This information so you can know a little bit about my team, and you know the background they have and the experience they have Next,
keep going.
Said Kenya Moore, really good contractor, great builder. I've used them several times to be my general manager, and the project I'm going to describe to you is coming up. He'll be helping me out with that entire project. Okay, keep going.
Here, fast, probably going to go passes. Yep, keep going. Keep going. Okay, yep, some familiar faces in here, yeah,
keep going. Yeah.
So Imma talk real briefly about a couple of these projects. This one here is over on licester. I was able to buy a building from the land bank, six units total gut project. Was able to use a lot of my own money borrow some money from Liberty bank. Was able to get this whole project done, including putting two more units in the basement, so we have eight units was able to really help bring it back the block, back to life, $450,000.08 units took us about 18 months to do it, got it fully rented out to affordable housing. You know, our units was going for $1,100 a month to $1,500 so people that was from the neighborhood could still move in there, and people that was moving back as a nurse or something like that at Henry Ford Hospital was able to afford to live
here middle zone at 35 to 70.
Keep going. Just couple of pictures on what some of it looked like and what it looks like now, this is another project that we did down on Marston. My team actually did the entire corner down in Marston and John R where these homes are completely dilapidated, near and dear to my heart, because a lot of these places I grew up in, playing with my friends I grew up with, they lived in these houses. So to bring those back to life and put them back on the tax roll was really great for the neighborhood, and what we were doing in the north end keep them. So that's sort of that far picture. Third bottom left is what that unit looked like. No floor in the second floor just fell all the way to the basement, but now you can see some of the what it looks like today. Same thing over here, 315 East Philadelphia. We were able to get these properties done for like $300,000 but they were able to sell them for 199 upstairs, some 199 downstairs, and they created a home. Home forgot to make HOA. They created HOA so they were able to sell a unit up and down, which they completely occupied. You know, people are putting urban farms in their backyard, keeping up the property. So, really great projects. Next slide. So this is what some of the inside of this looks like. Keep going. So not only do we do vet, we do residential, but we're very capable of doing commercial projects. Me, being a vet, I've done a several veteran housing and this is when we did an E course on Sally out. There was 11 units over there. Pastor Miles named after his brother, who was also a Marine. So that was a great project. You can go to the next slide. Just a really cool project. It was kind of similar use the same people that we did the bail building with to do this project. Keep going. Same thing here. It flipped through it, just showing you before and after some things we did right here in the north end, less than a mile away. This is my project that I purchased, believe it or not, 6000 square feet right there on John R bought it for $10,000 put a little few bucks in a little bit at a time. After four months, we were able to open the barbershop up again, lying out of the door. Same thing. We are very conscious about bringing minority businesses in and helping them get back on track. And I don't want to spend too much time, but next time, I'll share some of the ideas that we have in the co working space that we're bringing to Highland Park, called cocoon. And it's called cocoon because it's kind of like where we start this incubator, and everyone gets to grow in a cocoon, and then they get to grow and sprout out about a fly and beat start their own businesses. So before covid hit, which kind of hurt us, we had a lot of workshops where we could teach people entrepreneurship, teach them how to be builders, contractors, and this is all through my nonprofit, which is called rebound CDC. Have my own live and active CDC good standing with the state of Michigan and a lot of these people, we had to come out of our programs literally able to get their builders license or get their business started with the state of Michigan and actually going to business for themselves. And a couple of the people start renting these spaces out here, which we wind up opening a coffee shop. Like I said, we gave Dave over a red shoe shine some skill sets allow him to move his business over to John R so I can say we have, we do. We're very conscious about capitalists, but we we really strive to help people in the community learn to be entrepreneurs and be business owners for themselves. This is an aside, yeah, okay, yep. So, like I say, this is the Bell Building that I helped do with O'Brien construction. Keep
going. NSL is in there, right? Yep.
Okay, work for Sheila clay. Worked with Sheila clay the whole time there. So that was a good project. Keep going. I also did this flip the script project up on East Grand Boulevard. Team, Douglas, Vanguard, CDC, and you know, did a 3000 square foot renovation to that 7000 square foot building. So now they have 10,000 square feet. They have this great foot to script program over there, where it help people stay out of prison or people that's returning citizens, get jobs, get all their IDs and get the paperwork they need to get back into the workforce. So next slide. So that's kind of what that before and after look like. This was another project ideas really close to the neighborhood, right there, the new DPS. Well, it was new about 810, years ago, but the new safety building right there, off the 75 freeway clay area right there. So you can flip through that. That was a huge project, and I always want to emphasize some of the challenges we had. So one of my big things at O'Brien, with us being such a large company, doing 50 to $100 million I was always in charge of making sure we had qualified black contractors or minority contractors from the city of Detroit. No one can tell me. We can't get over 51% of our people working on these projects. So that was a real challenge, but we were able to do it a lot of the time, and we, I think I was happy to say we was up to 65% minority biz businesses and contractors working on that project, just a couple more projects again, continue going through there, kid and Ace. We do retail, and those are some of my references. So
Mr. Harris, yes, that was thorough.
Very thorough.
Thank you. Thank you for that. Because you gave us your resume, you gave us what you had done, you gave us your your professional resume. As far as your work, you gave us your academic resume. Thank you for your service for our country. I appreciate this. I'm going to use this as a model, because this was a very thorough presentation. You answered a lot of questions, all the questions I had about your capacity you answered. So I don't really have any. I just say I'd like to have you come back for additional workshop to get more into detail about it. Yes, sir,
I just got that
presentation. Okay,
yes. And so Miss Al Sharpie, go ahead. Okay, and Miss Manick as well. I'm sorry. Okay, uh, Council, press, I
just have one question, maybe, maybe, maybe Carl take an answer for me.
Uh oh,
where is tiffan standing on this particular area? You know, I'm saying this is the tip of the street. Okay, okay, first, let's
go. City owns one
piece of One Piece
two and the land bank. Okay,
okay, so,
okay, okay, sorry,
I love the taco bar.
Yeah, Miss man, if you said that question as
well. Also so great.
It's the next, next presentation, okay? And I'll try and get through that really quick. So let me stop and share. It's called cocoon Island Park, and
so I am going to
and we got so
this is the people in the room. We have a very special occasion happening today. We have new people joining our family as a city, and that's important. You see all these wonderful blue uniforms. So I would like to, I want to make sure that we recognize and we're about 10 minutes off schedule. But that's okay, because I want to make sure we get this. This is a big deal. I would also like to ask Mister Clyburn, can we get them? I would like to have mister Harris back for us, if it's possible, like for another meeting. I know you're going to go to tiff but I think that you, you bring, you bring so much to the table that the people might want to have more questions. So we're going to try to get through your presentation now. I don't want to rush you through it. We do have to get through it quickly, because we got we got a special day today. So I'll leave it up to you. I will go ahead and do my screen share.
Floor is yours, sir.
All right. Thank you all so I'm happy. I'm just glad to be able to share my resume and let you know some of the things I've done and a little bit of history. But the really important thing here is cocoon that I would like to bring to Highland Park, and I've been talking about it for a long time, and I currently own cocoon Detroit, which is right here on East Grand Boulevard, cross street from triumph church, right on East Grand Boulevard. You come in, there we are. We we're not really busting at the scenes, but all of our offices are sold. We have hot desks where people can just come in and sit down and bust open their laptop and go to work. We're open 24 hours, seven days a week for our members, and people can just pop in for 20 bucks if they just want to work. It work their 40 day. We have over 500 virtual clients that have a mailbox and address for the city of Detroit, that's always in and out picking up their mail so it and we always having workshops. People come in and they rent a conference room, and like I said before covid, we're just getting back into it now, where we had a back, whole back area with where we did these classes, where we taught people about entrepreneurship and construction. So the pipeline we had was we were working with returning citizens. I call them the hard to hire population returning citizen, people that have had some they've had some chronic homelessness issues and have some substance abuse. So we were bringing those people in and teach them about entrepreneurship. And we was helping having people from next door flip the script, give them some wraparound services, you know, teach them about anger management and financial planning, so when they start making some money, they can keep their money. So I just thought a lot of these wraparound services very important, but all this was coming out of cocoon. So right now, we are very we're very profitable at cocoon, which are type of different the way we structure our office space versus versus our hot desk. It works just like we work. If you ever been to tech town, a lot of people that look like us have been pushed out of tech town, and we provided a great space for them to kind of land and actually give them some skills to help them actually get to a brick and mortar, or just build their capacity. So
Mr. Harris, do something here. I want to just show the members. If you can turn around and take a look at the screen. This is the target site we have here between Manchester and Davidson. So, Mr. Harris, Mr. Harris, you're getting your own workshop at our next meeting. Okay, okay. This is the footprint that he's talking about working in
former side of the Highland appliance, the former theater. This is what the space will look like right there on Woodward Avenue,
either back you see the bell towers. So we're talking about a co working space in that area. These are parcels that you will be purchasing from the city, or on the open market from the city, from the city. Yes, okay. This is the existing conditions here. It's going to be working in. This is what the projected final project would look like, the proposed rendering. And thank you for this and that that's it, connecting people, sparking ideas and embracing the vibrancy of our community. The renderings on the inside this will be our interior floor plan shows the co working space. If you haven't been to one, is co working spaces. I encourage members to go visit the space on the Boulevard. Again, additional renderings, SketchUp and the actual renderings the way that it would look. The idea around co working space, co working space, maker spaces, the bar and grill that will be attached to it. And then he gives us some reasons here on why to choose him so being a part of the cocoon community. So I went through your slides. And he also gave us one of the most crucial pieces in any development. He gave us a logistical and realistic timeline, which I think is extremely important, because we are not developers, per se, we want to be able to tell our residents, our constituents, what this process will look like. I do want to thank you for a very, very thorough presentation. And what I would like to do is, have you come back because there's so much here. You just ran into time. Yeah, so I want to make sure that you get back in we have two things that we need to do today, as far as our swearing in and as far as the final reading of an ordinance. Members have this in their packet, the fact that you actually have your background with Lisp, MEDC, with capital impact partners, the Liberty bank, is again, additionally beneficial. We don't have to guess that's very beneficial to us. And so thank you for giving us actual projected costs, real, tangible costs that we can sink our teeth into and sort of take these things apart and then go down to the micromanaged aspect of it, telling us what it will cost, as far as your gross cost per building, cost per square foot, cost per units. I appreciate that. Also giving us ideas of monthly revenues. This is a very thorough presentation, and members of council, this is what we should have every time we get a presentation in front of us, show us how much they respect our time. A very detailed performer. You can put together a performer. It's not easy, but it's definitely doable, and I appreciate the fact that you did that for us so we are over the time limit by 15 minutes of the hour. Yes, sir.
Yes. And Mister Harris, thank you so much for very, very, very thorough presentation. Most of the questions that I would have had were answered in the presentation. And so if you have an opportunity, if you can come back for a solo workshop at the next meeting, it'll be two Mondays from now. Okay, that way you can, because, I mean, members didn't really get a chance to ask that's it's going to be in district two. Miss manic, Miss Martin, not with us yet. She still may join us, but I want to make sure the council person from that district is here to ask those questions. And before we wrap it up, does anybody have any quick questions that they want to ask? They want to ask? Mr. Harris, or we go ahead and take a five minute. Mr. Harris, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you for the presentation. It's your time. You have a wonderful night. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to call the meeting, the workshop meeting adjourned at 716 and we're going to get ready for a we'll take a five minute break so and then we have a very special thing that we want to do for our opening ceremonies. So thank you for all the people who have joined us, and we'll take a short break
recording stop 717. 17.
Carry over Mr. Lackey, string it
together as One Piece. Okay?
Effective there
it email again, I'm trying To understand what because
it was a A so what are you
asking?
It's that's what I'm saying. Yeah,
out also. Recording in progress. Ladies
and gentlemen, once the two members are seated, We'll go ahead and we'll get started.
Here. I out, Miss
Manica, we're waiting on you. The it,
ladies and gentlemen, I would like to welcome you to the Island Park in person and virtual, regular meeting scheduled for today, October 7, 2024 we are starting a little bit later than normal. We're starting at 7:22pm our opening ceremonies. It gives me great pleasure to turn the floor over to our police chief. We have very important and monumentous occasion today, and we should all celebrate, and I will turn the floor over to you, chief.
Alright, appreciate it. Yeah. So
as a lot of you know, most communities, when they swear in new officers, they kind of do it as as an official thing in the public so so the citizens to be introduced to new officers, and it's kind of a special moment for the officers, because they work very hard to get to where they're at. So we want to kind of change it up and make this a regular thing where we bring a new staff member and we'll bring them for counseling, introduce them to everybody, him or her to everybody, so you all have an opportunity
to meet them
today. Today, for me is, is really a a bittersweet day. Um, we got information this morning that our retired captain Clayton passed away, and he worked with us for for 17 years. I got to work with them, and it was, it was really, it was a privilege. Guy taught me a lot of stuff, and he was just a real, real good friend. And so that's tough. That's tough for me, because he gives a really good person. I know the mayor's going to speak about it, so I'm not going to go into it too much, but on the other side, we have two officers who are just beginning their law enforcement career that went through the last Academy, and I'm excited to bring them on their families here. And so it's a real privilege for us to so let me welcome Khalil Saad,
the deputy clerk's going to administer the oath of office for these officers. Raise
your right hand.
Repeat after me, I insert your name.
Do solemnly affirm
that I will support the Constitution of the United States, Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Michigan, Constitution of
the State of Michigan. And the Highland Park, city charter. Park City charter and I will discharge my duties
as a police officer for the city of Highland Park according to the best of my ability. Congratulations.
I just add May God keep and protect you both as you serve our community and we hope that you make it home every night in one piece to your families. You
thank you very much. Madam Deputy Clerk, could you please call the roll for tonight's meeting?
Councilman Shafi present. Councilwoman Martin. Councilwoman Manica here, council Pro Tem Robinson, Council President Thomas here. Thank
you very much. Moving on to the approval of agenda. City council, we've had an opportunity to look at the agenda, and it's brevity. What's your pleasure?
I move to approve the agenda for Monday, October 7, Second.
Motion to approve the agenda made by Councilman Manica, seconded by Councilman Shafi madam Detroit, please call the roll
Councilman Shafi Yes. Councilwoman Manica Yes, council Pro Tem Robinson No. Council President Thomas Yes.
Motion carries moving on to the approval of the proposed minutes in person and virtual regular meeting minutes for September 16, 2024 City Council. What's your pleasure?
I move to approve the proposed minutes in person and virtual regular meeting September 16, 2024
chair offers a second, questions, concerns, dissent, Madam Deputy Kirk, would you please call the roll on the roll on the approval of the minutes? Councilman
Shafi, no. Councilwoman Manica, yes. Council proton Robinson, no. Council President Thomas, yes.
We have stalemate. Okay, moving on to the agenda. This is the opportunity that we set aside for the mayor to come and address Council and the citizens. Madam Mayor, floor is yours. Citizens
of Highland Park, Iowa Council and Administration, as the chief said, this is a very somber day.
I
knew Captain played, played very well. He served our community for a very long time, but he's also a very long time. And I got to call
that he is not going on with this Lord. And he's going to say, you know, we will miss him. He retired in April of this year to continue working on his health. That's something that he was very, very passionate about. Well, another thing he was passionate about was and at the Justice Center, he fought very hard to make sure that we had a flag, that he was a Marine, and he served in the military, and he said that we had to have a flag in that building, so make sure that that person on the little billboard, the flag waves on there. And that was because he was, he was a too patient. So at this time, I didn't have any audience. All the officers in the back, face black, those who will. And I'd like to take a moment of silence for Captain Clayton. And after the end, I would like all
but I'm going very pleased to see that we are moving forward with new offices. And community deserves to have fresh faces, new ideas and continue to grow. Some of the things that we plan you might not like. Some of the things might not sit right with you in your you know, but a city has to grow, and a city has to grow in a way where the community is pleased, not just us, but the community is pleased. And so I am thankful that we are continuing to try to bring people here who want to develop, who want to give out new ideas, fresh looks, because if we don't, I'm just going to be honest with you, we don't get people here. The whole idea is we don't get new citizens to this community. It will die regardless of how much you like them. Don't like them, want them, don't want them. A community is only as good as the number of people here. So with that being said, we did receive some grants that will help us with lights. I'm not gonna, I don't want people to start saying, Hey, call me light here. I need a light there. Don't that's it's not enough of them to be saying, I need the engineers will look and take and look to try to figure out where those lights will go. We have received money to help renovate some rec center. The Rec Center a little bit, renovate this building. There's other grants that came in, and we can't survive on grants, either, but it's a
start. So
I am out diligently talking to all of our representatives in the county in the state. Just the other day, I was working, I was with our people in the state, we're looking to get as much money as we can, while we can, but here's what they're going to request, and that's why I'm going to speak to the council, right? They're going to request that we grow if we don't become sustainable. They're not going to give us any money, cuz then we'll be back in where we are. So I'm saying to you all, we have to start looking at what we say to people and how we say it to them, because over the last year, we've lost five developers just based on what has been said in this council. I You can vote up and down. That's what your job is to do. Vote up and down, decide what you want, decide what you don't want. But we have to stop telling people things that is discriminatory, in a in a way, in a way we can't tell people they can't go through the process. That's the process. We have a process for a reason. And once you get to the end of the process and you decide to this process is not for you, it's not something you want to do, vote it down. But that's the process. So if, if we people are here and know that we're not going to get through the process, we're going to lose people. We're going to keep losing people. These developers are walking away and going to Detroit. They want to Detroit. They're going to Pontiac, they're going to other developing areas, but we need them. We need them now. All developers say good developments. I'm not saying that. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is we have to hear them out and stop telling people you're not good enough that right there, that shouldn't happen. So I'm asking you at this time, please hear people out. Just hear em out. See what they going, see what they got to offer, and if it's not something that you want, when it's time for you to decide, then you vote on it. I appreciate your time.
Thank you very much. Ma'am. Oh. Point of order for members of City Council today, we're supposed to be voting on the final reading of the ordinance, and unless there was any changes to it, we're in a position to make that approval. But last meeting, we read this ordinance into the record. We cannot approve it if there is no record of it. So we, I don't know if you want to reconsider approval of those minutes, if, in fact, we do not have this those minutes approved, there is no first reading, which means there can be no final reading. So I want, if I want to give you an opportunity to take a reconsideration, I went through and I thumbed through the minutes. Yes, sir,
council president for me, what was missing from the minutes was the appointment of Carlton Clyburn. It's missing from these minutes, so
it's missing the recording of that So Madam Clerk, so that's why there was something that occurred in the last meeting that he would like to have added to this set of minutes, and that was the grant that was approved, and the position as the manager of that grant is that correct, Mister Clyburn, you were, you were assigned a role of managing in that capacity in the grant that we approved, yes. So if that is the notation that needs to be made, we want to make sure and get that in there for mister. And that was the the mister in my neighborhood. Grant, yes, seaside grant, yeah. Okay, yep.
So seaside so,
so that correction can be made and added, if the
council necessary, Mr.
I would like that added. I would like, I would like my objection noted that the fact that these were two items on one resolution that wasn't added in as well either. Okay,
so Miss Madam Deputy Clerk, those items are important. They need to be added to this these minutes. If those items can be added to the minutes, would there be a possibility for reconsideration on item four? Okay, so the chair will entertain before we move on to Item five. The chair will leave the floor open if anybody would like to make a motion to reconsider item four. Miss Manica, I
move to reconsider four, which is the approval of the proposed business in person and virtual regular meeting. September 16, 2024
uh, the Chair will offer a second so we'll take a vote on the reconsideration. And then, Madam Deputy Clerk, if you would please make detailed notes on what Mr. Shafi is asking yes and add those minutes back at the next meeting. Yes, sir. Okay, so please make those changes. So if you could call the roll on reconsideration,
Councilman Shafi, yes. Councilwoman Manica Yes. Council program, Robinson Council President Thomas yes,
reconsideration will consider so now the chair will entertain a motion for the approval of the proposed in person and virtual, regular meeting minutes on September 16, 2024, city council. What is your pleasure? Yes. Ma'am, Miss Monica, can
I get again you want to include? Give me the part about. So what you got to
do is you got to make a motion, and then we have to include the approval to put that in, to add that into this function. So you could, Mr.
President, um, you could just be with the amendments as provided by Councilman ashafi. Miss, yes, okay, so
go ahead with your motion. Ma'am,
I move to approve the proposed minutes for in person and regular meeting. September 16, 2024 with the amendments proposed by Councilman kashida Shaki.
Do we have support? Chair wall for support. Mister Sharpie. Do you have anything else that you wanted to would that be
sufficient? It would be sufficient as long as I see it. I'm fine with it.
It's on the record, and we'll have to get these approved at the next meeting. So could we take the role on the approval of the minute with amendment? Councilman
Shafi Yes. Councilwoman Manica Yes. Council Pro Tem Robinson No. Council President Thomas Yes.
Motion carries. Thank you very much. Now we have that included in affirmative record, and we can move on to Item four, which is the four. I'm sorry, we gotta take care of old business. This is citizens participation. We have two items on the agenda today. That is the final ordinance reading for the solar energy systems ordinance and the bid opening for Iris field recreation enhancement, better known as Reggie McKenzie field citizens. Have any questions, concerns you want to come to the podium and address that the final reading for the solar ordinance or for the bid opening for Reggie McKenzie field enhancements? Yes, sir, please state your name.
Juan Shannon. Good evening. Council, citizens, administration, everyone,
good evening. Um,
I didn't get a chance to to come up last meeting to when he did the first reading of the solar energy ordinance. Um, I wanted to find out, basically, whether or not there was going to be any consideration for the people that already have solar system, because I did not hear anything in the reading that would protect the people that are already doing that here. And also, you know, considering that I was part of the group that was involved with getting this thing together, I really kind of concerned that those names were not mentioned during the presentation. So my my question is, and my concern is, is whether or not there will be some sort of consideration for the people that already have systems and also have other solar developments that are in the world.
Thank you, sir.
My question is, when you say considerations, are you talking about? Just saying your name? What are you asking? Saying your name? Sorry.
I wasn't clear about that. I was trying to make sure I stayed within the time. Usually, when you do ordinances or what have you, there comes a set of rules and regulations that you have to problem. And so the consideration I'm talking about is like, for instance, we didn't have a solar ordinance, and maybe I have a system that is 18 feet, five inches tall. The ordinance comes about and says, Oh, it has to be 20 feet. That could be a very, very expensive situation to change. So I'm speaking of consideration in that respect of grandfathered in, or however it would work out.
Thank you. Okay, no problem. Miss
Manica, to your point of order, there is a there are allowances to the planning commission, to the Zoning Board of Appeals, if there was an exception for an existing system, although this is very thorough, there are exceptions that could be granted through the Zoning Board of Appeals if you have an existing system, you won't. I don't see why you should have to dismantle your system. The simple request would be to ask for an exception if you have a pre existing system. So I mean, there's a lot baked into this. This will be made public, obviously, once we're finished with it, but I would encourage you to take a thorough read of it, because it is well put together. It covers a lot of things. So I think you should the umbrella would should cover what you're doing, and if it doesn't, there's always a Zoning Board of Appeals, always planning commission to make sure that we look out for some of the pioneers of this activity within the city, just addressing your point of order, any additional citizens that wanted to talk on the items that are on the agenda? Seeing none, hearing none. We'll move on to Item five. This is the ordinance, final reading. The ordinance has not changed. This is still the same document that we saw before. Having had an opportunity to provide a final reading for it, the Chair will entertain a motion from City Council how we should disclose about the five this is the ordinance, final reading for the solar energy systems. Ordinance, ladies and gentlemen, what's your pleasure?
I move to approve the final reading of the solar energy systems ordinance,
support. Chair wall for support. Questions, concern, dissent, discussion, hearing, none. Madam Deputy Clerk, would you please call the roll on item five? This is the ordinance final reading for the solar energy systems.
Councilman Shafi, no. Councilwoman Manica, yes. Council Pro Tem Robinson, no. Council President Thomas, yes.
We have stalemate. We have a member missing. Okay, moving on to item six. This is the bid opening for Iris field, better known as Reggie McKenzie recreation enhancements. Um, Madam Deputy park, you had a bid for us.
No bids were received. Are you kidding? No, I am not.
Okay. So we did not have any bids for Reggie McKenzie, field recreation enhancements?
Can we put it back out there for a little bit longer to see if some bids actually come in? So when
the bids came out through the clerk's office, they went
out Mr. Burgess,
Mr. Lackey. Let me look at Mr. Burgess on the line. So what we need to do is, Madam Mayor, can we get mister Burgess to reopen the bids? Because we they said we didn't get any bids. Gotta have some bids. Yes, ma'am, Madam proton,
can we actually spoke with the mayor just before the meeting, that this actually came in front of previous council. Can we get all the information before we even try to vote on something? Because I have no idea what any of this is about. Can we get that I just sent the clerk.
Okay, so so people in the audience, item item six reads bid opening. So we were anticipating having bids to open and announce and read and then turn those bids over to the administration. We're just informed by the deputy clerk that we receive no bids, not a one, not a one. So moving on to citizens participation. Do we have anything any citizen that would like to come forward and address council for your two minutes. Would you make your way to the podium?
Hi, my name is honorable board. My name is Jamil Edwards. I'm a highland Parker for over 30 years, and I'm a senior. I would like to be considered to have help in bringing my home back up to its original state. My basement flooded. FEMA wouldn't help me, nor my insurance. So I understand you had to be 55 years of age. But nobody has contacted anybody about applying for the
the grant, and I like to be considered.
Thank you, ma'am. Additional citizens that like to be heard, please take your pony. I see you, Madam Mayor, don't take cuts.
Very important. And imma, hold you to two minutes. That's
fine. So let me just be clear, we voted no on a $2.5 million grant that has money in it for 30 solar lights that now we won't be able to get because we have no ordinance so the citizens won't have no lights. That's what I'm asking. That's my question, and I would like or answer it somewhere like because those 30 lights could be placed somewhere to help people with the area. So and we continue, we we're going to continue to try to get money, but most of them will be solar. And if we can't have an ordinance, then we don't have solar. So
you just hurt my head because I'm today, years old, at whatever o'clock it is. You need to tell me, without the ordinance, that we would just supposed to pass, or was up to pass, yeah, that you don't get none of the solar lights. So
thank you. That's all I need.
Give me a minute.
Okay, okay, sir. Okay, let me give you a two minutes, sir. I'm sorry. I just needed a minute talk to God. Right quick. Go right ahead, sir.
My name is Hardeman. I came to council meeting last month and had two issues, spoke to my council member about it, and just coming here as a follow up on those two issues. My property is at 98 Brighton, and I also have, I don't know it is. I'll speak louder. I have two properties, 94 and 98 Brighton, and the property behind my property is owned by the city of Highland Park, and it's up for public auction. However, it's very blighted, and it has a big load of trash and illegal dumping behind it. So when I'm trying to back out my property, my car is always hitting against all of the dump trash behind there. I spoke to the Director of Public Works last month, they said we don't have enough people to deal with the issues of illegal dumping or properties that we own that are in blighted condition. Well, I think at least one time out of the year you should be able to address at least it's my second time coming to the city council to ask the mayor and ask the council, please do something about this. I'm investing a lot of money in the city of Highland Park with this property, and so I just want the cooperation from the governing body of the city of Highland Park to assist me. And the second is the water they replace water lines and properties. Well, I came to the last meeting you were putting out a request for proposal for bids for additional money that you received in a grant. I'd like to know if that is going to stop for winter, or you'll, once you receive the bids and you approve them, that you'll have the contractors begin to start doing the work. And I haven't been able to speak with this I think that's the director of water if, if you'll allow me to have a meeting with him so I can find the details out of how you're going to prioritize who receive their their pipelines, their water lines first. Because I'm investing a lot of money in this property right now a lot of money, and I won't be able to get tenants until next year if I don't get a water line. Okay, so please, my second time the council meeting, I'll keep coming back, but hopefully I'll get some communication from the mayor's office or the director of the water department or the Director of Public Works regarding the blighted property the city of Highland Park. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Come on up, sir.
Hello. Once again, it was Juan cannon, two quick things on october 21 there's a organization that is doing a documentary film on the African American artist, I mean African American author, Donald goin, and they will be Putting a mural over at Parker village to celebrate not only the film but the legacy of Donald going and on october 26 Parker village will be hosting its ninth annual candy giveaway. You can read all about it in the Parker village news. Some of you might have heard about it, you know, out there. So just want to let everyone know that they are invited to both of those events. I don't want it to seem like, you know, I'm just coming and, you know, picking and choosing everyone under the sound of my voice is invited to both of those events. Please come out and enjoy. You can get more information on our Facebook page, Parker village, HP, or our website, Parker village, HB, com, Thank You. Thank You. You.
Here.
Yes sir.
Hello. Council citizen, way sir. Sydney spike Parker, pride foundation city, how you doing? We're having a a Christmas in the Park Christmas Festival. It's going to be December 7. We put flyers in you guys box. I'm sure you have, I see a summer on the on the desk in front of you guys. We would like everyone in the city, as well as Council, to participate, to get involved, to see what we need done, just so we can be like, maybe everybody come in and help out a event that's given to these kids. We want all the kids in the city to to come out to enjoy what we do. This will be our thing, our second festival. We used to do the light show by lighting up the library that kind of that got kind of watered down. Participation from the city really wasn't there, and we spent a lot of money for not that many people show up to see what did. So what we're going to do this festival. Last year's festival was phenomenal. It was just great. We had lot of things for the kids. We gave just about every, you know, we gave every kid a short for toy. We took back to toys back. So we really want to see if you guys can, you know, come up with some ideas we can do to create the moment of Christmas for the city Highland Park as well, for these kids. And we're looking for a family who in who's in need of a blessing. Last year, we gave Sam his daughter and kids a beautiful Christmas. They got gifts and things for the mom and the kids. They were really and also we bought them Thanksgiving dinner. You know, it was really nice. So we're looking for another family who is really in need, not just a planning family who they they can be looked out for somebody that really is in need. We want to see if we can, you know, do something nice for him, and we also look for sponsorships. Does anybody know anyone who wants to participate in helping us raise funds, donate funds or just have funds, just to donate to this cause? Parker pride foundation is where your checks go to, and we'll deposit in our account. And there is a tax write off with 501, c3, now, so there's a tax write off for that, and I have flyer for the citizens to take home, and hopefully December 7 to be another great turnout.
Alright, thank you, sir. Thank you,
Council. Good
evening. Don't
My name is Mark Ashley price. I'm from the Holland Park School Board, and I just wanted to send my congratulations to the new police officers who was just sworn in this evening, and I just want to say I hope God would protect them from anything, not just them, but any police officer or any fire officer as well. I hope God will protect Thank you.
Thank you. Evening,
everyone. Darla, Bella, they're doing a beautiful job of paving. I don't know what they're doing, I guess replacing the pavement. But my concern is I drive through there on the corner. I'm talking about 535, Puritan and dumb on Edward. It seems like it's a forgotten I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but it seems like it's a forgotten area. You ride through there, your your car is torn up. Too long, too long. Lords torn up because only certain parts, and I have pictures, and then certain parts are paid. So I'm wondering, is there a protocol to get do you call in to get yours paid? Because certain, certain places, they're properly paid on the way. So I'm just, I'm trying to find out, how do I go about it, getting the pavement down there and the holes the people don't want to come to the meeting. I asked them to come. There's strength in numbers. But they said, What? Steves, you're wasting your time, but I'm going to keep coming,
yes please,
all the way down. Edward potholes listed. I have pictures. The garbage has not been picked up for a month. I can make some more copies and pass them around. I don't understand, but I thank you all for the work you're doing, the improvement that you're doing, but something's gotta be done. About these five words, and like I said, they're they replaced two lawn mowers for me, I have to see. I can't keep
them. Yeah, yeah. And then the Madam Clerk, if you don't mind, I would all, we would all like to have copies of that. Yeah, I know where you I know where you're talking about. You're talking about over here, down far in wide corner on the very wide Western small bottom portion,
I'm sorry. And I call mister Roach, and I got information, they said to mister, tear it down because it's wrote whatever. The thing is, the groundhog they have eaten up my garden. They're this big, so, yeah, I've seen them, and that's been helping. So thanks for doing a great job, and I'll be happy when y'all get done. Edward, yes, ma'am, thank you.
Yes, sir, good evening,
Council. Mary. I just wanted to stop by. I heard about this meeting. Said, stop by, and I have a letter and a proposal. We just got the property at
16, 549, whoop
and if I
that's I'm Tyrone Applewhite, I'm
sorry. Yeah,
I'm with the Alexander holding Group
LLC, and please stop by the this letter here is to the Council, as far as you know, things that we want to do for the community as becoming a
part of this community. Also you said 16, 5491, yes.
Okay, so we're just receiving it finally. Thank you, sir. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. You
Yes,
sir,
Mr. Lemire, evening Citizens Council, Internet people. I was I was reading about this McKenna group a week or two ago. They're supposed to put together a master plan for the city, but I was under the impression that that was under the purview of the county and much more affordable in in that capacity. When county is doing that, I think the cheapest employee at the mechanic group commands about $100 an hour. But like I said, a year ago, 13 months ago, a year and a half ago, I am an urban planner, and I will do the work for $0.00 because I love this city, and I know it like the back of my hand. And I have the master plan. I've read the master plan, and I'd love to put together another one, as I think it's legally mandated, by the year of 2026, so feel free to reach me my telephone at 651-269-7166, or at my office at 71 Oakman Boulevard and Highland Park. That's a 480, 203, zip code. And with that, thank you.
Thank you, sir, seeing no more people coming to the phone, Miss Ford,
we say we going to say the best for last
council to the citizens, I just have one question, what was the enhancements for? I feel, you know, what were, what were they asking for? What were they planning on doing? And, you know, because the citizens don't know anything about it, so we
don't we when they put out bids for enhancements, miss, Ford, I don't know what those enhancements are, either we'd have to go to the city and ask for a list of what those enhancements are. Now, Madam pro tem, help me, if I'm not mistaken, you ask for more detail about that, correct? So, yeah, so to answer your question, we don't know. And so there was a request made by council Pro Tem to get a little bit more specifics. It could be a wide range of things, but we don't have that. We don't have that information in front of us, and therefore we we're not in a position to add that's a great question to have, but we don't have anything in front of us to list. What those enhancements?
Yeah, because I'm thinking could have been an enhanced arrest room, we don't
know. So no, I was told it was for the
information so we can move on. So
I'm waiting for that. Okay,
thank you. First of all, thank you.
Okay, seeing no more people coming to the podium, I will go directly into Council affairs and turn the floor over to Mr. El shapi, okay, um,
council president, maybe the attorney can look into this for me. But as our development goals, as this city grows and things improve, clearly on the verge of improving, my concern is the survival of the long term residents who have been here for 1020, 3040, and 50 years. You know, I know quite a few residents who have been in the exact same home that they've been in for 50 years. Um, Miss Edwards has been in our own for what? Yeah, she's been there so long she's lost track of that. But, but I wanted to know if legal could look into this matter. For me, I want to know because I've seen it done in other cities where, for long term residents, we can protect them by capping their property taxes and allowing them to stay where they're at and and and allowing everything else to go up according to how normal investment goes, where you make an investment into into a community or city, people's property taxes, or because they just increase the value in the area. I want to make sure that the residents who are living in these areas, especially in District Three, do not get pushed out. And I know that there's something that we can do there, and I would like for legal to look into that and tell us exactly what we can do to safeguard those residents in districts one, District Two and district three. I know there's something that we can do here to protect them from the or from the onslaught of rising property taxes, cuz right now I'm paying I'm paying $1,400 that's not a problem for me, but if the community is improved too much, I could go from $1,400 a year to $5,000 a year. Now it's going to be a little tight for me, but imagine that being put on to a senior citizen who's on a fixed income, who doesn't have that extra five grand a year to give, and that's my concern, and that's my concern about any development that's coming into this city that we don't get pushed out. I'm tired of every time improvements come into a neighborhood, the existing people in the neighborhoods get pushed out. And you've seen it, cash corridor, court, town, Midtown, downtown. You've seen people be pushed out after improvements are made. You've seen it firsthand. I know all of you remember how bustling downtown you should be with black businesses. Try to find them now go down there and tell me, and tell me where they're at now. And some of the people have been sitting in those buildings for 30 years, and they got pushed out after the redevelopment of downtown. I don't want that to happen to us. We've been here far too long. I've been here for 20 years. I've been looking at Beirut for 20 years. And now that you're going to improve it, you know you want to tell me, alright, Fat Boy, it's time to get out. No, I'm not going anywhere. Okay? I've been looking at Beirut for 20 years, potholes the size of my body. Okay? So all I'm saying is, I know there's something that we can do to protect the residents of Highland Park. I would like for legal to look into that. Thank you.
I'd be happy to do that. Okay, Mr. Bostic said he could do that for you. Mr. O'shop, if you guys could communicate via email. Okay, confirmation. Miss Manica, we're going to move over into you for your section on council up there. Miss Banneker, the floor is yours. Hi, good evening. Do Hi. Good
evening. First, I'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules, to bring right out of five final reading of solar energy system back on the table. Several reasons why I would like to spill rules is because we can't really afford to lose any assistance coming to us now, maybe we can table it. If there's a question that really needs to happen so that this can be a cool engineers are still here, but this is really big to help us. Solar energy systems will help us, along with a lot of other things in here that we need a lot of improvement, and we have no funding, or funds readily available for a lot of these things. So if it's here and we can get it, we need to try to make sure it happens. So I would like to bring it back so that maybe you can ask a question, and I'm talking to my council members, you can ask a question that will help you really understand, or we can at least table it, and they can then answer those questions. So I'm asking you to suspend the rules and bring this motion back.
We have a motion on the floor from Councilwoman Council affairs to suspend the rules to bring an item back on the floor, we need to take a vote once suspending the rules, chair will offer support on suspending the rules. Madam Deputy Clerk, would you please call the roll? It's four of us. It'll either pass or be stalemate if you go ahead and call a roll on suspending the rules. Councilman
Shafi,
no for suspending the rules.
Councilwoman Manica, yes. Council proton Robinson, no. Council President Thomas, yes,
I'm afraid that we cannot. Okay,
so I'm not going to really go into it right now, but I really would like to know and be I really like for my council members to hear how you doing, call me, talk to me, write it in the email, explain about turning this down, not that you do with your vote, but I need to understand for me, maybe I missed something. Maybe it's something in there that I missed. It says we don't need, you know that we don't need the assistance that will come from this. Is it the people who join it? Is it the fact that I believe this is the one Carlton is on? Just no,
this is the, this is the ordinance that was written by MCA.
Solar is not the seaside.
It's not those are two separate things.
Thank you. So, I mean, I'm looking at it, and I'm sorry I know this is citizen participation. No, no. This is you. This is Council. It says that we can decrease costs on energy. There's a quality of life for the current residents property protect property owner rights to construct SES and zoning districts. I mean, in her support environmental site design, we're talking about becoming sustainable, and again, that's a real huge point in our city, then we need to become sustainable and renewable. I don't know if it has to do with the people who's part of this. I'm really not sure. But, or is it because we didn't do the work. Imma tell you I don't have an respect to do this over the ordinance, because I have to still have one of them come and sit with me to do this ordinance. And I just think we have got to, I don't care what it is or where it is, we've got to move forward. We can do all the little things we want to do. We can swing and holler and shout, but we have to start moving forward with development, or it's going to move we don't want to be moved out. We always talk about that. But I'm afraid that if we don't start really welcoming, down and answering and really and I understand we need some answers, but if we needed answers before we just dismiss money because they're going to stop giving us money, because they've already stopped giving us money, and I don't know if everybody understands that we've already had money not come to us because we didn't accept it, or we turned it down, or we didn't do the projects. It's time to move on for whatever past has happened, and move on to the future. I just want to go ahead and say some upcoming events. Some upcoming events. Oh, I'm sorry. Before I do that, mister Shaki, you asked about seniors, and somebody can go back me, or I can stand selected the lawyer still. Please oblige mister shocky and his request, but seniors, or people period, can have their property reassessed or assessed, or you can ask to be exempt. Seniors can ask the county to be exempt for their taxes. I think that's what you kind of referring to you can ask to be exempt. Yes, can ask to be zip. Is not that it's going to happen, but it goes to the board of reviews. The
struggle to get there, it's almost next to impossible. I think there's something to
help facilitate that. Well, our city, when we assess it, we can probably tell them better when it's coming about, so they can be more prepared to be assessed. But that assessment essentially ends up downtown and it's done there. So again, please, attorney, please give us that information. October 11, there's an open house quarter six at the fire station headquarters. In case you did not know that's on 25 Gerald Street, Highland Park, Michigan. They're asking come and enjoy food and beverages, fire truck and station tour, get your picture taken and fire gear. It's kind of sweet, by the way, y'all be a fire gear. Learn fire prevention, okay? And if you have granted kids, and they come and they see you in that fire gear, they kind of think it's weak, just okay. Halloween is coming up also, um, it will be the normal, the normal trunk of tree happening on Halloween at the Rec Center. Uh, we're Fire Department, I think police department organization, say to Barbados Sorority, Incorporated and some community residents who will decorate their cars, back in their cars and do trunk or treat. So if anybody's interested, you might want to talk to the Parks and Rec director, Sue Miranda, at Tim pinkens, I wasn't kind of sure what to call it for a second there. Ernest C Ford Fieldhouse, Holland Park Fire Department also have food. You are invited Halloween haunted house, October 19. That's from six to eight. That will also be at Tim Pickens at the Highland Park at the seaport Field House, gift bags given to those who make it through the haunted house. So they're saying the haunted house going to be pretty scary guys. So if you make it through it, they got a couple of prizes for you. Next big piece for me is voting, voting. Our record on voting is just about as bad as our record and everything else, almost. We do not vote. We holler. We have 9000 people, but we're not voting. As females, you're really not voting. Go look it up. Look it up for yourself. Go find that information. We gotta stop not voting. If you want something to happen, you gotta put your vote in. And I heard it all. The vote got accounted well last I checked if you want to go all the way back. You know how we go back to slavery, even they voted on whether or not they was going to need a house, or they was going to stay in the house, either they were going to follow the little river, or they was going to say so. Voting goes all the way back. You need to figure that out. You need to vote to make it happen, not just in the city of Holland Park, also the president. Everything needs to happen for you, you need to vote. I'm asking you to consider voting, and don't forget to do nonpartisan. You must also vote nonpartisan. They've made it so easy for everybody to vote that you can register up until the day you can register and vote all at the same time. How about that? Y'all don't sound excited. Okay, I need you to sound excited. Some of you already vote. That's fine, but some of you haven't. Again, military, overseas, kids and students, you have the ability now to do more voting. There will be several. There's information downstairs, also on voting. If you don't know, all I'm asking you is grab one person, just one person, and get them to vote with you, be it in Holland Park or Detroit, because I know everybody here is not Holland Park, but I need Holland Park definitely to vote. Come on and vote, guys. I thank you for your time to see you. Everybody have a great night.
Thank you, ma'am,
Madam Pro Tem one, why I made a great point? Because I was a part of the organization that he was a part of that kind of like kick started all this solar stuff and everything. And some people and businesses already have solar street lights and stuff
with him, 100%
for the ordinance to be explained, to make sure that
the lights that are already erected
are covered to stay there or whatever. We need to those more
information on that. And in regards to the ISO recreation enhancement,
I did speak to the mayor earlier. She said that that was actually started for the previous council. But we need more information on
that before I can explore, I have no idea what it's about, so I did email the clerk and and the deputy clerk to get that information out to us, and wanted to thank our pastor back there, coming to the meetings always. And God bless everybody.
Thank you.
Thank you, ma'am. I'm
going to be as super brief, because I want to get out here just like the rest of y'all. Let me just start at the beginning. We read the ordinance. We read it in the chamber. We read it thoroughly. The five of us had an opportunity to look at it. If you can put together an Ikea shelf, you can read this ordinance. The ordinance spelled out an opportunity for us to be able to control the ordinances allows the community to control what happens. So just like with marijuana, there are no dispensaries because this council said no to an ordinance, let the state do their thing. We'll figure that out at a later date. With no ordinance, we have no protection. And I'm, I'm, I want to say, and I'll say this, I'm, I'm kind of disappointed, because we are two meetings away from losing our charter. You think I'm joking. Anybody here ever been up to Mackinac? Ever played golf on those golf courses? When you go to Mackinac, and you're in there with the power brokers. We have a lame duck governor. We have, at the moment, a house and senate that is controlled by a party that is in favor of helping poor cities like ours, and they have been pouring funds into the inner city like Benton Harbor, like Flint, like Saginaw, like Highland Park, because there has been historical proof that damage has been done to these communities. And so you have people that have a soft spot in their heart to try and fix this. They're retiring. Debbie Stabenow is gone. He's gone. Okay, people like that who cared about writing those historic wrongs and providing funds to cities like ours, they are going away. They're not going to be here anymore. And so when you have people like Martha Scott who worked really hard to get funds allocated from the county for us to demolish homes, and then you have a citizen to come in and say, I'm putting money into my property and I got this dilapidated house behind me, or have this trash put up. I don't understand when I'm and I'm speaking directly to my members. I don't understand if you're aware of the fact that you know you don't miss a good thing until it's gone. We are at the phase right now where our government is about to shift, whether you like it or not, the country is about to shift, and so the consideration for small, poor towns like ours may diminish significantly if the constitution of the House and the Senate in the state of Michigan changes, And if the House and the Senate in Washington changes, the well will run it dry. And every week you come in here and you get this sheet, the names are Thomas Robinson, Manica Martin and Al Shafi, and we could be the City Council responsible for the dissolution of the city of Highland Park. There are 24 months left in our turn, we will have a new president in January. We could be responsible, either to our inactions or in our actions or inactions, to the dissolution of this city, and our names will go down in infamy. We could be the ones anytime we funds are brought to us that are granted. It's a grant. It is granted to you, and we say, No, we're sending a message. We're sending a message to the people who provide these grants. Excuse my language. They don't owe our black asses anything. But you have people who are willing to look at historical wrongs that have been done and grant funds to the city having a solar ordinance, all these poor people in district three and district two and district one having a solar ordinance that allows people who cannot afford $125 a month in electric to put a solar panel up and minimize their electric costs. But we said no. We said no to an ordinance that we will control. We said, No, we're doing damage. And don't you believe that Senator Chang is not watching this? Don't you believe that our lame duck governor is not watching this? Why send money into this city if we're going to say no to it makes absolutely no sense to turn down a grant. Let me shift over to the vetting process of developers. Now, like Benjamin Franklin said, either we hang together or we hang individually, the previous councils are saddled with the decisions that they made as far as development goes. So none of the five of us want to stick our toe in the doo. Doo of making mistakes when it comes to developers, and we are cautious, because none of us, myself included, I don't care. I spent the last five years studying development. I am not a developer until my project is finished, and so we're going to be very cautious. I understand sepia coffee was a was we? Was the learning curve? Alright? Um, aphrodisiac was a learning curve. Those are local citizens that wanted to do things here. But some of these large developers, they have to have their stuff together, because I am not going to be on the city council where we give away, give away, large chunks of property. And we have a dilemma like we have in north point that is a graveyard in our community. And anybody who can go up, go up north of Woodward, go where the old school site is, and just make a right turn and you see the mistakes of the previous city councils. Nobody here wants to be saddled with that. So yes, people will be cautious. Very much so. And as I said during the workshop, we have been disposing of one property at a time. I am very reluctant to give away 100 properties to a developer who couldn't even show us what they've done, and right after that developer, we had another developer come in and give us a resume, as long as my body, who could give us addresses and the history of their projects. We should not, because we're desperate to have change do things where we put ourselves in jeopardy, where the presenters can't even give us a presentation that is sufficient to meet us where we are, whether I got a GED or a master's degree. That second presentation was thorough. That is what my expectation is going to be. Because, like I said in the very beginning, I didn't want to have the national parliamentarians association here, because of what I know about parliamentary procedure, I wanted to have the National Association of Parliamentarians here, because everybody in the group didn't necessarily have that same level of understanding. I want to make sure when a developer comes in here and puts a presentation up, that everybody in the room understands it, because we're going to be saddled the names are going to read Thomas Robinson, Manica, Martin and Al Shafi. So when it comes to decisions about developers, I believe this city council, as stringent as we are, will give the developers a fair shot. And I will be honest with you, and this might startle some of you. I count on Mr. Al Shafi giving these people to business, because if they cannot withstand his scrutiny, then how the hell are they going to do a development in this city? Let's just be honest. We have our differences, but if they cannot deal with the scrutiny of a member sitting on the city council, then how the hell are they going to do a development in this city? That's just the facts. Ladies and gentlemen, we're not here to get along the five of us. We're here to make decisions as any random person in the city of Island Park, at the gas station, up at the grocery store, our job is not to like each other, is to be thorough if we get along, fantastic, but that is not the job of the city. We are the We Are the board of directors for this citizens Corporation. And I will tell you before I moved here, I lived downtown in a co op. I can't afford it today. I don't care how much money I make, I cannot afford that same Co Op. I worked downtown in Fox Theater for Sibley shoes start 1987 all those black businesses are gone. Anybody remember Cafe mahogany from the 90s? Absolutely so when I was in college, there was a place in Detroit that all the famous entertainers and rap Tribe Called Quest will be there on any given Saturday that was in downtown, right at Harmony Park, which used to be paradise valley. It doesn't resemble what it used to be at all. So I just want to drive this message home to you, we are two meetings away from losing our charter. Highland Park does not have to exist, and the city of Detroit and the county already has a plan on how to dispose of this city. If we don't start receiving the grant and improving our city, we won't have a city if we don't get quality developers, quality developers that bring us products that respect the lineage of this city, the legacy of the people that are here, and the value of this land. We won't be making these decisions. We will not be the ninth council district in the city of Detroit. We will be absorbed in the districts two, four and five. That's all, I gotta say. Consider what we're doing here. No one will reject financial aid for their child, because it is money going into improving their future. We should not be rejecting grants under any circumstance, because we could lose this charter. And when they ask who's responsible, they're going to say, Thomas Robinson, Martin Manica and Al Shafi. Chair will entertain a motion to adjourn all those in favor, Meeting adjourned.
