[2:26] Thank you so much for joining us.

[7:30] All right, good evening everyone. Thank you for being here tonight. I'm going to call the order, the Monday, August 24th, where I look city commission meeting the order.

[7:40] We're going to begin with an invocation given by Commissioner Dr. Rebecca Cheeseam, followed by the pledge of allegiance. I ask that you stand if you can, please.

[7:55] Here we are in another election season. Each election season, the rhetoric and advertising and talking points often makes us seem hopelessly divided.

[8:03] While there will always be differences, and I have come to know that every decision that we

[8:07] make up here will make some people on our community unhappy.

[8:10] I don't believe that the division is as deep as we are made to believe.

[8:13] At our core, we are community linked by our common humanity.

[8:17] We have all seen glimpses where this common humanity overpowers any ideological difference.

[8:24] For me, one of the most profound such moments happened when my family was just about to start

[8:28] camping at a Michigan State Park about four years ago.

[8:30] It was a beautiful sunny day with a gentle breeze who were camping with another royal

[8:35] family who had already arrived and started setting up.

[8:38] As my husband was backing her pop-up camera under a sight and I was waving him into the spot

[8:42] we heard a loud crack.

[8:44] We looked up and saw a large, healthy looking tree begin to fall.

[8:48] It's amazing how slowly a tree falls until it tips just enough for gravity to do its work.

[8:53] As it was falling I ran to get me and my daughter out of the way.

[8:55] This huge tree landed with a gigantic thud right alongside the car, the camper, and my husband.

[9:01] While it was impossible to know right away, my husband was miraculously unheard, and there wasn't even a scratch on the car or camper.

[9:07] But here's where a common humanity comes to play.

[9:10] As soon as that tree hit the ground, there was an absolute tsunami of people running towards our campsite to help.

[9:16] There were dozens of men and women different ages just running to the scene from their own campsites.

[9:21] I heard someone yell, they've got kids, again, in these first few moments it was a bit difficult to figure out the damage and while the ending was thankfully a happy one, there was the potential for it to have been catastrophic.

[9:33] All these strangers were ready to face that in assist.

[9:37] Now this didn't take place during some idyllic time where everyone always helped everyone. This was in 2022. Political division was prominent, but it did not matter in that moment when a family of campers needed help, the campers ran to the sea.

[9:50] So, as we work together to enhance what is good and to solve problems in our city, how do we tap into our shared humanity?

[9:57] We remember that as we live together in a society, we make a commitment to each other.

[10:02] If our neighbors' houses on fire, we call the fire department.

[10:04] We support our kids fundraisers.

[10:06] We bring the garbage and recycling cans back for elderly neighbors and check on them during a power outage.

[10:11] We don't think the worst of each other nor do we put some people on a pedestal.

[10:15] The truth is likely summer in the middle. All of us are neither perfect nor evil.

[10:20] Some may say that this is too idealistic, but if we aren't at least a little bit idealistic, why are we sitting at the stairs?

[10:26] Why are we in city government? Why are you watching this meeting?

[10:30] So tonight as we roll up our sleeves to get to work for the city, let us keep in mind our shared humanity. Let's listen, be caring, and committed to the common good of our shared oil.

[11:10] Kevin with us yet tonight.

[11:13] Okay

[11:14] So, we are going to push to later tonight's agenda, the report on enforcement of

[11:19] noxious weeds, if had a few urgent changes to schedule, I'll just say, and so we're

[11:29] going to have to push that one out until our DPS director gets here to discuss that item.

[11:35] Which brings us to a few proclamations that we have this evening.

[11:42] So,

[11:45] this is my microphone down there,

[11:59] not that I need one of these, I'm sure, but here

[12:01] me quite fine.

[12:05] I promise no comedy.

[12:09] All right, we have three proclodations this evening.

[12:13] The first we're going to do is a proclodation celebrating Constitution week in the city of

[12:23] So,

[12:26] Sharlon Douglas, are you here to accept this along with Diane?

[12:30] Okay, so you're here?

[12:32] Yes.

[12:32] All right, we'll come on up.

[12:35] For those of you who don't know, Sharlon Douglas was a former commissioner.

[12:39] She serves on our planning commission, and she's also a daughter of the American Revolution.

[12:46] All right, this is a proclamation, designating September 17th through the 23rd,

[12:51] 2026 Constitution Week in Royal Oak.

[12:54] Whereas United States of America is commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration

[13:00] of Independence in 2026, celebrating the founding principles of liberty, equality, representative

[13:07] government, and the inherent rights of all people.

[13:11] And whereas those principles were later secured and strengthened through the drafting and

[13:16] ratification of the Constitution of the United States, establishing a durable framework

[13:20] for self-government in the rule of law.

[13:23] Whereas September 17, 2026 marks the 239th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution

[13:31] of the United States by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

[13:38] And whereas the Constitution remains a supreme law of the land, defining the powers and responsibilities

[13:43] of government while protecting the rights and freedoms of the American people, whereas the Constitution

[13:49] has provided stability, opportunity, and democratic governance for generations of Americans and

[13:54] continues to serve as a model for constitutional government throughout the world.

[13:59] And whereas the preservation of constitutional government depends upon and informed and

[14:04] engaged citizenry that understands both rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the

[14:10] responsibilities of citizenship.

[14:12] And whereas Constitution Week was established to emphasize the responsibilities and privileges

[14:17] of American citizenship, encourage the study of the Constitution, and foster informed civic participation.

[14:24] Now, whereas Constitution Week provides an opportunity for all Americans to reflect upon the wisdom

[14:29] of the framers, study the Constitution, and renew their commitment to the principles of freedom,

[14:35] justice, and representative government. Now, whereas Public Law 84-915, an act of

[14:47] September 17th through the 23rd of each year as constitution week.

[14:51] Now therefore, be it resolved.

[14:53] I am Mayor Forney and the members of the Royal Oak City Commission on behalf of the

[14:57] entire royal community.

[15:00] Hereby proclaim the week of September 17th through the 23rd as Constitution Week in Royal Oak, and ask our citizens to reaffirm the ideals held by our framers of the Constitution in 1787 by vigilantly protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us through this guardian of our liberties, remembering that lost rights may never be regained.

[15:20] Mr. Davis?

[15:25] Oh, you don't picture it.

[15:28] Do you?

[15:29] Do you?

[15:30] Do you?

[15:30] Yes.

[15:30] Thank you.

[15:33] Good evening, and thank you, Mayor Fornier, and City Commission members.

[15:37] I'm Sharland Douglas.

[15:38] I'm a member of the Ezra Parker chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

[15:42] On behalf of the chapter, we thank the City for bringing attention to Constitution

[15:46] Week.

[15:47] On September 17th, our chapter will join Bells across America to celebrate the beginning of

[15:54] institution week. We invite everyone to join us in Royal Oak Centennial Commons where we will

[16:00] ring bells beginning at 4 p.m.

[16:08] We will ring, we'll be cowbells, a nod to one of Royal Oak's founding businesses.

[16:18] So you don't want yours, you don't want yours, you don't want yours, you don't want yours.

[16:23] More than a million women have joined the D.A.R. since it's founding in 1890.

[16:27] Today, nearly 200,000 members advance our missions of education, historic preservation, and patriotism.

[16:36] Last year, members around the world gave 7 million volunteer hours in service to our communities.

[16:43] Right now, there may be a woman watching this meeting who knows that her ancestors supported the cause of independence.

[16:51] We encourage her to visit DAR.org to learn how she might join us.

[16:55] Thank you.

[17:02] Oh, you were serious.

[17:04] Thank you.

[17:14] Anytime any one thinks Commissioner Colos

[17:16] not making appropriate point, you can ring on the bell.

[17:19] Well, I'm thinking if you make a loop.

[17:21] I'm not.

[17:29] I promise to use it.

[17:30] I promise to use it.

[17:35] We have another proclamation this evening.

[17:39] Regarding Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in September, I'll see if I'll

[17:45] serve as a Supreme.

[17:46] Hi, Helen.

[17:51] So, I'm going to read this important proclamation.

[17:59] This is a proclamation, designating the month of September, 2026, as Suicide Prevention

[18:05] Month, where a September is recognized as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.

[18:11] The time when millions of people around the world join their voices to promote Suicide

[18:16] prevention awareness.

[18:18] And whereas understanding the issues concerning suicide and mental health is an important way

[18:22] to take part in suicide prevention, help others in crisis, and change the conversation

[18:28] around suicide.

[18:30] And whereas suicide is not inevitable for anyone.

[18:33] By starting the conversation, providing support and directing help to those who need it,

[18:38] we can prevent suicides and save lives.

[18:41] And whereas the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline offers free and confidential 247 call text and chat access to train crisis counselors who can help people in suicidal crisis or any kind of emotional distress.

[18:58] If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis help is available call or text 988 or chat 988 lifeline.org to reach the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline.

[19:11] And we're as everyone in our community,

[19:13] can play a role in preventing suicide.

[19:15] We all need the occasional reminder

[19:17] that we are all silently fighting our own battles.

[19:21] A simple phone call, message, or hug,

[19:23] can go a long way towards helping someone realize

[19:25] suicide is not the answer.

[19:28] Now, therefore, be it resolved.

[19:30] I'm AirFornier,

[19:32] and the Mayors of the Royal Oak City Commission

[19:33] on behalf of the entire Royal Oak community

[19:36] Do hereby proclaim September 2026 as suicide prevention month.

[19:47] I'm just going to talk loud into this.

[19:49] Excuse the little frog and my voice I have right now. It's okay. Don't you worry about it.

[19:54] Okay, we're good. Don't you worry about it. I'm used to it. You'd be surprised.

[19:58] Hi, everybody. My name's bring the following. I'm one of Royal Police Department's co-responders.

[20:03] I'd like to say it all by saying thank you for this recognition.

[20:06] The partnership between us as clinicians and Royal Oak PD has been incredibly meaningful.

[20:13] Every day we have the opportunity to meet people and some of the most difficult moments

[20:17] of their lives.

[20:18] And hopefully we can help them see that there is another way forward.

[20:22] Suicide prevention month is an important reminder that prevention starts with connection,

[20:26] with being willing to notice that someone is struggling, to ask difficult questions, and to

[20:31] make sure that people know that they're not alone.

[20:33] We are incredibly grateful to the City and our police partners for believing in this work and for allowing us to continue making a difference together.

[20:42] We are proud of what we've built here and we are even more proud of the lives that we have the opportunity to impact.

[20:48] Thank you everybody.

[20:50] Thank you.

[20:54] Sabrina and her team do amazing things.

[20:57] They're on the front line just as every Royal Oak Police officer is.

[21:02] And like she said, sometimes you meet people in their worst times, it's a very difficult job

[21:06] and we're so very lucky and blessed to have great people helping the rest of us out in this community.

[21:11] Thank you, Sabrina.

[21:25] Well, something really cool happened, not in our community, but affected our community, not too long ago.

[21:32] I'll ask the Royal Oak Leopard Cons to come on up here.

[21:35] We have a proclamation honoring the Royal Oak Leopard Cons 26 Northwood League's championship.

[21:40] But we

[21:44] get that trophy.

[21:45] That's a real trophy.

[21:47] I mean, that's that's serious hardware.

[21:50] All right.

[21:54] So for those of you who don't know, the Roya Look leprechauns have been a staple in our community

[21:59] playing out of Memorial Park.

[22:01] It's a collegiate league that brings in a number of players from Michigan and all over the

[22:05] country.

[22:06] It's a really exciting venue.

[22:08] It's a place where you can watch great baseball, take the kids out and not break the

[22:13] bank.

[22:14] So, this is really a privilege to read this proclamation because I know how hard you guys worked and how hard the teamwork this year.

[22:23] So, we're as the Royal Oak leprechauns made history in 2026 by capturing the Northwoods League Championship.

[22:30] First Championship in franchise history, defeating St. Cloud Rocks 3-1. And whereas the leprechaun's demonstrated determination and resilience throughout the season, finishing the first half of the Great Lakes East play with a 1917 record before surging to the top of the standings in the second half with an outstanding 24-12 record.

[22:51] And we're as every member of the Royal Oak Lepercons contributed to this historic championship,

[22:57] season, demonstrating outstanding teamwork, determination, sportsmanship, and commitment both on and off the field.

[23:05] And we're as a Lepercons, we're led during the 2026 season by Field Manager DJ Lamehu,

[23:10] who brought the preparation, consistency, and teamwork that defined his distinguished major league baseball career to the Royal Oak dugout.

[23:18] Now, whereas the Royal Oak Leopard Conte, proudly called the Lucky Corner at Memorial Park

[23:23] their home, playing in the historic park established in 1939, and bringing high-level

[23:28] collegiate baseball family-friendly entertainment and memorable summer nights to the heart

[23:33] of Royal Oak.

[23:34] And whereas the Royal Oak Leopard Conte are a nonprofit organization committed to being more

[23:39] than a baseball team, strengthening the Royal Oak community through player outreach, school

[23:44] community appearances, the Little Eppercons Kids Club, Volunteer Service, Community Events and

[23:49] Commitment to Diversity Inclusion. And whereas the Eppercons compete in the Northwoods League,

[23:55] a premier summer collegiate baseball league that provides elite college players and opportunity

[23:59] to develop their skills and has helped more than 340 alumni advance to major league baseball.

[24:05] And whereas the players, coaches, staff, board members, volunteers, host family sponsors and fans

[24:10] of the Royal Oak LepreCons have given our community a championship season to celebrate.

[24:15] Now, therefore, be it resolved.

[24:17] I'm here for a day.

[24:18] In the members of the Royal Oak City Commission, on behalf of the entire Royal Oak community,

[24:23] to hereby congratulate and honor the Royal Oak LepreCons as the 2026 Northwoods League champions

[24:28] and recognize their historic first franchise championship, their outstanding performance on the field

[24:35] and their continued commitment to the Royal Oak community.

[24:37] And be it further resolved, the City of Royal Oak extends its

[24:41] congratulations to the players, coaches, staff, and entire

[24:44] leprechauns organizations, and thanks the fans who filled the

[24:47] Lucky Corner with Royal Oak Pride throughout this unforgettable

[24:50] championship season.

[24:52] Congratulations, Champs Royal Oak is proud of you.

[25:02] A few words?

[25:04] Well, I'll just say it was about a year ago today and a meeting

[25:08] like this, I stood right about there, and I guarantee that the

[25:13] local leprechauns who would make the playoffs and the amount of you know what I caught for that was quite a bit,

[25:21] but turns out I set the bar too low because thanks to coach Faust and Coach Lamay when the entire

[25:26] coaching staff and all the players, they had an incredible one around and ended up winning it all.

[25:32] So there's a lot of thank yous to make throughout the entire city of Royal Oak, but I want to give

[25:37] special shout out to Judy Davis.

[25:39] The wonderful Judy Davis, who's been a day once supporter, a host

[25:43] family for us, and just when we call you and have an ambitious

[25:47] ideal, let's say, you're at least open to hearing us out for it.

[25:51] So we love you in a free-shake and a special shout out to Mayor

[25:55] for Nayswell for making himself well to me.

[25:57] First year as a young, that meant a lot to me and Commissioner Colau as

[26:00] well for making yourself available to me.

[26:02] So thank you all, and we're looking forward to another great season in

[26:06] Thank you.

[26:20] You guys were really hard for this.

[26:22] Thank you.

[26:23] Thank you.

[26:25] I mean, a second half of the season going 24 and 12, that's what you got to love about

[26:31] baseball.

[26:31] You're never out.

[26:32] And life, you're never out.

[26:34] You can turn it around no matter how bleak things look.

[26:37] What an incredible story, a lot of hard work.

[26:40] Great to see you guys come through and bring some good news to the city of Roy

[26:43] Loat.

[26:57] Let's do a little reverse now from the Juno point of view.

[27:00] I think now that Kevin Yee is here,

[27:05] are you going to move it to after consent?

[27:06] Great.

[27:08] Did I miss that when I was doing the proclamations?

[27:11] All right.

[27:13] So I guess we will, after the consent agenda,

[27:17] we will talk about the noxious weeds

[27:19] if you guys are here for that.

[27:21] So what we'll do first is the approval of tonight's agenda.

[27:26] Does anyone wish to make a motion

[27:27] to approve tonight's agenda.

[27:28] We have a motion by Commissioner Chiesum.

[27:30] I'm going to move approval.

[27:32] Second by Commissioner Bashton.

[27:34] The discussion on the agenda tonight with none.

[27:38] I'll call for the vote.

[27:39] All's in fair say aye.

[27:40] Aye.

[27:40] Those opposed.

[27:41] Both should pass.

[27:42] All right.

[27:43] This brings us to public comment.

[27:47] So a few ground rules before we commence public comment.

[27:50] The city commission values and relies on the input of our fellow citizens to help make decisions.

[27:55] Now's the time set aside for you to address the city commission on any city related topic whether or not it's on the agenda

[28:03] I do ask that comments be directed to the commission as a whole and not to individual commissioners

[28:09] We've also made it easier for you to request follow-up on any issue that you bring to public comment

[28:14] Simply by scanning the QR code you see displayed

[28:17] Please make sure to double check your information for accuracy as staff will utilize it for post meeting responses

[28:23] In addition to public comment, there will also be a hearing this evening on the request from

[28:30] Royloak, Royal Eats Royal Oak LLC to approve a new plan of operation for the Royal Eats

[28:38] Brunch and Diner to be located at 617 South Washington.

[28:42] So you can speak at both, speak at one, but we will have another opportunity for that public

[28:47] hearing.

[28:48] If you wish to speak tonight at public comment or at the public hearing, please wait until

[28:53] recognized by me, the mayor, and then come up to the podium.

[28:57] For the record, we do ask that you state your name and address, and please be mindful we

[29:01] want to hear from anyone who wishes to speak tonight.

[29:03] So comments are limited to three minutes per person and not per topic, and we do have a

[29:08] time right at the podium to help you keep track of your time.

[29:12] Please note, we typically don't respond directly to questions during public comment.

[29:17] However, we are writing those questions down.

[29:20] And when the topic comes up, we'll ask that question on your behalf.

[29:22] If your question is nothing to do with anything on tonight's agenda, that's okay.

[29:28] Our city manager, I look over here, I peek at his notes, he is taking notes and it's

[29:33] always helpful that if you're not leaving your contact information through the QR code, that

[29:38] you find a way that we can get the answer back to you.

[29:40] We'll go to the effort to get the answer, but we've got to give it back to somebody.

[29:44] And if you don't feel comfortable using the QR code, we do have our most amazing community

[29:49] engagement specialist Judy Davids sitting right there. She is so kind and joyful and

[29:57] approachable. I promise you if you have a question or one answer.

[30:11] Thank

[30:15] you, Mayor. Good evening, commissioner. My name is Belan Morales, and my address is 2722 North Vermont Roy Oak, Michigan.

[30:26] Good evening and thank you for your time. I'm here tonight as a residence, a parent and a proud member of our community to urge this commission to find funding for critical repairs for our ice rink.

[30:41] My perspective on this rink comes from a unique place. I am a first generation Mexican-American. I grew up in El Paso, Texas surrounded by sun, desert and hot sand. Ice skating was not part of my childhood

[30:53] But when I moved to Michigan, I had my two sons, I wanted a different experience for them.

[30:59] I wanted them to learn a real tangible skill.

[31:02] More than that, I wanted them to be woven into the fabric of a larger community.

[31:07] I wanted my little Mexican boys to be a part of a local hockey culture and the ice skating family.

[31:14] Today, my boys are five and eight, and I will be completely honest with you,

[31:18] putting them on the eyes is sometimes like trying to take cats to the pool.

[31:24] It takes a lot of effort, but every single moment has been worth it.

[31:28] This facility, these incredible coaches and communities surrounding the ring,

[31:32] have given my family something irreplaceable.

[31:35] Three times per week, my boys get to witness others,

[31:38] constantly learning and pushing themselves to be better.

[31:42] They are surrounded by dedication and resilience,

[31:44] And in a modern world that's dominated by screens,

[31:48] YouTubers and Roblox, the ice ring provides real grounding space

[31:52] that has brought nothing but good things to my family.

[31:58] The most important lessons my sons have learned on the ice

[32:01] doesn't just apply to sports, it applies to life.

[32:05] They have learned that when you fall down, you get back up and you try again.

[32:09] Right now, our ring has fallen down a bit,

[32:12] and it needs your help to get it back up.

[32:14] This facility is a vital anchor for our children's physical health, mental resilience and social growth.

[32:21] Please approve the funding for these repairs and please fix our ring.

[32:25] Thank you for your time.

[32:27] Thanks, Miles.

[32:31] Just want to think about it.

[32:33] And I know a lot of you are here tonight and probably are here now that I understand

[32:37] I'm probably talking about the answer.

[32:39] This is more like a courtroom and less like a hockey game.

[32:43] We do ask that applause and comments and things like that just we hold off on that and the reason is is because not that I see anybody tonight

[32:52] In general coming up and opposing what anyone might be saying, but in general, we don't want to dissuade anybody that might have an opposite opinion

[33:00] About whatever topic someone comes to the podium with so we do ask that if you can hold your applause

[33:06] We greatly appreciate it

[33:09] Okay, who's next? Yes, ma

[33:17] 'am

[33:17] good evening commission. My name is Casey Green. I reside at 3531 Arbor. And I've spoken in

[33:24] prior meetings both for the City Commission as well as the Park Advisory Board about Lindell,

[33:29] Icerina. And I wanted to speak up this evening in support of the agenda item for emergency repairs

[33:35] that are needed to get the arena reopened. Right now the Rink has been closed during a very busy

[33:41] time for skating and hockey due to failure of critical systems needed to operate. That has caused

[33:47] programs, teams, and leagues that were supposed to start their seasons to scramble and buy

[33:52] ice time elsewhere, a loss in revenue to the rank. In addition, the rank is a source of employment

[33:58] for people like instructors and pro-shop employees who have been hurt by this shutdown.

[34:04] It is very important that these emergency repairs be completed as soon as possible so that it can

[34:10] be reopened and I hope the commission will approve that agenda item. It needs to be set however,

[34:16] that this closure was predictable and preventable.

[34:21] The failure of the lines below the concrete and West Rink has been a reoccurring problem.

[34:27] 119,000 dollars in emergency repairs were previously approved for the Rink.

[34:34] And the dehumidifier has been limping along and causing issues for some time, creating condensation and poor conditions at the Rink.

[34:42] The emergency work is being done at the lowest price point possible, and while I appreciate the need to be cost conscious, it questions whether that repair is going to be enough.

[34:57] The approach to maintenance and investment at the rank over the last several years seems to be one of patch and then kick the cam.

[35:04] It's not working anymore. The rank needs investment or this type of closure will continue.

[35:11] The city recently indicated that important investments noted in the capital improvement plan including the roof and HVAC system would be put on hold with the director of Parks and Recreation expressing concern over the lack of funds for existing infrastructure like Lindell.

[35:27] What will happen when these systems fail?

[35:30] If the city does not come up with a better plan for this facility than patch and kick the can,

[35:36] Closers and shutdowns will happen, and the rink will not be operational.

[35:40] I respectfully ask you to both approve the emergency repairs that are on the agenda this evening,

[35:46] while also considering a more comprehensive approach to the rink going forward, so it can

[35:50] be maintained as the important community recreation asset going forward.

[35:55] Thank you for your time.

[35:56] Thank you, Ms. B.

[35:57] All right, who's next?

[35:58] Yes, sir.

[36:04] Good.

[36:04] Thank you, Mayor.

[36:05] My name is Joshua Morales.

[36:07] I live at 1926.

[36:11] I'm actually here to talk about the city website.

[36:15] I did see that there was an RFP that was recently

[36:17] recently concluded and work has started five days ago

[36:21] on the city website.

[36:24] I'm actually here to talk about open standards with guarding

[36:25] net though and I hope not too late as the

[36:29] requirements have been drafted or not.

[36:33] But mostly I did appreciate that the current city website

[36:37] has ICAL access so we can subscribe to any calendars.

[36:43] Those work great.

[36:44] However, the RSS feeds on the current city website.

[36:48] There are over 75 RSS feeds on the current city website.

[36:54] Only of maybe a two or three work and those are the ones that are labeled all.

[36:58] So we're not able to properly filter these are, you know, when we're taking in on, when

[37:03] we subscribe to these RSS feeds, we're not able to really filter down what we're looking

[37:07] for let's say I want to police alerts. I can't really filter that out through all because the

[37:12] all just gives me even school bus routes and it gives me, you know, hey, holiday is coming up.

[37:18] It's very, it's a lot of noise for what, just a sit through to get to what you want.

[37:25] So when I'm hoping for with this new website that you guys are developing and again, happy that,

[37:30] Anywhat site is being developed. I know it's a huge undertaking considering the structure of organizations

[37:36] of the city managers. I'm hoping that the RSS fees are better organized, and I hope that I just hope

[37:45] this becomes an important part of the requirements. RSS is very important as an open standard,

[37:51] so that we can developers like me can build applications on top of it for better civic engagement,

[37:59] And even if you don't have an application developer,

[38:03] you also just have free RSS tools that allow people to focus their attention on city matters.

[38:10] And if RSS fees are structured well, people can do that more effectively.

[38:14] That's really all I have.

[38:15] It's just about to say what's like so.

[38:17] Thank you.

[38:18] Thank you, Mr. Ross.

[38:20] Yes, ma'am here on the end.

[38:26] Good evening.

[38:27] My name is Nicole Corbaki.

[38:29] I am, I reside at 24th or 13 in class in Avenue.

[38:32] I'd like to repeat some of the sentiment that Ms. Greene was discussing regarding the

[38:36] Lindell Rink. I believe you guys also all received an email from my husband late last

[38:41] night. We have been members of the railroad community since 2010 and less hours at the

[38:46] Rink. He's been coaching, I've been managing. We had four banners that we have raised in

[38:51] the Rink and the trophies in the trophy case. The Rink is a source of community. It's a source

[38:59] of fun, it's a source of exercise,

[39:02] and a source of growth for all of our kids.

[39:05] At this point, the ranked conditions have failed.

[39:09] It is at a point where it seems like across rail oak,

[39:14] we have wonderful things without a plan

[39:16] of how we're going to maintain those.

[39:18] I've been at other meetings where there's been discussions

[39:21] of bathrooms going in and other upkeep on parks.

[39:24] Again, all of this requires maintenance and long-term

[39:27] maintenance for things that we seem to have like John Lindbell, continue to be neglected and continue to fail.

[39:34] At this point we have two teams that I personally am responsible for that cannot start their season.

[39:42] There are 13 youth programs in the Hockey alone, including three high schools, countless figure skaters, countless co-ed teams,

[39:51] Plus, just leader pursuits of sticks and pox that are being held because of the poor maintenance and poor oversight on the ring.

[39:59] So I would urge you guys to consider what path forward we can do to get the ring back up.

[40:05] Maybe some long-term plans for the ring.

[40:08] I would also encourage maybe reaching out to those of us that are at the ring.

[40:13] We have also spoken up before at different times over the last five years.

[40:17] in regards to maybe a friends of Lindell, some type of fundraiser, there's been discussion

[40:23] of the Zamboni meeting funding, which had that been something discussed with members of the

[40:28] community. We could have had a booth at Artspeets and Eats where maybe teams from both

[40:33] figure skating and Hockey could have been there trying to raise some money for the Zamboni.

[40:38] I feel like there's plenty of collaborative effort that could be done to assist with the ring.

[40:44] But right now, we can't do anything until the drink is back up in operational.

[40:49] So I'm hoping that tonight you guys can continue to fund the repairs and then we can look forward

[40:54] to what we can do in the future to keep the rink going.

[40:56] It's a vital part of our community.

[40:58] Again, myself, we have members from Flint, Waterford, Romeo, as well as Royale Oak Park

[41:04] and all surrounding areas, including Verkland Oak Park, who recently lost both of their rinks.

[41:09] Thank you.

[41:11] All right, right here.

[41:19] Hello, my name is Lumine Zeland, and I'd like to reiterate some of what the others have

[41:24] been saying, but from a skater's point of view, I'm 16, I've been skating at this

[41:29] rank for years, and it's truly become a source of community for me.

[41:34] I've been involved in sports my whole life, but nothing has truly quite been as special

[41:39] to me as figure skating has.

[41:41] Um, I started it around when I started middle school coming from, coming from dance and I almost instantly clicked with it, but now I feel like our rank is not up to par.

[41:56] Even before the closure, our rank has had major problems.

[41:59] I skate on the west side and we have had holes on the ice that are being covered by buckets, multiple multiple holes that we've had to skate around.

[42:07] We, it's very foggy in there. Our ice is frosting over and our Zamboni isn't quite working as well as it probably should and now our makeup is closed.

[42:18] I don't, I don't think this is good enough for us. I think we need us skaters deserve better than this.

[42:27] We deserve to have a rank that works and I understand how, how, sorry, I didn't plan to speak.

[42:35] I understand how budgeting issues can occur and I understand, but I think that we need help and I think that you guys should help us.

[42:50] Um, just, please consider that and just don't, there's so many people that rank so many

[42:58] skaters, so many of my friends who rely on this rank, it's right next to the high school,

[43:03] it's just, it's so convenient and I'd hate to have, um, some of us not be able to go back to that

[43:10] rank that we love so much. Um, it's been there for years and it's been having problems and I just,

[43:19] I would love to see that, as a skater.

[43:22] Thank you.

[43:23] Thank you.

[43:25] All right, right here in the front, wait for it.

[43:35] Good evening.

[43:36] My name is Kelly Rickley, and I reside at 726 South Laurel Street in Royal Oak.

[43:41] I have the privilege of serving as the President of the United States of the New Edge

[43:49] Figure Skating Club, base here in Royal Oak, and operating primarily out of the Johnland

[43:53] Owl, Icerina.

[43:54] Our club is called John Lendell Home for more than 50 years.

[43:58] Today we have 266 members including youth skaters, their parents, adult skaters, and coaches

[44:04] whose livelihoods depend on this facility.

[44:08] We host skate fest, our annual figure skating competition at John Lendell, and bring in

[44:12] more than 200 skaters and their families to royal oak.

[44:17] participation increased 25% from 2025 to 2026.

[44:22] Our club also loves to participate in the Royal Oak Ice Show, an annual city

[44:27] supported event that gives our skaters an opportunity to celebrate their

[44:31] hard work with their family, friends, and the Royal Oak community.

[44:35] I'm also speaking tonight as a skater and a parent, both of my children and I

[44:39] skated John Lendale. And for my daughter especially, figure skating is her passion.

[44:45] We depend immensely on this facility.

[44:50] John LaDal cannot simply be replaced by ice somewhere else.

[44:53] Ice availability in our area is already extremely limited.

[44:57] We have lost other rinks in the area in recent years.

[45:00] And while demand for figure skating and hockey remains very high, there simply isn't enough ice available elsewhere to absorb these programs.

[45:09] That's why we appreciate the city considering the funding necessary to make these emergency repairs to keep John Lendale operational is incredibly important to our community.

[45:20] But I would also respectfully ask the commission to consider how we reached this point where these repairs became an emergency.

[45:26] To those of us who use Jalmondau regularly, we have been aware of these facility and maintenance

[45:31] concerns for years. The dehumidification issues did not begin this summer.

[45:37] If major systems have been deteriorating over time, is it reasonable to ask, what did the facility

[45:42] management know? Was it communicated to the city? Were anticipated maintenance and replacement

[45:48] costs identified? And could these issues have been addressed before they resulted in an

[45:56] Those questions are especially important with the city's management agreement with suburban

[46:00] ice of approaching expiration in 2027.

[46:03] I'm not here tonight to advocate for what that future management arrangement should be,

[46:07] but if Royal Oak makes a significant investment in this facility today,

[46:11] I respectfully ask for a commission to examine how the facility has been managed and maintained

[46:15] and what oversight would be necessary to protect that investment going forward.

[46:20] For our members, the hockey community, our coaches and everyone who relies on increasingly scarce ice,

[46:25] Johnlandell matters. Please bunk these repairs necessary to keep this ring operating, but also ask the questions necessary to make sure we don't bind ourselves back here again.

[46:37] Thank you

[46:38] All right

[46:40] Anybody on this side. Okay. We'll go in the far back corner.

[46:58] Yes.

[46:59] Good evening. My name is Kimberly Polito Garth and I live at 1721 with Sporo Drive and Railoke.

[47:05] I'm a royal president and taxpayer, and I'm the parent of my 10 year old daughter Paloma,

[47:10] who has been skating at John Lindell, Icerina, since 2020.

[47:14] She currently skates their five days a week.

[47:17] For our family, John Lindell is much more than just an ice rink.

[47:21] It is a place where Paloma has grown up since she was five years old.

[47:25] She has spent countless hours there, learning, training, making friends, and developing a passion for skating.

[47:32] It has become a very important part of her life and her family's life.

[47:38] The current closure has significant impact on us and like many other families, skaters, coaches, teams, and programs that depend on this facility.

[47:47] Ice time is already incredibly difficult to find in this area.

[47:50] When John Lindell is unavailable, there's simply aren't enough alternatives for everyone who needs access to the ice.

[47:56] As royal taxpayers, we understand that maintaining a facility like this requires investment,

[48:00] but we also believe that that investment is important.

[48:03] John Lundell serves not only at royal residence, but in much larger skating community,

[48:07] and it provides an opportunity for children like Ploma to learn grow and pursue something that they love.

[48:12] I respectfully ask the Commission to support the repairs necessary to reopen John Lundell

[48:16] and return it to being a safe and reliable facility for our community.

[48:19] I also ask the city to take a serious look at how these maintenance issues developed,

[48:23] and what can be done to prevent a similar situation in the future?

[48:26] future. We need a long-term plan to probably maintain the facility and protect the city's

[48:30] investment in it. Ploma has been gaining a John Wendell multiple days a week for years, and for

[48:36] a 10-year-old, that rank is the significant part of her world. I hope the city will recognize

[48:40] how important John Wendell is to children like her and to the families who invested so much time,

[48:45] so much energy and passion into this community. We want to see John Wendell not just reopen,

[48:50] but remain a safe and well maintained home for the skating community for many years to come.

[48:55] Thank you for your time.

[48:58] All right, yes, here in the front.

[49:04] I'm Emily Dumas, 825, West 2, Sonia.

[49:07] Good evening, Mayor and commissioners.

[49:09] I'm here tonight to speak and support of approving the necessary

[49:12] repairs to the Johnland Delay Serena.

[49:14] My daughter begins skating for fun two and a half years ago

[49:17] at the outdoor ring great here in Centennial Commons.

[49:20] She quickly took to it.

[49:21] We decided to get her a coach and look close to home first

[49:24] at Johnland Delarena.

[49:26] Fast forward to today, where she is thriving and accelerating

[49:28] quickly at a very special rank where she's made lifelong friendships. I feel so fortunate

[49:33] to live in a city that has such a phenomenal amenity with such talented skaters and coaching

[49:37] staff, and it's been beautiful to watch my child's progress. She along with many of our figure

[49:43] skaters are currently competing in the National Qualifying Series against some of the very best skaters

[49:47] in the country. However, they have not been able to practice in their home bring for weeks now. Prior

[49:52] to that, they were dodging buckets on the ice that recovering holes caused by the drips from the

[49:58] these conditions are embarrassing and do not allow our skaters to be competitive when they

[50:02] cannot safely practice or even practice at all at their home rank. It's very special that

[50:07] Royal Oak has a city run-ice arena that allows for the discipline, the fun, and the sense of camaraderie

[50:12] that comes from playing organized sports in your local community. Our skaters and hockey players

[50:17] deserve a facility that will support their continued growth as athletes and we need to invest in them.

[50:22] I respectfully ask that the commission approve the emergency repair to the ice arena and help

[50:26] to succeed. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

[50:29] Thank you.

[50:31] All right, you're on the end.

[50:39] Hello, my name is Candice Cuckler.

[50:41] My address is 53431 Shelby Township.

[50:44] I've been teaching figure skating.

[50:45] Learn to skate at John Lundell for over 30 years.

[50:48] I might be one of the longest serving employees at the ring.

[50:52] In my 30 years, I've never seen the ring in this bat of shape.

[50:57] It's very hard to see something you love

[50:59] continue to fall apart. One rank is heaving again and they had to take down the ice for repairs

[51:06] after just fixing this a few years ago. Now the dehumanifier issue means we have

[51:12] skated this rank with only one rank and every day we skate in the rank with six buckets on the ice

[51:20] to catch the dripping water and fox so sick that you can't see across the ice. It is a safety issue

[51:27] for the skaters and the coaches.

[51:29] And I understand why the ring head to close.

[51:32] What I don't understand is how it got to this.

[51:36] We need your help.

[51:37] Every day, the ring kids' clothes

[51:39] or skaters are losing valuable training time

[51:41] getting ready for testing and competitions.

[51:44] Just last week, we had a competition.

[51:46] So I had a discramble around trying to find ice cream

[51:49] and other rings, so my skaters could be ready.

[51:54] Like the rest of the coaching staff, I'm self-employed

[51:57] And every day the rinkist clothes were losing money.

[52:01] This is a place of our employment, this is our office.

[52:04] When the office is closed, there is no vacation time or a PTO, we just don't get paid.

[52:10] I feel like the city doesn't care about the rink anymore, because you haven't put money

[52:15] towards the budget.

[52:16] I'm asking you to show the residents of Roya Locke, actually, that was I used the rink

[52:21] on the regular basis that the city is in position to properly maintain

[52:28] the facility for the city.

[52:50] Good evening. My name is Samantha Wilson Keith, and I am a resident figure skating coach at John Lendell, Icerina. I'm asking my commission tonight to support their parents necessary to keep John Lendell, Icerina, operational and continuing to serve our community.

[53:08] This is an incredible moment for ice sports and a year when American athletes brought home

[53:12] Olympic gold medals across figures skating in hockey and a year where we've been granted

[53:16] a women's professional hockey team in Detroit interested in our sports are gaining extraordinary

[53:20] momentum. This is the time to invest in our facilities and in to our programs. To build on that momentum

[53:26] and ensure the continued growth and vitality of ice sports in our community and that begins

[53:31] at community rings like John Lendell. And the value of that community ring goes far beyond

[53:36] interest in sport and developing athletes.

[53:38] For so many skaters and players,

[53:40] the Rink has become a second home.

[53:42] It gives them a safe place to go, a community

[53:44] where they belong, trusted adults and coaches

[53:46] who invest in them, and something meaningful to work towards.

[53:49] They grow up in these buildings.

[53:51] They learn life skills and lessons,

[53:53] such as resilience, discipline, confidence, responsibility,

[53:56] and how to get back up after they fall,

[53:58] both literally and figuratively.

[54:00] As coaches, we get the privilege of being part of that journey.

[54:04] We don't just teach skating in games.

[54:06] we fostered growth of skaters and players to find confidence, friendships, independence, and

[54:11] a sense of belonging.

[54:12] Those are the things they carry with them when they leave the ice.

[54:16] And for many of us, this ring is also our livelihood.

[54:20] Coaches and the ring staff depend on reliable ice to support ourselves and to serve our students.

[54:25] When a facility closes or is affected by maintenance issues, the impact reaches far beyond

[54:30] recreation and affects families, it affects kids, it affects programs, jobs, and food

[54:35] on our table.

[54:37] Ice time is a scarce commodity to find.

[54:39] There simply isn't an abundance of available ice,

[54:42] waiting to absorb our skaters, hockey players,

[54:44] teams and coaches and programs

[54:46] displaced when the facility goes down.

[54:49] That makes community rings like John Lundall

[54:50] not just valuable, but indispensable.

[54:53] We cannot sustain the sports and programs

[54:56] that we currently have let alone grow with the current momentum

[54:59] without reliable places for people to participate in them.

[55:02] John Lendol isn't just a nice drink. It's a place for members of our community

[55:07] grow, find other people, find a place to belong and make a living.

[55:11] Suitable, safe, and reliable facilities are crucial to keeping this community alive.

[55:16] I respectfully ask that the Commission support the repairs necessary to reopen our

[55:20] rank and to sustain it going forward. Thank you.

[55:25] Yes, the one that was first to raise our hand.

[55:28] Well,

[55:35] my name is Isabel Trusscott, and I love that one, two, three, five Chesterfield app, Birmingham.

[55:41] This will be my seventh year being a figure skater at the John Lundell, Icerina.

[55:45] For as long as I can remember, the rank has been my home away from home.

[55:49] I built so many wonderful connections and friendships that were only possible because of skating.

[55:54] Since I am a Birmingham resident, I could be training at a closer rank, but I choose to skate at John Lundell.

[55:59] Because of the recent conditions at the rink, other skaters and I have battled poor visibility

[56:05] in hazardous conditions, such as buckets placed all throughout the middle of the ice

[56:10] to catch drifts from the broken dehumanifier.

[56:14] All of this has had a very big impact on my family and I.

[56:18] We come to the rink almost every day, but since it's been shut down, we've had to compensate

[56:22] by skating at other rinks.

[56:24] Therefore I respectfully ask the commission to support the repairs needed to keep Johnlandell

[56:29] a safe, functional, and enjoyable facility for our community.

[56:33] I also hope the commission can see how these maintenance issues have gotten worse over

[56:38] time.

[56:39] And look at what can be done to ensure the rent can stay a functioning and safe facility

[56:43] in the future.

[56:45] Thank you.

[56:46] Thank you.

[56:47] Yes.

[56:57] Thank you.

[56:59] Thank you.

[57:06] Thank you.

[57:08] Thank you.

[57:08] Yes.

[57:08] I now skate with my coaches four to five times a week.

[57:12] I'm surrounded by some of my fellow skaters.

[57:14] We come from Roylook, Birmingham, and Huntington Woods.

[57:17] And our club includes skaters from over 30 cities

[57:20] around Metro Detroit.

[57:22] Though I get in allowance and have to budget and save for the things

[57:24] I want to get, I cannot imagine how hard it is for all of you

[57:27] to balance the needs and wants of the residents of the city of Roylook.

[57:31] What I do know is how important the rank is to me.

[57:34] I love the skills and discipline I learn from figure skating.

[57:37] I love the community of fellow skaters.

[57:41] These skaters around me are some of my best friends.

[57:44] We skated the outdoor rink in downtown where I look and participate in the annual where

[57:48] I look, I show.

[57:49] And though the hockey players make the locker room really smelling, we also recognize how important

[57:54] it is to all of them.

[57:59] I live on the northwest side of Detroit.

[58:02] John Mundell is the closest rank with the skating program to my house.

[58:05] Two weeks ago I had the unique opportunity to take a lesson with Olympic gold medalist Charlie

[58:10] way. The conditions of the rank were really bad. The broken dehumidifier made it impossible

[58:16] from my mom to see through the boards, and there were times when I could not see my coach

[58:19] just a few feet away from me. And the bucket's collecting condensation made the ice very dangerous.

[58:25] John Lendell is a second home to all of us. We ask that the commission invests this money to

[58:30] adequately repair the rank so that we can continue to skate without interruption and

[58:48] under

[58:48] My name is Terence Keith. I live at 431-6, West 13-mile road in Royal Oak. I am Samantha Wilson

[58:54] Keith Susbin, who is a coach at John Lundalais Arena. I'm here speaking on support of the emergency

[59:01] funding for these repairs. I grew up born and raised in Detroit growing up in the city.

[59:10] constantly the recreation facilities were underfunded, they were being closed, they were being

[59:17] sold off to other parties. At the time, leaders did not think that these were big issues.

[59:25] Over time, they ended up being very catastrophic problems and having a catastrophic impact

[59:31] on the morale of the community. Young people remember how adults prioritize the places

[59:39] that they frequent. And as they get older, they start to question if that's the place they

[59:45] want to stay and raise a family over time. Detroit spent the past 10 years trying to make

[59:51] up for the damage of those short-sided decisions, three years ago. I work in construction management.

[1:00:00] municipal partners, maintenance is one of the top things that we constantly discuss. When you have

[1:00:06] equipment that is 30 years old, you know the maintenance schedules need to pick up. You cannot wait

[1:00:13] until a critical failure to step in and address the issue. You're going to cost more money, trying to

[1:00:20] find that emergency repair, you're having social consequences, and from a city standpoint, more financial

[1:00:28] consequences as well. So please support that emergency funding and also a comprehensive plan for

[1:00:35] maintenance for John Lendell but also all the critical facilities throughout the city Royaleoke.

[1:00:41] Thanks.

[1:00:44] In the back in the yellow shirt?

[1:00:58] My name is Calvin Carson. I live at 215-00 Winchester Street, Southfield, Michigan.

[1:01:05] I am the proud and probably the oldest member of the New Age figure skating club.

[1:01:11] I come to you because it's very important that we do maintain the Serena for two reasons.

[1:01:18] Number one, I believe that this Serena is strategically placed in a good position within the

[1:01:26] majority trade area so that any time that hockey wants to bring in a tournament or figure skating

[1:01:33] wants to do a major competition which there are many that they could actually bid on, but can't get

[1:01:39] because the facility is not at full operational status. That would be a very enhancing for

[1:01:45] the business community here in Royal Oak. I also believe number two, the one of the most

[1:01:51] important things about this arena is that it gives kids a place to go to build and become not only

[1:01:58] great athletes but great individuals in society, especially the young women here. I have watched

[1:02:05] figure skating for over 40 years, and I've seen these girls develop into wonderful young

[1:02:11] women because of the sport, teaching them discipline, strength, and just good values that

[1:02:20] be able to take care of them.

[1:02:21] I think that you are definitely going to miss a good investment if you don't put the money

[1:02:28] into the ring because it's going to pay off more than just in fees that you would collect

[1:02:33] there.

[1:02:34] Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Yeah, over there, right now.

[1:02:51] After and part, I live at 318 Eslicell Avenue, and I go to John Mundell twice a week since I've...

[1:03:05] Well, I just started going there twice a week, but I've been going there.

[1:03:10] for a sense that I was in second grade and now I'm all the way in six.

[1:03:14] So, since it's like a big part of everyone here and it's a lot of people's home and community

[1:03:27] and so many people have made so many friends and that's why I think you should come and help us

[1:03:36] and it's helped with our emergency repairs.

[1:03:40] Thank you.

[1:03:44] Mr. Mayor.

[1:03:45] Quick point more.

[1:03:46] Yeah. I think it's part maybe if we could say that any other maybe school

[1:03:49] to each children, clubs, and I don't need to tell us our address.

[1:03:51] Yeah, if you're coming up here and you're under 18,

[1:03:54] you don't feel required to state your address if you don't want to.

[1:03:58] That's a good point. Commissioner Cole.

[1:04:00] Yes.

[1:04:01] Mr. Potsky.

[1:04:02] Yep.

[1:04:20] Good evening.

[1:04:22] Nancy Potsky Royal Oak.

[1:04:24] Have you attended a hockey game or ice shell at Lendale?

[1:04:27] very exciting professional and inspiring. This year's I Shawalamo, the Swedish Shawan

[1:04:33] Nice, had fun classic performances like to little Richard's duty

[1:04:36] fruity and today's K-Pop song, Soda-Pap. A labyrinth costumes with excited

[1:04:41] kids and adults inspired to do solos, some day, like in a lendale senior

[1:04:47] skater who is now heading off to college, along with several peers that are

[1:04:51] successful senior Lendale skaters. This Lendale skater is a U.S. figure skating gold medalist

[1:04:59] two times Sincrose sectional champ and fourth place on the national stage. The senior skaters

[1:05:05] have excellent backgrounds in goals with amazing support from parents, staff, and peer skaters.

[1:05:12] Their experience in Lendale is priceless. Unfortunately, over the years Lendale has been

[1:05:21] with many eye-system shutdowns and other issues like during the eye show when several women

[1:05:27] complained how bad the conditions were in the restrooms. Not dirty, but very run-down,

[1:05:34] how embarrassing for the staff, what an amazing staff who through this shutdown found

[1:05:40] ice-times for skaters and other rinks. How commendable. Loyal coaches help make a goal

[1:05:47] Federalist, when Dow needed money years ago, please make maintaining infrastructure like

[1:05:54] Wendell a priority before spending money on optional, lavish projects.

[1:05:59] I hope the city sees what a treasurelandell and staff are.

[1:06:03] Please stay away from for privatization for the building which could result in higher fees

[1:06:10] for skaters.

[1:06:11] A few grants are given a year, but not everyone can get them.

[1:06:15] Just like we prioritize our library, senior center, parks, et cetera, we should include and take care of Lindell.

[1:06:24] None of these should be for profit and not affordable.

[1:06:27] Please have the city spend $city dollars and may change city property on a regular basis, so it doesn't become an emergency and skaters have no ring.

[1:06:38] Please remember the most important thing, thing.

[1:06:42] Children walking through the door of Lendale

[1:06:45] skate out inspired, talented, goal oriented adults

[1:06:50] supported by parents, peers, and an amazing staff.

[1:06:55] And some even have goal medals.

[1:06:58] That's priceless.

[1:06:59] Thank you.

[1:07:00] Thank you.

[1:07:01] All right, who's next?

[1:07:03] Yes, ma'am.

[1:07:11] My name is Christopher Greenwood.

[1:07:13] I live at 512 West Lincoln Avenue

[1:07:15] in Royal Oak and I'm just here as a new learn to skate parent so my five-year-old just

[1:07:21] started skating this summer and they'll learn to skate program at Lindell. I just wanted to say

[1:07:26] that we're thoroughly enjoying the rink and we were really disappointed.

[1:07:30] I'd like to point into learn about this recent shutdown. And after learning some more about the ongoing maintenance issues, I just wanted to say it would really be a travesty. If maintenance was continued to be deferred, and that we lost use of this facility for our city. I think everyone else is contextualizing it a lot better. But as I'm just kind of new to the group, I just wanted to say, yeah, we're really enjoying the rink and we hope to have it maintained for future. Thank you.

[1:07:56] Thank you.

[1:07:58] Yes, right there.

[1:08:09] Oh, my name is Mary Bartman, and I live at 26369, York,

[1:08:13] and Hyden to Woods.

[1:08:15] I am also similarly here to ask you to consider the emergency

[1:08:19] funding for the lid-down ring.

[1:08:21] And I want to just quickly share our last week, I had the opportunity

[1:08:25] to take my hockey player who's feeling a little shy right now.

[1:08:29] To an event at Farmington, suburban to me,

[1:08:31] U.S. won't pick one of my less magic color.

[1:08:33] And while it was really exciting to see her and meet her and, you know, to see a

[1:08:39] good, not a good person, the most amazing thing was hearing about how she grew up in

[1:08:44] this community of ranks surrounded by families, much like ours, and she made it on the

[1:08:49] biggest world stage.

[1:08:51] So, I found that to be very inspiring and, you know, one of the things, actually, of two

[1:08:56] hockey players in a figure skater.

[1:08:59] And one of the things someone told me when we first started the journey is that if you keep

[1:09:03] kids on ice, you'll keep them out of hot water and that's very true. You've heard a lot of people

[1:09:09] talk about how these kids just grow up to be amazing adults and obviously the people here in

[1:09:15] the room today are the ones that actually at the exception I'm who just spoke before me who are

[1:09:20] extremely involved in the ring but taking away a safe third space for kids who are just showing up

[1:09:26] for public skates and six and hogs throughout the whole year will be a huge detriment to the whole

[1:09:31] community and in addition to our really dedicated competitive

[1:09:35] hockey leaders and senior skaters. Thank you.

[1:09:37] Thank you.

[1:09:40] Yes, sir.

[1:09:46] Hi, my name is John Lund. I live at 350 North Main Street.

[1:09:50] And I have a daughter who skates at John Lundel. She got up in

[1:09:53] spoke earlier. And I just want to say it's pretty clear that

[1:09:58] this means a lot to a lot of people. And you can see from the

[1:10:01] confidence that some of these young ladies coming up here

[1:10:03] speaking to you guys. I'm intimidated to do it.

[1:10:07] So I just wanted to say that you know it's pretty clear and I think that moving forward we should

[1:10:12] if we could approve these emergency repairs as well as come up with a plan moving forward

[1:10:18] to for how to keep the repairs going so that we don't run into this repair like this again

[1:10:26] and that would be much appreciated. Thank you guys very much and have a good evening.

[1:10:30] Thank you.

[1:10:34] Anybody else tonight? Yes on the end here.

[1:10:42] Thank you so much. Good evening. My name is Jessica Hallmark. I am a candidate for Oakland County

[1:10:46] Probate Court Judge. I'm a resident of Lake Orient. I want to thank the Commission for giving

[1:10:52] me a few minutes of your time this evening to address you and to address the royal community.

[1:10:57] And tell you a little bit about myself and my campaign. I know there are a lot of really important

[1:11:02] issues that are going to be on our ballots this November. And the Oakland County Probate Court

[1:11:07] is probably not top of mind for most people, but this is a court that is of all of the

[1:11:16] the offices that we are going to get to vote on in November. This is a court that has perhaps

[1:11:21] the greatest potential to touch the lives of ordinary people. My mother served on the Open

[1:11:27] County Probate Court bench for 26 years. I had the opportunity through her service to learn about

[1:11:33] to learn why it was so important to our community and to see what it looked like for the job to be done well.

[1:11:41] And I'll tell you a little story to quickly illustrate that.

[1:11:46] My son was about five years old, and I went to pick him up one day at Lachke,

[1:11:51] and one of the teachers came up to me and she said to me,

[1:11:53] are you related to Judge Hallmark?

[1:11:56] And I admit that I sort of froze for a minute and I thought,

[1:11:59] Oh boy, what is this lady going to tell me what sort of experience might she have had?

[1:12:06] You know, is this going to be a bad thing? But I said yes, you know, Judge Homework is my mother.

[1:12:12] And she looked at me and she said, well, she saved my steps on his lives. That is the sort of

[1:12:21] impact that this court has on our community. This is a court that is designed to help people who need help.

[1:12:29] It's people who have lost a loved one.

[1:12:32] It is people who have a disability or a mental health issue

[1:12:35] or kids who need care.

[1:12:38] Those are the populations that this court serves.

[1:12:41] I have been in attorney for 18 years in the state of Michigan.

[1:12:46] I represent individuals, families, and mom and pop businesses

[1:12:50] in business and real estate matters.

[1:12:53] I actually worked with Kelly Allen, who I know is known to many of you.

[1:12:57] I, before that, I worked for the Oakland County, the Chief Judge of the Oakland County Circuit Court, as a law clerk.

[1:13:05] I have been endorsed by 37 Michigan judges. These are people who have diverse backgrounds, diverse experience and perspectives,

[1:13:15] but they have done the job. They understand what it means to do the job well,

[1:13:19] and they trust my experience and they trust the temperament that I would bring to the bench.

[1:13:24] I'm here this evening to ask for the support of the Royal Oak Community for my race and this

[1:13:30] port of all of you. You can learn more about me on my website and you can contact me

[1:13:36] hallmarkforjudge.com. Jessica Hallmark, running for Oakland County Probate Court Judge.

[1:13:40] Thank you so much for your time. Good evening.

[1:13:43] Thank you.

[1:13:45] Wanda.

[1:13:51] A little scared, but I'll retain my fear.

[1:13:54] I know I'm scared, Christina Wandaff, 2906 Woodland Court.

[1:14:00] I'm here on behalf of the ring.

[1:14:03] When we first bought our house in Royaleau,

[1:14:07] before we even finished selling our other house

[1:14:11] from a different county, we were looking for this ring.

[1:14:15] We were welcomed with open arms.

[1:14:18] I have two daughters.

[1:14:19] My 16 year old is on the high school figure skating team,

[1:14:23] which they're amazing group of kids.

[1:14:25] They went to the States, they took third.

[1:14:29] This is her second home.

[1:14:31] And I've watched over the last nine years

[1:14:33] that we've been in this rank that it's deteriorated.

[1:14:37] It really needs a lot of repairs outside of the emergency stuff.

[1:14:41] Yes, we need the emergency stuff taking care of right now

[1:14:45] because these kids spend, you know,

[1:14:49] The Lydia skates three, four days a week, typically during the high school season in the

[1:14:56] regular season and it's also her outlet.

[1:15:00] In 2020, in the shutdown came,

[1:15:04] she has, she didn't have that outlet. We lost that outlet for those months that, you know, all of the shutdown. So then the ring opened back up. It was like, okay, or we were going to other rings because they were open.

[1:15:17] We haven't been able to skate. We've had a cancel a lot of our lessons, which, you know, is tough for our coaches and it's also tough for my kid who's supposed to be practicing.

[1:15:27] you know, she has a goal in mind that of what she wants to get done before she

[1:15:32] graduates from rural high school. And if we can't get this ring back up to

[1:15:38] par where it needs to be, she's not going to be able to reach those goals. I don't

[1:15:43] want to go anywhere else. She doesn't want to go anywhere else. We just want to

[1:15:48] stay where we are in our community. And it's also like, she skates after school.

[1:15:53] So she's able to go straight to the brink after school.

[1:15:57] I don't have to worry about driving here.

[1:15:59] So that's also a convenience for us, even though we live close

[1:16:01] and off to the rink that she can walk.

[1:16:04] But this is her outlet.

[1:16:06] These are, I've watched a lot of these kids,

[1:16:10] because I've been a huge part of the community in the ice rink

[1:16:13] with the figure skating group.

[1:16:16] I've watched these kids grow up.

[1:16:19] I've seen, let me need to grow up.

[1:16:21] I've seen my daughter, she has other high school friends.

[1:16:26] I remember when Judy first came to the rank and I was doing, you know, the ice show.

[1:16:32] These kids are amazing and they just, they need their safe space where they can practice

[1:16:38] and, you know, have their friendships and everything else to move on with their lives.

[1:16:44] And then, you know, a lot of these kids are going off to college and skating in college.

[1:16:48] So, they're continuing.

[1:16:51] That's it.

[1:16:53] Thank

[1:16:57] you,

[1:17:11] Mr. Mayor.

[1:17:12] My name is Jennifer Kerney.

[1:17:13] I live at 602 North Wilson in Royal Oak.

[1:17:17] I am not here to talk about the ice arena.

[1:17:21] During the August 10th City Commission meeting,

[1:17:24] the Commission approved an item on the consent agenda

[1:17:26] to award a contract for rain garden

[1:17:28] and roadway median maintenance to worry free outdoor services.

[1:17:32] Attachment one to the agenda item vendor contract exhibit be vendor pricing describe two line items

[1:17:38] $800 each for two areas on four street between Connecticut and Vermont and between Vermont and Blair for

[1:17:46] quote spring to kill off all invasive weeds and plants prep bed for new landscaping on in

[1:17:53] Twenty twenty seven on fourth a

[1:17:56] While I look forward to this evening's report on enforcement of noxious weeds and property maintenance regulation as applied to

[1:18:02] invasive plant-series and despite the confluence of timing and description provided in the August

[1:18:08] 10th consent agenda item, the area on 4th does not contain noxious or invasive weeds. It

[1:18:15] is a certified rain garden with beautiful native plants. We're a free, proposed, a solution without

[1:18:24] a problem. As a result, what this $1,600 bought us was the wholesale destruction of a gorgeous

[1:18:31] mature rain garden with mature natives like Prairie Ironweed, Blue Indigo, Fox Glove,

[1:18:38] Bird Tongue, notting wild onion and New England ice aster. It put the gorgeous native oaks and

[1:18:44] other native trees in the area at risk. Worried freeze actions also directly contradicted the

[1:18:54] and goal five, which is to protect and enhance its abundant green spaces by intentionally supported

[1:19:01] supporting native and biodiversity, plantings and ensure accessibility to all residents,

[1:19:07] and at goal 5.2.1 to quote integrative plantings and sustainability into municipal landscaping

[1:19:15] practices.

[1:19:16] The City of Royal Oak Ordnance Chapter 556-4 defines native plants as those identified by MSU's native plants and ecosystem services.

[1:19:27] Those native plants are located in a public database.

[1:19:31] These plants are all listed in that database.

[1:19:36] And I have some pictures that I took this afternoon that I will send all of you by email.

[1:19:41] Thank you very much.

[1:19:57] I am Jen Brown at 602 North Wilson.

[1:20:01] You just got a lot of information and facts.

[1:20:04] I'm the touchy feeling one.

[1:20:05] I drive down those two blocks of forth several times a day back and forth

[1:20:10] my home office to my downtown location.

[1:20:14] And those two blocks have given me so much joy.

[1:20:16] I have some of these plants tattooed on my arms.

[1:20:18] I love them so much.

[1:20:20] And when I saw them turning black and dying off,

[1:20:24] I was angry, I'm still angry about it.

[1:20:27] I'm sad, I don't even drive there anymore

[1:20:30] because I react so strongly to it.

[1:20:32] And I hope that the end result of whatever this effort

[1:20:36] is to restore those rain gardens

[1:20:39] and bring that beautiful two blocks of forth street

[1:20:42] back to our residents.

[1:20:44] Thank you for this problem.

[1:20:53] Good evening.

[1:20:54] My name is Marcia Little, and I reside

[1:20:56] at 1620 Midland Boulevard here in Royal Oak.

[1:20:59] You got a little break from the Icerina,

[1:21:01] but we're back. I am a former skating director, John Lundell, and the current I show director.

[1:21:07] I've been connected to John Lundell since at 20, 2004, since I moved here initially,

[1:21:14] and I have maintained those ties even being away for a few years.

[1:21:18] When I, one of the first things I did when I was back in 2021 was go to the rank and get involved.

[1:21:24] Because that's what you do when you're part of a community. You find the torch that needs to be picked

[1:21:29] up and you help carry it forward, which is what everybody is doing here today.

[1:21:34] One of my peers got emotional up here today, and it's because this is where we spent

[1:21:39] our lives.

[1:21:40] I have coached kids for 10 to 15 years.

[1:21:44] They see us more than they see anybody else sometimes.

[1:21:48] We're not a school teacher, they're very important, but they see us 2, 3, 4, 5 times a day

[1:21:54] for 10 to 15 years.

[1:21:56] This is integral to their livelihood, to our livelihood, and to them as children, and as somebody else spoke previously,

[1:22:06] these young children turn into these beautiful adults with the structure and everything else provided for them.

[1:22:13] We did produce a lovely show, it was the 46th annual I show last year, and we're already planning for the 47th and hopefully far beyond that.

[1:22:22] We have a skating coach that grew up skating up the rink that currently coaches there and I say she grew up

[1:22:28] skating at the rink but she actually just grew up.

[1:22:30] It's five minutes at the rank, because she is a extolar royal resident and now her kids play hockey.

[1:22:35] And if you pop in on Sunday, you'll run into her dad playing requiquiki. That's three generations, still at that rank.

[1:22:43] The thoughtful conversation with her, the thought of her kids having to go play hockey, she was crying about it because this is a home.

[1:22:51] So, I would just like you to really consider the support of the required, it's emergency

[1:22:58] sounds, but they're required.

[1:22:59] It's a requirement for this building to move forward in this community to move forward in a

[1:23:05] positive manner.

[1:23:06] Thank you.

[1:23:09] This, sir.

[1:23:18] Hi there.

[1:23:19] My name is Andrew Hammond.

[1:23:20] I'm at 3-5-7-1, Arbor Avenue Royal Oak.

[1:23:23] I have three children that use all of the ice skating in hockey at the Lendale Arena.

[1:23:28] I also myself played 10 years professional hockey for four different NHL teams.

[1:23:32] The reason I say that is because when I was a child I had people who believed in me and supported

[1:23:36] be in facilities that were functional to work at.

[1:23:39] My goal now, as a coach of the Royal Oak 2016 Eagles, to provide all the kids at Royal Oak,

[1:23:45] whether they're figure skaters or hockey players, the same opportunities I had when I was a child.

[1:23:50] While these repairs are necessary, I want to reiterate we need to plan going forward to keep

[1:23:54] giving future generations the same opportunities I had when I was a kid.

[1:23:58] Thank you. Thank you.

[1:24:01] Anybody else in I, yes, ma'am?

[1:24:14] Hi, good evening. My name is Charlie Lee, and I live on three eight night eight.

[1:24:17] Don't have any job in Toy Michigan.

[1:24:20] So I'm the parent of two young figure skaters.

[1:24:22] This is Flaura, she has been skating in Germany for about like eight years.

[1:24:27] And her younger sister has been skating here for like five past years.

[1:24:31] So she now Flaura, she's skater about six days away

[1:24:35] and last week she just competed at the National Qualification Series like figure skating competition,

[1:24:41] but it was really challenging for us because on obvious the ring has been closed and then

[1:24:46] we had to spend about two hours every day just to find out how it's time for practice to appear here

[1:24:51] for the competition. And for over the years on waist on the countless hours at the ring before school

[1:24:58] after school's weekends and I've watched her fall become very frustrated and walks through difficult

[1:25:05] skills and now she becomes very stronger and confident skater. But as a parent who is at the

[1:25:11] ring or the time, I noticed the facility and ice condition at the jungle in there. It was

[1:25:16] unsafe for all the skaters and coaches. Now the ring is closed and we are saying just how difficult

[1:25:23] is to replace jungle in there. And this is not just about our family, it's about all the skaters,

[1:25:30] high-key players, coaches, families and programs, for example, like unlearned to skate and

[1:25:36] or sell the great programs like Ice Show and also on skate-fest, commutation every year.

[1:25:44] So, the aura of that depends on this ring. So, for many coaches and I know the ring is also

[1:25:50] your livelihood. So, for many kids, it's just where they train, they make friends, they build their

[1:25:55] and also pursue something in the life.

[1:25:58] It's not about the social media,

[1:26:00] but about making people in real-life.

[1:26:04] So, on the community service safe,

[1:26:06] reliable ring that we can count on,

[1:26:09] jangling them in so much to our family.

[1:26:12] But it means so much to many people in the community.

[1:26:15] Please help us keep jangling their open,

[1:26:17] not just for our kids, but for all the kids.

[1:26:20] Families, skaters, and coaches who call it home.

[1:26:24] Thank you.

[1:26:25] Thank you. Yes, sir.

[1:26:41] Hi, my name is Eva Rankin's fire. I live on two floors your full talk,

[1:26:44] Shive in Troy, and I want to talk about John Lundell, Icerina, and how much this rank

[1:26:52] greens me. This rank is more than just a building with Icerin. It's a place where I've been spending

[1:26:58] many hours practicing, learning, making friends, and doing something that I really love.

[1:27:04] Some of my favorite memories have happened here.

[1:27:08] When you spend so much time at the rink,

[1:27:10] it starts to feel like a second home.

[1:27:12] That's why I really hope our ice arena can be fixed

[1:27:15] and improved instead of losing a place

[1:27:17] that means so much to many people.

[1:27:23] Fixing the arena wouldn't be fixing a building.

[1:27:26] It would be protecting a place where kids can learn,

[1:27:30] hard work and making friendships

[1:27:32] in creating memories that they'll remember the rest of their lives.

[1:27:36] I really hope you'll consider how important this arena is to all of us who skate here.

[1:27:41] I would really love to have this ring fixed and be able to skate here again.

[1:27:46] Thank you.

[1:27:46] And I'd like to add as well that so we have one daughter, another daughter that also skates

[1:27:50] at John Lindell, and our son actually, we do sticks and box together.

[1:27:54] The ring is really important to us.

[1:27:56] It's really important for the community aspect, but really important from a competitive aspect

[1:28:01] as well.

[1:28:01] So our daughter is very competitive with figure skating.

[1:28:04] She's had the opportunity to represent different rinks in the area.

[1:28:08] And she has chosen John Lindell because of the community specifically.

[1:28:12] She's been on the U.S. development team for two years,

[1:28:15] and she was placed meddled at nationals.

[1:28:18] That's John Lindell.

[1:28:19] That's royal oak being recognized on a national level

[1:28:21] when she goes and competes.

[1:28:23] She could have done that for different arenas.

[1:28:25] She chose John Lindell because of the community.

[1:28:27] And it would be a shame to see that not get the service that needs

[1:28:31] and the maintenance it needs and requires.

[1:28:34] So, when she's trying to go out there

[1:28:35] and now we have Charlie White, a gold medalist

[1:28:37] that has come to John Lindell to train.

[1:28:40] And as the opportunity to work with a lot of figure skaters

[1:28:43] to help them improve and they're skating around buckets

[1:28:45] in the middle of the ice, it's just saddened to see.

[1:28:49] There's so much heritage in history with John Lindell,

[1:28:52] Isurina, and we would love to see that support

[1:28:55] it deserves and requires.

[1:28:57] And certainly, as a dad, you see it on the figure skating side,

[1:28:59] But still in the hockey side is all because I love the sticks and ox, with my son as well.

[1:29:04] So, thank you for this consideration.

[1:29:06] Can we get your name for the record team, sir?

[1:29:07] Yeah, blame Rick and Smyr. Thank you, same address, yeah. Thank you.

[1:29:11] Thank you.

[1:29:14] Thank you.

[1:29:14] All right, anybody else?

[1:29:16] Well, once. Yes, ma'am.

[1:29:24] Hi, my name is Jeanette Mates. I leave a 33-551 Elgin Court in Sterling Heights.

[1:29:30] I'm a coach. I have the unique opportunity of not just coaching,

[1:29:33] figure skating but also hockey.

[1:29:37] This facility, this emergency money that they need is

[1:29:44] unfortunately needed. It's required for the print to continue to operate. It's a band-aid.

[1:29:51] It's temporary fix. I've been teaching at that facility for five years. I've traveled around the world.

[1:29:59] I have a national...

[1:30:00] Title, I competed at the world in 2010. I have never seen a facility being neglected as much as I have in this one. Unfortunately, the issues with the dehumidifier have been ongoing for years. Every summer we have problems with humidity. This summer, unfortunately, has been the worst.

[1:30:24] To expect that your community and your clients pay a hundred percent for something of not good quality is unacceptable.

[1:30:39] You have people like myself, you have people like Charlie White, who are Olympic gold medalists that teach that people come to learn from.

[1:30:48] and their dodging buckets. You have one facility, the west drink that has been down most of the summer,

[1:30:55] you can't even get it back up and running. Two years ago you took it out for the summer

[1:31:01] because the heat was so bad that the walls pieces of the wall wouldn't even touch.

[1:31:09] You could get kids fingers stuck in them. I understand that this is a lot of money that we're

[1:31:15] I think for you to put into this ring, I understand that it is very expensive to run facilities.

[1:31:24] You need to leverage the people that you have.

[1:31:27] You have employees here that are very qualified in helping you guys learn how to run an ice ring.

[1:31:36] I deplore the conditions that we have to skate in right now, and I know that we can do better.

[1:31:45] We are not asking you to do it on your own.

[1:31:48] We as a community, if you see, most of these people have come here just for this rank.

[1:31:54] They come here because they work there.

[1:31:58] They come here because that is the place that is their outlet.

[1:32:02] They learn life lessons, not just skating and hockey.

[1:32:08] I am really requesting that you think about this, not just as a simple fix now,

[1:32:15] but to continue to put the money into this city and the facility.

[1:32:23] Thank you.

[1:32:24] Thank you.

[1:32:25] All right, anybody else?

[1:32:27] Come on, once.

[1:32:29] Come twice.

[1:32:31] All right.

[1:32:32] We're going to close public comment.

[1:32:33] Bring the meeting back to the side at the table.

[1:32:36] Thank you for everyone participated in public comment.

[1:32:39] Really appreciate it.

[1:32:41] That brings us to the consent agenda number 10.

[1:32:44] I understand Commissioner Herzog, you wanted to pull item I off the consent agenda.

[1:32:49] Yes, please.

[1:32:50] Okay.

[1:32:51] Does anyone wish to pull anything else off the consent agenda?

[1:32:56] All right.

[1:32:56] Does anyone wish to make a motion on the consent agenda with the exception of I?

[1:33:03] Commissioner Gantina?

[1:33:05] Commissioner Gantina?

[1:33:05] Commissioner Gantina, is there a second?

[1:33:06] Second by Commissioner Cheeseam?

[1:33:08] Discussion?

[1:33:10] All right.

[1:33:10] With not all call for the vote.

[1:33:11] All's in favor say aye.

[1:33:13] Aye.

[1:33:13] Those opposed?

[1:33:14] Motion passes.

[1:33:15] It's all right, Commissioner Herzac.

[1:33:17] I'd like to.

[1:33:18] Thank you.

[1:33:19] I just wanted to uplift the, oh sorry.

[1:33:24] Still learning.

[1:33:26] I just uplift this piece of art.

[1:33:30] Miss Parkman, do you mind talking a little bit about this item?

[1:33:35] Sure.

[1:33:35] And I know that you're here for this evening too.

[1:33:39] So the applicant is here if there's any questions.

[1:33:42] So, this item is a public art application for a mural on a business.

[1:33:48] You may recall that it's a part of our process.

[1:33:51] We are proving that this is a mural and not a sign that may or may not be in the

[1:33:55] place where there's no code.

[1:33:58] So, that's kind of a little bit about what you're voting at.

[1:34:00] There are no public funds or anything that are used as a part of this program for murals

[1:34:06] on businesses.

[1:34:07] This is not a grant funded or anything like that for this area.

[1:34:11] But this particular mural spans two businesses that are

[1:34:15] all long woodward and I'll invite the applicant up if you

[1:34:19] do have any questions or want any additional information.

[1:34:26] Well, thank you for being here.

[1:34:28] Thank you.

[1:34:29] Why did you want to have art on your building?

[1:34:33] Basically, Aaron Ballon, who's the owner of A&B investment.

[1:34:36] I'm his property manager, Brad Schibel.

[1:34:37] I work for him.

[1:34:40] In the past, he's owned an operating the Moray Royal Oak and if you all

[1:34:43] the mural that he put on there, which was just to basically improve the side of a bland building.

[1:34:49] Same things applying here. He just wants something that the community can look at. He can look at.

[1:34:54] This is just not a big white wall. I mean currently the wall is 16 by 60 of blank whiteness.

[1:35:01] So that's really the only reason he wants to put it on there.

[1:35:04] Is there any significance to the piece?

[1:35:07] It's mainly going to portray a kind of a projection of woodward from probably 11 mile up until

[1:35:13] 14 that's just going to have, you know, the landmarks probably, the Schrandenville flower,

[1:35:18] and basically just kind of a semi, if you've seen them one in the Mori, it's kind of a

[1:35:24] graffiti style done. Kobe Solomon has done many murals around the city, around the state, around

[1:35:30] the world, and he and Aaron have a relationship, so Aaron has his art and just wants to kind of

[1:35:38] to prove this out of the building.

[1:35:39] Wonderful.

[1:35:40] And there is so many.

[1:35:43] Yeah, it's sideways.

[1:35:46] And then Susan, the process, any business owner

[1:35:51] could come forward if they wanted to, yes.

[1:35:56] So any business owner within the state of Roelow

[1:35:59] who wants to put a mural on their building

[1:36:02] can do so.

[1:36:03] In the past, you may recall that the DDA

[1:36:05] has provided some great funds.

[1:36:07] And I don't believe that's something they're doing at this time, but basically if you want to put a building on, you just fill out the application, you email it to me and take it to the Commission for the Arts.

[1:36:17] They're reviewing it and again, their decision is a recommendation to you all about any action.

[1:36:23] And they're recommending in this particular case that you consider this a mural and not a sign.

[1:36:28] So we are stipulated in the kind of the traditional boundaries that they've drawn is it can't include things like the business name or their logo or a portion of their logo or anything like that in the mirror.

[1:36:42] Thank you.

[1:36:43] I think these murals bring vibrancy to our community and what word is such a special and historical place and so I'm looking forward to seeing this when I drive by.

[1:36:59] That's it for me.

[1:37:01] Anyone else has some questions?

[1:37:04] Doesn't look like it.

[1:37:05] I think it's pretty cool.

[1:37:06] Then I will move to a proof.

[1:37:08] Yeah, motion by.

[1:37:09] Michelle's on.

[1:37:11] Seconded by Commissioner Gantina.

[1:37:13] Discussion?

[1:37:15] Yeah, I just think it's really good.

[1:37:17] I know Mr. Beal and did a great job.

[1:37:19] We've called you on the Mori project.

[1:37:22] Really cool.

[1:37:23] Really interesting.

[1:37:24] This one looks, I'm not a big judge of art.

[1:37:27] But it looks really cool and to take a walk.

[1:37:30] All in turn into a canvas, I think, is a really good idea. I had a lot of interest, especially in one woodwork. Thank you. Thank you for bringing the application here.

[1:37:41] All right. No further discussion on call for the vote. I was embarrassed. Aye. Those opposed. Motion passes. All right. Good luck. Thanks.

[1:37:54] So, after consent, we're going to reposition the noxious weeds and our ordinance pertaining

[1:38:03] to it.

[1:38:04] And I see Mr. Yis here.

[1:38:07] We're going to get to the weeds, Mr. Yis.

[1:38:13] Good evening.

[1:38:18] I attached as a report, which responds to residents complaints regarding Japanese knotweed

[1:38:24] and tree of heaven, both state-designated invasive species.

[1:38:28] It clarifies that the city's existing ordinances, chapter 757, weeds and chapter 556 property maintenance,

[1:38:37] already authorized the city to treat these plants as a nuisance.

[1:38:41] No ordinance amendment is needed to establish that.

[1:38:44] The limiting factor is the enforcement mechanism, not classification.

[1:38:49] Both ordinances are built around the state and are enforced by cutting rather than

[1:38:57] mandate to physically remove or eradicate a specific species.

[1:39:01] Extending enforcement to compile eradication would require substantially different regulation

[1:39:07] of regulatory structure, which would be difficult to enforce and is without precedent

[1:39:13] among comparable machine communities reviewed as part of this analysis, which was in

[1:39:19] this case Birmingham Clause in Berkeley, Madison Heights, Troy, and Rochester Hills.

[1:39:24] The memorandum also outlines the city's current enforcement practice under which code enforcement issues of violation notice.

[1:39:31] When vegetation exceeds eight inches and if uncorrected, the Department of Public Works cuts a vegetation and builds a property owner.

[1:39:39] To help residents understand the extent of the city's regulatory authority, staff developed, staff developed, and published a new invasive species resource page on the city's website.

[1:39:49] Directing residents to state guidance on identification and licensed treatment options.

[1:39:56] In April of 2026, the Royal Community Engagement Advisory Board also hosted an invasive

[1:40:02] species informational session with representatives from the Department of Public Works and

[1:40:06] Open County Parks.

[1:40:09] Staff recommends no ordinance amendment at this time will continue educating residents

[1:40:13] to treatment demonstrations, social media, and community events in coordination with boards

[1:40:18] such as the Environmental Advisory Board and Community Engagement Advisory Board.

[1:40:24] And continue to seek funding opportunities to support invasive species eradication efforts

[1:40:28] while monitoring state guidelines for any future regulatory pathway.

[1:40:35] So that is the report based on the attached memo.

[1:40:39] Um, uh, maggot, magg, um, true ahead prepared this, and she's not able to attend tonight's meeting.

[1:40:45] So I'm here to answer any questions and present this report.

[1:40:51] I think there's going to be a few questions.

[1:40:53] Commissioner Herzag.

[1:40:55] Great.

[1:40:55] Thank you so much.

[1:40:57] Um, so the ordinance, um, what the problem that we're trying to solve is heights, right?

[1:41:04] Or what, what's, what's, what is the problem we're trying to solve with the ordinance?

[1:41:08] And the ordinance, as I believe it, is written is to eradicate

[1:41:12] height and like, meetness of a property.

[1:41:15] So if there's overgrown, overgrown of any plantings,

[1:41:19] it's there to kind of eradicate that and keep things

[1:41:22] in more neat northerly.

[1:41:24] And then, at our last meeting, a resident came and said,

[1:41:28] that we did that.

[1:41:30] We came with a row, we've tracked it down.

[1:41:32] But in doing that, by trying to solve that problem,

[1:41:36] We created a new problem because it like spreads and it's through trapping because the way

[1:41:42] to take care of that issue, there's other best practices and so the city did they ever reach

[1:41:51] out to Oakland County, Sisma or Lake St. Clair Sisma to get an idea of what the best practices

[1:41:58] are or maybe even ordinances that might be in place for these invasive species.

[1:42:03] So, I'm not sure who Maggie talked to, to create the port report, I do know we have looked at one other community that did have an ordinance for invasive species or not just weeds and they actually weren't enforcing it so they had some nice language on the books I guess but they weren't enforcing it and they recognized that the cost of enforcement and the amount of invasive species or not just weeds.

[1:42:34] around everywhere throughout Southeast Michigan or probably the state of Michigan would be really

[1:42:42] great burden for everyone to handle both property owners and the city to be honest with you.

[1:42:48] We would have to go through our parks and look at all the mattress weeds, which there I was reviewing the list in there.

[1:42:56] I don't know, probably over 50, not just weak species, and to require us to review that even

[1:43:05] for an overgrown property, for our own property, for a non-overgrown property, would be much too

[1:43:14] much too large of a burden for us to take on with our current staffing and funding levels.

[1:43:18] Okay, so for those that don't know, CISMA is the cooperative invasive species management area,

[1:43:25] and for Oakland County, Oakland County Park says that for us.

[1:43:31] And I would really like to see that some of the research that goes into our ordinance or

[1:43:36] to come back to us would be to include what they would suggest because it is a government funded

[1:43:43] program to help manage invasive species and their helping governments and residents may manage them.

[1:43:51] And then this would be closing that loop of government where we're also helping with that management of invasive species.

[1:43:59] So I think though while it says in here that there's no action to be made, I just feel that there is a little bit more research that we should be doing.

[1:44:08] Seeing what communities,

[1:44:11] if there's any ordinances on the box, what is that cost, what does it actually look like for maintenance?

[1:44:18] I think there's just a little bit more learning that we need to know before we can say that there's no action here.

[1:44:24] And I really really like to have our partners tell us what those best practices are and see if we can actually manage them.

[1:44:33] Now I understand that staff capacity might be limited and so this could be kicked to the environmental advisory board as something that they could look into a little bit more and bring back to us.

[1:44:43] But I think that, you know, we're trying to solve one problem, but we're impacting neighbors, we're causing more harm to our environment.

[1:44:55] While there are a few communities here that are listed that don't have anything, I think we can still...

[1:45:00] Read in environmental spaces.

[1:45:04] So, you know, that's not helping me sway me. But I also want to, like, if we're

[1:45:10] telling residents to do one behavior, but we're not doing the behavior, I think we need to review

[1:45:16] that a little bit closer.

[1:45:20] So, I would probably add that it's a great opportunity to discuss

[1:45:24] It's a huge planning session to talk about where our resources go and how we manage them.

[1:45:30] Mr. Yuma, maybe I'll make a comment as well. I feel that you have two separate issues

[1:45:36] here. One is really, like you said, a challenge to enforce and take care of, but we probably

[1:45:45] should brainstorm how, you know, at least we support and manage some of that. The other is

[1:45:51] when we're the ones that, by our ordinance, are charged with mowing, you know, either a abandoned

[1:45:59] or non-compliant property when grass goes over eight inches.

[1:46:03] And so in some cases what we've seen, we've heard it on a couple of occasions and I'm sure

[1:46:08] it's far more prevalent than just those two, where we actually cause, we don't necessarily

[1:46:16] take care of the issue of the noxious weeds, but we actually, in some cases, depending on

[1:46:20] weed create a worse problem.

[1:46:25] So, when I think about this as a matter of policy, not necessarily a matter of ordinance,

[1:46:31] is it unreasonable for us to do a quick check to see on the property that we're charged with

[1:46:38] mowing, to see if these notchious weeds are present.

[1:46:43] And if they are, we hire a contractor to remediate those weeds as guidance from the county

[1:46:50] would suggest on how to do that or even inform how to do that, and then we add that to the

[1:46:56] bill, the cost of mowing, you know, that we would normally do, that would be part of the

[1:47:01] arena of the property. So while that sounds great and theory, I think the problem that you have

[1:47:08] is having the expertise to know what you're looking at when you're looking at, not just weeds.

[1:47:15] As I mentioned, there's a huge list. There are a number of them.

[1:47:19] So we would almost need to pay professional to go through each property.

[1:47:24] Identify whether or not there are not just weeks there.

[1:47:27] Invasive species.

[1:47:28] And then determine the method for eradicating them,

[1:47:31] which in a lot of cases is chemical,

[1:47:33] chemical sprays and things like that.

[1:47:36] And there's also time of the year that some of them can be removed and eradicated.

[1:47:42] There are all kinds of things that go into this.

[1:47:44] It is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It's not like you can go in a yard and say, oh, yeah, there's a there's a weeds. That's just, you know

[1:47:53] Find some method to badg them or harvest them. There are a lot of different methods and it means a methods to

[1:47:59] Radicate these not just weeds and there are many different varieties of them

[1:48:04] So while I you know I would

[1:48:07] Love to be able to just go in and find an easy solution to that

[1:48:11] It's a lot more complicated than I think it seems like on the surface.

[1:48:14] And I would be willing to say that there are probably so many residents that have these

[1:48:19] matches, weeds that don't even know it, that are also doing the same activities

[1:48:23] that we would be doing, maybe they're not letting it overgrown,

[1:48:27] but there are a lot of these not just weeds throughout the city and different areas,

[1:48:31] and people are probably mishandling it without even knowing it.

[1:48:34] Sure. Sure.

[1:48:34] But of the 50, I imagine there's a handful that are, you know, the magnification of mowing them

[1:48:43] is more problematic than the others. I would imagine. So it wouldn't be necessarily

[1:48:47] having to identify 50, but maybe there's five that are really problematic when you

[1:48:52] wholesale mo a yard if they're present. I just think it developed, that makes it difficult to

[1:48:57] develop in women's. And that's your specifically calling out specific species and how you handle

[1:49:02] most species, I think. So I just want to warn it, it's not a one-size-fits-all solution,

[1:49:07] and I would welcome looking at people who've done a lot more research and know a lot more

[1:49:11] about these things, but I just want it to warn that it's not a one-size-fits-all. There are a lot

[1:49:16] of, there's a lot that goes into it, and I've learned a lot over the last day or so just looking

[1:49:21] at it and talking to Megan, kind of going through it. I know of a lot of them, but there's a lot

[1:49:31] But I think we can all agree, you know, for if you have a derelict property next door to you and the grass is growing and we come out and

[1:49:42] Observe or not observe that there's certain types of noxious weeds there and we mow it now all those seedlings go into your yard

[1:49:48] And now what was a problem that was relatively contained is now been exasperated a thousandfold

[1:49:54] We can imagine that's something that, you know, if we have it in our ability to prevent we're not going to be able to stop

[1:50:00] We have 25,000 parcels in the city of Royaleau.

[1:50:03] You're not going to be able to enforce this at a mass level.

[1:50:07] But I think if there are small things we can do to at least not add another hole in the bucket.

[1:50:12] I think that would be a wise policy thing to look at.

[1:50:17] We'll go Commissioner Gantina, Commissioner Bastion, the Commissioner Colo.

[1:50:21] Thank you, Commissioner.

[1:50:22] Thank you, Commissioner.

[1:50:23] Thank you.

[1:50:25] I just wanted to, I guess, reiterate what Commissioner Herzogs stated in a

[1:50:30] sense that we need a model behavior that we want to see from our residents.

[1:50:34] I think we do that in many ways.

[1:50:35] We did that with the Sustainability and Climate Action Plan,

[1:50:38] inputting the other strategy of how we're going to move this city forward,

[1:50:41] sort of outlines the types of behaviors that we all need to embrace.

[1:50:46] And so it's not lost on me.

[1:50:48] This is a more complicated issue than I may see in the surface.

[1:50:51] But I do think there's probably many more resources that we could touch on

[1:50:55] to try to come up with a solution that

[1:50:59] better models the behavior that we want to see.

[1:51:02] They're probably our municipalities that do have ordinances that deal with this more

[1:51:07] directly and achieve the result we're trying to achieve here.

[1:51:11] But I also think that timing is very important in the sense that we're in the process

[1:51:17] of going through a zoning ordinance update.

[1:51:20] And I think oftentimes when that conversation comes up, we think about development standards

[1:51:24] almost exclusively in that conversation.

[1:51:26] But the reality is, I think this conversation is highlighting that there may be some other areas of our

[1:51:31] ordinance that have a little bit of a gap in areas that are important to us that we can just spend a little bit of time researching and

[1:51:37] talking about to see if we can do a little bit better, because to Commissioner Herzlach's point, we may think that our ordinance is

[1:51:45] solving the problem that we're trying to solve, but in doing that we are creating other problems,

[1:51:51] which to me begs the question of maybe this is just a little bit deeper and see if we can do a little bit better.

[1:51:59] Mr. Y, thank you for making this presentation. I really appreciate your pinch hitting.

[1:52:05] And speaking directly with you and about you, I really appreciate your willingness to jump in and your willingness to learn.

[1:52:15] And your willingness to say on certain occasions that this may not be my specialty, but boy, I'm going to step in.

[1:52:21] And I'm going to learn everything that I can as quickly as I can that speaks to your character and appreciate it.

[1:52:26] as far as other communities around us.

[1:52:30] May not be engaging in a certain practice. That doesn't necessarily mean that royal option. You know, we are often looked to as a leader to other communities, and I certainly think that this may be an opportunity for us to take the lead in this.

[1:52:48] And Mr. Mayor, I appreciate your creative thinking as to, you know, perhaps we're not looking at 50. Perhaps we're looking at 5.

[1:52:56] And obviously there's been some community engagement around this.

[1:53:00] There's some people that are interested, something that I really love about Royal Oak in general

[1:53:05] is that we have such a diverse population with such expertise.

[1:53:11] We have the environmental advisory board.

[1:53:12] We have people that are interested in things like this.

[1:53:15] Perhaps this is an opportunity for us to engage the community even further as to how we solve these issues.

[1:53:27] I'll see because there's a long line behind myself.

[1:53:30] Look, I appreciate that this isn't your thing, and I appreciate that Dr. Truby has an issue

[1:53:35] that she can't be here tonight. I think what we're kind of hearing up here right now is maybe

[1:53:40] there's some more to look at. I think that's being my over arching theme here. There's maybe

[1:53:46] more to look at. I know Seth's hearing it tonight. Let's see what we can maybe come up with

[1:53:52] find a way to potentially do some sort of enforcement. I'll add a handful of years ago, someone

[1:53:59] I had an issue with Golden Bamboo that their neighbor had planted, and it sprouted up in

[1:54:03] her yard, and it just completely took over, and she could not get her out of it.

[1:54:07] She spent your Shanker out of it.

[1:54:10] I do think we need to find a way to have some sort of enforcement, that enforcement needs

[1:54:14] to be the burden on the property order in some way.

[1:54:18] I think there's different levels of severity.

[1:54:20] Once you have that Golden Bamboo, when it moved over to the neighbor's yard, these little spikes

[1:54:26] Bamboo shoots would come up week after week after week because if you just cut it, Bamboo

[1:54:32] natures like it was back very quickly.

[1:54:34] So I'm aiming here, I would like to see Golden Bamboo add it to our mission species list.

[1:54:40] It's not on it currently.

[1:54:41] Something that through different administrations has been talked about, so I'd like to see

[1:54:44] that change in our ordinance.

[1:54:46] Something happens then, just as safe to look at ways to, you know, to the mayor's point,

[1:54:51] maybe harness the technology I understand you can't have a specialist on board.

[1:54:55] maybe there is a photo graphs of the properties that could be taken, technology that might identify

[1:55:00] right flags, right away, that could be an easy application there, so there's price, something

[1:55:06] out there, and I ask you to give us any answers right now, but keep on with that.

[1:55:11] I'm Michelle.

[1:55:13] I echo my colleagues sentiment is released to the ordinance in the additional education that I think

[1:55:18] staff in this and this board may need for purposes of moving in that direction, but I kind of

[1:55:24] kind of moved to the other side of this and this is, you know, education for the residents.

[1:55:29] I'm the liaison for the community engagement board and in this past spring we held a very

[1:55:34] small but mighty workshop on evasive species as a release of plants and it was very educational.

[1:55:41] And I think from that exposed that there's more than we were just looking at trees of heaven at that point,

[1:55:47] but exposed that there are way more of these species in, you know,

[1:55:50] that made us start looking at the Japanese not wood and others, and that is going to be continued this fall.

[1:55:57] So for residents that are interested in learning how to curb this in their own backyard.

[1:56:03] I didn't realize I had Japanese not wood in my yard, and I'm just cutting it down and it keeps coming back.

[1:56:08] And now I know how to properly eradicate it, safely eradicate it, and that's something that's going to be highlighted at this fall workshop.

[1:56:18] So, I would just encourage the residents to keep their eyes open for that and possibly staff as well

[1:56:24] if they're interested in learning how to properly get rid of these species.

[1:56:28] So, but thank you, Mr. Yee, for coming in and pitching for May again,

[1:56:32] bringing this forward to us. I appreciate it.

[1:56:38] We have a long agenda tonight and I feel like most of my points were hit on by my colleagues here

[1:56:42] and I've had conversations with staff this week, so I will let it go at that for tonight.

[1:56:48] Okay, anybody else?

[1:56:52] All right, this was a report, but I think what I heard tonight, notwithstanding the fact

[1:56:57] that I don't think we need to make any motion tonight.

[1:56:59] I think what we need to do is bring this into strategic planning.

[1:57:03] I think there's a little bit of a bigger picture here.

[1:57:05] We heard from public comments tonight from Ms. Carney about, you know, the opposite.

[1:57:11] That occurred potentially.

[1:57:13] So I think that, you know, we talk about native species and we talk about not just weeds

[1:57:19] and we talk about, you know, keeping yards maintained.

[1:57:23] I think we took a stab at it with a not just weed ordinance back in the day, but like

[1:57:28] everything we do.

[1:57:29] It's a work in process and I think we can probably make some improvements, but also we have

[1:57:34] to set some expectations as Mr. E. Mr. Bob had pointed out.

[1:57:39] So let's keep our thinking caps on, bring it into strategic planning and put it on the checklist

[1:57:43] there of something we need to address.

[1:57:46] All right.

[1:57:46] Thank you.

[1:57:54] All right, let's see where we at in the agenda now, we've moved some stuff around.

[1:57:59] I think that brings us to the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, License Establishment.

[1:58:05] Public hearing on the request for Royal Oak, I keep Royal Eats Royal Oak.

[1:58:10] I'm just so used to reading Royal Oak all the time.

[1:58:15] All right.

[1:58:18] Thank you, Mr. Mayor and commissioners.

[1:58:19] The Royal Oak Police Department received a request from Royal Eats, Royal Oak LLC, doing business as Royal Eats, French and Dinner.

[1:58:27] To review a plan of operation for a new DDA, redevelopment, class C, liquor license, to be located at 617 South Washington.

[1:58:35] Yep, it's also requesting a Sunday, AM and PM sales permit, and asked the environment.

[1:58:42] They're seeking approval while in the application process with the Michigan-Liter Control Commission.

[1:58:47] Royaleece, French and dinner has been operating as a restaurant in Royaleece since December

[1:58:51] of 2025. The addition of the slicker license will allow the operator to service adult

[1:58:57] cocky drinks, mommoses, lottie marries, and other brunch centric adult beverages, and allow

[1:59:03] them to serve beer wine cocktails for their dinner service.

[1:59:07] Their anticipated food alcohol ratio is 75% food, 25% alcohol. If approved, Royaleece

[1:59:14] French and dinner while I pray as a full service,

[1:59:17] be sure of concept restaurant, table service,

[1:59:19] and a full service bar.

[1:59:22] Aside from the alcohol sales,

[1:59:23] the only changes to the business are a new floor plan

[1:59:26] and barrier around their outdoor service area.

[1:59:30] The interior seating area is approximately 1500 square feet,

[1:59:33] we'll have seating for 75 patrons, including eight power seats,

[1:59:37] the outdoor service area is located on private property

[1:59:40] and we'll have seating for 24 patrons.

[1:59:42] You're not requesting an entertainment or dance permit.

[1:59:46] The Royal Police Department looked at this closely and it's not opposed to this request.

[1:59:53] I'm going to have to take any questions from you.

[1:59:55] And the owner's attorney is present for her questions as well.

[1:59:59] All right. Thank you. It's end of course.

[2:00:00] Any questions?

[2:00:06] All right. Does the petitioner want to make a few remarks?

[2:00:13] You're not obligated to?

[2:00:16] I always joke, there's dozens of people watching at home, so it's a way to get the new concept out there.

[2:00:23] I wanted to just thank the lieutenant for working with me. He's been excellent to work with.

[2:00:29] I think that the packet that I provided and that my client provided is pretty self-explanatory.

[2:00:39] Victor and his family have already built this restaurant out.

[2:00:43] They have made a commitment to the city and he's told me that the issue that they've been

[2:00:50] having is, you know, right now they're only open for dinner on Thursday Friday and Saturday night,

[2:00:55] But they have a hard time because people come in and they ask,

[2:01:00] can I get a bottle of wine, can I get a cocktail, and no.

[2:01:04] And so even if one or two people out of a party of six or seven or eight come,

[2:01:08] they'll walk on to another location.

[2:01:11] So what they're trying to do is, they're just trying to expand them in you a little bit.

[2:01:14] They're trying to be open for dinner.

[2:01:18] This is actually the fifth, or I do a lot of liquor licensing work all over the state.

[2:01:22] This is like the fifth or sixth brunch restaurant that I'm not only for licensed

[2:01:25] application for in the past year, people like Mamosas with the Scramble Deggs, Belinis,

[2:01:32] whatever. So that's all. This is a great license. I like that the city works with business

[2:01:40] owners and allowing them to apply for these licenses. I think that they're a great tool that

[2:01:48] the state of Michigan has and the liquor control commission has to work with communities and

[2:01:53] to improve their DDAs. I would like to just point out that they are. My client is committed

[2:02:02] to, they're actually reducing the number of seats at the Hammond side because the maximum

[2:02:06] you can have with the city is 75 so they're actually reducing the number of seats to comply

[2:02:11] with that as well as their outdoor seating and it's, they'll be able to expand the bar area

[2:02:16] a little bit because of that but they're committed to this and please and thank you.

[2:02:23] if you have any questions that can answer them,

[2:02:27] or at least try.

[2:02:31] Commissioner Colo.

[2:02:33] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

[2:02:34] Just a handful of questions.

[2:02:35] Can you tell us about the experience of background

[2:02:37] of the hardship for the restaurant?

[2:02:40] Sure.

[2:02:41] Well, Victor is a full-time engineer,

[2:02:44] but his family has been in the restaurant business for a while.

[2:02:48] So his father and brother operate this during the week,

[2:02:54] And then Victor shows up on Friday nights.

[2:02:56] It's been Friday, Saturday, and Sunday is there.

[2:03:00] So I do work with lots of different communities.

[2:03:04] And this is one of the communities

[2:03:06] where I got referred to them because other people in the community

[2:03:10] are own restaurants.

[2:03:12] And this is one of the families that owns restaurants also.

[2:03:15] So they've been in the restaurant business.

[2:03:17] But the victim is only on this restaurant

[2:03:19] for less than a year at this point.

[2:03:23] It seems to be a great addition to it down town, it's a very frightening pass by at two.

[2:03:27] You can't miss the very lights inside.

[2:03:31] And just looking at the plan of our person too, typically when we come to alcohol compliance,

[2:03:37] it mentions that staff will be tips and tamps certified.

[2:03:41] I don't see that in this.

[2:03:42] No, there is actually a submitted separate alcohol policy and training is all in that.

[2:03:51] Lieutenant, that was included with me.

[2:03:53] I do see a supplement on it.

[2:03:54] Yes, that was of course I would have for the Lieutenant.

[2:03:56] Is that included in part as part of the plan of operation?

[2:04:00] In section 11, number 13, refers to tips and tab certification.

[2:04:08] Oh, there it is, okay.

[2:04:10] Yeah, but there was a separate, like alcohol policy that all of the employees are going

[2:04:14] to have to go over inside because I work with most of my clients.

[2:04:20] We put something together so that they can make it part of their policies and procedures.

[2:04:26] Training is a big part of it.

[2:04:28] Outdoor service policies, a big part of it.

[2:04:31] So, I mean, if you don't have that permission, I can report you to top the other.

[2:04:35] But yes, it was in the packet.

[2:04:37] Part of it.

[2:04:37] It will be covered.

[2:04:39] Thank you so much for the problem.

[2:04:43] Any other questions?

[2:04:46] Okay.

[2:04:46] Thank you.

[2:04:47] Thank you very much.

[2:04:48] Appreciate you all.

[2:04:49] Thank you.

[2:04:52] Alright.

[2:04:53] So we have a

[2:04:57] recommendation in front of us.

[2:05:00] Oh, we got to do the public hearing for this one, don't we?

[2:05:03] Yeah. All right. So we're going to open up the public hearing.

[2:05:05] Same rules applies, hit a commission public comment.

[2:05:09] Does anyone wish to come up and speak on this matter?

[2:05:13] Okay. We're going to close the public hearing,

[2:05:15] bring the meeting back to the side of the table.

[2:05:17] We have proposed motion commissioner Colo.

[2:05:21] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think these places are great.

[2:05:24] kind of tool in our downtown, that I hope people take advantage of, very frankly, and I'm

[2:05:30] able to prove it as presented.

[2:05:31] We have motion by Commissioner Coulos, or second, second by Commissioner Gantina, all right,

[2:05:38] I want to say, Commissioner Bastion, I had breakfast there just recently, and I think maybe

[2:05:44] a Mamosa would have helped Commissioner Bastion take down most pancakes that were stacked

[2:05:50] so high.

[2:05:51] I might have done the track, okay.

[2:05:53] Thanks for the insight, Dad.

[2:05:56] Well, we talked about it and we said no way.

[2:06:02] Don't take it personally.

[2:06:03] It was you.

[2:06:07] All right.

[2:06:08] No other discussion?

[2:06:10] All right.

[2:06:10] We'll call for the vote.

[2:06:11] I'll say aye.

[2:06:12] Aye.

[2:06:13] Those posed.

[2:06:14] Motion passes.

[2:06:14] Congratulations.

[2:06:15] Look forward to seeing you at brunch.

[2:06:18] So Victor, we said hello.

[2:06:23] All right.

[2:06:23] So this brings us to social district approval

[2:06:26] for Harry Hospitality LLC doing business

[2:06:29] as the least seafood.

[2:06:31] Do you know it?

[2:06:33] Or is this coming from Isaac?

[2:06:38] Doesn't yet.

[2:06:39] Good evening, Mr. Mayor.

[2:06:40] I am by evening.

[2:06:42] But certainly we'll defer if there's anything to add.

[2:06:45] Just five quick facts for you to set it up

[2:06:47] and then hopefully a quick action tonight.

[2:06:48] The Social District was established in April 12, 2021.

[2:06:54] All participating businesses have to sign a social district agreement with the city.

[2:07:00] And additionally, potential participating liquor license holders within the social district.

[2:07:07] They also need to be liquor license holders that is within the social district.

[2:07:11] And also the designated common areas, all streets and sidewalks within the social district

[2:07:16] and designated parks or gathering spaces, and lastly, a map and a listing with all updated

[2:07:23] and revisions to the social district participants was provided to MLCC.

[2:07:30] On August 20th, and I know that because I went through the listings and submitted the map, so the

[2:07:36] work fully up to date, and this would be simply because the transfer of ownership that we would

[2:07:42] be extending the social district to the new entity with Harry Hospitality. So urging approval.

[2:07:49] And in the future, and speaking with the chief that we will bundle together any kind of transfer

[2:07:55] of liquor licenses with social district approvals at the same meeting.

[2:07:59] We apologize for being off cadence with this one.

[2:08:01] No worries.

[2:08:03] Questions from Mr. Kremlin?

[2:08:07] Mr. Kolo.

[2:08:08] I'm a group of all.

[2:08:09] I motion by Commissioner Cole,

[2:08:10] second by Commissioner Herzog.

[2:08:11] Discussion?

[2:08:13] I think it's pretty straightforward.

[2:08:15] It's a good addition.

[2:08:15] We got new ownership at the same familiar faces running it.

[2:08:21] So I think all's good here.

[2:08:23] Call for the vote.

[2:08:23] All those papers say aye.

[2:08:24] Aye.

[2:08:25] Those posed motion passes.

[2:08:27] All right.

[2:08:27] This brings us to item 13, which is Municipal Parking Service, Infrastructure, Removal and Restoration, Contract Modification, is Daniel.

[2:08:39] The previous MPS parking system equipment has been removed from the city, but several infrastructure components remain in our downtown area that are presenting hazardous conditions.

[2:08:51] These include items like exposed foundations,

[2:08:54] pasteation bases, detection pucks in our pavement,

[2:08:58] and surface defects or irregularities.

[2:09:01] The attorney's office sends MPS a letter previously

[2:09:03] regarding all of these issues and their cost,

[2:09:06] but we recommend that the city takes some action now

[2:09:09] with our own funds while we wait for this issue

[2:09:12] with MPS to work itself out.

[2:09:15] So staff from engineering in the parking division

[2:09:17] walked the downtown area,

[2:09:18] identified all the defect locations, and categorize them into three different levels of priority.

[2:09:24] So priority one being the most important two and three.

[2:09:28] So priority one are true hazards or areas that cars could easily run into something that they didn't see

[2:09:34] that may result in some sort of vacation or claim against the city.

[2:09:38] Priority two are a little bit less hazardous but still a concern there in green belt areas where people might be getting out of cars

[2:09:44] and stepping into these things, and also the detection

[2:09:48] pucks that are within our pavement area, or priority three,

[2:09:53] are sidewalks that eventually we want to replace.

[2:09:55] They've been cracked, or they've been saw cut.

[2:09:58] There's old posts that cut flush, but they don't look very good.

[2:10:01] So those are things we want to also fix,

[2:10:04] but that can be done over a much longer period of time.

[2:10:06] They're not really hazardous, just aesthetically not pleasing.

[2:10:10] So we're recommending that priority one and two items be addressed now.

[2:10:13] We requested a quote from our city sidewalk contractor.

[2:10:18] The total for that work is just under $158,000.

[2:10:23] We have programs in annual DDA sidewalk program.

[2:10:26] First, small amount each year in the coming years.

[2:10:29] And that's how we plan to get through those priority three locations,

[2:10:32] little by little each year.

[2:10:35] At the time of writing the commission letter,

[2:10:36] we were still waiting for the DDA to have their meeting this month

[2:10:39] to vote on this issue to see what funding they would be willing to provide.

[2:10:44] I kind of wrote the letter with the worst case scenario, assuming the DDA would fund priority

[2:10:48] one, and we would need to come up with funds for priority two, which we were going to use

[2:10:53] our general liability or the risk fund to cover that.

[2:10:57] Thankfully, the DDA last week met, they graciously agreed to fund both priority one and two

[2:11:02] work at their meeting, and they are asking to be reimbursed if we once we settle things with

[2:11:06] MPS, if we have the funds to do so, that they get reimbursed for this cost. So with that in mind,

[2:11:11] We have two resolutions before you tonight.

[2:11:14] The first is simply to award the work to our contractor,

[2:11:16] L. Anthony, that resolution can stay as is.

[2:11:20] The second resolution is a budget environment

[2:11:22] that shows where the funds are coming from for this work.

[2:11:25] As I mentioned, it was split between two different funds.

[2:11:27] We're just asking that instead we changed that.

[2:11:31] So that $157, $700 is appropriated from the DDA fund,

[2:11:36] and $0 from the general liability fund.

[2:11:38] So, if this is a proof tonight, contractor is ready to begin shortly after art speaks and eats.

[2:11:44] Questions from Ms. Donnie?

[2:11:47] Commissioner Hutt, thank you, Mr. Chair.

[2:11:50] Thank you, Ms. Donnie.

[2:11:51] You know, I understand that in July, our council sent a letter to MPS requesting the reimbursement

[2:11:57] or the payment for these repairs.

[2:11:59] Was there any response from them?

[2:12:02] And, what are we pursuing that?

[2:12:04] Should we not receive a response from them?

[2:12:06] so that's not necessarily coming out of our pockets

[2:12:08] or the DDA's pockets, and then deferred

[2:12:11] to that semester to talk to you.

[2:12:13] If I may, Ms. Mayor, thank you.

[2:12:17] So yeah, working with outside Council

[2:12:20] the rapper decided us on litigation.

[2:12:22] We sent a letter indicating that we were going

[2:12:24] to withhold any future remaining funds

[2:12:28] that would be reconciled with them

[2:12:30] that were remaining under the agreement

[2:12:32] because of these costs. Those funds, to answer your question directly, we have not received

[2:12:40] a response yet. It's going to take some time, as you probably can recognize with DNPS to

[2:12:47] figure out where the parties like could result in litigation. I don't know, but the idea was,

[2:12:54] because of the damages, we're withholding funds that we would technically owe them at the end of

[2:12:59] contract that we're not going to pay them, which don't come close to covering, they may

[2:13:05] cover phase one and maybe two but not three. So there's a large difference there, so

[2:13:11] eventually we'll have to make some other decisions. We'll have to talk about outside of public

[2:13:18] meeting.

[2:13:19] It was part of the exit from MPS, was there any stipulation that they would not remove

[2:13:28] these disequipment and leave some trip hazard or hazard to the city?

[2:13:35] So if I may miss mayor, when we drafted the settlement agreement from that litigation,

[2:13:42] we specifically used language that indicated MPS was required to remove not only their

[2:13:48] equipment, but all the foundations, and he basically restore the bases where their infrastructure

[2:14:00] was located back to the original condition.

[2:14:03] They did not do anything like that.

[2:14:04] They just ripped their stuff out alive.

[2:14:08] Thank you.

[2:14:09] Thank you, Shantizo.

[2:14:11] Thank you.

[2:14:12] Yeah, my questions were also around NPS and their fiscal responsibility here.

[2:14:18] for this. So building off of foundation that Commissioner Hans question is just gave us.

[2:14:25] So if we approve this action and this funding source, and then we do end up with holding

[2:14:34] money from MPS, would that, would those fund then be restored back into these accounts?

[2:14:40] Or imagine that's a better legal pathway than just paying for these upfront, is that

[2:14:46] correct assumption. That would be the assumption I would make at the end of the day. That's a budget and finance and city manager policy question, but at the end of the day, any funds that we retain.

[2:15:00] I think that would be otherwise due to them we can be used. What have been used or should be used towards the restoration that they should have done to begin with when they're moved to the equipment?

[2:15:10] That's my question because I think you're talking about how the, I guess, the settlement agreement or further conversations with NPS, we communicated the expectation that they were turned.

[2:15:22] our sidewalks and our infrastructure to the conditions in which they were found before they

[2:15:27] quit and went in. I am wondering about what kind of conversations took place when we went

[2:15:31] when we entered the agreement, those years ago, about they put the equipment in,

[2:15:36] was there any conversation there at that point? You weren't here. I wasn't here. I would not have

[2:15:42] recommend that, contrary to begin with, but nonetheless, bottom line is when we were in litigation fairly

[2:15:49] recently, and when we exited that litigation, that settlement, we at that time added additional

[2:15:57] language to make it abundantly clear, they were required as a part of removal to remove

[2:16:03] and restore.

[2:16:05] So whether or not it was in the original agreement, it doesn't matter.

[2:16:08] We made sure it was in the settlement agreement to make sure we checked that box for us.

[2:16:13] And so I think there's lots of lessons that I learned from MTS.

[2:16:18] I think it's good to make, as we move through things,

[2:16:22] to make decisions, and see consequences for them,

[2:16:24] having some learning from that, that having

[2:16:26] these conversations from the beginning to make sure

[2:16:27] those expectations are very clear from the beginning.

[2:16:31] So we know where those costs are coming from.

[2:16:32] Could my green more?

[2:16:34] Do I knit every day?

[2:16:39] Anybody else?

[2:16:41] Mr. Cole.

[2:16:44] Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[2:16:45] The Commissioner of Cheeson's point as someone who's here when that contract was being

[2:16:51] resetted, they were like, think of a little salesman, and they're saying, I'm sure they said

[2:16:55] that they would repair and replace and did it for the contract, because that's everything I'm

[2:17:00] saying they were a terrible partner from day one who did not fulfill any other obligations to make

[2:17:05] our city better. I cannot say it more than practically how half I am that their family got.

[2:17:10] They were terrible from day one and never gave us anything that we needed out of their system

[2:17:16] And I'm in no way surprised that they've continued to not be a good partner when they came to the removal of their items

[2:17:22] Because they have not lived up to one of their obligations from once again to day one

[2:17:27] So with that being said though

[2:17:28] I'm very happy for the DA and

[2:17:32] their

[2:17:33] Ability and willingness to step up right now and help fund part of one of two areas to make the city

[2:17:38] safe and you'll start to purify it again from the junk, the MPS locked in the ground.

[2:17:44] So I want to thank the D.A. for the help and we approve all the resolution to war the

[2:17:49] work to the contractor and approve all the budget, the budget, and so I can't talk.

[2:17:55] Budget amendment of reflecting all funds come from the D.A. font.

[2:17:59] You've got a motion by Commissioner Culls or a second.

[2:18:02] Thank you by Commissioner Teasum.

[2:18:03] discussion?

[2:18:08] Well, I think this will take a little time to play out. We're holding back some

[2:18:12] funds that will take care of priority one priority two. We have a settlement agreement which does

[2:18:16] say that they have to restore everything to normal. I imagine they hired a contractor to do this.

[2:18:22] They probably have some clawback with their contractor and those things just take some time.

[2:18:27] And, you know, if we have to go litigate, we litigate. We're not afraid of litigation.

[2:18:30] We've been to the Supreme Court, baby. 1 and 0. So we have shown our propensity to fight battles

[2:18:36] that we need to fight.

[2:18:38] All right.

[2:18:39] With that, I'll call for the vote.

[2:18:40] All's in favor say aye.

[2:18:42] Aye.

[2:18:42] Those posed.

[2:18:43] Motion passes.

[2:18:45] All right.

[2:18:46] Spring to start item 14.

[2:18:48] Mr. DeCamp is here to walk us through approval of amendments to our fiscal year 2027 budget.

[2:18:59] The general upon items which will then explain most of the others in terms of the point.

[2:19:06] So starting with the first revenue item, interest revenue, so we're able to add an extra

[2:19:13] million dollars to the budgeted revenues by instead of allocating interest to all the internal

[2:19:22] service funds, which is optional.

[2:19:25] We're going to no longer do that, and thereby that interest will stay in the general fund.

[2:19:31] In addition to that, the interest revenue was benefits by kind of updated projections.

[2:19:38] We, during budget development, it still looked like maybe budget interest rate cuts at

[2:19:46] the level now, so we like likely increase at least one, maybe two this year.

[2:19:52] So we're able to revise those projections upwards slightly and then going down to the miscellaneous

[2:20:01] revenue, refund of OPEF contributions in 20, 25, they're okay.

[2:20:06] Tony, can you turn your mic on?

[2:20:08] I'll light the on.

[2:20:09] I apologize.

[2:20:10] All right, there we go.

[2:20:13] So on the miscellaneous revenue, refund of OPEF contributions, there was $1 million, $90,000

[2:20:24] that was contributed,

[2:20:28] that was the general fund's portion to cover OPEB costs for 2025, but

[2:20:35] then we received a revised OPEB actual, that said that we did not need to make those

[2:20:40] contributions. There was not a claw back previously, so we're doing that now. This was

[2:20:47] originally budgeted to go directly to the capital project fund in order to reflect that

[2:20:53] It's actually general fund dollars in a general fund contribution.

[2:20:58] I'm asking for the amendment to have the refund come to the general fund first and then

[2:21:05] it will go to the capital project fund.

[2:21:07] Similarly, in the motor pool fund, there's going to be a refund of contributions, basically

[2:21:14] an excess net asset distribution, that the general fund's portion is the $2.3 million

[2:21:22] There'll be equal, an equitable refund to each fund, but this represents, again, the general

[2:21:32] fund portion.

[2:21:33] So I just want it showing memorializing that it's the general fund's contribution to the

[2:21:39] capital project fund.

[2:21:41] So those two, the OPEB contribution and the motor pool refund were always intended to go to

[2:21:48] capital project fund, this just shows that it's

[2:21:51] general fund first, then over to the capital project fund.

[2:21:56] The next item, which was part of the net of the transfers

[2:22:00] in that changed, it's the $1.5 million transfer

[2:22:05] from the auto parking fund.

[2:22:07] After further analysis, it was determined that if this was made,

[2:22:11] it would actually result in a deficit elimination plan

[2:22:14] being needed to be filed with the state.

[2:22:17] In order to avoid that, I wanted to reverse the transfer so that, you know, there's no question we will be able to avoid that.

[2:22:28] So that's, so moving out.

[2:22:30] Turn down to the expenditures. The next couple items, you'll see a theme throughout the amendment.

[2:22:39] It's the IT service charge and the property and casualty insurance service charge.

[2:22:45] So these are internal charges for those funds that we were able, I'm the IT, we were able to reduce the amount of expenditures that were budgeted.

[2:22:56] In that fund, thereby reducing the internal charge from the general fund, from public safety

[2:23:01] fund and all other funds, and then in property and casualty, we were able to factor in

[2:23:11] the annual net asset distribution to reduce the amount of contributions from all similar

[2:23:18] all funds. So those two combined resulted in a savings of just over 400,000 to the general fund.

[2:23:27] Then on to the transfers to public safety, that was reduced by just over a million.

[2:23:35] And that represented the reduction in the public safety's IT and property and casualty insurance

[2:23:43] charge as well as originally we budgeted to have a contribution to the public safety fund

[2:23:53] balance while using quite a large number for the general fund. So this revised downward

[2:24:01] the contribution like it's now a small contribution of 25,000, 20,000 projected whereas

[2:24:09] we're still going to be having planned use of fun balance in the general fund.

[2:24:14] So it gets us a little closer to even ground there, but saves again quite a bit of the transfer

[2:24:20] out.

[2:24:22] Then the other transfers out, so there was the 3.3 million to capital projects fund, which

[2:24:29] is the OPEB reimbursement and the motor pool distribution, so those two combined represent

[2:24:38] That exact amount going right back up to the capital projects fund and then the recreation fund was budgeted to have transfers from both the general fund and the

[2:24:49] ARPA enabled fund and

[2:24:54] In order to avoid a deficit elimination plan

[2:24:59] We were able to revise that number down instead of needing about

[2:25:03] 1.6 million. It really will only need about 540,000. So the general fund will still be the contributor to the recreation fund while the ARPA enabled funds will all be going into a capital project fund.

[2:25:21] And so what we end up getting is a net change to the use of fund balance of a reduction in that use of fund balance of 1,165,000.

[2:25:36] And then briefly on the other funds, so the capital project fund will actually get about 750 more than 750,000 more in that's largely representative of that reduced transfer from

[2:25:52] instead of the ARPA fund giving it to recreation and we'll come into the couple projects.

[2:25:59] Major streets, we had an error in the budget, it was showing that the fifth street improvement

[2:26:04] was going to be funded by major streets that was never the intent, so that simply a revision

[2:26:09] to get that out of there and reflect it in the DDA as was always planned.

[2:26:17] And then I wanted to, there was one more that I wanted to touch on,

[2:26:25] but I think it was

[2:26:26] just that the recreation will now be getting the 500 and 72,000 instead of the original

[2:26:34] 1.6 million.

[2:26:37] So, if there are any questions about any of that or any other part of the amendment, I'll

[2:26:41] be happy to feel them.

[2:26:43] Questions from Mr. DeKam?

[2:26:48] I want to say thank you. I appreciate the reports as well. They're easy to look at, walk through and understand, you know, why and how some things change. Sometimes it's just better management. Sometimes it's real things happening. So thank you for walking us through it. Thank you.

[2:27:07] I'll say that, you know, I appreciate you, Mr.

[2:27:10] You can have in your team.

[2:27:11] I know this is kind of a different budget year this year.

[2:27:14] A little bit different process.

[2:27:15] So I appreciate these members to kind of get us back to maybe

[2:27:20] how we typically see things.

[2:27:22] I look forward to our budget process again next year.

[2:27:26] But with that being said, I'm going to approve all these moments.

[2:27:28] Okay.

[2:27:28] We have a motion by Commissioner Colo, a second by Commissioner Bastion.

[2:27:33] discussion. All right, with not all call for the vote. All of them fair say aye. Aye. Those opposed motion passes.

[2:27:41] All right, this brings us to item 15 tonight, which is approval of expenditures for emergency repairs at John Lindell,

[2:27:47] Isirina and budget amendment.

[2:27:55] When good evening again, mayor and city commission.

[2:28:02] Two critical building systems at the John Lindell, Isirina, were found to be an immediate need of repair.

[2:28:08] The West drink had a floor crack and heave that and the dehumidifier that services both the West and East drinks ice surfaces at the arena were not functioning properly

[2:28:20] Both repairs are necessary for the ice arena to function properly and safely and are considered emergency repairs, neither were budgeted for the fiscal year 2627 capital improvement budget.

[2:28:32] Repairing replacing these items has required a several week-long process, and the repairs were urgent due to timing.

[2:28:39] As the facility usage is lower in the early summer before regular scheduled ice usage begins,

[2:28:44] the remaining is busier, beginning, and August, and the timeliness of the repair reduces the impact and revenues from hacky leaves and other programming.

[2:28:52] So I'll just clarify that as we had wanted to get these repairs done before the beginning of August.

[2:28:56] The city city manager Marcus said said these are emergencies. We need to get them repaired

[2:29:02] We it started this process some

[2:29:05] 5 or 6 weeks ago hoping to have it repaired by the beginning of August

[2:29:09] Clearly that didn't work out the parts that were supposed to be here

[2:29:13] Three or four weeks ago to not arrive. They still have not arrived

[2:29:16] They did tell us that this week they're supposed to be here. They're overnighting them to us. So we expect that

[2:29:23] You know, there's one part in particular that we need to finish to repair and we expect that to be

[2:29:26] this week.

[2:29:30] The details of the repairs include repairing the main refrigeration line that runs from

[2:29:35] the compressor room along the west front to the header at the center ice arena where the

[2:29:40] refrigerant then runs back and forth under the surface. That main line is covered with insulation

[2:29:45] but over the years that if the insulation gets wet, it can cause heaving and damage.

[2:29:50] In this instance, the ground around these lines had frozen and eventually forced concrete to

[2:29:53] heaven crack. This repair was necessary and urgent as a heaving cracking would have continued to

[2:29:58] and cost for their damage.

[2:30:00] The dehumidifier for the ICE drinks acts to pull cold, moist air out of the rings, heat and dry it, and then pop it back into the system.

[2:30:08] If the dehumidifier is not functioning properly, it creates condensation on the glass and on the ceiling.

[2:30:13] This results in dripping condensation from the ceiling, causing dangerous ice knobs on the surface, which in turn will make dangerous ice conditions for all users of the facility, which was described by a lot of our residents and users of the facility tonight.

[2:30:28] The facility maintenance division work with the arena manager to solicit quotes for these two projects and the table below the illustrates the responses.

[2:30:39] The West floor crack and heave bid range from 30,256 up to 136,915 and for the dehumanification unit we had a bit of 119,430 and 16461.

[2:30:57] We have used Surveys refrigeration to perform in the West for heave and crack repair, and Delta

[2:31:04] Services' Tump is working on currently working on the dehumidification unit.

[2:31:13] Delta Tump is the current agent contractor, and, again, they have ordered the parts

[2:31:19] and are just waiting for them to come in.

[2:31:22] the ice-free and operates to an enterprise fund contractually the city's responsible for

[2:31:26] the maintenance cost and repairs of the facility.

[2:31:33] The expenditure total expenditure requires

[2:31:35] 149,686 of which budget amendment for that amount is requested and

[2:31:49] the revenue impact is that

[2:31:51] the revenues from skating and other programming will be temporarily impacted while the repairs are being

[2:32:00] the end of this week, and we are requesting that the emergency therapy therapy

[2:32:09] therapy approved as presented, and that a budget amendment be approved from the

[2:32:18] enterprise fund, from the ice ring enterprise fund balance to fund the project. A

[2:32:23] couple of things I did want to just mention, because we heard a lot from residents and

[2:32:27] of the facilities is that we did have a facility assessment done of the facility and so we do

[2:32:35] and they're all city facilities and we have been budgeting for a lot of these items and the

[2:32:41] dehumidifier in particular was budgeted for a couple years from now so it was not and it was listed

[2:32:47] as a third condition in the assessment so it's bringing down what someone unexpected that it was

[2:32:51] in a completely fail but obviously it did and we needed to get it repaired. This is not a bandage

[2:32:57] It's a long-term fix and this dehumidifier last forever with proper maintenance.

[2:33:02] I think one of the positives I do want to bring up is Connie Folk.

[2:33:07] It's our facility's operator and she is incredible at this.

[2:33:13] She has a history with ice reeds in particular and that's where she started in Birmingham.

[2:33:18] So she's done ice-rank facilities for a long time.

[2:33:21] She was very familiar with what the issues were.

[2:33:23] She actually, where the ice rink was heaving, there was a repair, done adjacent to that.

[2:33:29] And years past, she actually found where water was coming in and going under the floor,

[2:33:34] which over time causes the initialation to get wet and causes the heaving.

[2:33:37] She found, and we repaired a leak because she knew there had to be something,

[2:33:42] and she was diligently tracing and finding it.

[2:33:45] She's really been incredible to work with, and we're lucky to have her.

[2:33:49] And as she, I am very confident, she's going to develop a long-term maintenance program

[2:33:52] for not just fairly shrink but for office city facilities.

[2:33:56] So again I think we're lucky to have that I want to point that out I think that's important

[2:34:00] to know that we have someone who is looking out for the long-term, long-term maintenance

[2:34:04] of all of our facilities.

[2:34:07] So with that being said we do have also Mickey here from recreation to talk or to add anything

[2:34:13] about the facility or the contract or any other questions that you may have.

[2:34:16] Did you want to say anything to start?

[2:34:21] I'll just real quick echo Kevin's comments about Connie.

[2:34:24] Connie's been amazing.

[2:34:26] Our facility is super-intended being the project manager for this alongside suburban.

[2:34:32] In particular, you know, this part that we have been waiting on, you know, initially we

[2:34:37] thought this would be a three week project.

[2:34:39] It's now been over six weeks.

[2:34:41] So initially, we, you know, didn't plan on having to close this facility at all.

[2:34:45] we had, you know, the West Rink was down because of the four-heaver pair. That four-heaver pair is completed.

[2:34:53] We're just waiting on this dehumidifier part. Connie has been calling daily to the supplier to

[2:34:59] try to get this part here. She's even threatened to go fly over to New Hampshire to go pick it up herself.

[2:35:06] So we expect it to be here this week so that we can get the ice properly up and running

[2:35:14] And the East Rink, and then it will take a few days for the West Rink to get back up and running as well.

[2:35:20] So, we hear you, and we're hoping to get this arena open as soon as possible to prevent further disruption to programming.

[2:35:29] And we're happy to answer any questions anyone has about, you know, suburban's contract or anything else with the ice arena.

[2:35:37] So, if I understand it correctly, we did a facility assessment on the ice arena.

[2:35:43] And the dehumidifier case, it came back as fair.

[2:35:48] So we had it in the plan, but it didn't appear at the time

[2:35:52] to be an immediate need based on other priorities.

[2:35:57] But it's binary, right?

[2:35:59] Zero or one, it breaks, either works or it doesn't.

[2:36:02] So it's not half-working.

[2:36:04] It's one of these things when it goes, it goes.

[2:36:07] And so we immediately jumped on it.

[2:36:10] And we tried to get this thing fixed as soon as possible that we have a supply chain issue with a key component.

[2:36:16] Did I understand that correctly?

[2:36:18] That's correct. The dehumidifier replacement full replacement is in the CIP for 2829.

[2:36:25] The FCA results estimated we would get another, you know, two, two-ish years out of it with replacement recommended within two to five years.

[2:36:34] So that was put into the CIP for 2829.

[2:36:39] So with this repair, though, like Kevin mentioned,

[2:36:41] Berks, victims of BIR cells a lot more time.

[2:36:44] There were replacement costs of the dehumidifier

[2:36:47] was going to be around $400,000.

[2:36:50] So doing this repair for 119 is hopefully going to buy

[2:36:54] us several more years of life out of that unit.

[2:36:58] And we plan this based on the Icerine as an enterprise fund, correct?

[2:37:03] So we take revenues in from all the skating activity and we put some away as we estimate for future repairs, maintenance, things of that nature.

[2:37:13] Correct. So we have a fund balance and we plan based on facility assessments to say, oh, okay.

[2:37:19] Well, we're going to replace this thing for 400 grand in so many years.

[2:37:23] And if that happens before that, there's a change in what we spend in terms of the ice arena fund.

[2:37:30] It is an enterprise fund. Now, the fund balance in the enterprise fund has been dwindling over the past 10 years, because every time we do a capital project, it comes out of that fund balance.

[2:37:43] So, you can see the years in the history, which we did those projects, it cuts into that fund balance. So, all in all, it is an enterprise fund. So, it's expected to recuperate its expenses year to year.

[2:37:57] It's not always able to do that given capital costs and with the FCA we have some really good data from a third party that has provided recommendations over up to 2045 with what those maintenance needs are going to be so that the city can better plan.

[2:38:20] So that's a really good tool for us moving forward for all of our facilities.

[2:38:23] And we have put, I mean, I know this was news to me.

[2:38:27] I heard some things at public comment that we're concerning, but now getting your explanation

[2:38:32] I feel a little bit better, but we have put investment and I remember we did a brand new

[2:38:38] roof because the roof was leaking.

[2:38:40] We did a paint job.

[2:38:41] We've done some other repairs, right?

[2:38:43] Am I?

[2:38:45] I don't have a list of recent over the last several years of projects, but there has been

[2:38:51] capital projects and within the Isorina, you know, most recently we had the of there was

[2:39:00] of another floor hivis shoe that was mentioned earlier that seedening on the west

[2:39:05] ring that was a major repair a couple years ago that was probably the most substantial

[2:39:09] one. There's been others Kevin made be able to speak to like the locker room had a minor repair.

[2:39:15] Yeah, I don't know.

[2:39:18] Yeah.

[2:39:18] Neither of us have been here for longer than a couple years.

[2:39:23] We don't have much history on the repairs that were done previously.

[2:39:26] I do have the assessment going forward.

[2:39:28] Yeah, I know.

[2:39:28] I know.

[2:39:28] I know from a capital improvement planning every year.

[2:39:31] We have to make decisions as a commission.

[2:39:32] I know we've made approvals of sizable.

[2:39:35] I just can't remember offhand either.

[2:39:37] And I've been here 14 years.

[2:39:38] But I thought we did.

[2:39:39] We put a roof in just a few years ago.

[2:39:41] We had a major leak in the roof.

[2:39:42] We had some other things we had to do.

[2:39:44] And do we rely a lot on suburban to alert us to conditions in the ranks so we have the ability to act or react?

[2:39:55] So I've been here two years now and I meet regularly with suburban.

[2:40:00] They also send us monthly reports as part of their agreement with the city.

[2:40:04] Since I've been here, I've made a point to engage our facility operators within the capital improvement process and the budget process.

[2:40:13] to make sure that they're advising us on what they're seeing day-to-day in the

[2:40:19] facilities. This FCA, the Facilities Conditions Assessment is also going to be a

[2:40:24] great tool. So I expect this fall when we gear up to do the cap-own

[2:40:28] improvement planning again. It's going to be Connie Folk, our Facilities

[2:40:32] Superintendent, myself and suburban all working together to update that CIP going

[2:40:37] into next year. And it'll just be an ongoing tool. We use each year to update

[2:40:42] that CIP before the budget process.

[2:40:44] You all have the difficult decision of deciding where it goes after the CIP, of course, right?

[2:40:49] It don't envy any of you with that.

[2:40:52] But, you know, having Connie on board, especially, and with the FCA, I think we're going

[2:40:56] to be in a really good place for planning going forward.

[2:40:59] Okay, good.

[2:41:00] And just, and I hate to put you on the spot with numbers.

[2:41:03] Do you know how many folks individuals use the ice every night, like number of?

[2:41:12] Figure skating, number of hockey players, both adult and youth, any idea?

[2:41:17] If there's a different question, I can try to look that up for you.

[2:41:20] Right, sure.

[2:41:21] Sure.

[2:41:22] If there's other questions.

[2:41:23] Let me rethink my question and give you a minute.

[2:41:25] This is where we're actually 9,000 hours.

[2:41:27] 9,000 hours of ice time.

[2:41:31] 9,000 hours of ice time.

[2:41:35] I know that from an email.

[2:41:36] I'll miss the McCuton Center to me.

[2:41:38] Has part of the parks record earlier this year?

[2:41:41] Well, she's getting that number to we have another question, Commissioner Colo.

[2:41:46] Thank you.

[2:41:48] So first I want to recognize everyone in the audience, right?

[2:41:50] You know, I think there's a lot of passion to this clearly.

[2:41:53] A lot of use of the ice in a lot of communities.

[2:41:57] It's great, you know, we hear the term third place tonight.

[2:42:00] If ice has been in really important, there are place for people.

[2:42:03] So I just want to recognize that.

[2:42:05] Thank you everyone for being a civil woman coming out and having a good conversation with us.

[2:42:10] So I actually, I do want to highlight a couple things.

[2:42:14] You know, I just look at the CIP and to machines and machines credit.

[2:42:20] You know, in 21, the CIP identified 35,000 repairs.

[2:42:24] 22, 40, 45,000, 23, 10.

[2:42:28] But then up to 25 and what to 1.4 million.

[2:42:31] And then almost 1.6 million in 26, 27.

[2:42:35] So clearly we brought on some staff who identified

[2:42:38] who went in and found some issues with the facility.

[2:42:43] Because for the long time, we had only been presented,

[2:42:46] you know, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of

[2:42:49] repairs, and now it looks like staff has started to

[2:42:52] dig into it, and started to really identify some needs

[2:42:55] that we have at the facility.

[2:42:56] And I think that's real important to recognize.

[2:42:59] The CIP, though, is a multi-year list of things

[2:43:02] that are going to happen throughout,

[2:43:08] you know,

[2:43:10] And, you know, I think one thing, you know, to look at that CAPE also, you have to look back at the amount of money that we spend on that, you know?

[2:43:16] So the Isle's thing went to the budgets from that same amount of time.

[2:43:21] In 2021, beyond the revenue, we spent a million dollars in expenses.

[2:43:27] 21, 22 is only time the last six years that the price range of made money of 50,000.

[2:43:32] But between 20 to now,

[2:43:37] the C is subsidized to about 1.6 million.

[2:43:41] So we have continued to invest out of our funds into that budget.

[2:43:45] I think that's important.

[2:43:46] This has been for us.

[2:43:48] We've continued to invest.

[2:43:50] But now we see we have some deficits coming up.

[2:43:53] And I think some of the next steps we start talking about

[2:43:56] are how do we fund those gaps?

[2:43:59] Because looking at the silly study,

[2:44:02] these gaps only going to grow.

[2:44:04] Someone came up to public comments and I talked about facilities, and their professional

[2:44:08] dealings with that, and if you don't maintain, it only gets worse.

[2:44:11] But I mean, it's costs a lot of money up front also.

[2:44:15] I think one question I'm going to have for staff is, do we have a plan on how we want to

[2:44:20] fund the CIP and fund the projects of the CIP for the ice arena on moving forward?

[2:44:26] Because just the current B structure will not cover it, right?

[2:44:32] So historically, we can look at our performance within the ice arena fund and you're correct that the revenues can typically not cover the capital costs.

[2:44:47] And, you know, long-term, the capital needs for the ice arena. I don't have the answer for that. You know, we can look at fees.

[2:44:56] We can look at the Management Agreement with Suburb.

[2:45:00] It does expire in June. You know, it's an expensive facility to operate, but in general, like the facility conditions assessment is going to give us what that number will look like over time, you know, so we have a rough idea coming up with those millions of dollars over time is going to be a difficult amount to recuperate through fees alone.

[2:45:28] So, you know, there's going to be potentially some some investment needed from the city at some point but how we get to that number I'm not sure that's going to be maybe another discussion for strategic planning with the commission in the future. I'm not sure what what setting we should have that discussion. I don't know that we'll solve it tonight, but it's important to look at that question for this facility but our others as well because there's other facilities that have needs to.

[2:45:57] I appreciate that, but I do think, you know, we're definitely not going to come up with tonight, but I do think we need to have some answers on what that fee schedule would even look like to accomplish our goals in the CIP as this is an enterprise fund.

[2:46:09] We are already, probably like I said, the last five years, we subsidized it to 1.6 or more point to 7 million.

[2:46:15] So, it continued at that same sub-citation rate because I think we're okay at the Mount Wrestling.

[2:46:21] Now look, look at the CIP, so I guess I would ask Mr. Marcos to, you know, over the next several months as to have to develop what's, you know, three different scenarios.

[2:46:31] Let's look at what, you know, without building the capital fund, what does the fee schedule look like?

[2:46:37] What does it look like if we have, say, extra 200,000 year reserves.

[2:46:42] So if you continue because after we get through this five year cycle, there's going to be more stuff to do.

[2:46:49] So, I think that's a free schedule that we need to start praying together and we need to start figuring out

[2:46:55] revenue streams and it's not necessarily only a free schedule, but what revenue streams that we need to have to support that

[2:47:02] because that's our job, right?

[2:47:03] Like, we have to take in what's coming, you know, what funds we have available for that to decide how we're going to invest

[2:47:10] and I think knowing we need to have to develop a plan for that, I think that's critical

[2:47:16] as we continue to invest in this community asset.

[2:47:21] I do have a couple more questions about the repairs itself,

[2:47:25] they'll get into those for a second year.

[2:47:28] Look at all these documents.

[2:47:29] This looks like a problem that started back in April.

[2:47:32] At least was identified as repairing needed back in April.

[2:47:41] I would say I was made aware of the extent of the issues in May.

[2:47:47] Um, so late spring, sure.

[2:47:51] Yeah.

[2:47:52] I guess my question is why, you know, here we are late August.

[2:47:57] So it really fall, you know, the City Commission has a part about this at all.

[2:48:02] So our emails surge to get flooded with concern residents.

[2:48:08] And, you know, that's because, you know, we were policy makers, we're not data data operators.

[2:48:13] But I guess I'm asking why it wasn't the city commission involved and at least approving some of these expenditures.

[2:48:22] The charter is pretty clear that expenditures over 30,000 need to be approved by the commission.

[2:48:29] And I understand, you know, emergency aspects of it, but it's, you know, it happened in May and it's being repaired and August.

[2:48:38] It sounds like, you know, several meetings where we could have been brought into your repair.

[2:48:45] So when I was first meet a weir of the biggest issues in May, you know, I have a memo from suburban dated May 29.

[2:48:58] And at that time we were still collecting quotes from vendors.

[2:49:01] There's not a lot of vendors out there that do this type of work in Metro Detroit.

[2:49:05] So in June we were still collecting quotes and then the decision for delaying commission approval was we weren't sure what the final costs were going to be once they pulled open the floor he even particular

[2:49:20] You know, we took the low bid on that one and we hoped for the best but often with construction projects things can come in much higher once construction's come in

[2:49:30] So given the emergency nature of it,

[2:49:33] because we wanted to limit any kind of potential closure,

[2:49:38] we wanted to get this project started

[2:49:40] as soon as we possibly could.

[2:49:43] And so that was kind of the decision process

[2:49:47] for the delay for taking it to commission, those two things.

[2:49:54] Okay, well, I definitely appreciate trying to keep it moving forward,

[2:49:56] but there's no emergency provision in our church.

[2:50:00] So I just, I've heard about that,

[2:50:02] like involve us with this stuff.

[2:50:04] And then, you know, to that point also,

[2:50:07] I think had, if it's brought to us,

[2:50:09] I might have asked questions about the team, if I were.

[2:50:12] The idea correctly, I identified that it's been replaced.

[2:50:15] It was such a be replaced in two years.

[2:50:18] What does this repair do?

[2:50:20] And what was the cost benefit analysis I came on?

[2:50:23] Because I think there could have been a discussion

[2:50:24] about, instead of paying one 20-ish paying the 400 to replace it, let's go get us another

[2:50:31] 30 years as opposed to 5 or 10.

[2:50:34] Yes, and I appreciate that because I asked the same question, and I was assured by County

[2:50:40] Folk that if we properly maintain this dehumidifier and the repairs that are done to it,

[2:50:46] it'll last rubber.

[2:50:47] So it's a matter of being able to maintain it and not needing a replacement, but to do the repairs

[2:50:52] it and then do the maintenance. So that is the goal of the repair is to just be able to do the

[2:51:00] proper maintenance on it and be able to make it last for years. She had said in the Birmingham

[2:51:06] Ice Arena where she had worked at, that I think the team had a fire in there was 50 or 60 years

[2:51:12] old and they were just able to maintain it and keep it running. So I don't think there's anything

[2:51:23] there's not anything that would have to be scrapped and

[2:51:26] in its entirety as much as just being maintained properly.

[2:51:30] Yeah, I think we could go best questions too about,

[2:51:32] you know, there's also quite a cost by the trade-off

[2:51:34] of the efficiency of an old university unit.

[2:51:38] But I do appreciate that this would extend the lifetime

[2:51:42] forever, apparently.

[2:51:44] As I've been told, as you've been told,

[2:51:46] you know, now it's on TV, so it must be true.

[2:51:50] Okay.

[2:51:50] So, yeah, you know, I appreciate the work, I've gained it done, so my service question is right now.

[2:51:57] I wish her her job, I think, and Mr. Guantina.

[2:51:59] Thank you, I have a few questions.

[2:52:02] So, with these fixes, what we heard tonight and what's most concerning for me is the safety of the skaters.

[2:52:09] So with these fixes, there will no longer be buckets that they have to scale around.

[2:52:16] There will be, there will be safe for them to, with them to correct.

[2:52:21] The issue with that is that there is no dehumanification, so moisture gets in the ice

[2:52:27] rena, and attaches to the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

[2:52:32] And so that's the issue that they've had with it. It's not a roof leak, it's dehumidification, it's a humidification problem.

[2:52:39] And that's causing moisture to drip on and causing, like, you know, cones of ice on the, on the ice surface.

[2:52:46] There's suddenly a bucket to prevent the cones from forming and let you know where they're at, but it's not, it's not the proper way to do it.

[2:52:53] We need to dehumidification system to stop dehumidification in its entirety and allow us to surf.

[2:52:59] Okay. And then can you run through like who's responsible for what? Like we have suburban

[2:53:06] is our management. Can you tell me what we are responsible for when they're responsible for?

[2:53:13] Sure. So, uh, great question. So, since 2011 we've been with suburban within a management

[2:53:21] agreement. So, for management agreements, we pay the operator to operate the facility. So, we

[2:53:28] a suburban and 86,000 management fee,

[2:53:33] plus we pay suburban payroll.

[2:53:35] This comes to approximately $1.1 million per year

[2:53:38] for them to operate the facility on the city's behalf,

[2:53:41] including all their staffing.

[2:53:43] So the entire expenses for the facility

[2:53:45] are around 1.9 million per year.

[2:53:48] So it's more than half is for suburban to operate it on our behalf.

[2:53:54] There's also an incentive for suburban

[2:53:57] And if the facility nets $150,000 in profit, they get an additional 8% of that net profit,

[2:54:05] the last time this happened was 2017.

[2:54:10] So all in all, it's an enterprise fund.

[2:54:13] So all the expenses for the isorina, as well as all the revenues for the isorina, flow

[2:54:19] through a city fund.

[2:54:23] So, I sign off on every single invoice that goes through suburban is the one ordering the services like if we need if we need the

[2:54:35] Zamboni's maintain or we need propane for the Zamboni's, you know, there are the ones actually ordering those services

[2:54:42] Ordering this equipment and supplies paying their staff day-to-day, I'm signing off on

[2:54:47] those invoices every single week, so I review those and, you know, I meet with the operator

[2:54:54] regularly to communicate. They're ultimately responsible for the day-to-day operations of

[2:54:59] the facility, but it's all still city funds. So while they help us maintain it and making sure

[2:55:07] that things are service properly throughout the year,

[2:55:12] it's still ultimately coming out of a city budget

[2:55:13] for day-to-day maintenance,

[2:55:15] capital costs as well, or city responsibility.

[2:55:19] Okay, and so did they flag the safety issues at the ice rink?

[2:55:23] Yeah, and they've been continuing to do that.

[2:55:25] Like, yeah, when did they start flagging safety issues

[2:55:27] at the ice rink?

[2:55:28] So the safety issues for the closure purposes,

[2:55:32] or just like the fact that there's buckets

[2:55:34] where people are skating it, like, actually makes me really concerned.

[2:55:39] So when were those things flagged?

[2:55:43] As far as making it a closure decision, that was flagged.

[2:55:48] But before closure, because any cake would like skate,

[2:55:51] buster me, either ankle, like how do I,

[2:55:54] this isn't my, like, I'm not a skater, so I'm guessing here,

[2:55:57] but there should be just before you get to the emergency

[2:56:00] of closing down the facility, there is probably a level of safety

[2:56:03] that we should, they all students should expect, or any user should expect, were they flagging

[2:56:09] those things to us?

[2:56:12] We were made aware of the issues of the dehumidifier in late May, but at that point, it wasn't

[2:56:22] an issue where we were concerned with the safety being such an issue where we were going to

[2:56:27] hacked programming. Okay, so, you know, there's a certain point where we became, you know,

[2:56:35] hey, we cannot run program safely anymore. So that's when, you know, I had the conversation

[2:56:41] with suburban and we made the decision, August 14th to go ahead and close. Before that, it wasn't

[2:56:48] to a point where we felt it was unsafe for people. Okay, but they, or the ones that determined that,

[2:56:55] or we, the ones that determine that.

[2:56:57] Suburban would be.

[2:56:58] Okay, yeah.

[2:56:59] And then at public comment tonight,

[2:57:01] someone talked about Farmington's Suburban.

[2:57:03] There's other Suburban's.

[2:57:05] Yeah, so Suburban operates their own reeks,

[2:57:08] and then they also operate City of Novice Reak

[2:57:11] for the City of Novice.

[2:57:12] And so are they having the same issues

[2:57:15] that we are as far as funding it, maintaining it,

[2:57:19] being aware of alerts?

[2:57:20] Like are we learning from these other ice rinks because they should be haul having the same problems that we are?

[2:57:28] Like we're not, this isn't new to it.

[2:57:31] It's

[2:57:34] these facilities require a lot of ongoing maintenance.

[2:57:38] And if the maintenance is not done every single year with these big capital projects, so I get what you're saying.

[2:57:49] So yeah, so if we had tons of money, we could fix this problem very easily, but no

[2:57:53] vise doing it.

[2:57:54] So how is no vise doing it, but Royal Oak can't do it.

[2:57:57] How is farming doing it, but Royal Oak can't do it?

[2:58:00] How do we ensure safety and funding maintenance?

[2:58:03] How are we not doing it, but everyone else is doing it?

[2:58:07] So if there are regional conversation happening, I guess this leads into what Commissioner

[2:58:12] Callow was talking about is like how do we think innovatively about funding because we know that

[2:58:18] this is a community asset. We know that we want to have this, but for some reason we're failing,

[2:58:26] where other communities may not be or maybe everyone is failing.

[2:58:31] So are we talking about these assets

[2:58:33] regionally in parts and wreck? Are we thinking about how to fund these things at a regional level?

[2:58:40] So, ice arena is a very similar to pools and that they typically require heavy city subsidy

[2:58:46] in terms of those ongoing maintenance costs.

[2:58:50] I wouldn't say that there's another example of an ice arena that is performing much better than us.

[2:58:58] There may be some, but typically there's a pretty sizable capital investment ongoing in these facilities.

[2:59:06] Commissioner Herzog, I'll help answer that question as well. I had a conversation

[2:59:09] well, an exchange with the, uh, with Justin, um, Shore Mayor of Novai, about their

[2:59:15] rice arena. And, like, we've seen, um, around here, like, at public comment, like,

[2:59:21] Berkeley, everybody had shut them down or sold them to private organizations because, uh,

[2:59:27] of exactly what Ms. McEarshan is talking about. And they are having a similar discussion kind

[2:59:33] in Novai right now. There's some additional complications, but they are trying to justify the amount

[2:59:39] of subsidies that are going to the ice arena there, and can they afford it as a city for the

[2:59:46] people that use it. So this is exactly what he's saying. But we were hearing at public comment,

[2:59:51] people were coming from all over. It's not just royal oak residents that need this ice. We got

[2:59:56] a strong high, soft field, and so.

[3:00:00] I'm wondering if there is a conversation that needs to happen regionally so that we can maintain these assets, but, you know, everyone's pitching in forum.

[3:00:08] And I don't know if there is like a community or if someone doing that.

[3:00:12] But I also think that we should be learning lessons between all of these things too, and then try to solve our problems.

[3:00:18] And I don't know if that conversation is happening. And then my last point is that if there's a suburban management contract is in 2027,

[3:00:29] and are we planning on going for an RFP?

[3:00:33] It would be my recommendation to do one

[3:00:35] simply because there hasn't been one in a while

[3:00:37] and just, you know, it's good due diligence

[3:00:39] to periodically do an RFP,

[3:00:41] just to see what else might be out there.

[3:00:43] And when do you think you'll plan on posting that?

[3:00:47] Um, you know, I don't have it in front of me,

[3:00:50] but you know, I've worked with our purchasing coordinator

[3:00:54] and finance to sort of slate out some dates,

[3:00:57] you know, we typically work backwards

[3:00:58] from when a contract expires, so it would be sometime early in 2027.

[3:01:04] Great, thank you.

[3:01:06] I'm sure you're going to.

[3:01:08] Thank you, Mayor.

[3:01:09] I just want to start by echoing Commissioner Colo's sentiments and acknowledge everyone that came out to speak tonight.

[3:01:15] It certainly helped enlighten me to understand how important the facility is, not only to our community,

[3:01:20] but it was particularly compelling to me as the number of young members of our community that came out to speak tonight.

[3:01:24] It's a late meeting now, but they chose to take one of their fleeting free summer evenings to come speak about this topic.

[3:01:35] So I just want to commend you for sort of embodying what community is all about.

[3:01:40] We have a great community in my view in my respects due to the fact that we have little communities like this that come out and advocate for the things that help us understand what makes our broader community so great.

[3:01:50] But my question is around this third party operating agreement.

[3:01:56] Commissioner Herzl actually asked quite a few that helped me understand it, but I'm still a little bit unclear

[3:02:00] in terms of what internal check mechanisms that we have with these third party operators

[3:02:05] in terms of their requirements of reporting or what accountability that they have to help inform us

[3:02:12] of preventative maintenance items, safety items.

[3:02:15] Obviously, this is somewhat of an emergent item in terms of this dehumidrifier going down.

[3:02:21] But it's more of a broader question around, again, what sort of accountability these third-party operators have,

[3:02:28] in eating the city to prevent things like this.

[3:02:31] You mentioned a monthly report that they give, but what I just don't know in the minutia of the contract language,

[3:02:38] is what they're sort of required, what information they're required to give to us to help prevent this,

[3:02:42] What interaction do they have with the conversations around the CIP or do they have any?

[3:02:50] Are they absolved of any accountability or responsibility and is it solely on us as a city?

[3:02:55] I don't know if that question is for you.

[3:02:57] Mr. Gachalski or who's going to?

[3:03:02] I'll start and if anybody else wants to add anything, feel free.

[3:03:07] But the, you know, they're responsible for the data data operations.

[3:03:11] they do help with budget planning. So when we start the CIP process, I've included them in

[3:03:20] in-net process, you know, alongside the FCA results and their recommendations, and then, of course,

[3:03:27] this year with Connie Folk being on board, that's going to be really great asset for us planning this next

[3:03:32] round. So they start there with the CIP, they're definitely involved in those recommendations,

[3:03:37] As far as the budgeting for maintenance, there's maintenance lines within the isorina fund.

[3:03:44] So they make recommendations on what goes in every single budget line within the isorina fund.

[3:03:50] So I work directly with the suburban staff to determine what to put into the city budget request for the isorina fund every year.

[3:03:59] Okay, but I guess my questions are around the, their operating agreement itself and is their

[3:04:05] language in there that compels them to inform us, communicate with us and help us plan for

[3:04:12] preventative maintenance or operational items long term to help avoid things like this.

[3:04:17] I know that they give input in CIP, projects and things, but I guess my question is, are they

[3:04:24] acquired to help identify these things as time goes on or does that language not really

[3:04:31] exist in the agreement where they try to help, but they're really not compelled to help.

[3:04:37] I would have to take a closer look to see what the language is.

[3:04:43] I've got in front of me, but all in all, it benefits suburban for the city too.

[3:04:54] maintain this facility properly. So they are very much incentivized to work with us to make

[3:05:02] sure that things are maintained properly, right? So at the end of the day, they're the ones

[3:05:10] that are customer facing, they're the ones in the facility every single day. So of course, they

[3:05:18] you know, they would want the facility to be in the best condition that it can be.

[3:05:22] Now, you know, if at the end of the day, the budget is just not available to do everything

[3:05:28] in the CIP that we would like to do and ask to be deferred, you know, that's out of,

[3:05:33] that's out of everybody's control right to an extent, including suburban.

[3:05:38] So, so they advise the city on what to put in the CIP and they advise the city on what to put

[3:05:44] budget request. But I'm not sure if there's specific language on them helping with the long-term

[3:05:52] planning.

[3:05:55] I don't recall any of the top of my head. I'm not sure our city attorney has any thoughts

[3:06:01] on that specific question. I'm not familiar terribly of the thousands of different agreements

[3:06:09] and countries we look over, but certainly make sense if it's not in there, I think we're

[3:06:15] going to take the afternoon cleaning that up like we have been cleaning up a lot of our

[3:06:19] contracts when they come up for renewal or rebid, and this just is one that we've maybe not

[3:06:25] able to get to and my short tenure here, but we are working on it and makes complete not

[3:06:31] a sense to make sure that's in there. If it's not already and it could be, but I don't know exactly,

[3:06:37] that it will be. I appreciate that because that's actually more to the answer or more to the answer I was looking for in the sense that we have a lot of third party agreements and I think in all of those agreements there needs to be something along the lines of what we just discussed.

[3:06:53] Because these are the operators that should be helping us make sure those facilities are operating at the top level.

[3:07:02] All right. Thank you.

[3:07:05] Thank you, Mayor, thank you for being here tonight and sharing some of the details of the suburban agreement and all those aspects of this issue.

[3:07:19] I am feeling a little bit dissatisfied with the safety concerns that popped up in the timeline there.

[3:07:26] So I kind of want to dig in a little bit more there because we've talked about it.

[3:07:30] Talk about the buckets. What really worries me is the buckets in combination with fog, seem like a really bad combination.

[3:07:37] And just really setting up unsafe circumstances.

[3:07:41] And you mentioned that suburban is incentivized to have a condition as possible, but they're going to lose money when we close.

[3:07:54] And so I'm a little bit concerned that those buckets and five were there for a while, perhaps before we found out about it.

[3:08:01] Certainly before we found out about it. But perhaps before you found out about it, because if everyone wanted to stay open, to keep generating revenues.

[3:08:12] So I'd like to, I'd like us to, if not tonight, I would like us to dig into when did buckets start going on to the ice.

[3:08:18] When did you learn about them and how can that, how did that set up or not set us up to be able to replace the de-humanifier in time before?

[3:08:32] I think it was said tonight that August was one of the busier times.

[3:08:38] I might not be right on that.

[3:08:39] But so we ordered these parts really close to perhaps a busy time, perhaps it's because

[3:08:47] we had to because that's when the information came to us, but I'm concerned that suburban

[3:08:52] may not have been forthright early enough to address these safety concerns.

[3:08:56] That's probably my biggest concern walking out here tonight.

[3:09:02] I can look back into the timeline of when Bucket started for sure, but you know, the time

[3:09:11] frame of the July 13th start with a three-week, the hopeful, three-week plan.

[3:09:19] That was specifically targeted as a kind of a low before our program started back up in

[3:09:24] August.

[3:09:25] Now, with the unexpected delay in the part, that unfortunately led to the closure, which impacted

[3:09:30] the start of those programs.

[3:09:33] So had there not been a delay in the part, we would have been in a really good lower programming

[3:09:39] time of that July 13th to, you know, that first week or so of August was what if he had

[3:09:46] originally hoped.

[3:09:50] And I think you said that you'll do this, but again, I really like to know

[3:09:53] how long the bucket's gone on the ice. I think that's really critical for us to understand that.

[3:10:02] Mr. Bastion,

[3:10:05] so many good points coming from everybody, so forgive me if I might be repeating

[3:10:09] a question in different terms.

[3:10:12] With the understanding that suburban manages day-to-day operations, Ms. McHeter and you said

[3:10:18] that you sign off on invoices.

[3:10:21] Do you view the original purchase orders before they are made?

[3:10:27] Do you offer approval to those purchase orders before invoices come in?

[3:10:32] Yes.

[3:10:34] Just my concern is that echoing some of the sentiments by your seeing purchase orders, I would think that

[3:10:43] that is a means by which suburban

[3:10:45] if indirectly is indicating that services are required and maintenance is required.

[3:10:54] Thank you.

[3:11:01] All right, to summarize,

[3:11:04] we have a CIP.

[3:11:05] That CIP has been updated with new personnel that understand ice-a-rain as a little bit more

[3:11:13] maybe than previous facility managers.

[3:11:16] We expect that to get even better and more refined in the next cycle because of Connie's

[3:11:24] participation in a little bit more coordination with suburban.

[3:11:29] And this particular issue was unexpected.

[3:11:33] Could have been predicted maybe, should we have been maintaining it possibly, but without

[3:11:38] that expertise, it's a challenge.

[3:11:41] It failed.

[3:11:43] And we thought we could get some programming out of it for a while.

[3:11:46] And then we started putting, whoever started putting buckets on ice and then it became unattainable,

[3:11:52] not sustainable.

[3:11:53] and the facility was shut down because primarily due to the fact that he

[3:11:58] humidifier broke and the part to get in to fix it is somehow just not

[3:12:04] coming in as expected. Do I have that right? Yeah. And we've Commissioner

[3:12:12] Colowe's Math is correct. The Enterprise Fund through fees and revenues from

[3:12:16] people playing to figure skate and paying to play hockey and drop in hockey and

[3:12:20] that go into a pot, we pay suburban their contract to manage it, we pay all the other expenses

[3:12:26] electricity, maintenance, all of these other things. And we have some money that goes into

[3:12:31] a reserve into a fund that's supposed to address these type of repairs. But even though we put

[3:12:35] money into that fund over a certain period of years, we subsidize probably out of the general

[3:12:42] fund if this is accurate. Again, I'm not challenging to say you're wrong, but I haven't seen

[3:12:50] if that's true, which meets the claim what you said about every other ice arena in the

[3:12:55] area, which is cities, just like pools, heavily subsidized these facilities, because

[3:13:01] they're very expensive to operate, they break all the time, it's very specialized,

[3:13:05] Everything's specialized.

[3:13:06] You don't go to Walmart and buy a dehumidifier and pop it to the top of the arena.

[3:13:11] It's all very, you know, the Zamboni, very specialized.

[3:13:13] Everything's very expensive.

[3:13:15] So, you know, when I first came on board here, back in 2011, it wasn't Kevin Y. It was Greg

[3:13:24] Rassel, sitting in that seat. And Greg Rassel was a Marine. And Greg Rassel had a saying that,

[3:13:31] I probably repeat at least twice a day in my day job. And he said, I can do anything that you want.

[3:13:38] just tell me what you don't want me to do.

[3:13:42] And I think that's often the challenges that we're faced

[3:13:45] you know more collectively as city government.

[3:13:49] The ice arena is important.

[3:13:50] I don't think there's any doubt the benefit it brings

[3:13:53] to our community from a qualitative point of view.

[3:13:55] The programming youth sports are critical

[3:13:58] to quality of life here.

[3:14:00] It's critical to the future of, you know,

[3:14:03] our state, this country, this nation,

[3:14:05] have well-rounded individuals that learn discipline, learn failure, find success.

[3:14:13] We don't disagree with that at all. I think what it comes down to is, as we start to look at

[3:14:21] the long-term needs of the arena, what is it going to take? What is that financial responsibility

[3:14:28] of the users of the arena, and what is that financial responsibility of the taxpayers of

[3:14:32] Roya Locke?

[3:14:35] In almost every case with our enterprise funds and for those of you who do not know

[3:14:39] enterprise funds either, they're basically funds like the water system.

[3:14:42] We don't make any money off it, we charge you for your water bill, we take that money,

[3:14:45] we pay for repairs, we do everything and we try to net zero, we put money away,

[3:14:49] and do a million dollar water line repairs, and all of that stuff, that's an enterprise fund.

[3:14:54] The library has its own village, so improvements you've seen in the library, they have their own village, they get grants.

[3:15:00] A lot of our parks have seen investment over the years, but we've been very scrappy. Most of that has come from community block grant funding, which is from the federal government, so certain parks qualify, and most of those parks haven't seen a dime in 25 years. We have 52 parks, so we're spending money in neighborhoods, as we should be, but a lot of that's coming from other matched resources.

[3:15:22] Our two big parks, this one out here, Centennial Commons, as a sponsorship to keep it's not going maintenance costs.

[3:15:29] Henry Ford Health Systems sponsors that part, which allows us to maintain it.

[3:15:35] Normandy Oaks, we sold out 10 acres of Normandy Oaks to pay for the improvements there.

[3:15:40] And we partnered with the county to defer into freight costs.

[3:15:43] The additional homes that were built there, actually that incremental tax revenue pays for the maintenance of the park.

[3:15:47] So in every investment that we've made in the community, we've tried to be very clever about how we can, you know, not get, just get cool things, but also make sure we can sustain them.

[3:16:00] I serene is tricky, it's old. It's got high demand, high use, which is a good thing.

[3:16:05] But we have to leverage the expertise that we have right now and figure out what that goes strategy is.

[3:16:14] You know, costs are outpacing revenue for cities, inflation is out of control.

[3:16:22] We, you know, all these contractors that we have to pay to fix the ice arena to fix anything

[3:16:27] the city do roads or whatever costs are going through the roof.

[3:16:31] We as a community can only collect 5% more than what we collected the previous year, even though

[3:16:35] inflation is outpacing that significantly.

[3:16:38] Why?

[3:16:39] So if you don't know how cities are financed in the state of Michigan, read up on it, you'll be absolutely shocked.

[3:16:47] We have the worst, we just will financing system, I think, in the country.

[3:16:53] And what that means is we've left not we, but because of some lawmakers in Lansing back in the day through the headley moment,

[3:16:59] just this year, $44 million left on the table on headley rollbacks.

[3:17:05] So everyone's like, oh, you build new houses, you do all this stuff, yeah.

[3:17:08] And we're only allowed to collect 5% more, so we roll back the milledrate.

[3:17:12] It doesn't make any sense, does it?

[3:17:13] Well, that's the world we're operating in.

[3:17:15] So we've had to be very clever and scrappy over the years

[3:17:18] to do the work we've done in this city.

[3:17:21] The golf course.

[3:17:22] We were $80,000 in the rears on water bills,

[3:17:27] and we just couldn't accept that.

[3:17:29] We was at 600,000.

[3:17:31] It was $80,000 a year.

[3:17:32] That's what it was.

[3:17:33] And so I mean, to subsidize the golf of a few hundred people,

[3:17:37] just seemed like an irresponsible use of our funding of our taxpayer dollars. So we're able to work

[3:17:43] and get clever and figure out a way with the golf course management to at least get back

[3:17:47] on tracks. So, you know, was it six on?

[3:17:55] Three in change. Okay. Well, I hope Commissioner

[3:17:58] Cole is right on his numbers. But the point is valid is like, look, and everything that we do,

[3:18:04] we don't have unlimited funds. So we have to make sure we have an honest conversation of what

[3:18:09] needs to be done, what parts need to be taken care of and revenue, what other creative ideas

[3:18:14] that we had.

[3:18:15] I had someone pitch me to see if they could use the isorina for a semi-pro leak out of Ontario,

[3:18:23] and they were willing to make a big investment in it.

[3:18:26] What that meant was less ice time.

[3:18:27] So there's trade-offs, right?

[3:18:29] So we have to get very clever about how we approach this because I don't know that we're

[3:18:40] if we're just going to subsidize it out of the general fund.

[3:18:43] I'll tell you, I want to see the ice arena succeed.

[3:18:46] I'm not going to take life saving equipment away

[3:18:50] from our firefighters to, you know, fund it.

[3:18:52] And I don't think any of you feel that way either.

[3:18:54] So we have to get real clever, real creative quick,

[3:18:57] and, you know, be open to all sorts of plans.

[3:19:00] But the first thing we have to do is, you know,

[3:19:03] at least feel very comfortable with that CIP plan is,

[3:19:05] and what that maintenance plan is.

[3:19:09] But right now, what's before us is an emergency repair that is a no-brainer, in my opinion,

[3:19:16] we have to, I mean, from a business point of view you're losing revenue, I mean, it makes

[3:19:21] no sense.

[3:19:21] It's not to approve this and get this done right away.

[3:19:24] And if you need any help from me to call the vendor, and I can be a big pain in the

[3:19:31] ass, let me know, and I can get on the phone with them and make sure that park gets here

[3:19:35] as well. So, Commissioner Cole, thank you, Mr.

[3:19:41] I think probably a point where I can make a motion for the night, but before I do, I just

[3:19:45] want to ask Mr. Marcus, I made a comment and then the Mary had made some comments.

[3:19:49] Are you comfortable with asking staff to make a plan to fund the CIP and what different structures

[3:19:56] like that look like, or would you like that in the form of motion?

[3:20:01] Okay, so then I move the motion as presented and then add or across the staff to reduce the plan to pay for the CIP, but over the next five years and what that looks like in different fees and schedules and potential, any other opportunity that can

[3:20:27] I mean, revenue source, I don't know why the revenue source is sponsorships, you name it.

[3:20:32] You have a motion by Commissioner Kolo, is there a second second by Commissioner

[3:20:35] Hursaud?

[3:20:36] Discussion?

[3:20:40] So close.

[3:20:41] I can't say it.

[3:20:42] I think what we heard tonight was, you know, sports community, it's something that we

[3:20:48] value here.

[3:20:50] I want to agree with the mayor, and that we have to come up with creative ways to

[3:20:55] fund the things that we want to see in the community, and we gave a bunch of

[3:21:00] of great examples of how we've done that.

[3:21:03] So we look forward to discussing that more.

[3:21:06] My biggest concern tonight is the safety of the users

[3:21:09] of the rank and when things are flagged to us,

[3:21:13] or to the staff, when things are flagged to the commission,

[3:21:18] because tonight we heard from public comment

[3:21:20] of the safety issues, we did not hear that from the city.

[3:21:25] And then lastly, I just want to thank the parents and coaches,

[3:21:29] All the students that came up here tonight

[3:21:31] is very intimidating to come and advocate for what you care about

[3:21:35] to us any adult, which feel that way.

[3:21:39] And all these kids came, they were so respectful,

[3:21:42] they clearly advocated for what they loved.

[3:21:45] And that is a life skill that many adults do not have.

[3:21:48] And so you should be very proud of how you're raising these students.

[3:21:57] I'm going to agree more.

[3:21:59] Anybody else?

[3:22:02] All right.

[3:22:04] I'll call for the vote.

[3:22:05] I'll also pay for say aye.

[3:22:06] Aye, those opposed motion passes.

[3:22:09] All right.

[3:22:09] We have some relief now.

[3:22:11] Let's figure out what the long term plan is.

[3:22:16] I guess technically you can clap now.

[3:22:18] I'm just not going to call.

[3:22:21] All right.

[3:22:23] Oh, that is true.

[3:22:25] All right.

[3:22:26] This is brought us to the end of the agenda tonight.

[3:22:28] Does anyone have anything else?

[3:22:30] We want to discuss, they want to make a motion to adjourn. We have motion to adjourn by Commissioner Herzog, second by Commissioner Gantina. Discussion on this motion. All right, with none. I'll call for the vote. All's in favor say aye. Aye, those opposed motion passes. adjourned.

City Commission

Agenda

Transcript