Now calling to order a regular meeting
of the city council Tuesday,
October 8th, 2024 at 7:00 PM Please stand
for the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance, pledge allegiance to the flag.
The flag of the United, United America, America.
And to the Republic. Republic. For which?
For which it stands. One nation under God. Indivisible.
With liberty. With liberty. Justice for all.
Roll call Madam Secretary, president Roy. Here.
Councilwoman McGee. Here. Councilman Dwyer? Here.
Councilman Bokey? Here. Councilman Nunan? Here.
Councilman Lafferty. Here. Councilwoman Moore is present.
We have a quorum. Thank you, Madam Secretary. Next item.
Next item, adoption of the agenda. So moved.
Support Lafferty. Consent. Discussion, agenda.
Discussion. Mr. Bokey?
I would like to have, um, item P placed on move
to the regular agenda from the consent agenda.
Which number again? Was that Mr. Bokey?
That would be letter. P.
P Thank you. Number item four. Got it.
Any additional discussion? P
What was that?
Excuse me. P, P as in Paul. Okay.
P as in P. Mm-Hmm. As in Paul. Any additional discussion?
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 as a? Yes.
Motion carries. Next item. Next item is five.
Adoption of the agenda. So moved.
Support Lafferty with discussion. Discussion.
Madam Secretary. Thank you.
Uh, first off, um, we are removing item 11 B,
um, which is a public hearing at the requested
administration, uh, to effect proper notice.
There's been a transfer of the property. I understand.
Um, item 14 C will be what was four P.
And additionally I would like to add item
14 D, which is a
resolution authorizing engagement of Kavanaugh Asada, PLC
for legal defense of contractor claim in City
of Warren Project, um, for the nine mile road pump station.
Um, this came in, uh, today, uh, which is, uh,
much past the deadline for items to go on the agenda.
Um, and I think as everyone certainly knows by now,
there are things that come up that are emergencies, um,
that sometimes just takes longer to get things ready
whenever, um, uh, in time.
Um, also, counsel has the ability, according to our rules,
every single person here can put an item on the
agenda at the table.
Um, that's your right.
Um, what I'm leading
to is Mayor Stone in her veto of an item
that council took, uh, action two weeks ago, stated,
the willful disregard of transparency that several members
of city council demonstrated by adding this resolution
to the agenda at the table during a meeting
without prior notice to the general public is problematic.
So when I got this request from the administration today
to put this on the agenda, I was a little flabbergasted
Because the mayor was quite put out.
The council put an item on which we're allowed to do
an item at the last minute at the
table that is in our rules.
It allows us to do, the administration is supposed
to have their items to council by Wednesday.
We often let things come in later.
And that, and I just find it ironic that
an item on the agenda tonight, making that claim,
and here we have the administration asking for us
to put this at the table.
And my, I sent a smarmy response, just so you know,
I'm putting it on the agenda.
I think it needs to be taken care of. Uh, Ms.
Michaels is handling this
and, um, I would do it just for Ms.
Michaels. We go back a long time.
We've always worked very well together.
She understands how council works.
Sometimes you get things done, sometimes you don't.
Life gets in the way, but we have to be able
to accept those things and work through them.
And, and so it's, it's on the agenda. Ms.
Michaels, any additional 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 C is a yes. Motion carries.
Next item. Next item is six. A calendar pending matters.
Motion to receive and file support. Motion.
More Support. McGee. Any discussion?
Uh, hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed?
Motion carries. Next item. Next item is seven.
A approval of the minutes of the regular meeting
of September 24th, 2024.
So moved. Support Dwyer.
Discussion, hearing and seeing none. Aye.
Will call the question Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr.
Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan? Yes.
Uh, Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries.
Next item eight.
A approval of the bills of the General revenue funds.
So moved. Support Lafferty 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 eight B.
Approval of the bills of the water and sewer systems.
So moved. Support to where? Discussion?
Anyone Hearing and seeing none? I will call the question.
Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr.
Bokey? Yes. Mr. Noonan? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C as a?
Yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is, uh, audience participation
for agenda items only.
Thank you. Members of the audience who would like
to address, uh, the city council this evening may do so
by filling out an audience form located on
the right side of the stage.
This is a reminder that per our council rules
and procedures, you must write your name
and address on the audience form or give it at the podium.
You have three minutes. You have a clock in front here
that will give you your time
and how much you have remaining.
Uh, this audience is for agenda items only.
There is additional time at the end
of the meeting for general audience.
First is Gary Watts.
Good evening everybody. Good evening.
I come before you tonight about the, um,
override of the veto.
You know, I was extremely happy to see
that you passed the resolution the last meeting
and was hoping that would give some encouragement
to the administration to actually get something done.
You know, we're somewhere around the area
of 25 officers short right now.
Not sure how many dispatchers, 5, 6, 7, 8,
whatever the number is, but if we're short dispatchers
on a shift, you have to call an officer in off the road.
So that puts you down another car on the road.
Now, at 25 officers, I'm,
I'm only guessing at this maybe five,
six cars short per shift.
That, that, that's a serious situation.
And this HR acting director has done absolutely nothing,
nothing innovative has been done
since she's been back in charge.
When the police department had it,
they did all these social media things,
they were actually hiring.
So I was shocked to see this, um, Beto on this
because to me that just goes to show you that
the police department's not a priority
and you all voted seven oh on that.
So I would encourage a seven oh vote tonight to override
that Beto and send a clear, strong message
that we're gonna keep our public safety going in the city.
Police and fire. You guys gotta be on top of it.
The citizens are behind you. Let's get this done.
It's not hard to do this.
There may be a shortage, but it can be done.
Other departments are doing it. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, communications.
It's very difficult to hear the audience microphone.
I don't know if you can maybe turn up the volume.
Next up is, um, Maggie Hunton.
He said, wait a minute, he's gonna increase.
Hello? If Ms. Ton, if you could wait one second. Yes,
Of course.
Just checking the volume of the microphone
While I'm waiting, I'm gonna get Joel's cane.
Okay, thank you.
I just wanna make sure it Yep, ready now. Okay.
Um, hi, I'm Warren resident Maggie Pontone,
and I'm speaking tonight
as Mr. Watts did on agenda item eight 14 A I'm not sure
who advised Mayor Stone on the legal details she refers
to in her letter, but it was likely
the City attorney's office.
I would remind us all
that City council hired its own attorney
because it could not rely on the serving city attorney
to faithfully execute his or her duty to the city council.
I am interested to hear if Mr. Schroeder agrees
with Mayor Stone's interpretation of the relevance of Act 78
of 1935, excuse me,
and City Charters section 7.18 to the question
of police hiring, whether mere stone is right
or wrong in her legal arguments.
I take offense at the derogatory statements.
Mere stone makes in several paragraphs of her veto letter,
for example, calling into question counsel's knowledge
and understanding of its role in city government.
I'm disappointed by the disrespectful
and dismissive tone Mayor Stone uses throughout her letter
and would remind us all that Ms. Moore
and Ms Camp have many, many years of council experience
between them while mayor,
the mayor's experience in municipal government
can be measured in months.
And that Mr. L Lafferty is one
of the smartest people I've had the pleasure,
excuse me, of knowing.
And I include in that statement,
the it support folks at Michigan Bell I worked
with in the 1980s
who can make a 20-year-old Unisys mainframe computer light
up and seen the Star Spangled Banner in Klingon.
I hope counsel will find it advisable
to override Stone's veto.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next is Lori Harris.
Hi, I am Lori Harris,
and I am also speaking
on the same matter which is 14 a.
And I also was astounded
by the tone of that veto.
And I think what anybody would like to know is,
um, what is HR doing
that would keep it, keep the hiring in hr,
like there's no information coming.
So is there something that's happening there
that's wonderful and better than what the police did?
I don't think so, and not by the numbers,
but, um, it, it, there's,
there's this little fight happening
with the mayor and the council.
And the way that
that was worded was very derogatory.
And I'm sorry to the council
because I know you're all working very hard on this,
on everything that you're dealing with.
I know that you want to work together with the mayor,
but you have a different job than the mayor does.
Um, but I am very disappointed in the tone at which she
addressed the criticisms that she gave
and there wasn't transparency about why it's a bad idea.
And for that reason, I want you to please overturn this.
Vito. Thank you. Next is Jackie.
Kelly Smith.
Good evening to the city Council.
Um, I would also like to speak on 14 a.
I understand many people are upset in regards to the mayor
of Vetoing, but as a minority residence of Warren,
I'm not confident and I don't feel as though
that the police department should handle all of the hiring.
It's so much nepotism that has been gone on in Warren.
And that's obvious by just looking at the names
of the people that we need to broaden outside
of Warren, primarily for diversity.
Prior to this council, the citizens spoke
and they said they wanted a change.
They're tired of the fighting between council and mayor.
They're tired of the lawsuits, they're tired of the negative
image that Warren has received.
Warren is a beautiful place,
but you wouldn't know it by just listening to
what the media say about us.
I would encourage you all to take a chance to work with
the mayor instead of this fighting.
I'm about ready to leave Warren
because I'm tired of not having representation.
I don't feel represented.
I thought I did since I saw someone that sits on a council
that looks like me for a change.
This, this council has never
given anyone a chance to really see how well you guys can do
because it seemed like he came in
with arguments in fighting.
If you want the citizens to continue to support you
and that includes myself, then you all need to find a way
to work for the betterment of this city
and not just for your personal needs.
Thank you.
Next is Gerald Hacher. I,
Good evening.
I am not sure what item this is,
but it's the one that concerns, uh,
road construction on Hoover Road in 2027 on Masonic in
2028 and on Stevens Road in 2029.
And what I'm asking is that this not be approved before.
There is a method to categorize each of the trees
that are gonna be involved along those roads.
And the reason that I'm concerned is that there,
uh, because of two recent incidents here,
a half a mile from City Hall,
the first one is on the street called Stanley,
which is one road south of 12 Mile
and, uh, one road east of Van D**e.
So basically if you were in Tech Plaza
and you walked out Walmarts, the next street
that you would come to would be Stanley.
And on that street you have new sidewalks, new pavement,
and you lost six trees.
And so what does this mean for the residents?
It means their property has been devalued.
It means they're more apt to suffer the heat island effect
and it looks, makes street, makes, looks completely barren.
So it's the only example I have now,
but I'm gonna keep looking for other ones with
street repairs.
The second incident is cutting down 11 honey locusts
on the south side of city hall where the library is.
And honey locusts have advantages
and they were intended to replace the elm trees 50,
60 years ago as a good alternative.
First of all, they resist low water and air pollution.
Their roots are non-invasive.
Uh, and they were iconic trees on that side of the library.
Uh, there were no other trees in sight if you stood there
and looked south.
And who made that decision?
I went to the mayor's office who sent me to engineer, uh,
to, to planning and sent me to engineering.
And then I was back to the mayor's office.
Apparently on the April 7th tree tour, uh,
DNR Detroit Foresters said they should all be cut
of the 11 trees.
The only problem was that on one side of one tree,
the cement had gone up this high.
Maybe it was because you had 400 pounds of grading.
Maybe you could have taken that off or taken the tiles off
or cut the roof that headed for the library.
But to have almost no trees there
and to cut down what you had is really something
that shouldn't have been allowed.
And that's why I'm worried about what's coming up
with the construction in this city.
You're at time. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Joel Vander.
Linden,
Joel Valin, longtime wor resident.
I wanna thank the council members have pulled, uh, item,
I believe it's 14 C now, off the Casen agenda
about the, uh, committee reappointment.
My concerns is last June we had a Gabe Parade
that was supposed to be paid for by private groups open
to the public, and they were gonna pay for the cleanup
and the police officers and everything else.
And in that gay parade at City Hall,
they had sexual explicit toys.
And if the mayor didn't take responsibility for it, Mrs.
Papazian did. And since she's taken responsibility
for the mayor screw up having these sexual toys
and everything else, I don't think
that she should be reappointed.
I think she embarrassed the city.
I think she's not right for this appointment
and she should not be
in anymore.
You brought up a comment about the mayor, uh,
and her lack of transparency,
but we had, uh, what I thought was a town hall meeting
for the police chief.
And not every council member
nor the public had a copy of the new police chief's resume.
How are we supposed to know, approve, agree,
and work with the man that we have no idea,
background or anything on?
This is for agenda items only, Mr
Man. Okay, then I just wanted
to make my
point that was said earlier.
Have a blessed day. Thank you.
Thank you. Next is Jerry Bell.
Well, I'm gonna echo, uh, what Mr.
Vander Lindon just said about Ms uh, pian.
I don't think she needs to be reappointed. Neither, neither.
Uh, I really wanted to talk a little bit about, uh, this,
uh, 14 a.
Um, We need police officers.
We need them bad. About four
or five years ago, um,
we were pretty much in the same position.
You asked me and I had to reach out
to individuals in Wayne County for help.
Sam Riddle, now Councilwoman Mary Waters
for Detroit, Michigan.
Paul Kardash, our county commissioner, Michelle Nar
and myself, some of you remember it was on tv.
We were working and helping, uh, Mr.
Dwyer at that time, who was our police commissioner
on getting new hires, he invited us down
and we saw the new recruits, the new hires.
We were there. We need police officers.
We just had a serious situation to, whereas two
of our officers were injured,
two lives were lost.
One of them being a friend of mine.
I feel as though we need
to have some serious discussions about the police
department and hiring.
I also think that we need to talk a little bit about
an aviation, a possible aviation unit,
which would've helped us in that event.
Most say that it's expensive to have a aviation unit,
but how can you value a life?
What's the price? Can you put on a life?
We're facing a million dollar lawsuit
with three more coming.
We have the money. If we don't,
if you're saying we don't have the money, let's find it.
The taxpayers will pay in the long run.
That's the question they keep asking.
When are we gonna do something?
We need to get it together. Stop playing around.
Rather it be the council, the mayor, hr,
we need to stop playing around.
This is serious. This is getting really, really,
really serious to where we're losing people.
So I ask that you find it in your hearts,
including the mayor to get up
and let's do something about this. You're
At time. Thank you. Thank you.
That is the end
of audience, Ms Camp.
Thank you. Next item. Next item is announcements.
Madam Chair, Madam Secretary.
Um, I would like to announce that this Sunday,
the Warren Symphony Orchestra is performing at the Warren
Woods Middle School Auditorium, which is at 13
13,412 Mile Road in Warren.
Um, the program, uh, theme is sci-fi and Fantasy.
Um, the program includes selections from the Lord
of the Rings trilogy.
I do have a few complimentary tickets on the stage.
If anybody would, uh, like to go to the concert,
you will be, um, delighted.
Um, we have a wonderful, wonderful orchestra.
Um, also, we are going to be short A ZBA member soon. Mr.
Raki is resigning for, uh, work reasons, I think.
Um, so we are looking for a ZBA member.
If you're interested, uh, please apply online
or you can call the council office, um,
at 5 8 6 2 5 8 2 0 6 0.
I will put some information on Facebook too,
if anybody's interested.
Um, so that will be, Ms.
Camp is, he's got just one more meeting, I think.
One more meeting. So we're, we'll, uh, we do have,
that's a nine member board,
so if you're interested, please apply.
Thank you. Any additional
announcements, Mr. Nunan?
Thank you. Um, sir,
the Citizens Emergency Response team is still
looking for more members.
And if you'd, uh, like to get involved with that.
I believe, uh, there might be a flyer up here. No,
There was last week.
Oh, there was last week. At any rate, um, it's on the, uh,
city Council Facebook page
that they can look that up, right?
Yes. Yep. So that's it. They
Also have a, a Facebook page. The certain,
The, they also have a web, a webpage on the,
And they have a Facebook page. Right.
Okay. And a Facebook page. Thank you.
Any additional announcements? Madam p
Madam President Mr. Lafferty.
Thank you.
A public service announcement for our friends of the Knights
of Columbus, the Father Kramer Council.
They are sponsoring their third annual chili Cookoff.
And that will be this Saturday, October 12th from 12
to 3:00 PM That will be held at the Cloverleaf bar
and restaurant on Grahe and East Point.
It is $5 to taste and free to enter.
Uh, I've been a, uh, judge at, uh,
at this particular chili Cookoff last couple of years,
and they have some outstanding chilies.
So if you are, uh, a chili lover,
this is the event to go to.
You can plan your, uh, your football and baseball watching
and pair it with a great bowl of chili made
by some fellow residents.
Uh, try your hand at it.
They are accepting, uh, people at the door
to enter their chili.
And I know I've, I remember seeing, uh, Ms.
Smiley there from Macomb Daily a couple years ago.
And the first place winner was a 14-year-old girl.
She made an outstanding chili with a secret ingredient
that nobody could guess.
And she finally gave it up at the end. It was chocolate.
Incredible. Nobody guessed it. So delicious.
So come, come have some chili. Thank you.
Any additional announcements?
Okay, next item.
Next item is 11 A, which is a public hearing request
to approve the demolition of a house
and garage located at 7,003 Westminster
through the Nuisance Abatement program.
If the city staff could summarize the item, Mr. Zay.
Good evening counsel. Um, this is a fire damage home.
The fire was, the incident was 11, 11 of 23 of last year.
Um, I believe the occupant, the owner deceased in the fire.
Um, so after six months, I brought it in
and I've had no response from anybody
since we held the hearing.
No one appeared. I believe both members, owners
of the house have, are both deceased, but no family members.
Anybody have come forth to me
to do anything with the property.
So that's why we're here tonight to remove the property.
'cause fire damage. I went by there again today.
It's exactly how it was the last, how last time I was there,
we did a blood cleanup on it.
And, uh, it's cleaned up, but it still sits fire damaged.
Thank you. Yes. Hello, my name is Richard Markowski.
I own the property across from there. Oh,
Hold on one second, sir.
I'm gonna open the public hearing,
and then if you give me a second, then you can speak.
Okay. I will open the public hearing.
Is there anyone from the audience that would like to speak?
Go ahead, sir. Yep.
Yes. Richard Markowski.
I'm here in regards to 7 0 0 3 Westminster.
I own a nu a number of properties in Warren,
and I saw that that was, uh, set to be demolished.
And I wanna see if there's a way I could purchase the
property and how I would go about doing.
So,
Do you have a seat? Uh,
Mr. Lae can certainly speak to you or speak to.
I mean, the problems with these properties is it's,
I cannot access, I cannot go into these houses
or have anything to do with the sale of these properties.
That's, that's our hitch on this, you know,
here we have a gentleman that wants to buy this house
and fix it, but he needs to buy it from someone.
So now, I don't know, what do we do moving forward?
You know, my job is identify, it's a buyer.
It's sitting, sitting there in the, in the, in our community
and nobody's doing anything with it.
And here we have a gentleman wants to buy it.
So what do we do?
I will check with legal counsel to see if there is
something that can be done.
If you can have a seat. We'll, um, continue to take audience
and then we'll turn it over
to counsel for additional action.
Thank you. Thank you.
Is there anyone else who wants to speak on this item?
Okay, I will close the public hearing
and I will turn it over
to counsel for action.
Madam Chair. Uh, Madam Secretary, I have a question about
who owns the property at this point.
Can, can I get the estate? Can I get a motion?
Is there an estate?
The owners are deceased. Can
I get a motion in support before we motion to approve?
Move to discussion Motion. Motion
to approve support was discussion.
Thank you. Discussion Ms. Moore.
I, yeah, I was just wondering where if has any, if no member
of the estate has showed up, shown up,
how do we deal with that?
My job is to bring it in the nuisance start my nuisance
file and start the process. What?
You know, but they've been, they've been notified and
Yeah, they're both, i both owners are deceased.
So I know family members have come forward. It's an issue.
I've had a lot lately.
I've had a lot of senior citizens
that have passed in these homes.
Family members come grab what they want outta these houses
and leave and they leave the home sitting there vacant,
either fire damaged or dilapidated.
And what do I do? My hands are tied.
I start the process and I put the notices on the windows
after we sent out certified letters
to the titles that I order.
I post a, I post the hearing letters on the property as well
and hoping that somebody would come forth
and either sell it, repair it, probate it.
And I've had a couple successful ones
where some family members have seen the notices
and come forward and are interested in saving one,
saving these properties.
But this house, I've had no action on it. Nothing.
So we have no alternative but to demolish it.
Yeah. We can't sell it.
Well, it's not owned by it, it's not owned by the city.
It's, but problem is both, both owners are deceased.
So what do we do? Our hands are kind of tied on it. Yeah.
Yeah. Thanks. Thank you Mr. Lafferty.
Thank you. Uh, through the chair to Mr. Laze.
So at, at this point, with with no owner,
we are, we are ordering abatement, demolishing of the home.
That lot will sit vacant
until such time the county Exactly.
Turns it over for, for sale.
Exactly what happens. So we're looking probably two
to three years of a process
with the, with the county treasurer.
Yeah. I mean, if, if we were to let the house sit
and we maintain it, now we have a fire damaged house,
and now we have to wait two years
until the property taxes go back.
We can't do that. So yeah, I'm,
I'm not willing to do that.
But the, just for everyone's edification as to what the,
what the process is here
and you know, the gentleman is interested in,
in purchasing the, the lot.
Well, that's, that's wonderful. We welcome that.
But it's, that's not what we're dealing with
Right, right now. Exactly. Here
and now. I mean, if there's any way
that he could find a family member, something like that.
And, you know, I, I have to stay.
I, I have to just do my side of the job.
I cannot play real estate agent on this, you know,
if this gentleman can find anyone from the family
or something, but that's just, there'll be him, you know,
it's nothing I can assist in.
I have to do my, my side of it, what I have to do,
which is addressing dangerous structures.
Understood. Thank you Madam Chair.
Mr. Schroer, is there any additional options?
There's a potential option, um, Ms.
Michaels, um, with the probate court,
with public administrators who it's possible,
and I don't know the exact procedure,
I'm not a probate expert, but where, if you're aware
of a situation like this, you can refer it
to the probate court, uh, for an appointment
of a public administrator who can come in
and probate the estate or that particular home
and get it on the market if it's marketable
or actually respond to the city, um, in these situations.
So I know the law has changed recently on that Ms.
Michaels is nodding her head.
So maybe there could be a procedure to refer it to probate
for, uh, the public administrators are appointed
by the Michigan Attorney General,
and they can probate estates of decedents
who have no known heirs
or heirs that are sitting on their hands.
I believe there may be some existing
liens on the property as well.
Yeah, I believe a copy, there's a copy of the title.
That's that.
I think that it should be in the packet
that you had as well.
But
Thank you.
Is there an additional course of action? No. Okay.
Okay. So I have a motion to approve the demolition.
Is there any additional discussion?
Hearing none. I will call the question. Ms. Moore. Mr.
Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes.
Uh, Mr. Nunan? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes.
Motion carries. Thank you. Next item.
Next item is 11 C, which is a public hearing request
to approve a Brownfield redevelopment plan located at 12,350
East nine Mile Road, pursuant to Public Act 3 81 of 1996.
Young Supply Company developer.
Is someone from the city staff able to summarize this item?
Hi, Mr. Barto.
Good evening Counsel. How are you this evening?
So this is a, a really nice project.
It's a, uh, building on Nine Mile Young Supply is a, uh,
statewide supplier of, I think a Midwest supplier of, uh,
hvac, uh, equipment.
They took over a, a very large building
and have invested about $36 million in, uh, cleaning
and expanding it and moving in.
Um, the eligible activities are just a little over a
million, uh, million dollars in Brownfield cleanup.
And so, um, we're asking for the brownfield,
uh, resolution to be passed.
Uh, it would take approximately 21 years,
uh, of, of the Brownfield tiff
to reimburse the million dollars for the cleanup.
And, uh, Ron Lenin is,
is here from Young Supply, one of the principals
and, uh, Ryan, one of his consultants.
If you have any specific questions, uh, they'd be happy
to tell you about their business.
Thank you. I will open the public hearing.
Is there anyone from the audience,
including the petitioner that would like to speak?
Hi, I've been in Warren for 26 plus years.
Can you give us your name? Pardon me?
Can you give us your name? Kevin Clancy. Thank you.
And I've had no problems other than I went
and bought a new phone 20 months ago
and did not know the specialist
that sat on his shirt didn't have a name, just specialist,
had a phone, a new phone, supposedly knew
with a business in it already his,
and he would sell you the ram from my phone
when you dialed the number he had in there
and put your pin in.
You had movies, games, whatever you wanted.
I didn't know. So for 20 months, actually,
I was hunting you for a while.
The mayor put me on, but I couldn't get ahold of you.
I don't have a computer or phone right now.
He went through my wifi and got my hard drive also
because Verizon fired him.
I didn't even know it. I still didn't know the
phone was messed with.
But come to find out, I start seeing these little messages
and stuff in there that they slipped up
and let me see that were from two people on my phone.
So I called Verizon and said the phone keeps getting hot.
One of the fraud team, an older gentleman,
Sir, is this related to this public hearing?
I can't get any help.
Okay. So have a seat and we will, uh, talk.
We'll have someone come and get your contact information.
Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else from the audience
that wants to speak on this matter?
Okay, I will close the public hearing
motion to approve. Thank
You. Support Lafferty.
Any additional discussion? Madam President?
Mr. Lafferty? Thank
You, uh, through the chair to Mr.
Bato.
So the eligible activities, I was looking
through the proposal, uh, this week
and it looks like there was soil remediation
and, uh, gas in the soil.
Can what, what was here beforehand?
I'm gonna let Ryan be able to answer this
'cause he's the expert on the, on
what the cleanup actually was.
Okay. Thank you. Good evening, sir. How
You doing? Thank you.
Your name please? My name is Ryan Higuchi.
I work for a KT Peerless.
We're an environmental consultant that is representing the,
uh, the owner of the, uh, building.
Um, according to our, uh, environmental assessment
of the property, um, there was a history
of former manufacturing use in the presence
of underground storage tanks, which likely, um,
it's likely stored petroleum based products, which
likely have leaked at one point, creating the vapors, um,
issue that had to be remediated.
So you're removing all of the soil
and having it disposed of properly. Well,
Prior to the, prior to, um, Mr.
Millan's, um, um, acquisition of the site,
those tanks had been removed.
However, some contaminated its material
has remained in place.
And so what we've done is we've constructed a vapor
mitigation system, which blocks any vapors from coming into
the building and causing a problem for health reasons.
So that system is actively maintained, um,
and, um, actively maintained over this life
to prevent any kind of, any influx of, uh,
vapor coming into the building.
Okay. So you're exhaust,
you're essentially exhausting the, the gas?
Yes. Um, there's a, it's comprised of a barrier
that is on the concrete itself to prevent it from coming
through, but also there's a collection system on the side
which basically ships it up to the roof,
kinda like a roof drain, um, which is kind of passively
with a, I don't know
what you call those little whirly
bird things you put on top of vent.
Mm-Hmm. So the pulse suction of that,
It creates the vacuum? Yes.
Yeah. Alright.
Yeah, I, I was curious at, uh, in, in reading
that it wasn't, you weren't actually doing the,
the soil remediation
that you were essentially encapsulating, uh,
The site. The re the
reason of that is, uh, cost feasibility, um,
to get all of the contaminated material that's
underneath the slab, we would either have
to demolish the slab and then dig, you know, dig out.
And it's really expensive cost.
Um, I'm not familiar with the level of, um,
the concentration level of the vapors that were found,
but, um, the easier way
and the most cost efficient way is to put the system in
as opposed to digging and digging and digging and, and,
and, you know, it just becomes, uh, not feasible to do,
to tear out the concrete and, and redo the floors
and all that kinda stuff like that. So.
Okay. And, and I only ask
because the first time that, you know, since, uh,
my second term that I've heard of such a,
a mitigation system, I was curious as to, uh, the difference
between what has been done historically at other
sites compared to this approach?
Yeah. Um, it, it comes down,
it comes down to cost feasibility.
If, you know, ideally we'd love to be able
to take out every single contaminated piece of,
um, material out there.
Um, however, I mean, you're, you're constricted by
the property that you own if it's coming in from another
source that's not yours.
Um, those kinds of things.
And, um,
and it, it does makes the prop,
it makes the property infeasible to redevelop if it's,
you have to continue to con dig and can chase
and, and you know, what have you.
So the best, second, best way is to control it.
Your engineering control is to make sure that it, that, um,
public health and the people occupying the facility are not
gonna be put in any kind of harm's way.
Understood. Uh, last question is,
does this decrease the vapors?
Do they decrease over time?
They do, uh, they do by attenuate.
So they will, over time things naturally kind
of break down in the soil
and they become, they become more inert.
Um, but until that time, we have to have a control in place.
Very good. Thank you, sir. Understood.
Thank you. No further questions.
Thank you. Any additional discussion?
Okay. 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? Yes.
Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 11 D, which is a public hearing request
to approve a Brownfield redevelopment plan located at
15 0 50 to 15 1 50 East 14 Mile Road pursuant
to Public Act 3 81 of 1996.
Capital 14, Hayes, LLC developer. Mr.
Bato, can you summarize anything additionally?
Yes. For those of you that may have been by, uh, 14
and Hayes, uh, there used to be a small bakery
that had closed that was originally a gas station,
and next to it was a, um, uh, bank.
And this board did approve, um, uh, brownfield for a come
and Go station at that location.
And, uh, uh, through some acquisitions
with Maverick buying come
and go, they decided not to expand in Michigan.
And Mr. tamu, who owns the property, uh, decided
to move forward and clean the site
and kind of develop it the way that plan laid out.
So essentially, um, there were some additional costs.
The city of Roseville asked for a, I don't know
what you call it, a diesel lane.
It's not really a diesel, a bypass lane.
So as people would be turning in, left into the,
the new development,
there'd be a bypass lane on the Roseville side.
So that added some time and expense.
Um, and it's not come and go, it's Mr. Timus.
Uh, so there was a name change.
So that's what's caused us to be back here.
Uh, the development is just about finished.
It's four and a half million dollars.
And the, uh, um,
eligible activities were just over 900,000 in cleanup, uh,
which would take about, uh, 15 years, uh,
in the TIF to be able to pay back those eligible activities.
Thank you. I will open the public hearing
and ask if there's anyone from the audience who wants
to speak on this matter.
Hearing and seeing none, I will close the public hearing
and turn it over to counsel for action.
Motion to approve support, uh,
discussion, hearing.
Done. I will call the question Ms. Uh, Mr. Lafferty? Yes.
Ms. Moore? Yes. Uh, Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes.
Uh, Mr. Nunan? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes.
Motion carries. Next item. Next item is 12.
A consideration
and adoption of a resolution approving the proposed
agreement with Haas.
Alert for digital emergency Alert system
for a five year period in the annual amount
of $10,986 53 cents.
So moved. Support Lafferty discussion,
Hearing, and seeing 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 approving the municipal credit
and community credit contract for fiscal year 2025
and authorize the mayor and the clerk to execute a contract.
So moved. Support Lafferty.
Discussion, hearing, and seeing none.
I'll call the question. Ms. Moore. Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes.
Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Newnan? Yes. Ms. McGee?
Yes. Rogan C is? Yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 14 a, um, which is a veto file,
September 29th, 2024.
Consideration and adoption of a resolution relating
to police hiring motion
to overturn the veto Support Dwyer.
Discussion? Uh, yes. Discussion Ms. Moore? Yes. Thank you.
Um, in response to, um, um,
uh, a couple of weeks ago, discussion about the severe, um,
lack of hiring initiatives for police officers.
And the situation we're getting, uh,
we're down at least 25, I think at this point.
Um, Mr. Bokey brought up and discussed
and asked the, um, our, our attorney, what could be done to,
um, facilitate that?
I think it was decided to do a resolution for counsel
to express their opinions to the administration,
make requests and offer suggestions.
And a resolution was, um, put forth that this council,
um, approved.
Um, interestingly, several
of the issues mentioned in the resolution, the,
when we had our, we had a meeting, uh, last week with, um,
um, Eric Hawkins, who the mayor has appointed,
um, appointed last Friday to be the new,
uh, police commissioner.
He mentioned several things in his discussion of how
to hire police officers.
And he actually mentioned several of the things that Mr.
Bokey and Mr. Dwyer had included in this resolution.
Uh, so I think that was a positive for all of us to know
that he understands we have a problem,
and he seemed to, uh, agree with some
of the things counsel did.
Um, it was a little disturbing to me that,
um, the mayor made the comment that
this count, this was reckless.
This was a reckless resolution
that demonstrates city council's lack of understanding
of their role in local government.
There was nothing reckless about giving an
opinion or a request.
There was nothing unreasonable in anything we did.
Um, we understand our role
and our role is to speak for the residents.
At times we understand there's a problem.
We hear from residents. People are afraid.
They're very afraid
because we're, if we get into a worse situation
and our numbers go down in the police force,
people are gonna retire.
People move to other jobs, people get injured, all kinds
of things happen and people are afraid.
And we need to represent the citizens in this city
to make sure that their needs are met.
And part of that is expressing
and conveying those sentiments to the administration.
And we do that through resolutions.
One of us can't speak, but all of us together speak
and our voice should be heard.
And that is what this was meant to be.
And apparently, I don't think any
of us have a problem understanding what our role is.
Um, this has been done in the police department previously.
Um, it's was negotiated with the, uh, police union,
and it was done very successfully for a while.
This, um, I don't think any of us are, uh, have the idea
that we would take hiring out of HR forever,
but temporarily, perhaps for a year
or so, until we can get the numbers,
we can get a good hiring practice.
The HR department doesn't have an HR director,
a permanent HR director,
and those things apparently take time.
It took almost a year to get a police commissioner.
I don't know if it's gonna take a year
to get an HR director, perhaps.
I don't know. Um,
but in the meantime, we need
to address this serious problem.
We need better hiring practices.
We need to be more proactive.
We probably need software
and things like that to be able to apply
and get into the, uh, this century in our hiring practices.
That's, I apparently it's going to take time,
but we can't waste another year waiting
for good practices in hiring.
And Ms. McGee knows way more about recruiting
and all that than I do,
but I think that the police are probably in a better
position right now to certainly, um, bring in folks
and they know how know, they know how to reach people,
and they're, they're the ones that are going to have to, uh,
convince people that they want to come here.
Um, so I, and I, I don't think it was an overreach at all.
Um, I think that, uh, you know, one of the things that, um,
I, I often look at the, uh, charter.
I study the charter a lot.
Uh, when I can't sleep, which I don't sleep very often.
I spend a lot of time looking through the charter
and making sure that I understand
what our authority is and what it's not.
Um, and one of the things I looked, I was the,
where the duties of the mayor,
because the mayor brought up here in this, uh, veto that
she had the day to day, you know, she was responsible
for the day-to-day running of the, of the city.
And that's true, but under section 7.3 duties of the mayor
and the charter at sub 15, also, the mayor has the duty
to exercise such other powers
and perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law
or as may be required of him by ordinance
or by direction of the council.
We have the authority
to direct the administration as a body.
And we didn't direct the administration.
We didn't even go that far in this resolution.
We requested and we sent suggestions
and that, what, that's what it was meant to be.
Um, we have all talked about hiring problems.
We had a committee meet of the whole, a month ago, maybe,
was it August, September with the HR department, uh,
expressing our concerns.
Apparently nobody listened to us
because nothing new has been done.
I understand a couple days ago, uh,
some jobs were finally posted after a long hiatus.
Um, but this is the only way we're going to be heard
as a body is if we is, if we send a resolution.
And that is what we did, um, to be attacked,
that we were being reckless
and willful disregard of transparency.
This council has been very transparent.
We have pushed for transparency.
We have asked for things to be put on the website, current,
you know, we don't know who's on commissions
and what their expiration dates
and what commissions are doing.
And, um, you know, agendas aren't being put out
timely before meetings.
We have no idea. In fact, I'm gonna have to deal
with something because the job description was rewritten
for a position in council office put
before the, uh, civil Service Commission and voted on.
And I didn't know a thing about it. I was never notified.
Ms. Camp wasn't notified
and it was on, was there's never agenda
that comes out before the meeting.
So they're just, so how do you know when you have an issue?
So to accuse us of not being transparent, I think is unfair.
I think it's very, very unfair.
Um, do we sometimes miss things and don't tell somebody?
Absolutely. We all get busy in our lives
and you go on with things you meant to tell somebody.
Oh, I meant to send you email. I'm sorry.
We all make mistakes. The mayor make mistakes.
I make mistakes. Um, we try
to council office, Mary makes mistakes.
Um, we made one this this time.
Um, if we missed an item that came over,
it'll go on the next agenda.
Those things happen and those that we have to be able
to work together, um, to go through those.
And we're trying to be, we're, we're trying to cooperate
and be collaborative.
That is what this resolution was and nothing more.
Um, and I'm, this was really Mr.
Dwyer and Bo's, um, uh, item.
I'm not the expert on police issues.
I certainly care about it and the residents care about it.
I get a lot of calls. Um, so that's where I am.
I, this was DeVito somebody's opinion
and requests I think is a little bit of a stretch.
Um, I think we've had more vetoes in this,
this term than we had all last four, four years.
But that's, that's the mayor's, right?
She has the right to, you know, something.
So I that's, that's all I'm gonna say for
Now. Thank
you Ms. McGee.
Yes. I have a few concerns, um,
as stated, um, if the mayor has authority,
and I read, I heard what you said.
Um, secretary, uh, Moore have the authority on which
to hire from hr.
My concern is this will go back and forth.
She will veto, veto it every time our mayor.
And we will try to make suggestions on whether
or not, um, the police department should be hiring
or whether or not HR should be hiring.
We have been appointed a new commissioner.
If we appointed a new commissioner, maybe we should hold off
until the new commissioner, um, either accept
wanting to do the hiring or not.
And that's my biggest concern.
We don't want, um, not only us as
as city council, but also our citizens to see us going back
and forth, back and forth, agree
or disagree with the suggestions
that we have given to the mayor.
So that's my opinion on it.
Thank you. Any additional discussion,
Madam President? Through the chair?
Mr. Dwyer? Yeah.
Just to follow up on, um, Councilwoman Moore.
I mean, the bottom line is this is only a resolution.
Positions need to be filled in a more efficient
and expeditious manner.
We are merely presenting suggestions on
ways of making that happen.
Our residents need, need to be kept safe,
and our officers need to be protected
by getting our numbers up to where we have budgeted for.
So right now, we have officers we're shorthanded
by about 25, responded to priority one type runs,
and they should have proper staffing to be responding
to whether it's domestics, armed robberies,
and progress with enough officers to feel safe
and handle that situation as best they can.
That's it.
Any additional discussion? Madam Chair?
Mr. Bokey? Thank you.
Uh, after submitting the, uh, resolution, um,
little history on it, uh,
since I took office in November, I believe
probably every other meeting we discussed the shortage
of police officers.
Every meeting residents discussed it.
We also discussed it at budget time when
the HR acting HR director was there,
the administration was there, they know there's a problem
and they haven't done nothing.
I mean, what are we gonna have town hall meetings on it?
We have to hire people.
There was a millage that was passed four police officers
and we're not filling those positions.
The mayor, the administration says the mayor
and the charter be responsible
for the efficient administration of all departments
of city government.
She's right, she oversees hr, and HR is not hiring people.
Let's go over to the Vito,
the language insinuates
that if a resolution is not implemented,
that their request may be man mandated via an ordinance.
I asked our attorney, Mr. Schroeder,
which route should we go?
Should we do an ordinance or a resolution?
Yes, it was discussed.
We decided to go with a resolution,
although we have the powers to enact an ordinance.
It says the willful disregard for transparency
by members of the city council.
And I'll go back to it again. How many meetings?
The budget hearings, and I forgot a close.
Uh, uh, not a close meeting,
but a, a committee of a whole, uh,
where some questions were asked to of the administration,
uh, the ACT and HR director was present there.
Um, in Vito, it says
that since the administration took over,
there have been five hiring cycles
and hired 16 police officers.
I brought that up to the police department
and I got a different response.
Well, at the time it was 14 police officers.
I asked them how many were hired from the previous police
commissioner on the, you know, during his cycle.
And half of 'em, eight of 'em were from the previous list.
So I said, would it be fair to say
that six officers were hired since your
administration took over?
And then the officer responded? Yes.
Uh, uh, newer council members may not be aware
of the past practice of hiring directly.
I'm very aware of it. I follow everything.
I'm a former police officer. I'm still currently employed.
I oversee 800 retired police officers.
I've been a union guy.
I've been in FOPI represented six to 6,000 officers in the,
uh, federal court system.
I know union contracts,
and we know that has to be addressed later.
This was just a resolution to get the ball rowing
and that's all it was.
And as far as, uh, um, negotiating
with the union, how does she know?
There hasn't been talked there.
If she put it in here, there might have been talk already
indirectly with the union as far as this goes.
So I got a chuckle out of this, this field.
And if, if the council wants to go this route, fine.
Um, uh, to deny it, uh, I think it should pass.
I think we should sit down and be constructive
and not have meetings.
Let's let you know, we can have meetings all the time,
but we need police officers on the street.
The HR needs to be revamped.
Um, we have an acting HR director.
There's short two regular positions.
How could they adequately, uh, do a background?
I mean the, the timeframe to get a person through
when they don't have the personnel.
The police department did it before.
It doesn't say that HR can't work in conjunction
with the police department, but they have the manpower.
Let 'em do it for a year.
In the meantime, come up like Councilman McGee says,
we need, uh, better hiring practices and all that.
That'll be the perfect time, but get the ball rolling.
I don't, I don't know what else to say. Thank you. Go back.
Thank you Mr. Bokey. Madam President.
Mr. Nunan. Yeah, I, um,
I didn't, I I could have asked to have a table
at the last meeting, a resolution.
I, I chose not to.
I read the whole thing at the meeting
and I feel that it's urgent.
And so that's why I voted for it then.
And that's why if we vote
to override the mayors Vito tonight, I will do that again.
It's a request.
They're, um, well thought out
ideas for how to, how
to do a good job hiring based on incredible amounts
of experience that we have on the city council.
I'm not a former policeman.
I have great respect for our police
and want good policing in our city.
So that's where I'm at. Thanks.
Thank you Mr. Nunan. Not president, vice President McGee.
I understand what you're saying,
but we do not have a plan.
We do not have a plan for our warm police yet
to put a plan together for hiring our mayor.
We have not gotten the exact plan from our HR department
by us voting on this on today.
We're making, we're voting on something that's just going
to keep coming back with a veto a no.
I think what we need to do as Mr um,
as our councilman Gary said, boy, he said, we need
to come together and sit down at the table
and discuss what the plans are in order to get our police
hired immediately.
You could come up with a bunch of resolutions,
but it's not gonna solve the problem until we sit down
and we talk about it and discuss it
and put this plan in place. I, uh,
Madam President Mr.
Lafferty, then, uh, Mr. Moore
Point, point of clarification, uh, through the chair,
Ms. McGee, uh, if we vote
to override the veto tonight, it
overrides her veto.
It does not give her the chance the mayor, the chance to
re veto the resolution.
Okay? So it, it ends tonight.
So once we take a vote, if the council chooses to, to vote
to override it ends,
But will it be implemented?
But will it be implement implemented?
That is entirely up to the mayor to take the direction
of counsel, heed our direction
and chart a, chart, a path that leads us to
the efficient, effective method for hiring police officers.
So it may or may not solve anything.
It may not get our policeman hired any
quicker, any faster.
It may not go to the police department.
So just a clarification too, so that everyone is clear.
As Ms. Moore stated earlier, we can't speak
as individuals to the administration.
The only way we can do that is through
a formal resolution by vote of the body.
And so if we have requests for information, we want
to take a position as a body, we have to send
that over in the form of a resolution.
So it's, it's a, our formal communication
to the administration that this is our request.
That you take these things into consideration to Mr.
Lafferty's point. The administration can choose not to,
but we're essentially voting on a public position
with the administration saying, this is
what we'd like to see moving forward.
Hopefully that clarifies a little bit, Ms. Moore.
And then Mr. Shorter. Thank you.
Um, what I would've liked to have seen
once we sent the resolution over was a communication back.
We hear you. I hear you. We understand there's a problem.
This is what we plan to do.
That's what I think is frustrating for all of us.
We see a lot of problems
and we aren't hearing any answers to those problems
or way too, um, effectuate some
of the things that need to be done.
And so we're frustrated. So we start here, we have ideas.
Okay, we're, we're doing that.
There are many, many areas that we have to deal with and,
and it's frustrating.
But this is our only way of communicating really, we,
it's not up to us to go into City Hall
and figure out the plan.
We can only say, these are some ideas we have.
But like the mayor, she's right.
We don't run the day-to-Day operations,
but we do set the policy for this city.
And what do we want our policy to be?
Do we want our policy to be that we're 25
or 30 police officers down?
No, I don't think that's what we want.
We don't want that to be our policy.
And we just, you know, the, the fact is,
we did the resolution.
We didn't get the reaction
that I don't think any of us wanted.
We didn't wanna be yelled at and, and belittled
and, um, uh,
told we don't know what we're doing.
I'm, I mean, Mary
and I together have, we count up about,
we have about 28 years in the city doing things
and to be told that we don't know what our jobs are
and to be schooled, um, was a little, uh, offensive.
But, you know, just, we're gonna send the resolution.
That'll probably end it.
Um, and we'll have to come up with some other way
to figure out how we're gonna get, uh, police officers,
I don't know, maybe we all wear sand w
boards at every festival.
And, um, you know, this is, I'm going go off a little bit,
but I was at the Ferndale, uh, uh, an art festival
and they had a booth with police officers
and they had sandwich boards of their hiring
and how much they're doing.
Um, other municipalities have, um, hiring.
They have the, you know, HR people at the festivals,
you know, um, they also have, if Sterling Heights had, uh,
at their festival places
where you could register to vote too.
So they also are doing, uh, you know,
other places are doing more,
certainly more outreach to the community.
That's what we're lacking, sorely lacking.
Um, and so I think, you know, we, we all can help with that.
But give us a plan. Tell us what we're gonna do.
We're gonna go here. Okay. We'll go, we'll, I'll show up.
I'll stand at a festival and say, come talk to these guys,
and they'll tell you why it's good to be
with this group of police officers.
I'll do it, but we just have to have the plan.
We can't implement the plan. We don't have that authority.
So I've set it off. Thank you, Mr. Schroer.
And then we will, I will call the question
Just, just the legal issue, just so it's clear.
Um, Mr. Uh, Councilman Bokey originally requested,
and this council actually voted to write an ordinance.
An ordinance would be a law.
And this would, uh, tie the administration's hands as well.
The council could do that.
Um, so the, the, the resolution took place of the ordinance
as a less restrictive means
to express the public policy desires of the city council.
Um, and of course, a resolution is advisory in nature.
That's typical for legislative bodies like the council,
especially when you have the power of the purse here.
You pass the budget, you put these positions in the budget
to make this request.
It doesn't prevent the council from meeting
with the administration or certain council members, meeting
with certain people in the administration to come together
to find a solution that isn't exactly
what the council put in its resolution,
but it opens the door for that.
So legally, the mayor vetoes at the council of rides,
the veto, the council's position stands.
Um, there's no more vetoes
or, you know,
this tumbleweed doesn't keep rolling, uh, to no end.
But the council could always come back in a month or two
and next meeting and start the ordinance.
But an ordinance would be a first reading,
a second reading published, and it's the law.
So this was the, I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong,
but I think this was considered the more collaborative route
that the council wanted to go.
So that's sort of the legal background.
Thank you. So I have a motion
and support to override the veto.
I will call the question, uh, Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr.
Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes.
To override Mr. Bokey? Yes.
To Override Mr. Nunan? Yes.
To override with collaboration. Ms. McGee? No.
Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 13 B.
Request of the fire department
for increase in budgeted revenues
and appropriations in the amount of 455,000.
So to account for the receipt
of a grant from the Michigan Department of Labor
and Economic Opportunity as part of the two,
as the 2024 State budget enhancement grants.
So moved. Support to where discussion,
hearing, and seeing none.
I will call the question. Ms. Moore. Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes.
Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan? Yes.
Ms. McGee? No. I mean, yes, I'm sorry. No worries.
Grogan C is a yes. Motion carries.
Next item 13
or 14 C is what was four p Notice
of reappointment of Monica Papazian
to the Cultural Commission with a term expiration
of June 30th, 2027.
Motion to deny with discussion,
Support,
er discussion.
The first thing I want to say is that the, uh, pride,
uh, festival, I wished them well.
I heard. Other than that the, uh,
minor province they had there, it was a success.
And I, I wish him, uh, good luck in the future,
uh, expanding on it.
With that being said, I'm gonna, I'm gonna refer
to a document that I just received.
Um, it was, uh, a letter signed by the attorney,
uh, Acton City Attorney Mary Michaels to the Michi,
Michigan Bureau of Elections.
And it's very lengthy,
but I'm just gonna take out, uh, the parts
that I think are relevant right here.
Uh, the original complaint arises from activities associated
with the Warren Pride Festival.
It had to do with the elections, uh,
people campaigning on the grounds in some mention of, uh,
uh, the adult toys
that were being sold in front of children.
I'm gonna read it that it was planned
and sponsored by the Papa Library for Equality
and Inclusion, a Michigan nonprofit organization.
The event was supported by the City of Warren
as a community event of cultural and recreational value.
Library for inclusion.
Submitted an application
to rent the public space at the event
the event was held on the grounds of City Square.
Warren Park, the library
for inclusion independently organized and managed the event,
and made the arrangements for vendors on the site.
The organization had vendors fill out vendor forms
and required a vendor fee.
The city was not involved with the vendor permits order fee.
All proceeds from the vendor fee solely benefit
the library for inclusion.
I have a copy of the, the rental, uh, agreement.
Uh, we've had some, um, questions
that were submitted by Councilman Dwy
to the administration for answers.
And some of the answers, uh, were not answered fully.
Um, it's my understanding
that this inquiry is still proceeding
and we're trying to ascertain more information.
But the application on the application, um,
there's no invention of how much the rent was, uh,
if rent was, uh, collected, uh, by the Parks
of Recreation or the city.
There's also a box that's not checked for insurance.
They did not provide any insurance liability insurance,
which is required to hold the event.
Uh, during, uh, a meeting, uh, a committee
of a whole meeting, um, it was asked, uh, I, I asked Mr.
Bato 'cause in the rules, it stated
that the DDA director has the right
to waive the insurance.
I asked him if he did. Um, he didn't answer.
And I also asked him, uh, uh, if he received, uh,
orders to waive the insurance.
So I still don't know if the insurance was paid by the city
or provided by the city, which still is a benefit
that would've been monetary
Going forward in the letter.
The City of Warren's in-kind support was
to provide electricity for the stage area, access
to public bathrooms,
and offer logistical guidance on emergency vehicle access
to parade routing
and community promotion
via the event is of a cultural community wide valley.
The city helped with the promotion.
The third party sponsor managed the vendors in the event
Par Park planning.
The Warren Cultural Commission
as a body supported the event,
but had no involvement with the vendors.
The involvement of a member on her private time
and her private capacity does not implicate the City award.
The image, uh, there was a document that was submitted.
I don't have the document, but the image is from a City
of Warren Cultural Commission social media account.
The city logo was properly
depicted in a promotional material for,
for a community public event supported in kind by the city.
And finally, the last one, uh,
doc Document 29.
Page 44. The newspaper article is relevant.
This is an answer that the city attorney provided.
The newspaper article is relevant for purpose
of describing a controversial aspect of the festival Library
for inclusion, rented boots to adult novelty vendors.
The boots were on the grounds without prior knowledge
or consent of Mirror Stone, her staff or the acting parks
and Recreation director, one
of the vendors did not follow the organizers rules
and openly displayed items not suitable for children.
The Booth was positioned in an area
that was not appropriate,
which the planner's claim was unintended by them.
Dis infraction stirred public outcry,
and unfortunately tainted the event.
During this whole, during this whole inquiry, uh,
we asked a lot of questions.
We got a lot of conflicting with vague answers.
And if Ms.
Ian was the, uh, president of that
and organized it, I feel was her responsibility
to make sure that these adults, uh,
boots were in areas not to be seen by children,
uh, to say that you didn't see 'em there or not,
or walk around and not see it kind
of contradicts the photographs that are on Facebook
of you enjoying yourself at the, uh, festival.
And like I said, getting back to the inquiry, um,
we're not done with it,
but it kind of reminds me of the old Hogan's Heroes, uh,
TV show where Sergeant Schultz would say, I see nothing.
I know nothing. And that's,
those are the answers we're getting.
And I don't, uh, for that reason, I'm making a motion
to deny the appointment.
Thank you, Mr. Bo.
Any additional discussion?
Madam President through this chair,
Mr. Dwyer,
Just a few things to follow up on.
Councilman Bokey.
Um, I believe the organizers were I irresponsible in
that not only were the vendors not vetted out,
the grounds were not policed by the organizers
to make sure everything was compliant
and in the best interest of the public.
The sexually explicit displays were in plain view
and in the presence of young children
who could have been potentially emotionally, emotionally
traumatized by what they saw.
Because remember, this was a, was supposed to be advertised
as and was supposedly a family friendly all ages event.
That's it. Thanks,
Madam Chair.
Uh, Ms. Moore, um, I think some
of certainly, um, some of the confusion and controversy
and everything around this entire event, um, sort of was
born out of the Cultural Commission's involvement
in this event.
Um, it was advertised for a long time,
and I told people
that the city was not paying for any of it.
This was a private event about two weeks
before I see a, something that said
that insinuated
or intimated that the Cultural Commission was sponsoring it.
And I think this is where the problem starts.
The Cultural Commission is to deal
with performing in creative arts.
That is what their mandate is.
That's what their charter is, which is music and fine arts.
Two years ago, um, uh, the Juneteenth
Festival was run through the Cultural Commission, which is
cultural diversity, but it's not,
doesn't fit that commission.
It's not, shouldn't have been out of there.
The same thing with the Pride Festival.
That's cultural diversity,
but it's not arts and music.
We passed, um, um,
A-D-D-E-I ordinance in the last term,
and we've been working on some other things
in the last few months.
And, and we're going to look at that commission
and maybe rewrite it so
that it will cover more cultural diversity so that
things like the pride event,
or that if it's certainly city sponsored,
if it's the city is sponsoring, then they to be, need
to be totally responsible for it and take over all of it.
Um, not just saying we sponsor something so
that somebody gets insurance under our umbrella.
Um, when we, so I, I,
this was the first time an event like this took place.
I, I don't feel
that we can blame Monica Papazian for certain things.
Um, I think she was overwhelmed, um, by the whole event.
And, um, you know, you know, we all get in situations
where things happen and we don't know quite how to get out
of them or how to fix it.
Um, maybe that happened, I don't know.
Um, but I think we've all learned a little bit
and we've had discussions with the administration.
I think we're gonna come up with some better policies.
I think if we get a different commission
and we let the Cultural Commission go back to
what they're supposed to be doing
and maybe create another commission
to deal with other things.
And we make it very clear if the city's gonna sponsor
something, they're gonna sponsor it,
and they're gonna take total responsibility for everything.
'cause when you put the city's name
and seal on something, to me that says, we're responsible,
if something had happened there,
we were gonna be on the hook for it.
And, um, I I,
I think Monica is a great member of our community.
She works very hard, as does her husband and daughter.
Um, and I don't think she should be denied.
I think maybe she needs to be on a different commission,
quite frankly, um, maybe in the future.
But, um, I don't think she should be denied.
I, I think she did the best she could,
and I don't think she had any harmful intent.
Um, but I don't know what's in someone else's mind.
Mad Ms. McGee.
Um, I'm in agreement with you. Um, secretary Mindy Moore.
When we were at our, um, first for me budget meeting,
we had put in a request to Monica
to add diversity when it came to music, to the events
and different events, the Culture cultural committee.
And she decided, and she agreed that she would go out there
and she would assist with that.
That's why we came up with Juneteenth and other events.
This event in particular, um, that our Councilman,
Councilman Bokey is speaking of it, it
may have gotten outta control.
It did get outta control.
There was some things there that should not had happened.
But I'm also in agreement
that we should not put all our blame on Monica.
So I'm in disagreement to deny. Thank you,
Madam President. Mr. Lafferty.
One of the aspects that
may be overlooked tonight too is, and Mr.
Bokey, I think was really, really close to alluding to it,
and, and I respect the,
the Honorable Council member's opinion on this.
And, and you laid out your, your argument exceptionally well
at our committee of the whole,
and we talked about the rental of the two different,
the, the two different, uh, rental policy agreements.
One for City Hall, the other for the property
outside of City Hall.
One falls into the DDA,
the other falls into Parks and Recreation.
I asked a question about who and, and like, uh, Mr.
Bokey asked who waived the insurance
because the box was unchecked, who paid for the fees?
There were, there was no, uh, fee payment.
We asked Mr. Bato of the DDA, did you sign anything?
Did you waive anything?
Where's the documentation of your waivers? Same to acting.
Uh, parks Rec Director Anthony Cassan.
Did you waive anything? Where's the documentation?
Where's your signed waiver?
Both individuals had no documentation.
Nothing was signed, nothing was waived on their behalf.
Uh, somebody did it,
but there have been, there's no real answer there.
And the takeaways from that committee of the whole was
that the City attorney's office is working on
strength and policies and a uniform application process
that will ensure that political favors
or favors of any kind, irrespective of your relationship
with the mayor, irrespective of your relationship with
a commission member of any of our commissions,
you have to follow the process.
We have these policies in place so
that everything is in black and white.
There is no gray area.
And we've been mired in the gray area
for months since this happened.
That's why we're talking about this tonight.
Now, I have to give Ms. Azen credit.
She took accountability
for the mistakes that were made that day.
That took a lot of courage.
There was significant media attention to
the aftermath of this event.
That's not the aftermath we wanted.
That's not the media
attention, I should say, that we wanted.
This was our first pride event in the city.
Something that's never, ever happened before.
And it was groundbreaking for that event.
And just like all other private events,
they have equal access to our facilities.
That's not the question before us tonight.
The question is, should we hold one member of the
cultural commission responsible for it?
My answer is no. Absolutely not.
And the reason I say that is
not only do I have a high degree of respect for Ms.
Papazian, her husband, her family, the work that they do,
uh, they, they stand out.
They're, they're opening
themselves to criticism.
You can avoid criticism. You say nothing.
You do nothing, and you be nothing.
And that's how you avoid criticism.
She's taking the criticism probably on behalf
of the city when it's not her place to do.
So, mistakes were made by everyone that day.
The administration included.
I do not find her to be held solely
responsible for these events.
But what I do say is
that everybody learned from those mistakes, including her,
including the commission, including the administration,
the DDA, the Parks and Rec, everybody learned
and changes are being made to ensure
that we aren't mired in the gray area after this.
So when this happens, next year, another event happens,
we don't have this problem.
There's, uh, in, in the tech world,
I won't name the company,
but a CEO of a large tech firm was fined a million dollars
after a data breach incident occurred.
And the media got ahold of this, uh, the CEO
and asked if he was going to fire that individual.
And he said, absolutely not.
I just spent $1 million in training my entire
company how not to do it.
So thank you,
President. Thank you,
Mr. Nunan.
This has turned into a forum about
the Pride event to some degree.
Um, I am in favor
of approving
Mr. Vander Len. And please
quit yelling from the audience.
Thank you, Mr. Nunan
Approving. Um,
Ms. Ian's reappointment to the cultural Commission.
I'm thinking that if she wants to do the pride event
or the Juneteenth event, that that should be out
of a different, uh, aspect of the, of the government
as a pri as private events.
Um, and when it comes to the pride event, I'm very, I was,
I was actually very happy that we had a pride event.
Um, and I would like to see us have further ones.
I'm not sure that everybody is learning the lessons
that we should be gaining from it.
Um, one thing is I really believe that it should have been
a totally family friendly event.
Um, and I, I, sorry, I'm sorry for speaking to
that out of term,
because that's not really right on with what this topic is.
But, um, when else am I gonna speak about it?
Other people have spoken about it. I'm gonna speak about it.
Uh, I hope that, uh, a solid plan is brought forward soon as
to how next year's event will be good.
If they're gonna have one. If, if they don't bring, if, if,
uh, the city, whoever's in gonna be responsible for
that doesn't get it together pretty soon.
I don't think we should probably have it next year.
Um, just a little heads up on where I'm at with that.
Um, the city has enough problems without
having another black eye.
Like, what happened then? That's my thought.
But anyways, I'll, I, you'll
Thank you. Uh,
uh, the Monica
and the Papazian family is, uh, incredible public servants,
and we should be grateful
that they do the work that they do.
And, uh, we continue to re-litigate an event
that unfortunately, some things didn't go
as planned,
but we're going to deter people from doing it in the future
and celebrating the diversity of our community by continuing
to litigate something
that doesn't necessarily need to keep litigating.
We are rectifying the policies
and procedures to move forward,
and I would encourage everyone in the city to
embrace the diversity that lives here.
So, uh, the motion on the floor is to
deny the appointment.
So a no is, uh, sorry.
A yes is to an i a no is to, um, not deny. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, so I will call the question, uh, Mr.
Bokey Yes. To deny Mr. Dwyer yes.
To deny Mr. Lafferty no. To deny Ms. McGee No.
To deny Ms. Moore no. To deny Mr. Nunan
No.
Rogan C is a no, Ms.
Papazian is reappointed. Next item.
Next item is 14 D resolution authorizing engagement
of Kavanaugh Casada, PLC for legal defense
of contractor claim in City of Warren, project WW,
TP 18 0 0 6 C.
Wastewater treatment plant nine mile Road pump station.
Motion to approve with discussion support.
Lap Discussion Ms. Moore. Thank you.
Um, I'm in favor of this,
but, um, on page two of the, uh,
letter from Peter Kavanaugh, um, where it says,
should there be a dispute about our fees
or professional services?
Such disagreements will first be submitted
to private mediation, delete the sentence, um, continuation
and then arbitration under the construction industry rules
of the American Arbitration Association.
And, uh, remove the please note paragraph.
Other than that, I think it's fine.
I think we have a policy not to arbitrate fees
based on some past practice.
Any additional discussion,
hearing, or seeing 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 audience particip
participation on general topics.
Thank you. Members of the audience who would like
to address city council this evening may do so
by filling out an audience form located on
the right side of the stage.
Uh, make sure your name and addresses on the form
or stated at the podium.
And you have three minutes. First up is Mr. Watts.
Mr. Watts, can you give us your address? It's missing?
Sure. Thank you. Everybody knows it. 3 0 2 4 6 Rosen Bush.
Thank you. Um,
Ms. McGee, I am very disappointed
and I have to tell you,
being 30 or 25 officers short, do you realize
what that does to a shift?
Do you realize how many guys we actually have on the road?
This is dangerous.
And I looked at a seniority list that I had today,
and let me tell you, the next three to four months,
I, I might wanna move.
This is ridiculous.
This council and this mayor should throw the hammer down
and say, we're hiring 25 people tomorrow.
And damn it, we're gonna find a way to get it done
and it's not getting done.
Period. End of story.
I'm thinking about starting a neighborhood. Patrol myself.
I'm certified. I'm certified CPL Holder.
I'll go out there and patrol with the officers.
If I have to, I'll back there.
I'll back 'em up if I have to.
But what happened tonight
or what happened with this veto is unbelievable.
And like I say, I am very disappointed that,
you know, and for the mayor not to want to hire
and to use this excuse.
I talked to officers in other cities. Cities are staffed.
They're almost staffed. I did a little research.
Guess what I found out. City Detroit.
What do you think they're staffed at? 97%.
97%.
We need to up our game
and we need to get a person in charge of it.
hr. HR is not doing it. The police department did it.
And guess what? The police department had a plan
and they got the plan again, and
they could get it done tomorrow.
So this council better this, you know, I know rest
of you are behind him, but I'm just disappointed.
This is disgusting
to not support our police department like this.
Absolutely not support him. Thank you.
Next is Gerald Becker.
Hello. I'm going
to read an email from a gentleman called Kurt.
I'm not going to give his last name.
And it has to do with the repurposing
of the Warren Racquetball and Fitness building if and when,
and I'm not sure if it has been purchased by the city.
Uh, they, it, I did not just ask this gentleman
to write this, but when he asked me who to send it to,
I gave him the mayor's email, Mr.
Bato, Mr. Wirth, uh, Mindy, Angela and Henry's email here,
and then my own, so I could see what he wrote.
So CC'd to 93 people.
And it says, I am writing on behalf of a small group
of 93 people I know from General Motors
and abroad that use this facility.
I personally have played there for more than 20 years.
We, at General Motors consider this a cornerstone meeting
place for healthy, fun
and recreation, especially when particular game
of Wallyball is fun and safe that all ages can enjoy.
I have never witnessed any theft
or violence at this facility.
And remain safe.
We support the petition not that is not to close.
Repurpose the building
and encourage you to keep the doors open
as long as possible.
Since we patronize this business regularly, it is a shame
since it is pro profitable, sustainable,
and no other business will meet the needs
of the community here or nearby.
This makes it special.
So when he says there's nothing else
that will meet the community's needs, I remember when I,
when, when I heard first heard
that this was gonna be closed,
and I searched volleyball, you know, in south,
in like Southeast Michigan and nothing came up.
And I thought I must be putting in the wrong search words.
So I changed the words and then I changed it
again and again and again.
The fact is that there is nowhere else
and you're throwing these people out of this facility
that they've been going to for years, for decades,
and building up these friendships.
So I want to invite all of you,
and if I can, maybe I can send it to Mary camp
and she can send it on some of the times
that you might come over
and witness these people of all ages,
youth having a great time in this city.
And that doesn't even include the fact
that the businesses are gonna suffer around here
because they all go out to those three businesses there,
right there, Jimmy's, right?
And the Coney Island National, Coney Island,
and the limelight.
So they're in on the, uh,
they're gonna, they're gonna suffer too.
I hope. Maybe we could use
the Deli al building that we bought. Thank you.
Thank you. Next is Joel Vander linen.
Joel Van, long time worn resident.
When a child does something wrong, you correct it.
When someone does something wrong in the city that's part
of the mayor's
team, you reappoint them.
That's ask backwards. Ms.
Papa and her group should not have been reappointed.
And there's been no talk about recouping all the money
that is owed back to the city.
For all the extra police officers that worked overtime
to close the roads for the people
that cleaned up the property
and stuff like this, she should have been denied all
that money because it is owed to the city.
Why didn't she get back on here?
'cause her friend or her husband is best friends
with a councilman.
And this is part of the mayor's propaganda
and plan going to the police officers.
Why are we not hiring police officers?
You're all crying about there's no plan.
Well, many of us told you when the mayor got voted in,
she had no plan.
We cried. Where's your plan? Where's your plan?
She had none. Now it's my understanding there's an unwritten
rule that she gave to, uh, Jackie
of no hiring of people in City Hall.
It's not just the police officers that are short,
there's firemen there short,
they're building inspectors short.
There's people in the hr which are short and hiring.
Now, if you remember this great mayor
that you guys voted in, was in the House of Representatives
and sponsored a bill to defund the police officers,
which got voted down.
So now she becomes mayor. She can't defund them.
So what she do, she just doesn't hire 'em.
Where's all that money?
In the budget that went for all these jobs
that are not being filled?
Where's all this money going to the general fund,
her campaign fund.
What all I know is as the officers go down
in numbers, the crime is getting higher and higher.
We're having more shootings, more problems,
more traffic accidents, more everything.
You guys are failing us by not getting these jobs filled,
not protecting us,
and not serving the, the best interest of the people,
but instead fulfilling the needs
and wants of the socialist Democratic Party. You're
Out of time, Mr. Vander.
Thank you. Have a blessed, a blessed day recall
Phone next is Janine Brokowski.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Janine.
I'm also speaking in the possible repurposing
of the Warren Racket and Fitness Center.
If Kroger closes tomorrow, you could probably shop at Meyer.
If Meyer closes, you can shop at Aldi's.
We are the last man standing offering court sports.
We offer team building to General Motors team building
to flexing gate team building to general dynamics.
These are corporate pon, corporate sponsored
team building for their employees.
We host church youth groups on the weekends.
We offer something that the community center does not.
The business is feasible, it's viable.
We have, you know, asking for your consideration
to keep the business ongoing as it is standing.
If Warren racket closes.
We also, um, will be a deficit to the economics
around Warren racketball.
Our tournaments stay in the hotels surrounding the club.
I talked to a waitress at Jimmy's National Coney Island.
She said it'll definitely be a hit on their business if we
should close and stop as we are providing recreation.
We are a bicycle ride away.
We are running space to three martial arts schools.
Court space is a premium right now.
If you were to go out on the phone
and start looking for space to rent with wooden floors,
it's barely nonexistent.
We're host to the Michigan Senior Olympics.
We're host to the Michigan Racquetball
Association, sanctioned tournaments.
We're host to the Wallyball World Cup.
It's a hidden gem if we welcome all of you
to just stop in one evening
and see the activity that goes there.
We have 12 court spaces.
We have seven different sports that we offer.
There is no membership there. It's cafeteria style.
You rent by the hour. We have no computer there.
When you come in, you will not be beeped in.
We'll know your first name, we'll know about your family.
We'll know if you had an anniversary last weekend.
It's a personable place. It's affordable, it's safe.
It's a great positive for the community.
Last week we had the volleyball team from
Carter Middle School there.
We also have the cross country team from
Cono frequenting our facility.
We would appreciate if you have any voice in keeping the
lights on there and keep it ongoing as it is.
I know it's prime real estate.
I know the downtown development is, you know, pending.
I realize that that's the goal is to build a downtown.
But definitely activity
and exercise is an important part,
especially in our children's lives today,
in front of screens all the time.
So I thank you for listening today
and I invite you to walk in the club anytime.
And again, if Meyer closes, you can go
to Kroger, Cloer closes.
You can go to Aldi If Warren racket closes,
the closest facility is an hour and a half away.
You're out of time. Thank you. Thank you.
Max is Ivana
Ola Lynn?
Yes.
My name is Ivana.
I wanna talk about, um, a war and rock ball fitness.
And I am, I came
to your country two years ago like a refugee.
And coming here alone without my family cost me a lot,
a lot tears, a lot suffering.
And when I came to this facility here, um, you know, uh,
they don't have like Instagrams,
they don't have this popular stuff.
Like the modern people want to see how beautiful
equipment they have,
how amazing people going there, what they doing?
How amazing coaches. But when you come there inside
people, people are welcome.
You know, they just open their heart like, like,
like your family, you know?
And like, I think you cannot, you cannot buy that.
You cannot, you cannot go to lifetime.
Of course, this is amazing facilities like you can go to,
uh, to do a lot different stuff.
But you cannot find that what they have,
like they have talent.
They have, they have community,
which are team, which are family.
They stand back to back. They support each other.
They know history.
Like when you come to this club, you see pictures of,
of different years.
I would like you guys to support this place,
to continue this.
That people can come and see that home.
Like, like, like history.
Like that they can save this ho home
that people can feel it.
They are welcome everywhere.
It doesn't matter how what age you, you are, um,
how much money you have, which income, who you work.
You just come and you welcome
and you, you just grow. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Next is Jerry Bell.
Good evening. Uh, well this time up,
uh, I want to talk about the mayor
and, uh, her lack of hiring police officers.
Uh, again, a couple weeks ago, a week ago, uh,
there was a situation where there was an accident
and, uh, two officers were, uh, injured
and, um, two individuals were killed.
And that day,
Mindy Councilwoman Mindy Moore, you were there that day.
I observed the police.
There wasn't many police officers out there.
And when this, there was a situation that occurred
that required more officers,
I had to find myself helping one officer
because we didn't have have enough officers.
We need more police officers to you,
Lori Stone, the mayor, Lori Stone.
Why, why aren't you hiring more officers?
What's the reason you're trying to defund the police,
which eventually is gonna cost the residents the citizens
taxpayer dollars and lawsuits
because of situations
that you're putting us in?
You're not hiring officers
and you, Ms. McGee, I'm very disappointed in you.
I think I've said this to you before.
As an African American sister, you should know better.
You should know better. You are par you
supposedly in HR or whatever, or have experience.
I mean, you, you can't direct them
and let them know anything.
I mean, what, what is your problem?
You sit up there and you feed your
face and not pay attention.
Mr. Bell, why do you do that? Give your comments.
I can make whatever comment I want.
Long as it's not out the way. Do not waste my time.
I am disappointed in you, Ms. McGee.
You are a big disappointment.
And to the mayor in my closing,
have you even reached out to the family
of the deceased individuals
that were killed in an accident involving
our police department?
You didn't even do that.
You didn't even have the decency to even reach out
to the family and send your condolences.
You can't even answer the cause from the residents.
You need to be removed Right along
with Angela Roy and you too. You're
Out of time. Mr. Bell. Have
a good evening.
You have a better one. Next is
Kevin Clancy.
He has Departed. Lori Harris.
Hello to Tony and Dorothy Baker.
As a reminder to people, uh, Tony Baker has been fighting
for a DA, um, uh,
accessibility issues for the city.
Um, and as you can see, the sign behind me, a DA is a civil,
uh, civil rights law and we need to do better in our city.
I wanna thank the city of Warren Property Maintenance
Department and the Blight Busters for starting to clean up
the mess at harvest time, uh, church on nine Mile Road.
It's way long overdue
and I hope that the fire marshal will get in there
and, um, it,
because I believe the inside is probably
worse than the outside.
Um, but I wanted to thank the city for finally
taking an opportunity to address this issue
and following through.
I'd like to know if Parks and Rec
or the communication department,
I don't know who's responsible,
can we please remove the desks from this, the
auditorium seats.
Nobody uses the desks and they're trip hazards.
Um, so that's just an FYI that I thought of, uh,
because we trip over them.
Um, and to the mayor, please, please
don't start bringing department heads to meetings just for,
for this, your, your support.
Bringing them to a committee of the whole meeting
didn't seem to serve a purpose for them.
We've lived through seeing our city department heads have
to kowtow to our previous mayor even at the risk
of losing their jobs.
Please don't start this.
Um, I think our department heads deserve more,
and I don't think we wanna see that kind of, uh,
situation occur again.
And I will say on behalf
of every resident I know in Warren
and people outside of Warren, um,
we have a lot of things to grieve.
We have to grieve, uh, the loss of two young men
and the injuries to two of our officers.
And these are not, you know, there are many things
to grieve every day.
A baby stopped breathing
and got sent to the hospital yesterday or today.
We don't know if they made it.
Um, but I'm, I am I still have 38 seconds.
I am sure that everyone, if they could, would say, we are
so sorry this happened.
And, um, We can all,
all I can do as a resident is to pray for them.
And, uh, so I wanna say that openly
because I don't think that anybody should be accused
of not caring because we all do care.
We just don't always know how to do that.
So, uh, if the people behind me are with that family, I, I,
uh, am very sorry for your pain.
Thank you.
Next is Wesley Arnold,
Getting old, Very old
thank you counsel for your time and for your service.
And thank all the workers in Warren
and staff for all their wonderful work.
I've had very good service at City Hall through many years.
Uh, the health and safety
of our citizens, of course is very important.
And some of us are working on creating
some walking trails,
particularly along red Run on the north side.
Uh, there's a particularly good area from Van D**e
to 14 Mar Road.
The area's already mowed, it just needs maybe a little
mulch put down there to mark the trail.
And, but there, uh, this would be very good walking trail
or even cycling
and it's, it's virtually ready to go, uh,
a long red run there.
And there are some other very beautiful areas
that are away from cement and asphalt.
That would be very nice. So, so we're working on that.
But there's a question that we need an answer to.
And uh, and, uh, it's been bothering
some of us working on this, uh, since we can freely kayak
on the Clinton River
and on, uh, red Run
and the uncovered areas of Bear Creek.
And people have been doing that.
Uh, uh, are they
public domain waterways?
It seems free that people can do this,
but are they public domain?
And, uh, a further question is, what about the
narrow side of those?
Would that also be public domain that, uh,
we could make a very narrow walking trail next to those?
So I've been advised the best place to ask is,
is the county drain people.
So we will do that, but I wanted to just bring that up.
There are, there are several
of us working on making walking trails in Warren.
I'm a former police officer and fireman
and I just want to say that we do need
to hire police officers in a big way someday.
They are gonna need some help and they aren't gonna have it
and somebody's gonna be hurt.
So we need to put a priority on hiring police
officers. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Next is Gloria Sanker.
Good evening City Council.
You know, watching the news the other night, I was startled
to hear that the money, the federal government needs
to help people and natural disasters,
like the recent hurricane in Florida, it's all gone.
When questioned about it, the answer was
that the money called FEMA were used by Biden
and Kamela to give to the illegal immigrants for housing,
insurance, education, travel
and luxury hotels.
So with federal aid money gone,
only $750 was given to each family in Florida
who lost house car furniture, valuables, et cetera.
How shocking that was.
Of course, we all configure giving
millions of illegals.
Benefits are quite costly.
It's our money, you know, we are charitable people,
but aren't we supposed to take care of our own first?
I mean Americans, veterans, widows,
handicap, et cetera.
They rated our tax money from FEMA
to help people in natural disasters, et cetera.
And to give it to the illegals.
How does that put America? First?
It clearly shows Biden
and Kamala's preferences of who to help.
The fact that the border is open to any
and all shows,
they don't understand the first purpose of their office.
That is keep our country safe.
Recently, Carmella spent 20 minutes at the border
for a photo op
and went on to campaign for millions more to run for office.
It's clear to me that she's too weak to be president
and is benefiting the wrong people
with our American tax money.
Statistics show of the millions of illegals here,
some 15,000 are rapists, another 15,000 murderers,
and many are on the terrorist list.
Other countries are opening their jails to get rid
of them while Kamela is keeping the border wide
open to receive them.
In the decades that I have been voting,
never has a politician benefited illegals like Biden
and Kamela, it's unnatural.
Shortly you'll see the effects of them in every town.
They are being flown during the night.
Your taxes will have to be raised
to continue the multiple benefits
that are prepared for them.
Of course, the only thing they haven't got is
voting privileges.
Do you suppose that's what's next?
If that happens, there will only be a one party system.
You're at time, Ms. Anchor,
If you want to know what the her new
Is, you're at time. Ms. Anchor,
have a good
Evening's be legals, vote Next.
You're at time. Be
Careful who you vote for.
You're at time. Thank you.
Next is Joey D
Good evening counsel.
This ended up being a long list.
I came here to talk about one thing
and as I listened to this, I got more and more discouraged.
Um, for the most part, for the first part,
if the mayor wants to complain about transparency,
you guys should write an ordinance that required
that she comes to every city council meeting.
Because I read that veto
and that was disturbing on every level.
I bet you right now there are a ton
of people regretting the fact that they ever voted for her.
Unfortunately, the choices were evil and evil.
Or look what we got
her first priority.
As far as I'm concerned,
and I know some of you will disagree, the first priority is
to take care of your citizens.
If you don't provide public safety, why are we paying taxes?
That's like all the people who run around
and cry that water is a right.
Water is a right. Nobody ever said
you weren't entitled to water.
Get a bucket and go fishing out the Detroit River.
Why should I have to pay
for it when the things that I pay for?
I don't get
This whole thing with this pride parade at the city hall.
I'm tell you, DEI is gonna be the death of the city.
You talk to the people in the gay community,
the people in the African American community,
the people in the Mexican community, all the other Latinos,
they said it's created so much hate and bigotry
because everybody wants to be treated equal,
but they all want their special day.
It's absolutely absurd.
Look at all the big corporations that are abandoning it
because it's costing them so much money financially.
'cause people won't do business with them anymore.
Somebody, I think it was Ms. McGee who says,
what if the police commissioner doesn't
want to hire the police?
Well then you got the wrong guy for the job.
'cause that should be part of his job.
Commissioner Dwyer did it. The guy before him did it.
Obviously the people they got
doing it now they're not doing it.
There's no way we should be down 25 police officers
with the amount of money we pay in taxes.
I have friends who live all over in other counties.
Their taxes are way lower than mine.
And I live in South Warren.
The amount of taxes I pay are absurd. Mm-Hmm.
And then the last comment I want to get
to you guys reappointed somebody to a board tonight
who made a mistake at her job,
or at least that's what you said.
Somebody else applied for a co or applied for a commission.
They were approved or appointed by the mayor.
And you guys didn't put 'em up for appointment
for personal reasons.
I know this for a fact. Talk about being hypocrites.
You're at time. Thank you. Thank you.
That is the end of audience council response to audience.
Madam President Mr. Lafferty,
Uh, through the chair to Ms. Michaels, please.
I End of a long day
and I have a, uh, what should be a,
a rather simple question for you.
Looking back at our meeting of Tuesday,
June 25th, 2024,
this council entertained two different motions.
One was a request of the DDA
to approve a budget amendment in the amount of $700,000
to facilitate the purchase
of the Warren Racket and Fitness Center.
The subsequent motion was approving a purchase agreement
for the property located at 2 9 9 0 1 South Civic Center
Boulevard, which is the address of the war
and racket and fitness center.
Uh, I'm just curious
because I, I think there are some misconception
that the city is somehow taking over this property
or we are somehow, uh, absorbing it into the DDA
and these people are losing a beloved location
for fitness and, uh, group activities and,
and civic involvement.
Uh, why did the city purchase this building?
It was being offered for sale by the seller.
The building is, was owned by two when partnership
and the members said deceased.
The current owners are selling the property.
The DDA offered to buy the property to utilize it
as a parking area for the police department once the new
court building is being built.
And our police department may also want
to use part of the building as well.
But the bottom line is the city is the buyer.
We're not condemning it, we're not taking it over.
It was just exercising an option to purchase it.
Alright, that clears it up.
And the only other question I have for you regarding that,
what is the current status of that purchase agreement?
It seems like we're, we're taking,
if they're still using it, I, I assume
that we would already be in, you know, been past closure.
We should have been. Thank you. Um, the seller wants us
to make a concession about one of the provisions
regarding removal of property.
So Mr. Bato
and one of the sellers are going to walk the site
and decide what personal property they'll
remove and what we're going to keep.
But we're not going to change that provision
of the purchase agreement In the meantime, the due,
the closing date is extended
and to allow the people to use the members to use the club
for another season, the fall season.
Alright. And that,
that allowance was within the provisions
of the purchasing agreement?
Correct? For
Extension, the closing date could be extended.
Councilman, we still have to complete due diligence as well.
So it it, it was convenient for both parties, both the DDA
and the seller because we have to complete due diligence.
We're not going to close until it's done.
That's not in our interest.
Of course. Uh, I would ask that if there are, uh,
additional provisions that need to be amended, uh, as such
as you progress through closure, uh,
please bring that back to the table.
I will, will do. Thank you,
ma'am. Thank you. Have a good evening.
Same to you, counsel. I have no further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Lamberty Chair. Ms.
Mark, I would just, um, mention that
October 11th is, um, 24
years since Christopher ERs was killed in the line of duty.
I forgot to mention that at, uh, earlier.
Um, announcements, if we could please have a moment. Sure.
Moment of silence. Moment of silence.
Thank you. Thank you. Any additional responses?
Yes, Ms. McGee? Uh,
First off, I'd like to say condolences to the families
that, uh, that was in the car accident.
Um, I wanted to say that first of all, um,
and then second, I had forgotten to announce about the, uh,
state of the city address
that we'll be on this Thursday at six o'clock at the
Warren Community Center.
So all are invited to that.
Um, when it comes to the city residents,
they are invited to that.
Um, that'll be all.
Thank you. Uh, I just had a, a note.
There's a, a constant dialogue about not funding police.
And in the five years that I've been on
council and Ms. Moore and Mr.
Lafferty can correct me, um, I don't know
that we've ever denied a single request
from the police department for funding.
Not that I'm aware of. So this we're defunding,
mayor Stone presented a fully funded police budget this last
cycle, and we included a, an additional captain
that wasn't even requested by the police department.
So this narrative that somehow this council is defunding
the police is not accurate.
While there is obviously a huge issue with hiring,
which we all clearly belabored, uh, up here
and we continue to harp on it
because it is a very important thing.
I do just wanna note that we have fully funded the police
and we, I assume going forward we will continue to do so.
So just wanted to clarify, uh, that, uh, also, uh,
will give my condolences to the family, um, that, uh,
lost, uh, folks in, uh, car accident.
My brother passed away in a car accident,
and I'm very sorry for your loss.
Um, I think that is all I wanted to respond
to anything additionally.
Okay. Next item. Motion to adjourn support.
All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed?
We are adjourned. Thank you.