I am now calling to order a regular meeting
of City Council Tuesday,
March 25th at 7:00 PM Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance, allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America,
and to the republic for which it stands.
One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all.
Roll call Madam Secretary Council President Roy. Here.
Council Vice President McGee. Here.
Council Assistant Secretary Dwyer. Here. Councilman Bokey.
President Councilman Newan, bro. Councilman Lafferty.
Present Councilwoman Moore. We have a quorum. Thank you.
Next item. Next item is adoption of the agenda. So moved.
Point of order, the consent agenda. Uh, point, yeah.
What did I say? Agenda. Oh, consent. Agenda. Sorry.
So moved. Or support Lafferty. Motion by Moore.
Support by Lafferty. Any discussion hearing in scene? 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.
Um, number five, adoption of the agenda.
So moved with discussion. Support Ty.
Discussion Madam Secretary. Thank you.
Uh, first off, we are removing 13 E and F.
We are adding as
item
13 I purchase of 7 20 25.
Road rescue ambulance from DDA construction bond fund
proceeds, bond resolution amendment.
We are also adding as item 12 A one.
And Mr. Schroeder, could you word what that is please?
Uh, 12 A one would be authorization
to amend the fee resolution
to establish a $5,000, uh, annual fee
for adult use retailers.
Thank you. Um, also, we are, um,
adding a presentation, um,
that will take place after.
Um, first off, we're moving nine A,
which is a presentation right after seven D
and immediately following nine A,
we are having a presentation regarding
item 12 A.
Any other 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 six. A calendar of pending matters.
Motion to receive and file
Support. Lafferty
Discussion, hearing and seeing none.
I will call the question. All in favor, aye. Aye.
Any opposed? Motion carries. Next item. Next item is seven.
A approval of the bills
of the general revenue funds. So moved.
Support Lafferty. Discussion,
hearing and seen 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 as a? Yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is seven B.
Approval of the bills of the,
of the water and sewer systems.
So moved. Support Dwyer.
Discussion, hearing, and scene? 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 the general fund revenue report
for January, 2025.
Or, um, motion to receive and file with discussion.
Support. Lafferty. Discussion. Madam Secretary.
Thank you. Um, Mr. Fox, you don't have to get up.
I'm just gonna ask you to do something.
Um, if I would like to see a revenue report
for budget time of all rentals received
by the city, if you could have that.
Thank you very much. Any other
discussion, hearing, and scene?
None. I'll call the question. All all in favor? Aye.
Any opposed? Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is approval is a general fund expenditure report
as of January, 2025.
Motion to receive and file
Support la Discussion, hearing and seeing none.
All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.
Next item. Um, next item was gonna be nine a
uh, police officer.
Brookley is not here yet, so, um, I'd, um, ask us
to suspend the rules and we'll do that
after the presentation. Motion
To suspend the rules.
Support. Support
rules are suspended.
Okay. Um, next item is presentation regarding thir.
Or 12 A.
It's a, mm-hmm. Okay. Is it up? Mm-hmm.
I can't see it. She's got it up. Okay.
There. It's, thank you everyone. My name's Jeff Schroeder.
I am the, uh, city Counsel's special legal Counsel.
I'm making this presentation not just
as counsel's legal attorney tonight,
but, uh, I've been working with Andrea Pike.
Is she here? Andrea Pike. Over the left. Alright.
Hello, Andrea. Andrea Pike has been representing the city
of Warren since 2019 in a, uh,
marijuana lawsuit against the city
and the taxpayers of Warren.
Also Mary Michaels, she's the acting City attorney.
Um, she has been working in the law department here in
Warren for probably 30 years.
Um, she's on board with this presentation
and explaining why we're recommending, uh, item 13 A.
Um, that's fine. Uh, yes.
Um, there's been a lawsuit, uh, uh, against the city
that's been going on for probably five and a half years.
Um, the lawsuit is called Pine Brook Warren
versus the City of Warren.
It was over the marijuana licenses
that were granted in 2019
by two city councils ago.
So it wasn't this city council.
It wasn't the council from 2019 to 2023.
It was the council elected in 2015
that took the action in 2019.
And as luck has it, none
of those council members are here today.
So these are all past council members.
In fact, the past mayor were involved
in awarding 15 marijuana licenses in 2019.
This happened after 2018 when marijuana was on
the ballot statewide.
It was approved in the City of Warren by 59%
of the vote by the voters in Warren.
The prior, prior counsel took that as a sign
that they wanted to move forward with marijuana licenses.
So they started with 15, um, medical
marijuana provisioning centers.
Provisioning centers are like dispensaries
where you would go purchase marijuana,
but you needed a medical card.
The city, the way it was set up by the prior prior council,
they created a committee.
It was called the Marijuana Review Committee.
It included several council members.
It included the mayor's public service director.
And these folks had closed door meetings,
not in public like we are today, explaining
to everybody what we're doing.
They had closed door meetings where they decided
who were the winners and who were the losers.
They were over 60 applications in the
city for a marijuana license.
They picked 15 winners.
As you can imagine, when there's 15 winners
and 50 some losers, the losers get upset
and many of them banded together to file a lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed and, um,
judge Carl Maringa, who's been retired
for several years now, who first heard this case,
he voided those licenses.
He said that marijuana committee
violated the Michigan Open Meetings Act
'cause they met in secret behind closed doors
and made a decision that wasn't in public.
In fact, I've talked to people who wanted
to attend these meetings.
They were shut out of the meeting
and told to sit in the hallway while this
committee made its deliberation.
As a result of that, there were eventually 30
marijuana businesses involved in this
lawsuit against the city.
The 15 that were awarded a license wanted
to undo this action of avoiding their license,
and then the 15 who were suing to undo
what the city did behind closed doors.
This case has cost millions
of dollars in legal fees since 2019,
but lawyers have made a lot of money.
It's gone all the way to the Michigan
Supreme Court and back.
And right now it's sitting in the Supreme Court
and the Circuit Court is having hearings since this started.
When this started, the city was responsible
for the first half million dollars of its legal fees.
Since 2019, the insurance
for the city has changed any new lawsuit.
The city is now responsible
for the first $1.5 million in legal fees, in part
because of the city's litigation history.
So this has been going on and on and on. Um, next slide.
I am somebody who is proud
to have started my career here in Warren, um, in,
in the law department right outta law school.
Uh, and one
of the jobs I had was prosecuting marijuana violations.
Um, and I used to get 20
or 30 a week, they would come to my desk.
And society has changed a lot since then,
and I'm not here to comment on that.
But, um, as part of that, I,
I saw the city getting sued from time to time.
And when this marijuana laws were adopted in 2018, um,
we know a lot of cities have been sued
by marijuana businesses.
And I have a partial list here from A
to y from Alpena to Ypsilanti.
There may actually be a city that's been sued, that's a Z.
But, um, we know that all of these cities here,
you've recognized the names of most
of these communities have been sued by marijuana businesses.
And why are these marijuana businesses suing the cities?
It's because the cities are setting up the scheme
where they're picking the winners and the losers
and the losers sue the city.
They attack the process and, and they want a license too.
And, and again, it is cost a lot
of money here in Warren especially, um, you know,
the length of time that has passed.
Um, next slide, please.
Um, so I just wanna let you know there have been many
attempts to get rid of this lawsuit.
Many attempts. First of all, judge Carl Maringa,
you may recognize the name,
he was Macomb County's prosecutor for many years.
He got elected circuit judge,
and he's very well respected in legal circles.
And he first was assigned this case,
and he's the one that ruled that the city of Warren
violated the Open Meetings Act and issuing these licenses.
And Judge Maringa, um, interestingly, was eventually upheld
by the Michigan Supreme Court.
Long after he retired.
The Michigan Green Court said, judge Maringa, you're right,
this was a violation of the Open Meetings Act
to do this behind closed doors.
Judge Maringa brought together all 30 parties,
all the lawyers, even council members,
put us all in a room, sat us down.
Ms. Pike was there and tried
to see if we could settle this case.
He even appointed Judge Peter Maseroni,
who was the longtime, well-respected chief judge
of the Macomb County Circuit Court.
He served on the court for, for a long time.
He has had an a plus rating from the lawyers
as a judge brought him in to mediate the case
after he was retired.
Um, judge Maseroni, um, couldn't get
that done despite his best efforts
because he couldn't get all of these.
It's called herding cats, trying
to get everybody on the same page.
But everybody has a different interest.
Judge Maringa, since he started, has retired
and he's run for congress twice since.
This is how long this case has been going on.
Judge Peter Maseroni passed away a few years ago.
Unfortunately, in 2020, the city council attempted
to settle it to get rid of this case.
But there were political efforts,
there were emails, there were phone calls.
The thing died. 2022, the city council attempted
to settle it again, get rid of this case.
We're tired of it. It's costing us a lot of money.
It's distracting your council from doing their job
and focusing on other things in the city.
Had it settled, boom,
another collateral attack that was stopped.
Um, since 2022 with Ms. Pike, with some council members.
We've had dozens of meetings, zoom calls, written proposals.
We really need 30 parties to agree to settle this lawsuit.
And when I first started in the city,
as I mentioned earlier in, uh, 2001, um,
the city at that time was involved in a lawsuit
that started in 1986.
It was a Department of Justice sued the city in 1986.
It went to 2003.
Some people have been around the city a long time.
I remember that. I know Mr. Fox remembers that
that cost the city, I don't know
how many millions in legal fees.
And this was before all this inflation, right?
So it was millions of dollars from 1986 to 2003.
And the thing finally settled
and everybody was trying to settle that case,
but all it did was cost the city money.
And at the end of the day, um, there was a, a settlement
and, you know, it wasn't,
could have been done in probably 10 minutes if, uh,
people weren't trying to drag this out for 17 years.
So what are we trying to do here?
The city council a couple of weeks ago posted publicly
that is interested in passing a marijuana ordinance.
It's an attempt to get rid of these cases
to limit the amount
of retail facilities in the city by zoning.
So if we go to the next slide, um, the proposal is
to adopt an ordinance that limits
marijuana retail facilities by zoning, what does that mean?
That means the city has zoning rules.
And if your property is outside the,
those zoning classifications in those buffers,
you cannot put a marijuana retail facility there.
So what do we have? We have an ordinance
that was passed in 2019 after two public hearings.
This isn't anything new. This zoning map was done in 2019,
so five or six years ago.
And this is a map of the city
showing the green areas that fit the zoning.
So that means it's industrial property, M1, M two, M three,
or M four, and it has to be a thousand feet from a school
or a school park, 500 feet from a residential lot line,
500 feet from a church
or a religious institution,
500 feet from a planned unit development
and 500 feet from a Parker Library.
And so we're left with this map,
and you can see that it's in very limited areas.
You can see gross spec is an area
where there's a lot of green.
I'd like to point out that, you know, in studying this map
and talking to council members who study this map,
there's some big green spots on this map
that you're never gonna have any
marijuana retail facilities.
If you can look in the south central part of the city,
there's a big green strip there along Mountain Road
that was known as the Chrysler Stamping Plant.
I think it's FCA stamping plant.
I don't think the automotive, uh, uh,
they're gonna shut down the stamping plant
to open up a marijuana facility.
So that's not likely to locate any marijuana retailers.
If you go up Mound Road, you can see the big green, um,
shaded area where the, uh, take home is.
That's our US Army Tank command.
Um, I don't think the Army is gonna be interested in getting
a license to sell marijuana in their commissary at Tecom.
So we're left with the other green areas
where they would be allowed.
So it's limited by zoning. It's not completely unlimited.
So we wanted to, um, uh, get that across to everybody.
So if you've been told that it's unlimited,
that it can go anywhere in your neighborhood
that you were misinformed.
Um, but in today's climate, it's not that surprising
that something like that could happen.
Um, so limited by zoning is what the proposal is.
Now why would we wanna do that?
Well, because as I showed on the previous, one
of the previous slides, all those cities
that have been sued, Ms.
Pike and I studied the dozens
and dozens of lawsuits in Michigan,
and we tried to figure out what gets a community sued
and what ends the lawsuits.
And there has never been a city successfully sued in
Michigan that did a retail marijuana facility by zoning.
This is, this isn't a place where these council members
or the mayor or some high ranking officials can go
behind closed doors and pick the winners and losers.
Next slide. We also wanna point out that, um,
there already are, now you may not know this,
it surprised me a little bit.
There already are over a hundred locations
and 177 active state licenses as of today.
I went on to what's called the Cannabis
Regulatory Agency website.
Today, anyone in the public can go to this website
and see what are the licensed marijuana facilities in your
community, 177 licenses and warrant.
None of these are, there's no dispensaries, none.
This is growers, processors,
secure transporters, um, safety compliance labs.
And there's one more, what did I forget?
But yeah, those are the four. So, uh, 100 locations.
So guess what, that map go back to five.
We go back to the previous slide.
A lot of these facilities are already located in
these green areas.
They're already here and they've been here
and they're just not retail.
They're growing, processing,
transporting, and testing the product.
So, back to six. This does not even include caregivers.
This doesn't even include medical licenses.
So the city already has a lot of marijuana facilities
that you may not be aware of,
but the city strategically put 'em in, in industrial zones
and areas that are not close to residential.
Next slide. Here's an example of one such facility.
It's an industrial area. It's way set back from the road.
It's maintained. You might not
even know what's going on in there.
It's a marijuana facility, so it does impact city revenues.
Um, the city gets 5,000 per location.
So with a hundred locations,
the city gets 500,000 a year approximately in license fees.
Also, since this started, again, I go back
to my time when I started in Warren in 2001,
and we were having a problem with the automotive industry
that took a hit from, you know, the September 11th, 2001,
all the way through the Great Recession, 2008, 2009.
The city had all of these tool
and die shops, these old industrial buildings that used
to support the automotive industry.
And these facilities were dying
and nobody was occupying them.
And a lot of them were abandoned.
And, you know, um, I might not give much credit
to the prior mayor, and he and I are friends, kind of.
And, um, this, the idea that we were going to, um,
get these industrial buildings with people paying taxes
and keeping it up was something nobody had an idea.
How are we gonna replace all these automotive suppliers?
And frankly, a lot
of these marijuana business that filled it up.
And since 2018, thanks to the work of Mr.
Fox's office, we know that $100 million in taxable taxable,
uh, value in our industrial properties has gone up.
So since 2018,
a hundred million dollars increase in taxable
value of these facilities.
So that means they're paying higher property taxes
because their value went up.
The assessor came in.
Everybody loves when the assessor comes
and notes all your improvements
and notes that your property value went up,
because that means your tax bill's going up.
That's what happened to these people and these businesses.
And they're paying the bill and, uh,
a hundred million taxable value.
This is money for your city, for your schools,
and so on and so forth.
Um, so onto the next,
when we talk about marijuana retailers, um, you know,
this is not the Wild West or anything like that.
Um, you know, first I just wanna say one thing.
If you're opposed to marijuana
and you don't want it in your community, I absolutely,
totally respect that.
Um, and I certainly think
that there's room for those opinions.
And I, I, I sympathize with it.
I used to prosecute marijuana violations.
But we're in a situation that was created many years ago
and we're trying to find a way out of it being as creative
as we can, trying
to have the least impact on the neighborhoods
and the most impact we can in a positive way
on the city finances.
So for these retailers, they have 120 page rule book
that the state, um, requires them to follow.
It is rule after rule after rule.
And for example, I'm just putting some of the rules.
So you get an idea, you have to be 21 years of age
or over even to enter the facility.
Every facility needs security cameras
covering every square inch of
that facility except for the bathrooms.
And also a 20 foot radius
around the building in your parking lot.
If you're up against an alley, a 20 foot radius
around the whole building, and the state comes
and they inspect your
cameras, they make sure they're working.
If they're not covering everything,
they make you buy more cameras or adjust the cameras
and they make you keep 30 days of recordings.
You have to have 30 days of recordings available.
So if someone says something happened two weeks ago,
you have to pull up that camera and show them what happened.
In fact, a lot of security cameras from these places have
helped solve crimes because the cameras are rolling at night
and a criminal rolls into the parking lot
and commits a crime.
They have no idea that they're in a parking lot of a place
that's required to record.
Um, all product in
and out of the facility is tracked by metric.
It's a state contractor
that tracks all the product in and out of the facility.
Anyone who's an owner of that facility that owns over 10%,
anyone who's a manager who runs the facility has
to be pre-qualified by the state of Michigan.
They need to pass a criminal background check.
If it's medical, they need to get fingerprinted.
They look at their tax history,
their lawsuit history, their lien history.
If they've, uh, ever lost a license because of fraud.
It's a complete thorough background check by the state.
Also, these facilities have to submit their books
to the state to review their books.
It's called an annual financial statement.
And, um, and they go through their books
to make sure they're not laundering money
to make sure they're following the rules.
Um, they have to have floor plans, security plans,
staffing plans, all reviewed
and approved by the state of Michigan.
Uh, they have strict rules regarding waste disposal.
So if they have marijuana waste,
they're not just throwing it in the garbage
and some animal can get into it and get sick,
or god forbid a thief come in
and take marijuana waste and steal it.
Um, there are also odor violations.
Um, you know,
if there's local community gives 'em an odor violations,
it has to be reported to the cannabis regulatory agency.
One point on odor, because this has come up.
Um, if you're here
because you're concerned about odor, um,
it's usually the culprit is
what is called a grower facility.
A marijuana grower.
Uh, that's where they grow the plants indoors,
some places outdoors, but not in Warren.
There's no outdoor growers. They're all indoors.
And the owners of these facilities
and the managers don't have the proper filtration.
And it creates that smell when the plant is growing.
The adult use retailers, the dispensaries generally
and almost never create an odor outside of the building
unless there's growing going on in a grow operation on site.
So this is very unlikely to increase any odors.
Um, and I do know that the council is working on a plan Now,
Councilman Bokey, Councilwoman Moore have a plan to
increase the enforcement of this,
these odors at these facilities
and also the neighborhood grows.
Um, there's a creative way that,
uh, we're gonna try to tackle that.
That's not what we're dealing with tonight,
but it's something that the council's aware of.
Um, also, these facilities have
to pay a $15,000 license fee to the state.
And if every year, 15,000, it changes bit from year to year
and 5,000 per city license.
And also, just so you know,
the facilities can be visited any time
by our Warren Police Department.
They sign a document that says, in order to get a license,
they will allow the police department any time
to come in and inspect their facility.
They don't need a warrant. They don't need to go to a judge.
All they have to do is show up, show their badge,
and they are welcome to come in
and are by law allowed to come in and inspect the facility.
The cannabis regulatory agency has hired former retired
police officers known as regulation agents
that are assigned to the area.
And they come and they regularly visit the facilities.
They know these dispensary owners, they know the managers,
and they make frequent visits and annual inspections.
And believe me, if there's a problem, they show up.
If, if there's a metric entry,
for example, there's purchase limits.
If there's an entry showing someone purchased more than they
would, they're allowed under the state law.
I know of a situation within 20 minutes,
the regulation agent was there saying, what's going on here?
It turned out to be a clerical error,
but these facilities are being watched.
Next slide. So it might be interesting to note that, um,
we have the city of center
line right in the middle of Warren.
We have the map there. And if you're a Warren
or center line resident, you're very familiar with this.
Um, center line is 1.7 square miles.
Uh, Warren is 34.3 square miles Center line, has
for a number of years had 11 dispensaries.
They're only 1.7 square miles.
They have 11 dispensaries there.
And, um, again, center line, uh,
did it their own way.
They, they did it industrial property.
And it has to be instead of 500 feet,
they have a 400 foot rule from a lot of, uh, different,
uh, sensitive uses.
This year, Centerline received a check for $640,000
for their 2024 activities for their marijuana retailers.
So for each retailer in your community,
you get a check from the State Department of Treasury.
When you go to a dispensary
or anybody goes to a dispensary
and you make a purchase, there's the 6% sales tax,
but there's also a 9% excise tax.
That excise tax is taken by our Treasury Department
and they dive divided up
among the communities that have facilities.
And in 2024, it was $58,000 per license.
Centerline this community much smaller than Warren,
had a check for $640,000.
This is in addition to 5,000 per location
for their license fees in addition
to the additional property tax revenue.
Also interesting to note that Centerline allows up
to 15 retailers
and there's still four spots open in center line
and, uh, they haven't, you know, right now it's 11.
So, um, just to give you an idea, um,
and it's not surprising to know that maybe some
of the center line facilities and Madison Heights
and all around, they don't want this to pass.
They don't want this to come through
'cause it's competition for them.
That's problem. So, um, and I understand that
and I appreciate that it's a free country
and they're allowed to say what they feel about this.
Uh, but we also feel that we're here to explain
why the lawyers who've had enough of this lawsuit are trying
to find a way outta this
and, uh, find a way to possibly end this litigation
and move on instead of being stuck in this.
And, you know, the taxpayers are paid the legal bills.
So in conclusion, we're aware of a misinformation campaign.
If you've received flyers telling you something different
than what you've heard here tonight,
be advised there was a dark money pack.
A dark money pack is something
that the US Supreme Court allows where corporate money
and corporate interests
and private interests can donate
anonymously to an organization.
And they can spend an unlimited, here's the word,
unlimited amount of money without reporting it
to the Secretary of State without reporting it to the city.
No reporting requirements.
Whoever's funding it, they can write as big a check
as they want and send out whatever information they want.
There's, they're not held to any truth standard.
They can say whatever they want, okay?
It's a free country First Amendment, I get it.
But we just want to make you aware, I do at least
that it's a nonprofit corporation,
but it's a nonprofit corporation for the benefit
of those individuals who are donating money.
They don't operate in Warren.
They're not for the benefit of Warren businesses,
Warren taxpayers, Warren homeowners,
Warren children, or anybody else.
They're for the benefit of their own business.
And, um, so take the information for what it's worth.
So, um, we've seen these scare tactics
used in other communities.
I certainly wouldn't want to, as someone who's worked in
and about this city, lived here, want to recommend something
that's gonna hurt the neighborhoods, hurt the community.
But what I do want to do is find a way out of this.
Would this be my first, second, third,
fourth, or fifth option?
No, but this has been going on way too long.
And somebody had to stand up.
And I think Andrea Pike,
I think acting City Attorney Mary Michaels, uh,
for getting together and, and proposing something.
Whereas it might not be ideal.
It is, um, the only way we see out of this.
And there are certain people that want this,
they want this lawsuit to go on.
Like that Justice Department lawsuit that went on
for 17 years.
In fact, if I owned one in the center line, I'd want this
to go on for 27 years.
So, um, that's where we are right now.
Uh, I can answer any questions counsel may have. And Ms.
Pike is also available for comment if necessary.
I know she's in the corner, so thank you.
Thank you.
And I did, I mentioned earlier,
the adult use marijuana passed 59%
of the vote in 2018 when it was on the ballot and warrant.
So, um, yeah. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Schroer. Next item.
Uh, next item is Officer Ley here. Great.
Um, Excuse me
everyone.
This is Officer Jacob Ley.
Hello,
One of Warren's finest.
Uh, this is a resolution for Officer Brookley
for his heroic actions.
Whereas the Warren City Council takes great pride in
recognizing the selfless
and heroic actions of its public servants who go above
and beyond the call of duty to protect
and serve the community.
And whereas on the evening of March 1st, 2025,
Warren Police rookie Officer Jacob Brookley,
was at the Town Place Suites Hotel,
conducting an interview related
to an unrelated incident when he received a nine 11 dispatch
call regarding a 12-year-old child who was reported
as nonresponsive in the hotel pool.
And whereas Officer Brook l immediately ceased his interview
and rushed to the pool area
where he found the child unresponsive, not breathing,
and with no chest movement.
And whereas without hesitation,
officer Brook Lear took decisive action
by initiating CPR in the child,
administering chest compressions for two minutes
and successfully restoring the child's breathing.
And whereas amidst panicked bystanders,
officer Brookley demonstrated exemplary composure
and professionalism in executing lifesaving measures while
awaiting the arrival of the Warren Fire Department
personnel, some more of our heroes who
provided additional medical assistance.
And whereas thanks to Officer Brook Lee's swift response
and the coordinated efforts of the Warren Fire Department
and fellow police officers,
the child was promptly transported
to Henry Ford McComb Oakland Hospital,
where he was initially listed in critical condition,
but has since made a full recovery.
And whereas Officer Jacob Brook LE's quick thinking,
dedication, and heroic efforts reflect the highest standards
of service, bravery and commitment to the safety
and wellbeing of the citizens, citizens of Warren.
And now therefore, be it resolved
that the Warren City Council hereby recognizes
and commends Officer Jacob Brookley
for his extraordinary act of heroism, courage,
and service to the community.
And be it further resolved that a copy
of this resolution be presented to Officer Jacob Brookley
as a token of appreciation
and gratitude from the Warren City Council
for his outstanding actions in saving a life.
All in favor, aye.
Aye. Any opposed?
Anyone have any announcements while we meet?
Wait for Secretary Moore to return? Yes, I know you do.
Anyone else have any? No,
I, uh, I have an announcement.
Mr. Nunan. Um, last, uh, Monday
and Tuesday a week ago, I was, um, in Lansing
for the Michigan Municipal League, um, cap Con 2025.
And, um, just a quick report.
We, we heard a lot about, uh, legislative updates, um,
the roads, um, about a, um, let's see,
$3 billion is going to, uh, go to road, uh,
if the State House has its way.
And, um, we got to meet with our legislators.
Um, we learned about, uh, uh, new ways
to use tax increment financing for Michigan Brownfield
redevelopment for more housing, affordable housing.
Um, let's see.
Uh, and I got to meet a lot of the people who work
with the Michigan Municipal League.
They have a lot of expertise, which our city often relies on
and that we can rely on and to do a better job.
Uh, so I'm gonna keep it pretty quick.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna finish with that,
but I have like a three page thing here
where Jack could go on and on about.
But anyway, so it was a really great conference.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. And I, uh, jumped around.
We were not on, uh, announcements. So, um, thank you Mr.
Noonan. We will come back to announcements in a few moments.
I'm not sure. I'll have to ask.
We are moving on to audience.
So good evening everyone.
I'm Angela, uh, chair of this meeting.
Want to, um, remind folks
that if they wanna address city council this evening,
they can pick up an audience form to the left.
You can pick up a general form or an agenda form or both.
The agenda form, audience form is for agenda items only.
If you have other topics,
you're concerned about a road in your street
or miscellaneous topics,
you can speak at the end of the meeting.
Everyone is given three minutes.
Um, if your name and address is not listed on the audience
form, you have
to list it at the podium for the public record.
Uh, there are a lot of new folks here.
We have a three minute timer in front.
If you, um, need accommodations 'cause you can't see, uh,
or you want me to give you a warning, I can count you down.
But typically I allow folks to speak their three minutes
and then I tell them to wrap up.
Um, if you need that, please, when you are called up,
let us know, and I'm happy to to count you down.
Um, also, I know that a lot of folks are, uh, likely upset,
happy, uh, sad about what has transpired
or what we're voting on this evening.
And I just wanna remind folks that we have rules, um,
and that there are, uh, members
of the audience shall not interrupt heckle
or Ji speakers at the podium.
So if folks are speaking,
please give them their three minutes.
Uh, they're entitled to it.
Um, you also, uh, we ask that you respect, uh, counsel here.
There's no name calling, there's no cursing.
Um, we are also your neighbors.
Uh, and so we ask for, uh,
respect into quorum when you come up.
So without further ado, I will call up the first person.
It looks like Barbara Cerda,
I don't know if I'm saying the last name correctly.
C-E-R-D-A after her is Lori Harris.
Good evening. I'd like to vocalize
my opinion about this, um, resolution
that would allow unlimited dispensaries and Warren.
Um, I understand that it's being regulated
and there's all these rules and which is a good
thing as it should be.
And I understand that there's a lot
of revenue sources coming in from this activity,
and that's wonderful and that's great too.
But you also have to take into consideration
what the residents of Warren want.
And personally, I don't want,
I don't want unlimited dispensaries here.
I already read a article about a theft, someone
breaking into one of the, uh, dispensary facilities.
I feel like it's going to, you don't see other more upscale,
um, communities approving unlimited
facilities in their communities.
And there's a reason for that.
I think it, it, it, it, it draws, um,
crowds that we don't really want in our community.
And if you're looking for additional revenue sources,
then maybe I think you should collaborate with the, um,
executive office and finance office
and look for ways to increase revenue in other ways,
or decrease costs in other ways.
Um, that is why you got elected.
That is why the executive,
the people in the executive office are getting paid salaries
so that, that they can work on these kind of issues
as opposed to, you know, oh, it's easy.
Let's just open up unlimited dispensaries,
easy money, you know.
Um, so I am asking politely
that you reconsider, I know you've already done one vote,
um, but I'm hoping that the community will vocalize
and stand up and voice their concerns and, and,
and encourage you to stop
the passing of this resolution.
Thank you.
Thank you. Down.
So I also just wanna remind people
that it's a business meeting, so that applause
and cheering, while I know you all are excited,
and I appreciate that we ask you to keep
that to yourself. Thank you.
Before I start, don't start the clock.
The, uh, screens out here are also the clock.
That's usually not what happens.
Oh, thank you. Okay. Yeah.
Alright. My name is Lori Harris.
I've been involved with City Council coming to meetings
for several years, and I've been, uh, around for all
of this marijuana stuff.
And I don't support unlimited dispensaries.
While I understand why this is being, uh, recommended, I,
uh, and I would like to see a solution to this also.
I don't support it as a nurse.
I've, I've said before that it's not a harmless drug,
and we are allowing more
and more of that into the community.
Um, I also wanted to speak about the amount of money
that these companies have spent just to send you postcards.
So, to all my neighbors who got all these flyers, I, I think
that's probably about $50,000.
So that isn't because they care about the neighborhood.
It's not because they care about the schools,
the kids, um, Mr.
Uh, Schroeder said it very well.
It's because they want to protect their other businesses.
Um, they don't want competition.
And competition is part of life.
And I am really disappointed.
You know, when they get up and speak
or their attorneys get up
and speak, they're gonna turn around and leave.
They're not here for the community
to care about what's going on in the community.
And I do applaud everyone that's come, all the residents,
people that are concerned.
Thank you for coming and make sure to pay attention
and come back for other issues
that concern you in our neighborhoods.
Um, one of the other concerns that I've shared is
that in the planning and zoning process, some of these, uh,
uh, grow operations
or other facilities, um, have sued the city
if they don't get their way to change their zoning.
So that's something we can watch
for in the zoning meetings when they want
to decrease their zoning from 500 to four 40 or 4 0 4,
or from a thousand to 600 a thousand feet to 600 feet,
we need to pay attention as residents.
Um, so I, I would like to also thank Cecil St.
Pierre, Ron Papandrea
and Ethan Vincent for setting up this great, uh, opportunity
for the marijuana growers, uh, to come here
and show us how much they care about their
profit and not the people.
Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, I do have a question.
Um, Michelle Bishop, it looks like your topic.
Are you here for an agenda? No. Okay. Thank you. Got it.
Thank you. Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
Next is Joey d
Good evening counsel.
Joey d longtime Warren resident.
Listen, I'm, I have a kind of a unique perspective on this.
I personally think any person
who doesn't have a severe medical condition should be in
prison for smoking pot.
But I also understand the perspective of this ordinance
and the situation that two councils ago put the city in.
So does everybody here want their taxes to go through this
just unlimited taxes?
Because the city's gonna have
to keep paying for these lawsuits.
This lawsuit could end up being astronomical.
Nobody's taking that into consideration.
If me personally, I can't stand this stuff.
And like I said, if it's not for a serious metal condition,
if you're a pothead, you should be in prison
as far as I'm concerned.
But the next thing is the people who sent these out,
whoever sent these out should be prosecuted.
'cause I would be willing to bet money
they didn't get permission from the parents
of the little girl on this flyer
to reproduce this photograph and use it in this manner.
These people, they're sick, disgusting individuals.
And I bet most of them live in towns
that don't even allow pot.
But they got their pot shops all over the metro Detroit.
They don't care nothing about anybody
that lives in the city of Warren.
They're just worried about the almighty dollar.
Forget the people who live here
'cause they're gonna go home to West Bloomfield, you know,
Farmington Hills, all the places
that don't allow pot, period.
They can care less about NAU people
or any of the people sitting out here that live here
that have to deal with it on a daily basis.
The crime everywhere you go that has pot shops,
crime has gone up astronomically,
but it's something we'll have to deal with.
Luckily, we have awesome cops.
As you've seen when the dispensary on the Quinter got robbed
the other night, they were right on top of it.
So luckily we have the, we have some Michigan's finest
to take care of that stuff.
One other thing I wanted to ask about,
and I'm sure nobody can respond to this,
I noticed on the agenda back on here, 13 a
I noticed it's still on here
and it's still on here in the same form.
We're selling pieces of property for $500.
And I know, I think it was Ms.
Roge the ask about it at the last council meeting,
but yet it's still on here the same way I can be.
There's not a piece of property in the city
that's only valued at $500.
So on top of giving away money on lawsuits,
now we're in the business of giving away property
taxpayer money and a form property.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next is Tom Wells, and after that,
and next on deck is Joseph Teia.
I'm gonna, sorry, I'm probably
not pronouncing that correctly.
Thank you, counsel. Um, I've lived in Warren for,
uh, 45 years.
Uh, as the nurse mentioned earlier, I think that the, uh,
marijuana is a gateway drug.
I don't feel comfortable with it.
Uh, somebody that's made the news media that's been on, uh,
one of our major channels here in Detroit,
the gentleman mentions
that he's got a business on Mound Road.
It is a present grow house,
and he wants to expand it to be a retail facility.
Also, his retail facility is
within 500 feet of the homes on Black Mar.
So I hope that, um, there'll be, uh,
some consideration there to, uh, not allow
his expansion into the retail business.
But again, um, I guess I'm understanding some of this.
I appreciate the gentleman giving us the, uh, crash course
and this, this evening.
Uh, but I guess just understand a lot
of the residents are still not comfortable with it.
I appreciate your time. Thank you.
Thank you Joseph.
TAG. Thank you.
If you could pronounce your name
for me, that would be super helpful.
Uh, Joseph Tag Lavia. Thank you.
Uh, 1 1 2 0 3 8 mile, the hitching post.
Um, my, uh, reason here is
it's about the 13 A the two parcels of property
that I just wanna make it clear that I was gonna,
I am gonna develop them, I hope for parking, right.
I, um, see, uh, for overflow, those lots been sitting there
for since 1983 when my father purchased the business.
They've been sitting empty for, since 1983.
So I did do improvement on the building, um,
and I proposed to develop that property for parking.
Um, that's all I gotta say. I'll be here. Any questions?
Thank you. Next is, oops, sorry about that.
Next is Venita, Paul Mary.
And then after Venita is Mark
or Merrick.
Good evening counsel, taxpayers of Warren and all others.
My concern here is I may be your newest resident
who I came back to this town to be with you,
and maybe counsel, or counsel could answer this question.
The term unlimited, I know
that you briefly stated was fake news
or fake, whatever we heard.
But does this eliminate your lawsuit
by using the term unlimited?
So those who are involved in this lawsuit will be first
in line to get your current proposal of vacancies
to make this lawsuit go away.
Second question is the term unlimited.
And I'm gonna back backpack off the last one.
When these facilities want to
expand, what is their limit?
Is that also unlimited?
When these facilities want to go higher, go wider,
go behind, and they violate the ordinance
of a thousand feet, 500 feet, where do we go there?
The other question I have is the children.
There's no other avenue that we as a council
or taxpayers can go to get more money.
Nothing more positive that the city of Warren could bring.
What is this gonna cost our police force?
What is this going to cost us as taxpayers?
What is this going to cost us? Period.
Our, our police force does an enormous job
and we are more proud as taxpayers to say,
I live in the city of Warren
because of my police force, above and beyond.
But where else, where does it stop?
Why can we not bring any more positive things to the city
of Warren without involving the local news,
without involving us as your taxpayers, your people
who put you where you are?
I want more positivity to brought
to why I came back to this city.
I want you all to stand up and involve us as your city
and taxpayers and bring this to a vote.
Let us have a say. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. Uh, Mr.
Shorter, uh, I know we're normally have a response at the
end, but would you mind clarifying on, um, folks who want
to build out a facility, what that process would be?
So certainly we can do that.
Um, the zoning restrictions,
say a thousand feet from a school or school playground
and 500 feet from residential and so forth.
If somebody is approved,
and again, many of these properties are already approved
for growers and processors,
they cannot expand into that buffer zone.
That is not allowed under the zoning ordinance.
Um, not something they can do. So I would say no to that.
Um, in addition, um, about more positive things, I guess
the prior, prior council made the decision
on starting kick starting this.
And, you know, this council sort of inherited it
and we're trying to do the best we can with what we have.
And, um, so I mean,
that would be the way I would
answer that question. And then
Her first question about, um, litigation with the folks
that are suing the city, right?
Um, So the council's been advised.
We, we had a closed session to talk about the litigation.
Today, we can't talk about that
'cause there's open litigation, but Ms.
Pike and I and Mary Michaels, the three attorneys
that work in a way for the city, are in total agreement
that, um, this is the strongest, uh,
way, uh, to end the lawsuit.
We feel, we feel that it will end the lawsuit.
Um, we have a few procedural things to go through,
but again, I can't get into more detail than that. Thank
You. Um,
is it Mark?
Mark, mark After Mark is Paul rn.
Good evening counsel. Uh, my name is Mark.
I would live in David area, unfortunately right next
to the big green stripe.
And I'm here in opposition of this whole thing
because we're already inundated with cooperations.
You can't drive out of my neighborhood without getting
smacking the mouth with marijuana.
And who's gonna enforce this?
Realistically, I know what you said.
These guys back here are getting their tails handed
to 'em on a daily basis.
Just run after, run after run. 'cause we don't have enough.
And then we're gonna put in more things that need policing.
How does it make sense?
When does it become about the citizens again?
I just lost two more neighbors.
One, because she had two young children
who she didn't want to raise.
And the, and the smell,
another one unfortunately passed away.
And there's nothing to do with the marijuana thing,
but he deserved a little recognition.
So I'm just wondering, when does it become about the, uh,
about the people that owned their home and pay taxes?
I grew up at Fer and Van D**e. 1980 something.
I afraid to say we were all a community.
Mark Steinberg was the mayor. It did.
There was no South Warren. There was just Warren.
Okay, so I'm asking to reconsider.
I think everybody here probably owns their home
and probably has kind of the same idea.
Don't inundate us. We don't need any more pressure.
The police don't need any more pressure. Please.
Thank you Paul. And then Chris Aiello, Paul rn.
I'm here today to talk about my reasons
for why city council should not approve this proposed change
to the marijuana ordinance.
And we heard a lot of talk today about why this more,
this is justified
because of saving the money from lawsuits
that the city's experiencing.
But this multimillion dollar lawsuit
that the city originally faced,
it primarily concerned one thing, the violating
of the Open Meetings Act.
We had a review committee that was meeting
behind closed doors.
You wanna avoid additional money from a lawsuit,
you can have a review committee.
That's what the surrounding cities do.
You just can't violate the Open Meetings Act when you do it.
The solution doesn't have to be to kick it over to zoning
and then have a zoning suit.
What you can do is have a, a review committee that complies
with the Open Meetings Act
and complies with the requirements of the
Michigan Marijuana Act.
That's what the statute allows for.
And I wanna talk about how, uh, people in this city
and in the United States in general,
they're gonna sue over anything.
So I myself have found numerous cases
of people suing over zoning ordinances, uh,
marijuana zoning ordinances.
So you're dreaming, if you think
that this city isn't gonna get additional lawsuits,
they're just gonna get different lawsuits.
That's what will happen. We can
still have that review committee.
And there's also one solution that is a for sure solution
to ending this lawsuit
that would be completely prohibiting the marijuana
businesses, which you as a city are allowed to do.
The plain language of the Michigan Medical Marijuana
Act allows you to do it.
Sterling Heights does it. Frazier does it.
You're allowed to do it.
You don't have to have unlimited marijuana facilities
licenses in order to avoid this problem.
I wanna stress that for everybody here today,
because I haven't,
I've looked at the city ordinances myself.
Center Line has a process where the, the,
the applications are reviewed and given to others
and they cap it at 15.
Hazel Park caps it at six Roseville caps it at six Madison
Heights caps it at six East Point caps it at four,
Detroit caps it at a hundred.
And they all have committees that review the process as long
as that committee complies with the Open Meetings Act
and the Michigan Marijuana Act.
That's okay. That's what's gonna happen.
You may have some lawsuit about people who lose.
That's right. But you're gonna have a lawsuit regardless,
even if it's a zoning ordinance, people are gonna sue, just
as we heard about earlier about people's suing
about the zoning ordinance.
You can look it up yourself.
And I wanted to spend my last little bit about the costs
that we've heard about that this city would save.
Uh, we need to know more about
where this city is getting its numbers on justifying this
ordinance because what are the costs
of defending a zoning ordinance suit compared
to a review committee suit that complies
with the Open Meetings Act
and complies with the Michigan Marijuana Act?
We don't know what that is. All we're looking at right now
is a review committee that does not comply at all.
So do not approve that ordinance, please. Thank you.
Chris Aiello and then Michael Stein.
Uh, good evening. My name is Chris Aiello.
I'm an attorney on Mound Road.
My law firm has participated in lawsuits since
2015 in this industry.
Um, my firm is a member of the State Bar
of Michigan Marijuana Committee.
And all of those cities that were listed on Mr.
Schroeder's, um, uh, on his,
uh, whatever you want to call it, uh, is accurate.
Those are all, all of them started with lawsuits and why?
Because they were limited and because of the quagmire
and the of inside of MEbA requiring the best applicant
to come forward and allowing the city to form a criteria
and having, uh, applicants meet that criteria.
Early on, it was fire trucks and stations.
And we'll give you this and we'll give you that.
Those are days are over
and they have been over for two years.
Anybody participating now in this industry on behalf
of municipality is unlimited.
Everybody's unlimited.
And for the folks sitting behind me, I can tell for those
that were put up to come here to speak to you,
and those that are truly citizens that kind of are
on the fringe of marijuana still, which we all respect,
but the message that needs to get out
to the citizens standing
behind me is you've done it the right way.
You did a good job.
You've ended a potential nightmare of litigation
that will continue to haunt you
because of the intricacies in every one of these lawsuits,
if you read them, there's still, um, issues outside
of the OMA with inside of these four courts.
It's just not as simple as saying, this council, um,
gave into an unlimited number
and it's going to ruin this city.
That's not true. Folks, if you're listening to me behind me,
there is one individual that may have enough guts
who has signed in
that perpetuated the fraud upon the people being here.
All of those leaflets
and all of those personal phone numbers that were attached
to all of that propaganda, false propaganda,
misrepresentations, and lies to those
that are not in the industry
and don't know the rules or the law.
And on behalf of the industry, I apologize to you
for you having to come here and read that garbage
and rubbage and the fraud
that they perpetrated on each and every one of you.
And then they threw it back onto this council, why
The one gentleman accurately portrayed it greed.
Why? Because they have stores in center line,
15 stores in center line with 1.7 miles and worn.
Its 34 miles hypocrisy at its best.
And so you've done a good job.
You've probably fought off a lot of phone calls
and a lot of nonsense.
So kudos to each
and every one of you for being brave enough
to uphold democracy and understand what's going on.
Thank you. Thank you. Next is Michael Stein.
After Michael Stein is SROs Toma.
Mm-hmm. Thank you counsel.
Michael Stein, uh, longtime participant
slash Ober Observer of the War and Marijuana Saga.
Hi Jeff. How are you Andrea? Nice to see you guys.
Um, my question, I, I had a question.
I think you kind of answered it earlier about whether
you would actually solve the litigation it currently
existing by, by doing this.
'cause I know a lot of those litigants have made clear,
you know, that they're seeking damages and attorney's fees.
And so I guess you, you had kind of answered it,
but you guys seem pretty confident that this will and that,
but I guess that was my first question
and my, my next kind of question
or concern was, has any, has any consideration been given to
a fair competitive process?
You know, coming from Utica
and other ones that were just done, there was a right way
to conduct the competitive process.
And I know that a lot
of the other communities have benefited from the competitive
process because the, the courts have made clear that, uh,
under the recreational ordinance, you can do, uh,
you can do merit based
and you can weigh, uh, community benefits.
And I know that that's been very beneficial
to a lot of communities.
And under that guise, you'd be able to regulate the amount
of facilities that would be, uh, the amount of, uh,
retail facilities that would be here.
I think one of the concerns, I think as the industry
as a whole has, is that, um, things are very tight now.
It's, it's, and so having, you know, seeing that
how there's 170 some spots potentially that retail could be,
obviously it's not that many,
but that you could end up with 30, 40,
or 50 locations here that, um, that makes it very difficult
for, you know, for the, for, for some of these to operate
and actually see a, a chance of success
and being good corporate, you know, citizens.
So, I, so I would ask if, if consideration would be given
to a competitive process
where maybe there's a little bit more of, of a chance
for the ones that are selected, uh,
that are doing good things for the community, would be able
to, uh, flourish instead of seeing so many
and seeing the, the detriment
that having too many in a city would, uh, looks like.
Uh, thank you.
Thank you. Next is Ros Tooma.
Then after that is Aaron Geier.
Good evening counsel. Stavos Tooma.
Four seven, sorry, 4 8, 7 6, 0 point Lakeview Chesterfield.
Um, my biggest concern here that I see is, um,
on your map, those green spots that you've seen,
there's 170 different parcels that
potentially can become a marijuana dispensary.
These people are gonna rush in.
A lot of stores are gonna open, for example,
just on 14 toura alone,
you're gonna have 15 parcels that, that qualify.
And I know, I know people now that are looking
to tie up these spots and apply there.
Um, I've spoke to several of these lit litigants
to see if this lawsuit could go away.
And this lawsuit is not going to go away.
They are going to, they are coming to, they want damages.
They want their attorney fees paid.
Uh, you know, they, they even plan on filing motions on,
on this situation here.
Um, this is not the way, this is not the way to do it.
I'm all for cannabis development,
responsible cannabis development.
You guys can do review committee.
You can't, you, you can sub it out to another, to,
to another, you know, firm to,
to review these applications for you.
Um, a, a limit on the amount of dispensaries
is way better than unlimited.
Chesterfield has unlimited,
but they set it in the way of buffers, large buffers.
Chesterfield now only has two operating
dispensaries in their ordinances.
Unlimited. You can change these buffers.
You can go back to zoning, increase these buffers.
So there's a more, there's less locations
that qualify, and it'd be more limited.
Lafferty said in the news yesterday
that he'd be surprised if 10 dispensaries open in Warren.
Um, I can guarantee you there's gonna be a lot more than
10, and they're gonna rush in.
Um, on 14 to Quida alone, you'll have more than 10.
Um, that, that he, you also said that you can,
you would have more than $1 million in revenue
a year from cannabis.
Uh, in order for you
to have $1 million in revenue come from the stand cannabis,
you'd need 20 cannabis dispensaries for that.
Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Shorter.
Can you, um, respond
to the competitive process and why that? Um,
Sure. Uh,
attorney Stein, uh,
well-respected attorney in the cannabis space.
So I've known for a long time.
And, um, he asked a very good question about would this
council consider a competitive process?
Um, and I think that the answer was,
it has been considered.
Um, the recommendation is not in favor
of a competitive process.
I think the public needs to be aware
that when there's a competitive process
and there's a strict cap on the number of licenses,
whoever is put on that committee is going to be
lobbied hard.
If Mr. Lafferty here were put on the Marijuana Review
Committee, and he was gonna decide who's getting a license,
he's gonna have dinner invitations,
he's gonna have hockey tickets,
he's gonna have a lot of new friends.
Okay? In fact, the, the original chairman
of the state marijuana committee was sent to prison
for bribery officials across the state have been
investigated and indicted for this kind of thing.
Now, these officials here wouldn't do that. Okay?
They want no part of even having anyone try
to influence them as to whether
who gets a license or who doesn't.
Yes, I've heard we could farm it out to some committee.
You know how that goes, right?
They're gonna find a way to get to these people on
that committee, and maybe they won't, but guess what?
They don't wanna waste their time having
to field phone calls from people who wanna whine
and dine them to get a license period.
They just want it to be a process
where they're not putting their thumb on the scale,
deciding the winners and losers.
And as Attorney Aiello said earlier,
you get in these situations,
I heard U Utica got sued a couple times.
I heard Utica Utica's been sued.
Look it up in the, in the court records.
They, the, this particular council, unlike the prior,
prior counsel, didn't want to be the king makers
and decide the winners and losers in the marijuana industry,
because that leads down a very dangerous path.
And I know they wouldn't be subject to that,
but they don't want the pressure, they don't want the calls.
They want to deal with the police department,
the fire department, the budget, the parks, the things
that they asked people to get them elected to help with.
This is something that was put on their lap,
not something they wanted.
There are different routes to take,
and a competitive process inevitably leads to litigation.
But it has been considered, and I do appreciate that.
And I'm sure there's probably a way to do it
where it could be fair, but there's always a loser there.
And those losers sue.
And, and if it's not the Open Meetings
Act, it's something else.
In fact, in Warren, there were, there were a lot
of other issues brought up in Warren.
It wasn't just the Open Meetings Act.
That was the easy way for Judge Maringa to say, you're done.
That was easy for him.
They were also, uh, questions about the scoring.
'cause they were scoring people from one
to 10 on different categories.
And one of the categories was bankruptcy, one to 10.
And some people said, have you ever filed bankruptcy?
They got a seven out of 10.
Another person said, I never filed bankruptcy.
They got a 10 out of 10. Well,
what the heck did Judge Marlin even looked at that
and said, what the heck's the difference?
Why are you doing that? So again,
we don't want to go down that road.
We want to keep it, uh, where offic government officials,
elected officials, city officials,
are not picking the winners and losers.
And again, if we could go back, uh, if,
I guess if we could turn the clock back to 2019,
we can get into a time machine and go back
and call up Sterling Heights and,
and say, wow, what did you guys do?
Right? They the, we might opt out. We might opt out.
The council might say, we're not allowing any retail
facilities, however, this, this litigation is existing,
and we feel the legal team feels,
unless we do something along these lines,
this lawsuit's not gonna go away.
And there's potential issues for the city.
So, just to let you in on, on our thinking on this, again,
this was an inherited problem here.
And when you take your oath of office
to serve on the council, to be the mayor,
to be the attorney, our job is
to handle the problems on our
desk, whether we like it or not.
And that's, that's what's happening here.
Thank you. Uh, Mr. Guyer, and then Bob Parsons.
Good evening Counsel, If you can
speak into your microphone. Thank you.
Good, good evening, counsel.
My name is Aaron Geier,
and I've been a licensed attorney for almost 40 years.
I have an office in Warren, excuse me.
So I know this community, you're gonna have
To speak up. It's so hard
for us sometimes to hear up here. Sorry.
I've been a licensed attorney for almost 40 years.
I have an office in Warren.
I am very familiar with this community.
I'm a member of the marijuana section
of the State Bar Association.
And let me tell you, we are not a bunch of Che
and Chong stone heads.
Now, Mr. Schroeder did a wonderful job of explaining
some of the false narrative.
Let's continue down that path.
People say, not in my neighborhood. Guess what?
The establishments don't wanna be in neighborhoods.
They need the visibility on the main streets.
We heard someone say that crime will go up astronomically.
That's not the truth. In fact, you'll find that
violent crime went down by 4%.
Property crime went down by 3% after legalization.
They say that marijuana will lead to harsher drug use.
That's not true. The National Institute of Drug Abuse said
that that's a false hood.
There's no data that supports that conclusion.
Some people say it's not what the residents want.
That's not true either.
Almost 60% of the voting public in the city
of Warren want this.
Now, let's keep going. We're going to improve the community.
We're going to take your dilapidated buildings
and increase the property value.
We're going to increase the revenue for this city.
5,000 per licensee,
58,000 per license from excise tax.
And here's the kicker, we're going
to make your community safer.
As Mr. Schroeder pointed out, we're having security cameras
that not only focus on us, but focus in the area.
And these are high deaf cameras
that have the ability to even read license plate.
So we become a valuable tool for law enforcement.
You put it all together.
You dispel the rumors, you dispel the false narratives,
and the path is clear. Thank you.
Thank you. Bob Parsons, and then Gloria Sanker.
Hello, counsel. My name's Bob Parsons, 2 4 3 0 5. Eureka.
And I understand everything that,
what everyone's talking about here tonight
with what's going on with the marijuana stuff in Warren.
The thing is, is it's not so much as to me as dispensaries
and, and the headache of, you're talking about
what the lawsuits, what Warren, what Warren's facing.
It sounds like Warren's not gonna make any money at all.
Everyone talks about making a little extra money
for the council, for the city, for the,
for, for everything in good use.
It sounds like we're gonna waste it all on lawsuits.
To me, if everyone's really tired of dispensaries
or not get more dispensaries in the city,
then let's attack the snake, cut the head of the snake off,
go to the grow shops for one example.
I know three of you on the council, I emailed this week
and talked about the just one,
one example is the one on 10 mile.
Now I know it's been checked out.
I don't know if they say, well, there's no smell.
But every time I go past there, I even smell it.
I mean, even the one, uh, at a facility, uh,
just right up the street to the right hand side,
just would be National Glass.
It's a dispensary. You could smell it outside there.
I mean, I could go into the family dollar
and get a contact buzz if I really wanted to stay, stick
around for a little while across the street from the one
that has the bad filters.
Marijuana is a massive outfit. They are growing a massively.
What I'm trying to think is,
is if we have more dispensaries in the city,
only let the grow facilities sponsor the, the, uh,
dispensaries in the city.
No place else. You walk into these places,
there's so much marijuana in there.
It is beyond stupid. And then you can't tell me.
It's just for the city of Warren.
And that's just one of them or two of them.
We have how many? Nine, 10 plus others. Private growers.
We really need to focus on
how much is going out there.
And far as the smell.
Like I said, what the community needs
to do is that they smell it.
They know where they're at. Call you guys.
Call the city and constantly complain of the smell,
because trust me, it's very expensive to grow marijuana,
especially with those filter systems and everything else.
One of the guys told me
that I knew, I'm not gonna say names.
He says, those damn things are too expensive.
They cycle 'em. They try to clean them.
And you could still smell the stuff.
I don't care what anyone says.
You could smell the stuff outside the building.
Anyone says they don't smell. I'm sorry. You're a liar.
So all I can say to everyone is, if you're tired
of it in the city, target the places
target, the grow places.
You smell it, call it.
There's laws in there to shut them down.
Am I right or wrong? If they're breaking the law,
if it is, shut 'em down. Thank
You. Thank you.
Next is Gloria Sanker, and after Gloria is Diane.
Good evening counsel. Google says
that there's already many cannabis dispensaries
in the city of Warren.
I'm concerned like others, that children can be affected
by mistakenly taking this drug.
The marijuana is disguised in gummies
and other lookalike treats that can allure children
to taking them not realizing that it's a drug.
I think restriction of how many
and where located should be your top priority in allowing
these pot shops.
More. Taxes is a gain,
but it should be weighted against possible danger
and harm to innocent children.
These are not good looking and inviting businesses.
They will not make Amer
make Warren a more attractive place to live.
Consider greatly what you are doing.
Isn't there a, a great statement
that says, enough is enough.
Let your decision be for the good of the people
and not for the good of this business.
Thank you.
Thank you. Diane is next.
And then after that is Mark, be
a go ahead.
Good evening. I understand that, uh,
these places would make some money for us.
No kidding. And everybody wants money.
But I wanna say one thing. I lost a daughter from weed.
Weed starts the process,
and she ended up dying in my house at the age
of 40 years old with heroin.
That's not a pretty sight.
People please think of these kids. Think of the future.
They are going to lead this,
this country in this future in Michigan.
And Warren and everywhere.
Think before you do damage,
these police officers do one hell of a job here.
I don't know how they can do it,
but can't we give them a break
and not have to do these high speed chases from Warren
to Troy because of a hothead, a pothead,
people getting killed.
I had a nephew in Virginia hit by a semi-truck,
believe it or not, he's alive, but in crucial.
And this person was nothing but a pothead for years.
It's gotta stop. We gotta control it. You guys can do it.
We're behind you. And if it's money that's gotta do,
you're gonna hit us with money anyway, so go for it.
But do the right thing, save,
warn, make it safe.
Make us proud like we used to be. All the time.
I've lived here for se what? I'm 75 years old.
I moved here when I was five. So don't tell me about Warren.
I was very proud of it.
Still am an employee of the Kroger store.
But I'll guarantee you, I can go into Kroger's
and get higher than a kite.
I can stand on my back porch.
Even me and my dogs are higher than kites.
It's all over people. We gotta stop it.
And we gotta stop it now, now.
And I trust that you people can do it. So please help us.
Don't walk away. Don't shun this off. It's not a joke.
It's very serious. We don't want 'em here.
Keep 'em the hell out of Warren.
Thank you. Next is
Mark B ends with a G.
Cannot read your writing
on Barry Street.
Okay, uh, mark Abraham is next.
After Mark is Florence Jacob,
Hello, board members in the city council.
My name is Mark Abraham. 2 4 6 4 9 Mound Road.
Uh, Mr. Schroeder did a great job.
Um, kind of stole all my bullet points.
I had a really nice, uh,
well organized, uh, thought process.
But I'm gonna go off script a little bit.
Um, I'm just gonna go back to some of the points
that have already been made by other people.
Number one would be the fact that Chesterfield is unlimited.
Chesterfield is unlimited.
And they have very strict zoning requirements,
just like we do here in Warren.
They have two. They have two. Two with unlimited.
Um, we're here today
because we originally had a limit, right?
The lawsuit started because we had a limit.
And the people that weren't given licenses
filed a lawsuit against the city
that's gone on for five years.
Having limits isn't the right answer either.
It was then, but it's not anymore
because every time somebody loses, they're gonna sue.
It's true. Mr. Schroder said it. He's right.
Um, num Next thing is retail stores.
Retail stores and odor. Um, not true. Okay.
Cannabis cultivation. I can understand a person saying
that if you don't have the right filters, absolutely.
If a cannabis retail store, when you walk up to it,
it's gonna smell more like a cigarette than anything
because people are smoking cigarettes as they walk up
to the door of the store, there's no
smell coming out of that store.
There's a lobby that stops any smell from coming out of it.
That's definitely not true. Um, a person got up here earlier
and said that they wanted to make sure that businesses, um,
retail, um, weren't added.
Um, my, my business is on Mound Road.
It's 535 feet from a, um, a home.
That resident behind me used to have a gate
that went into my building, went in before I moved there,
and it was just a truck stop.
And we let 'em come and go from our facility
because he couldn't get his boat
through his own gate in his yard.
Obviously, I had to stop that from happening
because we became a cannabis cultivation facility.
We had to put a, to delete that gate.
But our bu our building is 535 feet from that residence.
Let's go over to taxes. Taxes.
Our, our taxes went up from 17,000
to $42,000 in four years, simply
because we're a cannabis business.
No other reason. That's a lot of money for it to go up.
I understand it. Next is the child resistant packaging.
Cannabis industry is already moving
to use child resistant packaging.
The state of Michigan is passing new laws
that are gonna mandate it.
I brought samples with me for every category in this space.
They're all child resistant.
Of course, I promptly forgot 'em all in my car.
Lastly, to the members of the council,
you voted unanimously two weeks ago
to move forward with this ordinance.
Tonight is the night to stop this lawsuit
that's been inflicting all this pain to this city.
The businesses need to be able to participate
and compete against the, the our neighbors.
Tonight I'm asking you to vote again.
Be brave, vote again, and end it tonight. Do not delay this.
Vote for it tonight. You're
At time. Thank you. Thank you.
Next is Florence Jacob, and
after Florence is Shannon's Summers.
Thank you for letting me speak.
I hope that we do get a vote on this.
Uh, I wanna say that, uh,
you can smell a cigarette when you're standing around
and outside from the stores.
I'm sure you can smell the cannabis, okay?
And you pay so much in taxes for your cannabis shops,
but you make a lot of profit.
And you guys on the council.
Yeah, money money's a big issue for you. Don't let it be.
'cause it's not, it's the least important
and it's just gonna set a bad,
bad series of things happening.
We want to be safe in our communities.
We want a clean community.
We don't want that hazy smoke that's always in the air,
and we don't know what that's about either.
And I appreciate you all for doing your jobs
and being here for us.
And please don't let money be what makes this decision.
We've all been there. We've all lost children.
Cannabis is a starter drug, no doubt.
As a nurse, ask a policeman, ask them how they have to give
the miracle drug to these children
so they can come back from their
heroin or whatever they're on.
Okay? It's not fair. Don't let money do this.
You guys don't have to do this. You do not.
Please save our citizens, save our city,
and hold your head up high
and you won't be ashamed Later on.
You won't be sorry 'cause you're gonna answer
to God you need.
Just remember that He's the most important thing
that you have to answer to.
Okay? Just keep that in mind. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Next is Shannon Summers.
And after Shannon is Vanessa Peak.
I believe
I'll go this way 'cause I'm addressing
everybody, not just counsel.
And I'm a little, little short for this.
You have you. If you could turn
this way, because it's recorded. You have to address
Counsel. Oh. All
right. Sorry. I wanted It's okay.
Wanted to be talking to everybody in the room. No, it's
A bit odd having to, um, stand with your back.
But go ahead.
Have you not already noticed for the last few years now,
people wreaking of marijuana when they open the car door,
when you're at the gas station,
or you walk by some people in Walmart
and you get a big whiff of it.
We already have pot all over the city.
Like it or not, it is here and it's not going anywhere.
Um, you know, we are the third largest city in Michigan.
We might as well be making that money off of it.
Um, you know, we approved it, as was said,
it was already approved by a vote.
There were already 60 applications.
It's all over the place, and it's not gonna go anywhere
if you don't like it.
I apologize. There's lots
of things in this world I don't like
either, but they're here.
Um, we're not farmland.
We don't have a whole lot of open space to put these places.
They already proposed the ordinances to
where they're very limited to where they can go.
So we're not gonna have a pot store open up
between lefty's cheese, steak, and the nail salon.
It's not gonna be something you're gonna gonna drive by
with your kids every day.
Um, I apologize. I lost my spot here.
Um, You know, if you're
so concerned with drug use in Warren, you know, we need
to protect and grow state and county social programs.
So we need to get good social programs going on in here.
Let's house our homeless.
Let's provide mental health care to people.
Aid to people, um, so that they don't turn to crime
and they don't turn to drugs.
Um, you know, we've got people hanging around
what we call the red meth in,
or, you know, heroin needles dropped all
over in our streets.
So, you know, you've got the wrong villain here.
We've got bigger issues when it comes to drug use.
Um, you know, allowing a, a couple of stores
to sell when we already have it a couple
of miles away in a grow facility, isn't gonna keep pot out
because it's already here.
Um, you know, as far as the crime, um,
they've got much better security
and dispensaries than the CVS and seven 11 who have alcohol
and tobacco and get robbed every week.
Um, those things are much bigger health
and addiction concerns than marijuana is.
Um, you know, if you wanna live in Pius country,
go live west of Jackson.
This is the Motor city.
People here work hard their whole lives.
They deserve a natural form of pain relief.
They deserve to have a good time here and there.
As long as they're 21 or older.
You know, we don't have space for a marijuana wall,
marijuana mall, and these ridiculous flyers.
Um, as Councilman Schroeder already said, this isn't going
to be unlimited.
We're not gonna have, like I said,
they're not gonna be popping up all over the place
next to McDonald's.
Um, this proposal,
this proposal here is more strict than
what Michigan State laws are.
You're at time. Thank you.
Next is Vanessa Peak, and then Michelle Shivers.
Good evening counsel. I am a resident of the Farwell area
of Detroit District three.
We abut warn the city of Warren.
My community is proliferated with marijuana dispensaries.
As a result, my community is no longer attractive
to home ownership or businesses that can afford,
that can offer residents gainful employment
with transferable skills.
The proliferation of marijuana dispensaries in my community
has made it unattractive, has made it attractive
to slumlords companies that pollute and increase
and individual seeking to engage in criminal activity.
I've admired the strength of the city of Warren.
You've graciously survived the recession dating back
to 2008, which included the loss of automotive jobs,
predatory lending, and the mortgage foreclosure crisis.
I take people on a tour of the Farwell area
of District three, city of Detroit,
and I show them the devastation.
And I compare
and say, let's go over to the city
of Warren right across eight mile.
Let me show you the comeback of Warren.
And you know, when, when and,
and how you've managed to survive.
I can't tell you what to do, but I forewarn you.
Allowing unlimited number
of marijuana dispensaries in the city
of Warren will put both residents
and the police at heightened safety risks
and attract people with criminal intent.
I look at, when I drive through your community,
I'm looking at the new roads.
I look at the Meyers, I, I'm, I I I'm saying to to,
to the people we elect in the city of Detroit.
We're doing something wrong.
How is it that Warren has, you've gone
through the same thing in terms of the recession,
but you are on a comeback.
I look at the Home Depot that exists.
It's, it's about when we,
when we look at what's happening in the United States,
and the government is saying, you know,
we want qualified employees.
We want people to, to, to, to, to exemplify
that they're looking for work.
These corporations are not going to tell you that,
Hey, you know what?
We don't like the fact that you allow people
proliferating marijuana in your community.
They just won't come to your community.
I'm pleading and begging. Don't be like Detroit.
You know, I cannot begin to tell you that situation
that I saw on TV last night
could have been very devastating for police.
What we we're going through right now.
Our insurance rates, the crime you wake up in the morning,
you don't want that in your city.
You are prime and poised to track corporations
that will provide your residents with gainful employment,
transferable skills, build on that foundation.
You're at time. Thank you for your time. Thank
You.
Michelle Chivers. Michelle Chivers.
Nicholas Fand.
Good evening counsel. Um, as a single mom,
I've been in mourn my whole life.
Lived in Roseville for a little while, living next door
to somebody that wanted to grow marijuana out of their home.
My kids and I would wake up and go to bed high as a kite.
Headaches sicker than a dog from the marijuana smell.
You cannot go into grocery stores. It's summertime.
I do not enjoy going shopping.
I don't enjoy going outside
or doing things anymore for the reason of,
I don't like the smell of marijuana.
Where's our rights? Where's our freedom of free smell?
To not have to live with marijuana? Smell.
It's a gateway to the Devil's drug is, in my opinion,
and I hear Snickers behind me, but it's true.
Marijuana is a drug.
It is not good for the community
with kids and everything I hear.
Oh, packaging, oh, safety for the children.
They can't get into it.
I tell you what, kids nowadays are a lot smarter than us
adults, because kids can get into anything
that they want to get into.
Kids will take the gummy or the joint land on mom
and dad's table because they purchased it from a grow op,
a store, one of these pot shop
that wanna come up in our communities.
Who's to say down the road, unlimited.
They don't want to come
and decide to come in our communities, next to our homes,
next to the schools, next to our churches.
It isn't right. What,
how is it protecting our freedom for the residents,
for the communities
that don't want the drugs in our neighborhoods?
Where, where's our freedom?
Everybody's worried about somebody that wants to have
marijuana because, oh, I wanna smoke a joint
and get high as a kite and get munchies.
Where, where's our rights?
As, as far as I'm concerned,
this marijuana stuff should have never been legalized.
Where's our rights as
what should have been the minority
of not wanting drugs in our communities?
You know, what's, what's not gonna happen?
Oh yeah, let's start selling heroin.
Let's grow, let's start having heroin stores,
you know, and things like that As a parent
that doesn't want it in our communities.
I'm sorry. You're at time. Thank you,
counsel. Thank you. Please
Do the right Thing. Thank
you. Please. Next is Nicholas Baan,
and then Joel Vander Lemon.
My name is Nick Baan, and I love Warren.
I've been coming to Warren since I was born.
I used to swim in a swimming pool on
Melva when I was a little kid.
And you got one of the finest education systems, uh, for,
uh, community college, right at 12 and Hayes.
It's called Macomb Community College.
And I used to admire the education system there.
And then I used to go over to Cavans
and I'd have a hamburger and some onion rinks.
But guess what? Cavans is just of the dispensary.
You have marijuana. It's not going anywhere.
And it's in the city of Warren.
Sorry, I didn't bring it here. They didn't bring it here.
And you didn't bring it here, but it's here.
It's in center line, it's in Hazel Park, it's in Detroit,
and it's in Roseville.
And it can all come to Warren.
So either A, you opt in
and do what the council's telling you to do
to avoid litigation, to stop the money bleed
and to make some money, or b, you do nothing.
I love Warren. And I'm not in the marijuana industry.
I'm just listening. And I really enjoyed those onion
rings back at the bands.
And I wish it was still here, but it's not.
I can get my pot there. And I have two girls.
They're six and nine,
and they go to the great skate 500 feet from the mint at the
cannabis in Roseville.
Did I cause that? Nope. You didn't either.
They didn't either. But it's here.
It's not going anywhere, people.
So we could either a, do nothing, spend money,
be in litigation, and I am an attorney,
and I know we're gonna spend money or we
can solve this problem.
You elected these people. They're good people.
They know what they're doing. They've researched it.
Listen to 'em. Thank you
Mr. Vander Lenin. You're
next.
Mr. Lan. Thank you Mr. Vander Lenin. You're next.
After Mr.
Vander Lenin is, looks like Roy
Oma, Rami Kema.
Not a hundred percent positive.
Joel Lan, longtime born resident.
I hear the people question is, does the council,
is the council really listening,
or are they having their fourth meal again?
Are they just rolling their eyes and blowing us off?
The question seems to be with a lot of people money.
Well, let's talk about the money.
All this money that we're supposed to get
from all these marijuana places,
we don't have the police officers to protect us,
let alone these places.
We don't have the zoning, uh, inspectors
to do all the zoning work that which is needed.
And all this falls upon Mayor Stone not doing her job.
Can we trust Mayor Stone with all these facilities?
Better yet, can we count on the council
to make the right decision?
My recommendation for all you citizens here
is to take notice who votes yes,
who votes no.
And then go onto the web under Macomb, uh, county
clerk's office, check the, uh, election stuff
and check the, uh, who received how much money
from the marijuana companies.
And oh, that's where the money really comes in.
'cause some of these council people got a lot
of money from the marijuana people.
Some of these atheist socialists
Are already bought
and paid for their money,
bought their soul for the mayor's gold,
and getting on this council to do the atheist work
and not God's work.
Thank you. Have a blessed name.
Thank you. Next is
Romy or roi.
Can you pronounce your name and give
us your address for the record?
Yes, absolutely. It's Rami Carmo.
Just want to thank everybody here
for attending city council members
and everybody behind me. Your
Address, sir, your address.
Uh, 5 5 5 7 5 Timbers Edge Drive in
Shelby Township, Michigan.
Um, I just wanna let everybody here know
that I grew up in the city of Warren.
I went to Pearlene Elementary School, beer middle school,
and a proud Marauder.
Graduated from Warren MA High School.
Um, after I graduated,
I attended McComb Community College here in Warren.
After that, I opened a property investment company
and I own 15 residential properties in Warren.
Today, um, I want
to educate everybody on this matter going on today.
The problem is the city already approved
dispensaries back in 2019.
This isn't about approving or not approving.
This is about settling a matter that already exists.
I followed a fair process at that time
and applied for a license.
Requirements were to be fully integrated,
which meant you had to obtain a grow license,
a processing license, and a retail license
to get a dispensary that cost a lot of money to do.
I followed the ordinance,
tied up multiple commercial properties.
I paid triple and quadruple the amount
of value for these properties.
Um, I had these contingent on approval.
The city approved us
and published 15 people that got licenses.
I was one of the 15.
I had my properties contingent upon approval,
and I didn't have to pay for them until I got the approval.
So once I got the approval from the city, I had to go
to shout millions of dollars of hard earned money
for these properties, only for them to get vetoed.
Since then, I have been battling
and trying to figure out what's gonna happen
with this whole situation.
Um, the city approved us. I closed on all these properties.
Uh, I applied to the city in February 14th, 2019.
The buildings remained empty through the litigation
and have been, and I've been paying the
mortgages on them since.
I couldn't do anything with them
because no, no longer, I, I didn't no longer have a license
and nobody wanted to come occupy my empty buildings
with me one day telling 'em, I, you have to leave,
because now I got my license.
Since then, I have already lost a couple of my properties
that I've already paid a lot of money for,
and I can no longer make payments on the
remaining properties that I have.
And I'm in process of forfeiture.
Although I applaud the city for trying to come
to a resolution, it isn't fair
to make it unlimited to everybody.
Today after I have tried for years to hold on
and follow the process, the city laid out,
this isn't a fair settlement.
The people that have been patient
and spent millions for years
after getting a published approval from the city,
the settlement reach should benefit the people
that have followed fair process laid out
by our warrant governing body.
Lastly, I wanna say marijuana is medicinal.
It saved my neighbor's life, and that's what got me into it.
Over the counter, drugs
and pills that harm your body are what lead people to heroin
and other harmful drugs.
Everything can lead
to harm if not used in the right
intentions, just like liquor.
And I bet everybody behind me here has
had a drink or two in their life.
I pray everyone here gets more educated on what's really
happening in this matter and doesn't let people like me
that have spent millions in this process
get hurt in this process.
If anybody should be allowed to get a license
and move their properties
and whatnot, it should be the people
that have been in this process the entire
time and spent all this money. You're at
Time. Thank you.
Thank you. That is the end of audience.
We are going to. Oh, yeah, sure. Mr. Shorter, go ahead.
I really sympathize with the last speaker.
Um, and there's a lot of folks like him who did spend a lot
of money in the city and applied,
and then the court took away their license.
He got a raw deal. There's no doubt.
I completely agree with you. I don't think we've ever met.
Um, I just wanna let you know in 2022, the,
the prior counsel, but not the prior,
prior counsel that caused this.
So the counsel in between voted to settle this case
to give the 15 their license.
We came to a settlement agreement
and the other 15 got upset, came, went back to court,
and the court once again canceled those 15 licenses.
So I think that for these folks who spent a lot
of money in the city, invested a lot based on a process
that was very flawed.
Um, there had been attempts to try to do that,
and it was stricken by the courts.
So unfortunately, that's part
of the history of how we got here.
But I certainly, um, sympathize with those folks
who have spent a lot of money, um, and,
and really, uh, made an investment
and it, it didn't work out, and it was the court
and the other parties who brought this lawsuit.
So again, a lot of headaches here over the years.
Thank you. Uh, that is the end of audience.
We will be moving on to announcements.
Um, the next announcement is nine B Certificate
of Appreciation for Charles Williams.
Madam Chair, I believe Mr.
Uh, Lafferty requested this. I don't know if he's here or not.
Mr. Williams still here. There he is.
Please join me at the podium.
Okay.
Good evening everyone. This is a follow-up presentation
to Mr. Charles Williams.
We honored him two weeks ago
and did not have a resolution, uh, ready for him.
So, in honor, a certificate of recognition
for Mr. Charles Williams, who is a staunch supporter
of the Warren Police Department, an inventor
and entrepreneur.
He uses his innovative
and mechanical capabilities to develop mobility options
for policing and shares his industry knowledge
through mentorship
and advocacy of vocational training with the youth, Mr.
Williams', most recent efforts have led
to him being recognized at the 2025 Detroit,
Michigan OT Rama.
The Warren City Council extends their congratulations
and appreciation for his dedication to our community.
This dated March 25th, 2025,
and my neighbor
Motion to approve Support. Support.
Okay, Next item. Announcement. All those in favor?
All those in favor? Aye. Okay.
Next Announcement. Um, uh, thank you, um, Madam Chair.
Um, first I'd like to get a give, uh, just a couple
of updates on some things that council's been involved in.
Um, today. Uh, we had our first meeting of the Land Bank.
The director, Joe Rivet came, um,
and gave a, a, a presentation
and outline to the members exactly
what a Land bank can do, some of our options going forward.
So it was very informative.
That was only our second meeting.
Um, also, we had a meeting today of the Charter review,
uh, subcommittee.
And, um, last week, I think it was last week or the week
before a meeting, before we approved putting, um,
a ballot, uh, a, um, something on the ballot
for a special election this year.
And since the city is already doing a special election,
we have the opportunity to put issues relating
to the charter on there,
and it wouldn't cost any more money for us to do that.
And, um, and we're discussing several issues.
Um, uh, one is interim appointments, uh,
communications and appointment eligibility under 4.3 C,
which we've been in that area a lot.
So, um,
and also, um, the city received 27,
approximately $27 million from the American Rescue Plan.
And from the outset, the city council was committed
to setting aside a portion of those funds
to support homeowners.
Our goal was to provide home repair assistance based on
economic need, while also developing a plan
to promote home inter um, ownership, uh, within the city.
During the 24 25 budget approval process,
the city council took bold
and innovative action by allocating 15
or 5 million for this initiative.
Subsequently, the list of ar RPA projects was modified
and the ar rpa funds were reallocated.
But 5 million from the general fund was
allocated for this project.
In the fall of 2024, Councilman Lafferty
and I began researching potential strategies, which led
to a meeting with executives
and subject subject matter experts at Huntington Bank.
This initial discussion paved the way for further meetings
between the admin administration council members,
and I believe the mayor brought you in at that time.
Uh, also, uh, Ms. rogenSi and external ex uh, experts.
The administration has been highly cooperative in this
process, and we are so appreciative of that.
These meetings have been ongoing
for several months while no final plan has been established
yet, we are in the final stages
and expect to announce the details later this year.
Uh, with budget hearings scheduled for next month, uh,
just wanted to take this opportunity
to update the public on this important initiative.
Also, uh, the Warren Symphony
is having a concert March 30th at three o'clock.
It's going to be at Fitzgerald High School Auditorium,
and it's featuring Mendelssohn Violin Concerto,
which I'm very excited, uh, to go.
Uh, we hope you'll, uh, join us.
You can go on, uh, the, um, uh, symphony website
to, uh, order tickets warren symphony orchestra.com.
Um, also, I have some sad news to share.
Uh, Chuck, uh, Earl, uh, passed away
on March 17th at the age of 79.
He was born in Warren, grew up in Warren.
Uh, he attended St. Anne's School.
He graduated from Warren High, which is
where we are at the moment.
Uh, he went on to, uh, earn a,
a degree at Eastern Michigan University
and, uh, became a law, uh, a lawyer.
After attending the Detroit College of Law,
he then joined his father in establishing the Earl
and Earl Law Firm, which was later Earl Earl
and Rose in Warren.
Many of you probably familiar with it, on the corner
of Chicago Road and, um, uh, mound Mound Road.
Uh, over the course of 51 years,
Chuck built a distinguished career as an attorney.
He specialized in zoning, estate planning
and transactional law.
He was also very committed to this community.
He served on the board of the Warren YMCA
and as a longtime member
of the Downtown Development Authority, uh,
we send our sincere condolences to his family.
Uh, we're so appreciative of the years he gave to Warren,
uh, serving the residents.
And if we could have a moment of silence.
Thank, Thank you. Um, another Warren Re this,
a Warren resident passed away this week.
Um, I,
Dennis Fergal.
Dennis Fergal was the husband of Judy Fergal,
who served on the Fitzgerald School Board for many years.
She's still on the school board, I think, right?
And she served on our ZBA for many, many years.
She was very knowledgeable.
She taught a lot of people a lot
of things about, uh, zoning.
Um, and we send our condi sincere condolences to the,
uh, feral family.
A moment of silence for Dennis Gel.
Thank you. Um,
and Bruce Anthony Furah, uh,
passed away March 22nd.
Um, he graduated from Cono High School
and he served as a fireman in Warren
for 25 years.
We were so appreciative of his service.
I got to know him in my first term on council, um,
con our sincere condolences to his family,
and thank him for his many, many years
of serving our residence.
Moment of silence for Mr, please.
Thank you.
And That's it for me. Thank you.
Any other announcements?
Okay. Uh, next item.
Next item is a public hearing,
proposed resolution to approve Second Amendment
to the Brownfield Development Plan,
Warren Transmission Development Project,
23,500 Mound Road developer NP Mound Road, industrial,
LLCI believe.
Attorney Jerry Bel is here.
And Mark, uh, Kennie Neck,
uh, corporate rep.
Good evening Counsel. Uh, thank you
for the opportunity to be here this evening.
Um, we have before you a request for an amendment
to the existing Brownfield Plan, uh,
that was previously approved
for the former Warren Transmission Plant site
at North Point Development. Uh, excuse me,
Sir, could you please speak into the microphone?
Sorry. That better? Uh, yes.
We have a, a request
before you to amend the existing Brownfield plan
for the former Warren Transmission site
that North Point Development acquired, uh,
and has completed two
of their proposed four buildings at the site.
I will hand it off to Mark to give a little background on
the project, and I will touch on, uh, the specifics
of the amendment request.
Thanks, Jared. Uh, my name is Mark Kanick.
I'm with North Point Development.
We're the development at the property at
Nine Mile and Mound Road.
Um, we, uh, we have a phase one and phase two.
You may be familiar with phase,
phase one of our development.
We've got about 660,000 square feet,
and we've attracted businesses like Logos, logistics,
Marlow Beauty, the Home Depot that many
of you have probably seen over on nine Mile and Mound Road.
Um, this amendment allows us to,
to really kickstart and attract more tenants.
For phase two, we're looking to develop somewhere
around six, 760,000 square feet.
Um, and this allows us to kind
of tap into especially some d some DTE, uh, power costs
that allow us to bring more tenants, uh,
and more businesses to the area.
So I'm the development manager on the side of things.
I can touch on, uh, development and construction,
but I'll turn it back over to Jared to,
uh, explain a little bit more.
So the, the request
before you, we are seeking to add some additional costs
to cover, uh, the electrical substation, uh,
that Mark had referenced.
Can you guys hear me okay? I'm sorry.
I'm trying to squat down here.
Uh, that cost is about five and a half million dollars.
Um, again, also we are seeking to shift the start date
for the Brownfield Tiff.
Uh, the demolition took a lot longer.
They had run into some unanticipated subsurface materials
that it just took a lot longer.
So there really was no tiff generated.
Uh, what was, what we had originally hoped for, uh,
from the commencement of the development.
Um, overall, they anticipate completion of the park probably
by about 2028.
Uh, that would be the additional buildings
that Mark referenced.
Um, total anticipated investment we had,
or originally earmarked around 180 million.
It's now about 210.
Uh, so the, the North Point team has a, has a,
a developed track record, um,
of redeveloping challenging sites like this.
Uh, one that stood, uh, vacant for quite some time
until the North Point team came forward.
So we're here, we're happy
to answer any questions about this request,
but we do appreciate your consideration.
Thank you. If you could hang out nearby,
we'll open the public hearing
and counsel may have some questions.
Thank you. I will open the public hearing.
Is there anyone from the audience who would like
to speak on the matter?
Okay. We'll close the public hearing
and turn it over to counsel for action.
Motion to approve
Support Lafferty with discussions.
Discussion. Mr. Lafferty.
Thank you, uh, through the chair to Mr. Belka and Mr.
Knicks connect. If you could please
come back up to the microphone.
The, and we've been following the, uh, the development
for the last couple of years since the original phase
was, uh, proposed.
And the, the original TIFF was, uh, established
with this substation.
What types of businesses,
because these are spec buildings initially,
and what kind of tenants are you looking to attract here?
Yeah, so, um, we built spec on building one.
We built the Home Depot is more of a spec to suit.
Um, we're open to a var variety of different tenants,
whether it's a build to suit opportunity
or a speculative development.
We're, um, we didn't have a whole lot of activity in 2024,
nor did the industry of a as a whole.
Uh, we're happy to say we've had a lot of activity in 2025.
Um, we haven't locked any tenants in now,
but we certainly think there's gonna be a spec to suit
or build to suit opportunity.
This allows us to really, uh, attract more users
with higher power capacity.
Um, anything from manufacturing, like I mentioned,
we have logos, logistics companies, Marlow, beauty,
home Depot, um,
really reputable companies that we can bring to the area.
This just allows us another way of attracting, uh, more
businesses, uh, with more unique needs to the site.
It sounds exciting. Uh, I'm hoping for high tech,
automotive Biome mechanicals, the,
the possibilities seem endless based on, uh, the,
the specs that you're, you're talking about
and the investment you're making into the infrastructure.
Uh, I drive by often to check progress, uh, meet with, uh,
Mr. Sweeney from time to time, keep,
uh, keep up on the project.
So, uh, no issues here.
And looking at the, the schedule, uh,
I'll do the math later,
but we're, we're only increasing, uh,
the reimbursement for two years.
Three, two additional years? That is correct. Okay. Alright.
I have no other questions. Good luck. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Any additional discussion?
Okay. Hearing and seeing 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 11.
A request of M three LLC located at 2 0 2 9 Riggs Avenue
for a 60 day extension of adult use license
and medical marijuana licenses. So moved.
Support Lafferty
Discussion.
Uh, from what I can tell,
they're delinquent on their water and their taxes.
BSNA is down right now. I just tried to check.
So there's no way for us to check at the
moment if they're down or not.
Excuse me. I can't hear you.
I just commented that BSNA is down, not just Warren,
but other communities.
So there's no way to, um,
confirm at this moment if they're delinquent or not.
I tracked this morning, right? Yeah.
But it could have been this afternoon
and they could have paid Yeah. But
Contingent approval We could do contingent.
Yeah. Contingent approval works for me. Yeah.
Contingent on them paying their whatever,
whatever default they are in the city, they have to remedy
that before we grant the extension. Does that work?
I'll, I'll Agree with that. You make
her to the motion? Yep. Thank you.
Without, without objection. Any other discussion? Okay.
Hearing and scene? 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 11 B.
Request of mask enterprise LLC located at 23 500
Amber Avenue for a 60 day extension
of MEMA adult use license. So moved.
Support Lafferty. Discussion, hearing, and scene? None.
I call to 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 11 C.
Requested the planning commission
to approve the amended planning department fee, schedule,
consideration, and adoption of a resolution.
So moved. Support, support. Mr.
Newan discussion,
hearing and seeing none.
I'll call the question. Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes.
Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Oh, I missed Mr. Newnan.
I think you better call me at some point. Yes.
Mr. Newnan? Yeah, sure.
Ms. Moore? Yes. Uh, Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes.
Thank you. Next item. Next item is 12 A.
An ordinance to amend Chapter 19.5 of the code of ordinances
entitled Marijuana, Michigan Medical Marijuana Act,
operations Michigan Regulation
and Taxation of Marijuana Act.
Establishments Personal Recreation, Noll, marijuana,
adult use and Medical Marijuana Facilities Licensing
Act Facilities.
Second Reading. So moved with discussion
support Lafferty with discussion.
Discussion Ms. Moore. Thank you.
Um, this item was approved on a first reading.
Um, at our last meeting, uh, several, um,
proposed changes are being suggested
and I would like to read those if I may.
Now, uh, revised section
19.5 dash 16 D one.
On page 15,
the city will issue an administratively approved municipal
license to the applicant.
If the applicant satisfies
and complies with all requirements referenced in this
chapter, including
but not limited to section 19.5, 16
C and the city's zoning ordinance.
And after the applicant obtains all necessary approvals
as detailed in this chapter,
pays a non-refundable license fee
and obtains a certificate of compliance.
The license certificate issued by the city must be signed
by the city's building director
and the city's chief zoning inspector.
Two. Change the second section.
19.5 dash 16 D to section
19.5 dash 16 E.
On page 15 three, replace
building division with building department
in sections 19.5 dash 16 E three
and E four four in section 19.5
16 G one A on page 16, add of filing
of the application after 180 days.
Five revised section
19.5 dash 16 H
one A on page 17,
A license Applicant may appeal an administrative ruling
denying revoking or not renewing a municipal license.
If the reason for the denial revocation
or non-renewal is a violation
of the Michigan construction code or Michigan building code.
The applicant's sole
and exclusive remedy is to file an appeal
with the building department within 14 days
of the city's denial revocation
or non-renewal of the, of the municipal license,
which shall be heard by the city's construction board
of appeals within 30 days of the filed appeal.
For all other reasons being appealed,
the applicant must submit a written request
for an appeal hearing to city council within 14 days
of the city's denial revocation
or non-renewal of the municipal license.
Six revised section 19.5 dash 16 J
one on page 18.
Within 10 days of a change in operation
that would materially alter any answer
to a question on the municipal license, application,
or renewal application.
The licensee shall provide written notice of such change
to the city's building department.
The building department may require a written notice form
or a new application depending on the circumstances.
Seven. Delete section 19.5 dash 16
J 2 3 4 on pages
18 and 19.
Eight. Delete section 19.5 dash 16
K three on page 19.
Um, Madam Chair, um, Mr.
Schroder, could you explain the procedure?
What happens from this point?
Once if a, a resolution is approved,
what the next steps are?
Resolution. Nevermind this change, it gets
Nevermind.
Okay. I, I didn't understand the question. Yeah.
Um, the, the, what happens is these proposed changes go
to the city legal department.
Um, and actually the legal department was involved in that,
uh, document that you read.
The legal department signed off on it.
The legal department met with public service
and, you know, confirmed that these are appropriate.
Um, this would go back to the attorney's office.
They would draft a final version,
which would then go to the clerk.
And then, uh, the clerk would publish the ordinance as is
with these changes, which is why we have two readings.
So changes can be made.
Any other discussion? Ms. Moore? Mr. Lafferty discussion?
No. Oh, you, I thought you had said discussion.
No, I might have said it out of force. I have it. Okay.
Any other discussion? Okay.
Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question.
Uh, Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr.
Dwyer? No. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Uh, Ms. McGee?
Yes. Uh, Mr. Newan?
Uh, so I'm, I'm gonna have a little preamble here.
Um, this conversation has turned into, we're
Not, we're not at discussion.
Oh. Okay. Mr. Newan. Alright. Alright. Yes or no? No.
Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries five to two. Thank you.
Next item. Next item is 12 B Council Secretary Mindy Moore.
Discussion in Ray resident notifications
regarding water shutoff, street sweeping, et cetera.
Um, motion to approve a discussion.
Support Lty. Uh, discussion Ms. Moore.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I received, um, a phone call,
uh, maybe two weeks ago.
I often get phone calls regarding residents complaining
that they're not notified of water shutoffs, you know,
and, um, street sweeping and things like that.
And, um, I understand their frustration often
and they have questions about this, how the quality
of their water and things like that.
And we have a notification system,
and I think we should be using it
for those purposes going forward if we could, um,
to, you know, 'cause that's what residents, that's
what they complain the most about.
Not being notified,
not knowing what's going on, not knowing what the rules.
And I think if we can use the notification system
to let them know, Hey,
we're gonna be street sweeping this week, and then,
or this day, then people know
to remove their cars if they want their street cleaned.
Otherwise everybody's cars are there
and they have to go around and, you know,
makes it harder for our workers, actually.
Um, so I would just request that, um,
the public Service department, um, come up with a process
of maybe incorporating that into their work orders
and working with communica.
I think the communications department maybe puts out the
actual, physically the notifications if maybe we could
figure out something, um, along those lines.
So my request would be that we just send a request
to public service.
They, that they could look into this.
Any other discussion, hearing on scene? 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 a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Madam Chair, we need to go back to 12 A one that I skipped.
Okay. 12 A one. Yes.
A fee schedule authorizing, um, 5,000 amendment
To the existing fee schedule to add a $5,000 fee
for adult use.
Retailers. What he said. Motion to approve
Support. Lafferty.
Any discussion? Hearing seen? 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 12 C. Council Secretary Mindy Moore.
Discussion and Ray DTE energy rebates available
for new fire stations.
Motion to approve for discussion.
Support lap. Uh, discussion Ms. Warren?
Thank you Madam Chair. Um,
I had originally put this on the agenda.
Um, we have information that we could get some rebates, um,
uh, related to building the new fire stations, um, from DTE.
Um, I had a discussion with, um, uh,
the fire commissioner just
before, um, maybe even when we were in the meeting.
He was texting me and we have worked this out.
So we can just skip, receive and file. Yes.
Receive and file. Okay. Uh, all in favor? Aye.
Any opposed? Okay. Next item. Next item.
Consideration of the recommendation
of the towing subcommittee to establish the police,
um, towing list.
Um, motion to approve with discussion.
Support Dwyer. Thank you. Discussion Ms. Moore. Thank you.
Uh, this, this afternoon, the, uh,
towing committee met, uh, uh, Mr.
Dwyer and I and the, uh, we did a review
of the, uh, towing list Recommendation.
Uh, those recommended towing companies are able
towing bill's towing.
Ellis Brothers Towing m and d Towing, official Towing
and Service Towing.
And it is our recommendation of the committee
that this council approve those companies.
Thank you. Any other discussion?
Okay. Hearing and seeing none, I will call the question.
Ms. Moore? Yes. Ms. Dwyer? Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes.
Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Noonan? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes.
Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 13 A,
which was tabled March 11th, 2025.
Uh, proposed resolution providing public notice of intent
to sell vacant tax reverted properties at 11 2 0 3
and 11 2 11 Var Warren, Michigan parcel ID number 1334.
4 54 0 1 2 and 1334.
4 54 0 1 3 for $1,000,
which is $500 each approving sale following 30 day notice
period and accepting grant of easement, rights,
consideration, and adoption of a resolution.
A motion to remove from the table.
Support to remove from the table. Uh, call the question.
Ms. Moore. Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr.
Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is Yes.
Item is removed from the table.
Motion to approve support. Ty. Thank you.
Um, I had some discussion.
Uh, if you can come up to the microphone, sir.
So I'm the one who tabled this item
because, uh, we have no problem with you, um,
using the property, uh, purchasing the property.
It's just that we're very much criticized
and I don't believe in giving property
for a very, very low dollar.
So we're happy to, uh, I think,
approve this item in the future.
But it we would want you to renegotiate with this.
The administration? Yeah. Just,
Just for the record, is it okay, Adam?
Sure. Yeah, I did review this. I'm satisfied with this.
Okay. Because it was actually bid out,
Okay. Right? Yes.
Did you bid on this? Yes. Okay. He bid on it.
It was an open bid. This was the best bid, as opposed
to other situations where there's not a bid
and there's this price that wasn't put out to the market.
Thank you. So I just wanted to clarify that additional
Clarification. Okay.
Then I will. I am satisfied. Okay.
Any other discussion? Okay.
Hearing and scene? None. I will call the question.
Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr.
Bokey? Yes. Mr. Nunan? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes.
Uh, Rogan C is a yes. Thank you. Thank you. Next item.
Next item is 13 B.
Request of the police department
for an increase in budgeted revenues
and appropriations in the amount of $50,000.
To account for the receipt
of additional public Act 3 0 2 training funds received from
the state of Michigan consideration
and adoption of a resolution.
So moved. Five votes are needed for this support.
Dwyer, uh, discussion, hearing, and scene?
None. I'll call the question. Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr. Dwyer?
Yes. Mr. Bokey? Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes.
Um, Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries.
Next item. Next item is 13 C requests
of the police department for an increase in budgeted
appropriations in the amount of $132,082 to cover the costs
to purchase a FARO laser scanner
to replace an inoperable Trimble digital measurement system
through z Dnet Tech, LLC consideration
and adoption of a resolution.
So moved. Support Dwyer with discussion.
Uh, discussion Ms. Moore. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Um, I think that they were originally going to wait until,
um, the budget time,
but this, uh, our current Trimble device is breaking
and it's like 20, $30,000 to, um, fix, fix them.
Uh, we, uh, a few a month
or so ago, I was, uh, list listening,
monitoring a police situation,
and we didn't have, our tremble was broken
and they had to get one from the county,
or I think we borrowed them from, uh, Sterling Heights.
So this is, uh, needed for, uh, accident investigation.
Um, so, um, I would certainly be in favor of this.
Any other discussion, hearing on scene? None.
I'll call the question. Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr.
Bokey? Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Uh, Ms. McGee? Yes.
Rogan C is? Yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is request of the police department
to purchase feral crime scene mapping scanners
and associated equipment utilizing the general services
administrative contract in the total amount
of $132,082 consideration and adoption of a resolution.
So moved. Support Dwyer.
Discussion, hearing, and seeing none.
I will call the question Ms. Moore. Yes. Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Mr.
Bokey? Yes. Mr. Lafferty? Yes. Mr. Ma. Ms. McGee? Yes.
Mr. Nunan? Yes. Rogan C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is, uh, g Request
to extend moratorium on implementing Warren code
of ordinances two dash 4 0 1 at sec.
Motion to approve with discussion support Lafferty.
Discussion Ms. Mark? Thank you.
Uh, the responsible contracting ordinance was initially
adopted without input from the city's purchasing agent,
because quite simply,
the former mayor prevented the council from consulting
with the administrative staff.
Um, after its adoption, the ordinance was supposed
to be published, but that process was delayed for months.
Um, and then finally a mass publication took place in the
fall of 2023.
Once this ordinance was finally published,
the new administration requested a moratorium on its
implementation, which the council approved.
That moratorium expired at the end of December, 2024.
I have recently had some of the labor reunion, uh,
unions reach out to me inquiring about the
status of this ordinance.
Uh, when I spoke with the purchasing agent last week,
I suggested a meeting with labor representatives only
to be informed that such a meeting had taken place maybe a
year ago, but a very long time ago.
Um, the cover letter for this, um, request states
that the administration has been
working with council members.
Um, I was not included in those discussions,
so I'm not really sure
why progress has stalled over the past year.
Um, I would urge all parties though to approach this
with an open mind, uh, recognizing
that some compromise will be necessary,
particularly considering that Craig Trea,
our purchasing agent, is essentially a one man department.
I'm willing to approve the requested three month moratorium,
but this ordinance needs to be finalized in some way.
Um, reading the actual resolution, I, I
probably should ask Mr. Schroeder to look at it as well.
Um, really all we have to do is approve the resolution,
but there's a long recitation in this resolution that,
that I think is, um, not necessary.
Um, it's, it's giving background.
It's not really something that,
I don't know why all this editorializing is in
this, uh, resolution.
It makes no sense to me.
I would suggest that we delete from beginning
with on February 14 through the bottom of the page bids
for city projects and just leave it at,
therefore, it is resolved at the Warren City Council.
Adopts a six month interim moratorium on the enforcement
of Warren Code of Ordinances two dash 4 0 1 at sec.
And you know, the rest of this, I think this,
I don't know why this editorial lies is in there, but
Mad chair, to answer the council secretary's question,
there was an original moratorium adopted by the council
that moratorium was not in the backup.
Okay. So what I would suggest is, um,
and it would be just as legally effective in my opinion,
is if you wanna extend it three months, make a motion
to extend the original, uh, you know,
moratorium by three months.
If that original moratorium included some
of that preamble language.
I think it did. It, it, it's, it's fine.
I think you, you still achieve what you want
by extending the original moratorium by a simple motion
to extend by three months or six months or whatever. It's,
I would suggest three months.
Um, but, you know, I, it's almost finished.
I can talk about it. What, what it was that last Monday.
Not even close. So
I think I, I think we should try three months
and of some, for some reason it doesn't.
I, I think it's good faith on our part
that we say three months, not six months.
A lot of people are waiting for this.
We're, we have a lot of things, uh, happening
and, um, we need to do something that is fair
for all parties going forward.
So I would say three months at this point,
we can always look at it.
Um, you know, we shouldn't have moratoriums
that last more than six months ever.
And now this is going to be, once again, a long time.
So, um, I would say three months in, in incorporating
what Mr. Schroeder said.
Uh, I just will note I've been working
with the legal department, purchasing
and, um, Uh,
Tina Gaius in engineering over the past year, going over
and trying to find the best solutions to honor the spirit
of the ordinance while also not overburdening Craig.
Um, there are a gazillion things
that we've researched from MDO T's process.
Um, Ms. Capis has reached out to other communities
to inquire about their ordinances, to understand
how it would increase the cost of roads.
Um, and so we are working on it slow process,
but it is being worked on.
And, and hopefully in the very near future, uh,
there'll be something that can be presented that
honors the spirit of the original, uh, ordinance without
creating a ton of administrative burden for the departments.
I'm the one that gets yelled at it.
'cause I get calls like I'm the secretary,
I put it on the agenda, why isn't it done?
So I'm taking the heat from a lot of organizations.
So, any other discussion?
Uh, I'm curious, um, would Mr. Schroeder
be possibly of any assistance in
that matter of figuring it out?
He would, he would review the final draft.
Oh, that's already part of it. So,
Yeah, I don't know that he's, well,
How about, how about, uh, would Mr. Schroeder care
to hazard a guess as to whether three months
or six months is the better time to figure this out?
I could do it in three weeks, but it's not just up to me.
There's a whole process. There's a whole committee here.
Okay. And, you know, I'm not privy to this and that's fine.
That's great. Um, we put, the council put this out.
Originally, uh,
the council made a stand on responsible contracting, right?
That the, when the city spends over 50,000, I mean,
we're spending millions on fire stations,
millions on building projects, right?
You wanna make sure these contractors are paling a
prevailing wage, that they're, they're responsible,
that they don't have other issues.
And, um, I think it could be done in three months.
If it's a priority, someone has to prioritize it.
Um, that's just life. And we, we all have a lot to do.
They just need, someone needs to make it a priority.
I know it's a priority of this
council, so that's not the problem.
So
I, I'm in favor of then probably of going with, uh,
the secretary's recommendation on this.
Thank you. So Madam Chair? Mm-hmm.
Just for clarification, do it.
Essentially the only item that is left in the resolution
is the extension of the moratorium.
So the, the only,
therefore it is resolved,
the Warren City Council adopts a three month interim
moratorium on the enforcement of the Warren and code of
or ordinances two dash 4 0 1 at sec.
Correct. Okay.
Any other discussion? Hearing seen? None?
I'll call the question. Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr. Lafferty?
Yes. Is amended Mr. Dwyer? Yes. Is amended. Mr. Bokey?
Yes. Mr. Nunan? Yes. Ms. McGee? Yes. Rogan C is a yes.
Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 13 H Proposed resolution awarding ITBW 1287.
And authorizing mayor and clerk to execute the purchase
and development agreement with Toco custom homes LLC
for conveyance and renovation
of six tax reverted properties, consideration
and adoption of a resolution. So moved.
Support Lafferty
Discussion, hearing, and scene?
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 13 I, uh, consideration
and adoption of a resolution approving the purchase
of 7 20 25.
Road rescue ambulance from DDA construction
bond fund proceeds.
It's a bond resolution amendment.
I, I'm sorry, madam chair. I could not hear the,
Okay. It's the purchase
of 7 20 25 road rescue ambulance from
DDA Construction bond fund proceeds.
Bond resolution amendment.
Thank you. And Madam Chair.
Motion to approve or discussion
support Lafferty uh, discussion.
Ms. Moore? I could explain it,
but Mr. Fox is here, so he might wanna do a better job.
Good evening, Madam Chair. Members of Council.
Richard Fox. City controller.
So what I'm trying to accomplish here is the, um,
construction fund for the two new fire stations.
When the bonds were, uh, sold, we,
we ended up getting a pretty large premium on the bonds.
So at this point in time,
there's monies available in the construction fund
to pay for the fire trucks.
And then what that does is free up money
and the bond issue that we did for the equipment
for last year's budget.
And so that I can have funding to, to pay for equipment
that an upcoming budget for police and fire
and for DPW for major equipment purchases that they have.
And that's what I'm trying to accomplish.
Thank you, Mr. Fox. Any additional questions?
Discussion. Okay.
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 as a?
Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Next item.
Next item is audience participation on general topic.
Members of the audience who would like
to address city council may do so
by filling out an audience form on the left.
Um, I have a number of folks here. You have three minutes.
Uh, if for folks that are new to council meeting, you can,
if you spoke earlier, you can also speak, uh,
during general audience.
First up is Lori Harris, and
after Lori is Joel Vander Lenon,
who may have no hearted.
Well, this is a fine, how do you do
I appreciate the people that did vote.
No. Um,
because at least, at least people were listening.
And I'm really sorry that it's come to this.
And I didn't like you guys being threatened by,
uh, marijuana business owner, dispensary owner,
which is what it sounded like.
A little bit of bullying here, uh, telling you that, uh,
you know, you're, it's just gonna get worse if you do this.
Um, I sincerely do not believe that the city
is staffed appropriately to manage just our grow,
the other 170 businesses.
And it's clear if people are coming here
and saying they smell it all the time, uh,
it's clear they're not being handled appropriately.
Um, so I hope that you are as a council,
and I know all of you,
and I'm sure that you all care about the residents,
but you're gonna pay attention to where these shops go
and how it affects the neighborhoods.
And the worry that places are going to, um,
try to buy out businesses in the areas that are outlined on
that, on that map, um, worries me
because then they'll, there'll be a collection
of people in that area.
If they don't ma make it, then we've got more empty space.
Um, I also, um, wanted to mention that,
Um,
It's terribly disappointing.
It's, it's a, a real crime that we, um,
didn't have the ability of the public to be involved,
truly from the beginning.
And none of you were involved in that.
And I've already thanked the people
that already made this mess for us.
Um, but that would've been a good start to have the public
actually, uh, be involved in what happens in our community.
Because 59% may have voted to pass a marijuana law,
never expecting to have unlimited dispensaries
and 170 other marijuana businesses in our city.
So I, I am disappointed
and I'm sure a lot of people will be disappointed.
Um, I am looking forward to the, um,
land bank information.
I thought that was fascinating
and exciting, what we can look forward to and plan
and do for our city.
Um, but this is a sad day. This is a sad night.
And for a woman to cry about the loss of her child
because of drugs, and it's still, you still passed it.
So thank you. Thank you. Next is
Joel Vander Linen not,
don't go.
I'm not 70 anymore.
Thank you. Thank you.
Joel Lin, longtime worn resident.
I hope to have highlighted earlier.
To bring you to the needs of the people,
not to the needs of the money.
Money is the devil's tool.
When you vote for the, for the welfare
of the min, of the small, of the small group, instead
of the need of the many.
You're wrong. We don't have the
police officers to protect the citizens.
And yet you wanna open up all these marijuana shops.
We don't have the money for all the inspectors
that we are short, but we're gonna open the shops anyways
and put it all on zoning.
When I worked for the city of Warren,
we had six people working in zoning that could take care
of all these problems and stuff like that.
Last I heard there was three.
How is three people going
to make all these necessary inspections and everything else
and all this money we get from the marijuana companies,
where's it gonna go?
Are you gonna put in the police you ain't hiring?
Why are you gonna put in our roads? Probably not.
Are you gonna put it towards more inspectors,
more employees?
Well, you're not filling the spots now.
And some of you got upset
that I brought up the Democratic Socialist Party.
Well, that's what it's become.
It's not the old Kennedy Democrats anymore.
Most of them are gone. I miss them.
Someone to be proud of.
But when you have a democratic party who's willing
to spend millions of dollars on people in prison
that have sex changes, instead of protecting the people
of their cities, the people of the country,
that's where I draw the line.
When I was a soldier,
I grew up listening to kill a comm for your mommy.
That socialism was the beginning of communism.
And that is what the Democratic Party has become.
And my proof of that is they want to take God off the dollar
out of the pledge of allegiance.
They want to tell you to deny God, Jesus
and everything else, Mr.
Vander, Lin Lin. And you're at time
And they want to tell you to kill your babies.
Thank you. Next is Joey d
Good evening again, counsel.
I got a few things here I want to touch on
because I'm not a regular like I used to be.
So I gotta get a bunch of things off my chest at one time.
First and foremost, I want to know
where did they post the property that was up for bid
because I never seen it.
So we got ourselves outta one lawsuit
or partway outta one lawsuit.
I should file a lawsuit against the city
for selling that property.
'cause I promise you it's worth more than 500 bucks.
I've seen this city sell half pieces of property
for 1500, $2,000.
It's just absurd. But it's not your guys' tax money.
You don't care. The other thing is you guys are getting
ready to go over the ordinances.
One of the things you need to do is you need
to revamp this lowest qualified bidder ordinance
because the road construction in this city
is worse than any place I have ever been in Michigan.
Go take a ride up Ryan Road,
the section from nine to 10 mile Road.
The cement is horrible.
Then they re blacktop the section from 10 to 11 mile.
All the striping is almost all gone already.
It's hasn't been six months.
I don't know where we're hiring these people from,
but I mean, you could get high school kids
to do a better job and if it's a case of, you know,
$3,000 difference.
So they gotta, somehow they gotta balance that out.
'cause just because somebody told you, you, you know,
you used to work for a construction company
that doesn't make you qualified.
They need to start getting some more
recommendations from other communities or something
because it's horrible.
And then somebody mentioned the ARPA funds.
We put in ARPA funds
and it was supposed to be to help homeowners
with repairs and this and that.
I had some problems this summer. I'm disabled.
I was looking for somebody to help with some stuff
around my house, mainly shoveling snow.
I called the city crickets.
Finally, I called my county commissioner.
He actually came and shoveled at himself.
That's pretty sad when your own city offers no help
for their seniors and their disabled people.
Here we got $5 million that, oh, we shuffled it
to somewhere else, but yet we got tons
and tons of money in the DA
that we can just spend it wherever we want to, I should say,
on whatever we want to.
When all that money that's supposedly is free could be going
to the entire city. Thank you.
Thank you. Next is, uh, Michelle, you do not wanna speak.
Right? Okay, thank you. Just confirming, uh, Wesley Arnold,
I'm running as fast as I can.
Professor Wesley Arnold, 82 year resident.
Warren City Council,
I think is our best city council that I've seen.
Thank you for your service, especially tonight. Wow.
It's almost over. And I'll be really short.
I was going to report on what science says about marijuana
with some emphasis on, uh,
the reckless use by people.
But I'm gonna spare you that be
because you can look that up yourself.
I did wanna just comment,
but what really scares me as an old timer,
you're driving down the road
and you put your window down, you can smell it,
you see the guy in front of you, blow the smoke out,
you can smell it.
And I've seen some of their driving. Wow.
And one of the facts is that a little too much
and it does impair driving.
So that's what's really scary to me.
Thank you all so much
for your service and especially tonight.
I hope answer is okay. So thank you very much.
Thank you. That is the end of audience.
Uh, next is council response to audience.
Anyone ha may approach the council. I'm sorry.
No, no. I did turn in my
Paper.
So I do apologize for being so rude. I, I do not speak.
I would appreciate the time. Oh, hold on one second.
Thank you.
Uh, in the future it has to be returned
to the basket over this way.
I do apologize. No worries. Um, go ahead. Venita.
Yes, Paul, Mary.
Thank you, counsel. Um, I guess I new to all
of this, so I do apologize to you,
but I would like to reintroduce myself
because I hopefully will be able to
be on a better level with you all.
My name is Venita Palmer. I am a recovering alcoholic.
I also am a grief counselor.
I am also on a volunteer basis for drug and alcohol rehab.
I was wondering if anybody on the council could tell me,
since I'm looking forward to a positive
reinforcement in the city of Warren,
how many facilities we have available
for counseling, for drugs, for alcohol, for homelessness,
rehabilitations in the city of Warren.
Folks can't respond during audience.
I'm the only one who can speak.
That's fine. I do greatly appreciate it.
I just wanted to bring the the question to the board.
Secondly, I was Christian based,
brought to the city of Warren.
I checked myself into the city of Warren.
I was given great reception
and that's why I chose to stay.
I chose to move to this city.
It wasn't because of you council members,
but I wanted you all to know
that I'm not against ACY in my city.
What I am against is unlimited.
I have a limited supply of Narcan.
I have a limited supply of resources.
I have a limited supply of friends, of family,
of counsel, of taxpayers
whose lives on a daily basis
as a eight year recovering alcoholic, a drug as a drug.
And addiction is an addiction whose lives I try
to save on a daily basis.
When I ask the counsel for positive reinforcements,
I'm not against cannabis.
I have a son who uses cannabis for anxiety and a disorder.
So he has a medical issue.
He uses it for, I wanted to understand the unlimited,
the black sheep, the whatever we have the cloud
that is over us of the unlimited.
I asked the question
of does the unlimited give the opportunity
to drop this lawsuit?
And those people who were on the lawsuit,
if they were brought into now apply for those relicensing,
are they gonna be first on the list?
And I don't believe that question was addressed.
Are they first on the list
to come into our unlimited resources now so
that this lawsuit will be null and void?
I'm, I'm kind of confused on the unlimited question
or cloud that we have over us as a recovering alcoholic
and somebody who would like to bring positive resources
and help for our homelessness, our alcoholics and our drugs.
Thank you counsel. Thank you. Response.
Mr. Sho, you can respond. Yes, uh, I can respond.
Uh, we typically don't do this,
but this is, there's been a lot of confusion created
by this unlimited language.
And sometimes people who have access to a lot
of money know they can manipulate how people think
by repeating the same thing over and over.
And in this particular case, I can give an example.
Liquor licenses, beer, liquor
and wine in the city of Warren are limited,
but I just checked tonight
with the Liquor Control commission.
There's 202 liquor licenses in the city of Warren.
Between the bars, the gas stations,
the liquor stores and so forth.
Pizzerias restaurants 202. It's limited.
However, in this particular case,
we are limiting by zoning.
The reason we're doing this is
because of the way the state law was written.
We are essentially handcuffed
by the way they wrote the state law
about the way you limit a license
and all the quagmire it gets us into.
So it is absolutely limited.
Even if every piece of green property on that map
gets a marijuana license,
it will not come anywhere near 202 liquor
licenses nowhere near.
So when you say limited and you say unlimited, you can play
with the words all you want,
but you have to drill down and look at the reality.
The reality is that we're not gonna have anywhere near 200.
We're gonna have anywhere near a hundred.
We had a business up here tonight getting a
brownfield exemption.
And I looked on the map, it was a green property.
I highly doubt they're out there
marketing this for marijuana.
They're looking for Yeah, no, I'm talking about the company.
They got the brownfield. So anyway,
the point being it is absolutely limited.
We just can't put a hard number on that.
The minute we put a hard number on that, we say 15,
we got our butts kicked.
We meaning the city
because of the actions of the prior council.
You put a hard number on there.
There's a whole set of rules that go into place.
We're just trying to solve the problem
and limit it as much as we can by the zoning.
And if we reopen the zoning, that's
what the council's not doing, is not reopening the zoning
and sending it back to the planning commission
and let people start changing this map all over again.
We're gonna stick with what was decided before.
And there's gonna be an absolute limit to the number.
So when someone says unlimited, it's absolutely not true.
It's limited by the zoning there, limited by the distances.
And, and like I said,
the comparison to liquor is pretty good.
And I think there was some other comment about the, um, um,
rehabilitation facilities.
I think council has some plans on that. I don't know if,
Alright, Madam Chair.
Um, first off, congratulations on your sobriety.
Um, this council is very concerned, um, about
offering help to people that need help in recovering.
Um, we have received opioid settlement funds
and they're just sitting in the bank.
We have asked, um, for the administration,
we asked the prior administration,
we asked the current administration to put together a panel
of experts so that we make the right decision on how
to allocate those funds.
That's not happened yet.
We're sort of gonna have to take it on ourselves.
We think, um,
because there's a, we wanna make sure
that we do the right thing.
These, we're not gonna have these monies forever.
And we want to affect
as many warren residents lives as we can.
So that's our goal. It's not easy.
Um, and, but we need to hear from the experts.
We're, none of us are experts.
We've all had experience, I think, um, the effects
of the opioid crisis.
Certainly most families have been affected,
but we wanna make the right decision.
We're not getting that help right now.
And probably we're gonna have to set up our little group
and do some things, but we are very concerned about.
And once again, we're very happy that you're sober today.
Any other responses?
Madam? President? Through the chair?
Yeah. Mr. Dwyer. Yes.
I'm just to up to date about, uh, police staffing.
Um, we are still 25 officers down
and we are not currently advertising anywhere, so
we're just crawling along.
We've, uh, got three that have applied in the
last, uh, hiring cycle.
We have four that are being hired in early April,
but then we got two officers that are retiring in June.
So we're just now making a lot of progress here. Thank you.
Any other responses? Uh, I wanted to address the,
uh, comment about Lois Bidder.
The responsible contracting ordinance
that was discussed here in an effort is going
to address some of the lowest bidder, uh, items
and try to, um, bring in contractors
that aren't necessarily the lowest bidder,
but are the most responsible.
Um, and then additionally, a number
of folks have talked about being taxpayers
and, um, folks are taxpayers in the audience.
I just wanna remind everyone that we all live in the city.
We all own homes in the city. We all are taxpayers as well.
Um, most of us have been here for decades.
Jonathan, I don't think has ever left the city of Warren.
Um, he's lived here his whole life.
Uh, and many of us have lived here for a very long time.
And so what we all care very deeply about the community
and realize that people do not always agree
with the decisions that we have to make,
but that we're all very much invested in
the success of the city.
It's why we all serve our community in this capacity
because we want to be as helpful
and make sure that we're making the best decisions possible.
So I just wanna remind everyone
that we are your neighbors as well.
So any other responses?
Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. All in favor?
Aye. Aye. Any opposed? We adjourn. Thank you.