[0:01] [Music]

[0:08] I'd like to call to order the meeting of the Lancing Charter Commission for July

[0:13] 29th at 6:30 uh in the evening. Uh Cler, would you please call the role?

[0:19] » Okay, sure. Uh Commissioner Adam Simon >> here.

[0:22] » Commissioner Anderson, Commissioner Anderson is absent. Commissioner Bower

[0:26] » here. >> Commissioner Boyd here. Commissioner Dow

[0:29] » here. >> Commissioner Jeff

[0:30] » here. >> Commissioner Lopez. Commissioner Lopez

[0:33] is absent. Commissioner Kawi >> present.

[0:36] » Commissioner Washington >> excused.

[0:38] » Commissioner Washington is absent. We have six members present. A quorum.

[0:43] Three are absent. >> Thank you. Uh motion be in order to

[0:46] adopt the agenda. >> It's been moved and supported. All those

[0:50] in favor say I. >> I.

[0:52] » Those opposed. The agenda is adopted. Motion would also be in order to approve

[0:57] the minutes for July 15th, 2025 minutes. It's been moved

[1:02] » supported. All those in favor say I. >> I.

[1:04] » Those opposed. Passes unanimously. Public comment.

[1:13] » Uh is there anyone in the Nope. >> We have no public.

[1:19] » All right. Down to officer reports. Uh just very quickly uh based on our last

[1:24] meeting, we had uh reviewed uh some of the uh community education meetings that

[1:30] we were scheduling. Uh we've uh confirmed wards one uh for Wednesday,

[1:35] September 3rd at 7 p.m. Uh this will be at the Foster Community Center. Ward two

[1:41] uh has been approved for Wednesday, September 10th at Sycamore Creek Church.

[1:46] Uh Ward 4 for Wednesday, September 24th at 6:30. That will be at the Let's

[1:51] Community Center. Those were the ones that we had discussed last week. We're

[1:55] still looking uh for Ward Three. Uh we've reached out to the Colonial

[1:59] Village and Church Hill Downs Community Association. Uh and uh have not heard

[2:05] anything back. Uh there was some information that was passed out to

[2:08] everybody. It should have been at your desk tonight. Uh it has those meeting

[2:12] dates and times. And on the second page uh is the availability

[2:16] uh for uh basically all of September uh for the Schmidz community uh uh um room

[2:24] or building and I think we'd be looking at the auditorium there. Uh I asked the

[2:30] clerk to kind of weed through those dates. I know there's some conflicts

[2:33] with city council meetings and other things which he has done. Uh and um

[2:41] what we have available at this point uh and if everybody would want to look at

[2:46] their calendar. Commissioner Boyd. >> Um a couple of comments. First of all,

[2:50] on W two it says uh at the Sycamore Creek Church

[2:56] uh between 6 and 7. Is it six or is it seven? I wasn't quite sure.

[3:03] » I mean, we could >> It's up to us. And then the other thing

[3:07] I'd like to point out is that all of these dates are on Wednesdays and I know

[3:11] that Commissioner Anderson cannot come. I don't know if she wants to come but

[3:14] she can't come on all Wednesdays because she has other commitments. I was

[3:18] speaking with a member of the community who works at night and Wednesdays are a

[3:23] problem for her. when we had the community meetings for um to chart the

[3:29] charter itself to to gain input, we mixed up, you know, some some of the

[3:34] meetings were on Tuesday, ones was on Saturday. Now, I don't know if I can

[3:39] come to all of them or not, but it seems to me that we should mix these up a

[3:43] little bit so they're not all on one night like a Wednesday or a Tuesday. My

[3:48] thoughts. Emory, if you could respond in terms I

[3:52] know this was um somewhat difficult to put this together. What in terms of the

[3:57] flexibility on those dates and what you um had talked to with the other groups,

[4:02] what's what uh can you just update us on that?

[4:06] » Um yeah, so

[4:17] okay. So, East Side Neighborhood Organization in Ward 1 and Westside in

[4:24] Ward 4 meet on Wednesday nights. So, if you're going to hold that partnership,

[4:29] I'm assuming you'd want to honor their already established meeting schedule.

[4:33] » Okay. And then for ward two, um, they had proposed a couple different dates,

[4:41] the Wednesday, September 10th, or there was a Saturday, but y'all had

[4:47] opted not to go for the Saturday just due to varying availability. So that's

[4:50] why that one fell on a Wednesday, too. Um,

[4:57] » okay. Commissioner Boyd, >> do the community organizations want us

[5:01] to be a particip have our meetings at the same time they have their their

[5:07] monthly meetings? I think at the last time we just came up with dates. I

[5:12] didn't think that the community organizations necessarily wanted us to

[5:16] be there at their meetings. So I guess I'm asking

[5:19] » last year um the partnerships in wards 1, three, and four were with an already

[5:26] established neighboring organiza uh neighborhood organization during their

[5:31] scheduled meeting. So it'll be a repeat in one and four with east side and west

[5:36] side and then um two and three we're figuring out still.

[5:40] » And two, may I ask did you on September 10th did you say six or seven? Which is

[5:45] it? That is up to you all to determine the

[5:49] start time. >> Thank you.

[5:52] » Can I see those dates? Okay. Looking at W three. Um we have the following dates

[5:57] that are available. So if everyone could uh take a look at their calendar. Uh we

[6:03] have two Thursday September 11th but again we have Wednesday September 10th

[6:07] if you want to do backtoback. Uh Monday September 15th is

[6:12] » there is no council meeting. >> Okay. Monday September 15th.

[6:16] uh Tuesday the 16th, Thursday the 18th.

[6:24] Um

[6:27] and that would be after the 17th. Oh yeah, after the 17th or pardon 17th

[6:33] meeting will not work. >> Mr. Mr. chair. Yeah.

[6:36] » Uh for the record, I will be I mean I I can do the meetings as they're proposed

[6:41] right now, but I will be out of town uh September 14th through the 21st, which I

[6:48] think is a Mon or the 22nd. So, if there are any meetings and not

[6:54] that it matters, but I just so you know, I will not be able to attend any of

[6:58] those meetings and I will be out of town September 25th

[7:04] through September 30 as well. Thank you. >> All right. So, that

[7:09] takes it down to >> the Tuesday the 23rd, Thursday the 11th,

[7:16] or Monday the 15th. Is anyone

[7:21] Commissioner Bower. >> And that would be instead of Sycamore

[7:26] Creek. >> No, that we're looking at W three at the

[7:30] bottom. We're looking

[7:32] » Oh, that would be the W three word. Okay. Thank you.

[7:36] » Does anybody have a preference for any one of those days?

[7:41] » M. Commissioner Kui. >> Um, I would like if possible if we can

[7:47] do the 23rd and I think that works for your date too. Could you come back on

[7:50] the 22nd, right? >> Tuesday.

[7:53] » It's a Tuesday at 6 PM. I can't do anyone that's at noon or two now since

[7:58] my job is >> Yep.

[8:01] » So, Tuesday, September 23rd at 6. Does that work for everybody?

[8:12] » Either 12. >> Either 12 or six.

[8:16] » Okay. So, it's either 12 or six. So we'll do six o'clock

[8:22] and >> it's not available after

[8:26] that.

[8:30] » Okay, we would >> we would do the auditorium

[8:33] » and we could do that. Do people have a preference in terms of time? 6 or 7?

[8:38] Anybody? All right, we'll do it at six o'clock.

[8:41] » Um Tuesday the 23rd. Uh and this will be for W three. We'll do it in the

[8:47] auditorium >> at

[8:50] » Yes. >> at six o'clock.

[8:56] All right. Are there other questions regarding the schedule?

[9:03] Okay. Hearing none. Uh that is the only report that I had. Madam vice chair, do

[9:08] you have a report or an update? >> No report,

[9:10] » Mr. Clerk. uh just uh that we did get approval from

[9:15] the governor, >> but you're into that.

[9:20] » Okay. All right. We're moving on to old

[9:23] business. >> Yes.

[9:26] » My question is these are community meetings, so we'll be on the road. Uh is

[9:31] there a are we planning to have whatever presentation we're making about the

[9:36] charter uh made in this room so that it can be tape recorded and on YouTube and

[9:43] the public can tune in. >> That's one thing we'll talk to the peer.

[9:46] » Very good. Thank you. I think it should be.

[9:48] » Yeah. >> Thank you.

[9:49] » All right. Moving on to the RFP.

[9:54] » Did everybody I have I don't know the answer to this. Did everybody get their

[9:58] information in to Emery? Um,

[10:03] anybody have any conversation that they want to have about these? Any particular

[10:08] pluses, minuses? Anyone?

[10:13] » I'll just say it with my comments. Demory, I did not score any of the three

[10:16] that were outside of Lancing. So, I only scored the local.

[10:20] » Fair enough. >> Commissioner Washington,

[10:24] » I did not score any of them. I will abstaining from abstain from any vote

[10:28] regarding this. I don't have dementia. I don't remember voting to do an RFP. I

[10:34] don't remember voting to do um a PR firm. So, I'll be abstaining and I did

[10:40] not score. >> Commissioner Bower, did Oh, I thought

[10:44] you had some question. Commissioner Bdon.

[10:47] » Um I I will be voting but like like Commissioner Washington, I don't

[10:51] remember that we voted on hiring a PR firm and I don't remember an RFP being

[10:56] voted on. I will say this is I think I said at the last meeting. Somebody's

[11:01] going to have to do the work. It's either going to be a PR firm or it's

[11:03] going to be the staff and the staff has an election. And so, you know, I'm

[11:08] perfectly fine with within, you know, certain parameters to have a PR firm do

[11:12] it. It's too bad it's called a PR firm, but that's that's life.

[11:16] » The the the vote for the PR firm will be tonight. No, we have not voted on that.

[11:21] » Okay. So, any other questions, comments? Emry, do you have any information in

[11:27] terms of the scoring?

[11:35] » Do you want to come up? >> Do you need

[11:58] Okay. I do not yet have scores from

[12:04] Commissioner Lopez, who is not here, and Commissioner Kawi. Um

[12:09] » for sure >> Koi um I can if you want to pass me

[12:15] those I can enter them into this spreadsheet so that

[12:19] you can see all of your scores but I don't have that information yet. So

[12:22] » based on what you have what is the score?

[12:24] » Yeah, that's

[12:29] » so that's not how rubrics work.

[12:33] » Well because it's not a total point thing. It's a weighted thing and some

[12:37] people scored some but not others. So, I don't think that there's like one

[12:42] simple answer to that. I can try to run some numbers for you, but uh it might

[12:48] behoove you all to have a discussion because not everybody scored everyone.

[12:53] » So, it's hard to determine a weight when six people scored one and eight people

[12:56] scored another. It's >> Mr. Anderson.

[13:00] » I mean, to me, no score is zero. And I don't I mean I don't know if that's what

[13:07] » I think that their score is just zero for that um in my opinion,

[13:13] » but I'm also open to just having a conversation.

[13:22] » Commissioner Anderson you use a different rubric than everyone else and

[13:26] had different scores. So we don't we couldn't apply your scores to the

[13:30] rubric. So we have people who have >> let me look

[13:34] » scored some and not others and we have who did a a different rubric

[13:39] and then we had >> a commissioner who uh it's not like

[13:43] inadvertently you know so

[13:46] » okay >> this one so we have a little bit we have

[13:49] incomplete information >> TV

[13:50] » to be able to provide a a complete score >> um at this at this moment so we need to

[13:56] understand what people's scores if they have scores with them or they're

[14:00] choosing not to or what do we need to or show the you know what what we have. So

[14:07] it's like we had some things we didn't even know how to apply.

[14:13] [Music] >> Hello. I talked to you this morning.

[14:16] You're right. find my forms anyway.

[14:20] » If if the you know my my position would be and it's just my position is that if

[14:25] the if the uh information was not sent in it's not to be counted and we've made

[14:31] it very clear what the timeline was on this we've delayed it an additional two

[14:34] weeks for this to happen. Um and so if it's not here it's not here.

[14:42] » Commissioner Boyd >> I'd like to make a motion on who we

[14:45] should hire. Go ahead.

[14:47] » May I do that? >> Yeah.

[14:49] » I recommended I did the rubric. Uh I hope I did it right. I don't know if I

[14:54] did it right, but I did it. And I I did spend two days looking at it and I've

[14:58] read all the proposals and like some here I there there are some that are

[15:04] disqualified in my opinion because they are out of town. It's a we're on a very

[15:07] short timeline here. We don't have a lot of time and to have people to pay people

[15:12] to drive up to Lancing. I I'm just not into it. So, I didn't take any of the

[15:16] out of town proposals seriously. I said last time and I say it again and I said

[15:22] it in an email today. I think any of these firms could do the work. I mean,

[15:26] clearly they have experience and they've done work for other agencies. Um, my

[15:31] recommendation and my motion would be that we hire Truscott Rossman. And that

[15:35] comes as a surprise to me. Kelly Rosman was a dear friend of mine. It's not

[15:39] exactly the firm that I would have thought I was going to come out on the

[15:42] side of, but I came out on their side for various reasons. One, Trusscott

[15:47] Rosman is a national firm. They have done work like this in the past. They

[15:53] can clearly do the work. Uh I think they understand the project. I think their

[15:58] approach is right. I think one of the firms talked about having handouts at at

[16:04] uh the zoo and on buses and all kinds of things that are not directly related to

[16:10] our voters and this is a message for our voters and our voters only. Doesn't

[16:15] matter what other people in Okam or East Lancing think it is about our voters.

[16:20] Um, so I thought Trrescott Rossman had that. And I think their affordability,

[16:25] while I'm a little iffy on all the affordability that

[16:29] questions that were or proposals that we received, I think Trrescot Rossman will

[16:34] do a fair job for us and they'll do a quick job for us. They have national

[16:38] stature. They have state stature. Uh, they know the community. They're of the

[16:43] community. They have a variety of printers. We've talked the last time

[16:47] about union printers versus non-union printers. Several of these firms talked

[16:51] about Instyrints. I mean, they're not a union firm and I wouldn't not. So, I

[16:55] would say trust Scott Rossman with the pro with the provision and the

[17:00] understanding that they are to use a union printer.

[17:04] None of them use the printer that I used, which was a union printer. And I

[17:08] was quite surprised because I thought they saved me a lot of money. But

[17:11] anyway, so that's my motion. I move that we hire Trustcott Rossman and I move it

[17:16] for this reason. We have incomplete uh responses on the rubrics. We have a

[17:22] short timeline. You know, the AV ballots will be out in less than two months. We

[17:27] have to move and so therefore you have my recommendation.

[17:31] » Is there support? >> It's been moved and supported.

[17:35] Discussion Commissioner B. And what what I really

[17:40] liked about uh Trrescott Rossman is that as they talked about the big idea,

[17:48] what's changing and why, and they stressed making it simple, um

[17:56] clear, again, not a massive uh campaign. I

[18:00] shouldn't say massive campaign, but plain language charter guide. And I I

[18:05] liked the things that they said in terms of especially method. Um

[18:12] and that's the way that I feel that our vote our

[18:18] citizens would want something that is again

[18:23] just just the facts and ex explains what the changes are. So um I agree. I also

[18:30] looked at all of them and some of them I really felt didn't even really

[18:34] understand totally. This is different than a political

[18:38] candidate than than supporting a millage campaign. This is a very different um

[18:44] undertaking.

[18:47] » Thank you. Other comments? Um go ahead, Commissioner Anderson.

[18:52] » Um I I do like their what's changing and why proposed method. I do think that

[19:04] their delivery may be a little outdated. And so I think my concern would be like

[19:11] how does that messaging get out there and reach people? Um, and so I would say

[19:17] that's the only thing I wasn't necessarily super convinced on. And I

[19:21] like I don't want to see this on catab buses. That's not my preference. But I

[19:26] do think that there's like a sense of oftentimes in the work that all of us

[19:31] are doing it there's a disconnect between like the work we're doing and

[19:35] the people we're trying to reach and really making sure that people

[19:38] understand and they can make informed decisions based off of the information

[19:42] that we present. And I think that I I think I just want to know more of like

[19:49] how they're going to reach those people. Um, I mean, yeah, we can send a mail or

[19:55] those like traditional ways, but I would I think it is interesting to

[20:00] I think have more conversation and like with them if chosen, I guess, of how

[20:04] they'll actually reach people um in a way that they'll like want to get the

[20:11] information and make a decision. I don't know, maybe I'm just hopeful.

[20:17] » And vice chair, >> Commissioner Bower Did did you see a one

[20:23] of the firms that you thought did a better job of because you know you're

[20:28] younger and more more with it in terms of of um different ways of approaching.

[20:34] I just wondered if you had if if anybody saw another firm that they thought

[20:40] did a better job of that. >> Yeah. So 98 Ford and I know they're not

[20:46] local and this is not me advocating necessarily that we go with them but I

[20:50] think like even their mention of how to connect with diverse audiences

[20:57] and their experience with doing that I think just was missed in the proposal

[21:03] from Trescott Rossman and I don't know if I've ever seen their work in which

[21:09] they're able to connect with diverse audiences instead of just like the

[21:14] people are typically already informed and so I guess those are just my

[21:19] » thoughts in your terms how you felt

[21:27] » and again this is not me advocating for them but they talk about um they were

[21:34] selected for sorry there's a lot of pages to go

[21:38] through um the ACLU of Michigan hired them for 40 days of

[21:44] early voting campaign and they talked about specific demographics that they

[21:49] try to reach and like their strategies for focusing on those people and really

[21:54] like learning about those demographics and how to

[21:58] reach them and connect with them. And so, and I'm wondering too, and I am not

[22:04] a PR or marketing expert at all, but I just think that like there's a sense of

[22:10] one message isn't going to hit everyone the same way and different types of

[22:14] people receive information differently. Um, and I just kind of feel like the

[22:20] days of just sending out like a press release to like a contact list and

[22:25] sending out mailers is just not enough for me personally. I agree.

[22:30] » That's it. >> And vice chair.

[22:32] » Yes, I am definitely um in favor of using a local company. I was impressed

[22:38] with the edge. And if you do a cost comparison, if we're doing a three-month

[22:42] campaign, um Trescot Rossman would come out to about $15,000 where Edge is

[22:48] saying for the entire campaign, it's about $20,000. So, you're saving $5,000.

[22:52] But if it's a three-month campaign, how how that works. But I was very much

[22:55] impressed with Edge. I thought Edge had a had an interesting proposal, but they

[23:02] did not even respond to the second email >> and they I disqualified them completely

[23:08] because they did not respond.

[23:12] » Other questions, comments.

[23:16] The clerk, please call the role.

[23:24] On selecting uh Trescott Rossman as the PR firm,

[23:30] Commissioner Lopez is absent. Commissioner Kui,

[23:34] » yes. >> Commissioner Washington,

[23:36] » no. >> Commissioner Adam Simon,

[23:41] » yes. Commissioner Anderson,

[23:45] » yes. >> Commissioner Bower,

[23:48] » yes. >> Commissioner Boyd,

[23:50] » yes. >> Commissioner Dow,

[23:52] » yes. >> Commissioner Jeff,

[23:54] » yes. >> Uh, seven yays, one nay and one absent.

[23:59] » Pass. >> It does pass. At this point, I think

[24:04] this goes back to purchasing or procurement. they will reach out to

[24:09] Trescott Rossman and start discussing uh contracts and details in relation to

[24:15] that. Commissioner Boyd, >> uh we'll have to at some point I think

[24:19] Trroscott Rossman or one of the companies wanted to have a meeting. So

[24:24] we'll have to decide who from this commission meets with the vendor. I

[24:30] think Commissioner Anderson makes a very good point about making sure that this

[24:34] is um you know it's a bilingual presentation and it's available to

[24:38] people of other cultures so that everybody knows what we're talking

[24:42] about. I think that's important. But I at some point I would just make sure

[24:46] that every who is going to meet with the company includes those kinds of

[24:50] questions because no matter who we chose tonight, we all have questions whether

[24:56] it's about pricing, whether it's about methods, whatever. Thank you.

[25:01] » As soon as we get some information back, I'll make sure everybody gets a copy and

[25:05] we'll go from there. Um I think we had a meeting scheduled for August 7th. Has

[25:12] that been taken off? I yeah I believe at the last meeting you announced we would

[25:15] not be meeting August 7th. >> All right. So just want to make clear I

[25:18] know Commissioner Bower reached out with a question regarding that.

[25:22] » Right. Right. As we were just confirming no meetings.

[25:27] » Yeah. All right. Um now is the time for public comment.

[25:32] Anyone from the public who would wish to comment?

[25:36] [Music] Hearing none.

[25:40] Uh commission remarks. Anybody want to make a remark? Commission Washington.

[25:47] » Um, I'll accept this. >> I just I'm always the dissenting voice

[25:51] on this commission and for that I am not ashamed. I'm actually quite proud

[25:56] because I do represent a whole segment of our city that most of you have

[26:02] ignored. So, I I'm just going to say this. Um,

[26:08] I still haven't voted on whether or not we want a PR firm. We were simply handed

[26:14] PR firms after the RPF already went out. I don't like that process. We are a

[26:20] commission. We have a chair, but we do not have a king. So having said that, my

[26:27] biggest concern is now that you all have voted for it, that we are very

[26:32] deliberate in the content that it is absolutelyformational

[26:37] only and not weighing one way or the other. Thank you.

[26:43] » Right, Commissioner Boy. >> I just to echo what you're saying, it

[26:47] has to be. That is the law. But I think you voted for it, didn't you? Didn't you

[26:52] didn't you vote for the Trescot Rosman for

[26:54] » I said no. >> Oh, you said you you voted no.

[26:58] » So, no. >> Okay, you voted no. Okay, thank you.

[27:02] Thank you. I didn't understand. >> Any other comments, Commissioner Que?

[27:07] » Just confirming our next meeting is August 7th.

[27:09] » No, we have no meeting scheduled at all. >> Right. Okay. It will it'll

[27:14] » I want to confirm. >> We do not.

[27:16] » These are our scheduled meetings on August 7th.

[27:19] » Correct. And um be before we adjourn, can we

[27:24] clarify six or seven on the September 10th for Sycamore Creek?

[27:30] » On September, everybody on September 10th,

[27:36] 6 or 7 o'clock. When do you want to meet?

[27:39] » Six. >> Six o'clock. Okay. Six o'clock. Is it?

[27:42] Anything else? >> Okay.

[27:44] » And for the record, that is my birthday and I will be at the meeting. That's my

[27:48] son's birthday. >> It's not my birthday. Commissioner

[27:53] » Sigmore Church is the one that's on Pennsylvania.

[27:55] » Yes. Okay. >> All right. Commissioner Anderson,

[27:59] » just a reminder, I will not be at any Wednesday meetings, but I will be at the

[28:03] Tuesday meeting um in the third ward. >> Thank you.

[28:08] Other comments? Commissioner Bower,

[28:13] » you want me? >> Maybe we need to meet more often since

[28:17] none of us are tracking very well. So, just to clarify, when does the

[28:21] commission meet again? >> We have no schedule, but for the

[28:25] » our community sessions. So, at this moment, we don't have a

[28:28] » That's correct. >> Correct.

[28:30] » Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. Anything else?

[28:34] » We're adjourned. [Music]

July 29th, 2025 Lansing Charter Commission

Transcript