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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