HomeMy WebLinkAboutInterlocal Agreements - 2016.06.16 - 31069
Memorandum
To: Pat Davis, Oakland County Corporation Counsel
CC: Deanna Fett-Hylla, Oakland County Corporation Counsel
From: Ida Logan – Clerk/Register of Deeds – Elections Division
Date: 7/12/2016
Re: MR #16153
Enclosed is a copy of a Contract for Auxiliary Sheriff’s Deputy Services for the City of Wixom. They have been sent to the Office of the Great Seal.
If you have any questions, please call 248-858-9454.
July 12, 2016
Michigan Department of State
Office of the Great Seal Richard H. Austin Building, 1st Floor
430 W. Allegan Lansing, MI 48918
Dear Office of the Great Seal:
On June 16, 2016, the Board of Commissioners for Oakland County entered into an agreement per MR #16153 – Sheriff’s
Office – Contract for Auxiliary Deputy Services in the City of Wixom 2016.
As required by Urban Cooperation Act 7 of 1967 - MCL 124.510(4), a copy of the signed agreement with the County of Oakland and the City of Wixom and the authorizing Board of Commissioners Resolution are enclosed for filing by your
office.
Send confirmation of receipt of this agreement to:
Mr. Joseph Rozell, Director of Elections Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds
County Service Center, Building #12 East 1200 N. Telegraph Rd.
Pontiac, MI 48341
(Please include our Miscellaneous Resolution number on the confirmation of receipt letter for filing purposes.)
Contact our office at (248) 858-0564 if you have any questions regarding this matter.
Sincerely, COUNTY OF OAKLAND
Joseph J. Rozell, CERA
Director of Elections
Cc: Pat Davis, Corporation Counsel, Oakland County Deanna Fett-Hylla, Corporation Counsel, Oakland County
Dale Cunningham, Business Manager, Oakland County Sheriff’s Department Kevin Hinkley, Mayor, City of Wixom
Enclosures
Memorandum
To: Kevin Hinkley, Mayor, City of Wixom
CC:
From: Ida Logan – Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds – Elections Division
Date: 7/12/2016
Re: MR #16153
On June 16, 2016 the Oakland County Board of Commissioners adopted Resolution #16153 – Sheriff’s Office – Contract for Auxiliary Deputy Services in the City of Wixom 2016. A copy of the agreement is enclosed. They have been filed with the Office of the Great Seal.
If you have any questions, please call 248-858-9454.
CITY OF WIXOM 49045 PONTIAC TRAIL
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2016
Mayor Hinkley called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. at which time the Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Present: Mayor: K. Hinkley
Deputy Mayor: R. Ziegler
Councilmembers: P. Beagle
K. Gottschall N. Kennedy
T. Rzeznik
R. Smiley
AGENDA CHANGES:
Mr. Goodlein added Correspondence #7 – Memo from Library Director Cindy Mack regarding the Library Millage Renewal; Correspondence #8 – Email from Michael
Giddings regarding WOCCCA and Videotaping Council Meetings; and Corre-
spondence #9 – Email from Tom Zoner regarding WOCCCA. Mr. Goodlein also
distributed a spreadsheet regarding PEG receipts for WOCCCA that he prepared at
the request of Councilmember Kennedy.
Mayor Hinkley asked if Mr. Goodlein was requesting that these Correspondence
items be read into the record and Mr. Goodlein replied yes.
Councilmember Gottschall moved Correspondence #4, Correspondence from
TeleSite Wireless (Agent for Verizon Wireless) to New Business #6 for discussion
and a vote.
Deputy Mayor Ziegler added New Business #7 - Discussion of WOCCCA Items just
Presented. He said that Mr. Zoner had requested that he distribute additional
information concerning WOCCCA, which he placed at the Council’s seats.
PUBLIC HEARING:
1.) Public Hearing to Solicit Community Input Regarding the Repro-gramming of Unused Program Year 2013 Community Development
Block Grant (CDBG) Funds in the Amount of $7,737.05
Ms. Magee explained that this Public Hearing was for unused funds from 2013 that
were allocated to Code Enforcement and Minor Home Repair. If these funds are unused, they could be recaptured by the County. Staff was recommending that
these funds be reallocated to the Gibson Project.
Mayor Hinkley read the Rules for the Public Hearing and opened the Hearing at
7:06 p.m.
There were no comments from the public. The Public Hearing was closed at
7:07p.m.
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 2
MINUTES:
CM-02-32-16: Moved and seconded by Councilmembers Kennedy and Rzeznik to
approve the Regular City Council meeting minutes of February 9, 2016 as
corrected.
Vote: Motion Carried
CORRESPONDENCE:
1.) Letter of Resignation from Alan Amolsch from the Zoning Board of Appeals
2.) Notice of Hearing before the Michigan Public Service Commission Regarding Consumers Energy Company Case No. U-18010 3.) Notice of Hearing before the Michigan Public Service Commission Regarding Customers of DTE Electric Company Case No. U-18014
4.) Attorney Correspondence Concerning PA 269 of 2015
5.) Transmittal of Confidential and Attorney-Client Privileged Communication
6.) Memo from Library Director Cindy Mack regarding Library Millage Renewal
Mayor Hinkley read the following memo from Library Director Cindy Mack:
“The Library Board of Trustees wanted to reach out to the City Council to inform you that
the Library intends to request a renewal of our expiring millage on the August 2016 ballot.
The Library intends to renew our 1.08 mills for ten years. (This number may be reduced
due to a Headlee rollback.) The ballot language is currently being prepared by the Library’s
attorney and the Board intends to approve the language at their March meeting.” 7.) Email from Michael Giddings regarding WOCCCA and Videotaping Council Meetings
Mayor Hinkley read the following email from Mr. Giddings regarding WOCCCA:
“Yesterday I received and reviewed a copy of the draft minutes of your regular meeting of February 9, 2016. I am writing to express concerns about the actions under New Business
numbers 5 and 6 pertaining to WOCCA and the recording of future city council minutes.
I won't comment on the ultimate merit of the actions taken, because I don't believe that I
have all the underlying factual information necessary to form a logical conclusion. And from my reading of these minutes, I am lead to believe that no one on council or staff did either. In my experience, actions of this sort are normally preceded by a comprehensive analysis
and formal recommendations by the City Manager and his staff. Such was not the case in
these two actions.
Second, these actions were essentially expedited by three inexperienced council members
with an inexplicable agenda and blatant disrespect for the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and senior members of Council who were excused that evening.
The latent agenda of these three new council members will reveal itself before long.
However, in the meantime this behavior, while not even on display on TV yet, is extremely
detrimental to the citizens who elected these people. To have an acrimonious Council
governing our city during enduring challenging times is a recipe for disaster. What happens when the wish comes true and you start broadcasting such drama? Although, in my humble opinion, you will spend a bunch of money producing a show that no one will ever watch. The people that care show up at public hearings...everyone else is living their lives and
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 3
depending on Council to do the right thing without worrying about being on TV at election
time.
So I humbly and respectfully request that anyone with proper standing move to rescind the
two actions and that the Council votes unanimously to put these matters off until Budget and Strategy sessions. Let's keep this civil, folks.” 8.) Email from Tom Zoner regarding WOCCCA
Mayor Hinkley read the following email from Mr. Zoner regarding WOCCCA:
“I just heard that Wixom voted to opt out of WOCCCA, acting as Chair not any other entity,
I was just wondering why? I was contacted by WLCS to see if I could help to change the
councils’ minds.
First, just to clear why WOCCCA exists and then go from there. As it stands now, it was different before the State decided to take over the franchise. All we do is funnel PEG money to the media which is run by WLCS and HVS. Both of them have contracts with WOCCCA
and we distribute the Authorities’ PEG money to them. We, the Authority, have no income.
We are currently using money that had been earned from interest to sustain the
organization.
Two years ago, a committee of three, Commerce, Milford and Wolverine, sat down to try and figure a way to keep the organization alive. The only way to stretch our funds was to cut our administration cost, which we did the beginning of 2016. We also considered and
asked if the schools would share in the cost for administration if and when our funds were
depleted and they said they would.
If I can be of any help, please feel free to contact me. Thank you.” CALL TO THE PUBLIC:
Judy Evola, Director of Community Relations and Marketing for the Walled Lake
Schools, 850 Ladd Road, Walled Lake, wanted to address the Council regarding the decision to withdraw from the Western Oakland County Cable Communications
Authority (WOCCCA) and about the motion that was made to begin video recording
the City Council meetings. First, WOCCCA is a collaborative municipal entity that is
a model. As noted in the minutes, this group has been working very well together
since 1983. The WOCCCA municipalities pool their cable funding to direct it to exactly what the public access PEG programming law prescribes. The funds are
used to equipment Walled Lake Schools, WLTV Studio, and the Huron Valley
Schools, WTV Studio. She has attended the WOCCCA meetings for the past 14 years and she has been impressed with the WOCCCA Board’s integrity and
willingness to serve the greater good of the community and the two school districts
collectively. She had the opportunity to talk with City Manager Goodlein, Tom
Zoner and a couple of the Councilmembers. She explained that WLTV would be
willing to tape and broadcast on cable eight or more of the meetings, as well as the
Wixom Tree Lighting, the State of the City Address and other programs that we
might want taped. Although they aren’t staffed to tape all 24 Council meetings,
they could train a Wixom City employee or volunteer on the use of the camera and tripod and other equipment needed to tape all of the meetings. The Wixom
employee and/or volunteer could pick up the equipment at WLTV and tape the
meetings, bring the equipment back to WLTV, and they would air them on cable.
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 4
Of course, a digital copy of the meeting would also be made available to Wixom to put on the website and social media. The beauty of having the equipment housed
at the school districts’ studios is that it is available to the community, to all the
municipalities, and to others that would like to record a local event and give the
finished product to WLTV to air. That is the purpose of WOCCCA. WLTV has hosted
training sessions and welcomes the opportunity to work with Wixom and any other municipality to assist them in taping their meetings. Further, Wixom may want to
consider its communication and transparency goals. WLTV students and staff would
welcome the opportunity to produce a quarterly TV show for Wixom residents about specific issues, businesses, and topics that interest the residents, as well as taping
the City Council meetings. This could be done at the WLTV studio at Walled Lake
Western High School. This way, Wixom residents could learn about specific issues
from the City Manager, Mayor and each of the City Councilmembers. WOCCCA has
been effective because the funds are not used for people, staffing or wages. Further, the equipment that is purchased with the PEG funds is not permanently
mounted because it is available for all citizens to use. Lastly, the Wixom City
Council Motion CM02-31-16 on February 9th stated that the City plans to begin video recording all regular City Council meetings and will post those recordings on
the City website and social media outlets to begin by the final regular meeting of
May 2016. Nowhere does the motion state that the recordings will be posted on
cable. The PEG funds are to be used for Public Access Cable Broadcasting. That is
the main purpose of the PEG and WOCCCA funds – Cable Broadcasting. WOCCCA is
a model group with integrity that exemplifies collaborations among several
municipalities. It is disheartening that the City of Wixom would withdraw.
Cameras, tripods and equipment are available for the City of Wixom to use through our collaborative purchases with WOCCCA. They welcomed the opportunity to work
together to air the City Council meetings. WLTV has come to stand for quality
programming for the Walled Lake Consolidated School District and for the local communities. WOCCCA has been an integral piece of WLTV’s success. She thanked
the Council for taking a moment to consider rescinding their decision to withdraw
from WOCCCA. She promised we would not regret it.
Lauren Dougher, 541 Winwood Circle in Walled Lake, stated that during her
sophomore year at Walled Lake Western, an upper classman who knew about her
infatuation with film suggested that she check out the school’s TV crew. After she
saw what they had to offer, she quickly became a part of the afterschool club. She proceeded to sign up for the television production class the following year and she
was hooked. She learned how to operate a camera much larger and more complex
than she had ever used before. This included learning how to use tapes and tape decks, as well as digital cameras. She learned how to edit using three programs.
They were taught how to create an appropriate set for any given situation, how to light it, and the importance of quality audio. This only scratched the surface of one
semester in class. She then had the opportunity to become an intern on the Walled
Lake TV crew where she was able to test the skills she had learned, as well as the additional skills dependent on every individual shoot, and applied them in a real-
world environment. Not only was this beneficial to a student looking to build a
professional resume and able to standout and market themselves to potential employers, but it also connected them to the Walled Lake community and extended
the family they had created within the internship to the rest of the district. They
have traveled all over the school district to elementary schools, middle schools, and
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 5
high schools alike. At every event, they meet inquisitive parents and excited students wanting to get involved in any way they can. They chat with them,
answer questions to the best of their ability, and aim to make them as excited
about this fantastic program as they were. They also got to stay connected to
everything that was going on in the school district. Because they air nearly
everything they record on television, they help connect everyone else, as well. She had the amazing privilege of working with so many wonderful people and she was
beyond honored to have been welcomed back after she graduated in 2015. With
the help of the television production class and the internship program, she made it into her dream college, College for Creative Studies, and she has a better
understanding of the material that they are currently covering. She was able to
help her peers and navigate programs that she was comfortable and confident
using in turn. The Walled Lake TV family had helped her realize that this was truly
what she wanted to do for the rest of her life and there was no other way that she would rather spend it. She asked the Council to please rescind their motion to
withdraw from WOCCCA so the funds remain with WOCCCA for all to benefit.
Alexa Marouf, 37825 Fleetwood Drive, Farmington Hills, said that her experience
with Walled Lake TV started her sophomore year of high school. All of the elective
classes that she had chosen were full and her counselor suggested that she take
the TV class. A little irritated, she made her way across the school to find the TV
room. Her first impression was that it looked like a normal classroom. The next
few days were syllabus and intro days, and she remembered thinking to herself
how boring this class would become. However, as soon as she saw the back room,
she was amazed. In her little high school, there was an actual TV studio complete with the cameras and a green screen; everything a real TV studio had been in that
room. Deciding to stick with this class and become an intern ended up becoming
one of the most beneficial decisions she could have made in high school. Walled Lake TV taught her how to express herself in ways she could never imagine. She
learned how to shoot, record, and edit real events that were happening in the
community with real Hollywood software. Her class was recreating the WLTV
programming to make it new and refreshing. The students that stuck with WLTV
throughout the years, including her, were starting to represent Walled Lake Schools in ways that haven’t been done before. During her senior year of high school, she
won multiple awards on different types of projects she had done in class. One of
her best pieces of work had earned Walled Lake Schools the right to say that for the first time in 13 years, they had a film entry that was going to States. That same
piece of work had also earned Walled Lake one of the highest awards at the DAF
Film Festival, one of the biggest film events in Michigan. It also gave her multiple
opportunities to gain full rides to multiple colleges to study film. Throughout her
high school career, she felt as if Walled Lake TV was a safe haven for her. She could really express herself and show her true colors, despite how crazy high school
could be. Although she decided not to pursue a further education in film studies,
she has gained knowledge that will last a lifetime. She has made connections that have benefitted her, and most of all, she had fun. She highly encouraged people to
take a class like this in school. Considering how dependent her generation is on
technology, this class was very beneficial to learning how the new world works. She thanked the Council and asked that they rescind their motion to withdraw from
WOCCCA so that the funds remain within WOCCCA for all to benefit.
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 6
Doug Bevier, 1853 Huntingdon Drive, said he and his wife moved to Wixom 11 years ago, specifically for the schools. His son goes to Wixom Elementary and his
oldest goes to Sarah Banks Middle School. Both will go to Walled Lake Western
High School, which is a direct beneficiary of WOCCCA funds. He has been a teacher
at Walled Lake Western for 17 years. This year, he was asked to take over the TV
program. It has been a learning experience and it has been extraordinary. He looked forward to many more years with it. There were a few things he wanted to
say about technology and the decision of the Council. If the Council’s intent was to
take control of those funds to better have an opportunity to record Council meetings, we all know that when you buy technology, you are buying something
that is almost disposable. It will only last a certain amount of time. At no cost to
the City, we have access to Walled Lake Schools and the WOCCCA funds and
cameras. He said he is a resident of Wixom and he would drop off a camera for the
Council meetings any time we wanted them at no cost. We wouldn’t have to worry about maintenance or a camera breaking or getting old because WOCCCA would
pay for it to be replaced. As a teacher, vocational education is quickly drying up.
The TV program is a strong program that really gives kids that hands-on experience that he would hate to see go away because of a power grab at the Council level.
The amount of money we are talking about was not the greatest amount to
WOCCCA, but it definitely was an important one. The gesture that Wixom was
making was that WOCCCA was not important. He thought that was a really bad
message to send. On behalf of the Walled Lake Schools, on behalf of the students,
teachers, staff and residents of Wixom, he asked that the Council please rescind
their motion to withdraw from WOCCCA.
Lori Rich, 50140 Helfer Blvd., found herself in an odd position. She really didn’t
want to be standing behind the podium facing the Mayor and Councilmembers. She
felt it was a little too early, having just left sitting on the dais. Unfortunately, she was compelled by others to be here. When elected, we kind of took a sacred trust
to represent the public. All of the Councilmembers will find at one point in time
that when they vacate their seat, the public won’t let them vacate that
responsibility. She was sure they would at some point in time, but they haven’t yet
for her. She had been contacted to present her thoughts on this matter and that was the sole reason why she found herself in this position. The two issues that she
learned about, WOCCCA and videotaping Council meetings in the future were
inextricably connected. Unfortunately, they can’t be separated and talked about independently. She believed that the Council made a wrong decision. When she
sat on the dais, she called it like it was. She tried to treat everyone with respect
when she did that, but if she thought something was right, she said it, and if she
thought something was wrong, she equally said that. She called everyone
repeatedly over her tenure to treat each other with respect and to treat the community with respect. She felt the Council fell short of the mark in that regard.
She didn’t think that the buzz word of transparency had its mission advanced by
the decisions that they made. There are better ways to achieve transparency. One of the reasons she chose not to run again was because we were often putting each
other in a position of not being transparent. In other words, many times a few
people on Council had actually stated when an agenda item came up for business that they had already discussed the matter with two other Councilmembers that
they were allowed under the Open Meetings Act and they had already formulated a
plan and means to achieve the results they wanted to achieve. The Open Meetings
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 7
Act is the Sunshine Law and that was really what allowed for transparency in government. Finding a better way to follow the Open Meetings Act would facilitate
more transparency than videotaping even one meeting. Walled Lake Schools
doesn’t videotape their Board Meetings. There is a reason why they don’t. Many
municipalities don’t broadcast their meetings. There is a reason why they don’t. If
you really look at videotaping a meeting and seeing what it achieves, it empowers individual Councilmembers. They are still the ones in the know before the meeting.
They are still the ones that choose how to conduct themselves at a meeting,
whether they want to be genuine or not, what kind of a personal message they want to send to the public. It does not advance the public’s interest. What would
advance the public’s interest a little bit more is being a little tighter and personally
responsible on how you manage the Open Meetings Act constraints and try to follow
the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law. The spirit of the law would say, “Let’s
hold all of our discussions in an open meeting where the public would have an opportunity to listen to those discussions and then be fully informed.” When
transparency and videotaping was brought up when she sat on the dais (she
believed it was by Councilmember Kennedy at one point), she suggested a different way. She said she would stick by her suggestion. There is an agenda and agenda
items. At the beginning of each agenda item, there is a brief summary. We could
look at expanding the agenda that was provided to the public in advance of a
meeting to include more of the summary item that was in the overview to really
equip the public. There are two things that would work against the public in that
regard. Videotaping empowers Council; it does not empower the public. Providing
packets on line will also drive people away because it is too much information.
Giving them a little bit more and enough to wet their appetite and seek out more information if they sought to seek it out would really drive and strengthen that
relationship between the community and the Council. For many years now that
relationship has been diminishing. Council is not respected and they have not been respected for a while. We all know that. We just don’t know how to turn that ship
around. These kinds of actions, as an unintended consequence will drive that
disconnect so much further. The message we send to the community is we are
totally disrespected, we don’t value you enough to even take the time to put
something on an agenda and give you a little bit of notice when there is no urgency involved whatsoever. Council has had a history of slamming the City Manager if he
dared to put something on the dais or added to an agenda that did not need to be
added at the last minute. It was not this City Manager, but previous City Managers. Council sent a strong message – don’t do that. Yet, here they are doing
that. They can’t have it both ways. They have to figure out what kind of a Council
they want to be and what kind of a relationship they want to have with the
community. There are some big items coming up that they will want the
community’s support. She would hate to think this would be an unintended consequence of some much larger issue. She also pointed out that this is a public-
public partnership, one of the few that we have. She couldn’t think of any other
formal arrangement that we have that we show as a community that we value our schools. Our property values are greatly impacted. The market value of our home
is greatly impacted by the health of the school district. There was probably no
other one main motiving factor. It wasn’t Parks and Recreation. It was “I’m moving to Wixom because there is a house I want to buy at a price point that I
want to pay for it and it is a viable community because it has a viable school
district.” If she wanted to sell her house, the buyers may have kids. There was no
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 8
more important component than demonstrating we have a strong relationship with our school district. She didn’t want to drive the discussions further underground.
That was huge for her. The internal discussions need to be held openly and it
concerned her that this was moving in a negative direction. She also pointed out
that the City has labored long and hard in many different venues to broadcast and
encourage the support of the Walled Lake School System to the point where we rewrote the tax abatement policy. Any applicant coming to the community looking
for a tax abatement was charged and strong-armed into supporting the school
district in some way. There were many Councilmembers who had led some initiatives in some minor way or more specifically targeted way with the school
district to kind of foster that relationship between the Walled Lake Schools and the
City, yet this one formal relationship that we have, the Council almost arbitrarily
ended without any opportunity for the research and legwork that everybody should
have had the opportunity to put into it. Make no mistake. There are some people that did the legwork. That is the way it works when you have discussions
beforehand. Some people did the legwork; it was sprung on others. That was why
she said we need to respect each other more. We need to respect the community. We need to respect ourselves individually more. As for former Councilmember
Giddings’ comments in the Correspondence that was read, “an acrimonious Council
being relatively new,” she wouldn’t go so far to say that. We’ve had our fair share
of acrimonious Councils in the past. Part of life is growing up and part of life is
learning from your mistakes in the past and part of life is learning how to move
down a better road. She wasn’t sure that this road the Council had chosen was a
better road. For her, personally, it was a sad road.
CITY MANAGER REPORTS: 1.) Departmental Monthly Reports – January 2016
Councilmember Beagle said that Ms. Barker’s update indicated that she met with a
commercial realtor and his client wishing to bring a drive-thru restaurant to
Menards. He wondered if we had any information on the Menards outlots and if
anyone was biting on those. Mr. Goodlein said there has been some interest in
those lots, but as Council knows, we made it quite clear that we aren’t interested in
any drive-thru restaurants on those lots. When those people have come to us, they
have been directed to other locations that are available along Wixom Road. They
have been told clearly that those lots are not open for any type of a drive-thru restaurant or facility. Councilmember Beagle said he has been getting comments
and questions from citizens who are hearing all kinds of rumors about restaurants
going in there. Mr. Goodlein said that we don’t have any firm commitments from anyone.
Councilmember Beagle had a question for Mr. Sikma. He asked if Dump Truck #4
was the wing plow and Mr. Sikma replied yes. Councilmember Beagle wondered
about the repair. For as little as we use that truck, he asked if that should be happening already. Mr. Sikma wasn’t sure why the hydraulics failed on that but it
started to leak so they repaired it. Councilmember Beagle asked if it was under
warranty. Mr. Sikma said that we needed it repaired quickly and it took the mechanic an hour to repair it. Councilmember Beagle asked if we took delivery of
the other wing plow truck yet and Mr. Sikma said not yet.
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 9
Councilmember Rzeznik asked about the salt brine usage. It seemed to be considerably high for what he would call a light-use year compared to the three-
year average. Mr. Sikma said one of the things we had in January was a lot of
incremental light snow falls, so we used more brine to prepare the roads to keep it
functional. We used more brine and a little less salt. We used it in conjunction
with each other so it sticks to the road. With lighter snow, we don’t plow it as much, so we are saving on blades, but we add more salt to keep it passable so it
doesn’t turn to ice. There was one snowfall that was almost a week long and that
was the extra 40 tons we had.
Councilmember Gottschall asked about the Public Works overtime. It looked like
we were over 100 hours more than average and most of that went to Building
Maintenance and Parks & Recreation events. Mr. Sikma explained that there were
actually four years that they reviewed. One thing that occurred over the last few years was that they added more usage during the summer for the Farmers’ Market
events and they had the Holiday Markt which added a number of hours as well.
Councilmember Kennedy knew that Oakland County plowed Wixom Road but
wondered if we put the brine down on that. Mr. Sikma replied that we typically do
not put brine on Wixom Road. Oakland County does that.
Councilmember Gottschall saw that the Engineering Report talked about the LDFA
meeting and the discussion of improvements at their next meeting. He asked when
that meeting was scheduled and how soon we could start on Beck Road. Mr.
Goodlein indicated that staff had contacted the LDFA members for possible meeting dates and a meeting will be scheduled soon to talk about those expenditures. Part
of the delay was to wait for the road funding meeting that occurred recently
because it was hoped we could receive funding for West Road, which we did. That removed that road from the list of those we wanted to repair within the LDFA. We
will now move ahead and we will consider the roads in that area for repair. Beck
Road between Pontiac Trail and West Road is high on the list.
Mayor Hinkley stated that the LDFA meets to prioritize those and then they make a recommendation to Council as to what they think should happen first, second and
third. Mr. Goodlein said that was correct.
2.) Finance Department Monthly Budget Report – July 31, 2015
There were no comments on this report.
CONSENT AGENDA:
CM-02-33-16: and seconded made by Deputy Mayor Ziegler and Councilmember
Rzeznik to approve the Consent Agenda as presented which included:
1.) Approval to receive and file: a. Zoning Board of Appeals Minutes of December 14, 2015
b. Library Board Minutes of November 23, 2015
c. Downtown Development Authority Minutes of November 19, 2015 2.) Consideration of an Amendment to the Downtown Development Authority’s By-
Laws and Rules of Procedure
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 10
3.) Consideration of a Request to Set a Public Hearing on March 9, 2016, for Rezoning of a 29.784 Acre Parcel at 1915 N. Wixom Road, with the following
request: A Residential PUD from R-2, One-Family Residential/PUD, Planned
Unit Development to RM-1, Multiple Family Residential/PUD, Planned Unit
Development, as Requested by Wixom Venture, LLC and as required by
Chapter 18.11 of the Municipal Code Vote: Motion Carried
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
1.) Consideration of the Enactment of an Amendatory Ordinance to the
City of Wixom Code of Ordinances, Title 13, “Public Services”, Chapter 13.08 – Section 13.08.020 (Definitions) and Section 13.08.295 (Tap-In
Fees Installment Agreements), to Add a New Definition and to Amend the Process, Policy, and Procedure for Tap-In Fees Installment Agreements, in its Entirety
CM-02-34-16: Moved and seconded by Councilmembers Rzeznik and Kennedy to
approve the enactment of an Amendatory Ordinance to the City of Wixom Code of
Ordinances, Title 13, “Public Services”, Chapter 13.08 – Section 13.08.020
(Definitions) and Section 13.08.295 (Tap-In Fees Installment Agreements), to Add
a New Definition and to Amend the Process, Policy, and Procedure for Tap-In Fees
Installment Agreements, in its Entirety.
Vote: Motion Carried
NEW BUSINESS:
1.) Consideration of a Request to Reprogram Unused Program Year 2013
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Funds in the Amount of $7,737.05
CM-02-35-16: Moved and seconded by Councilmembers Beagle and Kennedy to
approve the reprogramming of unused Program Year 2013 Community
Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds in the amount of $7,737.05 as follows:
From Account Year Activity Description Amount
730310 2013 Code Enforcement $6,963.97 731227 2013 Minor Home Repair $ 773.08
To Account Year Activity Description Amount
731332 2013 Parks-Recreational Facilities $6,963.97
731332 2013 Parks-Recreational Facilities $ 773.08
Vote: Motion Carried
2.) Recommendation to Award the 2016 through 2018 Fireworks Contract to Great Lakes Fireworks, LLC of Eastpointe, Michigan, in an Annual
Amount of $8,650 to $8,750
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 11
CM-02-36-16: Moved and seconded by Councilmembers Rzeznik and Beagle to award the bid for the 2016 through 2018 Fireworks Contract to the low qualified
bidder, Great Lakes Fireworks, LLC of Eastpointe, Michigan in the annual amounts
of $8,650 to $8,750.
Councilmember Beagle knew the low bid didn’t give the required number of shells that was in the bid specifications. He wondered how many shells we required. Ms.
Magee thought it was approximately 750. They submitted considerably less shells
as well as smaller shells. The larger shells are needed to go above the tree lines.
Councilmember Gottschall asked if we were allowed to counter them if we don’t like
something in the contract. Since they came in at 750 shells, he didn’t think
another 24 shells would cost $2,400 like the difference of the low bid that we
disqualified and the bid we were being asked to receive. He wondered if we could go back to Wolverine Fireworks and ask them to give us what we asked for. Mr.
Goodlein said no. The bid is their bid. They provide a bid based upon the
specification and the RFP. There was a pre-bid meeting that they all attended where it was told to them what was expected of them. Consequently, they
submitted what they submitted. They knew there was a certain expectation that
they were going to have to provide a certain number of shells and that they would
have to provide shells of a certain size because of the location and that the location
had changed. He indicated that we have used Wolverine Fireworks in the past and
he couldn’t explain why they submitted the bid that they did. It didn’t meet the
specifications.
Councilmember Gottschall had other comments even though it didn’t sound like we
would counter anything. He didn’t like that they were asking for a 10%
rescheduling fee or postponement fee. We can’t control the weather. He would rather give them 20% if we cancelled all together, but not 10% if we need to pick
another date because it was raining. He also noticed that everything was bid out
launching from the tennis courts at Gunnar Mettala for the three years. Between
what we may or may not have going on there, he wondered if that would be
feasible. Or, if we get to year three and there was a subdivision there and we had to move to Gilbert Willis, were they going to say that we had to pay them more
because it wasn’t what we told them at the bid meeting. There were some
questions and concerns that he had so he would probably vote no on this because he didn’t like the way it was written. He thought we could go back to the other
company to see if they could do what we wanted and he didn’t think it would cost
us the $2,300 to $2,500 difference.
Mayor Hinkley explained that municipalities do bids two ways. There is a sealed bid, which this was. There is a pre-bid meeting. We go through the specifications
with the vendors and if they decide to bid, they bid. We set a date and they submit
the bids. The Director opens the bids and makes that choice. Secondly, the other form is where we want to accept a bid from Company XYZ for certain reasons. All
of Council has to vote yes on that in order to do that. Those are the two ways it
works in municipal government. When we open a sealed bid, we don’t go back and reopen the negotiations because we could be liable by law. We would be looked at
as unfavorable by a court because we were going back after the sealed bids were
opened to renegotiate. We would have to close the bid, resubmit it, change all the
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 12
specifications and verbiage, and spend staff’s time to re-advertise the bid in the newspaper and run it through the gamut again.
Councilmember Rzeznik added that all of these companies have postponement and
cancellation percentage fees. They still have to purchase the material and have
staff ready. He thought we had used Wolverine for the last three years. Ms. Magee noted that when they submitted their bid, it wasn’t according to the specifications.
Councilmember Kennedy said when we open sealed bids and look at the contract terms, we don’t know what the terms will be when we put out the sealed bids.
Those can change dramatically. He was referring to the postponement fee of 10%.
If we went with Great Lakes but their contract said that if there is a postponement,
the fee is 20%. He realized they have other expenses involved with setup, but we
don’t get a chance to see what the contract terms are. He wondered if those were taken into consideration. Mr. Goodlein explained that when we have a process
where there is a pre-bid meeting and the vendors come to the pre-bid meeting, the
vendors are educated to exactly what we want. If one of the vendors doesn’t supply that, they become disqualified. If we view it in those terms, Great Lakes is
the lowest qualified bidder and Wolverine, while it is the lowest bid, is not a
qualified bid because they did not deliver the number of shells and type that was
specified. The fact that one requests a certain amount of money for a cancellation
fee and the other one doesn’t, in this case, he didn’t think it was pertinent because
Wolverine Fireworks didn’t meet the specifications that we laid forth. They weren’t
the lowest qualified bid. Great Lakes Fireworks was the lowest qualified bid
because they gave us exactly what we requested. It would be no different than if we said we need a car or other type of equipment that had these types of
accessories and did these things. Then somebody came in and said they would give
us that car but they weren’t going to give us the accessories. We wouldn’t accept that. We would say that their bid, because it didn’t meet the specifications, was
not qualified, even if it was lowest price. In this case, Great Lakes Fireworks was
the lowest qualified bid.
Councilmember Kennedy said he was not questioning that part. He was asking about the contract terms. He asked if we tell them what the contract terms are
going to be. He wondered if we tell them at the pre-bid meeting that if there was a
rain delay, the postponement percentage was this amount. Mr. Goodlein replied no. Councilmember Kennedy said that was something in their contract terms. We
don’t know those contract terms until they send their bids in. He thought when
Councilmember Gottschall was asking about negotiating, he wondered if we could
ask them about their contract terms. He understood that we were trying to get
apples for apples for the request for proposal. When we come up with the part that no one had ever discussed the contract terms, he thought that was what Council-
member Gottschall was asking about. Mr. Goodlein indicated that when the
contract was presented to the City, the contract was presented as a single entity and as a package. It was not presented in a manner that we could go back and
negotiate part of it. Councilmember Kennedy said he was not asking about the
price, but the terms. Mr. Goodlein said he understood that and that was what he was speaking to. The Council has the ability to reject this if they choose and do
something else. In this case, the reason this report was prepared and sent to
Council was because Wolverine Lake Fireworks did not qualify. They did not qualify
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 13
because they did not meet the specifications. The lowest qualified bidder was Great Lakes Fireworks because they gave us exactly what we asked for. The other matter
in the contract relative to cancellation fees for some special set of circumstances
like rain was not something that was addressed in the contract. We have one
vendor that did not give us what we asked and that made them unqualified.
Councilmember Kennedy said he was not questioning that. He had nothing on Wolverine in terms of their contract except for what they bid. This had nothing to
do with Wolverine. He was just asking the question on the contract. He said the
City Manager kept coming up with Wolverine and it had nothing to do with Wolverine.
Councilmember Gottschall said he didn’t get an answer if there were houses at that
half of Gunnar Mettala if we could still launch fireworks from there. He wondered if
this would be a problem down the road. Mr. Goodlein thought that was unknown. We don’t know whether there would be development there or not, and we don’t
know if there would be houses there the third year. Nothing obligates us in 2018 to
do anything. If we can’t hold the fireworks at Gunnar Mettala Park, we will have to do something different. There has been much discussion over the last number of
years of what the alternative would be when we were unable to launch fireworks
from any place in the downtown area to provide a Lite the Nite Celebration in the
downtown. Because of traffic and difficulties in closing off roads, he thought it was
questionable as to whether or not there would be any sort of a fireworks display at
Gilbert Willis Park. When he was the Director of Public Safety and the Chief of
Police, there were discussions that went on with the Fire Department and other
people in the City as to whether or not it would be possible. It was their considered opinion that it would be next to impossible to be able to accomplish that unless we
doubled the number of sworn police officers for the event because of the number of
roads we would have to close. When the downtown area develops to the point where we are unable to launch from any place, he thought there would be a lot of
discussion as to whether or not that would be the end of the fireworks. It would be
extremely difficult to launch fireworks at Gilbert Willis and be able to provide
controlled access to the Park in a manner where we would be able to move
emergency equipment to the Park if needed. It was his opinion that this wasn’t really a concern because he didn’t see the fireworks display being held anywhere
else except in the downtown area.
Roll Call Vote: (6) AYES: Beagle, Hinkley, Kennedy, Rzeznik, Smiley, Ziegler (1) NAY: Gottschall
Motion Carried
3.) Request for Authorization to Obtain Additional Police Staffing for the Lite the Nite Fireworks and Festival on June 30, 2016 by Contracting with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, for a Budget Amendment to
Fund this Expenditure, and to Give Authority to the Mayor to Sign this Contract on Behalf of the City
CM-02-37-16: Moved and seconded by Councilmembers Beagle and Kennedy to grant authorization to obtain additional police staffing for the Lite the Nite fireworks
and festival on June 30, 2016 by contracting with the Oakland County Sheriff’s
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 14
Office for these personnel, authorize the following budget amendment to fund this expenditure and authorize the Mayor to sign the contract on behalf of the City:
Vote: Motion Carried
4.) Recommendation to Grant a Vegetation Management Easement to
International Transmission Company (ITC), a Michigan Corporation with an address of 27175 Energy Way, Novi, MI for the Purpose of
Maintaining the Electrical Service Lines Near 645 Mettala Lane, Wixom, MI
CM-02-38-16: Moved and seconded by Councilmembers Rzeznik and Beagle to grant a Vegetation Management Easement to the International Transmission
Company (ITC) for the purpose of maintaining the electrical service and
transmission lines near 645 Mettala Lane (Gunnar Mettala Park) and authorize the
Mayor to sign the Vegetation Management Easement agreement on behalf of the
City.
Councilmember Rzeznik noted that the neighboring homeowners’ associations have
already reached Vegetation Management Easement agreements with ITC for their affected properties in the Indian Wells and Indian Springs Subdivisions.
Councilmember Gottschall commented that he went to the Park to measure the distance and this, by his measurement, takes us past by a number of yards where
the Rails to Trails path would go. He didn’t see any trees that were tall enough to
fall and hit the power lines or any trees that were going to grow over the next few
years and be at risk of doing that. It was his worry that we have too much going
on with this parcel, whether it is the trade proposal that is going to go on the ballot, the Rails to Trails which they will have to do some engineering and land movement
in order to pave eventually, that he thought this was too invasive or pushed past
where they needed to be in order to protect power lines and it may affect a potential development on the other side of the trail.
Mr. Sikma said there were a number of items Councilmember Gottschall was
addressing. The first one was the timing of this versus what else was going on at
Gunnar Mettala. He said they did meet with ITC in the early fall before any of the Gunnar Mettala issues. They talked with their foresters during the initial part when
they were working on the easements on the other side of that area. They walked
the site and there were a number of trees that within the next few years they
Account Account Name Current Budget Amended Budget Budget Amendment
265-301-956.022
Forfeiture Miscellaneous
Operating Expense
10,000
3,000
(7,000)
101-301-801.371 Consultants & Personnel - Police
11,000
18,000
7,000
265-966-999.001 Transfer to General Fund - 7,000 7,000
101-000-699.009 Transfer from Forfeiture Fund
-
(7,000)
(7,000)
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 15
anticipated they would grow high enough that they could potentially become a risk. That was primarily because of the voltage that those particular lines carry. They
also talked about how high it could go and they said they would try not to clear-cut.
They would be very selective in what they trimmed. If it is a scrub shrub of some
sort, they would use their best judgement on those. The wording was strong just in
case there were a number of trees in that area that could grow in the future. That was what they were concerned with because it was a live and active area.
Councilmember Gottschall believed we had too much going on, especially with the Rails to Trails. As much as they could say they would be selective in their
judgement of what was going to be clear cut, they take more of a scorched-earth
approach than a selective best judgement approach. It was his worry that we were
trying to build this bike path for everyone to get through, be in nature and be out
and about. Instead of looking at green shrubs, they would be looking at soil because that was the approach that he had seen them take. He had never seen
them leave the shrub brush. It was everything was gone. He didn’t feel
comfortable giving them the leniency to use their best judgement considering that we were taking funding from a few communities to do a bike trail. As soon as they
hit Wixom, everything would be cut down to the ground and people would be riding
through looking at soil. That was a problem for him.
Mr. Sikma said they had already trimmed the other side. Their approach in that
area seemed reasonable. They have already completed this year’s cuttings, other
than on our side, because we hadn’t reached an agreement yet. There could be a
potential but the reality was we were doing this to maintain our electrical lines. If we do not want to lose power and they are supplying it for us, we need to make
sure that the electrical power lines are maintained. The height of those was the
reason for the added footage along those lines.
Mr. Goodlein thought that he and Mr. Sikma were both somewhat surprised to learn
of the State and Federal regulations under which these utility providers must labor
relative to the interference by trees and shrubs of electrical lines. They had some
rather strict guidelines that they have to comply with relative to maintaining electrical service and not allowing trees and shrubs to interfere with transmission of
electrical service. He thought that was important for everyone to remember. Also,
relative to Councilmember Gottschall’s concerns, it was part of the reason that the proposal was structured to provide for the replacement of 15 deciduous trees. We
recognize that there would be some trees that would have to be removed and
because of their location and proximity to the power lines, it was why the
agreement provided for money for replanting. It provided for the replanting of 15
trees. Those trees would be planted in areas not too close to the power lines and outside of that 75 foot distance. We would proceed to do that after they had done
their cutting if it were to be determined that the Park would not be used for some
other purpose.
Councilmember Gottschall said that brought him around to the negotiating of the
dollar amount of a tree and the landscaping. He said he didn’t think we could get trees anywhere for $3,300 or $3,400. He didn’t think that was a dollar amount that
would work for 15 trees that we would replace somewhere at a later date. He
wondered if the subdivisions had agreed to 75 feet as well. Mr. Sikma said yes.
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 16
Councilmember Smiley asked Councilmember Gottschall if the residential side that
had already been done looked okay. He replied that there was scrub brush, a fence
and then backyards. You would have to cut down a tree in someone’s backyard to
meet that and no one had trees in their backyards. That really wasn’t into play.
The trees that we have on our side are on the park-side of the trail. Council-member Smiley said he didn’t want to second guess the guys who were making
sure the trees were not falling on the power lines. They have strict guidelines and
they have to do what they have to do. They wouldn’t cut any more than they had to. We have all seen how they can look awkward or ugly here or there cutting
around power lines but the alternative was no fun.
Mayor Hinkley noted that we have experienced a significant amount of power loss
and power outages on the south end of town along Beck Road and I-96 for this simple reason. We have had meetings with DTE (he knew ITC was different), and
their commitment to their trimming is not to remove trees along their power lines,
but to make sure they are not resting on the power lines or bumping up against the power lines. That was pretty much how they all worked. Most of them contract
outside companies to trim along these power lines. Secondly, Josh Springer, the
President of the Indian Wells Homeowners’ Association, brought us in on this. They
have already negotiated their agreement with ITC. People along the Indian Wells
and Indian Springs subdivisions do not want to see a bunch of trees whacked down
to the stump. Mr. Springer had done a very effective job of negotiating their
agreement and he made the recommendation that the Council support this.
Councilmember Kennedy asked how long ITC had the 50-foot easement. Mr.
Goodlein said it was a 75-foot easement. Councilmember Kennedy said that was
what they were looking for, but they have 50-foot now. Somewhere along the line they changed their standards and specifications. He asked what would happen if
the Council did not grant this to them. Mr. Sikma said that we could be included in
power outages. We could face some federal standard issues. Councilmember
Kennedy said he read in the packet that they have a no-power-outage mandate by
the federal government of $1 million. He understood they had to clear it and we can’t have branches hitting the lines, but he has seen them clear-cut stuff and
scorch the earth. None of those trees seem to be that high. Mr. Sikma said that
there was some arching that was also available. There are rain and wind storms. The arching can jump. It was a safety issue. We wanted to preserve the trees.
That was the whole idea of adding the value. Maybe our numbers aren’t up to
standard with each tree they intend to cut down. The substantial trees that they
were cutting down were 15. They were six inches in diameter or larger. Council-
member Kennedy asked if Mr. Sikma thought that money would cover that size of tree to replace it. Mr. Sikma said it would take some time for the tree to get that
size. They would not put another tree in the same size.
Mayor Hinkley asked how many trees we had in the DPW nursery. Mr. Sikma said
that there were probably about 15 trees. The average price of those trees was
$200-$300. Mayor Hinkley knew that his subdivision had them put some in to replace the ones that got hit by a plow or rotted. He thought it would only be about
$200 to $300. He thanked him for clarifying that.
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 17
Roll Call Vote: (6) AYES: Beagle, Hinkley, Kennedy, Rzeznik, Smiley, Ziegler (1) NAY: Gottschall
Motion Carried
5.) Recommendation to Approve a change to the 2015-2016 Park
Roadway Maintenance Project to include in the Scope of Work the Wixom Habitat and Gilbert Willis Park for a total not to exceed $89,134, along with the Associated Budget Amendment
CM-02-39-16: Moved and seconded by Councilmembers Beagle and Smiley to
approve the change in the 2015-2016 Park Roadway Maintenance Project to include
in the scope of work the Wixom Habitat and Gilbert Willis Park for a total not to
exceed $89,134, along with the following budget amendment:
Account Account Name
Current
Budget
Amended
Budget
Budget
Amendment
411-751-974.543 Park Improvements - Gunnar Mettala Park 53,000 5,148 (47,852)
411-751-986.541 Park Improvements - Gilbert Willis Park 46,282 68,920 22,638
411-751-986.545 Park Improvements - Habitat - 25,214 25,214
Councilmember Gottschall commented that he was at the Habitat this past weekend
so he liked that we were going to do the parking lot there. That was horrific. It
said in the email that they were going to chip seal the entire park for both parks.
He assumed that meant just the parking lot. Mr. Sikma replied that was correct.
Vote: Motion Carried
6.) Discussion and Vote on Correspondence from TeleSite Wireless (Agent
for Verizon Wireless)
Councilmember Gottschall said he added this to the agenda because the email
asked for a yes or no answer. He thought the Council should discuss this. They were asking for a 30-40 foot site for a 100-200 foot cell tower in Gilbert Willis near
the northeast baseball diamond. He didn’t understand why it was under
Correspondence on the Agenda since they were asking for a yes or no. He recommended that we say no.
Mr. Goodlein commented that the email was directed to the Mayor and City Council.
He thought the intent of this gentleman communicating to us in this fashion was
because he was looking for some sort of indication as to whether or not he should
proceed with the preliminary site work and an application to put this tower in the
Park. He was trying to avoid that expense if there was no interest on City Council’s
part to see a cell tower there. He would need an area that was approximately 30 feet by maybe as much as 45 feet. We could expect the cell tower to be anywhere
between 100 and 200 feet tall depending upon the type. He had said that if the
City was not interested, he had other people that he would contact, perhaps the golf course next door or other areas along Glengary Road in Commerce Township or
on State land in that area.
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 18
Councilmember Rzeznik noted that Verizon does build out its LTE network, which it
fully intends to do anyway. That tower will be located in Commerce or at the golf
course. We wouldn’t be actually approving the lease agreement or the rental
agreement right now. This was just an indication of interest.
Councilmember Smiley wondered how he would get a response from us if it were
left under Correspondence. Mr. Goodlein stated that if the Council was interested in
commenting on this and providing feedback to this gentleman, they would have done just what Councilmember Gottschall did. He moved it from Correspondence
to New Business for the purpose of discussion. Council would then decide whether
they would be interested. If Council is interested, he would proceed. If Council is
not interested, he would look elsewhere. He agreed with Councilmember Rzeznik.
The gentleman indicated that the cell tower was going to go someplace because Verizon had determined that they need a tower in that area to build out their
network. They are determined to find somebody who would take the tower.
Councilmember Kennedy asked if the Council was interested and he proceeded
forward, would it still have to go through the Planning Commission and Mr.
Goodlein replied yes.
CM-02-40-16: Moved and seconded by Councilmembers Beagle and Rzeznik to
authorize the City Manager to communicate with David Antoun from TeleSite
Wireless to provide the City with a proposal for the Planning Commission.
Roll Call Vote: (6) AYES: Beagle, Hinkley, Kennedy, Rzeznik, Smiley, Ziegler (1) NAY: Gottschall
Motion Carried
7.) Discussion of WOCCCA Items just Presented
Councilmember Beagle explained that he was employed by the Walled Lake School
District and because the item of discussion would benefit the District, he was
uncertain if the dais would like him to be excused from the discussion of this topic.
Mayor Hinkley said that although Councilmember Beagle was an employee of the
Walled Lake School District, he would not directly benefit from this; therefore, he believed that he could be part of the discussion.
Mr. Tom Zoner, Commerce Township Supervisor, hoped to enlighten the Council with information about WOCCCA. He explained that WOCCCA was created because
several franchises were born to limit the number of cable providers in one place. Several communities got together and thought if they developed a franchise, they
could limit the cable and provide the citizens with initiating services for the
community. Over the years, Comcast was initiated to take care of the PEG money, not monitor the franchise money as they were two different issues. During that
time, there were negotiations with different companies until they ended up with
Comcast. WOCCCA had maintained good communication with Comcast for a long period of time until the State decided to take over the franchise. When the State
decided to take over the franchise, WOCCCA did not know what that would entail.
In 2013, WOCCCA was under the impression they would be dissolved by the State.
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 19
They decided they had enough money to operate with the Administrative Fees they collected by the cable companies. There was $500,000 in the bank in 1983. That
money was manipulated in a way that created a lot of interest as they were fiscally
responsible on how they used the money and, because of that, when the economy
crashed, there was still money. He noted that today they had $86,000. He
explained that at one period of time prior to the cable companies and State taking over the franchises, they looked at the funds and realized they had an excess of
money. In 2009, the money that was in that pot was distributed to nine
communities at $40,000 each to do whatever with. Comcast helped WOCCCA understand the State rules and regulations and made sure that WOCCCA did not
dissolve. They informed them that all WOCCCA had to do was obtain the cable PEG
money and distribute it like they had always done. He noted that all nine
communities decided to stay in WOCCCA. He asked that Council understand one
thing, the PEG money amounts to $150,000 per year. They had distributed over $1 million to the Huron Valley and Walled Lake School Districts. WOCCCA was able to
help build and obtain video equipment. He encouraged everyone to go to the
studios inside the schools and find out exactly what the students do because he felt it was awesome. He thought the students that graduated from these things often
came back and revisited because they found the experience to be so unique. At
one point in time, things were a little off balance as the Walled Lake Schools
received a lot of money until Lakeland High School got involved. From then on,
there were times of growth and/or the schools had not requested as much
equipment as they anticipated. He noted you had to have money to teach the
students on how to use the equipment. He provided informational packets to the
Council. The packets were pretty similar to what he would send to the WOCCCA Board for the next meeting they had on March 2, 2016. He explained that
Commerce Township took over the administration costs to save money and noted
that the last page of the informational packet would go into that further. He said that he reduced the costs and negotiated with auditing firms to lower the costs for
their services. He explained that Deanna Magee did a marvelous job for a number
of years of coordinating the records and information between the schools.
Mayor Hinkley believed the Wixom information that was currently being displayed on the governmental channel was seen mostly by the senior citizens in the
community. He thought that was how they learned of events and meetings. He
asked Mr. Zoner if the Wixom information would discontinue because the City had withdrawn from WOCCCA. Mr. Zoner believed that unless there was another
agreement in place, those types of services would be discontinued. Mr. Zoner
continued to say that if we withdraw from WOCCCA, there were still federal
guidelines of what we are supposed to do. For example, if we withdraw from
WOCCCA, we would now be required to independently draw up contracts with the school districts. He said that even if we wanted to do it ourselves, we could not put
in the equipment and maintain the upgrades without having money continuously
rolling into it. Ultimately it would become part of the General Fund Budget. He added that the equipment was expensive. WOCCCA had the opportunity to do the
homework in trying to maintain good equipment. Each community had a delegate
that was responsible to act on the City’s behalf to handle all of the questions and answers. Once WOCCCA went through the reports and approved the purchase, the
equipment was purchased and WOCCCA reimbursed the purchaser. He thought it
saved the City a lot work because WOCCCA essentially took the responsibility from
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 20
the City along with the expenses. He said they were down to their last $86,000 in administration. In the interim, from 2013, 2014, 2015, they tried to figure out how
they would get any money. One of the reasons was they spent $20,000 to have
Wixom administrate it. The only way they could exist was to cut that cost in half.
The expenditures from here on out would be roughly $16,000 a year which allowed
WOCCCA to exist another five to six years. He explained how they had talked to Walled Lake and Huron Valley Schools and let them know how the Authority was in
trouble. They told them they would continue to provide them with equipment if they
helped the Authority. He said that even though the schools were under tight budgets, they had agreed to contribute $5,000 a year from each one of the schools.
WOCCCA said they could exist as long as they continued to take the money they
had and distribute it evenly. He noted that they lost three communities because of
internal reasons. He said their lack of participation did not really hurt WOCCCA. He
believed it was the Village of Milford, Wolverine Lake Village and South Lyon that opted out of the Authority. With the City of Wixom opting out of WOCCCA, that
meant it would be roughly $11,000 less. That would not hurt WOCCCA, but it
would hurt the students of the school districts. He provided the WOCCCA budget, minutes from the last meeting, a contact listing, By-Laws, and the audit page with
the packet he passed out to the Council.
Councilmember Gottschall understood that the City could take equipment from the
schools to film stuff. If the equipment was unavailable when the City wanted it, he
wondered if there was a way to approach WOCCCA, just as the schools did, and bid
out for equipment or services and then get reimbursed. Mr. Zoner said if the City
thought they needed a camera and was still a member of the Authority, they could purchase some equipment with PEG money. They had to submit an application to
the Board for review. Councilmember Gottschall thanked Mr. Zoner for that
response as he knew that he asked that question at the last meeting. He said at the last meeting he asked if there was a way for the City to retain or get some of
the money they paid in and the answer was no. Mr. Zoner thought he should note
that PEG money was money that Comcast customers paid to them and was not his
money or Wixom’s money. He noted they could never bring in more than $150,000
in PEG funds. Councilmember Gottschall said that Mr. Zoner provided a fund balance figure of $200,000 and wondered if that was correct. The figure he was
given at the last meeting was $300,000 at Calendar Year End last year. Mr. Zoner
said they had to pay for some things since then.
Councilmember Kennedy wondered how long of a process it was if they were to ask
for equipment to the time they obtained the equipment. Mr. Zoner said the
Authority met four times a year. If they submitted an application this March, it
would be reviewed in June by the Authority. Councilmember Kennedy said that they were previously told no so this was a big difference.
Mayor Hinkley clarified that they could only make a request if the City was part of WOCCCA. If we opt out of the Authority, we would not be able to submit an
application to the Board. Mr. Zoner concurred. Mr. Zoner said there was some
discussion that if the City opted out of the Authority, we could return at a later date and time. He noted that it was his personal opinion to say “of course they could,”
but noted that while we were not part of the Authority, we would be charged for the
equipment we used.
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 21
Councilmember Gottschall said this boiled down to the main determining factors
which were the City needed to make some improvements and become more
forthcoming with the residents. Therefore, we needed to use some equipment. He
asked at the last Council meeting if that was something we could obtain through
WOCCCA and he was told no so that caused them to force their hand. He now understood that information to be incorrect.
Mr. Zoner said that when the Councilmember were not sure what they should do, they needed to ask what they could get from the schools. Councilmember
Gottschall said that they did ask.
Councilmember Rzeznik understood that if we were to leave WOCCCA, we must do
so before July 1 of the existing calendar year. We would not be officially out until January of the following year. Mr. Zoner agreed that was the way that it was
written; however, if the City chose to leave the Authority, they needed to send him
a Resolution indicating that and it would become effective right away. The PEG money would be sent to the City instead of WOCCCA. He explained that South
Lyon was part of this program up until last year. The reason they did not take the
money and they were not donating to the schools was because they were giving
WOCCCA money toward schools that they did not have in their community. He
noted that they had another keyhole franchise company that was serving a large
portion of South Lyon. If they took the PEG money and used it for their
governmental channels, they would risk losing the other PEG money from the other
franchise. The schools did not want to jeopardize the loss of that money and South Lyon did not want that to happen so the money stayed in the WOCCCA account.
Now that they are taking that money, they won’t use it for the governmental
channels but for more of an asset.
Mayor Hinkley clarified that by South Lyon opting out, they could not get PEG
money from somebody else. Mr. Zoner said that they could get PEG monies from
AT&T or another franchise, but they could not get money from both franchises.
Councilmember Smiley said that Mr. Zoner was fantastic and that he loved him. He
believed that had Mr. Zoner been at the meeting two weeks ago, they could have
avoided a lot of grief. The grief they caused was able to get Mr. Zoner here tonight to answer questions so he guessed they would figure that part out amongst
themselves later. He said it sounded like, assuming they stay or return, whatever
they would call it to WOCCCA, Ms. Evola said we could get eight meetings covered
through students participating which he loved. For the other meetings, they would
try to purchase a camera. He wondered if a camera could be rented. Mr. Zoner said that if we wanted, we could contact the schools and they would show them
how to use a camera.
Mayor Hinkley reminded everyone that Ms. Evola indicated she could train a
volunteer or City employee to videotape the meetings that the students could not
cover.
Councilmember Smiley said to make it clear for everyone, the idea of bowing out of
WOCCCA was to allow the City to have the funds to do some things that they
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 22
wanted to do and the use of the PEG money that was there. That money was not something that was exclusively meant for the school because it’s meant for multiple
things. Mr. Zoner clarified that it was only media-types of things.
Councilmember Smiley said they may continue to use WOCCCA and would facilitate
some of those things that they were looking for and for the residents of Wixom, not just for our student residents in Wixom. He said there were still some things they
wanted to do but Mr. Zoner mentioned AT&T and the PEG money that WOCCCA
received was exclusively from Comcast. He mentioned that he used to have AT&T as a provider so there must have been some AT&T PEG money that they could find
and take care of those other types of things they wanted to explore for the
residents.
Mr. Zoner said it stayed within the PEG definition. He noted that Commerce did not inter-mix the AT&T PEG money with the Comcast PEG money. If he thought or if
the schools thought they could use the extra money, they could work with the
Township Board to see if they could get a contract to access AT&T. He explained that these were contract commitments because they made the commitment with
WOCCCA so they are permitted to help them. The one time they had a community
leave the Authority was because there was another entity that wished to get
equipment from WOCCCA in the amount of $300,000 after they were already doing
their own broadcasting. They wanted to upgrade all of their stuff and WOCCCA
took too long to come up with a good policy. He thought they were in the midst of
having a policy that determined who and what would get what. They were only
dealing with $150,000 a year and the two school districts could eat up $75,000 fast.
Councilmember Smiley thanked Mr. Zoner again and told him he was fantastic. He thanked Ms. Evola and the students that came to the meeting, as they did a nice
job. He believed it was a good experience for them to come to a meeting. He
thought it was worth mentioning that he was an Alumni of CCS and wished the
students good luck at the school.
Councilmember Kennedy liked the fact that Mr. Bevier said he would swing by and
drop a camera off if the City needed it and that Ms. Evola said they would record
eight meetings. This was a different story and he liked it. Whatever they had to do to make this work, let him know.
Ms. Rich said it would take one of the three Councilmembers that voted in favor of
withdrawing from WOCCCA to rescind the motion. Councilmember Kennedy said he
would like to hear that from the Mayor. Councilmember Gottschall did not believe that was accurate. He thought it was not a motion to rescind because you could
only rescind a motion during the same meeting. He thought it would be a motion
to repeal, which anybody could make. Mayor Hinkley said he would defer the question to the City Clerk.
Mrs. Buck said that it was her understanding that a motion to rescind was in order because a motion to reconsider was if you changed your mind at the same meeting.
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 23
Councilmember Gottschall said he looked it up in Roberts Rules and it said to rescind a motion was at the same meeting and it could only come from one of the
people that voted on the winning side. A motion to repeal could come from
anybody, regardless of how they voted. It just could not be at the meeting that the
initial vote took place. He said anybody could motion or vote to repeal the initial
motion. CM-02-41-16: Moved and seconded by Councilmembers Kennedy and Beagle to
repeal Motion CM-02-30-16 requesting the City to withdraw from WOCCCA.
Deputy Mayor Ziegler said that he supported the motion but wanted to indicate that
based on the discussion and the information that was gleaned this evening, part of
the discussion at the last meeting was to find out more about WOCCCA. That was
the purpose of his suggestion when he asked that they hold it over and find out more about it. He appreciated everyone that came to the meeting to educate the
Council. Whether the motion was to rescind or repeal, the idea was to stay in
WOCCCA and he supported that.
Mayor Hinkley concurred with Deputy Mayor Ziegler. At the meeting two weeks
ago, he said they did not like to make a practice of willy-nillying expenditures of the
tax payers without fully researching and obtaining the proper information so that
everybody could be made well aware of the pros and cons. As he expressed his
concern two weeks ago, that was not the case with this issue. Moreover, he
appreciated Mr. Zoner’s attendance, along with the former students of the high
school, Ms. Evola, and the Wixom residents. In the past, things were conducted by the Council after waiting for the City Manager to bring forth a particular item with
enough information so they could make an intelligent decision. He thought it was
probably a long day for all the attendees and he expressed his appreciation for them coming to the meeting.
Vote: Motion Carried
Mayor Hinkley suggested the same action take place regarding CM-02-31-16 until
they fully determine what type of equipment they would use for videotaping the City Council meetings. He thought we needed to conduct more research, like who
would videotape the meetings, what kind of schedule we would get from the
schools, and if they were not available then who would we get to videotape the meetings. He strongly felt that they put the cart before the horse and suggested
that this topic be talked about during the City Council Study Session.
Deputy Mayor Ziegler asked Mr. Gottschall if anybody could make that motion.
Councilmember Gottschall didn’t understand the question. He then said it could be taken care of at the next meeting because it was not on tonight’s agenda. Deputy
Mayor Ziegler said that he would wait until the next meeting.
Mayor Hinkley thought they should yield to Lori Rich in the audience as she was
familiar with parliamentary procedure.
Ms. Rich said a motion to repeal was just another word for a motion to rescind as
they both meant the same thing. If it was at the same meeting and we had a
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 24
motion to reconsider, that would be a primary motion. If we also had a motion to rescind, then we would have to consider the motion to reconsider primary first
before we could consider a motion to rescind. They both could be done even at a
meeting where a vote just happened. Wixom had a history of calling it a motion to
rescind.
Councilmember Smiley thought that videotaping was not supposed to start until
May so we had time to work things out anyway. Mayor Hinkley said that we did not
know that because the equipment may not be available.
Councilmember Kennedy excused himself but he wondered if this was a point of
order, or if there was discussion being held because nobody made a motion to even
talk about it.
Mayor Hinkley said that he wanted to talk about it. Councilmember Kennedy asked
if there was a motion made. Mayor Hinkley said there was not but he was going to
ask that a motion be made and was giving his reason as to why.
CM-02-42-16: Moved and seconded by Councilmember Rzeznik and Deputy
Mayor Ziegler to rescind CM-02-31-16 regarding the videotaping of Council
meetings commencing with the May meeting and add the potential of videotaping
the meeting to the budget discussions or the primary budget discussion next week
to gain better knowledge.
Councilmember Smiley said he did not understand why they could not just leave it the way it was because it was something they planned on doing. Although, he
understood there were some valid points made that things needed to be worked out
but there was still time for that. He asked what the need was to dismantle that motion. He was unsure as to why they would get rid of it.
Councilmember Gottschall said that was why he put it for a future date so they
could work out the details.
Mayor Hinkley clarified that the motion was not getting rid of it. The motion was to
rescind the vote and bring it back to the budget session so we could thoroughly
understand the cost, timing, availability of the school, etc. He said that was the way the City conducted business. Like he said before, the Council did not like to
“willy-nilly” things. This would allow the Council the opportunity to explore this. For
example, in the summertime the kids were out of school. He wondered who would
be recording the meetings at that time.
Roll Call Vote: (4) AYES – Beagle, Hinkley, Rzeznik, Ziegler (3) NAYS – Gottschall, Kennedy, Smiley
Motion Carried
CALL TO THE PUBLIC: Val York, 581 Hampton Court, apologized for her tardiness. The reason she came to
the meeting was to urge the Council to rescind the motion that was made regarding
WOCCCA. She said that she hoped that City Council learned a lesson. What she
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 25
meant by that was from now on she hoped the Council would do their research prior to making motions and having people get their back against the wall, then at
the 11th hour having people from all over Oakland County come and try to explain
things. It really upset her because in the past, her Council had always discussed
items almost to the point of redundancy because that was the way they operated.
They did the research first, and then they made the decision. She said that most people do not come to Council meetings. She had noticed maybe four residents at
the meeting tonight. She explained that people were not interested in watching the
Wixom City Council meetings because they were boring. If they were interested, they read the minutes from the website. If there was an item of interest, they
would come to the meeting. She believed people were not interested in watching
the Council meetings on TV and believed the idea of videotaping the Council
meetings was a waste of money. She sincerely hoped they would not use her tax
dollars to broadcast the Council meetings.
Mr. Tom Zoner, Commerce Township Supervisor, said that his office was called
regularly regarding cell towers. The calls were mostly in regard to buying the cell towers outright so they would no longer receive monthly rent payments. He
mentioned that Wixom was thinking about installing a tower next to Commerce
Township. He would like the City of Wixom to install the tower. He believed that
technology was changing so quickly, there had to be a reason why these companies
wanted to pay for services. He said that one tower with one antenna equaled
$12,000 a year and one tower with two antennas was an additional $12,000. If
they had an antenna that would reach a neighboring community, the communities
then should get together and approach the tower companies with a coexistence approach so they didn’t have towers going up all over the place but one tower and
multiple antennas. He noted that AT&T was contacting them regarding Fire Station
#4 off Glengary and then another off of South Commerce near Station #2. Commerce Township had a regulation that if they wanted a tower in the
community, they needed to speak with the Township first because it had to go on
the Township land.
Mr. Joe Bell, Principal of Walled Lake Western High School, thanked everyone on City Council for listening to the students. He thanked Judy Evola and Doug Bevier
for sharing information with the Council. He hoped that nobody went away with ill
feelings because that was not the point of the schools coming to the meeting. They really looked forward to cooperating with the City Council because the students
grow through the audio and visual experiences. They also had students in civic and
government classes that would learn more by becoming more involved in the
Council meetings. He thought it was a win-win. He explained that they had made
a commitment and would stick with the filming of eight City Council meetings and would find ways to provide the City with equipment and training for the other
meetings. He looked forward to the partnership as it was very important to the
school district.
CITY MANAGER COMMENTS:
Mr. Goodlein asked that we keep Cindy Mack and her family in our thoughts and prayers with the passing of her grandmother. He added that Ms. Mack will be back
to work next week.
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 26
COUNCIL COMMENTS: Councilmember Smiley thanked Lori Rich. He felt that she was a very wise lady
and he would take a lot of things that she said tonight to heart. She gave the
Council some good advice. He did not agree with all of it. He did not want drama
because he was not a dramatic person. He saw disagreement on Council and
believed that it was not necessarily a bad thing because it could be healthy. He felt that was what they were working with at this point. He believed the Council
needed to work together a little better. He said he was still feeling his way around
and building relationships. He won’t take full responsibility for wasting time for some people tonight. He felt that it was a little messy but they shook out what
needed to be understood. He would admit that there could have been a better
way. He said that he would take Ms. Rich’s advice and work hard toward building a
better relationship with other members of Council. He thought there was plenty to
work with and there were some great minds on Council. He noticed some things that got testy but felt as adults they could all work it out. They all had Wixom’s
best interest in mind. He believed if they started there, they could go anywhere.
Maybe we needed a corporate retreat or something.
Councilmember Gottschall gave his condolences to Cindy Mack with the passing
of her grandmother. He was happy that the Habitat trail parking lot was being
redone. He noticed and suggested that a few people walk alongside the path and
the wooden deck, especially the observation deck, because there was a lot of trash
and it sends the wrong impression that it is a nature trail. It was pretty disgusting
overall. This afternoon while he was in Gunner Mettala Park, he noticed that
someone was in the woods with a chain saw hacking up trees and loading the logs into their trunk. He supposed that had gone on for some time and suggested they
keep an eye out for that because it did not seem like it was this person’s first time.
He explained how wild it was for him to see someone inside a public park with a chain saw just cutting up trees and then placing them into their vehicle. He was
not sure if there was an ordinance against that or if a fine would be considered as
he was certain there had to be something the City could do.
Councilmember Rzeznik offered his condolences to the family of Cindy Mack. He
explained that after he had returned from Europe and read the Council minutes, he
was appalled and almost ashamed at the behavior of the Council. He reminded the
dais that they were an elected body that was a policy-setting body, and they already had a City Administrator/CEO. The Council acts as the Board of Directors
and the CEO is Mr. Goodlein. It would have been better to request that the
Administration study the alternatives in situations like this. He said at the meeting tonight, they had created solutions from what they tried to achieve with the help of
Ms. Evola, Mr. Bevier and Mr. Zoner. He asked that the Council remember that there are unintended consequences from hasty decisions. They had witnessed it on
the State level with the medical marihuana laws that nobody gave a thought as to
how it would affect the local municipalities. There are always unintended consequences when there are hasty actions. He asked that we let the
Administration to their job and continue to do our jobs. He added that he agreed
with Ms. Rich’s comments as there would be grandstanding by Councilpersons if they videotaped Council meetings. In addition, there may be the opposite affect
with an intimidation factor by the public who may be afraid to speak in front of the
camera. Most people tend to get shy in front of a camera. He thought they should
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 27
study the topic but he was very opposed to it. Additionally, he noted that he agreed with Ms. York’s opinion in that the Council meetings were boring. He
explained that he would much rather see the funding go to the WLTV and watch his
grandkids perform in a choir concert than watch the City Council for a few hours.
Councilmember Beagle said that at first he was not going to comment about the actions of a few Councilmembers at the last meeting but the more he thought about
it, something had to be said. He thought that there was more to transparency than
videotaping meetings and posting them on social media or the City’s website and the needed to find that out quick. He apologized for missing a meeting but
sometimes family emergencies, work things, or other circumstances come up at the
last minute that we just cannot avoid. The last thing that he thought would happen
would be the other Councilmembers taking advantage of his absence by adding two
new items to the agenda. He guaranteed that they would not have added those items if he or Councilmember Rzeznik were at the last meeting. He asked that they
remember that they were all elected by the citizens of the City to represent the
best interests of the City and not to boost their own egos.
Councilmember Kennedy said after hearing all of the comments, he noted that
he spoke to the City Manager regarding this issue four or five times. He asked that
the topic be placed on the agenda and he put it under Correspondence instead of
on the agenda as an action item. He was not looking to waste anybody’s time. He
was glad that they got to where they were tonight because they were able to get
things worked out. He explained that they had some questions with regard to what
they could do with WOCCCA. He thanked Mr. Zoner for coming to the meeting to take care of those issues. He said that it was not about making hasty decisions. It
was a matter of tax payer dollars that they were giving away. He wanted to be
sure they were getting the value for the citizens and for the taxpayer dollars. He was sorry that certain people were not happy with the fact he was interested in
having tax payer dollars take care of the stuff that they needed in the City. He
explained that Ms. Evola said that she could come in and take care of the issues
they had in the City at no cost to the tax payer. Before when the City was taking
care of it administratively, they received $20,000 for the $11,000. Basically, it was a net paying of $9,000, and they were all more than happy to sit there and do that.
By virtue of the fact that Commerce had to come in and be more fiscally
responsible, they were no longer in that position. Again, it was just a matter of what they were doing with the tax payer dollars that was his biggest concern. He
said this was talked about at many meetings. Now was just the time and that’s why
it was on the agenda. He was not trying to waste anybody’s time. With regard to
Cindy Mack’s grandmother, he offered his condolences. He appreciated the time
Alan Amolsch had spent on the ZBA and he wished him better health. He appreciated the fact that they were being able to ask questions without being cut
short and get the questions that they needed answered rather than rushing through
the agenda and stuff like that. Sometimes they get up there and people want to call the question or the answer when lots of questions still had to be given. That
does put some stress on what they do as a Council.
Deputy Mayor Ziegler thanked the people that came to the meeting to share the
information with the Council so they could handle the business at hand. The only
other thing that he wanted to mention was that it amazed him who wanted these
Wixom City Council Meeting___________February 23, 2016 _______Page 28
meetings televised. The identity of the people that wanted them identified, he would have thought, would be the last ones to want them televised.
Mayor Hinkley noted that April 10th through April 16th, Governor Snyder and L.
Brooks Paterson have declared to be Severe Weather Awareness Week. On
Wednesday, April 13th, at around 1:00 p.m., there would be a test that would be
conducted of the outdoor warning system. He said there was a storm approaching
and suggested everyone get to the grocery store and/or fill their gas tanks. He
asked those that park cars in the City streets to remove them so the plow trucks can do their job. He said to piggyback on what Councilmember Smiley was
referring to in working together, he noted that theoretically we have three junior
Councilmembers on the City Council. We have one that has been on Council for
two years and a few months and two that have been on for six to eight weeks.
There were four senior Councilmembers that have all been on Council for more than four years. In trying to understand how we conduct business as a municipality, he
suggested that the junior Councilmembers reach out to the senior Councilmembers
to get some of their questions answered simply. He even suggested that they obtain the answers from the City Manager. Many of these things, like the
fireworks, have come up before so they would not have to labor on the topic for
ten to fifteen minutes as it extends the time of the meetings. He thought that they
could help themselves to get more educated on the functions of the municipal
organization they had here and things that were coming up for renewal or any
items that were already in the budget. He asked the junior Councilmembers to
please reach out to the senior Councilmembers in the future. He was sure they
would be glad to help. ADJOURNMENT:
The meeting was adjourned at 9:26 p.m.
Catherine Buck
City Clerk
Approved 03-09-2016