City of Ferndale City Council Meeting 02-10-2025

Call this meeting to order at 07:02. If you're able, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and

to the Republic for which it stands,

one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call, please.

Johnson. Here. Kelly.

Here. Mikulski. Here. Polica.

Here. Leaksmae. Here.

Now approval of the agenda, please.

Madam, may I move we approve the agenda as presented?

Court. Johnson?

Yes. Kelly? Yes. Mikulski? Yes.

Polica? Yes. Leaksmay?

Yes. I have no presentations, So we will start with actually oh, this is early. Our call to audience where anyone can line up at the podium and speak about anything on or off the agenda. Please state your name and your address, and we open it up to, call audience at 703. 0 3.

Thank you.

Good evening.

This is

why we can't have nice things, Kat.

You know, it's a little short, so I'm trying here. Right here. Thanks. Okay. Good evening, everyone.

It's a pleasure to be here tonight. I'm here to speak with you again about the plot surveillance cameras that are installed around the city. The Ferndale Inclusion Network and I'm Kathleen. I'm at 715 West Breckenridge. The Ferndale Inclusion Network is urging you to, one, remove at least half, if not all of the cameras and conduct a racial impact assessment before considering any permanent contract of flock, which is currently in a pilot phase.

In addition to these requests, I also want to highlight other dangers given our current political climate. One of the increasing concerns is the potential for citizen targeting that will no longer be within the control of the city of Ferndale. If the federal government were to step in under the guise of a national emergency and take over the cameras in the footage. This is not hard to imagine given the current climate. There is recent precedents in other communities for the country for surveillance cameras to be used to do federal police work, both in targeting people for deportation and for tracking the movements of racial justice advocates.

We are already seeing tremendous and unprecedented federal government overreach. Two specific target groups include immigrants. Even some legal immigrants are being targeted for deportation.

And transgender and gender non binary people who are already being denied participation in certain levels of society.

On immigration, the groups of people being targeted is ever expanding. Kurt Metzger recently wrote an article in Oakland County Times and shared with me the immigrant county data and communication. According to the Census Bureau, there are 227 foreign born individuals living in Ferndale who are not currently citizens and who may be at risk. Another 657 are naturalized citizens and could also be targeted. That's almost 900 residents or 5% of Ferndale's population.

On gender identity, Ferndale has long been known as the hub of the queer community, and trans and gender non binary people are in the crosshairs of this administration without a doubt. Their participation in society is being systematically limited. No more school sports, no more adult sports, no more military service, forced into gender binary prison systems, limited medical care, limited psychological and law enforcement support, and the list keeps growing. Currently, they can't even get a passport, and if they try, their original documents are being seized. The new Department of Justice is calling DEI work criminal, threatening to bring corporations up on criminal charges, and it's not a far stretch to see the government making it illegal, to declare oneself as trans, and making life even harder if not their very existence illegal.

And how would those cameras be used then? I do understand why the cameras were originally approved, but is the limited value worth the substantial risk? There are too many cameras. Their placement points to significant racial profiling, and they can easily be weaponized against our own community members. And it would be out of your hands if they were.

Now is the time to limit their potential damage. You have the power to protect this community, and I urge you to end the pilot, remove the cameras, and conduct a racial impact assessment before considering any permanent contract with FLOC. Thank you, Kent. In conclusion, in the grand scheme of what is happening on the federal level, this is one significant place where you can have direct impact on supporting and protecting our local community members. Thank you.

And we have information in the back.

Hi. Mara Libsey, two two four one Mapletale. Apologize for getting my address last time. I was super nervous, and I still am. So I was here two weeks ago asking you to vote not to renew the flock license plate reading cameras.

Tonight, I'd like to use this time to review some ways that I feel, the city and council has not met some promises that it has made. In 2020, council published its declaration of commitment to anti racism. In that statement, council acknowledged the ways racism impacts people, including how people are policed. Council also committed to incorporate racial equity into all decision making and policy development. No racial impact assessment has been done to assess the potential harms of the flock cameras.

Knowing that many are placed at the eight mile border, this is concerning. The original contract, now around two years old with flock, noted that the 16 cameras would be reduced to eight after a sixty day assessment and report. In July, you allowed an expansion back to 16 cameras without that report or data showing their efficacy. The report came six months later this past December. Finally, the community police advisory and review board is meant to help guide the police and hold them accountable.

It is unclear if they have assessed the flock system or to what extent they are involved in collaborating with the police department at this time. I'm asking you to show your commitment to anti racism not just by writing and posting a declaration, but by action that reflects those values. By, at minimum, performing a racial impact assessment on the flock system to see who might be harmed and releasing a comprehensive report on the community police advisory and review board. I hope you follow through with your previous commitments, and also please consider voting not to renew. Thank you.

Sherry Wells, three one five West Troy. It was convenient that I was wearing red today anyway. Everything I have read about these cameras, and I was extremely surprised when Ferndale instituted them, instituted them, says that especially on darker skin colors, they don't differentiate enough. There's enough history of people being accused innocent people being accused of crime because they look like someone. And all blacks don't look alike, and and all of us whites don't look alike.

And there's been a couple times people have asked me if I have a twin sister. No. I don't. And I don't think those cameras would be any better than that. And what a waste of our tax money.

Hello, mayor and city council. Christopher Hall. One eight four five Simon Street. I wanna say thank you first and foremost in regards to your transparency in regards to, the meet and greet last week with the potential candidates. I do have some feedback.

Esther, I believe, was not qualified to be our next city manager. He couldn't simply answer the questions that you graciously provided. And, unfortunately, this is gonna sound pretty bad. He reminded me of someone who's in our White House right now just using buzzwords such as toolbox over and over, and he did not land a mark. However, with Colleen, she is a rock star.

She had a vision. She had a strategy. She came prepared. She used examples in her previous roles, with city of Celine and also, I forgot the one, city that she worked in. But I felt like after her interview, she remind me of that gift of Obama dropping the mic and she gracefully walked out the room.

I feel like she is possibly, our next city manager. However,

in

regards to Jason, if he does not get it, I just want the council to continue to champion him, support him in his growth. I've been in positions before where I did all the hard work and then someone else comes in. And, unfortunately, I've been laid off before due to that. But I was just wanna urge the city council to continue helping him, letting him grow. He's a great guy, and that's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Madam mayor, in light of some of the public comments, I would like if, I might I would like to ask the city attorney if we could get an opinion on what consequences there would be to the city, what liability we would have if we were to move toward an early termination of our relationship with flock, these sorts of things. Just like to know what what the contract says in terms of getting out of it early or changing these sorts of things. Just so we kind of have all the facts as we continue this dialogue with the community. Thank you.

And just to kinda add to that, I just want to make sure that the Citizens Police Advisory Review Board, if I'm not mistaken, is that is a open meeting. Correct? Mhmm. Open to the public? And when is that meeting every month, please?

Fourth Thursday of every month.

The fourth Thursday of every month? And and what time?

05:00PM.

Five o'clock PM. Okay. I just wanted to make it known that anyone can attend those meetings as well. Mayor? Yes.

If if we're if we're stating clarity, I would like to clarify that these cameras are not designed for facial recognition. They are designed for license plate reading. They are aimed at the street to the back of vehicles and identify license plates. No one is looking for facial recognition. Saying that, yes, it's possible that someone may be in a vehicle that is being searched for, that may have someone that may be illegal, but there's a lot of maybes in all of that.

What it's looking for is reported crime that we know the crime existed with the involvement of a vehicle and searching for that license plate that is either entering or leaving the city. Thank you, mayor.

With that being said, we have a couple of public hearings tonight. First, I would be closing call to audience at 07:15PM. Oh, wait. Okay. Okay.

I'm so sorry.

We're all open.

I'm so sorry. Sorry. Hi, guys. My name is Alyssa Sullivan. I'm a Hazel Park City Council.

I'm also the president of Hazel Park Arts Council. And I was rushing here from our Arts Council meeting tonight, so I'm sorry. But, I wanted to come in tonight because, our part our cities in the past have partnered on, sibling city initiatives for Juneteenth, and the Hazel Park Arts Council every year sponsors a Juneteenth, two $1,000 scholarships that, is open to Hazel Park and Ferndale juniors and seniors. And this year, we decided to, to commemorate Black History Month by announcing the Juneteenth scholarship this month in February. So the applications for that will open, on the thirteenth, Wednesday of, February this year, and then they will close March 1.

And then we will announce the winner of these two scholarships, June at our Juneteenth celebration in Hazel Park. And, again, those are the, the continuation of our sibling city initiatives that Raylan and I have participated in over the years. So it's, lovely to bring this back again. Students can apply online. The application is at www.hpart.org, and we do a, a written or performative, category and then also a tangible art category.

So somebody could write a poem or draw a picture or recite a lyric or an interpretive dance or, anything along those lines. Anything that is considered art, we will accept. The theme this year for Juneteenth is the celebration of family reunion. So we hope that people will submit, art that represents what family reunion means to them and what it means to their community, and we look forward to seeing those, those arts, roll in. And then we hope to highlight them on both our city website as well as hopefully Ferndale's website.

So thank you.

Before you leave Yes. Just wanna make sure. So it's open to all students or or seniors? Is it

juniors and seniors. Frondale and, Frondale and Hazel Park Juniors and seniors.

Okay. Thank you.

Very much. Thank you, guys.

It's nice to see you. Alright. Alright. I will be closing call to audience at 07:18PM, and we are now moving on to our first public hearing. Item six a, public hearing for the consideration of a class c redevelopment liquor license for Corner Shop Group LLC located at 23337 and 23341 Woodward Avenue.

Good evening, mayor. Good evening, council. So this will be a public hearing to, establish a class c redevelopment liquor license at the corner shop at the, addresses that you listed. So this is located up on the West Side Of Woodward, a bit on the northern edge of our community, located, kind of in the middle between West Woodland and West Maplehurst. This is a vacant, storefront.

It's got two addresses. They are actually kind of, opened up in the middle. It was most recently a nail salon. The applicant is proposing a kind of a mix of uses on the site. So this would include a bit of a retail bookstore component, a daytime coffee shop use, and then a nighttime, wine shop with some other, you know, cocktails and things like that.

So we did meet, December 18. That would be the, redevelopment's liquor commission, which is or committee just composed of a few staff members. We read the application, and we did recommend it moved on. I believe the DDA board declined to hear this item as well. So, at this time, I would like to bring up the, applicants or their attorney, Chris Tower, and he can speak a little more

about the

project. Thank you, Kyle. Good evening, counsel. My name is Chris Tower. I am with the firm, Allen and Rentrop.

As Kyle was saying, I'm here on behalf of the Corner Shop Group LLC. With me tonight is the sole member of the applicant entity. His name is Matthew Abraham. And his wife, Mary, are here right now. Mary and Matthew are the owners of Rail and Anchor, which is a retail shop in Downtown Royal Oak right now.

They are looking to kind of branch out to a new venture and, keep the retail portion of their business, but also venture into a little bit of a hospitality business as well with this, wine shop and coffee shop. So what the applicants really want to do with this liquor license is kind of provide a new third space in Ferndale. It is kinda different from the run of the mill bar and sports bar, that kind of option. They are going to be kind of combining and marrying the literary bookstore concept and the wine bar, like Kyle said. We provided a list of events that the corner shop are going to be putting on, which I think encapsulates their business concept and what they wanna do with the license very well.

They will be serving, mostly wine, local wine, that kind of thing, but they also do have the option with the redevelopment license to serve beer, wine, and spirits for consumption on the premises. If you have any further questions from what we provide in our application packet, we are happy to answer them. Thank you.

Considering that this is a public hearing, I actually will open it up to the audience if you have any questions regarding this initiative.

Here, I think I need to say what time you're opening.

Oh, and I'm opening that 07:21. Go ahead. Your name and and

your address, please?

Nicole Scott. I live at 215 West Woodland Street, so just right around the corner from where this business would be. I love this idea. It's great. What I do not love is that there will be nowhere for anyone to park.

We already have a lot of parking issues. I'm only a few houses off of Woodward. We already have a lot of issues with the businesses that are there. So we're right next to the cookie company dye hair salon. And already, the street is always full of people parking.

Even though the cookie company is pretty quick turn, the people that work there do park on the street, which is understandable because there's nowhere to park. Their lots are very small. We have a third car that we unfortunately have to park in the street, and it's very often that there's literally nowhere to park it, and it becomes quite a hassle. So, having a business where it seems like, people might be staying there for a bit time more than just a few minutes or just stopping in. I'm really concerned that the city needs to find a place on this side of the Woodward Corridor to, to have people have places to park because I'm sure this is a business that a lot of people would go to.

I would also go, and I, I'm sure that parking would just be an issue because it seems to be currently even though Rouge is is currently closed where this business would be. So that would be my main concern. Otherwise, I would be totally fine with having an additional liquor license there. Just would be concerned about parking, and if maybe there's a potential, consideration for making the streets, Maplehurst and Woodland, be permit parking, especially in the evenings when people would be parking and drinking and staying for a bit longer, just so that the residents would have an option. Because at this time, there are signs that say two hour parking and people do not follow it.

So I really think permit parking would be a really great option and and would give, give the residents an an opportunity to still park in front of their own houses. But that would be my only concern. Otherwise, I love the idea, and I'm glad that we got to hear a little bit more about what the opportunity is. Thank you.

Still open for public comment regarding this class c re redevelopment liquor license. This would be a great opportunity, for the the owner to address the parking situation.

Yes. So I will let Matt speak to this a little bit further, but we did include in our application packet, and this is something that, you know, the city of Ferndale and us as business owners wanted to kind of, prioritize is just walkability and it and kind of, encouraging customers to walk and bike to the location. That's one piece that I know Matt, as a downtown business owner himself, is very familiar with and, kind of wants to continue, on using. Also, we do have a few parking spots kind of to our name with the business. That has been a vacant lot for a few years now, and so people have kind of just been using that space to pop into the liquor store or something like that.

So we do have a few parking spots there already, to our name, which is helpful. There's also street parking, all that kind of thing. One thing I also wanted to point out is that the, shared parking lot with the hair salon, there is a bit of an offset in hours. I believe the hair salon closes at seven or 8PM, and we'd be open a little bit past that. So, that those are just a couple things I wanted to point out, and I'll let Matt speak to this a little bit further as well.

Hi. My name is Matthew Abraham. Chris said a little bit about me. I own Rail Anchor, and, I actually used to own Union Barber in Downtown Ferndale. So I definitely understand, the parking situation in Ferndale.

And as we were looking for this property, one of the main reasons we purchased this property itself was because it does have a small parking lot. Now it's not the biggest. It is, a smaller parking lot. There's about five spots there. There's some parking on the street, and the municipal parking is only five minutes away five minute walk, and we would definitely recommend our employees to park there, buy the parking tags because that's what we did at, Union Barber.

We would just have everybody buy the monthly tags and just park over there. I definitely understand the street parking situation. That's not what we want. Majority of our business in the morning to pretty much in the afternoon is gonna be grab and go, grab and go, especially coffee. Now we are not a bar at all.

We are more of, literally, we were gonna be closing at 08:00, sorry, 10:00. It's just to have a cup of wine, with reading a book. So it's definitely more of a book store more than a bar or a nightclub or any of that aspects of it. So we expect to do coffee hopefully from seven to, like, 04:00 depending on the rush of the coffee, the bookstore from twelve to eight, and then the wine from we're gonna say 12:00, but I don't there might be people drinking at 12:00, but most likely, like, two to ten. But we definitely are not planning on trying to be a bar or a nightclub situation.

So our hours will not go past 10:00. And especially with Dye's salon, they actually close most days at 6PM, so the parking lot opens up for us on the other side. And, yes. So that's that's our really our plan on parking. And we are trying to make it a neighborhood spot where people are actually gonna be walking, biking, and hopefully coming with their families, more than just driving in all the time too.

So we really want to be a neighborhood spot for that part of town where people can come from the residents can come from the neighborhoods and, grab a cup of coffee, you know, especially with the new bike pass. We are gonna be putting in a couple of bike racks. We are gonna be putting in a handicap parking spot, in our on our property. So we are trying to make every accommodation for the parking as much as we can. So

Alright. I'll open it up to counsel. Questions?

Through the chair. What is capacity for the building? Like, I think I counted about 45 places for people to see based on the drawings that were presented.

We're gonna stay at 30.

Do you have room? I mean, according to the plans, you have seating that would support 45 based on the tables and chairs and and all the seats that I counted.

Yeah. We revised it down at 30.

Okay.

So we're gonna

we're reducing that.

Okay. Besides food in your your application, you said food and books and, obviously, the liquor. What else do you plan to sell?

So we are gonna have, snacks, a couple other, grocery items. Don't wanna say it's a grocery store, but, definitely some organic snacks. We're trying to sell organic wine, natural wines that are not available at your local stores. We're gonna have about 2,000 titles of the books themselves. So the books are gonna be majority of our business.

Okay.

So we are dedicating a whole room just to a reading room where there's not really no laptops allowed. It's just a required reading space, more than anything else. So that's our primary focus on business because, books at Rail and Anchor is one of our top categories. So we're just trying to expand on that more than that. We do have a pantry section at Rail and Anchor, so we're just expanding on that.

So we have, like, olive olive oil chips and olive oil and, you know, ramen noodles and canned fish and, you know, just different varieties of stuff that's gonna be changing around that kind of works with that concept. So Okay.

But you're not planning on having coolers for bottles of pop for people to grab and and go I mean, it's not gonna turn into a competition for the party store that's, you know, three stories stores down.

No. We we definitely don't wanna have Coca Cola or anything like that. I mean, we will have carbonated water or something else. Sorry. But we definitely don't wanna have something that's, like, you can find everywhere else else too.

Yeah. We will have a cooler, but it might have chilled wine that you can grab and go. And especially natural wine, organic wine, and Michigan wine is what we're really trying to focus on.

Okay. Thank you. You mentioned the parking, with you know, that the parking at DIE would be open, you know, when you expect to be busier. Do you have an agreement with DIE to be able to use that? Because, you know, saying that it's available for someone to use and actually being allowed to use it, you know, you don't want customers to park there and all of a sudden they're getting towed because Dye is like, you know, hey, you're you're parking in our spaces, open or not, you know.

Yes. We do. We haven't reached out to them yet, but we do want it as going forward because we are gonna be neighbors. So we we definitely wanna have that open relationship. We know and it's not just parking over there.

Their customers might actually park over in our spot, so we don't wanna just toe, toe, toe because that's not fair to the customer who doesn't understand the difference between the two business and trying to read a sign that says, oh, this and you know? So we don't wanna do that. We wanna be, hospitable neighbors to each other. So

Yeah. And well and you mentioned, you know, your your parking. So, the current parking, there's six spaces in the back. But according to your renderings, you plan to eliminate two of them to put a patio. So now you're down to four spaces.

Well, one of them we're actually changing it to, handicap van accessible parking spot that we're required to do by the city.

So you'll be down to three spots? No. Are you doing the patio or not?

We're not doing the patio.

You're not doing the patio. Okay.

The original renderings were a little bit far fetched and we kinda scaled them back with the

Okay. I can only go by what's being Oh, yes. Given to me. So I, you know, I have to go by

Originally, like, our, our our, architecture wanted to do a rooftop garden. We dropped that. So we we have scaled it back down to just parking. So

So this is this request I'm actually speaking to counsel. So this request is for approval of a liquor license. Does this still require to go to the planning commission for drawings? Actually, I guess I'd be asking

So the applicant has already, applied for and received administrative site plan review for the change in use. So that did include us reviewing, you know, the parking. That's why they did put in the ADA space. There's a dumpster enclosure. There is bike racks.

There's some minor facade updates too, adding some windows and a paint coloring too. Okay.

So does this come to the planning commission based on the changes that they want, or is this all approval by, the planning department?

Yes. It was, actually already administratively approved as of January 23.

Okay. And, Kyle, while you're up there, would you be able to explain just to the public, the process? Because I don't know if it would be you. I don't know. Permit parking and applying for that?

I I know in the past Joe has talked about it. I believe there is a petition process. Please someone stop me if I'm speaking out of turn. So I think Yes.

I believe, yeah, there's a request to the city, and then, correct me if I'm wrong, chief, when the request is made, you then do a traffic study to determine if, it's warranted. Oh, no. That's for the speed bumps.

Sorry. Different yeah.

Different topic.

I have

a cup I have a I have something going on with this right now. So, yes, it is a petition, by, you know, the block. So we would need a I think I don't know what the percentage is. I gotta review the city code, but a certain percentage of the people who live along a particular segment of a street have to do a petition. And if they do, then we can consider, you know, making it residential permit only.

Yeah. And and through the chair, you know, the the resident noted that two hour, you know, signage may or may not be enforced. So I'd be happy to reach out to my contact in police and see, you know, if we can monitor that a little more closely.

Any other questions for this topic? With that being said okay.

I move we approve the, State of Michigan class c redevelopment liquor license for the Corner Shop Group LLC located at 2337 and 2323341 Woodward Avenue. Court?

Johnson? Yes. Kelly?

Yes.

Mikulski?

Yes.

Holika?

Yes. Thanks, May.

Yes. Now we are moving on to item six b, public hearing for the consideration of the class c redevelopment liquor license for Balam Cafe LLC located at 207 East 9 Mile Road.

Good evening once again, mayor and council. So this is a repeat of the last item. This is for a class c redevelopment liquor license, at 207 East 9 Mile. So this is located just across the street from City Hall. As you know, we have Mezcal right on the corner of Bermuda and 9 Mile.

They've kind of taken over a few spaces, inching their way down 9 Mile. And then there is a, art gallery, and then after that is a vacant commercial space. So that's what we're talking about here. They are looking to do a bit of a a mix of different things. It's a a coffee house, through the day and a bit of a speakeasy art and, art space, later in the night.

So, I mean, frankly, kind of a similar concept, but in different part of town. We got their zoning determination request back in December and approved it. Mhmm. We met, on December 18, the same meeting as the previous applicants for our liquor license subcommittee. And again, we recommended approval.

And I believe, likewise, the DDA declined to, review this one at their meeting. So, you know, I I know we we talked about parking a little bit, with the last item, and clearly parking is, an important consideration in this part of town as well. As a nonresidential existing CBD zone, tenant space, they were not required to provide parking in terms of, our review process through the planning department. So it's just a matter of double checking their zoning, verifying they don't need to provide parking because they will rely on, you know, street parking, municipal parking lots, people riding their bikes, and people in the neighborhoods. So we did approve their ZDR.

So they do not need to go to planning commission or go through admin site plan review. They would have to do any kind of building permits for any interior work. So at this time, I'd like to bring up Chris again, and he can tell you a little more about the space.

Thanks, Kyle. Okay. Hi, everybody. Now we are on to number two. This is, like Kyle said, Balam Cafe.

The owners of Balam Cafe LLC are Jose Granados and Sandra Haro, brother and sister. Sandra's back there, with us today. Like Kyle said, Sandra and Jose have been the owners of Mezcal since, I believe, it's been, operational here in Ferndale since '23. They also have a location in Detroit. So between those two locations, they've been licensed by the lurking control commission for over three years and no violations.

They're fantastic operators, and they're just kind of looking to add a different and new space just a couple of doors down. It's it's the former AR workshop space. I I believe they had a liquor license there prior to, this new space coming in. They are looking to do, like Kyle said, kind of a day into night concept. They're going to do coffee and, small bites brought over from Mezcal actually during the day.

And then during the night, they're looking to be kind of an after dinner drink spot. People are walking by coming from Mezcal just popping in. There's gonna be art events there, art on display, and and things like that and just other cultural events, here and there. So, it's kind of the extent of the overarching theme of what they are looking to do, and, we are here to answer questions if you have any that weren't addressed in the packet. So thank you.

You. I'm opening it up to the public audience at 07:40PM to talk about this topic. Okay. Closing it at 07:40 and open it up to counsel at 07:40 to talk about the topic. Anything?

I heard you pause over there. Yeah. I sorry. Sorry.

Through the chair. I'm not sure. It may be you, sir. Capacity? What's the capacity of the the space?

Come to the Thank you.

Good night. My name is Sandra, and it's about 35 people.

Okay. So that would be the maximum that you would have.

35 to 40. The the maximum will be 40.

Okay.

Besides so

you won't be preparing food there. The food's gonna be prepared at Mezcal and brought over.

Yeah. And it's only, like, dessert. It's not gonna be, like, meals. It's gonna be something that we can refrigerate or or just warm it up in in the microwave or something like that. But it's gonna be most,

great. There'll be a back food station somewhere Yes.

To okay. To the yeah.

But not stoves and

No. No. No.

Not at all.

Besides the food and the liquor, what else do you plan to to and the art. What else do you plan to

So in the morning, well, we it's gonna be coffee slash wine in case it's gonna be from seven to 10PM. So we're gonna be selling coffee through all the day and be with wine as well in case someone wants they don't like coffee, they wanna drink wine. So it's gonna be that dessert. And then the speakeasy will be open at night. That is gonna be on the back of the coffee shop.

Okay.

That's all the questions I have. So

you said, it was what are the operations of the hours of the Speakeasy by itself? What are

Probably around, we haven't, like, have a really time specific time, but it's gonna be probably, like, around five to ten, five to eleven.

And we'll be working right alongside of the Mezcal will be in operation and this place will be in operation.

Correct.

Sorry. Through the chair, do you plan on joining the spaces? Isn't there a a there's a office or something where

Between. So, no, we're we're here. We can.

Not yet.

Not yet. Yes. Alright. Any other questions regarding this, lastly redevelopment liquor license request?

Madam mayor, I move we approve the recommendation to the state of Michigan for the class c redevelopment liquor license for Balam Cafe LLC located at 207 East 9 Mile Road. Court.

Johnson? Yes. Kelly? Yes. Mikulski?

Yes.

Polica? Yes. Leaksmay?

Yes. Now we're moving on to the consent agenda. Item seven a, approval of the 01/27/2025 meeting minutes. Seven b, approval of the water infiltration repairs at the DOT by Madison Glass Company for $30,450 and authorize the DPW director to execute the contract contingent upon approval of the city attorney. Seven c, approval of tuition coverage for sergeant Benjamin Mahora to attend Eastern Michigan University fire staff and command program for year 2025.

Seven d, approval of renewing the Transportation Improvement Association membership in the amount of $8,142. 7 e, approval of the replacement of equipment trailer for DPW from Alta Equipment Company in the amount of $22,486. 7 f, approval of the resolution and celebration of Black History Month twenty twenty five and approval to display the Pan African flag outside of city hall. Seven g, approval of MAT service in police in the police station city hall and Department of Public Works by Cintas for $8,023.32 annually. Seven h, approval to backfill CED planner position.

Seven I, approval to pay the city's underground storage tank insurance invoice at a cost of $2,524.33. 7 j, approval of Cummings Cummings for emergency repairs on fire engine FE0901 for up to $35,304.91, 7 k, approval to apply for the enhanced mobility of seniors and individuals with disabilities program offered by smart for replacement smart bus, and then seven l, approval of bills and payrolls as submitted by the finance director and subject to review by the council finance committee. And, excuse me, council. We have a request to speak regarding an item on the consent agenda, and I just want to make sure, should we just go ahead and approve We can approve it. Oh, yeah.

Approve it first?

Yeah. I don't have any any Okay. Issue. I just wanna make a comment after the vote.

Got it. Okay. Alright. So, who will make a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented.

Support.

Kelly?

Yes. Polica?

Yes. With comment. Johnson?

Yes. Mikulski? Yes. Leaksmae?

Yes. So regarding seven k, which is the enhanced mobility of seniors and individuals with disabilities program, that I wanted to make a clarification. The program is operated through SMART, but the RTA, who is, our former mayor, Melanie Piana, is with the RTA now, is actually funding this this request. So the the the money comes from the RTA, but the program is managed by Smart. And, this request for the 70,000 is paying 80%, and then we're requesting, 20% of, the cost from MDOT, which will completely cover this cost.

So none of the money would be coming out of the general fund. Thank you, mayor.

We're now moving on to we're now moving on to the regular agenda. Item eight a, consideration of the 2025 pavement improvement program bid awards to Ajax Ajax Paving Industries for the estimated amount of $3200000.0.36 3,200,000.0 roughly. Go ahead.

Thank you, Mara.

Thank you, James.

So, here to give you a little context, on the local pavement improvement program for 2025. So the local pavement improvement program, which we call PIP, sometimes we call LPIP, but I usually just call PIP. It's a series of planned street updates. Twenty fifteen, a road bomb was passed by voters. Approximately, thus far, 90% of streets have been replaced.

Usually, about 10% to 2% are replaced annually for that ten year term. And I mentioned it, I've mentioned it before, we'll we'll need to start thinking about a new program targeting 02/1930 or 02/1932 as our streets start to reach the end of their service life, which is about fifteen to twenty years for asphalt. Twenty twenty four, last year, Al's Asphalt completed work satisfactorily on budget and on time. The local pavement improvement program history, the second part just kind of show the last sec six years rather cost bid miles. 2024 was about $3,600,000 that was nine bids total, which is kind of an aberration.

Usually, we get about five to six. We did about 6.6 miles of mostly asphalt repairs. Twenty twenty three, we had 2.9, six bids, five two. You can see that it's typically between three and a half and somewhere around three. 20 20 five local pavement program, again, is the tenth and final year of that program.

We're doing 6.19 miles of residential streets. That's the local part. This includes curb, gutter repairs, drainage, ADA ramps, pavement markings. We are also doing portions of Mahan, Brickley, and Shevlin. Those are included in the water main improvement program.

Ajax Paving Industries is the low bid this year. They are vetted and recommended by Giffels. So this year, general cost and bidding, we got five bids. The project was budgeted at around $4,000,000 Ajax Paving Industries came in at $3,200,000 or 3,236,774. They completed the LPIP in 2015, which is a long time ago, but they are a very large company.

I think they're the largest producer of asphalt in the state. The high bid this year was 4,100,000.0, and I believe the second highest bid was $3.06. So there is some cost savings with this, with this bid. And this number includes additional items such as a hundred and 80 3 thousand for emergency repairs. So that's extensive watermelon breaks, areas in the streets, the other 90% that have been damaged over time.

We didn't make these last another five or six years, so we wanna make sure that we repair what we can this year. And then there's $170,000 in as directed emergency or not emergency, contingency work. So that's sometimes we don't know what we know until we open up a roadway and realize we need to do some more, and that's what that 170,000 is there for. So the time line for the program, it's a little extended. Last year, we were done In September, this year, there's an added month because there are more concrete repairs than normal, so that takes a little bit of extra time.

Pending weather, we should be starting in late March with our pre construction meeting. Mid April, construction should be starting maybe earlier depending on weather. September, we should have a substantial completion. In October, we should have total completion, punch list items, everything done and then all we should have to do is finish payments. So as always, we'll have a website.

It will be updated prior to construction through Giffels Webster. You can Google Ferndale construction schedule and that will pop up. The city website will be updated as well. And briefly, I'm not gonna read all of these, but we usually do this program in four groupings. We're front loading the groupings with concrete repairs because those can be done prior to the break in weather that is required for asphalt.

And those are Bermuda, Gainesville, Myrtle, Pleasant, and these are all mostly concrete repair streets. Group two, three, and four and I will show a map, so that'll make a little more sense rather than just reading text for roads. But it's probably a good idea, and we have discussed with comms getting these, with the groupings, onto the website. But I will say that sometimes plans do change. We we work a lot with school, police, and fire, and some of these groupings can just kind of move around a little bit as needed.

In this map, which side of the page let me see if I can zoom. And see everything in red are the streets that are being done this year. Not very good at zooming. At it's zooming. Going out to stop trying.

West End is there. You can't see it, but, everything in red are the streets that are being paved through this program. And, again, this is the tenth year, so we will have a % of our residentials will have been paved since 2015.

Okay. Thank you. Is it up to counsel regarding the pavement improvement program for 2025? Through the chair.

How do these streets line up with our plans for the lead water line replacement program?

Or I

should have brought you for that.

Yeah. No. That's a that's a good question. We have completed them on all these 2025 streets. I can dig into that, and I can probably overlay what our plan looks like.

We will have to eventually dig into roads that are newer. We shouldn't have any conflicts on anything since '21 or '22 because that was something that we determined that we would avoid at all cost. I can kinda go back and overlay some data on top of our our pacer ratings to make that all make sense. Okay.

And just for clarity, this is completely funded by the streets and roads bond that the voters approved back in 02/2015. Some of it,

at times has been funded through act $51 in our two And the majority yes.

But

for this project because I don't think these are all local roads, so I didn't think any of this was gonna be funded out of Act 51.

Right. And we do call it the local payment improvement program, but there are major roads.

I would have to double check to to see if there

are any this year, but I know last year I believe Central is considered a major road. And then last year, we didn't want the, parts of Republic and other parts of Central, and then those were paid through the act of $51

to

help the, road bond fund actually cover the ten years. Because ten years ago, nobody expected that what would happen year seven, eight, nine, and '10. Yep.

So this will be the last year that the road bond Correct. Is is gonna be available if if we wanna do any future Yes. Local roads, the voters would have to approve a new bond or we'd have to use general fund money.

Correct. And I'll point out too that we do have some major roadways that do have grant funding already through SEMCOG County via federal that, we're looking at doing. Not next year well, actually, it might even be next year. We're doing nine mile from, Woodward to Livernois. This year, we're doing a section of Hilton Road, Woodward Heights to nine mile.

Yep. And I think we have two other roadways that are on that schedule.

But, again, those are gonna be act 51 or, the federal And those are

the typically be split eighty twenty with grant funding through the county.

Yeah. Okay. That's all I have. My questions?

Any questions regarding the road bond paving? There's no discussion. Someone will need to

Yeah. Actually, Bruce is is really digging in the information there. I can see I'm hoping that he would be able to provide me with the roads bond account number because I'd I'd really like to make the motion including the account this money's coming out of.

It's it's here.

Where do you see it?

The GL number? It's down lower on there, Jennifer.

Oh, yeah. It is. Thank you. I never go that far. Mhmm.

Okay. So I moved to approve the 2025 payment improvement program bid award to Ajax Paving Industries for the estimated amount of $3,236,774.99, from the roads and streets and roads bond. Account number 450000977700, as authorized by the director of public works to sign contract, documents following approval of the city attorney as submitted by the DPW

director. Support.

Polica?

Yes. Johnson?

Yes. Kelly?

Yes.

Mikulski? Yes. Leaksmae?

Yes.

Alright.

Thank you.

We're not Thank you. Thank you, John. We are moving to item eight b, selection and approval of the city manager candidates.

We're up.

Thank you, mayor, members of council. My name is James Vitrano. I'm with, Vitrano Consulting and assisting with the city manager search. And at this time, if, your interim manager wishes to excuse himself for your discussion, I would welcome him to do so. After several, weeks, of work and preparation, the council had interviews with three candidates on Thursday, this past Thursday.

All three candidates presented their qualifications and responded to questions from, city council. They also were engaged with the public just before the meeting as well as had a tour of the city and engaged with your employees the Tuesday before that date. They're in front of you now, those three individuals for your consideration of a preferred candidate. My, suggestion as I can help facilitate this discussion as however you wish is to remember you are, obviously in a public meeting. These individuals have prepared it well for their interviews with you.

I'd ask that you focus on qualities, that impressed you or that make you want a person individual to be your next city manager, and focus on those individuals and those qualities that best fit your community at this time. Remembering that that this is part of their journey as city manager candidates for this process to be in public. So, yes, they signed up for this. But also as as elected officials, I'm certain you wanna express yourself to the to the individual qualities that you are most impressed with the candidates. After your discussion, if there's a motion to identify a preferred candidate, that motion can be made.

That motion should be made with whatever conditions council wishes to place on it such as a satisfactory background check, a physical, or any other items that the city puts on a new hire. I say very specifically your preferred candidate, because there's a a bit of a process after this process. Once a preferred candidate is selected, not only will you need to go through the standard background check and other employment items, but a contract would be negotiated with that individual. Your counsel should also express who will lead or at least be the beginning of the lead of that contract negotiation, whether it's your HR director or your HR director working with your labor attorney or the mayor, however you, you would prefer it. Once that process is complete, a contract would come before you.

That contract is the actual document that would have you have a new city manager for the city of Ferndale. If for some reason, it does not happen very often, but if for some reason a contract couldn't be reached, then you would come back to this table and say who your second preferred candidate could be, or you'd give me direction to to, initiate a different or the same process again. So with that as an introduction, sorry for the long windedness, but hopefully that was helpful for the public too in terms of coming to conclusion of this process. My suggestion, for the mayor is to take comment from individual members or ask members to express their opinion of who their most preferred candidate is.

Great. I open it up to council to, well, express who your preferred candidate is as well as how you got there. Go down the line. Who wants to go? I'll I'll start.

Oh, lord.

Thank you.

I will

I started everything tonight.

I'll keep it brief. Alright. It was it was a tough choice between two candidates. James Kurzan, we we obviously know. I think he has done quite well as our interim city manager.

He leads with empathy, and I really, really appreciate that. I I think that that has been phenomenal for our city staff. And my second candidate was Colleen O'Toole. And when I say that Colleen embodied everything that I have been looking for and instead of me in a city manager, I truly, truly believe it. I did call the city of Saline and spoke to their mayor, and he gave her a glowing recommendation.

I thought that she was very decisive. She was succinct. She was prepared. We heard from a member of the audience that she presented like a rock star, and I wholeheartedly agree. So and for me, Colleen was a very obvious choice.

And and it's not it's not because of any sort of lacking from James, but it really is about having a fresh set of eyes and a fresh perspective and just ticking all the boxes for me personally as a council member.

Right. Through the chair, I echo, what mayor Pro Tem Mikulski, her sentiments. I, too, was having a tough choice. I really like James. I think he's done a phenomenal job.

I have, been I felt more in the know, through his leadership in the last few months than I had, prior to, him at the helm. So that was really nice, a nice change of pace to, not find things out from residents or the social media to find it out from our city manager. But, again, you know, with Colleen, she just nailed it. She knocked it out of the park. She came.

She was prepared. She, had a plan. She has been in tough situations, and she's seen sailing through the other side. And I think a fresh set of eyes is exactly what we need, to come in and and really take a look at everything with the Headley. Whether it passes or it doesn't, we really need to look at efficiencies and how we move her now forward.

And I think she's the right person.

Right. And I will say that I feel really fortunate to have had for us to have been able to have the opportunity to have some great candidates apply for this position. Like the mayor Pro Tem, I did speak with the mayor of Celine. I also spoke with a council member. I think I spoke with all council members over the weekend.

It was totally my weekend was consumed with calling, and, I did manage to get a marriage a a wedding in there in between there, but, but, I have one or two. Yeah. And, but I was glad to be able to consult and and get the opinion of of all the council members and take on their perspectives. I also had the opportunity to meet with, to speak with a a former city manager, for Ferndale, and get, some insight as far as, the candidates. And this, former city manager knew of all of the candidates and had nothing bad to say about any of them.

So that made me very comfortable because other cities, sometimes aren't as fortunate to get a great group. I really appreciate the resident that came up and spoke regarding James about, continuing to cultivate his leadership and his growth and, all the great things, noting all the great things that he's done for the city of Ferndale. And I also want to also stress that when we're picking someone as important as a city manager, it is important for council to be at consensus. You wouldn't want someone you wouldn't want the vote to be split when this we're talking about someone who is coming in to help, go by the direction of council and help lead and move the city forward. So, at the end of the day, I am confident that we will be at consensus as to who we select to be our next city manager.

With that being said and thinking about it long and hard, I think that everything that I've heard about, Colleen, everything that I've witnessed about her, and then, of course, just my by me pondering and going by my own gut instinct all weekend and through this process, I think that she has demonstrated her ability to lead projects and is the preferred candidate, for the city at this time. That just doesn't mean that I will not continue to support James. I think he's amazing, and I just want him to know that and know that, you know, he stepped into a role when no one else was qualified, and I think he did a wonderful job. But I think as right now right now, for everything that we have moving that we have going on with the city, I think that the preferred candidate at this time will be, Colleen O'Toole. And any other comments from other council members?

Yeah. I'll just go next. You know, this was extremely difficult, for for me. I mean, I have not really slept much since Thursday. You know, I I love James.

He's done an incredible job. You know, he and I hit it off from, you know, moment one when we first met after I was elected, and and I've loved working with him. But Colleen, you know, Colleen, she just brought such a a a powerhouse, approach, and such a broad, background of experiences and knowledge. I mean, you know, overseeing construction projects, handling difficult financial situations. She she sort of has all of these things in one person.

And, you know, you always do your best to judge off of an application in an interview. You get, you know, this one time with a person. You get one stack of papers with a person, and that's always tough. You know, you you do your best to suss out from that as much as you can. And so I'm sure there will be some things that we'll continue to iron out with, with Ms.

O'Toole. But, you know, I think as the mayor said and and as mayor Pro Tem Mikulski and and council member, Kelly has said, you know, at this time where we are in the city, the sort of challenges that we face and the need for for a very dynamic person who not only leads with empathy like James does, but also brings this sort of dynamo of energy and this enthusiasm for, really just, engaging with not only the public but the council on things. You know, I think the time for now is is for that. I do, you know, absolutely, as my colleagues have said, intend to continue to develop and work with James and and and treasure what he brings to the city because he does bring such an incredible perspective. You know, as mayor Pro Temakosi said, leading with empathy, but he also is solid in the numbers.

He can get into a spreadsheet and mix it up with the best of us, and that's also what I need in a in a city manager and, in a in an assistant city manager as well. So I think, you know, the thing that I'm taking away from this is both are incredible candidates, both bring incredible things, And I think that together, both of them are going to be an unstoppable team leaving the city. This is the most important decision a council makes. Right? This any bing bong can get elected to this council.

But picking your city manager, someone who is not subject to the whims of elections and and and all these things, someone who can really steer the ship on behalf of the council, whatever the composition of that council may be, is so important. And I think right now, the captain I need at the helm is Colleen O'Toole.

Through the chair. So first, I wanna I I I appreciate, and wanna thank the residents, that met with the candidates, last week and took the time to respond to the questionnaire, after the that's those sessions. And I wanna thank the staff that took their time to meet with the candidates and and share their thoughts, with them. That was very helpful for me to see that information. Even though we interviewed three candidates, there were about a dozen applicants that were presented to us.

When we were looking at those dozen or so applicants, we were pretty firm that we wanted to interview those people that had city manager experience. I I believe we all felt that at this time, we need someone that has city manager experience. And and although there were really great individuals that had some, you know, a lot of experience with variety of things, on paper they looked great. I think we we made the right choice in in choosing those three to to interview. Each of the three candidates came with different management styles and and approaches to engagement and problem solving.

Not to say that either is, you know, better or worse, but there are times when you need one style, of of management and leadership in the time where you need another. And I think this time, we need the leadership style, and experience of Colleen. I I think that she will, bring a perspective that we need, to move us forward. And, so my preferred choice, as everyone else is, Colleen.

Any other comments before we

I just, through the chair, wanted to mention, echo what, council member Paul or Johnson said about them be making a great team. Like, I was, you know, very pleased to hear James say he was with us no matter what, you know, and he believes in Ferndale and he wants to stay with us. And I am super excited to have them work together, and I think they're a great team for sure.

Well, madam mayor, I move that the city council select Colleen O'Toole as city manager contingent upon the approval of an employment agreement negotiated between the appointed candidate and John Rabin, the city's labor attorney, including the starting date and compensation. I will also add and contingent upon a background check, which shall be presented to the city council at a future date for consideration. Support.

Johnson? Yes. Mikulski? Yes. Kelly?

Yes.

Polica? Yes. Leaksmae?

Yes. With that being said, that concludes our regular agenda. And now we open it up to call to council where we will have, department head updates.

To the chair, I'll be handling it this evening, but, no city manager in here right now. So I'm gonna start off with the Emmanuel Johnson from, Parks and Recreation.

Alright. Good evening, mayor and council. This is the old version of my announcement, so I'm just gonna wait. So, first of all, we want to thank everybody that came out to our, little princess dance two weeks ago. We had to turn out of about a 30 individuals that came out, and we also had princess Moana come out and greet the girls, had our standard our, traditional balloon drop that everybody enjoyed, and everybody went home with carnation as well as a goodie bag.

So we wanna thank all the people that came off of that. I also want to announce that, summer camp registration is currently scheduled to open on March 17. We will be, changing the registration process in order to allow residents to register first this time around, so that they could get their spots in before we open it up to the general audience. So we want everyone to keep an eye on our Facebook page for for when we make those announcements for when registration will actually open. And if you have any questions or anything about that, please contact me.

And, also, we are, still seeking upcoming extravaganza event that will take place on April 12 from one to from one to 2PM, at various parks. The volunteers that we solicit will primarily be helping to spread eggs and just assisting any kids and any kids and families with any anything that they need. It's a really quick event. And lastly, we have our Mackinac trip, scheduled for, I believe, May 14 through the seventeenth, that will that had that still has, available openings for people to register for. I believe we have something in the neighborhood of eight rooms left that we need to fill.

So for more information on that, contact the Parks and Recreation office and speak with our senior coordinator, Alicia.

Thank you.

Alright. Next up, we have our executive director of our DDA, Jenny Beaker.

Good evening, mayor and council. Tonight, I'm here to, announce a, exciting funding opportunity on behalf of the community and economic development department and the Downtown Development Authority. Match on Main is a reimbursement grant program that is provided by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, MEDC. It's an opportunity for local place based businesses, whether they are new or established businesses in Ferndale, to receive up to $25,000 in funding. Ferndale is duly eligible for this opportunity through MEDC because we are a redevelopment ready certified community, and we are also a select level Main Street, district.

So for this grant opportunity, we as the, city of Ferndale actually have to submit an application on behalf of applicants. So we will, be looking for up to two businesses to submit up to two applications on their behalf. So in order to identify this, we will have an online form that businesses, who are interested can, can fill out. This is the same approach that we took last year, as a joint initiative between CED and DDA. So interested businesses should have a shovel ready project plan that can be executed within one year of the award, So something that can be implemented or completed within one year of the summer, this summer and next summer, because awarding will be happening, in summer of twenty twenty five, so we'll need to be completed by '26.

The maximum award amount is $25,000 and requires a 10 match by the business. There is a $5,000 minimum for the project, and it's important for any interested businesses to know this is a reimbursement model. So they would be responsible for the upfront cost, but would be reimbursed, for eligible expenses. There's more information available about what eligible expenses are, but in general, it's, things like plans, design concepts, renderings, technical assistance. It could be, merchandising and layout, any sort of, activities that will activate a space differently.

Ineligible expenses would be things like rent, salaries, wages, maintenance, things that are just kind of run of the mill operations. So anyone who's interested, please look tomorrow for postings that are gonna be coming out from the city of Ferndale and the DDA that will include the web link to submit an interest form. That interest form will need to be completed by March 10 to be considered. We will be reviewing the submissions with the committee, and then we'll be following up with some finalists to, submit a final application in the March. So just look for the link coming out tomorrow for submissions by March 10.

Thank you.

Alright. Our next three folks will be speaking on the upcoming snowstorm that we're gonna have, or likely gonna have. We're gonna start off with our communications director, Kara Sokol.

Yeah. I think it's Good evening, counsel. Yes. So we're hearing right now about the potential for a snowstorm on Wednesday of this week and then maybe another one this weekend too. This would be our first one, actually.

Jim reminded me that this is the first one. We didn't have one last year either. So it's been a while since we've been through the snow emergency process. You know, generally speaking, the more hype we get ahead of a snowstorm, the less we actually get. So we're gonna hope that's the case.

We're gonna over prepare, though. So I wanted to remind people where they can find information about snow and snow emergencies. We have a web page on our site that is dedicated to all things snow emergencies. It's at ferndalemi.gov/resources/snow-emergencies. It will also be linked on the home page.

And should there actually be a snow emergency, that will be an alert on the home page as well. So we're gonna make it nice and easy for people to find. You can find information about snow emergency parking on this page. You can find a map for parking locations where you can park for free overnight or during the duration of the emergency. You can find information about how DPW plows and in what order, all that good stuff.

There's also a a link on that page for you to sign up for text alerts if you're interested. Should there actually be a snow emergency, we will, of course, announce it on our website. It will be on all of our social media channels. It will be shared by our partner social media channels, like the police department and the parks and rec department. It will be on the city's cable channel, and then it will also come out via text alert.

We will go through, and I will, refresh our our text alert system, on Wednesday right before this may or may not happen. So if anybody wants to sign up in the next couple of days so they're ready, we'll make sure that they get text coming out on Wednesday if there is indeed a snow emergency. That's all I have.

Alrighty. Next up is our DPW director, James Jamieson.

Thank you. So heavy snow is predicted for Wednesday and Saturday, unfortunately. If it's as bad as projected, it's best to avoid travel. Our trucks will be out working on keeping the roads open. If you can't avoid travel, which a lot of us can't, please use caution.

Slow down. Give our plow trucks plenty of room. Do not try to pass them. You will see them. They have bright blinking strobes.

It can be seen in the dark. You can see them much easier than they can see you. If a snow emergency is declared, as Kara mentioned, comms will, comms kind of pointed out how to get to that information. There will be no parking on streets as much as possible, and you should park in a snow emergency lot. The clearer the streets are, the easier it is for us to plow and salt all the residential streets, which comes with a snow emergency.

And that is it. Jim, could you define why how and when we declare a snow emergency so that residents like to refresh the residents on that?

Yeah. So, we used to have requirement that was specific to an inch. We no longer use that model. Sometimes, we're not sure. Snow can sort of melt.

It can go away. That's why we don't really look at the inch. So what we look at now, we've got all of our salt routes set up in a way that no resident should ever have to go more than two blocks to get to a street that's always maintained regardless. Even if it's just a little bit of ice, that street gets salted. It gets plowed.

You will see the pavement. We try to make a declare a snow emergency when we feel that the streets will be impassable. So if we don't go out and we don't maintain them, someone's not gonna get out of their driveway. They're not gonna be able to get to school, doctor's appointment, and other appointments. So, typically, in the past, it was four inches.

But, again, there have been scenarios where, the next day, it warms up and that four inches turns to two, and then the salt just kind of spreads from Woodward through the tire tracks. Pavement warms up. It doesn't make sense to spend a lot of time, and materials on something that's gonna kinda go away because of the sun. So I know that's not a rigid definition, but the reason it's somewhat subjective is there are a lot of variables that go into it.

Alright. Next is, chief Debbie from the police department.

Evening, mayor and council. Just a brief update on the snow emergency permits that, can be issued. There's a link on the city website. Kara talked about it. But it may I don't know if it's directly under snow emergency, but under city licenses and permits, if you keyword search no emergency permit, you can find a seamless dock that goes directly to PD personnel.

It allows us to confirm that your information is correct. This permit is for people who do not have driveways, who therefore cannot park in the driveway and get off the street. So we allow people with the permit to park in the street according to the ordinance, and there's a sticker that you can put on your car and allow us to do that so you don't get a snow emergency violation, which I think isn't a hundred dollars. So, if we do issue a snow emergency, please do not park in the street. And I know that we are not the most popular people during a snow emergency, but the plows really do need to work closely with the police department to make sure that these roads are passable.

And sometimes that involves, some citations. We don't wanna have to do that, but sometimes we are left no choice. Again, for a snow emergency permit, follow the seamless doc on the website. We will get to those and process them as quickly as possible. It could be as as early as twenty four hours, but we recommend that you do that ASAP.

Thank you.

Through the chair. So when do you issue tickets? Before or after the plows come through?

While this while the snow emergency is in effect, so, the DPW director will announce it. And then from that point until they the streets are substantially cleared. So if your road is cleared and the plows have gone through, you can put your go back on the street because the mission's been accomplished, if that makes sense.

Yes. But that's not hitting what I'm saying. So a lot of people complain that the plows have gone through, the snow emergency is over, this car's now been sitting two days, it's got snow all over it, you know that it hasn't been moved, the plow's gone around it, and no one's been issued a ticket. And people get upset over that.

I understood. We try to issue the ticket because it's date and timed within the boundaries of the snow emergency. It doesn't mean that that vehicle wouldn't be deemed abandoned as well because there's different, laws or ordinances that apply to it, such as if the vehicle's parked on the city street for more than forty eight hours, it is deemed abandoned by ordinance or state law. So then it would we would come out and check it at that point. We would try to reach an owner to have it moved.

Our officers will get out of the car, knock on doors. It's it's we're asking for cooperation because it's it takes a lot of resources to clear the streets, and it is really is a collaborative effort with all city departments. But we try to issue those violations because their date and time stamp be when the emergency is in effect. I do understand what you're saying because the logic would say that that car had been there during the storm emergency, but we're we're trying our best, to not issue them. But we'll we're gonna try to get them while the plows are out.

Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. Mayor, that concludes our, comments from city staff tonight.

I I thought chief Robinson would wanna announce something.

Alright?

Some good news.

Well, technically, you have two things because something happened earlier tonight too.

Oh, yeah. I can talk. Well, though. So the new ambulance is here. So it got here ahead of schedule.

It is at the fire station now. It showed up, this past Monday night. Yeah. Actually, right at right just before the start of the open house for the city manager. And so it showed up in during the interviews, they were testing out the sirens right below me.

So it was awesome. But exciting. It's going to Magic Graphics tomorrow to get all the graphics put on it. It is getting the, card installed on Friday, and then we will be taken out to the county for all the radio and everything installed. We're hope we're trying to move everything along.

We'll be loading it all. We'll apply for our state license. So at the latest, it should be in service on the street serving our community, March. So within the first two weeks of March and hopefully, maybe by the end of this month. So we're get getting everything lined up.

We're just waiting for our appointment with the county for the radio install. So it's exciting having it here. So if you haven't seen it, it'll be out on the street. It will be stationed out of Fire Station Number 2, and it is black and red matching the same color theme as the new engine. And just a reminder for any public that might be listening that might be wondering, especially with everything going on, the engine and the Amazon's broken speaking of, both were purchased with ARPA funds, so not city general fund dollars or anything else.

So the city had committed ARPA fund dollars understanding this was a need to provide services to our community, so that's where the funding was. I think it's always good to know where how things are being purchased. And a lot of the equipment going in is something that was grant funded that we received too with our last AFG grant. And then the other thing, just before council tonight, we did swear in our newest firefighter. So we have a new firefighter, Dylan Ryan.

Very, very excited to have him. He's gonna be a great addition to our team. And so he is in process and now official.

So good stuff. Patience.

Oh, and can I remind everybody if it gets slick, Slide your feet outside, duck walk? The last ice storm, we had a lot of slip and falls. We're running on them nonstop. So just remind people, use, due diligence, caution. If you're outside, if you're not sure, shuffle your feet, take smaller steps.

Just really be careful. And if you have, neighbors that maybe aren't as mobile, maybe be neighborly, help shovel their dry or sidewalks, put some salt on if you can. Let's take care of each other.

Else? Okay. Alright. And I'm opening it up to counsel, and I will start to, you know what, I I know what was up. Don't know what I'll start this with first.

Start with council member Pawlika.

I have nothing this evening.

Alright. I have nothing this evening.

Just one quick note. When mayor pro tem Alyssa Sullivan had come up from Hazel Park, I believe she mentioned that the thousand dollar art scholarship submissions were going to be accepted February 13, and I think she may have meant May 1 was the the end date. So I just wanted to make a quick note of that, and other than that I have nothing else.

And I just have, our parks and rec commission meets on the first Wednesdays of every month, and we are looking for a couple more, members so we could be at capacity. We have a really good, commission, going now. Got a few new members, and we're just looking for two more. So if you're interested, please fill out your application online at, the Ferndale website. Okay.

And with that being said, I'd like to first thank James Petrano and Petrano Consultants for your work as and and helping us lead to where we are now. Helping us through the process is a difficult process, but I'm always grateful for your leadership in this and and have proud to have worked with you before and proud to have worked with you this time as well. I wanna thank the city staff and the community members for being involved in the process as well. I think that whether it's a parent or not, council is trying to be far more transparent, and we're trying to be more engaging, with the community by promoting more community engagement. I think that this was one of the ways in which we've shown that we are trying to do that.

I would like to read the resolution in honor of Black History Month that I didn't read during, the consent agenda because I wanted to wait till now. But I'd like to read our resolution, and it's at a regular meeting of the city council of the City Of Ferndale, Open County, Michigan held in council chambers on the February 2025. The following resolution was moved and supported unanimously. The city of Ferndale is a community that celebrates its diversity by honoring those who live, work, and gather in our city. We, the city council, support the rights, freedoms, and equality of individuals within the African American community.

We believe that black lives matter, and we offer our solidarity and support to our black residents, employees, students, and visitors in Ferndale and beyond. We recognize February as the month when The United States celebrates the historical achievements of African American men and women that have contribute contributed to the betterment of our country. Ferndale takes pride in its diversity and believes that each person has the right to live life without prejudice and unfair discrimination based on age, gender, gender identity, race, color, religion, marital status, natural national origin, sexual orientation, or physical challenges. Therefore, be it resolved that this city council recognizes and celebrates February 2025 as Black History Month in the city of Ferndale, and we pledge to encourage the celebration of Black History Month to provide a continuing opportunity for all people to learn about discrimination and inequality that is faced and continues to face the African American community. Yet further resolved, city council authorizes the display of the Pan African flag onto city hall's outside flagpole during the month of February as part of the city's celebration of Black History Month and a symbol of its commitment to all individuals within the black community and that a copy of this resolution be sent to neighboring cities that border the great city of Ferndale, to the executive of the Oak of Oakland County, to the governor of the state of Michigan and our representatives and house representatives and our, US Representatives to the house of representatives and our senators.

With that being said, this meeting is adjourned at 08:38PM. Thank you.