August 28, 2023, City Council Meeting

Introduction:

Links to the video recording and the council packet are at the bottom of this post. Please note any errors or omissions in the comments. Anything noted in brackets was inserted by Clarkston Sunshine.

Agenda Item #1, Call to Order

The meeting was not formally called to order.

Eric Haven said it was 7:00, wished everyone a good evening, and welcomed everyone to city council.

Agenda Item #2, Pledge of Allegiance (Video time mark 0:00:05):

Pledge said.

Agenda Item #3, Roll Call (Video time mark 0:00:23):

Haven told everyone they could be seated and asked Karen DeLorge (city clerk) to take the roll.

Gary Casey, Bruce Fuller, Amanda Forte, Sue Wylie, Laura Rodgers, Mark Lamphier, and Eric Haven were present.

Agenda Item #4, Approval of Agenda (Video time mark 0:00:43):

Haven said they have a full house tonight, and he would entertain a motion to approve the agenda as it has been given to them. And if you all don’t know, you can access this agenda online every week before you come, but it’s presented to the council. Haven said he would entertain a motion to approve it, as it has been given to them, or make any alterations the council would like to make.

Motion by Wylie; second Rodgers.

Haven asked if there was any discussion.

No discussion.

Motion to approve the agenda as presented passed by unanimous voice vote.

Agenda Item #5, Public Comments (Video time mark 0:01:14):

[Though public comments can sometimes irritate the city council, there is value to both the council and the public in hearing them. While they can’t eliminate public comments entirely without violating the Open Meetings Act, your city council has decided not to acknowledge public comments during a city council meeting unless the person submitting the comments also appears at the meeting (in-person or electronically) to personally read them, but this is a rule that they occasionally adhere to (or not). Mayor Eric Haven has also cut people off for exceeding the city council’s arbitrary three-minute time limit (it’s arbitrary because no time limits are required by the Open Meetings Act), another rule that they occasionally adhere to (or not).

If your public comments were submitted to the council but not read, or if you tried to make public comments but your comments were cut short by the mayor, please email them to clarkstonsunshine@gmail.com and I will include them in my informal meeting summaries either under public comments or under the specific agenda item that you want to speak to.]

Haven read the rules for public comment and asked if anyone wanted to make a public comment this evening.

Haven recognized Chet Pardee for a comment. Pardee thanked Haven, walked up to the podium, identified himself, and provided his address.

Chet Pardee:

Pardee said for those of you who haven’t been through his public comments, he sends them at least six hours before tonight’s meeting to council and the city officials.

Pardee said good evening. He’s encouraged by the spending of capital project funds for repairing Depot Road and intended city sidewalk repairs. Additional revenue is required for needed road repairs and bringing all sidewalk sections to ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliance. Oakland County has said upper and lower Mill Ponds will be equalized, but that will not be possible without repairing West Miller Road. The cost of repairing West Miller should be added in the capital improvement plan along with replacing the seven paver aprons on Main Street.

More homes on North Main being visited by the code enforcement officer to improve exteriors and to remove unlicensed vehicles. The beige house adjacent to the Washington and Main parking lot is now showing mold or mildew. The gray duplex needs stain or paint. He counts six non-moving, not currently licensed vehicles visible from the North Main Street sidewalk – silver truck, black sedan, black trailer, black sedan, red truck, beige sedan.

Pardee said he was sorry that Mr. Ryan [Tom Ryan, city attorney] wasn’t here. Should it take five years to paint the exterior, repair the porch, and remove the trash from the backyard, the home adjacent to the new For Sale by Owner side instead of Pella house. Tom Ryan should be familiar with the escalation practices used by other municipalities that Clarkston could adopt.

Does the gasoline plume at 148 North Main extending under Clarkston Road and North Main impact how people view the North Main area? With the recent rains, Pardee recalls the young, in his view, engineer’s response to Sue Wylie asking how long it will take for the 1980s gasoline to dissipate. His answer was not in his lifetime. The gasoline plume prevents a development opportunity. Honcho exists because a coffee shop was proposed for the 148 North Main corner over the gasoline plume. The FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requested documents show Tom Ryan and the city would not agree to accept the liability of potential environmental damage to lower Mill Pond, Parke Lake, and downstream. That caused the coffee shop proposal to be abandoned. The gasoline plume with the MDOT [Michigan Department of Transportation] restricted markers continues.

Haven thanked Pardee and said so, for those of you who don’t come on a regular basis and know the rules, they don’t have to comment. They can ask Mr. Pardee a question or answer one of his if they want to. It’s not required. Haven asked if anyone on the council wanted to discuss anything Mr. Pardee brought up.

No comment from council.

Haven told Pardee many of these things are in process as he knows, and they have a code enforcement officer taking care of some of those items Pardee advised and they get monthly reports from Stacey Kingsbury [contract code enforcement officer from Carlisle/Wortman]. Haven said OK, so those things are in process. Haven thanked Pardee for his attention to detail there.

Haven said all right and asked if there was any other public comment.

No additional public comments.

Haven said OK, hearing none, they will move on to number six on their agenda.

Agenda Item #6, FYI (Video time mark 0:04:57):

Haven said this is For Your Information, and there are four things he has this evening.

[Video time mark 0:05:03; this first item was not listed on the published agenda.] Haven said the first one is there’s going to be a live auction by Preservation Clarkson. Haven said he would have DeLorge post this as well. Haven said he was asked to post this in support of the construction tech program and some of their projects around here. They’ve helped us a lot in the park, and they helped us with this building as well. So, it’s just a promotion to help the kids, the high school kids, and their construction tech program. Haven said he would pass these around, and they can just pass then them through the audience.

Item 6a – Spencer Real Estate presents Magic Bus in Depot Park on Thursday, August 31, 2023 (Video time mark 0:05:03):

• • Magic Bus Concert Flyer (page 3/104 of the council packet)

Haven said then there’s a concert on August 31^st. This is the Magic Bus, which is always very popular here, brought to us this year by Spencer Real Estate. And so that’s on August 31^st, like he said, from 5:00 to 10:00 in the evening. It’s very popular.

Item 6b – Clarkston Independence District Library Presents Klezundheit Family Concert on September 9^th, 2023 (Video time mark 0:05:48):

• • Klezundheit Family Concert Flyer (page 4/104 of the council packet)

Then there’s the one Haven enjoys. This is one from the library. It’s the Klezundheit, OK, orchestra. And it’s just hilarious, the name, to him. But nevertheless, he went online and listened to some of the music. It’s very, very beautiful European music. So anyway, that’s going to be on September 9^th at 1:00 PM in the park.

Item 6c – Clarkston Community Historical Society’s 51^st Annual Art in the Village on September 16^th and 17^th, 2023 (Video time mark 0:06:05):

• • Art in the Village Flyer (page 5/104 of the council packet)

Haven said and then, of course, our annual Art in the Village, and there’s a vintage market pop-up in this. The date of this he should give you first is, the 51^st [annual show], it’s on September 16^th and 17^th. That’s Friday and Saturday, right Jonathan [Johnathan Smith, city manager and president/treasurer of the Clarkston Community Historical Society]?. Smith said correct. [Haven was corrected by Rodgers who told him it was Saturday.] Haven said he was sorry. Saturday and Sunday, 16^th and 17^th, Saturday and Sunday.

Haven asked Smith what a vintage market pop-up shop is. He’s said that they’ve done that for 2-3 years now. Smith said so, it’s vintage stores. Yellow Dog is a sponsor, so they’ll be there, that kind of, if you’re not familiar with Yellow Dog, he’s not sure how to describe it. Haven said Yellow Dog, north on Dixie. Smith said on Dixie Highway. Haven said oh yeah. Smith said so, but that’s just one of many stores that will be at the pop-up event.

Haven said OK, very interesting. Always a great event and packs them in. Hopefully, we’ll have nice weather for this too.

Haven asked if there were any other For Your Information announcements that need to be made that are not on the agenda.

No comments.

Haven said all right, hearing none, they would move on to the next item here, which is the city manager’s report.

Agenda Item #7, City Manager Report (Video time mark 0:07:08; page 6/104 of the council packet):

Haven said the report is in their packet, and he would just allude to the paragraphs that Smith wrote for them and they can make any comments or ask Smith any questions.

First, the Mill Pond dam status. And in addition to what Smith wrote here, he talked about the grant that they received to do the study and the engineering planning for having the county take over the dam basically. And so that’s in progress. You may have seen some drone flights over the top or some other activity going on, but there’s a report promised, he shouldn’t say promised, but anticipated December or January of this year and beginning of next year, summarizing the results of that plan and giving the costs and so on for moving forward. So that all the residents, there’s 66 residents, Haven thinks, around the upper and lower Mill Pond can take a look at that thing and decide if they want to go forward with this, but really quality work is being done by the county and by the state. They’re really glad to have them, you know, involved in all this.

So, that’s the Mill Pond dam status and Magic bus concert, which they just talked about

Love Locks. If you’ve ever been on the Ginny Schultz Bridge, the one that crosses the Mill Race down here, look down and see the love locks. Have you seen the love locks on there? They’re attached to the railing, the vertical railing. He first looked at those and he asked Smith what those are for there. There’s only six or eight of them, but then Smith told Haven that this has been going on in Europe for quite some time and it’s really a lovers lane kind of thing, you know, where they’ll attach a lock to the rail and make sure it’s locked up and then throw the key into the river. It’s almost like a wishing well kind of thing, he thinks back in the day, but it’s very popular in Europe, so it’s happening here in Clarkston, believe it or not. And so, you can go take a look at that. Haven encourages you to do that.

And then status of planned repairs to city sidewalks. That’s in their agenda already isn’t it, he thinks. Smith said well, not the sidewalks. So just telling you, we’ll talk about roads tonight, but sidewalks, just telling you that’s still in process. Haven said the pavers. Smith said no, the broken slabs, the heaved slabs. Haven said oh, that’s around town, yeah. Smith said so, we have a contractor identified. He’s competitive pricewise. It’s just a question whether or not you can fit in the work yet this fall. So, we’re making progress.

Haven said excellent. So, again, he didn’t mean to steer you (unintelligible). He just wanted to kind of outline, so, if anyone has any questions about the dam status, or Magic Bus, or love locks, or the city sidewalks. Does anyone want to ask Smith a question?

(Someone made an unintelligible comment.) Smith said 301. Exactly. There are 301 slabs that have been identified in the city. They either are heaved or cracked or sunken, and they don’t think are candidates for lifting so, yeah, it’s a lot. They did 244 about five years ago. So, they’ve got 301 identified. There’s been a lot of movement. Trees are the primary cause. Haven said yeah, so they’re trying to keep up on them.

Agenda Item #8 – Motion: Acceptance of the Consent Agenda as Presented (Video time mark 0:10:22):

• • 07-24-2023 Final Minutes (page 7/104 of the council packet)
  • 08-14-2023 Draft Minutes (page 9/104 of the council packet)
  • 08-28-2023 Treasurer Report (page 12/104 of the council packet)
  • 08-24-2023 Revenue and Expenditure Report for the Period Ending 07-31-2023 (page 13/104 of the council packet)

Haven said all right, the next item on the agenda is their consent agenda, and this is the presentation of the final minutes for July 24^th, the draft minutes for the meeting after that, August 14^th, and then the treasurer’s report dated 8-28. So, they consolidate these into one packet if anyone wants to take anything out of there and make comments about it or ask questions, they can, but they’ll handle it as one. Haven said so, he’ll entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda as it’s been presented to them.

Motion by Fuller; second Wylie.

Haven said there is a motion and second to accept their consent agenda and asked if there were any comments or discussion.

Haven recognized Pardee. Pardee said the second edition for the agenda that included the consent agenda. Haven said yes, there was, and that’s why you’re not going to see, maybe the first agenda was on the table back there if they picked up one. Smith said the agenda itself; it was overlooked in the color. Haven said the initial one. Smith said it in the packet. The agenda was in the packet. Smith asked DeLorge if that was right, and DeLorge agreed. Smith said so, the consent agenda was in the packet, it’s just that the agenda, the one-page agenda did not (unintelligible). Pardee said including the financial documents. Smith and Haven said yes, they’re here.

Haven said so, they have a motion and second to accept the consent agenda.

The motion to accept the consent agenda as presented passed by unanimous voice vote.

Haven said all right, there’s no old business per se.

DeLorge asked Pardee if he wanted the whole packet. Pardee said no, he was just looking for the finance documents added. Haven said Pardee could have his. Pardee asked if he could get them online, and DeLorge said he could.

Agenda Item #9, Old Business (Video time mark 0:12:17):

Haven said all right. No old business, so they’ll move to new business.

Agenda Item #10, New Business (Video time mark 0:12:18):

Haven said they’ve got several items here under new business.

Item 10a – Discussion: Sewage Rate Increase (Dave McKee from Independence Township) (Video time mark 0:12:20; page 22/104 of the council packet):

Haven said the first item is a sewage rate increase. That’s always a fun topic. And Dave McKee is here from Independence Township. Haven welcomed McKee and asked what he could tell them about this.

Smith said he asked McKee to come to the meeting tonight. He’s a very busy man, so it’s been a couple weeks since Smith asked him, but they’re seeing a lot of emails and communication back and forth between the Great Lakes Water Authority talking about increases in sewer billing rates. McKee experienced this firsthand in the township and their board passed a resolution to increase the billing rate for sewage in the township. It’s something we’ve needed to do for a while here in the city. So, we’re not any different than the township. We need to mirror the same actions that they’re taking, so McKee is here to talk about a few things, and we’ll let him go through this PowerPoint presentation where he talks, this is the presentation McKee made to the township board.

Dave McKee:

Good evening, everybody. Thank you for listening to me. So, tonight, what Smith laid out quite well, so we’re going to talk about sewage disposal. It’s not the whole rate. There’s different parts and components of the sewer rate. In the village here, you folks set your own rates for which you charge for. This is for the disposal piece only. Whatever we pay in the township, you pay the same amount.

So, basically how it works is we are under the jurisdiction of the Clinton Oakland sanitary sewer system. So, it’s a big pipe goes through Oakland County. Then it goes east and then becomes the Oakland/Macomb Interceptor. The pipe gets bigger as it goes east, and then it makes a right turn, heads south, and heads right down into the Great Lakes Water Authority’s sewage treatment plant in Detroit.

So, we are a collection system only and we are charged for a disposal rate. They base our rate on flow and percentage of usage. So, when we calculate the rates for the disposal piece only, we use our REUs [residential equivalent units] because it’s residential equivalent unit. Every facility that’s connected to the sewer has a residential equivalent unit. Homes are one. A restaurant might be twenty, or five for a car wash. So, those are all, number one, based off of an Oakland County residential equivalent unit chart that was updated in 2018. They went out in the village here. McKee said he wanted to apologize, he keeps referring to the village or city. Haven said it’s all right. We’re both. McKee said all respect. He didn’t want to get it wrong.

McKee said in 2018, when Oakland County revised the residential equivalent rate (unintelligible), they got with the village at the time, and they helped recalculate what our rates would be. They wanted the village, to them what, how many, residential equivalent units you had in total. So, based on that, they use that number, which is currently 560 REUs total.

So, they get the rates from the Oakland County Drain Commission. They get it from the Great Lakes Water Authority. And all of these, and what bond debt is still out there, all of that has to be calculated, and they figure out what the disposal rate is. There’s a lot of factors in there.

So, in this case, their bill went from $288,000 to $294,108 a month. That includes Clarkston. It’s a lot, a quarter million dollars a month for just for sewage disposal only. So that’s an increase of about seven and a half percent over last year’s.

So, the breakdown, the monthly charge, you can see there’s a sewage disposal fee of $294,000 or whatever.

There’s a True Up charge. Well, what is the True Up charge? So, True Up charges for the included Oakland communities which we’re all part of, agreed to a reallocation of capital costs and interest and outstanding (unintelligible) for all Oakland County (unintelligible) issues. So, in short, what that means is that any kind of capital improvements they do on the Clinton Oakland system, or the Oakland Macomb system, the cost for all of that that, you know, might be in Sterling Heights or might be in Rochester or here at Independence or here in the village, the cost for all that is common to all. Everybody that benefits from it pays. That’s essentially what it does. The True Up charge is the interest rates. So, if you use the system more, the percentage goes up as far as usage of the system, they reallocate the interest costs you have to pay, and (unintelligible), and that’s on top of the monthly fee. McKee asked if they got the notifier of the bond packet. Smith said yes. McKee said that explains it (unintelligible).

The other piece has the bond (unintelligible) and with the Oakland Macomb and with the Clinton Oakland, there’s seven (unintelligible) millions of dollars. So that has to be spread out too.

So, the way the calculation of the fees is that the total charge for the monthly fee $339,567. That’s for all of us. That includes our use for the village and their use for the township. Strength in numbers. We all share the pain, and that’s the best way he can put it.

So, we have a yearly total of $4,074,084 to cover their expenses for sewage disposal, bond debt (unintelligible). This doesn’t put a dollar or a penny in the township’s pocket for operational costs, and it certainly (unintelligible) for you either. This is just a pass-through cost.

In 2018, he went to the township board and got township board approval. The rate increases that have just passed through will automatically pass through. He doesn’t have to get board approval to do it, it’s just (unintelligible). But he always does it anyway as a courtesy. You let everybody know what’s going on.

So, the pass-through cost breakdown. So, remember this is a slideshow presentation he prepared for his board, so he has his operating costs in there. So, he’ll show you right to where he stopped, with the commonality between both of us. So, our total obligation is just over $4 million. Divide that by the total number REUs, is $346. Divided by four quarters, sewage disposal piece only, plus divided True Up, is $86.50 per REU. That’s passed on to you, so out of 560, that’s $86.50, that is your disposal. That is your cost for disposal. And that’s pretty much where they stop at. He had $28.00 in for operating costs, which, it’s been that way in the nine years he’s been there and he doesn’t know how long it’s been before he came. So, just put a dollar in my pocket, they’re raising the rates up, and that’s not really popular. The sewage disposal business is very, very expensive, way more than (unintelligible).

So, on this slide right here, the new quarterly rate for Independence Township residents is $114.50. That’s up from $108.32. He had to increase it significantly because of the expenses that they received with the new cost. So, in your case, it’s going from $108.32 to $114.50. That’s township (unintelligible). Your piece is $86.50 for disposal. Whatever you add on that is entirely up to your jurisdiction. They don’t do our billing for us, they don’t add anything on there, so that would be something that you would have to do internally to decide what your final rate would be for your residents per REU.

One of the things he would like to just touch on, he and Smith have had this discussion many times about this bond debt. Bond debt is very expensive and like he just mentioned, everything is common to all when it comes to system improvements. Now Oakland County, the Water Resource Commission, great people, very talented, very open and transparent, but they’re doing million, multi-million-dollar projects. So next year alone, he was told this past week because they had a quarterly meeting about the system, they’re going to float probably a $60 to $77 million bond. So, Independence Township’s share of that alone is going to be more than $6 million in bond debt, just like that on top of what they already have, that number is going to through the roof.

McKee said it could be worse. He knows Waterford’s, for example, they’re a much bigger community, they’re going to be more than $18 million of their share, and that’s just for the Clinton Oakland communities (unintelligible) local system. The project involves fixing a wastewater treatment plant in Pontiac, OK? Millions and millions and millions of dollars of doing their upgrade to that Clinton Oakland pipe that runs from here all the way to the east side. In Macomb County, to the east side in Macomb County, they’re going to televise and route that and it’s just, you understand it needs to be done.

McKee, through Independence and advocating for the village as well and other communities, Waterford and West Bloomfield, to try to get them to pump the brakes a little bit. You understand these things need to be done, but it’s really hard to swallow that kind of money, that kind of debt, but it’s common to all, so everybody’s paying for it. He’s just telling them that’s coming along. They always give us the opportunity to bond it all out and prepay. They’ve prepaid a couple bonds. The last two, as a matter of fact, they have been prepaid. So, they prepaid theirs with cash reserves. They paid ours, which is great, so there’s no interest, it’s just paid off, they’re done. Six million, there’s no way, he can’t do that, whatever that number is. The calculations come out to what percentage of (unintelligible) the village is. That’s game-changing money. You just totally destroy your reserves. So, the county will bond it all out for us, and we’ll get to (unintelligible), the sewage disposal.

So, they’re predicting those interest rates right now for bonds is going to be around 2.4%. They’re municipal bonds, and the way they do that restricts liability. It’s too bad it’s not right now because right now, it’s at one point but it is going to go up.

So, McKee wants to make everybody here on the council be aware that that’s coming. You’ve been waiting for it. Didn’t really happen too much last year or the year before, but it’s coming now. With that, he didn’t know if there were any questions. He knows it’s a lot to absorb. It’s kind of complicated to get the message across, but if they’re unclear on anything or have questions, or move onto other things.

Haven said one question he asked McKee earlier. He’s talking about pass throughs now. Basically, this is – McKee said yeah, he wants to make clear this is strictly for sewage disposal. Haven said right, and the increases he’s talking about are interest increases for financing, you know. That’s anticipating. McKee said yes, that would be bond debt. Haven said yes, exactly. McKee said bond debt is allocated amongst everybody based on how much you use the system. Haven said increasing interest rates. McKee said so, as we grow, if your system gets bigger, and you have more users, your percentage will increase and will be more (unintelligible).

Haven said but what he’s not anticipating is catastrophic stuff like we experienced a year ago or more. The Interceptor. McKee said that’s what all this bonding is for, to prevent that (unintelligible) routing – Haven said it’s nice we can do more of that now because the cameras and other things, right, you can anticipate and do preventative maintenance. McKee said yes, this is just for the new stuff. This has nothing to do with the township stuff or here in the village. This is just for the interceptors only. So, he said it’s really hard to put a dollar in their own pocket to maintain their own system and to keep things running because they all have overhead, and they have staff (unintelligible) and projects and all that. It does definitely (unintelligible) away on the cash reserves.

Haven asked if McKee could tell them how they do preventative maintenance on our system here. They’re doing it for us, right? McKee said yes, and that’s one of the things he wanted to talk about with Smith a little bit. Of all these years past, the past couple of years, well past year or so. So, currently the agreement that the township has with the village is we have an intergovernmental agreement for maintenance. So, it’s based off a 1970 contract, Oakland County installs things. And there was an amendment in ‘72 and then there’s one in ‘80 and ‘84. Boy, he’s been doing this a long time. This is probably the most hardest thing to comprehend, what is the right way to go about everything. So, they’ve been doing it, but he thinks it needs to be redone. So, he has a draft of a new contract that he is working on that couples water and sewer, and it’ll have what needs to be done for CIP [Capital Improvement Plan] preventative maintenance, you know. It’s much more transparent, and it gives you the input to decide what you want to do and not the township saying hey, we’re doing this, you know. It’ll be do you want us to facilitate that. It’s a pretty comprehensive contract. We should have something available for review, he’s guessing, early October, to look at and then it’s something that will help.

So, what they do currently, you know, if they respond to routine cleaning here. He doesn’t know what the sewer looks like underground. He has no idea if that’s a capital improvement project, whether it is contracted services, they don’t do that. So, he doesn’t know what our pipes look like under the ground. It could be fine. In the township they did, there was a program a few years ago in 2017 through the state that was called the SAW [Stormwater, Asset Management and Wastewater] grant. He didn’t think the village did the SAW grant. He couldn’t find it. The SAW grant was this money the state had. They had a billion dollars, so they applied for two million, and they got it. And they used it to televise all sewer pipe that was 1998 and older. They’re on camera, and looked at it, and they found broken pipes, collapsed pipes, and water just gushing in, just like, you know, Niagara Falls. They bill us based on their usage. So, if you have a bunch of ground water just pouring into your sewer. They’re measuring downstream and they’re like oh, your percentage is this. So, you’ve got to tighten down the system. Sanitary sewer systems are 100% separate from stormwater system pressure, absolutely.

So, they did all that and since they finished their SAW grant, and he thinks they’ve spent over $6 million in repairs just for that. Haven said wow. McKee said the whole process is – Haven said that’s preventative. Nothing was wrong; it was just preventative. McKee said they found some things and what they’ll do is they’ll go on to line the pipe with structural pipe lining, grouting, things like that to keep that water out and keep integrity of the pipe (unintelligible). So, it’s something he really believes needs to be done here, but again, the new agreement or whatever can be put together and (unintelligible) something out. Because he thinks it’s important. They don’t want to wait until a catastrophe (unintelligible). You have spend a couple of bucks now. That’s good. Haven said pay now or pay later. McKee said there’s a saying in the sewer department, you heard the old (unintelligible) commercial, you can pay now or you pay later. Unfortunately, that holds a lot of water because (unintelligible).

Haven told McKee they appreciated him being there and asked if council had any questions or comments for McKee.

Smith said they talked about the $86 that (unintelligible) is just for sewer, and then you add $28 to that and that gets you to $114.50. We have been at $117.42 for many years. Because this is going, it’s not for tonight’s vote or anything but for a future meeting. So, what this chart is showing, Greg [Coté, treasurer] prepared this today so, we have, this is our historical billing rates, and you see up to here on line 9 here, this is where we’re currently at $117.42, is where we’re currently billing for each REU, as McKee talks, residential equivalent units. So, most homeowners have one REU. Businesses could have three, four, or five, depending on their usage.

Smith said $117.42, they’ve been at that since July 28, 2016. [This doesn’t account for the temporary increase that was to pay for emergency repairs to the Oakland-Macomb interceptor a little while ago.] They haven’t passed any increases along to their consumers because they had this buffer. Their buffer is getting smaller and smaller every year as charges get added to their invoice that they’ve made, so their buffer is getting smaller and smaller and they’re at the point where they’re not making any money at all. They currently are losing money. So, McKee talked about a 7-1/2% increase for the township, and they’re suggesting that they need a 7% increase as shown here, has been proposed, a 7% increase that will take the billing rates starting in November to $125.64.

An unidentified male speaker asked if the 7% is based on this number or some other number. Smith said it’s based on that number that they’re experiencing, which is what they’re getting from the, you know, the upstream, no pun intended. The unidentified speaker said OK.

Smith said so, you can see back in 2009 there was a huge increase of 70%, from $57 to $97. They’ve been fortunate that they haven’t had to go to anything of that magnitude, but they do feel that they need to essentially follow what the township is doing with the 7, he thinks theirs was a 7-1/2% increase. McKee agreed. Smith said a 7% increase.

Smith said that what Coté has added on here is an inflation chart that’s showing inflation over the years. So, this year alone, or ‘22 alone, was an 8% inflation rate. So, they’re actually losing ground by not increasing with inflation being what it is. They’re actually losing ground every year by not increasing. So, they think that is another topic for another day that they will bring to council for a sewer billing rate increase. They would like to do that here in the next month so that by the November 1^st billing cycle, they’ll be ready with the new, higher rate.

Smith said he wanted to get back to what McKee was talking about is the $86, but that’s not encompassing everything, right? There has to be other things, you know, but is the $28.00 for the city – do we pay that too? McKee said no. You get billed every month from various water departments (unintelligible), so what they do is they bill the village accordingly, $86.50 per REU for that sewage disposal piece.

Smith said sewage disposal piece. What else is in there? McKee said that’s it. They also charge, and this is where the maintenance comes in with this contract, which he thinks is where they can take an opportunity, he thinks, to streamline this and make it a little bit more efficient for both sides and save on expense. They also send a quarterly bill for maintenance fees on top of that. It doesn’t have anything to do with the rates. It’s just a bill through the contract, a new government contract. That’s about $22,000 a quarter, something like that. Maintenance. He didn’t know Coté’s numbers, it’s about $64,000 a quarter, approximately, for maintenance and sewage disposal. Coté agreed. And that’s what they did, and that’s what they have to do. Reimbursement. Because they pay that bill every month. Smith agreed. McKee said they pay all of it. So, they do it every month, and then every quarter they ask for the quarterly payment.

Smith said he just knows that they’ve done the analysis before and at $117.42, they’re not even going to break even, so they’re actually subsidizing, right now, our city residents. They’re not making any profit money. So, they need to take action, and this isn’t really McKee’s problem, this is something they need – McKee said the same thing they did. Smith said same thing they did.

[See Clarkston Sunshine comment.]

Smith said so, between the maintenance and the $86.50 in disposal fees, they’re not charging enough and that’s not putting a dime in anybody’s pocket, it’s not putting any money away in our rainy-day fund. It’s just paying the bills. So, they’ll get into this more when they come back to council in about a month with a rate increase proposal they would like to start November 1^st.

Rodgers asked why is there a difference between like, is it the maintenance that makes us, as in the City of the Village, paying more than what Independence Township, or is our maintenance higher than Independence? Is that where the difference is? Smith said yes but wanted to let McKee answer that question. McKee said they do all the things. Rodgers said right. McKee said so, like he said, the – (interrupting McKee), Rodgers asked if the Independence fee was less. McKee said the intergovernmental agreement, the way it was first set up, it’s literally, he guesses, it goes back to 1970, with amendments one, two, and three. Rodgers said so, $86.50 is what all of us, Independence, City of the Village, we pay that no matter what. McKee for disposal. To get rid of sewage. Rodgers said that’s it. We don’t have a say, that’s that. So, above that, what makes us at $117, and Independence at $108, is maintenance? What’s that? McKee said he has no idea what you have above the $86.50, what you spend it on other than maintenance. Whatever’s leftover or not leftover, he has no idea because they don’t do our books. Smith agreed. McKee said he has no idea where all the rest of that money goes above the $86. Smith said it’s a good question, and it’s one that they need to show when they present this. They need to show the math exactly why they’re different.

McKee said not to be nosey, but he kind of crunched some preliminary numbers, just a little bit of numbers, and he thinks it’s the maintenance piece that is really is on top of this. Rodgers said right, but it’s on top of Independence people’s too. McKee said right, but he’s only at $28, you know, because it’s strength in numbers. Rodgers said right, so they do need to figure that out. McKee said you suffer from being small in your own government. He would love, in a perfect world, if you charged your residents the same as they charge the township residents.

Pardee said so, if we take the $22,000 a quarter, then we get charged for maintenance times four, so it’s $88,000 a year. And if we divide that by the number of REUs – Coté said 560 – Pardee said and that’s added to the $86.50? McKee said no, well, yes. So, right now you might be underwater a little bit, he means, like he said, he did some numbers and actually wrote $126 on his piece of paper here before he came in as you’re showing there.

Smith said so, yeah, they’ll make this abundantly clear when they come back, but he just wanted, thinking back on McKee’s discussion here tonight and just to make you aware of where they’re coming from when they come back at a month from now. You know, it’s the maintenance piece on top of the $86.50 sewage disposal fees, and this is not a static number that he could say, OK, we’re going to go from $117.42 to $125.64, and they’ll probably be there for another seven years. He can’t say that, but they’ll save the rest of that discussion for the follow up presentation on this. But Smith did want to thank McKee for coming tonight.

Smith said the other question he had for McKee was, that they talked about before the meeting here, they would still like to look into the possibility of the township doing the sewer billing for the city. Our residents would benefit from the fact that they get one bill for water and sewer like the township residents already do. They get one bill for water and sewer. It’s a lot clearer. A lot simpler for people to understand. So, Smith thinks they want to pursue that. They would have to look at the legal agreements and this big agreement that McKee is referring to and whatever they need to dust that off. Whether we do this common sewer billing or not, they have to dust off that, our old agreement. McKee said that’s definitely on the radar to look into because he thinks it makes sense in one aspect where residents here, you guys, the township’s facilities where you go one stop shopping. People currently come here to pay the sewer, you’ve got to go to town hall to pay water. You want a bill, he doesn’t know if you have ACH [Automated Clearing House] to pay online. He supposes we do. They have all that too.

An unidentified man said he wanted to ask a quick question, and excuse his ignorance, but Clarkson is within Independence Township, they’re doing the maintenance, why aren’t we being charged the same rate as everybody else? McKee said it’s your own government. That’s what he’s talking about. The unidentified man said the sewer is the sewer, whether it’s located here or down the street. Does it not work that way? McKee said no. The unidentified man said if he’s putting shingles on this house versus that house, it’s the same cost. McKee said your house is your house, and McKee’s house is McKee’s house, and that’s business. The man said he’s not trying to be stupid; we’re part of Independence Township, or within, so why is there a different rate for maintenance. Why aren’t we all one big happy family? McKee said one thing that’s different is the city here owns the assets. You own these pipes. We don’t want to own them. They’re yours. So, you’ve got a hired contractor. You hired us to do a service. The agreements are the way they’re structured and that’s why he thinks the opportunity to restructure the whole agreement for water and sewer can benefit both. The unidentified man said all right, he was just curious. Haven said maybe Rana [Emmons, of PSLZ], our auditor, could help us with understanding this a little bit too. Explanation of differences and so on.

Haven recognized Pardee for a comment.

Pardee said he had several questions. He just did the math. It uses $22,000 a quarter and then we get times four, and divide by 560 and then divide by 12, and he gets $13.09 a month. So, that’s what his number is. He thinks if he accepts the $22,000 a quarter that’s coming to us (unintelligible), so we’re having a bit of a gap. Smith said we’re about $40 a quarter, so $40 plus $86.50 is $126.50, so we’re right, he agrees with Pardee that his math is right.

Pardee said so he came with one question, and he got a whole lot more. So, the Great Lakes Water Authority, his concern is what’s coming from Great Lakes Water Authority now. The problem is we’re going to need a chart because he heard Clinton Oakland, he heard Oakland Macomb, and he heard Oakland County Water Resource, so it almost feels like there are four entities. McKee said just two. So, the Clinton Oakland, that’s the name of the sewer interceptor. It’s the Clinton Oakland Sanitary Sewer District which is under the jurisdiction of the Oakland County Water Resources Commission. The Great Lakes Water Authority, so they own the treatment plant once it hits 8 mile and that all down. So, they charge us for treating our sewage and in turn the Oakland Water Resources Commission with the county charges us to maintain the interceptors in the Pontiac wastewater treatment plant, which they own now. So, it’s just (unintelligible).

Pardee said so, a couple years ago, it was Pardee’s sense was that they got surprised by Great Lakes Water Authority and they covered us for several months and then we caught up. Smith said that was the Oakland Macomb Interceptor repair, and our share was like $98,000. McKee said a hundred grand, yeah. Pardee said then our share being $98,000, then we put in folks’ bills. Smith and McKee agreed. Smith said four quarters. Pardee asked McKee if he said the number was $60 million. McKee said $60-$77 million, just for the Clinton Oakland community residents. Pardee said but that’s coming our way, a portion. McKee said well, and that’s the thing, They lay out the capital improvement plan. That’s how they do that, you know. They said that we’re going to be doing this and we’re like, pump the brakes here; you’re killing us, you know, it’s not just the village here, but, you know, look other small communities, Oxford or something. It’s going to bankrupt them if they do that. So how do they do that? So, the county bonds it all out, and you just have to raise your rates. He’s not trying to be callous about it. They don’t care. The Water Resources Commission, they’re not writing the checks, we are, you are, your residents are, township residents are. You’re like, here’s the number, and like he said, this is the number for disposal. There isn’t any other place to put it.

Pardee asked if there is something coming from the City of Highland. McKee said so, Highland Park was a big thing last year. So, the Great Lakes Water Authority is trying to recuperate. He thinks it was several million dollars that Highland Park pulled down on the backs of the communities up here. Smith said that’s for water and not sewage. Pardee said it’s still hanging out there. McKee said thank God that you’re not water customers. You’re not water customers of the Great Lakes Water Authority. So, they can do whatever they want. We’re both on the township water system, which we asked for, and our rates are a third of what theirs are.

Pardee said his concern is that it’s a big puzzle now of what it is we need to budget for next year. Haven agreed and said we don’t want to get in too many weeds right now and he appreciates McKee coming for this general discussion. So, we’re going to revisit it.

Haven recognized Ted Quisenbery for a question. Quisenberrry said the computation of the REU for each home, does that take into consideration whether one person lives in it or seven? It doesn’t? McKee said it does not. Quisenberry asked if it is because it would be too difficult or what. (Unintelligible crosstalk.) McKee said he is a proponent of flow-based billing, you know, and a lot of communities do that because if you have a house where an elderly couple does laundry, takes a shower every few days, they pay the same amount as the house next door that’s got fifteen kids. They do. It’s the same amount. McKee is not a fan of that. He thinks that’s wrong. Flow-based billing is when your sewer billing is dictated on the amount of drinking water you use. An unidentified person said volume, right? McKee said volume. So, if you use 100 gallons of drinking water, you know, $2.45 or whatever it is you would pay, you would pay $4 on sewer charges for that same amount. Your bill would be $6. With flow-based billing, you use a lot, you pay a lot. Quisenberry said they would have to put a flow meter on each home, and then based on that – McKee said with the exception of people who are on a well right now. Quisenberry said they would be flat rated. McKee said almost every home in this village here is on township water with the water meter that they bill.

Fuller said so, it would be billed based on water consumption. McKee said based on water consumption. (Unintelligible discussion.) McKee said that’s flow based billing. Most communities do that, and he thinks that’s the way to go, but that is a change (unintelligible). He’s still trying to get the ship going in that direction on his end.

Haven said this is a discussion for general. McKee agreed. Haven said they can do a seminar on the minutia. He doesn’t know how many people would come, but it’s good to have the explanation, right. Pardee would come if you have it; he’s the only person in Clarkston that would come.

McKee said if they had any questions – Haven told McKee they appreciated him being there and thanked him for working with us. We have a good working relationship. McKee said yes, it works out pretty good. (Unintelligible discussion.) An unidentified person (Coté?) asked if McKee had replaced Meghan, and McKee said yes, she’s going to be doing training. She’s still learning.

McKee left the podium as council members thanked him.

Item 10b – Discussion: Friends of Depot Park 5-Year Plan (Video time mark 0:49:03):

Haven said all right, let’s move on to the next item on the agenda, which is more fun than the last item on the agenda.

Haven said they want to thank the Optimist Club who are here in some force tonight for a gift that they’ve given to us, the village. Haven said he was going to read a letter, that’s probably the best way to put this, and then they’ll get it up here in front. Haven said he was going to present this to you all tonight. Our thanks, expressing our thanks. They’ve written it to Michelle Carson, who is the current president:

Dear Michelle, on behalf of the City of the Village of Clarkston and our city council, residents and business owners, please accept our sincere thanks to the Clarkson Area Optimist Club for your recent commitment to donate $25,000 this year, $20,000 each for the next two years, for a total of $65,000 for improvements to the city’s Depot Park, including a new a family picnic pavilion – Haven said which you saw in the in the generalized plan – These donations, especially when combined with your many previous donations – over the last 16 years Haven would add – are an amazing gift to this community and to our many visitors. We are eternally grateful for your generosity and support. Sincerely, signed Jonathan Smith, our city manager.

Haven said so, thank you very much.

(Applause.)

Haven said they wanted to take an opportunity to have a little photo up here, OK. Come on up, folks here from the Optimist club.

(Several people got up and walked to the center of the room.)

Haven asked Michelle Carson to introduce everybody here. Carson said all right. To her left is her husband, Kurt. He’s the treasurer of the club. Their incoming president as of October 1st is Debbie Berry. And then they have Mike Walkowski and they have Tom Lowri and they have Ann Evans, past president.

Haven said these are the wonderful people that have been working with us for quite some time. They formed the Friends of Depot Park five years ago in 2018 and have been working on a plan, that recreational plan; you’ve been seeing bits and pieces of it. He’ll show you just a little bit more of it tonight, but they were shown this when they were considering giving us these funds, and so they loved the plan and wanted to proceed with it, gave us a letter accordingly, and that’s what Haven thanks them for. But anyway, Haven said he just wanted to say thank you and we wanted to do this graphically OK, here. (Haven and Carson held up a large replica of a check.) So, he’s got to put it down so you can see yourself there. OK, so, Smith is taking a picture.

(Photo taken.)

Haven said excellent. Thank you all so very much.

(Haven shook everyone’s hand. More applause. Haven and the Optimist Club members returned to their seats. Unintelligible discussion within the audience. Haven walked to the middle of the room with a poster with an image of Depot Park.)

Haven said he’s going to just briefly show you a little bit about what the Optimists saw as their generalized plan. Again, they posted this a couple of three years ago for that park. They did a grant request for monies from the DNR [Department of Natural Resources] at the time, and they accomplished some of the things there. They basically had to do a 50/50 match with them, and matching grants are tough because you are getting kicks upon the flesh, you know, to get something more. But they were able to raise $50,000 in cash and combined with in kind gifts, in kind are goodwill, their labor. There’s a whole lot of different things that go into there, but you can’t take goodwill and labor and stuff like that to the bank and make programs go. So, they had to decline the grant, but they did realize $20,000 out of that in cash. And so, they used that to fulfill part of their commitment to the people who made the commitment to them.

Haven said and so, they put in the paved pathways that you see out there in the park, which have been a nice amenity. People really like them. So, they needed to rethink where they’re going and look at the next phase of the thing. So, the Friends of Depot Park put a lot of work into this and basically, they’re going to post this in the park for the future. Again, nothing you see here is necessarily going to happen, but these are the general directions they think, enough for amenities to add to the park, using again charitable contributions from not only the Optimists, but any others that would like to come and be part of this, and they’re looking for sponsors as well as they move forward.

Haven said basically, the Friends of Depot Park wanted to isolate some big chunks here, and the big chunks that they’ve isolated are, and you have to look at this top one here – and they can pass this around hopefully so enough of you can look at it – is an entryway to the park itself. So, they have presence here. When you’re entering into this park, it’s not just sort of a nebulous crossing, more than a visible line, they’d like to have a gateway, you know, to the park. So, they’re talking about an arched gateway there.

Haven said what they’re talking about, which were mentioned in the letter, and they’ve been talking about this for quite some time, are three picnic pavilions in the park. The one that they’re mostly inclined toward is the one that is close to the playground. If you remember a few weeks ago, they named the playground in the name of the Optimists because they put in so much funding and so on and sweat equity, really. Haven was there with them doing a lot of that, and so many of you were as well, but wanting to put a picnic pavilion adjacent to the playground there, OK, for families and so on to enjoy here. Here is a kid working on the plate cooking. Our big kahuna goal right here in the middle is of course a walkway that would start here in the developed part of the park, go through the wetlands, follow the Mill Race that Henry Ford dredged in the day all the way to Deer Lake Beach, and it’s important that (unintelligible) to have a destination. You don’t just go out into the wetlands and stop. You want to go somewhere, but when you’re going somewhere along the way, you can educate. You can inspire. You can do a whole lot of things that really are valuable to people. They really love that. So, a walkway all the way to Deer Lake beach from here.

Haven said then they agree that they need to do something with our gazebo. Our gazebo was given years ago by Barb Thompson, in honor of Ted Thompson, her husband, and so it’s a memorial piece, but it’s not conducive today to today’s standards. During their grant opportunity, they suggested a ramp that would be ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliant. That ramp all the way around the thing, you know. And so, it made it kind of, you know, unsightly. So, they’ve talked about lowering the thing, and they are looking at different options for doing that to get it down where it’s ADA compliant and unobtrusive. Very useful for people. So that’s one of their projects.

Haven said and then increase the floral presence here, gardens, and basically what that translates into is water. You know, if you get a decent irrigation system then you can do your annuals and that kind of thing. They can begin to really make this this place bloom. Not that it’s not nice now. It really is. But they would like to do more in color.

Haven said and then the last one, which they’re talking with the Chamber of Commerce about, is a band shell. They’ve been having, for the last 40 years, they’ve been having concerts in this park, and they’re well attended. They’re very, very popular and they have a place where they could have bands, have a little bit of accommodation for the bands, and dressing rooms, and equipment storage, and we need bathrooms at that end of the park as well. So, they’re talking about combining bathrooms and a nice facility at that end of the park facing this way.

Haven said so again, these are generalized goals. Everything will have to go by council, and they’ll do these one at a time, and they’ll put their plan together, their costs, their bids, all that thing and bring it to council and it will have to be approved. Even though it’s charitable money, it’s not taxpayer money, and that’s really the advantage here. They’re talking about charitable money, but nevertheless it is a city park, so the city has jurisdiction over what they want to do and so on. So, it will pass by them. But this is the generalized plan.

Haven said it’s a discussion now. The council has renderings of this as well. Haven said he would put this here (Haven walked over to the audience and put the sign on a chair). You all been kind of looking at, it’s kind of like a rudimentary exhibit here. But allow council then to just discuss anything they’d like to, and if you have any questions or thoughts about it on this line item on the agenda.

Fuller asked if there is any piece of this that’s been prioritized as this is what we want to do first. Haven said they received the $25,000 as their first year’s installment and that doesn’t, it doesn’t give them any of the big pieces here, although it’s as they’ve talked about, they think that the first thing they’ll do as far as their major asset would be one of the pavilions. They’re two different sizes. One to two small ones by the park and then over by the Mill Race theoretically, and then the other one over in the large portion would be a larger one, the larger pavilion, which they could use for family reunions, you know, and special events, weddings and that sort of thing back in the back part of the park by the Bart Clark bridge.

Fuller asked if Haven saw this working on a reservation basis. Haven said they do that now. They do that with special events. They reserve parts of the park. So, it becomes somewhat of a revenue stream, but at least it covers our costs and so on. Fuller said yes. Haven said for the DPW [Department of Public Works] and so on. So, these are nice amenities which could attract some additional dollars.

Haven asked if the audience had any questions or thoughts about this, does it make sense.

An unidentified man said he had a comment. He said he’s been fortunate enough to be a part of the Optimist Club as well as a member of the Friends of Depot Park Committee, and over the last five years, they’ve been kind of just chipping away at this, and every year they’ve had, you know, a project or whatever, but it’s so nice to be able to at least have some good seed money now. They still need a lot more, but if they get some sort of a campaign going to match the funds or whatever, so they can see more of this kind of fruition, because this is still a dream, that to do all this that’s on this board is going to be millions, and particularly that boardwalk through the wetlands. But the other things, our infrastructure out there is kind of tired. So, it’s just nice to be able to keep up on top of it.

Haven said we’re a small village. We’ve appealed to the residents. The residents came through really nicely during the grant core a couple years ago, but they realize they’ve got to go beyond that. So, they’re going to be looking for sponsorships of business institutions and entities that would like to really be part of where we’re going, they love it, they want to identify with us where we’re going. So, if they could develop a sponsorship program, that’s what really fundraising is about and they’re trying to get to people that would like to help, and can help, to be part of what the direction they’re going. So, it’s always important to show a plan. People say, well, what do you want to do if we’re going to give some money, what would you do with it? Well, here’s kind of the general direction they’d like to go. They want to do that, and they’ll get more specific as they go along. But in answer to Fuller’s first question, the pavilion would probably be their first big one.

Haven said now, at the same time, they’d like to, there’s some low hanging fruit here because they do have a substantial amount of cash right now because of the gift and so on. They would like to do a couple things before the year end, and these are kind of in keeping with what’s been going on relative to events and so on. The first one, and that is they’d like to, they’re looking at lighting and sound. Last year at the Christmas market, a small amount of money was donated and so on so that Laura Rodgers and Amy Wilson could also put the Christmas market on. You may remember that’s been, he doesn’t know how many years it’s been since we’ve had something like that. It was really successful, but what really became apparent, they hung, they strung these festive sort of ambience lighting and everybody loved it and they left it up for the skating rink after that even. But that evening, the thing that was so starkly in contrast was it was lit on the far side of the Mill Race, but over here in the kids’ playground, it was dark. And the hayride is going on over here, and so on. So, they’re looking at, we’re going to have a meeting tomorrow with Wendell Hutchinson, who’s our city electrician and some others locally who have expertise in this area, to look at doing string lights professionally, on both sides of the Mill Race. So, we can have lighting, and if we put lighting, at the same time, we can wire it for sound so that we can do event sound, we can do ambience music in the evening, that kind of thing would be doable. So that’s low hanging fruit, some things they put for in the near term.

Haven said the other opportunity is down the tarmac path here, down toward really at the parking lot of Deer Lake beach. Across from there is phase one of this boardwalk idea, and it’s a path that goes from the parking lot across the street into the Mill Race itself. So, it’s a kind of a straight shot. They’ll make it sort of serpentine in there, but the idea is fairly short, doable with not much money at all, and they’re going to be studying that as they go forward. But it’s the beginning. So, it gives people a vision. You know, they could go up to the Mill Race, they could go oh, well that’s what it would be like. You know, you need vision to appeal to people for being part of it. So that’s the two things. If they can get those done before the snow flies here, they’d like to do that this this winter.

Wylie said she agrees with what Fuller said. She thinks we need a list of priorities. What’s coming first? What it needs, what needs to be done first? She thinks that will help a lot. Most of the stuff she wants to bring up, the things that’s been brought up in the in the past, she still sees maintenance and security as a big issue with all this. To her, she still thinks we’re having a hard enough time maintaining what we have now, and we have a very small staff and a small DPW, and she really sees it being very difficult to maintain so much of this, in particular, this boardwalk. And parking. We’re like if we have a big event, if we have an event pavilion, where are those people going to park? If we have a wedding? She doesn’t know how big they’re talking about, but that’s something just occurred to her. And this, she’s heard this business, this idea of sound brought up a few times and personally, she’s very opposed to having sound. She doesn’t want, if she goes to the park, she wants to be quiet. She wants to hear nature. She doesn’t want to hear somebody else’s taste in music. Nobody wants to hear her taste in music either. It should be quiet, not ambiance. Haven said maybe they do. Wylie said if they do, she’ll educate them. And she has a really hard time with this boardwalk. The cost of it, the maintenance, the security of it. She just sees that as such a low, low, low, low, low, low possible idea for our community. And that’s all she has to say. Haven said OK.

Rodgers said just to piggyback onto that, first of all, she thinks this arch thing is beautiful. Wylie said oh yes, she likes that. Rodgers said you’ve never seen that, never seen that before. In regards to the music, you know, she thinks if it’s not super expensive to have it, not that they would play it all the time, but there are events like Concerts in the Park before the concert starts, or when they take a break, the Christmas Market to play, she means, they had boom boxes at the Christmas Market playing the Christmas music. During Art in the Park, maybe some in between the little groups. So, there is, she thinks, there is a place for it. Of course, it would have to be regulated and security is always going to be an issue.

Haven said he agrees and let him try and answer some of these questions because these are not new and they’re right, they have to be anticipated. He’s seen the charitable projects which really turned into being a negative thing going forward in many places. You always have to be wary of the gift, you know. Somebody gives a $20 million gift. That sounds wonderful. They’ll put up a huge edifice, but there’s no maintenance plan for it. OK, that’s a problem. So, when they go forward with this, the kind of monies they get, they want to establish some factors. They talked to Coté about this, and to Smith about this, relative to maintenance. They’re really concerned about it from two standpoints. One is that what they put in is fairly maintenance free, OK, they want to do it that way. But at the same time, they will anticipate maintenance. So, they’re looking at a cost factor of like 1.1. 1.2, if you will, per project. In other words, the cost of the project plus another 20% which goes into an escrow fund, OK, which anticipates that kind of maintenance money down the road, right. So again, Wylie is right, you don’t spend it all, you know, you don’t spend yourself to the bare bones, but you can have the amenities if you plan them well. And the other thing they need to do in terms of spending money wisely upfront is to do good planning up front, and good planning takes some money to do. Now, some people, planners can come alongside us, he means, he knows you work for a planner too (referring to Forte). It costs money to do that. They may spend some money on planning, they likely will almost absolutely, they’ll have to spend some, but they might be able to get some pro bono relationships as well with some designers. So again, they’re going to use the monies as wisely as they can. But nevertheless, to not go forward for our citizens and not use money that is given to us to beautify and bring effectiveness to our park, he thinks would not be the way to go.

Forte said she agrees with the maintenance side of things. She agrees that if it’s well planned like anything (unintelligible). Her only concern is like the two pavilions. She would just want to see a map of the floodplain before they move forward with putting pavilions that close to the river. Haven said yeah, those kinds of details are going to be (unintelligible). Forte said she’s just noting it now. That’s her only comment. Haven said good, thank you, you’re a planner. Forte said kind of.

Haven asked if anyone else on council or the audience had questions.

Haven recognized Pardee.

Pardee asked if the boardwalk intended to go to the lake. Haven said Middle Lake and Deer Lake come together right there at Deer Lake beach. So, it’s not intended to be an encumbrance there. Matter of fact, it’s not intended to be an offloading for people. It’s a pathway, OK? It’s not something you’re going to drop your canoe in halfway down or something like that. It’s not that at all. It’s a pathway leading down there.

Smith said for the council’s benefit, he’s been asking the Friends of Depot Park who’ve been at a lot of meetings talking about this, they’ve had great participation and enthusiasm amongst the committee, they’ve been doing a lot of work on this. He’s been asking that they come and do this overview for council so they’re aware of what they’re working on. Smith said he’s never forgotten the comment that a previous council member said to him that Smith shouldn’t be working on Project X or Project Y until he comes to council and tell them that this is something he feels is needed and are working on it. Now, it’s a little bit different with him than the community, they’re volunteers and he’s a paid employee, but the point is still somewhat the same is that he wants the council to be aware of what the community is working on. They’re communicating with other people in the community, potential vendors to supply some of these things, so Smith thinks it’s important that council be aware of this and if they have disagreements with some of their ideas, they can voice them, and they can stop working on that aspect and work on something else maybe. But Smith just thought it was time. They’ve been doing a ton of work on this, and he gives credit to the committee for their involvement and their hard work on this, but Smith did want the council to be aware of this. So, they can do periodic updates, you know, as Haven said, one by one, as these get closer to fruition, they would bring a proposal together to them with cost and timing and bids and all that information, but he thought it was time, even if it’s a very high level, just to come and talk to them about this tonight.

Fuller asked Smith when he talked about the expanded playground, he’s talking about bringing the softened area that you know, the padded parts, so children don’t hurt themselves, is he talking about bringing that all the way out to that sidewalk, because right now, isn’t there a buffer of the grass between that? Smith said there is a buffer of grass there. There is a potential to bring that out to the sidewalk. The grass between the mulch and the sidewalk really doesn’t work out very well. They’ve talked for a while about should that whole inner circle of the path be mulched or some kind of mulch-like material that could be viewed as a landing zone for the kids that are playing and fall off.

Fuller asked if this includes new equipment, or is this square footage? Smith said potentially, there is room. If you took out all the grass, there potentially would be more room for some additional pieces of equipment if you wanted to and funding was there. But Smith didn’t think the committee has gone into too much discussion on that at this time.

Haven said they are talking about services because services are expensive, you know. But Haven thinks the important thing is landing areas for kids off of equipment. You know, the rest of it is also transitional. So, it’s not as there’s not an impact issue. So again, they want to do more work in that confine, like you’re talking there, beautification of it, you know and making it a little more, but they have a good start, you know, and kids have really adopted it. You see families out there, there are tons of families out there, they’re just loving coming here, you know, it’s an idyllic place. And so, they’re excited (unintelligible). All right.

Wylie said she had one more comment. Haven said sure. Wylie said this is actually, this came from a previous council person, she’s heard people say it, but there was concern about so many structures in a relatively small park. It looks like there’s three pavilions, and the new band shell, she thinks the band shell particularly is what got this one councilperson a little bit excited because there’s a lot, it seems like there’s a just, it’s going to be too crowded. And on the map, it doesn’t look crowded, but to hear about all these structures, to her, it sounds crowded. Haven said it’s interesting. So, when you look at the map like you say, it doesn’t look like it’s as crowded as it is. The thing to do is walk the park. He thinks people, they come to meetings, and they go away, and they don’t, they took one of the owners around on a golf cart the other day, and they were amazed at how big this was. You know, it’s expansive out there. So, but again, you’re going to see these one at a time. You’re not going to see them – (interrupting Haven), Rodgers said what might be a good idea is at some point in time to, even with, you know, spray paint or somehow – Haven said stake it. Rodgers said stake it out. Stake it all out. Haven said they can do it for all these things. Rodgers said and maybe stake it all out, all of it, at one time. Not just one at a time. So that as, you know, from a walking through standpoint, you can see that yeah, it works, you know, or gosh, like we’re on top of each other.

Haven said Smith might be able to speak on this because he does Art in the Park here, you know, and he invites a huge community of tents into this place, you know. And Haven thinks it’s pretty well received and it flows pretty well and so on. What they’re about is really minimal compared to what Smith does really, you know, even with (unintelligible). Smith said right, of course, that’s just for a weekend, but yeah. Smith said he would echo Wylie’s comments. He’s had people call, people walk in and say I see all this going on in the park and I read the paper about much more, so there is that that sentiment out there that jeez I love the quiet quaint little Depot Park and I don’t like to see it become commercialized.

Rodgers said so, it wouldn’t cost that much to stake all those out. Haven said oh, heavens, no. It’s easy to do that. Rodgers said leave it up for two weeks, so people can walk through and, you know, give their input. Haven said sure.

Haven said OK, well, you’ve got a lot to think about. So, he wanted to make the introduction and catch them up on what they’ve been talking about.

Item 10c – Resolution: Depot Road Repaving Cost (Video time mark 01:13:54; page /104 of the council packet):

• • Resolution – Repaving of Depot Road (page 27/104 of the council packet)
  • Quote Details from the Road Commission of Oakland County (page 28/104 of the council packet)
  • City of the Village of Clarkston 2022 PASER Rating [Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating] (page 29/104 of the council packet)

Haven said so, let’s move on to the next item on the agenda, shall we? This one’s a resolution for Depot Road repaving. Depot Road is right out here outside of city hall. It’s right beside Depot Park (unintelligible) enough. Haven said he would read the resolution. (Wylie gave Haven her copy of the resolution since he couldn’t find his copy in the packet.) Haven thanked Wylie.

Haven said all right, so this is for repaving Depot Road, and he thought Smith did a good job of explaining what we’re doing here.

(Haven began to read from the resolution.)

Haven commented that they’d seen reports regarding the Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) system in the past, and there’s an existing PASER report. He said it’s part of their packet here, and as a matter of fact it’s the second item that shows the different color codes. Good is green and fair is yellow and red is poor, and then private is gray, so that tells you. And it shows you where these are. [Note: the PASER report can be found at page 29/104 of the city council packet.]

(Haven continued to read from the resolution and noted the money for the repaving is already in the budget.)

Haven said so, cumulatively there, this resolution is before them, for a cost not to exceed $122,765 to be paid for with those other funds. All right, so that’s a mouthful.

Haven said he would entertain first of all a motion to adopt this resolution.

Motion by Wylie; second Forte.

Haven said OK, they have a motion and second, and he asked if there was any discussion.

Haven recognized Wylie for a question. Wylie asked if there are curbs along Depot Road. Smith said yes. Wylie said OK. As it was being read, she was thinking, can we get a couple of extra inches for that angle parking, but obviously not. Smith said it’s right up against the grass. Wylie said OK, she kind of thought so. All right.

Fuller said all right, from a personal perspective, they are putting more and more roads in like this, which he thinks is great except when they don’t account for the manhole covers – Wylie said no, they don’t – (continuing), Fuller said and they’re two to three inches below. Wylie agreed. Fuller said they did this on Clarkston Road. Haven said bump, bump. Fuller said if anyone’s ever driven down Nelson where they took the time to paint white circles around them, and it’s like, you know, it’s like dodging holes down there. And if they’re going to do that here and they’re talking, you know, about doing that process, he just hopes that they figure out (unintelligible) or something and bring those things up level so you’re not clunking your way down through there. Casey asked how hard could that be. Fuller said he knows.

Smith said they do have a way of raising them up with rings that they can build up the sewer pipe. Fuller said but they don’t always do it. Smith said they don’t always do it, it’s an added expense, adding a task that they have to do. Smith said now this is a 4-inch milling down and a four-inch building back up so in theory, it would be exactly where it is today. No higher or lower than (unintelligible). On Clarkston Road, they milled down only about half an inch. Maybe it was an inch, but not very much at all. But then they had to put on about an inch and a half cap. So, you know on Clarkston Road, they didn’t do a full milling because of the, you know, the environmental issues. He’ll leave it at that. So, they just did a minimum there that the road commission was comfortable with doing. So, there were some, and he brought that up about could they add some rings. And they said not at this point, no, they’re done. So, he got a lot of push-back from the road commission on that particular issue. Smith recognized it. When he was living on Wampole, he drove it every day and – (interrupting Smith), Fuller said these people got big pickup trucks. They hit those, and you can see them go (Fuller made a sound). Smith said the residents have complained too. They recognize that, so, they absolutely will do their best to avoid that here. Fuller laughed and said thanks.

Lamphier said bumps. Smith had mentioned maybe putting in potentially some speed bumps for the safety of the park there. Casey agreed. Lamphier said he was wondering if an idea would be to put those hard rubber strips that they use for construction on like I-75 to prevent people, you know, to slow people down, maybe they do that to where they could remove it for the plowing in the wintertime. Smith said yes, it’s funny he should mention that. They were talking about that here in the office today, but the truth is Ryan expressed some interest, or some concern, about doing any kind of speed bumps because there have been some legal cases recently where people have not seen the speed bumps, even with signage, not seeing a speed bump and had an accident sued and won. So, he says, we have to be very cautious about any kind of speed bumps on that road. And so, at this time, Smith is not talking about any kind of paved in, you know, bump or hump, which is in a longer space.

They still would consider, and he still wants to bring to council, and he’s still pulling the data together, about a speed reduction proposal for Depot Road. It’s 25 on there now. But if he drives at 25 miles an hour down there as moms and dads are pulling out, backing out, with kids running around the cars, 25 just seems like astronomically too fast. So, Smith thinks the downside of the new paved road is people are going to fly down it. It’s going to just feel like (unintelligible), and they’re just going to drive very quickly, and he’s actually concerned about that downside of a newly paved road. So, Smith thinks very shortly after the paving, which they’re anticipating in, you know, sometime in October, shortly after the paving, he thinks, they need to consider a proposal to reduce the speed on there. Smith said he would go back to Ryan and talk to him about his concerns about speed bumps or other mechanisms but – (interrupting Smith), Lamphier said he means these are more like rumble strips rather than speed bumps, just get your attention. Smith said OK.

Wylie said rumble strips would be great. Lamphier said you can remove them for the winter. Smith said that would make Jimi [Turner, DPW supervisor] happy. Smith said he was sorry; he didn’t understand rumble strips. He thought it was more of a speed bump. Lamphier said yeah, no. Smith said they make removable speed bumps. They’re still about that high (gesturing). Lamphear said yes. Smith said if you hit them at 30 miles an hour, you’re probably going to lose control of your car.

Haven said OK. He asked if there were any other thoughts, comments, or objections.

No comments.

Haven asked DeLorge to call the roll.

Wylie, Rodgers, Casey, Forte, Lamphier, Fuller, and Haven voted yes.

DeLorge said the resolution is adopted.

Haven said yes. All right, the next item on their agenda is another resolution.

Haven recognized Pardee for a comment.

Pardee asked Smith how many red roads remain after this one. If we’re going to catch one per year, he’s trying to figure out, are there seven or eight?

Smith said Miller Road would be next. Smith knows it’s hot topic with Pardee. West Miller has got to be done next. Church Street, would be East Church, is really starting to open up, and that would be the next one. There are some other ones like Surrey Lane that are considered red. There’s Surrey Lane, but it’s not used that much. Smith has to look at the usage in addition to the PASER rating. Church is a bad one. Depot, even West Church over here has got some bad sections, but it doesn’t carry a lot of traffic. So, they have to take that into consideration when they look at the ratings. It’s the three status rating on red combined with the volume.

Pardee asked if they are starting to lose on South Holcomb, before Deer Lake, that pavement is – Smith asked by Deer Lake beach. Pardee said yeah, before you get to the beach. He’s thinking about the curve. Well, where you go to Smith’s house, yeah. Smith said so, South Holcomb from Washington, all the way down and then as it turns into White Lake Road, that is all Oakland County maintained road, 100% Oakland County. So, Smith has been dogging them for three years to repave that and all they do is throw patch on them.

An unidentified person asked an unintelligible question about Washington. Smith said Washington as well is not our road. It’s an Oakland County Road Commission road. Casey said Washington is? Smith said yes. West Washington, not East Washington. Casey said OK.

Item 10d – Resolution: City Website Renewal (Video time mark 01:27:16; page /104 of the council packet):

• • Resolution – City Website Renewal (page 30/104 of the council packet)
  • Website Comparison List (page 31/104 of the council packet)
  • CivicPlus Quote (page 32/104 of the council packet)
  • Website Comparison List (page 35/104 of the council packet)
  • Revise Quote (page 36/104 of the council packet)
  • IGD Solutions Corporation Quote (page 61/104 of the council packet)
  • MuniWeb Quote (page 64/104 of the council packet)

Haven said OK, shall we move along to the next item on our agenda, which is a resolution to contract a new city website developer. Haven said he would read the resolution.

(Haven read the resolution, noting the current website was developed eight years ago and noted Smith has given them a one-page spreadsheet comparing the bids.)

Haven said so, that is the resolution, that we spend $9,999 plus a reoccurring annual cost of $2,500 just upkeep, maintenance, whatever that is. So, and then Smith has given us a spreadsheet. He’s noted all of these and on the spreadsheet, we also have documentation in our packet from the proposal from each of the suppliers or developers.

Haven said he would entertain, first of all, a motion to adopt this resolution.

Motion by Rodgers; second Wylie.

Haven said all right, so now we can discuss this.

Haven asked Smith first of all, what do we get? In other words, he can understand functional desirability. Does it look prettier? Is it more attractive? Does it have a good feel to our – (interrupting Haven), Smith said absolutely. The current website is, it’s showing its age. So, we need to get, aesthetically, we need to get a new website that’s attractive to our residents, for our business owners, and to others. Just looking to come to Clarkston. There are many things, many values, or many things that we can benefit from having a new and fresh website, but it’s more than just some different pictures on the page. It’s the functionality too. And one of the developers that looked at our website as he was preparing his bid said you have to go like four or five steps down this path to get to very simple things like agendas. That should be one click, and there are ways to do that as one click instead of five clicks. And you know, just as Delorge and Smith and Coté and Evelyn [Bihl, administrative assistant] were hearing this, they’re all nodding their heads saying, yes, this is the problem. It’s just ridiculously complex and cumbersome. Haven agreed.

Haven said he knows some of their committees and commissions have also asked for a place there. Smith agreed. Haven said a presence on the website, where they could communicate and dialogue, so that kind of thing would be those. Smith said absolutely.

Smith said so, it’s just so much, so important to have a good communication tool with our residents. They go to this. You can have Facebook sites, yes, great. But it’s our website that they go to for information. It’s our website that they go to for a building permit application. It’s our website they go to to find the meeting schedules. We don’t have an easy to understand, just intuitive, it’s failing. They just hear from so many people that say, well, geez, even the most basic website has that functionality. You don’t even have that. So, they went to Civic Plus. They started, they worked with Civic Plus, our current provider. They met with them for six, eight weeks trying to get information from them on what they could do for us before they even entertained, possibly just keep it in the Civic Plus umbrella and just make it prettier, maybe with some additional buttons here or there, but they quickly realized that there were so many restrictions from the way they structure things that it wouldn’t be that easy. Especially as they started getting competitive quotes, they realized as they’re looking at this stuff and looking at our current website, they’re just shaking their head like why did they do it this way? So complex, it’s so user unfriendly, I can’t imagine they developed that. Well, back in the day, like in 2015, that might have been common practice, but now they have new tools, new ways of doing things.

Smith said that is really the reason behind why they say you should really be redeveloping your website every two to three years, because in that two to three years, technology has moved along and things are easier and faster to do. And back in 2015, our website might have been cutting edge, but it’s horribly dysfunctional. So, they’ve looked at, they’ve looked hard and fast at Civic Plus to see if economically, does it make more sense to stay with them. But as they can see at the top here, their bid was up at $9,600, but their annual fee was really recurring fees, well $5,500. Now, granted, that includes this feature called Chat Bot. If you’ve been on any websites where they have these little robot kind of things, and some people love them, some people absolutely hate them, but they basically pop up out of the corner, say hey, my name is Bob can I help you, and you know, sometimes they’re really annoying. You just want to say Bob go away. Well, that’s what Chat Bot is. It’s that kind of thing.

Smith said now, the benefit of Chat Bot is you can learn if a resident says well, I want to know how to get a trash disposal company. You can put that kind of thing in. But what the other website developers have told us that is you have to have answers for all those questions. You have to have just a full structure of answers. You can’t just have a question, an ability for a resident to put in a question, like where do I find the competitive quotes on trash service, without an answer. If it just comes back and says I don’t have an answer for that, you know, well OK, you did capture the question, but you didn’t have an answer, so you probably really needed the answer. So, Chat Bot is kind of an interesting new tool that a lot of websites are going to, but they just couldn’t see the value of it. So, that’s what that huge $5,500 recurring fee is, is because they have this Chat Bot feature.

DeLorge and Smith talked about it at length and in the end, at first Smith was kind of excited about it when he explained all this kind of new data you collect from your users. Chat Bot can collect all this data and give it to you and say you know, your residents are all asking about trash bills. Well, that would be some good statistical data they have, but the other co-bidders, or bidders, said it’s not that easy. If you don’t put answers behind all that Chat Bot, it’s probably, it’s going to fail on you.

Haven said but searchability is there, nevertheless. Smith said searchability. Haven said you know, you got to type something in the search line that says take me to the – (interrupting Haven), Smith said our current website doesn’t even have that, so searchability is a way that a lot of people just, you know, navigate. Haven said like Google. And so, they would gain that on all of these bids, but, so, Smith talked about Revised, so impressed with the website. So, you go to the city of South Lyon. They just launched their new website. It’s really cool. It’s just very intuitive. Some round buttons at the bottom, just very, the high-level things that 80% of your residents come in to do. What’s my tax bill? When is my sewer bill due? Wylie said she’s looking at it right now. They have a really nice page here. She’s looked at several of them. The exception is Independence Township, which has a terrible website. They’re nice. No, they’re awful. Troy, Auburn Hills, Springfield. Yeah, South Lyon is really nice. Smith agreed.

Fuller asked Smith if we currently pay a monthly subscription fee for the city website. Coté said annual. Smith said it’s $1,500 and change. Coté agreed. Smith said this would go up from $1,500 to $2,500. So that is an increase. But we just loved every, pretty much every website that they went to that Revise has developed. They have a very good reputation.

Smith said IGD Solutions, they gave them strong consideration because they’re a Clarkston-based company. They would have loved to give a contract to them. Which, by the way, Civic Plus is in Kansas, so they don’t have, it’s all phone interaction. These other companies are all Michigan. That’s a little bit of a downside for Civic Plus, but IGD is right here in Clarkston, right down the road. They really wanted to use them, but even they acknowledged they’re going to be tough to compete against a company the size of Revise that has, you know, just so much more efficient infrastructure in their company.

Smith said then MuniWeb, a very strong company, do some great products, their websites are fantastic too. But they just weren’t quite excited about the end product as they were Revise.

Smith said so, after a long back and forth, he’s sure Civic Plus would put together a good product. But in the end, it really came down to Civic Plus and Revise, and DeLorge and Smith, and he thinks the rest of the staff looked, talked about this, and they’re proposing that Revise be proposed at just under $10,000 for development and $2,500 a year.

Wylie asked DeLorge if it’s usable, will it function really well for her. DeLorge said absolutely. As she saw from South Lyon, their goal as a government office she feels is to be transparent, and when she has residents come in and say, you know, I looked and looked for something for a half hour and I couldn’t find it, it’s not good. Fuller said and searched for it. DeLorge said Pardee has even commented that he’s looked for things on their website and could not find them. Because it’s just old and things over the years have been moved and changed and moved and changed and added. She has a lot of new information on elections on the page now, under clerk’s. She’s sure no one saw it. It’s just not, you have to find the clerk’s page first of all. And then, yeah. It’s just the new Revise. She likes them. They specialize in government websites and as you see, it’s bright, it’s clear, it’s very transparent and – (interrupting DeLorge), Wylie asked if it is easy for DeLorge to use. Haven said to load things. DeLorge said absolutely. And they have higher security for them, which is very important to her. And they also have training where they’ll do, actually they can do website-based or in-house. So, they’ll actually, he said they will come and sit with her and train her because with the Revise, she’s had to learn over the phone and train herself, and she’s been trying to make it – Fuller said she means Civic Plus – DeLorge said she means, Civic Plus, she’s been trying to keep it up as much as she can. Wylie thanked DeLorge.

Fuller asked Smith if this website is in the Master Plan. Smith said it is. This is in the Master Plan, an updated website. It’s very important.

Haven said great, excellent. If they have no other questions or conversation, let’s take the roll.

Haven recognized Pardee for a question.

Pardee said he was wondering what the issues are with our arrangement with Oakland County from an IT [Information Technology] perspective. Smith said so, Oakland County was very responsive when we had the cyber-attack, and they did that on an emergency basis. But they really have shied away from doing day-to-day operations. So, he has not had much interaction, really any interaction, with Oakland County for a good couple years, and there was some leadership change there and the IT director has left. So, they’ve been doing this on their own.

Pardee asked if our current hardware is OK for now. Smith said yeah, oh yeah. All of the current computers are fine with the main website.

Smith said in terms of timing, he just wanted to let them know if they approve this, they’re looking at anywhere from 8-12 weeks development testing and launch. Haven said yeah, good question. Smith said so, by the end of the year.

Lamphier asked if it is $10,000 plus $2,500 for the first year. Smith said not the first year. Lamphier said the first year is taken care of, the $2,500 is baked in he would presume. Smith said that’s baked in for the first year. He doesn’t know if these are calendar years or fiscal years. They have to, he doesn’t know, does DeLorge know? DeLorge said well, Revise is the one that is basically is 25 pages. That’s in your packet. They actually came out and sat with them and that gives all the information. And that was one of the things, like Pardee said, that she likes. The security, our current website isn’t secure.

Smith asked if they say anything about the annual fee, when that will kick in? Is it January 1 or is it July 1? Well, they’ll find out. DeLorge said she’s comparing four different websites and she’s doesn’t see.

Haven asked if they should take the roll. They have a motion and a second here. Rodgers moved and Wylie seconded it. Haven asked DeLorge to take the roll.

Fuller, Forte, Wylie, Rodgers, Lamphier, Haven, and Casey voted yes.

Haven said the resolution is adopted.

Item 10e – Resolution: Oakland County Assessing Services (Agreement Renewal) (Video time mark 01:45:13; page /104 of the council packet):

• • Resolution – Oakland County Assessing Services Contract (page 79/104 of the council packet)
  • 08-11-2023 Letter from Michael R. Lohmeier, Equalization Officer, Oakland County Department of Management & Budget (page 80/104 of the council packet)
  • Contract for Oakland County Equalization Division Assistance for Real and Personal Property Assessment Administration Services (page 82/104 of the council packet)
  • 08-22-2023 Memorandum from Law Office of Thomas J. Ryan, P.C. Re: Assessing Agreement with Oakland County (page 104/104 of the city council packet)

Haven said the last one is a resolution as well, for Oakland County assessing services. And he’ll just read both here. They have a letter from their attorney about this. Haven said he would read the resolution first.

(Haven read the resolution, noting that they are a little behind given the effective date.)

(Haven read the letter from the city attorney.)

Haven said OK, so he’s going to need a motion to adopt this resolution. Who would like to so move?

Motion by Fuller; second Casey.

Haven asked if there was any discussion. Do they like the idea of keeping our assessor as Oakland County.

No discussion.

Haven ask DeLorge to take the roll since there was no further discussion.

Lamphier, Rodgers, Wylie, Casey, Forte, Fuller, and Haven voted yes.

Haven said the resolution is adopted.

Agenda Item #11, Adjourn (Video time mark 1:47:40):

Haven said he would entertain a motion to adjourn.

Motion by Wylie; second Forte.

Haven said they have a motion and second and asked if there was any discussion.

No discussion.

The motion to adjourn passed by unanimous voice vote.

Haven said they are adjourned and thanked everyone.

Resources:

• • Link to video recording here
  • 08-28-2023 City Council packet