City of Ferndale Candidate Forum 08272025

Thank you so much for coming. This is a tradition we started several years ago, and I'm so happy to see it continuing. There's papers on the back, little cards on the back table for you to write questions. People will be going up and down the aisle periodically to collect them and to give you more cards because as we all know, once it When

they have a question.

I'm sorry? Yeah. Hold them up when you have a question. And we all know that once it starts, you think of a gazillion questions. So, let's get started.

We we're allowing five minutes for the each candidate to introduce themselves, three minutes for each candidate to answer questions. It will rotate. And I wanna thank Sanchez for volunteering to be our moderator today. Sharon will be asking and reading off the questions. And Dick Wilcock is our timekeeper.

I how long have you been a timekeeper? Actually, I'm ashamed to admit. I do remember when Rudolfir's a dirt road. So our candidates today, we have our incumbent, Raylan, for mayor, who's running unopposed. We have two council seats open, and we have three candidates running for council.

We have Quinn Ziegler. We have Laura Mikulski, who's an incumbent, and we have Eddie Sabatini, who's so has anybody given me a question, Chad? We need questions. I have a question. Why the hell would you wanna be a council member?

Okay. Yeah. Katie says you can change the order if you want to just

I don't wear hearing aids, so I

So we'll start sharing. Okay.

Hi. Hi, everybody. So we're gonna let our candidates introduce themselves, and let's start with Eddie.

Alright. Good morning. My name is Eddie. I wanna thank you all for having us. I hope we have some fun, and this is informative.

And you get to know a little bit about us and and what we're about. So the reason that I'm I'm running for council is because I'm I'm answering a call from residents who liked how I was advocating for the Kulik Center, and they, quickly they quickly rallied around our efforts. Now there now that there's tangible movement toward a community first solution, I want to

Take a breath, talk from your heart.

Thank you. Yeah. Yes. I know. I scripted too much here.

I'm running because I like engaging with the community. I started doing that with the Kula Community Center. Residents rallied around it, and the the work that I did there was deeply rewarding, and I wanna continue that on council. The response that we got was overwhelming. Talked with hundreds of residents.

We have over 350 signatures on our petition. We, we made real progress in getting the district and the city to start addressing the community center issue. It's something that we've heard promises on for a long time, and now there is is real progress. And I'm excited about that, and I want to collaborate with our amazing city officials, with our city council, with the school district, on on what the next step looks like for the community center. But, I'm interested in a whole lot more.

The Kulik Center really is just a symbol of how I go about doing my work. I like going out in the into the community and talking with residents. I like doing hard things that people say are impossible. I don't wait to ask for permission. I identify a problem.

I outline solutions, and I get to work. So that's would be my commitment to you all, if you vote me on counsel. My my campaign is about three main principles, community, affordability, and trust. Community means advocating for you all. I have ideas and opinions on things, and I'm happy to share them.

But I it's much more important what you all wanna do, what the community wants to do. So I'd much rather you all be up here and us asking you guys questions because we learn a lot more. Oh, thank you. Okay. So I'll I'll wrap it up by saying, you know, I I hope I get the chance to demonstrate more about how I go about doing my work.

I I want to I'll go in hopefully answering some questions into what some of those other things are, specifically, quickly, working on communication, better transparency about city government. I was going over budget items. These are three budget different budget documents. All of them say different things. I wanna know what the document of record is.

I want to be the person that takes that complicated information and brings it to you simply and clearly and, frequently. Thank you.

Laura, would you like to take the floor?

Yeah. Five minutes. Right? Yes. That's okay.

So, Lorna Mikulski, city council. I wanna take you all back to 2019 for a moment, which may have been the first time any of you met me or heard of me unless you are unfortunate enough to have a rat issue in your yard. Back in 2019, because of the years leading up to that moment, I was desperately seeking a council member who would listen to me about my concerns, and he wouldn't pander or brush me away when I raised my hand with a problem. Before I decided to run, I started raising my hand about the looming dread I had around the end of the ten year headly override that we passed back in 2015, about my concerns that we were prioritizing developers and trust over those of our community members, and about what I saw as very real disinvestment in the Kulik community center. I was looking for a leader who would engage with me, talk with me, and most importantly, listen to me.

I was looking for a leader who would proactively communicate, who wouldn't get defensive and shut down disagreement, and who would do their best to make sure that I knew about things that were happening in our local government before they happened. I was looking for somebody who truly had the heart of a public servant and the intestinal fortitude to have the tough conversations and put in the work to represent me. I was looking for a politician who wouldn't disappear and stop responding once the election was over. And when I didn't find it, I decided to become it. I ran in 2019 as a nobody.

I had nicknames like the rat lady and the chicken lady. My my only municipal experience was on the beautification commission. I announced my run and was told it wasn't my time, it wasn't my turn, and that I needed to serve on more commissions before even considering a council run. But I ran and I won, not because of my municipal experience, which was pretty thin, but because there was a need in the community that I was fulfilling. I won because leading with integrity and genuinely caring about how the choices you make impact people in real life rather than just on paper resonated with our voters.

It also didn't hurt that I visited about 500 homes that year helping with rat issues. If nothing else, people knew I showed up when called, which is more than you can say for a lot of politicians. That leads us to now, 2025, with me back here ahead of a vote. I still have nicknames like the rat lady and the chicken lady. My daughter likes to call me the backup mayor due to holding the title of mayor pro tem.

I still have a deep dread inside me around our latest ten year, because now I understand the nuance of how rising cost keep pace with city budgets, and we're still down 2,000,000 annually due to Lansing whacking us with the short end of the statutory revenue sharing stick. I still have concerns that without strong voices at the table, developers will walk all over us, probably in shoes that we can't afford to buy on 9 Mile. And the Kulik, I told my husband last night, my biggest regret was that I wasn't able to voice my dissent over divesting from it. But my biggest hope, hopefully this year, is that I'm able to right that wrong and steer us towards reopening the space. I am still the leader who will engage with you no matter the topic.

I will actively listen. I will never shut down earnest disagreement or get defensive. I will still communicate as proactively as I can, making sure that you know about important meeting meetings. I will continue to publish my annual update for residents, letting you know what I've done and what's on the horizon. I will still publish my voting record.

What I want you to take away is that I have the heart of a public servant. I commit to being just as engaged post election as I am during it. Public service isn't about pedigree or political endorsements. It is about showing up, listening, and fighting for your neighbors. It's measured by whether your community knows that you've got their back.

Everything else in campaign season is just marketing. I hope when you look back at my record of leading with integrity, fiscal prudence, transparency, and accountability, you'll believe me when I say I want to earn your vote in November, but continue earning your trust the next four years. Thank you.

Quinn, you're up.

Alright. Thank you. So my name is Quinn Ziegler. I am running for city council. And first, I wanna thank the Ferndale seniors for having us here today.

I wanna thank all of you for coming and for asking what I know are going to be such great questions. And thank you also to the city for letting us use this amazing space. So caring for our community is an act of love. And I look around this afternoon, and I see so many of you out there who are giving back. Right?

You're serving on the boards and commissions. You are supporting our local nonprofits. And these acts of service are how we care for each other and the place that we call home. So when growing up, my family, we moved around a lot. And if you've moved around a lot to you know that it's really hard when you get someplace to make new friends and build new relationships.

So for me, public service or giving back in some sort of way was how I got connected. So over the past six years, I have served on several boards and commissions, including the environmental sustainability, the facilities task force, and the finance review committee. And that work on these complicated topics has given me a strong understanding of how our budget ties directly to the services that we rely on and how important it is to balance today's needs with long term planning. These experiences have also opened my eyes to how complex city government can be, but also the tools that we have to care for our community together. I have gained real insight into Ferndale's financial situation and the challenges that we face in keeping our core services strong, growing our successful programs, and cutting unnecessary expenses.

I'm committed to making our government operations more transparent so that we can all become more informed and engaged neighbors. My top priorities are addressing the poor concerns in our public safety buildings. Too long, we have disinvested from those buildings. We've deferred maintenance over and over. We need to meet resident desires for a community center.

We want a place to gather together. We want programming for our seniors and for our kids. And for those of us in the middle, right, I wanna go to the book clubs and the exercise groups and whatever programming is available where I can meet new people and make new friends. We also have to make sure that we're doing the basics well. Right?

And that means things like code enforcement. That means ongoing fiscal responsibility and making sure that somebody answers the phone when you call city hall. I want to continue investing my time and taking what I have learned as volunteer and working on these complex issues and put it to work for city council. With your support, I will bring my dedication, my financial know how, and my collaborative approach to build a more vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable community in a place that we can be proud to call home.

And mayor, you wanna bring this to the full circle and Alright.

We can

start opening it up for questions.

Well, good morning to all of you, and thank you seniors for always hosting an informative and well needed and necessary forum. I've been a part of forums like this probably over the last thirteen years, and you never disappoint. So and thank you to the city for always being the gracious host. My name is Raylon Leaksme, and I've had the honor and privilege of serving as your mayor in this vibrant city that we call Ferndale. For those of you who do not know me, I have been I am the mother of five beautiful children.

I have been a resident in this community for over thirty decades. All all my children have been raised here, and I've, I'm sorry? You said thirty decades.

Three. Sorry. Alright. You started looking real closely at you.

I've served so I have thirteen years experience in local government, three years on the Ferndale Public Schools Board of Education, eight years on the Ferndale City Council, and one and a half years as your mayor. I have served and continue to serve on various boards, commissions, and task force even outside of my role here as mayor. My profession by day is I'm a long term care ombudsman, AKA, a residents rights advocate. Meaning, I go into nursing homes, licensed nursing homes daily, and assisted livings and adult foster cares and advocate for the rights of those residents. And and you'd be surprised the rights that I have to advocate for.

It's no wonder that I've championed efforts for affordable and accessible housing, advocated for equity and conclusion, have a vision of a multigenerational vision, when it comes to making decisions on council. I just got lost. I have a history of being fair, impartial, and thoughtful, and brought me and, there's just the tough decisions that I bring before council, I take that very seriously. I believe that experience does matter, and I hope that I've demonstrated to you over the years my commitment and vision for Ferndale. And I look forward to your questions and for you sharing with your concerns and what you love about Erndell, what you don't like, and how I can be able to get any assistance to you, as we move forward.

So I look forward to hearing what you have to say. Your voice has always mattered to me, and I hope that moving forward, I can continue to serve as your mayor and continue to listen to you and continue to protect the rights and needs that you have come to be dependent on and reasons why you grow grown to love this community.

Let's move forward. Alright. So the questions that what?

I knew it. Alright. Everybody

up there was

Oh, okay. Well, if you

would like to Henderson in a few minutes?

Well, yeah. Of course. Yeah. I would I'd like I got a few other things to say. Now?

Yes. Now. Alright. Alright. So my my the three main policy things that that that have been driving this campaign and and what I wanna bring to you as a city councilor were community affordability and trust.

Community means protecting and advocating for the rights of residents and local businesses. I'm already doing that now in several different ways. A few of those include protecting our green spaces and the Koolick Center through the Koolick Coalition. I think that's pretty well documented. People call me the Koolick guy.

Spearheading a new health and wellness commission. I love our commissions. I think it's a great way to engage in the community. I want to contribute to that with, prioritizing mental and physical health for our residents, getting them resources that they need and deserve. Supporting and advocating for our businesses for our business districts on Livernois, Hilton, and Marshall, so they can be as vibrant as our nine mile in Woodward downtown.

As a side note, check out the Harvest Festival on Livernois on September 27. Those businesses are working hard to bring something very special to us. And they actually succeeded in blocking off Livernois, which I think is pretty impressive. Affordability. I believe it's the duty of our city council people to seek out and exhaust every form of revenue and funding that does not burden you as a resident taxpayer.

Residents of Ferndale are understandable understandably tax weary. I know that I am. Alternatively, alternative revenue sources exist and are waiting for those bold enough to go and get after them. I made a lot of noise about Kulik. I'll make a lot of noise in Lansing getting that that money that, Laura said is, missing from us.

I think we are since 2020, we're down $8,000,000 that they owe us or that they should have, given us. I'm I'm doing that through a ballot initiative called Invest in My Kids. It's it's aimed at, holding the the wealthiest and the, corporations accountable, giving us our fair share. That money will go directly to the public schools, won't affect our income taxes. And then finally, trust.

Without trust, all these other things don't matter. I believe we can strengthen the bond between our local government and our residents with accountability and straightforward forward communication. I'm committed to demystifying the government process with open plain language, and government's only as complicated as we allow it to be. I like what Einstein's, believed. He said, if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

I hope I get the chance to demonstrate more of these values as we talk today. Thank you.

Alright. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna change the order, and we'll start with Laura. Raelon, because you're unopposed incumbent, after each question, I'm gonna call on you last because you're gonna have the most information in regards to some of these questions that you may be able to answer. Okay? Alright.

So the questions are pretty good. The questions are are different, and they're a lot different than what I was expecting. So here we go with the first one. We have been subject to the vanity projects of narcissists for fifteen years. Meanwhile, basic maintenance has fallen by the wayside.

Will you commit to proper maintenance and rehab of buildings? And, Laura, you wanna start with that, please?

Thank you. I know that's Evelyn. I recognize your language. Yes. So the short answer here is, you know, everybody thinks that they're making the right choice when they make their choices.

Right? So projects come to us. Initiatives come to us. They come to us from residents. They come to us from city staff, and they come to us from the rest of council.

And we make the choices as a as a council body that we think are right and that reflect the desires, the wants, and the needs of our residents. That said, I, I've had conversations with Evelyn and with a lot of you that there are some that I disagreed on. My voting record shows that, and I will say that balancing a city budget is a lot like going on a diet. Everybody wants results. Nobody wants to give up the dessert.

My job is to make sure that we trim the fat, not the essentials, and that we can afford the things that keep Ferndale running. It is disgusting and disappointing that we have not invested in our infrastructure, that we have done things like mural projects, which I love. They're beautiful. They're great, and they become a fixture and a draw to our city. There's something that we can pat ourselves on the back about.

But infrastructure isn't sexy, and it always falls by the wayside. It is our job, and it is going to be our focus, and it is going to continue being our focus to invest in those things that are critical so that we can actually get it done so we're not coming back to you with a laundry list of a facilities plan and a finance task force saying we didn't do it for another ten years. Now we really gotta do it, and it's really gonna be expensive. So, yes, that that is my commitment to you all, and I'm happy to make it.

Quinn, do you need to have that question? Were you at? No. Thank you.

So one of the jobs that I have previously held was in the maintenance department of a regional bank. So I did things like wrote a multimillion dollar budget every single year. I handle the ongoing maintenance for dozens of bank locations, including bank headquarters. So I am very familiar with the kinds of needs that commercial buildings have and the kind of effort and energy that it goes into maintaining those buildings long term. So I am absolutely committed to the preventative maintenance that needs to go into those buildings.

I am also committed to looking at our current buildings and making the investments in those buildings that make sense. So I was on the facilities task force a couple of years ago, and we had the opportunity to tour our city owned buildings and look at what those needs are in addition to the facilities condition assessment. And some of you here in the room were on that committee with me. It's been very disheartening to see that there was such what we call deferred maintenance. Right?

We're not gonna do it now, but we'll do it later. Later has come home to roost. Later is now. Later is urgent. We have to do it, and we have to do it now.

So I am committed to investing in these buildings to make sure that they are meeting our needs today, and they are also meeting our long term needs.

Eddie, you're up.

Would you mind repeating the question for me, please, Sharon? Not at all. Thank you.

Laura got a kick out of it. So Sure did. We have been subject to the vanity projects of narcissists for fifteen years. Meanwhile, basic maintenance has fallen by the wayside. Will you commit to proper maintenance and rehab of buildings?

Yes. So I think first, I I'm not a narcissist. I I like to think that I'm empathetic or, yeah, an empathetic leader, who's not driven by ego. So I don't really have an agenda other than caring for our community, and and that means caring for our facilities. You know, bring it back to Kulik.

Watching that building deteriorate over a better part of a decade was very disheartening. You know, demolition by neglect, as I like to call it, that that's gotta stop. And I think getting that property back into the city's hands is the first step in changing that culture where we're caring and maintaining for the things that we own in a way that is future looking. Right? These are decisions that we're making that are gonna impact generations beyond us.

So we need to set them up in the best position possible, and that means finding places where we can make cuts. Like, there's a baseline amount of money that it cost to run a city. Right? You you can't eliminate some things. A lot of things are federally man state mandated.

Right? But there's some non essentials, that that we need to take a hard look at and ask if we can live without. I know what it's like to run on a and live on a tight budget. We're a family of four currently living on a single income. It's not ideal, but it's the reality.

And I know that sometimes when you're on a fixed income, you need to cut non essentials, and sometimes you need to cut back on, if not eliminate some essentials. So I wanna take a look at that. I think no department is immune to being examined. And, I I'm willing to to do that research and then communicate it with you so that you have some input on where we can make some changes in order to build that culture that I think we all want, where we're responsible and caring for what we have. We're not taking things for granted.

We're not spending on extravagant things that we can't afford. I mean, this is Ferndale. Right? Like, we don't need a $30,000,000 facility. We need something modest that we can start using, and and, that is inclusive to everybody.

And I think that starts with with maintenance, and repair. So, let's let's take a hard look at that, and let's commit to it.

Raylan, it's your turn. And just for a moment, would you please explain what Eddie referenced in regards that we do not own the property at the Koolick Center?

Well, we don't own the property, because it belongs to the schools. What we did do is that we rented the property and with the with the agreement to maintain it, over years long before I was actually on council, but I came in knowing of that agreement. The Kulik Center has been a staple in my family for many years. I've had I'm a mother of five, as I told you, and we utilized it for many, many years. And it's going to be great to have it back, and I'm glad that those conversations are being had.

Regarding rehabbing of the maintenance and rehabbing of buildings, I want you to know that I am definitely committed to our infrastructure. It's something very important. In fact, over the path this past year, I actually orchestrated a meetup and tour with our state representative, Mallory Mcmorrow state senator Mallory Mcmorrow and our state representative, our city manager,

some of their some

of the our state represent some, state senators' people, and we took a tour of the fire station. And I because I thought it firsthand that they would need to be able to look and see what we're dealing with, what our female firefighters are dealing with, and to be able to show that we really want to commit to the infrastructure and the facilities and our community that they last a long time, and we're able to attract new talent and and keep the people who work so hard for us day to day healthy and safe in their environment in their work environment. Over the past year, I've not been able to do anything like that because, you know, my first year as mayor was very busy. It was a learning curve, But I feel much more comfortable now being able to reach out to our representatives, our local other local elected officials, to collaborate with members of council, to be able to come up with ideas and and a focus and a reset as to what we consider important. And infrastructure and maintenance is definitely at the top of that list.

So, yes, I am committed to that, and I will continue to be committed to that.

Okay. Quinn. The Ferndale seniors, who are your hosts today,

have,

what is this? The Ferndale Seniors here and this forum was advertised in the Facebook forums. How do we engage more citizens to become involved, pay attention to issues, and volunteer for commissions?

Absolutely. I've talked to a lot of folks lately who say I'm not on Facebook anymore. Right? Facebook is just it's it's a lot of people all yelling at the same time. It is, people who are saying that they've stopped or or perhaps are not online at all.

So we need to continue to engage with those folks. So for folks who are online but are not on Facebook or social media, we can look at things like, e newsletters. Right? We have the printed newsletter. Maybe we look at an e newsletter so that you're getting information faster.

You're getting more information in a timely manner. We also need to just do additional engagement, as people who participate in those organizations ourselves. We need to be constantly getting the word out. Folks who are on council need to be doing their part to do outreach, to nurture folks, to get involved. I have certainly told a lot of people at doors over the last couple of days, hey.

You're interested in parks and rec? There's an opening on the parks and rec commission right now. You can apply. So letting people know, oh, there's an opportunity. I spoke to someone the other day.

They had been in Ferndale for about thirty years, and they did not even know that resident commissions existed. So we need to be continually talking to folks about that and doing some really targeted outreach, to let folks know as well.

Yeah. I need the question, please. I'm a daydreamer.

Ferndale seniors, are here, and this forum was advertised in the Facebook forums.

Oh, yeah.

How do we engage more citizens to become involved, pay attention to issues, and volunteer for commissions?

Okay. Yeah. That's great. Communication, builds trust. Right?

Needs to happen often, needs to happen in plain language, needs to be accessible and inclusive to all people. I think social media technology can be a great tool. So I hope that you guys keep shouting online at us, do our best to answer it and put information out there because it's one of the tools that we we have at our disposal. I like the idea of an e letter. I like the idea of doing, our mailer letter, more often, more cheaply, but more often.

Maybe a calendar of events. I think there's other tech tools that we have at our disposal, like sending out, text message blasts that you can opt out of or opt into that that gives you, updates on city happenings. I I would just wanna come out and talk with you all more. Like, I'm not gonna stop bugging you after the campaign's over. I'm gonna knock on your door and ask you about what's the next thing after cool if we wanna we wanna talk about.

I'll come to the senior group meetings, and and you gotta we have to meet people where they're at, and I'm committed to do that. I I I think and that's in a number of different ways. So, I want to commit to having some town halls. I think that would flip this dynamic a lot for the better. Right?

I get to ask you all questions and and give you some of my thoughts on it. Office hours. I'm gonna I'm gonna have office hours. I'm gonna do them virtually and in person. I don't know what the cadence is gonna be like, but everyone's gonna be welcome to come and give me an idea, I hopes, concerns for Ferndale.

I think that's gonna be a really cool tool tool to use. Commissions. I love the commissions. I think that that's a great way, for the community to be civically engaged. I think there's a lot of ways that the community can be civically engaged, and we should be encouraging all of those.

Right? There's different ways to learn about the city and and help the city move forward in a way that we we, we wanted to. Right? I wanna start a commission. I'm looking at piloting the health and wellness commission.

It's something that is near and dear to my heart, mental and physical health. It impacts me and my family. And so I would like to bring that one out to the community and and in that process, informing you about the the other ones that are available to us. But, I think it all it comes down to proactive and consistent communication.

Right?

Like, Like, we can't wait for you all to come to us. We've gotta go to you, and I love doing that. Finally, I think it would help to distill down a lot of this information. It's very overwhelming, and people wanna know about budgets. They wanna know about finance.

And I've got five documents up here, and there was more that I didn't print, that were buried on a website. They were difficult for me to read, and it took me a while to to to break it down. So I wanna commit to doing distilled versions of all of these things. One pagers that you can look at when you're going to the polling booth and understand the millage increase in a very simple way that you don't have to read a 17 page document for. You don't have to hunt for it.

We'll bring it to you. Alright.

Thank you very much, Eddie.

Laura? Sharon, could you read the question again? I just like hearing you talk.

The seniors here in this forum was advertised in the Facebook forums. How do we engage more citizens to become involved, pay attention to issues, and volunteer for commissions.

Alright. So I am one of those folks that advertised it within the Facebook forums, and it's near and dear to my heart. I will absolutely cop to the fact that I think social media has become more fractured. Folks are all over the place as as Quinn alluded to earlier. People go where they feel comfortable getting information.

People go where they feel comfortable engaging. Where I think we can make improvements to get people more engaged and to get information into their hands more readily is we can go where it's most convenient for them. We can go straight to their home. And what I mean by that is we have a very unique opportunity in the fact that, you know, historically, we've been putting out these newsletters to to individual homes. They're glossy.

They're beautiful. They're a booklet. Comes out on a quarterly basis. On a quarterly basis, you look at it once. I don't know if you're keeping them.

I don't know if you're referencing them. But what I do know is when senior forums and certain events come up, getting timely information into people's hands a little bit more regularly is gonna be helpful. What I have in front of me here, which it looks god awful, but this is from Warren. This is where my parents' home was. And I'll tell you, this comes out every single month.

It comes out in their water statement, and I know more about what's happening in Warren than I do in Ferndale. It is very telling that I can look at a one sheet page of information that is just tightened and compressed and put onto a piece of paper and learn about any sort of upcoming event, who I need to contact, what the important dates are, what the important meetings are. That's one method. We have other methods at our disposal. There are things like push notifications.

If you ever signed up for, the notification of snow plowing on your street, so emergency movement of your car off the street so the snow plows can get through, that's a database that we have access to. We have the ability to push a notification out to people who have subscribed. We can use it. Why aren't we using it? I know that that's a slight deviation from the way that we've done communication in the past, but if we were able to text people that were interested in being engaged with opportunities to engage with us and to give them communication, again, that's gonna come straight to them.

It's not a huge cost increase. It's not some new program. It's using the resources that we already have. I think that could be a vast improvement. Thank you.

Oh, Braline, you wanna circle around that question? Do you remember it?

I know. What would you say it

one more time?

Hey. Aren't you

a part

of the senior group?

I

am now, actually.

Seniors here in this forum was advertised in the Facebook forums. How do we engage more citizens to become involved, to pay attention to issues, and volunteer for commissions?

Well, I

will first tell you, we all know that this community is very small. You can't go anywhere without running into someone somewhere. Trust me. I know. As your mayor, I have been I've had the privilege of being able to appoint many community members to various boards and commissions over the last year and a half, and I've served on boards and commissions myself as a council liaison prior to my being mayor.

Yes. The technology does help. Reaching out to techno reaching out to individuals via technology is helpful. And I know that it is helpful because a lot of you are able to reach out to me with whatever it is, whether it be with my job, my day job, or issues that you have in the city. You know how to find me.

I get them via text. I get them via email. I get them via, Facebook Messenger. You name it. But my but one thing that I have really grown comfortable with and I think is always going to be my way is not only just social media or virtually.

I like for you to call me. I like for you to call me, and I let's meet up face to face. Go out to lunch or or or come to your home. This is what I've done, and I think that's most effective. So there are various ways to meet with individuals, various ways to connect with individuals, but I'm I guess I'm old school.

I like the one on one. Call me. Talk to me. Email me. Let's meet up, and let's talk about what's what commissions you're interested in.

I can share with you what commissions are available, and I just want to be accessible to you. I will tell you that. I know for a fact that our boards and commissions are actually gateways to, individuals serving in local government. I believe that, which is why I take it very seriously. They've also led to employment within the city.

So lots of opportunities. And I hope to be able to share those opportunities with you. And I hope to see more pay more faces on our boards and commissions. Just me by example, I serve on commissions here at the city level. I serve at on commissions, at the Michigan Municipal League and also recently been reached out by Oakland County to serve on their saves task force.

If you don't know what save means, it means serving adults who are vulnerable and are elderly. And the purpose of it is to provide education and prevention for abuse and exploitation, something that community members such as yourself have reached out to me that you're experiencing as well. So, in my profession, I like to be able to, bring what I've learned and what I know and and to protect our seniors in this community. I'm passionate about it. I always will be, but not just seniors, anyone who wants to serve on our boards and commissions.

So you can always reach out to me, and I'm going to give my phone number out because most people know how to reach me by that way anyway. (248) 953-3525. Now that is the number that I give to everyone, and I don't mind you calling me and asking me about anything of of concern and if you want to serve. I'm open to you and serving few.

Okay, candidate. I've been asked if we can take a five minute break. And then because we have so many questions, and they're very, very good questions, I'm wondering if you can commit to two and a half minutes instead of three minutes so we can two minutes? Okay. This so if you think that you can get so what you wanna do is stay concise with your answers.

Don't reiterate the things we already know about you. Stay really focused on that. So let's take a five minute break. Okay.

Are you guys freezing?

I'm always cold.

I'm sitting over here doing this each and every time I'm not talking.

And that's why I told Laura and I, and Quinn and everybody else. I I have to kind of

No. I'm bad at pictures.

And and they're running out. Is the people wrote so late.

Awkward to us.

Alright. This one.

Well, she's just clarifying on some of the questions.

Oh, no. Right.

It's not hard.