You it is seven o'clock. You Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to welcome you to the in person and virtual regular schedule city council meeting scheduled for today, Monday, May 5, at 7pm uh, Madam Clerk, would you be kind enough to call the roll
Council? Robinson?
Councilman ashaki, present. Councilwoman Martin. Councilwoman Manica, right here. Council President Thomas here,
uh, moving on to item three. That's the approval of the agenda. City Council you have had access to the agenda. What is your pleasure on today's agenda for
Monday, May 15 and 25 second, I have a motion on the floor from Councilwoman Manica, seconded by Councilman el Sharpie, for the approval of the minutes, I'm sorry for the approval of the agenda, questions, concerns, dissent, hearing none. We'll take a roll call. Would you please call the roll in this ma'am?
Council Robinson, no.
Councilman ashapi, yes. Councilwoman Manica, yes. Council President Thomas, yes.
The agenda is approved. Moving on to Item four, the approval of the proposed minutes for the virtual in person workshop held on April 21 2025 city council. What is your pleasure on this item? 2025
One amendment.
Amendment,
I'm sorry
after the workshop,
Chair wall for a second with comments. So what Miss Monica is saying here is that she wants to approve these minutes, and I pointed out to the clerk that my name is omitted as presiding over the meeting. Thank you very much. Questions, other questions, concerns or dissent, take the role on that please. Ma'am. It's the approval of the proposed virtual in person workshop.
Council Robinson, no
councilman, Shafi, no
councilman, woman manager, we
haven't completed a vote. Ma'am, you can rescind your motion. You can do whatever you like. No, to my knowledge, no, these are the actual minutes, and without these minutes, we have the workshop, and there's no record of
it. So my answer is yes. That's
President Thomas, yes
question for you, Madam Clerk,
never mind, never mind. We have stalemate on this.
Okay, moving on to the approval of the proposed minutes for the virtual and in person regular meeting held on April 21 2025 city
council. What's your pleasure?
I move to approve, excuse me,
the minutes for the
virtual and in person regular meeting of Highland Park City Council on april 21 2025
with an amendment. That
amendment will be, well,
if you go down
to page three up top, it says, Now, therefore it be a rehab. There were two nays and three Yes, three days. Okay?
It's also the matter of correction for Kendall as well, right? I was just
waiting for that part,
but I was at 6d
for Kendall Street,
five, the one that I just woke up, or the one that mister shapi
oh 6b is Kindle right
above that would be five.
So she you, you're correct, Madam Clerk 6b they were three and two.
So this is item 6b. Check the vote. No, no,
no, that's Ken No, no, no, no. Kendo is 6b
Kindle, we only approved the sale of one lot, not three. Okay, yeah, the the one that she's talking about, I don't see a number on it here. Oh,
it's six eight,
yeah, uh, it's six eight. Okay,
six A is a three two vote, yeah, very bottom of six
eight, yeah. It should have been
a 321 Yeah, yeah. That
was for, that was for, that's for Healy springs on Hamilton.
That was also a three two,
yeah, we was a three, two,
yeah, only, only Hamilton. Six. A was a 326, B was a five, five, even. We voted unanimously on it, but we only voted to sell one lot, not three. Okay,
Councilman, it'll be checked incorrect.
So we have a motion on the floor, and the chair offers support to this motion for the approval of the proposed minutes with the this is the virtual, in person, regular meeting with the amendment specified here by Councilwoman, Councilman El Shaddai. Any other questions, concerns or dissent before I take the role on the approval of the proposed minutes with amendments. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll on item 4b for the approval of the proposed minutes for the in person and regular, virtual, regular meeting on April 21
council Robinson,
Councilman shocking, yes with
the amendments. Councilwoman Martin, yes.
Councilwoman, yes,
yes. I'm sorry, Miss Martin, my head was down. I didn't acknowledge you when you came
in. Okay, okay, ladies and gentlemen, this is the portion of our agenda every week that we turn the floor over to the city's mayor for an opportunity to address city council as well as the general public. Madam Mayor, the floor is yours. Hello,
everyone. Council. Council President,
good evening on
June 19, which is Juneteenth. This is a five pay run that will be happening on
at 830 on,
right up on on
open. Let me make sure I have the right thing. Oakland, it starts at 830 it has a QR code where you can scan it. If you interested it. It'll be downstairs on the door, and it's being sponsored by Whitney Myers, who is a part of the Juneteenth Celebration that happens on that day for the parade. Uh,
also,
the Wayne County Commissioner had told possibly about a business loan. I mean, not a loan, but a grant
that she is sponsoring.
Uh, her, she has three cities, and those three cities will share a pot that she has for if you love a business that might need help, please let me know, and so I can give them. Okay, let me know. So I can take, give them the application, and then we have to get it back down to the commission.
Other than that, I think everything else has to do
with the budget. I have
budgets from five cities surrounding us, and their format that they use. It's similar to ours, so I'll talk about that.
Alright. Thank you very much. You want to do we have a question coming from council for you, Mayor.
It is
Wayne County Business and Community Impact initiative. You said, Community Impact initiative. Wayne County Business and Community Impact initiative.
Thank you, ma'am. So ladies and gentlemen, we're going to move into citizens participation. Let me front load tonight's procedure, we're going to have two public hearings, and they are public hearings. They won't be call and response. It won't be an opportunity to have your questions answered. These are hearing statements from the public that will be put into the public record. The team on the other side of that bench will be writing these notes down. But there should be no expectation to get a an account from the people here during tonight's public hearing. It is a public hearing the government of the city, the city council as well as the administration. Who is here will be listening to citizens comments as it relates to the budget that we make. Madam Mayor, was a was a budget made publicly available previous last year's budget, is it online? Okay, so last year's budget was online. They all, you have all things being equal, there should be an opportunity for this budget, once approved, to be online as well. I encourage people look at last year's budget. Make yourself familiar with it when this year's budget comes out, make yourself familiar with I love to have people here for the public hearing, but as I said in previous meetings, we absolutely need citizens participation outside of those crucial days for votes and for hearing. We need you involved as often as we can possibly get you, and we do. Thank you for the things that you help us uncover. So we will move into citizens participation. I will set this timer for a solid two minutes and 15 seconds today, so we have all the time that we need for the public hearing. Hold on one second. Yes, ma'am. Um,
the budget is online on the finance page, the
proposed budget.
Excellent, excellent. So the proposed budget is available on Highland parks. You go to the website, you go to the finance page, that's where you can find a copy of the proposed budget for anyone in the audience or at home who would like to get a copy of the I mean, would like to have access to it. So we have under item five public hearings, proposed Water Department budget and rates, proposed general operating budget. We will have our consultant present a presentation between those two under the administration. We have the resolution to approve the insurance of the RFP for solid waste collection services and a resolution to approve the issuance of the RFP for street sweeping under the water department. We have the we have a resolution authorizing the contract award to brico excavating LLC for phase two, three and four of the 2024, water main and service line replacement program. Those are the items that are on the budget. Those are the items that we can speak on now during this session of the public hearing. So if you would like to come up and address us, please come up to the podium. I will start the timer once you give us your name and Then proceed in 2022,
for the water, $61,200,
per one. Month. That equals $1,000,200
for this year, 2026,
year into now, and I actually contacted the new wholesale around $51,900 that's one the sewage, which I don't understand why it's so high in the first place. In 2022 was $446,000
which equals about $5,056,000
this year is $433,000
and it equals 5,196,000
so what I'm trying to understand
you guys can't respond, well, make the number 26
on why we see The increase that we've seen over the years, let alone this budget increase that we see not legal, has also made it clear that they don't they already include runoff in their sewer tools.
They are separate, granted charge
for the citizens. I
have more questions, but I normally have two minutes to make the numbers make sense, and let's be fair and honest with the remnants that is sick they deserve. You.
Good evening. Council,
Mayor, presence. Thank goodness for all the citizens that's here at this great city of Highland Park. I am Robert lodge 213, East Grand the newly elected block club, president of East Grand rush block club. Okay, I want to ask some questions, but I'm not allowed to, as it's been shared with President Thomas. But on April the 29th of Mister Garrett was so kind to have a town hall meeting to share about the water issues and that the current water company supplies 37 other cities and townships, including our neighbor, hamtram. And out of the 37 cities that they supply, Highland Park is the highest charged city under their leadership, raise up questions that we've had so much more than Hamtramck, which is our neighbor, also what we were informed that they They charged these enormous rates based on what they wanted and decided to charge, not based on meters, not based on usage, based on what they decided they wanted Highland Park residents to pay. My question would be to the council and this city and Mister Gary could correct me if I'm wrong, is this the same water company that the city is considering entering into a 30 year contract book, 30 year contract? That would have been my question on point A on point B, on April the 21st at the last Council meeting on behalf of the residents that I represent, I requested a comprehensive budget be presented to the city that would display transparency and accountability. So I'm hoping that the proposed budget that has been set forth will have each department with line items that we can account for every penny that this city will be spending. Thank you for your time.
Thank you, sir.
Anyone else you Hi.
My name is Carolyn Kyle. I'm here because I own two houses in Highland Park. One is my primary residence. The others is a family home. The city has forced me to play with our house as a home. It's not a rental. I make no money off this house. My daughter stayed in it. My other daughter is about to move in it. They have given me 30 days to bring this house up to their code, their standard, the house is livable, you know. But I think it's just kind of, it's not a rental. So I don't 30 days is just kind of unfair for something I mean forth into and I understand it's a city ordinance. I dispute that I'm doing my part. I've been to Highland Park a long time, but the 30 days is kind of for me to bring this house up to Section Eight, approve, I'm not going to make any money off
this house. Point of order, Ma'am, did you receive a form from the city, and that form said to do what I had to come and
do, pay the money and labor has a rental
house. So if that form told you, that form told you that you had to bring this house to sign the house
over to my daughter where she would be
Audi or and make it her primary residence. Or I had to say it's a rental. I paid my $207 to make it into a rental. The inspector came out the next day. Hey, this crazy list of what they want me to do to this house. And, yeah, I'm here now because they gave me 30 days to turn this house into section eight, approvable living when it's it's just a family humble, it's just something I locked up on and got Okay, and what's the photo? 3133, 313-300-7768, so they force you absolutely what's the address. Now
the house is 156,
I signed over your house, or
I signed it over to my daughter, where she would have to have make it her primary residence, or make it say it's a rental pay. Had to pay the money. It was 200 I think 220 and I had to pay. And the sector came up the next day. And, yeah, I'm here because 30 days is just, I need more time than that. So I don't know if my life started getting fine. I don't know how to go,
Okay, ma'am, so process. I don't want to be I don't want to be rude as far as time, but we do have a particular you've got the council pro tem, got your phone number. We wrote down your address, and if you would like to email. I'm in the email right now looking at this rental property form. We're not supposed to do this, but as far as taking up the time, I appreciate it. So my email address is Jk Thomas at Highland Park, mi.gov,
JK, Thomas at Highland Park.
I'd like to see those the it's J K, Thomas at Highland Park, MI, dot, G, O, V,
I'd like to see those emails, if you don't mind. Oh,
just email me. Yep, just Yes, ma'am, thank you. Alright, anyone else for public comment on the agenda, yeah, on the agenda. On the agenda, yes, ma'am, alright.
Today.
Alright, Miss, I was, I was wondering when the water rates was going to go down. We into about 18 months. Now it was that six months ago. I mean, six months mister Damon Garrett, me receiving that $1,000 and some get, like, water bill, one before, one after, in between that 1000 were about the same. So I'm wondering how we still going to fix that problem. And also I thought, when was the lead lines? When did that project begin putting the lead lines into the people homes? Two years ago, three years ago.
One the lead lines.
It started six years ago, so we back at it again with the lead lines after I understood like, if you missed it in your area, you have to pay for it yourself. I'm still trying to understand that. Now I was trying to understand how we going to be on the street sweeping. They were sweeping last Saturday in the middle of the day on a Saturday, just dusting up people cars on Amazon. That was inappropriate. And I was wondering, how could we fix these two projects this week and and ways to where it benefits the city, where we can buy the product and have the city workers do these jobs versus paying out 1000s and millions of dollars each year to these companies. Is that something that I think the administration could look into? And another question, why don't we have anyone watching the water department? I mean, the water station over on the cleaner. I go over that way quite often, and it's just tearing down the fence up top half of it now somebody's juggling the hole through the side. Are there any surveillance for that water plant. Those surveillance of the water plant. We're no longer interested in our water plant anymore, which I think is our key project that we should be interested in. The water department here. Don't repair anything over there. They don't check on the water department, right? Any answer, maybe they can answer maybe we can answer later.
Okay, thank you. After this,
I can't answer for them. They're here to listen to us. They have offices in the city, and they they do answer the door.
Okay, well, thank you so much.
Mrs. Damon, I like to set up an appointment with you. Thank you. You.
Hello.
I'm a two year Highland Parker, and
I just have a question.
My name is Christy. Thank you.
Last meeting, we had a workshop where we have had a Water Department review and budget review. If I'm not mistaken, I just My question is, is, how do we have a budget review without our treasurer, our appointed treasurer present, that's what I want to know from you guys. Our treasurer's job is to oversee income, revenue, funds,
a list of other things. However they're appointed
that may not be true president but or correct or accurate, however she is appointed, and I would like to see her do her job and sit in her chair, just as you and everyone else. So my question again is, how do we have a budget review without a treasurer appointed and present? Thank you
for the record, the Treasurer is the banker. She's She's JP Morgan Chase. She's Liberty bank. When you do your budget, you don't your bank doesn't come to your house to do your budget, your she's the banker for the city. She is not a part of the decision making body. She is the banker. I
have yet to see her do her job instead of her position. Okay, she needs
to get she needs to get bonded. Do we have anybody else that would like to come up and address the City Council during citizens participation the open session related to the actual agenda? I want to thank everybody who did come forward to share with us. This evening, we will move directly into the public hearing. Now the public hearing is for us to hear you. I'm going to extend this time to two minutes and 30 seconds. It is city standard. It's never enough time. I don't mind how impassioned you are during your testimony. I just ask that you be respectful. I will not interrupt you. I will let you go over your two minutes and then some, because I understand the nature of what we're doing. This is a public hearing. We're supposed to be hearing from the public. There's not an opportunity for us to have a dialog. And we are only the voting body. We are not the preparing body. We are not the finance department. We are not the accounting department. And let me be clear, the clerk's office is the Office of record. This is a separate government body. The Mayor's office is the she is the chief executive officer for the nonprofit municipality. We are the Board of Directors appointed by members of the city to vote on items as if we were one of 10 citizens. The Treasurer's Office is a completely separate office. That role is to act as a banker for the city. To be in that role, to be a banker that handles multi millions of dollars of tax funds and other revenues. That is a separate office. They have their own conditions. Per the charter City Council can require that person to be bonded, and we did so. Please do not forget the fact that our previous treasurer was removed for issues related to personal financial decisions as a precaution, this city council required that our next treasurer, whoever it was during our turns, have a bond that was necessary. If a person cannot procure a bond, it is not our responsibility as City Council. It is not the clerk's responsibility. It is not the administration's responsibility. It's based on your personal credit score and your personal financial history, as well as your personal financial education. To be a treasure of a city is an arduous task. Just anybody can't do it. We had a treasurer for over 20 years in that role with very few challengers. It's an arduous task. When you sign up for it, you should be able to do it, and that requires having a bond. So as we get ready to go into the public hearing, I will turn the floor over to my fellow members of city council to make a motion to open the hearing. We will have the proposed water budget hearing first and then before that, by law, we are required to have a third party vendor who provided a rate consultation for the city to speak before we have the proposed general operating budget public hearing. So at this time, I will turn the floor over to members of city council so that they can take action on Item five A, that is the public hearing for the proposed Water Department budget and rates for fiscal year 2025 and 26
I move to have, or to open the floor for the public hearing of the proposed Water Department budget and rate for fiscal year. 2025, second, 2026, we
have a motion on the floor to open the public hearing, made by Councilwoman Manica, seconded by Councilman Shafi, questions, concerns or dissent. Did you call for the role on Item five? A this is to open the public hearing.
Council Pro Tem Robinson, yes. Councilman shocking, yes, to open. Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman madika Yes. Council President,
yes. As of right now, it is 731 the public hearing will be open. I will allow any citizen to come to this podium. I will also check online. In fact, let me start with the people online. I typically make a mistake of leaving those folks out who are online, the people who are online. This is an opportunity for you to electronically raise your hand. Our proctor for tonight will allow you to if you use the feature on Zoom. Let me give you a second to do so. I don't see any hands raising, so I will go back to the gallery. Ladies and gentlemen, this is your opportunity. They will eventually populate. Mister lackey, if you see them, if you could call my attention to them as they populate. We have some 14 people online for tonight's meeting, which is a significant number, uh, citizens in the audience. This is an opportunity for you to come to the podium and make your statements as it relates to the budget. As you were told by the finance department, the proposed budget is online. Mister Garrett, is the proposed water rate online as well. Okay? And that's at the city's website of the water department. Ladies and gentlemen, the public hearing is open. Please feel free to come up to the podium speak now.
Good evening. Council. My name is Charlene Turner Johnson. I have a statement about the water readiness to serve charge. There are several categories based on the size in the first column, and I did ask about this before, there are homes that have these one inch I guess they're meters, and they are charged more than twice the rate for other residents that have five eighths inch meters. And so when I asked about it before I was told that's the one inch meters are typically for businesses, but there are homes, there are residents that have those one inch meters, and the residents are being charged more than twice the rate if they have a one inch meter, as compared to those that have the five eight inch and the 3/4 inch meter. So I think that should be adjusted. I think that should be looked at, because I don't think it's fair when that size meter was supposed to be for businesses and not for residents. Thank you, ma'am, thank you.
Come on up, sir, you're welcome.
Thank you. President Thomas, again, this is Robert lodge of 213, East Grand the questions I asked I stated during the citizens participation, am I allowed to get the answers to those questions in this so
it's a hearing. The word hearing is the key word there. We're hearing from the public so you can expand on those topics. And let me pause your time right here, so you can expand on those topics. You can add any additional information that you would like to deem relevant. This is all going on a public record. This will be recorded, and your statements will be recorded in the public record. Okay? Thank
you so I believe my statements earlier speak for themselves. Thank you so
additional citizens,
I'm back with numbers.
This is in regards to, again, the wholesale prices that Google charges us. So basically, from fiscal year 2024, it, it the water was, uh, $49,100 the increase that they're imposing on us right now is 5.9% 5.4% which takes us up to again, the $51,900 that's for water, that's still 60% lower than the bills that we received in fiscal year 2022, so I don't understand how the water bills are going to go up. That's for water, for sewage, that's the exact same thing. We have a three, we have a
10,000 Well, $16,000
difference in sewage from that of 2022, so we're going down. We're going up based off of their previous year, which I don't understand why our bills were high in 2024 because we actually had a huge decrease in 2024 than that of 2022 so what I'm trying to understand based off of numbers, how are our bills? And all of the residents here, bills are continuously going up, where we're getting decreases every fiscal year since 2022
in addition to that,
talk to Glee, what? And they made it very clear, unlike from what that town hall meeting said last week, Mister Garrett, they actually don't set the water bills city of Highland Park and MCA, does they provide us charge notes per charge notes, notes per month per year, however way you want to say it, all of those additional charges, drainage, charge, billing, charge, sewer, ready to serve, charge, water ready to serve charge, they've made it clear that does not come from them. So we would like to understand, because you're talking about a city that's below the power most people are below the poverty line. How is it ethical that the bills are as high as they are, especially if you even compare them to other neighboring cities? So that's it. I gave a lot of numbers, and that's recorded, and it's already on the Glee will website, so you should also see it, and Glee will again, also states that their sewage wholesale charges includes water runoff. So if they include water runoff, why does our bills have drainage charges
attached? Alright? Thank you, ma'am. Step outside the box because I live here too. Imma get my citizens comment perspective that most of y'all don't have attorneys phone. I said my two minutes in 30 seconds. Good evening. My name is Jamal Thomas. I live in 93 Rhode Island street, and I want to talk to you about the proposed water rate. I speak with intelligent hindsight. I actually thought I knew about the water race when I moved here in the year 2000 I thought I was aware. I went for months with no bill being delivered, service being provided. Like a lot of you, from 2000 to 2005 sometimes we saw a water person, sometimes we didn't. I thought I knew. I thought I understood the term monopoly. I clearly did not. We are in a water monopoly. We got one vendor and us as if we could decide what the rates are. Now. I run a fireplace. My house is insulated. I use less heat. I close rooms off every year, somehow DTE figure out a way to charge me more. It was actually warmer one way or none. I got a higher bill. I realized I have. I'm the victim of a monopoly, of a cartel, as you are as well. What surprises me as somebody who sat in the mediation is the fact that they didn't take our home. And let me be clear, that was the plan to take your house, that was the plan. So here we are negotiating water rates with the gangster. We are one of dozens of communities with no control over our water rates. We think they're just doing it the Highland Park. Would you mind with that? Man, I'm trying to fix it. Yes, ma'am. We think we the only one? No, we're just the last of the small, poor black cities in the state of Michigan, and they don't want they don't care about somebody's going to pay water in this city, but they want your house. If you think I'm lying, why is somebody calling you every single day trying to buy the house that you're living in? Okay, so these water rates as the cartel charges us more with no meter every year, 2 million, 3 million, 5 million, as if it matters what we think the bill ought to be, that's what they've been charging us, and that's the damn reason why we were in court For the last 10 years.
My clap for that. You. You,
Council President, I like that
to say something, if I may. If you're gonna do citizens participation, you gotta grab the podium. Miss Al sharp, that's not a problem
that I could've stayed on up here. Alright. He kept saying, cartel. Hell, I wonder we part of the cartel. Miss, Miss Damon. I want to know how far are we away from the master meet is being finished.
Can I get an answer? No answer.
Ma'am, no, it's a hearing Okay. And
is there penalty being put on us now, during with this process? Are we late? Because when it was first understood of these to be put in in the that December of last year. I do believe also, um, you mentioned last Council meeting you'll be moving down to City Hall. When would that take place, that the water department would be moving to City Hall? I think that would probably save a lot of money.
Thank you. Thank you, ma'am,
go through the rigmarole. Mr. Sharpie, state your name for the record. Bloody blah, blah, blah, ladies
and gentlemen. How are you this evening? Uh, Councilman her, thank you, sir. I wanted to highlight what Miss Oliver said, because she's not wrong, she's not lying here. Understand the full totality of the numbers,
500,000 a month
for 12 months,
that comes out to 6 million a year
in the next four years.
By the about time I turn ends here, in four years, you would have paid out to the Great Lakes Water Authority, $24 million in water. No city, nowhere in Michigan. I don't care how big their population is, it's paying 6 million a year. That's what we're paying here, ladies and gentlemen, she's outline about the numbers. It's 6 million a year. That's $24 million in 40 years. So the $24 million and we say claim that you owe a little while back ago, I guess they're going to finally get that money. Even though the state did pay the debt, they still fixed it. Where you going to pay that $24 million if we stick to where we're at, if these meters don't get in the ground in a timely fashion, if this drives out to the end of my term, which will be next year, the end of next year, you would have, you would have been paid $24 million by the end of next year, 6 million a year, $24 million in four years. And that's what you laughed about. Even though they got the money from the state, they still made you pay that $24 million that we told him we denote. So that's such a truth about the numbers, and I yield back. Thank you, sir.
You went up already once during the public hearing. You went up during public comment. This is your second time during the public hearing. I'm asking, am
I allowed to come
up again? There's no rules for public hearing. Is there?
Okay? Yeah, they are. Man, so I
So, yeah, Imma allow you another two minutes, alright, but let's
the room is light, yeah. And then we got people that want to talk
last comment. This is, this is my last comment. So I actually had a discussion with glue, and I because I didn't understand why our water rates were so low compared to our sewage rates. And no disrespect to anybody that had anything to do with the negotiations, but the question that I asked was simple, what, for example, in comparison to Allen Park, and the park is seven square miles. We're only three, and they pay only $100,000 in sewage per month. And I'm rounding that off. So my question was, how do you come up and calculate these rates? We will made it clear to me that they basically used the they did a study, but they also based it off of the the dots that they had from the water department. This the and that's what they use to help calculate what their wholesale water rates were going to be. But I asked the question, Well, if that's the case, understand that our sewage and our runoff are the same. They're the same. There's no difference in piping, like other cities. But did we do the same with the water plant, with the sewage charges? The answer was no. So my question is, is, how did we come up with $400,000
per month for a city
that's only three square miles or less popular and less populated, that negotiation, right there isn't really making sense. It's fine. So I don't know if somebody can maybe tell us why, why our sewage is so high compared to other cities that have that are more populated and have are larger in size, but ours is over $300,000 more than that of a city like Allen Park,
who has more businesses and stuff as well. So
that's it, before you go Miss Allen, let me I want to write something down who was the first was the person you spoke to at
Glee will again, Matt lane. Matt lane and Matt lane, you can reach
out to him. No, what is Matt Lane's role? I
don't remember his title, but he has everything to do with the numbers. Matt lane, yeah, you can reach out to him. Oh, thank you appreciate that. Yeah, no, I'm just saying
Great. Thank you, ma'am.
Anyone else? Hey,
again. My name is Christy. I'm a two year Highland Parker. Christy Durr, you're welcome um at our water workshop last time we discussed the budget, and Mr. Garrett made a statement. He said that last year we had to set up with a trust, and that we don't have $90,000 that from this trust that was set up, I guess, due to the agreement. So with our trust agreement, the first line states that all amounts paid for Highland Park water and sewer services shall be placed into a trust to an agreement defined below, in which the trust distributes such amounts to Glee will so if my question is, if $90,000 that was set up last year, it was the amount that he stated, $90,000 um, is that the amount that we're paying for water to Glee with $90,000 because it wasn't clear in our budget meeting. And I like to know. I think everybody would like to know. And what are we making exactly from from the Highland Park residents when it comes to the water and sewer. Thank you. Thank you. Ma'am.
Additional public comments,
it is now 748, I don't see any more people moving towards the podium. The chair will entertain a motion to close the public hearing on the proposed Water Department budget and rates for fiscal year. 2025 26 Councilwoman Manica support second supported by Councilman el shapi. You will please call the roll on closing the public hearing for the proposed Water Department budget rates for fiscal year 2025 26
council president Robinson Yes.
Councilman Ashati Yes, to close. Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman Manica Yes. Council President
Yes. Thank you very much. Now, by law we it is 7:49pm by law, we were required to hire a rate consultant, an independent rate consultant. And for those of you who are unaware, this legal battle with the Great Lakes Water Authority that cost the city millions of dollars is not some trifle event that the people who are working here haphazardly approached, hours upon hours of negotiations. I can tell you my experience. I walked in a room with two lawyers. There were 13 lawyers on the other side of the table already, already
to go against our two
so just put that in your mind for a second, two attorneys versus 13. They rolled out all their big guns. Their CEO was there, the chief operations officer was there. So this So winning this lawsuit in the city of Highland Park must have been important. Where you send that many lawyers into one room? So we certainly didn't go in under prepared to face that type of audience and anybody who thinks they could do it, my hero. Right now, we have to have mister Garrett come forward with our independent consultant. As part of our agreement, we had to provide an independent consultant to give us information about our rates.
That person's name is,
is that mark?
Can we get him unmuted? Mister lackey, can we get mark up on the screen? So what are you about to do right now? This is the independent rape consultant. It has to provide this report
and you close the public
hearing. Public Hearing is closed.
Public Hearing is closed. That's to hear from the audience, to hear from the public. Mr. Lackey, can you help us with the screen so we can get Mark center stage? Yeah, one second. Thank you.
All right. Am I up?
Can everybody have you on my screen? We don't have you on the main screen just yet. Okay, unless he should just drop us as he talks, yeah, just go ahead. Oh, Mark. Oh,
okay. Okay, good. Thank you. I really apologize for not being there tonight. I had a prior commitment down in Orlando, Florida, having to teach a class on, actually, what we're talking about tonight.
But I want to tell you,
go ahead.
No, you keep going. I'm trying to get you on the screen. Okay,
I'll tell you a little bit about myself and the company. My name is Mark bosha. I've been in the utility a little over 40 years.
Oh,
keep going, sir. Okay,
I've been in the utility industry about 40 years, and I have a
background.
I have a degree in water purification technology,
and I also have a degree in accounting. I'm a CPA, and I have a master's degree in business, and I started a company in 2001 and we've done work setting rates for utilities, non for profit utilities in 46 states, a little bit of international work in Guam Barbados, Bermuda and several islands of the Caribbean. And we also teach the cost of service courses and financial planning courses for several different associations, including the American public power Association, American Water Works Association, American Gas Association. Now I was brought in earlier this year to provide certain services, and the audience had wonderful questions, and I I know my time tonight somewhat limited, but I do want to try to answer some of those, at least for some understanding, if that's okay, but if I can go ahead and share my screen,
make you a co host, there you go.
All right, so what we were brought in to to to review, as for the electric, I'm sorry, the water, the wastewater and the storm water department, we're brought in to do a financial projection for all three of those YouTube then also to do a cost of service study, which is a little bit Different process, because that's what identifies what that monthly customer charge should be and what the commodity rate should be, and we did that for the water and the wastewater. Now what you we are also brought in to do a rate design, even though we're seeking approval, in a sense, for one year of rates, we provide a long term projection that looks over five years to try to to do, to accomplish two things really. One is to keep the utility financially stable where you have the money to be able to pay your bills, and also to try to minimize as much as possible, rate impacts on customers, and the financial projection allows us to try to find that more ideal balance. Now, one of the things when you do a model, when you do a long term projection, it's built on assumptions, and assumptions related to inflation, how Glee was going to change their cost, what the capital improvement program is. And in our modeling, what we assumed was that inflation would change by about 3% a year, that the Glee will charges in 26 we go up 5.7% that's already approved, and water 4.3 and sewer. But next year, we're projecting that the water will decrease by 19%
and sewer by 10%
and a lot of that is driven because of the terms of we put the metering technology was put in, and we should be able to have enough metering, from my understanding, to be able to submit that information to help lower the cost. Now, part of the reasons that a lot of the questions from the customers is, why? Why are water charges more than neighboring communities? Maybe that they've looked at, and most of it centers around the fact that we have what's called a combined sewer system. Most communities have separated systems. In other words, they have a separate stormwater system that does not go to the treatment plan. In Highland Park, we have a combined sewer system, so our charges are more because of the storm water that's coming into the system. The other part of it is the age of the infrastructure. Because it's older, there's a lot of cracks in the pipes allowing water to seep into the pipes that also goes into the treatment plant, again, increasing flows and increasing our cost on the water side, there's also the issue with the older infrastructure, and that infrastructure is the water is actually going out. We're losing water, which could be due to cracks in the pipes. It could be due to meters on recording properly, but we're hoping that by next year, when they actually leeway, actually provides and updates a new cost of service model that will be able to get better data to that we get billed more accurately. Now, in the meantime, we have, we're in a little bit of a we're trying to get over the hump, or over the hill, so to speak. And one of the things that the state provided was, you see all this CIP, which is construction, basically construction projects each year in the water system. We're looking at spending between 19 and $15 million each year. All of that is projected to be funded through grants from the state, and with that type of replacing that infrastructure, and that's primarily in water, we'll be able to reduce the amount of leaks that are occurring in the water system, thereby decreasing the amount of water that we would be having to pay, because it would Be a tighter system. So now, whenever we do a financial model, we look out like five years. Normally, when we look at one, two or three years, we're usually pretty close in our projections, but you can see that these modeling is built on a lot of assumptions, and when you get into years four and five, the only thing we're certain of, it sounds funny, but it's very true, is that we're going to be wrong because it's built on all these assumptions. So these financial models need to be reviewed regularly. Now, when we pull all this together, and I'm only going to go through the combined summary tonight. I'm hoping to maybe have more time with the with City Council, to spend time to go through more details on this, but based upon the projections that we've done, in order to try to maintain an adequate level of cash reserves, and I'll talk about that in a moment. But in order to what, what are the recommended minimums are, but in order to maintain the recommended minimums, as well as be able to maintain what's called debt coverage ratio, which we're required to maintain. We're looking at a series of adjustments in water and wastewater. No adjustments in storm are needed. But in water, we're looking at 5% adjustment in 2026 followed by a series of 3% adjustments in wastewater. We're looking at a series of 9% adjustments each year. Now, of course, from a residential customers perspective, what does that mean? Well, the utility bill in total, increased by 3.9% which is about $6 a month. But the problem is, if we don't do that, then we'll be violating the terms, in a sense, and this, we making it more difficult for us to get the grant funding to do the capital. So we have to prove that we were financially stable and be able to pay the bills. What we're trying to do is get over the hit, over that hump, once we improve our infrastructure, then the charges will actually go down. Now, some of the things that were talked about in the audience questions
related to
why our bills, what we charge in our commodity rate, is higher than what Glee would charges us. It's slightly higher. The reason for that is Glee, what delivers the water to a point in our system, and we have to deliver it, in a sense, from that point to the customers with the infrastructure that's in the ground and the repairs and replacements in the infrastructure, we have to pay for electricity on the pumps, to do the maintenance on the system, to get The water to customers that that's recovered through two different components. One of them is through that fixed monthly customer charge, and the other one is due is a slight increase in the volumetric rate also, but that's the reason why that is occurring. Now we also looked at a second scenario. What would happen if we delay the increase? In other words, we did nothing this year, and we we delayed the increase until 2027 Well, the problem is, in order to keep the financials where we had adequate cash reserves. By the end of this projection period, the 3% increases in water would jump to 6% and the 9% increases in wastewater go to 12. So what that would do is, over that five year period, customers would actually be paying approximately $7 more a month under this scenario where we did not increase rates, because we have to play catch up. And so what we're recommending, like I said, we're trying to balance the financial stability of the utility with the rate impacts on customers. Now, one of the things with our projections that we're trying to meet. If you look over on the far right, you see recommended minimum cash reserves. Can see it's 3 million. In later years, it gets up to 5 million. You probably ask yourself, why? Why do we need to have that level of cash? And the reason is because of something called Working Capital leg. What working capital leg is, it's a timing difference between between when Highland Park pays a bill and they get their money back from customers. To give you an example, you may go all through the month of January paying for labor, material, supplies, Glee, well, at the end of the month, theoretically, you read all the meters, and first week of February, you send out all the bills, you don't get that money back from the customers until the second week of March. So there's a timing, like when you paid it and get back. There's also any capital improvements that are needed have to be paid out of those cash reserves, as well as in your situation, in Highland Park, your infrastructure is about 75% appreciated. It's a very old infrastructure, and the average system in the US is about 50% which makes total sense. But what that tells us is that with an infrastructure with that of that age, you're more susceptible to unexpected events occurring, be it like pumps breaking or lines breaking your ear. So you have more exposure risk. So we quantify that also in our cash reserve recommendation minimum. And so we're trying to get you there. Obviously, right now we're looking at less than a million dollars in cash reserves, and we want you above 3 million. So it's going to take several years to get you on track and to get that up to the proper levels. But by doing this, rates in the long term are going to be more stable, and the costs from Glee one should come down, because their system will be tighter. So that's one of our recommendations. Now, one of the things we also put in is what would happen to the system. We didn't do anything with rates at all. Well, you can see that cash reserve, they're currently about 663,000 we're pretty much out of cash in five years. And what that would mean is really large rate increases in 2031 because we have to reverse the negative cash firm and get the cash back up to appropriate levels. From a debt coverage ratio standpoint, the minimum coverage we want to maintain is a 1.4 in four of these five years without any rate adjustments, we will not be able to pay our debt service back, and we would be basically below what banks rating agencies would consider an adequate debt coverage. So what we're trying to do is, is balance, like I said, the financial stability with the rate impacts. And I know it's never easy to adjust rates, but if you delay it, it's going to be worse in the future. Now, what we did with the rate design, there was a question earlier about the that customer charge that fixed charge every month, and I know that that's probably one of the most, least understood charges utilities have, electric water, wastewater, gas utilities, they all have this fixed charge. And customers oftentimes think to themselves, well, Dunkin Donuts doesn't charge us to walk through the door. Why does a utility have to charge us a fixed charge every month? Well, a Dunkin Donuts makes an investment on behalf of the community. However, a utility makes an investment specifically for every customer. In other words, every customer has a meter. The utility has a responsibility to install the meter, repair the meter, replace the meter, read the meter, build the meter every month and to maintain that service. Drop. Those are fixed costs that do not vary based on consumption, and that that fixed charge is designed to recover that cost associated with that type of the infrastructure, as well as a portion of the water mains in front of the homes. In a sense, one of the questions related to why is a one inch meter water charge so much more than a five eight? That's a great question, and because a lot of the things meters a little bit more, not that much more, and the time to read them and send them a bill isn't that much more. But the driver between that is really what's called demand, that one inch meter is capable of delivering two and a half times more water than a five eight inch meter, so that we have to build our infrastructure with the capabilities of handling the demands that the customers place on the system. And when you have a one inch meter, that's two and a half times more capacity that we need to reserve in that infrastructure, and that's the reason why that one inch is so much greater. But you can see what we propose with the water meter charges, is really no changes in it. They're all there's no change in those rates. And the commodity rates, you can see the increases are going into the commodity rate from 472 to 431
so it'd be
about a 49 cent increase in the volumetric charge, no changes in the fixed charges. So this is wastewater. Sorry, this is water in water. We're looking at 372, going to 427,
in volume and in wastewater,
a slight increase of about 25 cents. And a five eight centimeter, the larger meters, there's no change in the meter terms. And then a slight increase, like I said, about 4949 cents in the biometric charge. So with that, I would like to open it up to any questions that the council may have.
I got question question for our consultant. Okay? How you doing?
My question is, have we looked at other avenues as well of budget cutting to to possibly try to ease the pain of what the residents are going through.
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt,
interrupt me. I've just asked that been considered. Yeah,
the the what we did is Metro did a lot of cutting in their budgets to try to lower the cost, and they also combined or shut down their offices and going in with City Hall saving on not just rent, but utilities also, they are foregoing the replacement line at budget or repair line budget item in their budget, and dropped it even more, and part of the reason was to try to keep the rate adjustments this year as low as possible.
We also assume certain
levels of cash coming in from certain you certain disputes with customers that we'd be getting some of our uncollectibles back. So we did bring in more cash. We tried to be very aggressive, which is uncomfortable for me. I try to be more conservative, to try to make sure you have appropriate cash in this situation, we were actually extremely aggressive in trying to make the assumptions in the model in a manner that would minimize the increases as much as possible. So we did really bring down the budgets and everything, as much as we could.
I see you, ma'am.
We have another question coming from Council pro town. Can
you tell me what your name is?
Sure it's Mark Beauchamp, B, as in boy, E, A, U, C, H, A, M, P, and the company is utility, Financial Solutions LLC, okay, can You define? Oh, yes, oh, thank you for that question. The what I what I mean by combined is you have three utilities in that you have water, you have wastewater, and you have storm water, and we separated all three of those for purposes of the individual studies. In other words, the picture of the water utilities, financials, wastewater, financial storm water. But what I just showed you was the combination of all three, you know, so we combined them all back, like your audit does, but to do a study properly, those costs need to be separated, and that's what we did. Then we put them all back together.
All three of these utilities are running into one type.
Why is it still? Is that utility? All three of them still come to
one type? I apologize that I didn't hear that
a combined sewer system collects rainwater from a domestic sewage and industrial waste into one pipe. Why does Highland Park still have that? And the rest of I know it's like 700 cities that still probably have this. I'm just wondering why Highland Park still has
it. Well, it's an expensive endeavor to separate the systems, and it's something that takes multi years process. I know the city of Grand Rapids, 30 years ago, went through that, and they're still going through it. I mean, they've been investing every year. It's a long term process to separate them.
So do we have any other cities to which run on and wastewater coming to our pipes.
Yeah, there's about they're called for glee. Was terminology for those is called D plus. And I'm guessing there's about 15 communities that are similar situation as Highland Park,
and they have combined systems
are paying for this. We're paying for everyone, right?
I'm sorry. What was that?
Is the city of Highland Park paying for everyone's drainage, like these 15 other communities,
plus things are well, from Glee was perspective, they're, they're all paying, according to them, appropriate charges. Yes, that's an excellent question. I maybe I don't really understand it, if
or here, I can't hear it that well,
why
citizens paying for the industrial wastewater and runoff and sewage? That's what citizens we're paying for all of it.
No, no,
that that isn't first of all, if there is industries Lee, what charges them separately through industrial strength search are great, but the industries also,
what's it? How are you monitoring what's coming from the industry, like the businesses and whatever else,
however you want to monitor,
okay, what they what, how those are charges are portioned, is wastewater can try to get into simplicity, but wastewater consists of three components, the wastewater from glial let's start there. One is the sanitary sewer. Two is something called dry weather in flow and infiltration, which would be like rough drains, those types of things, and the third one is storm water. And the storm water and a portion of the dry weather, inflow and infiltration is charged to customers based upon the type. If they're residential, they have what's called pervious and so the water tends to drain, but there's still some that goes in the sewer system, where we get into commercial investors, more concrete, so more of the storm water goes in the sewer system. That's why those rates are different. So the industries are paying a portion of the glial cost through their their storm water drainage charges.
Um,
I like to piggyback off of what Council Pro Tem just asked. So I don't know if you've been giving the budget for this year until you have you had an opportunity to look at that budget.
We were given the budget for the water wastewater department back in April. Okay,
okay, so, so, let me give you some numbers. The Council President, I mean, the council Pro Temp just mentioned industrial waste charges. Okay, so in 2023
the industrial waste charges was $23,922
this year, the mayor is proposing $52,200
that's almost double the amount,
okay, uh,
under that same same line item, sewage disposal, is 5,282,138 $82,138.49
now that has actually, believe it or not, that actually came down only by $100,000 now, 5,100,009
$192,000
okay, so and then,
and then I'm looking at, I'm looking at a bunch of, a bunch of charges here, um, here we go, water readiness, service in 2023 it was $650,744 the mayor is proposing a $100,000 cut on that okay, so that actually came down some the water readiness service is $1,505,560.17
it's actually going up to 1.97493
30,
then we have
drainage. Here we go. Drainage has, has in 2023 it was 1,225,000 uh, $741.16 and that one, solely by the grace of God, is actually zero. Doubt, I'm surprised at that. Uh, you got your storm water here. Storm water here is 2,922,725 50, and the mayor is proposing $4,649,250
that is double the amount uh, let's see here, sewage charges. Sewage charges was $1,131,888.64
of the mayor is proposing 100 I'm sorry, 1,136,576
now that's a little bit of an increase, but that's not that I I'm just I see all of these charges, I see all of these bills, and I know there is somewhere, somehow in this budget, we can make a greater cut than What we have been doing. Okay? I appreciate the cuts that have been made. They were very thoughtful, well planned out, but we need to tighten our belts a little bit more if the residents have to suffer, everybody
should. Let me remind us that Mr. Bucha here is just a the rate consultant. I made recommendations. He doesn't have any decision making sure. Okay. He doesn't, he doesn't. He only provides a report I get that I get that doesn't make recommendations
he doesn't make also include his recommendations, and those, those recommendations are being paid for, because I guarantee you, he's not working for free. So, so in those recommendations, I know there's a way to tighten our belts a little bit tighter than what we are currently heightening.
Okay, Mr. Bucha, are you almost finished here? Because we need to move on to our next public hearing.
So I am pretty much finished. I think that that was a discussion on the revenue side. But yeah, we can. I think we need we should probably Schedule A more detailed meeting to go into some of these specifics. I just want to give you an overview at this point.
All right, sir, thank you so much for your presentation. Mr. Garrett, we covered us by law. We are covered our obligation to have this presentation. We do. Thank you so much for joining us tonight, sir. Thank you. Moving on under public hearing Item b, the proposed general operating budget for fiscal year 2025 2026 Council, what is your pleasure on open the public hearing for the proposed general I moved public hearing
on the proposed
operating budget for fiscal year 2025
26 second. So
we have a motion on the floor to open the public hearing for the general operating budget for 2025 2026 I don't see any hands, questions, concerns, dissent. Madam Clerk, would you call the roll on opening the public hearing for the general operating budget?
Councilman Robinson, yes. Councilman Ashati, yes, to open. Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman Manica Yes. President Thomas Yes.
As of right now, 825, the public hearing for the proposed general operating budget for fiscal year 2025 26 is open. The rules still apply. This is a public hearing. We will be hearing you citizens. If you have comments, questions will be collected by the city's administration. We have the mayor here
on behalf of the city.
Good evening, everyone. So there were some questions. And first, I'm here as the mayor, but I'm also here as a citizen. Yes, ma'am, okay in a public hearing. So there was a question posed about the budget, where it requires or ask that itemized, but items be presented to the council and the citizens. Well, I did some research, and I went through, like I said, before, 12345,
cities connected to us, and I looked at the way they presented their budgets, which is very similar to ours. And there is no name on these budgets, just the position under city council, what is actually proposed, what was collected, and what is proposed for each year. There's, I actually go all the way up. This is Ferndale, 2027, 2020, 2028,
there's go all the way up to there
Amtrak,
just numbers and the items of what is under that proposal, under the mayor or city councils, there's numbers for 2021, 2022 and what is proposed, what was 2023 and 2024 also, there was a question about not receiving information that tells you what was expended, what was given out. Well, for the first year and a half, maybe longer, my finance director gave a itemized checklist, every single check that was written and exposed to the city council members in a packet, and they voted it down. They voted it down. They would not receive it. They voted it down. So that is what is required. And I am looking, I know I got time right there. I'm looking under finance, where it says that they must present a list of items that is that is used. So every check that is written by the finance director and expended was in that package, and they would vote no. They didn't want it correct, so they had a chance to have that they didn't like. Well, that's what's required by the charter. Now it's required anything required of giving out people's information, their checks, their whatever that is required by FOIA. FOIA documents you can get by law, and they will be deducted. You still won't get all the information that you need by law. So when we we are to be accused of not being transparent. We've been transparent with every document that was given out and they refused, just for that at and so, like I said, I have five other the city of well, the township of Royal Oak. Royal Oak, yes, their their budgets are way higher than ours. They get paid more, way more than most of the people in this city, the majority of the people, I'll just say, everybody in this city. Somebody asked, what was my salary? I don't have a problem with that. My salary has been the same salary for 10 years. Hasn't changed. It's 66,000 that's what it's been for 10 years to do day to day operations, every day, every day, not just Monday through Friday, every day. I will give you mine. I can't. I'm not going to do the rest. So under the mayor's budget, it was a question about how many people was under this budget,
there's four,
four people, Mayor,
Chief of Staff, slash, executive, direct assistant. She's doing two jobs before for the same amount, also senior coordinator and public relations. Those are the four people and under the budget, and I'm going to move on, under the budget, under Mayor. If you go to the mayor section, city, Council, court, Mayor, that's $149,200
for four people, four people.
But if you looking at other ones, other people are getting hundreds of 1000s of dollars to do the same job that they're doing. So when you talk about cutting budgets, please know that when you cut budgets of people who are not even getting nothing, you risk the opportunity to lose everybody. To lose everybody. Police fire, everybody. Our fire department, police department is well underpaid, way underpaid, and they can go to any any other police department, any other Fire Department, and make almost double what they make here. So when you're talking about cutting those budgets, they also have a union, and they're there. We are obligated to honor the union
and their contracts. That's
all of that. Thank you, ma'am. We have another citizen that would like to speak during the public hearing. I got a question, uh, members, just a hearing. Now, if you're speaking as a citizen, that's one thing. Well, she's the gentleman standing. Come on, sir.
Well, she stood up and spoke. I thought there was an opportunity to ask some questions.
It's just a hearing. That was just her. She said, I'm speaking as a citizen. She said that she disclosed. She
also said she's speaking as the mayor. Charles, who said that I did,
and I spoke, okay, sir, you at the podium. Go for
it. Yes. Robert lodge of Highland Park, 213, East. Grand for the record, my request, which was made at the last city council, was not an accusation against any city official, and I commend the mayor, our mayor, Mayor McDonald, for being transparent. On tonight, my request was based on every department in the city and every line item that the city is spending. And I'm thankful that this year that those who may have not wanted that information to be released in years past that this city and the residents have the opportunity to see it. And thank you again, Mayor for your accountability and transparency, and I'm looking forward to this city displaying more of that as we move forward. Thank you. Applause. I
got numbers again. So
I appreciate the My name is Carla Oliver, by the way. I appreciate what the gentleman said the consultant. This
is related to the city budget. We can't talk about the water budget,
the city budget, okay? So I'm gonna say that, even though I won't talk about the water but the city budget, I'm gonna make this very clear. I get it, and it's unfortunate that people are making, what they making, what they're making, or their contribute contribution to the city. However, I'm going to say that we, and I've said this before, we spend money in the wrong places. We mentioned mismanaged money. If we stop mismanaging money, then we wouldn't have this issue again. We need to stop subcontracting everything out. That would save us a quite a bit of money. I understand some special projects. You need that. But so contracting for everything is a waste of money, energy resources and time. We really need to look deep within hire people that actually have the skills to do the job, and I think they can do the job. It's just that simple. Let's start you using critical thinking and being smart with what we do, because if we do that, then we wouldn't waste a lot of money.
Thank you, ma'am. We going to speak as a citizen.
You got a comment about the budget public hearing.
I'm a citizen of Highland Park. I've been a citizen now, I want to say about 10 years. Basically. I just want to know, I know I saw an invoice last time we had a city council meeting. I'm still wanting to know about the CDAC money for the 16,000 that's it. Thank you, ma'am.
I'm sorry.
Additional citizens that would like to come forward and speak during this opportunity. This is related to the budget. Now, we've had the budget for over a month, and it's okay that we have a quiet audience. We've been going back and forth over this for over a month, and this is our third rodeo, so I will call it once.
Call it twice.
Chair will entertain a motion to close the public hearing. Public hearing,
excuse me for the proposed general operating budget for fiscal year, 2025 2026 is there? I'm sorry. Does anybody else
now I've been waiting for the Hold on one second. Let me double check. Oh, hold on one second. I have one person who has a hand up. That is Yolanda. So let me, before we go into that, I'm sorry, let me allow Yolanda to talk a lot, Yolanda, and also have Miss Illinois after Yolanda. Yolanda, can you hear me, yes. Can you hear me, yes, ma'am, go right ahead. The floor is yours,
alright? Yolanda, rolling news, District Three. Um, great presentation from Mark. Still left with a lot of questions and suggestions. But as far as the budget goes, I would like to see some kind of development built into the city council's budget and developing them also having a parliamentarian possibly come and help facilitate some of our meetings. With three years into this, and our meetings are still being held and handled by some very haphazard on screen you can see city council members on the phone. I don't know if you all know how good the cameras are, but you can see what you doing to a degree. So we need you present city council, and I think that kind of training will help you understand the importance of your role when you are sitting in those seats, you should be giving your 100% undivided attention to those who are speaking, and other than a parliamentarian, council or president, also looking at a sergeant At arms just based off of recent activity and behavior of one of our city council persons, we need to make sure we're protecting our citizens from the City Council during the meetings, and that's all I have. You guys, sorry I couldn't make it, but you guys, have a great evening.
Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. Miss Eleanor, I called you out. Your hand wasn't up. That was Miss Yolanda, so I will mute her. So
Miss Manica, ready to entertain your motion?
Yes, I moved to close the resolution. I'm sorry. I moved to close proposed general operating budget, public hearing for fiscal year, 2025 26
chair, all for a second. No, I see no hands, questions, concern, descent, would you call the roll on closing the public some questions or concerns that council? President, I didn't, you didn't. You didn't make any indication. Sir, okay, so for this is for closing the public hearing, right, right, right. So, okay, you know, you access to any questions, concerns or I didn't see your hand, yeah, I said because I really didn't get any questions answered on this budget here. There's a lot going on in this budget I'm looking at, I'm looking at a plethora of CO lingering, of budgets that I need some answers on. Okay, I need some answers on this. Okay, there are co mingling budgets. Okay? They're taking money from the DPW to pay for the police department's repairs. That's a co mingling of bonds. This is not supposed to happen, but these things happen, okay? And there's a lot in here. The mayor made the statement that her budget has been the same, but her budget actually went up by close to $18,000 she went from the salary went from $137,174.29
and 2023 now it said $149,200
Mm, okay, so there is an increase that I don't know anything about. Okay, nobody's asking my questions. There are a lot of questions here that need to be answered, and if this is supposed to be a hearing to get to the bottom of the budgets, not to mention the fact that there's money missing from my CDAC that I did not approve of, but nobody wants to answer them questions.
So the key word in this statement is hearing. Yeah,
I I keep hearing that, but people are standing up and speaking in their official capacities, but, but they don't want to answer no questions. So what? So? So what is the purpose of this hearing? If all we're supposed to do is sit here and hear and don't get any answers or resolve to this budget.
So the issue of whether or not you vote on the budget is based on whether or not you like what you hear. Our job is to be the legislative body. We are the lawmakers. We vote. We vote with our resolutions. The administrative branch of our government prepares this document. It has happened. This is the third time it's happened. The city doesn't have any additional funds. Our revenues and taxes haven't gone up. We are currently under a state of tariffs that are increasing inflation on everyday items, 15 to 18% it's going up across the board, 15 to 18% on just the cost of living. So right now we have a motion on the floor made by Councilman Manica by the chair to close the public hearing. Madam Clerk, would you please make a role on closing the public hearing? Councilman
Robinson.
Councilman a shot yes
to close if it goes
Yes. Councilwoman Manica, yes. Council President,
Highland. Thank you very much. A 42 the public hearing is closed. We're moving on to Item five, under the Administration resolution to approve the issuance of an RFP for solid waste collection services. City Council, what is your pleasure on item six? A, a resolution to approve the issuance of an RFP for solid waste collection services.
I move to approve the resolution to approve the issuance of RFP for solid waste collection services.
Chair offers a second
questions, concerns. I got questions. Go right ahead. Are we
no longer dealing with a GFL, or are we looking for somebody new? Can the administration answer
this question for us please?
Yes, I'm available.
Oh, okay, Burgess. Go right ahead, yes,
yes. So we are going to publish the RFP widely, and we hope that we will get additional providers to quote on our RFP,
and I will report that back to you.
Okay, so our contract is still in place for GFL, then right
until June 30. Okay,
alright, priority, okay. I saw Miss manikin. I saw Miss Martin. It's been clarified. Okay, Miss Martin, you had questions,
yeah, um, my question is, who is the city? So if the citizens, if their garbage is not getting picked up or spilled or anything like that, and it's supposed to be reported back to the city, who is they're supposed to call or talk to? Who's that Representative I've been calling?
So Mister Burgess is the I didn't get the
I'm sorry I didn't hear you. Hello.
Can you hear me? Mr. Purchase, yes, I can.
Okay, so what I was asking was,
in the event that if anybody has where their garbage wasn't picked up, or their spillage, or anything like that, I noticed in there is said that they need to speak to the city representative, because the city needs to know what the contractor isn't doing or what they missed or skipped or so on and so forth. So my question was, who is that city representative that the citizens are supposed to talk to?
Anomaly, the calls have been going to the director of DPW. Let's make sure
that we don't get off the off the order that's on the floor. The order that's on the floor is the approval of a resolution to issue an RFP.
It's in here, okay, that information is in here, okay, but it doesn't name who that representative is. It says that if the contractor doesn't pick up or have spillage, that they are to stop. To the representative of the city. The city needs to know that, because they can a, hold back funds from the contractor, or B, they can charge a contractor for whatever it is that they didn't do. Right? Thank you. So my question that's in this form is, do the citizens talk to,
okay? We will add it in the contract.
But normally, as I said, the the calls come to dp method of DPW, and the DPW, he got back to the contractor and get clearance.
Okay, the order,
the order that's on the floor is a motion to approve the resolution to ask for bids or for RF use, for solid waste collection services. Additional questions, concerns. Call the roll. Would you please? Madam Clerk,
council Robinson, yes.
Councilman Shafi Yes. Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman Manica Yes. Vice President Thomas
Yes. Motion carries moving on to item 6b a resolution to approve the issuance of an RFP for street sweeping. City council. What is your pleasure?
I move to approve resolution for issuance of an RFP for street sweeping. Chair
off for a second. I
you call the roll for Item 6b Please?
Questions, concerns, dissent,
no, I don't have any. Call the roll please. Ma'am. Council
Robinson,
oh. Councilman Shafi, yes. Councilwoman Martin Yes, Councilwoman Manica Yes. Council President Tom Yes.
Motion carries moving on to item seven, a resolution authorizing the contract award to brico excavating LLC for phase two, for phase 123, and four of the 2024 water main and service line replacement program City Council. What is your pleasure?
I moved to approve the resolution authorizing the contract award to brico excavating LLC for phases 123, and four of 2024 water main and service line replacement program chair offices,
support, questions, concern or dissent. I have a I have a question. Yes, sir, go right ahead. Ma'am. So
in this contractor phase, I'm pages, don't numbers. They're not numbers. After it says attachment one, there's on the back of that the same company, because it says brico, they're doing. Oh no, no, I see it. Okay. Never mind, never mind, never mind. I'll take the back.
Okay. We're going to call the roll on item seven, that is the resolution authorizing the contract to award brico excavating LLC for phases 1234, of the 2024, water main and sewer line replacement. If you call the roll, ma'am, that's wait. I had a question. I'm sorry. I'll pause here. We have a question.
Yes, we're going to pause that. I'm
you Okay, we're good, Mr. President, can I proceed? Okay,
yes. Wait, hold
on. I was answering another question. Sorry. I apologize. Um, we picked, in other words, the best choice was brico, correct,
yes, yes, thank you. That's it. Council, Robinson, Council,
press, I had the question we have. We have another question. Um,
how many contracts have we awarded to brico so far? Cuz I'm counting quite a bit. This will be three. This will be the third one. Okay,
what else have they done for us? 2018, the
very first of 2018 the very first water main,
2000 Okay, who's doing the master leaders?
Okay, that's,
that's, that's LGC, doable. Yeah.
Make sure. Make sure. Okay,
yeah, you know,
and they were the cheapest,
or, should I say, the most affordable,
or quality too.
So, so we, so how we do this is we, we open the bids here, and we take them under advisement, and then we go back through each bid, and we interview each contractor. So we interview contractor, we interview them on price, we interview them on quality, we interview them on previous work in Highland Park. So they met all of that criteria, and they were the low bid as well.
All right. Council President, I yield
back, all right, Could we call the roll on item seven? That's
pro Tim Robinson,
no. Councilman Shafi, Imma go with no.
Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman Manica, yes. Council President, Yes.
Motion carries,
I said no, yeah, they say no, yes, ma'am. Okay,
now we're at the portion of citizens participation. I'm setting this clock for two minutes on the dot. Citizens participation on any topic, the topic of your choosing. I've been up since 430 so I'm running on steam here. On my early rider, I'm
running on Steam too. Charlene Turner Johnson here on behalf of the mothers club of Highland Park to give you a personal invitation to the mothers club tea, which will be held June 8. This is the annual tea, which is a tea to raise the funds for the scholarships for our Highland Park 12th graders. We've been giving out scholarships since Japan. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941
and we would like for the council members to be present. It's a great opportunity for you to meet with your fellow residents and to network and to give greetings. Also a great opportunity for you to meet some of the former scholarship recipients, and of course, it's a great opportunity for you to give a donation to the scholarship fund. So that's why I came tonight. But I did want to just bring up this issue of the one inch meter, the charge for the one inch meter for the water readiness to serve as charge. And just to suggest that it's probably not that many homeowners that have this one inch meter, but for those of us that do have the one inch meter, it means that we're paying an exorbitant amount of money extra for our service, and we've been doing it since this started over a year ago. So I don't think it would be too much of a difference in the projections, in the financial projections, if there was some kind of exemption to the residents who have this one inch meter, because it was supposed to be, as I was told, for businesses that are using a lot more water than residents who have one person living in a household, which is my case, and probably the case, speaking of some somebody, and probably the case of others too, who are dealing with this huge charge for a one inch meter And there's only one of us in the house, so a little exemption probably would not affect the financial projections that much.
So I want to give these invitations out. That's why I came. You have
them in your hand. I do.
Thank you. Hope to see you. How to see you on June 8.
Hey, ma'am,
good evening. My name is Renee port. I have been coming to council meetings for a minute. I think I've only missed two since you guys were seated. Sitting back there. I got a couple of texts and emails where people online are seeing our council persons on their phones, twiddling their fingers, not paying attention. That is really kind of rude. So I can understand if it was a question you needed to answer. You should have that written down. You shouldn't be on your phone. That is very impolite and very rude. The next question is, my district three. Council person has said over several council meetings, and I went back and I listened to about nine of them that if the citizens asked him to step down, he would so again, there should be some type of training for council persons, because the cousin the power language. Now, if I was to get up here and call you guys all out your name and just literally cuss you out, he'd probably be handcuffing me. So again, there should be some type of training for your behavior, your language. And I'm going to repeat this until these Council persons are removed. Christine or shopping from District Three, you need to step down. That's
now, Miss Ford, I'm using my phone as a timer, so don't come calling me when you're finished. I'm actually using my phone to do my job.
Okay, alright, hi. I'm sorry. I wanted to mention the Michigan week parade is coming up on May 17, which is the following Saturday. We're asking everyone to participate in this parade. If you have a group, if you want to participate as the council, if you want to participate, citizens, your block clubs, whatever you have, please contact Sidney spike, contact Anita George and sign up so that you can be a part of the parade. We really want this one to be the biggest. Each year it grows, and so I'm asking everyone to participate. Is there something going on the whole week? No, no,
not that I know.
All right. Thank you. Next citizen.
Again, Robert large of the East Grand brush block club. I want to acknowledge that we have some residents from East Grand here tonight, as we have since the month of March, beginning of March, and we plan on being here as much as possible. I plan on being here every time you open the doors. I want to commend the city council for their professionalism and how they conducted this meeting and the minimum amount of colorful language that had been used since I've been coming in March from the top seat to the to the lower seats. And so I thank you for that. Appreciate it. President Thomas commented or stated and used the words earlier today pertaining to the water monopoly and cartel. To my knowledge, those are both illegal entities and and, and if that be the case, if I'm incorrect, I know cartel is illegal, and I have 50 plus years of experience living in this city, a product of this city. Highland Park has a lot of former gangsters themselves. So if there's a cartel running this city, I'm quite sure my my citizens, my fellow citizens, would like to know who that cartel is, and so that we can deal with them appropriately and legally, I also would like to ask, would there be dumpsters made available for the parks surrounding in our city because of the weather that we have experienced, as we do every year, there's a lot of leaves and debris In our parks. And I want to also personally thank Councilwoman Manica for for setting up a cleanup at one of the parks, and we're looking forward to be a asset to the city. Thank you again for your time. Thank you.
Hello, everyone. Hello. I just have one complaint about the last time they cleaned the streets, there were two street cleaners, one car park going down, saying,
are we going to have the is this same people that's going to clean it again? And how do I report it if I see it happening like that again?
I didn't quite understand your question. I probably okay. The sweet this. There were two sweepers right one car park, and they went around it. No, they they went straight, right behind each other down second. So if I see something like that again, who would I report that to? Because they could have been going up and down, you know, streets like Richton, Elmhurst and stuff like that, instead of two right behind each other going down Second.
Okay, so
we I wrote your question now. Okay,
so do I need to report that if I see it again? That's the
administrative thing. Okay, we can't answer those questions for you.
Oh. Carl Oliver,
um, I just want to make a correction earlier when I kept saying 61,200 that was actually fiscal year for 2122
is 62,900
which is still 19, 19% higher than what it will be for this fiscal year. So that's where I'm still confused, and why any rate increase? But I also want to state same thing with the water ready to serve from 2022 until now, we see an 80% understanding a consultant, we see an 80% increase in water ready to serve charges from 22 to 25 I understand the leg portion. But it still doesn't make sense that's on the trajectory about 20% per year for the sewage ready to start serve. Is 43% increase for the drainage charge. It's 120 23 21% increase from 2022, to 2025 make it make sense. I'll continue to continue to keep coming up here and saying these things, because we need to understand. I understand the consultant, but seepage and penetration
still doesn't add up. So,
all right. Thank you.
Thank you. Next person, please.
Hello, Council. Hello. How are you, sir? I am okay. My name is Damon petty. I'm the founder of the Juneteenth community festival. This is our 15th year celebrating this. So we did this for a decade before it became a federal holiday. This is going to be our third year bringing it to Highland Park. Our goal for this has not even been we haven't even scratched the surface for what this festival is supposed to become and the potential revenue it can mean for the city and the positive attention it can mean for the city. When we first came here, we were led to believe we will work together to make this happen the first year, it did seem that way, and now it's seeming more like we're left alone to figure it out, and we just got to pay money to the city, right? This wasn't there before, so I don't know if it was an oversight. Someone didn't charge, or you weren't charging, but now I have a list of charges that's added into the application that kind of it does more harm to the festival than good. Our vendors are being asked to pay $100 to be there. I don't really know why. I was hoping the mayor would be here, but the vendors pay to be vendors so that we can put the festival together. Like if we give you all $1,500 from our 15 vendors, then there goes our money for porta potties or bounce houses for our children. Also on that list, it says that you all want $100 for games. So like Tic Tac Toe for the kids and Jenga on the tabletop. I gotta get y'all $100 for that. You know what I'm saying? I don't really understand where that money comes, what why that is, or where it's going to go up those prices, I understand, but I'm still just speaking what I was going to speak if she was going to be here. I thought she was going to be here, but we appreciate being here, and we don't want to ruffle any feathers. But this is a hindrance more than anything else. I'm willing to break bread when we get to that point, but the biggest problem with our communities is we fight over the crumbs before we ever get to the loaf. You feel me. So if we could just, if we could just take some time to let this become something and work together like our mayor hasn't cut a ribbon yet. You know what I'm saying? Like none of the council people will cut a ribbon. How do we get to that point? If to get to that point, we had to pay you 1000s of dollars on an event that is free. We do not charge our community to come out and celebrate the freedom that was taken from them by their government. It doesn't even seem righteous that any of our local governments would charge us to celebrate Juneteenth in any type of way. And as a matter of fact, they don't. Royal Oak does not charge to put this together. Livonia does not charge to put this together. They actually pay the food trucks to come to make sure they don't lose any money. So I'm not asking for that. I'm just saying it's a big gap from y'all come out and have a good time to in order to have that time, we need about $2,000 from y'all. It's a free Festival, and we just want to keep bringing something free to the people. Thank you. Appreciate you, brother.
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Cliff Chapman, long time resident. I'm coming in front of city council because I've been crying out for the last couple years. I got a drug house on my street. I've talked to Chief. He's for me, that is nothing to budget. How do we get something in the budget where we crack down on these houses? I have a dope house that's selling out the front door. They do it anytime they feel like it. I've talked to the guy face to face and said, You need to stop. My residents on my block are uncomfortable. I have a resident for the third time. Her house has been attempted to be broken into. I received a phone call while I'm at work, and one of my residents that lives two doors down from me, was there to even comfort her and let her know that everything was okay. Like, we need some resolve. We're black. You didn't give your streets 49 Louise is where I live. Literally, we need some resolve. Like, I'm talking to the dope man and asking the dope man to stop. He literally said he's never had nobody come to him say that. Then he literally reiterated, because I told chief, so I'm telling everybody, he reiterated, there's no one's going to stop him from doing what he's doing. I'm a citizen asking for help. I'm trying not to lash out and do my thing to protect my block because my truck was just broken into. Now my piece is starting to become disturbed. And I feel like, if my piece is going to get disturbed by the dope man, I'm disturbed the dope man's piece flat out, like I'm fighting for the people. So I need people to fight for me, because that's our position somewhere. Dig deep, figure out a budget to help the police help us, because if it don't change, then I gotta rally the troops, and that's just what it is.
Thank you.
Hi. My name is Jamil Edwards, I just want to talk about Juneteenth. I asked
the owner of
glory market, who owns the well facilitates the private property at Woodward and Manchester, and by the city's ordinance, they're the Manchester water's only place that can have vendors be at that location. My question is, how can you tell somebody how much you're going to charge on their property if they paying taxes?
Anyone else?
Hi, good evening, Council. Well, I want to address a couple things. Certainly there's gotta be a misunderstanding between mister Chapman and I, because I would never say there's not money in the budget to shut down a dope house. And in fact, without going into specific details, that location has actually been rated once. And there's additional follow up that I really can't go into, but never would I say that the money is not in the budget for for that. And we've partnered with the Wake County sheriffs in the past regarding that same area, and unfortunately, during that time, you know, there wasn't any activity that was observed. A lot of this activity is happening different hours, and he's been very cooperative, and I certainly respect the fact that he wants to shut this location down. I wish more neighbors were maybe not as personally involved by going to talk to him, but I wish more neighbors would would communicate with us like he does, and like he said he he specifically asked this gentleman to be respectful to the neighborhood, and apparently that's not the case, but we are 100% on board. It's not a money issue regarding those resources. In terms of shutting it down, I did want to address and Mr. Chapman, I'll talk to you offline as well. I also want to address Councilman Shafi concerns, because I do agree there probably should be some more communication regarding the budget. Unfortunately, that's that's not my position, and I can only speak on things that I know. I can't speak on things you know, that you know my personal opinion on a lot of these things. But what I can tell you is, you talked about commingling of the budget and that DPW is paying for the police department, and that's not necessarily true, and I know there was discussion had prior, and what happens is DPW has always been in charge of building maintenance, including this building, the Rec Center, all the city buildings DPW. I don't know why it's that way here, but I know that's just the way it is. So they've, they've taken care of all building maintenance expenses throughout their through their budget now anything specific to the police department, where it's something we request for security reasons for the police department, or construction of something that we need specific to the police department that's not labeled building maintenance, DP, that does not go through DPW, alright. So I just wanted to provide a, you know, clear, clarify those things. Okay, alright,
thank you shady. Seeing no more people go on the podium. Let me see I gotta look online. I have one attendee with a hand raised. Miss Yolanda, I'm asking you to unmute.
Yes, I unmuted. Can you hear me? Can
hear you? Ma'am, you will be our last citizen. Alright? Thank
you. I just wanted to come back and just touch on the water thing. I know you threw a lot of numbers at us and a lot of things we should take into consideration. But two things stood out to me that I think are big, and I think Carla kind of spoke to it, diminishing it, but it's the it is the infrastructure. The infrastructure is part of the problem. We received a grant. We should be asking where that grant money went from the state Gretchen. I believe she gave us some money for that infrastructure. That's the first thing. The second thing is, I'm along the lines with Miss Ford, as far as Councilman and chief, you owe you, Councilman Steven, you know I you and I have our conversations, but I believe you owe the city and its citizens an apology from the threatening tone and manner you spoke with last last city council meeting. I understand that you can get upset, but at the same time, you have to maintain your professionalism, and so if that can't be done, if your ego is so large that you can't accept what what has happened, then maybe we need to maybe take the next steps, and I don't want to do that, but maybe we need to, because we need to make sure people understand we're going to be respected and we're going to respect each other again. You guys have a great evening and talk to you soon. Thank
you, man, thank you. Okay, we're going to move away from citizens comments. I'm going to close it out, and we're going to move into Council affairs, starting with the councilman from the third district, Mister sharp. Let's get us home. Good
evening. HP,
so allow me to quickly address the the elephant in the room. If I'm wrong, I have no problems apologizing, but I don't apologize when I know I'm right and I know that just because I'm right doesn't make me right, but, yeah, I'm not going to be able to do that apology you're asking for, because I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't do anything wrong, and it's funny how everything is so quiet now. Not at all of the information is out. Everybody is quiet. Everybody is so quiet. Nobody has yet to say, my bad or I apologize for the slander and everything that's online. It's okay. It's okay. You know, your betrayal is something that I expect. I mean, I've been up here for almost two and a half years. I've been fighting tooth and nail for everything that Highland Park is need. I don't waiver, I don't bend, I don't break. I expect a little the betrayal from the residents. It's a given. It's a given, because it's one thing I was taught, and it was a very valuable lesson in politics. There are no friends, none but one portrayal in particular I just couldn't understand. Uh, you know this, this young lady. I have been her friend for over 20 years when she had problems and she needed help. I was there
when she had issues
with her boyfriends and being attacked. I was there slept on that couch for two weeks holding my gun because she was scared that he was going to come back and get her. I slept on her couch again another two weeks after he made bail, and she was scared that he was going to come back and get her. This is somebody I considered the friend. Your betrayal is expected. I get it. That's just the nature of the beast here, especially when I'm standing up doing something that's right. But her betrayal was very interesting to me and very hurtful. I mean, this is a person who, when she needed when her bank account was frozen and she didn't have any money, she borrowed a $2,000 from me. I know I'll never see that money again to help pay your bills. This is a person whose mother and father I love dearly, in which I help every chance I get. So that betrayal from her really hurt. Cuz this is somebody I had been friends with for 20 years in life that she turned on me.
But you know that's my fault,
and you know why that's my fault, because I let my guard down.
That's something you've done. HP,
you let your guard down
just because they're life term Highland Parkers and just because they're your friends and your neighbors, it should not make it where you can't see their portrayal when it comes if you had your guard up. You see it now? I remember the last time I spoke here, I spoke about an inside job. And everybody found that interesting. But you think about it, everything horrible that has ever happened to the city of Highland Park, from the loss of our water plant to any major calamity that has happened in the city of Highland Park, who's been at the forefront of that there was no outsider that did that to you. It was an inside individual that did that to you. We have to keep our guard up. HP, just because we're friends doesn't mean I get the right to take advantage of you. It doesn't mean I get the right to use you. It doesn't mean I get the right to stick a knife in your back and then say, Hey, you probably fell on that just because I'm your friend doesn't mean I get the right to manipulate and confuse and mislead you. I don't get that right. We have to keep our guard up. HP, if you can't see the betrayal coming, you're bound to fall into it. You have to keep your guard up. I don't care who they are, and I learned that lesson from this young lady, because her betrayal was something I did not expect. I didn't expect that from Alexis Ramsey. I didn't expect that. This was my friend 20 years I did not expect that. But had I had my guard up, I'd have saw it a lot sooner, and that's my fault. The shape that you're in right now is your fault because you let your guard down. I need you to put it back up, HP and hold every single one of us accountable, just like you're sitting here holding me accountable. I need you to hold everybody in the city government accountable. Nobody gets a pass. I don't care who they are, and if you pay close enough attention, you'll find out who are the ones that are in your corner, sitting on this council and sitting in this administration, and who is not. If you really pay attention, I need you to put your guards up. HP, there's no reason why you should be so trusty, because there's no way in hell I could get away with half of what they're doing to you. I just had a minor little fender bender and the whole city turned on me, just like, come on up on 10 minutes, sir, just a minor little fender bender, and the whole city turned on. Now I'm being asked to resign. Never, not in a million years. I will sit here. I will stay here, and I definitely have intentions on running again. I promise you that I'm here to stay. HP, as long as you want me, as long as you vote me in, I'll be right here. The moment you tired of me is when you vote me out, and I'll accept that vote out, and you have a lovely evening. HP and a good night. Thank you. Moving
on to the Councilwoman from the second district, Miss Margaret, if you would, I was
going to say that would be me. Alright? I want to say I just got a couple announcements. Um, first announcement I want to make there is going to be, I was notified that there's going to be a city wide cleanup on June 1. That's basically just cleaning your own area. Also at the Ernest P Ford, they're having a youth summer clinic, boys and girls seven to 14 years old. That's from June 23 to August 14. Also, this is with the Boys and Girls Club. So they're doing a couple of things. I don't know if a lot of you seen some of the renovations they have made. It is so awesome in there. I am ready to be a kid again. One of the things they're doing is they're you can do events and party spaces for rent. You can rent spaces for baby showers, birthdays, repast, whatever it is, they have spaces to be rented. The other thing about the Boys and Girls Club, they're also doing a my sister clothing boutique where kids get to design clothes. I think that's very awesome for people who are 14. The other thing I want to talk about the Boys and Girls Club is also doing a summer camp. They are offering a scholarship opportunities, which gives you a 75% discount. They also have openings for any kids that's full time or part time. Also, the last thing I want to do is also acknowledge rehab Highland Park for cleaning up the McKinsey field. I mean, I'm sorry. Let me double back the earnest P field that they did Saturday. That was awesome. We went out there and had a good time. And on that note, I am going to say, you know, I'm always thankful for when you guys come out and you hang out with us through all the rigmarole that we give. You guys. Thank you so very much. And I don't think I have anything else to share, so I'm gonna go ahead and turn it over to Manica.
Thank you, ma'am. Moving on now to the councilman from the first district, Miss Manica.
Hi. Good evening to everyone. Um, thank you for the acknowledgement of the park cleanup that was also with the No, now I can't think, but with Sue Noranda, one of our park volunteers, or adopt a park partners. So with that. And that Park was storm that will be done again. It was way too much for the amount of people that we had that day, but we did get a nice size selection of leaves and things picked up. The problem is so here we are. We're going to speak to residents also, if you can make sure that nobody throws their leaves or where they cut their branches over into the park. So in some cases, that's the case. And then the other thing we're going to look at, I guess, a couple of residents not on grand, but a couple of residents have some dogs, and so that prohibited a little bit of cleanup by some of the fence. So those are some of the things that we're going to address. The dog situation is not part of grand, though. Okay, so again, look for another part cleanup in that area. Also, there was a couple of things I wanted to mention that. So most of our parks, in case you do not know you, they really close at 10. So we are currently, I'm working with Miss sunoranda, and actually administration on getting more signs and getting appropriate signage up. So that is part of some of the issues that I think that we face is that our signage is not up or you can't read it. So we are working on that currently to try to at least bring some signage to those parks and to other areas as well. But please be patient. Please be patient with us. We're working on that, talking about signage, the street sweeping. I did notice and I will respond, because I'm asking this question myself. I asked it to administration before there were signs put out that says, hey, street sweeping is happening on such and such day, so we're looking at whether they're being put out in a timely manner. Because again, I asked that question on my street, and then I noticed nobody moved their car. I can't they cannot sweep your street if you guys don't move your car. And so there may be a situation that they're saying, Hey, we're not, we can't go around. Or we not, we just not going to go down the street. I do not know that is something I will ask administration, because I asked the same question, but same thing on my block. I did tell people, Hey, did you see the sign and say they gonna sweep at seven o'clock. You know, even when DTE was out there, nobody moved their cars. You have got to also obey or to follow directions. So that was one thing on that I wanted to speak on in regards to street sweeping. And I think it was one other thing. I have this question, and she's gone. So I guess this goes to the engineers. If the houses are bigger, do they have bigger pipes? And that can be answered later. I just, I just wanted to know that question, if the houses are bigger, do you have bigger pipes? And then, for June, Juneteenth, did we make some discussion that we have some discussion about the things that you wanted to do? Maybe it's something we need to sit down with and see if we can get a meeting with administration or and with city council. Some of us, because we can't all meet together, okay, but because I don't, I don't recall some things other than that, some of the things that I probably would have mentioned, my counterpart mentioned Miss Martin. Also remember, there will be a resource fair and baby shower may 31 at the Hamilton site. So there, there has been some flyers on the web. I'll make sure it gets up again on concerned citizens. Or next is not to may 31 so I have time to put something out here for you if you still need someone to register for that event, and that would only be for the baby shower. So this our third this is my third year working and collaborating with the dove foundation to do this resource fair and baby shower. Other than that, I don't think I hope that I answered the questions I should, at least for my district and for any other questions possible. Everybody. Have a great night and just be patient, just a little bit
okay. Thank you very much, Miss man. I can turn it over to council pro town. Good
evening everyone.
First I'm going to
miss and Miss Ford, and I said,
when I'm on my phone, I'm doing research, just like mister Mark spoke and gave his feedback. We don't have anything in our packets concerning mark, so I was looking it up, sending it to my colleagues and sending it to the folks in the audience, because I know I didn't understand what he was saying, so I know that they so that's what I do when I'm on my phone. I'm doing research so that you can have a better understanding. And I apologize I don't have your number because I couldn't send it to you. So I don't have your number. So that's that. And I think it was Friday, I sent the email out, Mister this the mayor and to the attorneys of the city, in regards to Mister boswick, can you hear me? Because she's going to actually in regards to a statement that the mayor made in her city address, and also on the media, to the media in regards to Trump taking back $2.5 million grant that we approved, and we wanted to get the letter or some Information Statement that you actually took that back for me.
It, send it to me. I'll send it to her. You know, the procedure now, okay?
And just to let you know and let the citizens know I did hire an attorney
saying that I can't get any information from
I love you. I just want to thank my pastor for being here.
I love you guys and thank you. Alright,
thank you so ladies and gentlemen, let me go step wise. We had a question earlier. A citizen came in had concerns about a rental property registration earlier this month. I'm waiting for the screen share to pop up early this month, the mayor sent us this email, and it said has come to our attention as part of our ordinance that speaks to rental property does not allow for immediate family members and homeowners to claim an exemption. She let us know she went through the ordinances. We've been in these chairs for 28 months, and we were doing everything that we wanted to do and other things that we should have done. We spent six to eight months on marijuana, then we spent another six to eight months fighting to make sure that the city didn't go forward. But we didn't do anything with municipal codes. The administration was kind enough to point out to us that the rental property registration feature that is part of our codes. Right now, I'm pulling it up on the screen. This is an ordinance. Ordinances can be changed by members of city council. I cannot make a motion. It requires one of the four members seated below me to do so. This came to us on April 30, and I forwarded to members of city council. We have the power to do something about that. Although we have not, we have not also, if you hear comments about what is going on within the government and what people are doing, let me just say this from someone who I've run a business before, and I didn't just run a store. I ran a pharmaceutical franchise, so I was running somebody else's business, there's a simple process in business how things are done, record keeping, like the approval of the minutes for over 20 months, members of this council rejected the mayor's account of our monthly expenditures. I've never heard of a corporation to reject receiving an account of the monthly expenditures. I guess they figured that they were hurting the mayor. Actually, all those records are gone. We have them in our package, but they're not available for the public because people in this room decided, well, I'm just not going to accept those because I don't like who's sending them. That means there is no record.
Yeah, no proof. I never said I
didn't I didn't single out anybody. I didn't single out anybody. I didn't single out anybody. I didn't single you're self reported. And I also didn't talk during Council affairs. Also did not talk during your council affairs. We don't have those. We don't the other proof that I have is that those records are not in the official public record. That's the fact. That's a fact. So they're not there for whatever reason, for whatever reason, those records are not included because this council you got, it takes three votes to approve the minutes and also to approve the things that are sent to us by the mayor. And if you don't see those things, this is the official record recorded by the clerk. If you don't see it, there's a reason why you don't see it's because people didn't want it to have it. So I don't recall interrupting. I don't recall interrupting anybody that was speaking before me, because so what I'm going to do is I'm going to continue talking. I'm going to continue talking as if no one is interrupting you. The other thing a gentleman came to the podium, and he said the following, when the term monopoly and cartel are used it makes them feel uncomfortable. So the definition of a cartel is a group of independent companies or producers who collaborate to limit competition and control markets. There is an automotive cartel that includes Toyota, Honda, Subaru or General Motors, Chrysler, Daimler, that is a automotive cartel. There's an energy cartel in southeastern Michigan that includes DTE and Consumers Energy. There is a water cartel in southeastern Michigan that has one entity, a monopoly. I make a motion to adjourn. A monopoly is when you but you're not the chair. That's the whole point. A monopoly is the excessive okay. The monopoly is when a group of individuals tries to control a procedure that means they want to monopolize. Right now, General Mills and craft have a monopoly on breakfast cereal. The term cartel or monopoly refer to a situation where the vendors control it. It does not necessarily refer to illegality. Hollywood did that for us. We have an energy cartel, Consumers Energy and DTE. We have a water cartel, the Detroit water and sewage department and the Great Lakes Water Authority. Those are the names used within those industries. They call them cartels. It doesn't suggest a nefarious connotation. That's just what they call when you have a group of people who control an industry right now, Firestone and Goodyear are a cartel that control tires in the United States of America. That's what that is. So as it relates to our water department, water is a racket. Gotcha. The water right now is Iraq, and the reason why we were in court for so long is because the previous mayor, Mayor yacht rest of soul, Mayor DeAndre Windham and the current mayor have all been fighting the Great Lakes Water Authority, who are giving us water rates that can't be substantiated. That's why it's important that those water meters go in. That's what this whole process is with the water meters. We know that we're being improperly built for water. We know that we're being improperly billed for sewage. That's part of the process. We get water funneled to us, just like any other vendor. When you buy something, you get the vendor cost, and then you implement your end user cost, whatever that is. So that is happening to the city of Highland Park every time that we get wholesale water. We are a water wholesaler. I'm not. We're a water distributor. The water comes to us, and we have to pay the fees to pump it out, to service it, to fix the water mains, have people come out. That's the additional cost during the public hearing. I didn't want to talk about that. It wasn't my role. But one thing I can say for sure after being a part of this negotiation, is I didn't know what I didn't know. And I'm actually in the government, and I get the documents officially, I did not know what I didn't know. So I'm assumed to all the people in the audience, there's a lot that you probably don't know until you get the documents and read them. So just rest assured, the information that you have as a citizen is exactly what I had before I became a member of the government, and so the rest of that information is provided to us. We read it, we disseminate it, all of us with our limited understanding, we extrapolate the information. I went to mediation. Mister al shapi went to mediation. I'm sure he will attest that that process is fairly complicated, particularly when you have two lawyers in the room with you and there are 13 lawyers in the other room. So I just wanted to clarify that there's nothing that's happening up here to confuse you. One thing I can tell you for a fact, the more that you know, the less you're certain of. We know a lot more information than you do, which is why we don't come out with absolute certainty about some things, because the more information that you have, the more complex the problem becomes. So as you look at us up here on this dais and you say, you city council did this, or you people did that, we're strapping the information just like you are. We just represent the citizens, and we have an opportunity to vote our conscience and what we think is a good decision for fear of God and fear of being wrong. We all vote are conscious, so I can't criticize anybody else's vote. I'll just say that we are extrapolating this information. One day, if you sit in these chairs, you will know for sure everybody likes a good hot dog. Nobody ever wants to see how they're made. Because if you knew, you would either, okay, that's all I have tonight, other than the last thing is that this man Matt Lane he wasn't at the negotiating table. Alright, so chair we entertain a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting. All those in favor. Thank you. Meeting adjourned 936.
