I am now calling to order a meeting
of City Council Tuesday,
August 13th, 2024 at 7:00 PM Please
stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge all allegiance. Pledge All allegiance to the flag
of the United, United States of America
to the Republic, which it stands.
One Nation, nation, under indivisible. With liberty.
With liberty and justice for all.
Roll call Madam Secretary, president Rogan. Here.
Councilman or Councilwoman McGee? Here. Councilman Dwyer?
Here. Councilman Bokey. Present. Councilman Nunan? Here.
Councilman Lafferty. Here. Councilwoman Moore is present.
We have a quorum. Uh, next item. Next item.
Adoption of the agenda. So moved. Support Lafferty.
Uh, point of order. Consent agenda.
Adoption of consent Agenda. Oh, I thought you said agenda.
Sorry about that. If I did. I apologize.
Uh, move motion by Moore
and support by Lafferty.
Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Uh, any discussion?
Okay, Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr.
Bokey? Yes. Uh, Ms. McGee? Yes. Mr. Nunan? Yes.
Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is adoption of the agenda.
So moved with discussion support, Lafferty.
Discussion, uh, Madam Secretary. Thank you.
Um, the first item, um, to be added is,
uh, under 12 D
Greenstone extension of their license.
Greenstone Metro as 12 E
Is the Bates settlement as 13
EI am adding an item to discuss, uh,
electric vehicle charging.
I think that's it. Did I miss anything? Ms. Camp? Thank you.
That's it. Any additional discussion?
Okay. Hearing none, I will call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes.
Mr. Nunan? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes.
Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is calendar pending matters.
Motion to receive and file with discussion. Support Ty.
Discussion Madam Secretary. Thank you.
Um, we did receive, um, uh, under the meeting date
of 6 25 outside legal contracts, agreements.
Agreements. Um,
I did notice some discrepancies in what the agreement were
for fees and what we're being charged now.
So I think we need to look at that.
I know we have have some RFPs coming up for legal services
and maybe we can, um, discuss that at that time.
Um, we, um, had asked for a list
of all vacant positions, both union and non-Union
and report from the Pride event
and some other information was requested at that time.
We are planning to have a, uh,
committee meeting the whole next week on Tuesday to discuss
number one rentals
and discuss who has the authority to waive fees
and all those kind of things.
And, um, some of the things that have come up
and the procedure that will be followed
and who can waive fees
and reduce them and all that kind of thing.
Hopefully we'll have those documents by then.
I know that the, um, city attorney's office is working on
that and it's just a matter of time.
They have been trying to gather those documents.
I understand that. Um, we're also going to, um, add an item
to that, uh, committee meeting, the whole to with, uh,
human resources.
We have some questions there.
Um, and, um, so hopefully we'll have those documents
by Tuesday and we can discuss, um, those items.
But we will take off that 6 25, 20 24
because we did get those documents.
Thank you. Any additional secretary discussion? Mr. Bokey?
Madam Secretary, have we received anything about the
vacancies in the city?
We have not. Um, but that is one of the items
for discussion at the committee meeting.
The whole
Couple meetings ago, uh, actually probably two months ago,
I requested all the, uh, how many vac vacancies
for each department in the city.
Uh, the time elapsed, uh, they were supposed
to respond in 10 days.
They didn't respond.
It was brought up at the last council meeting
and we redirected a letter, be sent to the city asking
for that information.
We did not receive it.
Now, here comes the tough part, um, talking to employees.
I'm finding out that we're almost 30 police officers.
Shorts. Unreal.
Uh, it's getting to where it's gonna be, uh, a health
and safety risk for our citizens
and to the police officers working.
If they can't hire 'em at hr, my suggestion is to return it
to the police department and let them do the hiring.
HR is short people, I don't know how many
'cause they don't tell us, uh,
we're short in every department,
but there're almost 30 police officers
that's born in a shift.
That's, that's unbelievable.
Um, I, I probably could ask for about the amount of overtime
that we're spending for these police officers working,
and you'd be surprised by the amount.
Uh, I would like to direct a question to Mr. Schroeder for,
for future reference of what we could do on this matter,
Mr. Schroeder, Through the, through the chair.
Uh, Councilman Bokey.
Um, with respect to this question, um, you know,
generally there's separation
of powers between the mayor and council.
The council passes the budget
and approves the number of positions,
and then the administration does the hiring.
Whoever the charter does provide
that the council can from time to time by ordinance,
prescribe how the administration conducts its affairs.
So perhaps we can look into a possible
ordinance solution to this.
I'd like to do the research
before we, you know, come to a final conclusion.
But that's where my thought process goes.
If in terms of what the council can do. Thank you.
I I understand that. I appreciate that.
Uh, it's also our job as a council,
we budgeted those positions so you're not being filled.
Um, whether the administration does something different,
you know, spends the money different,
they have to notify us.
That's, we're the oversight.
And I believe this is an oversight that we should be aware
of and do something about, uh,
fellow council people, councilmen
and women here, they roll with the police officers.
They know what it's like to be in a car
and it doesn't get any easier from them.
They, they had an easy ride that day,
but they saw what the pressure they're under.
And, uh, we had the BB guns with the windows the other day.
Were there enough cars out there?
I don't know, you know,
but I, I've appreciate your assistance in that matter.
Um, thank you Madam Chair. Mr.
Shorter, if we could just to keep with our procedures,
entertain a motion and support,
and then I can bring the research back
for the next meeting. So
Moved. Support
Lafferty. Uh, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye.
Thank you. Uh, any opposed? No. Okay. Motion carried?
No. Uh, no. Okay. Uh, all right.
We're returning back to the motion for the calendar.
Madam Chair. Ms. Moore, just to piggyback on what Mr.
Bokey was saying, we do receive, um, uh,
quarterly expenditure and revenue reports,
but we don't get payroll reports.
So we don't know
how many people are being paid out of each department.
And as part of budget oversight, we are certainly entitled
to see what money is being spent on
for employees and what's not.
So how much money is left?
Because as you know, we didn't quite get straight answers
during the budget time of
how many positions were everywhere,
and I know it was kind of
a little ambi ambiguous on what was going on.
So I, I certainly agree with your request. Thank you.
Through the chair. Mr. Dwyer,
Just to follow up, um, with, uh, Councilman Bokey.
Yes. Um, being shorthanded as much
as we are not only creates officer safety issues
because now that they have less officers responding
to situations, but we're also running into a situation
where response times are gonna become longer.
So now we're jeopardizing the safety
and the welfare of our residents,
and that's uncalled for when we have these positions
approved as far as staffing
and the money is there to cover this.
And as far as the slow way of going through HR
and filling these positions, I concur that we should go back
to the police department and have them be in charge
of the hiring process, and I think it'll move much quicker.
Thank you.
Anything else regarding the calendar
of pen pending matters?
Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.
Next item. Next item is seven a approval of the minutes
of the special, uh, meeting of July 25th, 2024.
So moved. Support Lafferty. Discussion.
Hearing none? I'll call the question. Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr.
Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan?
Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan says yes. Motion carries.
Next item. Next item is seven B.
Approval of the minutes of the special meeting
of August 8th, 2024. So moved.
Support dw. Any discussion?
Hearing none? I will call the question. Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr.
Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nun? Yes.
Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C as a? Yes. Motion carries.
Next item. Uh, next item is eight.
A approval of the bills of the General Revenue Fund.
Um, so moved with discussion support Lafferty
with discussion, uh, discussion Secretary Moore?
Actually, um, I had a question. I see Ms.
Um, Tari Ross is in the audience. Just a quick question.
Um, sorry, I know you're not prepared for this,
but I was looking at the, um,
court appointed attorneys
and one of the bills for one of the attorneys is like
20 times higher than all of the rest.
Is that somebody that just didn't get around
to their bookkeeping in their office?
You know, historically, that would be my guess.
Um, we, the court no longer due to the MIDC
and standard five, the court is no longer involved in the
appointment process of the attorney.
So it's run through the M-M-I-D-C.
So we're, we're not, um, involved
with the oversight of that.
It's the Mi Michigan Indigenous Defense Council.
But historically that's what happened
because is they let 'em gather
and then they turned 'em in at one time.
Okay. 'cause there was, you know, some, it's 500,000.
This one was 22,000
and I've never seen one that high before.
Yeah. So I assume it's just a bookkeeping.
We didn't have an, uh, I just wanna make sure that,
that we're following our procedure of having fair
and equitable dis
What we'll do distribution.
I will contact the IDC coordinator
and, um, have them report back to counsel regarding that
Question. I mean, there's a lot of, there
are a lot of,
but I, the high, there's lot of line items.
I just thought that was found curious that Yeah,
We can, well, we'll make sure that, um,
that question has responded to. Okay.
Thanks. Thank you Very much. Sure. Okay.
Discussion Mr. Lafferty. Thank
You. I'd like
to separate check number 6 7 0 3 3 8
payable to Michael Lafferty.
Uh, he is my brother.
Uh, this is payment for, uh,
he is a performer in the Jay Gilles tribute band.
And so I wanted to separate myself
and recuse myself from voting on
that item as he's my brother.
Thank you. And a very talented brother.
Thank you. Mr. Lafferty.
Is that there's one of them that are Mr. Shorter?
Is that necessary?
Uh, yeah, I think it's necessary.
Improper under the circumstances,
although he shouldn't be influencing the
council and how to vote on him.
Thank you. I said he was talented,
He thought That's right.
So the first motion is, uh, Ms. Moore and second by Mr.
Lafferty, which is to approve the balance of the bills.
And then we will motion to excuse Mr.
Lafferty from voting on. Thank you.
Check number 6 7 0 3 3 8. Support.
Anyone Support, uh, support my, uh, Ms. McGee.
All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Motion.
Motion to approve Check number 6 7 0 3 3 8.
Support. Anyone support where? Okay. Let's see.
Uh, Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey?
Yes. Mr. Nunan? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes.
Check is approved. Return
to the original motion on the bills.
Any other discussion on the bills?
Okay. Uh, hearing none? I will call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr.
Newnan? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes.
Motion carries. Next item. Uh, next item is nine.
Audience participation for agenda items only
Point. Point of order water
and
Sewer bills. I'm sorry.
Approval of the bills
of the water and sewer system.
So moved. Support Dwyer, uh, support Dwyer. Discussion.
Hearing none, I will call the question. Ms. Moore? Yes. Ms.
Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes.
Ms. McGee? Yes. Mr. Nunan? Yes. Rogan C is a yes.
Motion carries.
Next item nine, audience participation
for agenda items only.
Thank you. Uh, good evening everyone.
Members of the audience who would like
to address city council this evening may do so
by filling out an uh, form, uh,
located at the right side of the stage.
This is a reminder per our rules,
council rules and procedures.
You must write your name and address on the audience form,
or give your full name and address at the podium.
You have three minutes. There is a monitor up here
that will, uh, countdown, uh, the time
that you have remaining.
This audience is for agenda items only.
There is additional time at the end of the meeting
for general audience topics related to city business.
Uh, first up is
Angelica Olo.
Good evening counsel. I'm here to, um,
extend the conversation on the flooding
that occurred on Friday.
Is this part of the agenda or
do I need to wait till afterwards? No,
We have it on the agenda.
Okay. Thank you. On Friday, August 2nd, we woke up
to the severe assault in the basement.
The entire floor was blanketed by wet, rusty black sand,
the aftermath of another flood that morning.
As soon as city hall opened, I called Mayor Stone's office
to inform her and ask why this is happening again.
To my surprise, she was not available.
I left a message for a call back on Friday, Monday,
Tuesday, and so on.
I'm still waiting for that return phone call.
This is unacceptable to me.
Um, whatever your opinion of the previous mayor was,
he had the decency to return a taxpayer's phone call.
There's not enough time today to list all the, uh,
irreplaceable, costly items that have been lost
yet again in another basement
flooding in the city of Warren.
The big ticket item this time was an SUV
parked in front of the property.
Class action suits have not motivated
or compelled all parties involved in this city to fix
or attempt to alleviate this problem.
It's left to the victimized homeowner.
Despite all the expensive water prevention upgrades
to this property, the water encroachment
and, uh, the invasion that is taken, uh,
through the basement drains is, uh, a silent attack.
The emotional and mental stress
that occurs when the clouds come rolling in is,
um, indescribable.
If you are not home, there's a rush to get back,
run downstairs and check the basement.
This is how your citizens live.
I certainly hope this doesn't fall in deaf ears.
My hope today is that, uh, this motivates you, uh,
to make a, um, committee to discuss the next step.
My first step was phone calls to all departments associated
with the city mayor's office,
councilman in my district water and Engineering Department.
At this time, I would like to thank Councilman Gary Bokey
for taking the time to return my call in assisting with, uh,
an issue also for putting me in touch with David Elli
and Keith Soff.
These gentlemen discussed a problem with me
and I was able to set up a street evaluation
and ask to have DPW scheduled
to jet out the sewer on the street.
If I can do this with just a few phone calls, imagine
what you can accomplish
with all the resources you have at hand.
Why am I taking time outta my day to do your job?
My second step is standing here speaking to all of you.
The repeated response when something like this happens is
the infrastructure is old.
Yes, it is. And it gets older every year.
It's time to update.
I encourage all departments across the board
to do their job and fix this.
Keep the taxpayer's basement dry. Should be priority one.
Thank you very much. Thank
You.
Next is Chris Stefan.
Uh, yes. Us two also.
We were flooded on the morning of August the second, uh,
the water had rose up
to about the first step of our basement.
Um, it went into our furnace.
It went into our hot water tank.
Uh, we now have a washing machine that does not work.
Um, I came here last week when you guys were talking about
with the pool being fixed,
and there was something that was said during that time that,
uh, they were worried about
the police station basement re flooding.
But the answer came back saying, they checked into it,
they resolved the issue, and it will never happen again.
And then you went ahead to spend lots of more money
on the city pool here, which I think is a nice thing.
But still, it was like within one week,
you guys have got instant action on this being done.
We've lived there 35 years,
and in the 35 years we've experienced 13 floods.
And in those 13 floods,
we have gone from a completely finished basement
to just bare cement walls.
Why can't anybody come out and evaluate our street
and resolve the issue on our street?
It isn't just us.
My wife and another neighbor went
around looking at the corner of Bonnie and Herbert.
There were 15 neighbors this last time
that took water in on their basement.
So it isn't just me, it's my street.
And the end of the street on Bonnie.
Um, at the end of last meeting, uh, director
of water division come up
and introduced himself to me, took my address
and everything, and him, just like the people
that we talked on the phone, never called back.
And I had told him, I says,
we have approximately 16 restaurants in the Hoover 11 Mall
and everything, and we're talking a lot of grease
that gets built up into the sewer system.
All it needs to be is done, is being jetted.
His answer to me was, well, we can only do so much
because Macomb County is worried about habitat.
My answer to that is,
you're more worried about a frog than a turd in my basement.
Why can't anything be done?
Aren't we more, aren't we important?
We're the one that pays everybody's salaries here.
We're the ones that vote you people in.
Why can't anything be done? Thank you.
Just as, uh, as a reminder
or for folks who are here about flooding, I know Mr.
Lafferty has, uh, prepared a pretty robust presentation
that he'll be giving, uh, later on in the agenda.
So if you are here, I would suggest sticking around for him
to share that information.
Additionally, the lights are incredibly bright this evening
up here, so if folks aren't staring directly at you, it's
because the lights are very, very bright up here.
Uh, okay, next is Jota Mann Durino.
Good evening counsel. Uh, jota Manino,
1 4 1 3 2 Edison Drive.
First I'd like to thank an I call her Angie Angelica.
She did a very good job and she's been our
spokesperson for our neighborhood.
We appreciate her. Uh, again, I'd like to discuss the,
uh, neighborhood flooding.
I purchased my home June 27th, 2011.
My first flood was November 20,
November 30th, 2011.
I had eight inches of water, $11,500 worth of damage.
My second flood was September 4th, 2012.
I didn't file an insurance claim on that one.
There wasn't that much wa da water, but still had a cleanup.
Third flood, August 11th, 2014, $10,000 worth of damage.
Then I installed a sum pump. It was like $3,500.
Fourth flood, August 1st, 2024.
The sump, sump pump could not keep up with the water.
There was still water in the basement.
Again, all the neighbors near us had things out
to be picked up, water in their basements.
August 5th, that Monday, the streets flooded again.
No water in the basement. I made a phone call to the mayor.
From now on, I'm calling the mayor.
Anytime there's water on the streets that
that look like it's gonna flood, I'm calling
All the flooding in the basements consist
of steward sewage water from the drains.
My house is located at the T for Edison and Blossom.
We get that flood, flood being water all the time.
I don't know what's going on there,
but I'm telling you something's wrong.
I'm tired of this.
And so is the neighborhood what's going to be done about it.
We would like results. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Next is Mary Meki.
Gosh, this is my old stomping grounds.
Good evening counsel. I wanna address agenda item 13 B
tonight regarding the Charter Amendment on last week's
ballot proposal entitled Citizen Representative
on Election Commission Section 7.6, 13 point 11,
and 13 point 12.
The proposal passed by about 3000 votes.
10,281 yes votes,
7,288, no votes.
I'd like to learn more about this, and I tried about three
or four days after the election to get the process defined.
Unfortunately, I learned there is no process in place yet.
I'm interested in applying for the resident representative
if there's an application process.
My understanding today is the council
shall just appoint somebody.
I'm not quite sure how that works though.
There's only the one November 5th election left in 2024
and there's no elections in 2025.
So what is the timeframe to appoint someone
to the election commission?
Thank you.
Next is Lori Harris.
Hi everyone. I'm also talking about 13 B
and I wanted to encourage the council.
I know that you're going to be talking about the process,
but I would like you to consider,
and I didn't get her permission to do this.
I think someone like Margaret Hunton would be a great
addition to the election commission.
And that's the kind of person I'd like
to see in that position.
Who's fair, smart, uh, crosses the boundaries, is able
to have a discussion on both sides
and wouldn't let, uh, people, uh,
do the wrong thing like happened with our last,
um, boundary drawing.
So that was the one thing.
And then 14 A
is, oh, that's the wrong one.
Okay, 14 C, the bond.
Um, as you discuss this, will you explain
so people know at home what this $34 million is,
is about. Thank you.
Thank you. Next is Bill Cliff.
Good evening counsel. Tonight I'm speaking on the, uh,
item on the agenda that's referenced to my appointment.
I like to say reappointment
to zoning board of appeals tonight.
Some of you know me, some of you don't.
So I thought before you passed a vote, you might want
to hear a little bit about, uh, who I am
and where I came from and what I do.
Um, I was initially appointed by unanimous vote in September
of 2021 to the War
and Zoning Board of Appeals to fill a vacancy
shortly thereafter.
I was unanimously reappointed
and stayed until, uh, January
of this year of 2024.
Um, there were several reasons going on in life
that prompted me to have to resign from that body at
that time that are no longer an issue or a problem.
Uh, those included taking on a new full-time job
after coming outta retirement, working
as a code enforcement officer in the city of Detroit.
Um, my education background where it comes to, uh, uh,
this position, I'd like to let you guys all know
that I carry certificates for both the, uh,
citizen Planner program
and the ZBA course From MSU extension,
I'm a certified code official safety specialist, granted
by the Code Enforcement Safety Officer Foundation
of the United States, based outta California.
'cause not only do I believe in doing my job well,
I believe in doing my job safely.
I've been a member of, of that board previously,
and I thoroughly enjoyed the work that that board did.
I didn't badger petitioners.
I listened to everything that came my way,
weighed all the evidence
and comments very heavily was an advocate
and will continue to be an advocate for some
of those shortcomings in our city ordinances
that would streamline that process for, uh, residents
and businesses coming before that body.
I, uh, I believe in doing my due diligence.
I research each
and every item to the best of my ability,
which also includes making some site appearances and,
and firsthand evaluations.
So before you take that item up this evening to vote,
I hope you'll consider some of these things.
I know that that board is still short, a person
and two alternates.
Um, that's why I reach back out to come back on board
if counsel will have me.
And with that, I will close. Thank you.
Thank you. Next is Joel Vander Lemon.
I gotta ask the police a question right back.
Joel Valen, long time born resident.
I'm here about a few items, but the first one is 13 B.
Anytime you give one person the power
to remove someone from a council meeting to stifle
that person's, uh, speech, to threaten him
with kicking him out of other meetings,
or to send him to jail under these complications
that the socialists had brought up,
I pause you to think because it has a chilling effect.
The people here are not scared to come
to this microphone and talk.
They'll be afraid that the council will not allow them
to go home to their families afterwards.
And coming up with such ideas
and inability to run a meeting, simply calls
for the recall of Angela Rogan,
seat from the presidency of the council.
Somebody else that can handle that position responsibilities
should be sitting, sitting in that seat.
He also had everyone come up here
and talk about, uh, the mayor,
talk about flooding, talk about, uh,
things not being turned in for on the calendar
of matters. Is that it?
You have a minute. 24.
I feel that it's time that we don't censor her.
We make her come up here by subpoena
to avoid another courts, uh, case subpoena the mayor,
and have her answer the questions
why she doesn't feel she has to answer to this council.
Why she feels that she doesn't owe Mr. Lafferty and Mr.
Dwyer the information that they require, uh, requested
why they're not giving you the full story.
Subpoena the mayor before you take her to court.
Find out what went on with this L-G-B-T-Q, whatever parade,
who paid for it and why, why there was sex toys there
that our children had to see.
Thank you. Have a blessed day.
Thank you. Next is Michelle Nar.
Good evening everybody. My name is Michelle Nar.
I am still your Macomb County Commissioner until December.
Uh, I want to talk about items A and C.
Uh, a i I got many calls regarding the flooding
for August 2nd and August 6th.
And so I just want to remind, uh, people
that we elect to be proactive.
We all, when we're out, we're out, uh, asking for votes.
We're, we're bragging on how many years we lived here.
So anybody that's lived here
and they're bragging that they've been here 10, 20, 30
years, know that Warren has a flood flooding problem.
Me as your county commissioner have sent several grant
opportunities to take care of infrastructure
and different things that would would've been proactive to,
uh, kind of at least give the citizens something
that we're trying to do to, uh, work with the flooding.
My, I too have had
to spend $10,000 on my basement when it flooded
because, uh, the power stopped
and then the, um, sub pumps stopped working.
So we gotta remember that.
And, and we gotta understand
that when we're helping our residents,
it's not based on party.
'cause anybody up on this, uh, uh, panel is nonpartisan.
So we have, uh, the flood didn't just hit democratic houses.
It didn't just hit Republican houses. It hit houses.
Anybody's, and,
and I just want us to be more cognizant of, you know,
that when we're dealing with our, our public, that leads me
to c muzzling people.
Um, it shouldn't matter what someone says,
it shouldn't matter as long as they're not inciting a riot
or they're not, uh, being disrespectful as far as cursing,
uh, or things like that.
Uh, the law says that they can speak
and they can, you know, express themselves and,
and for you to ask people for their vote
and then muzzle them at the same time.
These are the same people who doors you knocked
and asked, uh, you know, to vote for me.
And now you want them to be quiet and,
and make them feel like you
don't care what they have to say.
So they have to stand up at this podium
and risk going to jail
or, you know, getting removed and embarrassed.
And I, I just think, you know, I I want you to think about
that as you're going forward.
I mean, I certainly do and I'm certainly one
that have no problem speaking her mind.
I will speak my mind if something's not right,
because I'm gonna always speak for the residents
and I'm gonna speak for all of 'em,
whether they're Democrat or Republican.
And I hope that we learn to do that
and stop being so partisan.
'cause it gets real nasty when you do that.
And then you gotta wind up working with the somebody
that you've, uh, you know, said some bad things about.
So that's all I have to say. Thank you.
Thank you. Next is Jerry Bell.
Jebel. Good evening.
Uh, well, I wanted to speak on a couple of things,
but real quick, I just want to touch on something
I noticed when councilwoman, well, when one
of the residents, Mr.
Vander Lin and got up that councilwoman Mindy Moore,
you left the stage
and went down there to address the two police officers
that had just sat in the front row when Mr.
Vander Lin and spoke.
They wasn't down there before, but they're there now.
Mr. Bell, this is for audience.
That's kind of too agenda items,
Specifically 30 officers short.
I wanna speak on the mayor today.
I understand you all have the subpoena power
to subpoena her and bring her in to this podium
and ask whatever questions you need to do.
You need to ask, get whatever information you have
to get from her.
We have flooding, massive flooding.
I've gotten calls from people.
It's really nothing much I can do
besides tell them to call the mayor's office,
but then they call back no responses.
This is a mayor who don't call you back at all.
So now the duties are left up to you, the council.
Why can't you subpoena her in Council
President Angela Rogan?
Why can't you put together a motion to subpoena her in?
I understand you, her friend,
and a couple more of you up there are friends of hers.
Only thing you have to do is subpoena her in.
You have all her department heads that's here
that the people can't see.
They're sitting off over here
to the right, do the right thing.
And as it relates to you all trying to silence
the residents, you know, that's not gonna work.
All seven of you voted two
or three weeks ago to try to silence us.
I'm hoping you guys slept well that night
because that's a violation.
We got two police officers,
the law enforcement officers up there.
When you arrest someone, the prisoners have rights.
What are you gonna do? Take 'em from 'em.
And, and I'm pretty cool with both of you.
But when you do wrong to the people, you have
to be held accountable.
I'm not afraid of you.
I'm gonna keep coming up here speaking,
and there's nothing you all can do about it.
Have a good night.
Thank you. That is the end of audience.
Next item, Madam Secretary. Next item is 10 announcements.
Madam Chair, Madam Secretary. Thank you.
I'd like to start off on a happy note.
Um, uh, I would like to, uh, welcome back, uh,
officer Crystal Lajan.
And I was over speaking to, um, uh,
the police, uh, officers, uh,
to get the correct pronunciation of her name
because it's spelled L-E-G-E-N-D-R-E.
And it's difficult to get lajan out of that.
So to clarify, Mr.
Bell's accusation, I was simply trying to be polite
and say her name the correct way out.
Here we are honored
to welcome Officer Crystal Lajan back to work.
As many of you know, officer Lajan was so assaulted
and sustained serious injuries while responding
to a fight at Lincoln High School.
Her injuries were severe enough to require two weeks
of hospitalization, including spinal inj spinal surgery
to replace a cervical spine disc followed by months
of intense physical therapy and rehabilitation.
Three individuals involved in this tragic incident have been
charged with felonies.
We are deeply saddened that Officer Lajan had
to endure such pain and suffering in the line of duty.
We sincerely hope that her injuries do not cause any
further complications.
Officer Lajan, we cannot express enough
how much we appreciate your service, bravery
and unwavering dedication to your community.
To our community. Your resilience is her community too.
I understand. She lives in Warren.
Um, your resilience is truly inspiring
and we are grateful to have you back.
And now with some sad news.
Um, Gary DiCarlo, owner
of DiCarlo's Banquet Center in Warren,
passed away on August 9th, 2024.
Gary belonged to the Knights of Columbus, the order
of the Alhambra Rotary International, JW Smith, old Timers,
Warren Lyons Club, and the Polish Boat Club.
I have very fond memories of Gary.
He was a friend to so many of us.
I think just about every politician in Warren
and held their fundraisers at DeCarlo.
Um, he was very generous,
often donating catering events at City Hall.
Um, the funeral mass will be on Friday, August 16th at St.
John Newman Church in Canton, Michigan at, uh, uh,
services are at 1130.
Um, as Gary prioritized, finding joy in life
and sharing it with others,
the family asks that you do the same.
Go out and do something that brings you real joy
and share it with those around you.
Moment of silence. Moment of silence.
Thank you. And one other item.
Uh, yesterday, uh, the Warren, uh,
fire Department received a new piece of equipment.
It's a mobile, um, training trailer that they're able
to configure, um, different ways to provide, um, training
to the firefighters.
Um, and, and they can have it at the station.
It doesn't take them away from their duties.
They're able to do that. It was very interesting, um,
and we thank everyone for the presentation.
Um, the mayor and I were both there.
She got to ride up in the bucket.
I climbed up the ladder and was afraid to come back down.
So the firefighters had to help me get down.
So, um, once again, rescuing a, a lady off the,
out of the tree, so to speak.
Anyway, thank you. It was a nice presentation.
I'm glad we have this, uh, uh, new piece of equipment.
Thank, and I think that's it for me. Thank you.
Any additional announcements,
Madam President, Mr.
Lty, and then Ms. McGee.
Thank I will yield to Ms. McGee.
Hello Everyone. I, My speaker's not on, um,
I wanted to make sure, I'll let you know that I had also,
along with the other city councils, receive several calls
regarding the flooding.
Um, I was big at trying to provide
flooding resource information,
and I put at the end of the stage, um, some information,
some resource information
that can give you assistance if you know of someone
who need help with the flooding in the basement.
In addition to that, as we know, unfortunately,
about the 2-year-old who used the gun and,
and shot themselves.
And because of that situation, I wanted
to also bring information regarding gun locks.
Um, there were gun locks that were given out for free
at the, uh, office, the mayor's office,
and I wanted to provide that information to you
and those who may have a difficult time, who have
handguns in your home.
Um, talking to your children about handguns
and the use of handguns, I also attached a page for
a pledge, um, where you will go over items
with your children regarding the use
of handguns in the home. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty.
Thank you. I'd like to extend congratulations
to the Warren Civic Theater
for their production over the last two weekends.
For Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
the most outstanding acting to date.
Uh, I can't tell you how impressed I was with especially,
I mean, everyone did a wonderful job.
But I went to Friday night with my, my daughter
and this beautiful little girl performed
the, the lead role, hundreds of lines,
a dozen songs, and just a simply outstanding performance.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a lot of talent in this city
and the Civic Theater should be proud of, of its membership
to put on this kind of talent.
They have a summer camp.
Uh, this week they have the Adams Family
audition tryouts coming up.
So please, uh, check warren civic.org for more details.
And ironically, Friday night, there was a dispute
that, uh, the director came to me and asked me to settle.
It was just before the show,
and I'm sorry, it was, it was at intermission.
And they said, we happen
to have a councilman in the audience
who can clear this up for us.
And it was a dispute over the sale of an, um, lumpa.
And I said this, this is very easily solved.
Article two, section 29.
I checked this with our city attorney, paragraph three,
subsection six explicitly prohibits the sale
of Oompaloompas on city property.
It was solved instantly.
I'm getting the glare from the Secretary of the Council.
I'll move on. Like to also invite everyone
to Warren's birthday Bash, which will be taking place
on August 22nd through the 24th.
We will be having, uh, a range of music from country
and Western Bob Seger, the mega eighties rock and roll.
Uh, something for everyone to enjoy.
There will be, uh, a carnival
and the Polish parade, which will begin at four 10.
Uh, that'll be from Cono High School to Warren Civic Square.
Uh, the American Polish Century Club, uh, is, uh,
celebrating their heritage here in our
city, and we welcome them.
And so lots of fun and entertainment, food, dancing.
So come out, spend the weekend.
We have fireworks on Friday night.
It's going to be beautiful weather,
and everyone is invited to partake in the festivities.
Thank you.
Any other announcements? Madam Chair,
Mr. Newnan?
Um, this is, uh, basically, um,
about the need to have a climate action plan.
And I, I hope that all the citizens will,
who care about flooding
and the extreme climate events, will, um,
let me know about what they think at h
noonan@cityofwarren.org.
Um, and the update on that is that
our planning director has, has been on vacation
for a little bit, and when he gets back,
we plan on having our first meeting to discuss, um,
what was referred to the
City Council's Climate Review, um, panel.
And, um, it's in the, in the, uh,
master the award-winning Warren City Master plan
that we should have a climate action plan.
And apparently the
planning department has it in their budget
that they could hire, uh,
uh, you know, a company to come in
that was expert in creating climate action plants.
So it's, it's not like we're not looking forward
to doing the planning, but it hasn't been done yet.
And I'm very sorry for all the people in my, my district,
um, since when I was knocking on doors,
people told me from 13 mile to eight mile from Hoover
to Van D**e and a little bit west down in the, uh,
southern part of the city that they, uh,
many people were having flooding.
So, uh, that's a terrible thing.
I look forward to our working together to resolve it.
Thank you.
Any additional announcements?
I Okay. I have one.
Uh, I was on a call this past week with a number
of city departments
and, uh, they're, the planning department along with a,
a number of other departments are planning
to launch an active mobility plan to improve accessibility
and connectivity for everyone who walks, bikes and rolls.
And looking for anyone
who in interested in providing, uh, feedback.
They have three open events or workshops.
One is on Friday, August 16th from
six to nine at Butcher Park.
Another one is at the Warren Birthday Bash, which, um, Mr.
Lafferty mentioned on Friday,
August 23rd at from two to nine 30.
And then the having another workshop on August 29th from six
to 8:00 PM Um, feel free to contact,
I'm assuming the planning department if you have additional,
uh, questions or want to get involved.
Uh, end of announcements. Next item, Madam Secretary.
Next item is 11 a, which is a public hearing consideration
and adoption of a resolution approving the demolition
of a house and garage at 21,632 Connors
through the Nuisance Abatement Program.
Thank you. Is Mr. Lizza here to summarize the item?
Good evening, Mr. Lizza. Thank you so much.
Uh, good evening counsel. Uh,
this house on 20 1006 32 Connors, uh,
severely de dilapidated home.
The whole back of the home is, is rotted away.
Um, the owner is believed deceased
and it's a really bad, really bad situation.
We had to have, have a second hearing
'cause there was an open probate on it.
We got through that matter
and now we had, we've approved it to come here in front
of you and demolish.
Thank you. If you could maybe sit closer in the event
that anyone has any questions.
Pardon me? Oh, yes. Sit closer. Yes. Thank you. Okay.
I will open the public hearing.
Is there anyone from the audience who would like
to speak on this matter?
Seeing none, I will close the public hearing
and entertain a motion to approve
or deny motion to approve support Lafferty discussion.
Hearing none, I will call the question. Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr.
Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan?
Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries.
Next item 11 B, which is a public hearing, consideration
and adoption of a resolution approving the demolition
of a commercial building at 25,488 Shaner
through the Nuisance Abatement Program.
Mr. Lizza, would you mind summarizing this one for us?
Yeah. This, I mean, I drove by today.
Roof was collapsing in this building, severely dilapidated.
It's been vacant. I've had zero water on this house since
2011, and then it stumbled on me too when I got a recall
about the hole on the roof.
And now I, I drove by.
I drove by today and it's even getting worse.
So this place needs to go pretty poor shape.
Thank you. I will open the public hearing.
Is there anyone from the audience
who would like to speak on this matter?
Seeing and hearing none, I will close the public hearing
and I'll entertain a motion to approve or deny
Motion to approve Support.
Dwyer.
Any discussion? Hearing none.
I will call the question. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes.
Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Ms. Moore?
Yes. Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 11 C, which is a public hearing consideration
and adoption of a resolution to review
and confirm special assessment.
Role number 5 35 related
to 39 25 Topher collection proceedings for demolition
of a house and garage through nascent nuisance abatement.
I will open the public hearing.
Is there anyone from the audience
who would like to speak on this matter?
Hearing and seeing none, I will close the public hearing
and entertain a motion to approve or deny
Motion to approve Support d lawyer.
Discussion. Discussion Mr. Lafferty? Thank you.
And this is the assessment.
We've already abated this property. Correct. Thank you.
Any other discussion? Hearing none?
I will call the question. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes.
Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Ms. Moore?
Yes. Rogan C as a? Yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 12.
A consideration and adoption
of a resolution approving the extension of RFPW 94 79
to furnish property and casualty insurance for agent
or broker services for a final two year term
to Hy Group, Inc.
In an annual amount not to exceed $97,500 So moved.
Support. Labor Discussion. Anyone?
Hearing none? I will call the question Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr.
Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan?
Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries.
Next item. Next item is 12 b consideration
and adoption of a resolution for the approval
of the continuation of health insurance coverage
with Blue Cross Blue Shield network
and Blue Cross Medicare Advantage
and Dental insurance coverage with Delta Dental
and Golden Dental Den Cap Dental.
So moved with discussion support to where
Discussion Madam Secretary.
Thank you. Um, I just had a question on the,
the cover letter says
that health equity wage works will save the city
approximately $20,000 per year in administrative fees.
I was wondering how they're saving us $20,000.
Is it compared to someone else's providing of services or
Mr. Mueller? Good evening.
Hello. Good evening.
My name's Mark Mueller from TMR and Associates.
Uh, your insurance consultant Agent
Marilyn Warren.
Benefits administrator. So the cost savings is
because TMR has a relationship with Aflac.
Aflac is paying for our flexible spending for us.
They're, I'm sorry, I'm just I didn't hear you.
They're paying for the administrative fee on the FSA?
Correct. Okay. Thank you. Is it? Thank you.
Any additional discussion?
Hearing None? I'll call the question. Ms. Moore? Yes.
Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes.
Mr. Nunan? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes.
Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 12 C is to direct legal counsel
to proceed as discussed in close session August 6th, 2024
in the matter of Nancy Hooks versus City
of Warren et al United States District Court case number
2021 CV 1 0 7 4 3.
So moved. Support, uh,
I will call the question Ms. Moore?
Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes.
Mr. Sorry, did I do that backwards? It should been Mr.
Newan. Thank you. I'll start over. Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr.
Newan? Yes. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer?
Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes.
Motion carries. Thank you Ms. Camp. Next item.
Next item is 12 D uh, request
of Greenstone Metro, uh,
a company located at 2 0 0 1 East 10 Mile Road,
suite a Warren, Michigan, um, for an extension
of their adult use processor license for
60 days. So moved. So
Support Any discussion?
Did we miss 12 C? Pardon me? Did we miss 12 C?
No, she just said we just did 12 C. Okay. Sorry.
Miss, uh, any discussion?
This was an add on hearing non I'll call the question.
Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr.
Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes.
Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is, um, uh,
resolution approving proposed settlement terms
of pending litigation.
Um, therefore it has resolved the city council authorizes
the legal counsel to proceed according
to the terms for settlement.
As discussed at the closed session on August 6th, 2024,
it is further resolved that the city's legal counsel is
authorized to execute necessary documents
to finalize a settlement within the discussed settlement
parameters in such form that comports with the requirements
of the court and meets with the satisfaction
of the city attorney.
Um, I would request, uh, that, um,
the reconsideration period, uh, will end, um,
no later than Thursday at four o'clock.
Um, there is a, a necessity to inform the court on Friday
of, um, uh, this, um, matter.
And so that, um,
window will be a little bit shorter than normal,
but motion to approve
Support. Lafferty.
I will call the question Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr. Lafferty?
Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan?
Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries.
Next item. Next item is
13 a Council member Jonathan Lafferty.
Discussion in Ray proactive measures
to reduce neighborhood flooding.
So moved.
Point of order. Uh, you had the, uh, 12 F
for electric vehicle charging.
Yeah. Oh yeah. Sorry. That was my item, right? Yes.
Um, yes. I, uh, receipt motion
to approve support anyone? 13 E
Oh. 1313
E. Yeah. Okay.
Oh, it's 13 E It is 13 E.
Okay. I had written it wrong. My apologies.
You're never wrong, huh? Fun.
Carry on. 13.
A council member Jonathan Lafferty discussion
and Ray proactive measures
to reduce neighborhood flooding. So moved
Support Lafferty with discussion.
Discussion. Mr. Lafferty?
Thank you. Through the chair. I'd like to call up, uh, Mr.
Elli, Mr. Del, Mr. Richter, Dr. Eski and Ms.
Gaius.
This item in particular is in response
to the recent flooding events, the significant amount
of storm water that Warren
and neighboring municipalities have experienced.
And with that, uh, the council also held a special meeting
on August 8th, last Thursday to address an issue
with the community center and the flooding
that occurred there in, in one of our operations.
So I'd like to ask, uh, Mr.
Muselli, if you would please, uh, preface our discussion
with a brief synopsis of what we discussed
and what we resolved to fund, uh,
for the repairs of that facility. Thank
You, Councilman. Real briefly
through the chair, if I may, just
for the residents that from Bonnie that are here,
I just want to let you know that it's, it,
it is still scheduled to be TD in that area.
Um, I'm sorry if you didn't hear that.
It is still scheduled to be TD in that area.
We don't have any information for them yet.
That's why we haven't called them back.
As soon as we get something's TVD
and we have a definite answer on what, what the problem is,
if any, then we will get back to them. Thank
You. Um, can you in introduce
the folks that are with you?
Absolutely. Um, Donna Esky, she's our, uh,
wastewater treatment plant superintendent.
Uh, Tina g she is our head engineer.
Uh, Scott Reell, our DBW director full.
Uh, Derek Richter,
he's our assistant superintendent over at water department.
Thank you. Um, as far as the meeting that we had, uh,
the special meeting on the eighth, was it, um,
we did have a flooding incident here
at the community center.
We had about three and a half feet of water in the basement.
Um, it destroyed most of our boilers.
Our domestic hot water tanks, um, pumps, everything
that controls the, the pools.
Um, we reduced or got the water out between.
With the help of DPW, the water department
and the engineering staff, we were able to find out
what the root cause of that problem was.
We've since sent contractors in, we've remediated
that problem to the point where it will not be happen again.
We put a permanent fix on it so that that flooding issue
this time can never happen again.
Um, when we spent went to you, we came
and asked for also, um, preventative measures
that will help in any other flood instance as far
as putting in a new sump pumps new engineering study
for sump pumps, um, preventative pumps, uh,
submersible pumps
and alarm system that will alert any staff as soon
as we get an even a small amount of water on the floor so
that we can take steps to clean anything up
and so we can get the pool open
and ready for our residents in a,
in the fastest amount of time possible.
Alright. And that measure was approved
unanimously by the council?
Correct. We
Approved an additional appropriation
of half a million dollars
and a 10% contingency, uh, total
of $880,000.
Correct. And then we had,
our insurance adjusters have spent the day out here today.
Um, we do hope that we are gonna get a majority of that
and off, not almost all of it back from our insurance.
Even better. Even better.
Um, do, or the demolition should start
first thing tomorrow morning.
Alright. And I, Ms. Moore brought up a a really good point
that, uh, our residents have memberships right now.
The, so any pool, any memberships will be extended.
Um, the entire time the pool is down.
Anybody that's had anything booked such as birthday parties
or anything like that have already been
refunded or rescheduled.
Um, and, uh, just to make certain all
of our lifeguard staff has been put to other duties so
that they're not losing any time or hours or, or pay,
Uh, Councilman Bokey and I toured the facility with Mr.
Cassan and he took us on a tour of the, of the damage, uh,
down below the pools.
And then, uh, we walked through the, the pool area
and the lifeguards were indeed scrubbing, uh, surfaces.
They were painting, uh, all manner of, of work.
The place, uh, really looked good. It was, uh,
If you noticed on tonight,
they're out there working in the butterfly garden. So yeah,
They're, they're doing a great job.
They really are. And so this is going to be, uh,
so we're targeting a mid-September, uh, to be up,
Up back and forth if everything goes off correctly.
And, and we're, we're hoping that it does.
We've got a grid solid plan
and a good crew working on everything.
We're hoping the second week in September we should be open.
Okay. I'd, uh, I'd ask that, uh,
the communications department work very
closely with your departments
And I will keep, I'll keep you guys
posted, posted all along the way.
Alright. Thank you.
Uh, I first wanna start out with the thanks to this team
that's standing in front of us.
Uh, this team worked around the clock, uh, addressing
resident concerns as they were pouring in,
coordinating additional sanitation pickups, uh,
performing inspections, cleanups, addressing drain concerns,
uh, across the city.
This was not a localized event in a
particular, uh, section of the city.
Uh, there were, uh, flooding, uh,
events all across, uh, the city.
So, Mr. Mazare, I'm gonna start with you.
If you would describe the event that took place
and the city response please.
So there was a, like becoming all more common
and, you know, just an incredible amount
of rain in a short period of time
and in an already saturated ground.
We got up to four inches of rain in a good over half
of Warren in a short, very short amount of time,
less than three hours, and then a continual rain
for another eight hours after that.
Um, we received a couple, almost just over 200 phone calls.
We've inspected ev we went out to every address.
Um, you may not have seen our crews there,
but they were at the end
of your street looking in the sewers, making sure
that all the city sewers were, were checked.
Um, we, we scheduled tv, you know, the sewers
to be TV cameraed if we suspect
that there might be a problem.
Um, I gotta give thanks to our sanitation department.
Excuse me. Um, they, uh,
did an amazing job putting it together on a Saturday pickup
to come in and, and go through the entire city and try
and get everybody's stuff cleaned up for 'em, um, at,
at a very short period of time.
So I give those guys a ton of credit
and every, these, these guys
behind me did an amazing job as well.
Thank you. Uh, I'd like to turn the floor over to Mr.
Richter, uh, to begin.
And the reason why I brought up this,
this team in particular is there is a lot
of information circulating,
but there's also an equal amount of misinformation
that is circulating.
And I think it's extremely important that we
ensure clarity and understanding of the,
the municipal response to this event and what can
and cannot happen and how this, the systems work.
Uh, with brief synopsis from, from each department. So Mr.
Richter, the location
and the differences between our storm water sewer system
and our sanitary sewer
system. Can you please speak to that?
Yes. Um, we do have two, uh, sewer systems,
a storm sewer system and a sanitary sewer system.
They are separate. Um, both systems.
Can You speak a little louder? Sorry.
Both systems are gravity fed. Um, they're not pumped.
There are not gates on them to shut them off.
Um, with that being said, um,
the city of Warren Water Department
cleans roughly about five sections of
sanitary sewer a year.
So that we clean the whole city in seven years.
So the, the information that was circulating about
the city was turning off the drains
or had to turn on the drains, is that, is a false statement?
Correct. So the, the city does not have any ability
to gate or turn, turn drains on
and off at any particular time or at all?
We do not. Okay. Thank you.
Uh, I'll move over to, uh, Ms. Gaius from engineering.
You had mentioned in our, our brief meeting ahead of time
that this was a 10 year storm.
Can can you speak to that? Right.
Well, this, this wasn't a 10 year storm.
It was probably greater than that.
I, I mentioned that our storm sew system is designed
to handle a 10 year storm, which
that means it's a 10% chance in any given year in an,
in an over a given location.
So, like for instance, a a 100 year storm
would be a 1% chance.
And in 2014, that was a 300 some year storm.
So it's like 0.3% chance.
So it was very rare in 2014 when happened.
I'm not quite sure what year storm this past event was.
I can find out. But our,
our storm sewer system only handles a 10 year storm.
And that's very common in all the, this area, all
of Michigan, all the states around Michigan.
This is a, a formula that we use
to design our storm sewer system
because, um, it is financially
not, um, capable to design for something bigger than that.
Um, however, our storm sewer system
outlets into the county storm sewer system,
they're also designed for a 10 year storm.
So when their storm sewer system is full,
it backs up into ours,
and that's our only outlet that we have.
So it's, um, un unfortunate, but this is what happens.
Um, we are doing as the best that we can.
We are cleaning out storm sewers all
the time, televising them.
We're lining sanitary sewers all the time.
Um, anytime there's a complaint, you can call our office
and we'll check out your whole system
and see if there's a collapse perhaps, or a blockage.
Um, but it is normal for a street to flood.
And then as long as it dissipates,
that means the storm sew system is working.
It just, it was a surge.
It couldn't handle all that water at one time.
So as long as it starts to dissipate
and goes away, it, it, it's,
it's more than likely fine the storm sewer system.
So we have in a, in a rather large rainstorm,
I observed my particular section
of the street swell with water.
You know, it, it eventually,
it looked like it stopped draining yet the,
the catch basins were clear and it swelled,
and then at some point it really started
to recede rather quickly.
Correct. That's because the county drains are full.
So when those start to, you know, uh, go down,
then ours start to drain out as well,
and then eventually out to the lake.
And I would imagine
that the different elevations throughout the city, uh,
however rather minute are basically taking their turn.
Would that be a fair assessment?
Yeah, if you're in a lower area,
then you're basement flooding, chances are definitely more.
That's why there's certain areas
where it happens more frequently.
It's because it's a lower part of the system. Yes.
Okay. And then what did the other comments that,
that I was seeing that the city's been building up, they're
building more, you know, there are new tenants taking, uh,
occupancy, new buildings are, are being constructed.
Uh, parking lots are larger, uh,
non-porous spaces.
Can you speak to some of our planning
and our, our storm water ordinance requirements for
what do these, what what is the responsibility
of the businesses and the commercial properties in the city?
Yes. So we adopted a new stormwater ordinance a few years
ago, and we're following Macomb County stormwater ordinance.
So any, any business that comes in
and does a, um, uh, an upgrade to their property
and goes through the planning department, we have them
comply with the new storm water ordinance,
which has them detain a a hundred year storm event water on
their property and have it release slowly.
This way it doesn't overburden our system.
And, um, they also are required to keep a certain, um,
percentage of water on their property,
have it infiltrate into the ground.
And so every new property that comes in for an improvement,
we are, we're making them adhere to these standards.
So eventually we'll get a bunch of a lot
of detention on in Warren.
And that's the, hopefully that's the goal in the future is
to not overburden our system so much
with all this rainwater,
Everyone is sharing in the, the
responsibility Yes, definitely.
Than to help reduce the runoff. That's correct.
Or the, the runoff all at one time, at least.
Right. The surge. The,
Alright. Uh,
onto Ms. Eski from wastewater treatment, the,
the city's efforts to reduce the opportunities
for overflow from your perspective
and, uh, minimizing usage of water.
Could you comment on that please?
Good evening. Council members.
Um, yes, the city of Warren has been making a great stride
and, um, um, sorry, we need you to speak,
Speak directly into the microphones.
Sure. Good evening.
Council members, the city of Warren, um, um,
has been making a great stride in trying to mitigate
and, um, improve functionality of the, uh, existing, um,
sanitary collection system.
Um, as early as, um, um, early, um,
uh, two thousands, we have done, uh, numerous studies
to evaluate, um, um, the system, performance of the system.
As a result, we have, uh,
put together a sanitary sewer elimination program,
which has been, um, um, consisted of several phases.
One of 'em was, um, in construction of several miles
of sanitary sewer reliefs improvements at the nine hour pump
station, as well as construction of a new, um,
detention basin that's located up off Stevens Road.
Currently construction of the, um,
Stevens Basin is coming to completion.
Uh, we're expecting substantial completion, um,
or, um, operational status of the basin as early as, um,
late part of September
and final completion of the project, including restoration.
And, um, um, minor miscellaneous work
probably by the end of the year.
Um, the detention basin will serve as a in line, um,
storage, um, um, of, um, diluted sewage
that comes in from the nine mile drainage district area
that services the area between, um, generally south
of 10 Mile Road and, uh, um, between eight and 10
and west of, um, east of Mound and East City limits.
Um, that collection system goes
to the nine mile pump station, um,
which in turns from there is being pumped, um, to the, um,
to the collection system, to the, um, um, um, treatment plan
that we have at for TM IRO.
And,
And, and that system is for, specifically for the sanitary
system, is that correct?
That is correct. That's for sanitary sewer.
Alright. And so with the, uh,
you had mentioned earlier, uh, in our,
in our preparations about, uh, aspects of
what can our residents do to further reduce water usage
during a rain event, during a heavy rain event
or just following a rain event, what are things that, uh,
our residents can do to help avoid exacerbating the,
an already overflowing system?
Sure. Um, the water that we use, um, in, in our system
and water, um, each residential home,
whether it's flushing toilets, um, taking baths
or using dishwashers
or doing laundry, um, all
that water wastewater goes into the sanitary system,
which at, during those excessive rain events, it's already,
um, over burden.
So minimizing, mainly minimizing water usage
or, um, flushing down, um, um, doing laundry, um, that
certainly would, um, helps out, um, in mitigating some
of the, um, um, inflow that comes in, um,
for treatment to the plant. Alright,
Thank you.
Uh, next I'd like to ask, uh, Mr.
Radell from DPW, can you, we heard a,
a terminology about televising sewers and jetting of drains.
Can you speak a little further to that please?
Jetting is basically like a high pressure garden hose
that goes through and will clean out,
and we do it both in the storm lines and the sanitary lines
and, uh, we usually will jet those lines
to get 'em cleaned out and then we will, uh, televise
as necessary to see if there's any issues, uh,
collapsed pipes, separated lines,
any blockages, things like that.
Okay. And for, for those lines there,
the, the connection between a basement, so is the,
my street's flooding and my basement
or my crawlspace is taking on water.
Are the two connected in any
Way? They are not. That's
a misconception We hear a lot
that the street's flooding.
That's one of my basement's. Flooding.
There's nothing in your house that's connected
to the catch basins or the drains in the street?
Um, not at all. Two, two separate events.
It's, uh, sanitary, it's coming up is from your drain tiles
that are tied into the sanitary lines.
It's, that's what's coming up in your basement.
Unless, uh, the only exception would be if this,
you don't have your grade pitched away from your house
and your downspouts out away from your house,
then it could be, could be coming in that way,
but that's usually not the case.
Alright. And Mr. Richter, is that the,
for the sanitary lines, is it virtually the same process?
Uh, yes, it is. Um, your weeping tile that goes
around the foundation of your basement does tie into your
sanitary sewer, um,
which drains into the sanitary main, like Mr.
Rydel said, uh, the outside, if you're, um,
the dirt is sunken around your house
and your downspouts aren't kind
of pushed away from your house, most of
that water goes into your weeping tile, which leads into,
uh, the sanitary sewer.
We, we've heard quite a bit of, of the suggestions.
I know Mr. Elli might have a couple more to share.
Uh, but Mr. Zare, if you would, uh, kind of summarize for us
as we close this up, uh,
how do residents seek assistance from the city if there is a
flood event, should they report every
time something happens?
And why is that important?
Absolutely. That helps us in the long run of monitoring
where the problem spots are.
I know it sometimes it, it, it seems like a daunting task
to, you know, the, it happens again and again.
But that lets us know where the problems are.
We can find, find help to find solutions.
Um, call the, call the mayor's office,
call public service call the water department.
We're currently as council, so graciously allowed us
to upgrade our phone system.
We're in the middle of upgrading where, uh, we're trying
to set up a hotline
that people would call in a situation like this.
So you'd be able to hit one for storm damage two, you know,
for over flood
or flooding in the street, three
for flooding in the basement, that kind of a thing.
Um, we don't have it set up yet
as the new phone system gets
integrated, that'll come shortly.
Um, so we're working on something like that.
But for right now, you can call any of the departments,
even if it's not the right one,
we'll get it to the right one.
But we, you know, for right now, call the mayor's office,
call public service call DPW, call water department,
depending on what your problem is,
and then we'll take it from there.
Okay. And I, I just realized I had moved one
of my notes down a little too far.
Uh, back to Ms. Gaius, uh, very briefly,
we've talked about the front yards, uh, the,
the basement's crawl spaces.
What about rear yard flooding?
You know, some, some residents have, uh, rear yard drains
and some have put in a French drain system.
And does the city offer a program
to connect those to the street?
And if so, how do they, uh, how do they contact you
and, and apply for that?
Sure, yes, we do have a program, um, you call our office
and we'll send our surveyor out
and they will take, uh, great shots in your backyard
and, um, they will actually design a little storm sewer
system with like a one foot catch basin
that you could buy at Home Depot and a six inch line,
and they'll tell you where to put it.
The homeowner will install that system, bring it
to the sidewalk, right just
before the sidewalk where the private property ends
with a popup.
So when the backyard water, the flood waters go
to the sidewalk, it pops up and flows over the sidewalk.
And this is just temporary until once a year,
the city will come through and hook all
of these lines up into this road storm sewer system.
So it'll be, you know, we'll dig up the curb
and we'll hook the, and lift up the sidewalk
and hook it into the road storm system.
Uh, when we do, or sometimes we'll hook it through the curb,
if there's no catch basin nearby, we could just put a hole
through the curb and it'll drain in the street.
So we offer that program. It's, it's very, very successful.
Um, we do, it's 20, 30 homes a year, and, um,
but the, it's up to the homeowner to install
that private system first.
Very good. Thank you, Ms. Gaius. Thank you all.
Uh, Madam President, at this time I'd like to yield,
I do have a, a motion to read,
but I'd like to yield for other council members
to ask questions that they have them.
Madam Chair Ms. Moore, one
of the things we talked about just a few minutes
before the meeting was how
to get information out to the public.
And I think that's something
that everybody's gonna be working
toward what we can do here.
Other, um, um, media outlets
and things like that so that we can help people not be
so susceptible to flooding in their own homes.
There's certain things that we as homeowners can do,
and there's, you know, extraneous things
that perhaps the city can help.
But that's one of the things I think we're gonna get going.
And, um, one of the things I was really impressed
with is I had heard when is A DPW that picked up
when people put stuff out or sanitation, come
and pick up from curb sanitation.
Okay, so people called in and gave their address
and, you know, the, the, um, staff would go out and those,
and, and I heard on a scanner that, Hey,
this one's not on our list, pick it up.
So they were picking up everything they saw
in their travels, not waiting for somebody to call.
I think that's really important to,
'cause it got things cleaned up really fast, I thought.
And they did a great job. So, um, kudos to all of you.
Thank you.
Better president Mr. Newnan.
When it came to items that residents can do
to avoid exacerbating the, uh, problems of flooding,
I I wasn't able to actually understand hardly a word
of what was said.
There are, are any of you able to recap
that for our sake?
I believe basically what she said was just, you know,
no laundry, no, no running the dishwasher.
Um, no excessive use of water in the home.
You know, make sure you, your drain spots are moving away
from the, the flood or the, the house.
Um, anything else?
So that's, that's for their own home? Yes.
If they, if they use those, that will probably
increase the likelihood of their house flooding.
That's just gonna go back into the sanitary.
And if your sanitary's overflowing,
you're just adding more water to that problem.
So the sanitary could go, um,
into the street if there's flooding in the street,
No, if, if your basement's flooding and you're,
Yeah. Okay.
I just thought maybe if it could go out on the street
and then drain back into other people's homes.
There's two, there's two separate sewer systems,
a sanitary and a storm.
The storm is what's in the street. Okay.
That's your rainwater at the gutter
that nothing from the house is tied into the street.
Okay. So it can't, that can't happen. That's a good thing.
Um, thank you very much on that.
And then, so the Home foundation tiles tie into both
Sanitary? No, just
Sanitary. It's just sanitary.
Sanitary. Just sanitary.
Just the sanitary, the, the Home foundation tiles tie,
tie into the sanitary,
Correct? Correct.
Okay. Is that a problem?
It hasn't been. I mean,
that's the way they were, they were designed.
Okay. I don't know whether that has something to do
with draining into the basement.
Like some people were complaining about
sewage in their basements.
How does, how does the sewage get into their basement then?
Yeah. Um,
most of the houses in Warren were built in the sixties.
Uh, they have a clay crock, um, weeping tile.
New houses have, uh, PVC corrugated
with a sock membrane wrapped around it.
Um, the difference is the clay crock has separations
which allow settlement sand
and dirt particles to get in it
where the sock membrane does not.
Um, when it rains all that
sand, and so it can back up your weeping tile,
which in sometimes around your floor drain, you get the
black sand soy material, which is clear water around your,
your basement floor drains.
Usually that's a good indication to us.
That's a weeping tile issue.
You still have to have a plumber come out,
snake the weeping tile to get it to drain.
Thank you. Thank you for the update on that.
And then, um, so Ms.
Gap, she the, um, the name of the program
that they could ask to sign up for your help in designing
would be the French drain system. Uh,
Well, we call it the rear yard drainage.
What did the rear yard drainage program.
Rear yard drainage program. That's correct. Okay.
And you only help design it.
You don't pay for any part of it.
We pay for the connection from the sidewalk to the street.
You pay for the connection
from the sidewalk to the street.
Well, that would be wonderful because if you have to drill
through, uh, the curb
or something, um, we don't want just anybody doing that
and a correct in a private expense. You
Need a permit to do that, first of all.
But yes, the city will come in and do that. That's,
That's really good. Okay.
Mm-Hmm. And then, um, what an interesting, um,
discussion you brought forward.
Councilman Lafferty.
Um, I have a question for, um,
director, uh, Elli.
Let's see, where was it?
Or, It's a lot of misinformation.
So much. Okay. I guess I'll have to ask him on my own time.
I, but I thought it was something that was,
it was gonna be good for the whole, um, city to know,
okay, for insurance purposes, people need to call
which departments under which conditions.
I'm not an insurance agent. I can't
Advise you on that. No, no.
But, but, but don't do, didn't the mayor ask people
to call different departments for,
to report what was happening?
Isn't that an insurance related matter?
I don't deal with the insurance at all. I don't know.
I've, if it's a storm sewer question, we go with ZPW.
If it's sanitary, we go with water.
Okay. So that's more
to remediate the problem than anything to do
with insurance. Yep, I got enough.
Okay. So I, I got enough of
my plate. I don't deal with that.
Thank you for, for straightening me out on that one.
I appreciate it. Okay. Um, oh, oh,
I know on, um, the, the community center, I know that,
um, what do you call the, uh,
the sump pumps? What do you call them?
Sump pumps? Sump Pump, um, emergency emergency pumps.
They can get overwhelmed.
And also if the power goes out, which often happens
during storms, if they're not backed up, then, then there's,
there's failure and then
that's another half a million dollars.
So, uh, I, I apologize, I wasn't able
to attend the previous meeting.
Is council so generously, uh, brought
that up at the last meeting.
We discussed it and we were planning on purchasing a
generator to store across the street at the truck garage.
So if the power did go out,
we would have a backup generator.
And we discussed maybe possibly next year's budget getting a
full building generator for this facility.
Okay. That sounds like a really good plan, especially if,
um, if, uh, see if people were overheating in a heat wave,
uh, then, uh, if, if the power had been knocked out,
then the air conditioners could be run.
Okay. Hey, thank you so much. Really fascinating discussion.
I hope I haven't, uh, carried you too long. Thank you.
Thank you. Any additional, Ms. McGee?
I just wanted to let you know
that all your state lets his legislation
also have the information available for you on their page
for emergencies forest as floods
and as well as your insurance
and commercial buildings for small businesses, so
that you will also receive assistance for that.
So you can go on the Michigan State website
and they provide all that information.
And I also added a little of
that on the resource information page
that I have on stage here.
Thank you. Any additional questions? I had?
Uh, just one, is there somewhere that you all can,
I know I've asked a number
of questions about the improvements that we've done
to the infrastructure because I believe, um, one
of the folks spoke during, uh, audience, uh, reminded us
of the amount of infrastructure we have that's aging.
Our city was built in the fifties and sixties,
and I do think it goes often unnoticed the amount of work
that we have done over the past decade to improve a lot
of those efforts while not ignoring the fact
that we have a long way to go.
There are have, have been a considerable amount
of things like the detention basin
and some of the sewer relief that have been put in.
So I don't know if that can be articulated somewhere,
but I think that would be really helpful to share with folks
so that they can see what specifically their tax dollars
have went to help improve, uh, a situation
that we know impacts people on a regular basis.
Is that something you all can put together in a memo
or something and send to council office
and perhaps we can further distribute it? We'll
Definitely work.
I'm sorry. We'll definitely work on that.
Thank you. Excellent. Madam Chair.
Mr. Lafferty. Thank you.
I'd like to make a motion that we convene a committee
of the whole to discuss the creation
of a municipal sponsored
and comprehensive residential flood prevention program,
and direct the administration to provide for the following,
one inspections
to identify problems on residential properties
to identify ideal location
and direction for downspouts, recommendations
for proper grading of front and rear yards,
and understanding labor requirements for inspection, support
and program management.
Number two, working with the communications department
to lead a public relations effort
to promote flood water education, how to address basement,
front yard and rear yard flooding interior options
for prevention, such as sump pumps, making use
of the city's website, print
and mail publications, water bill inserts,
and the use of our text message notification system
to provide critical information to residents
during future flood events.
Number three, work with the DPW Water Department,
public service and engineering to explore options
for increasing and accelerating the jetting
and televised inspection of neighborhood sewers.
And further to explore funding options
for stormwater sewer improvement and maintenance.
Number four, finally partner with our federal
and state legislative delegations County Executive Public
Works commissioner, to seek federal subsidies
to fund the city's proactive effort
to reduce the opportunity
for flooding in neighborhoods further,
to fund additional municipal projects
to protect our city owned buildings from flooding events,
including engineering support, backup power,
generators, and mobile pumps.
Support. Support Dwyer
Ms. Moore supported Jonathan, you made the motion.
Mr. Lafferty? Yep. Okay.
Uh, so I will call the question Ms. Moore.
Sorry. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Ms. Moore? Yes. Uh, Ms. Dwyer?
Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan? Yes. Ms. McGee?
Yes. Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries. Thank you Mr.
Lafferty and the entire city departments for helping
to put all of this together.
Next item. Next item is 13 B Council Secretary Mindy Moore.
Discussion Inre established a process to appoint a resident
to the Warren Election Commission. So move
Support lab.
Madam Chair. Discussion Ms. Moore. Thank you.
Um, um, first off, I would like to thank the voters for, uh,
overwhelmingly approving the three, uh, charter amendments
that, um, the charter
that the city council voted to put on the ballot.
Um, thank you to, um, um, council members, Bokey
and, uh, Dwyer for sitting on that Charter Review committee.
Um, we are probably going
to have some more of those next year.
Um, um,
but the first, what we need to deal with right now is the,
um, election commission for a resident, um, Ms.
Camp today facilitated a created a, um, um,
an application form that we will have on the city's website,
um, for anyone that wants to apply,
um, for that appointment.
And, um, if you're not able to access that,
you can call the counsel office at
(586) 258-2060
and I'll, I'll also put a Facebook, um, post out today
and, um, if anybody would, if everybody would kind of share
that so we get the word out.
But we'll have it on the city's website.
We should have it up tomorrow, I would think.
Um, and how long do you think we should
keep the period open for applications?
Two weeks, three weeks, a month. Two weeks. Two weeks. Okay.
So we'll do, um, make it two weeks from Friday. Mm-Hmm.
Two weeks from this Friday. What would that date be?
It is Jonathan 30th. Thank you.
I'm sorry, I'm focused on this eight.
So, so we'll close the period. Eight 30. Eight 30,
and we will, you
Know, did you wanna highlight
The items that we have?
Yes. Yes. Um, to be eligible
to be on the Election Commission, of course you'd have
to follow the, the normal charter.
You can't be in default to the city.
You have to be a registered voter in the city.
Um, you can't be a city employee
or an elected official in the city,
nor a candidate for office in the city to be on the,
um, commission.
Any, did I forget anything Mr. Schroeder?
And then we'll should probably say if anyone's planning on
running, you
Probably should. Yeah. If anybody's
planning on running for office,
you probably shouldn't apply for,
because that wouldn't be fair,
because you could only serve, um,
until you were running for office.
Then we have to keep in our, our, we would hope
to have a continuation of someone on that commission
for the entire term, could get more familiar with things
and, um, develop experience with that.
That's sort of our goal.
And then we, once we get the applications, then we will put
that on the next agenda,
and then we will vote to appoint someone.
So we'll look for that tomorrow.
Any other discussion?
Yes, please, Mr. Newnan.
Um, so Madam Secretary,
um, let's see, what was it?
This person, um, the obligations, what are the duties
of this person?
The duties would be to sit on the election commission.
Um, any meetings.
The election commission has, they,
I know they meet the morning of an election.
It's very early at seven o'clock in the morning,
and they meet at seven in the morning
before the polls close.
They announce the opening of the polls.
They also meet at eight o'clock at the closing of the polls.
Um, they meet to certify.
Do they do have we we certify an election locally?
I, I don't think so, but any other time the election
commission would have to meet for anything.
Right. One of the things that they might meet for would be
to decide the boundaries of jurisdictions inside of the city
In, in 10 years.
In 10 years. Okay. What Go east of the
District. That's 10 years. I could just
add the,
the way the charter is currently written
on the redistricting commission, um, that the city has, is
that the City Election Commission members are members
of the redistricting commission.
So this individual would be involved in redistricting.
I know we mentioned redistricting commission is something
to maybe look at, but also on the election commission, um,
the duties are in the charter.
They decide who's qualified for the city ballot.
So it seems like, you know,
there's this tradition every four years in Warren
where there's a bunch
of people getting thrown off the ballot and lawsuits.
And really the, if, if there's a good process in place
that can be prevented by having an election commission,
you know, work on, you know, getting the,
this all vetted and done right.
To keep it out of the court system, um, they decide what is,
who's qualified for the ballot.
And so frequently you see these election lawsuits,
the election commission's a defendant in those lawsuits.
Um, so maybe this individual can help put a plan in place
to prevent all that chaos from happening in the future.
Um, whenever the Election Commission meets, they would meet
and be part of that.
Um, so it's, again, we talked about this earlier this year.
It's, uh, consistent with a lot of other cities do
where their council appoints at
least one member of the commission.
We don't do council does the election commission
Right under the charter, the way the
charter's written? Yes. Yeah.
Act City Council. What was that?
The Collection Commission does not act
as the redistricting commission.
Okay. That was wrong. That they did we two things
Going on. It's, it's
the charter.
The, the charter was written
with the redistricting commission,
having the election commission, uh, be part of that.
Um, the State Attorney General has ruled that,
that superseded by state law, which says
that the council's ultimately responsible for redistricting.
This is something maybe we can address in the next set
of Charter Amendments to try
to just bring everything together in a, in a proper way.
Okay. So if I may, then, um,
such a, such a person, um, on the Warren
and Election Commission would not be looking forward
to anything to do with redistricting.
It wouldn't be for 10 years anyway,
Right? It, it wouldn't
be until the next census happens. Um,
They might then, If it's, it's, there's,
there's a dispute over whether this
redistrict commission really has the power to redistrict.
We litigated that during the last term of office.
We came to a settlement agreement
where the redistricting commission proposed it,
and then the city council approved it.
This is something the charter committee should probably look
at resolving before the next redistricting in the future.
Um, so that was, that was a major point of contention.
So as it stands now, this is not something on their radar
during the current term of office, um, something
that could be reformed,
but that would have to go back to the voters
because it's in the charter.
We can't change the charter without the voters
approving it, as we just saw.
So I'd also like to note that, uh, I was talking with Ms.
Michaels, um, the charter, um, election.
The election just put place
that this will take effect sometime in early September.
Just so the council's aware that the charter is officially
amended when the city clerk sends certified results
to the Secretary of State.
And they have until the 20th, the certify,
the results August 20th, today's the 13th,
and then within 30 days, the city clerk has to, um,
send that to the Secretary of State's office.
Then our charter is officially amended, meaning
that the council has to fill this appointment,
um, where, uh, Ms.
Michaels estimates sometime in early September.
Um, that would be official.
Thank you so much. That's a great deal, deal of clarity.
I appreciate it. Thank you. I yield
Thank you.
Any additional discussion? One, one.
Madam Chair, Ms. Moore and council office will go through
and verify whether someone is in default to this city
and check with the clerk's office
to make sure they're registered to vote.
Okay? Okay.
Uh, this will just be a motion to receive and file. Yes.
Uh, all in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed?
Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 13 C Council Secretary.
Mad more discussion and Ray Amendment
to the council rules of procedure.
So moved with discussion.
Support Lafferty. Discussion. Madam Secretary.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Um, we amended the council rules two
weeks ago, or was it four weeks?
Two weeks ago. And,
and further looking at it again,
there was a provision in there that indicated
that someone could be removed forever from
coming to our meetings.
And there is certainly the possibility that anyone
that comes up here and speaks
as a resident could have an issue, say a zoning issue
or a planning issue
or a licensing issue, where they have a right to come
before this body to address any of those personal issues.
So we've taken that, um, clause out
and, you know, if something terrible happened, we were in,
if the police determined that there was a danger
with the presence of someone, their behavior,
then we would have to go to a court perhaps
and say, should this person remove?
But that would be certainly an extreme situation
that the police would probably be involved with.
But we did take that out.
Um, if you'd like me to read it again, I can.
The whole thing. Um, I would like to clarify
before that I do that.
Um, nobody has ever been silenced at council, ever.
And this council has added audiences,
the beginning and the end.
And we are the most open and transparent in the county.
Absolutely. So this is what the, um, uh, rule states members
of the public must refrain from.
Profane language, obscene conduct, disruptive comments
or gestures, jeering personal attacks,
speaking longer than the allotted time
or behavior that is disorderly
or likely to provoke disorderly conduct.
Personal attacks are defined as attacks against the conduct
or character of a person that is unrelated
to the manner in which he or she performs his or her duties.
The council president may call to order Any person
who violates this rule
or any other applicable rules, failure to come
to order may result in the microphone being shut off the
forfeiture of any remaining speaking time
or at the request of the council president
expulsion from the meeting.
If a speaker or member
of the audience does not follow these rules
or engages in an actual breach of the piece,
or endangers the safety of the council
or public at a council meeting, such person may be subject
to further restrictions as necessary.
Such, such actions shall be determined by council as a body
and consistent with the Michigan Open Meetings Act.
Thank you. Should have a motion, motion.
Motion to approve. Motion
To approve the, The amend, the amended.
Yeah. Uh, council rule. Motion
To approve the council rules as amended.
Okay. Madam President, if I could ask a question,
I need a support.
Support, okay. Uh, yes. Mr. Newnan?
Yes. Uh, through the president to, uh, Mr. Schroeder.
Mr. Schroeder. Um, I understand that East Point lost a case
that was somewhat similar to this.
Can you tell, tell me how this is different from that?
I can tell you it wasn't similar at all. Councilman.
Um, that was a situation where the mayor who happened
to sit on the council completely shut down.
Residents, wouldn't let them speak.
You know, there was no process. There was no rule.
She was being criticized
and she wouldn't let them speak at all, period.
And it was in a fit of anger by the mayor there.
And, um, that's completely different
than anything I've ever seen here.
In 23 years of attending these meetings as an employee,
now is a, um, attorney for the council.
Never once ever saw that in Warren. Um, you can't do that.
We know we can't do that. Anyone who's saying
that this is similar to that is, uh, doing something, uh,
we call, um, what's that called?
Um, exaggeration and, uh, misleading.
You know, people like to do that, to make their point.
But we need to be clear that that's not gonna,
it has never happened here, and I wouldn't recommend that.
And, um, this is obviously you,
you heard the rule that was just read.
We had a First Amendment expert with 30 years
of experience in the Federal Courts Review this,
and it's totally proper and appropriate.
This is a business meeting. You can't be disruptive.
You can't, no one's gonna be stopped from saying anything.
If you say something, uh, disorderly
or you're engaging in a personal attack, I, you know,
making fun of someone's weight, which I've heard
before, totally inappropriate.
Okay? But you get gaveled
and you're told to be brought to order.
You already said it. Okay?
But you're being asked to come to order
and then you come to order.
The words are already, you can't
undo the words that were already said.
So we're not stopping anybody from saying anything.
But once you say something that's a profane personal attack,
or you start disorderly conduct, you can be called to order.
And we're allowed to do that
because this is a business meeting.
Um, the same rules apply to the council.
You know, uh, thankfully we don't have the, the issue now,
but in the past there have been council members who stood up
and yelled and insulted each other.
And, you know, the chairperson had to call the order.
One time we had to take a recess 'cause someone was yelling.
That same individual went out on 13 Mile and Van D**e
and was yelling into a megaphone at the traffic,
which you can do, you can go on 13 and VanEck anywhere.
You can yell anything at the traffic at any time,
and no one can stop you.
Okay? But this is a business meeting,
and the court has said
that we can place restrictions on these types
of disorderly disruptive behaviors,
uh, to keep things in order.
We're not stopping anybody from saying anything totally
legal and proper what we're doing.
Thank you Ms. Moore, for that amendment.
Um, we probably shouldn't be limiting people
to attend future meetings that shouldn't have been in there.
Other communities do it. We're not going to do that.
So this passes First Amendment Muster.
Thank you so much for, for that clarification.
And also, uh, getting the word out to the community
that we want to have orderly meetings where people can speak
and where they will not be chilled from speaking.
And just to Ms.
Moore's point, Councilwoman Moore, um, this is one
of the few councils in the whole state
where you get three minutes at the beginning of the meeting,
and then you get an additional
three minutes at the end of the meeting.
In the past, it was either three at the
beginning or three at the end.
So someone conceivably has six minutes of time
to address the city council,
both before and after the meeting.
This way, council knows what their, you know,
they can get input before you vote on items.
And that has never been done before.
So if anyone says
that somehow their free speech is being infringed here,
it's just simply not true.
Thank you. Excellent.
Ms. McGee, Could you tell us how does this relate
to when you're not speaking,
but signage that may have some inappropriate language?
Well, um, with respect to the question about signage, um,
this does not necessarily apply to signage.
Uh, we would have to maybe look at a separate rule.
I see we have signs out there. We've had 'em in the past.
We've had folks during election time trying
to get their signs in the frame here.
So people play games with signs.
I, I would think that if we want to look into signage,
we might want to have a separate discussion about that.
Again, there's a free speech element.
I know one of the prior city attorneys came in
and said, no signs and, um, kicked someone out with a sign,
and we're not gonna do that.
But we can have reasonable restrictions
because a sign could actually block somebody's view.
Um, and if people are using it
to strategically get into the screenshot, um, you know,
we may want to consider maybe just in the
back rows to have signs.
But again, I don't wanna, you know,
get into a deeper discussion on that.
But if you are concerned about signage,
we should probably take a look at that.
Um, and we wanna be, uh, cognizant of the fact
that whatever rule we have applies equally to everybody
and we can't, you know,
say your sign is okay, but yours isn't.
We cannot be in a position where we're picking
and choosing whose sign gets to be displayed.
Yeah, I was only talking about those
signers that had profanity. Okay?
And again, we're allowed to, um, you know,
we looked this up about the profane element of it.
We really can prevent that at a meeting.
You may remember, there's a famous case in Michigan called
the cursing canoeist.
I dunno if anyone remembers that.
But about 20, 30 years ago, there was a canoeist
who let out some words when the canoe tipped over,
and there was a park ranger there
that wrote a ticket for profanity.
And the court said, no, you can't do that.
That's a infr of your First Amendment rights.
But that was a criminal ticket, right?
So they got a criminal violation for that.
This is completely different than the cursing Canoeist case,
which was somewhat famous in Michigan, where we're not,
we're not criminalizing this conduct.
We're just saying, this is a business meeting.
You let out that profanity, we're gonna call you to order.
Cut it out, get back on topic. Don't curse. Okay?
We can't rewind the tape and erase the words.
They're already out. But we're saying this is a way
to keep people from repeating, um, these sort of, um,
useless, uh, it doesn't have anything to do with the running
of city government, like, uh, attacks against the conduct
or character of a person that's unrelated to the manner
of which he or she performs your duties.
If you are making fun of someone's weight, their gender,
their ethnicity, the way they look or,
or who they're related to, any of those types
of things are totally inappropriate
at a business meeting like this.
And they, and that you, you can be called to order for that.
So if you want to go out on the 13 of Van D**e
and yell your head off about any topic in the world
and make fun of people, go ahead and do it.
You're not gonna do it here.
Anything further? Madam Chair, Ms. Moore?
So one of the things, and,
and we talked about this, you know, 20 years ago,
or that our meetings are broadcast
and they're rebroadcast,
and sometimes I worry about certain language,
offensive language that I don't know what the FCC rules are.
If, if somebody says something that's inappropriate,
we certainly can't edit a what someone says.
I mean, we may get into, if that happened, I mean,
we, we really haven't had that.
But if it happened, I suppose we could not show any
of the audience at all.
You know, we wouldn't wanna edit one person.
We just wouldn't. I mean, I suppose it,
I suppose we could get to the point where you just don't,
some, um, cities don't have audience ever,
um, broadcast.
They have the meeting broadcast, but not audience.
And some people cut off audience, uh, during election time.
And some people have in their rules
that people are not allowed
to come campaign in our business meeting,
you know, council business meetings.
So, you know, we're, we're certainly not as expansive
as some of the other cities that, um, are with their rules
cross that bridge and we come to it.
Right. I will call the question
as it relates to the amendment
for council rules and procedures.
So I have, let's see. Mr.
Lafferty, you made the motion, I believe? Yes.
Uh, Mr. Lafferty? Yes. As amended. Ms. Moore? Yes.
Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. As amended. Mr. Nunan?
Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries.
Next item. Next item is 13 D.
Consideration of the appointment of Bill Cliff
to the zoning board of appeals for a term of office
to expire September, 2026.
So moved. Support, Lafferty Discussion. Anyone?
Madam Chair, Ms. Moore? Um, I think certainly Mr.
Cliff is certainly qualified
and I I welcome him to, uh, rejoin the board.
Um, but I will mention that we are going
to have a retirement, a resignation coming up in October.
So if anybody's interested in serving on the zoning board
of appeals, um, please go online and put your application in
or call council office
and they will hook you up with the right form.
Thank you. Any additional discussion?
I'd like Madam. Mr. Nunan,
I'd like to say that I had a very nice discussion with Mr.
Bill Cliff and I learned a lot about the, uh,
zoning board, uh, months ago.
And, uh, I, I believe I can well approve
of his appointment to this.
Thank you.
Thank you Mr. Newan. Any additional discussion?
Hearing none, I will call the question. Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr.
Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan?
Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries.
Congratulations Mr. Cliff. Thank you.
Next item. Next item is 13 e Discussion in Ray Electric, VE
electric vehicle charging station.
So moved. Support Lafferty Madam Chair.
Uh, discussion Ms. Moore. Thank you.
I was informed by, um, a colleague of mine, um,
that, uh, indicated that a Ford Motor company
has announced that any Ford employee leasing a vehicle
and then leases a supplemental vehicle.
The supplemental vehicle must be an electric vehicle.
And I am just wondering if we need to look
and look at the possibility
of putting charging stations in the city, maybe Parks
City property.
Um, I do have a, a little printout
for creating a greener
and cleaner community of how, um, uh, what cities can do
to add charging stations
and, um, electrify, uh, your municipality.
So I thought maybe this was something we could give
to the environmental subcommittee to look at.
Um, I was on an, I would, yes.
And I was on an RFP committee, I believe
with the planning department last year.
I don't know where that landed,
but there was, uh, conversations with the county contractor
or the, the person who was providing EV chargers
to the county, uh,
and was looking at ways to put in charging.
I don't know where that is. So maybe ask, ask for an update.
Yep. And, and maybe that, that group we, we give it
to the environmental committee.
Maybe they can follow up on where we're at. Mr. Nunan?
Yes, please. That sound like something you can deal
with. I would
Many people would be so happy.
Check in with, um, Mr. Wirth.
It was approximately maybe a year ago, uh,
and it was, uh, Ms.
Gapes and a number of other city departments were part of
the meeting in the RFP committee.
I don't know where it sits now.
We'll plan on inviting them. Thank you. Oh,
Thank you so much.
So the, uh, motion is to refer it
to the Environmental Review Committee?
Yes. Subcommittee or MS. Camp.
What's the correct name of the committee? What is it?
Environmental Review Committee. Is that what it is? Okay.
Environmental review. Subcommittee. Subcommittee.
Subcommittee. Subcommittee. Yeah. Yeah.
Environmental Review Committee. Uh, makers of the motion.
Good with Yes. Adjusting that. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Thank you.
Uh, I will call the question. Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr. Lafferty?
Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan? Yes.
Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 14.
A request of the legal department for a transfer of funds
between line items in the amount of $6,000
to cover the increased cost to provide updates to both print
and online research materials, consideration
and adoption of a resolution.
Five votes are needed. So moved.
Support Lafferty. Discussion.
Hearing none? I'll call the question. Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr.
Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Noonan?
Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries.
Next item. Next item is 14 B.
Request to approve the request for proposals for
outside legal counsel
and to appoint a member of the city council
to serve on this RFP.
Motion to approve Ms. Uh, or present.
Roy, I would actually like to serve on that committee.
So I'm making a motion to appoint Mindy
Moore. Yourself. Okay.
Support Madam, Madam Chair. Um, yes. Mr. Lafferty?
I was going to make that motion, uh,
but since it's already been made, I support it.
Okay. Uh, motion by more
and two supports from Mr.
Dwyer and Mr. Lamberty? Uh, anyone else?
Okay. All in favor? A. Any opposed? Okay.
Motion carries. Congratulations Ms. Moore. Thank you.
14 C Request to approve the notice of intent
to issue capital Improvement Bond series 2024
and to approve a bond resolution,
capital improvement Bond series 2024 in the amount
of 34 million, $60,000 consideration
and adoption of a resolution. So moved
Support Lafferty with discussion.
Uh, discussion. Mr. Lafferty?
Thank you. Through the chair to Mr. Ax.
I'm here. Good evening, sir.
It's good to see you. Uh, these are,
there are actually two resolutions here.
The first one is a notice of intent, which is required
by the law in order to issue this kind of bond issue.
And, uh, that authorizes the, uh, the notice
to be put in the paper.
And we, there's a rep referendum period.
Once that expires, we can go ahead and issue the bonds
and, uh, the second, uh, item is the actual bond resolution,
which will take effect,
but not until we can, uh, have that expiration.
That's really it. You have two things, but they both relate.
Thank you. And quickly, a a point of order,
uh, Madam Chair Yes.
To Secretary Moore. Do we need, uh, two votes?
Are we going to separate this or
Yes. You do have, yes. Have
to have two votes. Okay.
Alright. So my questions are pertinent
to the second resolution.
And so what I'd like to, going over the debt service,
this looks to be a 20 year
retirement on the debt service,
Uh, Mr. Lty?
That's correct. And, uh, this one's a little bit unique
because there are, um, several pieces of capital equipment,
uh, that are included as a part of this.
Um, each one of those has a, a slightly different life from
as few as three years to as many as 20.
And so we've structured it so that, um,
the repayment schedule matches the, the life of the assets.
So if the last set only has a three year life,
we're only gonna borrow for three years.
So that when it's time to replace that asset,
the city's no longer, uh, making payments, uh, towards that.
So you've an annualized it in in,
in sections, essentially.
Yeah. Uh, exactly. So there's, there's four buckets.
Uh, there's a three year in eight year,
a 10 year and a 20 year.
And so that's why the amortization schedule looks a little
different than it normally would
where we would've level debt service.
In this case, uh, we have debt service
that matches the average life of those assets.
Very good. And the, the interest rates for each of them,
is it consistent or do you have, uh,
based on the annualization
or the amortization rather, uh, a, a variable
or a, a fixed rate based on the
amount of capital for each one?
Sure. So anytime the, the city issues bonds,
we can issue a 20 year bond.
Uh, we're actually issuing 20 separate maturities,
20 separate bonds to go along with that.
So across the yield curve,
we have 20 different interest rates that match that.
Now, those may be the same
based on the shape of the yield curve.
Um, but there's actually 20 different rates
that a bidder will bid when they, they bid the city's bonds.
And so yeah, each one of those will have a different rate.
Um, but then that averages out.
Current rates, um, if we sold these today
for the entire issue would be, you know, somewhere
between three and a half and 4%.
That's terrific. Yeah, I was, I was looking at the, uh,
at the rate service, it looked pretty, pretty darn good.
3, 5, 3 7, uh, net interest costs.
Yeah. And we've seen rates come down, uh,
especially in the last couple of weeks
and, uh, you know, a long time between now
and, uh, October 10th when we're
expecting to sell these bonds.
Um, but uh, again, if we sold 'em today, you know, three
and a half to 4% would be our expectation.
And anytime we write a scale, uh, to be included
for city council, we were definitely conservative.
So, um, you know, I think we would beat those rates today.
But, um, you know, like I said,
a long time until October 10th.
Okay. And could you
state your name for the record, please?
Sure. Steven Burke.
And we're the city's financial advisor with MFCI.
Thank you. One last question for you,
and then I have a question for Mr. Knapp.
The opportunity to renegotiate bonds market improves.
Uh, I know right now we're,
we're in the federal election cycle
and we typically see a, a shift in the, in the markets.
And so if we have the opportunity to renegotiate that,
that does present, uh, an opportunity for us.
So market convention is a 10 year call.
Uh, so we're now looking at bonds that were issued
by the city, uh, approximately seven to 10 years ago,
depending on what the call was at the time.
Um, and so the city does have outstanding debt
that's callable, but
because of the current market rates being higher than they
have been, uh, in, in past years, we haven't been able
to refinance any of those, renegotiate those deals.
Um, but it's what we do
as the city's financial advisors always look out
for those opportunities and then bring you those.
I know that, uh, as we've discussed several times in front
of you, we've saved the, uh, the city, you know, millions
and millions of dollars by refinancing debt.
Uh, and I mean the collective, we as, as the financing team,
um, and, and city council and, um, you know, Mr. Knapp
and Mr. Fox, uh, working through these
and being aggressive to go out
and refinance those to save money when those
opportunities present themselves.
Mr. Burke, that's probably the most
important answer of the evening.
Thank you. So thank you. Thank you
for your expertise, both of you.
Thank you. Mr. X. Uh, through the chair to Mr. Knapp,
I was comparing the, uh,
the exhibits on the projects that are listed for, for this.
We're, we're looking at a number of infrastructure projects
for roads and then capital equipment for police,
fire and DPW.
Correct. And I was comparing the, the police fire
and DPW matches dollar for dollar, but I did notice it
and it's, it's probably just the way it's structured in the
budget pages 2 66 and 2 67.
Uh, I noticed you don't have your budget with you,
so I'm not gonna hold you to
There is a $510,000 difference between the two.
Okay. And that difference is
because the $510,000 project is already done.
So we didn't, we didn't include in the bond issue.
What more could I ask? Thank you sir.
Alright, that makes, uh, that makes all the difference.
Uh, with that I have no other questions.
And chair, could I make a point of order sort of? Sure.
Um, let's separate these as 14 C one,
which will be the intent
and 14 C two, which will be the actual approval
of the bond resolution.
Will that make, will that work? MS. Camp? Mm-Hmm.
That's okay. Okay. So let's, so let's separate these out.
14 C one. I currently have a motion by you, Ms. Moore,
and a second by Lafferty.
Yes. Which is the correct item that matches the agenda.
So, we'll, I'll call the question on that.
Ms. Moore, does anybody else have questions?
Any other discussion? I dunno. Yes.
Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr.
Newan? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is? Yes. Motion carries.
And then next item is 14 C two Resolution, um,
to approve, uh, uh, to approve a bond resolution
for capital improvement bond series 2024 in the amount
of $34,060,000. So moved.
Support Lafferty Discussion.
Hearing none, I will call the question. Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr.
Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan?
Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is? Yes. Motion carries.
Next item 14 D, request of the fire department
to increase the award
of bid ITBW 0 7 4 2 furnishing new structural
firefighting turnout gear to Phoenix Safety Outfitters, um,
for an annual amount not to exceed $81,473 50 cents
to an annual amount not to exceed $120,000
for two annual periods.
Consideration and adoption of a resolution.
So moved. So moved. Support
D Wire. Uh,
motion by Moore. Support by Dwyer. Any discussion?
Hearing none. I will call the question. Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr.
Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan?
Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries.
Next item. Next item is 14 e proposed ordinance to amend.
Chapter two, article five, division 4.5 of the code
of ordinances entitled Veterans Advisory
and Memorial Commission.
This is a second reading. So moved with discussion
Support affidavit. Discussion
Discussion, Ms. Moore?
Yes. Thank you. Um, last meeting, um, at the first, um,
reading a couple weeks ago, um,
the original ordinance had a member of the economic, um,
development department.
And, um, subsequently the administration,
um, proposed removing that.
And I explained the reason for that.
Um, because it's a veterans group
and we may want to be finding housing for veterans,
that's often a problem, homelessness with veterans
and the economic, um,
development department would have the best opportunity
to provide that sort of information.
So they've put that back.
They've left the parks and rec in
because the, I mean, I don't think they need
to be on the commission, but they can't be.
I don't have a problem with it,
but they'll be maybe facilitating some of the installation
of the bricks and things, um, at the, uh, memorial.
So I don't have any problem with any of it.
So, any Mr. Lafferty,
Madam President, thank you.
Through the chair to Mr. Schroeder on section
two dash 15 five, section one.
The notices of appointment shall be sent
to city council pursuant to Charter 7.6
and confirmed by council
and confirmed by council has been, uh, struck.
There's, are we reconciling that the ordinance already
subscribes to council approval?
This is stating that the mayor shall make an appointment
pursuant to Section 7.6 A of the charter,
and that the council would have, um, two meetings to reject
that appointment with a reason.
Okay. So it's following the standard procedure, right?
We're taking it out as, uh, the additional step
to confirm,
but like we would for planning for ZBA,
and we're treating it like all other boards and commissions.
This would not be like planning.
This would not be like DDA, this would be like other boards
and commissions where the mayor appoints,
and then the council could either receive
and file the appointment or reject it with a reason. Yes.
Thank you, Pam. Chair. Ms. Moore.
One of the reasons that we put in every ordinance we wrote
for council confirmation is
because of some of the stuff that's happened.
And we've seen it happen, you know,
since we came in here in November,
that appointments are made without following the procedure.
Uh, not counsel not being notified.
We have people sitting on commissions right now
that were either denied by counsel
or counsel was never notified.
And I'm concerned about that.
And the way around that is
to make sure there's council confirmation for everything.
Um, and, um, so I'm hopeful, hope, hopeful
that those things get cleared up.
They still are not cleared up.
We have people on commissions
that have no business being there.
They've not been appointed properly.
So I'm hoping that this administration gets
that problem under control
and we now are going forward with these mistakes
and, um, violations of the charter.
But I'm, I'm not gonna,
that's not the hill I'm gonna die on.
Um, hopefully things will work out going forward.
I want to cooperate and get things moving.
That's the goal of everybody up here.
We got elected with great ideas and enthusiasm,
and we have just been stalled over so many little things
that we don't need to be stalled on.
And so I, I'm not gonna hold this up.
We need to get this Veterans Commission going. Ms.
Um, Roy had sort of half of it.
I had sort of the other half of what we put it together
to be comprehensive, what we think commission going forward.
There's a lot of things we need to do.
We have to take care of the memorial,
so I wanna move it forward.
I'm happy with the way it is now,
and hopefully it,
the appointments are made properly and we're notified.
Thank you. Any additional discussion,
Madam President, Mr.
Nunan? I've, I've been very talkative tonight,
but I think that the veterans are extremely important
and especially, um, the homeless veterans
who are hard put in our city.
And I'm so glad that this commission will have a chance
to really address all the issues of the,
of the seniors and the veterans.
Thank you. Any additional discussion?
Okay. Hearing none, I will call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes. For you. Paul Card as Mr. Um, Lafferty? Yes. Mr.
Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan? Yes. Ms. McGee?
Yes. Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is audience participation for general topics.
Members of the audience who would like
to address the city council this evening may do so
by filling out an audience form if you have not already
to the right of stage.
This is a reminder that per our council rules
and procedures, you must write your name
and address on the audience form.
Give your full name and address at the podium.
Uh, you have three minutes, and this is for general topics.
First is Richard Meki.
Good evening. Um, I live over on, uh,
2 9 7 11 Park Place,
and that's, uh, right, uh, behind the city hall.
And there's a, uh, parking lot that's as
of right now being used, uh, to, uh, store each area
for the people, uh, the road
that's are being repaired all around the city.
Uh, I've been living there for about 30 years,
and the last five years, uh, uh, the, uh, our,
the city center square number six, uh, units, uh,
34 units, uh, are, uh, being exposed
to, uh, the noise, the dirt, dust.
Uh, they got, um, hills of, uh,
many, uh, uh, they dump, uh, dirt too for the, uh,
roads and that.
And, uh, that, uh, is just an eyesore.
And, uh, it's dirty.
And, uh, uh, when, uh, the weather gets really, uh,
warm and everything else, we have dust storms that, uh, form
and, uh, people, uh, in our units, uh, complain about that.
Um, the next thing is, uh, the sidewalks
of the city of, uh, uh, when are they gonna be repaired?
We have some, uh, sidewalks that are real bad.
I could give you example on, uh, uh,
common in Kennedy Circle.
Uh, that's, uh, a city center.
Number five, the signs there, there's one that, uh,
the sidewalk is down to, uh, maybe three
or four inches, uh, there, and that,
and it's a hazard there.
And, uh, I would let not like to see, uh, the city
of Warren being, uh, sued for something like that.
Um, one more thing is, uh, uh, when,
uh, uh, the town center apartments were
being built, they had a, a park there that was, uh,
located on, uh, town Center Drive
and south, uh, Kennedy Circle.
And, uh, there's a flagpole there.
They, uh, the first two years when they, uh,
after they got built, uh, they were taken care of.
The, that park, it's just a small park.
It's not, but now, uh, it's, uh, there's a lot of,
uh, uh, at times there was a lot of garbage there.
And there is a, uh, a flag pole and no flag.
They were supposed to, uh, take care of it and everything.
And it, uh, what is it? It's nothing there.
I mean, it's just plain.
And, uh, the bushes and everything else there are, uh, dying
or, uh, they're, there's a, a, uh, what is it?
A sidewalk. And, uh, uh, the trees
that are there, uh, evergreen, they're going into the, uh,
uh, into the sidewalks and everything and that,
and, uh, that should be addressed and everything.
And when we were told, when they were building that
to get it approved, that they would make
that look, uh, really pretty.
And it's an eyesore right now.
And, uh, uh, city center square number six,
I'm the president of that.
I get a lot of complaints from, uh, my, uh, people at, uh,
uh, uh, units and everything.
And, uh, and we,
Mr. Meki, I
apologize the timer wasn't started,
but I have it on my phone, so you're at time.
Okay. Um, but if you give your phone number
to Ms Camp here on the end, she will, um,
I will take a picture and send it to our depo, uh,
DPW director who left?
Okay. Thank you Very much. Thank
You. You have a good, uh,
evening.
You too. Thank you so much. Next is Lori Harris.
Hi to Tony and Dorothy, uh, baker.
Um, sorry that you can't be here or participate in any way.
Um, we need an a DA, uh, method, a way
of having people being able to join these meetings
who can't physically be here.
Uh, if anyone's interested, they can, uh, look at the City
of Warren political page for an update from Tony Baker
on issues regarding a DA compliance and needs in the city.
Um, the water issue, I was thinking while I was listening
to these, the, the, the, uh, group of experts
really appreciate all that information,
but I was thinking there's probably a couple other things we
could have also done better.
Um, number one, we have to address the millions of gallons
of combined sewage overflow coming from Oakland County,
and wondering if that's not coming through,
how much better the city of Warren would do.
I also wonder if there's a way to, um, initiate
people to help.
I am sure there have got to probably be older people
or people incapable of moving their damaged goods out
of their basement, and they may just live like that.
And if we could find a way to encourage people
to help each other, um, would be another way
to feel like we were making progress in an issue like this.
I'd also like a strong statement from the mayor
about the combined sewage overflow from Oakland County,
because that's what helps to flood our homes,
um, about rentals.
I'm really concerned about people coming into the city
and, um, renting out parts of their house
and boldly promoting that, where they've, uh,
made kitchens and bathrooms
and living arrangements in other parts of their home, um,
that are really considered rentals,
but are probably not being, um,
applied for through the city.
And I'm wondering how we can address that.
And, um, a little tip from a nurse.
Um, this is not political
and people wanna make it political, but COVID is on the rise
and our wastewater, um,
is showing a great increase in covid.
I, and if you've managed to not have long covid I
or serious complications,
or you don't care for someone who's fragile
or immunosuppressed, um, maybe it doesn't bother you,
but there are people that we need to protect.
So, mask up when you're in a crowded public place.
Um, ventilation in a, in a, uh, if you're able to, in a, uh,
a classroom or a meeting room, um,
stay home if you're sick.
And, um, you know, just as a little public thing, you're
Outta time. Thank you.
Get a vaccine if it comes out. Thanks. Thank you,
Ms. Uh, Michelle
Na is next.
Hello again. I'm Michelle Nar.
I'm still the Macomb County Commissioner until December,
and I really appreciate, uh,
Ms. Harris bringing up about the covid is being rampant
because I just had a few family members
that, uh, came up with that.
And I was very surprised that, uh, it was as bad as it was
until we took 'em to the hospital
and saw a lot of people there that was, you know, ill
with Covid, uh, no matter how you slice something up
or you bring something up and try to make it look all fuzzy
and cute, it's still the same thing.
It's people are still being silenced
because who's determining what language is bad
or good if someone is speaking about, um, something
that someone is doing or saying.
So we can kind of say, say it all fuzzy
and nice as we want to, but the residents
or the person that's listening to that,
you know, how are they feeling?
Because a lot of the people that are here have voted you in
and, and if they don't like something that you're doing,
they have a right to stand before this podium
and say, you know, that they don't like it,
and to express it in as long as they're not inciting a riot.
Um, so I just want you to be cautious of that, you know,
and, uh, 'cause I've checked on that too.
And, um, so we just need
to be careful when we're silencing people
that we ask for their vote.
Um, and then I wish that we would start, uh,
governing in a bipartisan way.
And I know people will say, well, it doesn't matter,
but it shows that it mattered
because when this race was being ran, this race went
for you when you guys got up here, uh,
it was very partisan, very partisan.
Um, and, um, I thought that that was very, um,
unfair to the people
because, so if you're just all Democrat, which I'm one, uh,
what are you gonna do
with the Republican people that need help?
Are you going to, you know, not work on them?
Are you not gonna listen to their voice?
Are you going to be upset when they come up
and complain about something?
Um, it's no different than if someone is black
and they come up and say something.
When we start putting partisan in the way of something
that's nonpartisan, it causes a problem.
And, um, so I just want us to be more conscious of that
because our children are watching.
And, uh, I was really excited to see, I seen a, a
probably a total of about 75 18 year olds vote
for the first time on, uh, August the sixth.
And they were very proud to do so.
But as they were going up to vote,
people were saying nasty things about some
of their opponents, and, uh, it was, uh, causing a problem.
And I'm glad that I was around and,
and, uh, at phones length to let them know not
to stand down and not to do that.
So I think that we as adults need to learn
that it doesn't matter what party we're from,
what color we're from what country, we're from, the thing
that we have in common, we're all human beings
and we're all Americans.
Let's remember that. Have a good night.
Thank you. Next is Christina Vuca.
Okay. Hi, I am Christina Vuca.
I'm here to speak about the medical marijuana ruling,
which takes the case back down to the lower courts.
Um, it's a death role for medical marijuana in Warren.
Um, Warren has medical sales. They're not open.
If you were forced to redo it, it'd be a lottery
that nobody would enter.
Um, the court is looking at the Open Meetings Act.
Recreational requires a competitive process,
which means we are gonna go back
and look at the medical scoring of all 65 applications.
And if they were rescored competitively,
the reality is there is no pathway forward for Warren
to use medical to issue recreational as far
as this community goes.
Medical had a $300,000 capitalization requirement.
Almost every applicant was from outside of Warren.
Recreational sales have no capitalization requirement,
which is where local Warren can apply.
You've had medical sales in Warren,
and that is what's in court,
but their operation hasn't caused any interference
with the lawsuits.
The court literally cannot cross over into recreational
because it's an entirely separate business.
So there's no point waiting
because the recreational ordinance will look no different
now than it would at the completion of court.
November, 2018, state Proposal 18,
one adult use Warren specifically voted yes by 57%,
where the state percentage was 54% passing.
Warren is a big part of the auto industry,
but nowadays, what you read in the news is about the layoffs
that are happening in Warren.
We need different kinds of businesses that are going
to create local jobs that people can access easily.
You see a lot on Facebook. I can't get to this location.
You need more businesses here that are hiring
for the 2023 State Year.
The state of Michigan distributed $87 million to cities
that allowed recreational sales.
Centerline received almost 600,000 of them
and is on track to do something similar for this year.
That's over $1 million in two years for allowing sales,
which that community can use in any way they want to.
The third largest city in the state
of Michigan is receiving nothing.
It should have always been about what is best for this city.
So how many jobs are we willing to lose here in Warren
before we do something about it?
How much longer do we have to wait
and keep missing out on millions of dollars
that this city can use to help its own community?
You can solve these problems now immediately
by getting this rolling.
It's time to move recreational forward.
Marijuana is already in the state of Michigan.
It's already in neighboring communities.
It's already in Warren. You're just not benefiting from it.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next is Ms. Mr. Vander Lenin.
Joel, Alan, longtime worn resident.
I come about the past election.
How many council members got a phone call from Sonja Buffet
telling you that all these different locations were canceled
or closed or no electricity?
Nobody got one. I know
that's a lie stance.
Stand up. Raise your hand.
Ms. McGee. Did you get a phone call? Yes.
You got a phone call. You called Nike Howard up.
Did you call any other candidate up? No, you didn't.
No. You were going with your platform
and your person, and that was it.
You didn't tell the citizens,
you didn't tell nobody nothing.
That's a shame that this Soviet council
is allowing the mayor to run her game
and keep the citizens misinformed.
Now, how many people saw something on the Warren TV channel
about all the closings,
all the different locations for voting?
Nobody. We own a TV channel for emergency updates
and everything else, and there was nothing,
nothing on the TV saying these schools are flooded, closed,
lack of electricity, nothing.
Why is that? We have, we have this communication thing
and we're not using it as some
of these places were predetermined
and other people knew about it.
Why didn't we send out a postcard saying, by the way,
your voter location for this election
is at this location here.
It's been moved. Do we not care about all those
people trying to vote through their,
their American right to vote to practice
the honor passed on by the PI people
of the military who fought and died for that honor?
That doesn't matter to you. Oh, no, you're all socialists.
You just want to control everybody
and don't give a damn what they say or how they feel.
Ill, it's chilling
that this council doesn't answer
or doesn't try to answer to the people that elected you.
You just want to keep on
with your little Soviet little get
together. I, once again, you're
Of time, Mr. Vander Lenin. Have
a good evening.
I'll complete my last statement already.
You're out of time Mr. Vander. You did
Already. You're out of time.
Mr. Vander Lenin.
I'm not out of time. You're Out of time.
I, I can't read the thought. You can't see it.
Can't see it. I, I'm advising you, you are out
of time and this is zero.
You have used your three minutes, so please have a
Seat. Are you gonna call the police to
arrest me? Please
Have a seat. Mr.
Vander. Len, but you had him earlier. Please have a seat.
Mr. Van Lyn, I recall and removal van, Mr.
Vander seat, please have a seat as present of the council.
Are you really gonna arrest me? No, no, no.
Gonna help you out.
Next is Nain aar.
Wow.
Greetings. Can you hear me? Okay.
My name is Nain AAR Warren resident.
I'd like to represent myself on behalf of those
who are oppressed and killed in the genocides.
I'd like to represent on behalf
of those whose names are never mentioned and recorded,
and they do not know why.
I'd like to represent those innocent people
who are born in poverty
and don't know if they'll make it the next day.
I'm the voice for them.
And a messenger to corrupt lobbyists and politicians.
We bleed the same blood.
We have same hopes and dreams to be free
and to live in a free land.
I'm tired of seeing awesome people
and children getting killed.
They hunt me in my dreams.
But for the past few days, I can't even sleep
because my native land is targeted where I spent my most
of early adolescence.
Enough is enough. I want this world to heal.
I'm, I repeat. I want this world to heal.
There's way too much going on.
There is way too much bleeding happening.
I fear that if we do not stop these genocides planned
by these evil corrupted leaders,
our nation will start bleeding too.
And never say, oh no, we're the first world country.
We'll never bleed. Trust me,
this naive behavior has caused us lose our loved ones.
During COVID-19, these corrupt leaders do not have a drop
of humanity in their heart.
They play with our lives.
And one of the most sensitive way they create chaos
is creating words in the name of religion
and minority rights at the end.
It doesn't harm them, it harms us.
In 1946, when Hindu Muslim riots started
by those corrupt leaders using political propagandas in
Bihar, India, my forefathers were
forced to leave their land.
Their fearmongering techniques have done a very good job
for past few decades.
But this game must end.
My grandfather, who lost everything
and was forced to move back to Bangladesh for the safety
of his family, never went back to be our India
because he lost everything.
He lost his Hindu neighbors, he lost his peers,
he lost his networks, he lost his wealth.
But most importantly,
some lunatic folks took over the chance
to loot his land just
as my grandfather lost everything as a minority.
Similarly, there are many who are still losing
because of how our Debbie lobbyist lawmakers using
fearmongering techniques, political propagandas
to destroy our humanity.
I'm done. I'd like to warn those pharaohs that
for every Pharaoh out there there is Moses two.
I made a promise to myself that I'll not stop trying
until we are united for the sake of humanity.
So those of you who are sitting in front of me,
and those of you who are sitting with me in this room,
please raise your hands if you're against this humanity.
Please raise your hands.
If you're tired of seeing these innocent people getting
killed, please raise your hand.
Thank you so much. Please raise your hand if you're tired
of humanity seeing innocent people getting killed.
Can you please do something as an awareness
to stop this genocide? You
Are out of time. Thank you. Thank
You.
Next is Chris McLaughlin.
So, um, thank you, uh, Madam President
City Council, uh, city attorney.
My name is Chris McLaughlin. I've been here before.
Um, I serve as the state director for the Secular Alliance
of Michigan, which is an alliance
of non-religious organized non-religious groups
around the state, including the reason station here in
Warren City Hall and, uh, Michigan Atheist
that had a booth at the, uh,
Warren Pride Fest just a little while ago.
And, um, it came to my attention that, um, very many, um,
religious extremists were here in this very spot, speaking
to the council, uh, last council meeting, um,
and complaining about the Pride Fest.
And I wanted to talk about that.
And I'm gonna try to keep a, a good humor about it,
but it kind of makes me a little angry
because I think that, um, these religious extremists
are trying to play all of us.
They're trying to play the city government,
and they're trying to play the city,
play the city of Warren.
Um, most religious believers are good people,
good honest people who would never try to use government
to enforce their moral religious codes.
Um, but these religious extremists, one
after one, um, came up here
and talked about, um, how they wanted the city
to do something to enforce their religious moral code.
Um, they apparently don't have the ability to put themselves
in other people's shoes and have empathy.
Um, LGBT is a
sexual identity.
That's what it is. Uh, pride Fest is about sexuality.
That is what it is. And, you know, newsflash, um,
things like, you know, adult novelty items
and, um, risque artwork that was at the, uh, pride fest.
Not only are these things that you can find in every
shopping mall in America, but they're not coming, you know,
to the shopping mall to protest about it.
They're coming here
because they don't like the fact
that LGBT people are getting
representation and that they're seeing.
Right. And again, newsflash, um, you know, the L
and LGBTs lesbian, how do these people think they have sex?
They use sex toys.
That is a part of who they are, that is as much a part
of their culture as a cross is to a Christian.
So, um, again, nobody was harmed by any of this.
There are, you know, there are, for example, Christians
who are gay who see no problem with this.
There are gay parents who have children who have no problem
with their parents' sexuality.
Um, it's just absurd, the entire idea that, uh,
that this is somehow offensive.
And so what I ask is
that the city council actually get these people to show harm
and the extent of that harm
before you spend a penny
of taxpayer dollars investigating this.
Thank you're out of time. Thank you. Thank you.
Next is Jim Kleiner.
Alright, good evening everyone. Uh, my name's Jim Kleiner.
I'm the Associate Director of the Secular Lines of Michigan.
And, uh, I wrote this about a month ago.
Um, we're here to support you
and Noonan's, uh,
comment from about a month ago on social media
that stirred up some controversy.
Beware of Christian nationalists.
Um, we are also afraid
of Christian nationalism, not Christians.
There is a difference. You never said beware of Christians.
Anyone can come up here all p****d off
and upset over things that they don't understand
and get people riled up.
I mean, it's a real easy thing to do
to the people in the audience.
Like, please don't come up here
and insult these people and call them names.
They're doing a hell of a job.
So some people need to have some respect
and talk with some subtlety
and try to understand one another.
Um, there is a difference
between Christians and Christian nationalists.
Christian nationalists don't
want to allow religious freedom.
They think everyone should be Christian
and the government should promote it.
They behind, they hide behind true Christians
and push their political agendas.
I wanna be clear. We're not talking about Christians.
We're talking about Christian nationalists.
And there is a difference, and there's a reason
that people are afraid of 'em.
I mean, look up Project 2025, for example.
I mean, I have plenty of Christian friends,
but zero, you know,
Christian nationalist friends and for good reason.
Um, if you get offended by the words Christian nationalist,
then you need to do your research.
Take a look in the mirror and figure some things out.
Uh, some Christians came to speak a few weeks ago
and said, you know, everyone who said
that they're Christian, are not Christian.
That's number one. And
they're absolutely right in that statement.
And my response is, then you might wanna try
to clear your name, because these people are making
you guys look like terrorists.
I mean, like, if atheists were going
around doing terrible things
and giving other atheists a bad name, then it's my duty
as someone who identifies as an atheist to clear our name
and try to set things straight.
Like, that's actually why I'm up here, is
because people have the wrong idea about atheists
because they don't know enough about us.
And, you know,
if you don't want people talking bad about Christians,
which isn't even what Noonan said, then you need
to eliminate that cancer that's growing inside the religion
and make everyone else look, make,
making everyone else looking down on it.
Um, you know, one of the Christians said, I'm a patriot.
Well, guess what? I'm a patriot too.
Um, I keep you the keep a copy
of the Constitution with me, with me.
And, um, you know,
this country was created as a secular nation.
It wasn't a Christian nation.
You know, I wanted to have people do their homework,
know their history, and stop echoing lies.
You know, many different groups of people like Puritans,
separatists, pilgrims, Quakers, d as Secularists,
and others came here from Europe to escape religion.
And our government was founded on religious freedom.
Not one religion over another, but equality.
Um, we were here for Juneteenth in Pride.
We want to thank you as the city for hosting those events.
We want to thank Michael Taylor
for putting all the work effort
and organization for Juneteenth.
Uh, it was a hell of a job,
and I think you guys are doing great.
You have a tough job up there.
You're not gonna make everyone happy.
And I appreci appreciate all of you volunteering.
You're the time. Thank you. Yeah, thanks
Mark. Ashley,
Thank you for giving me this time.
Uh, I live in Roseville, so I live in a ne neighboring city,
and I'm also part of the, uh, secular, I'm also part
of the secular alliance of Michigan,
and it's very important for us to come up and talk.
So, you know that there are atheists within our community.
I am one of them. And it brings me back to a, uh,
to a radio show I watched, uh, quite a while ago, uh,
where there was an atheist
and he had his guest who was a very,
very famous, uh, Christian.
And they were talking about the
separation of church and state.
And the Christian came up
and said, well, no, the separation of church
and state is that you, um,
or, uh, the freedom of religion is
that you can have whatever
Christian religion you want to have.
Not that you can be an atheist or you can be a Muslim.
No, you have to be a Christian.
And there are many that think that.
And I don't know what the people here think,
but I do know that there are people in our community that,
that do think that way, that do not think
that we should have actual freedom of religion.
Because to have real freedom of religion,
you must have freedom from religion.
I am not against anybody's religion.
I'm against extremists.
I'm against people that are gonna do harm to other people.
If there was ever a situation
where there was people being discriminated
because of their religion, I would be fighting with them.
I'd be fighting for them, even if I didn't agree
with their religion or their tenets.
They have a, they have the freedom
to believe whatever they want.
It is actions that I'm against, not people's beliefs.
And I just wanted to come up and say that
and let you know that we atheists are out here.
We are part of, uh, we are part of these communities,
and we are definitely not going anywhere.
And we hope that you can bring us into your community
and welcome us as I welcome people in my community.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you. Next is Douglas Marshall.
Good evening. I'm Douglas Marshall, a 38 year resident
of the City of Warren
and director of the Reason Station in the Warren City Hall.
I've come the night to talk about Christian nationalism
and the speakers
before me have, uh, uh, taken most of my points.
But I'm here to say Christian nationalists is,
are the most dangerous people
and greatest threat to our democracy.
Tonight, I've brought with me a document created
by the Joint Baptist Committee for Religious Liberty,
and they document how Christian nationalists
supplied the manpower
for the January 6th insurrection.
Their object is to destroy our constitution
and take away the rights that Constitution gives me.
Now, if any of the council people would like to borrow
this hard copy edition, I, uh, well, it'll be available
to take after the meeting.
I can also be found online.
And I would also recommend, uh, the book,
the Founding Mission by, uh, Andrew Seidel,
who documents how Christian nationalism is
un-American. Thank you.
Thank you. Next is Jerry Bell.
Jerry Bell. Uh, well, first I want to,
um, you know, I, I heard the, uh, young lady
there speaking about, um,
the killings, the deaths.
Um, You know,
when I turn on the TV
and I watch what's going on around the world,
you know, I, I say to myself, you know,
I've never seen anything like this before.
I'm 50 years old, never seen anything like it before,
and I feel so sorry for those that are affected
in those parts of the country.
I feel really bad. And to see only two of you sitting up on
that stage, raise your hand in support of her, uh,
which is Councilman Woman McGee.
And, um, the, uh, responding, um, um,
secretary for council are the only
two that raise their hand.
But to see 2, 4, 6 council members not raise
their hands, I mean, you guys are an embarrassment.
And I, I'm just trying to figure out here, uh,
after hearing you Mindy Moore about these council rules
and procedures, I'm just trying to find out who
is the deciding individual
to determine if something is offensive or not.
Is it you Councilwoman Rogan C is it you?
Oh, you're not responding? Okay. I didn't think so.
You guys dressed this up very well,
but the real violation was committed a few weeks ago.
Ms. Rogan c when you tore off after me verbally,
and you guys made every, every chance to try
to clean this up, to try to make this whole council rule
and procedure or whatever it is, sound good or look good,
because you want to be protected.
So if in the event that you do something wrong,
you can't be held accountable, you want to try
to silence us, that's what it is.
You can make it sound as good as you want up there on stage,
looking all good with your suits and all this other crap,
but you knew it wasn't gonna work.
You know, it's not gonna work.
So, as I said before, I'm gonna keep coming up here.
I'm gonna keep speaking no profanity,
and I'm just waiting for you guys to show me where I, uh,
mention profanity at any point in time
during any other council meetings.
I don't think you can, you're
intimidated and just say it.
You should be, we're the people.
We're the ones that put you in,
and we can take you outta there too.
So I understand what you're doing.
I don't agree with it, but I understand
and I'm gonna keep doing what I do.
Have a good night. Thank
You.
Next is Gloria Sanker.
Good evening City Council.
When you choose a doctor, you want to know how good he is
and not how nice he is.
The same. When choosing candidates for office, you want
to know what he believes and what party he embraces.
Is he Democrat or Republican that will tell you
what his values are?
That's how you know who to vote for, not
how great his smile.
But what are the political views of his party?
Those who say, I personally don't believe in abortion all
through nine months, but are members of a party
that do believe in radical abortion, even
to the ninth month, shouldn't belong to that party.
Those who say open borders are a threat
to our nation's security should not belong to that party
that allows millions of unchecked illegal
people into our country.
If you believe politicians should watch our money
and not overspend, you should not belong to a party
that has caused our nation $34 trillion
of money and debt that will be passed on to our children.
Those who believe that our children should go to a school
to learn the fundamentals of education should not belong
to a party that teaches transgender to young minds
and indoctrinates them without their parents' consent.
If you believe that parents have the right over their
children and not the school board
who makes them domestic terrorists,
when they complain about improper study books
and other object objectionable materials,
you should not belong to that party.
This is not your grandma's political party.
It is a radical left wing party that wants
to control at all costs.
Remember budgie, he was just a mayor. Look at him now.
Very powerful as a national figure.
It does matter who you vote for.
It does matter what party they run with.
Each of these political parties have an agenda.
Your vote in November will be a choice of what set
of rules you leave your children, either the Democrat
or Republican platform.
There is a great difference between them
spiritually and morally.
Know who you are voting for
because that's who you're, you are going to be governed by
and not the smiles on the person's face to get your votes.
Thank you.
Thank you. That is the end of audience.
Next item is council response. Madam Chair, uh, Ms. Moore.
I, I do wanna address the first speaker tonight.
I've forgotten his name, I apologize. I think he's left.
But he spoke about the staging area
of construction materials on City Hall.
I've thought that's horrible for
the whole time it's been there.
I go by there. It's awful. It's a dirt pile.
Why did, why did they choose to put all
that stuff on our property, the city property?
I don't remember us approving it.
Usually we have to approve staging areas.
I know we have over, like by UAW tank. Yep.
So I don't know how that gets approved
or who, who let 'em do that.
But, you know, those neighbors shouldn't get the dust
and debris that should be in an industrial
area, not, uh, city.
And of course we know we've got a sidewalk probe.
I don't know about the flagpole,
but, uh, maybe somebody can take care of that.
And I, I agree that, you know, that election day was
with Butcher and that mess was very
concerning that that happened.
And I guess there's nothing you can do when you lose power.
But people seemed to be very confused.
Uh, thank goodness for Mr. Uh, Lafferty.
He sat at, stood out in the rain at Butcher, telling people
where to go and vote and put, did a Facebook Live.
He stayed there until someone came up until about,
I don't know, about a half hour.
You stayed there until somebody came
from the clerk's office.
But, you know, a lot of times people come very early
and thank goodness, um, Mr.
Uh, Lafferty was there and took it upon himself
to, uh, tell people.
I'm very appreciative of that.
And I'm sure all the voters
that came over there were as well.
Um, but thank you for that Mr. Lafferty.
And, um, along with,
we approve the Veterans Commission tonight, so anybody
that's interested in serving on that commission, um,
I'm sure there will be a, an online, you can go online
and apply for the commissions
or any of the commissions that are open in the city.
Um, it's hard to fill some of the commissions.
So if, uh, you're so inclined.
Um, many of them don't take a huge commitment.
Um, some of 'em are once a month
and, um, you know, these, you know,
you don't have to do a ton of work.
But, um, you know, you offer your ideas for things
and you learn and offer your expertise in certain areas.
And there's, you know, lots of volunteer opportunities.
So if you're so inclined, go online, apply for a commission,
um, we would all very much appreciate it.
Thank you. I just wanted to make a note about Ms.
Atar, which I think she's departed,
but, uh, counsel is not supposed to, uh,
react to the audience.
So, uh, our actions
or lack of action does not necessarily indicate our personal
views, but we're not to respond.
I'm the only person who's supposed to be responding to
a audience when it's happening.
So, just wanted to clarify that, um,
since there was some accusations that we somehow, um,
we're ignoring her, her concern. So
May, Yes, Ms. McGee,
Uh, I did react by error
and just wanted to let everyone know when I found out about
the different location at Butcher, it did not, I did not
communicate to just one candidate.
I was, um, I was at a location
where someone came from the clerk's office
and we asked that he put a sign on the building at Butcher,
and he had stated that he would go over there
and least put a sign on the building to let everyone know.
Thank you. Thank you. Any additional responses? Madam
President Mr. Lafferty,
Regarding the election day mess, so to speak,
it, it, it's not a surprise that there is
construction at a school building during the summer.
That is a routine operational task.
And, and Ms. Morris sat on the school board.
She knows better than any of us. Uh, Mr.
Nunan, as well knows, knows this very well.
That's the time that schools are being
renovated, they're being cleaned.
They're, they're under undergoing all
sorts of transformation.
In preparation for the next school year.
It would behoove the city clerk to plan ahead,
uh, more diligently.
This should not be something new, especially for somebody
with the experience that our current clerk has.
And quite honestly, it's, it's not acceptable.
Uh, now, barring the, the power outage that happened, the,
the day before, hours before the end of the business day.
So, you know, that one, that's not something you can plan
for quickly or react to.
But we do have a notification system.
We have text messaging
that Warren residents have subscribed to.
That's a push notification.
And, you know, I was told, well, it was posted on the City
of Warren, uh, website.
It was posted on the Facebook page. Well, that's great.
If I'm not busy at six 30 in the morning, I getting ready
for work and, and not drive over there.
And, and sure enough, there's, there's no power.
Uh, but in, in the case of the schools where,
and I understand beer
and SMA both were under construction, that was known,
and postcards should have been mailed to
those precincts indicating where they needed
to vote temporarily for that particular day,
I received a mailing.
I think all of us did from the clerk's office
about early voting.
And so there was a plan for that.
But where was the notification for precinct relocation?
That is her main responsibility to
ensure people have the ability to vote unobstructed.
There's nothing more important about her office
and about that office, I should say.
Uh, if it's a matter of funding
or appropriations for postage, one call to Ms. Moore
could have, could have solved that.
We could have made an emergency appropriation
and gotten, gotten word out.
I'm, I don't think anybody on this council would've said no
to extra postcards and,
and, uh, a few dollars to send out mailers.
So very disappointed in the way that was handled.
Could have been done much, much better.
And, uh, hopefully a, a lesson learned by,
uh, in the Clerk's office.
Thank you.
Any additional responses?
Okay, next item.
Motion to adjourn Support. All in favor?
Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. We are adjourned.
I.