The microphone.

I'm gonna call committee of the whole to order.

First item of business is a resolution authorizing uh special events uh chapter 53 of the city code.

So moved.

Uh and who do we have to talk about this for us?

Ms.

Pittman.

Good morning.

All right.

Uh so this um uh resolution uh request um there should have been an attachment listing all of the events that are occurring uh between October of this year and April of 2026.

All of those events will be required, of course, to have their certificate of insurance as well as their event action plan.

Um and we work, of course, very close with other city departments to make sure that all of the requirements are met.

I especially want to call out the Diwali Festival of Lights on Tuesday, October 21st from 8 to 9.

They are requesting to discharge consumer grade fireworks.

They are located at 2525 Lennart.

Great.

Um any discussion, colleagues.

Seeing none, all in favor of authorizing this group, uh say aye.

Aye aye, all opposed.

Motion carries.

Yes.

May I just for upon the personal privilege?

I want to thank Ms.

Pittman for all of her event planning and coordination over a very busy and active summer, and uh has done a very uh good job, particularly in coordinating with the most recent RPRIS event.

So thank you for your work.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Um so uh next item on the agenda is a resolution on election day polling locations.

Um and I suppose our city clerk's gonna discuss that.

Yes?

So moved.

Support.

Yes.

Um so we have upcoming election.

Um the only thing on the agenda for most of the city is the Kent Your Immediate School District, and then we have a couple of voters in the Godwin Heights school district that has a um milletry quest.

So we are opening um all of our precincts except for one Keno Shea school is under um construction so the election commission consolidated um Kenoche with um Brookside a notice was mailed to every um household um in that in that voting precinct.

Um and then we are not I'm not requesting any uh change in pay for the uh election day or for the inspectors.

Um those were the pay rates that from the previous election.

Yeah.

Um interesting to me that I've already voted, even though we haven't established polling locations.

Um but uh uh any discussion.

I yeah, we I got my absentee ballot, you probably got it too, uh Commissioner Kogar.

You can mail it right in.

Uh yeah, Commissioner.

Thank you.

Uh so this is an extension of the conversation we had earlier this year um considering changes to polling sites.

Uh these changes include the ML elimination of several polling locations throughout the city, including half of them in the third war.

So as a continuation of um my stance on that earlier this year, I still say consistent, and this is the wrong decision for us right now.

I think since we had this conversation this spring, there's been even more apparent attacks on uh voice, free speech, democracy, and access to the ballot box.

And so um I continue to say that this is the wrong choice for Grand Rapids.

Um when we have this conversation this spring, I asked for an amendment to keep voting sites open in black and brown communities in the third ward, and that was voted down.

Um and so I'll be voting against setting these polling locations because um I do not agree with with closing sites throughout the city.

Any further discussion?

Okay, all in favor of the resolution say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Aye.

Motion carries.

Brings us to our next resolution on a liquor license for the elite district LLC development.

So moved.

City clerk.

Yes, on Division Avenue, um 100 block.

Um, if you're familiar with the with the building, it has uh a sign up front, it has a marquee signer um a neon sign says elite was there elite restaurant was um so they're renovating um putting quite an instantial um renovation into um those two storefronts.

Um and so one of the ways you can get a liquor license through the is through a development district license.

So that's how they're requesting it with their certain stipulations on how much money has to be invested.

So um, but all their paperwork and all their approvals are um through through all the vetting that had to go through all the different departments.

Uh and these folks came and talked to the DDA extensively.

Um it's exciting.

We're gonna get some redevelopment down on that block, which has suffered some losses recently.

So I'm personally glad to see this happening.

Um any discussion.

ways you can get a liquor license through the is through a development district license so that's how they're requesting it with there's certain stipulations on how much money has to be invested so um but all their paperwork and all their approvals are um through through all the vetting they had to go through all the different departments uh and these folks came and talked to the DDA extensively um it's exciting we're gonna get some redevelopment down on that block which has suffered some losses recently so um I'm personally glad to see this happening um any discussion uh commissioner do we have a limit on how many liquor licenses are available or is there ever a constraint there yes and no um so there is a limit so there's different different kinds of licenses so we have a quota we have quota licenses based on your population if your population grows in the 10 years they'll add quota licenses um but they have there's different ways that you can get a liquor license and one of the routes is through this development district so if it's inside one of our development districts then we have to get a approval or a um recommendation from the development whether it's uptown downtown um west side uh for these development districts there is not a limit on those okay um all in favor of the uh resolution say aye aye aye all opposed motion carries this brings us to uh uh brownfield plan amendment for 443 Sheldon uh project that we've discussed before but Ms.

Monero's coming up to discuss it can have a motion support good morning yes thank you uh this just as a reminder this is the activation of a new construction building roughly at wealthy and division uh for 26 apartments and 13 parking spaces all electric and solar and I just wanted to carve out the six units that are anticipated to be 60 percent AMI or below I'm happy to go into more detail if you have any questions.

We did uh have this before us previously commissioners uh any discussion okay all in favor of uh proceeding say aye aye aye all opposed motion carries that brings us to Ms.

Rennero not leaving and talking about a brownfield development plan amendment for uh powers place project at 764 and 800 powers can have a motion so moved support Ms.

Ranero yes this is an infill project to make way for uh new construction of eight townhomes where we've got uh one of those units uh being restricted at or below a hundred percent AMI and we've got total project costs at 2.7 million uh with roughly 1.1 of that in the um housing TIFF eligible activity category again this is before us previously uh just to remind everyone this was a close neighbor billing this project um any discussion all in favor say aye aye aye all opposed motion carries that brings us to a resolution for project plan and issuance of bond for uh beacon hill uh again for the public's uh reference this is not us issuing bonds that will impair our credit in any fashion um but there's a this is a necessary hoop for them to go to through to be able to issue those bonds for what's a substantial redevelopment so um can I have a motion so moved support Ms.

Ronero yes this is uh roughly 190 million dollars of investment to expand and renovate uh the retirement community at roughly Boston and Plymouth uh this is the final step for commission the next step will be going back to the economic development corporation for final issuance um and again this is gonna activate about a hundred and forty nine units between the rehab and the new construction building thanks any further discussion again this was before us previously um seeing none um all in favor of the resolution say aye aye all opposed motion carries thank you and that brings us to finishing uh chewing what we bit off uh a couple meetings ago uh our annual performance report which we got meh maybe a little more than halfway through um but there's a lot more ground to cover so um mr matthews is coming up city manager thank you um mayor commissioners appreciate the discussion to continue the dialogue from last week as you said we got about halfway through so what I would ask today is allow us to go through the balance of the presentation we have three sections health and environment mobility and safety and I have asked the staff to be very abbreviated in their overview this week since you've had the material now for two weeks not much has changed uh since then but we want to reserve more time for dialogue and discussion this week we don't want to be hurried in our um review of the of uh your feedback so with that mr matthews will will kick us off then miss barons if you'll go go back uh one slide please just a reminder on the timeline as we continue discussion today this sets us up nicely for a prioritization discussion at our retreat on the 13th we'll also have a um a guest with us for some uh commission development uh mr funkhauser who will we'll be here to uh talk about uh governance and some of the issues that we are facing um uh given all the changes that are happening at face uh state and federal level um and then we'll come back again in February for our mid year performance update and by then um we'll have the majority of the budget um from at least from the staff work will begin working on it uh this December but that'll be our last tune up before the final budgets presented uh in April

Funkhauser will we'll be here to uh talk about uh governance and some of the issues that we are facing uh uh given all the changes that are happening at face uh state and federal level.

Um and then we'll come back again in February for our mid-year performance update.

And by then um we'll have the majority of the budget um from at least when staff work will begin working on it uh this December, but that'll be our last tune-up before the final budgets presented uh in April.

And uh and then we'll go through the budget deliberation and adoption process.

Uh so with that, uh let's continue the dialogue on health and environment.

Mr.

Matthews.

Thank you, manager.

So moving through health and environment, just a reminder on some of the priorities that we had uh for FY25, specifically around climate resilience, uh continuation of our work in terms of green space recreation and trails, uh maintaining improving our water, waste, water, and sewer services, our focus on materials management, which will be a conversation here coming up, uh I believe at the next meeting, um, and then addressing health disparities in our community.

So I've separated these out uh by category, um, sustainability being the first one.

Uh in FY25, we completed our first climate risk and vulnerability assessment as well as you know, advancing the work on the climate action and adaptation plan uh and completing our community engagement in that respect.

Uh we launched our Solarize program to increase access to the community to resources by giving them opportunities to pool their resources and receive discounts if they want to pursue solar.

Uh continued our work on EH0, um, secured grant funding in that respect, but also completed our home energy efficient efficiency renovations in the South Dice Zone.

We're now moving into a process of monitoring and testing the impacts of making those investments.

On the fleet and facilities front front, uh it's notable.

Uh we advanced our uh boiler replacement at GRPD that's notable because we're in a position of either continuing our present practice or connecting to the steam district.

And the decision was made to connect to the steam district uh both to meet our efficiency goals, uh, reduce our maintenance costs, and also improve our sustainability performance.

Um and you'll see that reflected in our performance metrics, and put together a uh real-time dashboard to be able to report out um internally, and we're now talking about publishing that externally on our emissions from the fleet.

From a water standpoint, uh we had over 1,700 led service lines that were replaced in FY25.

Um also lined or replaced almost four miles of sanitary sanitary sewer and about two and a half miles of water mains.

Um we're finding that that's uh likely going to be an ongoing process for both.

Um given the age of some of our infrastructure, that lining is a uh more affordable and less disruptive way to extend the life of those assets.

On materials management, we launched a pilot organics collection program here at City Facilities.

I just found out last week that uh we've now diverted uh about two or not two and a half, about a ton and a half of organics through our city facilities alone.

And that was a step towards how we might be able to pilot that more broadly with the community.

We continued the engagement on our materials management strategy.

We're actually going to be talking about that on October 21st, I believe.

Um and then from a renewable energy standpoint, uh FY25 is when we signed a um we signed a new contract with consumers energy that'll start in 2028 that'll ensure that we maintain our uh facilities on renewables in the interim.

We've reached that 100% goal through the purchase of RECs.

Um and as you know, we're looking to localize as much of that as we can, and we um advanced the work on Butterworth in that respect and are actually going out to an RFP, I believe, next week to be able to see if we can advance that work before July of 2026.

On the parks and recreation front, uh you'll see we've continued to have success in introducing uh children in the community to nature.

Um made some changes, some very successful changes in terms of uh uh our pool pass programs, uh improvement to those facilities, um, focusing on trails uh with the development of the riverfront trail, uh Oxford Trail, um, ensuring that we have connectivity throughout our communities, um, standardizing the design packages there, and then looking at all of our facilities to do a broader assessment on the improvements that we might make in the future.

Focusing on trails with the development of the riverfront trail, Oxford Trail, ensuring that we have connectivity throughout our communities, standardizing the design packages there, and then looking at all of our facilities to do a broader assessment on the improvements that we might make in the future.

Continued our work on the forestry program.

And received uh half a million dollars to advance some of our urban agricultural initiatives, which is important because when we talked about the CAP, uh I believe six out of the 20 that were prioritized were specifically around food access.

You see our performance measures here.

Um everything is looking good.

The one thing you'll see there in red that um we're hoping that some of the initiatives we're bringing forward will address.

Um you'll see the percent of residential waste that's diverted by weight.

Um, the heaviest thing that's in your garbage can is your organics.

And that's why we've placed such a focus on how we might be able to divert more of that from the landfill.

Um then you'll see our mental health service referrals on hot.

Uh that's been persistent over the last couple of fiscal years, right below 50.

And with that, I will hand it over to Miss Barons.

We'll talk about mobility.

All right, we were each given seven minutes for our sections.

I want to point out that Mr.

Matthews hit it right on the mark.

Um, so in light of that, uh again, go relatively quickly and and save your uh interest areas for the for your questions so we can dive deeper with your questions.

Um but just a reminder with the mobility objective, uh, we're really talking about safe, coordinated and um available options for how to get in and around the city uh to the places people want to go.

We also have a significant role in parking, uh, which is part of part and parcel of mobility and economic development.

So a lot of connectivity of this uh outcome area to a lot of our other outcome areas, including safety and economic development.

Uh, just a quick slide of where we're headed with our vital streets um voted initiative.

So this is an income tax uh that the voters agreed to allow us to use to uh improve our streets, and we've made certain commitments to get to a percentage of 70 percent good and fair condition uh by the end of that cycle, and you see we are continuing to make progress on that front.

You hear about this during the budget process as well, but we again have commitments to the voters to uh spread that equally throughout the streets in our city, so uh relatively balanced between the first, second, and third ward, and we share a lot of details about that in the budget process.

Just uh some significant projects that were completed in uh this past year.

So, again, we're we're looking at our fiscal year 2025 accomplishments.

Uh, because of construction realities, we tend to focus on the things that were completed last year, but that was our last full construction year.

So you can see the miles that we were able to either completely reconstruct or resurface, uh, as well as sidewalks uh inspected and uh new sidewalks installed.

And just some nice graphics for you to see how transformative some of these major projects can be for the look and feel of the area.

So again, um not just a mobility improvement here, you're seeing different modes that are accommodated in this new design, a bike lane, uh wider sidewalks.

Uh, you also see some enhancements in terms of green space and tree canopy eventually.

Sometimes we have to take out bigger trees to put in more smaller trees, but eventually we're gonna see that uh come in and create some of those shade and other pocket pockets that are important in our urban areas as well as the economic development support of just kind of creating more gracious space adjacent to those private uh properties that can then take advantage of that.

So, again, another uh project that's been a significant uh investment over a number of years as we do segments of Cesar Chavez improvements, um including Clyde Park to Hall last year and one under design now, and then Hall Street and Fuller.

So uh just wanted to get through those graphics, very important.

Uh, we, as I said, also are adding to the types of uh modes throughout the city.

So here's a focus on the bike facilities that we were able to add.

Uh always a lot of interest, both with this body and in the public of how to add more uh bike facilities and bike lanes and blight bike connectivity.

Um so lots of different options there, including some of the most significant sort of separated bike lanes that have some hardened infrastructure that is separating that bike lane from uh car lanes and also more tactical urbanism, if you will, ways to kind of create that visual separation uh that allows us to add some uh some signals to drivers that they're sharing that space with a lot of other modes, including bikes, and uh encourage folks to slow down and think about all the users in the system.

With respect to parking, a significant uh enterprise fund here at the city.

So we have a parking portfolio that is managed, expected to pay for itself.

And so in fiscal year 25, we've really the mobility department has really been doing a deep dive on our parking portfolio through a number of engagements we've been able to hear from folks again about that importance of our parking portfolio to economic development objectives.

So that covers things like rates, monthly parking rates, how is that supporting the adjacent businesses that may rely on that, relieve some development cost pressure where there is robust public parking available that allows for redevelopment of some of our older buildings that uh tend not to be uh built with a lot of parking and also opportunities for more investment.

So lots of uh folks approach the city uh thinking wouldn't it be great if we were to take over the parking piece of their project, uh manage that parking.

So uh we've been doing a lot of work to understand our portfolio, how it operates, the operating costs uh, and uh also to make sure we're getting the most out of the portfolio as it exists, so a lot of technology solutions that we have identified and are building in order for people to be able, you know, with the power of the phone in their hand, figure out what easy parking solutions there are.

Uh we also continue to focus on this asset in terms of uh its usability for our customers, so a lot of focus on uh continued safety and cleanliness and the ease of using that during our bigger events.

So uh we have a lot of focus for our staff in being able and prepared to address uh circumstances as they may arise.

Uh just want to take a moment to emphasize safety of the system.

So uh in any community mobility, your mobility network is a significant um safety uh part of our safety objectives for the community, and and one of those places where we are continually looking to improve how the system is designed, how it is used and educating users to ensure that it's safe for everybody as we continue to introduce different modes to what in parts of our community were really built around a car.

Uh we really do uh emphasize the data that we are able to glean from those uh different users, and that helps us understand where we may continue to need to make some safety improvements.

Um we're continually looking at uh crash data.

We're looking at our uh Vital Streets program in terms of how we're engineering new uh parts of that system and ensuring that in design we're really thinking about safety to create those slower speeds and more separation between different uh users where possible.

Just wanted to quickly remind folks we do have a car share program uh that we continue to support and provide people with more mobility options, just a few quick uh pieces of information about where those can be found.

And we completed uh or we are in the the last month of the first year of DART.

So I just want to celebrate that for a moment and appreciate all the folks that have taken advantage of that service.

We continue to work with uh our stakeholders and with the Rapid on the Dash service downtown.

Uh so again, we're constantly looking at data around ridership and customer service experience.

Uh and you know, there are uh good news pieces here, so you see our ridership has really come back from where we kind of saw a trough there when we were thinking about the new uh service route.

We were not able to get right up to seven days a week, and now we've had more than a year at uh full service, and you see the ridership coming back.

We also continue to hear uh opportunities for uh customer service improvements, so uh continuing to work with the rapid on that, whether it stops or the experience on the bus itself.

Um there's always feedback on the uh alignment and where the stops are, and can we move things here and there?

Uh so continuing to move to work with the Rapid with the Mobile GR Commission on how to continually improve the Dash.

Uh just wanted to give share a little bit of uh feedback here about also looking for opportunities to do some creative things in our urban rights of way again.

That this meets safety objectives, it meets slowing down speeds objectives, and you may have had a chance to see the Division Avenue improvements south of Fulton that have been really appreciated by the businesses in that community, creating some more on street parking.

Um but this kind of bus platform kind of out in uh in what would have been a lane of traffic is another kind of thing that we're exploring and seeing how does that work for users.

It allows the bus uh to stop for less time, allow people to get on quickly, and also creates again some some stickiness in the corridor.

Uh so mobility metrics here, and again, just in the interest of time, we'll focus on the um these are calendar year figures that you're seeing in uh the column uh here that's populated for the most part.

That's how we report, particularly on the safety metrics there in um 1.1.

You see, that's where we have at the top line our total number of crashes with serious injuries and fatalities and percent change.

You see, that's not going in the direction that we want.

Uh, and then underneath that is a series of uh breakouts of what that figure represents in in terms of the mode.

Uh, I do there was discussion at the fiscal committee today about some of our micromobility with LIME, so e-bikes and scooters.

Those uh crash data points are reported under the bicycle section.

Uh, and so you can see that data there.

Um, but again, safety is always something we are looking at.

Um, so each time there is a serious uh fatality or cr uh injury crash, we look at the circumstances around that.

Uh mobile GR works with our uh police and fire departments on things they are observing and uh do a number of things, including education, uh, but also again in that engineering and design piece, where can we really start to separate uh the modes or change behavior in a way uh that will really enhance safety for all users of the system?

So so uh nothing to take lightning lightly and something that we have a lot of focus on uh as information comes to us.

So, with that, turning it over to Mr.

Thank you, Miss Bearens.

Uh I'll walk briefly through Safe Community and begin by reminding the city commission of the overall objectives of us continuing with constitutional and community policing.

Uh focus on fire emergency uh medical services, especially with all the new assets we're opening throughout the city, continued focus on emergency management, particularly with the transition of a new emergency manager, and how we continue to work with community and other partners, either through our co-response model, both uh with diversion programs as well as some of the nonprofits that helps us uh work on crime prevention as well as our safe task force and cure violence.

And lastly, the last component uh is our oversight and accountability efforts, both by boards as well as our office.

So, just a couple of highlights.

Uh you'll see we were able to really focus on uh domestic violence.

That was a conversation uh last year or a couple years ago, and we were able to get a half a million dollar federal grant.

Uh, also you'll see the increase of staffing for our co-response team in collaboration with network 180 for a third uh full-time social worker uh to cover the night shift.

Very pleased with that, as well as uh the staffing of our police department for the first time since I've been here in seven years.

We are over 300 officers, and so now we can begin resuming some of those community services that we were unable to do previously, particularly around community policing, as well as uh address some of the future growth issues of the city.

So uh real pleased with uh with that progress.

Um you'll see uh we've talked about this a couple times, making sure that we are doing everything we can to recruit in Castinet far and wide, everything from uh recruiting at HBCUs to using our local uh community college G VR C C Academy as well as GBSU.

We've been getting a lot of good experience from uh other officers that are transferring from other departments.

You'll see uh the 10 officers.

I believe that might be the most is at the most in one year.

I'm seeing a head nod there, as well as how we continue to evaluate uh our police officers uh in in terms of recruiting.

And you'll see we the police chief did a good job of covering uh some of the accomplishments since his tenure uh since his arrival in 2022, and that's uh highlighted um in the graph on the right of the slide, and we've covered that previously both here at Cal and Public Safety.

Again, thank I really appreciate the the state and uh federal government for uh their support and assistance in helping us fund some of the um stations.

Um actually you you all were at several of the groundbreakings, but uh the federal funding has really helped with the new facility, the state funding as well.

Uh we've are in the process of staffing for those uh stations and hired 19 recruits, and some of those were funded by the federal grant, as well as ordering new equipment.

Those of you who are at uh the new station in the third ward saw the the sliding doors there that's depicted, and that's only on the front side, the back side of our regular doors.

But the chief assures me that this is more uh efficient in terms of maintenance in the regular pull-up door.

And um we have uh again, as I mentioned earlier, been managing uh the construction of the two stations and training center as well as uh reevaluating how the hot team uh has been deployed and has evolved since the inception.

Uh there you see our new emergency manager, uh Benjamin Rance, and we're pleased to have him on board coming from uh federal government, and we continue to uh focus on prevention and our community emergency uh response team.

We have 72 active members and also on planning and policy um uh finalization of our emergency operations plan.

And and this is going to become even more important with the uh downtown assets of the uh arena uh convention center that already exists, but opening uh soccer stadium and amphitheater, there are possibilities that we could have all of them activated at once, and there will be a lot of resource demand uh both for uh all of our public safety uh as well as the public works and city staff, and so we need to make sure that we're able to contingency plan for those those events.

You'll see some of the accomplishments around um Office of Oversight and Public Accountability, uh the popularity or the need for the expungement uh uh efforts continue to grow with over 610 individuals and about um half of those applications were were able to be processed.

You'll see uh the number of trainings on community informed training.

We went in detail uh at the public safety committee meeting on how we collaborately work with community in terms of design and delivery of these programs as well as the transparency around the surveillance report, which I believe this year's report will be in December by the end of the year.

Is that accurate?

I see Mr.

Davis, as well as the uh 31 know your rights workshop.

I believe that's the most I've seen conducted since I've been here as well.

Um continue to partner with Cure of Violence, real pleased with uh their work as and you can there's no one uh civil bullet that is the answer to violence or violence prevention, and you'll see the over 4,000 interactions from cure violence and uh the results of the interactions that led to help with high-risk individuals, 127 and and 288 interactions that led to uh mediation.

So we're real appreciative of the cure violence at Urban League in that partnership.

And then some other uh highlights of areas that affect state uh safety uh through our community development department um around uh what they've done to ensure safe homes or public spaces, as well as compliance issues over 3300 issues uh in cases were addressed uh and 53 regarding blight and blight monitoring were closed, and you'll see um uh the other efforts around uh the cold compliance on some of the long-standing cases, as well as the safe task force, some of the efforts that uh they have done through our community-led uh violence prevention effort, and many of them uh have been helpful in in also uh in summer programming, especially when we have the highest incident of uh youth activity regarding crime.

And um, I will just uh close on a couple of highlights.

I'm I'm I'm I'm uh always certainly interested in uh prevention of violent crime, and you'll see through June uh we were on a good trend, and that's through June.

But um through the end this year we have 10 uh believe 10 homicides year today, the most recent one this uh weekend, unfortunate, but still below where we were uh last year.

You'll see our uh response time for dispatch.

Uh there's also response times for both police and fire, uh, which we also want to make sure that we are uh timely in our response.

I think staffing has really helped with that.

Uh and you'll see other areas of metrics uh regarding oversight and accountability, and many of them this year we are still in the measuring stage.

So overall, uh pretty uh good, pretty pleased with the progress on public safety.

And so, what we'll do is we'll pause here and see if there are any questions about what's been presented today on health and environment mobility or public safety, address those, and then if there are still others, other questions from uh last week, we're happy to revisit any of the topics that we presented on.

Well, I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of discussion here, so um we'd like to kick it off, Commissioner Knight.

Um, thank you for the timeliness and efficiency of those presentations.

I so appreciate that.

Um something that I brought up um before in and thinking about our hot team and how you know they've increased in some of the work they're doing, but also looking at um what we've noticed is you know uh a dispersion of people, right?

Going further into the the communities into the neighborhood into the urban core in places that we typically have not seen people.

Um, and I've had a couple of uh conversations with my colleagues about you know, when there's construction, you notice that there's a shift of people from one spot to another, but also um, you know, uh uh there's been a heavy um concentration of people, especially in the third ward over by the uh Franklin and the eastern area, and um a lot of businesses have actually questioned and asked, you know, how what do we do, right?

They don't they don't know what to do, they don't necessarily want it to be a call in the police all the time issue, but it is there a way to deepen that relationship with those organizations as well as our mental health facilities and trying to be provide services more in those areas.

I mean, I drive through there all the time and I see it.

Um, and it's you've got youth organizations that have kids in those areas that are doing after school programming and all of that, and there's concerns around those safety issues, and how can we serve um some of those same people that may have been down here and just you know pushed out to the fringes a little bit.

Um, so that was just something that I I wanted to throw up again, and hopefully we can think about what that might look like.

And then um that that's kind of it.

I know my colleagues got some other stuff they're gonna hit on, so I'm gonna let them do that.

Mayor, if if I could, I think uh Commissioner Knight um raises a important uh point in terms of uh places where there may have been undeveloped or um not as much attention whenever the development occurs that that does lead to disbursement.

And that you we're disrupting uh places where people on the house may have uh been before.

And so we had this conversation uh a couple weeks ago with members of the business community and talked about how we reinforce the communication effort and who to call, where to call uh to either our hot team or um Miss Tammy Vinson, who is our homeless outreach coordinator, and we have created I think uh updated flyer and literature uh to share uh with I know the downtown uh businesses, and we'll make sure we try to get that out to all the business districts and and get that information out on the dias as well.

Uh Commissioner uh Purdue.

Good morning.

Um as a follow-up from what we discussed last two weeks ago, last meeting.

Um, has there been there were some questions that we left you with around some of the economic development KPIs?

I haven't seen follow-up from that.

When can we expect that?

Um this week we're focusing on the balance of this presentation.

Um we did review some of the questions that were answered.

I'd have to look in specifically at which one and uh get back with it.

Give we'll come back to that question.

Is it reasonable to get the answers with by the next meeting in two weeks?

Oh, I'm um I'm saying I will get back to you by the end of this meeting.

I just have to go back and refer to which specific question that yes, we we didn't present.

It was kind of some of the questions I think Kate knows what I'm referring to, right?

Um okay.

It was it was questions around um how we're defining some of those incentives, economic development, and some of the housing builds.

What is the definition behind some of those KPIs?

Um so we can better understand.

Uh thank you.

Uh so moving on to kind of what we talked about today, the pedestrian uh particularly pedestrian safety, biker safety.

Um I'm trying to find my place here.

When we did this review last year, um I and I believe others asked a number of questions around uh helmet safety, brain safety, um, for riders in particular.

Um this morning during fiscal, we had the renewal of the line contract come up, and so preparing for it this week, I asked questions what what has been done in the last year regarding uh safety for all, really, uh kind of cyclists and um e-scooter riders, kind of even separate from the one company, one uh one line.

Um, and we haven't gotten a uh a concrete answer on that.

And so particularly looking at this year's uh KPIs around safety, still am asking those questions, still I'm asking what are we doing as a city to ensure uh safety above and beyond what we've been doing now.

Um particularly for um e-scooters, my concern is you know, they're concentrated downtown, they're really marketed for visitors.

Uh they're used a lot, like some of the most risky behaviors with e-scooters is riding under the influence of alcohol, riding without a helmet, and riding with the passenger, and at least two of those three things you can visually see um, and it's kind of the the majority of what I witness when I see folks riding them downtown.

Um I have a friend who who who passed away tragically in Grand Rapids after riding a scooter.

Um we do have injuries.

I think they're one thing that's underreported.

Um so my ask is that we uh kind of look holistically at not just the regulatory items, but what are some of the behavioral strategies we can use to ensure safety throughout the city on with multiple multiple modes of mobility.

Commissioner, um I I do want to go back to last year and then I'll defer to to the staff, but the the conversation about rider safety did not initiate on this dice.

The fire chief, I recall, was the first person that raised the concern about rider safety and scooters um some time ago.

And then last summer, as I recall, the police chief similarly raised concerns about rider safety for a variety for for a variety of reasons, both drunken as well as uh kind of nuisance behavior.

And then that led to additional conversation here on the dyes.

There was robust discussion between the fire department, the police department, and mobile GR.

Very, very robust discussion about how to improve that.

And I think some of the things that resulted from that was more geofencing, reducing the speed of certain um devices and particularly around after times that the bar the bars were closed.

So that was the staff's response, and we we had reported on that as I recall during public safety as well as having some of the conversation here on the dies.

Relative to uh the conversation this morning on helmet safety, uh I believe that was discussed, it was uh reviewed, looked at, but there was not a solution that we focus on helmet safety.

It was more on utilization uh trying to slow down the speed of the sco scooters trying to geofence it and and and reducing some of the risky behaviors around late night activity at bars.

I I'll defer on the other aspect of the question if there's other information.

Yeah, I'll in response to that, you know.

I safety is a multi-pronged conversation.

You are right about that.

Um and I know one thing that we did from some of the conversations that you mentioned was change um change it so that scooters have to ride on in the street, they can't ride on the sidewalks.

I still see that every day.

I'm not sure how much of a if we've done an education campaign, if we have signs, um, because that's that's not being followed, and particularly during busy times, it's it's a challenge.

And particularly as a driver, if folks are whipping down the sidewalk uh to cross the street, that also uh makes it uh difficult to see them.

Um, yes, in response to kind of the options of uh uh of safety devices.

So for example, we ask people to come and visit to use these scooters and then to sign off liability, um, including a sign off that they are going to use a helmet when we have not created the environment for that to really even be possible by design, right?

By how we have uh what user we're targeting, as well as by like actual equipment being being available.

Uh when we talked uh last week, you mentioned that there are other cities who have like helmet libraries or something.

I don't this is not a problem that uh I think is too hard for us to solve, and I think it's irresponsible for us to ask people to sign off on liability and to sign off on um the right to to seek compensation for injuries and so much, so much so much and so forth when we're not designing it for them to have everything they need to do that.

So Commissioner So in the last year, uh what I'm hearing is that not a ton of progress has been made on that conversation.

Is that right?

So if I if I could, Commissioner, um I think this is a great conversation for our retreat.

I think there's a lot of complexity here.

I'm I'm with you on this as a matter of fact, oddly enough.

Um I have the ignominious distinction of having to try to have a uh helmet requirement for bicycles in the city, and uh that got an incredible amount of pushback.

So I want to at least flag that we don't want to like also just have uh you know focused vision here on the things the city does.

I mean, there are lots of people out there on bikes and on scooters, and uh I don't think we want to have one regulatory architecture for people who happen to rent and then say anybody else can do what they want.

That's not a good idea.

I think there's a I no, I know you're not, but I'm saying I think there's a really broader conversation here, and you're right.

This is comp complex.

Um so thank you for flagging it.

Um I think that this is something we really should be.

I think there's a much broader conversation here, and I think that um questions of how we regulate.

I think that, for example, we haven't done any regulation on e-bikes.

I think that's we're long overdue to have a conversation about that.

But these are bigger bigger conversations that I don't think we're gonna get done in this hour.

And to your point, Mayor, I I think it it might be worthwhile to to to de dive deeper in at the retreat.

Um and just I mean, you you sense my frustration that you know we have these important conversations in six months, a year goes by, and there doesn't seem to be a ton of progress, or if it is, it's not communicated back with us when we're on the front lines talking to folks about the work that we're trying to get done for you.

And if you aggregate the number of people who died from traffic deaths, I think I counted 10, uh, which puts uh that equal to murders year today.

I could be wrong on that.

But the point is uh nationwide we know that all of these things, the trend numbers are the trend lines are not looking good on a lot of these metrics, and so making sure that we're keeping the community safe includes safe and transportation, absolutely.

Mayor, I I appreciate the dialogue, but I do want to be clear because I'm gonna have I got a lot of staff that has frequently reported on traffic safety to public safety in a public setting, whether speeding trucks, bikes, several times.

So it is not that the conversation is heard and ignored.

The work that's done may not be exactly prescripted as you would like, but there is work that is being done by the staff, and I don't want anybody to think that we just have these performative discussions.

So I I I think it uh a conversation at the retreat is good, but I it it would be unfair to leave this diet uh dialogue today with the representation that nothing's been done.

And so I would just ask if there's anything else that the public should know about our efforts in slowing down these scooters, because I agree, I was on the sidewalk the other day, and it wasn't an e-scooter that was rented by the city, it was a personal private electric bike that almost ran me over, one as big as yours, riding on a sidewalk.

Yep, yep.

And so, but but the enforcement question is what do we want to prioritize our enforcement?

I don't want our police officers to spend time enforcing sidewalk violations.

That's not the highest risk in terms of what's causing uh the most danger to our city.

Uh, but I I understand there's a balance and we've got to figure that out.

Is there anything else to add?

Yeah, and and you're absolutely right, city manager.

Like the fact that we have the data that we have that we know how many, I mean, we we are paying attention to this.

I guess uh ultimately it's our job to come up with the answer to the question of are there gonna be better policies that we can have moving forward that can help drive the safety conversation in the right direction.

So uh thank you, Commissioner, and thank you, City Manager.

Um but it's I think it's a complex conversation.

Uh and it's not not it's gonna get we've already blown outside the bounds of the time we have here for it, I think.

But go ahead, city manager.

Yeah, but I have three times ask my staff, is there anything else to add?

Uh so I think you've done a lot of the big picture with respect to the micromobility in particular.

I will just flag that we have created a connection uh with our special events office so that we can do four particular events or times when we think this the downtown is gonna be particularly busy, we can do more geofencing, so that's something that special events folks uh talk to organizers about.

Uh so I that's a tool that we use.

Uh I uh and and there is also a lot of conversation with Lyme um understanding Commissioner Purdue's feedback that that may not be the best place.

There is a lot of education and interactive uh proactive acknowledgement that a user has to go through in that interface about safety protocols, where they're allowed to operate uh, et cetera.

So again, uh we're working with people who sometimes don't want to use helmets for a lot of reasons, but um message received also that there may be more we can do about education around helmet usage or helmet availability.

So when we tee this up again to come forward, we can talk about additional options there and programs that may work in other jurisdictions on helmet utilization in particular.

Thank you.

Um other comments, feedback on the presentation?

Commissioner Sasi.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thanks for the overview.

I wanted to go back to the first section to health and environment.

Um and I wanted to again really more of a comment, I think, as we prep to your point for our mid-year review.

Not so much a question, just more of support.

I had the opportunity to go to the Urban Forestry Committee last month.

Um, you know, my predecessor uh Ruth Kelly was Commissioner Kelly was very active in and as well as Mayor Bliss, as you all know.

Um, and so we kind of have this little legacy in the second ward around our tree canopy, but also juxtaposing this with you know the fact that we just um just passed the cap.

And so looking at what are the additional investments that we might need to make to support, you know, our um our uh canopy.

We get a number of requests, you know.

I don't know what is my top three, but you know, over the last year have just received a number of requests around different priority trees.

Um I think some of you might have seen a resolution that came from one of our uh neighborhood associations around stump removal.

I think we're at a uh sort of a uh a year-long time frame of stump removal right now in this city.

And so, you know, my understanding is that right before I came on commission in 2019, there was going to be further investment into you know into that work, and of course, COVID happened and all these things happen, and so um I know we'll we'll be seeing some of that additional information coming.

Um, and while you know there's a lot of things to consider, and we're we're living through a government shutdown.

I think that this is you know one of those core services on sort of like our infrastructure and really thinking about um some of those questions around those priority trees.

I think our our our forestry team does a great job.

They're always responding to us, they you know, uh not only doing the work but also responding to neighbors who have a lot of questions.

So really not a question, uh, Mr.

Matthews, just more of a comment is you know, this will continue to be a priority for me, kind of holding up that legacy of the second ward, and I'll be interested to see um you know how that evolves as we go through that that mid-year process.

So I wanted to to state that.

And then my other question was I know I have seen the the organics pilot, you know, in the break rooms and things like that.

What is what's the time frame of that?

Either I missed that or I mean I see it in here, but what does that look like?

When do we start it?

You know, when will we kind of make a decision?

Well, we launched that uh early summer.

So we've got a few months under our belt at this point.

Okay.

And the idea was just to get a sense of the logistics of collecting disposing.

Um we actually have a larger uh receptacle on order right now that we want to identify a space in the community.

I know one of the conversations that they had recently was with uh the Fulton Street Farmers Market Um to now to take it to the next step, which is to test one of these larger receptacles in the field, which has technology where folks can use their their phone, check in, unlock it, dump their materials, and we'll see what the volume looks like.

Again, go through what is collection and disposal look like with the hopes that throughout the course of this fiscal year we'll have a plan going into the following fiscal year of expanding it throughout all the neighborhoods.

Great.

And then in the next section under mobility, um, I have seen the dark cars around, so that was kind that's been kind of cool to see people in the city driving them around.

Um, but really was I did see the headline.

I didn't watch the meeting, but um, regarding Dash at the mobile GR meeting.

I know mayor you're on there.

I don't know, Commissioner Robbins.

I don't know if you still serve on there, but um, you know, I think sharing with the city manager um at a couple of our two on ones ago, just I think there are those are the right questions, like what is the intended use.

Um I know last year uh Commissioner O'Connor had asked about a consideration for um you know a nominal rate, uh perhaps a dollar or two.

Um and then we have obviously these transformational projects that are coming online and how do they how do they play into how do people you know get around?

So I'm excited to hear where that conversation goes.

I think it's definitely I don't it's it's not overdue because I think we've been this is I I don't want to say that, but I think it's just we're hitting a critical point, and I think in some ways the dash is you know, people are getting on with their you know personal items.

They, you know, I'm seeing people who are in house.

This is not trying to say they can't use the dash, but like where are we, where are we a band-aid for something else, and how do we continue to have that conversation?

So um, and I know city manager, your ardent supporter.

I saw you with some people on there uh during the R prize time frame.

He had he had told people he had he had scheduled their private or their transportation.

Then they found out they were going on a dash bus.

And so if that's if that's not commitment to the city, I don't know what is.

Um so that again, that's more of a comment, but I'm I'm really hopeful to see where that com uh conversation evolves.

And then lastly, you know, on on the safe community, I think this is um yeah, there's a number of things, and you know, obviously it's not just our police department, but I see a number of folks of our police department.

We've done some ribbon cuttings around our fire department.

Um I haven't met the new emergency manager, but you know, certainly you know, hearing that number increasing around you know, violence is um around murders is certainly concerning.

I think we're also an economic situation that we were in 2020 where there was a lot of uncertainty.

Um there's a lot of unknown, and so you know, looking at what are all these causes of you know how this happens, and you know, great that we have a ch of uh police chief that comes from a city that's getting a lot of recognition right now, maybe some good and some bad, but um in particular I think the question around gun violence is yes, what are the programmatic pieces that we're doing here in the city?

Um and so I've seen a lot play out on social media about you know we need to do something more different.

I would say please reach out.

We work with a number of different providers on different programs.

Um we have our GRPS um City Liaison group.

Um but I also think, and I don't know if this is something that you all talk about openly or if it's something, but just tracking where the the guns are coming from in our city.

I know that there are different organizations that or different communities that do different tracking to kind of see where the flow is of illegal guns, and so that's just something that I think we've talked about in the past, but I I would love my memory to be reminded of that as it relates to you know kind of the flow of these illegal guns.

Just real briefly, um you're very well aware of the conversations that are happening between the rapid and the city around the dash, our upcoming contract renewal, but also the way the services are delivered and where we can improve.

Um several of you have also meant brought up whether or not uh given the the cost of the operation, whether or not there should be additional funding that's not subsidized by the parking fund, but uh riders as well.

And we have been in conversations with uh the uh CEO of the Dash and my staff and are looking at that, and I think uh that contract expires next next September.

And so we'll be bringing forth some uh recommendations prior to the expiration of the contract.

Uh Commissioner Robbins.

Yeah, thanks, Mary.

Good morning.

Um I just had two quick items.

Um one of which we have to do.

Can I ask a quick question?

Can can I have an answer on the on the tracking on the guns?

Yeah, or if it's like I gotta get back to you, let me know.

Chief, do you have any updates on the track tracing of illegal weapons?

Uh good morning, Commissioner.

So uh I tell you there is some limitation as far as federal law as far as how much we can track uh guns.

We do uh work with the DEA.

Every gun that is uh recovered by the police department is run through the DEA.

We do uh we do get a history on it.

Um so anecdotally, I'll I'll tell you that uh very rarely is a uh a gun legally possessed that's you that's used in a shooting.

And um oftentimes they're uh they're acquired one of two ways.

Number one, we get a lot of stolen guns, uh guns which are taken uh for example in burglaries or cartridge the uh often sold for you know 10% of what they're actually worth um on the street, so it's an easy way uh to obtain a gun.

And uh secondly is through straw purchasers, which uh the federal government did uh sort of a poor job enforcing stroke.

So I can legally purchase a gun, I will go down uh to a gun shop, get five handguns, and then sell them at a markup rate on the street for fryer money.

It's very illegal.

Uh but historically there's been very little uh very little enforcement on it.

That's changed, I'd say over the past five or or so years.

Um uh so we're getting better at that, but there's so many uh guns out there that it's very easy to uh acquire and illegally possess guns.

So but as far as like a pattern of are they coming from a certain gun store um and things like that, that's where it gets tricky with there is something called the Thai art amendment.

I believe it's still in play, which uh in the advocacy for second amendment rights makes it difficult sometimes for law enforcement to uh put the pressure on uh gun stores uh by saying, hey, we have X amount of we I went through this in Chicago at uh as an attorney in the legal process.

We actually tried to to sue uh some gun stores in Indiana, which accounted for some like 80 percent of the murder guns were coming coming from there.

And we ran into some law, some federal law that blocked our our ability to do so.

I think believe it's still in place, so it's helpful to get that information.

Um but uh from the world of a municipal police chief, there's only so much we we can do in the big level.

I will say not to be all doom and gloom.

The federal government has stepped up their their efforts and gun stores are uh they'll do spot checks now where they'll send send somebody in uh to make uh ostensibly a straw purchase, and if they sell that individual a gun, then they will be held accountable.

They'll be shut down so that word is out in the community, so it's getting harder.

Um but I don't have any good news for you.

Sorry.

Thanks, Commissioner.

Yep.

Commissioner Robins.

Yeah, uh just two quick items um for mine here, one of which Commissioner Sasi touched on.

I was gonna ask about the Dash ridership piece um as well.

I know we've had the conversation about some sort of nominal uh nominal fee, so was just curious um to hear where that conversation landed.

So I appreciate the update on on that.

And then the other piece too, I thought um back when I had served on mobile GR, there was some sort of qualitative survey that we had discussed at one point to better understand, you know, maybe ridership is increasing, but is it just you know the same individuals using it more or are there more um you know unique individuals using it and why, just kind of getting some better context as to you know why people are using it and um the type of demographics who um who are currently utilizing that.

So um maybe that was presented at mobile GR or something, and I just haven't seen an update, but curious if there's any information to be shared um on that.

So I'll start with that one and then I have another quick one after that.

I'm not sure.

Is there ridership surveying?

Good morning, everyone.

Jessica Smith, mobile DR director.

Yes, so we're actually just wrapped up our onboard ridership surveys.

We do those every couple of years, and uh we're still doing the analysis there to answer some of those questions, but preliminary preliminarily, if I can do that word correctly.

Um speaking to Commissioner Robbins about um kind of unique riders.

We do have what you we call in the industry super riders, so folks that um will are are kind of uh extra users of the service, so to speak, so kind of all day um or or very, very common users throughout.

So those are some things that we noticed as we were collecting data, but we also asked things around, you know, um what are you using the dash for?

So, like are you coming from home?

Are you going to work and some things like that?

So that's still in process, and we're hoping to wrap up our analysis here in the next month or so.

Okay, awesome.

And that that's the exact kind of information I know we had talked about trying to understand is you know, is it people from out of town here running it for events?

Is it people using it for commuting?

Is it people just kind of you know trying to be in the the AC on a hot summer day, like all the above, so that's helpful to know.

Um and then my my second quick question was about the biodigester.

I know and you might have to refresh my memory.

So I think we had um a deal with um the rapid to sell those the RNG to them at some sort of discounted rate, maybe or something.

Um that they went in a different direction, so we then worked with the broker to bring it to the open market.

So was curious uh what has the the outcome have of that been?

Like are we selling it at a high rate and getting more revenue at least from it, or is it pretty part of the course with what we're getting?

It was pretty consistent to what it is that we saw prior.

Um the one of the advantages that we're starting to see is there's still demand um and we're starting to see more interest in longer term agreements.

Um at the same time, we're also looking at our current infrastructure uh to explore ways where we can actually expand our production of RNG, um, which not only increases our diversion, but it also increases our potential revenue, which increases our ability to pay off the bonds for the digesters.

Um those are all things that we'll probably be talking about in the coming fiscal year.

Um we've we've been having a lot of conversations behind the doors on that.

Cool, thank you.

Appreciate it.

That's all I got.

Thanks.

Uh Commissioner Culver.

Yes, so uh my first one here is health and environment.

Uh for green space.

Uh I'd like to hear if we have any feedback on uh dog parks or um more access to green space in the third ward.

We have a few less parks uh than both the first and second ward and want to see if that's within our planning.

We also saw in uh the growth report, I think that's one of the best ways to get young professionals and uh new folks within your city is to have dog parks.

So just would like to hear if there's plans for that.

Uh yeah, as Ms.

Claypool is coming up, just open space and green space in particular is also uh obviously something that contributes to health, wellness, and a whole bunch of other things.

So in addition to what Ms.

Claypool is going to share about dog parks in particular, uh just wanted to note that as part of the uh local land bank review, we're now looking at that portfolio.

There are some non-buildable lots.

Uh and so the staff is going to be engaging with multiple departments, the land bank, business associations, neighborhood groups, etc.

That would be wonderful.

Uh Ms.

Bearens in that.

Um, and those are those weird like little triangle shapes and weird weird shapes I remember Mr.

Booth going over.

Um do you know how many would be within the third ward for possible?

But it's knowable.

We can get that back to that.

Okay, thank you.

Yep.

Uh good morning.

So just talking about dog parks, we did complete a dog park study in the past year, which identified um really the need for four larger sized dog parks for a city of our size.

Um we do right now are in planning phases for development of one of those spaces.

We are also getting ready to embark on an update to um the park and rest recreation master plan, and we do intend to have part of that work really roll in um further development of what that initiative can look like for for our city.

Um we also are exploring on the side some opportunities for pop-up dog parks.

We are working on some pricing and some potential locations for that.

So um all of those things to come.

Great update out of that split of the what let's say tentative four parks, uh, how many are those are included in the third ward?

Uh the one that will be developed first is in the third ward.

We're looking at McKay C.

All right.

Thank you.

And then that brings me to uh let's see, our mobility.

If we go to bicycle facility changes, so I think that's slide 23.

Um I'd like to hear feedback on uh protectic bike lanes.

Uh we've had a lot of conversation about pedestrian safety.

Uh research and data shows that this is one of the best ways to protect our neighbors and visitors within uh big cities.

So I'd like to hear on plans on that and also informally uh recognize this with my colleagues that this is another thing on November 13th that I will be putting as a priority is more uh increased access to protect bike protected bike lanes.

Uh I'm gonna see if I can phone a friend here.

Uh certainly we get feedback both that there are um that protected bike lanes are appreciated and that protected bike lanes are frustrating to other users.

Um so we do definitely work through engineering and mobile GR each time there's an opportunity to do something more hardened, more sort of capital intensive, uh, what is the right fit?

But um invite Ms.

Smith to say more about how it is we make those selections of what's the right technique in different places.

Thank you.

So I appreciate the uh larger conversation around safety and then uh understanding that there are several parts to safety for our transportation um, and one of those is getting the right infrastructure on the road.

So um with uh bike bicycle facilities.

I call this uh bicycle planning, I would say 3.0.

So 30 years ago when cities started saying maybe we should put in some bike lanes, and they started with some um more uh just designating pieces of streets to kind of mix in different types of users and traffic.

And then you moved into bike planning 2.0, where we said, you know, we've got to have bike lanes everywhere, we need to have bike master plans and those types of things, and now the industry is moving towards a um holistically focused planning effort, and that looks at every mode all the time without throughout your transportation system, right?

And so prioritizing things that um users that are a little bit more vulnerable, such as your your um your bikes and your pets.

So bikes, pets, and transit.

So those are the three.

The other thing that happens with that type of planning is you're looking at um that is really how to uh move forward into a more modern city is looking at those types of facilities.

So back to the idea about protected bike lanes.

I'd like to say that protected bike lanes are a type of facility that is appropriate in certain context.

And um what's really really helpful about protected or separated facilities, I'm gonna kind of lump those together with bicycles particularly, is that it gets to um a larger percentage of users.

So whereas I might be a very, very, you know, like I I can handle more risk.

I'm an uh a very experienced bike rider, I know to wear the right protective gear, and I know how to um navigate in all kinds of traffic situations.

Um that is 10% of bicycle users or would-be users.

So when you talk about more uh protected, separated, um safer facilities for bicycle users, that's what you're looking at.

And having those as a part of your larger transportation network is really key to uh moving what we call mode split.

In other words, having folks that would otherwise be using some other mode of transportation, get on their bikes or become a pedestrian, become a transit user.

So this is a little bit more policy level, is how I'm um approaching the answer to this question, but just knowing that there are many different tools in that toolbox, and I want to make sure that when we talk about what the right tool is, it's got to be in a holistic transportation network planning effort.

Yeah, thank you, Miss Smith.

And do you know about how many line uh miles of protected bike lanes do we have currently?

I I think it's somewhere in one of these reports in the last year or so.

I'm I'm remembering, but I can't pull it right off the top of my head, but good question.

Yeah, I was on Bible Streets before.

I can't shake it.

I'm just excited about it.

But I think that it's really important to know, and I'm hopeful that we can have more investment and have more conversation on the 13th with that.

That's all my concerns for now.

Thank you all.

Uh city manager, you know.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

That's exactly where I was gonna head that uh to there's some delineation in some of these projects here, which ones are buffered, which ones are uh you know, have some protection.

But I think it would be a good uh baseline to see what are the number of miles of protected by clean out, and then what as we plan these new projects and new facilities, how many more added that need protection and why?

So I think it'd be helpful.

Uh Mayor, before you go on to the next one, I wanted to follow back up on the uh economic development question that was asked uh two weeks ago, and I think Miss Bearens can at least provide an initial response to uh that question.

Uh so one of the questions and I don't have the slide in front of me was uh statistics that we shared about an overall investment in uh various private development, if I remember correctly, the figure was like 18 million.

I don't have the slide in front of me.

Um the clarifying question was that all of our incentive programs are not.

That was a six-month number.

So we do have an annualized number that we'll share in follow-up with the commission.

Thanks.

That was a six month number.

I don't have that clicker.

I'm sorry, slide could you could you follow up with a more complete answer?

I don't even know what's going on.

No, that no, the this is no the two wouldn't commissioner.

You ask about the materials from last week.

We don't have the materials from last week on slide.

We have the ones that we're briefing on today.

So she responded that as her recollection that was the answer, and then we'll follow up with a more written response to the full commission.

Commissioner Belcher.

Thank you, everyone, and thank you for the opportunity to review and discuss all the progress that is being made and where we can do more.

I think that um a lot of great discussions happened here, and I appreciate hearing from my colleagues on those things.

So I'm gonna take a little bit of a different approach just because um so much has been covered already.

But I would start by just putting the question out there that um that there is a significant um amount of increase here with that 24% on the mobility safety.

Um, and so I just was putting the question out there what what might be the going on behind the scenes uh to be you know what what is the trend causing those things, the issues behind that.

We talked a lot about the Lyme and scooters and stuff, but if you notice the um there's there's increases across the board there on um changes with serious industry in injuries, and so as we have that discussion to be just trying to understand the root causes of that.

So that would be a a topic to discuss.

I want to also um say that we need I'm really proud of the equity framework that I see continuing to happen here and in the discussion around transportation and other things.

I want to not lose that.

Um part of it because launching the new pool pass program and providing free swimming, I think was incredibly essential, and uh certainly benefited my kids as well as some other families.

And when we're looking at these um interurban neighborhoods that I live in and others, like this, these are the outlets that people have to have access to to have good quality of life.

So continuing to think about how are we accessing our amenities that includes the pools, the parks, the buses.

Um so I want to say that I see it here in the metrics, I see it here in the report, and I don't want it to get lost in the conversation about what we can be doing better because we have to continue the good work that we are doing, and that includes you know where we're thinking about environmental justice, and so I'm just putting that out there again, different tactic here.

Um but when it comes to um safety, I would like to raise the question around third, I guess the safety and parking, uh third-party parking air garage and other kinds of things, those I think that there's a larger conversation to be had there, and um the city might be able to play a better role.

Um, is there any um thought in that mobile GR has going forward on dealing with that?

I also see it as an economic development opportunity, so I want to put that out there.

So I want to put that out there.

Uh so happy to hear more about your particular questions, but uh for an area to be used as a uh parking lot just like a gen available to the public not affiliated with the use adjacent to it, there is a zoning regulatory piece to that.

Uh so if a private property owner wants to pursue that as a business endeavor, uh they have to work through planning to do that.

Uh and then they are able to operate that just like any private business is able to be operated um more.

Are you looking for I'm thinking that there's I think we have a space to and a role to play in that space as um an economic development partner and a regulatory agency over how parking and fees and all that other stuff is and in our neighborhoods and our business district.

So I'm just putting it out there because it's not something here and we can talk more as we are having our retreat.

But um I also want to highlight in this that the policing aspect.

Um I'm really actually proud of the commission for making investments in our policing, and I can't take credit for it because it was done before I came on board.

But the fact that we had a third academy class is really remarkable.

And what's exciting about that is that we are now at that point where we are able to do the community policing conversation that is what the community is asking for.

And I see that as part of our equity as well.

So um, I guess I just want us to keep thinking about bringing all the pieces together.

I know the staff are doing that.

I hear questions here that uh that my colleagues are raising, and I don't see this as individual or siloed things.

Um I do think that there's more to be done here with the forestry maintenance and the canopy as well.

So I'm not gonna be label labor the issues here today, but um I'm looking forward to our retreat so we can talk about that.

And I just think this was a really great overview of where we've been so we can begin that next level of discussion.

Thanks, Commissioner.

Um so I'm gonna make uh a few uh random, uh not random, but um uh categorized bits of feedback.

And so I don't have any questions.

Um I think that uh and I certainly want to put this in context.

I think that everything we are doing, I'm seeing lots of movement in the direction that I think our citizens want, and I think the direction that we want to be moving um, you know, public safety, those of you who don't sit on public safety, our numbers are really good.

Uh our police force continues to move in the direction of excellence and continuous improvement, and they're constantly having questions about how they can provide uh their services better.

Same with fire.

Um certainly uh I think that that's true in mobility, those these conversations are happening.

So I just want to throw out um when I look at the at the metrics and the things we're measuring, some of this is a question of what we're measuring and and whether we're capturing what we're measuring.

So uh in the mill um in the mobility space, um we uh I noticed that when we're talking about uh pedestrians and uh micromobility, I think that uh if I looked at that, if I understood that slide correctly, we're largely having those numbers dri uh the analysis driven by surveys now.

So how often you were asking people how often they walk.

Uh we're not or how often they bike.

We're not actually uh uh at the point now, and I think our next mature level would be to actually start having some bike counters so that we actually know how many people are biking.

Um I know that the rapid has done some surveying on this too, but like knowing what's going on on the ground would give us I think a better picture of like, oh, you know, this is this is developing into a quarter that people are using, we should prioritize that better.

Um so having all of our transportation planning around what people are actually doing and reinforcing what people want to do means uh capturing the actual the actual patterns of use.

Uh and I think that'd be an ex good place to go.

Um I think that um when we're talking about uh mobility things, I really think this is an area where we can benefit most from um piloting and from looking at best practices in other places.

And so I go to a lot of other cities and I see a lot of things in the um pedestrian and cycling space that I'm not seeing matured in Grand Rapids yet.

So for example, lots of cities used.

Bollards, lots of cities have as Commissioner Kilgore pointed out, a lot of separated bike lanes.

There's lots of painting going on, there's lots of intersection redesign, there's lots of raising intersections.

There's lots of exciting ideas out there that are getting implemented in cities around the continent and around the world.

And I think that um with the passage of the state budget that's gonna give us more money um for particularly roads, um, I think that this is an opportunity for us to maybe do some real visioning on how we can do some real transformative cultural uh to quote Chairman Mao, perhaps a great leap forward um in our in our uh transportation visioning uh in the city.

And I think that that's something where I I just want to throw out the idea that we may want to get a consultant involved in this, because there are nationwide people who do work in this space and who I I what I don't want us to do is have a collection of, you know, uh a basket of all of our bright ideas um be what we do with an opportunity to do some structural um and and coordinated work on mobility.

Um I do think there's a conversation to be had, and and thank you for bringing this up, Commissioner around uh safety.

We don't have any differentiated regulations right now, for example, on the difference between bikes and e-bikes, and not all e-bikes are equal, and I think that um that that's going to be something that people are going to adopt more and more and more and they're gonna own their own.

And I think one of the reasons we're probably seeing less renting of bikes is because people like me go out and buy their own bike once they figure out they want to come to work on a bike.

They're not going to rent one every day, they're gonna go buy a bike.

So making sure that our conversation is not just around the programs that we've initiated with Lyme, but um that there are a lot of people out in the community, and there's a growing number.

I think the Rapid thinks there's basically a two-to-one ratio now of people biking to using public transportation in the city.

Um so there's been a real increase in um uh cycling activity.

And I think we need to make sure that our regulations keep up with with the safety concerns.

Um in public safety, I just want to flag again, I think that um our core um our core functions are are really being performed well.

But I do think that we want to have a conversation, as again we've had public safety trust fund money uh come out of the state budget around um what we want to in-house uh that we maybe have been outsourcing in public safety and broaden our vision because public safety doesn't just mean protecting people from crime, it means um reducing conflicts in the community generally.

And those are things that um we've started to make some first steps on, but I I welcome conversations about how we can do next steps, not just on co-response, but on how we can do uh conflict resolution in the community more effectively and and something that we can I I would hope hop uh own, have uh in-house functioning on because then we simply have better accountability.

Um as far as parks go, um again, I see that we um the only metric I had for use was more programming in parks, and programming is good, but I think that uh park activation, I think the next level for us would be to actually c actually look at how many people are using parks and look at those numbers as a metric for whether a park is successful or not.

So there are some parks in town that are incredibly activated, and there are things for people to do in them.

I'm thinking the one in my neighborhood by Cherry and Diamond, incredibly activated.

There are other parks that are less used, and so I think that a mature conversation will be, you know, parks are only good to the extent that people use them.

Um and making sure that we're tracking uh use and not just programming, but um also our next mega park in the city is gonna be the river, and I think we ought to have conversations about how we're actually gonna activate uh use of the river.

Um and finally I will say, since everyone knows dog parks is one of my things, I don't think four dog parks in the city is enough.

Uh we've got a metric for uh having a park within 10 minutes of everyone.

Um I don't want to have to put my dog in my back in the back carrier in my bike and bike them down to a dog park.

Um I think people uh want dog parks they can walk to.

So um anything we can do to move towards uh real dispersion, and again, this is the the use question.

What do people actually want to do in their parks and what do they actually want to do in their community?

Um so I think all of our conversations have to be focused on like what our citizens want.

So those are just random thoughts.

Um thank you and thank you for the great presentation.

Thank you to the staff for all the work.

As I said, I think that our vision here is uh exciting, and I think that it's it's great to see the work that's happened and to see the the trend lines as we move forward.

Um and I think that we can I think we can go out and have even more exciting ideas and see where we go with them to make the city amazing.

So thank you for the work and thank you, City Manager, for pulling all this together.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh just a couple of things, because uh want to make sure uh everyone understands that this conversation.

So today we were trying to give an update performance report.

The feedback's been great.

Uh but we will need to have more deeper dialogue on any proposed changes where we get the consensus of the commission or the majority of the commission, in spite of in light of individual preferences.

So that that is the purpose of the retreat.

Uh I did want to uh just clarify on one of the comments I I heard earlier, and I think it was around regulating private parking.

If I understood the feedback around safety, and just to make sure that we all have a uh a good public understanding of this minimally.

Uh while the city can control the rates that we offer on the street for our metered rates are our parking ramps.

Uh while the city can control the rates that we offer on street for our metered rates or our parking ramps, I don't believe we have any regulatory authority to control the rates on private property.

I believe the city can control its zoning and land use where we might want to see it.

But in terms of what they charge, I don't think our home rule uh uh ability gives us the right to uh charge that uh to control private uh parking rates.

So I just wanted to say that for some of the operators that might be listening uh now who are uh their rates are I think the the city has the most affordable rates in all public parking.

I want to say that we beat the private sector every year, and I'm very proud of that.

Uh but I I don't think we can uh control what they charge for their private use once they are licensed to do so.

Yeah, thank you.

Let me just add one, I'll add one more thing.

So we do license them.

There is an ordinance for that.

Um but one of those regulations, I think some of the complaints is people don't see the signs.

And so the signage is an important part of that.

So that's the that's the first thing that we get on um is make sure that people are aware.

And let me say also, as a person who parked for one hour in one of those private parking spots with a $90 um fee.

I did not appreciate that lack of notice either.

And and I will say uh as someone who is on mobile GR, I know that um Ms.

Smith is working uh diligently on a figuring out a macro understanding of parking downtown.

Uh we've got we got a whole program to do surveys to make to the the what's out there question obviously has to be first and then the how do we accommodate uh and make use more effective effective.

And so I think she's been doing a great job on that.

There's a complex conversation, some of that's happening at mobile GR, uh, and it may be that that's uh something that we want to update the commission on at some point in the future, uh so we're all on the same page.

But I think everybody in the city understands A, we've got some new big uses coming online, B uh there is this tension between um you know uh parking systems that look great until you get uh until you gotta take out a new mortgage to pay the fee from the private collector um and see how the city can do a better job of potentially uh being a being a good partner with those uh private landowners.

And I think that there were there are ways that we can improve that at the city, but those are really under discussion already already now.

So I'm sure that'll be coming to the commission in in due time.

Um but the first is the analysis and then some programming and some figuring out how to make things work technically and uh if there's one thing I know Ms.

Smith does well, it's get the technical details right before she comes up with uh recommendation.

So thanks again, everybody.

Um and I think that adjourns our meeting.

Oh, oh, uh sorry.

Uh we are going to be going into closed session uh to discuss um uh some uh some uh a legal opinion uh and I believe that calls for a roll call vote.

So uh need a motion for the I'll move.

Commissioner Kilgore.

Yes.

Commissioner Knight?

Yes.

Commissioner Robbins?

Yes.

Mr.

Sassi?

Yes.

Commissioner Purdue.

Yes.

Commissioner Balchak?

Yes.

Mayor Legrand.

Yes.

And that we will be convening in room 601 right now.

Thanks.