[0:11] Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Frazier regular city council meeting of Thursday, August 13th, 2026. Time is now 6.30 p.m., and I call this meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge allegiance.

[0:30] And to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God in the visible with liberty and justice for all.

[0:40] Thank you, Mr. Guishlag, please call the roll.

[0:45] Councilmember Bransky.

[0:47] Councilmember Fletcher.

[0:48] Councilmember Higgins.

[0:50] Mayor Lessich.

[0:51] Present.

[0:52] Mayor Proto-Modell.

[0:53] Here.

[0:53] Councilmember Perry.

[0:54] Here.

[0:55] Councilmember Schornag.

[0:56] That is absent.

[0:57] That is still a quorum, sir.

[0:59] Thank you very much.

[1:02] Council Member Bransky.

[1:03] Motion to remove.

[1:05] Motion to remove?

[1:07] Yes, motion to not that.

[1:08] That would be a surprise.

[1:09] Opposition to excuse Council Member Shornaf.

[1:14] Second.

[1:15] All right, we have motion by Council Member Bransky.

[1:18] Seconded by Council Member Higgins to excuse

[1:20] Member Shornaf from meeting tonight.

[1:22] All in favor say aye.

[1:23] Aye.

[1:24] Opposed?

[1:25] Motion passes.

[1:28] I would like to add item 7 B, excuse me, parade permit for the 2026 Frazier Homecoming Parade on October 9th.

[1:45] Second, all right.

[1:47] Any other changes, additions, deletions?

[1:53] Seeing none, I would try to vote on the adding that item.

[1:57] It's one to amend and one to approve the amended.

[2:01] Okay, so we have a motion to amend and it's by near-protein and seconded by who seconded.

[2:09] You made it.

[2:10] You made the motion.

[2:12] I'll get my act again.

[2:14] I'm actually hoping you're good.

[2:16] All right.

[2:17] Motion by Mayor Lesley, seconded by mayor-protein, Mo Delth, to add the parade permit to the agenda

[2:24] as item seven.

[2:25] Beyond favor say aye.

[2:26] Okay, all right, I'd entertain a motion to approve.

[2:31] Second, we have a motion to approve the agenda made by Council Member Bransley,

[2:36] seconded by Mayor Pro Temo Del, all in favor say aye.

[2:39] Aye.

[2:39] Opposed?

[2:41] Agenda is approved.

[2:43] Item number five, citizen participation on agenda items.

[2:46] This is the moment in the meeting if you can't be here throughout the meeting,

[2:48] which is a relatively light one.

[2:51] You can speak now on any agenda item.

[2:55] Seeing none.

[2:57] Yes, this is on agenda items only.

[3:02] Yes, this would be about the parade permit or discussion regarding fees and

[3:09] fine for code violations.

[3:29] This meeting, we should be to the citizen participation portion very shortly.

[3:36] So just bear with us a minute and you'll probably be there in 15 minutes.

[3:39] Maybe a half an hour we'll see how long the city attorney talks.

[3:43] All right. So item number 6 consent agenda. I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda.

[3:52] Second.

[3:56] I guess we're all really good.

[3:58] All right. We have motion by Council Member Fletcher. Second by Mayor Pro Temo-Dell to approve the consent agenda. All in favor say aye.

[4:07] Aye.

[4:08] Opposed?

[4:09] Motion passes.

[4:10] Thank you very much.

[4:11] All right.

[4:12] Item number 7a.

[4:13] Discussion regarding fees and fines for code violations.

[4:19] Mr. City Attorney, I think this is yours.

[4:22] I think it's partially mine for sure.

[4:25] I believe this was added to the agenda to entertain a discussion, a more thorough discussion

[4:30] with a good opportunity to do so tonight.

[4:32] Be it a lighter agenda to talk about the difference between fees and fines

[4:36] and what our goals are as a city in terms of how to use those fees and how to use those fines to

[4:42] ensure the best interest of the city, we're talking about keeping the city looking nice and

[4:46] property values up and we're talking about city services.

[4:50] So by way of a quick background, if I haven't already done it, and if you need it to be longer, let me know.

[4:56] But fees and fines are two different things and sometimes the words get mixed up or used interchangeably.

[5:00] When a city or a municipality charges a fee, it can only be for the service that is being offered to the person using or paying that fee.

[5:09] So, for example, when somebody wants a plan reviewed or somebody wants a zoning board of appeals application submitted, there is a fee schedule.

[5:19] The City Council adopts every year and that fee covers the costs or at least part of the costs in most cases for the services being provided to the person asking for that special consideration.

[5:30] There are all kinds of fees, we all pay fees in our everyday lives to accomplish things

[5:35] or get things that we need when you renew your license plate and when you renew your

[5:39] driver's license, when you replace one of those because you lost one, right?

[5:43] There's a fee associated with that.

[5:44] So those are fees, they're not meant to be punishment, they're not meant to be punitive,

[5:48] but they are meant to recapture some or all of the cost or at least to fray the cost of

[5:52] what it takes to do the work.

[5:55] On the opposite side of that, we have what are called fines and a fine is meant to be a punishment.

[6:01] So when you think of criminal laws, for example, they typically say a fine not to exceed X and or up to this amount of time in jail or both as determined by the court.

[6:13] So fines can be established for by a city at a maximum of $500 for criminal offenses.

[6:19] We've pretty much got that covered.

[6:20] We've got all our criminal offenses adopted, and the state law allows us to go up to 500 and the judges have discretion on what the fines should be for each individual case based on the circumstances in front of them, the person in front of them, etc.

[6:33] But we can also set fines for what are called municipal civil infractions and municipal civil infractions are the violations that people commit that aren't criminalized by the city, but are yet but exist to incentivize them to fix something to do something

[6:47] or to impose some sort of financial punishment for having broken some kind of loss.

[6:53] So those kinds of municipal civil infraction finds exist in things like a lot of code violations,

[7:00] for example. Let's say somebody commits a violation of the property maintenance code.

[7:04] They didn't maintain their lawn, or they didn't maintain their home.

[7:07] They have deficiencies in how they've maintained something on the property.

[7:11] Most of that type of stuff is considered a municipal civil infraction.

[7:14] It's typically not criminalized or a misdemeanor.

[7:18] The incentive to get it fixed is usually the fine or the threat of a fine or the concern

[7:22] about having to pay a fine.

[7:24] And ultimately, if it doesn't accomplish the goal, those can be issued daily, those can

[7:29] be issued repetitively, those can be issued with a sliding scale of accelerating fines.

[7:34] And in Frazier, in fact, we do have that scale in place.

[7:38] Your first offense is going to be $150, and that is an established set fine.

[7:43] Typically, judges won't sway or deviate from that.

[7:45] I mean, I guess they can.

[7:46] They're the judge.

[7:46] They have some discretion in those, but we tell them,

[7:50] and the court knows, to schedule them at $150 for your first

[7:53] defense.

[7:55] Thereafter, it's $250.

[7:56] Thereafter, it's $500.

[7:58] And thereafter, it's $1,000.

[8:00] Fairly consistent with what most communities do.

[8:03] I know other communities are $150, $375, $750, $1,500.

[8:07] Might be an example of sliding scale.

[8:10] But we're not too far off the mark in terms of what

[8:12] communities do in terms of accelerating the fines for punitive measures to get compliance

[8:17] from people that need to comply.

[8:20] I will caveat all of that background with municipal civil and fractions can only go so

[8:25] far and can only accomplish so much.

[8:27] There are going to be times when the person doesn't have any money to either correct the violation

[8:32] or to pay.

[8:33] There are going to be times when a person just ignores it.

[8:35] And ultimately we rely on the court to try to have some enforcement power.

[8:40] But as I'm learning in another community, not learning, but I've already known, but we're seeing,

[8:44] we have another community where there's a neighbor dispute going on right now about a wall between their properties.

[8:49] And the municipal civil infraction is meant to incentivize the person who owns the wall to get it fixed because it's dilapidated, part of it has fallen over, part of its leaning.

[8:58] But we also have a very vocal complaining resident who is very adamant and very well written in terms of his communications to the city at times.

[9:09] asking that the city do more, that the city be the lawyer for him essentially to advocate for his cause.

[9:16] And that's where it gets a little bit gray sometimes for cities is at what point do we take on the mantle of the enforcement arbiter or authority?

[9:26] And how far do we take that mantle before we say, you know what, this is a private property dispute between two neighbors.

[9:31] And where is that line? It is gray. Every situation is different.

[9:35] And I've in recent years had noise issues, camera issues, light issues, and then of course

[9:42] this wall thing.

[9:43] So the cities themselves have to make those decisions internally and figure out, is it

[9:49] a slippery slope if we start getting too involved and start bringing the full power of the city

[9:53] to bear?

[9:55] What are the expectations of our residents?

[9:57] What are the expectations of a single resident?

[9:58] And what does that cost look like and is it disproportionate to what we do to enforce for

[10:04] others?

[10:04] So that's a little aside on the concept of municipal civil

[10:09] infractions and fines and the punishment they bring.

[10:12] Ultimately a fine can be a good incentive and we find that 95% if I had the

[10:17] guess of the time it's pretty effective right people want to get things done they

[10:20] want to do it right but you're going to have your few percentage points there

[10:24] that either can't afford it maybe don't have the physical or mental

[10:27] ability to do it or just put their feet in the ground and say I'm not doing

[10:32] it right and then we have to make decisions

[10:33] And that's what the sliding scale is meant to help us with, but I'll give you another

[10:37] quick example.

[10:38] We have another community.

[10:40] The fire department has issued 50 municipal civil and fraction tickets.

[10:44] They were doing one a day.

[10:45] For about 22 days on one issue, and then the issue pivoted, and then they did about 28 of them.

[10:51] I'm roughly 50.

[10:52] It might be in the 40s.

[10:53] For the next so many days, for a secondary issue that arose to this particular establishment

[11:00] and it doesn't solve anything to just keep issuing ticket over and over and over when you're dealing with a bigger business.

[11:07] Because it's either going to be a cost of doing business at some point or they're just going to put their, again, their feet in the ground and say, let's have a hearing.

[11:14] Let's have the judge tell us we're wrong, right? And at some point, the real administrative logistics of that as I have to remind everyone is every single day we write a ticket to somebody, every single day that means somebody at the court has to create a new file and has to create a new input

[11:28] And that's to create new data into the court system and monitor and track.

[11:32] And then, as the loop continues for 30 or 60 days, how are we tracking those?

[11:37] How are we scheduling those?

[11:38] So there's always that logistical problem too.

[11:39] So a little bit of an aside, but a little bit of a peek into the world that we deal with with fines and

[11:44] with municipal civil infractions.

[11:46] And I don't know if that was everything we were hoping to talk about tonight, but

[11:50] hopefully that's a good start and set the groundwork for the discussion.

[11:52] So just to clarify, we do, because this came up, I was asked just to clarify that we do have that in place right now.

[12:00] It's 250, 500 and 1,000.

[12:03] 150, 250, 500 and 1,000.

[12:05] 150, okay, thank you.

[12:08] And all right, and then I understand the criminal fines.

[12:16] So if somebody doesn't cut their grass, and they regularly don't do that,

[12:20] But we have the ability to cut the grass and send them a bill for that.

[12:26] We do, so now that would be a fee.

[12:28] So to give you more context on that, there's an actual state law on what they call an

[12:32] actious weeds, but it also covers grasses that rise above six inches in height.

[12:35] Every community can set their standard over six or higher.

[12:39] And ultimately as long as we've placed the public on notice in some way, typically it's done

[12:43] through the cable channel or some other website notice type of thing at the beginning of the season,

[12:48] Then yes, we have the statutory authority to just go cut their grass and send them our bill, our costs, we can have an administrative oversight fee added to that, et cetera.

[12:56] But that bill is basically a fee, it's a fee for the service we've just provided to you because you didn't do it yourself.

[13:01] That is not a punitive fine, it is not meant to be punishment, and it is not meant to make the city money, it's meant to make the city whole.

[13:08] And as long as we stick to that general guideline, the attorney general will say, as they've said in the past, that's okay, it can be a little higher, a little lower.

[13:15] But as long as it's in the ballpark and reasonably guesstimated that money then ultimately gets placed against the taxes against the property if they don't pay it and at some point in most cases, assuming we have an ordinance which we do here, the county buys that from us on the tax rolls, the county pays us for that cost of service and then the county has to deal with the collection of the foreclosure issue on that.

[13:38] All right, and so using the example of a grass not being cut.

[13:43] If somebody just never does it, and is there any time they get a code enforcement violation?

[13:49] That's completely up to the discretion of the city.

[13:51] We could write them the first time, we could give them grace, and write them on the 10th time.

[13:55] Okay, there is an avenue if it's a chronic problem that is never addressed.

[13:59] Absolutely.

[14:00] Okay, just wanted to clarify that.

[14:02] All right, any other questions by Council on this?

[14:07] All right, Mr. Farina, would you like to have any say on this because we did talk, you and I were talking about this.

[14:15] Okay, all right, I think we're good on this.

[14:18] Thank you very much for clarifying that.

[14:22] Okay, yes, come on up.

[14:31] My name is Arminapala, I was hearing what the lawyer was talking about.

[14:37] Well, I want to bring up to your attention, like you said, some properties are private, but also if the city allows the mic to have a build engineers to come and remove the piping from the private sorting that's in their yard, who is over that contract.

[15:00] I released that because we do have that problem that I found out where I live at right here on 14. And I dug a little further. Um, they are probably getting with me, but I'm not calling about in the more because I got it ain't got to. But when a person removed a park system from the sword as privately owned on a property that posted on drain the water out, right? But they got to approve from the city that they can remove their park.

[15:30] system from that and don't have nothing to do with that privacy or

[15:34] and they are. And when you'll give that permission, who do that? Who signed the

[15:40] contract when they does that? Because I asked that question with everybody on

[15:44] the business phone and some machine and still ain't still got no return call.

[15:51] But when I asked everybody, why come I haven't got a return call? Everybody wants to

[15:56] They didn't get me a disgrace, they didn't get none, but that's another problem I have with a phrase.

[16:04] So the question haven't been answered because one of my neighbors did have that done because the flood and

[16:12] how the water was steady coming up and everybody else, so she removed, she had her engineers and

[16:18] vendors, removed her pipe system from that drain thing and her back yard to be away from it.

[16:25] So I want to know who is responsible for that train. I ask everybody since 23 all the way to press it

[16:34] No one is answering that question. Everybody want to have an attitude in this city here

[16:40] And I'm gonna let you know how I'm feeling now. I'm getting ready to try to sell my house and get out of here because it seemed like when somebody

[16:49] a resident like me wants to get things done because I got caught in something

[16:55] that wasn't real with me. I got some paperwork that you guys city don't have on

[17:00] record and then when I showed them they'll like that should have been on record but

[17:05] you guys don't have it so back then when some people was working for this city

[17:09] when they retire or whatever they did they had to do some under-the-table money

[17:15] anything. Okay. Hold on. Hold on. We're talking about fines and fees. I guess this is a

[17:20] fine. But this is a. This is a. Okay. I understand what you said. But what you

[17:24] talked about property private stuff that you got problems with neighbors about

[17:29] the grass. This is a sore thing. That's probably property too. But what I'm

[17:33] trying to find out who is responsible once the city gave her permission to remove

[17:38] her pie system from it. Who is responsible for that sore? That's in her backyard.

[17:43] I guess she's no longer responsible.

[17:46] That's not what we're talking about here right now.

[17:48] If there's a code ordinance violation,

[17:50] that's what we're talking about to feed against.

[17:51] That's part of the call organization also, too.

[17:55] Well, this is not that conversation right now, though.

[17:59] Yeah, I, but it's kind of like blend in

[18:02] with the law.

[18:02] It was kind of saying it may be in a different form

[18:05] where I'm telling you, but it's part of it

[18:07] because I looked it up.

[18:09] I also went to listen to get more answer

[18:11] or what he was talking about is part of it

[18:14] because he's talking about two people with private

[18:17] about their yard, then that shouldn't even be discussed

[18:20] because that's private.

[18:21] If that's considered private, then that's private.

[18:24] So which way are we gonna go?

[18:27] And how do you get me up for that?

[18:29] But if you're gonna talk about private property,

[18:32] then what he said, and to get fines instead of part of that

[18:37] is a problem too because that means

[18:38] that person is not taking care of, which are allowed to get approved by builders and engineers in their yard, and they're not taking care of it.

[18:48] So that's part of the problem too. So it's almost the same like the grass. Like if you got a fence in the grass coming underneath the fence, from their property, that's the sign, it's no different.

[18:58] So I wait till you get to that, but that's part of it too.

[19:02] Thank you. Any other comments on this?

[19:06] All right, we'll move on then, we'll go to item 7b, approval of the Parade Permit for the 2026 Homecoming Parade on October 9th at 6 p.m.

[19:18] Who would like to make that motion?

[19:20] I'll make a motion to approve the Homecoming Parade Permit.

[19:25] All right, we have a motion by Council Member Fletcher, seconded by Council Member Beranski to approve the Homecoming Parade Permit for Friday, October 9th at 6 p.m.

[19:34] and all in anyone in the audience like to speak on this.

[19:39] All in favor say aye.

[19:40] Aye.

[19:41] Proposed, motion passes the parade permit is approved.

[19:46] All right, that is the regular order of business tonight is fairly light agenda and now we will move to citizen participation.

[19:55] I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I was getting, you know, I wanted to get us out, report of city administration.

[20:03] Great. Thank you.

[20:05] Excited to say that we have had amazing participation in a lot of our parks and recreation events

[20:10] recently. For example, we had a craft event earlier this week. We had 52 people that participated

[20:18] in the event. So I would like to certainly thank Chris and his team of people for building

[20:24] great programming. Pretty much a one-man band and they're really doing a lot and also over

[20:30] at the Senior Activity Center, so just like to thank them and acknowledge that we are

[20:35] certainly pushing forward in trying to do as many events as we possibly can with one

[20:40] person.

[20:41] The industrial park roads have been making great progress, so I don't know if anyone has

[20:47] had an opportunity to go out there and take a look at it, but they're to the point now,

[20:51] where Maylin, which was the main road through there, is already about half-torn, actually

[20:58] a little bit more than 4 and a half, I believe.

[21:00] A river area, they've got that road pretty much half done and the majority of the rest

[21:05] of the roads are completed, however they do still have the access points to do and a lot

[21:10] of finished work once they get all of the concrete in place.

[21:14] So definitely if you can get out there and take a look at it, that'd be great.

[21:20] The project done 14 mile between Hayes and Garfield, sorry, Macomb County is going to be

[21:28] doing some of the pavement preservation.

[21:31] So they're going to be cutting out strips of the concrete

[21:33] and replacing that.

[21:36] That is scheduled to start next Monday, August 17.

[21:40] The anticipated schedule is for about 30 days

[21:42] whether permitting.

[21:44] They will be maintaining at least one lane open

[21:47] at a time for that.

[21:49] That is all that I have for now.

[21:50] Thank you.

[21:51] I did go by the industrial park roads

[21:53] and are looking really good.

[21:55] everything that's been done is phenomenal.

[21:58] It's a little bit tougher right now because they have a lot of one ways and then without

[22:03] main drag down to one lane, it certainly is a little bit of a hamper but they are moving pretty

[22:10] swiftly, which is great.

[22:11] That's correct to finish this year as they planned it.

[22:14] As far as I know, yeah.

[22:15] Great.

[22:16] Council Member Bransky.

[22:17] Yeah, I just wanted to ask the clerk to kind of give the citizens a rundown of this amazing data

[22:24] that you put together.

[22:26] Well, because I think it's important to see, it's not a criticism of you, it's a criticism

[22:31] of our society, these are abysmal turnouts for what is one right we have.

[22:38] But it's shocking to me, it's sad.

[22:41] Well, I provided you with the raw data from the Qualified Voter File, which is like this

[22:45] page here, it's broken down by age and gender, it's just kind of hard to read as well as the

[22:50] AV breakdown.

[22:51] It's much easier to read in this nice big sheet that I gave you here that just shows what percentage of our voters is now voting absentee, which is well over half of our voters.

[23:03] Yeah, 58% of our votes for this election were cast absentee.

[23:08] We only had 159 people vote early this time.

[23:11] Primaries usually don't have a big early vote turnout.

[23:13] In November, it will be much, much higher.

[23:15] We expect it.

[23:16] But it was definitely an expensive early voting season per voter for us.

[23:21] We had about 30% turn out for the selection.

[23:26] It's a, you were motivated, you're motivated, if you're not, you're not, you know, there was, that's just how it is.

[23:31] So the numbers are there.

[23:35] Yeah, we had 3,701 people vote, we have 12,200 registered voters.

[23:40] So, but the trend of more people voting absentee is continuing.

[23:45] And we had probably 100 people come in with their absentee ballots and vote in person,

[23:49] which takes it off that number and puts it in the other number, so it does what?

[23:54] It makes a show up as walk-in and not an FCT, so the other data over here will show you

[23:59] just exactly how many we mailed out that very first ballot sent in return summary.

[24:05] You'll see how many we sent out FCT ballots, like in pre-seq 1, we sent out 627.

[24:11] Is that your data that you said 70% of the FCT ballots that were mailed out were?

[24:15] I mean back right so 30% either didn't vote voted in person yeah didn't vote a voter in person yeah we

[24:28] have to have early voting we do for any federal election.

[24:32] So we won't next year for the local but we will again in October okay thank you for nine days.

[24:38] Thank you for this.

[24:39] I think it's actually above average from where to the last primary till the last primary is

[24:46] Yes, more people voted remember the last primary was talked in between a presidential primary

[24:52] And the presidential election and there wasn't any meat on the bone right there

[24:56] So that that primary in August between a presidential primary and a presidential election is always crickets

[25:02] It's just a shout out to all your people your local elections are just as important

[25:06] If not more than the bigger ones, thank you.

[25:08] Yeah, comparing it to two years ago isn't really as relevant.

[25:12] Four years ago is much more accurate.

[25:14] Yeah, it's better than 22, right?

[25:16] Yes, it is better because of the rise of absentee balance.

[25:18] I was just going to say that the permanent list has definitely increased turnout even in our local elections.

[25:24] When off the bat, there's 3000 ballots going out right away.

[25:28] It's more accessible to people, you know, that I might not be able to make it otherwise.

[25:34] like it. Now vote people or do with changes. People fought for it.

[25:41] All right. Any other comments? All right. Then we will move on to report a Mayor and

[25:48] City Council. Council Member Fletcher. All right. So I hope everyone had a happy July

[25:54] and is having a good August so far. One thing I do want to bring up because I saw a fairly

[26:00] recently online. I know there has been increased discussion regarding

[26:04] FOC safety within our community as well as outside of our community.

[26:09] And one thing I noticed in particular was that on Facebook,

[26:12] there were some people that wanted to talk about it. They were being

[26:17] totally kosher with one another, but I understand it's one of those conversations

[26:20] that can evolve and the moderators of the side group decided they didn't want to allow it.

[26:25] Totally got it, but I do think that's really important conversation to have.

[26:28] I, our contract will not be up until September of 2027, so we have a lot of time and we're

[26:36] not going to imagine breaking that contract whether we'd like it or not.

[26:39] But I would like to take that time to gather as much information as I can on flock.

[26:45] And I'm going to, if there is interest in it, hold possibly some sort of town hall,

[26:51] some court of gathering, coffee, any hour, whatever, whatever people would like, for those

[26:56] was that aren't interested because there were some people

[26:57] that did want to talk about the details.

[27:00] So I plan to gather as much objective and subjective data

[27:03] to talk to actually Sam from DPS

[27:05] and really get down to the nitty gritty on it

[27:08] so that I can give information back to people

[27:10] when they do have questions.

[27:12] So for right now it's kind of obviously

[27:15] we can't really do much about it,

[27:16] but what I can do is get as much information as I can

[27:19] and when it comes time to evaluate that further down the line,

[27:23] We have that information to discuss as a community and a side whether we want to continue with our contract or not.

[27:30] Aside from that, if anyone obviously wants to email me in in in Taram has any

[27:35] Sort of resources they like to send to me by all means and purposes, but it's kind of like my little pet project because I think it's important and

[27:42] Personally, I am against flock safety. I won't get into the details right now, but I just think that there is serious concerns for

[27:51] fourth amendment rate violations and for the safety of folks in general.

[27:56] So with that, I hope everyone has a great rest of their month and yeah, that's all I got.

[28:03] Thank you very much, Council Member Bransky.

[28:06] I don't have anything to report.

[28:07] All right, Council Member Perry.

[28:09] Nothing at this time, Mayor Pro Temo-Dell.

[28:13] I just want to say the Frazier Lions Carnival had a great turnout, well-attended, overall

[28:22] very good comments on the fireworks show.

[28:24] Maybe a minute or two shorter than normal, but the quality of the fireworks were better

[28:31] from what I could get with the different discussions, so I'm happy to be walking pretty much every

[28:38] road and Frazier and around this area. A lot of neighbors said they really enjoyed the firework show this year.

[28:45] And so it was well attended and well received. And the Lions Club did really well with the carnival again.

[28:54] So as well a tentative event, I think it's getting better and better. They had the foam party, parks right at the foam party.

[29:00] I think the petting zoo helped out with that and also attended one of the movies in the park.

[29:07] I got two or three weeks ago and it was well attended. It was a beautiful night and

[29:13] you know it's a great free family event that the city puts on. So I encourage families with

[29:20] young children. They're family-friendly movies to attend and take advantage of our offerings.

[29:27] And so other than that, that's all they have.

[29:31] All right, thank you very much.

[29:32] Councilmember Higgins.

[29:34] A couple things just want to thank our clerk and all of our election workers who helped

[29:39] make the election last Tuesday possible.

[29:42] Working in their neighborhood polling precincts, people who worked at the AV counting board.

[29:47] The Frazier Historical Commission wanted me to pass on that they have their next open house,

[29:53] September 13th, from 1 to 4 p.m.

[29:56] they have a bunch of items that have been donated for

[30:00] The barren sale and particularly a lot of books. It's all at the Baumgrenter House, the museum, and the depot. Sadly, one of the commissioners, a long time commissioner at large, passed away, Dory. So they did want to pass on that they have two openings for commissioners on the historical commission. And one commissioner at large position, that's available as well. And they wanted to pass on their appreciation to the city and all of the help they get from the DPW.

[30:28] Very good. Thank you very much. I just got a couple things. The tutel tour happened last

[30:35] week at the Frazier Bomb Gardener House that was put on by the Frazier beautification

[30:43] club and the Frazier First Booster Club and the Frazier Historical Commission and the Frazier

[30:49] Historical Society. It was a garden tour and refreshments and it was really nice. If you

[30:56] I haven't been to Samantha's Garden, you should check it out.

[30:58] There were a variety of local artists there too and it was, it's just a sign, this beautification

[31:06] club really works really hard to improve the appearance of our community and this was

[31:12] one of their shining moments, so congratulations to all of them.

[31:16] Praying Carnival, Praying was a great time, did not twist my ankle on Garfield this year,

[31:22] So the road was smooth and it was not injured.

[31:26] Last week I attended the mayor's, Michigan Association,

[31:30] a mayor's conference in Farmington.

[31:32] If you haven't been in Farmington lately,

[31:34] it's really a great little town to check out.

[31:36] They've got a lot going on.

[31:37] They were named the Great American Main Street City

[31:42] of the year for 2026.

[31:46] And at that conference, we met with about 30 mayor's

[31:49] and village presidents throughout Michigan.

[31:51] And we talked about a lot of things, what's happening in Lansing, the budget, where the

[31:56] budget's headed, and other things regarding, the flock came up, ADA compliance, how do

[32:04] we, how do, and I'm sure we're working on that on the website, and how do we make our

[32:08] government accessible to people with disabilities as special needs.

[32:13] And that sounds like a challenge on its own, and the state keeps kicking that for smaller

[32:18] communities I understand, like ours, they kicked the deadline back another year or something

[32:22] like that for some of those. So that was a great experience. I met a lot of mayors, met the

[32:28] mayor of Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, Niles, Springfield, Michigan, anybody know where that's at. It's like

[32:34] the center line of Battle Creek. It's in the middle of Battle Creek. But we had a lot of great

[32:40] conversations and when I discovered when I go to these things is that we all shared common problems,

[32:46] infrastructure problems and economic development challenges and things like that.

[32:52] The main one is we have a lot of needs and not enough funds to solve all the problems

[32:57] all at once, so we'll continue those conversations.

[33:01] Other net, thanks again for the carnival and that's it from me.

[33:07] We will now move on to citizen participation.

[33:09] This is the point in the meeting.

[33:10] If you have something to say that's not on the agenda, now's your time to come on up and

[33:14] We can talk about it.

[33:16] Anyone in the audience like to speak?

[33:18] All right, Mr. Farina, come on up.

[33:35] Good evening.

[33:36] Good evening.

[33:37] 1545, Rameling Drive.

[33:40] I'm glad that you talked about the fines and implementing something into that.

[33:48] I know that our code enforcement people would like to do less time at the legal system.

[33:58] more time on the field and I hope that that helps that it was also brought up in our discussion

[34:09] about that that people were allowed and entities were allowed to apply for variances and receive

[34:19] variances if they're behind in their taxes. I don't know whether you guys talked about that or not

[34:29] tonight. We agreed at that steering team committee, if they were behind on their taxes, they

[34:35] shouldn't be granted favored by the city. And so I don't know where that stands. I also was

[34:47] very proud of you guys last week, last month when we're talking about the library. I thought that

[34:54] they were ill-prepared for a meeting and they just would not talk about finances.

[35:02] You said you were going to foyer the financial data, did you guys ever get that financial

[35:08] data from them?

[35:10] I don't, we get a copy.

[35:15] I think one of the library members, board members here, you can talk to them about getting

[35:19] it directly from company.

[35:24] That's it.

[35:26] I appreciate all that you do.

[35:27] I know it's not easy, but we do appreciate you.

[35:32] Okay, thank you very much.

[35:34] Anyone else like to speak?

[35:36] Yes, come on up.

[35:38] My

[35:44] name is Miss Pollard again.

[35:46] I miss your last meeting.

[35:47] And the last meeting that I was here on June 11th,

[35:52] I'll discuss there about the taxes on people

[35:56] who don't have kids that can't, you know,

[35:59] with the school stuff that we get in charge.

[36:02] I noticed on my texting, we didn't charge more taxes for this school, but the people who doesn't have kids that don't call there at all, we don't have no access to it.

[36:16] And then the issue, I was talking about this sore thing, private sore thing, and people home, that sore thing is no longer hers.

[36:25] because they are way they are for it y'all have some kind of contract when they do do that here in the city of phrase.

[36:34] I want to know who responsible for that sort to make sure it's being cleaned out.

[36:40] Because according to the Michigan law when they have the private sort they're going to backyard those are supposed to be checked by I guess either the DP or the city.

[36:50] I'm not sure which one bring for my answer on that to make sure they've made this in it that because I'm not only one getting flooded from all three to back yards

[37:00] and house to the left for me and right at me. I'm getting the water. I don't have none of those big sewer drains in my yard.

[37:07] I was told that I supposed to have someone calling to the blueprint, but it's not true.

[37:12] So, how do we go forward or making sure those people taking care of that?

[37:19] That should be part of a fine also, too, because it could be grass inside of it, like when

[37:26] I had the county number come up, because I kept trying to deal with the city about the

[37:31] sewer thing where the water was coming up from the streets all the way to Mallorca and also

[37:35] the sewer that's in my driveway belongs to the city.

[37:38] They they ignore me. So the county took over when they took the top off. It was a lot of mud in there

[37:47] That never been clean, you know way before me

[37:51] Then I found out that I'm really the filth person on this property

[37:55] Which didn't show everybody who was on this property where I live at

[38:02] And I'm with this I'm with I'm with attorney about these people couldn't grasp and take your name

[38:08] I'm so glad you're talking. I don't know your name. Turn me. What's your name?

[38:15] Oh, no, it's not up here.

[38:18] Maybe I have to know.

[38:21] I'm kind of

[38:22] going to throw that information up because on my street on the front.

[38:26] You got a lot of people they can see their own trash stuff in their yard.

[38:33] And we don't have to win. It is sit there and then when we do get win, they'll watch it.

[38:38] And then it comes and everybody else y'all, I'm not nobody's babysitter or nobody's keeper.

[38:44] I keep my yard clean, I also keep that sewer thing on the outside because I watch my one neighbor to the left of me.

[38:53] He's very nice to hear, he'll walk right past this stuff and won't pick it up and then it ends up in my yard.

[38:59] So I'm just trying to keep stuff from being in my yard and also that goes in as when I sewer that blocks it.

[39:06] But I won't keep getting the water coming up from the streets to my house.

[39:11] So I'm kind of glad he did bring it up in these other residents.

[39:15] That's got the concern about that because we got some people that not taking care of their property.

[39:21] And then, um, I got told on, um, all the everybody come, the neighbor to the left lying on me, said I was digging in my yard.

[39:31] I was messing with the cable box.

[39:33] So all the everybody come to my house.

[39:35] I got nothing to hide. They had their phones and the yard was still like I was or anything. I removed it

[39:41] Was the the two the three places that the informed people had in the square box

[39:47] Because it was drawing was in peace. I am allergic to it

[39:52] The empty pin is

[39:53] 1800

[39:55] There used to be when you get them two for five hundred so I cannot afford it

[40:00] So when he came I had to let everybody come to see because it was trying to give me a fine and a ticket

[40:06] One by what he said but at the end of the day he was covering himself up

[40:11] So when they looked over his face they see some stuff that he did a whole lot of stuff and they say he never came in there to pull

[40:17] No permit. So I'm glad that is been that need a piece

[40:22] Taking care of but we got to do better. You guys are taking care of these other business street like

[40:29] 15 and stuff. I understand that. But what about 14? I got some serious issue on 14. I got my

[40:37] investigation paperwork. Part of my problem is on other streets, part of the river. I had

[40:45] my stuff from them. But the sign said they were supposed to take care of the sign from August

[40:53] they said 10 through August 13th, August the 10th was Monday and they haven't done nothing.

[40:59] So why is 14th always being on a bad partner?

[41:03] I found out why the resident don't come.

[41:06] They said the same issue that I'm, you know, trying to come here to get taken care of.

[41:11] They said you guys don't care and they told me they're not going to listen to you.

[41:15] They're going to just throw you all, say they're going to call you tonight.

[41:18] So pretty much all colors, I understand them, and I'm to the point I'm leaving.

[41:26] Something, I'm giving you a heads up, you're probably going to be glad I'm leaving, I'm leaving, because I don't feel like the

[41:32] taxes that we paying for some of time, it's worth it, we're just a small little tie, I didn't make all of it.

[41:38] Okay, thank you very much, thank you for your time.

[41:42] Anyone else like to speak tonight,

[41:54] can you give us your names and where you're from?

[41:56] Yeah, Redford. I'm Sarah Redford and we're from Frazier York Street. I'm here for the

[42:07] ordinance of chickens, like having chickens in Frazier. I would like that to either be

[42:13] changed or be grandfathered in because my great-great-grandparents had chickens on the property

[42:20] that I live on now. And there are a lot of good reasons that having tickens are a good idea.

[42:30] One of them is that you can feed them a lot of scraps and like they're very economical.

[42:42] And when I was in Africa, we just fed them a lot of scraps and it gave us

[42:47] It caused this to have a lot less landfill.

[42:52] They have give you fresher eggs.

[42:56] They're healthier and taste way better than store-bought eggs.

[43:00] They significantly reduce the insect population by eating many kinds of insects,

[43:05] including ticks and mosquitoes.

[43:07] This makes your yard a way better place to be.

[43:10] They are also like a cleanup crew.

[43:11] After storms, they clear down vegetation and in general.

[43:15] They eat weeds, leaves, and long clipping.

[43:18] As I said before, you don't have to waste scraps and leftovers.

[43:22] Chickens are walking composters.

[43:24] Their poop is excellent fertilizer,

[43:26] and they help the process of composting with poop and eggshells.

[43:30] Not only do they help with composting,

[43:32] but they also help aerate the yard.

[43:34] They do this by scratching for food.

[43:37] For many people, chickens are a source of joy,

[43:39] and to some, they even relieve stress.

[43:42] Chickens may not seem as fun as a dog or a cat,

[43:44] but it's the funnest thing ever to feed them treats and they follow you around.

[43:49] Chickens teach a lot of responsibility, such as collecting eggs, cleaning the coop and feeding and watering them.

[43:56] Instead of staring at a screen, kids can take care of chickens and have fun with them.

[44:00] Collecting chicken feathers can be a fun hobby.

[44:03] Observing them up close gives you a chance to learn more about feathers.

[44:09] Although some people may think chickens are messy and smell bad, with proper care and attention,

[44:14] chickens can be the perfect day out on to keep roosters may be loud, but that could be

[44:19] solved by only allowing hands.

[44:21] Chickens are everywhere, why not in Frazier?

[44:26] Hi, my name is Sarah Redford, and I'm here today for the ordinance about chickens.

[44:30] I would either like the ordinance to be changed or give us an exception to be grandfathered

[44:34] and because our great-great-grandfathers, grandparents, had chickens on our property.

[44:39] Chickens are awesome.

[44:41] One of the reasons chickens are awesome is their great-learing sources.

[44:45] They also be a lot of bugs, pests, and scrap.

[44:48] Their poop is fertilizer.

[44:51] Watching them behave can be science for kids.

[44:54] They also are really fun to play with and can relieve stress.

[44:58] they give fresh

[45:00] Egg, so you can give all your neighbors some eggs a few out of extra. Warren, Roosevelt, Clinton, Township, Detroit, and other local communities have found a way to have chickens. Why not, Frazier? Some problems might be noise. Chickens going into other people's yards and not enough space. Some answers to that might be no roosters allowed. You have to have a coop in a room and you need 10 square feet, but chicken outside of the coop and 4 square feet, but chicken inside the coop. We want chickens because they're super fun and awesome and we want to know more about how we could have chickens.

[45:29] Thank you very much, you did very well.

[45:33] I don't think I've ever heard the word poop as fertilizer at a council meeting in all my time.

[45:40] Thank you.

[45:41] All right, anyone else I can speak?

[45:58] Good evening.

[45:59] Good evening, Mr. Mayor of council, Jim Sutherland on behalf of the Frazier Public Library.

[46:07] We had a special meeting on Monday to go over our choices.

[46:13] is from the architect, and also some other financial stuff.

[46:19] We will be receiving the, we picked one that we liked.

[46:24] We will be receiving all the stuff from the architect

[46:28] at the end of this month.

[46:30] So we will be here next month for a full presentation

[46:34] on the bond.

[46:36] We will have, you guys, we'll send you guys,

[46:38] we've sent you some stuff.

[46:40] We'll send everything again out to everybody

[46:43] so that they have it all in one packet, so you don't have to go looking for the passable.

[46:50] And that's really all I wanted to bring to you is the fact that we'll be coming next month.

[46:57] Okay, and you'll have that to the city manager or whatever date that she needs.

[47:02] It's fully prepared by end of August.

[47:04] They told us it's coming end of August, so I got ten days, right?

[47:15] We need materials by the 26th.

[47:21] Yeah.

[47:22] Okay.

[47:24] It's the 10th, I think.

[47:26] Wait.

[47:31] For me.

[47:33] Why do I have to, the 26th of August?

[47:36] Yeah.

[47:37] September packet.

[47:43] Yeah.

[47:45] Yeah.

[47:45] We go to 10 business days and we go 10 days.

[47:50] You tell me the data and I'll buy the 26th August 26th August 26th, okay, what day is that it's a Wednesday.

[47:58] Thank you very

[48:02] good, okay, thank you very much.

[48:04] Thank you appreciate the update.

[48:07] Anyone else, there's

[48:11] only one person left.

[48:13] Do you want to speak, sir, okay, all right, thank you very much.

[48:17] Which that concludes the regular part of the meeting, item number 11 is a motion to go into closed session to consult, I will make a motion to go into closed session to consult with the city attorney to consider written legal opinions exempt exempt from discussion or disclosure.

[48:36] I have a motion by Mayor Lessich seconded by Councilmember Baranski to go into closed session, roll call please.

[48:43] Boranski.

[48:44] Yes.

[48:45] Flesher.

[48:45] Higgins.

[48:46] Yes.

[48:47] Lesich.

[48:47] Yes.

[48:48] Odell.

[48:48] Yes.

[48:49] Perry.

[48:49] Yes.

[48:50] Shornack is absent that passes.

[48:52] It is now 7.19.

[48:54] We will go into close session.

[1:16:30] There's now 7.46 p.m. We're back from the closed session. I would entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. Motion by Council Member Higgins. Seconded by Council Member Bransky to adjourn the August 13th regular meeting at 7.47 p.m., all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you very much.

[1:16:52] Y'all made it, you see this.

[1:16:55] Bye-bye.

City Council Meeting

Transcript