department will do the permitting inspections, everything that a building department does, and it would be McKenna, and McKenna will also handle planning services.
Yeah, they would. They wouldn't. They wouldn't be here.
That's what I'm saying. I said I any other, anything else in here with God is just built right, right now, correct? Okay, it'd
be a redundant thing, yeah, too. And then a comparison, like, one thing I say, though, the one thing I do want to point out is that, like we are undergone for real, for real, even for 2.9 square miles. If you just go Boston, Edison, or you just go to Green Acres, coma woods, you just go Coney gardens, plus a few neighborhoods, all of those neighborhoods that are sides of our, of our city, like Scott Benson's district, is 10 times the size of the city of Highland Park, like 90,000 people in so, like, we're under guns, it'd be good. It'd be good to have some people that's, you know, got mad skills, and a whole department that'll actually be beautiful streamlining otherwise, you know what I mean, I think it'd be great. Alright, so thank you so much for that. Any any other while we sitting here before we passed seven o'clock, but it doesn't matter. Is there any reason why this can't go back onto the agenda to be voted on? Okay, that answers all the questions. Ernie, thank you gentlemen, appreciate your time. It is 701 we will adjourn the meeting at 701 and start in five minutes.
This is the new section five, recording
stuff. I saw it.
I saw it. Yeah,
I can. I'll limit the number, because I don't get up work until I can't be here before that. Two or less from now on, I'll put it in writing. Okay?
In Boston,
That's president, council still director said they do. I would just
like to speak To That sure.
You might let it go again. I'm going to let the other members go the restroom
myself, come
back, hopefully.
No, I want to wait till Yeah. I want to get Yeah. We might start it at the latest. I'm still finishing up some stuff here.
I like to have As many People I
Sorry,
Okay, i
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, please forgive
the delay. We had a productive workshop starting in progress. A couple
minutes is well worth it. It's my pleasure to call to order the Highland Park City Council in person and virtual, regular meeting scheduled for today, Tuesday, September 3, at 7pm it is now 7:09pm.
Madam Clerk,
would you please call the roll ma'am? Councilman
a shotgate.
Councilwoman Martin here,
Councilwoman Manica here. Council protein Robinson, council president here.
Thank you very much. Can we get a motion on the approval of tonight's agenda? Make
a motion to approve
the agenda was amended?
Okay? We have a motion on the floor to approve the agenda with an amendment, could you please state that amendment for the record? Man,
okay, um, the city attorney had some information related to item seven, and I believe it's there's a time deadline go ahead, and I'll allow you to explain.
Thank you, Mr. President, I did have communication with Director Clyburn. He indicated to me that the resolution is just to apply for the grant, so in the event that there is an award, then the acceptance of those mines would be back before this honorable body for determination. So my understanding is that the Community Development Department would be desirous for council to go ahead and just approve them being able to apply for the grant.
Okay, yeah, having heard that, Madam pro tem, does your motion remain the same? I
Okay,
on the item so it's we have a motion on the floor from Council Pro Tem Robinson. It was supported by Councilman and Shafi. She has made the suggestion that we approve the agenda, but remove item seven. The city attorney has explained to us, is there a is there a time delay related to this? If we are we going to miss something by not applying for it? Council, I mean, Director Clyburn, is there some issue? Are we going to lose time by not applying? By not applying now? Will we miss this opportunity? Yes, okay, so, having said that, the issue is that if we don't apply now, we could miss the opportunity to even approach this grant. Is there a particular reason why you wanted to have
this removed and
it should be moved to a workshop?
What's the deadline to apply? I Okay,
yes, sir,
you're You're kidding. So again, the the issue here is that we are, if we don't apply for it, we can't receive it, we can't get it. So you're saying, Don't apply for it. Is that? Is that the motion that's on the floor for the approval of this? But if the next workshop, the soonest workshop that we could have, would be two weeks from now, and the application day would have passed. I work in Ethan. I can't do any special meetings anymore, for a while. So, I mean, I just want to make sure that we we miss this opportunity. I don't know much of this is for an EV charging equity program, if you would. No
it appears. Thank you, Mr. President. It appears from the resolution that it would be estimated for the city to receive between $700,000 and a million dollars and cover procurement and installation of EV charging stations, that would be eight level two AC types and two DC fast charging types. Again,
so we this is a matter of whether or not we even apply for funds. You're saying, if we approve the agenda as it is, that means we don't even get to apply for the funds. MRNA, go ahead.
So but we this is a suggestion, leave it on the agenda, and then during the agenda, it can only still be moved to workshop, but at least in the agenda and his opportunity, come forth and stand before TV your supplier and or whoever else needs to talk about this grant, to give some explanation to my one, yes, just not paying for us. And two, the importance of it or what, just give us some information. So it doesn't have to be necessarily removed from the agenda, was learning the agenda, it could then also,
I still keep looking at you. Thank you for that point, because it's a very valid point. If we if the application deadline, I've never heard of this before, among this group ever, and we just said, No, we're not going to apply for this grant as much as we need grants, I can't imagine a scenario by by which we have to apply. We still have to apply with the rest of the community for the grant, but we're saying we're not even going to apply for it. And this is for EV charging. This is for it. EV charging station in Highland Park on the top of the hill in the middle of the city. I'm just saying, this is where we're located. We're centrally located. No, we are. Highland Park is up on top of the hill, right? Highland Park?
I don't know if all of us would say no to it, but versus just taking it off right now and not hearing it, we can always hear in the agenda during the meeting and then still move it, if that was him to request, then move into a workshop. I understand the timeline, but I'm just trying to, I am trying to keep it on the agenda to at least hear about and find out and yeah, maybe something. We can just wait and apply for it again later in another day.
We still have oversight, and I don't want to if we pick that package up. Thursday. Okay, okay, okay, I get what you I get what you're saying. I get exactly what you're
saying. Today's workshop.
No, the workshop agenda should have come to us a couple of weeks ago, but to your point. So here's here's where we are right now. The emotion is on the floor to approve the agenda with amendments. It, it'll take three of us to approve the agenda with the amendments. If we don't approve it, we can entertain another motion and approve the agenda, but we have madam pro tems motion that's on the floor. She was supported by Mr. El shapi. So the question now is, are we in agreement with the motion that's on the floor? And I will ask for the calling of the roll. If we're not in agreement with the motion that's on the floor, the vote will reflect that I would have liked for us to agree on it, but let's go ahead and call the roll. The motion on the floor is that we approve the agenda with an amendment that removes item seven from the agenda. If that item is removed, we can't submit for it, and that's what the motion on the floor is supported by. Mister el Shaki, Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll on the motion that has been made on the floor?
Councilman Shafi, yes. Councilwoman Martin, no. Councilwoman man, Morrison, no. Councilwoman, no, I'm supposed to have Robinson,
yes, no, our motion fails. The chair would Yes, sir, thank
you, Mr. President, has to item five. I just wanted to, yeah,
I'll make sure that okay. So I read the resolution, I saw the correction. Are we good? Okay? In case there any questions, because I know. Okay, so let's go back to the approval of the agenda. Right now, the chair needs to entertain a motion to approve today's agenda. If someone be willing to make a motion to approve the agenda, a motion to approve with questions, okay? Do we have support? We have a motion on the floor to approve the agenda, as is with questions from Mr. Al Shaffer was supported by Councilman Manica. Go ahead with your question, sir. Okay, to
the attorney, is there a reason why I'm looking at a different,
different, different resolution? Number one,
it's already in my package ahead of time.
Yes, yes. So councilman, thank you, Mr. President, I did send a corrected resolution that had a change to the therefore, be it resolved paragraph that would just indicate that the council would be appointing within 30 days, rather than having a blank line for somebody. So that would be the only change I did send that in an email last week, on Wednesday. I sent it on Wednesday, and in the event that everybody didn't see it via email, I wanted I brought hard copies, and we left those at your chairs after the workshop this evening. Okay,
well, maybe it didn't come through to be missed about email,
second, it would have been Wednesday, maybe an hour or so. It might have been mid afternoon. It was shortly after share
my screen, and this is i
This is the email here that Mr. Bosnick sent. This is on Wednesday, 828, at 3:36pm, this is the updated resolution I sent an email out about a blank line, as opposed to allowing that to come in here with a blank line. This allows us to this came out at 3:36pm on Wednesday. This is from mister Bazi, yup. Can you? Can you
show me the link of everybody that the email was sent
to? Because I didn't get this email. Here it is, right here it says all of these different people. That's you, that's Miss Robinson, that's Miss Martin, that's Miss Manica. It also copy went to the clerk. Okay, alright,
okay, okay,
alright. So with that, we have a motion on the floor to approve the agenda. Any additional questions change in the resolution of Section five, yes, ma'am. So there was a motion on the floor for the approval of the agenda that came from Mr. Al Shafi. His concern was with Item five, the resolution regarding the reappointment of the vacant city treasurer position. He had questions about the updated resolution that we were just recently received support for that motion was made by Councilwoman Manica, so we'll go ahead and take a vote call the roll on the approval of the agenda, if you would, Madam Clerk, Councilman
Shafi Yes. Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman Manica, yes. Council Robinson Council President, Yes.
Motion carries, moving on to item four. This is the approval of the proposed minutes for the virtual in person workshop on the 19th and the proposed minutes for the virtual in person regular meeting on the 19th City Council. What's your
pleasure? Move to approve the proposed minutes of the virtual and in person workshop meeting, August 19.
24 chair will offer a second um, any questions, concerns dissent? Madam Clerk, would you call the roll on the approval of the virtual in person workshop?
Councilman Shafi Yes, Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman mannequin Yes. Council Pro Tem Robinson, council president,
Yes. Motion carries, moving on to Under Item four again, approval of the proposed minutes for the virtual in person regular meeting for August.
19, I move to approve the proposed minutes of the virtual and in person, regular meeting for August 19 1024,
Chair officer, second, questions, concerns, Ricardo roll please.
Councilman Shaki Yes. Councilwoman Martin Yes, Councilwoman Manick Yes. Council Pro Tem Robinson, yes.
I suppose
I'm sorry I can't hear
yes Motion carries, ladies and gentlemen, the mayor will not be joining us tonight.
Um, has reached
out to me to let me know that she will not need her time tonight for to address council so we can move into citizens participation on the agenda. Items that is, Item five, resolution regarding the reappointment of the vacant city treasurer. Item six, under the clerk resolution to establish polling locations and election workers pay for the upcoming election. Item seven of the Community Development resolution for the submittal of the plugin a Michigan Tri County UV charging equity project. Eight, Department of Engineering. Resolution for the resubmittal of vacant documents for the means Highland Park LLC, Hamilton corridor project. And for number nine of the Department of Public Works, resolution to terminate contract of cone elevator. Do we have anyone that would like to address agenda items? Thank you. Come to the podium, ma'am. I will get the time together. I will wait until you allow me to get your name, and then we will go from there. You
okay, ma'am, go right ahead.
Good evening, Council. My name is Lisa stelarski. I'm in the third district, and I want to inform you that the Office of treasurer is not vacated since March 18, the administration has prevented me from taking office. Some months ago, I found accounting errors in the revised Water Department budget totaling roughly $2 million in pointing this out, pointing out to collection of errors, I was met with hostility by some members of the administration. I was not intimidated, and I continue to point out errors when I see them. The administration would like you to believe that, since I cannot get a $2 million bond, an amount that the agent has called unprecedented in an individual context, it somehow disqualified, disqualifies me from the treasurer's job. Bond offers I have presented for $500,000 and for $1 million have been rejected by the administration. The real issue affecting the stability of the city coffers is the fact that nobody at City Hall other than me has been asked to be bonded for any amount. A bond ensures personal accountability on the part of public officers. It protects taxpayers against financial losses due to fraud and incompetence. Most cities use blanket bonds for all staff who handle money, because many positions require moving large sums of money, our city will not be more or less vulnerable if I have a $1 million bond or a $2 million bond, our city is vulnerable because nobody else at City Hall is bonded. I urge Council to pass a resolution this evening requiring the administration to seek a blanket bond covering all city office holders, including those in the treasury. I will then happily take my post. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.
Greetings, everybody. My name is Mark price. I'm a priest and delegate, and I'm a member of the school board. My concern is number five. I would, in my humble opinion, I would suggest for the council to keep me in sleazer as a city treasure, because she's opposed in the election, and I feel like she's like, the only qualified person to be in this position to my understanding. And so that's my humble opinion about that. Thank you, Council.
Any additional comments on the agenda? Hi.
My name is Brian Donovan, and I'm also commenting about the reappointment of the treasurer. So I've known Lisa stolarski Now for 12 years, and I married her in 2015 shortly after moving to Highland Park and starting a business together, Lisa taught me how to make accurate financial projections and market analyzes to help clients decide if their business propositions were viable. As part of our business, Lisa is trustworthy. She follows the rules. You can count on her to say something when something doesn't look right in any budget or financial report. She also listens well, and is willing to say when things are actually all right, even though they may have looked bad. Lisa's name came up as a candidate for interim treasurer, not because she put it forward, but because council members had asked her for information. She had downloaded, read and prepared reports on the last 10 years of audited financial statements for the city of Highland Park. She developed charts and graphs and shared them with the council members who were asking for her help to help them understand what's been happening at the city. Before Lisa was appointed, I asked Tony Lampkin, the deputy treasurer, how much his bond was for, and he told me he was bonded for $500,000 later, the clerk from the dais confirmed that there's no bond on file for the treasurer that protects the city. Now on april 25 2024 Lisa secured a bond for 500,000 from bonding solutions LLC, and when Council resolved to reduce the amount of the bond required, that was vetoed on May 28 Lisa secured a $1 million bond. The cost of that bond was $911 including the commission for the agent. This was submitted to the city attorney with a resolution to accept the amount, and neither the resolution nor the bond were ever put on the council agenda for consideration. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Any additional citizens that would like to be
heard? I Great,
good evening Council in Highland Park. I would also like to speak in favor of Mrs. Dellarsky. I've known her for two years, and I know that she knows her way, not only around numbers, but also just the bigger picture. She's helped me piece together some what do we call those maps? Sanborn maps, she's helped me. We've gone down to the public we've gone down to the public library. Coleman, a young city hall, to just kind of see what makes up Highland Park. I think she's a great person, and I think that there's absolutely no reason why she shouldn't be working as we speak. So with that, thank you.
Thank you very much. I'm sorry did you? Could you give us your name again, sir.
My name is Josh villa, proprietor of city of trees, 501, c3, thank you. Okay, thank you. Council. My
name is Marsha Florence. I'm the producer and host of a television show here in Michigan called just as we are, education and resource program dedicated to serving the disabled, the elderly and their caregivers. I came today to ask council to consider the residents of Highland Park joining us for our fourth annual health and fun fair event. This event has been going on for the last four years in the downtown Eastern Market District. We have the support of the council from river ridge and E course and Hamtramck. So we wonder why when we go from place to place, we heard residents say they were not able to attend these events because they didn't have transportation just along the road down here. We went to a couple of facilities, and they gave back the flyer saying we can't get there. So we'd be honored to have the residents from river which come and join Highland Park. Come and join us on october 3. It's a free event with 50 healthcare professional services, any agencies from here, they would like a booth. We will honor and give you the booth, because we know that if we bring people together, the resources are shared amongst everyone in return. We do have a segment on our show called what is your city officials do? We would like to ask city officials from Highland Park to come and join us to spread the information and the resources what you guys do here, so everyone would be accounted for what they do. If you have any information, I like to leave this poster as well give out some information about the flyers. Thank you. Thank
you so much. Thank
you so much. Applause. Much.
I don't see anybody else moving. Oh, if you're moving, once you start moving, I'm getting to the agenda. So is this? This is about an agenda item. Okay, come on through. Go for it. Appreciate your name for the record, sir. Be Anthony Holly,
okay, and what agenda item is this about? This will be about Agenda Item number five. Again. My name is B Anthony Holly. I am a entrepreneur, community organizer and a resident of Highland Park for Thank you. Almost a decade now, eight years in county, and I wanted to speak on item number five, about the treasurer, and just want to say I've known Lisa suzarki over a decade, and I wanted to speak to three points that I feel like are really important. One, competence and demonstrated skill. I've worked with Lisa as a part of a couple different organizations, one that we co founded that did technical assistance, where she was very skilled at creating market studies, feasibility studies, preparing documents the organization wouldn't have been able to function without her, and to say that That's something that we consistently relied on her for, and organizations still do, and to trustworthiness and transparency. That is something that the people of Highland Park are in need of and are demanding from this, this amazing body and the administration, and that is something that has been demonstrated here as well, through her experience. The third and last one is that representation from Highland Park matters, and Highland Park, Highland Parkers are not lining up for this position. This position is a lot of as you know, thankless, hard work, and we have somebody that is qualified and willing to and doing our best to jump through all of the hoops and challenges to in order to represent Highland Park and get us on the right track. So definitely want to make sure that this body is doing everything that they can to support her for a better Highland Park. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Additional people to speak on the agenda.
My name is Veronica Brooks. I'm speaking about item seven, about the charging stations and when y'all mentioned them, and was a little leery about them, I Googled it, and the closest charging station is two miles from here, but it only has two spots, so I think that we should consider it, especially if we can put it in a lit, well lit safe area. So I think the people like from Boston, Edison new center, the university district and as well as Palmer Park area, would mind coming if we have it in a lit self space.
Okay,
thank you. Anything else? Are we ready to move into the agenda? Okay, seeing no additional people at the podium, we want to thank you for the comments that you made and citizens participation. I'm sure we were all listening, and we will move into Item five, which is a resolution regarding the reappointment of the vacant treasurer position City Council. What is your pleasure? Is
your pleasure?
How are we acting on Item five?
I move to approve the resolution regarding the reappointment of the vacant city treasurer position,
Chair for support with questions. So yeah, I remember when this issue first came to city council, and I suggested that we wait. I said, can we wait to 21 days? Can we find out any additional information that will be useful to us as lay people, as novice as to what the qualifications are for a treasurer? What does it look like? So I just typed it into AI right now. This is what AI says about requirements for city Treasury in Michigan. They include a degree in finance or business or public administration or related field. We knew at the time that the former treasurer of above all things, was extremely competent, and she was bonded for millions of dollars. Need I remind you that we had this treasurer during all of the financial hardships that this city has faced, we have been on the verge of bankruptcy for years. So the treasurer had a litmus test, that treasurer had to be bonded. For all you people know, sitting in a room I could be bonded for $5 million and it's none of your business based on how much money I handle. As a real estate developer, you don't have to disclose that. You can't make statements that people in the city of Highland Park are not bonded because I'm sitting here in this chair, and I know that there are people who are bonded in this building. It's not my job, or none of my business, to tell you who they are and what they're bonded for. They're bonded based on the amount of money that they handle. Second thing is experience, some experience in public administration, finance or business office setting, including supervisory experience you're going to be a treasurer in the state of Michigan. Think Saginaw, Benton Harbor, ecourse, River Rouge, all of these poor black cities like Highland Park that have faced financial challenges. What qualifications do their city treasurer have? What qualifications do they have? How much are they bonded for those cities that have been in bankruptcy jeopardy for years, you also have to have certification. The Michigan Certified Professional treasurers mi CPT certification is available to mmta members who have completed the basic Institute to have three years of treasury related municipal experience. Again, I put in AI qualifications for being a treasurer in the state of Michigan. The certification must be new, renewed every four years. This is not what I say. This is what the robot I just typed this in there. This is a very contentious issue. It cost the city a lot of time. The county could have been in here, administering our treasury right now. This is the collection of your taxes. We could have had the deputy treasurer who is competent, who's been in that office for years. He is adjunct to the treasurer. He even had to be bonded for half a million dollars. He's not responsible, but he had to be bonded for half a million dollars. What does that tell you about working in a Treasurer's Office? Everybody don't get to do it. Everybody doesn't get to do it. There are people in this building who are bonded. There are people here who have master's degrees in finance to just assume that, you know, if I just walk through the door and assume I know something about how to fix a sink, that I'm a certified plumber. That's not fair. It's not, it's not, it's not, it's just not. The Michigan Municipal treasurers Association offers a basic Institute which provides 100 hour introduction to municipal treasury. I didn't hear anything about anybody enrolling this or taking this class, nothing.
So I have questions.
Why are we making it seem as if we didn't do our job as a city this city council asked the city council members against the recommendation of at least two of us, against the recommendation of the legal department. Said, This is what we want to do. And because it was a majority vote, they were allowed to do so as a stopgap. They said, Okay, you at least have to be bonded to the level that the previous treasurer was bonded at minimum $2 million for city to handles $12 million you can't get up. You can't get insurance on $100,000 car. You can't get a $10,000 policy on $100,000 car. You can't get a $2 million bond. When you handle $12 million a year in finance, it's a it's to cover the people whose funds you're having access to. It should be at par. You can't go out and buy a new Chevy. Can't go buy a new Silverado f1 50, that's worth $50,000 and get a $12,000 insurance policy. You just can't do it. You just can't, you just can't. You can't have $100,000 house with a $10,000 insurance policy. It just won't let you do it. You can't be over 65 with heart conditions. And get the lowest rung of the healthcare insurance plan and not have any out of pocket expenses. You just can't do it. You just can't do it. So when I listen to people's impassion please, we did what we were supposed to do. This council did not agree on the outcome for that vote, but we did agree on the fact that the person should have a bond at minimum 10% of what the city covers, 10% so we didn't agree. We didn't like the outcome, but we made a a floor of $2 million which is reasonable, in my opinion. Those are my only statements anybody else would like to offer to it. Otherwise, we can just call for the vote and I will read the resolution. We have any additional comments concerns. I'm
sorry I couldn't hear you. I said I would like to say one thing, help yourself, sir. We are two months out from the general election,
and you will all have an opportunity to decide who
that even Yes, ma'am, but, but even with that, the Treasurer still has to be bonded for a minimum of $2 million there's no way we're going to have a ten million rotating tax bill. It's just not possible. The state of Michigan will not allow us in financial Jeopardy, one foot out of receivership, to have a treasurer that is not properly bonded. It's just not going to do it. They're just not going to do it. This resolution says resolution regarding the reappointment of the bacon city resolution city treasurer position. Whereas Lisa larsky was appointed to serve as the city of Highland Park treasurer by accountable Council via resolution made on March 18, 2024 and whereas the march 18, 2024 resolution appointing Lisa stelarsky stated that the appointment was conditional upon passing a background check and being bonded by the city of Highland Park and the county of Wayne, whereas the amount required bond was set in the March 18, 2024 resolution at a value of $2 million pursuant to the charter section four, dash eight, whereas the march 18 2024, resolution specifically directed the treasurer to undertake all necessary actions to secure the fixed bond prior to assuming any duties as treasurer of the city of Highland Park. And whereas Lee sister larski has not acquired a $2 million bond since March 18, 2024 and whereas Lisa stelarski has not been bonded by the county of Wayne since March 18, 2024 whereas the city of Highland Park charter in Section four, dash 10, subsection nine, states that the city as the city office becomes vacant when there is a failure to file the bond required for the office as required by law, the charter and or city ordinance. And whereas the city of Highland Park treasurer position is now vacant pursuant to the charter, section 410, subsection nine, now therefore be it resolved that the Highland Park City Council shall appoint another individual to the vacated position within 30 days pursuant to the Highland Park City charter section 413, ladies and gentlemen, Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll on item five?
Councilman shawty, no Councilwoman Martin, no Councilwoman mannequin, yes.
No, yes, Motion fails. So this resolution does not pass. It doesn't pass, and it still doesn't change anything. Unfortunately, Mister Lawrence key doesn't have her by and we don't have a treasure, so that means the county of Wayne is likely to intercede in our affairs, which providing us coverage. Who knows it may be a good thing. Moving on to the next item, moving on to item six. Under the curtains, the resolution to establish holding locations and election workers pay for the number of november 5, 2024, election City Council. What is your pleasure?
Wait a minute.
I move to approve the revolution to establish polling locations and election workers pay for the November 5, 2024
I got questions council president. Go right ahead. Okay, so all these questions will be directed towards the clerk's office. Okay,
Madam Clerk, how do we do in the primary? Because I understand that our systems were down in Highland Park and all six of its preachings were unable to encounter for quite some time.
I'm sorry, I
can't I'm sorry, I said. I said, How do we do in the primary that just passed? Because of my understanding, according to Wayne County, our systems went down, and all six precess were unable to be accounted for in the primary for quite some time. Have we fixed that problem
that wasn't on the part of the city? That was
okay, okay. The county says differently, but okay, if it was a county issue, that's fine. Um, so Are we all set to load in? Is, is, has the glitch been fixed? Yes, yes,
we are okay.
Anytime there's an issue immediately after that,
okay, okay,
okay. Miss Martin, see your hand?
I'm sorry if there's an issue and that's the county problem versus current. Does our go get county those automatically counted? Yes, ma'am. It's just that all communities have to send their results to the county so they can add them up combined for each city, the votes are counted. No one is counted as soon as you put your ballot in tabulate.
Okay, so we are at Item six is the resolution to establish polling locations and election workers paid for the November 5, 2024, presidential election. Madam Clerk, would you call the roll?
Councilman shawty Yes, Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman Annika Yes. Council Robinson No. Council President,
yes, okay. Presidential election. Okay, cool. Item seven under Community Development resolution for the submittal of a plug in a Tri County, Ev, charging equity project grant, city council, what's your pleasure?
I move to approve the resolution for the submittal of plug in a Michigan Tri County, Ev, charging equity project chair,
offered support, questions, concerns. You take this out. Take it out on the floor.
Council President, go
right ahead, sir. Okay,
so this is just to submit the application to see if it goes to Okay, and then if it does go somewhere, you somewhere, he brought back the council to vote on,
we good, yeah,
that's okay. And they, I believe they stated that earlier, but I'm glad you asked them to state it on the record. Yes, that's just, I mean, not no grants. And correct me if I'm wrong, no grants, no funds, nothing that comes into the city can come into the city without first being approved to be received by city council. Correct. Okay, so all funds have to come to us for approval. Okay, any more questions, concerns? Okay, so could you take the roll on item seven. This is a resolution for the submittal of the plug in. We have a miss. Manica made a motion for it, and I offered a second
Council. Councilman ashapi Yes. Councilwoman Martin Yes, Councilwoman Manica Yes. Councilor Robinson, council president,
Yes. Motion carries moving on to Item eight of the Department of Engineering. This is a resolution for the submittal of a vacation document for the means Highland Park LLC corridor project. And by vacation document, we mean they're vacating some parcels here City Council. What is your pleasure on item eight for the under Department of Engineering,
I moved questions. I moved to approve resolution for recent middles of vacation documents for the mains, Holland Park LLC, Hamilton corridor product, Mister
El shapi, did I assume that you were second in with questions? Yeah. So former questions Council Go ahead. Okay. Um,
I thought we took
Yes, yes, yes, so we did. We did take care of it, but the surveyor came to us and said we made an error in the legal description. Okay? So we said, Okay, well, we can't, you can't just edit it without us going back to council acknowledging that they may change. There are no new property, no rezoning, none of that. It was literally, this
is the greenhouse. Just that full down. Yes, we already vacated the street. Go
ahead. Yes, okay, yes, okay. So there it was. Air in the legal description. As I say, if you it was, that
will be right, yeah, yeah. If you don't fix that, somebody can contest it one word. They can contest the
whole thing. So we had to make sure it was able to go through okay and not be an error. They brought to our attention, okay. And so, brave soul, man, we made a mistake. You're right. We said, We gotta look right. We'll take your edit, but we need to come back. But we're not asking for new action. We're not We're not changing anything that's all done and finished. Thank
you, Mister Garrett, for doing that, because I know you know, if you never know, and I would say my colleagues will hold you to task if anything is wrong, the fact that you found the error and came back and said, You know what, let's just approve this with that small change. Hats off to you. So then
we already approved it. But the legal description that the legalese, the documents that are submitted down at the county and at the assessor, if there's even one word wrong, it, it affects our document, even one word, yes, yes, even one word, right? But so this resolution says they corrected the word and they're resubmitting it to us, not they, they can't. They're not going to. They didn't turn it in and get it stamped with an error on it. It's like, you know, you turn in a paper, you can turn it in with the word spell wrong or not right. So they turned it in with the professor. Was like, take this paper back, make this correction, and resubmit it. Is that an accurate assessment of what I'm saying? Okay,
yeah,
they haven't. No, it's resubmitted. They're not. They corrected the document that they brought to us and brought us a new document that was correct resubmitted. They couldn't submit it with an error. You can't legally submit it with an error. You can't give it to the final entity with an error in it without resubmitting it to us first to have it entered in properly.
So tell me if I'm saying that wrong. No, you're right. Okay.
Is she saying it's semantical, the semantics and she's saying, instead of the council approval down here, she's just saying it should say it's an administrative, not a redo. I think that's what she's trying to, is that, is that, what you're trying
to, okay, I mean, is that, is that, if it's doable, we should include it, if it's if that's,
I mean, but we, I mean, we're kind of beyond that. Because what really should, what she's really saying, is the resolution should be slightly different. It's already gone through. We can't undo resolution. Okay? It's written, alright, but she's saying it should have just said it's administrative change and been a little bit more, more, a better explanation of what, okay,
yeah, okay, just on the motion. Okay, okay, okay, I get it, I get it. I get it. Um, Council, proton, just
make sure that the ministry reflects what just
happened today. So as far as what Miss Martin's trying to get us to do, one of us,
well we correct is our, our minutes, our, the decorum in the room is recorded on Zoom. We the only thing that the clerk is doing is what we voted on. Did we vote yes or no? But to your point, we actually have a physical record of what we're saying right here, right now. It's recorded in the public record via zoom. These are the actual training. What
do you money? Please reduce the Yeah,
okay, so on item seven, the resolution for the resubmittal and vacation documents of the means Highland Park LLC, we have a motion on the floor from Councilwoman, supported by Councilman ashaki. Could you call the roll on item eight?
Councilman ashaki, yes, for the correction. Councilwoman Martin
Yes. Councilwoman, yes. Council Pro Tem Robinson, yes, ma'am. Council President,
Yes. Motion carries, moving on to Item nine of the Public Works, a resolution to terminate the contract of cone elevator City Council. What's your pleasure? We have a motion on the floor made by Councilman o'shafi. Do we have support? Okay? Pro Tem office support with questions. Go right ahead,
Madam pro tem,
could someone address that? Hold on a second. Let me look and see what we have online. We have panelists. We have mister Burgess. Could you answer that question for us?
Yes. What is the question? Again? The question
is, why are we terminated a contract of cone elevator?
Okay, we came about getting a contract with calm. We had a contract with a Detroit elevator that was signed in 1997 they went out of business. They sold their business to cone, and cone is still holding the city liable as an ongoing, active contract. Seriously, we have had poor service. We have had poor service from from Crone, and their cost is extremely high. A
second, Mr. One second, Mr. Burgess, have y'all heard enough? Okay, keep going.
Yes, oh, we have had to on occasion. On occasions, we have had to call in elevator solutions. They have done an excellent job for us when when comb wouldn't come and make our elevator operative. So we have one. I'll be back to this group in a couple of months with a formal RFP to go out and solicit for elevator repair.
Additional questions,
I don't have a problem at all, because every time I get in that elevator, I pray to Jesus, I come out. Every time I get in I pray, I come out of it. So Miss
madam proton,
by terminating.
Oh, Mr.
President, if we need a 30 day notice of intention to terminate so this would make the city in compliance with its 30 day period. Is that correct? Mr. Burgess,
yes, that's correct.
The sufficient amount. Okay, let's call the roll on it, Item nine. I'm sorry this is yes. Item nine of the Department of Public Works, resolution to terminate the contract with CO elevator. Madam, if you will, call the roll.
Councilman ashapi, yes, to terminate. Councilwoman Martin, yes. Councilwoman manager, yes. Councilman Robinson, yes. Council President Thomas
Yes. Motion carries. Alright. We'll move over into citizens participation. Um, earlier I ran the clock at two minutes and 30 seconds. We're before eight o'clock. We're trying to match our record from last week, so I'll set it for two two minutes. Do we have anybody that wants to address now? Y'all can let us go home early one. Okay, I'm just messing with you. Miss Florida.
Good evening. Council citizens. Audience, I have a question, and I don't know who to direct it to. We had a wonderful event Thursday at Barbara. They're back to school event, and I was wondering, who do I see about getting speed bumps put on that street? So I'm not sure who I address it to on buna Vista, because it is a school. And, you know, we have seen, I have seen parents go and go around that loop kind of fast. And I was wondering, who do I speak to about speed bumps?
Council, B Anthony Holly, again, I just want to give an update. I have come to this body three times now about the the issue at my property at 292 March street, and I have recently the last time I came here was 90 days, and I still have had no update. I did speak with Captain McMahon, and who gave me a verbal admission that the city was responsible and then coordinated with planning and development or public works to board up the board of my property after the the crew cleaning, attempting to clean up a lot and not a 10 square foot hole in the property, making it unsafe to be inhabited and a risk. I still have had no communications, even though the mayor is fully aware and so so is the police department, and as I mentioned last time, these are the types of opportunities that the city has so that we don't have to be forced into litigation. But my hands are tied, so I just wanted that on public record that I being a responsible resident, did everything I could do to prevent this from happening, and it's very unfortunate.
Thank you. Okay, thank you, sir. Okay, that
podium is empty, and I'm gonna take that as a cue to move on into Council affairs. Wait, wait, I'm sorry, I'll have someone online as well. I have Miss, okay, come on in, ma'am. And Imma have you. And I also have Miss Turner Johnson, whose hand is raised online. Thank you. So imma start with you and your name, ma'am. My
name is Laverne squint. I live at 215, California Street. I spoke to thank you. I spoke to Mayor McDonald recently about two separate things, the California Black club president missus Lisa Butler, lives next door. She told me that she spoke to Mayor McDonald regarding having street lights put on California and the speed bumps, because at the end of Oakland and California is are the Oakland industrial center, and they speed down California when they're late for work, and they will run you over. So she said, Mary McDonald's response to me was, we do not have the money in the budget. That's a and b won the street lights, A, A was the street lights be worth speed bumps now? Whole another issue for quite some time, my daughter had been watching the cannabis if the licensing was going to go forth. So she said to me, how is it that save a lot. Someone told her, save a lot is growing marijuana there. And then someone bought Victor bakery, and it's now a cannabis business. She said, when was it put to the public that the licensing for cannabis businesses was available to the public? Okay, so how are they in business? And this is the city of Highland Park. They're
operating on, probably under state controls, not the city control. We don't have an ordinance, so it's, huh, yeah, there's, they have signage, but there's no business operating out of there any other places in the state. So any other places in our area, I believe, are under the jurisdiction of the state, and so
she needs to do her research. As far as getting a license through the state of Michigan.
I can't, we don't, we don't have any any information to help with that, but that's who is providing the structure for those entities, not us. Okay?
I just wanted to know, how does it go about? How does it come into existence without the citizens of Highland Park having any type of say so in the matter? Uh,
yeah, that was a that's been a bone of contention for everybody on the city council. How are people outside of the city? And it has more to do with the way that it's set up okay as far as the the actual law.
Thank you very much for your time this afternoon. I guess someone will get back with me about the speed bumps and about the street lights, because according to Mayor McDonald, their budget does not have the funds for it at this time.
Okay, tell me your name again. Ma'am,
Laverne, l, a, capital V, as in victory, E, R, N, E, last name, Swint, s, as in Sam, W, I N, T.
Thank you. Miss. 3137100895895,
yeah. Okay,
I
have Miss Turner Johnson online. Imma. I'm going to ask you to unmute. Can you? Can you? I'm going to hear your voice. Okay, go right ahead. Man.
Uh, good evening. Council president and council members, I just wanted to thank the Council for approving the resolution to apply charging station grant. And I just wanted to suggest that when the staff, when the city employees, go out of their way to try to get grant funds, it's very difficult. It adds to their workload to apply for grants. The city of Highland Park needs as many grants as we can get for as many projects as we can get funded. And I think it would be an important principle for the council to take a look at that perhaps whenever there is a request from a staff member to apply for a grant, that council would support that staff member, because it is an extra amount of work that has to be done. And also in the response to the issue about the timeliness, you know that I've been in this nonprofit sector for over 40 years, and oftentimes we don't get an announcement of a grant until it's at the last minute, and then we have to really work extra hard to get that grant submitted by the due date. So I would hope that in the future, if there's ever an opportunity for the council to support an application for any funding for the city, that the council would always support the application. And then if at you know, some date in the future you disagree with the purpose of the grant money, you can always deny it, because, as council president said, any revenue coming into the city has to be approved by city council. So thank you council members for approving that resolution for the EV charging section. Thank you, ma'am
and so online. We also have Yolanda. Imma get you to so. Imma ask you to unmute. Well, hold on where she go. Yolanda,
yes, I'm unmuted. Can you hear me?
I sure can. Man, we're right ahead. Alright. Good
evening, Highland Park. Really quick. There was some conversation in the Concerned Citizens page on Facebook about the parking lot of the market with all the potholes, craters, they're not even potholes. And then this evening, I had a taste for some Popeyes chicken, and it went up there, and their lot is horrible. Almost didn't get out. So who do we talk to? Because I'm sure somewhere in the charter it has to address businesses keeping up their property. And so who would we who would we need to talk to or bring this to? Whose attention should we be bringing this to
I think, um, wow, I think you probably have to email that's on private property. So we'd have to dig into the ordinance. We have to find it in an ordinance.
Okay, okay, well, I'm willing to help with the research,
okay? And I think that you probably would want to contact code enforcement officer, Malone, at least you can make a note of it. I mean, if the if the property owner has a hazard on that property that may damage your vehicle with the city can't pay for it, that would be the property zone responsibility, so that if there's a code violation there, mister Malone will be a great start for that. Alright,
Mister Malone, thank you. Everybody. Have a great evening. Good meeting. Good evening.
Okay, ma'am, let me restart the timer over here and let you get at it.
Okay, I'm speaking about item number five. Mm, hmm, about the vacant city treasurer position. Um, I feel that we need to either resolve the issue with Miss Lisa or find somebody ASAP so we don't have everybody else all up in ideas. That's the best way I could put it. You know what I'm saying? We didn't got the folks out our money business. We're stable now. Let's not put them back in it. If you're not going to deal with her, fine. Find somebody else right away. Veronica Brooks
Brooks sorry. Y'all
okay. So seeing now when people come to the podium, we going to move into Council affairs. It is 807, we are cooking with gas, starting with the council from the third district.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. So tonight, Imma keep it short and sweet. I don't have any thing personal. All I have is is what's in the best interest and concern for the city. I'm concerned about these watery hikes and the fact that they haven't come down, I tell you when we were told that they will only be for six months, and now here we are within the ninth month, well past June, 30, and I'm being told that it may be a possibility that they may be extended to the end of the year. Now, I don't know about anybody else, but I'm barely feeding myself. You know, I can't afford to feed the city too. Um, and having said that, I'm thinking that what is necessary to protect the residents at this time, and only the residents, I would like to make a motion to put a temporary moratorium on any and all water shut offs for residential homes only, until these rates come down to a normal point, uh, until the rates come down for residential homes only. I wish to make a motion to put a moratorium on any and all water shut offs. As long as those residents are continuously paying their bills, they should have some form of a safeguard until these rates come down. Because it's getting tight out here every single day, it's getting harder and harder to make these ends meet, and it's always seems to be the residents that are being bled, as opposed to everybody else. So again, I make a motion to place a moratorium on all residential water shut offs, as long as they are paying their bills.
That's all you have for us, sir. Yeah,
I'm waiting on the motion to be finished if it's going to be supported. So to be supported so it's
so it's open for discussion, not at this most, we have a motion on the floor from Councilman El Shaddai, if, if we had us, if we had this problem over here, I want you to help me with that. We have a motion on the floor from Councilman Shockey to institute a moratorium on our I know, I know where you going. And we have a that motion was supported by Councilwoman Martin, and now it's out on the floor. So before you do, Mr. Bosnick, I just want to say again, this is not something that we have. We don't have the authority to tell the water vendor not to send a bill us. We also don't have the capacity to not collect and to say that we're just going to put a moratorium on water shutoffs. We don't, we don't have the capacity to do that. So we can vote on that now. We sure can, and I will call the roll on it if that's what you want to do. But Mr. Bosnick, you said that you had something.
Thank you, Mr. President, I guess just as a procedural matter, I think the proper motion would be to suspend the rules to for the council to consider this item, because this item is not on the agenda. It's not noticed. Okay, so if Council, by a super majority, wishes to suspend the rules to bring this motion before the body, then that would be proper, but first, the rules would have to be suspended by four votes to allow that to occur. You
get what he's saying, Mr. Shopping, because if we make this motion, that means we don't it doesn't hold any authority. We have to suspend the rules. By super majority,
I make a motion to temporarily suspend the rules to consider this item.
Question, ma'am, go ahead. This
is that I
don't know what the effect of emotion would be, should it pass. I don't know what Council's jurisdiction would be in terms of acting on this. So that'd be something we have to look into. You could Council could certainly consider the motion and vote on the motion, but whether it would carry with it, any legal authority would have to look into, I didn't know this matter was going to be before the body until just two minutes ago.
Right now. Right now, we have to vote on this, on suspending the rules. We we don't want to muddy the waters. Let's get, let's, let's do this. That's what he said, suspending. I
didn't say that. He said,
he said spending, shut up. I misspoke. So right now, the motion on the floor is to suspend the rules. Madam Clerk, would you call the roll? This is a motion made by Councilman El shapi, supported by Councilman mark to suspend the normal rules, to bring an item forward for voting.
Councilman Jackie,
yes, to suspend the rules temporarily. Yes.
Councilwoman Madison, yes.
One more question. Go right ahead
the rules of procedure, because, yeah, the council approved the agenda with particular items on it. Now you the council wishes to go outside the rules of the meeting, which were set by the items on the agenda.
Alright? Yes, no motion
carries, so the rules have been suspended. Mr. Shockey, go ahead and make your motion. We're still in your council affairs. So,
so what I am simply saying, and no, let's, let's
get the motion on the record clear, and then we can, then we can deliberate it. The motion on
the record is, I wish to make a motion to place a moratorium, temporary moratorium, on all water shut offs for residential homes, only until these water rates come down at the end of the year. So we only got about 90 more days until the end of the year. I don't see any harm with protecting the residents of Highland Park and keeping them safe at least until the end of the year, because it looks like this is going to go on until the end of the year, and we're being bled dry. We were told six months, it's now turned into nine months. Nine months is about to turn into 12 in 90 more days, and, and, and I do have a sneaky feeling that it's going to go past New Year's guaranteed, correct? I got a feeling it's going to go into 2025 so we can at least give the residents 90 days of protection. I don't see the harm in it.
Okay, so we have a motion on the floor. Okay, good
question. I have a question. Yeah, so the time span you want to put on is December 31 Yes, is there a certain amount? What is shut up?
Okay, well, I am talking about those residents. And if, if, if I am a correct year, we were told that 90% of the residents in the city of Highland Park pay their bills. They pay their water bills. So, so. So, when I'm saying Miss Manica and please forgive me, right, I'm simply saying anybody who is in good standing with the city of Highland Park who is currently paying their bills, I see no harm, no file in ensuring that you get some form of protection. Now, if you're already in shut off status, get yourself together, and then you can come on to the team. But anybody that is paying their bills who's not in shut off status, they should have some form of protection to help them for these last 90 days of this year. I don't see the harm in it. I don't see a problem with it. I'm pretty sure that legal is going to find something. But Mister bosnick, if you would answer and return my phone calls, we coulda had this discussion about two months ago.
So I don't think that we're really looking for a reason not to I can't speak for anyone else, but a reason to not do this. I just want to make sure that we are doing it correctly. In regards to a moratorium, the moratorium is already a temporary suspension. What that is, and so I don't think that is bad, but there's some things like you just added, if you already in shut off that you're not included. Well,
those people who are already in shut offs can get themselves together. They can straighten their bill out very easily, and then they will be protected under this shut off once they score their bill. I'm talking about those residents. And you know who you are, 90% of the residents in this city pay their water bill. In fact, most of the water bill damage is on the residents. We pay for everything. We pay for everything. What does everybody else pay for? We pay for everything. Every time we turn around, we have something new that's coming out of our pockets, out of our taxes in this city, and I feel the residents deserve a break. They can use this 90 day break. He could take some worry and some relief off of their minds.
Don't disagree, yeah, just just saying, I think a couple questions like Miss Robinson had or they could be out there. I don't, and for me, I don't know. I guess moratorium.
I was just about to say, so, so let me, let me, let me. Before you I was going, I was going to, I know what you about to do. And I wanted to let them talk, because I have the exact same position. And I want you to come after me, if you don't mind. Okay, no. I mean, I want you to, I want you to speak after me, because you know more than I now. I just want to say this to my colleagues. I have not interrupted. I've been sitting here biting the inside of my mouth. We went, we went to mediation with the Great Lakes Water Authority. We have a written agreement that has been approved by the city of Highland Park, Great Lakes Water Authority, state of Michigan, and all the other parties that are involved in and we're talking about, in an ad hoc way, coming up with the resolution off of our hip that will become a written framework for the city that we haven't really fleshed out what these outcomes would be. You guys are asking great questions. What will be the legal implications? What type of danger will be putting ourself in? 90% of the people pay their water bill. We're creating something in an ad hoc way. None of us as attorneys, none of us really actually read the full context of the document to know if what we're doing we even have the authority to do, because billing for utilities that comes through the cities is a part of the city's administration. It is not under our purview. So again, we're overstepping. We're kind of violating the charter and overstepping in an area where, because it makes good sense, and we're talking about a small, infinitesimal number of people, so it wouldn't be a bad thing to look out for those few people that will fall through the cracks. The question is, do we have the authority? The question is, if we're talking about people who are in good standings, who are paying really, how many people fall into that category, and are we willing to put forth the legal document that has to pass the snuff test all the way up through the state of Michigan? So when mister Garrett came forward and start to say, be careful, you know, I kind of want to keep this between the five of us. I kind of want us to work this out among ourselves, because the idea, the merits of the idea, are good, but do we have the capacity to be able to make those type of legal constraints. We speak to our resolutions. We don't even have a resolution written. So we speak to our resolutions. What are we going to send out a council are we going to just provide a document that the mayor has no choice but to veto? Um, these are questions that I'm asking. I don't have any answers. I'm going to vote the way that I'm going to vote, but I'm saying considering what we're talking about doing after all of this litigation, we're talking about a moratorium for 8900 people, 2000 residents, maybe 200 people in hot seat. Out of that 10% 20 people, we're talking about 234, families that might actually fall into this and we still have the water relief programs out there provided to us through the through the state, we still have a bunch of other resources that were provided to us, to the state, that these people could tap into. Don't get me wrong. I do not disagree with the sentiment that the last thing we want is for one or two or three people between now and Christmas to be without their water, but to be able to put a moratorium. Again, we're asking for a legal moratorium. We're asking for a state, we're asking for the ability to stop, we're going to restrict the water authority from doing what is considered a part of their job.
Council President, yes, sir, I have, I have done a little bit of research myself. Okay, we are actually not overreaching here. Okay, okay. And this would not affect the ACO in any shape, form or fashion. I don't feel it's going to be paid no matter what, as long as the residents continue to do what they've been doing, and they know how important this is, water's always been right, a very contentious issue in this city, and it's one thing that the Highland Park residents don't play about right? They do not play about their water. They want their water, and they want to be safe when they turn on that tap and get their water. So I'm pretty sure that this is not going to be issue. I do not believe that we are overstepping our bounds. Okay, in fact. In fact, the contract in which MCA and everybody else is under, is under this council. Okay? So, so they may be administered by the mayor, but we approve their contracts. Okay, okay, so technically they answer touch.
So let's do this. Let's go ahead. Let's go ahead and call the roll on this item, um, and just let the chips fall. Yeah, go ahead. Okay,
last year in advance
to take people's
information and program.
Okay, point of order, we are, mister, we are still in a council affairs for the third district. We've been at this for 25 minutes. So Council affairs for the whole city council normally takes 20 we are in council affairs for the third district for the last 25 minutes. I would like to go ahead and call the roll on this. Miss Manica, go ahead.
Could there be an option here to it sounds like you gave it or you made it. You sent email to legal.
I'm not sure what I gave my personal call. He just never called
me back. Okay,
I'm not aware of that. Is it possible? Because I feel like there's a lot of questions that I answered, as well as just to make sure our bond, we can bring it back. You can do back to have been done in Detroit water for a small period of time, but we are not, you know what I'm saying. So again, that's something new, and I think that we all need a little bit more time to really. We like the idea, but we little bit more time to make sure that we don't cause any more issues or problems.
Come on. So
I certainly understand what he's talking about. I understand what Councilman shop is talking about being here for years, and what his frustration is. I would suggest that if the council feels that way, the council can collectively write it right, right, put this in writing and send this to the state. You don't, don't, don't do a resolution, but use, use, write a letter. And we've written plenty letters over the last 10 years in this legal battle, and they've been very effective. I would recommend writing a letter and stating the frustration that you have, and this is something that you're entered that you would like to entertain, but not actually do it, because the ramifications are, there's a lot of people who pay their bill. It's like the police, the you know the police are driving down the street. So when the people know that the police are driving down the street, they don't, they don't do crime. Okay? And I hate to say that, but there's a lot of people who pay their bills because they don't want their water shut off. Okay, if you take that away, you're gonna, you're gonna lose some people who are paying their bills from from the fear of being shut off that. I'm not saying that's the right thing. I don't I
don't mean Sharon's about to call time, because we've been at this for almost I mean, not on you. I'm just saying, After this, this is the last line of question that I'm going to call I'm
just, I'm just simply saying that Detroit has done this, and what it did, it didn't have an adverse effect. It actually got people up off their butts to come down and work out with the city of Detroit to get their water squared away. Actually got people motivated when they made
this time gesture. And I'm gonna let that be the last and I'm gonna let that be the last statement working, and I'm going to let that be the last statement. We're still in council affairs under councilman for the third district. We have suspended the rules, okay? We have brought a motion to the floor. We have been at this for 30 minutes. And Mr. Garrett, I hate to cut you off, but I have no we've done amnesty programs. I know there's all I know, I know, I know. And there's, there's a there's a legal Claymore that we're stepping in. So what I'm going to do right now is I'm going to call for the vote the rules have been suspended. Four out of five members allow the rules to be suspended. Now we're about to make a motion on an item for a resolution that we don't have legal implications, that we don't know, but it was made properly, and it was made under the appropriate rules. So we're going to call the roll on the motion made by Mister al Shafi to institute a resolution to call for a moratorium on water shut off for customers in the city of Highland Park between now and the end of the year. So would you call the roll on that motion? It was sorted by Councilwoman Martin. Go ahead and call the roll on that.
Councilman shawty Yes.
Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman, council president.
I'm voting no on
this motion. Thank you very much. We're going to move into Council affairs for Miss Martin. Motion carries, Okay. Motion carries for three to two. Go ahead, ma'am, sorry, had to make that declaration for the clerk. Sure.
Tonight, I also want
DPW, a lot of citizens saying
that grass that I'm going to
Good evening. I just want to say, I'm sorry. I'm kind of thrown back right now. I won't say this. I don't want anybody's water cut off as well, but I know we look at a lot of things to other people, so we need to have all of the information when we're choosing and we do not have all the information, or you still have a question, just like you do on some other stuff. To me that just really don't make sense, you should set it back and have questions answered for these types of things too, because this is how we can get into those, those things that we don't want to get into, those lawsuits. Is what you already is coming at with us, or saying, we will be in a lawsuit. We're going to be in a lawsuit, but we do things so rapidly sometime that we don't think about, we do things so rapidly we'll think about when you talk about Detroit, and I mentioned it being in a moratorium, having it, they also had other things that were components of that, like working with Wayne Metro. And so it wasn't just the city council or whoever said, Hey, let's do a moratorium. It was they had quite a few things in place when they did that, and that's what people don't know and don't see when they call those moratoriums. It was things that those residents still needed to go do, or they needed to call, as Miss Robinson said, whatever resources that's out there to provide that water. And so we gotta start thinking about those things. We we put a lot of things on emotion and want to look good to the citizens. I'm I'm fine with that, but if we going to look good to the citizens, let's not get us in trouble. Not seeing that too because I looked at it, I looked at you, and it was some hesitation. I looked at you and you agreed that, no, we need to find this out, but you voted the other way. So that's what I'm not trying to change the voting. Yeah. I'm just trying to give you some perspective on some of the things that we're doing, when we're doing it, versus I just need mister Johnson to be like, Yes, she did that, and I'm not going to have to pay my bill. I agree with mister Gary. There are going to be some people that say, Guess what? Oh, there's no Shut up. Oh, I can hold off. Oh, I gotta pay that bill. I go pay Macy's estate or whatever else in the state. Or I'm going to tell because now I can go out of town and that's it. I mean, that's that, um, everybody, we've had a lot of things happen in the city this this past weekend, and other times, go out and support what's happening in your city. There are other commissions. So some people came up today and they asked about different things that can happen, like speed bumps Southside. Second. Those aren't traffic commission questions as well. So you should be going to that traffic commission meeting. If it's something to do with the police, you should be going to chat with the chief or the police commissioner meeting. Okay, everything not necessary starts here or stepski. Okay. I Some people have some questions for me with with water, I have a couple of papers for you. I did pass those out. If they did not answer your question or you didn't get it out, give it to you. But if your question still didn't get answered, let me know. We'll write it down and I will get it to the engineers. I think it was one other in in my district, oh, cannabis, or Victor NAR or something. I can't even know it is, it is not. Nothing's happening there that they did their pain and they just got a building that is there nothing's happening at that building. And I understand, again, that might be a police question or administrative question about whether single lot or somewhere else is operating illegally. Okay, so I know a lot of people want to deal with cannabis, guys, I get it, but we are trying to generate revenue for the city and some other ways to generate revenue is stuff like parking, parking, you know, and different other stuff, but in your property taxes, and that's getting people here, developing developing houses and different things like that. So I hope that I covered some of the things they asked me in my district and outside, remember that there's a citywide cleanup that should be starting that happens in September. The mayor, I'm sure, will give out that date again, what I believe it is September 14. Again, dumpsters will be located logistically that everybody can use them. They cannot go in front of your house. It cannot go on the side of your house, so or on your actual street, unless, if you're just forced to do that, and it won't go on grass. So just wanted to put that out there. September 14, I believe, will be that that cleanup. Just look for flyers from the administration on on the cleanup. I want to commend some Holland Park students, ex Holland Park students that have businesses, they gave away book bags and book supplies this past weekend at Boys and Girls Club. Why am I mentioning them, because so many people have done it at Kunar rec center. It's because they are ex Highlands or their alumni of Highland Park High School. And so there are people giving back and they're young people, they're not in the 50s, or they're
muted. Can you mute longer?
Trying to give back and actually want to become part of the city, and actually, we need to start looking for young people who want To be part and start Getting involved In What I
The sound is muted. I I don't understand how sound is mirrored. Okay, everybody should still be able to hear me here. Um, that information will be useful to the road, to the traffic commission, of course, but also to the team that's working with MCA. Um, Mister B, Anthony, he left from out of here. I think members of council, we should start to go by and physically see some of the issues that citizens have so that we can it is not in our purview to tell the city what to do, but the more that we see, the more that we are aware of, the more physical pictures that we take. The level of empathy we might be able to get closer to those people have a conversation about whatever resources we could provide. So on the last note, on the thing that we did, let me just make this clear, the meters are still not in the city is struggling with the Great Lakes Water Authority. They are a juggernaut. They have been kicking our ass for almost 10 years. And I might have a belief, or I might suspect, the reason why they don't necessarily want those water meters in but the framework of our agreement is still pretty solid, and my desire not to poke that bear on what Miss Manica described as being emotional, which is fair. We are all human. Me deciding I didn't want to do that was because I don't know what the ramifications are going to be. Have absolutely no idea. I don't want to put my I don't want to stamp my name on something that'll come back later on and blow up in my face. Um, that's the reason why I had an issue with that. So school started today. Everybody in Metro Detroit should be back at school, and I'm back in the classroom teaching. And, um, I had an opportunity to be at a high school today, and I saw something that was very disturbing, and it has a lot to do with kids in the hallways. And I'm going to try to be as brief as I possibly can. Our children are lacking critical thinking skills. They don't know how to make good decisions. And so as I was seeing the children doing things, I had to look out the window and also saw the parents that were dropping them off. And it used to be that common sense was the thing that was shared by all, but it's not critical thinking skills. I remember growing up as a kid going to sister Clarita Muhammad, before I could even go to the bathroom on my own, we were taught self control and self discipline and self respect and self awareness, because we were a part of something larger. So critical thinking was of the highest priority to us. And so here I am looking at kids, and I'm asking myself about the adults in the community. Do we have good critical thinking skills? Are we looking at the data, and are we making good assessments? Are we making good judgments? And so from now until the end of the year, until June, actually, you're going to be asking your kids to get up every morning, wash up, brush their teeth, get dressed. Gonna be kicking them out the house in the morning, sending them away for eight hours. And you're expecting your children to exercise good critical thinking skills. And I just want everybody with children in their family to ask a question, am I displaying or exhibiting good critical thinking skills. Am I acting in such a way that the outcomes that I expect to get are based on good, reasonable, sound judgment? Or am I not? I think it's important, because all of the stuff that we're doing here as as elected officials, we're deliberating on things that are going to fall in the hands of our children, and what basically, are we going to leave them? What are we going to leave our children if we're not making good decisions as elected officials, if we're not making good decisions as people? So I would urge you, as you send your loved ones off to school, practice what you preach other than that. Yeah, we are going to I can declare the meeting adjourned, and when entertain a motion. How we doing this? So you missed. This is petition. So moved. Okay, so we have a motion to adjourn. All those in favor, aye, All those opposed. Meeting adjourned.
You missed. This is coming. Okay, okay,
Mr. Bosley, and Mr. Charlie said he went to the street and said that my freeze was yesterday, I got a lawsuit.
