[0:00] 7:00. If everybody would. Please. I'm calling the meeting to order. If everybody would please rise. And we will say the Pledge of Allegiance.
[0:12] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.
[0:29] Our third item on the agenda is our roll call. Angie, if you would take the roll call, please. Mayor here. Mayor Pro tem Rogers here. Council members. Avery. Here. Casey here. Forte here. Thank you. We got Chris Quesenberry and Jones are both absent. Item four is approval of the agenda. I'll need a motion and a second to approve the agenda.
[0:53] I'll make the motion.
[0:54] Okay. From Avery, a second. Laura Rogers, discussion or comments from council members from the public. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, the agenda is approved. Item five is public comments. Individuals have the opportunity to address the City Council on topics, not on the agenda, for three minutes. In order to hear all individuals comments at a reasonable hour, the City Council requests that speakers respect the three minute time limit. Note this is not a question and answer session. However, it is an opportunity to voice your thoughts with City Council. Would anybody like to make a public comment? Yes, sir. It's up to the podium, please.
[1:34] Good evening. My name is Steve Hargis. I live at 55 North Main Street. Uh, my comments have to do with an item that I read in the paper regarding, uh, potentially we may owe some money for police coverage to the township because of whatever reason. Uh, my comment is more about what I feel is that we don't really owe any more to the police department. Um, or coverage, I should say. Uh, then we're already paying because I don't feel they're really doing their job, uh, in our city and as well as they could be doing. Uh, the reason I say that is, uh, living on Main Street, uh, there's a tremendous amount of traffic noise. Uh, and it has a lot to do with, uh, uh, motorcycle, uh, and, uh, automobile. But it seems like with the success of our downtown, which is really great, it has drawn in a lot of people from outside. And along with that, there are people that seem to want to draw attention to To themselves. And so they go through town with open exhaust, and they like to wreck everything when they go by. And it's not just motorcycles, it's cars as well. And I feel that our presence of our police coverage has been curtailed or reduced or inadequate for one reason or another. And I don't understand why. And I don't have facts in order to back up my, uh, say what I'm saying, other than the fact I've lived here a long time and I've observed this firsthand because I walk the streets a lot and, uh, I don't know if anyone will come what I say one way or another, but I just felt that I wanted to get it off my, my chest, so to speak. And, uh, maybe you can think on this a bit that, uh, We need to emphasize to our police force that we need we need help out here. There's a lot of, I think, anarchists driving, you know, blowing through stop signs and speeding and doing a lot of things that they ought not be doing. So these are my my comments. Thank you.
[4:15] Thank you. Steve, would anybody else like to make a public comment? Yes, I actually there's a two parter. One is to agree with Mr. Hargis and say that, uh, and I know I was just talking with somebody about Mr. Patterson coming in here from Holcomb and where he complained about something very similar and the noise. And I've been noticing, and unfortunately, I've been told that somebody who actually lives in the community. But but just like that, that sort of the bass sound that's coming from some cars and I don't know how to create sort of a like a to do list for the city about things where people come in and share concerns, and how do we make sure that they're followed up on and just sort of, you know, check on them at council meetings, such as what Mr. Patterson said? Because my actual comment that I was going to say was, I go to the HTC meetings, I go to all the meetings. I don't know why I'm a glutton for punishment, but like repeatedly at every HTC meeting, an applicant talks about the flaws of our website and that they couldn't attach the documents that they need to attach. And so I just want to suggest that we have some sort of system or process put in place to address that, so that it can be rectified because nobody wants to go to those meetings. We should make it as painless as possible and allow them to be able to submit all of the information that they want to submit. Otherwise they might hear like your application wasn't complete and it's through no fault of their own. So I know Amanda is working on a fillable PDF, which is great, and I just hope that the city staff will work on getting that in place or creating even something separate where it just goes into an email to the HTC and a city representative just to make sure that it's as painless as possible. It shouldn't be that hard. Thank you. I'm going to follow up on that.
[6:03] Yeah, just a follow up after the last HTC meeting, not the one I was at or the one that I was at. The HTC did get copies of those. So they just have to approve that form. And then me and Jonathan just have to handle it on our end. But Jonathan and I, and I said, we did it after the election. So it's that's on the docket. Okay. At least internally.
[6:25] All right. Good. Thanks for taking care of that, Amanda. Yes. Anybody else have public comments? Yes, sir.
[6:37] Why don't you come up to the podium, please? S4:
[7:05] What grade.
[7:05] Are you? Uh, six.
[7:08] Did you ever walk to school?
[7:10] I'm in school.
[7:11] Okay.
[7:12] But I do hear, like, sometimes 3:00 in the morning. That's really bad.
[7:16] Okay. Because I was wondering, like, how safe it is for kids and stuff with all that.
[7:21] Um, I have a lot of friends that go to school.
[7:23] Um.
[7:25] Like they haven't said much about it. Okay.
[7:28] Just curious. Yeah. Yeah.
[7:30] Do you mind repeating your first name, please?
[7:32] Um. Ezra.
[7:33] Ezra. Thank you. I do have to say, I to piggyback on these guys. It has. I don't know why. This summer, it just seems so much worse. And the the basic Cara is, um, talking about it. I've never been able to hear the traffic inside my house. Oh, yeah. And I can hear it clear as day. And that bass will, like, just hit our our homes like. And I don't know. Is there anything that they'll do about that? I mean, is there a noise.
[8:03] There is there is a decibel level that they're not supposed to exceed. Um, it was mainly geared towards construction activity, but maybe it could be applied to vehicles as well. Um we hear the bass too. We hear it during the day. We hear it at night. Um, so it's, uh, it's a noticeable problem. It's again, it all becomes the question becomes, is it enforceable? Mhm. Um, is there a sheriff available to enforce it? And does he have a decibel meter or, you know, or what does he have that can can be used to validate the ticket if he does authorize the ticket.
[8:46] When does our guy, our guy, come back?
[8:49] He's. He. He should be here tonight. But I know he's not available tonight. But we try to at the first meeting of the month. So I can ask that he attend an upcoming meeting to address this issue.
[9:03] I think that would be helpful. Mandy or something. Um.
[9:07] Yeah. Where do we stand with the township regarding everything?
[9:12] Um, I requested today, uh, Jerry's recommendation and requested copies of all the signed agreement for police, fire and building. Um, I had sent over to them signed copies from the city council back in June of 25. Um, today I got from Kerry Neubeck. The clerk signed copies of the fire and building. The police was signed by them, but it was not the one that I sent over to them that we approved. So now I need to go through and analyze what changes, if any, were made to the copy that they signed, because apparently they didn't sign the one we sent over to to them. So, um, I'll, I'll do that research. I just got that this afternoon from Kerry. Um, it, you know, it took a lot of time to get these, but I do have them now.
[10:14] Okay. Anybody else on public comments or anybody else want to make a public comment. Thank you. Item number six is FYI, we have art in the village coming September 18th and 19th, and we have a flier in our packet collection Community Historical Society, September 19th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.. September 20th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. there's art, music, vintage Market, antiques, food trucks and kids and crafts, and a vintage market pop up in shops and will be at Depot Park. Free admission and we have on September 27th from 12 to 6 p.m.. This is Taste of Clarkston, which was established in 1998. Culinary journey through community. Embark on a journey of taste exploration while enjoying a day filled with entertainment and camaraderie. Its foodie festival and sponsored by the Clark. Put on by the Clarkston Area Chamber of Commerce. We also have. The city of the village of Clarkson and Independence Township are partaking in this event. And the last FYI is Public Information session on Millage Proposal September 24th. This is a public information information session to discuss a proposed police, fire and emergency services millage. The city will be hosting a public information session session to discuss the police, fire and Emergency services millage proposal that will be on the city's November 2026 general election ballot. Residents are encouraged to attend to learn more about the proposal and ask questions. It will be Thursday, September 24th at 7 p.m. here in Village Hall at 375 Depot Park Road, Clarkston, and residents who are unable to attend may submit their questions and or comments to Jonathan Smith, City Manager, at 375 Depot Road, Clarkston, Michigan, 48346, or email Smith at village of clarkston.org. Up to September 24th at 5 p.m.. Arrangements to accommodate special needs, including handicap accessibility, will be made upon receiving 72 hour advance notice.
[12:29] Please contact the City Office at (248) 625-1559 S6:
[12:34] Um, I was wondering for the taste of Clarkston. I know we talked about the financials of that event previously.
[12:44] Where did that end up? S5:
[13:47] Thank you for taking care of that. Thanks for asking.
[13:53] Anything else on FYI? S2:
[14:03] Historical Society, Historical.
[14:04] Society. And I'm wondering, has there been an analysis about what the city's costs are? And the other thing that I had suggested in the budget preparation time was that there be a fee to vendors that comes to the city.
[14:21] Okay. There's not a fee to the vendors that comes to the city, but the city does pay the city for all of Jimmy and Carson's time. Uh, it's primarily on Friday and Saturday morning. And so they do work and. But they do get paid for by through the historical society. So the city is not out of pocket any money as a result of that donation.
[14:49] Do the vendors pay the historical association?
[14:53] Well, they do as part of their fee. Yes they do. Okay.
[14:56] I see that as a potential source of funds for the city.
[15:02] Thank you. Um, item seven is the city manager's report, and Jonathan has a report and on status of brick wall repair status of E bike ordinance and public information session. Did you want to talk about any of these items, Jonathan.
[15:18] Uh, just that the brick wall is taking longer than we thought. The contractor has been kind of a no show. So unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to have to requote that with other contractors. So, um, we haven't paid him anything, so it's not like we're out of pocket money or anything. So that's just a status update there. The, uh, the e-bike ordinance, my recommendation there is that we wait. I mean, it's the summer season is almost over here anyways. Um, it's my recommendation after going to a semcog session that we just wait for a little bit longer. There's a lot of activity going on. Uh, relative to e-bike regulation, both at the state level and at other municipalities. So it's my thought that let's just wait until this settles down a little bit, and then we'll have some good examples in other municipalities that we can pattern ours after. I think we do definitely need, um, some revisions to our ordinance, but I'd say let's wait till this winter when it's all kind of settled down and we can, um, we can make a good informed decision on us.
[16:34] And then the last thing was the public information session that we've already talked about.
[16:38] Okay. Thank you. I know Ted sent both to you. Me? I'm not sure who else. An example of a city and other cities ordinance. So it's probably get better together, gather more information.
[16:49] Oh, we have lots of examples.
[16:51] We have lots of them. Okay.
[16:52] Sam has been sharing those as well.
[16:54] Okay. Uh, any questions from council members on the city manager's report? All right. Item eight is Oakland County Sheriff's report for August. We have the spreadsheet, I guess you call it included. Anybody on council have questions or comments on the Sheriff's department report? I do. Go ahead Gary.
[17:19] Building on what some of the some of the citizens have said, uh, to the effect that we're not getting our money's worth. I'm looking at the monthly citations under traffic. First item under traffic. In August, there were only four tickets and the 25 to 26 total is 28 so far. We're halfway through September, so we don't have all that much of the year to go. Contrasted with 25 when there were 485 tickets.
[17:57] So what the heck is going on here? S7:
[19:24] Anybody else?
[19:27] The public. I think we've had a lot already. Okay. Item nine is consent agenda. And we've got the final minutes of the August 10th regular meeting, draft minutes of the August 24th regular meeting and the Treasurer's report for September 14th. And I will need a motion and a second to accept the consent agenda.
[19:50] For Laura Rogers and anybody else, I need a second. I'll. Second from Amanda Forte. Any comments or questions from council members from the public? Yes. Go ahead Chad.
[20:02] Yes. On page one of six of the check disbursement report, there appear to be about ten different checks that were disbursed, 300 or $400.
[20:19] I'm sorry, could you start on page one of six and what? Okay.
[20:23] This is the check disbursement Oh.
[20:25] Yeah.
[20:27] Okay. And so there are 300 and $400 checks on that page. And then on the succeeding chain page there, like 2500 or $3000 because of the number of people that are being reimbursed. And it says professional and contractual services.
[20:58] Um, how do I get more detail as it relates to those issues because of the large number? So who's Jim Deegan? S5:
[21:30] How much per.
[21:31] Hour? Some of this will be reimbursed to us.
[21:33] How much per hour.
[21:34] Is.
[21:34] Not a per hour. It's a daily rate plus election training. So it just depends on if they've taken the training and then their daily rate, depending on if they're a chairperson or a regular election inspector.
[21:49] Okay. So could you give me a dollar amount.
[21:52] A daily.
[21:52] Rate.
[21:54] For an election inspector or.
[21:58] For the reimbursement? I'm just trying to figure out, are these $100 a day people?
[22:02] They are not. No. You'll never keep a worker paying them $100 a day. So the chairperson would be $300. The assistant chair would be 275. If you take your training, it's $25. Mhm. Okay. And if you work on the nine days of early voting is $25 an hour. Okay.
[22:21] Thank you.
[22:21] Thank you. Anybody? Uh, so we have any other discussion on, uh, consent agenda, uh, for council. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none. The consent agenda is approved. Item ten is unfinished business, which there is none. Item 11 is new business. We have a discussion 100 people who care program. And we have several people who I believe would like to talk to us about this. You can stand at your seats, you can do the podium, you can do whatever.
[22:54] Yeah.
[22:56] Okay.
[22:57] You're official either way.
[23:02] Um, so I had stopped in the other day. This is Katie Hess. Yes, I'm Katie Hess, I'm Chris Rogers. Mr.
[23:09] Rogers, do you need our addresses? S6:
[23:10] You know.
[23:11] It's just nice to know everybody's got a name and face.
[23:14] Um, so I had stopped into City Hall the other day to drop off fliers, um, to Jonathan to see if there was any way that they could help us spread the news about a new community group that we're starting. Um, so there are eight of us. Eight community members that have come together to start a new group called 100 People Who Care Clarkston area. Um, it is a local giving circle. Today there are about 900 of these that have popped up. And we decided that Clarkston needed one. Um, so I will let Chris explain how the group is going to work.
[23:49] A little background on it. It was a woman in Jackson, Michigan, who started it in 2006, and she was working with a hospital that needed cribs, safe cribs, and there was no funding. And she realized she could reach 100 people. And if everyone brought $100, she could get that $10,000 in one night. And they ended up having a meeting. More than 100 people came and they raised $12,000 in a one hour Our session. So everyone gave a little and they were able to lift big. Um, I worked with a charity that has received a $20,000 donation from the Rochester 100 Women Who Care. Um, I know scamp got, um, ten, $12,000 from 100 women Who Care Troy.
[24:41] So quite a few of these groups have been women based. Um, but we decided our group is going to be anyone. We feel like Clarkston Independent Township, this area has a lot of very generous men and a lot of groups that are very heavy on the women. So we're hoping to pull everyone in.
[24:56] So it just was an idea that had been in the air. Amy Darnell benefited from it. The group that I worked with benefited from it. We mentioned it to Katie, and knowing Katie, within about a day, she's like, let's do this. So she pulled together Julie Meredith, uh, Russ Milano, me. Amy. Um, um.
[25:16] Andrea.
[25:16] Andrea Smith, sniper at, uh, social media.
[25:21] Oh, okay.
[25:22] She's fantastic.
[25:23] Yes.
[25:24] Um.
[25:24] And then we have a couple of local store owners, so a regional Mary and then Jana Weston from Inscribe Books. So the eight of us have come together and we planned our first meeting. It's going to be October 19th at 7 p.m. at the library. Um, I know Chris mentioned it's a one hour meeting. That's part of the beauty of this is it's very low commitment time. Start at seven and at eight members that join are committing to giving $100 quarterly, um, ideally attending the meeting because then you have a vote in which non profit would get the money, but people can join the group and donate the money without voting if they're unable to attend meetings.
[26:06] So at this point, we have 105 interested parties. Um, and we still have another month before the meeting. So we're hoping to grow the number of interests. And then pretty soon we'll be sending out a follow up email to have everyone sign the commitment form. So 100 is a number we're hoping for, but we hope we eclipse that and go even bigger.
[26:26] Um, so part of the way that the group is set up is that in order for a nonprofit to be presented to the group. So during meetings, three nonprofits will be presented about, but you have to be a committed member to the group to present about the nonprofit. So a nonprofit can't just show up and try to present one of the group members has to present. And it has to be a 501 C three. So then once the three nonprofits present, they each get a five minute presentation with a time for Q&A afterwards. Um, and then from there, everybody in the group votes whichever nonprofit gets the most votes. Everybody in the group writes their $100 check directly to the nonprofit. So we're not actually forming any sort of formalized group. Um, there are no fees. There's no where did the money go? It's very transparent. It's very efficient. It's very impactful. So we wanted to just come and share about it. We'd love anyone to join us. We're just trying to get the word out into the community.
[27:24] Does it have to be a check? Can't be a credit card. I guess they have. No.
[27:27] I guess we have found that there is grapevine. So grapevine is an online platform that is specifically designed to help giving circles like this. And anyone can sign up and you can either set up your payment to go like you tell it to go out after the meeting, or you can set it out to go out on the days that you know we're going to meet. And if you're in Florida and you can't make the meeting, you're $100 dollars will still go to the charity that is selected. So even less difficult is that you can sign up, set it and forget it, and still be a part of this big group that could, over the course of a year, do a $40,000 donations to different groups.
[28:12] Yeah. Okay.
[28:13] Um, it's also set up to when you're sending your check to the nonprofit, they are going to like probably send you a thank you and then also a receipt for your donation. However, they're not allowed to contact you after that. So you're not going to end up on emails for every nonprofit in our local community.
[28:30] That's nice.
[28:31] Unless you want to be on their email chain. Um, and then one other thing that we're working on right now is during the week of our meetings, we'll have a restaurant give back opportunity where the community, if they dine at certain restaurants, the restaurant will give a portion of sales to that nonprofit also. So right now, um, on that first Monday, Hamlin Pub is going to take that day. So I believe from 6 to 10, if you dine at Hamlin pub, they'll donate 10% of sales.
[28:59] And we're also hoping that after the meeting, when it ends at 8:00, we could all continue the camaraderie at Hamlin Park.
[29:06] If you would like, or you can go home. Um, and then Tuesday will be crave pizza. So for the entire day of October 20th, any sales, 10% will be donated to the nonprofit. And we're still figuring out our Wednesday and Thursday restaurants.
[29:20] Wow.
[29:20] So a lot already into this. Yeah. Anybody have any questions? I'm sorry.
[29:29] Did anybody else have questions or comments or did you guys have more to say? S8:
[29:30] Okay.
[29:30] We do have fliers. If we can maybe just leave some up here if anybody wants one.
[29:34] Probably best Jonathan or Angie will probably put it back by the.
[29:38] We have some on the front.
[29:40] Oh, you do already? Oh, you mean for this meeting? Yeah. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay.
[29:44] Thank you guys.
[29:45] Thank you very much for coming. Thank you. Uh, item 11 B is discussion rental inspection program.
[29:58] And, Jonathan, are you going to read this? S5:
[38:21] Did Dave say how they came to the realization that it was, uh, a prop could potentially be a liability?
[38:31] No.
[38:32] I just wonder who brought it up to them.
[38:33] Yeah. He didn't say that there had been a lawsuit, but I kind of gathered that maybe there had been no. Um. Okay. And that's what kind of opened our eyes for the need for this.
[38:43] Okay. Anybody else? Questions, comments?
[38:48] What's the next step?
[38:50] I'll get a copy of the ordinance from Jerry and or from Independence Township. They they cloned theirs pretty much verbatim and made a couple of refinements, but. So I can easily get that ordinance and bring it to the next council meeting.
[39:07] I assume at some point it has to go to the Planning Commission again. But I think we need council if you're shaking your head. No.
[39:19] But I think no matter what, Council has to decide if we want to if we want that to, you know, do we want that to happen? S3:
[39:21] It it is. And if you don't have any refinements, I think the fact that Jerry wrote it for Waterford and it's been cloned by the township, uh, I think I can ask Jerry, but if it may be very straightforward and just bring it right to council.
[39:36] Is he ever the attorney for Waterford? I don't remember that. I thought they had, like a law director. I don't know.
[39:43] I don't know that it matters, but it would be good to know before we make this decision to do this, since it has been voted on twice, like historically, what happened that made this a liability issue? Because I'm not following that, but I'm not a legal person. You know, that's not my occupation. So just to understand.
[40:04] Why counsel said no, no.
[40:06] No, no, why why liability is now an issue. Like what, what what happened? So that we're just not like doing something because somebody thinks we should, you know, without any background.
[40:16] Jerry may have that insight. Yeah. If there are cases where, um, municipalities have been sued. Okay.
[40:23] It just would be good to know.
[40:25] Anything else from council members?
[40:26] That is my occupation. And I don't know that because I don't do.
[40:31] This.
[40:32] Stuff. So yeah, I'd be curious. Obviously, Jerry knows he deals with this stuff every day.
[40:37] So questions your questions or comments from the public? Yes, Chad.
[40:42] I have a question about really population. I was thinking that the village's population was like 840. and I thought we had 300 plus renters.
[40:54] That's what I thought it was. That's what I was under the impression. Yeah. And that and that's based on running for council positions and trying to get signatures. Those are people.
[41:04] Or buildings.
[41:05] I had.
[41:06] Oh, that would be people. Yeah. You're right. That's people. People. Because it was.
[41:11] A handful that we may.
[41:12] Recall. Yeah.
[41:13] You're right Jonathan. Yeah. That's it was people. Okay.
[41:18] Anything else from the public? S2:
[41:20] Yeah. Jonathan, you had something else? No. Sorry. Anybody else? Okay. Anybody have anything else for this meeting? Uh, item 12 is adjourned. The meeting. I'll take a motion to adjourn the meeting. I'll make a motion. Second from Gary. Uh, all in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none. We are adjourned at 741. Thank you, everybody, for coming.
[41:44] It's so good.