Fiscal Committee Meeting Summary - July 29, 2025
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Fiscal Committee Meeting Summary - July 29, 2025
The Fiscal Committee convened on July 29, 2025, at 8:30 AM and adjourned at 8:49 AM. The committee considered 11 agenda items, including resolutions for intergovernmental agreements, contracts, and financial reports. All items were approved or received and filed.
Item 1: Resolution Authorizing IGA with West Michigan Regional Medical Consortium for DHS Grant Program
- The chief confirmed the grant year is 2024, a standard pass-through for equipment funding for emergency management, police, and fire departments. Approved unanimously.
Item 2: Resolution Authorizing Contract with Tower Pinkster for Energy Audits (not to exceed $235,000)
- Ms. Wilkinson explained the audits are funded by a Department of Energy grant and will evaluate the city's 20 largest energy-emitting facilities to recommend energy efficiency measures and cost savings. Commissioners asked about the scope, cost, and relation to the CAP process. The funds are solely for the study, not upgrades. Approved unanimously.
Item 3: Resolution Authorizing Agreement with Safe Build Michigan LLC for Inspection Services (not to exceed $400,000)
- One-year term to support electrical and mechanical inspections during vacancies and retirements. Approved unanimously.
Item 4: Resolution Approving Agreement with GHD Digital for GovStack Website Platform (not to exceed $150,000)
- The first step toward a website redesign; first-year cost anticipated around $50,000 with substantial cost savings over the contract term. Approved unanimously.
Items 5-7: Resolutions Approving Broker Dealer Agreements with T. Rowe Price, BOK Financial, and StoneX Financial
- The city treasurer explained these three new broker dealers will replace inactive ones to ensure competitive bids for fixed-income investments. Each resolution approved unanimously.
Item 8: Resolution Authorizing Payments to Kent County Drain Commissioner for Knapp's Corner Drain Maintenance (not to exceed $500,000)
- Daniel Tabor, stormwater manager, stated the payments cover pumping water from a pond as a temporary flood mitigation measure while a permanent outlet to the Grand River is developed. The city's cost share is 83%. Approved unanimously.
Item 9: Bid List Resolution for July 29, 2025
- Five routine items; a commissioner asked about thresholds for separate agenda items. Approved unanimously.
Item 10: Comptroller's Warrant Report (Period July 1-14, 2025)
- Payments totaling $53,395,739.15 were released, including $5.9 million for payroll and 400 income tax refunds. The comptroller noted compliance with all applicable regulations and laws. Received and filed.
Item 11: City Treasurer's Report (Period July 1-15, 2025)
- The treasurer discussed the Federal Reserve's data-driven approach, with no near-term rate cuts expected. The city's portfolio is $740 million, earning 3.47%. Interest earnings on bond funds, including $100 million for a soccer stadium at 4.55%, are generating additional project revenue. Received and filed.
Key Outcomes
- All 11 items were approved or received and filed unanimously.
Meeting Transcript
All right, good morning, everybody. It is uh 8 30. We'll go ahead and get our fiscal committee meeting here underway this morning. We've got uh 11 items, yep. 11 items before us. Um starting off with number one here, we've got a resolution authorizing an intergovernmental agreement between the city and the uh West Michigan Regional Medical Consortium for the Federal uh Fiscal Year 2024 DHS grant program. Is there a motion? Support. All right, move in support. Morning Chief welcome. So we did triple check the year. It is 2024 for this grant program. All right. And this is a standard pass through. So this comes from DHS through the state police through the West Michigan Regional Medical Consortium to the city. And we've done this for the last several years, and it's funded uh equipment for emergency management, police department, and fire department. So if the funds are available and they trickle all the way down through, this is what this agreement is for. Awesome. Thanks. Any questions, colleagues? Discussion. Alrighty, hearing none. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed, it carries. Item number two, we've got a resolution authorizing a contract for an amount not to exceed 235,000 with Tower Pinkster, uh, and that's to conduct energy audits of select city facilities. So moved. Support. All right, move and support. We have Ms. Wilkinson here this morning. Good morning. Good morning, Commissioners. Uh again, this is a resolution for a contract not to exceed 235,000 for Tower Pinkster to conduct energy audits at our municipal facilities. Uh this funding was provided by the Department of Energy, energy efficiency and conservation block program that was provided to the city last year. And this essentially is for these energy audits for municipal municipal facilities, is that they help us to understand what energy efficiency measures we can put in place, what cost savings we can put in place in our municipal facilities, as well as to reach the metrics established in our strategic plan as well as our greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals for our municipal facilities. Okay, great, thanks. Um I had a quick question that I'll open up to my colleagues. I know um some of my other colleagues too are just more curious about some of the details. I know you know, putting together an agenda packet, it's always a balance of brevity and and um you know giving a high level overview so people understand, but also um providing some details. So I think there was just some questions about the cost. So I don't anticipate this isn't gonna pass. I think um I just wanted to give a heads up that um perhaps at our our meeting later today it might get pulled off consent just for some additional discussion, but um curious to see where that goes. So with that, I'll turn to my colleagues too and see if they have any questions or thoughts on this one. Sure, yeah, I have I have a lot of thoughts on this one. I think I'm very supportive of it. Um I know it's a best practice. Um if I'm right, Miss Wilkinson, I'll go back and forth here with you of it similar to um doing this in our own homes, right? Consumers offers this where you go around, you're checking light bulbs, you're seeing if you can save money later on by making some simple changes. It's a best practice, especially for uh for cities.
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