[0:04] Now calling to order a regular meeting of the city council, Tuesday, August 25th,
[0:09] 2026 at 7:00 PM. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance.
[0:14] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic
[0:19] for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
[0:25] for all.
[0:26] Roll call, Madam Secretary.
[0:29] Councilwoman Roggensack.
[0:30] Here.
[0:31] Councilwoman McGee. Here. Councilman Dwyer.
[0:34] Here.
[0:34] Councilman Noonan.
[0:35] Here.
[0:35] Councilman Boyke.
[0:37] Here.
[0:38] Councilman Lafferty.
[0:39] Here.
[0:39] Councilwoman Moore is present. We have a quorum.
[0:42] Next item.
[0:42] Next item is adoption of the consent agenda. So moved.
[0:45] Support Lafferty.
[0:47] Any discussion?
[0:49] Hearing and seeing none, I'll call to question. Ms. Moore?
[0:51] Yes.
[0:52] Mr. Lafferty.
[0:52] Yes.
[0:54] Let's see. Ms. McGee.
[0:56] Yes.
[0:56] Mr. Noonan.
[0:57] Yes.
[0:58] Mr. Dwyer.
[0:59] Yes.
[0:59] Mr. Boyke.
[1:00] Yes.
[1:01] Roggensack is yes. Motion carries. Next item.
[1:04] Next item is five, adoption of the agenda. So moved with discussion.
[1:08] Support Lafferty.
[1:09] Discussion, Ms. Moore.
[1:11] Yes. We would like to add as under miscellaneous item 11-A, extension
[1:16] of license for 60 days for Lansing Pros Inc., located at
[1:21] 22550 Nagle in the city of Warren. As item C, extension
[1:27] of license for 60 days to Kenny Pros LLC at
[1:32] 1978 Kenny in the city of Warren. And as item 11-D, extension of license
[1:38] for 60 days
[1:41] to IVP Holdings LLC, located at 1973
[1:46] East 10 Mile Road in the city of Warren.
[1:52] Any other discussion?
[1:55] Hearing and seeing none, I will call to question. Ms. Moore.
[1:57] Yes.
[1:57] Mr. Lafferty.
[1:58] Yes.
[1:59] Ms. McGee.
[2:00] Yes.
[2:00] Mr. Noonan.
[2:01] Yes.
[2:02] Mr. Boyke.
[2:02] Yes.
[2:03] Mr. Dwyer.
[2:04] Yes.
[2:04] Roggensack is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
[2:08] Next item is calendar pending matters. 6A is calendar motion to receive and file.
[2:13] Support.
[2:15] Hmm.
[2:16] That's fine.
[2:17] Who was-- Ms. Moore, you made that motion. Ms. McGee, you did support.
[2:21] Any discussion?
[2:24] Hearing and seeing none, I'll call to question. All in favor?
[2:26] Aye.
[2:27] Any opposed? Motion carries. Next item.
[2:30] Next item is 7A, approval of the bills of the general revenue fund. So moved.
[2:34] Support Lafferty.
[2:35] Any discussion?
[2:38] Hearing and seeing none, I'll call to question. Ms. Moore.
[2:40] Yes.
[2:40] Mr. Lafferty.
[2:41] Yes.
[2:41] Ms. McGee.
[2:42] Yes.
[2:43] Mr. Noonan.
[2:44] Yes.
[2:45] Mr. Boyke.
[2:45] Yes.
[2:46] Mr. Dwyer.
[2:47] Yes.
[2:47] Roggensack is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
[2:50] Next item is 7B, approval of the bills of the water and sewer system. So moved.
[2:55] Support Dwyer.
[2:57] Any discussion?
[2:59] Hearing and seeing none, I'll call to question. Ms. Moore.
[3:01] Yes.
[3:02] Mr. Dwyer.
[3:02] Yes.
[3:03] Mr. Lafferty.
[3:04] Yes.
[3:04] Ms. McGee.
[3:05] Yes.
[3:05] Mr. Noonan.
[3:06] Yes.
[3:06] Mr. Boyke.
[3:07] Yes.
[3:08] Roggensack is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
[3:11] Next item is audience participation for agenda items only.
[3:15] Members of the audience who would like to address the council this evening, may do
[3:18] so by filling out an audience form in the basket there. You have three minutes.
[3:24] I will try to give you a 1 minute and a 10-second reminder when your time
[3:29] is near up. This is for agenda items only, presently. Ms.
[3:35] Harris, you have an agenda item?
[3:41] Um- You can come up here. No, I'm okay. You're okay. You want just general? Yes.
[3:46] Okay. All right. Ms. Palmer, is the blight specific to an item on the agenda?
[3:52] No.
[3:52] Okay, so it'll be after.
[3:56] Mr. Cliff.
[3:57] Yes, ma'am.
[3:57] You're welcome to have your three minutes.
[4:04] Good evening, council members. Tonight, myself and a couple of my colleagues
[4:10] on ZBA are up for reappointment considerations tonight, so I decided to appear on
[4:16] all three of our behalfs to advocate for your approval
[4:21] for our continued support to remain on Zoning Board of Appeals.
[4:28] One of our newer members, Mr. Lindsay,
[4:31] over the past couple of years has really shown some fantastic
[4:37] ability when it comes to articulating issues that come before our board on
[4:43] a regular basis. Mr. Watts is pretty well-known.
[4:46] He's served the community here for many, many years and continues to contribute in
[4:52] a positive manner. And as for myself, you just kind of get what you get, right?
[4:56] But I work real hard at it. I'm a pretty heavy staple in the community.
[5:01] I do a lot of different advocating.
[5:04] And even during some of the recent declines that I've been suffering, I still try
[5:07] to maintain visibility in the community and try to support the city of Warren as
[5:13] best as I can. So, that's all I really have to say.
[5:16] I just want to push for your consideration and express my gratitude for the
[5:22] opportunity to serve the residents of the city of Warren. Thank you.
[5:25] Thank you.
[5:29] Edwin Worley, is your item related to anything on the agenda?
[5:33] No.
[5:34] Okay, so I'll have you at the very end of the meeting during general audience.
[5:38] Okay. That is the end of audience for agenda items only. Next item.
[5:43] Next item is nine, announcements. Madam Chair.
[5:46] Yes.
[5:48] The city council would like to extend our sincere condolences to the family,
[5:52] friends, and loved ones of Lori Arts.
[5:55] Lori was an engaged Warren resident until very recently when she moved to, I think,
[5:59] Madison Heights, who cared very deeply about her community.
[6:03] She regularly participated in local civic affairs, spoke openly about issues that
[6:08] mattered to her, and was never afraid to stand firmly by her convictions.
[6:13] She had a voice of passion and commitment to making a difference.
[6:17] She advocated voting and
[6:21] often was a monitor at the polling at the city hall and when they were counting
[6:27] the votes, and was a strong, strong advocate for making your voice heard through
[6:32] your votes. And we honor her life and the lasting impression she made on those who
[6:37] knew her and on the community she called home for many years.
[6:41] We extend our deepest sympathy to everyone mourning her loss.
[6:45] She hasn't been around as much. She used to be at almost every meeting for a very,
[6:49] very long time, and was really a fixture at our meetings.
[6:53] And we missed her being there, and she underwent a pretty serious operation about a
[6:57] month ago, and she passed away due to complications from that surgery.
[7:02] But
[7:03] she'll be missed. She was a force.
[7:09] Moment.
[7:10] Yeah.
[7:18] Thank you. Any other announcements?
[7:21] Madam Chair.
[7:22] Mr. Lafferty.
[7:22] Thank you.
[7:24] On Saturday, Ms. McGee, the mayor, Senator Kleinfeld representing the state
[7:30] delegation, and I attended the Ukrainian Cultural
[7:35] Center's and the New Wave Group, the 35th anniversary of
[7:41] Ukrainian sovereign statehood and independence.
[7:45] And this was hosted by New Wave. It's a group that distinguishes the generations of
[7:51] Ukrainian Americans who moved to the Detroit area following the collapse of the
[7:55] Soviet Union in 1991. In my remarks, I spoke about the Jeffersonian
[8:01] premise of powers granted to the government by the people and compared the parallel
[8:07] of post-independent Ukraine with post-revolutionary America and the ongoing
[8:12] struggle against ongoing Russian aggression.
[8:16] Following the remarks, the audience was treated to a variety of beautiful cultural
[8:21] musical performances. In the audience, I would like to recognize Planning
[8:27] Commissioner Mr. Michael Hadwabi, on behalf of the Ukrainian community here this
[8:32] evening. We have a significant Ukrainian-American community here in Warren, and we
[8:38] are happy and proud to celebrate this moment with you. Slava Ukraini.
[8:42] Herosh Slava, as we say in Ukraine.
[8:45] Thank you
[8:47] And then we do have the Birthday Bash that is coming up this weekend.
[8:52] The carnival begins Thursday the 27th and continues through Sunday, August 30th.
[8:58] There is a foam party on Friday and Saturday at the fountain from 5:00 to 7:00.
[9:04] Fireworks on Friday at 9:45 PM, the Polish Day Parade
[9:10] on Saturday that starts at Kuzno. We step off at 4:10 PM and end at City Square.
[9:17] The drone show on Saturday at 9:30, and then a variety of music featured
[9:23] throughout the weekend from Rock n' Soul, Main Street Soul, Stevie Nicks, Magic
[9:28] Bus, The Polish Muslims, Fire Lake, War Machine, and a Detroit Kiss tribute.
[9:35] On Sunday, you can also catch Raputa.
[9:38] I talked about Raputa a month ago. Unfortunately, that concert was
[9:44] delayed due to the Canadian wildfires.
[9:47] Mm.
[9:47] And so they've been rescheduled from earlier in the summer to Sunday at 3:00
[9:53] PM in front of City Hall. That's where you will find me enjoying some J.
[9:58] Geils music. If you don't like J. Geils, if that is not your thing, come anyway.
[10:03] You'll enjoy the concert.
[10:05] Oh, okay.
[10:05] And yes, I mentioned the parade. Thank you, Madam Chair.
[10:08] Any other announcements?
[10:09] Madam Chair?
[10:10] Mr. Boyke.
[10:11] It's not an announcement, but I just got a text from a resident.
[10:14] The microphone that Cliff's mister... Is not working. They couldn't hear him.
[10:20] We'll let Patrick know, or Patrick is probably listening.
[10:23] That's why-
[10:24] Thank you
[10:24] ... I brought it up that way.
[10:25] Thank you.
[10:25] Hope he's listening.
[10:27] Any other announcements?
[10:30] Okay. Next item.
[10:31] Next item is 10.a, which was tabled to today at the request of the administration.
[10:36] It's a public hearing, a special land use for Al Shaheed Palace Restaurant with
[10:41] banquet facilities located on 12 Mile Road, approximately 140 feet east of Ryan
[10:47] Road, 4235 12 Mile Road, Section 8, Tom Hanawa, Affinity for Investments
[10:53] LLC, Karen Humberty of Earl, Earl, and Rose, PLLC.
[10:58] Motion to remove from the table?
[11:00] Support Lafferty.
[11:02] I will call the question to remove the item from the table. Ms. Moore?
[11:05] Yes.
[11:05] Mr. Lafferty?
[11:06] Yes.
[11:07] Ms. McGee?
[11:08] Yes.
[11:08] Mr. Noonan?
[11:09] Yes.
[11:10] Mr. Boyke?
[11:10] Yes.
[11:11] Mr. Dwyer?
[11:12] Yes.
[11:12] Roggen, C is a yes.
[11:17] Oh yeah, thank you. I will-- Yeah, that's me. I will open up the public hearing.
[11:22] Actually, I'm going to not open up the public hearing.
[11:24] If the petitioner's here, Ms. Humberty, you can speak.
[11:35] Good evening.
[11:36] Good evening.
[11:37] Karen Humberty on behalf of Al Shaheed Palace Restaurant.
[11:41] My address is 28225 Mound Road in Warren, Michigan.
[11:46] Unfortunately, Earl, Earl, and Rose is no longer in existence as both my partners
[11:50] passed away. So I'm now pretty much on my own as Humberty Law.
[11:56] So,
[11:58] in any event,
[12:00] I'm here tonight for the Al Shaheed Palace Restaurant that is located basically at
[12:06] 12 Mile and Chene.
[12:09] Ryan.
[12:10] I mean Ryan. 12 Mile and Ryan. My mistake.
[12:14] So here's Ryan, and here's 12 Mile.
[12:18] It's important to understand, this shopping center looks like it's one owner.
[12:22] It is not. This is the property line for the owner of the property
[12:28] where my client rents right here. Some of you may remember it prior to COVID as the
[12:34] China Buffet.
[12:35] Mm-hmm.
[12:36] So that's right here. So these are the property lines
[12:41] that we have.
[12:43] Currently, next to it is the Ross Medical Center, and they're only open a few days
[12:49] a week. And what they do in the Ross Medical Center is clinicals for a few days a
[12:55] week. Besides that, all of their teachings are online, all of their sessions, et
[13:00] cetera. So, they're only there a couple of days a week.
[13:04] And then this is the former CVS, which I think right now this is
[13:09] becoming a small market
[13:14] right now. My client is here with me today, Mr. Mohammed.
[13:18] He's back there, in case we need him to answer any questions.
[13:24] At this point, as you know, we're here for special land use, for the accessory use
[13:29] of being able to hold banquets in association with their restaurant.
[13:37] Currently,
[13:39] the restaurant
[13:42] is rather large. And in there, they have two private rooms.
[13:47] Those rooms only take up 28 square feet of the total square footage of the
[13:52] restaurant. That's why I say it's an accessory use.
[13:57] In addition to that, the revenue right now from those banquet
[14:02] rooms is less than 10% or less at this point.
[14:07] So it is truly an accessory use. Right now, the primary use there is a restaurant,
[14:14] and they want to provide private rooms for their guests to be able to have a
[14:19] birthday party, I don't know, a baby shower, something along those lines.
[14:25] It's important to note that... Am I okay?
[14:28] Yeah, you're fine.
[14:29] Okay. It's important to note that
[14:33] there's no alcohol at this restaurant.
[14:36] There's no alcohol with any of the banquets that will be at
[14:41] this facility.
[14:45] As we went through planning, we developed with the planning
[14:51] commission and the planning department, a landscaping plan.
[14:56] And in that landscaping plan, we are putting
[15:02] nine redbud maple trees. Those are the maple trees that
[15:08] look the red hue all through the season,
[15:12] and they don't have helicopters. And then next to those, next to each tree, will be
[15:18] two dwarf burning bushes. Those are green during the summer, and in the
[15:24] fall, beautiful reds and oranges.
[15:28] And this is going to be planted along the way here, a little bit far back so that
[15:33] maybe as plowing goes on, et cetera, and salt and that, we're a little farther
[15:38] back to make sure that those plantings
[15:45] make it. So basically,
[15:50] that's the full item. This is truly an accessory use. It's not the main use.
[15:56] The banquet capabilities is not the main use.
[15:59] However, we need approval to be able to use those private rooms.
[16:03] If there are any questions, I'm available to answer them.
[16:06] Thank you. Mr. Worth, is there anything the planning department wants to ask beyond
[16:11] what Ms. Humberty shared? Thank you.
[16:17] Actually, no. I'm just here to answer any questions planning-wise.
[16:21] But no, we certainly agree with all the negotiations and the landscaping that
[16:27] we worked on.
[16:29] Okay. Thank you.
[16:31] All right. So now I will open up the hearing.
[16:35] Is there anyone from the audience who wants to speak on this matter? Ms. Harris.
[16:41] Looks good.
[16:44] We okay to go ahead?
[16:46] You're good.
[16:46] Okay. So I've been looking at this paperwork, and it seems
[16:52] like this started in '24, and in '25, in the spring
[16:57] of '25,
[17:00] and it's taken until '26 to come here.
[17:03] But when I looked through the backup, there were a lot of requirements or
[17:09] suggestions that needed to happen if this was approved for special land
[17:14] use. And even if we just go back to March of '25 or May 8th of '25, whenever
[17:20] it was, that's more than a year and nothing has happened.
[17:26] So I went over there today. I looked at the... Just for the restaurant right now.
[17:32] The accessible parking spots were brought up in '24 or '25, that
[17:38] they needed to be moved by the doors on the north side of the building.
[17:44] The access aisle was only 4 feet 4 inches,
[17:50] and the parking spaces were 7 feet 10 inches.
[17:55] So those aren't even
[18:00] Applicable measurements for those
[18:04] handicap spaces.
[18:07] So that restaurant got approved, and nobody from the city went and said,
[18:13] "This has to be different." And I'm sure it went through whatever businesses were
[18:18] there. But we're dropping the ball constantly.
[18:22] I also noticed in the backup that one of the rooms is almost 3,000 square feet,
[18:28] and the other room is like 1,200 square feet.
[18:32] Now, how do we know they're not already using those rooms?
[18:37] And so I'm just confused about this special land use, if
[18:42] it's just so you can call them banquet rooms.
[18:47] The other things that were mentioned by planning and maybe zoning was that the
[18:54] gas station on the corner had an entrance into the parking lot that's not allowed.
[19:00] That hasn't been changed. Even if you're just going to stay as a restaurant, why
[19:03] wouldn't you fix those things? The curbs along the sidewalk on 12 Mile
[19:09] Road needed to be moved back five feet.
[19:13] So I'm really concerned that they've had a list of these things
[19:19] for at least a year or two of what would need to be different to be approved,
[19:24] and it doesn't appear that anything's actually happened to
[19:30] comply with those requirements.
[19:35] If the parking is 189 or some spots, I can't remember the exact
[19:41] number, but they have four spots on the north side of the building,
[19:47] nothing in front of the building.
[19:50] In that whole strip, there's also two spots on the south side
[19:56] with
[19:59] an access aisle that's going nowhere.
[20:03] So,
[20:05] of course, the owner of the restaurant isn't responsible for that, but the owner of
[20:09] the strip mall should be held accountable to have things be accessible.
[20:15] And there's two more little stores that look like they're going in next to the
[20:18] fruit market. And I also called Ross Medical today and talked
[20:24] to them, and they said they have classes there every day, but they do do things
[20:30] online. So thank you.
[20:33] Thank you.
[20:35] Anyone else want to speak on this matter?
[20:38] Okay. I will close the public hearing and turn it over to counsel for action.
[20:44] Motion to approve with discussion.
[20:47] Support.
[20:48] Support, Mr. Noonan. Discussion, Mr. Lafferty.
[20:51] Thank you, Madam Chair. Through the chair, Ms. Bertie.
[20:53] Yes.
[20:53] Good evening.
[20:56] You and I had spoken previous about this location and the number of
[21:02] concerns that I've had with the appearance of the property,
[21:08] both the plot in question and the parcel, the adjacent parcel,
[21:14] and the frontage on Ryan Road. I'm happy with the landscaping plan.
[21:21] I will remind
[21:25] Mr. Worth and the planning commission that one of my primary concerns is that we
[21:31] go through this process, the petitioners propose a landscape plan, they are
[21:37] required to irrigate, and those irrigation systems may get turned on for the first
[21:41] couple of months. They are turned off, they're never used again, and the
[21:47] foliage, the trees, and such wilt away and are subsequently moved.
[21:53] And we have no recourse. We don't have the staff to go out and validate
[21:58] that everyone's compliant with their landscape plans.
[22:03] But all in all, this is going to be a tremendous uplift for this corner.
[22:08] It's needed a lot of TLC. My concern is also the marquee
[22:15] for this building.
[22:17] I know the petitioner came in front of planning not too long ago, and the
[22:22] bollard that supports the sign was repaired, but it seems that the
[22:28] bollard itself, the workmanship was substandard because the rust is already coming
[22:33] through the white paint. I would like that to be corrected permanently as a
[22:38] condition of if council decides to approve this this evening, I'd like to see that
[22:44] as a condition of the agreement this evening.
[22:49] And then,
[22:51] Ms. Bertie, could you comment on some of the concerns that were raised relative to
[22:57] the accessible parking spots-
[22:59] Yes
[22:59] ... and the measurements that were cited?
[23:02] Yes. So
[23:05] part of the problem here is I don't think that
[23:09] the... I'm sorry, I don't know her name. The person who spoke.
[23:13] Ms. Harris.
[23:14] Ms. Harris. When Ms. Harris spoke, I don't think she fully understands the
[23:18] procedure. When you go before the planning commission, there are recommendations
[23:24] that have to be done, but they don't get done until you have your approval.
[23:30] When you have your approval, you then have two years to fully comply with what's on
[23:35] the recommendations, because those are adopted as part of the motion.
[23:42] In essence, some of the changes and some of the things that you would make, you
[23:47] wouldn't want to be done unless I had the approval.
[23:51] So this is absolutely a process, and I'm going to defend the planning department
[23:56] right here. They didn't drop the ball on anything.
[23:58] If you ask me, the reason this took me so long to get this through is because they
[24:02] were on top of things. The landscaping plan, I had to go back several times.
[24:07] The
[24:09] plan for the building, she mentioned that the planning department wanted us to make
[24:14] a bigger, greener area. And I went to the landlord, and I asked for that, and I
[24:19] tried to make that happen. The problem I have is when I represent people that are
[24:24] tenants, I don't have a lot of power when there's already a contract in place that
[24:29] is of a long length. But I often try to, if you will,
[24:35] plead to their better side of being a good citizen and actually having a property
[24:41] that people want to rent from, et cetera.
[24:44] So whereas I wasn't able to get the property owner to agree to make the green space
[24:49] bigger, I was able to get him to agree to do the plantings.
[24:55] And my client now is on the hook to guarantee that those plantings go in or his
[24:59] site plan doesn't get approved. So
[25:03] I will say this, that
[25:09] I had to go back several times then because I couldn't get the landlord to do
[25:15] the things that the city wanted them to do.
[25:18] I was able to get quite a bit out of him, and then I turned around and had to go
[25:22] back and get reapprovals. So that's why the process has taken some time.
[25:28] Getting a meeting with the landlord isn't always easy.
[25:31] I have to chase him for a couple of weeks, explain to him that he's going to ruin
[25:36] it for his tenant if he doesn't meet with me, so we can address these issues.
[25:41] So-
[25:42] And sorry, Ms. Bertie-
[25:43] Yeah
[25:43] ... not to interrupt you, but the length of time it's taken is not a contention
[25:49] here.
[25:49] Okay. All right.
[25:50] We're not holding you accountable for that. That is the process. It takes time.
[25:55] We understand that.
[25:55] Okay. Thank you.
[25:57] Anything else to add relative to plan?
[26:01] The handicap spaces right now are located on the north side of the building.
[26:06] They will be moved because that's a requirement for us.
[26:09] They are being moved to the
[26:14] southwest part of the building because that's where planning had indicated they
[26:18] should be. So they will be moved. That's part of the requirements.
[26:23] Planning will make sure they're the right size.
[26:25] They've done it on many different plans that I've done.
[26:29] They come out at the end of the time when we tell them we're ready for inspection,
[26:34] and they come with a tape measure. They measure, and they'll tell us if it's wrong,
[26:38] we have to fix it. And that's the only way we can complete our site plan.
[26:43] Okay. I thank you for the additional information.
[26:47] Yes.
[26:48] I have no other concerns. This is in the heart of District
[26:54] II, right at 12 Ryan, and this corner has slowly been seeing
[27:00] improvements over time. This is going to be a major uplift, and sir, thank you for
[27:05] making the investment in Warren, and I wish you luck with your new venture.
[27:11] Madam Chair?
[27:13] Mr. Noonan.
[27:14] Yeah. Regarding the irrigation of the new plantings once they get planted,
[27:21] and intention to keep them watered, to keep the irrigation systems going, that
[27:26] Councilman Lafferty was discussing.
[27:29] Is there adequate assurance that that will happen in this case?
[27:33] That's mandatory through the planning commission-
[27:37] Right
[27:37] ... that we plant them. And by the way, if we don't keep them watered, we have to
[27:41] replace them. Because the site plan says we're putting in so many red bud trees,
[27:48] it's to our benefit to keep them living and doing well, otherwise we have to
[27:53] replace them.
[27:55] So we should expect that that'll happen?
[27:57] Yes.
[27:58] Okay.
[27:59] Yes.
[27:59] Well, I'm rest assured. I hope that happens. Thank you.
[28:04] Any other discussion?
[28:05] Madam Chair?
[28:06] Mr. Boyke.
[28:07] A question for Mr. Worth.
[28:11] Ms. Purdy mentioned the handicap parking spots, moving them over.
[28:16] With the increased capacity of the building, are you adding handicap spots parking,
[28:23] or is it going to stay as is in the plans?
[28:28] No, I think they're staying as is, are we not? The handicap...
[28:32] Not handicap, ADA-
[28:33] ADA, correct
[28:34] ... spaces.
[28:35] I'm sorry.
[28:36] But
[28:37] what is on the plan is the required amount.
[28:42] So-
[28:42] And that's usually based on square footage and capacity, correct?
[28:46] It's-
[28:48] Educate me. I don't know
[28:49] ... based on how many spaces are on the entire site.
[28:53] Okay.
[28:54] Yeah.
[28:56] So I don't have that number in mind, but-
[28:59] Fair enough. But you'll look at it. Thank you.
[29:01] All right.
[29:03] Any other discussion?
[29:06] Okay, hearing and seeing none, I will call the question. Mr. Lafferty?
[29:11] Yes.
[29:11] Mr. Noonan?
[29:12] Yes.
[29:13] Ms. Moore?
[29:14] Yes.
[29:16] Ms. McGee?
[29:17] Yes.
[29:17] Mr. Boyke?
[29:18] Yes.
[29:19] Mr. Dwyer?
[29:20] Yes.
[29:20] Rogan, C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
[29:23] Next item is 11A, Request of Lori Barnwell, City Treasurer, to open a money market
[29:28] account with Chase Bank entitled City of Warren Capital Equipment Bond Series 2026
[29:33] B Money Market Account, and to open a new money market account with Independent
[29:38] Bank entitled Water and Sewer Capital Improvement Bond Series 2026 B Money Market
[29:44] Account, consideration and adoption of a resolution. So moved.
[29:47] Support Lafferty.
[29:48] Any discussion?
[29:51] Hearing and seeing none. I'll call the question. Ms. Moore?
[29:53] Yes.
[29:53] Mr. Lafferty?
[29:54] Yes.
[29:55] Ms. McGee?
[29:56] Yes.
[29:56] Mr. Noonan?
[29:57] Yes.
[29:57] Mr. Boyke?
[29:58] Yes.
[29:59] Mr. Dwyer?
[30:00] Yes.
[30:00] Rogan, C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
[30:04] Next item, 11B, C, and D have been resolved as we've been sitting here, so I would
[30:10] table them.
[30:11] Motion to table.
[30:13] Support to table.
[30:15] Point of order. Are we tabling indefinitely?
[30:18] Yes.
[30:21] Okay.
[30:24] Sure.
[30:25] I will call the question. Ms. Moore?
[30:27] Yes.
[30:27] Mr. Lafferty?
[30:28] Yes.
[30:29] Ms. McGee?
[30:30] Yes.
[30:31] Mr. Noonan?
[30:31] Yes.
[30:32] Mr. Boyke?
[30:33] Yes.
[30:33] Mr. Dwyer?
[30:34] Yes.
[30:35] Rogan, C is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
[30:38] Next item is 12A, Legal Update.
[30:41] Mr. Schroeder.
[30:42] Thank you. Members of the council, we've been giving regular updates on the 11055
[30:47] Jewett house,
[30:50] which we showed was a public nuisance. A court hearing is upcoming on that.
[30:57] And this was
[31:00] Mr. Astosh and his nonprofit organization that got the house for a dollar.
[31:06] The city, through the court order, was supposed to inspect the garage.
[31:11] The city was not given access to the garage for six, seven months now.
[31:16] The defendant in this case was essentially held in contempt of
[31:22] court and had to pay a fine. And I've got the check here,
[31:28] received it late this afternoon, so we can give this to-
[31:31] Nice
[31:32] ... Mr.-
[31:33] Sorry
[31:33] ... Mr. Fox for the city. We'll give this to you to pass that along to Mr. Fox.
[31:38] So it's a $500 fine, and he's going to be fined $500 every week that this
[31:45] garage-
[31:51] ... $500 every week that this garage is not accessed for a proper inspection.
[31:56] Of course, we don't know what's in the garage.
[31:58] We showed the filthy conditions of this home to the council and the public, and
[32:02] there was a reaction to that because it was filthy, disgusting, and inhumane, and
[32:06] there were animals in there. And the house got a little bit cleaned up.
[32:12] It's not totally clean. It's still a nuisance.
[32:14] Someone came in there and we got reports they were putting stuff out at the curb,
[32:16] and we're wondering if all that stuff got moved in the garage. We don't know.
[32:21] So it's called sweeping it under the rug or sweeping it into the garage.
[32:24] But in any event, he's getting fined $500 a week until we get compliance, so we're
[32:28] working hard on that.
[32:31] We also have
[32:33] item F, 12F is related to the new Land Bank Brownfield Redevelopment Authority.
[32:39] Just want to say that we're moving forward with a lot of projects with the
[32:44] Brownfield Authority that's working with the Land Bank and the Land Bank itself.
[32:48] The state Land Bank Authority has given us yet even more assistance with
[32:54] our consultant that they're paying for, who is now going to write a Brownfield
[33:00] TIF plan for housing in the older part of the city to help fill these
[33:06] 300 vacant lots with new homes. They're going to write a Brownfield TIF plan.
[33:11] It's something we're going to be able to take advantage of.
[33:14] And thanks to our Land Bank members. We have Mr. Fox here, Mr. Lafferty. Ms.
[33:19] Moore was chairperson of the Land Bank, working with the state, developing these
[33:22] relationships. So this stuff is moving forward, and I'm overlooking all the legal
[33:26] documents, and there's a lot of exciting things upcoming there.
[33:29] So you may not see it, but there's a lot happening, and looking forward to new
[33:34] development, new tax revenue for the vacant homes.
[33:38] Over 300 vacant lots that the city owns and earns no money on.
[33:42] And it's actually a charge on the city. So we can talk more about that on item F.
[33:48] So that's the update for now.
[33:50] Madam Chair? I would like to mention that because of some of the exciting things
[33:54] we're doing with Brownfield and other things, Mr.
[33:57] Schroeder has been requested to actually speak at the Michigan Economic
[34:01] Development-
[34:03] Association
[34:03] ... Association in October. So we're pretty excited about that.
[34:09] People are very envious of some of the things that we've been able to do so far.
[34:13] We don't have a lot to show for it yet, but we're putting all those sort of things
[34:18] in place that we need to do things in the future, and we're all pretty excited.
[34:21] We heard some pretty exciting things today at our meeting.
[34:23] So more to come later on that. Thank you, Mr. Schroeder.
[34:26] Motion to receive and file.
[34:28] Support Lafferty.
[34:32] I'll call the question. All in favor?
[34:33] Aye.
[34:34] Aye.
[34:34] Any opposed? Okay. Next item.
[34:38] Next item is 12B, Consideration and Adoption of a Resolution Approving a Moratorium
[34:44] on Data Centers. So moved.
[34:45] Support Lafferty.
[34:49] Ms. Moore, support Dwyer. Any discussion?
[34:55] I do.
[34:57] Ms. McGee.
[34:59] I was looking at the news the other day, and we were seeing that the
[35:03] government can
[35:08] require you to have
[35:12] data centers,
[35:14] and that it's up for discussion. How would that work with a moratorium?
[35:22] I have to admit, I can answer that.
[35:25] And this is through the state legislature.
[35:27] Yeah. I think that there's some thought that the state might be able
[35:33] to step in one day and sort of override local zoning-
[35:38] Mm-hmm
[35:38] ... or whatever and require this. I really doubt that would ever happen.
[35:44] The only thing I can think of that's even remotely similar, and Ms.
[35:48] Michaels knows all about this, because we had to live through the cell tower era
[35:52] where cell towers were a really controversial item 20 some years ago.
[35:57] It was like the data center-
[35:59] It was
[35:59] ... it was the data center issue of the 2000s.
[36:03] And we would sit at these planning commission meetings, and the residents didn't
[36:07] like it. Certainly,
[36:11] one of our planning commissioners, she didn't like it at all, and she was quite a
[36:15] character, and she opposed every single one of them.
[36:18] But a federal law came into effect that basically said that communities through
[36:23] their zoning and planning cannot deny these things based on-
[36:28] junk science because people were coming to the meeting saying that these towers are
[36:33] emitting radio frequency waves that's causing cancer and other illnesses
[36:39] and diseases, and that if you use that as a reason to deny the cell tower,
[36:45] then it's invalid. They can go to federal court and get it overturned.
[36:48] Now, you can still use your local zoning.
[36:50] You can say, "Look, this is too close to a residential property," or, "It's not
[36:55] zoned properly." You could still use your regular land use and zoning laws.
[36:59] I think what you may have been hearing is that somebody may try to get the federal
[37:02] government or the state legislature to pass a law that would take away your local
[37:06] control, take away what your local zoning are.
[37:08] Correct.
[37:09] I find that very difficult in this environment.
[37:12] In fact, right now there are people who, there's momentum to have the state issue a
[37:16] statewide moratorium up for no data centers. That's where the momentum is now.
[37:20] It is now.
[37:20] And that raises all kinds of constitutional problems for the data centers to
[37:24] basically say, you're in a community, it's zoned properly, and the state's saying
[37:28] there's a moratorium. So there's a lot of back and forth on that.
[37:31] What this does is this puts a moratorium in the city of Warren on data
[37:37] centers until we can develop criteria in the zoning ordinance.
[37:41] If you open the zoning ordinance now, and you can look up all kinds of things, auto
[37:45] washes-
[37:46] Mm-hmm
[37:47] ... funeral homes, you can find any type of business, and data centers aren't in
[37:51] there. Okay? And so the City of Warren wants to define these centers, especially
[37:56] the large scale ones. We talk about hyper scale data centers that are going to suck
[38:00] water and energy and create all these issues. It's not defined in the ordinance.
[38:04] So this gives us time as a city to develop some criteria because right now, without
[38:10] this moratorium, someone could acquire a parcel of land anywhere in the city and
[38:16] find something similar to a data center and say, "I have a right to use this.
[38:20] You never defined it. You can't restrict me." So, and of course, a moratorium can't
[38:25] go on forever. We have to be earnestly working on changes.
[38:29] We did this with the car wash and gas station moratorium, which is currently--
[38:35] There's changes being made there.
[38:36] So once this passes, we're going to have to work with planning and attorney's
[38:40] office and everybody to make sure that changes are coming.
[38:43] In the meantime, if Congress passes some law that tries to tie our hands with the
[38:48] state legislature, we'll come back to the council and advise how that affects our
[38:52] moratorium. I absolutely don't see that happening, especially before this
[38:55] moratorium has got a 12-month life.
[38:58] Yeah.
[38:58] These moratoriums can't go on for more than a year.
[39:00] And I also want to mention that,
[39:02] recently, I think Gibraltar, a city in Downriver area-
[39:07] Yeah
[39:07] ... got sued for their moratorium-
[39:09] Mm-hmm
[39:09] ... because they were affecting some existing
[39:14] applicants who had an interest in property.
[39:16] We put some safeguards in here to try to prevent that litigation, so I don't think
[39:22] we're going to see litigation here. We put safeguards in here.
[39:25] So-
[39:26] Thank you.
[39:26] Madam Chair?
[39:28] Yes.
[39:28] I think it sort of goes back to when there were topless bars.
[39:34] Okay.
[39:34] You can't just say, "We can't have topless bars," or, "We can't have this." We just
[39:40] have to zone things appropriately so that they fit
[39:45] where we're going to put them. Right?
[39:47] That's true. You can't just ban something. You can restrict it by zoning.
[39:52] Topless bars was a whole other issue because the Supreme Court thought that there
[39:57] was some First Amendment implication to people expressing themselves, but that's a
[40:01] totally separate issue. And the City of Warren, frankly, solved that problem by
[40:05] hiring an expert 20 years ago. He came in, the city spent a lot of money, and there
[40:10] are now none of those places in Warren.
[40:11] And the one that existed is gone because they screwed up on their zoning, and
[40:15] they're gone. So, that's exactly what we want to do with data centers, is make sure
[40:19] we have the best strictest zoning ordinance that protects the community, but you
[40:22] can't outright ban it. You go to the zoning ordinance now, you don't see a ban on
[40:27] any of these things. But this is the right way to handle it, so you're correct.
[40:30] Mr. Noonan.
[40:33] Yeah. So I see that it says on page 641 of the agenda,
[40:39] there's a paragraph that starts, "Therefore, it is resolved," and it's talking
[40:44] about the definition of a data center facility, and at the bottom of the paragraph,
[40:49] it says,
[40:52] "But does not include server rooms incidental to a principal permitted use that
[40:58] occupy less than 2,500 square feet of floor area." I was wondering, I
[41:04] heard Madam Secretary say that there are already several data center type
[41:10] things, like probably GM must have something.
[41:13] Are those less than 2,500 square feet?
[41:19] I don't know the answer to that. This isn't going to ban anything that's already
[41:22] existing.
[41:23] Retroactively.
[41:23] This isn't retro.
[41:25] Yeah.
[41:25] This is looking forward. So if there's existing facilities, this won't affect that.
[41:30] If they're approved, if they're already approved and permitted and have proper
[41:33] zoning. A data center's just a large storage facility.
[41:38] I
[41:39] could have a couple of servers in my closet at home and call it a mini data center,
[41:43] right?
[41:43] Right.
[41:43] It's just where they store data. So it's not going to affect any existing use.
[41:48] The mega centers that are going in around the country that have jet
[41:54] turbines as backup generators and things like that, we don't have anything like
[41:58] that probably, as far as you know?
[42:01] I haven't seen one. I don't think there is one.
[42:03] I think we have a lot of military industrial use here.
[42:08] We have-
[42:09] Right
[42:10] ... General Motors. We have a lot of big industrial use.
[42:12] They may have some version of a data center that's been here for a long time-
[42:16] Mm-hmm
[42:16] ... and it's being served. And they may not be hyper scale data centers, the kind
[42:20] that is drawing all the attention-
[42:22] Mm-hmm
[42:22] ... all over the country and all over the state of Michigan.
[42:24] Right.
[42:25] But, yeah. So it's hard to say.
[42:29] We're just not banning-- Anything that exists is not at risk here.
[42:33] I mainly wanted to try to have a discussion of what we know at this point for the
[42:38] public who-- And I think most of the public doesn't know as much as we might know.
[42:43] So, thank you very much for that.
[42:46] Thank you. Mr. Lafferty?
[42:49] Mr. Schroeder pretty much answered what I was going to say.
[42:53] The only other aspect is data centers at GM.
[42:58] They may have a server room that would be four to five times the size of the room
[43:04] we're in right now.
[43:05] Mm-hmm.
[43:05] But it's localized, and it serves the needs of that particular building.
[43:09] Mm-hmm.
[43:10] It's not something that's serving the needs of the public or other large
[43:15] corporations. Those are largely internal.
[43:18] The City of Warren has data rooms or server rooms, server closets on different
[43:23] floors-
[43:24] Mm-hmm
[43:24] ... that I would imagine and assume that they would be excluded from this, and
[43:29] that's what Mr. Schroeder has confirmed.
[43:32] Thank you.
[43:34] Any other discussion?
[43:37] That's it.
[43:39] I'm sorry.
[43:42] I don't understand.
[43:43] Yeah, you can't-
[43:45] If you ban topless bars-
[43:48] Sir, you can't
[43:50] talk while we're having the meeting.
[43:52] Well, can you speak a little louder? I didn't hear what he said.
[43:56] We can certainly try to speak louder, but we can't have a back and forth while
[43:59] we're having a meeting. Okay.
[44:04] I will call the question on-
[44:07] Data centers
[44:08] ... data centers. Thank you. Ms. Moore?
[44:09] Yes.
[44:09] Mr. Dwyer?
[44:10] Yes.
[44:11] Mr. Lafferty?
[44:12] Yes.
[44:12] Ms. McGee?
[44:13] Yes.
[44:13] Mr. Noonan?
[44:14] Yes.
[44:14] Mr. Boyke?
[44:15] Yes.
[44:16] Roggenkamp is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
[44:19] Next item is 12C, Council Secretary Mindy Moore, discussion and rate water bills.
[44:24] So moved.
[44:25] Support Lafferty.
[44:26] Discussion, Ms. Moore.
[44:28] Thank you. I have had several phone calls and a few emails
[44:34] from some residents that noticed an increase in their water bills.
[44:38] As of July 1st, new rates went into effect, and now people are getting those
[44:43] bills. And, the request that I got was just explain why they saw the
[44:49] increase. And I did reach out to the controller's office, and the assistant
[44:53] controller wrote me a very comprehensive explanation that I've passed on to some of
[44:59] the residents that had asked me. And one of the things that was
[45:04] mentioned was that they weren't aware of there being a water increase and what it
[45:10] was based on. And we can say we had a public hearing, we
[45:16] discussed the budget. It's in the minutes.
[45:19] But quite frankly, how many people are really aware of having a budget
[45:25] hearing and what we do on a daily basis?
[45:28] Nobody waits for those minutes to come out to see how we voted in those
[45:32] particulars. And one of the things that I think everybody notices is
[45:37] there's an insert in the water bill every month And it's
[45:43] parties and events and things like that advertised.
[45:47] But maybe we should be putting pertinent information that residents need to
[45:53] know.
[45:55] So I would suggest maybe next month that there be maybe an insert that says,
[46:01] "So you might have noticed your water bill has increased a bit, and this is why."
[46:07] And maybe it could be explained in a simple way that everyone could understand.
[46:12] It is complicated because there's a lot of computations and there's charges for
[46:16] infrastructure and bonding and water rates and all kinds of things that go into
[46:22] that, that I certainly couldn't rattle off the top of my head.
[46:25] I had to reach out and get better answers. Mr.
[46:28] Cost knows what I'm talking about, right? So maybe we could do that.
[46:32] And just to follow on with not just water bills, there are other things that are
[46:38] coming up that people need to be reminded of.
[46:41] Blight issues, e-bikes,
[46:45] mini bikes. There are certain things that are becoming a big issue for residents.
[46:51] We're all getting calls about them. Or drones.
[46:54] It'd be great if we had an insert that explains to people we don't have any control
[46:59] over Amazon. We have no control over the airspace.
[47:03] That is the FAA. Call your congressman.
[47:07] Boy, that sounds like a cliche. Call your congressman.
[47:11] But it's true. We have no say. Call Amazon if you want.
[47:15] I told people, "If you don't like it, boycott Amazon." I don't know what the answer
[47:20] is if you don't like it. They don't bother me. I don't think they're that loud.
[47:25] I've never needed mascara that quick that I needed to have it sent by drone, but I
[47:29] suppose there could be an emergency.
[47:31] But there are those issues that are coming up in the city,
[47:35] and almost everybody gets a water bill.
[47:38] And if we can advertise if there's a foam party or whatever, maybe we could put
[47:44] some information that's important for residents to know.
[47:47] "Hey, just a reminder, you need to spray your cracks on your sidewalk.
[47:51] That's blight having..." Just little things like that.
[47:54] Not get on a date with people with a zillion things, but maybe focus on one thing a
[47:59] month so that we're getting information out there.
[48:02] And I'll go back to the mini bikes. They are illegal on every street, every
[48:07] sidewalk in the state of Michigan. You can't use them anywhere.
[48:13] And it's hard to enforce. A police car can't drive down between two
[48:18] houses and go to parks when these kids are running away from it.
[48:21] But the parents need to know they are illegal, and if you're buying kids mini
[48:26] bikes, you're buying them something that is illegal for them to use.
[48:30] So we've got to get to the source of what the problem is, because we can't catch...
[48:35] I guess there was another down eight mile, hundreds of kids on mini bikes just
[48:40] kind of taunting the police because they can get away and you can't catch them.
[48:45] Maybe they can use drones now. But I'm just sort of suggesting that there's things
[48:50] and information we can give residents in the water bill.
[48:53] People don't turn on TV, Warren, and watch, wait for the news so maybe that's a
[48:59] way for us to get some important information. Just a suggestion.
[49:03] I can't force
[49:05] the mayor to do something, but I think that that would be a really important thing
[49:09] to do, and it'll be helpful to residents. And we'll cut down on the calls.
[49:12] I don't mind taking calls, but I don't have all those answers.
[49:15] Dave Cost or somebody else can explain those things, and if it's in a written form,
[49:20] then we can tell people and talk about the drones.
[49:23] Somebody suggested we have a town hall on drones.
[49:26] Well, we can't do anything about them.
[49:28] Mm-hmm.
[49:29] We just can't. So it's just a suggestion and I hope my colleagues agree
[49:35] with me, but
[49:37] that's it. Mr. Lafferty.
[49:39] Thank you. Madam Secretary, all great suggestions.
[49:45] I just get the impression that the water bill insert is simply not big
[49:50] enough to put all of that in. But even if
[49:56] one thing a month, I think they could probably have something very important, but
[50:01] maybe even add a QR code-
[50:04] Mm-hmm
[50:04] ... where they could say, "This is the highlight for the month, and we
[50:10] want to talk about all these other important things.
[50:14] Click this QR code or scan this QR code and see the next highlight topics."
[50:19] Do you think your 87-year-old aunt can click on a-
[50:23] Well, maybe-
[50:24] ... a QR code and get information?
[50:25] Those are our tech-savvy, but-
[50:26] You got a really tech-savvy-
[50:29] ... elderly aunt.
[50:30] But no doubt that maybe we can maximize.
[50:35] Yeah.
[50:36] That's another way of doing it, but great idea.
[50:38] And
[50:41] I have noticed the text on those water bill inserts sometimes are really tiny.
[50:46] Mm-hmm.
[50:47] And they're really hard to read.
[50:48] Need to enlarge them.
[50:49] So I think the whole insert needs to be revamped, but certainly
[50:54] good quality content that's not duplicating what we have in Warren today,
[51:01] which has its own magazine that we said, "Well, here's for the library and
[51:07] for parks and rec to use." I just got mine.
[51:10] The water bill should not be a
[51:14] duplication of it. So thank you.
[51:17] Madam Chair. Madam Chair. Do you want to say something?
[51:20] Just a point. The water bill was completely revamped this month.
[51:26] It is completely different. It is readable.
[51:28] It's just lines and-
[51:29] It is readable, but it's still just advertising meetings with the mayor and events
[51:35] and-
[51:35] Well, but it's like-
[51:36] But it's not information.
[51:37] It's got all the library stuff and it's got all the parks and recreation stuff
[51:41] because library and parks are the two that pay for it.
[51:43] Right. Well, they have their own publication-
[51:47] Right
[51:47] ... advertising everything.
[51:48] Well, that was the theory back in the day.
[51:51] So that's the majority of the stuff that comes through.
[51:53] There's also community stuff that gets pushed through it.
[51:56] There's all kinds of other-
[51:57] I know, but there's-
[51:58] But we stopped-
[51:59] I'm not sure the residents care that much about that, but they would like to have
[52:02] real information.
[52:03] To be honest, I don't think none of you realize that the water insert changed.
[52:06] I don't think anybody-
[52:07] I did. I saw it. No. I paid attention.
[52:12] Maybe Jonathan didn't, but I did see.
[52:14] I knew it changed, and that's why I knew it had events.
[52:17] And when the mayor was having
[52:19] whatever those things are down at whatever. Just paying. Okay. Yeah.
[52:25] So a motion to receive and file this item.
[52:28] I had-
[52:28] You have a question, Ms. McGee?
[52:30] No, I was suggesting that when we get our utility bills, normally when the
[52:35] prices, the cost, the monthly fees, whatever it is, the bill go up, they put it in
[52:41] red bold on the insert.
[52:46] And it would say, like DTE would say, "Notice you're getting an increase." Like
[52:52] Madam Secretary said, put it on the insert, but put it in red bold print so
[52:58] everyone will know that it's going to increase.
[53:01] How your bill's changing.
[53:02] Good idea.
[53:02] Mm-hmm.
[53:05] Thank you.
[53:06] Point of order, Madam Chair. I think a motion to approve would be more prudent to
[53:10] send this to the administration based on Madam Secretary's suggestions.
[53:14] Sure. It was just a suggestion.
[53:17] So that, Ms. Moore and Mr. Lafferty, your-
[53:22] Yes
[53:22] ... original motion is good.
[53:25] I will call the question. Ms. Moore? Yes. Mr. Lafferty?
[53:28] Yes.
[53:30] Ms. McGee?
[53:31] Yes.
[53:32] Mr. Noonan? Yes. Mr. Boyke? Yes. Mr. Dwyer?
[53:36] Yes.
[53:37] Roggenkleve is a yes. Motion carries. Next item.
[53:40] Next item is 12D, Council Secretary Mindy Moore, discussion and rang commissions.
[53:45] So moved.
[53:46] Support.
[53:47] Discussion. Discussion. Thank you.
[53:49] What I really want to talk about are some of the ordinances concerning the
[53:53] commissions. And about, I think it was over six months ago, I brought up the
[53:58] beautification commission seemed to be quite out of date, and many of our
[54:03] ordinances have not been updated since the '60s.
[54:06] And we had gone through that and sent it to the beautification.
[54:11] I don't know, the city attorney's office.
[54:12] I just kind of wanted to follow up and see where that was,
[54:16] because I'm working on rewriting one of the ordinances now for the crime
[54:22] commission, and a group approached me and we're working on that, and I could
[54:27] probably have it done in a day or two, but I'm not sure why it's taking so long to
[54:32] do beautification. Minder.
[54:37] Sure. Every attorney is assigned to address the ordinances affecting their
[54:41] commission. Everyone is working on it
[54:45] I'll find out where it's at, but everybody's to get at least one draft.
[54:48] Okay.
[54:49] So something will be coming through.
[54:52] Okay. Because I'm working with a small committee that we're going to be
[54:57] redoing the Crime Commission.
[55:00] Because we've been approached to change the name, right?
[55:05] That crime has not a great connotation, that
[55:11] it should be Public Safety Commission.
[55:13] And there's some thought to add fire as well, so that the information,
[55:19] all the public safety goes together.
[55:22] And I think there's members from the fire department are going to work on it and
[55:26] the police and everybody's going to have...
[55:28] We've got people from the
[55:31] Crime Commission representatives. So we're going to be working on that.
[55:35] And of course, it's going to go to the attorneys once the lay people have it
[55:39] together, but-
[55:40] Yes, that's my piece working.
[55:41] Yeah. No. This is a different group, no.
[55:46] Madam Chair.
[55:48] I think, Madam Chair, council also asked about bylaws.
[55:50] Every attorney is working on bylaw updates for their commissions, including me.
[55:56] Now, one of the ones that I was really concerned about is DDA.
[56:01] This is going back about a year and a half or two years ago, and one of the
[56:05] concerns I had was the bylaw or whatever was going on on the rental of
[56:11] the atrium, because the atrium, as I understand it, is under the purview of the
[56:17] DDA. The outside grounds is the Parks and Recreation, and we're supposed to be
[56:22] coming up with some reasonable fees for those, because we've not been charging
[56:27] anywhere near enough. I saw someone FOIA some information of an event that happened
[56:32] at the atrium. I believe it might have been Ms. Harris.
[56:34] And they were charged the fee, they were charged as it was the pavilion at the
[56:39] park. That's how the bill came out.
[56:44] They were charged for a pavilion, not the atrium.
[56:48] So I'm a little concerned about that.
[56:52] There's no consistency on who's charged what, who, if somebody doesn't have
[56:57] insurance, then all of a sudden one of the commissions is sponsoring them, and it
[57:00] becomes a city event. And these are happening in the middle of the budget years
[57:05] when it's something we've never heard about before, then all of a sudden there's
[57:08] another festival. There's another this, that, and there's just doesn't seem to be
[57:13] consistency in what the charges are and those things, and we haven't.
[57:18] We've asked to see it, and we've not been provided.
[57:23] And it's been almost two years, I think, since we asked for that documentation
[57:26] about we wanted to see the form, how much the atrium charge was and all these
[57:32] things that go with that. That's not yours, but I think I'll talk with some of the
[57:36] DDA members. The bylaws, they have not elected a
[57:41] chairperson of the DDA. Under their bylaws, they must elect a
[57:47] chairperson. There is no elected chairperson to the DDA.
[57:52] They never voted on a chairperson since the last term,
[57:57] which Mayor Feltz was the chairperson, and there's never been a vote on who the
[58:02] chairperson was. The mayor is the CEO of the DDA, the same thing of every mayor is,
[58:08] but they're not the chairperson. You have to vote in a chairperson.
[58:16] They're just violating the bylaws.
[58:18] So-
[58:20] I know you're bringing that up before.
[58:22] I thought that was rectified in the former vote.
[58:24] No.
[58:25] There's never been a vote. Because people have FOIA'd it, and none exist.
[58:30] They've asked for that vote in the minutes, and the answer always in the FOIA is it
[58:35] doesn't exist. It's denied because it doesn't exist.
[58:38] So that tells me, because I'm sure that whoever answers FOIA does a reasonable,
[58:44] diligent search for information. They don't just make up things.
[58:48] I've not seen that ever. So...
[58:50] Jeff prepares due to a draft of the use facility
[58:54] protocol for the DDA, and that'll be going to the DDA soon, but the council wanted
[59:00] to see it, too.
[59:01] Well, we have to prove bylaws of all commissions.
[59:04] The bylaws, it's actually the new facility use system.
[59:07] But in the bylaws, the bylaws give Mr.
[59:12] Bommarito
[59:14] sole and exclusive authority to decide who rents that facility, as I
[59:19] understand it. That's what we were told.
[59:21] That's why we wanted to see the bylaws that gave him that authority.
[59:27] I'll give counsel what Jeff or Mr. Pierce put together for the facility use before
[59:32] it goes to you.
[59:33] Okay. All right. Thank you.
[59:35] Thank you.
[59:36] Thank you.
[59:36] Mr. Dwyer.
[59:38] Yes, just to follow up, in regards to beautification, we are in the process of
[59:43] finalizing the bylaws and the ordinances.
[59:47] We plan on having that all done at our next meeting, which is in October.
[59:53] So we're pretty much to the finish line with that. So...
[59:58] Thank you.
[59:59] You're welcome.
[1:00:00] Madam Chair?
[1:00:01] Yes.
[1:00:02] Through the chair to Ms. Moore, you had asked about also a list
[1:00:08] of all seats,
[1:00:12] those commissioners that were assigned or appointed to those
[1:00:17] terms, the length of terms, and
[1:00:22] the expiration dates for all of those. Have you received that information yet?
[1:00:28] I have not, and if you won't mind me adding to this, and I was going to discuss it
[1:00:31] when we did planning next, when we approved the planning.
[1:00:36] The planning expiration dates have all been changed to June 30th.
[1:00:41] Now,
[1:00:43] I don't think that is appropriate.
[1:00:45] You can't just willy-nilly say everybody's going to expire on the same day when you
[1:00:50] had perhaps... I'm going to take the ZBA. Mr. Clift is sitting here.
[1:00:54] So say you got appointed from
[1:00:57] April to the April three years from then.
[1:01:02] I can't then change and say your term expires in June now.
[1:01:07] Can I expound a little bit of your-
[1:01:08] No, I'm sorry, you can't.
[1:01:10] No, sorry. Yeah.
[1:01:11] I know what happened.
[1:01:12] But I'm talking about planning. It doesn't matter if you've exceeded it.
[1:01:15] If you're beyond your term, that term still stays the same.
[1:01:19] We have a member of the planning that their term expired in 2022.
[1:01:26] And we're appointing someone new today and not taking care of that 2022
[1:01:31] appointment. That doesn't make any sense to me, but you can't change an expiration
[1:01:37] date if it says three years. You can't change it.
[1:01:40] Whether somebody serves past their date or not, that term never changes.
[1:01:47] And I think it's probably in the Planning Enabling Act. I don't know. Maybe Mr.
[1:01:51] Short will look it up before we get to planning. You got it? Okay.
[1:01:55] No, you can. Yeah, please. If it's okay. Sure.
[1:01:59] Well, if we're just talking about planning, there's nine planning commissioners,
[1:02:03] and there are three sets of terms because
[1:02:09] the way the state law works and the ordinances is that they don't want everybody up
[1:02:15] at the same time. They stagger the terms.
[1:02:19] On the city website, there are eight current planning commissioners listed.
[1:02:24] There's evidently a ninth vacancy.
[1:02:26] They do not list the term expiration for the vacancy.
[1:02:30] And
[1:02:31] some of this is adding up. I see three that expire
[1:02:39] on, would it be 2027? No. There's only two that expire in 2027.
[1:02:45] There are two that expire in 2029. There's one person that's been sitting
[1:02:51] expired since 2022, another person since 2023.
[1:02:54] So you have a four-year holdover and a three-year holdover and a vacant term where
[1:03:00] they don't disclose what the term expiration date is.
[1:03:03] There should be three sets of three terms that all expire on
[1:03:09] June 30th. So three a year is what the cycle is.
[1:03:12] So, there needs to be some clarification here just to make sure it's following the
[1:03:17] terms.
[1:03:17] Well, I don't think it's always June.
[1:03:20] Yes.
[1:03:21] In planning, it's always been June?
[1:03:24] Well-
[1:03:24] They say that there
[1:03:25] ... the statute says that they all expire at the same time, but they're divided
[1:03:31] into three-
[1:03:32] Okay
[1:03:32] ... so they're staggered.
[1:03:33] Okay. But see, that is the only one that's on the website because I think planning
[1:03:38] went ahead and did it. Well, they're autonomous to the
[1:03:43] city. But they're the only ones that have put their actual expiration dates on.
[1:03:49] We have no idea who's on what commission, when their terms expire,
[1:03:54] or anything else. And I don't know why that's not on there.
[1:03:58] We've asked and asked and asked over and over.
[1:04:00] I think it's unfair to residents for them not to know what openings are there.
[1:04:05] ZBA is there because we had it put on. That's our commission that we appoint to.
[1:04:10] So
[1:04:11] It's just a mess. They've been a mess since day one.
[1:04:15] We have commissions that nobody's been appointed.
[1:04:17] There are two commissions that there's not one appointment.
[1:04:19] Okay. And-
[1:04:21] Three. Three. And go ahead, Mr. Lafferty, and then we'll make a motion.
[1:04:26] Yeah, and I can bring this up at the
[1:04:31] item 13A, but the other concern I have is, and we should all be concerned with
[1:04:36] this, is that we cannot appoint somebody to a seat that hasn't been vacated unless
[1:04:42] we're reappointing them. I don't understand how,
[1:04:47] if the appointments that are coming over are to replace a person, let's say
[1:04:52] somebody will not be continuing that role.
[1:04:54] If they haven't resigned their seat, they're still in there, and if we
[1:05:00] confirm an appointment to planning, suddenly a 10th planning commissioner shows up
[1:05:05] at the stage, and they have nowhere to sit because they haven't been told that
[1:05:11] their seat has been replaced. Their seat hasn't vacated.
[1:05:14] So I have an issue with that, that I don't know, for 13A,
[1:05:21] if they are taking a seat that has been vacated or if it is a vacant seat,
[1:05:28] and I don't know if there's anybody here tonight that'll be able to tell us that.
[1:05:31] So, thank you.
[1:05:32] Thank you.
[1:05:34] What motion do you want for this, Ms.
[1:05:37] Moore?
[1:05:37] Sure.
[1:05:39] Receive and file.
[1:05:40] Okay.
[1:05:42] So Ms. Moore, a motion. Mr. Lafferty, I have your support.
[1:05:47] I will call the question. All in favor?
[1:05:49] Aye.
[1:05:50] Aye. Any opposed?
[1:05:52] No. Motion carries. Next item.
[1:05:53] Next item is 12E, reappointment of William Clift, Sean Lindsay, and Gary Watts to
[1:05:58] the Zoning Board of Appeals with term expirations of September 2029. So moved.
[1:06:03] Support, Lafferty.
[1:06:04] With discussion. Discussion, Ms. Moore. Thank you very much.
[1:06:08] I just want to say thank you to the members that are here.
[1:06:11] We appreciate everything you do. I know it's a tough job, and you take a lot of
[1:06:15] heat sometimes. You are forward-facing with residents and developers and city
[1:06:21] departments, and I know it's not easy.
[1:06:23] You have a lot of properties to go and check out.
[1:06:25] You have to go in person to see what's going on, and I really do appreciate all you
[1:06:31] do. And
[1:06:34] keep up the good work. Any other discussion?
[1:06:39] Okay, I will call the question. Ms. Moore?
[1:06:41] Yes.
[1:06:41] Mr. Lafferty?
[1:06:42] Yes.
[1:06:44] Ms. McGee? Yes. Mr. Noonan?
[1:06:47] Yes.
[1:06:47] Mr. Boyke? Yes. Mr. Dwyer?
[1:06:50] Yes.
[1:06:51] Rogan, I see as yes. Motion carries. Next item.
[1:06:53] Next item is 12F, request of the Land Bank Brownfield Redevelopment Authority for
[1:06:57] approval of their bylaws as adopted July 28th, 2026.
[1:07:04] So moved.
[1:07:05] Support, Lafferty.
[1:07:06] Any discussion? Yes. Mr. Noonan?
[1:07:09] I have one about
[1:07:15] 8.2.
[1:07:18] I'll tell you what page it's on in a second.
[1:07:21] I think...
[1:07:24] Let's see.
[1:07:28] No. Okay, what page is it on? I'm scrolling.
[1:07:33] About contracts under financial matters? Page 62.
[1:07:38] Oh, it's on page 62?
[1:07:41] Yeah, on page 62.
[1:07:43] So
[1:07:45] it's not clear to me
[1:07:48] the situation couldn't occur in which the
[1:07:52] chairperson is acting on just their own authority without any checks or balance.
[1:07:58] Is that possible?
[1:08:01] Jeff, through the chair to Jeff, could you please explain to me the checks and
[1:08:06] balances in the Land Bank to make sure that there isn't...
[1:08:11] It doesn't seem like the Land Bank is really coming back on a lot of their
[1:08:15] decisions to the city council.
[1:08:19] So to answer that, the Land Bank shouldn't be doing that.
[1:08:22] The Land Bank is an independent authority under state law, authorized by the
[1:08:26] intergovernmental agreement that this council authorized-
[1:08:30] Right
[1:08:30] ... with the state Land Bank Authority.
[1:08:31] Right.
[1:08:32] It's an independent authority now.
[1:08:34] Okay.
[1:08:34] So they do not come back here for decisions.
[1:08:36] Right.
[1:08:36] The only thing that has to come back now, this is the Brownfield Authority-
[1:08:40] Right
[1:08:40] ... that works with the Land Bank, is that the bylaws have to be approved by the
[1:08:45] council. So their bylaws need to be approved, but the other decisions will not.
[1:08:49] They will act as an independent authority here.
[1:08:52] With respect to checks and balances, this says the board of directors may authorize
[1:08:57] someone. For example, the chairperson may need to sign a contract, right, on behalf
[1:09:02] of the authority. Since this is an independent authority, the mayor would not be
[1:09:05] signing contracts. So for the city, the mayor is the chief executive officer and-
[1:09:09] Right
[1:09:09] ... signs contracts. For the Land Bank and the Land Bank Brownfield Authority, the
[1:09:14] authority itself would pass a resolution authorizing the chairperson to execute a
[1:09:18] contract or to sign a check or to do something on behalf because there's no
[1:09:22] day-to-day CEO of the authority. So this is really what we call delegated
[1:09:27] authority, and the chairperson would not be able to just go out and
[1:09:33] do things without board approval, if that's your question.
[1:09:36] Okay. So
[1:09:40] it has to be voted on as we do with a majority
[1:09:46] of the Land Bank Authority?
[1:09:49] Yes.
[1:09:51] Okay. And
[1:09:53] the controller of the city is a voting member?
[1:09:58] The controller of the city is a voting member and also the fiscal agent for both
[1:10:03] the Brownfield, Land Bank Brownfield, and the Land Bank Authority.
[1:10:08] Okay. Well, thank you for reassuring me on this point.
[1:10:11] Yeah.
[1:10:11] Madam Chair. For instance, Mr. Noonan,
[1:10:16] I can issue a subpoena as secretary of the council, but I can't do that on my own.
[1:10:20] I can only do that when this board, by a majority, gives me that authority.
[1:10:27] So I can't just issue a subpoena.
[1:10:31] It's the same thing.
[1:10:32] Okay.
[1:10:34] Question. So the board made the decision of who the chair
[1:10:40] should be the chair of the
[1:10:43] Land Bank, the Brownstown?
[1:10:45] Yes.
[1:10:45] Okay. That's all. Any other discussion?
[1:10:52] Okay, hearing and seeing none, I will call the question. Ms. Moore?
[1:10:55] Yes.
[1:10:55] Mr. Lafferty?
[1:10:56] Yes.
[1:10:58] Ms. McGee? Yes. Mr. Noonan?
[1:11:00] Yes.
[1:11:01] Mr. Boyke? Yes. Mr. Dwyer?
[1:11:03] Yes.
[1:11:03] Rogan, I see as yes. Motion carries. Next item.
[1:11:07] Next item is 13A, request to approve Vince Berti to the Planning Commission with
[1:11:11] the term expiration of June 30th, 2027. So moved.
[1:11:18] Support Lafferty. Discussion.
[1:11:19] Discussion, Mr. Lafferty.
[1:11:22] Given my comments under 12D,
[1:11:27] that we don't know what seat this is being appointed to, whether or not it's
[1:11:34] vacant or being vacated, I'm going to make a motion to table to the next meeting,
[1:11:41] September
[1:11:44] 8th.
[1:11:46] Support.
[1:11:50] I think the next meeting's the 15th.
[1:11:53] I think it's the 8th, isn't it?
[1:11:56] I just checked.
[1:11:56] It's the second Tuesday.
[1:11:57] I know. I just checked-
[1:11:58] Or is it-
[1:11:58] ... yesterday. It's the 15th.
[1:12:00] Could be.
[1:12:01] Can be. Labor Day.
[1:12:03] Labor Day falls on the
[1:12:05] 28th?
[1:12:06] Yeah, it's the 15th.
[1:12:07] Oh, okay.
[1:12:07] We have Labor Day.
[1:12:08] Labor Day weekend. Okay. I will revise my motion to table to September 15th.
[1:12:15] Ms. Moore, I can't talk on a tabling motion. Ms. Moore, are you supported?
[1:12:20] Yes.
[1:12:21] I will call the question. This is a motion to table. Mr. Lafferty?
[1:12:25] Yes to table.
[1:12:26] Ms. Moore?
[1:12:27] Yes.
[1:12:28] Ms. McGee? Yes. Mr. Noonan?
[1:12:31] Yes.
[1:12:32] Mr. Boyke? Yes. Mr. Dwyer?
[1:12:34] Yes to table.
[1:12:35] Rogan, I see as yes.
[1:12:38] Next item.
[1:12:39] Next item is 13B, request of the Police Department to approve a one-time grant for
[1:12:43] the Emergency Dispatch Center in the amount of $900,000.
[1:12:46] Consideration and adoption of a resolution. So moved.
[1:12:50] Support Dwyer.
[1:12:52] Any discussion? Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the question. Ms. Moore?
[1:12:58] Yes.
[1:12:58] Mr. Dwyer?
[1:12:59] Yes.
[1:12:59] Mr. Lafferty?
[1:13:00] Yes.
[1:13:01] Ms. McGee? Yes. Mr. Noonan?
[1:13:04] Yes.
[1:13:04] Mr. Boyke? Yes. Rogan, I see as yes. Motion carries.
[1:13:09] Next item.
[1:13:10] Next item is audience participation for general items.
[1:13:15] I see there's a couple new folks in the audience, so just we'll give everyone a
[1:13:20] heads up. This is for general items only. You have three minutes.
[1:13:24] I will give you a one-minute countdown.
[1:13:26] If you're holding an audience forum, now is the last call to get them in.
[1:13:31] You can put them in the basket. Ms. Camp will grab them.
[1:13:40] Sure, if you'd like to speak during general. Yeah.
[1:13:42] Thank you.
[1:13:45] Yep.
[1:13:49] I think that is my-- Yeah, all the things I need to say.
[1:13:52] Okay, first up is Lori Harris. After Lori Harris is Vanita
[1:13:57] Palmer.
[1:14:06] I have a couple
[1:14:09] comments to make.
[1:14:12] Readily achievable is a phrase used for ADA.
[1:14:17] So when Karen Brody said they have two years to make the parking spaces ADA
[1:14:22] compliant, that's wrong. Readily achievable means easily accomplishable and able to
[1:14:28] be carried out without much difficulty or expense.
[1:14:33] To explain readily achievable in the simplest terms, businesses must comply with
[1:14:37] the ADA if they have the resources to do so.
[1:14:40] So I think it's really not fair if you've had it in writing for two
[1:14:46] years at least that those spots needed to be adjusted, that that is something they
[1:14:52] could do to be in compliance. So that's a little education.
[1:14:57] I also
[1:15:00] wanted to talk about the use of the atrium, and I plan on
[1:15:05] filing more FOIAs because I'd love to know what the different
[1:15:11] groups have been charged. Not just the atrium, also outside.
[1:15:17] Because I understand that there's going to be three days of a group coming
[1:15:22] in, September 12th, for school supplies and vendors and things like
[1:15:28] that. So that's a lot of time in front of City Hall, and
[1:15:34] I'd like to know how this is being handled.
[1:15:39] And just as an off-the-wall kind of topic, wouldn't it be great if we had a
[1:15:45] choir in Warren? It would be so lovely if we could have a choir.
[1:15:50] So if anybody's interested,
[1:15:54] I would love to sing. We could get a lot of people together from all different
[1:15:59] walks of life and have a choir. Thanks.
[1:16:03] Thank you.
[1:16:07] Next is Vanita Palmer. After Vanita Palmer is Edwin
[1:16:13] Worley. Three minutes, ma'am.
[1:16:15] Thank you so much.
[1:16:17] Board, members of the city of Warren, and guests, I just wanted to take today's
[1:16:23] three minutes to say a great deal of thank you to you as a board and
[1:16:29] to Mr. Lafferty and to Mr. Schroeder. I'm glad to see, Mr.
[1:16:32] Schroeder, that you have a resolution in the works for your blight issue.
[1:16:37] My current issue at the 14155 address on Eldert Street is still a work in progress,
[1:16:44] but on that note, it is still a work in progress. Today's conversation with Mr.
[1:16:50] Mozzarelli and with Mr. Campbell was quite successful at this
[1:16:56] point, being that I had the conversation with Mr.
[1:16:59] Campbell and explained my seven-year itch.
[1:17:02] At least I got part of it out until I let him know that I was the porcelain
[1:17:06] princess who had the toilet
[1:17:10] that I had to put on my sidepro-- "Oh, you're that lady." I said, "Oh, Mr.
[1:17:16] Douglas, now you know me after seven years.
[1:17:18] Thank you for your attention."
[1:17:21] So I got four years of my blight complaint out to Mr.
[1:17:24] Campbell
[1:17:25] out of the seven years I've been fighting my battle for this blight issue with my
[1:17:30] neighbor.
[1:17:31] I said, "It's a shame that she makes a fool out of you, and she makes a fool out of
[1:17:36] me, and she's making a fool out of the city every time she comes in here and tells
[1:17:41] you how her neck hurts and how she's handicapped." And I have video after video
[1:17:45] after video, picture after picture, 748 to this day in seven years, that I
[1:17:51] can prove that this woman is making a fool out of all of us.
[1:17:56] Mr. Campbell has requested out of me, and I promised him that my porcelain princess
[1:18:02] toilet bowl for my kind neighbor would be moved upon the issues of
[1:18:08] her cleaning her area-
[1:18:09] One minute
[1:18:11] ... would be dealt with at any given. He asked for a 48-hour notice.
[1:18:16] My second thing is, is I want to thank you, Mr.
[1:18:19] Lafferty, for taking the time out last week to have five, 10 minutes with me out in
[1:18:23] the lobby to explain a few of the processes in the city. Mr.
[1:18:27] Mozzarelli, I want to thank you for moving the earth for me to get this
[1:18:33] seven-year itch somewhat resolved.
[1:18:36] And with that said, in my last of my three minutes,
[1:18:40] this out of seven years, Mr. Mozzarelli, was the first time I actually read
[1:18:46] my insert in my letter.
[1:18:50] Thank you.
[1:18:50] Thank you for your time.
[1:18:52] Next up is Edwin Worley. After Edwin is Pamela Rogers.
[1:18:58] Yeah, last time I had a problem, I was up here about the senior housing.
[1:19:04] I was fraudulently accused of something.
[1:19:07] I challenged you all to come down to the housing commission meeting, if y'all
[1:19:13] remember.
[1:19:15] He promptly canceled it. How convenient.
[1:19:19] Who is our representative, our district representative?
[1:19:24] Will you identify yourself? I live at the-- Okay.
[1:19:28] I'd like you to be present at every single housing commission, and I'd like you to
[1:19:34] put pressure on him to stop canceling because this is not the first time. Okay?
[1:19:41] My other question is, how come
[1:19:45] Stellantis
[1:19:47] is getting a tax abatement? They didn't live up to their agreement.
[1:19:52] They were supposed to create jobs.
[1:19:55] They eliminated 1,000 jobs.
[1:19:59] Can somebody explain how they got away with that?
[1:20:04] I'd really like to know that.
[1:20:09] It's not a two-way conversation during this. You have three minutes to speak.
[1:20:13] Okay. Can you address it next time
[1:20:16] I come in?
[1:20:18] No, you still have three minutes.
[1:20:19] Well, you voted for it. You're the only one on this council member that voted for
[1:20:24] it,
[1:20:26] aren't you?
[1:20:27] I-
[1:20:27] Am I correct?
[1:20:28] Sir, you-
[1:20:29] Am I correct?
[1:20:30] I have no idea what you're talking about. You have three minutes.
[1:20:32] You're ignoring my questions. I'm asking you a question, you're ignoring my
[1:20:36] question. So you're ignoring the citizens that have the questions and want
[1:20:40] explanations when you're supposed to be serving us and explaining stuff to us.
[1:20:48] That don't sound right to me.
[1:20:51] You say you can ban a topless bar, but you can't ban a data center.
[1:20:57] Well, if the citizen want it banned, it should be banned, right?
[1:21:02] One minute, sir.
[1:21:05] But nobody's going to respond.
[1:21:08] Do you have any office hours? Can I talk to you after the-- I want to
[1:21:14] talk to you out in the hallway because you do represent me,
[1:21:18] and you should be working for our best interest.
[1:21:22] And sometimes I don't know how giving somebody a $12 million tax
[1:21:28] abatement, and when they renege on their promises, is working in our best
[1:21:33] interest.
[1:21:36] I'd like that explained.
[1:21:40] Thank you. Next is Pamela Rogers.
[1:21:46] You have three minutes. Mm-hmm.
[1:21:51] I'm here to bring to the attention the city council that I live over at
[1:21:57] Continental Community Homes. I don't know who runs this company.
[1:22:02] I don't know who I'm paying my rent to. I don't even know what's happening.
[1:22:06] All I know is we had a couple of workers that come in there, and they destroyed
[1:22:11] most of the abandoned houses. We have trees falling down.
[1:22:15] We have the skirts being removed. We even got a bogus letter
[1:22:21] telling us that Hanover Management was supposed to be coming in and start taking
[1:22:27] payments from us. Then we get a text message from Shapiro stating
[1:22:33] that
[1:22:35] we should send our rent the regular way we've been paying, which is online.
[1:22:39] We never see anybody. Nobody's the manager at the office.
[1:22:43] Nobody comes out. They're destroying the roadways.
[1:22:48] Whatever these crates are that they came in to do
[1:22:53] ... scrapping for metal. They destroyed the driveways. There's glass everywhere.
[1:22:59] Now, we still have maybe five to seven residents there. I own my home.
[1:23:06] My cousin owns her home. It's maybe two renters there, but this property is looking
[1:23:11] so scary, we got people coming off of 8 Mile coming scrapping.
[1:23:15] We don't even know who they are. We just feel like something has to be done where
[1:23:21] we don't feel endangered. Because at this point, I pull out my car, I don't know if
[1:23:26] I'm going to have flat tires. Somebody done broke into the house two houses down
[1:23:31] where it's wide open. Whatever they're getting out of them, they're getting it.
[1:23:36] We haven't seen the workers in three weeks.
[1:23:41] Our garbage day has changed until Monday, when it was regularly Tuesday.
[1:23:46] We didn't get a notification of that either.
[1:23:49] Now, I'm not for sure how that works, but when they're tearing down these trailers,
[1:23:54] and one spring a leak and water spraying all over the place, we don't know if that
[1:23:58] affects our water bill or anything.
[1:24:01] All I know is we just want something to be told to us, because
[1:24:06] we were trying to see if they were going to offer us something for our homes, but
[1:24:11] we can even just relocate. Because right now, my grandkids don't even want to
[1:24:15] visit. It looks just that scary. And because it's off of 8 Mile-
[1:24:20] 30 seconds
[1:24:21] ... by the Suez Motel, it's pretty scary. Thank you.
[1:24:25] Thank you. Next is Anthony Jordan.
[1:24:35] And after Mr. Jordan is Mr. Cliff.
[1:24:45] Go ahead. You have three minutes.
[1:24:47] Okay. As a resident of the Continental Community Housing,
[1:24:53] I have several complaints. She touched on some. I will touch on others.
[1:24:58] The lighting is nonexistent.
[1:25:00] Thank you.
[1:25:01] Yeah.
[1:25:03] Not only is it dark, it's scary with all those abandoned trailers and
[1:25:10] vacant lots. It looks like you don't want to be caught there after dark.
[1:25:15] You really don't. But my main concern is about what form of compensation will they
[1:25:20] receive when they move? They're literally being forced out.
[1:25:26] They own their mobile homes.
[1:25:32] Will they cover the cost of moving, is one thing in particular, because it's
[1:25:37] expensive to move. Will they help with the relocation?
[1:25:41] Because not everybody accepts people with,
[1:25:48] how can I put it, less than adequate credit or
[1:25:53] income. I hope I phrased that right.
[1:25:56] Will they find a new residency for them? Because it's limited based on your income.
[1:26:03] It's hard to find someplace that you can afford.
[1:26:06] Will they cover first month's rent and security deposit?
[1:26:10] Because they own these homes.
[1:26:13] To leave your home and go try to find an apartment is difficult,
[1:26:19] and I hope that
[1:26:21] they will adequately compensate these people, because this are their
[1:26:27] homes. They live there, and now they're being forced out and
[1:26:33] don't know where to go.
[1:26:36] They're going to turn them into homeless individuals.
[1:26:40] What will the compensation be? It's scary. It's scary. What's going to happen?
[1:26:45] You don't know. You're living in limbo.
[1:26:49] Okay, I'm going to make it even shorter than that.
[1:26:52] I just want something done. We need to know what's going to happen.
[1:26:57] Right now, nothing is being said, nothing is being done.
[1:27:01] People have to move and don't know when they're going to be forced to move or how
[1:27:05] they're going to move. It is scary. And then the residence is scary.
[1:27:10] There's no lighting. I already touched on that, and I'm not going to waste any more
[1:27:15] of your time. Something needs to be done quick, fast, and in a hurry.
[1:27:19] People need to know.
[1:27:21] Thank you.
[1:27:21] Thank you.
[1:27:23] Next is William Cliff.
[1:27:30] First, I want to say thank you, and I want to congratulate my colleague, Gary, and
[1:27:35] Mr. Lindsey for their reappointments on the Zoning Board of Appeals.
[1:27:39] I don't know if you guys know, but I serve as vice chair on that body, assistant
[1:27:43] secretary the term before.
[1:27:48] We've seen a lot of improvement and a lot of change on that board in the time that
[1:27:53] I've been there, since my first term of appointment.
[1:27:59] Members are asking questions. We're calling people to task.
[1:28:02] We're demanding explanations. Sometimes admittedly, we may go a little overboard
[1:28:07] and veer into the lane that we don't really belong in.
[1:28:11] But I want you guys to understand wholeheartedly that we do that because of our
[1:28:16] care and commitment to the city of Warren.
[1:28:20] For too long, that body and that entity was just a rubber stamp, and anybody did
[1:28:24] whatever they wanted to do. You hardly heard a no come out of anybody there.
[1:28:29] And with some of our more recent training, and it's up to us to train ourselves
[1:28:35] in most facets. I'd like to see more training tossed our way, maybe set
[1:28:41] up or put together by the city. A little more interaction between some of the
[1:28:46] bodies, some of the other commissions relevant to what it is that we're doing.
[1:28:52] And even working a little closer with you so we can understand where we're at and
[1:28:58] where we're going. And instead of standing at a podium and making a plea or having
[1:29:02] to talk into a microphone at that meeting, that some good, solid, intelligent,
[1:29:08] concise ideas can be brought forward for consideration.
[1:29:13] Our ordinances are horribly archaic. Horribly archaic.
[1:29:18] And I heard tonight several things happening on that front, and I'm pleased to hear
[1:29:23] that. Bylaws. These council and commission expiration
[1:29:29] fiasco. I got a phone call a couple of years ago wanting to know-
[1:29:33] One minute
[1:29:34] ... when was my term up because the people in the main office,
[1:29:40] City Hall, had no clue or no idea. They said they weren't privy to that information
[1:29:45] by the outgoing administration. It's horrible.
[1:29:48] Chairman, vice chairman, take care of your people. Look things up. Make notes.
[1:29:52] Put it in a book so that we're not confused, and we're not scrambling at the end of
[1:29:56] the day at the last minute to either submit or apply for reappointments.
[1:30:00] Or so we can make the conscious decision to leave if we need to leave to make room
[1:30:04] for somebody else, so that you guys-
[1:30:06] 30 seconds
[1:30:06] ... have enough reaction time to find appointees to appoint into those positions.
[1:30:11] That's all I have to say. Thank you very much.
[1:30:13] Thank you. Next is Zachary Matt, I believe.
[1:30:19] And then after Zachary is Gloria Sanker.
[1:30:22] Three minutes, sir.
[1:30:23] Good evening, everybody. My name is Zachary.
[1:30:26] I'm a 27-year-old male living in the Warren Woods area.
[1:30:30] First, I would like to address Melody McGee, Angela, and Henry.
[1:30:34] I really appreciate you guys being on the forward front of the city community and
[1:30:38] understanding what our desires are.
[1:30:40] I'm actually here to speak on the same thing that a lot of people here are talking
[1:30:44] about. Just the lack of inactive ability from you guys as a council.
[1:30:50] Mindy Moore, Gary Vioque, David Bauer, and Jonathan, unfortunately, you guys made
[1:30:54] the decision to continue with the Walk Safety program, that most Michiganders,
[1:30:59] including the citizens of Warren, do not want.
[1:31:02] The $132,000 that you guys had put forward for the two-year contract could be put
[1:31:06] forward towards things like lights or city roads, finishing of certain walk
[1:31:12] safety effects that have been passed already, different fundamental logistics and
[1:31:18] infrastructure that could be used in Warren, or updated bus seats, or
[1:31:23] locations that don't have access to the routes that are needed for some of our
[1:31:27] citizens to get around. It just though continues to be a front for the
[1:31:33] most part. I don't see a face on here that truly I feel represents the general
[1:31:38] demographic of Warren, nor understands the actual strife that Warren is
[1:31:44] facing in the day-to-day and the affordability crisis.
[1:31:47] Now, this two-year contract you guys voted on July 14th was quite
[1:31:53] truthfully just a continuation. And I know there was no questions to be asked here,
[1:31:58] but it would be ... feasible to me if someone could answer my question on how to
[1:32:04] add agendas to the docket. I would like to ask, at least in a public forum of, who
[1:32:09] has communicated with Flock personally?
[1:32:11] Who has had meetings on the side, and who has NDAs with Flock at this moment?
[1:32:15] While that might not be public information, and that might be private dealings
[1:32:18] between all of you, that is something that I feel like needs to be included in all
[1:32:23] city council communications, is transparency.
[1:32:25] One minute.
[1:32:26] Thank you. No, I actually don't have any other time, or any other comments or
[1:32:30] concerns about that today, though I will say, Gary Biocchi, I really appreciate you
[1:32:35] being a part of our district because I hope with your actions and decision that
[1:32:39] we'll see a turn in our future for District IV. Thank you.
[1:32:42] Thank you. Next is Gloria Sinker.
[1:32:55] Good evening. Every generation has to protect America.
[1:33:01] We're not perfect, but neither is anybody else.
[1:33:05] Michigan is facing a socialist on the November ballot, and what was never a concern
[1:33:12] is now a festering problem. We are talking about a radical change in the Democratic
[1:33:18] Party since they approved socialists to run in their party.
[1:33:24] Changes include making abortion legal through all nine months of pregnancy,
[1:33:30] allowing men in women's sports and locker rooms, allows sanctuary cities to
[1:33:36] protect convicted criminals, gay rights are more important than national prayer,
[1:33:43] not necessary to show identification for voting, and reopen our borders to
[1:33:49] illegal immigrants, many who are criminals.
[1:33:53] They want to end police protection and close jails.
[1:33:57] This is a slate of beliefs for the new socialist Democratic Party.
[1:34:03] The Bible says, "If you have ears, you ought to hear." The Democratic Party has
[1:34:09] left common sense out in their radical beliefs.
[1:34:15] Don't cling to something that no longer represents your beliefs.
[1:34:21] This November election is probably one of the most important because it could, one,
[1:34:26] change how you live, and two, what protections you have.
[1:34:31] Socialism is alive on the voting ballot for the office of United States senator.
[1:34:37] A US senator makes and shapes laws.
[1:34:40] In other words, they have power to make changes in your lifestyle.
[1:34:46] We just celebrated 250 years of freedom, but socialism can change all that.
[1:34:52] When good people don't vote, socialism can happen, and the American dream,
[1:34:59] no more.
[1:34:59] One minute.
[1:35:01] Thank you.
[1:35:02] Thank you. That is the end of audience. Next item.
[1:35:06] Council response to audience.
[1:35:09] Madam Chair.
[1:35:10] Mr. Lafferty.
[1:35:11] I have a response to the
[1:35:16] individuals,
[1:35:18] I believe, Ms. McGee, in your district, in the continental,
[1:35:24] through the chair to Mr. Wirth.
[1:35:37] Yes, sir.
[1:35:38] Thank you. I remember the developer came to us.
[1:35:44] We had to rezone that property behind Suez Motel.
[1:35:47] And during the planning commission meeting,
[1:35:51] the petitioners should have had a communication plan
[1:35:57] with all of the residents that would've been affected or displaced by
[1:36:03] that. Apparently, that has not taken place.
[1:36:08] And I know that it's
[1:36:11] not necessarily
[1:36:14] under whose authority would it fall as responsibility to ensure that those
[1:36:22] conditions of their planning commission, their site plan approval, that those are
[1:36:26] taking place? I don't know if that's through the city attorney's office, through
[1:36:30] your office.
[1:36:32] Well,
[1:36:34] I'm going to respond here. They
[1:36:37] received a general standard rezoning-
[1:36:42] Mm-hmm
[1:36:43] ... with a concept plan that indicated what might be developed there,
[1:36:50] and that's what you get with a standard rezoning. Might be.
[1:36:56] At this point, they also talked about when they get ready to do that, that's when
[1:37:01] they take care of displacement.
[1:37:04] Mm-hmm.
[1:37:05] But remember, there was no agreement-
[1:37:07] Mm-hmm
[1:37:09] ... at all.
[1:37:11] No site plan approval was ever brought forth.
[1:37:16] So we have a rezoning, we have land that's rezoned, but we don't have
[1:37:22] any plans from anyone. We don't hear from Shapiro.
[1:37:28] I've had talks with the councilwoman there.
[1:37:33] Nothing from those people.
[1:37:37] And what I indicated to the councilwoman was that I was going
[1:37:43] to research the file and see
[1:37:46] if there's any kind of timing involved that we can
[1:37:52] work with.
[1:37:54] I actually don't think there is, but I'll look at it real close and go forward with
[1:38:00] that.
[1:38:03] Everything that I've been told
[1:38:07] is literally horrifying in my estimation. I haven't been there.
[1:38:13] I don't want to go there with an inch of glass that's on the ground
[1:38:18] because my tires won't take it. I guess I'd have to walk through, and maybe I'll
[1:38:24] do that with some of my staff. I'm not sure yet. We'll find out.
[1:38:31] I know that
[1:38:34] David back there is well aware of this problem also, and
[1:38:40] we're all being on notice, so to speak, to do
[1:38:46] something. But I wish there was more I could tell you.
[1:38:50] If that had been a
[1:38:52] rezoning with conditions,
[1:38:55] then you get more, and you could hold them to an agreement.
[1:39:00] You could hold them to timing. You can hold them to all sorts of things.
[1:39:06] And that works out quite well.
[1:39:10] Mm-hmm.
[1:39:12] Thank you.
[1:39:15] And just
[1:39:19] a little tip here. We will
[1:39:23] bring to the city,
[1:39:26] to the council, a reversion of one of those
[1:39:31] conditional rezonings,
[1:39:34] probably in the next month or so
[1:39:40] because things weren't done.
[1:39:43] Mm-hmm.
[1:39:43] They didn't meet the agreement, and they've also notified us, this particular one,
[1:39:48] I'm not going to go any farther with who,
[1:39:52] and they've indicated they're not going to do what they said they were going to do.
[1:39:57] All right.
[1:39:57] And so, we'll bring it to you. What that does is change the zone back to the
[1:40:02] original zoning, and we start over with that property.
[1:40:07] Right.
[1:40:08] Here, we didn't get that, unfortunately.
[1:40:12] So, we'll try to work in a different direction.
[1:40:17] All right. Thank you, Mr. Wirth. Madam Chair, you've had probably more experience
[1:40:22] with
[1:40:24] mobile home communities with your experience with the-
[1:40:29] Landmark
[1:40:30] ... Landmark.
[1:40:30] Yeah.
[1:40:30] Thank you.
[1:40:33] I know that there are other parties here that can probably assist, but
[1:40:38] I'd like to open some sort of line of discussion here that
[1:40:44] we've got to take action to protect the health and welfare of our citizens.
[1:40:50] Yeah, and Jeff can talk about it, but the only tool that we really have is to
[1:40:53] declare it a nuisance, any of these parks, because the legislation is just not
[1:40:57] there.
[1:40:58] Mm-hmm.
[1:40:59] So that's really the only
[1:41:01] tool that we've really been able to come up with.
[1:41:05] Yeah, I totally agree with that,
[1:41:08] just because it's a mobile home park, and we know that the city has its
[1:41:14] hands tied by state law on what can be done in mobile homes.
[1:41:19] They have very strong presence in our state government.
[1:41:23] We are currently in litigation right now with a park that doesn't want
[1:41:29] to comply, and we're moving toward a good resolution on that.
[1:41:33] In the meantime, I do think that this could possibly qualify as a public nuisance.
[1:41:38] What I'm hearing here, just because they're a mobile home park, doesn't mean
[1:41:41] they're not creating public nuisance conditions.
[1:41:44] But I don't think the council can, based on just some statements tonight, declare a
[1:41:49] public nuisance. I think that if Mr.
[1:41:52] Mazzarelli and all the inspectors that work for him are willing to go and generate
[1:41:57] some reports, and those reports show a public nuisance condition, that council can
[1:42:02] then declare a public nuisance, and a court action can be taken.
[1:42:05] But those reports would have to basically indicate that, and I think Mr.
[1:42:09] Mazzarelli may have something to add to that now. I don't know.
[1:42:11] But I do think that actually council could make a motion tonight
[1:42:17] to move in that direction. Not declare it a public nuisance, but move and ask for
[1:42:23] those things. You might want to get Mr. Mazzarelli's input on that.
[1:42:26] But I do think it could qualify as-- What I'm hearing here is classic public
[1:42:31] nuisance.
[1:42:31] Yeah. Mm-hmm.
[1:42:33] Mr. Mazzarelli said you're working in that direction.
[1:42:35] Yeah, so-
[1:42:36] Okay
[1:42:37] ... I think we could make that motion if we-
[1:42:39] Madam Chair, I'll make that motion to direct the building department
[1:42:45] public service to create a-
[1:42:49] File.
[1:42:49] Yeah.
[1:42:50] Support.
[1:42:50] And the one thing I did want to mention is, I wonder if the Department of
[1:42:56] Health and Human Services could offer any help to the residents.
[1:43:01] Maybe that's somewhere we could reach out and-
[1:43:06] Have to ask Director.
[1:43:07] Who have you tried through?
[1:43:08] Can I speak-
[1:43:09] Yeah
[1:43:09] ... during this?
[1:43:11] Yeah. Just I want to make sure that she's going to the right people, because maybe
[1:43:14] we can help with that. I've got some contacts that maybe I can...
[1:43:18] I'll work on that.
[1:43:21] Ms. McGee, go ahead.
[1:43:22] Okay. Of course, as you stated before, Councilman Lafferty, that's
[1:43:28] in my area of the Eighth Ward. I have walked it lately
[1:43:33] with them to make sure, and I've taken photos and submitted those photos to Dave
[1:43:37] Mazzarelli and the rest of them. It is a horrible area.
[1:43:41] Mm-hmm.
[1:43:41] What they're asking for is not just to be compensated, but really
[1:43:46] communicated. There's no proper communication there.
[1:43:52] I was there when they said that they were going to rezone.
[1:43:55] There was a company there. That company stated that out loud they would assist,
[1:44:00] because that was my request. That they would assist with moving expenses if they
[1:44:06] decide to move. There were several people moved out of their mobile home thinking
[1:44:12] that something new was coming in, and now we're saying it's not happening more than
[1:44:17] likely. So their whole mobile home location has been torn up,
[1:44:24] including the street. And now they're getting letters from different
[1:44:30] companies saying, "We're in charge. You can partially pay rent now.
[1:44:34] You can do this." They're not understanding.
[1:44:37] There's no communication, there's no meetings. And they want some information.
[1:44:41] They want some feedback. And I had called Dave Mazzarelli.
[1:44:47] He has communicated to both I and Councilman McOoo who
[1:44:53] received calls also, what their steps are moving forward.
[1:44:58] But in the meantime, they're in limbo. They can't leave their homes.
[1:45:03] They're being vandalized. They're breaking in their homes while they're there, and
[1:45:08] they're disabled.
[1:45:11] Human trafficking is going on. I was over, I walked the area.
[1:45:17] I walked through the area, drove through the area. This is a problem.
[1:45:23] So what I heard Mr. Warr say is because it was a standard rezoning, they're not
[1:45:26] bound to do any of those things. The property's been rezoned.
[1:45:30] Now it's a problem of trying to build a file to try to declare a public nuisance.
[1:45:35] And unfortunately, with mobile homes, there's virtually nothing we can do,
[1:45:39] unfortunately, beyond declare a nuisance, write them tickets.
[1:45:45] The law just doesn't exist, unfortunately.
[1:45:49] So,
[1:45:51] it's a super unfortunate situation, as all of you know, I've been fighting the
[1:45:55] mobile home-
[1:45:56] Yeah
[1:45:56] ... folks for years at this point.
[1:45:59] And it's a very unfortunate situation, so.
[1:46:04] We have a motion?
[1:46:05] Mm-hmm. Sorry. Mr. Warr, you have a motion?
[1:46:07] Yeah.
[1:46:08] Motion to approve.
[1:46:08] Support to-
[1:46:09] Noonan
[1:46:10] ... do the groundwork.
[1:46:12] Build a file.
[1:46:13] Yeah.
[1:46:14] I will call the question, Ms. Moore?
[1:46:16] Yes.
[1:46:17] Mr. Noonan?
[1:46:18] Yes.
[1:46:18] Mr. Lafferty?
[1:46:19] Yes.
[1:46:20] Ms. McGee?
[1:46:20] Yes.
[1:46:21] Mr. Boyke?
[1:46:21] Yes.
[1:46:22] Mr. Dwyer?
[1:46:23] Yes.
[1:46:24] Rogan sees a yes. That item passes. Any other council response?
[1:46:31] Mm-mm.
[1:46:33] Okay, next item.
[1:46:34] Motion to adjourn.
[1:46:35] Support Dwyer.
[1:46:36] All in favor?
[1:46:37] Aye.
[1:46:38] Aye.
[1:46:38] Aye.
[1:46:38] Any opposed? We are adjourned.