August 8, 2022, City Council Meeting

Introduction:

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. 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).

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.

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

Agenda item #1, Call to Order:

There was no formal call to order on the video.

Agenda item #2, Pledge of Allegiance (Video time mark 0:00:03):

Pledge said.

Agenda item #3, Roll Call (Video time mark 0:00:20):

Eric Haven, Gary Casey, Bruce Fuller, Joe Luginski, Laura Rodgers, and Sue Wylie were present. Al Avery was absent.

Agenda item #4, Motion: Approval of Agenda (Video time mark 0:00:37):

Haven said he would entertain a motion to approve the agenda as it has been delivered to them.

Motion to approve the agenda as presented by Wylie; second Fuller. (Fuller and Rodgers made a second at the same time; Haven recognized Fuller.)

No further discussion.

Motion to approve the agenda passed unanimously by voice vote.

Agenda Item #5, Public Comments (Video time mark 0:00:59):

Haven read the rules for public comment and asked if anyone had a public comment to make.

Chet Pardee:

Good evening. Although city officials keep saluting transparency, why have they made no effort to communicate the decisions made in the June 8, 2022, finance committee meeting and their implications? Committee members Al Avery and Joe Luginski were not present. Is anyone willing to explain what was decided? Cannot find the words? Cannot find the time? Are city officials being secretive on purpose?

Finance committee members Eric Haven, Jonathan Smith, and Greg Coté, with Tom Ryan participating by phone, agreed that there was insufficient time to create the ballot language, maximum 300 words, for the November ballot. Tom explained the attorney general and governor would need to approve an August submission and would not press them. Two months later and city officials have not found the time to communicate that additional millage funds for street and sidewalk repair would now not be available until July 2024, two years from now, if a proposal was included in the November 2023 ballot.

And how will the planning commission work on the mayor’s request for a raised walkway, $450,000 in the Capital Improvement Plan, from Depot Park through the wetlands to the Deer Lake vicinity? The planning commission has not been able to find the time for Depot lot paid parking, as the mayor had emphasized in the June 8^th finance committee meeting.

Why have city employees refused to utilize the bold, readable type of the 08-25-2021 month-end finance report on subsequent reports? It existed once. Is there not a benefit to making month-end finance reports more readable? Is there a downside I do not see?

Have the property owners of the private Main Street paver aprons been advised of their need to apply for an MDOT [Michigan Department of Transportation] permit? Will they be creating their own plans or using HRC’s [Hubbell, Roth & Clark, the city’s contract engineers]? The seven paver aprons are the top priority for capital expenditures in the current budget due to pedestrian safety. The MDOT process is not simple as I have learned.

Pardee asked if there were questions or comments.

Jonathan Smith [city manager] said that he wanted to respond to a couple of items in Pardee’s list. First of all, Pardee answered his own question when he said in the second paragraph that finance committee members Eric Haven, Jonathan Smith, Greg Coté, with Tom Ryan, agreed there was insufficient time to create ballot language. The outcome of that finance committee meeting is that there was insufficient time, so it was a decision to not act any faster because we just can’t get it in time for the November 2022 ballot, so it will have to be moved to the November 2023 ballot. So, you were there, you heard it, that was the outcome of that meeting.

Continuing, Smith said secondly, with regard to the Main Street aprons, those are all owned by the city. So, yes, if we have to go into their driveway, that would require some participation of the owners of that driveway. But all the aprons are in the city easement and are owned by the city between the sidewalk and the road. So, they don’t need to apply for permits; we would. Pardee agreed. Smith said the property owners themselves would not. Pardee said he understood when they had those discussions a couple of months ago that a portion of the seven aprons were on private property. Smith said that he can see how that could be misconstrued. So, what has to happen to make the ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliance grade, we will have to get some construction easements from the property owners and go into their property a little bit to basically average out that grade over a further distance, and by doing that, Smith can achieve the 2% grade. So, when it comes time, and we’re not there yet, but when it comes time to replace those with concrete or some other product, we’ll have to go down that road with the property owners, get their buy-in to this. But right now, we’re proposing just to replace the pavers. Smith is trying to get costs on that. Right now, it’s not been easy. HRC [Hubbell, Roth & Clark, the city’s contract engineers] is helping Smith on this, trying to find pavers, paver installer companies, that would do that work.

Pardee thanked Smith for clarifying that the city owns where the pavers will be replaced. Smith said that’s correct. Pardee said that on the other item, he was debating that 60 days was insufficient time, and the committee chose a different (unintelligible).

Pardee thanked Smith for the response.

Haven asked if there were any other public comments.

No additional public comments.

Agenda Item #6, FYI (Video time mark 0:06:39):

Haven said that he didn’t have any additional information, but they are going to hear about Art in the Park [sometimes referred to interchangeably as Art in the Village] a little bit later.

Agenda Item #7, City Manager Report (Video time mark 0:06:50); page 3/40 of the council packet):

Haven noted that the city manager’s report is in the packet, they have Smith’s report to them. Haven asked if anyone had any comments or questions about the report that Smith has written. Haven said that they would be looking at the roads report a little bit later in the agenda.

Haven said he was interested in the repair of the pillar at Wompole. He knows several people around town who have been talking about stone masons they’ve been using for various things because we have a lot of stonework in the village, and to keep it up to date and healthy, Haven thinks it’s good that we note these craftsmen that do that because it is meticulous work and very needed. So, he appreciates putting that in there. Smith said that Brian [Hietala, stonemason] is very meticulous and he would recommend him to anybody.

Haven asked if anyone on council had any other questions or comments about Smith’s report.

Fuller said he had a question for Jennifer [Speagle, clerk]. He asked if during the pandemic when people weren’t getting to the polls as often or as readily, they started the process of applying for mail-in ballots at least more vigorously and it seemed like the turnout for the election was fairly poor. Even though that’s a state/county type of election, does that expense for the mailing, Speagle’s time, and everything, does that fall on the city? Speagle said yes, part of her job is mailing it. Fuller asked of the people that we mailed out applications to, how many have returned them? (Fuller made an additional unintelligible comment followed by unintelligible crosstalk.) Speagle said she thought we have about 300 permanent absentee voters, and she received 155 back. Speagle corrected herself and said that she sent out 172. Speagle said that the difference with this absentee ballot application is that it was for both August elections and November elections, so she doesn’t have to send out absentee ballot applications for November. Anybody who had marked both boxes, you’ll automatically get your ballot sent to you. There are a few that only asked for absentee ballots for August or for November, but the majority of everybody that she received back, the applications that she received back, are for both elections. Fuller said so the people who signed up for that service, they’ll get a letter into perpetuity about do you want one of these unless they take the initiative to come up and say, “take me off the list”? Smith said yes. Every election, every absentee voter that’s on a permanent list will get an application. If they want an absentee ballot, then they fill it out and send it to Speagle and she gives them an absentee ballot. If they don’t want one, they just simply don’t send it back. Fuller thanked Speagle.

Smith said that Fuller brought up a good point, and he would like to re-emphasize that to council if they did not know is that the cost of the election is borne by the city, not by the state, not by the county, by the city. So, if there are extra elections, special elections, it just adds to our cost, and that’s why last year, last fiscal year, we ran over. We were over budget in the elections category, largely because there were a couple of extra elections in there. So, it does add burden to the cost. The more elections there are, he guesses the absentee counts add a little bit of cost because Speagle has the mailing work to do, more postage that we have to pay. It does add up a little bit, but obviously, it’s something that they are capable and willing to do. It supports the election process so they are willing to do it, he doesn’t mean to imply otherwise, but they should know that we do bear the cost of it.

Rodgers asked if somebody doesn’t return their absentee, you send it out to them, they asked, and they don’t return it back, do they, after a couple of times of doing that, do they get taken off the list or do they just continue that (unintelligible)? Speagle said yes, and that’s why we budget. She has her own election budget to cover the cost of that stuff.

Haven said that (unintelligible) part of the finance committee. Speagle agreed.

Haven asked if there were any other thoughts, comments, or questions.

No additional comments.

Agenda Item #8, Motion: Acceptance of the Consent Agenda as Presented (Video time mark 0:11:56):

• • 07-11-2022 – Final Minutes (page 4/40 of the council packet)
  • 07-25-2022 – Draft Minutes (page 6/40 of the council packet)
  • 08-08-2022 – Treasurer’s Report (page 8/40 of the council packet)
  • 08-03-2022 – Check Disbursement Report from 07-01-2022 – 07-31-2022 (page 9/40 of the council packet)
  • Hubbell, Roth & Clark, period ending 06-30-2022 (page 16/40 of the council packet)
  • Thomas J. Ryan, July invoice (page 30/40 of the council packet)

Haven said he would entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda, which is the final minutes from 07-11, the draft minutes from 07-25 and the treasurer’s report (unintelligible).

Motion by Wylie; second Rodgers (joking about whether the second would be made by Fuller or Rodgers).

Haven asked if there was any discussion about the consent agenda.

Pardee said he had a question, likely for Smith. There were a lot of HRC invoices, and some of them were from before the budget began. Will these get applied to this budget, or – Smith interjected and said to the old budget. Smith said when the work was incurred, which was in June, and yes, we got a bundle of invoices all at once, but they were for the last fiscal year, so Coté will make sure those are charged to the last fiscal year, not the new budget. But you know how that works is, if you charge it to the, it still comes out of your fund balance, right, which becomes the starting fund balance for the new fiscal year, so it will just reduce our starting fund balance for the new fiscal year when we pay those out of the last year’s budget. Does that make sense? Pardee thanked Smith.

Haven asked if there were any other thoughts or comments about the consent agenda.

No additional comments.

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

Agenda Item #9, Old Business

Item 9a – Discussion: August 2, 2022, Primary Election Update (Video time mark 0:13:47)

• • August 2, 2022, Primary Election Update (page 33/40 of the council packet)

Haven said (unintelligible) about our election and asked Speagle if she wanted to add to that. Speagle said yes.

Speagle said that voter turnout for the City of the Village of Clarkston was 35.32%, which, overall in Oakland County, was 30%. All of Oakland County. The turnout was 30%. 284 out of 804 registered voters. She had 120 in-person, absentee was 155. There were 17 ballots that Speagle did not receive back that were sent out. The library millage passed, overall, between the township and the city, 6,435 to 3,084. That breaks down, the City of the Clarkston was 217 for yes and 50 for no. And, last but not least, Speagle said she wanted to thank her full election crew – Smith for helping set up and support throughout the election process; Toni Smith, Evelyn Bihl, Cara Catallo, Claire Werner, Joslyn Beckert (spelling?), Sam Kierman (spelling?) – they were excellent. Speagle couldn’t do it without them. Haven said that was great. Continuing, Speagle said Bunkhouse and Honcho helped her feed everybody. Especially the young man at Bunkhouse. Speagle did not catch his name. He was amazing with their large orders. He was great. Haven said that’s great.

Item 9b – Resolution: Art in the Village (Video time mark 0:15:36)

• • Resolution – Art in the Village (page 34/40 of the council packet)

Haven said this is a resolution about Art in the Village and Smith introduced this to them before. Basically, the resolution says that the Historical Society is willing to pay the DPW [Department of Public Works] wages and is asking us to waive the $200 deposit or Depot Park rental fee for this year. To start the discussion, Haven said that he would ask for a motion to adopt this resolution.

Rodgers moved to adopt; second Casey.

Haven asked if there was any discussion about this.

Rodgers said it seemed like they do this for other non-profit organizations that bring a lot of, not only to the Art in the Village, but (unintelligible). Haven asked Smith to help him remember. If it’s charitable, it’s 501(c)(3), typically we do this, and for a for-profit event, we don’t do it. Smith said that is the pattern we’ve followed for the last couple of years, yes. (Haven made an unintelligible comment.)

Pardee asked if any other organization offers to pay the DPW wages during their program? Smith said Taste [of Clarkston] and Concerts [in the Park]. Both Chamber events. They do pay the DPW wages, yes. A contribution. They don’t track the hours; they just make a contribution.

Haven said he had a motion and second and asked Speagle to take the roll.

An unidentified woman in the audience [later identified as Toni Smith, city manager Jonathan Smith’s wife, and the only paid employee of the Clarkston Community Historical Society, organizer of Art in the Village] said this is their 50^th year. She thinks Jonathan Smith mentioned last time, and she does want to remind council that they are about to install their 13^th historic marker within the Village and that (unintelligible) at $1,500 apiece. It comes from the Historical Society, and in some cases (unintelligible) in the last few, we’ve got some donations towards those too, but the question of what we do with that money, that what, we do make money at Art in the Village, but it’s our one fund-raiser. It’s a huge community event, the money goes back into the signs, it goes back into the local museum which we run for this community. Again, the city doesn’t help us, the township doesn’t help us, it’s all entirely done by Art in the Village and by its volunteers and membership. So, she just wanted to kind of remind people where our money goes. It’s definitely staying here in the community. That’s all she had to say and can answer any questions.

Haven said that he thought the comments were germane because it’s so community beneficial as opposed to some of the other 501(c)(3)s which we deal with which are, that have other vistas, if you will. And we’ve always liked that for example, different charities that use our intersection (unintelligible), use our intersection to collect funds. And typically, we’ve asked them if they would prioritize Clarkston as a place where they would benefit because they are using our proceeds here, but we really don’t have any control over that, but we see really where our money is spent with the museum, and these markers around town, and all the other projects that you do, so it makes sense.

Pardee asked where the new markers would be. Toni Smith said that they were just installed. They had the last set, it’s three, one went in front of Rodger’s house; one went in front of Char Cooper’s house, the Walter’s house; and the third one is going to go – she wanted to cover something that wasn’t in the exact downtown, so it will go on the north side of, the north end of Holcomb, and it will talk about the Holcomb family, which basically, the original farm was the (unintelligible) property. So, she wanted something up that way, so they are not only covering the downtown. So, they try to get them out, they try to get them out into the neighborhoods. They’d do more, but the cost is prohibitive. There’s lots of homes that deserve to be recognized, lots of history. But we started with four, we’re at thirteen, it’s pretty good.

Haven said so, if a homeowner is willing to buy their own (unintelligible) whatever it is there, would you be willing to work with them? Toni Smith said yes, we have, which we’ve done on these last two. We do get control over what’s said. Haven said right. Continuing, she said what the homeowner gets is, many of them have a small byline that says something about the family that either contributed to it or whatever. But they have to be the same, they have to look the same, have to be the same kind of history that they are looking to do.

Rodgers said that they just went through it in the front of their house and paid a portion of it (unintelligible) but Toni Smith and her crew, they do all the history searching and it’s kind of a cool thing for the homeowner, and mock it all up, and of course they let us see it before, we couldn’t make changes of anything, but it was very well done. It’s something that – Toni Smith said it’s a long process. She thinks that’s the one big surprise is that it takes (unintelligible crosstalk from Rodgers) about a year for them to find everything, research it, get it done, and then eventually, get it installed by our home-grown installer, which is Jonathan [Smith]. Haven said he’s well-trained (unintelligible crosstalk). Haven asked if they were still using Mr. Heinz from Greenfield Village. Toni Smith said yes, he still does the final.

Rodgers said that there are a lot of people that stop and look at it. They got theirs put in right before the 4^th of the July and they were watching the parade out there and everybody that walks by stops and reads it. And then in the evening, she will be sitting on the porch watching people come for dinner, and they do walk the area, and they talk, and they read it, so it’s kind of a cool thing. Toni Smith said she didn’t know that there are too many other communities that have thirteen and kind of with their help have added another seven, she thinks at one point, so she didn’t know what that comes to, twenty-one or twenty, will be ultimately throughout this immediate area in the village and the township. And they’re all similar. The township, we picked things that were out of the village, corner of Waldon, Sashabaw, those kinds of things. She doesn’t think there’s other, not Novi, not Birmingham, Northville, none of those have, they have a few, but they don’t have them like we do. Haven said it differentiates us.

Jonathan Smith said that what he likes about this is that these signs, they educate the community about the history of Clarkston, and that’s really very much in line with the mission of the Historical Society, it’s to retain the history, so younger people coming to town don’t know that your house was there in 1940, or 1840, they don’t know that history, so the only way that we are going to be able to protect the history of Clarkston is to educate the younger generation on the importance of these properties. So, these signs play a very important role in the Historical Society’s mission to retain the history, retain this historic town that we all love.

Haven said that he was just going through the Master Plan recently and in light of the Master Plan, if that’s your charter, your charge really under the Master Plan, to try to promote our history. Jonathan Smith said that’s right. Haven said that they are fulfilling their mission.

Haven said he was going to ask a leading question that Toni Smith could feel free to tell him no if she wanted to. Toni Smith asked if it was going to involve somebody doing something. Haven said eventually. Haven said that QR codes are coming into vogue for some of this stuff. The cemetery is using them. The kids are doing little video presentations on the personalities over there. He asked if Toni Smith foresaw putting QR codes on these signs? Toni Smith said that they’ve talked about it, it’s not off the map, but you also have to, it’s not a question of just sticking the QR sticker on there. Haven agreed. Toni Smith said the question is just doing the back work, and having have that up on some website, she doesn’t even know how they are doing it. They’ve talked about it, and it’s been even suggested that they do some sort of small plaque where there would be a QR code on the buildings in town so you could immediately scan and get that history. They’ve worked with various projects with the schools, they’re always working with them on something, and that’s certainly a possibility, it’s not something they have on their radar right now, but yes, it’s going to come to that eventually. Haven agreed.

Haven asked Jonathan Smith about the 42 classes that he had in here (gesturing), the second graders, you start talking about next gen, you’re catching these young minds. Haven asked Toni Smith if they’ve been doing that for years. She said the second grade, yes. Before that, they were coming into the museum and the 3-2-2 children’s schoolbooks are on (unintelligible). Haven asked if that’s a self-distributed primer. She said yes, they do, they have a teacher’s program that they get, a booklet, and the kids get a passport, and they go to various places and get it stamped.

Haven thanked Toni Smith for the presentation. Really this is needed, we don’t need to be reminded. Anyway, we have a motion and second. Haven asked for a roll call.

Fuller, Rodgers, Haven, Luginski, Wylie, and Casey voted yes. The resolution passed and Toni and Jonathan Smith thanked the council.

[See Clarkston Sunshine comment.]

Agenda Item #10, New Business

Item 10a – Discussion: Tree Committee Update (Video time mark 0:26:22)

• • Tree planting recommendations (page 35/40 of the council packet)

Haven said that we have a tree committee and a tree committee update, and that’s Amanda Wakefield’s cue. Haven thought she’d probably been present (unintelligible) new people in our village and we’re glad to have you. (Wakefield made an unintelligible comment.)

Wakefield said that she made an attachment, and Haven acknowledged that it is in the packet. She’s not really asking for anything in this meeting. She’s doing a little report. The tree committee tries to meet every month and walk the whole city and kind of get an inventory of where the trees are at, where some dangers could be, what needs to be trimmed, just kind of all that stuff. Wakefield said she wasn’t aware if the council knew that last week, we had a big electrical fire in front of the Union, and it was because all the plantings were over the line and blah blah blah. Obviously, the tree committee – Wakefield, Carol [Eberhardt, former city manager], and Sharron [Catallo, former city councilmember and former mayor] – were all seen there and were like oh no. So, we’ve been trying to think about this in terms of safety as well.

Anyway, all that being said, Wakefield said she kind of went street by street in this report. Obviously, we did our best to take pictures of everything. There are a few photos that aren’t included on this report, and she noted those trees that aren’t on the report in the form of a photo. Going page by page and starting with Buffalo Street, there’s a big tree that needs to be removed at the corner of Buffalo and Church, and from their end, they are going to work with Smith to get quotes and figure out the costs, and they will put those numbers together, see what’s in the budget, and then they will present that to the council when they get to that stage.

Rodgers asked Wakefield if those were the ones in red. Wakefield agreed and said you could see that there’s one on Church Street in front of address 29, and that’s the one that she’s referring to. Haven said there’s no picture of that, and Wakefield said on the second page there is, on the top left. [The copy of the council packet posted on the city’s website did not include all of the photos that were provided to council, including this one.] So that one we’ll be removing because it’s obviously deteriorating and (unintelligible) a limb that goes all the way up is completely dead and a lot of the subsequent branches are dead.

Wakefield said she was going to go kind of quickly through it because there’s a lot. The next picture is in front of the house across the street which is 35. [This photo was also not included in the council packet posted on the city’s website.] There’re two dots in front of 35. This is (unintelligible) house in case you know (unintelligible), she’s Wakefield’s neighbor. We have two trimmings. There’s one tree that’s directly across from the dead one that has a lot of dead branches that need to be trimmed. Honestly, this is of the scale of tree where you have to climb it to trim it and blah blah blah. And there’s the tree in front of her house that’s pictured and has a large dead branch that needs to be removed. [This photo was also not included in the council packet posted on the city’s website.] It’s low enough to grab it, but upon trying to grab it and pulling it down, it doesn’t work which the tree committee didn’t love when she did. In front of Wakefield’s house, there’s a tree that’s severely deteriorating but Steve [unknown person] and Wakefield will pay to replace that tree on their own which is OK as long as they get approval blah blah blah.

Wylie asked what kind of tree it is that Wakefield wants to replace. Wakefield said that it’s a crabapple that’s deteriorating but they haven’t chosen what (unintelligible) that they will replace it with. Probably another ornamental.

Continuing, Wakefield said moving on to Washington Street, there’s two trees in the parking lot that are directly abutting Washington Street. You can see them in the photo. They’re obviously not doing well. Those two need to be pulled out and replaced.

Wakefield said obviously, they won’t be able to do all of this at once, but they will selectively choose what they can do that’s in the budget and what is the most severe thing in terms of safety and otherwise and then will make choices accordingly.

Continuing, Wakefield said so, that’s those two trees. There’re also sycamores in that parking lot that need to be trimmed. And then on the next street, Main Street, there’s two trees in front of the Union that need to be replaced, both of which might be under warranty. For sure one of the gingkoes is under warranty, so we need to follow up with the nurseries because those we can get replaced for free.

Wakefield said that ties up the efforts for those. She said that she noted on the map that on Main Street, it’s really important that we are watering. It’s obviously a very hot summer and Main Street trees have it harder than other trees in the city due to the fact that they’re in these small little squares of soil, and it dries out quickly, and so anything we can do to water and water them would be helpful.

Wakefield said (unintelligible) repairs. She has three pictures of three different specimens, three different individual trees, but they are all kind of suffering from the same symptoms, and they just need an MDOT [Michigan Department of Transportation] trimming. And, if the city is OK with it, Wakefield can do the trimming. If not, no problem, she wouldn’t do anything that would be a safety hazard, obviously, but if we don’t want to spend any money, she’s willing to help and actually do the work.

Wylie asked Wakefield how she would climb and get to the high branches. Wakefield said that she would never do the high branches just for liability. Wylie said so she would just do something where she stands on the ground. Wakefield agreed and said just like (gesturing).

Wakefield said that the last thing is Holcomb and Miller. On Holcomb, there’s obviously some opportunities to plant street trees. She knows they have to approve it (unintelligible) residents, because they do work with the homeowners when they offer to plant a tree somewhere. We want to make sure they are OK with it, because some people will use those spaces for parking, and if they use it for overflow parking, they might not want a tree in their easement, so that’s something they do work with them on.

Wakefield said that there’s a few trees that need to be thoroughly trimmed on Holcomb right around the power lines that she showed underneath. There’s one tree in particular that has a lot of dead wood. She has to confirm that’s within our property, and that’s exiting Depot Park and that’s the center picture.

Wakefield said that’s everything.

Rodgers asked if DTE does the work if it’s around power lines. Wakefield said they will do those, but unless you kind of tell them what to do, they just come in and like (gesturing with both hands). Rodgers said oh, they shave them right off. Wakefield agreed. (Haven made an unintelligible comment, Wakefield agreed, and Wakefield made an unintelligible comment.)

Haven asked what the interplay is between the tree committee and DPW. They are doing tree work right now. Smith said that they are trimming trees right now for obstructions, really. Sign obstructions and traffic lights. Down, as you go toward Clarkston Road, there’s three or four trees that are obstructing views of the traffic lights, so they are going to address those. This week, Jimi [Turner, DPW supervisor] is just getting what he can get from the ground and then next week, he’ll go out with the lift and do higher work. Smith said that they are starting on that. Now, they can incorporate some of the smaller things in this work and get those done at the same time. Wakefield said that’s great.

Haven told Wakefield that it’s interesting because she has around $2,000 in the budget. Wakefield agreed and said that they have two separate budgets – for maintenance and replacements. Haven said that there’s an interplay here. Smith agreed. Haven thought that was interesting.

Haven asked if there’s any thought about promotions for people to buy a tree and plant it on their berm with Wakefield’s guidance? The city easement? (Wakefield made an unintelligible comment.) Haven said it’s a way to get more trees. Wakefield said she’s not opposed to it. Haven said people might like it and it’s a write-off. Smith said that they could certainly publicize that. Haven said he thought that is a good idea, keep (unintelligible). Smith said that if somebody wants a tree in front of their house and say they’ll help pay the whole thing (unintelligible). Haven said sure. Wakefield agreed. Smith said if they even just pay half of it, we’re ahead. Rodgers said that people might do that if we are offering to plant them. Smith and Haven agreed. Haven said (unintelligible) several years ago and they were really nice. Wakefield agreed and said that she’s planning on doing that. Haven said he thought they ought to promote it. He thinks the idea ought to be spread. Wakefield agreed. Haven said they could get a lot of value out of that. Just realizing it, think about it, they think it’s the city or something or don’t even think at all. Trees are an asset. They’re (unintelligible). Speagle said (unintelligible) maybe if you give them direction on what trees are – (interrupting Speagle), Haven and Wakefield agreed. Haven said that they have lists already, don’t they? Wakefield agreed. Speagle said to make sure that (unintelligible). Wakefield said salt tolerance and things like that, especially if they’re in the easement. Wakefield said that they’re happy to help in any way. Haven said this is a huge subject for our village. It defines our village in many respects. Wakefield agreed. She said her friends came here (unintelligible) from Royal Oak (unintelligible) you totally forgot Miller and she (unintelligible).

Wakefield said that they would get more numbers and come back with more facts, but this is kind of where they are at right now. Haven thanked her for coming.

Haven asked if there were any other comments or questions for Wakefield.

Fuller said he had a couple of questions. He asked about the dotted line on the chart and wondered if this is the area in their purview. Wakefield said that this is their city map. There’s the historic district and then there’s village part. The historic district is what’s outlined. Fuller said this is the historic district only. Wakefield said then the square is the City of Clarkston. She doesn’t have all of it.

Wylie asked why things outside of the historic district aren’t included for trees. Wakefield said no, this is all the time they had time to walk. They will still do a few more. To answer Wylie’s question, they didn’t do outside the scope of those areas, yes.

Fuller said he was curious because he’s not in the dotted line part. Wakefield said he didn’t count. (Laughter.)

Fuller said he’s seen some news stories about these pear trees, and Wakefield knows, obviously, but they said that they were planted as decorative trees and then they became invasive. Wakefield agreed. Fuller asked if this was one pear tree. Wakefield said they are called callery pears. Fuller asked if we were staying away from those. Wakefield agreed. Fuller said we have non-invasive plants around here. Wakefield said only invasive. (Laughter.) Wakefield said no, we don’t want to plant any more invasive plants, obviously. Fuller said he was just curious. (Wakefield made additional unintelligible comments about trees.) Fuller said he likes the smell of those in spring. Fuller thanked Wakefield.

Wylie asked Wakefield if she intended to check out some of the other areas. Middle Lake and Overlook are not on there (unintelligible) and part of Clarkston Road and North Holcomb are not included. Wakefield said this is only the first part of their report, and obviously, they haven’t gotten into numbers or anything yet, but they still need to do Middle Lake, they still need to do some of the back roads, they didn’t even do Robertson Court yet. They just hit what they could do in an afternoon. Wylie thanked Wakefield.

Item 10b – Discussion: Updated PASER Ratings (Video time mark 0:39:07)

• • 2022 PASER Rating (page 39/40 of the council packet)

Haven said that the next item on the agenda is what’s called affectionately the PASER [Pavement Surface and Evaluation Rating] report. He’s asked what that stands for and never got an answer to that question, but it has to do with the quality of our roads, and they’re defined on a chart which is in the packet, a couple of charts, one is a map and the other is a spreadsheet. They are color-coded, and Haven thinks he remembers from reading his packet that Smith is going to be meeting with HRC soon in the absence of Melissa Coatta who has moved on, our engineer. Smith agreed. Haven said we are sort of assessing where we are with this and moving forward. It’s kind of an update. Smith agreed.

Smith said that Mat Slicker (spelling?) who took Coatta’s place, Smith is very much encouraged by his eagerness to dig in here and get to know everything there is to know about Clarkston. He’s been around. He used to work for Gary Tressel back in the day, so he’s not new, but he picked up a new assignment here and Smith is glad to see that he’s digging right in.

Smith said that Slicker is going to come out and they are going to physically drive the roads, not that Smith doesn’t do that as well, but they are going to physically get out and look at where the roads are really breaking down to try to make sense out of some of these ratings, because you might look at some of the 3s on this map and say well, I was just down on this road and it’s not that bad. Others, it was rated a 4, and it’s horrible. So, it might kind of raise some eyebrows as you read through it, but the goal here is to put an action plan together. So, this is for your information, what does this mean to me. Well, the next step is to put together a prioritized action plan.

Gary Tressel said back in the day when you look at this PASER report, and it still holds true, that just because a road is a 6 doesn’t mean that you do nothing to that road, because it might warrant spending some time and money on a road that’s a 6 before you spend money on a road that’s rated as a 4. You might say well, that doesn’t make sense, but actually, if a road is a 6 and by putting in some crack fill, or some patching here and there, or cut out a bad section and replace it now instead of ignoring it and water gets underneath that section and breaks up the whole road, you could actually be saving yourself money in the long run by fixing a minor problem now. Other roads that are completely gone, or are well gone, that’s a 2 or 3, it’s probably not a road that you want to spend maintenance money on. It’s probably just too far gone and you’re probably just looking at replacing it at that point and just getting an action plan in place to replace that road.

Smith said that’s the purpose of this visit with Slicker. It might take a couple of visits, and Smith and Slicker will come out and physically walk, or at least drive over and get out and look at it and try to do an action plan on what they think should be first, second, third, that kind of thing.

Haven asked Smith if he could explain what’s been the history of this a little bit. They’ve seen this report before several years ago, and Haven knows there’s been some assessment. He knows that Smith is counting on Tressel saying fix the good one first and the bad one we’ll leave alone a little bit more, but there was some sort of sequencing of your thought process and that sort of informed the crack fill activity that Smith did. Smith agreed. Haven said that he gets a sense that we’re getting a little bit closer to what Pardee and others have talked about in terms of sequencing and so on. Smith agreed. Haven said he thought it would be helpful to all the council members and really all the citizenry to know what the rationale is. Smith agreed. Haven said (unintelligible) so, just a thought, if this new gentleman can help us with that, that would be really helpful. Smith agreed.

Smith said to Haven’s point, not just the prioritization but the rationale behind that prioritization so you understand why we’re putting this road 6 ahead of that road 4. For the residents on that road who might disagree with that, they’re on the 4 rated road, they might disagree with that, and so we will put together all that in a formal statement.

Haven said that some of it might go beyond what you see on the surface. The surface might look good, but underneath, the bed is not good. Smith agreed. Haven said so, we can’t see, so Haven looked at this [holding up the color-coded] chart, and he thought another column explaining a little bit about the rationale for the assessment would be really helpful, so we get the reason why, not just what you’re looking at. Smith agreed. Haven said this is good (unintelligible).

Haven asked if there were any thoughts or comments about the report. It is a discussion item. Hopefully, it’s informative to everyone.

Pardee said he had a terminology question. So, we used to have a RAMP [Road Asset Management Plan] report. Smith agreed. Pardee asked if PASER part of the RAMP process? Smith said that PASER is part of the RAMP. RAMP is the overall report; PASER is just this table essentially, this chart. That’s where we actually do the assessment of the road. RAMP is a much bigger report. It has lots of details. Smith will find out if that’s still coming. The main thing that we were asking for was a five-year PASER update, so that’s what this is. Five years. So, they updated this. Whether the full RAMP report is coming, Smith will have to ask Slicker. He’s not sure.

Luginski asked if it was the RAMP report that projected how much money we needed to spend to keep the roads even at a 4, or whatever over average? Smith said on average, yes. Luginski said that the RAMP did contain a financial aspect. Smith agreed.

Haven said it informed the CIP [Capital Improvement Plan] if he remembers correctly. Smith said right, we used that in the CIP, yes. Haven said it’s the Capital Improvement Plan, but that’s part of the RAMP. It all ties together.

Haven asked if there were any other thoughts or comments about the PASER report.

Smith said he had one additional comment, and that is an update on Clarkston Road. Haven thanked Smith. Smith said we said that Clarkston Road would be paved in August before school restarts. Smith said he was discouraged to learn that they’re [the Oakland County Road Commission] not going to make that timing. (Luginski made an unintelligible comment.) Smith said that they said it will definitely be done this construction season, but they are so busy with I-75, which Smith was confused by because he doesn’t think that I-75 has that much asphalt, it’s mostly concrete, but he says the crews are busy on I-75. Smith said he said so, now you’re going to be into school season, and on a weekday, those roads are so full of cars going back and forth, you won’t even be able to get your trucks down there. He said not to worry. This is something they can do on a Saturday or even a Sunday. They think it’s only a two-day job. So, they’re going to prep on day one and they’ll pave on day two.

Luginski asked where they’re going from, Main Street to where? Smith said to the city limit. Luginski said OK. Fuller said to his front door. Luginski said he could see them doing that. Based on how they did Main Street. (Unintelligible crosstalk.)

Smith said that he said that the weekday is out of the question, but he said it’s not a problem. They are working Saturdays and Sundays, especially when you get into the fall months. He said that he estimated that this will probably be done in early-to-mid-September. Smith said it’s discouraging, but it’s not off the table or anything like that. Smith wanted to let them know because they’d previously said to expect this in mid-August and unfortunately, that’s not going to happen.

Haven asked if there were any comments.

Rodgers asked if this is an MDOT thing too. Smith said that this is the Oakland County Road Commission.

Fuller said that this is the part that confuses him. The Oakland County Road Commission he wouldn’t think would be paving I-75. An unidentified person said that’s true. Smith agreed. Fuller said that would be MDOT. Smith said yes, and he agreed with Fuller. He was confused by that too. What would their role be in that? Maybe some entrance ramps; he doesn’t know. (Unintelligible crosstalk.) Smith said it could be some bridges, overpasses.

Agenda Item #11, Adjourn (Video time mark 0:48:29):

Haven said that concludes their agenda and he would entertain a motion to dismiss.

Wylie said she had something. She wanted to know what the status was on doing a fence or sign or anything at Miller Lake because there was a big party down there on Saturday night, people coming in, and a lot of people in the neighborhood were pretty upset about what’s going on. Smith said OK, so we have the signs, he ordered the signs, they’re here, they’re in the garage, it’s just a matter of putting it on a pole and installing it. Turner has that on his to do list. Wylie said OK. Smith said he can pull it ahead. He didn’t realize it was still going on, but he guesses with all the heat, it’s understandable. Smith said that he would have Turner get that in, at least that sign. We bought the same sign for all the entrances to Depot Park, and that’s part of the park. So, they’re green and white signs, like park-ish looking signs. They’ll be one coming in from the south end of the park, one here (gesturing), one coming in from White Lake Road, and then one for down White Lake Road. So, those four signs will go in.

Haven asked what the signs said. Smith said the Depot Park rules. Haven said he understood. Smith continued, and said no alcoholic beverages, no dogs off of leashes, these kinds of things. There are like six or seven, and then it’s got the ordinance number so somebody who wants to look up all the restrictions can go to that ordinance. Wylie said OK. Smith said that those are the main ones. It’s mainly alcoholic beverages.

Smith said so, as you will recall, the route that we decided on for that entrance at the beach was not to say no trespassing, and entrance not allowed, or anything like that. It just says park rules. If they follow the park rules, they shouldn’t be a problem, because if they don’t have their alcohol, they’re probably not going to be – (interrupting Smith), Wylie said that’s what fueling it all. Smith said that the sign gives the Oakland County Sheriff what he needs to cite them. Wylie said OK. Smith said that’s a key component of the sign.

Wylie said it’s really been ramping up. On Saturday, she couldn’t believe how many people were down there. It’s the biggest crowd she’s ever seen. There were a lot of people. Wylie thanked Smith and said she can pass that along. Smith asked if it was during the day, and Wylie said it’s in the evening. The sun was still up; it was evening. Smith said OK. He’ll talk to Charlie [Sergeant Young, Oakland County Sheriff]. Wylie thanked Smith.

Pardee said that he would like to make an observation. He saw an adult, probably 60, with a life vest on, heading down beside the bridge on the Middle Lake side. All Pardee could conclude was that he was launching a kayak or something. Wakefield asked Pardee if he was with the party. (Laughter.) Wylie said she would have recognized him. Pardee said he still thinks that a fence would be a good idea if in fact we’re trying to make it more difficult for people to get through. (Unintelligible crosstalk.) Smith said step one, step two. Pardee said it would give him a place to hang a sign. Wylie and Haven agreed.

Wylie said actually, that’s a good point because she heard some of them saying that like with the kayak, if they want to launch a kayak from the Deer Lake Beach side, they’re required to pay the fee. They don’t want to do that, so they come around our side and launch from there.

Haven said he would entertain a motion to adjourn.

Motion by Wylie; second Rodgers.

Haven asked if there was any conversation or discussion about this.

No discussion.

Motion to adjourn by unanimous voice vote.

Haven thanked everyone for coming.

Resources:

• • Link to video recording:
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/1tvvtdf4wph37r9/CityCouncil8%3A8%3A22.mp4?dl=0
  • 08-08-2022 City Council packet