[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:36] . . . . . . . . . . .
[0:56] We're on live, but we're live right now, but the mics are disabled, so yeah.
[2:26] Thank you for
[2:40] coming this evening and I have maybe 30 seconds before 6 o'clock.
[2:51] I would
[2:51] I now have six o'clock. So again, I want to welcome you to the town hall meeting for Flint
[2:57] Township. This is an informal town hall meeting. We'll present some information and we
[3:03] have provided sheets of paper for you to ask your questions. We won't have a traditional
[3:08] public comment. The township is not doing any business this evening. Like I said, it's
[3:14] going to be an informal meeting and I would like to keep it to an hour. So I hope to have
[3:19] this wrapped up by seven o'clock not to use up too much of your time and start
[3:23] the meeting if we could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance if you're
[3:26] able to.
[3:31] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
[3:36] Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and
[3:43] justice for all. Thank you. So I didn't introduce myself my name's Karen Miller if
[3:51] If you don't know me, I'm the township supervisor and we'll start with an introduction to
[3:58] the committee, the name change committee.
[4:00] I want to introduce Jerry Preston.
[4:02] He was asked to chair the name change committee starting back I think in 2016 and the reason
[4:08] I asked him to do that is because he's a certified registered parliamentarian and the best way
[4:13] to get something done in a meeting is orderly and efficiently and he was able to do that.
[4:17] So I'm going to ask Jerry to take over and just give you the highlights from what the committee came up with.
[4:25] You know, this was a really fun exercise I had. I'm going to take you on a little journey about how it all came together.
[4:32] And when the supervisor first asked me to chair this committee, I looked back and found out that four other times the township has tried to change their name.
[4:40] back in the fifties they tried to create the city of West Haven and the closest
[4:46] that ever came was in the subsidies when the city of Grandview Heights was
[4:51] being proposed. The charter was put on the ballot and Ted Mansour, the then
[4:56] township supervisor, was running for mayor. Well, Ted Mansour got elected but the
[5:02] charter failed. So he got elected to a city that didn't exist. So there was
[5:08] another committee formed in May of 2012 and it had a couple of meetings and it kind of fizzled.
[5:15] And so when the supervisor was running for election clear back in 2016, a lot of
[5:21] businesses and township residents said, you know, this Flint water thing's a problem.
[5:26] We don't have Flint water. We've never had Flint water, but they had big signs as you'll remember
[5:30] in front of restaurants and hotels and things like that saying, we don't have Flint water.
[5:36] And so when she asked me to chair this committee, I said, well, who do you want on the committee?
[5:40] She says, let's hold a meeting and see who shows up.
[5:43] About 100 people showed up and at that time, Trustee Leverts wasn't a Trustee at the time,
[5:49] but he was a good member of our committee.
[5:51] And there are several other committees out here that they came along and became part of the process.
[5:56] And we called ourselves the blank committee because we didn't want to predispose that we're
[6:00] going to create a city or whatever.
[6:02] We just called it the blank committee until finally, and I think it was your suggestion, trustee, that it'd be called the suggestion committee.
[6:10] Anyway, that's what we end up calling ourselves.
[6:13] We ended up having nine meetings, and of course, I made sure these meetings were quite efficient.
[6:19] They addressed everything from insurance rates, zip codes, whether we wanted to create a city or not.
[6:26] And ultimately 103 names were finally submitted.
[6:29] And we didn't just ask for the name.
[6:31] We wanted them to tell us the background of the name,
[6:34] the etymology of the name, and all of that sort of thing.
[6:37] Of those names, we bowed them down and created a list
[6:40] of the top 10.
[6:41] Those top 10 we did in an hour through a process
[6:44] that I set up to do that.
[6:47] And bottom line, the committee decided we did not
[6:49] want to become a city.
[6:51] They were concerned that a city might create increased taxes
[6:55] and things like that.
[6:56] But we did want to change the name
[6:58] and that time a name got changed that was well we know Auburn Hills and what happened
[7:04] upon the act township became Auburn Hills and we know the success they had and if you
[7:08] go back and think about it why was the city trying to change why was the township I'm
[7:13] sorry trying to change its name back in the 50s and 70s the city of front had a pretty
[7:18] aggressive annexation program at the time and the airport and GM got annexed to the city
[7:25] taken out of the townships tax base and at that time cities had that power of just taking them
[7:33] over. And even Swartz Creek took a little bit out of the side that is a GM plant down there.
[7:38] And so what resulted of that is the Burton Township became the city of Burton because that way
[7:45] they couldn't be annexed. Well finally charter townships were enabled by the Michigan legislature and
[7:50] no longer could cities take over and in
[7:53] X various processes and so they were the
[7:58] committee then after work came up with
[8:00] Carmen Hills. That was the recommended
[8:02] name on a May and March 30th of 2017.
[8:06] Now this is how long ago this was. The
[8:08] committee reported the trustees to
[8:10] recommend that name change not to become
[8:12] a city but just want to become a name
[8:16] change no change in government no change
[8:18] and how things work, etc. Well, the trustees wanted more information. They wanted to know about the marketability and branding of the name.
[8:26] And that time, I happen to be on the governor's appointee as the travel commissioner and we created pure Michigan.
[8:35] You all know the name pure Michigan. One of the best brands in the world right now as far as travel promotion.
[8:41] We hired the guy that created pure Michigan, the DDA, through Tracy's work, hired Eric Boe to conduct a survey.
[8:49] Well, no sooner did we get him hired than the township attorney on March 25 said,
[8:54] there's no provision allowing townships to change the name.
[8:57] You can't do it.
[8:58] I said, what do you mean?
[9:00] Villages can, counties can, cities can, why can't we change?
[9:05] And in fact, I went back and looked and found out that originally in 1836
[9:10] This township was called Garland Township.
[9:14] It was named to that after James Smith's son-in-law,
[9:18] who was a military general, and James Smith
[9:21] was the founder of Flint.
[9:22] And so six months after that happened,
[9:25] they decided to change their name to Flint Township
[9:27] because of this settlement along the river
[9:29] that was calling itself Flint
[9:31] because of the arrowheads they found in the river.
[9:34] And they thought that that settlement
[9:36] might be kind of the seat for Flint Township
[9:39] because it was all part of Fentany's challenge up.
[9:42] Well, in 1855, they decided they wanted
[9:45] a professional fire department.
[9:47] And so they created the City of Flint's fire department
[9:49] and created the City of Flint so they could do that.
[9:52] So they're not the Flint City fire department
[9:54] and the Flint City are both have a birthday of 1855.
[9:58] 19 years after the township was formed.
[10:03] So I called the state elections,
[10:06] Secretary of State and said, wait a minute, you tell us you can't change the name, but
[10:11] how did this happen clear back in 1855 that we went from Garland Township to Flint
[10:17] Township. She said, I don't know, but you just can't do it. Okay fine, we can't do it.
[10:23] We have to have legislation. So on October 4th, 2017, I got our State Representative
[10:29] Phil Phelps to introduce House Bill 5056. This House Bill would provide the way that
[10:34] the townships could change their name.
[10:36] It was sent to the local government committee
[10:38] chaired by Republican and didn't get out of committee.
[10:42] The same old R.D. stuff that we got going on today
[10:45] happened then.
[10:46] So, two years later, our representative, John Cherry,
[10:51] you know that name.
[10:52] Obviously the lieutenant governor's son
[10:54] introduced House Bill 4612.
[10:56] Same fate, the Democrat reduced the bill
[10:59] and didn't get out of committee.
[11:01] So I got a little smart.
[11:02] I said we got a Republican state legislator on the other side of the county. His name is Dave Martin. I had him introduce the bill on January 18th, 2020.
[11:14] And House bill I'm sorry April 24, 2021 House bill 4637 was introduced by Representative Martin.
[11:21] It was co-signed by where I was in a sherry hall of Lysia, Bricksey, Whitsitt.
[11:26] So we had a lot of co-signers behind this thing.
[11:29] It passed out a committee right along party lines, passed the House with a strong majority
[11:34] 94 to 10, passed the Senate unanimously, signed by the governor seven days later.
[11:41] So public act 97, which is what we're under now, becomes the state law son of die in 19 and
[11:46] 2021.
[11:48] And so we turned the survey back on.
[11:50] You know, we had hired this guy six years earlier and so he went out and did the survey and he looked at the ten names that we had
[11:58] And he said old kills is the name we probably should have
[12:01] Why did he select that as opposed to the others
[12:04] It has no negatives to it
[12:06] All the other names are associated with a person or an individual or another city
[12:10] I mean, I like garland a little bit
[12:12] But you know, we got garland in Texas garland Missouri garland golf courses all that sort of stuff
[12:16] But there's no other old kills city
[12:20] in the United States.
[12:22] Now, just to be straight, don't Google it right away
[12:24] because some of these presentations are going to say,
[12:26] hey, there's all kills California.
[12:28] There are five unincorporated census districts
[12:31] that I've found, which are named all kills.
[12:34] There's also some grade yards and some golf courses
[12:36] and things like that, but there's no other municipal
[12:38] government named all kills.
[12:42] And so that's the name that was preferred to the trustees.
[12:46] Now, the bill that was passed said that
[12:49] but if two-thirds of the trustees pick a name and put it on the November ballot and if
[12:57] the people by majority approve that name, the trustees may, they're not required, approve
[13:03] that name. And so that's where we're at. This is on the ballot in November and you're
[13:09] going to be asked to vote, yes or no on that ballot. Now, in April 10, 2022, we put that
[13:17] request before the trustees and unfortunately they voted it down four to three.
[13:23] And so recently the supervisor and I've been getting a lot of people saying whatever happened
[13:28] to the name change.
[13:29] I sure like to see that happen.
[13:30] There's a lot of stuff that's percolating and causing people to rethink this and want
[13:35] to do something about making the name change.
[13:37] And so the supervisor called a special meeting on July 20th of 2026 and at that special meeting
[13:44] the trustees approved putting this name all kills on the ballot by a five-to-one vote.
[13:51] Now on the ballot, can you hand me that?
[13:59] Here's a sample ballot, and believe it or not, there are six different ballot initiatives
[14:05] on here for you to vote yes or no on.
[14:07] Two of them are for state.
[14:09] There's con con and the money out of politics issue.
[14:13] There's two county renewal millages on here.
[14:15] There's a mock community college rule in the million, but the fifth one down is the is the a vote to vote. Yes for all kills and so
[14:30] Okay, yes or no, yeah, you can check either box. We hope you'll check the right one
[14:35] So anyway part of the reason we want to do this is there's confusion
[14:40] Within the township you saw those little questions stuff. I gave you I listed the four zip code
[14:46] I mean, the seven zip codes with four different names there.
[14:49] You know, I've made some presentations of rotary clubs and things like that.
[14:52] And I asked people who lives in foot township and several people raise their hand.
[14:56] And I said, well, how do you approve that?
[14:58] So, take your driver's license.
[15:00] That's your government issued an idea and some guy said, I'm from flushing it says here. I'm from Swartz Creek, somebody else says. It doesn't say Flint Township for me. So that's why it is. And so water wasn't the only thing that was confusing. When when mayor weaver was up for recall, over 100 people, 100 voters from Flint Township, tried, they called the election clerk here and said, there's no place on the ballot for me to vote for mayor.
[15:29] Weaver. How come?" He said, because you live in Flint, township. That's why. It says,
[15:33] Flint on my driver's license, why can't I vote?
[15:38] Interestingly enough, I thought it might
[15:42] have been the confusion with the supervisor's name and the mayor's name, Karen and Karen,
[15:47] but at the same time that happened, the supervisor in Davidson's township's name was Karen Miller,
[15:54] or identical to hers spelled a little differently, first name.
[15:58] But nobody in Davis in township had any confusion, right?
[16:01] Because it's Davis in township, not quote,
[16:03] from a township.
[16:05] The other thing is kind of interesting
[16:06] in the last primary, there were several people
[16:08] that tried to vote in Swartz Creek from Flint, Township,
[16:11] because that's what it's said in their license.
[16:13] And they got turned back.
[16:15] So that's a background of how we got here today.
[16:19] The measure is on the ballot.
[16:20] But just to be sure that you understand, the only thing that will happen if you vote
[16:27] for it and if the trustees approve it is that wherever you see Flint Township written,
[16:32] that will get changed.
[16:34] Your postal address will not change.
[16:37] What we intend to do because the post office, you know, would have done this for us before,
[16:42] but that's one of the things we talked about in the committee is trying to get the post office
[16:46] to figure out something about these zip codes.
[16:48] what we will do is we will work with our US congressman to change the post offices name and then work with the post office to try and get the zip codes fixed.
[17:00] And the simplest way that the post office can do that, frankly, is keep the numbers the same but change the name in front of it.
[17:08] And if you look on that little slip of paper that I gave you with the question thing, you'll see there are two zip codes that have two names.
[17:15] The first name is what the post office says is the preferred name for that zip code.
[17:20] The second name is an alternative name that they recognize.
[17:23] So there are two zip codes that already have been modified or fixed in.
[17:27] And I think we will have some success in doing that.
[17:31] So that's what I think helps bring us to this point.
[17:34] Are we ready for your questions or?
[17:39] I see a few questions.
[17:40] You didn't speak about the cost.
[17:42] Well, I can, let me have the, I got a little form here.
[17:48] On these questions, you've got a little shoot of paper.
[17:51] I'll just go over these with you real quick, like the first point is,
[17:55] there's a clear positive identity for our community.
[17:57] There's no confusion if we can, as we said,
[18:00] O'Kill's is not there.
[18:02] It was identified by marketing experts.
[18:04] You know, people said, how did you come up with the name O'Kill's?
[18:06] Well, the committee actually came up with the name,
[18:07] but the marketing branding people have come up with O'Kill's
[18:11] is the one. You know, you see many products that go through a brand change or name change
[18:16] in the brand. This is no different. We're going to change the brand of the township.
[18:23] It will not increase your taxes. Nothing will change about the form of government that we have
[18:28] and the processes for living taxes. It will not increase your taxes. And in fact, if we're
[18:35] successful from an economic development standpoint, the tax base will be broader and may end up
[18:40] reducing your taxes if we have a broader tax base.
[18:44] You know, when Flint took the airport and GM out,
[18:47] that critically hurt the tax base for Flint Township,
[18:50] if you think about it.
[18:51] And if you look at the map of Flint Township,
[18:53] you'll see this great big chunk of real estate
[18:56] taken out of it, and that happened way back then.
[19:00] What the Supervisor was talking about is the cost is manageable.
[19:04] When originally we did this, the fire department,
[19:06] police department, signs around the township.
[19:08] we estimate that not more than $150,000.
[19:12] The chief and the fire chief have both come
[19:15] over another estimate for me.
[19:17] And now it's about 200,000 or less.
[19:20] Actually, it's about 160, so they can
[19:22] with a total plus maybe 15 or 21 science around the township.
[19:25] It'll be less than 200 township actual cost.
[19:28] And if the supervisors approve or the trustees approve
[19:32] this name and accept our recommendation,
[19:34] we're recommending that if they approve it,
[19:36] that it become effective January 1st, 2028,
[19:39] giving us a whole year to make that transition.
[19:42] This will allow the forms and all that sort of stuff
[19:47] that's got Flint Township to be done over normal attrition.
[19:50] Every year you print new forms,
[19:52] every year you print new envelopes or whatever.
[19:54] Well, you've got a year to make that transition
[19:56] and it may come into the regular cost
[19:58] of printing more pieces in paper.
[20:01] Okay, you let me.
[20:04] Well, that's the cost of the township.
[20:08] And so then, as I said, it wouldn't change your post address and the ballot language is
[20:14] on this sheet of paper.
[20:15] You can see exactly what it says on the ballot and how you vote, yes or no.
[20:18] So the supervisor said, we're not going to take questions with the audience but we'd like
[20:22] you to write the questions and so are we ready for that or are you having any more you want?
[20:26] Yes, there's a couple of questions about the name itself, that's the cost hold on.
[20:32] What is the value to the name change and what is the cost so that's part of that?
[20:37] I wanted to mention something about the law that was passed by our Michigan State Legislature.
[20:46] Michigan Township Association is an association that all townships within Michigan belong to.
[20:52] They help leading guide us and they hopefully teach us a lot of things too but they help sponsor
[20:58] the bill.
[20:58] And part of the law and it was a contingency on them sponsoring the bill was that all the residents of the township could vote so that they insisted on that.
[21:11] Two is that the law says it can only be done once every 25 years.
[21:16] And three, we couldn't go out and ask the residents, do you want to change the name and then come up with the name.
[21:23] The law states that the name had to be provided on the ballot initiative.
[21:29] So that's why the survey was done, and they came up with a name.
[21:34] I know there's a lot of people who ask questions, where are the hills?
[21:38] Why do you choose that name?
[21:41] And that was a name that came out of the Name Change Committee that rose to the top in
[21:46] the survey.
[21:47] A lot of people had their own preference, but having taken the survey, that survey had
[21:53] And several questions, I don't know how many exactly, but the first question was, are
[21:58] you interested in changing the name of the township?
[22:02] And if you voted no, then you were done with the survey.
[22:05] And then they asked several other questions because many people had their own preference
[22:09] on the name, but that name rose to the top as being referred to the township board.
[22:16] So I hope that answers the question on.
[22:19] If I could.
[22:20] But what this is, it becomes a non-binding survey, literally, of the residents.
[22:27] You know, businesses are some of the ones that are driving this thing because they want
[22:30] to have a different atmosphere for their business other than Flint.
[22:34] They're driving it, but they don't get to vote.
[22:36] It's only the residents that get to vote, so this becomes a non-binding referendum.
[22:41] And so then the trustees will look at that vote and decide whether they want to go forward
[22:46] or not.
[22:46] But if the people voted down, the trustees can't do anything.
[22:53] So the next question was, oh, I already mentioned it, where are the hills?
[22:58] This name has zero connection to the community.
[23:01] There had to be a name chosen to be put on the ballot.
[23:05] And we had over, how many?
[23:06] 103?
[23:07] 104 names.
[23:08] There were 103 names submitted, as I said.
[23:11] We had asked for the ademology of the name, where else to use, well, it down to 10.
[23:15] and this was number seven on the list.
[23:17] ours was Carmen Hills is what we picked.
[23:19] But he went down through the list
[23:20] and there were negatives associated with each of those
[23:22] till they got to old kills.
[23:24] I think it was also said that they didn't want to use
[23:27] one of the names to pick one over another
[23:30] and Elijah Carmen was one of the founders.
[23:34] Here's another question.
[23:36] Who brought up the idea?
[23:37] Who brought up idea of name change?
[23:40] Who does it benefit?
[23:40] So as Jerry said, back in 2016, you know, at the peak of the water crisis, it was a lot
[23:50] of the township businesses who would come and ask, hey, can we look at this again?
[23:56] There was a few residents when I was knocking on doors, but there was more businesses than
[24:02] residents who brought this up, but that's where the initiative came from.
[24:08] You show the cost of the name change for the township.
[24:11] What about cost of business, police, fire, uniforms?
[24:14] So, as Jerry said, we just got an update from the police department on the cost of what it would take to update everything.
[24:24] And I think from you and Chief Wingler, it was 99,000.
[24:29] It's tough to get an exact dollar amount on some things because some people won't give you.
[24:37] I can't get a firm quote on patches until we make a patch and then submit it for design.
[24:43] A more intricate patch is going to cost more money, so roughly $5 a patch, two patches per uniform, six shirts per officer.
[24:51] So I can give you rough numbers.
[24:54] So, you know, in our breakdown, if you've been to a police department, we have Flint Township across the front.
[25:02] We estimated $15,000 in the change that I just talked to the science by
[25:06] creating that's now closer to $10,000.
[25:08] So the numbers have fluctuated just since two days ago.
[25:11] So these are estimates based on how many hats we have, how many patches we need.
[25:17] And again, it's tough to get exact dollar figures because people won't give you the quotes
[25:21] unless you give them a final product.
[25:24] So it's a rough number. Probably not to exceed that, but I hate to tell you to
[25:29] I mean it won't exceed it and then it does.
[25:31] So roughly, excuse me, but what's not the best part of that?
[25:36] Well, I'll get to that.
[25:37] The fire department gave me an estimate of 39,000.
[25:43] So if you put those together, that's under 150.
[25:46] Or 150, I'm sorry.
[25:47] And then the township, we have a couple of signs
[25:52] want it on Bristol at I-69 and want on Corona Road,
[25:57] welcoming people. We have some signs that welcome you to the business district that would come from those are $50 a sign those come from
[26:07] Genesee County Road Commission those signs that are on the ground per me
[26:13] Those would be
[26:14] But I think you've got a quote were they to change?
[26:27] Sorry
[26:27] dollars to make change of all the signage around the township. Now that's why I say maybe 200,000
[26:33] is the number that I mean it's in that ballpark. It's not a half million dollars like some people
[26:40] are saying or a million dollars it's in the 200,000 ballpark. So you asked about the businesses and
[26:47] I've driven around the township and I haven't seen a lot of signs that have the name Flint Township
[26:54] underneath the business name and I've talked to a few business owners and a lot
[27:01] of them don't use letterhead. They use electronic stuff so I don't have an
[27:07] exact amount to tell you how much it would cost a business but I know that
[27:11] there's several businesses who are interested in having this done well
[27:25] what
[27:26] are they changing their postal address no
[27:40] the checking account has their has
[27:42] Flint township on it?
[27:49] So I think just like what Grand Blank did, the zip code 48507,
[27:56] Grand Blank Township has a mailing zip code that used to say you'd mail it to Grand Blank
[28:02] Township at Flint, Michigan. So now if there's a zip code on the letter that has 48507,
[28:10] it will go to Flint or it will go to Grand Blank Township. So now I can send a letter
[28:14] or payment, whatever, to grand blank township hall, and it'll say grand blank Michigan.
[28:21] So if the zip codes are changed, and the process was explained, it would have City of Flint,
[28:29] and then it would also have Oak Hills.
[28:31] So if someone, I live in 48532, if it says Flint, it would, it possibly could say Oak Hills,
[28:38] so either one of them, those names would get it to your zip code.
[28:42] So the next question is what is the position of our elected officials on the name
[28:47] change? That's for us to know and you to find out. Actually, I do know the
[28:54] vote that night we had six of our members at the meeting that night and the
[29:00] vote that night was five to one to put on the ballot. I will say this though.
[29:12] I
[29:12] changing the name, the last time that this question came to the board, it was a four to
[29:20] two vote because there was a member missing that evening.
[29:24] So four people decided that we weren't going to put it on the ballot and ask our residents.
[29:29] So this time, you're being asked for your input and if you vote yes, it doesn't automatically
[29:34] mean that the name is going to change because it will come back to the board.
[29:39] I think it would be, at this point because the law changed, we can't change the name
[29:44] without the input of the residents.
[29:46] We need to know what you want to do.
[29:48] So I think that answers that question.
[29:55] Can you read through the Oak Hills Info Sheet and discuss each section?
[29:59] I think we just
[30:02] One thing that has been said is property value will increase, but many young people have already priced out of home. Oh, there's more of that ownership. And Flint Township is an affordable option in Genesee County has this thought has this been thought about. So I realize that our taxes, they seem high. I did look up who has the highest taxes in all the counties.
[30:31] counties in the state of Michigan, that's Oakland Hills.
[30:36] So our taxes aren't the highest, but we do have high taxes.
[30:40] Now,
[30:42] our levy, that we levy on the tax base for Flint
[30:48] Township, that was rolled back this year to 4.626.
[30:53] For the rest of the time that I've been here,
[30:54] it's been 4.6423, so it's gone down a little bit
[30:58] because of the Hedley amendment which protects the taxpayer when your value of the property
[31:05] or the rate of inflation or when that changes they're trying to watch out for the taxpayer
[31:12] by rolling that back. So that happened this year, that's the first time I've seen that happen.
[31:18] But we don't intend on raising the taxes but if the value of the property go up then you know
[31:25] that tax base is multiplied by the value of your property, so it may go up and maybe with
[31:33] an additional tax base by drawing other people for economic development maybe it shares
[31:40] the board burden more. But I don't have any other comments on that. I just know that there's
[31:48] not been any, there's been zero discussion on us raising the taxes. As long as I've been
[31:53] in office, the tax levy was 4.6, 423 until this year it went down to 4.626 on our operating
[32:03] millage. Next question is what steps are we to do to change still security consumers,
[32:10] drivers license bank, statement medic? Okay, so again, I believe that's going to be on the
[32:22] The ballot gives the trustees the answers that we're looking for.
[32:27] Do our residents want to change their name?
[32:30] It doesn't tell us what the businesses want to do in their big taxpayers, but this initiative
[32:35] is a vote of the residents.
[32:37] We want to know what you want to do.
[32:40] And then it still has to be approved by the board.
[32:43] And then after that, we take the steps.
[32:46] If it passes, I'm not sure it'll pass, but if it passes, then we take the steps to
[32:51] look at the changing the name of the post office and then the zip codes. And if the
[32:58] the Grand Blank was able to do it and they have one zip code for the two different
[33:05] names, I'm sure that that will be the same here. The 48532, the 48507 would
[33:12] say Flint and well it goes to Grand Blank and then it could be Oak Hills. So I don't
[33:18] expect that all these different things, so security, consumers, drivers,
[33:22] license, I don't expect that that would have to change.
[33:28] Go ahead.
[33:31] Just a real quick, for you that live in 48532, almost 90% of the residents in
[33:38] Zipcode 48532 are Flint Township residents.
[33:42] There's a very few on the east side that are Flint and a very few on the west side
[33:47] that are Clayton Tonship, but they're all that Flint zip code would be very easy for
[33:51] the post office part, just to strike out Flint and put in old kills if that became the case.
[33:57] The other thing that we did in our committee was look at what that zip code might have on
[34:04] insurance rates. And frankly, just to be honest with you, insurance companies wouldn't commit.
[34:09] They said that would be redlining if they did anything like that, but it sort of seemed
[34:14] like there may be a different adjustment on insurance rates for both cars and probably.
[34:22] This question is, is this going to cause us to change everything we use for personal
[34:27] business checks, utilities, insurance credit cards? I feel this is a monumental task. So again,
[34:35] if the zip codes that are in place now, and you saw on the sheet, the zip codes that we have,
[34:41] of 48433 is flushing 48473 is Swartz Creek.
[34:47] I think those will remain because they're
[34:51] flushing the city, Swartz Creek is a city.
[34:54] 48503 is Flint, 48504 is Flint, 48507 is Flint,
[35:00] slash Grand Blank.
[35:02] 48529 is Burton, slash Flint,
[35:05] and 48532 is Flint.
[35:08] And I know that Clayton Township,
[35:11] But on the other side of Elms Road is 4853 also.
[35:14] So if that were to change to O-Kills, I don't know if it would remain flint.
[35:22] If you look up a zip code with the US Postal, they will tell you the preferred name and
[35:27] in some cases they'll tell you an alternate name.
[35:30] Worst case, hopefully we can also get an alternate name on all of our zip codes if they don't
[35:36] change the zip code.
[35:37] Ideally, they'd make a whole brand new zip code for all of us and what are the crazy part
[35:41] about all of this is is that zip codes are out of date. When you use your GPS, you don't
[35:47] put in the zip code, you put the name of the address in there. The postal department
[35:51] created zip codes because that was the area that a single postal carrier could carry in
[35:56] the day. That was his route. Everything within that zip code was his route, whether it be a
[36:00] motor route or a hand-carried route. That's adequate and hopefully the postal will also get
[36:05] around to not even have zip codes anymore because they're not necessary.
[36:10] There's a question about a Swartz Creek address, will they keep their Swartz Creek
[36:14] address?
[36:15] Yes.
[36:17] Could be, hopefully the Swartz Creek zip code will be Swartz Creek slant or kills, worst
[36:23] case.
[36:25] So it would have both.
[36:26] It would have both.
[36:27] And that makes it easier in your case where you've got to change stationery and things like
[36:31] that, that would allow for the old name and the new name at the same time, if that's what
[36:36] it works out.
[36:38] So, that was all the questions from people in the audience.
[36:42] I hope we've answered your questions.
[36:47] Can you write it down, please, and submit it?
[36:50] Ms. Trustee Leverett next to me has asked if we, the trustees are going to get to speak
[36:55] on the name change.
[36:56] So this is an informal township meeting, and we are not going to be expressing our whether
[37:04] we're for it or against it.
[37:05] So unless you had some informational item you want to share, we're not going to be sharing
[37:12] our personal opinions, okay?
[37:15] And now you're walking away, Tracy, but I know you have two questions that were asked
[37:20] about.
[37:22] Yeah, I saw it.
[37:38] So every year in our budget, we budget for replacing items such as, thank you very much, such
[37:45] which is cars. We buy three to four police vehicles. Well, please, you can answer.
[37:53] Oh, so yes. So in the budget every year, there's money for like patrol vehicles uniform, but those are bought on an as needed
[38:02] basis. So if I tear this uniform shirt, I'll put in a request to buy one new shirt.
[38:08] We explored the idea if we do this name change, we have to make a new patch.
[38:12] These are all these patches are sewn in.
[38:15] We tried very carefully with a razor cutting each one out.
[38:19] It just destroys a shirt.
[38:20] We can't cut these out and repatch them.
[38:23] Even if we get the same style patch, it won't sew in
[38:27] because the shirt is so destroyed.
[38:30] So we have no choice but to get all new shirts.
[38:32] So that's three long sleeve, three short sleeve,
[38:34] and all new jackets.
[38:36] So that is a
[38:39] that would partially be in the budget, right?
[38:41] Because there is money in there for replacement,
[38:42] but there's not enough in there
[38:44] because we don't budget to buy new uniforms for everybody,
[38:48] every single year that'd be an egregious amount of money.
[38:50] They've put every single year into a budget.
[38:52] So yeah, there's money in there for uniforms,
[38:54] there's money in there for patrol vehicles
[38:56] and again, some of these are estimates.
[38:58] Everything in our breakdown, there's money in the budget,
[39:01] but when we put together the budget,
[39:04] it's for replacement and repair.
[39:06] It's not for buying all new stuff, so yes, the dollar figure is roughly a hundred, but of that, I don't want to put a number out there.
[39:16] How much is already in the budget because I don't want to give you bad information, but it's not a all new expense.
[39:21] Part of the money is in the budget, just not this much, if that makes sense.
[39:27] There's a question, it says voting question mark, ballots, was this from you?
[39:35] This question is on the November general election ballot.
[39:40] So as it was explained in, well that's just regular paper, but on your voting ballot,
[39:47] that you'll get, whether you vote absentee or you come in and do the early voting or you
[39:52] go to your polling place for voting at your precinct.
[39:57] There's what, six different questions, two or state
[40:02] questions for the Constitutional Constitution.
[40:06] Is that right?
[40:08] One is a Mott College Renewal.
[40:14] There's a Genesee County Millage Renewal
[40:16] proposal for the Animal Care Shelter.
[40:18] and health services.
[40:25] So ours is one of the six.
[40:28] Like I said, two state questions about the state constitution.
[40:33] One is a MOT community college renewal proposition.
[40:37] One is for the animal care shelter and that's a renewal.
[40:42] And another renewal is for the Genesee County Health Care Services Millage Renewal.
[40:47] So, it would be on the November ballot, and like I said, you can get it by signing up for absentee ballot.
[40:55] Come in nine days, ten days of early voting.
[40:58] Our clerk's hiding in the audience over there.
[41:02] Manny, how many days?
[41:03] Ten days.
[41:04] Ten days early voting.
[41:06] And I also see Tunisia. She's one of our trustees also hiding next door.
[41:11] The absentee ballots.
[41:13] I believe by the 24th next we haven't received ballot shot though so in about a week
[41:19] So did that answer the question?
[41:22] Yes
[41:25] There's another question that came in
[41:28] Who are the marketing experts that prepared the report of data and why now as
[41:36] I indicated in my earlier presentation
[41:38] I was fortunate enough to be a governor grand homo pointee to the travel commission the travel commission was looking at the
[41:44] the branding for the state and wanted to improve the branding.
[41:49] And we hired a company that used to do a lot of work for GM and others.
[41:53] But the individual that came up with pure Michigan, this is the brand that is now universal
[41:59] and really.
[42:02] We were totally blown away about how well that's worked.
[42:05] And it's lasted for a long time.
[42:07] I mean, it's been around for, we celebrated the 21st anniversary of pure Michigan last week.
[42:13] And his name was Eric Bowes, and he was the one that came in and the DDA hired him and
[42:18] paid him to do this work of surveying and determining and measuring that brand.
[42:23] And that's the brand that's come off.
[42:26] And the second question was on this was why now?
[42:30] Why now?
[42:32] Because it's November, and it could be on the ballot, I guess.
[42:36] Part of the law was that it had to be on a November ballot.
[42:38] Yes. So the last time this question came up to the trustees was four years ago,
[42:45] and when we put a ballot initiative on the ballot, when there's another election,
[42:52] we're not paying additional for that. So we didn't do something in the interim.
[42:57] So why now is because we can? Yeah, and one of the things I think you should look at,
[43:04] there was a whole book written on Auburn Hills, Pontiac's Township Conversion to Auburn Hills,
[43:10] and it talks about what happened to their tax rates, and what happened to their insurance
[43:14] rates, and things like that. And it was all positive stuff. And that's probably the best example
[43:19] we could use. Now granted, they changed from a township to a city-former government,
[43:25] same with East Point. East Point was East Detroit and changed from a one-former city government
[43:31] to another former city government but there's several examples of these sort of things but the
[43:36] best one is all in hills and you can go online and they'll give you the information.
[43:41] There was a couple of questions that had to do with business development in the mall, right?
[43:48] Tracy Tucker is our economic enhancement director. She's also the deputy clerk. She's got
[43:53] to know. A lot of knowledge. Yeah. I'm the DDA director as well. But the
[43:58] Genesee Valley Center sits in the DDA. The question was aside from changing the
[44:07] name, is there a plan to bring more businesses to the area? We're continually
[44:12] working on that type of thing. We just had a report today that I gave the DDA that
[44:18] in the DDA area, when we created the TIFF plan that started in 2018, they set a goal for 30 years
[44:28] of each how much we should get in investment. Our goal at the end of 2026 was, yeah, 2026 was
[44:39] to be at 25 million. We are at 40 million in new investment just in the DDA area. Our CIA areas,
[44:47] which are Beecher Road CIA and then Bristol Road CIA both are the same, they're above those numbers.
[44:54] We are consistently working with people to bring them in, developers to bring them in.
[44:59] Some of the bigger things.
[45:00] As we have going on right now, is we're working with somebody to bring them into the Kruger that's closing on or closed on Corona Road. We're also working with a new investor that's already presented a site plan and has been approved to go into the Rafe Theatre. And we have other projects going on. Ground effects is doing an expansion, but we have some other things that are in the works pioneer cabinetry one in the old Sears warehouse on
[45:29] and Lyndon Road. One of the things, and the other question up here is the same question,
[45:36] but it adds in Janice Valley.
[45:41] Janice Valley, for many of you that have lived here a long
[45:45] time, we have very fun memories of that, and I tell you, I've lived here all my life,
[45:49] and it hurts my heart to go by there and see what's going on with that place. That being
[45:55] side, we are working on co-enforcement with them and those types of things, but we're
[46:03] actively entertaining site developers and investors trying to get somebody in there
[46:10] to buy that piece of property because we don't own it.
[46:13] It's a privately owned business, right?
[46:17] And we are, again, actively working with site developers and investors.
[46:21] I actually have somebody who is a very serious investor right now who's looking at it, but we have to get somebody in there that cares about what goes on in our community.
[46:35] And I don't see that right now with what's there.
[46:39] Thank you.
[46:39] Another question that's been asked, not here tonight, but I've seen is, why don't you take that money and not waste it on a name change and use it for other projects.
[46:52] Well, I can tell you that the township residents voted to take 0.5 mills that they were paying toward a bond for, was it sewer water?
[47:03] It was in 2006 with Doug Carlton, the previous supervisor, and they put it toward the
[47:10] roads.
[47:11] And so I can tell you that every year since 2006, John Whiteside is a chairman, the secretary
[47:19] of the Flint Township Road Advisory Committee.
[47:23] He served on that committee for 20 years now, and we have spent over a half a million dollars
[47:28] every year on repairing township roads.
[47:31] We have a road advisor committee that works with the road commission, with the PASER ratings,
[47:36] with visual inspection, and decides a road improvement plan.
[47:42] So that's a lot of money for the last 20 years, half a million dollars each year.
[47:46] We have a lot of projects going on for a road repair this year.
[47:50] We've done 10 special assessment districts for commercial road improvement.
[47:55] and we just finished a subdivision specialist assessment road improvement, which is quite a lot more than road repair that we would do with the Millage Money, this Municipal Street Fund.
[48:10] And then we have plans in our capital improvement plan for sewer and water to replace two pump stations this year in 2027 coming up.
[48:21] we're planning it this year and repair two of them to the cost of that's going to be
[48:28] about $4 million. And then we're replacing two water lines, which is going to be 3 million.
[48:34] So there's $7 million in repair. We've been doing a lot of repairing of roads and other
[48:44] infrastructure lately I can tell you that in our budget that more than 50% of
[48:51] the money that we spend whether it's general fund or with public safety is
[48:56] spent on police and fire. I would I would venture to say I speak for all the
[49:00] trustees that are our highest and and and most greatest concern is public
[49:05] safety and I think we have a great police department and fire department and
[49:11] they're very responsive in and they do a very good job and like I said I
[49:16] think it's 54% of our general fund budget that goes to fund police and
[49:20] fire. I think that Trustee Leverett would like to say something here and I'm
[49:28] not sure but we're not going to express our opinion one way or another so if
[49:34] you had some factual information here you are. Oh you want to go to the podium?
[49:37] Okay.
[49:45] Good evening. I thought that we were going to run out of time and I wasn't
[49:50] going to have opportunity. I think many of you saw the meeting and how we voted.
[49:59] But I wanted to just explain about what's going to take place with the language that we have.
[50:07] Now, we didn't heard all this information about everything that we're trying to do about
[50:12] changing the name to O'Kill.
[50:16] I am looking at this here and I read this here language that's going to be on the ballot.
[50:23] And the only reason I voted what I voted was because of the factor that the
[50:34] language in
[50:36] the manner that it was used and it's going to read on there, do you want to change the
[50:43] name to O'Heal? So my information point is that if we say yes, then that means it's got to go
[51:00] back to the board but that's okay but if we say no that means we're getting the same
[51:07] rights that everyone else is going to have okay this says yes okay so I'm looking at
[51:15] let's make sure that we read this here information on what we're going to vote for.
[51:20] We don't you got you got some people that don't want the name to be changed to anything they
[51:26] want to stay as is. So this is not the right language that I see, that we should, the people
[51:36] that don't want to change should have the same right. And it should have been recognized
[51:41] in the last time that we voted, trustees voted, that we should have had, they had ten
[51:48] names down there. And we should have had the same right to say, we had ten names, we should
[51:56] had a blank at the bottom of those 10 names that we don't want to change, okay. So that's
[52:04] the only information that I was trying to provide to everyone. I wasn't trying to tell
[52:07] everybody how to vote, but I'm just asking us to realize and look at the language that's
[52:13] there, because as far as I'm concerned, we have the greatest name as the Charter Plant Township.
[52:24] And
[52:27] I thought that we should, I see that we got this meeting going on, but it was kind
[52:32] of a last minute thing for us to know or for me to know.
[52:37] And I thought that we should have the same opportunity as what's going on right now.
[52:44] Maybe we don't have to call another meeting.
[52:46] But thank you for your ear and do what you have to do.
[52:49] But nevertheless, make sure that you read that information correctly.
[52:54] and that way we can do whatever needs to be done.
[52:58] Thank you.
[52:59] I'm glad to see everyone out this evening.
[53:02] So just to reiterate, when the survey was done,
[53:07] the first question that was asked is,
[53:09] do you want to change the name of the township?
[53:12] And you had the opportunity to vote yes or no.
[53:14] And if you voted no, you were done
[53:15] because then there was no more answer, questions to answer.
[53:20] So then if you wanted to change it,
[53:23] then you answer the questions.
[53:24] On the ballot, we're asking our residents,
[53:28] do you want to change the name of the township?
[53:31] You vote yes if you want to vote yes
[53:33] and know if you don't want it to change.
[53:35] So I think that's pretty clear.
[53:38] I don't know that we have any other questions
[53:41] and oh, Tracy, can you grab that?
[53:44] There's another question in the box.
[53:46] Oh, thank you.
[53:56] Thank you.
[53:57] You stated the city of Flint, annexed Bishop Airport and Chevrolet.
[54:02] If a name change happened, what's to stop Flint from annexing Oak Hills for more tax
[54:08] base?
[54:11] If I may answer that, what happened is that back in the 70s, cities had power to annex
[54:17] anything that was not already a city.
[54:21] late in the 70s, the law got changed and they created charter townships.
[54:27] You have general law townships and you have charter townships.
[54:31] Charter townships have the same power as cities.
[54:34] They could annex as well if there's something beside them that's not a city
[54:39] or a law township, for example.
[54:44] If there was a township next to us, that was a general law township.
[54:47] we could annex some of that stuff. But chartered law caused townships to be as powerful as cities
[54:53] so that neither one could take over the other.
[54:59] So I looked up the date on Google. It says that
[55:02] Flint Township officially incorporated the chartered township on July 17, 1978. So since we are a
[55:09] chartered township, whether the name remains Flint or changes to Oak Hills because we are a chartered
[55:16] township, they can't annex any more property, real estate, yes, so that answers that question.
[55:25] We called this media, I mentioned we'd have an informal town hall meeting at our meeting,
[55:30] was it Monday? No, last, when was it? Last Monday.
[55:36] Last Tuesday, so it was September 8th. And I thought it was important that we can answer
[55:42] informational questions before the absentee ballots go out, which would be next week.
[55:48] We have recorded this meeting, and I believe it's live streamed, and I see that the new
[55:53] stations are here.
[55:54] I think we've answered a lot of the questions.
[55:57] I mean, the basic question is, if you're interested in changing the name or not, and we ask
[56:01] that you would please participate in voting on the general election, we want your input
[56:09] because you live here. And we're really interested in knowing what you want to do. That's why we're
[56:15] elected was to represent you. I want to thank everyone for coming and for showing your interest.
[56:21] If you have any further questions you can stay and we can try and answer the questions or you can
[56:27] email us at the township or you can call us at our numbers 810-732-1350. We've received a few
[56:35] phone calls about questions about the name change. And just we do, we ask that I'll reiterate
[56:42] it. You can early vote 10 days before the November election. You can sign up for absentee
[56:51] ballot voting. So you can have the ballot delivered to your house or you can come here and get
[56:57] the ballot and vote here if that's easiest for you. There's a lot of ways to vote. And then
[57:01] And you know where you voted before at your polling place and you're precinct.
[57:06] If you have any questions, the clerk, Deputy Clerk, would be glad to answer those for
[57:10] you when it comes to exercising your right to vote.
[57:13] But we do want to hear from you.
[57:14] So thank you very much for taking your time this evening to come out and participate in this
[57:19] Town Hall Meeting.