City Council - Regular Meeting

Mister Patz? Here. Mister Clark?

Here.

Mister Armstrong? Here. Mister Wallace? Here. Mister Mister Thomas? Here. Mister Johnson?

Here.

Mayor Woolley?

Here.

Missus Bauer? Here. Mister Dragoni?

Here. Is that

a policy or is

that law? That a quorum. Okay. May I get a motion to approve the agenda?

Motion. Support.

Motion by mister Clark. Supported by mister Thomas. Any discussion? Any discussion? All in favor say yes. Yes. Yeses have it. Motion carried. I get a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting held 04/07/2026 and dispense with oral reading. Motion.

Support.

Motion by mister Armstrong. Supported by mister Wallace. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes.

Yes.

Yeses have it. Motion carried. Mayor's communication, please.

Thank you, mister chairman. I have, one item, and that is a motion to approve the merging of the customer assistance center with the building department effective 07/01/2026. Motion to approve.

Support. Motion by mister Thomas. Supported by mister Clark. Any discussion on this? Mayor, you wanna let everybody know what's going on?

Yeah. Through the chair. So this is not gonna affect any, you know, any of the phone numbers or anything like that. It's still gonna be status quo for anybody calling into the city of Taylor. Eventually, this will change the call tree when somebody does call in, but it's just allowing us to streamline different departments moving forward going into the new budget.

Any other discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes.

Yes. All

opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. We're moving on to

the regular agenda, and I

didn't skip a page. So I'm doing good. Motion to amend CCR 6.22 dash 25 for Apollo, fire blanket purchase order increased in authority by 20,000 funded through the general fund fire department repair and maintenance account?

Motion.

Support. Motion by mister Clark. Supported by mister Wallace. Any discussion? Anything from the audience? Hearing none, all in favor say yes.

Yes. Yes. All

opposed, yeses have it. Motion carried. 6.2, motion to approve DTA leatherwork sole source to purchase custom leather suspenders suspenders for all members of as part of their uniforms and amount not to exceed $6,000 funded through the fire department, uniform account. Motion to approve. Support. Motion by mister Thomas. Supported by mister Armstrong. Any discussion? I'd to have

the chief come up, explain these suspenders, please, again, you did last night.

Good evening. Through the chair. Yes. So the reason that we're going to switch to leather suspenders is because the suspenders that we currently have with our turnout pants or the turnout gear that we use for structural firefighting or hazardous material stuff. We currently go through between one and one point five sets of those per year because the plastic on them wears out and breaks.

So those are $60 a piece. The $100 per set of leather straps will end up being a ten to fifteen year lifespan instead of me having to replace at the same price or a little bit more every year and a half, year, year and a half, the suspenders that they currently have on their turnout gear. So in the end, there's a little bit more upfront, but in the end, it's going to save us money down the road.

Are there any other cities in downriver that have these other suspenders?

I couldn't tell you who's got them downriver. They're very I don't want to say they're popular, but very standard nowadays.

So Thank

you. Mhmm. Any other discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. 6.3, motion to renew Police Academy one Police One Academy training and grant module through Lexpool LLC for cost not to exceed $7,610 funded through the general fund police Contractual Services.

Motion. Support.

Motion by mister Armstrong. Supported by mister Clark. Any discussion? Anything from the audience? Hearing none, all in favor say yes.

Yes. Yes.

All opposed, yeses have it. Motion carried. 6.4, motion to approve Pentaiak, Cover and Cobajac PC lowest qualified bidder for community development legal services. Amount not to exceed 185 an hour and authorize the mayor to sign the contract through the community development block grant account. Motion. Motion by mister Wallace. Support. Supported by mister Clark. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes.

Yes.

All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. 6.5, motion to approve setting the c CDBG public hearing for 05/05/2026 and 06/16/2026 to receive suggestions, proposals, ideas, comments from interested citizens and parties concerning the proposed use of department housing, HUD, community block grant funds for five year college colossal nation plan for a program year of '26 through '30 and the action plan for a program year twenty twenty six twenty twenty seven. Motion.

Support. Motion by mister Patz. Supported by mister Wallace. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes.

Yes. All

opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. 6.6, motion to approve second reading of case 26Dash3CZC8715 telegraphing. Ordinance to amend appendix a on the city of Taylor, Michigan code of ordinance regulating development of use of land for conditionally rezoning Parcel 6002799004 Dash 004 of the Southwest Section 9 T R S R 1 E, City Of Taylor, Wayne County, Michigan from B 3 general business to I one light industrial.

The property consists of 2.5 acres and is located between Telegraph between Wafau And Mary Street. May I get a motion? Motion. Support. Motion by mister Thidi. Supported by mister Armstrong. Any discussion?

Mister chairman? Yes, sir. As I stated at the last meeting on this item, I can appreciate that it's set back on Telegraph Road that it is occupying a vacant building that's been vacant for quite some time and that it's even a conditional rezoning. But it's it's against the the the the the the the the the the the that consists of nothing of this nature being a part of Telegraph Road. So I will be voting no on this one.

Any other discussion? Through the chair,

And

do

then we'll

there's nothing that can be done with this as far as it being industrial. It's been has a very specific use. So the danger of this is is zero. The people doing this have long contributed, the families have, to the city of Taylor in various places. And they've gone through a grueling thing to get this done. So I encourage you to think it's a good idea.

Any other discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes.

Yes.

All opposed? No. Roll call, please.

Mister Thede?

Yes.

Mister Thomas?

Votes no.

Mister Pat?

Yes.

Mister Clark?

Yes.

Mister Armstrong? Yes. Mister Wallace? Yes. Mister Johnson?

Yes. Six to one, motion carries. 6.7, motion to approve MI custom signs, low quote, for monument sign at the animal shelter in an amount not to exceed 46,548 funded through the act one seventy nine capital outlay outlay account. Motion. To approve. Support. Motion by mister Thomas. Supported by mister Pats. Any discussion?

May I have Sean come up, please, and explain these signs?

20

we'll And then we'll like, metal cutouts of a dog on one side and a cat on one side kinda perched up on the side of the side.

They're not ground level? Above?

The the cutouts of the animals?

Yes. Everything.

Half of that. That. And

And

Yeah. So

Okay. So I could pass this over to you. Do wanna see it?

Going

do that. That. Do So, this will more basically fit the new look of the shelter too and update it. You can put pictures of animals we have for adoption on their advertise events and everything else.

Thank you.

Yeah. Any other discussion?

To to

to sure do to And that. And sense of we'll to sense get a And what I know you've dealt with more of them than I have.

Through the chair, obviously, life expectancies vary, sunlight exposure. But line question

comes of

failing. You just become very static or left or right scrolling. But no reason we shouldn't get twelve, fifteen years out of this. But the monument itself should last forever if we keep up on the tuck point, the maintenance. And then at that point, we're just buying an updated digital board at some point that fits that footprint of what we have.

Are the ads just going to be for the shelter or is

it going to be I can't speak to that. I can tell you we use our citywide. So I would say we would use it for everything. We have a control system. Sean would have access to that, I'm sure as well. But we make sure that everything is proofed, double, triple checked, fits brand, meets the message, which we make sure of that. But this Board will also be executed and used, I'm sure, for city messaging as well.

Yes. So we could do that.

And And

And

And the

Okay. Any other discussion? You, Hearing And none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. We'll move on to 6.8. Motion to approve accepting signing an attached grant agreement between Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunities and the city of Taylor as detailed in an attached agreement.

Motion to approve,

mister chairman. Second.

Motion by mister Thomas, supported by mister Clark. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes.

Yes. Yes.

All opposed, yeses have it. Motion carried. 6.9, motion to approve attached special license application MLCC for twenty twenty six Taylor Festival. Motion. Motion by mister Wallace. Support. Supported by mister Pats.

Any discussion? Mister chairman, since we're kinda talking about the Taylor Summer Festival, Guido, if you'd mind coming up talking about we did have a unfortunate situation where we had a ban cancellation today that we had to make an announcement. If you just want to go over the details about how we're refunding tickets for that day and we're currently trying to lock down a ban right now.

Through the chair, yeah. Bad Flower, a rock band that we had booked and we had reassurances that come June, they would be good to go and there'd be no issues. Well, obviously, that some issues arose and the gentleman who's the lead singer had to pull out medical advice he received until the New Year, he cannot perform. So we have refunded everyone 100% as of today. All those refunds have been executed. If there's an issue or someone did not receive the refund, they know where to contact, to come, and we'll get them squared away. We are we've put an offer in on another band. We're hopeful to hear I sometimes I think I move fast, but I realize there's red tape to everything. We have offers into other bands. We're just waiting on confirmation.

We're not going to let the show go away. It's going to still happen, and we're going to have a good headliner stacked with Eva Under Fire, who's a very popular local rock band with a lot of good music. So Saturday night, we'll stay rock and roll, and we'll get it in place.

Through the chair, how many tickets were pre sold that you had to refund?

I do apologize. I didn't go into the portal this morning and execute that. My recreation staff did. We were in the thousands of dollars. I can tell you that. We were north of we were trending very well with that show, But but we're going to put it back together and it's going to that's going to trend well again.

Thank you.

Yes, sir. Sorry.

Through the chair, know, we apologize, but it's, you know, unfortunately, it's beyond our control. You know, we wish him all the best with his voice. And like Widow said, we have Eva under fire. They put on a great show last year and we're looking forward to it again. We can hope we can get another we think we got a pretty decent van lined up. It's kinda hard with short notice. A lot of vans are already booked. But we we we got a pretty decent band that we think we can get in here. But at the end of the day, we know Eva can can bring it home even if we don't. So we're looking forward to it, and it'll be a great night if we can get another band.

But if we can't, Eva, we know, can definitely drive a great show because we saw that last year. So and they are a local band, which is great. And they they are a national band, which is good.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Any other questions?

The chair, if I just I I know that Guido started last year on this project early last year for the intent of getting a great bands to perform for the festival and did have some great bands lined up. And unfortunately, you know, we're in the position now. We're only a couple months out that we're you know, we we don't have the band that we had under contract, actually. So it's unfortunate, but we don't we don't started the process very early to get the best bands in there.

Through the chair, we are being refunded 100%.

I'm not worried. We got Guido on it.

Oh, we got it? Alright. Alright. So, I already got it. So, which is good.

Okay. Any other questions or comments? That. Then then do that. Printing and mailing of early voting notification mailer in amount not to exceed 3,780 funded through the general fund clerk's office selection supplies. May I get a motion? Motion. Support. By mister Thomas. Support by mister Armstrong.

Mister Ron Didi.

Oh, supported by mister Thees. Motion by Ron Thees. Supported by mister Armstrong. Any discussion?

Adam Clerk, through the chair. Adam Clerk, explain this, please.

Sure. Mister chairman, this is a mailer that will go out to the voters announcing early voting. And, unfortunately, according to the law, we have to mail one to every voter, not just every household. So everyone will get the notice telling them what the hours are location. We are adding the Monday prior to the general election that is new. So we will not be doing it in August, but it'll be ten days of early voting in November instead of nine, and we'll have nine in August. And it'll still be here at City Hall.

So just so people realize, if you have five voters, you could get five at that address, and it's not the clerk's decision.

That is correct. I would much rather send one per household, but not yet. Maybe eventually.

City is not wasting money. It's what's required by the state law.

For the chair, will this one mailer cover both primary election and the regular election?

Yes.

Great.

Any

other discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. Yeses have it. Motion carried. 6.11, motion to approve postal services in amount not to exceed $12,000 funded through the general fund clerk's office election supplies. May I get a motion?

Motion. Support.

Motion by mister Wallace or mister Thomas. Supported by mister Wallace. Sir. Any discussion?

Mister chairman, this covers not only the mailing of the previous item, but also absentee ballots, absentee postcards. So there there are several things within this, not just the previous item I didn't but the previous item will probably cost around upwards of $8,000 to mail.

Issuing solicitor's permit for renewal by Anderson door to door solicitation for windows, doors, quotes through 04/21/2027.

Motion.

Motion by mister Wallace. Support. Supported by mister Thomas. Any discussion?

Mister chairman. While I understand these are not very popular, I am pleased that these companies, because there's another one on the agenda, took the initiative to apply for the permits. They put money and time into doing so, and so did my office as well. There were background checks of their employees. They should have a tag of who they are. They should wear it. If they're not wearing it, we need to know. But this is a very we get calls all the time. People are upset. People are knocking on their doors.

We do have the stickers, the no soliciting stickers. No. They don't always work. I had one on my door, previous house that I lived in, and I would point at it when I would open the door, and I would also ask them if they had their solicitor's permit, which most of the time I knew they didn't, but I would tell them they needed one. Anyways, with that being said, like I said, I'm just pleased that the they did take the initiative to get the proper met.

Thank you.

Caroline Pat, 6860 That was my question about the no solicitor sign. They're not supposed to go to those homes?

Yes. And they are told that when they pick up the information, it's stressed to them to pay attention to that. I know I've gotten complaints from people that it's kind of going off of what you're asking by the churches or girl scouts. Doesn't apply to them. They have churches have religious freedom just and when you're door knocking for politics, I highly recommend not doing it. But that's that's protected as well. Like, that's your freedom of speech. But I would never knock on a door that had a no soliciting sticker when I was out door knocking. I just don't think it's a great idea.

And if somebody wants a through the chair. Somebody wants a no soliciting sign, do they get it through the city? Yes.

Through my office. And if they're unable to come in, if if they call or if they send an email through the website, I'd be happy to put one in the mail for them.

Okay. And there has been times where someone's come up to my house too. They hadn't maybe a lanyard on, but I knew they didn't weren't approved by you guys yet. And just kindly, I mentioned it to them, and they were so far, haven't gotten anybody that's gotten irate. They said, well, my boss, you know, this is what I have. I said, no. You need to check and make sure. You have to have a signed a permit through the city. Oh, we didn't know that if that's how you do it in Taylor kind of thing. You know? So yeah. So I we've had that before, but I was curious about the no soliciting sign.

And I urge anyone if someone knocks on the door to they can call and check to see if they do have a permit. And if they do not, and it's a a well known company, my office would be more than happy to reach out to them. We've done that before. I brought in flyers before they were left on my door, and I've reached out to the companies and said, hey, you need to pull a permit for this. You can't just knock on someone's door.

Through the chair. Is there a penalty for people who solicit without going through this process?

I don't know what exactly what's in the ordinance, but I can look into that. But I'm you know, I know that when we do receive calls, if someone's in the neighborhood and they're harassing, we have sent police out before. And or or ordinance depending on the time of day. Okay. It's on the weekends usually. You know what? It it's a more difficult situation. But I don't know other than just telling them that they have to apply for the permit that I've ever really got given anyone a ticket or anything like that. I guess if they become harassing, then that's a different situation. We did have Kirby vacuum years ago that we had to we we revoked there.

That's when I first became clerk because they were being very irate and they would not I had them in my house. They wouldn't leave until my husband came home and told them they better get out of my house. They would not listen to me. So, yes, I they're I don't know what the actual penalty is, but they've been told to leave the neighborhoods. Okay. I can't tell you if anyone's ever been arrested. That's kind of

That's what

I'm beyond me. Yeah.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes.

Yes. Yes.

All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. Six thirteen, motion to approve Sessler permit for home gene home genius exteriors for door to door solicitation for roof inspections through 04/21/2027. Motion by mister Clark. Support. Supported by mister Wallace. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. Yeses have it. Motion carried. Six fourteen, motion to receive a file March 2026 budget performance report. Motion. Support.

Mister Thomas, supported by mister Armstrong or mister Batts. Discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. Yeses have it. Motion carried. 6.16. Motion to 15. 15. 15. Oh, I I did. I flipped flipped the paper. Darn. Motion to receive and file the March 2026 paid invoice reports.

Motion. Support.

Motion by mister Thomas. Mister Thede. Supported by mister Wallace. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes.

Yes.

Yeses have it. Motion carried. Six sixteen. Motion to approve to direct corporate counsel to draft a ballot proposal to amend the city of Taylor charter chapter 15, section 15.2, and section 15.3, and section 15.4.

May I

get a motion? Motion. Support. Motion by mister Clark, supported by mister Thomas. Discussion.

Through the chair, for the benefit of the people that don't have the charter in front of them, every so often, the original charter had fixed dollars amounts dollar amounts for certain things. And the last time it was updated was in 1997. So this is not the council making the decision. This is the council putting together a proposal to make a change, and it will be the people who decide. If we agree to get it on the ballot, then the at the November? At the November election, people will decide whether they want this change too.

Any other discussion?

I'm waiting on your call,

residents. Oh, oh. You got discussion on this?

Yes. Nick Demetrachina. 84 9482 Morton View Drive. Dan, you mister to the chair, mister Wallace, you'd mentioned that the residents could look at the charter. I pulled up the electronic version just to figure out what was going on here.

Yes.

And we go from on the electronic version, we go from 14 community development to chapter 16 elections. There is no online to the city's website, a chapter 15.

No. I've got them. I'm so sorry to through the chair. I've got it in my computer. Something's wrong with the link.

I just pulled it up the went to city council, clicked on the the charter or link, and it's not here.

Would you like to know what it says?

No. I'm just I was just letting you know that the electronic version, it's not there. You may have a print version, and it's there. But the electronic version online through the city's website is not Thank you.

Through What's

We'll look into it.

Yeah. We'll look into it. There might be another path I'm not aware of. I go to the the off-site one that has all of our ordinances on it. And then in there, the very first thing is a link to the full charter. Okay. But thank you for letting us know. We will find out.

After the meeting, I'll show you what I did.

Thank you.

Any other discussion? Yep. Through the chair. Mister Armstrong?

Yep.

I I appreciate the intent behind the proposal. We all want a more efficient government. And I recognize the argument that, you know, this gives it to the vote to the voters. But our responsibility as council is not just to place matters on the ballot. It's to ensure that we send forward a fully vetted and clearly understood proposal that's worthy of public support. I think that it's it's been rushed. We we we're trying to meet a deadline of the first. And I think we should put something, you know, a little bit, you know, we need to put something forth forward that's got a little bit more thought to it. I think this has been rushed. We've got a deadline.

And I think it's it's it's our first year in. And I think that a charter revision can wait. So I can't support it as is right now.

Through the chair. As it was stated last night, there is provision in the charter to amend the charter, and we're following that. And this tonight is just directing our corporation council to draft a ballot proposal with the language that would be before the voters?

Real quick. Also, court council is gonna put something together that would that the residents will understand and be detailed. So I I don't think it was rushed at all. We've talked about this a couple times. I think it was brought up the first or second meeting that we had. So I don't think it was rushed. And, it's the residents that will make the decision. Any other discussion?

To the chair, if I may. Just to remind counsel, we did discuss this last night, but to to vote to approve me drafting this tonight is simply that. It doesn't mean it will be on the ballot if you approve this tonight. It will have to come back to you with a resolution, which at that point, the council will vote on whether it goes on the ballot or not. Approving it tonight does not mean it goes on the ballot.

Through the chair through the chair, we corporate council, we we have a deadline, though, of the next meeting. That's that is the deadline to get it on the ballot. Correct?

Yeah. Yes.

Any other discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? No. Roll call, please.

Mister Thede? No. Mister Thomas? Yes. Mister Pat?

Yes.

Mister Clark? Yes. Mister Armstrong? No. Mister Wallace? Yes. Mister Johnson?

Yes. Motion carries five to two. We're in the open business. I will go to audience first.

Again, Caroline Pat, 6860 Jackson. Just wanna let you all know that we have our money for our log cabin. Funding has come in. It's been put in our bank. The check is going out. It actually went to the post office this afternoon to pay for the work that has been done.

That leaves a question for me. Do we get our money for lead?

Yes.

Through the chair, it's it's kinda pay as you go at this portion, but, yes, it's it's been allocated.

Good. Okay. Sir?

Yes, sir. My name is Jonathan Hales. I have never done this before, I'm autistic, so I'm really nervous. I apologize. Did not even come here today. I did not know this was going on. I came here to do a police report on a pedophile, and the church, Beacon Baptist and Taylor, off a north line, pastor Riley was John Riley. Pastor John Riley, months ago this happened when I was a little kid when I was 12

Mister chairman, I don't know if this is the proper place. To do a police report. The chief's

right there.

I just wanna put this out here.

So mister chairman, this is mister chairman, this is not the place. No, sir. This is not the place to do this.

We we understand

you're Sir, we're sympathetic, but

you need to go talk to the police. Alright. I just come come more issues. Yes, sir. Please. All good. Please. Thank you.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you, chief.

I'm sorry.

Oh, you're open. It's alright. You're good. Sorry.

Yes, sir. Nicki Magistuna. 9482 Morgan View Drive. Through the chair, all elected officials, residents of Taylor, residents of the surrounding community, I'd like to formally invite you all to join us this Saturday at the Ford Senior Center from eight to 12PM 8AM to 12PM for the annual pancake breakfast in support of the Taylor Veterans Museum. It's one of our largest fundraisers of the year, and we'd appreciate if you all could come out, bring your friends and family, and spread the word. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you, Nick.

Mister chairman, what what time did it

$10.

PM. It is twelve. I'm sorry. The cost is $10.

Real quick, mister mayor. Do we know if we're having our part time cook there?

Through the chair? I will check with him. I I forgot I forgot to ask him. So I'll

I got a chair ready

for I'm sure, you know, as long as you got a chair or something ready for him, he'll be good to go. But he's a basic guy. I'll double check with

him. Yeah.

He he needs some test ones first. Yes, sir.

Eric Hall, 9555 Holland. I was looking through some news feeds, and I've seen that Taylor Police Department stepped up big a couple weeks ago with one of the biggest drug busts with fentanyl around here. Says they traveled over 1,300 miles to get here, and the Taylor Police Department along with DEA and Michigan State Police apprehended them here in Taylor with over 20,000 pills of fentanyl. I was just wondering maybe if the chief can come up and elaborate on it a little bit and let us know where that's at.

Mister chairman, I'm glad you actually touched on that because I got it written on my notes, and I'm glad the chief's coming down to talk about that because I didn't realize that it became a national news. But, yeah, let's chief, please talk about that, and then I wanna touch on that when you're done.

Oh, good. Good evening, mister chairman, city council, mister mayor. Yes. I appreciate that. Thank you.

Yeah. We were part of a group working with the Michigan State Police Metro Narcotics Enforcement Team, the Detroit DEA field office, and we ran staying on two individuals that traveled from over 1,300 miles to deliver over 3,000 grams, which were over 28,000 pills of fentanyl, very dangerous stuff that could kill 3,000,000 citizens here in our country. So both of them were successfully taken into custody and charged. They're facing over twenty year felony charges for their narcotics, possession with intent to deliver. I can report that one of them was an illegal alien.

The second one was here on an expired visa. The, obviously, being a federal agency, contacted the border patrol, and there's detainers on those two. So it's a continuing effort by our department to try to stop this illicit activity. I know that gentleman started talking about some of the pedophile stuff. Well, we're working on that as well, and I think you're gonna see we're gonna be very proactive with the equipment you've given us to stem this tide of craziness. So, if you guys have any particular questions or anything else you want answered on that, I can answer what I can for you.

Thank you, chief.

Thank you, chief.

Thank you. You. Mr. Chairman, I'd just like to point out, first of all, you know, I congratulate you guys when I got the email on it regarding it. It's it's incredible. But this is also just just a wake up call of that many pills of fentanyl. Like you said, it killed what? Three million people Yeah. You And it's coming into our community. And this stuff is being found more and more in other recreational drugs. So everybody needs to kinda be more and more careful about what's going on. This stuff is showing up and stuff more and more. And the thing is is fentanyl ain't even the the most powerful drug anymore. Now they're making stuff even stronger than this stuff. And and it's really scaring me.

You know, this when I saw this bust, it really freaked me out because and now this is stuff is coming in more and more. So everybody really, really needs to be cautious about what they're taking in and, you know, it's it's getting scarier out there. And the strength of these drugs are just it's unbelievable. And, you know, when when they're handling this, our officers have to be very, very conscious and careful about handling this stuff because it can really send them in a situation, you know. And kudos to you and your team, as I said before, and the DEA and everybody working together.

And it just goes to show you that we work with other organizations. Yeah. People talk about ICE, but we work with countless other organizations to help make Taylor safe as possible.

Not only not only that.

Kudos to your team. You know, all the

all the stuff that we're we're supplying them, the drones

and Yes.

You know, it's it all Absolutely. It all It all helps. Yeah.

I can tell you the drones were instrumental in this takedown. They watched the individuals come into the there was in a parking lot that the delivery occurred at, and we watched them come in and they were tracked above. They did take off running, very, very short foot pursuit. But with the drone there, there was nowhere for them to go. So, yeah, we're utilizing that equipment in any of these cases.

And, mister chairman, there's, you know, like we've even pointed out before with other type of stings we've done, we can, you know, we have people coming in from other areas. We can use flock the flock cameras to to ping them on their way in, you know. So our technology has gone a long way in assisting us to help catch these these people doing this stuff. So I I'm very appreciative to the the police department as well as council passing these things to help make Taylor as safe as possible. And it's and it shows it's working.

Also, I'd like to ask the chief, we keep hearing about ICE this, ICE that, how our police officers are just going to go out and be ICE officers when ICE comes in. Chief, has any of our officers went on a mission with ICE and performed as ICE officers?

No. And that's against your agreement.

Is that correct, chief?

That's that's against your agreement. Correct? That's against your agreement.

We have not done any operations with ICE.

But you that's part of your agreement?

Well, the agreement was to receive training to be able to do that, but we have not joined them nor have they asked us to join any operations. Again, what I told counsel council prior to this, we will assist all law enforcement agencies, local, state, and federal, in their efforts to promote a safe community. We would be silly to not do that. HSI was in my building today. I can't disclose that operation. The FBI is meeting with me tomorrow at 02:00. I cannot disclose that one to you as well. The federal agencies are in our department. It's not about illegal immigrants. These are other, many bigger operations that are out there.

They are tremendous partners of ours. You'll probably see them at our summer festival helping us out in our car crews at no cost to the taxpayers in the city. So those cooperations the cooperation we have and the agreements we have to work with them are are so vital to keeping the city safe. And again, at no cost to the city of Taylor and the taxpayers. Thank you, sir.

And we did turn them to over to ICE this time. Right? So our number is up to two for that last ninety days now, or was there one more?

Just to clarify, they're facing extreme criminal charges over twenty year felonies. There are detainers that were placed on them. That doesn't have anything to do with us, mind you, but they would, after they serve their term, if they're to be convicted, there would be a detainer waiting for them to be deported. But that's, again, has nothing to do with the city of Taylor. But with For DE. This possession attempt to deliver, it's gonna be a long time before any of

us are worried about that. Okay. Anything else from the audience and open business?

I have a public

comment. Okay.

Good evening. Ed Swanson, owner of Asphalt, pled guilty in federal court to bid rigging municipal construction contracts. Mayor Willie should explain to the public as to why he continues to knowingly accept campaign cash from a convicted felon and crook.

Anything else? Through the chair. I would like to make to make a motion to approve to direct corporation counsel to draft a ballot proposal to amend the city of Taylor charter chapter five, section 5.2.

Motion. I support.

Through the chair. Strong

strong

Board. The Board.

We

says weekly. Well, people some people get paid biweekly. Some people get paid semimonthly or whatever. It's just to go through and clean that up to make sure that however we are paying people in the city meets the requirements of the charter.

Okay. Motion by mister Thomas, supported by

It was by Dan Wallace, supported

by Joe Wallace.

That's what I said. Any discussion? All in favor? Say yes.

Yes. All

opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. Any other open business from the council? Through

the chair, I'd like to give some kudos out to our DPW for after the storm last week. There was some a lot of damaged trees that were down. Few of our friends commented on it, and they had the tree crew out there and they saved the house probably that that I was looking at. So kudos out to the DPW for their fine work that they did last week. Also, to the fire department.

Right after the the the warning and everything, the sirens and everything got safe again, we had a problem on Jackson Street, and they were just right on the ball. They were right there, right immediately, where we had a downed tree that went against the wire and it caused a fire, a spark, and it went about at least a 100 yards probably. But they saved a lot of people some money, and I was glad for their action. Thank you so much. Thank you. Madam clerk.

Just a couple announcements. This Saturday, April 25, I'll be hosting a cemetery cleanup at Golden Ridge Cemetery. So after you go to the Veterans Museum and have your pancakes, Golden Ridge off of Goddard's on oh my god. McKinley. Sorry. My brain just went blank. Golden Ridge off of McKinley, South of Goddard, 10:10AM to 12PM. And then we're gonna move from there to Oakdale, which is on Telegraph, just South of Eureka around 12:30. I have to, unfortunately, leave there by one because I, my niece's baby shower is Saturday. But it'll start there around 12:30 on Oakdale.

And then on Saturday, May 2, we're going to do Oak Grove, which is a cemetery on Burr Street off of Van Born from 10AM to 12PM. Also, one more quick thing, we had shred day a few weeks ago, and it was insanely busy. I wanna thank the DPW, the Taylor rotary, my staff, anyone that stopped by and helped. I really had a great turnout. I was really, really pleased.

The next one will be Saturday, September 19 from 10AM to 1PM, and it's right here in the parking lot in front of City Hall, kind of down closer to the court. But I will stress to everyone, the longest line is from the beginning until about 11AM. So from ten to eleven, continue a line. After eleven, between eleven and the time it's done, pull right in and go right through. So everybody likes to come and be first. And I understand that too because I like to get things done too. That's it. Thank you.

Any other open business from the council?

Mister chairman? That. That. We

that's And

is only

I course, I get, when is my road gonna get done? You know,

I warned you. I know.

So I just wanted to say that if we had all the money in the world, we could do every single road all in one season and we get complaints about the city being one big construction zone. But we only have so much money to do so many roads per year, and I I don't even know how many roads, mayor, that we you do in the last four years. A lot. A lot. Lot of roads.

Through the chair, it's it's been a record from what I was told, and I'm very happy about that. And we continue to do as many as we can with the amount of money we have. And this year, we got a little bit of extra money with the way they've done the, you know, the budget at the state level. But, you know, it's still not a ton, you know, and everything's gone up in price and stuff, but we're gonna continue to knock out more. We're finishing we're starting right now to finish the budget year in the spring. And then actually me, Ralph, and Chris are gonna sit down and start going over the roads that we're gonna do for budget year 2027.

So So just so you know that it your road is horrible. We know about it. We have pacer ratings. We have pacer maps in the council offices. We know exactly what roads are in the worst condition, and we're gonna get to you. So just rest assured that we're gonna get to you.

Okay. I have one question for the administration. I've got a couple complaints, well, more than a couple, about that darn train on Beach Daily. Is there a phone number that we can call as residents to keep complaining? So I I'll have

to get it. There was one that I had, and I'll have to look for it again. I've We

posted it on the website?

So yeah. I mean, trust me. I've I've gone all the way up the ladder. I've called the county. I've called, you know, our mister Tanadar or Tanadar, whatever it is. Is a federal it's federal jurisdiction, you know, and, you know yeah. Mister Blair, come on down. Or chief Blair, I should say. I actually tried to get chief Blair to send somebody over and write a ticket to the the driver of the train at party just north of E Course. And that's when I was told we couldn't do that because I'm tired of it. I you know, and I live on Champaign. And when that's blocking Beach Daily, we got traffic coming down Champaign nonstop.

We we can do it. It might not get paid,

but we

can do it.

You know? But it's it's just do you have any recommendations?

Yeah. I would just call the police. We have a direct line. We can call them to find out what's going on. If there's something that happened Mhmm. It's blocking for a long period of time, so we could post that on the website. We could get the code red alert basically out so everybody know. Is it Yeah. You can contact us.

It blocked Beach Daily for a good fourteen, sixteen hours. Think it was last weekend on Saturday.

So real quick. We don't want them to call 911. We want them call.

Correct. The general police number

Okay.

Would be fine to call and report that there's been a train blocking. We'd like a start time preferably. And, yeah, we can contact and find out what's going on. Sometimes things break down. There's nothing anyone can do about that. But if it becomes habitual, it's a problem.

It's it's habitual. It's clearly habitual. I think it's either the conductor is running out of hours and has to sleep or they're waiting on a switch over somewhere. It's I'm tired of the excuses we've been given. Oh, they're working on something somewhere. It's it's nonsense. And I don't know what's going on, and nobody will give us an honest answer, but it's it's ridiculous. And it's, you know, what they deal with over in Woodhaven and they're putting that it used to be if they blocked an intersection, every twenty minutes they had to pay a fine. They lifted that, you know, years ago. And now they're just taking advantage of it because nothing's happening.

And and I'm tired of it. Thank god we have a fire department on E Course Road to be able to address the North End. And then we have one here and then on the South End. So Because it'd be a nightmare.

So that that non emergency number Mhmm. Is 734287. 287-6611. Mhmm. Thanks, chief. Okay. Thank you. Any any other open business?

Mister chairman, I'd just like to touch on what, councilman Patz was saying regarding the DPW and the fire department. When we do have those, lines that go down and stuff, the fire department also real relies on our CERT team to go out there and stand by those lines when they're down and stuff. So I wanna give kudos to them as well when they're out there

and stuff like that. So Thank you.

Didn't wanna forget them and give them a shout out as well.

If there's nothing else, may I get a motion?

Motion to adjourn.

Support. Motion by mister Wallace. Supported by mister Thomas. All in favor say yes. Yes. Yeses have it. Motion carried. Thank you, everybody. Enjoy your evening. Be safe. It's gonna be a beautiful day tomorrow.

See you. You're Thank

you.