I am now calling to order a regular meeting of city council, Tuesday,
June 9th, 2026, at 7:00 PM. Please stand for the pledge of
allegiance.
I pledge 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.
Councilwoman Roggensack.
Here.
Councilwoman McGee.
Here.
Councilman Lafferty.
Here.
Councilman Bohike.
Present.
Councilman Noonan.
Present.
Councilman Dwyer.
A motion to excuse with discussion.
Support Lafferty.
Mr. Dwyer's wife is undergoing surgery at the Cleveland
Clinic tomorrow. They went down today to start
all the preparations and things, and so our thoughts and
prayers are with their family. It's pretty serious surgery,
but he should be back here in two weeks, and I'll keep everybody updated
on how she does. He's got to text so...
Wish her well.
Yes.
Is that the end of roll call?
Yep.
Okay.
All in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed?
Thank you. Next item.
Next item is adoption of the consent agenda, so moved.
Support Lafferty.
I'd like to request
that IV P be taken off the consent agenda.
Support?
IV P.
And placed on the regular agenda?
And placed on the regular agenda, yeah.
Any other discussion?
Okay, hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question, Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Bohike?
I just want clarification, point of order on
item four, letter B, as in boy-
B
... in the consent agenda.
Paul.
Your vote.
I'm vote.
Thank you. Yes?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan?
Yes.
Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Roggensack is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item, adoption of the agenda, so moved with discussion.
Support Lafferty.
Discussion, Ms. Moore.
Yes. We're adding to the list of bills,
payment for delivery of the Sutphin Quint ladder truck,
in the amount of
$1,656,415.
We had already approved the purchase of this item, but now we have
to pay for it because it's coming in this week, and we have to pay on delivery.
And this
will be non-reconsiderable since it has to
be issued maybe tomorrow or Thursday.
Where is that being added?
That's being added to the list of bills.
List of bills. Thank you.
And one more issue, we are removing item
13I at the request of the administration.
They're
pursuing another route for payment of this.
Madam Secretary.
Mm-hmm.
IV P-
And IV P is now item...
Let's make it XI B. Oh, no. Is that the only thing you have to be here
on?
Yes.
Okay, let's put that under miscellaneous.
Make it XI A, it'll be XI B, will be IV P.
Any additional discussion?
Oh.
Oh, I was just going to read it. Okay.
Oh.
The item 13B is 50 million, not 50,000.
Okay. I will call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Bohike?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan?
Yes.
Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Roggensack is yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 6A, calendar of pending matters.
Motion to receive and file.
Support Lafferty.
Any discussion?
I will call the question. All in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed?
Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 7A, approval of the bills of
the general revenue funds, so moved with the addition of
the Quint ladder truck.
Support.
Support Lafferty.
Support, Ms. McGee. Any discussion?
Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Bohike?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan?
Yes.
Roggensack is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is approval of the bills of the water and sewer system, so moved.
Support Lafferty.
Discussion?
Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Bohike?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan?
Yes.
Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Roggensack is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 7G, general fund revenue report for
March 2026. Motion to receive and file.
Support Lafferty.
Any discussion?
Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question. All in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed?
Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 7D, general fund expenditure report for March
2026. Motion to receive and file.
Support Lafferty.
Any discussion?
Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question. All in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed?
Next item.
Next item is
7C, general fund revenue report for April
2026. Motion to receive and file
Support Lafferty, E.
E. And I said C.
C.
Oh, I'm sorry, E. Motion by Moore, support by Lafferty, this is item E.
Any discussion?
Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question. All in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed?
Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 7F, general fund expenditure report for April
2026. Motion to receive and file.
Support Lafferty.
Any discussion?
Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question. All in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed?
Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is
eight, audience participation for agenda items only.
Members of the audience who would like to address city council this evening may do
so by getting an audience form
on the right side of us now.
You have three minutes. I do not have a screen here for those of you that
are newer to this conference room, so I will give you a one-minute or
30-second
reminder of your time.
Mr. Vander Linden, you put an audience, but do you have an item for the
agenda or just general?
Item on the agenda.
Okay.
The podium's that way if you-
That way?
Yep, this-
To a blind guy?
To the left.
You got it.
She's going to take it. Just put it in the basket.
Sure.
What?
Yeah. Sorry. Check this.
Watch the curtsies.
Okay, you're in front of the podium. Can you see it?
Oh.
Let me bring the mic here.
Turn to
the
side.
That's the podium?
Yeah.
That camera's going to have to scootch back.
There, we got it.
To the wife.
Okay, sit down.
Got it?
My pants are falling.
You might want to turn a little
bit more.
I'm good.
You ready, Mr. Vander Linden?
Yes, ma'am.
All right. Your three minutes. Go for it.
Joel Vander Linden, longtime Warren resident.
I'm here about the
beginning of the sewer
cleanup,
the $50 million
sewer cleanup that we have here in Warren.
I am all for it. I think it needs to be done
quicker.
I think we need to drain the water out of Red Run in a
faster pace
now that we have all this
garbage water coming from Oakland County
illegally. I need the council to
support it so our basements don't flood.
I'd like to know how the court thing is going on the
lawsuit with Oakland County about Red Run,
because what we first agreed upon
with Red Run
has been trampled upon by Oakland County.
So please vote yes on that bill. Thank
you very much.
Thank you.
Welcome back.
That is the end of audience for agenda
items.
No, she-
Ms. Camp, there's-
We have the other-
There's... Yes, I do. There's two.
Is there-
Yes. One or two more there.
Thank you.
What other agenda items?
General.
Yeah, general. I did go under general.
Okay.
And I have another one in general.
It's later.
Okay.
Cultural commission appointment.
Is there a cultural-
It's already done. It was on the consent-
Consent
... consent. It was done.
So I guess it's adjourned.
We'll call her up. Viviana Podina?
Okay.
Yep, you have three minutes. Just so you know, the item was approved on the
consent. You still have three minutes. Yeah.
Yeah. Hi,
city council. My name's Viviana. The mayor actually asked me to come to this
meeting just to introduce myself.
I got appointed to the cultural commission.
I'm really excited to be part of this.
My background professionally is in fashion, retail, and the
cannabis industry. Where I work currently, part of my job
is employee engagement, so I'm really excited to translate that into a
city-wide
thing where we can...
How do I say this? I would say the way that I think about this is the world is our
oyster for the amount of events and things that we can do.
I know we've done a lot of concert series.
I think there's a lot of other things that we can do for the city, especially
since this is Michigan's third-largest city.
It's important and I'd like to see it
expand in that capacity. So I just wanted to
say hi, nice to meet you guys, and thank you.
Thank you.
All right. That is the
end of-
She's as well
... audience, I think.
No, I think she had-
I think there was one.
Oh, yeahMahmuda
Maury?
Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you. Sorry for-
That's okay
... the delay. Three minutes.
Good afternoon, council members. My name is Mahmuda Maury.
I am on today's agenda in 13H, and thank
you for giving me the opportunity to speak today.
I wanted to introduce myself a little bit more and talk about my background.
So I joined the Warren Planning Commission a few years ago in
2022 and had the privilege of serving two terms.
During my first term, I was the assistant secretary, and for the last three years,
I have been serving as the secretary for the Warren Planning Commission.
Throughout my time on the commission, I have been actively involved
beyond my core responsibilities.
For example, volunteered to serve in the Master Planning
Committee along with the Green Space Committee, and I am
the second representative for a couple of the other committees that we do
have. I also had the opportunity to complete my
Michigan planning certification through MSU extension program.
And I think, especially the certification program, really
helped me do my responsibilities to the best of
my knowledge.
Just to talk a little bit more about my background with the city, I have
been involved with city ever since I graduated high school.
So I started with our city clerk, serving as an
election inspector, and then also became the election
supervisor and served there a couple of times.
As a planning commissioner, I always made it my priority to be
engaged with the community, ask questions, raise concerns when
needed. I believe thoughtful decision-making,
transparency, and ensuring that development aligns with the best
interests of our community.
It has truly been an honor serving the city, especially the planning
commission, and I respectfully ask for your approval, especially for
13H today. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you again.
Thank you.
Next is Tahmid Chowdhury.
Also on the consent-
Yes
... just so you are aware. Go ahead, three minutes.
Good evening, Council President Robensy, and member of the city councils, and
fellow residents. My name is Tahmid Chowdhury.
I would like to thank Mayor Stone for appointing me to the Warren Crime Commission
and the City Council for your consideration this evening.
I'm a proud Warren resident and currently serving as the industry director for
State Representative Mike McFall.
Through my work, I have the opportunity to assist residents, collaborate with local
governments, and help connect people with the resources and services they need.
I recently completed Warren Citizens Police Academy, which gave me a valuable
insight into the work performed by our police department and the challenges our
officers face every day. The experience
strengthened my belief that strong partnership between residents,
community organization, and law enforcement
are essential to keeping our city safe.
In addition, my professional background, including working in technology, data
analysis, and software operations, where cybersecurity, digital
system, and risk management were important part of my work.
As crime increasingly extends into the digital world, I hope to bring the
experience into the commission by helping promote awareness of
cybercrime, online scams, identity theft, fraud prevention, and
other emerging threats that affect residents,
seniors, and local business. I'm honored by the opportunity to serve
on the
Crime Commission and look forward to supporting its mission of promoting
crime prevention, community education, and open communication between resident
and law enforcement. I'm committed to listening, learning, and working
collaboratively to help make Warren even safer, stronger
community. Thank you for your time and consideration.
I look forward to serving this resident of Warren. Thank you.
Thank you.
I believe that is the end of audience now.
Next item.
Next item is 9A, resolution recognizing
June 2026 as Pride Month.
A resolution of the Warren City Council recognizing June
2026 as Pride Month, whereas the City Council of the City of
Warren recognizes the importance of fostering a community built
on dignity, respect, inclusion, and equal opportunity for all
residents. And whereas Pride Month is observed each June to
honor history, contributions, and resilience of the
LGBTQ+ community. And whereas the City of
Warren values diversity and stands against discrimination,
harassment, and intolerance in all forms.
And whereas celebrating Pride Month affirms the city's
commitment to ensuring every resident feels welcomed,
respected, and safe within their community.
Now therefore, be it resolved that the Warren City Council hereby
recognizes June 2026 as Pride Month in
the city of Warren and encourages all residents to promote
understanding, kindness, and mutual respect throughout our
community. Resolution declared and adopted. So moved.
Support, Lafferty.
Any discussion?
All in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed?
Next item.
A resolution of the Warren City Council recognizing Juneteenth
2026, whereas on June 19, 1865, more
than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation
Proclamation, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to
announce that enslaved African Americans were free, marking the effective
end of slavery in the United States.
And whereas the historic day became known as Juneteenth, the celebration of
freedom, resilience, hope, and the enduring pursuit of
equality and justice for all Americans.
And whereas Juneteenth serves as an opportunity to reflect
upon our nation's history, to recognize the struggles and
contributions of African Americans throughout history, and to
recommit ourselves to the ideals of liberty,
equality, and opportunity.
And whereas the City of Warren is proud of its diverse community and
recognizes that our strength as a city comes from the many
cultures, backgrounds, and experiences that contribute to the
fabric of our community. And whereas the Warren City Council
encourages all residents to use Juneteenth as a time for
education, reflection, celebration, and meaningful
dialogue that promotes unity, understanding, and mutual
respect among all people.
And whereas Juneteenth was officially recognized as
a federal holiday in 2021, underscoring its
national significance and importance in American history.
Now therefore, be it resolved that the Warren City Council hereby
recognizes June 19, 2026, as
Juneteenth in the City of Warren, and encourages all residents
to commemorate this important occasion by reflecting upon the
ongoing pursuit of freedom, equality, and justice for all.
Be it further resolved that the Warren City Council honors the legacy,
achievements, and contributions of African Americans in the
City of Warren, the State of Michigan, and throughout the United States.
Resolution declared adopted. So moved.
Support Lafferty.
All in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed?
Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 10A, which is a public hearing
request to approve an ordinance to amend the Code of Ordinances,
Appendix A, to add Article
4H pertaining to overlay districts.
The proposed amendment to Article 4 of Appendix A of the City of
Warren Code of Ordinances to add Article 4H will create
special public purpose overlay districts on certain specific
areas of land and to adapt the development and use
standards to shifting housing, economic, and demographic
trends.
PANAAP260001. This is a second
reading.
Madam Chair, before we open this, Mr.
Schroeder, did you want to make a comment before we-
Just for the record, this public hearing is not required
under
our enabling laws. The actual public hearing took place
before the planning commission, but council is affording this
opportunity to take additional input. We did mention that at the last meeting.
Thanks to Ms. Michaels for pointing that out.
May I say support Noonan?
There's no action yet.
Oh.
There's no action.
That's what you just said. Okay.
I am going to open the public hearing.
Does anyone from the audience want to speak on this matter?
This is where we have public comment.
Okay. Hearing and-
Madam Chair.
Yeah.
Mr. Wright, did you want to add-
Oh
... something here?
Yeah. Thank you. John Wright, and Jim Ross, and
Nicole Ross, and our local developers, and we just want to say
thank you for considering this. We'll be
submitting plans for new housing units in South Warren in the coming weeks
that we would not have been able to do without this overlay,
new homes. And, we'd also like to specifically
thank Ron Wirth and Michelle Catapotos, Mary Michaels, and Hunter
Manikis for working with us and getting this through.
And also, we have completed two houses
on Maxwell as part of a other resolution and pilot that
you approved, and we invite all of you to come see it.
We have one staged and we'd love to show you at some point.
So thank you for considering this.
Thank you.
Anyone else want to speak on this matter?
Okay. I will close the public hearing.
There's nothing that council needs to act on.
Motion to-
Madam Chair
... motion to-
Second
... Madam Chair, motion to approve-
Thank you
... with discussion.
Support.
Thank you-
Noonan
... Mr. Noonan. Discussion, Ms. Mark.
Thank you. I just want to say that, I've already seen some of this stuff
in action of where we're going to need the overlay, and we've
already gotten a couple done with variances to this
point. And if you stop by Maxwell and you want to see the two
houses that have been placed so far, they look great.
And the neighbors are very excited about it.
And thank you so much for all the work you've done, and everybody in the
administration that's helped bring this to this point.
I know it was a lot of work, Mr. Wirth and Michelle Catapotos, Hunter, thank you
all so much for your work. Ms. Michaels, thank you.
Any other discussion?
Okay. Hearing and seeing none, I will call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Mr. Boyke?
Yes.
Roggen, C is yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 11A, consideration and adoption of a resolution
authorizing the retention of Stagg Liuzza and Kirk
Hooth Lang & Benedmente law firms for professional legal services to
pursue legal claims in the PFOS contamination class
action lawsuit. Motion to approve with discussion.
Support Lafferty.
Discussion, Ms. Mark.
Yeah. Is someone here from either of those law firms?
I have questions, lots of them.
Ms. Michaels, do you know if this is time sensitive?
Because I have a lot of questions about this to Mr. Hooth.
It is fairly time sensitive. There's a group that would have to be here.
Well, these are specifically things I want to ask Mr.
Hooth in light of the things that happened in the last class action.
I want to know who all was...
I'll
ask you if you know.
Mr. Hooth could be available if you have questions.
I have his phone number and can-
I do. I can't ask him questions during a public
hearing.
Right.
But I want to know if other law firms were
solicited and ask about this, because there's six or eight in the
country that are doing this.
That is-
And this one is a little bit...
That is correct. Other law firms approached the city
to sign the city up. There's been no action by the city
to actually take their services,
or recommend their services to council. Mr.
Huth approached us,
and he's been working with the main law firm, the one, Stagg
Luizzi, which actually established liability in the
overall class action lawsuit,
and is working for
Stagg... I can't think of his name.
I
won't even try, but I'll call it Stagg Law Firm.
They were actually retained by the Great Lakes Water Authority.
Mm-hmm.
And Mr. Huth is working in coordination with Stagg
to help communities-
Right
... get some of the benefits of the settlement proceeds.
What's the contingency fee?
That is, I think it's 25%,
75%. I spoke to Mr. Huth. He said it's more than fair
because Stagg established liability.
So they're getting 25%,
Stagg firm?
Yes.
And-
Mr. Huth-
But Mr. Huth gets a cut of that. What is his-
Correct. Absolutely.
What is his cut?
25%.
He gets 25% of-
Correct
... the 25%?
Yes.
And that's only of our proceeds. I'm sorry.
Oh, right.
Forgive me. Forgive me. I'm sorry.
Right. No, no, no. I know that.
It's one third. They get one third.
Of the one third, 75% goes to Stagg,
25% goes to
Rob Huth.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
So it's one third-
Correct, they get one third our settlement-
And-
... our proceeds
... and Kirk Huth gets 25% of the third.
25%. Correct.
Okay. Okay. I'll have-
Pardon me?
Yeah. I'll have a conversation with Mr.
Huth because I want to make sure that the same mistakes are not
made that were made in the last one.
If I may, Madam Chair.
Yes.
I had the conversation with Mr. Huth to make sure he was
in favor, or he supported this allocation of fee, and
he was completely supportive.
Well, yeah, of course he would be because we could go directly to that law firm,
but he's getting a cut of it where we wouldn't have to...
We're going to pay the one third either way, but this way
we could go directly to Stagg if we wanted to.
Yes, I think we-
We don't have to do that.
It's a New Orleans firm.
I know, I know, and there's Motley Rice, there's
Watts Law Firm. I know all of them, most of them, because that's what I do
historically is mass tort, so I'm very well aware of the firms.
I've never heard of this one, but...
Stagg?
Never.
Well, they were retained by Great Lakes Water Authority-
No, I understand that
... through-
I've just not heard of them, and so I have a little problem
getting a firm I've never heard of.
So-
If I may
... But, I'll have conversations with Rob about
this.
But yeah, he's
an agent for them now, basically. They're doing the work, and
he just gets a cut as a... This is a referral, basically, for the
Huth firm.
Yes.
That's all it is. So all right. Thank you. That's all.
Okay, cool.
Mr. Boyke.
Ms. Michaels.
Yes.
The 25%, does that include the legal fees
for the firm?
Correct.
The law firms will receive nothing, no costs, no attorney fees,
unless the city of Warren is awarded part of the settlement.
Unless we-
Because something like that could go on for years, and we could end
up owing the
law firm a lot of money.
No, this is the beauty of it. Law firms will not be paid unless the
city of Warren receives an award.
And they get it out of the 25%.
Correct. Absolutely.
Not an additional bill to the city.
Correct. Yes. And-
Thank you
... according to, if I may, Mr. Huth said that this will
not be a protracted
matter like the opiate lawsuit.
Mm-hmm.
It's just within three years we'll receive the money. Probably sooner.
And the money is unrestricted. It could be used for any purpose the city sees
fit.
Right.
Thank you, Ms. Michaels.
Thank you.
Madam Chair.
Ms. Moore.
How the costs work
is, say you get a billion dollars. They take
all the costs out of that
amount, and then they take their 30%, and then
the 25%. But all the costs get paid first,
and then the
contingency fee comes after that.
Correct.
Right?
Yes.
Any other discussion?
Okay. Hearing and seeing none, I will call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan?
Yes.
Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Mr. Boyke?
Yes.
Brogan, C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is
11B, which was 4P
on the consent, request of the police department to extend the award
for license plate reader technology for a two-year period in a total
amount of 132,000, consideration and adoption of a
resolution. So moved.
Support.
I support Mr. Noonan.
Discussion?
Yeah, sure.
The reason why I asked to have this taken off the consent agenda was
because when I initially was
approving, along with the rest of the city council, this technology,
I thought that the information would
be limited to pretty muchOur
police department and local police departments.
My understanding is that some other cities have been sued and
lost for information going beyond that.
I'm not a legal scholar on this, but I
feel that there should probably be some more consideration
about how we're
controlling the information and who gets it.
I love the technology, the ability to find
missing persons or track down murderers.
Obviously, that's an excellent use for it.
But in this case, I'll be planning on voting against it.
I don't have any questions really at this point, but if you care to speak about it
through the chair, I'd be glad if you would.
Do you have some questions?
Can I ask questions?
Sure. Yeah.
Can I ask questions?
Yeah. Ask questions. Yeah.
Could you please tell us some statistics involving the use of
the Flock cameras?
Hard statistics,
I don't have those prepared for me, but I do have some examples of recent successes
that we've had with it. Quite frankly, the Flock Safety license plate reader system
has been one of the most impactful tools we have ever fielded in my time here at
Warren PD. We have used these things to enormous success
time and time again. We can cite example after example.
The one that stood out to me is right after we put up the cameras,
we had the license plate of a suspect vehicle involved in a homicide before the
first patrol units were even on scene.
But even more recently than that, our crime analyst came up with a
couple of the most impactful things that we have
recently,
and just in the last couple of years, we identified a
suspect vehicle in a non-fatal shooting before it ever hit the detective bureau.
We identified a suspect vehicle in a robbery of a business involving a
firearm. We identified a suspect vehicle that was used in an assault with intent
to murder and an arson of a residence, and we located that suspect
before the detective bureau ever got involved.
We had another robbery street with a gun.
We located a suspect vehicle for that in a timely manner using
Flock. Another strong-arm robbery on the street.
We located a suspect vehicle in a shots fired incident where it was just
shots fired into the air. They located the suspect vehicle on that using these
cameras. And the reality is that without this tool,
we would probably solve a number of the crimes, but
nowhere near as quickly, nowhere near as accurately, and nowhere near as strong of
a case. That's the bottom line.
Right. And
I've noticed that sometimes you have the information that you can terminate a chase
sometimes-
Absolutely
... because you have the information about the vehicle, and so you
can just let them go, and go wait at their house for them-
Good news
... to come back home.
Yes. If we can identify that information using a different tool, we certainly do
that.
Yep. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
And I just want to ask one more question while we're here-
Sure
... while we're on the subject of police equipment.
If you'll remember, we approved the Graykey device.
Council actually added it to the
budget, and I was over at PD a couple of weeks ago, and I was told that it was
being put to very, very good use.
Very, very good use. Yes. It has cut down the time to access these
devices significantly, allowing we're accessing devices that we didn't have the
ability to before.
Yeah. These are the devices that go into a cellphone.
Correct.
And in the past, they would have to take it down to Secret Service.
Yes.
Downtown. They'd have to drive it.
Right.
They would get it done whenever they could fit you in, and it just took more
time, and you're able to solve crimes quicker.
Yeah.
Quicker. Right?
That's correct.
I think it's nice just to know that when we do something and it's benefiting,
it's good to share that with the public as well.
Thank you so much. You're a rockstar.
Thank you.
Mr. Lafferty?
I'm sorry, Madam Chair. Did Mr. Noonan have a-
Yeah. Mr. Noonan, did you have more?
You asked-
Oh, no, I
had nothing more to say other than what I said.
Okay. Thank you.
Okay.
Madam Chair, my question's more so around the
timing of this. We are renewing the second
two-year period, Mr. Roy?
Yes.
So, the letter that we received from Flock
is dated February 11th.
The contract expired May 1st,
end of
April and begins May 1st. We're doing this retroactively.
Why the length of time to bring this to council for
consideration outside of the
approving this if you've had the letter since February 11th?
I can't speak on that definitively. We do have a representative here from Flock.
We have a very strong relationship.
I don't know if you would be able to speak to that.
Yeah.
Is that okay?
No. My question is more from an administrative
standpoint of, I've been fairly reasonable
with requests for legal review.
And the reason I bring this up is
council is provided with a report
that allows us purview into expiring
contracts within 90 days.
And so it's my expectation that all departments are following
that schedule, and they're planning ahead of time to ensure that
those contracts are brought to
the legal department, the law department, in sufficient time to be brought to
council prior to their expiration.
Because this body is being asked to review and
approve something that should've been reviewed and approved back
in probably early April.
Sure. Yeah, my recollection on that issue was that we had
some contract language problems as far as contract terms.
That took a little bit of time to work out.
Okay. And has there been any interruption in service-
No
... in the meantime?
No, there has not
All right. So the cameras have been in operation even though
we're lapsed on the contract?
Yes.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you.
I had just a couple questions. I know that it's tremendously useful.
It was very apparent even during our ride-along. But to Mr.
Noonan's point, what is the contractual language with
data sharing amongst police departments, the federal government, other
third-party entities? Because I know this has come up in other communities pretty
frequently.
Sure. We control all of the data sharing
access. We have to approve every agency that
requests to access data from our cameras.
And then vice versa, when we request access to other camera networks, they have
to approve ours as well.
We don't have many federal agencies on our share list,
and Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not one of them.
Mm-hmm. Who is on the current share list, if you can say?
There are over 2,000 agencies on the share list.
It's nationwide, and that is reciprocal.
So we get just as much benefit from that sharing relationship as
they do from us.
And do they have to get permission from you before they access it, or can they
access the information at any point?
So they can search against our network at any time, but they have to put in a
search reason in there, and they have to list a valid legal
reason for why they are making that search.
So it's not just the Wild West where they're able to search for whatever, whenever.
They have to put a law enforcement reason and, in most cases, an incident number
as well that can be audited later. It doesn't happen
covertly, I guess I would say.
Yeah. How often are folks accessing the data?
Do you know?
Very often.
And what
is an example of what they would be using it for?
For example, we'll take a drug trafficking example, interstate drug trafficking,
where a courier is starting in the southern United States and coming all the way up
to Michigan. The agency that's investigating that can see FLOC Safety scans for the
entirety of that person's journey.
Got it.
That's a common example.
Okay. Any other
discussion or questions?
Okay.
So the motion is to, Mr. Noonan, you made a motion to approve the
item, or you supported the motion?
Do you want to withdraw-
Yes, I will be voting no.
But you have to withdraw your support.
Oh, I'll withdraw my support.
I will support Lafferty.
Support Lafferty.
Doesn't have a variable,
so.
Okay. I will call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Bolkey?
Yes.
Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan?
No.
And Roggensie is a no.
Motion carries. Next item.
McClair would be yes.
He's not here. Yeah.
Did you call Mr. McClair?
Yeah, I did. He said yes.
Okay.
Yeah. Next item.
Next item is legal update 12A. Mr. Schroeder.
Thank you.
We have a bit of an extensive update today.
Wanted to start with, there's a little bit of a PowerPoint
presentation I have for the council to update
on the Harvest Time Christian Fellowship
litigation from the City of Warren, and
also it dovetails into a federal lawsuit that was filed last
week where Harvest Time Christian Fellowship and
its president or acting director, Mr.
Curtis Ostash, made some statements and filed a federal lawsuit.
I'll get into that, but first we'll start with an update on our lawsuit,
which is the
11055 Jewett. This is a case
filed by the City of Warren against Harvest Time Christian Fellowship
and its principal over a property that the city
gave to this nonprofit.
So we're going to give some background and case overview.
So
this is, as you can see, the property at 11055 Jewett
taken on April 15th of 2026. The
background of this case is the city
gave this property to Harvest Time Christian Fellowship for $1
in 2019
in exchange for the promise that the property will be up to code in six months and
be used for transitional housing for members of the church.
I will point out, in 2019, the property was valued at over
$40,000 by the city assessor. Now the property itself is
worth close to $100,000.
The city can't just give property away. We can't give it away.
So if you're going to have a property for a dollar, there has to be
some sort of public purpose. There has to be some sort of public benefit.
We did that recently with the community garden.
It was a dollar lease, but there's a huge community benefit from that.
They're benefiting the community.
And in here, the benefit was going to be transitional housing for people who
couldn't afford it.
And so in 2024, approximately, at a
city council meeting, we had residents from this neighborhood come and
speak to say that the property owner was harboring
dogs and the property was blighted.
It was a mess. And
the residents said that Mr. Ostash, who's the church pastor that
was maintaining this property, would show up and open the front door and
throw a bucket of dog food in and shut the door.
And there was concern that these dogs were being abused, and they were just
harbored inside this home.
Of course, we looked up the records, and this home was supposed to be, within
six months in 2019, brought up to code and have human beings living in this
home who couldn't otherwise afford housing.
That was our public purposeSo after further
investigation, the city filed a claim to recover this
property. We're saying he breached this contract,
and also nuisance claim against the property owner for misuse and
deterioration.
He's hired two law firms. They're fighting this case tooth and
nail. They do not want to give this property back to the city, nor do they want to
improve this property.
In fact, in the meantime,
Mr. Ostash, if you read the newspaper, he offered a
$1.5 million
purchase agreement to buy the Sacred Heart Catholic Church that was closed from the
Archdiocese of Detroit in Roseville.
He put $25,000 down on this property and then breached that contract.
So he has the ability to sign a $1.5 million
purchase agreement for property in Roseville, but he can't put a dime into this
property.
So we had to get a court order to inspect this property.
So on April 15th of 2026,
we had Inspector
Jim Kaiser,
who's tremendous, and we also had Steve Campbell from the public service
department,
who is a retired police officer who works in public service,
show up for an inspection along with one of my colleagues from my law firm.
And
what we found that day at this inspection, I personally wasn't there, my colleague
was, was that
they really hadn't fulfilled their obligations.
Here's one of the photos from that property walkthrough.
This is probably the best of the photos.
I will let you know that neither Mr.
Ostash nor his attorneys came into the home during the walkthrough.
They stayed out in their car
with the heat on.
They didn't want to come into this home.
So
obviously, they haven't fulfilled their obligations.
They did get a certificate of occupancy. This house hasn't been brought up to code.
We also have some more findings from this inspection.
As you can see, every inch of this house is full of garbage and
debris. There's deterioration, obstructions, hazardous
conditions,
and
really, there's public health and safety concerns here.
The exterior of the property-
I don't know what's going on with that.
Hit the X in the top left or top right The
exterior of the property, as you can see, this is what the neighbors have to look
at. There's damaged walls, deteriorated fencing, clogged
gutters,
debris accumulation around the property.
This is visible from public areas.
It could lower property values in the neighborhood, and it's unsightly for the
residents in the area. There are just numerous code violations,
and this property is clearly a nuisance.
The interior conditions,
the inspector noticed an overwhelming putrid odor,
severe sanitation problems in the property.
They couldn't move around because of the excessive garbage and debris all
throughout the home.
Clutter, hazardous conditions,
disarray, and contamination.
Also,
animal feces all over the place. All over the
place. He never cleaned up after these dogs, other feces all over the
bathroom.
There's sanitation and disease transmission risks here.
Blocked exits. The electrical panel was inaccessible in the home-
Oof ... which is a fire hazard. Mm-hmm.
Unstable debris piles everywhere.
It was really disgusting.
Excuse me. Critical areas of concern.
The kitchen area was inaccessible.
You can see here sort of a best photo they could get of the kitchen.
It smelled horrible. They were gagging.
These people were gagging inside of this home.
And
I don't know what more there is to say other than this is absolutely
disgusting. Every room is a disaster.
He used this as a
storage, a place for storing garbage, junk, debris, and harboring
animals after six years. And
they refused access into the garage. So we still don't have the garage.
We're going to have to go back to the court and get a court order to go in the
garage. I can only imagine what's behind this door.
Okay?
Yes. And so here is the inspection report.
The interior conditions create a serious health hazard.
This is Inspector Jim Kaiser, who's done a great job, and I want to thank
Dave Mazzarelli,
the public service director, Jim Kaiser, who is the zoning inspector,
and Steve Campbell, who's the administrative supervisor in the Department of
Public Service, for putting themselves at risk just to do these
inspections.
The odor was so severe it caused physical distress.
The inspection was conducted with difficulty, and I experienced nausea while inside
the structure. The condition of this residence presents a
health, safety, and welfare risk not only to the occupants but the surrounding
community. The conclusion is it is unfathomable that a residential
structure is being maintained in this condition.
The property represents a clear and immediate threat to public health and safety
and requires urgent enforcement action.
So we are filing motions in the court to get this thing declared a public nuisance
and to get this property back some way so it can be restored to a
condition that is not a nuisance to the neighbors and not a health threat.
In the meantime,
Mr. Ostash thinks we're retaliating against him for his religious
beliefs
based on what... This very lawsuit we have in circuit court.
You've seen the photos, you've seen the inspection results.
He's filed a federal lawsuit alleging religious discrimination,
that somehow the city of Warren is discriminating against his religion by
conducting this case. He wants the federal court to issue an injunction to stop us
from proceeding with this lawsuit. Okay?
So, um-Obviously, we
know we have a public nuisance here.
A public nuisance unreasonably interferes with the health, safety, and welfare
rights common to the public. Our inspections showed the debris, the
feces, the structural decay, the hazards.
I think there were 70 property maintenance violations over the last four or five
years at this property.
Mostly all uncorrected violations.
You can't even look at this without being disgusted.
But he thinks it's discrimination, religious discrimination.
So last week, or actually on May 19th, he
filed a federal lawsuit against the city.
Here's an excerpt from that lawsuit, and he's
claiming retaliation under federal law against the church regarding the
lawsuit over the property at 11055 Jewett.
He went on a media tour last week.
I don't know if anybody was watching the news, but I think CBS,
WXYZ,
multiple news outlets covered this federal lawsuit.
So that's part of the reason for the update here today,
is to clear the record for anybody who might be confused that there might be any
merit at all to this lawsuit. And of course, this is going to
cost the taxpayers of Warren. It's costing the taxpayers of Warren to
try to fix this property that was given to him.
It's going to cost the taxpayers of Warren to defend against this frivolous
lawsuit. How frivolous is this lawsuit?
He's fabricating things about city council.
He's saying that at a council meeting, a council member called for the
mayor to call out the army to round up people like him.
He said a council member stated at council meetings that the plaintiff and people
like him should be rounded up and executed.
Now, I can tell you that this did not happen.
We have a city council for the last 40 years that has recorded
every single council meeting. We had the VHS era.
We had the DVD era. Now we have the online era.
You want any council meeting for 40 years, from gavel to
gavel,
you can find it. Yet he finds it appropriate to tell a federal court
in a filing that someone called for him to be rounded up and executed, that someone
asked the mayor to call the army to round him up.
This is the basis of his lawsuit. So I don't know.
It's
hard to get me outraged because I think I've seen a lot around town, but
this is an outrage. And so, we are going
to fight this on behalf of the taxpayers and
at the direction of city council to get this property back in the proper condition
and also defend against these
false allegations. Absolutely false.
And this is just one excerpt from the lawsuit.
We will circulate a copy to the council.
There are all kinds of
crazy allegations in this lawsuit,
homophobic, all kinds of statements in there that are just beyond the pale.
So
in any event,
what are our next steps? We're going to get this property.
We're going to file a motion to have this property declared a nuisance.
We're going to continue to try to get the property back.
Of course, litigation sometimes moves slowly.
Too slow for all of us, but because of this inspection report and the public health
hazards, we think we can probably expedite it a little bit.
So, that's the update on that
situation.
And dovetailing off of that, this is a little bit related, there are four
pending lawsuits right now that need to be assigned by the city.
I'm looking at Ms. Michaels here.
And of course, under the charter, the council has to approve all outside legal
assignments. And, as part of my report, I'm going to make a
recommendation, and if there's a motion to receive and file the report, we can
execute that with the help of our legal affairs committee.
We have this particular lawsuit that needs to be assigned.
We have the Hall case,
which was a case where the prosecutor's office dismissed charges,
and there's now a lawsuit against the police department.
We have the gazebo case on Mound Road, which was a
planning
commission decision. And there's another one. What's the other?
Those were three. Is there a fourth case?
Main three.
What's that?
Those are the main three.
Those are the main three. So,
as part of this motion,
I discussed this with Ms. Michaels and the council
secretary that Ms. Michaels and I will get together by tomorrow
and make a recommendation for three different firms on these
cases and give it to HR.
And we need to get moving in defending the city on these cases.
So-
Thank you
... that's the report.
Motion to receive and file with discussion.
Support Lafferty.
Discussion, Ms. Moore.
I just want to say that this is the second time we've been
fleeced over property that we've sold for a dollar.
Mm-hmm.
And this is worse than the last time, but
they both were not fair, and we were trying to do something
to help people that needed help. And this is what
they turned that property into. And if you'll
remember, the neighbors are the first ones that really alerted us
to what was going on in that house because of the dogs that were
just kept in there as prisoners, basically.
I don't even know if they were ever let out.
But because of the condition of the house, I don't think they were let out very
often.
And I think animal control was out there.
So there's lots and lots of stories that went on with this property.
And it's really unfortunate because there are a lot of people that need to be
helped in this world, and we were doing what we thought was the right thing to
do to help. In one
case, it was a nonprofit, and they took advantage, and
now this is just horrendous. So I thank Mr.
Schroeder and his firm and everybody in public service
Mr. Mazzarelli and Mr. Campbell and everybody else involved in doing all
this work.
It's just a shame that they just don't just turn it back to us, because
what are they going to do?
It's just disgusting.
I know. Pictures are worth a thousand words, I guess.
Thank you.
Any other discussion?
Madam Chair?
Mr. Lafferty.
Mr. Schroeder, do you need a motion this evening for the retention of three
firms?
No.
Or-
Okay.
I think as part of the motion, Mrs. Ludde, the idea is Ms.
Michaels and I will make a joint recommendation,
inform the legal affairs committee, and get it to HR or whoever the appropriate
person is.
Recommendation's forthcoming.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right, so there was a motion to receive and file. No more discussion.
I will call the question. All in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed?
Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 12B, request to assign a business
license appeal to Nancy Cooper Green and request she conduct an
administrative hearing on the matter, Jerry Holden
II, massage therapist, petitioner. So moved.
Support Lafferty.
Any discussion?
Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan? Yes. Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Mr. Boyke? Yes. Roggenklep is yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 12C, consideration and adoption of a resolution approving
settlement in the matter of Rue Miles versus City of Warren et al.
Warren,
this is Wayne County Circuit
Court case number
2025001362NI, as discussed in
closed session May 21, 2026. So moved.
Support Lafferty.
Because this is a settlement matter, there's no discussion.
I will call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Boyke? Yes. Mr. Noonan? Yes. Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Roggenklep is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Madam Chair, before we get off of council business, if I could
ask to amend the agenda at this point to add one item that
I failed to add under announcements
regarding this award that we were given last night to
the city council .
Do you want to go back to announcements?
Yeah. If we could.
Do we need a motion for that?
Motion to suspend the rules.
Thank you. Support. All in favor?
Aye.
Rules are suspended. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you so much.
Mm-hmm.
Last night, the
Michigan Cricket Association
had a little
event and celebration. All council members were invited,
and they gave this
award to us. "With deep appreciation to the Warren City
Council for your leadership and support in making a community
cricket field a reality. Your contribution will inspire
generations to come." From the Bangladesh Cricket
Association of Michigan. It was a very nice event, and we were
very honored that they took the time to actually
thank us.
It took a long time. What, six years we start, Mr. Lafferty?
Six years.
2020.
And
it has gone back and forth, but now it's going to be reality.
We just have to figure out some
of the final
pieces to it. But we're very thankful to them, and they've waited a long
time. The cricketers are very excited to
start, and
they're very happy to be at Shaw Park. That's a good location for them.
So we're all very excited about this project.
That's all.
Thank you.
Thank you for indulging me.
We will
resume. We are on 13A.
A. Request to consider an amendment to the fiscal year
2027 water and sewer system rate ordinance to include
the cross connection inspection program.
First reading, so moved.
Support Lafferty with discussion.
Discussion, Mr. Lafferty.
Thank you. Through the chair to Mr. Koss.
Good evening.
Good evening, sir. Could you please describe in brief summary
the cross connection program?
So, what this entails, and regulated by the state, mandated by
the state, EGLE,
that we inspect all homes in the city.
Basically, we don't want non-potable water to get into potable
water. So we have to check the plumbing inside the home,
the fixtures, and outside the home to make sure there's no cross
connection. So we don't want to have that interconnection where it could
contaminate our water system.
All right. Can you cite a couple of
sources of cross connection that could potentially happen?
Could be a hose bib on the outside of the house, if it doesn't have a
proper vacuum breaker on it and a hose is in a tank or in a
pool. And if we have a loss of pressure, it could actually back
siphon into the home.
The boiler systems are another key factor.
Some pumps, if there are any, and there isn't any really in the city.
There's maybe a few. That's another factor that
could backflow into our system.
All right. So the cross connections, you are sending out
a letter-
Yes
... to residents. You're doing section by section, is that correct?
Yes, that's correct. Our goal is to get through the city in five
years, because the inspection is required every five years per home.
We break up the city in five different sections, so that's 10,000 inspections a
year.
So that's going to be a full agenda for us.
All right. And who's responsible for scheduling the inspections?
That goes through our customer service. That goes directly through us.
So the homeowner has to contact the water department
and schedule and arrange for an inspection?
Actually, what we're doing is we're sending a letter out ahead of time, within the
two-week span, to let the homeowners know that we're going to be in their
area at a certain time period.
Then we actually put signs up on the end of their blocks that show them that we're
there, and then we start the door-to-door process.
We're getting better than 55%
that people are responding to us
with this, either by letter or knocking on the door.
If we cannot get into the residence, nobody home, we leave a
card on the door. And we've been getting pretty good responses from just our cards
leaving, that they're calling us in for inspections.
All right. Does the state mandate 100% compliance?
Is there a tolerance
for compliance?
Yes.
I know it's kind of a double-edged question.
Right. The state is really enforcing all communities to do
that. They're not looking at 100%.
The goal is 100%, but that we're making a good effort
to comply with the compliance.
All right. And the testing, you said that's once every five years.
Yes.
Who is responsible for paying the bill for the inspection at the home?
That is us.
All right. So-
Right. That's part of what this is for, to help us recoup some of our
money for personnel to actually do the inspections.
We're doing this all in-house with our own
employees. Most communities around us are using an outside
agency called HydroCorp.
Very expensive. Surrounding community has half the
services that we have in the city of Warren, and it's costing them somewhere about
a million dollars a year
to have it done
externally.
All right. So through this surcharge, essentially, is
covering overall the cost of your people,
the scheduling, the inspections, and everything involved in the
program.
Right. And what we're doing is we're actually giving the hose
vacuum breaker for the outside spigots on the homes, because
it's easier for us to just give them the spigots, have them put them on,
than for us to try to go back, reinspect it, and get
everybody to do it. That's in compliance with EGLE.
They allow us to do that, so that's what we're doing. It's a couple of dollars.
It's about $4 to $5 per device, depending
on most homes have one to two spigots that may need it.
A lot of newer homes have what they call anti-spigots on them, so
they're built into the spigot.
Mm-hmm.
So they have anti-siphon devices.
And in those cases, you wouldn't have to provide any sort of device that's already
provided by the homeowner-
That's correct
... essentially.
That's correct. The only thing we would have is that we would
have to go back on re-inspection for is the vacuum breakers on the sprinkler
systems that are outside the home.
Okay.
Those have to be tested.
And I guess one of the last questions,
and we talked about this privately, but I wanted to bring this out.
Instead of going to the different points in the home for
the anti-siphon control, why not put this
on the meter side and prevent it at a single
source?
Cost.
To put what they call an RPZ on each individual home is very,
very costly. You're talking up to a couple of hundred dollars per
device. That would be for each home.
And that was-
And the state's not requiring that for us to do that.
Okay. So two different things. It's not a requirement by the state, and it
was explored as an alternative to the program that
you've-
That's correct
... planned and adopted.
Yes.
All right. Thank you.
One last item.
I should have my
Columbo cup with me. Just one more question.
Can you please send a copy of the letters, the correspondence that
you're sending to the homeowners-
Yes
... so that we have the template?
Absolutely. We also have our program that we have,
pamphlets that we give out to the residents,
and then also our cards, our door tags that we hang on the doors.
Mm-hmm.
That has all the explanation for the homeowner if we don't meet with them with the
first try.
Yeah. As you might imagine, we get plenty of calls-
Absolutely
... for various items. It would be very helpful to have an example of
what somebody might be receiving, so we're more well prepared.
Absolutely. And everything that I explained tonight and asked is on
our website.
Thank you very much for your time.
Thank you.
I have no further questions.
Any other discussion?
Okay, hearing and seeing none, I will call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes. Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan?
Yes.
Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Mr. Boyki?
Yes.
Rogan says yes. Motion carries. Next item.
13B, consideration-
Thank you for your support.
I'm sorry, Mr. Cross. 13B, consideration and adoption of a
resolution approving the notice of intent and bond authorizing
resolution for a $50 million City of Warren
2026B capital improvement bond. So moved.
Support Lafferty.
Discussion?
Discussion.
Mr. Boyki.
Mr. Fox,
is this a renewal bond?
No. So as part of the budget, if you go to the very last page,
it lists all the-
Sorry
... capital improvement in the water and sewer system, and then the
equipment that we're buying with the general fund.
So this is to purchase equipment and to do all the
projects that are in the '27 budget for both the general
fund and the water.
No, I understand
that there are
two areas you could draw bonds fromWith
us taking this $50 million bond, will this
affect bonding for the courthouse or the wastewater
treatment plant if we have to bond something out there for repairs?
No,
it won't.
It won't.
Because the other bond, if we do the court, will be through the DDA, and
that'll be
a DDA-funded project.
What about the wastewater plant?
Wastewater, once that comes up, it'll be
similar to the bond we're doing here, and it'll just be
another bond that we sell
with a rate increase in the water
utilities.
And that bond is specific for items that were
in the budget presentation and along with the resolution.
In other words,
if we need a new furnace at the courthouse, we're not going to be able to use that
for that.
Not this bond, no.
So the court's-
Everything that's-
So that building-
Part of this bond is-
... that building's almost down on the ground.
And, we can't-- We're going to have to look elsewhere for funding for it.
Well, no, the court actually has the fund that if they
decide that if each-
The fund's there are for a new courthouse, not for repairs.
Well, I believe that they've looked at that, and that if they do need to buy some
heating and cooling units, that they actually can use, take them from the
old building and put them in the new building.
Okay, so just to
state it again.
If this passes, this will not affect getting bonds for the courthouse.
No.
Thank you.
Any other discussion?
Madam Chair.
Mr. Lafferty.
Thank you.
Through the chair to the controller. Good evening, sir.
Good evening.
The only question, this is step one.
You'll eventually come back to us with the sale of the bonds.
That's correct.
So, this is the second time we'll see this in the near future. Thank you.
Any other discussion?
Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Bolke?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan?
Yes.
Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Rogan, C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
13C, request to approve a line item transfer of funds in the amount of
$84,030
and an additional appropriation of
$4,914,000 for the court administrative,
allocated, and city and police and fire retirement to
provide sufficient funding through fiscal year and consideration and
adoption of a resolution. Five votes needed. So moved.
Support Lafferty.
Any discussion?
Okay. Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Bolke?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan?
Yes.
Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Rogan, C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 13D, request of the library director for an additional appropriation
of funds in the amount of $390,800 to cover the
increased costs for the rooftop HVAC system, postage and
contractual obligations, consideration, and adoption of a resolution. So moved.
Support Lafferty.
Discussion, anyone? Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question.
Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan?
Yes.
Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Mr. Bolke?
Yes.
Rogan, C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 13E, request for a line item transfer of funds in the police
department in the amount of $2 million and an additional appropriation of
$632,000 to cover contractual obligations for the
remainder of the fiscal year. Consideration and adoption of a
resolution. So moved with discussion.
Support Lafferty.
Any discussion?
Man, we got to get control of these costs.
We just had budget hearings and now we're doing
2.6 million after.
We've got to do something to start containing these costs.
That's a lot of money.
It is.
That's all.
Any other discussion?
Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan?
Yes.
Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Rogan, C is a yes or Mr. Bolke?
Yes.
Rogan, C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item-
Point of order. I'm sorry. Item
13C,
I had noted an issue with the resolution.
The mathematics was wrong in the tally from the
transfer to.
And so I'd like to ask that we amend that from
$4,998,300 to
$4,998,030.
Oh, the resolution.
It was in our resolution.
Oh, this is correct, these numbers here.
The number in the title-
Right
... was correct.
Yeah.
Yes.
Do we need to go back to that item or are you just putting it on the record?
No, we'll just fix it.
Yeah, just fix it.
Okay.
It's just... Yeah.
Thank you. We're moving on to 13F.
13F is request of the rental division for a transfer of funds between line
items in the amount of 43,000 to cover the increased cost for temporary
clerical and contractual obligations for the remainder of the fiscal year,
consideration and adoption of a resolution. So moved.
Support Lafferty.
Any discussion?
Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan?
Yes.
Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Mr. Bolke?
Yes.
Rogan, C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
Next item is 13G, request of the budget director for a line item transfer of
funds in the amount of $70,225
and an additional appropriation of $60,100 to
cover contractual obligations and to provide sufficient funding through end
of fiscal year consideration and adoption of a resolution. So moved.
Support Lafferty.
DiscussionHearing and seeing none, I'll call
the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan? Yes. Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Mr. Boyke? Yes. Roggenklep is a yes. Motion carries.
Next item.
Next item is 13H, request to approve the reappointment of Mahmoud
Omari to the Planning Commission with a term expiration of June 30,
2029.
So moved.
Support Lafferty.
Any discussion?
Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question. Ms. Moore?
Yes.
Mr. Lafferty?
Yes.
Mr. Noonan? Yes. Ms. McGee?
Yes.
Mr. Boyke? Yes. Roggenklep is a yes. Motion carries.
Next item.
Next item is audience participation for general topics.
Members of the audience who would like to address city council this evening may do
so by filling out an audience form
to the right.
Thank you. You have three minutes.
I will give you a one-minute or 30-second
countdown. First is Yvonne
Palowata?
Palowata.
Good evening, city council. My name's Yvonne Palowata.
I periodically been coming to the council
to
ask for help because I saw my community, my neighbors, were
actually deteriorating, and I wanted to know how I
could help my community.
So what I did is I started Neighborhood Watch.
I had a community garden,
and I also joined the Beautification Commission, also
the Garden Club.
And what I'm getting at is I had a Neighborhood Watch May 30th,
and I had asked for help for our community garden
because I got tired of seeing people using our
park as a city dump, and our flags were
hanging,
which was a disgrace to see. So I took matters into my own
hands and asked the mayor
to help with our neighborhood and our community.
I just want to say thank you to Mayor Stone and her team
that supported me and actually
took time out to problem solve
with our community. And I am so happy because my community, my
neighborhood, is actually,
I want to say, 99% better after we had
more community talking to each other and communicating a lot
better.
I seriously want to thank
Rhonda, I forgot her last name, Hawkins, I think. Hawks.
And Judy Smith with Mayor Stone's office.
And I want to thank Security Credit Union employees and
Warren police officer Jonathan Karz...
I cannot pronounce the name. Karzek.
K-R-Z-E-S-Z-A-K.
And Kevin Opras and family. These
people,
it's an honor to know them because they believe in Warren,
and they actually believe in helping our neighbors and our
community.
If you're interested in pictures of being-
One minute
... our park was being used as a dump.
And
as under the Beautification commissioner, I took it
as a
opportunity to take care of it myself, because I love Warren,
and thank you for your time.
Thank you. Thank you.
Next is Joel Vander Linden.
Do
you
need
help?
Yeah.
Sorry.
Wide load coming through.
You ready, Mr. Vander Linden?
No.
Okay.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Ready?
Joel Vander Linden, longtime Warren resident.
Many concerning things have been brought up during this council meeting
today. I'd like to start with FOIA's.
I put in FOIA's
about the police chief, as other people have.
I put in FOIA's about the property maintenance department,
about the rentals departments,
about their qualifications and if everything has been
met.
And I've been denied
on all of these.
And yet I went to the denial hearing and everything else,
and I won,
and some of these go back a year and a half.
Some of these go back farther.
And I have received nothing.
Why?
I've come to this council many times before.
Why am I not receiving the FOIA's?
Why am I not receiving them in the mail
or in my email?
With all the money this city
spends
heedlessly,
you'd think the public deserves their
FOIA'sThe
second thing that came to mind
is with all the technology we have when we moved the whole
consulting to this building and stuff,
is we still haven't done enough for the disabled.
We haven't put a section for the disabled, so we're not
clashing in with everybody else.
And I know it's tight,
but there still should be reasonable accountability for us.
The other thing that got me was-
One minute, Mr. Vander Linden
... there's no
theme for those of us that should be at home
doing this
set up yet. It's been called upon by the great Mr.
Baker
three years ago when he brought it to
the previous council and this council's attention
that there's not enough being done
for the physically disabled people.
We should be able to sit in our front rooms,
talk on our telephone
or on the Zoom,
and express ourselves our concerns, our needs.
And I'll follow up with the last one.
The gentleman here about checking our basements on the water
lines and stuff like that.
10 seconds.
There is no warrant
by
being issued to search our house. That's illegal search
and seizure.
You're at time, Mr. Vander Linden.
And then we're going to do it every five years.
Mr. Vander Linden, you're at time. Thank you.
Next is
Ray
from Friend of the Father.
Ray, what's your last name again?
Deloache.
Thank you.
You're free to start.
First, I would like to say thank you
to all the city council members that assisted
me during this time of running the homeless shelter here in
our city.
I'm not going to use three minutes.
We have 45 days.
Forty-five days to either find another building, or 45 days,
I will shut it down.
At first, when I first opened, I was taking as
many people off the street of the city of Warren
to lower the percentage at our jail cells and our hospitals.
I did just that. No assistance.
I did turn in a form recently for one of the
fundings. I miswrote it.
That's my fault, but in the midst, the office that I gave a
funding form to, they never reached out to me to tell
me that it was done incorrectly.
Not at all.
Right now,
at our shelter,
92% of the homelessness that's at our shelter
are Warren residents. I've never seen so many women and
children and men and children needing help because they
lost their homes here in Warren or across Macomb County.
I believe in taking care of my community and my country.
I turned down a promotion with the Michigan State Guard as
a staff sergeant to stay here in Warren to
run this shelter.
I'm still self-funded.
At this point,
I'm doing the work,
not asking for anything but just a push.
I have not gotten it.
So that being said,
I can no longer
continue to run that shelter
in another person's property without paying him.
Either I can find another building and someone in the city can help
me, and I can utilize it and keep our streets clean-
One minute
... our jail cells clean,
and our hospitals cleaned.
It needs to be done. Thank you.
Thank you.
Next is Jeff Matthews.
Good evening, Council. I'm Jeff Matthews, co-founder of the South
Warren Community Garden and board member of Urban Seed.
Just a little update about the South Warren Garden.
So to let you know, from where we were last year
where I think we hadn't even gotten on the property yet, we've
already had harvests. And we have harvested already this year nearly
a third of what our total was last year.
That is 40 pounds of food that is now in the community.
Our stand has been visited by seven people just on
Sunday. We had a dozen volunteers.
Our bed expansions have been completed, as is currently funded, and our auto
water is partly installed. It's hard to get to because we're so busy
talking to people. I don't have a moment.
We've had a tremendous amount of meetings with local nonprofits.
Just today, I had a meeting with a local health clinic that I won't name about the
possibility of partnering in some federal block grants.
So that means funding might be back into our program way sooner than
we thought. We might be able to do things that we didn't even think we
could do until next year. So with that, we're already
maybe approaching growing out of the space that we're in.
We're about two-thirds full. We just added a butterfly garden
and a
generalflower garden, and that's going
amazing. People are showing up in droves with
donations, flowers, and just all types of stuff.
A Girl Scout troop came with a special variety
of milkweed that was used, they call it Petoskey milkweed.
It was used during the war to stuff the life jackets of
the service people upon those ships.
And they've kept that lineage alive.
So a neat little part of
that is now alive in Warren.
On the horizon, things that are just
kind of
our stretch goals,
we still have some money left for a solar system, and we're discussing
installing a solar-run community
refrigerator. So that means that the produce that we're
harvesting is going to be able to stretch out.
We might be able to do a program where people could just take
containers of greens that are lightly washed
and maybe just a small peroxide additive within food
guidelines, and those greens could last them weeks in their refrigerator.
So not only is this happening just on a street level, this could be happening in
people's homes so, so soon.
And just the outpouring and the general
mood of everyone that comes by there is amazing.
And I want to thank Ms. Moore. You've showed up
and walked through with us. That was so much fun.
And I know Dave Dwyer's not here, but he came through and we
were able to kind of give a vision,
because there's so many things on the horizon, like a possible grant
from Kubota if we get it.
You're at time.
Oh.
Sorry.
Thank you so much. Have a great night.
Thanks.
That is the end of audience.
Next is council response to audience. Madam Chair?
It's Schander.
Yes.
I want to thank Mr. Matthews for coming and giving us an
update. I've talked with
John. We've been going back and forth trying to set up a time and seeing what
we can do about a little expansion, maybe.
Yeah.
So we'll get our schedules coordinated
and-
Sounds good
... but I'm glad to hear how well you're doing. Thank you.
Madam Chair?
Mr. Lafferty,
then Ms. McGee.
We had a discussion about
Mr. Veloche and the
Friend of the Father-
Mm-hmm
... where the city attorney's office was directed
to
develop a legal agreement
for nonprofits to apply for,
as in the case of Friend of the Father-
Services
... and so I'd like to get a
status of that, where that is at. I know that Mr.
Schroeder had eyes on it and had redlined it,
and Ms. Michaels was actively working on that.
But it was for
the colder months, so obviously well past that.
This was in January. And then nothing
seemed to come of that, but
we're going to need those services and perhaps
there's something that needs to be done
on an ongoing basis. I know we were only talking for
a short amount of time, 15,000 perhaps
January through March, but
maybe there is
an additional need here. So I'd like to ask for the city attorney's office to
provide an update to council office on that initiative.
Ms. McGee.
Yes. I just wanted to bring up that
I went to Gleaners. We all were asked to come to Gleaners and
do a short, brief tour, and I went on the tour.
They will be distributing food at their
Fresh Start location on 8 Mile
on the weekends. And you would have to sign up,
and I can provide that information to you, but they will be doing
curbside pickup times on Thursdays from 2:00 to 6:00 PM,
and on Fridays
from 2:00 PM to
6:00 PM, and then on Saturdays-- I'm sorry, it's on Friday and Saturday.
And Saturdays from 11:00 to 3:00 PM.
You're able to get milk and eggs and bread and
fruit only. There will be no meat involved.
But if you know of someone in need,
just get in contact with Gleaners
Fresh Start store on 8 Mile. And that's for area code
48091 only. They're doing a test
trial right now, and they may be using other zip codes
within the city of Warren. Thank you.
Any other council response?
Okay.
Next item.
Motion to adjourn.
Support Lafferty.
All in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you, everyone.