Right after that, there was a hold put on all federal and state grants, especially federal. Michigan Aeronautics receives most of its monies from the FAA. Right after the Department of Government Efficiency identified all of the different funding sources, they put a freeze on everything. Earlier this week, we were just notified that that money has just now become available. according to Tom, is that he was notified that we can proceed with all of those grant projects that were frozen because of funds that were frozen to us.

Thank you.

Okay. I know. I know there's. I know Galen, you requested the meeting and I know you want to stop talk as well, but it's 530 and I don't want to take away from you, John, because we can't because I'm respectful of that. But I just want to make sure Galen has a chance to speak. Okay. Yeah. So, are we. Who's going to follow up with Mr. John Bartel? OK. All right. So our new interim city manager will be in contact with what we'll do.

This is my card. We'll do. Thank you. Put in place your attorney have him call TJ any other details that we want to go for further with then you and I can sit down and talk about it. Again, TJ is the person he doesn't need. My permission for your attorney to talk to 1 another. WE STAND. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, JOHN. APPRECIATE YOU. I LIKE YOUR OPENING COMMENT IN WHICH YOU WERE NOT HERE TO BEAT ANYBODY UP, BUT IF THERE'S ANYTHING WE CAN DO TO HELP, THAT'S WHAT WE'RE HERE FOR. THANK YOU.

Just to clarify, so the grants were awarded, but the cash was simply not received? That's correct.

The grants were awarded, but the funds were frozen. Which are two different things. Yes.

Because I recall Tom had presented a while ago about grant money, but I guess I didn't realize that it had been not allowed to be used.

When did that freeze exactly?

Oh, gosh, it probably was probably close to a year ago.

Spring of last year.

Does that money have a sunset on what needs to be used? Has that been part of it as well?

Oh, I'm sure it does. Most grants, you have to have a grant closeout period where Michigan Aeronautics has to come in, review, audit what we've done, make sure that we use the money in accordance with what they said we were supposed to do with it.

But if they give you like two years to do projects and we're wasting a year by this being shut down, is that clock start or is it pause as well?

I'm not quite certain, but I know that Tom's ready to go on a lot of this stuff. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Galen. I'm on the airport advisory committee board. And we love our airport. We love our city. Thank you all for being here. And like John said, we're not here to beat anybody up. We're just here to enlighten to show you what's going on so that you're aware of what's happening at the airport so that we can proactively. Get together and make things happen and make it work for everyone and and make the city successful as a whole. And again, Tom. When Andrew took the city manager position, he put Tom in Tom went to work. He. He had to learn on the fly because he didn't know anything about airports and I commend him for putting the time and effort in and learning the stuff that he needed to do. And then as time progressed, he got. As with everyone that does a good job, they keep getting more and more put on to them. And what I seen was Tom just kept getting overloaded with more and more responsibilities and less time put at the airport. So it's nothing to do with Tom and his fault. It's just, he's overworked and couldn't put the time and effort in. To get the things done that needed to be done at the airport. We feel, um. In my case, I wanted to build a facility at the airport. I spent about a year and a half trying to get a building put up there. And it was just one barrier after the other. And then there was no clear path forward. Finally got to the point, trying to get a permit submitted everything that wasn't good enough. Fulfilled all the requests that wasn't good enough. It was just 1 thing after the next and just more and more put on. So it was very. Unorganized as far as how to proceed and I tried to get a builder to build here. Unfortunately. I had to contact 3 builders because 2 builders wouldn't build in the city of Sturgis because they won't work with the building department here in the city. That's sad because how do you grow in the city? And how do you build structures? How do you get more tax revenue? How do you do that? If you don't have a pro growth. Building department, so there's a lot of barriers there. I could go into a lot of details there, but it was basically a year and a half and nothing happened. I canceled the project because there was too much uncertainty and I didn't want to proceed anymore. And the cost was just getting out of hand because. The engineering I did get wasn't good enough. It don't look good enough. I want more engineering. I want this. I want that. And it just. It got out of hand, so I canceled the project. So, I did submit a FOIA request on May 26th. Unfortunately, the city has not responded to that request other than Andrew said he's working on it. And that's the only thing that I got back from the city. According to the state, it's 10 days to respond to a FOIA request and then with at least the avenue forward on how we proceed there. But I'm just trying to get a little bit more information on the building department and how it operates and. Some of the concerns there, so maybe we can work together and fix that building department. So that. We can grow the city I know of at least 4 different building projects that were canceled on the airport for my project alone in the next 30 years would have created 200 to 250,000 dollars worth of lease revenue and personal property tax for the city. That's just mine, so we're talking. Well, over a 1Million dollars worth of city revenue that's lost because they can't build. So there is a problem there. We need to fix it. I'm happy to work with anybody, answer any questions on that and how we can proceed. I'm not new to building. I developed over 25,000 square feet on the Hastings airport since 2011. And it's very simple process. You submit your plans, you go in a week later, we had our permits and we build the building. It's not like that here in Sturgis and a lot of the builders will tell you the same thing. So that we need to fix that so that we can grow, we can expand, we can build more buildings and together we can make our community better. That's what it's about. And I think Frank for sitting down with me back when this was all going down, he heard some of my concerns. He's willing to sit down with citizens and listen to them. And everybody's been nice throughout the process. It's just, we can't get anything done. So it's frustrating in that regard. But I'm willing to work with you guys and if you have any questions. Free to answer them.

Questions for game is your product. You're not.

No, I'm not I'm not going to build here with the uncertainties of the building department and the demands and the, and. The uncertainties, meaning if I start this project, there's going to be even additional demands. It could even happen. In fact, the last time I spoke here and was cut short, I got emails and and flooded with people. That. Experience the same thing and in fact, 1 of the architects engineers that, you know, very well email me and said, he'll never do business in the city of Sturgis because his projects, even though they're engineer and everything can change in the middle of the project. Building part will come out and say, no, we want this re, engineer that done and cost tens of thousands of dollars more. For the project than when it was officially when it was permit was given to begin with. So they'll never do work here again. There's multiple builders. They'll never do work in Sturgis until it's fixed. So we got to fix it. So that we can grow. And it's not, I think it's maybe some insecurities on the building department side or something. I don't know what it is, but you have to make a pathway that's easy for the, it's not about, they hide behind the codes and all the other stuff, but it's not about building to the code. Everybody wants to build to the code. We want to build safe building. Everybody's going to do that. It's all the other things that are the gray areas that they have discretion over that they can make it very painful. Or or easy to work with, so that's where we're at.

I think you're forgetting about the question. I'm sure you'd like to hear you presented your plans.

The department came back and said, you need to fix these things. Did that change the engineering? Say it again, and then you might want to change things again.

Yeah, that's the uncertainty. So when we fulfill all the request, and then there's a whole blanket more of request. So, then you sit down and they come up with other ideas. It's almost like. So, for instance, the site plan, so we, we spend tens of thousands of dollars on a new, which is the airport layout plan. We use engineering firm to do that, but. Tom submitted the documents to the FAA for the height, the elevation, the lighting and all of that. We had a, we had a basically a site plan, but that wasn't good enough. You're going to have to spend 45,000 on an engineered site plan because I want to see this, this and this and this. When it was fine for anything else, but so the 1st list of 12 things that I had to come up with, I did all of those sat down. Then there was another list that wasn't good enough. So we had to come up with another 5 to 7 things. So it's just never ending. And there's no clear path and it's just the cost. To build a basically a pole bar in the city of Sturgis is too high. You can't do it. So, it's just. Frustrating in that regards, so unless something happen changes, I'd be happy to build here. I'd like to build here. My home's here. Everything's here, but I don't have to build. It's just something that I wanted to do in the city and I wanted to expand. I love the airport. There's a lot of people at the airport that want to expand the airport. We want to build more hangars. We want to create more tax revenue for the city. We want it to grow and be a beacon in the city. It's the gateway to our city. Businesses, usually business owners or larger businesses will have aircraft as they fly different places. So this is the gateway to our city. We have to have a functional airport that is usable and that people want to come to.

So any questions for Gail?

Thanks for your time.

Mr. Mayor, permission to approach podium?

Sure. Thank you.

As you know, I've been here for three weeks. I want to answer Some of the concerns that were brought up tonight. There's no doubt about it that government can be somewhat frustrating. But I want to point out something else. Remember, when we drive through our community, we have above average housing stock. We have above average building appearance and success. In other words, Sturgis is a wonderful place to work and to do business in. An airport is very complicated from the standpoint that we have to follow strict Michigan aeronautics code and we have to follow FAA code, okay? That means that the land in which a building is built on has to be owned by the city. That being the case, we did a review, a staff review of the history of everything that was just set. All the meetings, all the permits, all the applications that went through. Somewhere in the conversation, I think it was lost. The reason why we have strict building codes is because this city, this body, has adopted a building code which we adhere to. We pay Will and his team to administer that, and they do an excellent job at that. Excellent. Why? Just drive around Sturgis. Take a look at our housing stock. Take a look at our businesses. Take a look at the airport. Now, we're not dissuading anybody from doing business here. We want them to do business here. However, we do have strict standards. We own the land. They own the buildings. However, There could be a possibility that maybe the solution is that we build a building and lease it back to them. Why? Because just like all of us, we have limited time on this earth and it makes it easier to resell or release a building. Some people wouldn't be in favor of that. Maybe there's another solution is that they build a building and lease it back to us. So, I mean, there's different approaches to take here that we need to explore. But I just want to, and I'm not going to use, I don't want to use the word defend because that probably puts us in a defensive mode. Tom and Will and the rest of the staff do an excellent job of taking care of this city. Now, again, somewhere in the conversation, their interpretation is that it's easier to do business in Hastings. Well, we're not Hastings. We have a building code that we will follow and a procedure that we will follow. And that is the right way to do things. And my belief is that Tom and Will and our team here have done an excellent job. Perhaps maybe those conversations should be held with me since my next step is the nursing home. But nonetheless, I have the experience maybe to sit down and figure out what's going on. But we do have an expectation of things being built in a proper manner. And to do anything different is irresponsible on our part. And I think going forward, again, if you drive down Centerville, look at all the businesses that are open right now. So we must be doing something right. There's a reason why some contractors don't want to work here. I know, because I've dealt with some of those contractors, and some of those contractors, I wouldn't want them working on anything here. That being said, with all respect to all of our audience here tonight, we do want to communicate. We do want them to invest here, but it has to be done in accordance with what our standards are, the standards that this body set going forward. I'm not trying to be stern. I'm just trying to be mature and thoughtful and also want to know that it is a serious business in making sure that the public is safe. And airports are nothing that you can just skimp on. That being said, I welcome any questions or comments you might have for me.

Any questions for... And I was an airport manager too. Any questions from the audience for Doug?

You'll be working with these gentlemen then, Doug, to...

Yes, I will.

...resolve concerns and move forward.

Yes, I will.

Okay.

One question I have is, I'm going to agree with you that Tom is excellent. He needs help. He needs an assistant.

And then he can do a lot more things because he's very passionate about the airport. I just think he's got too much road. He should act quick.

In 3 weeks that I've been here, we've already taken steps to do some reorganization and to take and rebalance some of the workflow that everybody has. We're not going to stop. I just read an article today though. You know what it's like everybody knows what it's going to hire people to these things. There is a shortage of actual physical bodies. Then on top of that, there's an actual shortage. of physical, capable, and willing bodies to come to life. That's what we're struggling with.

In association with that, as it progresses, I'd like to meet with you, and then I can guarantee you we can get you some people that will volunteer their time to help the city move in a positive direction.

And I think Tom is moving us in a positive direction. I think will is in his team is moving us in a thought. So, and we're doing everything we can to balance it out later on in the meeting. I'll be talking about another issue. Concerning public safety. Thank you for your time. Are you going to give your card to Galen?

Yes, I will. Okay. One question I have on the formation of a committee or board or what do you call it?

Association.

Association. There's no issue doing something like this, correct? It has nothing to do with the city. Okay.

I mean, it's like it's a group of interested people that are interested in all of this.

I mean, when it comes to us presenting...

No, it would be no different than if your neighborhood decided we're going to have a community, you know, they want to come in and report, you know, Ward 1, this is what we see out there, you know, we're just reporting into the commission.

But it sounds like we would be giving them direction on projects and things like this that they would be doing the legwork on where our city staff would normally be doing it.

We're just offering to help. If you need the help and you can't find the people who made them, like the weeds that are forages, two-foot tall forage-like practices,

Well, as you know, some of that was grants and when you're dealing with the federal government, there's a bidding procedure that we have to follow. There are procurement procedures that we have to observe. And like, I know practically, I believe that was part of the grant program that we got. Was it not? That means that we have to make sure that we have the. People with the right credentials and the right skills that. Can do that just can't call an asphalt for the deals.

They have to be sort of, I would say under your direction that people that are really helpful.

My question is, you mentioned something about, you know, having somebody on that association quotes for things and stuff like that.

That's what I'm talking about. What I would what I would say is, I think that they could talk and then in conjunction with the airport board work on doing that. There's a path forward with taking. volunteer help. Obviously, we would have to be careful to make sure. I mean, it sounds like a great idea.

I just want to make sure procedurally, policy-wise.

There's always a pathway forward. If people want to volunteer and help, I mean, we have an airport board, but there's nothing stopping a group of citizens that have a common interest to come and say, hey, Here's what we'd like to see. Again, they have no authority on behalf of the city just because they present things to the city. There are certain processes and procedures that the city must follow based on charter and statute, as well as here, the dual role, both Michigan Air Knox and the FAA. However, I don't see it as being a negative to the city. I just think we have to make sure that if it gets to that point, we're very cognizant of what limitations we can ask volunteers that are not part of the city. And how do we incorporate those recommendations? I like the idea.

We just want to help. I love the idea.

And we appreciate that.

Really, 100% want to help.

We appreciate that. Just going to have to be patient with this a little bit longer.

Any other comments on the airport? Okay, thank you. Thank you.

I thought there was 1 more gentleman.

Is there 1 more? Yeah.

Oh, okay. Did he have.

Okay.

Any questions for Doug before we, we end the airport discussion. Thank you, Galen. Thank you, John, for coming out and speaking. And Marty, good to see you. All right. Thanks, guys. Thank you all.

Okay, no, and you may not. Yeah, it's about. Somebody say something to the collective of all of us? I don't think I have the first one on the second one. Probably. Thank you very much. I don't know. I don't know.

NO. Mm-hmm.

I don't know. I downloaded mine earlier. Oh, I'm good. It's just me.

Okay.

Yeah.

It's the press table All right, we'll call this meeting to order if you can't please stand for the pledge of allegiance

Commissioner Miller, would you lead us in prayer? Sure.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the beauty of what we've had, the rain, the sunshine. Thank you for what we have here in Sturgis, Michigan, for the blessings that we have. Help us to utilize it well, to take care of it for the benefit of all who live here. And may we do excellent work on the residents' behalf for the good of our future, the good of those who live here now, and the good of those who will live here in years to come. Bless the proceedings of tonight's meeting, and may we always keep in mind working with each other, working on things for the greater good. In Jesus' name, amen.

Roll call, city clerk.

Commissioner Burr. Here. Commissioner Boring. Here. Commissioner Wicke. Here. Commissioner Smith. Here. Commissioner Abbs. Here. Commissioner Miller. Here. Vice Mayor Mullins. I'm present. Mayor Perez.

Here. All right, moving on with the agenda under proclamations and presentations. There's none tonight. We'll move on to the visitor section. If there's a visitor here who'd like to make a public comment for items not listed on the agenda, please approach the podium. You have two minutes to speak.

Thanks, Mayor. Welcome. Hi. Barry Cox. Welcome tonight. 1421 South Mary B Street, Sturgis. As most of you in this room know, I retired from the city of Sturgis on June 19th of this year. However, this event was overshadowed by a much more significant community event that occurred, which was the closure of Sturgis Hospital. Like many of you, I was born at Sturgis Hospital and I am disappointed at its closure. So why do I bring this up tonight, two months later? Well, one, obviously you have an agenda item that I'm very interested in regarding the hospital and the bonds this evening. That'll come later. Two, in review of utility shutoff rules that were approved by Commission September of 25, they indicate that these are only for residential properties, for residential utilities, not commercials, not industrials, not government entities. Just wondering why that's the case. Second item is I really wish it would have been here for the airport discussion tonight, but didn't find the agenda anywhere on cities. communication networks electronically. So missed that portion, unfortunately. Thirdly, I want to thank and I want to wish Jamie Eymer, last name's tough, all the best with her new endeavor and thank her for a wonderful job at the Sturges Young Center for the Arts. Lastly, because this is an important discussion, please make sure that the microphone is right where you're talking. Thank you.

Thank you, Barry. Is there any other visitor who would like to speak and address the commission for items not listed on the agenda? You've got two minutes. Please state your name and address.

Hello, I'm Trina Boyles. I'm the owner of Folds Bakery on 220 West Chicago Street.

Welcome.

Hi. I have brought some agendas because I know I only have two minutes. So I brought enough, I think, for everybody to review. So me and Matt has been here today because we would like you to review our concerns about the tree. I know that it's been an ongoing discussion, or at least that's what I hear. But I'm here today because when we've discussed it with other people, we kind of get the, that's not going to happen. Well, I'm here today because we want to stay in Sturgis. I love Sturgis. I was a nurse practitioner here in Sturgis, and I love this community. And it's one of the reasons we chose a community, not just because of that, but because we felt so much support from our Sturgis community. members who brought us in carrie and eric erica and will they were very instrumental on our decision to be here because we could really go anywhere but we want to be in surges so since we've been here you expect a business and new business after the first month and after the whole like oh everybody wants to see you you expect your after the other months you decline 20 to 30 for a business but we have dropped more than 50%. So we need your help. I have brought in this proposal, there is proposals from us, like suggestions of what we can do to make our signage more visible. We feel like as a taxpayer in Sturgis, Michigan, and choosing to come here, that we should have a right to have our sign visualize just as much as anybody else. So I'm not asking you to rip down every tree in Sturgis. I know that there's reasons. I know you want the aesthetics of Sturgis to stay the way it is. But I think that you have to look at losing business versus the cost of a tree. So it's causing us to consider losing a business, which is going to make me lose my contract as well. So I'll be in violation of my renting contract. So, I have some of my, I even put some. Facts compared to our, the grains bolts, how we've kind of state study. So the argument could be that it's economy. Well, I don't believe that's all of it. Do I think that we have some things that we need to change too? Because the searches community asks for different things here than what we do in the grains, but we're so close together. The numbers shouldn't be that different. So, anyhow, I have this here. We would like you to please not just throw it in the trash to actually look at it and maybe contact us on how we can solve this and come up with a better solution for us.

I would assume, Doug, you'd follow up on that? Yep.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other visitor that would like to make a public comment or items not listed on the agenda? Please state your name and address.

Newmont 1221 Tulip Drive. I was just inquiring about the sidewalk on the corner of Nottowa and Congress. It's been blocked since the storm. I was just wondering how long it was going to take to clear that sidewalk and make it pedestrian safe and usable.

Okay. All right, but Congress and now, okay. Thank you. Is there any other visitor like to make a public comment for items on not listed on the agenda? Okay. Next on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. So we have a motion. SECOND. AND WE HAVE SUPPORT. ALL IN FAVOR?

AYE.

OPPOSED? SO MOVED. NEXT ON THE AGENDA IS THE APPROVAL OF THE CONSENT AGENDA.

SO MOVED.

SO WE HAVE A MOTION? SECOND. AND SUPPORT? ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. OPPOSED? SO MOVED. NEXT ON THE AGENDA IS UNFINISHED BUSINESS. AND WE HAVE NONE TONIGHT. SO WE'LL MOVE ON STRAIGHT TO NEW BUSINESS. Our first item on the agenda for new business is the Sturgis Hospital $3 million usage resolution. Ms. Sadie Griffin.

Good evening, Commissioners. The City of Sturgis Building Authority currently holds general obligation bonds related to the Sturgis Hospital project. The outstanding principal on those tax-exempt bonds is $5,445,000. As we discussed through the budget process, and we've been advised from our financial advisors and bond council that we recommend utilizing 3M of the funds that we have to call a portion of those outstanding and existing bonds. This would reduce our principal balance down to 2,455,000, while still maintaining our current maturity date of 2034. So, what this does is brings down our annual debt service obligation to roughly 295,000 on average over the remainder of those bonds. So it gives us increased cash flow from the general fund as we discussed through the budget process. And we'd still use the state marijuana funds as dedicated funds to paying down that annual. debt service obligation. So included in your packet is a resolution requesting the redemption of the bonds. This would need to go through the building authority for approval as well. But first step is through commission. Questions?

Yeah. If we pay this off, the average would be $295,000 for our annual obligation. Currently, it's roughly $700,000. That wasn't stated in there. I just want to make sure everybody knows what it is currently.

And then the other economic piece of it is we have that $3 million sitting and earning just under 4%, and our bonds are a little bit higher than that. So things have turned where interest rates have gone down, and that's why we weren't utilizing it because we were earning more interest on those funds. But things have turned where it makes more sense to utilize the $3 million currently. Okay.

And basically a 400,000 dollars less on our general fund contribution to it. Yeah, which is just about what we've gotten. The last few years for marijuana. Yeah.

Yep. So what we budgeted, we were transferring, you know, 300,000 in 2027 and I think we were budgeting a little bit more from the state marijuana fund. So.

So, I guess the only conversation piece I would have is if it's now 295 and we have 4, whatever from marijuana coming in with this. Goes through the way you're proposing the additional 100,000 if things stay the way they are. Would we need a discussion on any of that?

Yeah, we could discuss whether we want to use all the funds and transfer them over and pay.

Additional or that'd be all principle at that point.

Um, I believe we could, I'd have to verify that, but or build up and and, you know, call anything additional early. Um, so, yes, we could make that decision of whether transferring the full amount or, you know, based on our, our conversation with the budget of the general fund. I think, you know, in fiscal 27, it didn't make sense to to move the full.

So maybe next year's budget conversation. Yeah, yeah.

Looking at what we project coming in from marijuana funds, you know, as things change or facilities change within, you know, the area, that those fundings can change and make a decision each year of how much we would like to transfer over.

Sounds a lot better.

And that could help that downfall that we were seeing. Yeah.

So that 295, is that what the interest accrued on that too? Or is that 295 plus the interest? Is the 295 the payment? The total. That's the total? Yeah. So will that change? Does the interest rate drop as it goes?

A little bit. There is in the back of the resolution what Ken has on the screen. It's pretty flat. You can see that, you know, it doesn't change wildly. Right. So that's why it was averaging that 295. Right.

Yeah, my computer wasn't working so you're good. I didn't see that chart. So, all right. Thank you.

So, just to recap, because I know we have a lot of visitors here. They're normal. And so there's 3Million dollars was from the sale of the of the buildings.

no it the three million dollars was given to the city uh in consideration for um relieving the hospital and asker corporation from any obligation on the bond okay so we took full responsibility of the bond we were always back then we always backed the bonds we were always going to be obligated to pay those By releasing all of our liens against that, they gave us $3 million.

Okay, right. Just want to make sure that's stated so that it doesn't appear that it's something else.

Any questions, Christine? We still would have to reissue for a different bond if it's a private bond.

If there was a triggering event. There's a turnover to the private sector. Yes, if the building sale.

If it was for a for-profit. That's what I said. So if the hospital were to change to a non-profit, then we would not have to. So there are certain triggering events, and there are a lot of non-triggering events. And so we can keep these. It's possible. They will never need to be refunded. Possible, but we'll see.

Any other questions? Okay.

Mr. Ray, I move that the Sturgis City Commission adopt the resolution requesting the redemption of the City of Sturgis Building Authority refunded bonds.

So we have a motion. Support. And support all in favor? Aye. Opposed? So moved. Thank you, Sadie. Next on the agenda is the annual utility rate approval. Mr. Dugtare?

Yes. Mr. Mayor and commissioners, in your agenda packet tonight is the explanation of an annual utility rate increase. This is something that we do on an annual basis as a municipality, is review the rates that would include electric, water, and sewer. As you can see, we're asking for a slight increase in the electric. Part of that has to do with the power cost recovery factor. That includes fuel. And us, as you know, electricity ebbs and flows. We buy periodically electricity from other providers. And so what we have to do is when we meter and then we subtract out what we buy from other municipalities, we end up having to... pay that increase. So we're seeking about a $0.02 increase in the per kilowatt hour. We believe that that's a responsible thing to do. Under water and wastewater, you'll see that 2% in wastewater we're seeking, and then a 6.9. A lot of that has to do with the lead and copper rule and us replacing those lines. That has become quite a costly venture for all municipalities in the state. So we see this as modest increases given the fact that the state of Michigan is mandating us to perform this work. So I'm willing to answer any questions or comments you have and would ask your honorable body for approval on this recommendation. Any questions for Doug?

Mr. Mayor, I move that the Sturgis City Mission approve the electric rate for buildings beginning October 1st, 2026. And I move October 1st, 2027 is presented. So we have a motion.

Second.

And support, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Nay. So moved.

May I move that the Sturgis City Commission approve the wastewater and water rates for buildings beginning on October 1st, 2026.

Do we have a motion?

Second.

In support, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Nay. So moved. Next on the agenda is the budget public hearing. Mr. Doug Terry.

Yes, Mr. Mayor and commissioners, in your agenda packet, again, is the budget recap of what has been worked on by staff and this commission over the last few months.

Mr. Terry, I just... We'll go ahead and open the public hearing. Okay, thanks.

And again, this is a public hearing where we welcome the input of our citizens. But again, this is a recap. I have to give kudos to Andrew Cook and Sadie for their hard work. They met with the department heads over the last six months and have diligently worked on this. The budget message is excellent that Andrew and Sadie put together. I welcome any questions that I might be able to answer, but perhaps Sadie could answer any that you might have. We see this as a responsible budget. Last year, we had to go into fund balance of about a half a million dollars. This year, we reduced that. down to 341,000. That's explained in the agenda packet. So we see this as a responsible approach. Later on in the evening, under my report, we'll talk about some staffing concerns that I have. But again, this is a very good budget that was put together by staff along with the budget committee.

Any questions for Mr. Dugtere from the commission? before I open it to the public?

I think it's worth asking so everybody knows. We discussed it, obviously, during many budget work sessions. Doug or Sadie or both of you, what's our total dollar all-in cost that is known today as far as storm cleanup gross? And that would be across multiple departments. Do we know a number as of today?

Without including internal labor costs, I think we were at when I looked last 1,000,015.

1,015,000. Yep.

And that's not complete. Oh, sure. No, that's not.

But that's just known as of today. Yes.

That's strictly external. There are labor costs, though, that would technically have been contributed to add on to the cost. Correct. Okay. Yeah. I think that does round out most of our mutual aid billings in there.

Thank you. I think it's important for everybody to know. And then a second question would be similar timeline, sadly, but related to the hospital closure that Barry mentioned earlier. We've had several changes and tweaks in there, but I guess from budget standpoint at the outset, What's our number as far as added expense that we've associated with the closure of the hospital? And that would be additional staffing and any other pivot changes that we weren't going to make at the outset of the budget, but then chose to make in the process.

I don't have a specific number for you, but I can highlight some of the things that were impacted by that. So we ultimately decreased revenue in the ambulance fund, I believe, by roughly 100,000 that we anticipated from transfers. So typically we were picking up transfers out of Sturgis Hospital.

That we're not going to be able to do because of it.

Correct. We will see increased fuel costs, just again, from that transport time. We have eliminated the fire marshal problem. position and put that back as a full-time ambulance and fire personnel and added additional staffing related to that to reduce overtime and keep staff levels accordingly balanced just due to those long lead times of transfers and getting them to the hospital.

But as far as that lost revenue and then the additional staffing, do you know a ballpark number? And I'm sorry, I'm asking you on the spot.

I don't want to misrepresent a number, but I can look and see if I can get you a number by the end of the meeting when we come back around.

Thank you, Sadie. And I say that just because it's important to highlight that through two circumstances outside our control within eight days of each other. There's been a lot piled on inside this budget process that has been abnormal outside what a normal year would be.

So just to help our citizens understand understand. A municipal budget is a management tool subject to change. Like we've had with the storm damage, there's unanticipated things that we're going to encounter over the next year. Who knows, we might have another storm or another situation that might occur. So we know that we amend the budget at least twice, once in the middle, and then toward the end of the fiscal year to realign those cost items to reflect what we actually spent. That's why we need to be flexible in the way that we approach our budget. Again, during my report, I'm going to talk a little bit about anticipated staffing going forward. and some effects of the hospital. So that's only two scenarios. We don't know what holds true in the future. And again, this is a management tool, and it has to be flexible.

One more to add to that. We've mentioned it in the past, like you said, and others, but I think it's important as we choke on our increase in water. We talked about the deadlines. keep bringing it up. If we were to do that ourselves, I think it's like 3,700. I think we were estimating, is that right? If we were to take care of the lead lines ourselves. If we've identified 1,500, we probably have, what, another 1,300 or something. I can't remember the exact numbers. But do the math. That's if we are to do it ourselves. That number is as big as the hospital. And Therefore, we're increasing what he said our waters increase and that's a big. I don't want to forget that. That's over 10 years, but.

So, say you just to understand your, your, your, your number, the 1.15. That's just mutual aid. That's not our overtime. That's not our staff overtime. That's not any of that.

That's not staff. It's mutual aid. It's anything that got damaged. It's also we had crews in here cutting trees, moving brush, moving logs, taking it to compost site. We had people into the compost site helping clean that up. So those were the highlights of the major costs. Okay.

Any other questions from the Commission before I open up to the public? Well, any comments from the public?

Thank you, Mayor. So that's 5.5 million, Kathy, abs, commissioner abs. Biggest of hospitals. Yeah, for 1,500, which is pretty close to where we're at, not 13. So sorry to disappoint.

I thought we already had some done.

It would really be great to be at 1,300. The approval for item 10A for the 3 million, so is that part of this current budget?

That's correct.

Yeah. Okay. So, and we're the fund balance is only still being reduced by 300,000 dollars. Okay.

Any other comments from comments from the public. Okay, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing. What's the wish of the commission?

Mr. Mayor, I'll move that the Sturgis City Commission adopt the 26-27 Annual City of Sturgis Budget Summary and Appropriation Resolution that approve the City of Sturgis East Sturgis Resolution.

So we have a motion. Second. And support, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? So moved. Next on the agenda is the Doyle Roof Bonds. Ms. Segrist, welcome back.

Thank you again, so included in your packet is a bond authorizing resolution for the issuance of capital improvement bonds for the Doyle roof project. This would authorize the city to issue bonds not to exceed 800,000. Previously, we had issued a notice of intent back in May with a 45 day referendum period. This referendum period has passed and we've received no petitions that were filed. The term of the bonds would be 15 years with the interest rate not to exceed 6%. Again, Final required issue amount may be adjusted, but cannot exceed the maximum of 800,000, which was in the notice of intent. Back on May 13th, the commission approved the low better Newberry square construction out of ship Shawana and the amount of 729,702 dollars and 28 cents with a 20,000 dollar contingency budget included in that. The cost of the, the bond from financial advisory services, bond services and rating agency fees would be eligible for payment from the bond proceeds as well. We have submitted a. Grant. To the Sturgis area community foundation, and hopefully we will find out tomorrow if we've received a grant towards the Doyle roof, which would then ultimately reduce our bonding need. But. Unfortunately, they are meeting today as well. So we will give you an update on the what we hear from that, but this would move us forward in the process of getting those bonds. Started and approved.

So was there an idea of what that grant could be?

We submitted for a $200,000 grant, but that could vary based on what they would award us.

Any other questions for Sage?

Oh, I guess the only other question, the work, when was it supposed to start?

Once we just want to have the funds yep, so we we can also reimburse ourselves from a period so we can get started there soon Okay Mr. Mayor I move that the Sturgis City Commission adopt the bond authorizing resolution is presented so we have a motion second and support all in favor aye opposed so move

Next on the agenda is a planning commission appointment. Mr. Ken Rhodes.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Planning commission, obviously one of our most important boards and want to make sure that we've got a full board so that we can have a quorum when needed. Jersey Anderson has submitted a application, which is in front of you. And she was here at one meeting and she's actually talked to the community development department. So she understands what, what is involved in the planning commission and she's recommended for approval.

So appointment, I should say. Happy to answer any questions.

This is the only one we have on file currently. I can also say on that note, there's a gentleman in the audience right now that apparently has expressed some interest in serving on some boards. So he may get an application and get more than he bargained for.

We can give it to him today if he really wants it.

Yeah.

Ken, will this round out the planning commission as full now with this appointment?

I don't know.

I think we're close. We may still need one, but I've got to check that. But definitely this will help.

Is this one of the boards where city residents are required to be?

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

Okay, I was wondering about that, not to delve into details.

Actually, you can be an owner of property in the city. And be on the bank. I'd have to check on how many you can have, just one.

Because Mike Kaywood was in that case where he wasn't a resident of here.

He was a resident when he got on. Right. And you have to own property.

But has an ownership interest in property that's in the service.

And we had a situation where we had gentlemen that were on, they were appointed. Once their term expired, then they may not have been able to be reappointed. So we can only appoint. So you do have to live in the city.

So you're a grandfather and you're not required to live with them. Right.

So, Barry, were you shaking your head because you do want an application?

He may have difficulty as a conflict of appointment soon. So, I don't want to appoint people that may not be able to continue their appointment for long. All right.

Any questions for Ken?

Mr. Rear, I move.

I'm going to jump in real quick. So, under the Planning Commission and Planning Enabling Act, technically, the mayor should move to appoint And then if you would move to support the approval of the appointment. So, okay. Yeah. Yes. In our commission, technically, it's kind of a nuance where the mayor appoints and then the commission affirms. That's kind of like the nomination and then the confirmation by the board. Is that the only board that applies to it?

Okay, so I may refer Perez moved at the city Sturgis city commission a point Jersey Anderson to the planning to the Sturgis planning commission that you move your appointment and second second. Okay. All in favor. I pose. So, thank you. I was not aware of that. Not a problem. All right.

Is that in our charter or is that a state law?

It's in the state statute for the Planning Enabling Act. It's also in our code under section 2441 for the city planning board created, which tracks the statute.

All right.

Thank you.

That's the only motion I've made since I've been mayor.

So we pay a big bucks. Yeah.

All right. Next on the agenda is commissioner and staff comments. So we'll move on with that. Start with Miss A.

So I do have some numbers for you. From the ambulance fund side, we added an additional 110,000 of expense due to staffing. We had 68,000 of essentially lost revenue. And then we added honor and $50,000 contribution from the general fund compared to where we were at. So, those would be the numbers that affected that the ambulance fund specifically.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

Okay.

Mr. Rhodes?

Yep. We had a really good election. Everything went very well. It's a different election world these days. We had 637 absentee ballots and 715 people at the polls themselves. So it's almost half-half. I can't tell you. I'll find out tomorrow how many people voted at the early voting site, which is open for nine days. So in essence, there are three... parallel elections happening right now. So we'll do it again in November. If you have not heard, but this will pertain to the city commission, the state passed a law because if you recall, our organizational meeting falls before they can certify the election. So that was addressed. And so commissioners, I believe it's the first Monday after in December, but at the beginning of December. So whereas we had an organizational meeting right after the election, that won't take place until So commissioners that will not be on the commission going forward would still serve the two meetings in November. And then new commissioners will come on board in December and we'll have our organizational meeting then.

That first December?

Yeah, so I think... TJ is working out the details, but it should be the first Monday of December, unless, of course, it's probably December 1st when it may be December 8th or something like that. So we'll get that figured out so that we can get those dates out to you. Okay. Yes, sir.

Okay. Since our charter says that we have to have it that Monday.

Yeah.

So we have to change it anyway? Yeah. Can we get that move to, like, 6 o'clock instead of 8 o'clock?

Yeah, so so that I will take that into consideration what I'm looking at 5 o'clock. What we're dealing with is. An issue of preemption, so the state is essentially preempted our charter by mandating. That this meeting is going to have to be moved because of the way that they're certifying the election and allowing those elected officials to take place. So I'm working on that. We're not the only municipality. that is dealing with charter provisions that conflict with this new state law. But I think that, Ken and I were talking before, so it's every other year, it will still be in November because there will be no commissioners up for election. It'll just be simply you organizing it, which will still be the first Monday following the election at eight o'clock. On the years in which a commission gets installed, Um, I think that there's since it's preempted in that respect, there'll be plenty of latitude there for timing.

Okay. But our charter, I think you're asking if our charter is being changed, but our charter is not being changed. State law is just...

I'm just saying, since we have to violate the charter anyway, according to state law... We're not violating it.

They are preempted.

We're not violating it. If it's preempted, it's not a violation. So I want to be clear, it's not a violation. And there are plenty of areas in the charter that are preempted by state law, but Well, and actually, I will point out. Commissioner Smith 2 years ago had presented. Which a common sense resolution that would have fixed the issue and the state adopted the language in which you put forth, but. They decided to go completely different direction and just kick everything 3 weeks down the road. So.

But we can change the charter by a vote of the people.

You certainly can. You certainly can change the charter.

So we can put that on our next election.

Next agenda item.

But yeah, so it's not a violation of the charter. It's just a preemption issue.

That's it. Anything else, Mr. Williams? That's it. Anything from staff? Mr. Williams?

Yeah.

So, tonight you guys adopted a fee schedule for the upcoming budget here. And as part of that, there was a couple of rental or property maintenance be increases. 1 was rental registrations. So that was increased and then we also added. Premier properties would be paying half of the inspection fee. So. Over the next probably 30 or 60 days, I'll be bringing back policy change that would require the. Premier properties to pay the half as part of the policy to catch up with what the fee schedule would be. I know in the past, we've talked about the property maintenance policy that we have in place and I think there was some concerns from this board and I want to know if there's anything that you guys. Want us to be addressing as part of this policy change that we should be looking at from a staff level. So when we bring it back, we can try to keep this thing moving forward. At least to clean up the language that we have. So, I know that there was discussion a while ago, and it kind of went. When on the side, and now I want to bring it back to make sure we can finish this up. I have a few changes that just from processes on our end, but nothing, nothing drastic other than just. Completing with the fee schedule changes that were just approved.

Yeah, well, if we change the schedule change, but it'd be. Property the inspections. Time in between change it all for any.

Premier versus no, that would be part of the policy discussion that we would have. Because if I bring it back, my thought process would be on the current policy without extending the premier properties, the premier properties would pay half of the inspection fee. But if they want to go longer term, then the premier properties would pay all of the inspection fee, but they would go a longer term. So there's like a couple of different things. I think we have positives and negatives for both sides.

Do you think it's best we have a work session before the meeting if you were to bring something?

I'm all no. I think it's I think what we're bringing is pretty simple to discuss, but we can I believe that Doug Terry after he and I talk about the policy changes, he can make the decision.

All right.

But if you guys have anything else that you think about, reach out to Doug or city manager and be happy to present that.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you.

Erica, you got anything? Dan? Anything from our men in blue? Anything from the media?

TJ? Nothing more tonight. Doug? I have a few things. First of all, Mr. Mayor, I want to give our sincere thanks to Jamie Imer, who gave us a lot of years of service at the Civic Center. As of today, we started advertising for her replacement and hope to have somebody in place within a month. We'll see. Public safety staffing in regards to the ambulance, as you know, we're capped out with both police and fire. My orders to Ryan was that when we see talent, let's grab onto it, knowing that we're going to have some retirements coming up. I'm concerned that with the hospital closure that we're going to be tied up quite a bit with our ambulance. So I want to make sure that our citizens can be assured that their safety is first priority. So hopefully he'll be able to. Again, it's just like anywhere we're having this problem with a shortage of qualified people trying to recruit. That's the marketplace right now. And we're a competitive community. We're a beautiful community. So we're trying. I didn't want to sound like Donald Trump there. We're going to do everything we can to attract so that there's no shortage of qualified staff going forward. Okay. Development. We do have, as Will will tell you, we do have interested people looking at building housing in our community. There seems to be a shortage. Right now, Sturgis is probably one of the more attractive communities in our state. So we want to work with them that we have that going on. Storm cleanup continues. Through Tom's efforts, we will be working with our arborists and with our contractors to try and excel those big pieces of wood that a lot of our residents cannot handle physically. We want to get in there and help them as much as we can. This doesn't occur all the time, but it is a problem. We can't ask people to do something that they can't physically do. So we want to do everything we can to help them. That being said, it's been a busy month, and we don't see it letting up.

That's all I have. All right. Commissioner Adams?

Nothing, thank you.

Commissioner Moore?

Not tonight.

Commissioner Wicke?

Nothing tonight.

Commissioner Miller?

On Clerk Rhodes' topic of elections, while I've been trained as an elections inspector twice, I finally got to serve And I can't do that here, so I served in Leonidas Township. And so that sadly meant that I was one of those absentee ballots. That's one downside. But I definitely learned a great deal. I got to see how things work in another municipality. And it was altogether an enlightening experience, and we have a wonderful election system.

Thank you. Commissioner Burke? Nothing tonight, thank you.

Mr. Smith? A couple things. One, I know it's not our problem. I think it's the phone companies, GTs, whatever. On the corner of East Main and Ottawa, they got a broken pole there in front of Cam Burns. And there's a tree stump sticking up in the air. The cable's just kind of laying off over top of it. Can we do anything about their inaction to fix that?

You will take a look at it. If it's a totem pole, we'll take care of it. I know what you're talking about.

Yeah. And the second thing is, tomorrow is National Filet Mignon Day. So... If anybody wants to volunteer to go out and get a nice two-inch thick porterhouse, grill it up good, and just cut the little part off, keep it, and bring me the rest, it would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you.

Nothing exciting like commissioner Smith. Good discussions tonight airport thing. I learned a lot on. So hopefully that stuff will be resolved quickly for some of these people. If it's truly as easy what they say it is. I don't know all the details you guys do, so hopefully it can be resolved quickly. I will say this if we could spread love and love as quickly as we spread hate and negativity. What an amazing world we live in. Let's all be kind to one another.

Great. So fellow commissioners and citizens, I just want to take this opportunity to address events that have taken place over this past summer. As you all know, we faced a severe thunderstorm that just ripped our city, especially in the ways of trees. I really want to thank our DPS staff, our electric staff, parks and cemetery staff, and the rest of our staff who worked diligently to assist our citizens in the cleanup of properties and streets. Second of all, it's been challenging for commissioners with the most recent change in city manager. I think that all of us should reflect that we serve the citizens of Sturgis and are blessed to have the opportunity to serve our citizens. Going forward, I see excellent opportunities for both the commission and our citizens as we grow our city. Again, I want to thank our citizens for having the patience to understand that government can be very complex. We appreciate everyone's patience while the cleaning efforts continue, and I want to thank our city staff for their knowledge and dedicated work as they carry us forward. It's not easy responding to the mess that we had, and I know there's some folks that say we should do it faster, but I can tell you this, our staff has been Awesome and the way they've addressed our city and it looks a lot better today than what it did a couple weeks ago so big huge shout out to our staff and all those involved in making our city what it is and With that I hope each and every one of you have a great rest of your work week meeting adjourned