November 14, 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:

No formal call to order. Eric Haven welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Agenda Item #2, Pledge of Allegiance (Video time mark 0:00:04):

Pledge said.

Agenda Item #3, Oath of Office (Video time mark 0:00:21):

• • Eric Haven, Oath of Office (page 3/75 of the council packet)
  • Sue Wylie, Oath of Office (page 4/75 of the council packet)
  • Amanda Wakefield, Oath of Office (page 5/75 of the council packet)
  • Mark Lamphier, Oath of Office (page 6/75 of the council packet)

Haven thanked everyone for coming. At this point in the meeting, they would normally ask Jen [Jennifer Speagle, Clerk] to take the roll, but we have some oaths of office to take care of so we can seat a new council and welcome new council members.

City attorney Tom Ryan said that even though Speagle has resigned effective November 10^th, she’s still filling the role of clerk until you appoint a new clerk, so she graciously agreed to be here today. He knows she’s assisting and at some point, you’ll appoint a new clerk, so she’ll be officially off as clerk, but for right now, she’s still acting as clerk.

Haven said OK, he can see that’s the official position. Ryan said correct. Haven thanked Speagle for all she’s doing and said that they really appreciate the hard work. Speagle said you’re welcome.

Speagle said she was going to do the oaths of office and she would start with Haven, then she would do the three council members, and then they’ll go from there. Haven agreed.

Oath administered to Haven. Speagle congratulated Haven. Haven thanked Speagle.

Speagle asked Sue [Wylie], Mark [Lamphier], and Amanda [Wakefield] to stand. Speagle said that they each had a copy they could sign, and she would take their oaths. Speagle said she would do all three of them at one time. Afterwards, they can sign them, give them to Speagle, and then Speagle will sign them.

Oaths administered to Wylie, Lamphier, and Wakefield. Speagle congratulated Wylie, Lamphier, and Wakefield. Haven thanked Speagle.

Agenda Item #4, Motion Mayor Pro Tem Appointment (Video time mark 0:02:58):

• • Motion – Mayor Pro Tem Appointment (page 7/75 of the council packet)
  • Mayor Pro Tem, Oath of Office (page 8/75 of the council packet)

Haven said the next item on the agenda is a motion to appoint the Mayor Pro Tem.

Speagle asked if they needed to do a roll call first. Haven said they could, but it’s not in the agenda sequence.

Haven asked Ryan if he preferred that they do the roll call now – Ryan said yes – (continuing), Haven said or have the Mayor Pro Tem go first. Ryan said either way; he guessed they can do the Mayor Pro Tem. Haven said they would do it in sequence.

Haven said there is a resolution in the packet, and he would read that. (Haven read from the motion in the packet.) Haven said he would like to move, and he’ll look for a second, to appoint Wylie to the position of Mayor Pro Tem through November 14^th of 2023. Haven asked for a second. Second Casey.

Haven asked if there was any discussion.

No discussion.

Haven asked Speagle for a roll call since it’s a resolution. [The document in the packet is titled “motion.”]

Rodgers, Lamphier, Wakefield, Haven, Fuller, and Casey voted yes. Wylie abstained.

Haven said the motion to appoint Wylie has carried.

Wylie asked if Speagle wanted to swear her in now. Speagle administered the oath to Wylie. Haven congratulated Wylie.

(Oaths were signed and passed to Speagle. Speagle walked over to council table. Unintelligible discussion between Speagle and Haven.)

Haven asked Speagle if she had the other oaths. Speagle said she had them all.

Agenda Item #5, Roll Call (Video time mark 0:06:35):

Haven confirmed they hadn’t yet taken the roll. Haven said they weren’t sure about the qualifying names, but now they have a new seated council, and the County has approved. Speagle said yes, as of this afternoon. Haven said OK, now Speagle can take the roll.

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

Haven said now the rhythm feels a little bit normal.

Agenda Item #6, Motion: Approval of Agenda (Video time mark 0:07:15):

Haven said he would entertain a motion to approve the agenda as they have been given it in the packet.

Motion Wylie; second Rodgers.

Haven asked if there was any discussion. He said that they can make a change at this juncture if anyone wants to make a change, addition, deletion.

No discussion.

Motion adopted by unanimous voice vote.

Agenda Item #7, Public Comments (Video time mark 0:07:50):

Haven read the rules for public comment.

Chet Pardee (calling remotely) said he had public comments. Haven recognized Pardee. Wylie (unintelligible) the speakers. City manager Jonathan Smith apologized and said that the speakers are not, for some reason, working. He pointed and said that one is but for some reason this one isn’t working, and they’re linked together. Wylie said OK. Smith said that he would turn the volume up on his computer. Haven asked Smith to tell Pardee when he could go ahead. Smith said Pardee could go ahead. Pardee thanked Smith. (Laughter. Unrelated video and music played on screen.) Haven said maybe that’s part of Pardee’s presentation. Smith was able to stop the video and sound, apologized to Pardee, and told Pardee to go ahead.

Chet Pardee:

Pardee said good evening. He will pay for new Welcome to Clarkston signs. Welcome to Clarkston, high property values, and low millage rates. Crappy streets and unsafe sidewalks. There is hope recently elected, reelected, city officials will rethink priorities and bring good sense and progress.

It has been five years since council said no to the parking committee’s recommendation for paid parking in the Depot Lot. It’s been four years since the sidewalks have been repaired. City officials have ignored HRC’s [Hubbell, Roth & Clark, the city’s contracted engineers] recommendations made in 2017 to maintain our streets. Yet, the city has had a Capital Improvement Plan for several years, but city officials haven’t understood what it says. City officials have preferred to focus on improvements in city hall and Depot Park, ignoring solutions to maintain the city’s streets and sidewalks.

The city’s budget has included monies for capital expenses because the city has not spent the previous year’s budgeted dollars. Ask Jonathan [Smith] why. Expanded paid parking is not a solution, but it can be a teeny, weeny bit helpful. Will the city celebrate the 4.9 mill reduction citizens will enjoy in 2023?

Where have the good minds been? Certainly not acting to resolve the blight on North Main. Tom Ryan wants you to calm down and feel (unintelligible) that after four years, something is happening at 154 North Main. Now what? Establish an escalation policy and use it. Have the owner asked for Oakland County assistance that’s available. The city’s answer is to put up a raised walkway in Depot Park when the city is not able to provide security for the current Depot Park, and when the city has not acted on several years of Middle Lake shenanigans. Wrong priorities.

Pardee said he’s hopeful Smith will stay the course. Not providing the funds to maintain the city is sending the wrong signal for his value. Council should decide the city’s priorities. That is council’s job. Help Jonathan [Smith] as opposed to giving him tasks that take his time and provide little value. MDOT’s [Michigan Department of Transportation] feedback to Johnathan [Smith] on why the Miller Road grant was denied should be a wakeup call. Why won’t any grant be provided after the rationale provided by MDOT?

Pardee thanked the council and said he would entertain any questions.

Smith asked Pardee if he could hear him, and Pardee said he could. Smith said first of all, he’s a little upset with Pardee’s comment about crappy streets and unwalkable sidewalks or unsafe sidewalks. Smith really doesn’t think our streets are crappy. Yes, there’s a pothole here and there, but by no means would he call our city streets crappy, and if our residents think that, Smith would like to hear from them, you know what he means? Smith thinks that we’ve done a decent job with the funds we have available to us. Should more be done, could more be done, yes, but with the amount of funds we have, Smith thinks we’ve done a decent job to address the major problem areas. Clarkston Road is a huge improvement over what it was. Even having Main Street paved this year, while not a direct effort on Smith’s part, still required coordination. Clarkston Road was a big effort on our part to get that done this year, and Smith is glad that that’s done.

Smith said that the other thing he wanted to comment on is the blight on North Main. Smith has been working with the homeowner. He does have financial issues and it’s limiting him from doing it at a faster pace, hiring a painter for example. But Smith thinks that he’s done at least what they’ve asked for, whether Pardee likes the color or not is irrelevant, but he has done a good job of getting the house painted and protected from the weather. So, it’s progress. It’s moving in the right steps.

Smith said he guesses that’s what he’d like to comment on. Haven said he would like to echo that.

Pardee asked Smith if he would like to comment about MDOT’s feedback to him. Smith said so, every grant program has its own stipulations, its own criteria on which they judge the applicants. So, Smith would not say that because MDOT rejected us because our per capita income is too high, that was the stipulation as Smith goes back and reads it. Their focus was on low-income communities. And even though we were recommended to go after this by our city engineer, there is reference in the grant guidelines that their focus is on assisting low-income, lower income, communities, and so we did not qualify. Smith doesn’t think that’s going to apply to other grants. This is a bit of a unique criteria for this particular, for this one grant. There are other grants out there, and we’re going for one, going for some, for roadwork. So, this isn’t the only fish in the sea.

Haven said we’ve had this discussion before. We work within our budget. That’s what we’re required to do by the state. We do the best we can with what we have. There’s always opportunity for philanthropy. Someone can write a check to subsidize the city’s operations if they’d like to do that. We could raise taxes, or we could float a bond issue, either of which you’ve supported in the past. Haven has asked Pardee if he’d like to do that. So, we hear you every two weeks about this issue. It’s echoing. We hear it certainly, but we think we’re doing a pretty good job and Main Street and Clarkston Road are evidence of that at this time. And we’re going to see here in the city manager’s report other things he’s accomplishing very shortly. Haven understands Pardee’s comments, and they’ve been received, so thank you for making them and we’re going to move on.

Haven asked if anyone else had public comment.

No other public comments.

Public comments closed.

Agenda Item #8, FYI (Video time mark 0:16:31):

Haven said he didn’t have anything for For Your Information, but this is a time that anyone can bring up something they’d like to announce to the community.

Haven asked Rodgers if she wanted to talk about the Christmas Market, and she said she could.

Rodgers said that the Christmas Market is definitely a go for December 10^th. It will be down here in Depot Park from 4:30 to 8:30. Haven said before and after the parade. Rodgers said before and after the parade. The light up parade is at 6:00, so it will start a couple of hours before and then go a couple of hours after. They have eleven different popup shops that will be along the walkway. They range from mostly just small, kind of Christmas items for sale that somebody is selling, coffee and jams, somebody is selling hats and scarves. Just like little popup shops like you see in downtown Detroit. Santa will be in the gazebo, and Amy Peterson from Peterson Photography has taken the charge to turn the gazebo into a pretty nice winter wonderland kind of backdrop for them. She’ll take pictures and provide the kids and their parents a card that they can go online and get their picture in the evening or whenever they want to. Calvary Lutheran Church is going to man a very large warming tent, and they will have an area where the kids can write their letters to Santa. They’ll have another area where they can (unintelligible), and then they’re going to have another area for another craft that they’re not quite sure of yet. If you were at Art in the Park, Farmer Mike and Farmer Jill had a truck there, and Mayor Haven has also offered up another truck that we’re going to put sacks in and put signage on the truck that those are on the way to the North Pole after the kids write their letters. There will be a couple of food trucks, macaroni and cheese and tomato soup, and then another rolling kind of station. They will be games with prizes. A reindeer game and a snowman game. And then we’ll have a fire with s’mores.

Rodgers said that the support from the community has been really overwhelming. She thinks out of the fifteen different places that they asked, fourteen of them were right on board. She talked to some of the businesses to try to get them to stay open. Society is going to stay open. The gal at Essence, although she doesn’t own Essence, thought that they would too. She’s going to check with the lady that actually does. And a couple of other businesses in town are looking into it.

Rodgers thinks it’s going to be a pretty festive evening. Haven and others thanked Rodgers for her hard work.

Haven asked if there were any other For Your Information items.

No additional comments.

Agenda Item #9, Election Update (Video time mark 0:19:43):

• • City of the Village of Clarkston Local Results 11-08-2022 Election (page 9/75 of the council packet)

Haven asked if Smith or Speagle had this. Speagle said that she put together just a little summary of the local stuff.

Speagle said she would start with the ballots cast. We had 805 registered voters as of the morning of the election. 582 ballots were cast. Sorry, 806. So, our voter turnout was 72.21%. Speagle said she looked back at the presidential and the previous state and federal, governor’s race, and in 2018, our percentage was 66.75%. (Audience members said “wow.”) Speagle said that was for the last governor’s race. And then for the state, presidential, 77.56%. So, the smaller ones she didn’t put in there because, you know, like the primary of this year was only like 32%. Those don’t bring a lot of people. A lot of people came out. A lot of people came out.

Speagle said she also wanted to thank Toni [Smith], Evelyn [Bihl], Cara [Catallo], Sam [Keranen], Bonnie [Valuet], and Lisa [Paterszak]. They worked their butts off that day. It was two ballots, three pages, as you guys all know, and the machine was running slow and we wanted to make sure that there were no spoiled ballots, you know, half ballots spoiled, and Cara did an amazing job to make sure that all those pages got put in correctly. It was busy, and it went smooth. Haven said it was steady. Speagle agreed. She said there was a line up at 7:00 a.m., which she hadn’t had yet. This is the first time that she had a line up before the (unintelligible) were open. And as you know, Haven, our mayor, and council members, Lamphier, Wakefield, and Wylie. Medical marijuana, that was shot down by a landslide. The board members for Clarkston Community Schools, the two were Amanda Love and Cheryl McGinnis.

Speagle asked if anyone had any questions.

Haven said he just wanted to make a comment to thank the committee of about 40 people who worked very hard on beating the marijuana proposition and really communicating the idea that it was much more than a pot shop in town. It was about changing our charter, and so that idea was communicated very clearly, he believes, with the idea of No Store Near My Door and the town was red with signs. So, the 82% representation there was the result of a lot of hard work by 40 or more people (unintelligible) so he wanted to thank them as well.

Speagle said she also wanted to give a shout out to her team that has helped her with every election. She couldn’t do it without them. She really couldn’t. They are an amazing group of people that have helped her with every single election. Haven agreed and said none of us can do our job alone. It takes a village, for sure. Haven said that they are recognized in the next item on the agenda if he gets this right unless there’s any other questions about the election.

Ryan said that he just wants to commend the community. As he said, the legal system didn’t support us unfortunately, although he thought they should. You folks took it to heart about you were the backstop, forget the court system, it’s what the community wanted, and you all worked very, very hard, and whatever it is, it is, and they might have had 80 signatures to get their petition on the ballot, but it was a microcosm of the community’s feelings. Ryan commends them all for hard work, and this is what democracy is all about. You know, it was foisted upon you, and us, and you spoke. So, thank you for all your hard work and effort to fix this.

Wylie said that she thinks she saw that Keego Harbor passed. Ryan said it did. Wylie asked if it was similar. Ryan said it was way worse. Wylie said worse. Ryan said so there’s a different strategy there, but that involved having three medical marijuana centers, transporting whatever, and then the killer was there were three grow operations mandated, Class A, B, and C, which under state law, A is 500 plants, B is 1,000 plants, and C is 1,500 plants. It’s a little bit bigger than Clarkston, it’s a half-square mile, so finding room for those grow operations, it had nothing to do with community. It was kind of plunked on. So, there’s another strategy. There will be a circuit court litigation about it because it shouldn’t have been a charter amendment in the first place. It’s really a charter revision. It changes the course of the government of Keego Harbor, but anyway, it passed in Keego by about maybe 100 votes. Wylie said (unintelligible) too bad. Haven said he bets there will be further action on that. Ryan said there will, yes.

Haven said he was happy to see that there were two other communities that were successful in defeating it as well, (unintelligible) and Brighton both defeated it, but we had the most populous, percentage wise, show up. Ryan said he hoped that would send a message to subsequent marijuana folks (unintelligible). That’s another issue, but everybody worked very hard and he’s very proud of the city. Well done. Haven thanked Ryan for his help.

Haven said OK, we’ve covered the election update.

Agenda Item #10, City Manager Report (Video time mark 0:26:15; page 10/75 of the council packet):

Haven said that there are seven items on here which display Smith’s hard work, and they are election thank yous which Speagle was referring to, and those specific people again are Speagle herself, the team of Evelyn Biehl who’s here – say hi Evelyn – back there with Toni Smith, Cara Catallo, Sam Keranen, Bonnie Valuet, and Lisa Paterszak. They were a hard-working team, all day long.

The second one on the city manager’s report is Clarkston Road repaving, which we’ve been all appreciative of, Smith’s hard work there and how beautiful it looks now, all striped.

City easement tree trimming. We’ve been seeing that around town. We like to take care of our trees.

The search for a replacement for Speagle is underway. It will be hard shoes to fill, but we have to do that going forward.

Depot Park rain garden footbridge. Smith might just give us a little update on that. Haven said no, this is the one out here. We call it the kid’s bridge. The footings are poured. Haven doesn’t know if you’ve seen the cones out there. There were three holes on each end of the bridge, and they’re now filled with concrete in anticipation of Steve Wyckoff s team from the high school coming to put that bridge in. Smith agreed. Haven asked if Smith had heard any more about that scheduling. Smith said that Jimi [Turner, DPW supervisor] is picking up the lumber tomorrow and taking it over to the school. We’re going to do some of the assembly at the school and then they’ll bring it over in pieces and assemble it here on site. It was a rather difficult task to put these footings in because the water is so close. If you dig down 42” to be below the frost line and you’re, at least a foot of water in your hole, so you have to have a pump running constantly to get the water out so you can pour a strong footing. So, it was rather challenging, plus there are a lot of rocks in there too. Good sized rocks that they had to pull out of the hole, so it was a difficult one, but we got it done. We purchased a laser level to allow us to get this absolutely perfect. Haven said you own that, he saw that. Smith said we own that now, so it’s a good tool. It’s one of these beep, beep, beep things that you carry around, you see excavators using them, and it really allows you to get right to the exact level so that ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliance will not be a question.

Haven said that this could be a cute bridge sitting over the little eddy out here and drains into the river, the Mill race, it’s kind of a kid’s bridge. The Optimists gave us $3,000 for the cost of this, and our high school kids, the industrial arts department under Steve Wyckoff have put it all together. That’s what Smith was describing. So, this is a great coming together of the community. This thing is designed to be flat, it has a flat platform, OK, so it’s ADA complaint in that respect, you know, but the sides are very story book. It’s kind of, side view, when you see this thing, you’re going to really enjoy it. So, it’s a nice amenity for our park.

Haven said the downtown trash receptacles, Smith is redoing those, is that what he sees here? Smith said he will be bringing this process before the council. If you’ve seen our trash receptacles, they are just completely rusted and they’re just really in bad shape, so what we’d like to do is take, over the course of the winter, when there isn’t a lot of demand for trash receptacles, take three or four at a time, have them sand blasted, powdered coated, and brought back. These, we feel, are worth that investment in them because they are heavy steel. They’re quarter inch steel. So, there are heavy plates that make these up. They’re well worth saving, when you look at the cost of heavy-duty trash receptacles like that, so Smith will bring a cost estimate back and they will more than likely get that done over the course of the winter.

Haven said the last item is about our participation in the county’s no hazardous materials program, and Smith is going to investigate that further, is that what Haven sees there? Smith said right, in his last weekly email he included a comment on this and asked residents to let him know. He’s received one “no, I wouldn’t participate” but he’s received about 16 “yes, I would participate,” so it’s predominantly in favor of supporting a hazardous waste program. We have not had one in the past. There is a cost to it. It’s not free, and Smith will get that cost to you. There is a cost, but it allows our residents the option of getting rid of hazardous waste in a safe and appropriate manner through the county four times a year for just $10. Smith thinks it’s a good program, he really believes in it, because otherwise people are just going to sneak this into the trash, oil or – Haven said paint – Smith said yes, even some of these cleaners you maybe shouldn’t just throw in the landfill. So, it’s the right way to do this and Smith would like council to consider it. Again, like the previous item, Smith is just letting them know that he’s working on this, and he will bring a cost estimate back to a future council meeting.

Haven asked if there were any thoughts or questions for Smith relative to the city manager’s report.

No questions.

Agenda Item #11 – Motion: Acceptance of the Consent Agenda as Presented (Video time mark 0:31:53):

• • 10-10-2022 Final Minutes (page 12/75 of the council packet)
  • 10-24-2022 Draft Minutes (page 14/75 of the council packet)
  • 11-14-2022 Treasurer’s Report (page 16/75 of the council packet)
  • 11-02-2022 Check Disbursement Report, 10-01-2022 – 10-31-2022 (page 17/75 of the council packet)
  • Carlisle/Wortman October invoices (page 25/75 of the council packet)
  • Thomas J. Ryan, P.C. October invoices (page 27/75 of the council packet)

Haven said this, for those of you who don’t know, is a consolidation of things. The final minutes from our October 10^th meeting, the draft minutes from our 10-24 meeting, and treasurer’s report. We consolidate them like this so we can handle them in one motion.

Haven said he would entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda as it has been given to them. You have the right to pull something out to talk about separately if you’d like to, but who would like to move to accept it for the moment before discussion.

Motion by Wylie to accept the consent agenda as presented; second Rodgers.

Haven asked if anyone wanted to make any amendments to the consent agenda or ask any questions about it in particular.

No questions.

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

Agenda Item #12, Old Business (Video time mark 0:32:49):

Haven said there was no old business.

Agenda Item #13, New Business (Video time mark 0:32:54):

Item 13a – Discussion/Motion: Parking Ticket Appeal (Pending the presence of the appellant) (Video time mark 0:32:58):

Haven said this was a discussion or motion relative to a parking ticket appeal pending the presence of the applicant. Haven asked Smith if someone was here. Smith said he wasn’t sure and asked if Mr. Ballard was there.

No response.

[Referring to a photo that was not contained in the packet], Smith said he put this on here because Mr. Ballard as you can see owns some kind of services he can’t read. He parked in our Depot Park, sorry, Main Street and Washington parking lot, couldn’t find a pull through, there are no pull through spaces. If you’ve ever pulled a trailer, you know you’re always looking for a parking lot that’s got pull through spaces. We don’t have that in our Washington and Main lot. We do have that down here in the Depot lot, but we don’t have it in here, and so what he did is park across five spaces, and he paid for one. Our parking attendant noticed that he had paid for one, but the other four that he consumed he did not pay for. So, he appealed his citation and has called numerous times. He’s talked with Speagle probably six or seven times, and Smith has talked to him twice now. Smith explained to him that we are not going to void this ticket. This is a clear violation. We have a great photo that says 100 words here. It really tells the story, and Smith said no, we’re not going to void this ticket, so he said he wants to appeal, what’s the process. Smith said he explained that he starts by, and Smith and Ryan have talked about this in the past, he should explain his situation to council, council is Smith’s boss, they can override Smith, but Smith is not going to void the ticket. If council wants to override Smith and void the ticket, that’s their option, but if they don’t, then the next step is circuit court. Ryan said district court. Smith repeated, district court.

Smith said Ballard said he may make it to the council meeting. He lives in Lansing, and he didn’t know. Smith said he was just livid, just absolutely livid when Smith talked to him on the phone that we would consider giving him a ticket, in fact he said there’s no sign that says you can’t park horizontally across the parking spots. Smith said he said there are no signs for a lot of things. You can’t park a donkey in there. (Laughter.) There are many things that we don’t have signs for.

Speagle said she did email him and sent out our parking ordinance. Haven said OK. Smith said clearly, the ordinance does say that, but we don’t have a parking sign that says no parallel parking or whatever you call it. So, anyway, he’s not here tonight, but Smith knows that Ryan may be in discussion with him because he does want to appeal this to district court, so Smith thinks that he told Smith that we need to make contact with the district court. Smith said he guesses that he needs to ask council – do they support Smith continuing the challenge?

Haven said yes.

Wylie said just so they know all the details, how much money are we talking about for this parking ticket. Speagle said the original ticket was $50, but now that it’s a month over, he owes $60. Wylie said OK, she has no problem going on with it. Smith said it’s a bargain if he goes to court and loses, right? He’ll get court costs assessed to him.

Ryan said they could have given him four more tickets. He’s taking up five spots. Smith agreed. Ryan said and it’s not perpendicular parking; it’s parallel parking. In Ryan’s opinion, he’s perpendicular to the line. Speagle said she’s explained all that to him and he wasn’t too happy.

Wylie said he’s fighting a ticket just for one spot. Smith said he got a ticket for one spot. Wylie said he got a great deal. Speagle said he got a ticket for parking outside the parking lines. He could have also gotten a ticket for each spot that he did not pay for. Wylie said right, OK, she actually has no problem with it at all.

Haven asked if Smith needed action on the part of council for this decision (unintelligible). Smith said just their feedback is all he needed. Smith will work with Ryan on this, and we’ll see if he wants to – (interjecting), Ryan said that council should indicate that they denied the appeal to the extent that they believe Smith is on the right track and we’ll go forward.

Haven asked if a head nod is enough or do they need a motion for this. Wylie said she would make a motion that they deny this appeal; second Casey.

Haven asked if there was any discussion.

No discussion.

The motion passed by unanimous voice vote.

Item 13b – Resolution: Purchase of Parking Kiosk Hardware for Depot Road Lot (Video time mark 0:37:56):

• • Resolution – Purchase of Parking Kiosk Hardware for the Depot Road Lot (page 30/75 of the council packet)
  • Traffic & Safety Control Systems, Inc. Quote Re: LUKE II Pay Stations (page 31/75 of the council packet)

Haven said this is a resolution for the purchase of parking kiosk hardware for the Depot Road lot. Haven said he guessed it didn’t surprise him, and he told Smith, that prices have gone up since we originally discussed this, but for the hope and thought that one kiosk would do it for the time being, so we have a resolution in front of us under 13b here for the purchase of a parking kiosk to the tune of $14,550.00 to be funded by the parking fund which is the place where it will be coming from.

Haven said he would entertain a motion adopt the resolution.

Motion by Wakefield. She said she had something to say about it. Wylie said we have to do our motion first. Haven said they discuss it after. Haven asked if Wakefield wanted to make the motion to adopt. Wylie said she would make the motion to adopt; second Rodgers.

Haven asked if there was any discussion.

Wakefield said they talked earlier about a few different things they could do alternatively to a kiosk. You could do an app, and that would make it more flexible for us to amend things, like if employees need parking spots, it would just like log in and say that they’re an employee and it would be fine. Or like someone who owns eleven spots, that would be fine. And that way, we wouldn’t have a kiosk and this direct expense of a physical object that would degrade over time. Haven said hardware. Wakefield agreed, getting hit by snowplows; something along those lines. Wakefield said she’s personally not in support of having parking in this lot, so she doesn’t support having any of it, but she will say that there are other alternatives that are less expensive, less initial cost.

Wylie said to correct her if she’s wrong, but don’t we have to use an app now, that the kiosk would have that. Smith said at the Washington and Main lot, you can either pay at the kiosk or pay through the app, you have both options. So, we do have an app, and we have used it. Our acceptance rate, and he doesn’t have the numbers, off the top of his head, but it’s not even 50% pay with the app. It’s a fairly small percentage. The last he checked, it was under 10%, but it might have grown a little bit over the last year. So, we have looked at an app, and Smith agrees that would avoid some hardware costs. Smith doesn’t know, Ryan, from a legal standpoint, would there be those who would make an argument that you can’t force me to have to use an app, we should have a payment kiosk on site where I can pay, you know, old school with a credit card or coins like we do accept in the other parking lot? Smith didn’t know if that would be a legal challenge in court. Ryan said there might be a legal challenge, but he doesn’t think it would be successful.

Wylie said that there’s other communities that she thinks she’s seen – (interrupting Wylie), Rodgers said that she thinks like Royal Oak, there’s like a space monitor that says, you know, what area you’re in and all the information, and there is not a kiosk, you have to use the app. Smith said you have to use the app. Rodgers said Birmingham, same. Wylie said it’s incredibly annoying if you don’t have it – Rodgers said it is – (continuing) Wylie said and you’re sitting there in a parked car trying to get it. Rodgers said but it’s also good when she doesn’t have enough coins. (Unintelligible crosstalk.) Wylie said she likes having the app, but when you are forced do it right then and there and you don’t happen to have that particular app, it’s (unintelligible crosstalk). Rodgers said it’s harder for older people. Wylie and Smith agreed. Casey said he’s one of them. (Laughter.) Haven said you get support over here (gesturing to Casey). Wylie said no, but it is, she knows some people who can’t, they don’t do that stuff.

Haven asked if there was any other comment from council about this. He will defer to the audience in just a minute.

Wylie said ideally, she thinks it would be a great idea, but she thinks we have to have a kiosk. That’s her personal opinion. She does like the idea of having one instead of two because they could all hit it as they walk up. (Haven made an unintelligible comment.) Smith said right, it will be centrally located. There are a couple grassy triangles out there where they can put it. Haven said (unintelligible) on this program already (unintelligible).

Haven recognized Mr. Quisenberry. He saw his hand. Quisenberry said he agrees with Ryan as far as he doesn’t think there’s a legal requirement that you have to. He does think that we really need to be sensitive to people. What you’re doing now is requiring anybody who wants to park in that to have a smartphone (unintelligible) don’t have it. And if you do, you have to be a smart person to use a smartphone and that’s going to take out quite a few people. It’s amazing when you look at everything you have to do nowadays. There’s almost an assumption that you have to now do it online, and he thinks that’s just being unfair to a lot of people, saying you have to get a smartphone if you want to play this game, and it just doesn’t seem right that we’re going to mandate if you want to park here, it’s going to cost you and oh, you’re going to have to have a smartphone. Haven said and a credit card. Wylie agreed. Haven said coins don’t go through a cellphone.

Haven asked if there were any other comments.

An unidentified man said he had a question and wanted to know if they’ve thought about the hours you are going to use this for. Like, for example, if people want to go to the park early in the morning when there’s not really a lot of people that would park there, do you really want to charge people just to go to the park when it’s really not a busy time? Have you thought about the hours and what that’s going to look like for the community, like is it just restaurant hours or is it, you know, something along those lines? Haven said that Smith knows the history of this thing. We went through this in the Washington and Main lot, trying to accommodate everyone. The unidentified man said yes. Haven said once you have control, then you can adapt, you know, and then you can honor people. If you don’t have control, then you’ve got chaos and you have no revenue, so this is the best option. Haven asked what Smith would add to that.

Smith said when we, as you said, when we first implemented the paid parking in our lot in town at Washington and Main there, we had earlier hours. He thinks it started at 11:00 a.m. and we got a lot of pushback from some of the local businesses, that this would just kill their business, and so there was a lot of back and forth discussions on what would be the appropriate time. There are those that would argue there’s no appropriate time and don’t want it at all, but we settled out at 4:00 to 9:00, just a five-hour window, 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Saturday, because we have so much traffic, and again, the goal was for turnover. It was to encourage people not to stay there all day. So, Saturday we have a lot of activity in town, so we set that from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday. But during the week, it’s just 4:00 to 9:00, and we’re thinking we would clone those same hours down here just to avoid confusion with different lots having different hours. So, the thought was just keep everything the same in this lot that is currently in place in the other lot.

Rodgers said at the last meeting, Nancy Moon brought up about people that have meetings here and things like that. We could always adapt that somehow too, like a card for the windshield or something like that. One thing that Rodgers didn’t know until that last meeting was that all of the parking spaces on Depot Road will not be paid. That’s free parking. So, a lot of like park traffic for moms and dads, they could still park in those spots along Depot for free, so that kind of eases it a little bit, and like you said, if your hours are from 4:00 to 9:00, most of the park activity would be free of charge in the mornings anyhow and they could make use of Depot Road parking. Smith said that was a good point.

Haven was curious too about the $1.00/hour. How much does that impinge upon people. He went to a Starbucks listing of their products, and the cheapest Starbucks you could get was $2.85, so $1.00/hour is not encroaching. He shouldn’t say that; probably $1.89 or so, close to $2.00. So, when you look at the magnitude of what’s going on, it’s fairly clearly unimpactful on most people, but it certainly does help us in maintaining our infrastructure, which is what we owe the residents.

Haven said we have the resolution in front of us to purchase the one kiosk. We have a motion to adopt this resolution and a second to do that and it would require a roll call, so – (interrupting Haven), Rodgers asked if we have money in our budget to do this. Smith said yes. Haven said the parking fund, the revenue stream that we have. Smith said we are around $60,000 in the parking fund right now. Haven agreed and said it’s bouncing back now from COVID. We shut the whole thing down. We adapted during COVID, you know, to help the businesses and we shut the whole thing down. So, it’s working.

Wylie said as they passed this in the Planning Commission, they talked about how challenging this was going to be for the staff to implement paid parking without ordering, and she knows we are talking about ordering it right now, how is this going to impact the staff getting this all up and going. Wylie wanted to know if Smith needed more time. Wylie said you do, yes, you need more time. Smith said he’s working on a clone, but it hasn’t happened so far. Smith said he definitely needs to get back to her on that, to evaluate what it’s going to take to make all this happen. Right now, his clerk has a big role in parking in not only the citations but the parking reports and the other aspects, keeping the paper stocked, Speagle and Smith work together on that to make sure everything is working properly at all times. Right now, the coin accepter, for example, failed on the one in the Washington and Main lot. So, it’s still working, you can still give it a credit card, but the coin accepter suddenly failed. So, there are things that have to be done, and it’s going to increase the workload by having two kiosks to maintain, more parking, more citations, more appeals. So, as people try, as this gentleman did, to try to do something innovative, and we’ve heard every excuse in the book on how to get out of a parking ticket, so that does take time, to research this and get back to them. So, it should roughly double our annual income on paid parking, but there are some increased expenses too.

Haven said we have a net improvement. Smith said yes. Haven said you have your deductions. Smith said sure. Haven said but you still have a really positive cash flow. Smith agreed and said very positive. Haven said maybe we could hire somebody for some of this, he doesn’t know; Smith is looking at reforming his staff. Smith agreed and said that he’s generally looking at some options that we will get into tonight. It’s premature, but some things to allow us to accommodate Speagle’s leaving who was just an integral part of his team. So, there are some things that Smith is looking at, making some changes to accommodate that, but they’ll be others, and maybe, for example, one of Smith’s parking attendants, Mike Cascone is a very capable guy and could Smith give him some tasks of not just writing tickets. Being the ambassador that he is, he’s very good at being a parking ambassador, but could Smith train him how to fill the paper, empty the coin machine, doing some things that otherwise Smith and Speagle would do. Maybe even handling the appeals. Smith doesn’t know. It’s probably good to have checks and balances so the same person that’s – Haven said writing the ticket, fox in the henhouse – (continuing), Smith said no, it’s got to be a separate person, but there are things that Smith can maybe utilize Cascone to do, but more to come on this as we get into it. But Wylie’s point is a valid point. It’s a valid concern of Smith’s. Wylie said she’s sure it is and thanked Smith. Haven said Smith should take his time with it.

Smith said that there’s the other aspect of this that has come up in previous meetings and that is the twelve parking spots up here on the top of the hill there that are privately owned. Smith has to work with Ryan on that, reviewing the agreement with that property owner that was established years ago and how would we, how should we construct a parking program that would include those twelve spots. Is it through something like Wakefield referenced, could we give them some kind of parking pass that they use. We have to look into the options and how that’s going to work. Is it just during paid parking hours or are there other limitations. We just have to look into all aspects of that, so we don’t violate that agreement in any way.

Wakefield asked if this is the only quote that we got for one of these units. Smith said that it is because when we did the machine up in the main lot, we got three quotes at that time. But now that we have that, we really want to stay consistent and have the same machine here so that they use the same paper, they use the same coin tray, it’s all the same process, really beneficial. So, no, he didn’t get three quotes this time. Speagle said they use the same system too, one system. Smith agreed. Speagle said so we couldn’t get a totally different company. Haven said we want that.

Haven said they have a motion in front of them that has been moved by Wylie and seconded by Rodgers to adopt this resolution. Hearing no other discussion, Haven asked Speagle to take the roll.

Haven, Casey, Fuller, Lamphier, Wylie, and Rodgers voted yes. Wakefield voted no. Motion carried.

Item 13c – Resolution: MDOT [Michigan Department of Transportation Improvements (Video time mark 0:53:24):

• • Resolution Authorizing Nonmotorized Transportation Improvements (page 33/75 of the council packet)
  • Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for Non-Motorized Transportation Improvements (page 35/75 of the council packet)

Haven said the next item on the agenda was 13c and asked Smith if they’ve done this before, this MDOT non-motorized transportation improvements which they have in their packet. Haven said he wasn’t clear on what this is and asked Smith to please explain.

Smith said that Rana [Emmons, CPA, from PSLZ Certified Public Accounts, the city’s auditor] is here too. Our auditor came in. Good timing.

Smith said that we were put on notice that we are deficient in providing this resolution by council to MDOT. So, what this is for is that, you know, we get Act 51 monies from MDOT every year. It’s pretty substantial, and we don’t want to jeopardize that in any way, shape, or form. It’s substantial. So, one of the agreements is that you will return, is it 1%, just 1% of the monies given to you, you will reinvest in nonmotorized transportation, bicycle, walking, scooters, whatever, skateboards, nonmotorized abilities for our residents to use that. So, we are about, right now, we spent some, but we are right now deficient in about $6,000 over the next three years. So, Smith thinks we will easily spend this if we just do some sidewalk repairs, which (to Pardee) we do have on our game plan to do some sidewalk repairs. So, we do plan on doing that and will spend easily $6,000. We’ll probably spend three times that the next go around in sidewalk repairs. So, essentially, we just need to pass a resolution that says to MDOT yes, we will spend 1% of the monies you’ve given to us, we will spend at least that amount on nonmotorized transportation in our city just to encourage nonmotorized transportation. So, that’s an agreement that comes along with that. Smith has put together, it’s right off our capital improvement plan, you will recognize the template, Wylie will recognize the template. Wylie said yes. Smith said so these are some things that were in our capital improvement plan, and you can see achieving $6,000, if we do this, he knows Pardee will say you don’t always spend what’s in your plan, but if we even did a portion of this, the next three years, we’ve got (adding out loud) $47,000 of improvement over the next three years. We only have to spend $6,000 to meet the agreement with MDOT so it will easily do that even if we don’t spend all of this. So, what Smith has done is took the resolution with Emmons’ help, he took the template, the template that they provided, not this, but the actual resolution, modified it for our situation, and both the resolution and the table, if approved by council, will be given to MDOT as evidence that we are on path to achieving the requirement of spending 1% of our Act 51 money on nonmotorized transportation.

Smith asked Emmons if he missed anything that she wanted to add. Emmons said that she wanted to make council aware that MDOT is clear, you are not required to spend this, but you will be spending it, but they want some kind of, they want something a little more formal because we fell into a little bit of a deficit with them. They do, it’s a whole formula, it’s over ten years, they calculate the 1% over all your (unintelligible) revenue, and over that ten-year period, some years you’ll have zero, and the next you’ll have $10,000, that type of thing, so they average it out. They just want something a little more formal from council that says, you know, you have a plan and you’re projecting to. You’re not required to, if you don’t meet this plan exactly, it’s OK. They know this is a plan and they just want to know that you have intention of, that you’ll meet that formula going forward is really what they’re saying. So, you’re not committed to that resolution, you’re just committed to having a plan.

Haven said he loves this because he can see bike paths and other things being really relevant to this over time, so that’s really interesting. He never thought of using Act 51 money for that kind of pedestrian stuff, but you know, it’s really nice.

Haven asked if anyone on council had questions or comments. Wylie asked if Haven was going to read the whole resolution. He said he didn’t want to. Wylie volunteered and read the resolution and she resolves that.

Haven said so it is a resolution, so Wylie has moved to adopt the resolution. Haven asked if there was a second to this. Wakefield second.

Haven asked if there is any discussion.

No discussion.

Haven said since it is a resolution, even though there are ayes and nays at the bottom, this is like a resolution, and we have to take a roll. Ryan agreed.

Fuller, Wylie, Rodgers, Casey, Lamphier, and Wakefield voted yes. [Haven wasn’t asked for his vote, and no one noticed.] Haven said the resolution is adopted.

Agenda Item #14, Discussion: Presentation of the 21/22 FY Budget Audit (Video time mark 1:00:51):

• • Financial Audit 06-30-2022 (page 36/75 of the council packet)

Haven said now, this is the exciting part. Rana Emmons is here from our auditing team. Haven said he always looks forward to this because Emmons does such a good job for us. Emmons said she appreciated that. Haven said taking our temperature. There’s lots to read today.

Emmons said you can put this on your nightstand. If you have insomnia, this would be your go to. (Unintelligible crosstalk.)

Haven said this is a discussion/presentation of the 2021/2022 fiscal year budget audit.

Smith said Greg [Coté] our treasurer is here. Haven asked him to raise his hand. Haven said our treasurer is here and he works for Emmons. Smith said between Coté and Emmons, we should have answers to all your questions. Haven said excellent and thanked Coté for coming.

Emmons said it was her pleasure to be here tonight to discuss the City of the Village of Clarkston’s annual audited financial statements for our fiscal year ending June 30, 2022. Starting with a few highlights, the city of course did not raise its millage rate but did have increases in property tax revenues, that’s based on your taxable value increases, which this year was 2.0%. The year before was 3.8%. So that’s your taxable value increase which is, you know, 2.0% is pretty solid. We like to see that.

You did use $5,500 of general fund, fund balance this year. You had projected to use $70,000 of your fund balance, but you transferred last, but you ended up using everything poured into the capital project fund that you had budgeted for and also some improvements like the parks and buildings and grounds and that kind of thing.

So, everything else, pretty steady. General fund, fund balance has $195,710 in the general fund. The building permit revenues did increase this year. She likes to always give them a gauge as far as if it increased or decreased so you would know if people are doing additions to their home or permits to businesses, that type of thing. So, a positive thing. About $2,500 building permit revenue up this year. Haven asked if he could interrupt for a moment. Is Emmons referring to a page in their book or is she doing a summary. Emmons said if there is a page that pretty much a lot of these things are, it would be near the very, very back, general fund budget to actual is on page 29. Haven thanked Emmons and said it helps them follow along.

Emmons said state shared revenue, another significant source for the city increased about $15,000 this year. We haven’t seen that kind of increase from that in a while. That of course is the sales income tax that the state collects and distributes to the local units. So, pleasantly surprised on that. Their projections going forward are a bit conservative and they are thinking like maybe a 2% increase maybe for the subsequent year, to the year that you’re in right now.

Overall, the city came in under budget in the general fund by $45,436.00. Overall, the city transferred $46,000.00 to the capital improvement fund. Those are projects that you had planned for and took care of this year.

The sewer fund had a net income of $63,000 this year in positive overall cash flow for the year.

(Unintelligible comment about parking.) In fiscal year ’21, as you were alluding to earlier, there was a dramatic decrease in your revenue in the parking fund because you weren’t charging for parking. In 2022, for that, you had an increase of about $65,000.00 more in revenue for the prior year.

The significant capital outlay this year. You had catch basin repairs and pavement markings. You did some work to the park gazebo.

But more significantly, you paid down debt this year. You paid down $231,000.00 of principal and you paid of the 2007 GO [general obligation] bonds. So that leaves you with one general obligation bond, the 2012 bond, which will mature in 2024. And that leaves you with about $320,000.00 of principal remaining. So, two more years of principal to pay that off, and that will definitely help the bottom line.

So, with that, Emmons said if anyone has any questions, she would be happy to address anything.

Fuller said he didn’t know when the city’s fiscal year is. Emmons said a June 30^th year. So, it starts July 1^st. And you collect your property taxes so that July 1^st is your tax bill. So, you start collecting your tax revenues at the beginning of your fiscal year. That’s significant and a little different than the township that collects its on December 1^st.

Smith said he wanted to ask a question about the ARPA [American Recovery Program Act] money. It’s about $96,000 that we received, and we have not spent. Emmons said great question. Smith wanted to know where that is. Emmons said that the way that the state likes them to report is that, you did receive $96,787. It is not in the general fund revenue. It is, until we spend the money, it’s on the balance sheet on page 10, you’ll see a line specifically for the American Rescue Plan that says available revenue, ARPA, so you can keep track of that. You will be showing that as revenue as you spend it. So, if you spend it all next year, for example, that whole $96,000 will show as revenue and also the expenditure. If you only spend say $20,000 of it next year, we’re only going to show that as revenue. Haven said it’s kind of like an escrow, and Emmons agreed. Haven said we will pull it in as we need it to the fund balance. Emmons agreed. Until you’ve actually spent it on qualified grant purchases, you can’t show it as revenue to the city. Haven said we don’t lose it; it’s sitting there. Emmons said no, you need to be committed by 2024, the end of, December 31, 2024, and have it fully spent by December 31, 2026. Haven asked if Emmons would help them remember that, and she said yes, and it has its very own line so we can all keep track. Haven said it’s very own line, page 10. Emmons said page 10. Haven said OK.

Coté asked Emmons if they were booking that as unearned revenue, and Emmons said yes. Coté said so it’s technically a liability, and Emmons said yes.

An unidentified man said he had a question. He wanted to know if the $195,000 fund balance is adequate going into the future for this size of an organization. Emmons said that depends on what we have planned for the future. She thought she had the percentage down here, 26% of general fund expenditures, the $195,000. So, that means if your revenue stream stopped, you could function for a quarter of the year to pay your regular expenditures. The unidentified man said that seems pretty low. Emmons said it does, and a lot of professionals, like treasury, would say, and other CPAs would say that, you know, 25% is kind of the norm. Emmons stopped giving the norm, because after the 2008, 2012 downturn, and when we had the pandemic, it really depends. It depends on, you know, what makes council comfortable, what lets you sleep at night, really. If something happened, and we didn’t anticipate just in the last ten years two significant things happening. Fortunately, the city has weathered the storm just fine. But that’s really, respectfully, that’s council’s decision on how big or small that cushion should be.

Haven asked Coté to speak on how high it’s been in the past, talking about fund balance, right, how high our fund balance has been in the past and where we are. 26%? Haven thought we were more down to like 16%. Emmons said that’s pretty solid for the city. It hasn’t been high. You haven’t had a big fund balance. You’ve always operated right around the $200,000 mark in the general fund. You’re still, you know, through a lot of group effort, you were able to make improvements to this building, for example, you know, getting things done in the city on pretty much a shoestring.

Haven asked Emmons to explain that. He doesn’t think a lot of people understand how we financed this building, because this was really in bad shape and how we financed that. Smith said through the water fund. We financed it through the water fund. It was initially water and sewer and then we paid back the sewer and just took it all out of the water fund. Haven said well, we borrowed from ourselves, and paid it back to ourselves, at 1%. Smith said we are still paying it back. Haven said he gets that. It’s really a, you couldn’t go to the money market and get this kind of, you know, rate for sure. So, it was like you say, we did an interesting and good thing here to come up with this facility that we have. Emmons agreed. The interest didn’t go elsewhere; it stayed here in the city. Haven said exactly. Smith said we pay ourselves. Coté said he thinks the balance is about $275,000.00 right now. Haven said OK, on the building. Coté said yes. Haven said OK.

Wylie asked Emmons to repeat the fund balance, did you say 26%? Emmons said yes (unintelligible) expenditures.

Smith said by charter, we cannot go below 16.6%, which is two months of operational. Coté said working capital. Smith said so, at 26%, we’re well above the 16.6% required by the charter. [Note: The charter doesn’t have a fund balance requirement. The amount was set by a council resolution, which can always be changed.]

Haven said so, this is a retrospective. Going into ’22-’23, we set this also, but you’re not reporting that, you’re retrospect, so do we remember where we set our fund balance for next year, does Smith remember? Haven said he was thinking it was lower. Smith said it was lower, and he thinks it was closer to 20%. He doesn’t have the budget presentation in front of him, but he thinks it was around 20%. Emmons said you were planning on dipping in, your projection with your budget is you’re dipping into the fund balance of $116,000 next year, which is more than it was in this year, projected for this year. Haven said right, and we were coming off the pandemic and so on, and we’re trying to keep things even keeled, you know, going through here, considering streets and sidewalks and everything else, you know, that we have to think about. So, we’re making those expenditures on the pavers and those other things, but again, trying to walk that line, you know, with a roughly $800,000 budget in this village. We’re trying to be good stewards.

Pardee [on GoToMeeting] said he had a question. Haven said one moment for the audience. He’d just like to ask the council first of all if they have any input or comments about what they’re hearing. He knows it’s like drinking out of a fire house right now for many of you, but if you have any other questions, she’s the one to ask for sure. How’s it feel around here? How are we doing? She’s the one to ask that question.

Wakefield asked Emmons how many years we have left on the payment for this building. Casey asked what the question was. Wylie said they can’t hear her. Wakefield asked how many years to pay off this mortgage. Smith said it’s a ten-year payback. Coté said no, fifteen. Smith said fifteen, OK. (Unintelligible crosstalk.) Haven said we are borrowing from ourselves. We’re paying ourselves back, right?

Haven asked if there were any other questions. It’s just like your home budget, folks.

Emmons said that one of the nice things about it being an internal revenue, source of revenue, is not like if you say a bank, is that if you wanted to pay that off earlier, you can, but as far as cash flow goes, you want to keep your fund balance steady. You don’t want to let it drop too much below that $195,000.00 to $200,000.00 as kind of the mark that you strive for. So, that keeps our cash flow, and that keeps cash in the general fund consistent, which is what you want. Coté said that we make that payment typically in April or May It’s about $21,000.00 a year. It’s an annual payment. So, it’s very, very manageable.

Haven asked Coté if he wanted to make any comments from his perspective as treasurer and so on. You work with Emmons, and you know her report. Any perspective, comment you’d make, just to help council understand? Coté said as a former banker with Chase for thirty years, he would definitely lend money to the City of the Village of Clarkston. Fuller asked how much. (Laughter.) Coté said he didn’t want to comment on how much right now, but he would have definitely bid the building (unintelligible). Haven said that was interesting. Coté said absolutely.

Wakefield asked if there is anything else we could maybe raise our rates on that Emmons could recommend to make more money for the city. Emmons said well, that’s been discussed in the past a lot, and respectfully, that’s council’s decision. There’s a balance of, you know, the residents not wanting increases and that kind of thing versus council trying to get things done. So, you know, it’s been historically, you’ve not raised rates significantly really anywhere. The most significant thing you’ve had is the parking revenue, and that’s just trying to keep up with the infrastructure. Haven said good question.

Fuller said he was curious and asked Emmons what municipalities are allowed to do with that fund balance in terms of investment. Emmons said it’s very specific. There are a couple of public acts that dictate that as well as the city’s own investment policy. You are somewhat restricted. You cannot do things, pension funds and that type of thing are much broader investment opportunities, but for municipal general fund let’s just say you are limited, and the State of Michigan is very conservative financially. They only let you invest in certain things and so there aren’t a lot of – Coté said options. Emmons agreed. Ryan said you can’t play red 28. Fuller asked what he said. Ryan said you can’t play red 28 at roulette. Very conservative. Very conservative investment of municipal funds.

Haven said so liquidity is the issue, right? It’s a rainy-day kind of – Emmons said liquidity and it’s safeguarding the taxpayer money. And it’s how the state, and not all fifty states view it that way. Just so you know. The State of Michigan is very, has always been very conservative as far as what they, they don’t let things, they don’t want Orange County happening here. So, they’ve always been conservative on, you know, they keep us in a box in what we can invest in, and we can’t go crazy, or new investment vehicles, invest in digital (unintelligible). Ryan said maybe twenty or twenty-five years ago, Independence Township, they had derivative bonds and took a bath. It was bad. Emmons said that’s not the city. Haven said it was the township.

An unidentified man asked what is the investment income that we have. Coté said that Oakland County gives us a pool that we can move surplus money, but we don’t have a lot of surplus because we’re kind of, it’s in and out. Emmons said this year, it was $636.00. So, again, that Oakland County pool is one of our best investment vehicles that we have available to us.

An unidentified man said but they can only invest in US treasuries and municipal types of (unintelligible). Emmons agreed, and said but they’re, everything they invest in is not FDIC insured. They still have to stay in that box as well, but they don’t strive for 100% FDIC insurance, so they do go after some things that are a little more, she wouldn’t even say aggressive, they’re pretty solid, and the county is investing their own money in that, so if something happened to that investment pool, we’d all be in trouble because it would be everyone in the county. Haven said all over the county.

An unidentified man asked if Emmons issues a management letter for any deficiency in the funds. Emmons said she would if it was necessary. She did not issue one this year.

Smith said that Pardee had a question, right? Pardee said he had three. Pardee asked for the June 30^th financials, were we in the red or in the black? Smith said June 30^th. Pardee said he recalls a finance document, the only one that he’s seen that has a June 30^th date on it, showed that we were in the red, and he thinks that was really only a technicality because he thinks we hadn’t moved that. We projected moving but we just hadn’t moved them. So, on a technical basis, Pardee thinks we were (unintelligible), but he doesn’t want to focus there.

Pardee asked while Emmons is here, could she give us three minutes about GO [general obligation] bonds the last couple years and what’s in front of us and what are the implications for citizens. Emmons asked if there was any thing specific about general obligation bonds or just in general. Pardee said ours. We finished one off, right? Emmons agreed. Pardee asked what did it do for our citizens. Emmons said she would turn to page 27 of the audit itself. You paid off $75,000 that was left on the 2007 general obligation bonds and that leaves us with the 2012 general obligation bonds for two more years. The city levies a debt millage for, and you only levy enough to cover these debt payments and not a penny more. In fact, this year, you were short about $1,000 the general fund had to cover. So, you will lower your debt millage rate and you probably already have because that’s your July 2022 tax roll. Coté agreed. Emmons said because you only had one debt issue instead of two debt issues to cover now so your debt millage came down.

Haven said he thinks that what Pardee is getting at is that he was a bit frustrated when we retired the first general obligation bond – was that sewer or water? Smith said it was infrastructure. Haven said OK. Continuing, Haven said and didn’t put it toward sort of a capital investment fund, our capital investments. Smith said reinvestment, we didn’t just renew it. Haven said we couldn’t legally do that, he thinks that’s the answer to that question. We had to give it back basically, right, and if we want to do another appropriation, we have to ask the citizens if they want to do that, right? So, it’s just not a, just hoard it and spend it, we have to give it back. Ryan said on the ballot. It would be a ballot question to place that millage back on the taxpayers. Haven agreed. Ryan said for infrastructure or whatever. He thought it was 1.-something mills, how much was that one? Because the next one is the bigger one, isn’t? The one coming up in 2024, isn’t that a bigger millage? (Unintelligible crosstalk.) Pardee said the two together are like 4.9. Emmons said for the two, it’s 4.9. So, that will drop this year and (unintelligible). Haven said that the point is not percentages; the point is dollars. We (unintelligible) spend some dollars on infrastructure stuff. Emmons said that she guesses what he’s saying is that in total, a resident pays the operating millage in the city here plus the debt millage, and because the debt millage is being decreased, he’s saying increase maybe the operating millage, you’re still, the resident is still paying the same amount millage-wise. And you don’t have to go to a vote of the people to raise that a little bit, you have tax money. So, Emmons thinks that’s what Pardee is getting at. The residents would be paying the same amount in millage, total millage, but it would just be adjusting, because your debt millage is going down, increase the operating millage a little bit, and they’re still paying the same amount.

Haven said we’re exercising an opportunity, and the question is whether the opportunity is legitimate. Can we actually do that? Are you saying legally, we can do that? Emmons said yes, even without going to a vote of the people, it’s already – (interrupting Emmons), Ryan said we don’t know what the numbers are. Emmons said right. Ryan said because we can’t go over our debt millage unless we’re going to have our millage rate, our millage cap unless we get a vote of the people. Depending on what the increase is. Haven asked if that 12% is a Headlee thing (unintelligible). Ryan said Prop A [Proposal A]. Haven said OK Prop A. Haven asked if we risked going over that.

Pardee said he thinks you get where he is, which is as each GO bond matures, we provide a millage reduction to the citizens, and he was looking to was can we find a way to do an offset so that the millage to the citizens continues. And it appeared to Pardee that in 2024, we could have five more mills in our pocket.

The other thing that Pardee wanted to acknowledge was in the past, recent past, he’s been talking about the second GO bond maturing. He used after June 2023 incorrectly, incorrectly. It’s really after June 2024. But the fact is we’ve got 11.6 mills, he believes operating to citizens, and then between the two GO bonds we have like 4.9. So, by 2024, the citizens will have enjoyed a cumulative 4.9 mill reduction. Emmons and Haven agreed. Haven said so that being the case, is this something we should be thinking about relative to ’24. Again, we’ve retired one, that’s history, right? Emmons agreed. Haven said but considering the one that’s remaining that comes due in 2024 – Smith which is the bigger one – continuing, Haven said the bigger of the two, what’s the dollar impact and ability to again plow some it back into our infrastructure or something, you know, rather than turn it back, you know, to the people. (Unintelligible crosstalk.)

Pardee asked if we could have a ballot millage in November to offset the GO bond that expired in June of 2022. People have to approve and vote, but all he’s trying to do is get it back to the same millage that we had when 2022 started. Haven said he thinks rather than – (interrupting Haven), Fuller said he thinks that’s a council issue, isn’t it? Haven said it’s a council issue and the best time to discuss this would be by budget committee in that first quarter, right, as we begin to deal with the budget and look at philosophy of this and have Emmons come and we can discuss options.

Pardee said that Haven knows that he’s not that patient. In the June 6^th meeting, what the finance committee decided was that some sort of (unintelligible) would occur in the fall of 2022 to get public input. Now, there are no minutes, and Pardee is not looking to pick a fight, he’s looking – (interrupting Pardee), Haven said it was a decision we made, OK. We don’t need to look retrospectively. Haven is just suggesting we can do something in the next fiscal year, OK? So, we’ll do that, OK? We don’t need to have that discussion here tonight.

Haven asked if there were any other questions. Pardee said he had another question. Pardee asked Emmons if we have an additional $65,000 because of the budgeted fund balance and the actual fund balance. We have an additional $65,000 available to us that we had not planned as we established the current budget. Emmons said she doesn’t know if she understands. Smith asked if there was a particular page Pardee was looking at. Pardee said that there’s a page that said that our budget fund balance was $130,000 and then it shows that the actual fund balance was $195,000, and that would suggest to Pardee that we have a gift of $65,000 available to us that we hadn’t planned on having when the current budget was established. Pardee asked Emmons if he was reading that right. Emmons said he was, except that the $65,000 additional that you’re referring to is really the projection versus the actual, and the projection said – Pardee said sure – continuing, Emmons said so if we used up the whole $65,000 like we had planned in the budget, your fund balance would have dropped to $130,000. Haven said OK. There’s a liability Emmons said versus the $195,000 we did actually end up with. Haven said trying to stay in that $200,000 range. Emmons said we would be having a completely different conversation if your fund balance was $130,000. Haven said that was interesting and thanked Emmons.

Pardee said he was on page 29. Emmons said OK. Pardee said page 29, bottom line, the fund balance on the 30^th was $130,000. Emmons said the projected annual fund balance. Smith said that was the projected at the time. Pardee said that was the amount we budgeted in the 2021-22, OK? So, didn’t we establish our 2022-23 budget with that assumption? Because then it sounds like, as a result of the audit, we’ve determined that our fund balance on June 30, 2022, was actually $195,000. Smith said that’s what this is saying, yes. Pardee said that was what made him think, he thinks we have a gift of $65,000 in the fund balance that we didn’t anticipate having when we approved the budget in June. Smith said usually the reason that the fund balance grows is because we underspent somewhere in the capital – (interrupting Smith), Pardee said he got it. Smith said the capital improvement fund budget is usually where that underspend occurs, and he thinks that was truly the case this year as well. Emmons said so you ended up with $195,000. You projected in your fiscal year ’23 budget to use up $116,000, and hopefully, you will not actually be dipping in $116,000. Haven said hopefully not. Emmons said because that will leave you with a fund balance of $80,000. Haven agreed and told Pardee he didn’t think we want to go there. Emmons said this council has never done that. Haven said no, that’s not our philosophy.

Haven said he thinks we’ll wear out the audience here for sure, but these are the kinds of discussions we need to understand, and this is an opportunity that doesn’t come very often. It’s a numbers drill for sure, but Haven always appreciates Emmons being here and giving them perspective, you know, on the numbers. That helps us a lot. Emmons said it was her pleasure, any day. She said that Haven’s point was right on, was spot on, as far as both discussions really need to be happening at the budget time. Philosophical like you said, where does council want to go, what kind of projects do we want to do, what direction do we want to take. You’ve never just raised the rates on the taxpayers here. You do have that authority. You are not levying the maximum amount that you could by the law, even after Headlee rollback, without even going to a vote, you are under where you are statutorily allowed to levy. You do that, you know, with purpose. And when you go to the taxpayers, you’d like to give them a plan. This is what we want to spend the money on. So, you’ve been very, fiscally very responsible.

Haven asked Emmons if she would put that in a paragraph to him, please. Haven said he would just like to make sure, that’s a summary, kind of philosophical statement. You’re the one that really understands what you’re saying, better than we do even, but Haven thinks it’s important for the citizenry to understand philosophically where we’ve been, that we are not taking advantage of anything, that we are really trying to be good stewards of their money, you know. So, just a short paragraph would be helpful, and Emmons can articulate it the way she would. Emmons said sure. Haven thanked her for that.

Haven said he thinks we sort of (unintelligible) us to death. Ryan said they should move to accept the audit. Haven said alright.

Wylie said she would make a motion to accept the audit. Haven asked for a second. Second Fuller.

Haven asked if there was any further discussion.

Ryan said it’s a motion.

Haven asked for a voice vote.

Motion passed unanimously by voice vote.

Wylie and Haven thanked Emmons.

Agenda Item #15, Adjourn (Video time mark 1:32:37):

Haven said he would entertain a motion to adjourn.

Smith said one thing real quick. He didn’t add it to the agenda, but Duane is here from State Electric. Haven said good point, thank you, and sorry that he got buried in (unintelligible crosstalk).

Smith said he’s been waiting. Duane said that’s entertaining. Haven said he said he came for entertainment. (Unintelligible crosstalk.)

Smith said so, Duane is here. If you’ll recall, State Electric would be the installer of the electric vehicle [EV] charging stations. Haven said right. We have been pursuing, Ryan, Smith, and Duane, have been going back and forth on the legal wording of the agreements and we’re in the very final steps. There’s one final change and then we’ll need to have Duane sign that. And then there’s also an agreement with Bowman Chevrolet that is providing the units (unintelligible). So, we’ve got one agreement for the charging stations, and we’ve got one agreement with State Electric or CEV – Duane said Charge EV – as the installer. Smith said so, we’re very close to getting that done and Smith was hoping, and he’d asked Duane whether he could come to this meeting assuming that you would have these agreements in front of you for final approval or not. We’re not quite there yet. But Duane is here. In the last meeting, the question came up, you know, do we even need these charging stations. That was asked, so Smith thought he better have Duane come back in and answer any questions you have. Joe from Bowman Chevrolet will be here at our next meeting, and he can talk to you about the hardware end of it, but from the installation end of it, both Duane and Joe have a lot of experience on charging stations. If you have just general questions about charging stations, Duane is a good person to help answer those.

Haven said OK. We agreed this is three, right? We had four as an option and we agreed to three. Smith said that General Motors offered up four units, and we agreed to three, one in the Washington and Main lot and two down here in Depot lot. Haven said OK.

Fuller asked why we didn’t need four. Rodgers said because it takes up eight spots. We get three [four?] EV chargers but it takes up eight spots and only EVs can be in them while they’re there. Wylie thought the fourth one was going to be on Church Street. Rodgers said right by Honcho. Smith said right (unintelligible). Haven said which would be two spots. Smith said yes, every unit takes up two spots, so it was kind of a middle ground that we settled out on that eight, four units would require eight parking spots be given that are dedicated to electric vehicles. Fuller said OK. Smith said with three units, it’s six, and that’s kind of what we found is an acceptable middle ground is having three units. One up there and two down here for a total of six parking spots. Fuller said OK, he understands.

Duane said let him just say this, because as you’re sitting here, this does bring up another caveat, that parking kiosk. How do you manage this now? While there is money back to the village, or the city of the village, for that, he will be giving to the city, which would offset. Do you charge people to park in an EV spot as well? Smith said we were planning on it; it’s been talked about. Duane said $1.00/hour, anybody that complains about that can keep out of the parking lot (unintelligible). Smith said yes.

Wylie asked how much it costs to charge a car. Duane said $.42 per kilowatt hour. Wylie said that doesn’t help. Duane said since the last time he came here, he’s taken delivery of he thinks he has five, four, for his office staff now. Chevrolet Volts, they have a 65-kw [kilowatt] battery. Wylie repeated 65-kw battery. Wylie said so it would take (unintelligible) times $.42. Smith said so, we charge a Volt, from zero to full charge, would take, or is that, that’s like twelve hours. Duane said no, no, not the way this is going to be. These are 80-volt chargers, so they have a little – Smith said a little more. Duane repeated a little more. Smith said OK. Duane plugs his (unintelligible) in his house and it takes three-six hours to go to full charge. Overnight. (Unintelligible crosstalk.) Duane said about 35 miles per hour. Smith said of charging.

Wylie asked how long does it, if you have to get 65 kilowatts in your car, how long does it take, roughly, a range. Duane said it gets kind of complex. (Unintelligible crosstalk between Duane and Wylie.) Duane said a Chevrolet Volt, we’ll use that because it’s very, very common, has a 65-kw battery. Wylie said right. Duane said they only will accept 50-kw of charging. Wylie said oh. Duane said so, if you go to one of these high-speed chargers, and these things are going to becoming more and more prevalent, you’ll know what I’m talking about when you see them. Wylie said she remembers him talking about it. Duane said they look like a refrigerator, right? It might be 175-kw capacity capability, but the vehicle will only accept 50-kw. Now, a Tesla, much higher, the new Cadillac Lyriq, there’s a few other variations, a Hummer, much faster, General Motors has alternating battery technology, which can take a charge a lot quicker. Just kind of think of a big gas car, if you have a big pipe, you can fill your gas tank real fast (unintelligible) with electricity. So, these chargers are what they call Level 2, 80-amp chargers, have to do the math here, but roughly 60-70 miles per hour you’d get for range out of a Chevrolet Volt.

Haven said you drive into town, and you park your car for dinner, and you have a two-hour dinner, right? And you’re low on power, right, so you want to charge up, so how many hours do you put in your tank if you will. Duane said you’d get about 70 miles for two hours. Haven said OK, interesting, that’s good way to look at it. You can get home.

Duane said three years ago, he was like, I would never buy one of these things, you know (unintelligible). He’s driven his car now for 7,500 miles, and it’s cost him a little over $200. Haven said that’s pretty good.

Rodgers asked Duane how much his car cost. Duane said $21,000, well, he paid $26,500 plus title, tax, plate, and all that, about $28,500, come January, there’s a $7,500 tax credit. Rodgers asked Duane what kind of car he got. Duane said a Chevrolet Volt. He bought four of those and a Tesla.

Haven asked what’s the warranty on the batteries. Duane said he didn’t know. All he knows is when he Googled it, they said they expected them to last 3-400,000 miles. Haven said that’s a good life of a car. (Fuller made an unintelligible comment.) Haven said the whole issue about disposal of batteries and all that kind of thing, the life of the battery. Duane said he’s working on something else and hopefully he will be advertising that coming up with second life batteries, improvising them to homes. Wylie said that was interesting. (Duane made an unintelligible comment.) Wylie said that was interesting. Haven said we won’t ask him about the infrastructure to support all that. We’ll save that for another meeting. Duane said there’s a lot into it.

Haven thanked Duane for coming. We appreciate it. Duane said he appreciated it. (Wylie made an unintelligible comment.)

Haven asked if there were any other questions or comments.

Smith said that is the key. Duane is seeing it, and Smith has seen it from his automotive past. This train is coming. It’s not going away. This is not just a one and done event. This is going to be the wave of the future. These electric vehicles are taking over, and gasoline propulsion is going away. Little by little. It’s not going to happen overnight.

Duane said he wanted to add something to that. So, again, he goes back to, he’s a car guy. In his mind, everybody should drive a ’69 Camaro. That’s him. Because that’s what he likes. But he’s an electrician, he’s got to be real. So, we started getting into this stuff three years ago. He does a lot of work for Meijer, so he’s done multiple stations throughout their facilities. COVID hit. We started adopting this. He came into his office one day and he told his COO [chief operating officer] we need to adapt and accept, embrace technology to move forward. That EV side of his business has grown 500% in the last two years. Haven said with Meijer. Duane said he’s literally doing about eight to twelve, and it ranges, EV charger installations per day on residences. Wylie said on residences. Duane said on residences only.

Rodgers asked how much it costs to put one in in a residence. Duane said $1,200, $1,500, $2,500.

An unidentified man said he had a question if Duane didn’t mind. Duane said no. The unidentified man said with that expansion and that growth technology, you know, what’s the upgradeability on these types of chargers. So, you know, a couple of years ago, they were complete garbage, no longer use them. Duane agreed. Continuing, the unidentified man said but now, the technology has grown, you know, and the car companies are really investing into this technology so the charging capacity of cars in the future could be much, much higher. Duane agreed. The unidentified man asked what, in like three years, we don’t really want to be out of date. Is there a process for being able to, or essentially, what’s the upgradeability of these chargers like in order to adapt to the times where the chargers could – (interrupting the unidentified man), Duane said so, the idea behind it all would be that you can charge faster. The unidentified man agreed. Duane said and with charging faster, we won’t be able to change the elements that God gave us, like copper and aluminum for making conductors for transmission of electricity. The unidentified man agreed. Duane said so, if some vehicle can charge much faster in the future, at some point, yes, he thinks there’s going to be some obsolete products out there, but then in that case, we’re going to need to have a larger conductor. The unidentified man agreed. Continuing, Duane said and a charger that’s more capable, and he doesn’t know when. The unidentified man said OK, he was just curious. Duane said that’s kind of like what came first, the chicken or the egg. The unidentified man agreed.

Fuller asked if these chargers can charge any kind of an electric car, a Tesla, a Chevy. Duane said you need an adapter on a Tesla. Fuller said an adapter. Duane said they’re proprietary, you’re going to need a special adapter. Fuller asked about a Ford. Duane said yes, all of them, everybody else. Fuller said everybody else but Tesla. (Duane made an unintelligible comment.) Fuller said OK. The unidentified man asked if that would void the warranty of a Tesla. Duane said they sell them.

Haven asked if they were ready to adjourn yet.

Motion by Wylie to adjourn; second (unintelligible).

(Unintelligible crosstalk from Pardee over the GoToMeeting connection attempting to ask Smith a question).

No discussion.

Motion to adjourn by unanimous voice vote.

Resources:

• • Link to video recording here
  • 11-14-2022 City Council packet