June 12, 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 (Video time mark 0:00:07):

OK, 7:00 o’clock. So, we’ll wait for Tom (Ryan, city attorney) to walk in. Sue Wylie said she’s called the meeting to order now at 7:00 p.m.

Agenda Item #2, Pledge of Allegiance (Video time mark 0:00:21):

Pledge said.

Agenda Item #3, Roll Call (Video time mark 0:00:45):

Wylie asked Karen DeLorge (city clerk) to please take the roll.

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

DeLorge said that Eric Haven is out. Wylie agreed.

Agenda Item #4, Approval of Agenda (Video time mark 00:01:48):

Ryan said he had a request that when they get to the next agenda item that they would amend, hopefully unanimously, by the city council to add a resolution to go into closed session to discuss specific pending litigation, Susan Bisio versus the City of the Village of Clarkson, Oakland County Circuit Court #23-199444-CZ so he can update council on this matter. Wylie said OK, it has to be a resolution, not a motion. We need a resolution to go into closed session. Ryan said no, that’s just the agenda item he’d like added at the end of the meeting. Wylie said, OK, so we need a motion to do that. Ryan said please.

Wylie said OK, so they’re on item 4, which is the approval of the agenda. And they do have a request to, before they approve that, they do have a request to add a new item, and it would be Item 12 and it would move, if they add this, it would move their adjournment back to Item 13. And the request is to make a motion to go into a closed session. So, can she have a motion to add that to the agenda?

Motion by Casey; second Forte.

Wylie asked if there was any discussion.

No discussion.

Motion to add the agenda item passed by unanimous voice vote.

Wylie said OK, so they’re going to go have that added and now they need to approve the entire agenda as presented with that addition, that new number 12. And she needs a motion to approve the agenda.

Motion by Fuller; second Rodgers.

Wylie asked if there was any discussion.

No discussion.

Motion to approve the agenda passed by unanimous voice vote.

Agenda Item #5, Public Comments (Video time mark 0:03:06):

[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.]

Wylie read the rules for public comment.

Wylie recognized Peg Roth.

Roth gave her name and said she was there on behalf of the July 4^th Parade Committee. Roth said she would like to send an invitation to each of them if they would like to join us and walk in the parade. We’d also like to ask the mayor, but he’s not here tonight, but if they are interested, obviously the city has her e-mail. Just let her know if you need any further instructions or directions. You know, bring your kids, your grandkids, or whatever. You’d be sort of in the front of the parade. Honor Guard goes first, of course. And our primary sponsor is Bowman Chevrolet. So, then the officials will go after that, and she believes Independence Township is also going to be participating. So, it will be great. So, let her know if they’re interested. Wylie said OK, thank you, and DeLorge did pass on the request to them also. At least Wylie got that.

Wylie asked if anybody else had a public comment to make?

Wylie recognized a woman and said she could introduce herself or not. Up to her.

The woman said her name was Mary Sloan (spelling?). She’s with the Clarkston Rotary Club, and since one of our seven areas of focus is (unintelligible) resolution. Wylie asked if she could just stop her and asked if this was about the peace pole. Sloan said yes. Wylie said she was on their agenda.

Wylie asked if anybody else had public comments. Public comments are for things not on the agenda. So, does anybody else have a public comment?

Wylie recognized Chet Pardee for a public comment.

Chet Pardee:

Tonight’s public comments are focused on what is not in the city’s 2023-2024 budget and the legal risk for the city as these items are excluded. A year ago, the largest item in the proposed capital budget project was the repair of the seven paver aprons on Main Street. The city manager a year ago emphasized the safety risk to the pedestrians due to the paver condition. The seven paver aprons did not even make the capital improvement plan. The risk to residents and visitors has grown as the pavers have continued to deteriorate. The repair has been excluded because of the now recognized increased cost for making the seven paver aprons comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA].

Nine city streets are judged to be in poor condition per HRC’s [Hubbell, Roth & Clark’s] PASER [Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating] RAMP [Road Asset Management Plan] August update and are also excluded in tonight’s proposed budget.

Excluded is the repair of West Miller Road. A year ago, council approved the city’s MDOT [Michigan Department of Transportation] grant request. MDOT denied the grant request because, as the city manager explained, Clarkston was too affluent [for that particular grant].

The $179,000 estimated cost to repair West Miller will be greater due to the complications of directly linking upper and lower Mill ponds as Oakland County accepts responsibility for the dam. HRC’s design for West Miller included an under-road equalization pipe but did not include a standpipe or similar device to maintain common water levels in each pond. Also, the roadway may be moved slightly to the north to provide increased safety space for walkers on the south sidewalk. Repairing the sidewalk with its 37 cracked sections will be delayed until the road is repaired.

Also not included in tonight’s budget request are sufficient funds to repair the city’s East Washington sewer as part of East Alley repair. The estimated cost appears to have doubled. In the two years of discussion, the increased amount is missing from tonight’s budget proposal.

What is the legal liability cost of half an inch in judging which sidewalk section should be repaired? The city manager explained a few meetings ago that in order to limit to the cost of sidewalk repairs, he was using 3/4 of an inch or greater of vertical misalignment as his criteria for counting need to be repaired. The federal government’s ADA requirement is 1/4 inch maximum allowed.

If the above items had been included, the capital project expenses would be, Pardee’s estimate, ten times what is being proposed. Just the magnitude of the difference. Wylie thanked Pardee.

Wylie asked if anyone else had a public comment to make.

No additional comments.

Wylie said hearing none, she would close public comments.

Agenda Item #6, FYI, (Video time mark 0:08:06): 

Wylie said she would move on to Item 6, FYI, which is Concerts in the Park. She asked if there was something in their packet. DeLorge said they are starting on Friday. Wylie said starting this Friday. Wylie said it’s in the city manager’s report. Concerts in the Park will be starting Friday, June 16th at 6:00 p.m. in Depot Park. The six concerts are sponsored by the Clarkston Area Chamber of Commerce, admission is free, and it’s usually a good time.

Wylie asked if anybody else had anything for FYI.

DeLorge said those dates of the concerts and the times are in their kiosks, their website, and on Facebook. Wylie thanked DeLorge.

Agenda Item #7, Sheriff Report for May 2023 (Video time mark 0:09:03; page 3/50 of the council packet): 

Wylie said Item 7, we have the Sheriff’s report. She doesn’t see Sergeant Ashley here, but they do have a report in their packet. Well, this is it’s from Lieutenant Cummins.

Wylie asked if anybody on council had any comments or questions. She’s sure Jonathan [Smith, city manager] could pass questions on.

Fuller said there wasn’t much crime going on. Wylie agreed. Fuller said there were just a couple traffic citations, that’s about it. That’s a good thing. Wylie agreed.

Agenda Item #8, City Manager Report (Video time mark 0:09:47; page 4/50 of the council packet):

Wylie said OK, moving on to Item 8, we have city manager’s report, which is in the packet. She asked Smith if he had anything to add or discuss.

Smith emphasized that the temporary ban on all open burning in the city and township is extremely important. No burning of any kind. Even with the rain we had yesterday, a nice, long soaker rain but still not enough. The ban is still in place.

The 2nd graders classes. He’s got a nice stack of thank you notes from the 2nd graders, all very nice, thanking us. You’re welcome to read them. Thanking us for holding the educational program that we did. They all decided to do the right thing and pave the streets (unintelligible). It was a little challenge for them. They all arrived at the right decision.

Smith said so he thinks that’s all he had to comment on.

Wylie said you know, this isn’t the right time to talk about this or the place, but is this getting to be too much? This is an awful lot of visits to city hall for you. Smith said it’s, you know, it was 20 sessions this year, down from 62 last year. So, it’s a lot more condensed. More, bigger groups, but smaller quantity. So, the groups last year, a lot of them only had 5 or 6, but now this year, they all had 20 or more students in them, but there were only 20 of them. So, still in total about 400 students. Wylie said that’s a lot. Smith said but all the 2nd graders go through this, and he thinks they really seem to value it. And a lot of them tell me that this is, they thought, was going to be the worst part of their day and they usually tell him that this was one of the best parts of their day, so that’s rewarding.

Wylie said so, it’s got to be very rewarding. OK, well, at the end, she guesses the call is Smith’s.

Wylie asked if there were any questions on or comments on the city manager’s report.

No additional questions or comments.

Agenda Item #9 – Motion: Acceptance of the Consent Agenda as Presented (Video time mark 0:12:06):

• • 05-08-2023 Final Minutes (page 5/50 of the council packet)
  • 05-22-2023 Draft Minutes (page 8/50 of the council packet)
  • 06-12-2023 – Treasurer’s Report (page 11/50 of the council packet)
  • 06-06-2023 – Check Disbursement Report from 05/01/2023 – 05/31/2023 (page 12/50 of the council packet)
  • Thomas J. Ryan, P.C. – May 2023 invoices (page 20/50 of the council packet)

Wylie said moving on to Item 8, they have a motion for acceptance of the consent agenda as presented for today. They’ve got the final minutes for May 8th, 2023, draft minutes for May 22nd, 2023; treasurers report dated today, June 12, 2023; and the documents are included. Wylie said she needed motion to accept the consent agenda.

Ryan said he was sorry, when he looked at this this weekend, he doesn’t think he was here on May 8th. It’s saying he was here as present, but he had to call Smith at the last minute. He had an emergency, so it says he was here on May 8^th, but he doesn’t believe he was. He believes that’s when he was, when he called Smith at the last minute about his emergency. Smith said he thought that was the last meeting, on May 22^nd. DeLorge said she has Ryan as absent on May 22nd. Ryan said he missed two meetings last month, one because of the agenda and one because he had an emergency. Wylie said OK, she would think Ryan would remember if he was here or not. So, she guesses make that correction. Wylie said Ryan said it’s May 8^th, OK. Ryan said (unintelligible) but he missed those two. Wylie said so, we’ll make that correction on May 8th. Take Ryan’s name off as being present that day. She sees where it is, OK.

Wylie asked if there were any other corrections before they made a motion on accepting this?

No additional corrections.

Wylie asked for a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented with that one correction on May 8th.

Motion by Rodgers; second Forte.

Wylie asked if there was any discussion.

No discussion.

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

Wylie said OK, so that is accepted.

[Contrary to the city attorney’s claim, he was at the May 8, 2023 meeting and is visible during the entire Independence Television video recording, linked here. Oddly, all reference to this discussion has been scrubbed from the June 12, 2023, draft minutes, and the May 8, 2023, minutes correctly state that Ryan was present even though council voted to change them to state that Ryan was absent.]

Agenda Item #10, Old Business

Item 10a – Resolution: Acceptance of Proposed 2023-2024 FY Budget (Video time mark 0:14:08):

• • Resolution – 2023-2024 FY Budget (page 22/50 of the council packet)
  • General Appropriations Act, 2023-2024 Fiscal Year (page 23/50 of the council packet)

Wylie said that they are Item number 10, old business. They have a resolution, acceptance of proposed 2023-2024, this fiscal year’s budget, and with the documents attached. Wylie said that she sees that they’ve got the treasurer here today [Greg Coté] and between Coté and Smith, she guesses they take over now.

Johnathan Smith presentation:

Smith said he was not going to go through all of this budget like he did last month in the public hearing. That was a lot of detail and a lot of description as to why they’re doing what they’re doing with the budget. But tonight, that was the public hearing, and they did get some public input from that meeting. But tonight, they’re here to do the final approval of the budget, which would go into effect July 1st.

Smith said so, as in the past, they have a resolution. It just describes what’s taken place in the immediate history.

So, the finance committee is made up of both Haven and Fuller, as well as Coté and Smith. They’ve been meeting since February and have prepared this agenda. There’s an appropriations act which he’ll go through in a minute that summarizes all the actions. That’s a requirement for the Michigan Budgeting Act. So, he’ll go through that in a minute.

The millage rate is not changing from 2023 to 2024, it will stay the same at 11.1420. The good news is, for our residents, is that their taxable values, and oh, he should say their assessed values and their taxable values, have gone up, so they can appreciate improved values in their homes. The proposal here includes some general fund increases as well as a fund balance increase. So, he’ll go through that real quickly too, and he’ll go through the general appropriations act, and then he’ll talk about the five-year CIP [Capital Improvement Plan].

So, let’s go into the appropriations act. This is, you’re actually approving in tonight’s meeting. This summarizes, this is the document they’ve reviewed and approved in years past.

They talked about the public hearing on the budget which took place on May 3^rd, or the announcement was May 3rd and the public hearing was on May 22^nd. That goes through the mileage rate to document that. Again, as Smith said, this year did not change, 11.1420 stays the same for 2022 and 2023. The adoption of the budget (unintelligible). It talks about the various funds and departments. City officials are responsible for ensuring that these budgets will not go under or over budget, expenditures do not go over budget.

Section 5 talks about the payment of bills. It requires the city treasurer and that anything over $500 has to come to council before being paid.

Also included in the budget proposal are some salary changes. They talked at length about this in the last meeting, and this is a key part of this agenda or the proposal, is salary increases to retain our staff. So, what they did is they did 5% across the board. And that is not actually as high as many of the other communities are going 8-9 percent. It’s much more common as you look at communities and what they’re doing. Some of them are even double digit. We stay at 5% across the board. There are a few exceptions to note in here.

One, Coté, our city treasurer, he is now back in the office working four days a week. They issued a $5,000 pay cut for him when he was only working in the office one day a week and working remotely the other days. Now, he’s back in the office every day, so they need to reinstate that. It’s only fair that they reinstate that $5,000 pay cut that he took with this. So, that’s why his percentage is more than 5%.

Our DPW [Department of Public Works] supervisor, James Turner, has been working a lot of lot of hours doing exceptional work on a lot of the things that go above and beyond the call of the DPW supervisor. He’s saving us money in other ways. He’s saving us money on tree removal, on equipment repairs, truck repairs, major truck repairs that Smith couldn’t imagine our DPW doing, but he is capable of doing, saving us thousands of dollars. But Turner came to Coté and Smith, and they talked about this recently. He’s been approached by other employers. And you can’t blame him for wanting the best for him or his family. So, he’s considering some of these options, and Smith wants to retain him at all costs so, they agreed to, this year, to bump him to $25.00 an hour, from $22.00 to $25.00 an hour. And he said that he would accept that for now. Smith doesn’t think that’s going to be it, that he’s going to staying at that rate for the next 10 years, but it’s good for now. So, that was a difficult discussion that Coté and Smith had with Turner. They want to retain him in any way they can. He’s just been doing so many great things for the city. So, they’ve included that in the proposal. They have a balanced budget. They’ve found ways to make it a balanced budget without robbing from our capital improvement funding, and you’ll see that. So, that’s the salary increases. Smith feels the need to explain that to them. It’s an overall 9.8% increase, but because of the two exceptions to the 5% increase across the board.

Then we go into the budget itself. Again, Smith won’t go through all these line items in detail because they did this last month, but a couple callouts here. On the general revenue, we have an 8% increase. This is from the Oakland County Assessor’s Office, and that’s actually conservative. We think it’s going to be more than that. But they’re being conservative at 8%.

Our state revenue sharing sales tax is going up considerably. That’s good news because for many, many years it’s been just dropping or not increasing at all from the State of Michigan. So, this is good news if the state is recognizing that small communities need this revenue.

Overall, our proposed budget, our revenue for the budget year 2023-2024 is $990,000, just under $1,000,000. That includes transferring in some money from the fund balance, and it also includes the expenditure of almost $100,000 that we received from ARPA [American Rescue Plan Act of 2021] that would go for road work.

On the expenditure side, Smith said he should say the appropriation side, it totals the same $990,000, so they have a balanced budget. Smith didn’t think there were any major changes he needs to call out here.

They’ve already talked about salary increases.

They put some more money in the attorney’s budget for unforeseen possible expenses there.

Other than that, Smith didn’t have any significant changes on the appropriation side.

Major streets and local streets. Those are kind of separate entities that live on their own based on revenue that they receive from the state. So those have no major changes there year over year.

And then our capital project fund. So, this has quite a bit in it, it’s got a total of appropriations of $224,000, almost $225,000 in total appropriations. $96,000 as he mentioned earlier is paving. Those are ARPA funds. They’ll be used for paving Depot Road and possibly others if they can, if they have funds available, but at the bare minimum, Depot Road would be repaved. That road is in very bad shape. They’re going to be doing a core sample to verify this, but the feeling is that that roadway is somewhat like the park is. If you walk in the park and it feels a little spongy, it’s because this whole area down here is kind of wet and so, Smith’s city engineer believes that this was built, calls it a corduroy road, because it was built on logs that they put down as the subbase, to kind of create a subbase for the road work. He says that back in the day that was not that uncommon in wet areas, so they call it a corduroy road. Smith has not heard that term before, but anyways, suffice to say Depot Road is flexing quite a bit, and they’re seeing some damage pop up, so that’s a big priority.

Sidewalk repair is another big one. They want to get that done in this current fiscal year that they’re in. It’s just too much to get done. Contractor availability is going to be a major problem. At this point, Smith is even concerned, could they get it done this construction season. The contractors he’s been approaching are booked up for the entire year. So, they’re working on that, but Smith’s goal is to get that done this summer. He has done a full inventory, and this number is one of the changes that occurred, the $44,000 he’s referring to there, that’s one of the changes that occurred from the budget public hearing two weeks ago to today. It was $24,000, now he’s got $44,000, so wow, what happened? Well, Smith did his inventory, and as Pardee mentioned in his public comments, Smith used 3/4 inches as the criteria, anything above that would need to be replaced. He carried a ruler with him when he did this walk throughout the city. He checked these and so he used 3/4 of an inch, and he thought he’ll do the assessment based on that 3/4 of an inch, and if he comes back and it looks like it’s only going to cost us $10,000, then he would go to 1/2 inch or something, you know, make the criteria more difficult, but he did it. It got very expensive to achieve 3/4 of an inch. So, that’s what is in the proposal. These monies for this sidewalk repair would come out of the parking fund, which currently has $65,000 in it, so there’s no concern there. They have the money. Smith thinks they stay with the 3/4-inch criteria and go ahead and make those repairs. This would be a sizable improvement in the city, over 300 slabs in the city would be replaced. So, this is a huge list.

Some other notable things on the capital improvement fund projects. They are looking to put in a new sprinkler system in Depot Park.

Some computer upgrades.

Smith mentioned Pardee and said that the East Alley storm drain is in here. The East Alley storm drain did go up in price; he’s right about that.

Our share of the Mill Pond grant.

Smith said the playground confuses him. He doesn’t know why the playground is listed on here. He didn’t have that on any of our improvements.

The other one is the website where they put monies aside for a new website. Websites are not just a nice-to-have now; they’re an important communication tool. So, they have recognized that fact and have included that in the budget.

So, in all accounts, they have the balanced budget with the exception of this $10,000, that is, those are monies left over in the local road or the major road fund. $10,138. Those are monies that they cannot use for operational or for capital improvement, but they use them for roads. So, Coté is working very closely with Rana Emmons, our auditor, to find out how they can tap into some of these local and major road funds that have some pretty significant balances. Over $100,000 that could be used for roads, so they’re working on that.

They talked about Section 8 here.

Section 9, periodic financial reports. That, of course, is something they deal with every month.

And budget monitoring in section 10 here is required. Something that they do, and they can make budget amendments throughout the year as needed. Well, speaking of budget amendments. We’ll have one for next month or later this month. They’ll get that done before the end of the fiscal year.

So that’s the general appropriations that, as Smith said, he went over this very quickly because they had gone through it last month. Smith asked if anybody had any questions about the budget. Wylie said on council.

Fuller said this is not as much directly about the budget, but he’s just curious why in 2013 it was determined that we needed more, a higher millage rate. Smith asked than in 2014. Coté said compared to now. Fuller said compared to now. It steadily dropped off in 2015, 2016 to by not quite one point, but now we’ve dropped two millage points since 2013. He was just curious. Were we doing something different in 2013? Did we have some initiative going on that required a higher mileage rate? Smith said he didn’t know specifically about 2013. He can say in general, of course, the Headlee rollback requirement is what you see in this downward trend.

(To Casey), Fuller said the Headlee, and Casey said he thought so.

Smith said that’s what’s driving this downward trend is the Headlee rollback so he’s not sure when that started.

(To Wylie), Forte asked Wylie what is that, the Headlee rollback. Wylie said it’s the state rule, just keeping funding (unintelligible crosstalk).

Coté said it started in 92, he believed. Fuller said it’s a way to stick it to people who are buying new homes.

(Unintelligible side conversation between Rodgers and Forte, as well as between Fuller and Casey.)

Coté said there’s an inverse relationship. As the taxable value for the properties increased, the millage has been coming down, right. Fuller said he was just curious. Smith said he doesn’t know what happened specifically in 2013, but – Wylie said he’s comparing the whole trend. Fuller said it’s come up, and Mr. Pardee has mentioned about, you know, he thinks in the past about increasing those rates that you mentioned tonight about shortfalls between what you see as necessary expenditures and what they’ve allocated for it. Fuller said he was sure the conversation will continue as to whether we need to increase mileage rates or other sources of revenue, so just to satisfy his own curiosity as to how this all evolved. That’s all.

Smith said we are at the maximum allowable mileage rate right now of 11.831. To go beyond that can be done, but it requires, you know, significant approvals, but they are at what is considered the maximum millage rate and then they take away the library millage reduction. And that brings us to 11.14 that (unintelligible) that last year. So, that Headlee rollback is keeping us, is pushing us down every year. What’s been helping us during this? You said, well, how are you surviving. You’ve been losing budget every year because of the less and less taxes. What’s been helping us is that property values are going up, more than offsetting this reduction. So that’s been helping us in recent years but go into some recessionary period and all bets are off.  That probably won’t happen. So, now in recessionary times, the Headlee rollback reduction will stop temporarily in difficult times but yeah, it could change dramatically. If we have a recession, property values are not climbing anymore. They’re staying stagnant or actually dropping. Fuller agreed.

Rodgers said the whole thing about the brick pavers, and she remembers him doing a whole diagram up there about making it ADA compliant, is that then going to be something that we won’t address until 2024’s budget, or is it somewhere in here? Smith said well, it’s not in there right now because there was just, there were just too many unknowns about that. He’s been working with our city engineers very closely on this, and it’s his [the engineer’s] proposal to address all of this at once. And when Smith says all of this, it’s not just the aprons. It’s the adjacent sidewalks that are not ADA compliant. He’s not talking about cracks in the sidewalks that became uncompliant. He’s talking about the slope. All of those sidewalks, virtually every sidewalk downtown, the side-to-side slope, is in violation of current ADA guidelines. So, it’s kind of the question would you fix the aprons, but the adjacent sidewalks on either side of them are out of compliance, and you start opening this can of worms. So, you’re going to fix the aprons, and we’ll definitely be questioned why aren’t you fixing this ADA sidewalk right next to it.

Smith said so, it’s one of these things that we almost have to do all at once. The entire downtown, the two blocks of downtown, would be torn out. And they would replace all the sidewalks and all the aprons and resolve all the slope of the aprons, all the slope of the sidewalk. All of them will be fixed and once they have all these, all the downtown, it would be amazing, but, and there are grants available for this, but they’re going to have to do a lot of research because it’s probably going to be close to $1,000,000 to do all that. They hope it will come to less, but the way costs are right now, it’s probably close to $1,000,000.

So, they have to find the right grants. And they have to work very closely with MDOT [Michigan Department of Transportation] because that’s an MDOT road. MDOT is going to say, hey, we just repaved the road in 2022 and now you want to tear it up. So, our timing is unfortunate. Smith knows the complete streets program has, they’ve been looking at some changes they would like to make in terms of bump outs and bike lanes and other things. It’s kind of leaning towards a single solution that would address all these ADA compliance issues. The cracked pavers, the desire to do a complete streets program downtown, and get with MDOT. They would do a complete redo of the downtown streets at the same time. It would be a complete tear out for about two weeks. Or three. Then you’d have a whole new downtown that would be totally complaint. All new sidewalks, all new pavers or no, no pavers, just all new driveways, our bump outs, our bike lanes, all of it. But if you’re going to take on one piece of it, it’s like you pull the string on the ball of yarn and where does it end? When he talks to his city engineer, he just comes away with a headache because this project has gotten so big, and it doesn’t seem like there’s an easy way to split the tasks up into anything smaller, or it just doesn’t make sense to split it up. So, it’s not because it’s not important that it’s not in this budget. It’s just because there’s so many unknowns, Smith doesn’t even know how to quantify it. He could put $1,000,000 in here, but we don’t have that $1,000,000 anyway.

Rodgers asked if it was Smith’s focus then to get the sidewalks fixed even though – Smith said he was going to turn the air conditioning on. Rodgers said they are making Smith hot. (Laughter.) Smith said a million dollars makes you sweat. Rodgers said so, Smith’s focus is getting the sidewalks fixed as best as they can with the monies that they have while then working on grants to get. The brick pavers are going to start tripping people up here soon. Smith said they are, and there are some interim things that they could do. It wouldn’t be aesthetically his first choice, but there are some things they could do to make those brick pavers less prone to tripping. So, they may have to do those if it looks like it’s going to be a couple or three years before we get our master plan in place.

Fuller asked if Smith could do that task, or once he starts on that task then you run into ADA compliance issues with the whole surrounding area, so if you leave it alone, then you’re kind of grandfathered in, but once you touch that, then you’re repairing everything. Smith said exactly. Once you touch it at all, then you’re into repairing it all. An inspector will come out and say, yeah, that’s compliant now, but this isn’t. It’s really tough to break it up into pieces. You take it all on or almost nothing. That’s another aspect of why we just have to do it all at once. Fuller agreed.

Wylie asked if there were any other questions or comments for Smith or Coté about the budget.

Wylie recognized Pardee.

Pardee said to respond to what Fuller was describing earlier, he has not suggested that we increase the mileage. He’s suggested that we replace the mileage, the bond mileage that’s expired, the village millage. Fuller said OK. Pardee doesn’t favor increasing the millage taxes in the city. And to point out, we do have another bond that will expire in June 2024. The math that Coté has done recently said that the first one that expired in June 2022 was worth $165,000 and the one in front of us is worth the same, about $165,000. $330,000. It’s disappeared. That was $330,000 that was paid by our citizens for bond activity in 2012 and prior.

Pardee said the other thing Smith mentioned about the East Alley and West Washington. So, we talked in the finance committee about $20,000-$40,000-$60,000. So, is one of those numbers in the budget to repair the East Washington sewer. Smith said $20,000 is in the budget for the East Washington sewer. But it’s now looking like it’s going to be closer to $30,000-$32,000. So, it’s gone up in price and it’s in worse shape than what they thought. In fact, the portion that’s on the private property in the East Alley is actually in better shape than what’s on East Washington which the city owns. Pardee said so they do believe, as it relates to East Washington, that we underbudgeted the cost that they would expect to incur. Smith said because of inflation (unintelligible).

Wylie asked if there were any questions from or comments from anybody else or anybody else in the audience?

No comments or questions.

Wylie asked Ryan if the resolution should be read out loud before they vote on it. Ryan said it could be read as incorporated by reference. It’s been published and it will be on the village website. So, Ryan didn’t think Wylie had to read the whole thing. Wylie said OK. Ryan said just incorporated by reference as in the resolution prepared by city staff, which refers to the item. Wylie said OK, so whoever makes the resolution can state it that way.

Wylie said OK, if we have no more discussion, then we do need somebody to make a motion on this resolution.

Motion by Fuller. Wylie said OK, and Fuller makes a motion to adopt this resolution, which is published on the city website. Fuller said OK, sure. Ryan said he means, if you want to read, you don’t have to go through all ten pages, but – Wylie said no, she was just thinking about this (holding up a document). Ryan said she could read the resolution; that would be appropriate.

(Wylie read the resolution.)

Wylie said and that is what you are – Fuller said is that what I agree to? (Laughter.)

Rodgers second.

Wylie asked if there was any discussion from council.

No discussion.

Wylie asked DeLorge if she would mind taking a vote.

Wylie recognized Pardee who said he had a comment to make. He said he was puzzled by the resolution, including five years of CIP that they have no anticipated revenue to use. Smith said to match the CIP totals. Pardee said well, we spend the dollars that are in the capital budget. There would be dollars the following year because we have used all of our extra funds and fund balance. So, and then to throw in the capital improvement plan requirements on top of that.

Wylie asked if she could just interrupt. She has always been under the impression the CIP is not requirements. It’s almost like a wish list of what we would like to do, so she doesn’t believe that they’re, is she right, they’re not requirements? Smith said it’s guidelines. Wylie said guidelines. Smith said it’s what they would like to do. He doesn’t think we want to turn away any requested project. If there’s something that is legitimately needed, let’s get it on the list so we have visibility of it. If we can’t afford it, then it doesn’t make the cut, but the word “prioritized,” 28 prioritized projects, is the key here. It doesn’t mean we have to balance purposely and have funds to pay for every one of them. It’s a guideline. We’ve talked about this, right? Pardee said he accepts the fact that it’s guidance, but there’s no guidance revenue to provide funds to do anything in the CIP beyond this calendar year.

Coté said there’s a minimal amount of revenue through parking, right? Forte said yes. Pardee said but the number is $70,000 a year. Coté said $100,000 a year. So that’s a starting point. Pardee asked if we have included this wording in previous years as it relates to the CIP? He told Smith that’s what he’s having an issue with. Smith said he didn’t know if it’s exactly this wording. This paragraph here is exactly the way it was worded last year. He doesn’t know for sure, but they’ve been doing it this way for a few years now, well, ever since they started this CIP. Let him put it that way. Pardee said he would accept that. Smith said ever since they started the CIP, it’s never balanced with reality, if you will, it’s a wish list. If he balanced with reality, it would just be like two things on the CIP. A very, very short list and then he’d be accused of picking his favorite projects. Smith thinks it’s important to get all the projects on the list and then as they get closer to that year, in 2029, 2030, they’ll know then what our financial position is and whether we can afford 1 through 4, or 1 through 9, or 1 through 16. Pardee said but there’s not the projected revenue to take care of what’s in 2024 and 2025, the next budget.

Wylie asked if Ryan wanted to make a comment. Ryan said this is not a funding mechanism. It’s not a funding commitment by the city. It’s just a portion of that. The planning commission has been working on this CIP program. It’s more information. It’s transparency so people know about it. It doesn’t have to be funded this year, but it’s out there as a planning tool for the city. Pardee said he accepts that. Ryan said OK. Pardee said but there’s no one working on the revenue for the CIP. That’s his statement. Wylie thanked Pardee.

Wylie asked if they were ready to take a vote and asked DeLorge if she would do a roll call.

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

Wylie said the motion is adopted, thank you.

Agenda Item #11, New Business

Item 11a – Motion: Clarkston Rotary Proposal for a “Peace Pole” in the City (Video time mark 0:51:00):

• • Motion – Clarkston Rotary Request to Install a “Peace Pole” in the City (page 29/50 of the council packet)
  • Rotary Club of Clarkston Peace Pole Project – Background (Page 30/50 of the council packet)

Wylie said they are moving on to item 11 under new business. They have a motion, a Clarkston Rotary proposal for a peace pole in the city, and she believes they have some people who would like to speak about that. You can come up to the podium if you like to speak.

An unidentified woman [Mary Sloan from earlier in the meeting, no first or last name spelling provided at this time] said they have all the information, but as she said one of their goals, the Rotary, one of their seven areas of focus is peace and conflict resolution, and as part of that, they would like to have permission to place this pole somewhere in the city. It would be either four- or six-sided. It would have “make peace prevail on earth” in various languages. They would do all the ordering, they would have all the parts, they would install it, they need your permission. You tell us where you want it.

Wylie asked if she knew what other languages. Sloan said they haven’t decided yet. As a matter of fact, they’d love to have input on what languages are appropriate for this area. She didn’t know; she thought maybe she would call schools and find out. Wylie said that might be a good place to start. Rodgers said that’s a great idea. Sloan asked if they had any suggestions. Wylie said she speaks English and Spanish. Obviously, Spanish seems to jump out. She doesn’t know. Sloan said she asked her children, her grandchildren, you know, what do they suggest. Who do they know at school that speak a different language. They said French and German. She doesn’t know if they know people who speak those languages, or those are the languages that are taught there. Wylie agreed.

Casey asked if the pole had four sides. Sloan said four sides, or they could give it six sides. Casey asked if there would be one language on each side. Sloan said according to this picture, it looks like there might be English and another language right beside it (unintelligible).

Wylie said she was sorry, how tall did she say it was. Sloan said she thinks they can get different heights, 4, 6, or 8 feet. Wylie said OK.

Wylie asked if there’s one at Saint Daniels Church. Fuller said yes there is, going on three years now.

Forte said it might be cool to work with that historic group in Clarkson and see who, like the original settlers were, and maybe some of their heritage. Wylie thought it was English. Sloan said they would tell them where they wanted it.

Wylie said OK. She didn’t know if anyone on council has a, she would probably say that it’s probably the city manager and DPW. Fuller said the park. Wylie said yes, maybe the Friends of Depot Park people would have a say on it.

Smith said that seems like the logical place for it. It could be up on Main Street somewhere, but the park seems to be the logical place for it.

Smith asked what it was made of. Sloan said she thought PVC.

Smith asked if the Rotary would replace it if it gets vandalized. Rodgers said she wondered about that herself. Sloan said they haven’t talked about that.

Wylie said and for those of you who didn’t read the proposal, the Rotary pays for everything, they pay for the materials to install it, they cover it because one of their missions is non conflict, is she right? Sloan said peace and conflict resolution (unintelligible) one of their seven areas of focus.

Wylie asked if Roth had a comment. Roth said she does. The one that was at St. Dan’s was actually moved. There was a lot of controversy over it because people said it looked like a totem pole. She believes if it’s the same one Fuller is referring to, it was moved over to LA Café. Fuller said he has to admit, he hasn’t been present at St. Dan’s in a while. Roth said it was bright, very vibrant. She was just wondering, if you put up one of these, does everybody get to put one up too? We have a lot of signs in Clarkston, so she’s just curious.  This is the Rotary which she supports. Obviously, she has a lot of respect for what you guys do and as a past member of the Optimists, she’s just curious, how many peace poles do we do?

Fuller asked where St. Dan’s moved theirs to. Wylie said Roth said LA Café. Roth said if it’s the same one that you’re referring to. Fuller said it looked just like that. Roth said there was a lot of controversy. It was very colorful as referred to, but a lot of people said it looks like a totem pole. And so, it was going to go to the – Fuller said he didn’t know how it could possibly be construed – Wylie said she was trying to – Roth said it wasn’t really like that. It was very bright. It’s right next to the LA Café. They had to move it. Wylie said OK. Roth said it was going to go into the dumpster somewhere, and then those people bought it and had it moved over there. Fuller said you see, the one he remembers looks like this. Roth said did it. Fuller said it was simple, was white with black lettering. Wylie said anyway, it’s – Fuller said he knows lawn totems and so forth and that, and the colorful ones, but he still can’t see how flowers and vines and this and that and the other can be construed as, you know, impinging upon Native American or other cultures. That surprised him. Roth said that’s not what she meant. Fuller said a totem pole. They don’t like totem poles. Roth said no, it was just part of the conversation with a person from St. Dan’s, actually. That was just, this all happened a while ago. This is not a new thing and that wasn’t coming from Roth. That’s how it was referred to. And the priest at St. Dan’s wanted to have it removed, and people didn’t want it to go into the dumpster, so the people from LA Café purchased it and it’s on their property.

Wylie she was just trying, if you hadn’t seen one, that’s why she’s familiar. Fuller said yeah, like you have to defend this decision. He understood that Roth was saying someone else had interpreted it that way, but he doesn’t extrapolate. Roth said it’s just how somebody referred to it. It had nothing to with what she said. She thought it was pretty. Fuller said yeah, he gets it.

Wylie said she was sorry; she didn’t know Sloan’s name. Sloan said Mary.

Wylie asked if anybody had anybody had any questions for Sloan or comments about this, or any discussion among themselves.

No comments or discussion.

Wylie said OK and asked if anyone would like to make a motion.

Motion by Forte; second Rodgers.

Wylie asked if there was any further discussion.

No discussion.

Motion passed by unanimous voice vote.

Wylie said it passes.

Sloan said thank you very much. (Unintelligible) be in touch. Wylie said that he/she would be in touch with Smith. Smith agreed. Wylie thanked Sloan.

Item 11b – Resolution: Local Road Improvement Program (LRIP) Cost Participation Agreement (Video time mark 0:57:42):

• • Resolution – LRIP Cost Participation Agreement (page 31/50 of the council packet)
  • 05-30-2023 – Funding Application Approval Letter from the Oakland County Board of Commissioners (page 32/50 of the council packet)
  • Local Road Improvement Matching Fund Program, Cost Participation Agreement (page 33/50 of the council packet)
  • Local Road Improvement Matching Fund Program, Cost Participation Agreement, Attachment A (page 36/50 of the council packet)
  • 2023 LRIP Distribution Formula, Attachment B (page 41/50 of the council packet)

Wylie said OK, they now have a resolution. Local Road Improvement Program Cost Participation Agreement. All she can see is RIP, LRIP.

Smith said so, we have three of these tonight, somewhat coincidentally with (unintelligible). Back in the spring, he applied for several grants, and the good news is he got three of them. The bad news is they have to sign an agreement before they get any money. So, the first one here is a local cost participation agreement. Ryan has reviewed all these. This is for $3,245 that can be applied for road improvements of any kind in the local community. And this does not require a match, it’s just, well, no, he’s sorry, he takes it back. This does require a match, that they spend at least that amount or more on the roads, which they will have no problem doing. So, this is just an agreement that follows here. It’s just a four-page agreement, but before he can sign this on behalf of the city, or for DeLorge to sign it, it has to be approved by council. As he said, Ryan has gone through all these. Smith thinks these are pretty much boilerplate agreements. This one is with the county.

Wylie said OK, does anybody want to make a motion on this resolution. Wylie said she would read it.

(Wylie read the resolution.)

Wylie said so, someone needs to make a resolution.

Resolution by Rodgers; second Casey.

Wylie asked if there was any discussion.

No discussion.

Wylie said that once again, she was sorry, they needed DeLorge to take a roll call.

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

Wylie said the motion is adopted, thank you.

Item 11c – Resolution: Oakland County Parks Invasive Species Treatment Agreement (Video time mark 1:00:48):

• • Resolution – Oakland County Parks License Agreement (page 42/50 of the council packet)
  • Property Access and Consent for Treatment License Agreement (page 43/50 of the council packet)

Wylie said they have Item 11c, a resolution, Oakland County Parks Invasive Species Treatment Agreement.

(Wylie read the resolution.)

Wylie asked Smith if he had anything to add on that. Smith said no.

Wylie said OK, we need a resolution. She said she would make a resolution.

Fuller said he was just curious how they’re going to treat these things. He know you can cut down – Wylie said hey, let’s do this and then Fuller can do that next.

Second Forte.

Wylie recognized Fuller.

Fuller said Forte may be the best person to answer this. He knows last year, they started some huge fire out here. It looked like the effect of burning down a telephone pole or whatever, but they got rid of all those phragmites. Smith said several years ago. Wylie said it’s been a while. Fuller said several years ago. Well, you know, time flies. Wylie said time flies. Fuller said but what are they going to do to get rid of these. What do they do? Wylie asked if Forte was involved with that at all. Forte said she’s not. Wylie said she knows Smith has done it a bunch, right?

Smith said so, two different types of treatments. One is buckthorn, which are as they call them woody plants. They get up to, you know, 3, 4, 5 inches in diameter, whereas phragmites are just you know, very soft. But for the woody materials, they have to cut it off with the chainsaw and put some herbicide on the stump that remains. That kills the roots. Then then they have to come back and do what they call foliar treatment, where they will spray, and they’ll spray the little volunteers that are coming up. So, it’s a combination of cutting, treating, and then foliar spraying. Phragmites is just in the spring. There’s no cutting. They just will go out there with the sprayer and just broadcast the sprayer to large areas at a time. Sometimes they can even do it from a truck. In a very bad situation like they had several years ago on White Lake Road, they had to actually, it was just too much to even spray. So, they opted to do the controlled burn. That’s kind of an extreme situation. It’s a risk. They certainly don’t want to try that this summer with it being as dry as it’s been, but that can be done in an extreme situation. But they’re planning on doing all this with either spray or cut or treat.

Fuller asked if our guys do that, or do we contract with someone to do that. Smith said no, you have to contract. They have to be certified to apply the herbicide. They talked about Turner going into training and getting this training because it would save us a boatload of money if they could do it in-house because the herbicide is not expensive. It’s just you have to have the right certification. Fuller said right. Smith said Turner could go to a two-day class and get certified. Fuller said thanks. Smith said they talked about that. Fuller said yes, OK.

Wylie asked if there were any other questions or discussion?

Forte said it’s definitely better to maintain it rather than let it get to that point where you have to burn everything. Fuller said oh yeah, that stuff is everywhere. Both those plants, he’s got that. And that phragmites or whatever, those things will grow anywhere. He’s seen it coming out of cracks in the road.

Ryan said it’s not a one-year program. You have to keep at it. Hopefully, the county will offer this next year.

Wylie asked if we got this last year. Smith said no, we didn’t. Wylie said it’s a nice benefit for us. Smith agreed. It’s a huge benefit. Oakland County has really been advocating to apply for this, and so he applied and got those.

Smith said he got a quote on this actually ahead of time. It was $4,200. The Grant bumped it to $4,500. Gave a little bit.

Wylie said OK and asked if there was any further discussion on this item.

No discussion.

Wylie said they would need a roll call once again.

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

Wylie said OK. The motion is adopted.

Item 11d – Resolution: Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Cooperative Agreement (Video time mark 1:06:06):

• • Resolution – 2024-2026 CDBG Cooperation Agreement (page 47/50 of the council packet)
  • 05-05-2023 – Letter from Shane Bies, Manager, Oakland County Neighborhood & Housing Development (page 48/50 of the council packet)
  • Samantha Ferguson, Grant Compliance Coordinator, Oakland County Neighborhood & Housing Development Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program, Required Resolution Language, (page 50/50 of the council packet)

Wylie said they are moving on to Item 11d, another resolution. This is a community development block grant, CDBG, cooperative agreement. And we had a public hearing on this, didn’t we. Smith said we did indeed. Wylie said all right. Smith said so, we’ve already had a public hearing on where to spend the money. So, we filled out the paperwork and sent it in, and they promptly responded saying well, it’s been years since you signed a cooperative agreement, so you need to do that. Wylie said oh, OK. Smith said so, this is a three-year agreement, and it’s basically, they provided the wording of this. Especially the “now, therefore, be it resolved” came from their recommendation.

Wylie said she guesses she would read it. Does anyone else want to read it this time? Rodgers said Wylie is doing such a good job. Wylie said OK.

(Wylie read the resolution.)

Wylie asked if there was any further discussion on this item.

No discussion.

Wylie told DeLorge they needed a roll call again.

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

Wylie said the motion is adopted.

Wylie said they are doing a new Item 12. Smith asked if Wylie had a first and second on the motion. Wylie said yes; maybe not. She didn’t write it down, so she guesses not. Sorry about that. She jumped the gun. Fuller said but her reading was exemplary. (Laughter.) Rodgers said but now, she’s going to have to re-read it. Wylie said no, she’s not. (Laughter.)

Wylie said motion by Rodgers; second Forte.

Wylie asked if they needed to do the roll call again. Ryan said yes, they should. Wylie said OK, they will do the roll call again.

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

Wylie said now the motion is really adopted.

Agenda Item #12, Closed Session (Video time mark 1:09:45):

Wylie said OK, so we have a new item, 12, and that is a motion to go into a closed session. So, they have to make a motion to do that. Ryan said a resolution. Wyle said a resolution.

Wylie asked if it needs to be read. Ryan said it does, sorry. Wylie said that’s OK. She’s got her voice going now.

(Wylie read the resolution.)

Wylie said so, she needs a motion for this resolution.

Motion by Casey; second Fuller.

Wylie asked if there was any discussion on this.

No discussion.

Wylie said they needed a roll call.

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

Wylie said and the resolution is adopted. So, we go into closed session at 8:12 p.m.

Fuller said he thinks they need a resolution about who controls the air conditioning.

[Closed session begins, attendees leave, camera returns to title page.]

[Council returned to open session with no recorded vote to return. No discussion or vote taken.]

Agenda Item #13, Adjourn (Video time mark 1:12:28):

Wylie said they are on Item 12, sorry, 13. She needs a motion to adjourn the meeting.

Motion by Rodgers; second Lamphier.

Wylie asked if there was any discussion.

No discussion.

Motion to adjourn passed by unanimous voice vote.

Wylie said the meeting is adjourned at. 8:55 p.m. Goodnight, everybody.

Resources:

• • Link to video recording:
    http://216.11.46.126/CablecastPublicSite/show/4195?site=2
  • 06-12-2023 City council packet