Call this meeting committee the whole to order with my microphone.

First order of business is uh a proclamation on uh National Black History Month, and I'd ask Mr.

Davis to come up with me as I read it to the community.

So, whereas throughout our nation's history, African Americans have made profound and lasting contributions to the United States in every aspect of life, from arts and science to politics, business, education, and beyond, and whereas African Americans have been pivotal in shaping the cultural, social, and economic fabric of our nation, overcoming immense challenges and adversity to build a better future for all.

Whereas in 1926, historian Carver Woodson established a celebration of Negro History Week, which later evolved into Black History Month in 1976, following President Gerald Ford's call to recognize the contribution of African Americans and the need to continue efforts for racial equality and justice.

Whereas Black History Month is an opportunity for all Americans to reflect on the struggles, triumphs, and resilience of African Americans, honoring their impact in our nation's growth and progress.

And whereas the theme for this year's celebration, African Americans and Labor, highlights the undeniable links between oppression under slavery and African Americans' pursuit of better labor laws and protection for workers across all industries.

And whereas Black History Month serves as a reminder of the ongoing work towards justice, equality, and pursuit of freedom for all, and provides an opportunity for all people to learn, reflect, and celebrate the diverse contributions of African Americans to the story of America.

We recognize the endurance, the enduring legacy of African Americans and labor movements, and reaffirm our commitment to advancing equitable economic outcomes for all Grand Rapidians.

Now I, David Le Grand, mayor of the City of Grand Rapids, proclaim February 2026 as Black History Month, a time to honor the rich legacy, enduring strength, and transformative impact of African Americans in our nation's past, present, and future.

Now, Mr.

Davis, I think we'll say some words.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, City Commission, City Manager.

We're so grateful for this uh proclamation that honors African American History Month here in the city of Grand Rapids.

I will take a moment of personal privilege to say I'm proud to work in a city where we still honor the contributions of all people, especially uh those who uh serve in this great organization.

I am proud to be a part of an organization that recognizes the contributions of African Americans and the great work that they've done to help build Grand Rapids along with other people in our community.

We're joined today uh by members of the employee resource groups around the city of Grand Rapids, especially NFBPA, which is the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, but also joined by the president, former city employee, uh, who's a vice president at Experienced GR, Jordan Eatman.

Uh, grateful that he's joining us today.

And we're grateful for the work of all of our city employees across the organization.

Thank you for what you do for the city of Grand Rapids.

Thank you for what you do to embed equity into all uh across the entire organization, and thank you for what you do to serve the people of Grand Rapids.

So thank you, City Commission and Mayor for still uh standing up and honoring such an important thing in our community.

Thank you so much.

And that at this time we would invite uh all who would like to to join us for a photograph.

Commissioner, we'd invite you to come down uh and we will make sure we commemorate uh Black History Month.

Occasions like this, I always have this strong inclination to want to sing at least one verse of Lift Every Voice and sing.

Let's do it.

Can we can we do it for real?

Let's do carry it off.

Let's do it.

I'll do it.

All right, please stand for the singing of the black national anthem.

We're doing it for real?

Let's do it.

Lift every voice and sing till life and ring ring with the liberty.

Let our rejoice sing as the leaves me.

Let us march on Victory is one.

Next up, and I think without any musical uh element, we will have uh resolution authorizing a sister city agreement.

Well, I don't think they've decided yet.

No.

Thank you.

Um good morning, Mayor and Commissioners.

Uh nice to be before you today.

Um, the resolution uh on your agenda is to approve a sister city partnership with Vaughn in Ontario, Canada.

And this follows up on a presentation by uh Catherine Baker, president of Grand Rapids Sister Cities International, also known as GRSCI, on January 27th at your last meeting.

Just a brief note sister cities partnerships have Lou uh my parliamentarian notes that we haven't had a motion yet.

So it's uh motion on the resolution.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, sister cities partnerships have a generational impact on our community.

The first was approved by the then city commission almost 40 years ago, and we are confident this new partnership with Vaughn will endure and benefit both of our cities for many decades to come.

We're very appreciative of the presence of three representatives from the city of Vaughan who made the 10-hour round trip journey uh to be with us here today, and I'd ask them to raise their hands as I see say each of their names and titles.

So um Michael Genova is Deputy City Manager for Strategic Initiatives.

Gazal Mard Moman is Senior Advisor for International Economic Relations, and Christian Zavarella is economic development officer.

So thank you for being here today.

Um at this time I'll turn the podium over to two representatives of our local sister cities partners at GRSCI for brief words on behalf of the organization.

So they are Emily Smith, who is secretary, come on up, and uh Molly Grimes, who is Vaughn committee co-chair, and after that, uh Michael Genova will provide a brief presentation on behalf of Vaughn, and we'll take any questions you may have.

Thanks, Lou.

Good morning, Mayor and Commissioners.

Thank you for being here today.

Thank you for having us here today, and thank you to our friends from Vaughn, Canada.

Thanks for making the trip over.

I'm Emily Smith, the Secretary of GRSDI.

I'm grateful to be here, and thank you for your support of our work.

Um, I really wanted to highlight the work of our Canadian Arvon Inquiry City.

Um, Molly Grimes is the co-chair.

She's done uh along with her committee a lot of work as being citizen diplomats, the people-to-people relationship building that's really important to the uh ethos of Sister Cities International and Grand Rapid Sister Cities International.

So Molly.

Yes, thank you, Emily, and good morning, everyone.

My name is Molly Grimes, and I am co-chair for our Grand Rapids Sister Cities Canada Inquiry Committee.

Thank you for having us here today.

It is such a pleasure to be here along with the members of our committee.

Um we're enthusiastically supporting the formalization of our sister city relationship with Vaughn Ontario, Canada.

Our connection with Vaughn began in 2023 when Sister Cities International matched our two cities based on shared um shared economic population and cultural characteristics.

Um since then, over the last three years through regular virtual meetings, our four official delegations between our cities.

We've built a strong and active partnership with the support of our committee volunteers, community and business leaders, and city liaisons.

Both Grand Rapids and Vaughn value creative placemaking, inclusive public spaces, and strong public-private partnerships.

We see this relationship creating meaningful opportunities for community members, artists, industry leaders, and students, while also strengthening Grand Rapids International Presence and relationships.

On behalf of Grand Rapids Sister Cities and our Canadian Inquiry Committee, I am honored to introduce to you Deputy City Manager Michael Genova from the City of Vaughan.

Thank you for that, Molly.

And good morning, Mayor LeGran, members of the Grand Rapids City Commission and City Manager Washington.

My name is Michael Genova.

I'm the deputy city manager of strategic initiatives with the City of Vaughan, a municipality located in the Greater Toronto area.

And on behalf of our mayor, Stephen Dal Duca and City Manager Zorn Postick, I'm honored to join you today to discuss our city's enthusiasm to enter into a sister city partnership with Grand Rapids, where Vaughan will become your first Canadian sister city.

I want to recognize the dedicated staff from Grand Rapids and in particular City Manager Washington and Chief of Staff Luke Hansfield and the remarkable team from the Grand Rapids Sister City Initiative for all their work over the past year to get us to this point in our partnership journey.

Finally, I want to recognize Earl Provost, the Ontario government's agent general responsible for the Midwestern United States, who first initiated the idea about Vaughan entering into a sister city agreement with Grand Rapids.

So I want to take a few moments and share a little bit more about Vaughan with you.

And that's an image of our city hall.

So as noted, the City of Vaughan is located in the Greater Toronto area and is directly north of Toronto, Canada's largest municipality.

We have a population of 350,000 individuals, and our population is tracking towards over half a million by 2051.

We're about 20 minutes away from Toronto Pearson International Airport, the largest airport in Canada, and we're part of an extensive rail network as well that stretches to Delta, British Columbia.

And so for context, that's just north of Seattle in Washington State.

We are about an hour from the Canada U.S.

border in the Niagara region.

Here we have that's our mayor, Mayor Stephen Del Duca, who was first elected in 2022.

And Vaughan does have a city council of 10 elected officials.

Five of our counselors are elected to represent one of five municipal wards.

Four individuals are elected citywide and serve as local and regional councillors.

So they serve on another council, an upper tier, similar in principle to your county uh arrangement.

And like the mayor, the mayor also serves on that York Region Council as well.

Their terms are four years in length, and we are also in an election year as well.

So I noted our transit corridors, our transit connections, but I do want to single out that Vaughan is the only municipality outside of Toronto to be connected to the subway.

And our subway connection means that you can travel from our emerging downtown core, which we call the Vaughan Metropolitan Center, which you can see there, an image there, uh, into downtown Toronto in roughly 40 minutes or so.

And Vaughan's businesses span a variety of different sectors and reflects a well-diversified economy.

Of note, I do want to single out the Vaughan Healthcare Center Precinct.

This is an 82 parcel of land, home to the city's first and only hospital, the Cordalucci Vaughan Hospital, and it's going to be home to the future York University School of Medicine focused on training that next generation of primary care physicians.

I single this out because last June, when our Vaughan delegation was here in Grand Rapids, we had the opportunity to tour the Grand Rapids Research Center and the Doug Meyer Medical Innovation Building, which is truly an inspiration.

And it's something we're striving to do ourselves.

A municipality that helps bring together health care, research, entrepreneurship, and innovation truly is a municipality that is elevating the quality of life for its residents.

And when we think of our residents, we think of our people, our people are our talent.

So we have over 110 languages spoken in Vaughan.

We have a highly educated workforce.

We have connections to nine universities, 14 colleges, and again, many of those post-secondary institutions are along that subway corridor.

What you see here is an image of Niagara University, which is actually based in Lewiston, New York.

They do have a bi-national campus, which is located in Vaughan, which is something we're very proud of.

And this is a photo of mayor, members of council, and representatives from Niagara University celebrating the expansion of that footprint, which is in our Vaughan Metropolitan Center core.

As I noted, in June 2025, we had the opportunity to have our delegation come visit Grand Rapids.

And one thing that we have top of mind is constructing a future performing and cultural arts center.

This is a leading city building initiative.

And we had the opportunity as part of our study tour to tour the DeVoe's Performance Hall, which was highly impressive.

And as part of that ongoing tour, we also had the opportunity to tour the Van Andel Arena, and we recently, just about two weeks ago, got a directive from council to undertake a feasibility study to look into our own arena and entertainment facility.

So from those connections we made in June, we've been able to uh circle back with stakeholders and and other representatives to get a better understanding of how Grand Rapids has done it so well and how we can transfer that knowledge to the city of Vaughan.

When we think about uh Grand Rapids and we think about where Vaughn is headed, uh creative placemaking and public art is is absolutely critical, and we saw firsthand the public art that is evident all throughout Grand Rapids, and this commitment to public art and placemaking again is shared by our council as well.

Tourism is absolutely critical to the city of Vaughan.

Conferences are a big sector.

Sport tourism is another big sector.

Our biggest sector really is friends and family coming to Vaughan to visit one another, going out to uh a local restaurant or taking in some of our local attractions.

Uh like West Michigan, we have a Cedar Fairs uh amusement park, which is Canada's Wonderland, which is one of our largest employers in the city and a popular tourism destination.

In terms of international partnerships, we have a number of international partnerships rooted in economic and cultural uh development.

Uh it's not uncommon for us to welcome different ambassadors and diplomats to the city of Vaughn.

And just recently we had Ambassador Catenino, uh the Italian ambassador to Canada come visit us.

Uh but most importantly, I would say that Grand Rapids would be the first American international partnership with the City of Vaughn, which we find very encouraging.

Uh again, as noted in this presentation, there are several parallels between uh Vaughan and Grand Rapids, which presents opportunities for economic and cultural development, intergovernmental relations, uh advancing areas of public art, sports, culinary arts, governance as well.

Vaughn's public arts strategy certainly complements Grand Rapids creative economy and cultural initiatives.

Uh in April, we were honored to welcome a delegation from Grand Rapids, including representatives from the the Sister City uh group, and in July 2025, we were honored to welcome Mayor Le Grand uh to Vaughn City Hall, where we had the opportunity to meet with our mayor uh Stephen Dalduca.

Furthermore, in 2025, Vaughn joined the Great Lakes and St.

Lawrence Cities Initiative, which is an organization that I know Grand Rapids is a member of.

And this is a further commitment of the municipality to strengthen connections uh with the city of Grand Rapids, with the Midwest, and with the broader Great Lakes region as well.

So, in terms of next steps, with the support, of course, of the City of Grand Rapids Commission.

Vaughn looks forward to welcoming a Grand Rapids delegation ourselves.

We're tracking to April 14th, where we'll have the opportunity to prepare a report for council's consideration to vote on uh entering into that sister city agreement, and we look forward to the opportunity to host the city of Grand Rapids for a formal signing ceremony at some point in 2026 as well.

So thank you so much for your time today.

Thanks.

Uh any questions, colleagues?

Uh Commissioner Cobor.

Don't have any questions but a comment.

Thank you so much.

Um I don't know any French, so I won't even try to butcher it.

Um I think it's so interesting as our current president of the United States blocks a bridge to Canada or is trying to block a bridge to Canada today.

I think it is beautiful that we are once again modeling behavior and building a bridge between people and culture.

I've had the opportunity to work uh with folks from Canada uh with the um Healing Our Waters Coalition and Washington DC, the um embassy of Canada throws um a nice get together annually uh with the Healing Our Waters Coalition, and so I've been uh had the pleasure to work with you all.

Um I'm wondering if you can explain.

I do have one question.

If you go a little bit more into the Great Lakes in St.

Lawrence uh initiative, I'd love to hear more about that.

But thank you, and I'm very excited to support this.

Thank you so much, and thank you, Commissioner, for the question.

Yeah, this is an organization we joined about a year ago, and uh we have city staff who attend the conferences and who are part of an economic development working group as well, uh, really recognizing that the value of trade that flows or the economic development value of that particular region uh I have here is about six trillion dollars annually.

And so it goes it goes without saying that um local government or economic development professionals, as is the case in municipalities in Canada and across North America.

The more we can build those relationships, it is very critical how those relationships can then advance progress in different areas.

And so this conference, this working group is something we're new to, but uh something where we really feel we can advance that progress further.

Thank you.

Thanks, Belcher.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Um I'm just so thrilled, and I want to say thank you to Commissioner Kilgore for your well worded note on what's going on in our world.

And I want to say that um it was such a pleasure to be able to meet you all yesterday at a reception and have dinner and uh to get to know you each as persons, not just the delegation.

And uh the conversation at the table was very enlightening and very jovial, and I really think that um the care and the community that we are bringing together is an important aspect of uh what it takes to build good, strong, safe cities.

So I'm too looking forward to supporting this as well.

And I just want to say thank you to the delegations, the all the hard work that it takes, thank you to Sister Cities, and uh I'm gonna even say thank you to our manager, city manager.

Um it's been uh a dream for some time, uh longer than we'd like to say to have a partner in um Canada.

So we're in North America.

So um thank you for being our next door neighbor and hopefully a real neighbor in another sense.

Uh city manager.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor, and uh commissioners.

I echo all the sentiments that have been shared.

And Michael, thank you for being here today and partners uh with our sister city uh delegation.

I I I am um very excited too today.

I remember uh envisioning having a North American uh sister city north of us because we only had um you know secure debt relationship in Mexico, and so today it really feels like we are building uh bridges uh to our community, other parts of the world.

And one of the things I really uh was impressed when visiting Vaughn, you heard the growth trajectory is one of the fastest cities in Canada, and they are really taking growth seriously and doing it smartly.

That city hall is a result of them planning for growth and the biggest department in uh their um their uh municipalities.

It seems like it's the planning department because there are there's construction all over the place, and they have assessed the need for housing and have taken that challenge on, and there uh there's a lot of density that's occurring in the downtown area with uh a lot of towers that are being built to accommodate the future growth uh of their community.

And so I think there are a lot of things that we can learn and how to prepare for growth and uh do it in a smart urbanized way.

So thank you for being here looking forward to uh continued relationship.

And uh I don't mean to take away your your objection, but the minute our city manager said north is I thought, well, it's really east.

Um I'm not sure it's it might actually be south of us.

If we were in Cadillac, it would certainly be south of us.

Um but yeah, the uh I I think Vaughn is essentially east of us, not not north of us.

It's the country north of us, Mayor.

Some of it, I mean, you know, we can revisit if we can revisit history.

The golden triangle is below a lot of America.

Also, Nova Scotia dips below Maine.

So just saying.

Um anyway, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um appreciate it.

All right, so uh seeing no further uh quibbles about uh geography.

Um I'd call for a vote.

All in favor of uh formalizing the uh sister city agreement.

Say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

That moves us on to our briefings.

Um the first is going to be from our city comproller on the financial audit for the city.

All right, good morning, uh Mayor LeGrand and the city commissioners.

Uh in a moment, I will invite uh some of the team uh from Plant Moran uh here up to go over the uh results of the city's uh fiscal year 2025 audit, and then we're gonna dive a little bit into uh the city's annual comprehensive financial report and uh look at um the residence guide, which is a great resource we make available to the public to help um digest and ascertain the the city's overall financial position.

Uh so with that I will welcome up uh Marie from Plant Moran.

And Bill, excuse me.

Uh good morning, everyone.

So I'm Bill Brickie with Plant Moran with me today is Marie Steagel, and we're here to talk about the audit for the year-ended June 30, 2025.

Um we talk about the audit, there's really three separate deliverables that we'll be highlighting uh this morning.

We have the financial statements, which is the the very large bound document, and then we have two separate reports to the city commission on audit-related matters.

Uh before we get started, just want to take a brief moment and really thank your your entire finance team for all their hard work throughout the audit.

Um this was a challenging year with the implementation of the Oracle system, um, but happy to report uh the audit was completed and filed on time.

Uh so we appreciate all the efforts uh of your finance folks there.

Uh we have covered all these documents in detail with management, and our goal this morning is really just to provide you a high-level summary and certainly answer any questions that you may have uh about these documents.

Uh the first item I want to highlight is our opinion.

So, as our or Azure auditor, our main deliverable to you is our opinion on those financial statements.

So, included in the financial statements on page one is that audit opinion.

And the city did receive what we refer to as an unmodified audit opinion again in the current year, which essentially means the statements are in compliance with all the rules and regulations, and that's the highest form of assurance that that we can provide on those statements.

Uh so happy to report that.

Uh in addition, I always like to point out too that the city does continue to prepare that annual comprehensive financial report and will receive an award from the Michigan Government Finance Officers Association for quality financial reporting.

So it's more than required by the state of Michigan, and I think it really just shows the city's commitment to transparency and overall quality uh financial reporting.

Um so with that, we're gonna get into the other two uh reports that we issued today.

I'm gonna have Marie come up and kind of go through a few of the highlights there.

Thank you, Bill, and good morning.

My name is Marie Steagel.

I'm the principal on the city's audit.

And um, in addition to the audit opinion that Bill covered, there are two additional deliverables that I believe were provided in your packet.

And I'm going to highlight um the main takeaways from those um documents that go over the end of audit communications that are required by auditing standards.

Um the first, there's a document that's called end of audit communications, and I'll go over the highlights from that.

And the second is the report on internal controls, and I'll cover the highlights from that as well.

Starting with the end of audit communications, um, first, this just reiterates our auditors' responsibility, which is to audit the financial statements, not to prepare them, and to perform our work in accordance with the government auditing standards, which emphasize independence, objectivity, and professional skepticism.

That letter also indicates um any changes to accounting policies.

So there was one new accounting policy that was required to be implemented this year, and that related to compensated absences, things like sick and vacation time, which the city records a liability for.

So that new standard was implemented in accordance with the standard.

Um in the annual comprehensive financial report, you'll see what's called a restatement to the beginning of the year balances, and that's required uh for the implementation of that standard, not a result of any error or anything like that.

Um we also indicate that within the annual comprehensive financial report, certain estimates are required to prepare that.

Um, as part of our audit, we identify significant estimates that require judgment and perform audit procedures around those.

Um, those significant estimates include the net pension liability, the net other post-employment benefit liability, which is the retiree health care, and income tax refund estimates.

In all of those areas, certain assumptions and inputs go into developing those estimates.

So we evaluated those and whether they're reasonable and consistently applied, and we determined that they were.

It related to debt that's issued by the city for the amphitheater and soccer stadium for which other governmental entities are contractually obligated to pay for those debt service amounts.

So the debt was recorded appropriately, but that other side of the transaction, the receivable, the long-term receivable from those other entities, we proposed an adjustment to that, which was recorded and reflected in the annual comprehensive financial report.

Just want to highlight that's largely a financial reporting matter.

It didn't impact any cash or budgeting items, just really a financial state reporting item to show that other side of the transaction, really.

And ultimately, this financing structure was different, unique than others that the city has, which you know went into us recommending that adjustment.

As it relates to some of those estimates that I talked about earlier, we did have a recommendation, just as we have in past years to continue looking at some of those assumptions, mainly the long-term rate of return, as it's used in the other post-employment benefit liability actual valuation, just to ensure that continues to align with the investment strategies there.

We also have to call out if there was certain adjustments that were identified by management as part of the audit that were ultimately not posted into the financial document.

There were immaterial adjustments related to accrued payroll and revenue and receivable in one of the component units that were again determined to be immaterial, and we agreed with that determination, and they were therefore just posted into the next fiscal year.

Within the large bound document, the beginning and end of that document includes the introductory and statistical sections.

Those are the responsibility of the city, and there's no audit opinion given on those.

So we do note that, but note that we read them for any material inconsistencies as it relates to the financial statements.

Rounding out our end of audit communications, we did provide one recommendation related to internal controls.

This just relates to vendor payment changes.

So when a vendor is changing their ACH or electronic payment information, we did find that the city has informal policies related to how they you know verify those changes, but we recommended strengthening those by documenting the changes and then the approval to those changes just to enhance the oversight and consistent application of those controls.

Finally, in that letter, we provide a number of legislative and informal items, which I won't cover in detail, but we're happy to discuss them at any time further.

There's some items in there related to some upcoming accounting standards, which will continue to work with the city to ensure our implemented going forward.

All right, I'll move on to the report on internal controls.

So the purpose of the audit related to internal controls is to evaluate the design of the controls in order to develop our audit procedures.

The audit does not provide an opinion on the effectiveness internal on internal controls per the auditing standards.

But if there are any areas where there are deficiencies that rise to a certain level, those are required to be reported to you.

As part of that, we did acknowledge that there were two findings reported in our letter this year.

One relates to the timeliness of bank reconciliations, and again, this goes back to the ERP implementation.

That was in May, so at the very end of the fiscal year.

So there was various complexities and challenges with reporting and other items associated with the ERP ERP system, excuse me, which did significantly delay the June reconciliation, which we rely on for the audit.

So we noted that contributed to delays in the audit timeline.

The other item that's reported in there just relates to that audit adjustment that I already mentioned related to the debt that's contractually supported by other entities, which we propose an adjustment to, which due to the amount of that just rise to that level of required reporting.

The other part of that letter is just to report if there's any noncompliance with laws, regulations, or contracts, or grant agreements that have a material impact on the financial statements, and we did not identify any noncompliance to report to you today.

There will be a forthcoming um additional audit on the federal grant activity that's has a little bit longer timeline when it's due, so that's being performed right now.

Um and if there's any further communications related to that, we uh will come back and cover those as well.

So to wrap things up, just uh wanted to point out the main takeaways.

Uh the city received the clean audit opinion, so the highest uh level of opinion that we can provide.

It was completed and submitted to the state on time despite significant challenges associated with the new ERP system implementation.

Um management is already addressing the findings that I mentioned through corrective action, um, but those findings um related to um financial reporting um didn't impact day-to-day financial reporting, so that um can make you feel comfortable that any interim reporting you're receiving for decision making um is in is in good shape.

So with that, um, as Bill mentioned, I'd like to once again extend our gratitude uh to the city staff uh for their cooperation and professionalism during our audit, and thank you for your attention.

We're happy to um answer any questions that you might have at this time.

Colleagues, any questions?

Uh Commissioner Saucy.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thanks for the presentation.

Um there's a lot of information to be shared, so thank you for kind of clarifying that, you know, operationally as well as just the overall experience.

Um when you mentioned the bank reconciliations, was that you said that was a note for this year?

Um I using the right terminology.

Um it's reported as what's called a finding and are classified as either material weakness or written finding out of verbal.

Was that any was that something from that we saw last year, or do you think this was specifically rate related to the oracle implementation?

Um I would we we did not see it last year.

Okay.

Um no, and it was largely related to specifically in that month of June and not in not in any other months.

Uh May and June were the two after the ERP system implementation.

Okay.

Um other months that we looked at, um, there were some delays.

Um there's some you know staffing um issues as well, but um it was largely related to the May and June.

I only asked because I read a nonprofit, and that was one of my notes that I had.

And again, just trying to paint the picture of obviously technology implementation, operations.

What was the average day for the rec average days for like a records to close out the month?

Um I don't have the average days.

We specifically noted in the finding that the June reconciliation was being completed up into early December.

Okay.

Um, and that was uh the obviously the one that we are using for audit procedure.

Okay.

Great.

And I'm sure I can talk to you, city manager, about what that might look like right now.

So okay.

Thank you for that information and painting that picture because sometimes you might see a finding, but trying to understand what you know all the other details behind it, and then of course, what have you usually in the audit, what's the reconciliation to make sure that doesn't occur again.

So it sounds like that was done as well.

Yes, um, as part of the findings when you um see their report, uh management provides their views, which is the corrective action that uh they plan to put in place to address that, which is you know already occurring.

Yes, okay, that's wonderful.

Always good to hear that.

So thank you so much.

Uh any other comments or questions, colleagues.

Seeing none, um, thanks.

And uh Mr.

Control, you had some follow-up.

Uh I want to thank uh Bill and Marie and all their uh colleagues at uh Plan Moran for their partnership and the work they did on the audit this year.

Uh thank you very much.

Um yeah, we would like to just go in to a little bit and uh give you a glimpse of the annual comprehensive uh financial report, which um you all know is the uh big almost 200-page binder uh full of very helpful financial information uh on the city's position.

But it can often be you know a lot uh for our residents to digest, and so uh the city for quite some time is put together uh a residence guide uh to city finances to uh help them uh on on their journey of learning more uh about the city's financial position.

So I'll run through a few highlights uh in there, and this is of course uh available um on the city's website.

Um we tried in one page really encapsulate um the city's kind of overall financial position, just looking at some uh key measures here.

Um so we have a snapshot of uh the city's overall uh revenues uh for the year, uh $677 million uh and expenses of $174 million.

Uh both of those uh increased relative to last year, and uh we'll look at some of the reasons for that as well.

But a key thing when we look at the city's net position is the difference throughout the course of the year between those revenues and expenditures, and that ultimately impacts our net position that you see here on the right.

So we had a positive increase of 96 million dollars during the fiscal year, which is good, and that's because our revenues exceeded our expenditures.

So the city's total net position as of the fiscal year end is just over 1.1 billion dollars.

And as you can see, that uh really reflects the difference between big picture, all the city's assets and all the city's uh liabilities.

Uh when we go down a little bit and we look at just uh the general fund, you know, which is the government's main operating fund, uh we have a uh bless you, uh unassigned balance of uh just over 88 uh million dollars.

And in addition to that 88 uh million dollars, uh there is also uh just under 19 million dollars set aside for budget stabilization uh in a budget stabilization fund, and so um the general fund also increased 10 million dollars versus last year, so that is uh that is a good um direction as well financially.

Um looking at the outstanding debt piece, um there was a significant amount of uh debt issued during the fiscal year for major projects of which uh everyone in the public are quite familiar uh with at this point.

So as of today, uh we have or fiscal year end uh 674 million dollars uh in outstanding debt.

Um the one thing I would call intent attention to is that um the debt has been increasing um in recent years, um, so not just from last year, but if we look uh you know, back a couple years ago, we were at about 466 million, and so uh we're at 674 million uh dollars now, so that is a substantial increase uh in the debt position that I think we should remain cognizant of.

Um now there are certain you know uh agreements in place uh to help the city cover its debt servicing costs, which is great, but nonetheless, I just uh you don't want to highlight um our our liability uh position there.

Uh we have a little snapshot here uh on the credit rating from standard and poor's uh double A that's remained stable uh for the past uh several years.

And then also pension and benefits, uh, we stay in around 77% funded when you look at all of the um pension and other post employment uh benefit plans.

So each of the following slides kind of double clicks a little bit more you know into these topics, um, just kind of give uh you know residents' insight into primary sources of you know city revenue.

Obviously, we have property and income taxes, but also charges for services like uh water sewing and sewer and parking.

Um as you can see, those make up a big uh chunk of the pie.

Um but this year I mentioned you know there was um some significant increases.

So in this total government uh revenue number, um, there is uh $52 million associated with uh money we anticipate uh receiving from the Kent County's uh lodging tax uh from the convention arena authority.

And then on the revenue side, um 574 million.

Um you can see again main expenditures, public safety, public works, uh, water sewer and general government uh expenses, and similar as revenue was up significantly, so were expenses, and again, there's uh a big capital construction cost component here of 76 million dollars pertaining to amphitheater and uh soccer stadium.

Um if you just pulled those uh you know figures out, we would still be up uh revenues uh pull those projects out and how they're impacting the financials.

We would still probably be up both in revenue and expenditures uh for this year as well.

Um, this vendor detail slide is just going kind of one layer deeper uh into the city's um expenses.

Um granted there's a lot of expenses, right?

But um, these are some of the uh organizations or businesses that the city works with.

We work with you know thousand thousands of entities and organizations and individuals are paid.

Um, but this list on here really constitutes uh you know organizations that have been paid at least two million dollars or more, so it just gives uh the public a little bit more visibility in some of the uh primary organizations uh that the city is working with.

Uh we have a slide here uh just covering tax abatements uh for the fiscal year 2025 showing um about 4.8 million dollars uh was abated, and the bulk of that uh you can see in those top two programs there, the main one uh being the brown field.

This is uh that net position slide, just again looking at that big uh picture change in the city's overall um assets and liabilities.

Uh it kind of walks through the uh contributors there, but um, as mentioned before, ultimately we had a positive uh 96 million dollar increase in our net position, and directionally speaking, the net position uh increasing positive is uh is good versus uh the opposite.

Um, just looking at the general fund a little bit more.

Um, we break down some of the other components in addition to that $88.4 million uh unassigned balance, that is the uh unconstrained um amount uh that is um available uh to be spent.

Um we have a slide that breaks down uh the debt position uh just a little bit more because there's different types of debt that the government issues.

We have uh government debt, which is backed by uh taxpayer revenue, and then the business type debt is more focused on um our business type activities, um like water sewer parking, stuff that generates uh income from those business type uh activities.

And so uh what we try to you know visualize here is to show the uh debt servicing costs as a percentage of the total revenue um associated uh with these funds.

And then just breaking down um the city's pension and OPEB uh obligations and liability uh a bit more.

Um, five plans out there, thousands of people still participating in these plans.

Uh the today the city has a net uh pension and OPEB liability of 325 million dollars.

Um overall, we are if you aggregate across or average across all five of these plans.

Uh we stand about uh 77% funded, and um we are higher on the funding side for both the pension and OPEB.

Uh state of Michigan does uh set some guidelines there, which we detail here a little bit more, and the city does uh exceed those guidelines that would consider when a plan is underfunded.

Uh so we're not uh in that position.

And then uh we just have some other helpful information in here to give residents uh access and links to some other helpful resources, who their city officials are and so forth.

So that's the really quickest possible version of you know our 200 page, more detailed annual comprehensive financial report, and uh happy to take uh you know any uh feedback or questions you have right now.

Great.

Uh colleagues.

Um great presentation, pretty clear.

Uh and uh looks like unbalanced good news, so it's reassuring.

Um thanks.

Thanks for the presentation.

Yeah, thanks for your time this morning.

All right, that moves us on to our uh second update, and this is on work on greenhouse gas reduction projects.

Uh Mr.

Matthews is coming up with our head of sustainability.

Sustainability director.

Uh go ahead.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Good morning, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, today we're going to be providing an update on a little too fast.

Update on our greenhouse gas reduction initiative, specifically two.

The first is working with Vicinity Energy and their E-Steam program, as well as pursuing solar on our Butterworth landfill.

I'm gonna provide a brief background just on some of the initiatives as well as a preliminary analysis from our climate plan and our implementation analysis.

And I'll pass it to Assistant City Manager Matthews to cover more information about the initiatives and uh some considerations.

So the city has been working with vicinity energy regarding their E-Steam program over the last two years, and during that same time period, the city has also been working to secure a solar developer to supply the city's primary circuit for the Butterworth landfill site with renewable energy.

Now the ESTEAEM initiative was one of the 20 actions prioritized by city commission during the climate action adaptation planning process, but the Butterworth Solar Initiative was labeled as kind of an in-progress action, so it was not included on that list.

Today both programs are near at a point where decisions need to be made either to move forward or to defer.

Now, as part of our climate plan implementation strategy, we contracted with Fresh Coast Climate Solutions to calculate the greenhouse gas emission potential and cost for climate plan initiatives, and that was pursuant to the discussion on and the acceptance of the plan on August 12th.

We contracted with Fresh Coast at the end of August under the city manager spending authority, and while final reports will be available in the spring.

This discussion includes some of their preliminary calculations for both projects.

So starting off, our vicinity e-steam program is featured in our buildings and industry chapter of the climate plan strategy for Action Three, partnering with Vicinity Energy to continue to implement efficiency projects and pursue electrification of the steam generation district and the sourcing of renewable energy.

Now the average annual cost to the city would be around $310,000 with a 20-year cost estimation at 6.2 million.

The greenhouse gas emission reduction that was found by Fresh Coast is 15,000, a little bit over 15,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is our unit of measurement for greenhouse gas emissions.

However, that is for if the entire program is utilized at vicinity.

If it's just the city's portion, that's just a little over 1,100 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

For the city's cost per metric ton, it's around $20.56.

And the reduction for the city's portion of that E steam would be 0.05% of the community wide total greenhouse gas reduction options.

If it you're including the entire ESEM program, it's more like 0.61% reduction.

For our Butterworth Solar, you can find that in the Climate Plan Under Energy System Strategy 4, Action 6, maximizing the local benefits of our city's renewable energy portfolio, both by our renewable natural gas generation at the city's biodigester, but as well as pursuing solar at Butterworth Landfill.

Now, because we're pursuing a power purchasing agreement, which assistant city manager Matthews will describe, the average annual cost of the city is around $2,900.

And these costs are not from our fresh coast climate solutions, but are instead from the developers and the proposals that we received.

So the 20-year cost estimation is around $58,000, and that is due to comparing the cost for consumers energy's renewable energy program that we've already agreed to sign on for because we want to continue to meet our renewable energy goal.

So the greenhouse gas emission reduction for this goal for this action is 539 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

That cost per metric ton is around $5.38, and that leads to a community-wide reduction of just 0.02%.

And now I will pass it on to assistance manager Matthews to move forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, okay.

So uh we're first going to talk about uh eSteam, which is one of the items that you all had selected um in your 20 priority actions.

Um the way that program works, the city would subscribe to the eSteam program.

Uh that would guarantee that the steam that's provided to us would be through their electric boiler using renewable energy.

Um that would uh one of the benefits of this is that it diverts greenhouse gases locally.

So the burning of gas right now is happening just a few blocks from where we're at, where, for instance, right now on the renewable energy program, um though that's virtually saving greenhouse gas emissions that might not be actually generated here locally.

Some of the considerations looking at the project.

Um we could, if we wanted to reduce costs slightly in the short term, opt for a partial subscription.

Um that means that part of the portfolio would be coming from consumers standard generation, part would be coming from renewable generation.

Um this provides us with a fixed rate.

So we'd have a guaranteed rate over time versus the gas rates, which can be volatile, but generally over uh recent years have been lower than the same comparable cost for electric for electrical energy.

The renewable energy program subscription is limited, which is why we want to talk about this now.

So that availability window is closing at their current rates and their proposal.

Um we don't know when the next window might open.

We could still subscribe to the program, but it would be on just open generated energy.

Um of the things that we need to talk about is the unfunded budgetary impact and the term of this commitment.

We're talking about a 20-year term.

Um we'd like to bring this forward as an item for formal discussion as part of the the actual budget process.

Um the other piece that we'll probably bring forward here shortly as an update to the ordinance.

So the city is in a unique position.

We are both the regulator and we are a customer of the steam district.

Um in that role, uh we hold in ordinance the tariff for the steam district.

It did not, when it was developed, contemplate the utilization of alternative energies for the generation of steam.

So all of the calculations that are in there are based on the burning of gas.

Um we have some draft language that will effectively allow them to sell this as a subscription in addition to traditional generation.

Um that's something that doesn't obligate us as the customer, but it gives them a pathway to be able to offer this to other customers that might want to be able to use it.

So looking at uh Butterworth, uh, we are in the final evaluation for proposals for two megawatts of solar at the landfill site.

Um this would be a PPA.

So the project would be owned by the developer, we would purchase that generated power at agreed upon rate.

That agreement uh notably includes maintenance and operation and includes generation guarantees over the life of the solar array.

Um we would, if we chose have the have the option to purchase.

The recommendation is if we wanted to exercise that option, it would be after year six, and that's because that's when the uh accumulated tax credits for the project would fall off and be fully depreciated.

Um this one provides indirect uh diversion, um, similar to what it is that we're doing with the renewable energy program.

So when we look at the costs of the renewable energy program, um the solar is slightly higher over the term.

Um the overall project cost we should note was actually reduced by three million dollars via the state grant that we received to extend the primary circuit.

One of the big blockers that we had on this project in the past was that any project developer also had to assume cost for the extension of the primary circuit.

So we've spent the last almost two years working on an alternative to take that off the table and buy down the cost of the project.

Uh the initial year, um, if we look at the projections, uh the initial year cost difference is about 150,000.

And that's because there's a gap year between when the project would go live and when we would anticipate our uh rep program subscription starting with consumers energy.

So the big thing for us, the big date for us is July 4th.

Um if we get the project started, we turn dirt on the ground before July 4th of 2026, we have another three years to finish the project.

Umxotically, if it's after July 4th, it has to be done by the end of the calendar year.

Um and that's the reason why we want to get this in front of you so that we can make a decision.

So pending our final review, um, we still have some conversations to have with consumers energy to make sure that there's no hidden or unanticipated costs that we might not be considering.

Um we'd like to be able to bring this forward to you at the next meeting this month.

So, in summary, with vicinity, we're looking at about six six point two million dollars over 20 years at 100 percent renewable utilization.

Um Ms.

Wilkinson covered what our potential reductions would be.

We're gonna bring forward that updated language, again, hopefully at the 224 meeting, um, so that we can at least get that piece started.

And then we'll bring forward uh an item for discussion as part of the budget in terms of the longer term subscription.

For Butterworth, we're looking at about $58,000 over the uh 20-year period.

Um we really need to bring this back on the 24th if we have any hope of of getting the engineering done to be able to start construction before July 4th.

Um note that I want to make that's not included on here uh that was also on your priority list.

Uh we had a number of items that were centered around food policy.

Um there's another discussion item we're hoping to bring forward soon specifically around the city's organics processing and the next phase in that project.

Um but I will uh save that for the next time that we talk.

Um as Ms.

Wilkinson mentioned, we're um approaching having a full analysis from Fresh Coast Climate Solutions in terms of all of the items that are in the climate action and adaptation plan.

Um in March, we should be able to bring back those top 20 so that you have a point of perspective on how those might help contribute.

So with that, we'll open it up to questions.

Thanks.

Um I'll point out a couple things that I think the analysis doesn't capture that are worth pointing out.

Um is that um the nature of um energy transmission is you lose energy over time over distance.

And so um one of the one of the advantages of the solar project at Butterworth is that we're going to that that power is going to be used very, very close to um where it's being produced.

And so that's a that's a benefit to the universe.

It's not necessarily something that we capture in the city, but it's it's worth pointing out from a dis from a design standpoint.

Um that's a desirable feature.

Um the other thing that's worth pointing out is um that when we talk about these sorts of initiatives um partly because the world has gotten the air, our era has gotten so much cleaner since the Clean Air Act.

Um we often go directly to CO2 analysis, which is good and important.

Um, but the particular the vicinity project, what we're talking about is actually a point source of pollution uh in our city that I don't think you could hit from here with a baseball, but you could, you know, it's close.

So in our downtown core, we have energy generation happening that's happening with natural gas.

And natural gas has actual I mean it's cleaner than coal, but it's not cleaner than uh solar.

And so this vicinity proposal is directly tied into them in turn going out and getting um uh renewable sources for the electricity that they're using.

And so the reason this is costing is not because not so much that they're doing an E steam boiler as that they're going out and getting uh renewable sources for that electricity and they're and they're passing that along with no markup.

So we're getting the direct value of them, they're not they're not taking any any profit or rent seeking or whatever from trans from passing along that renewable energy.

But to the extent that we do this, we are actually reducing uh point source pollution in downtown Grand Rapids.

And so that's we're not just getting CO2 benefits for people in Paris.

We're also getting um actual lower uh cleaner air in the city in the city, and I think that's really important to point out to our to the citizens.

Um and I guess I can't help I mean I'm just gonna take a soapbox moment here.

Um I am appalled that uh uh our energy companies are currently being forced to keep open a coal burning plant, which is directly upwind from us.

Uh there's a big coal burning plant and prevailing westerly winds mean all of that coal uh production, uh energy production on on the shore of Lake Michigan in the Port Sheldon neighborhood, all of that particulate matter is essentially blowing here.

And so to the extent that our Butterworth program can move us towards a world where we where that point source contamination for the entire region uh is becoming obsolete.

That's a that's for me at least an important reason to take this seriously.

Um because I look forward to the day.

I mean, I I rejoiced when there were when the when there was a plan to shutter that uh uh that plant, and I, you know, made a press release about it, and I was really excited that we were getting rid of a coal plant on Lake Michigan.

And um turned out it was all a mirage.

So uh but nonetheless, if we can if we can build towards that plant being irrelevant, I think that's a that's an important value for us to lean into.

Uh colleagues.

Commissioner Belchak.

Thank you.

Um I'm very happy to see this moving forward, and um I really want to commend the sustainability department and all the work that you guys are doing.

Um the to move forward the cost analysis so quickly and bring it to us, I think is really great.

Um so good job.

I would like to, if you could take a moment to review again what you were saying about the subscription versus um what's going to be in the budget this year, just help me understand that a little bit better.

Yeah, so uh this um I believe this item uh predates um the the newly seated commission.

Um we had brought forward an item uh because our our previous arrangement with consumers energy uh for renewables was expiring and they were moving everybody into a new program called the REV, the Renewable Energy Program.

That program allows us effectively to purchase a portion of one of their projects.

And that guarantees that we are virtually receiving power from that portion of their projects, and then over time they're sharing they're they're providing us with a rebate on our power from the collective benefit of that particular project.

So we pay a six and a half cent uh premium on our power per kilowatt hour for that.

Um and then you see over time if you look at the projections, right around year seven or eight um is when we start seeing a actual lower cost for our energy than if we were paying standard rates.

So uh when we had to calculate what the cost of a PPA was, it wasn't just what are we paying for power, what would we be paying for a PPA?

It was what are we paying for power plus six and a half percent or six and a half cents minus the projected rebate over those 20 years, and then look at that bottom line.

The PPA rate does escalate over time, and then we prov and then we did an estimate for what the same for for what consumers traditional escalation has been over that same period of time.

So there's likely some room in those numbers uh because we don't know what consumers rates are going to be 18 years from now.

Um but we do know what the pattern has been over time, and that's what we used to do the calculations.

So when we did the comparison, those were the two sets of numbers that we were looking at for the project.

And is there a difference between what we like you're saying, offset like I guess the part I'm trying to rema understand too is if we do the e-steam more fully, how does that change our subscription or vice versa?

So the ESTEAM boiler, and I uh Jesse, I I apologize if I don't get this a hundred percent right.

Um we do have vicinity in the room.

Um so the eSteam boiler, uh they can toggle that on and toggle that on based on who they have subscribed for how much power.

They can either provide that through renewable power, or they can provide that through standard consumers energy power based on what it is that we choose.

So that's the first choice.

The second choice is we can say, you know what, we'd love to be a hundred percent on electronic steam.

Um, but we want to hedge on cost, so we're going to subscribe for half of our steam to be generated through the new e-boiler.

We do have that as an option if we want to reduce the costs.

But then you also have a requisite difference in the greenhouse gas emissions that go along with that.

Would that be a permanent or flexible choice?

Uh well uh that's that would be a question that I can engage with vicinity um because what they're looking for, it would be flexible if we were just on generated power.

It's a little bit more complicated if we're on renewable power because vicinity has to subscribe with consumers the same way that we did, which means they're committing to 20 years of renewable energy.

So they would expect us to also subscribe to 20 years of renewable energy in order to have a guarantee that they're covering their costs.

Thank you.

And just the last question is this what you're talking about will be in this year's budget, or you're talking about the Butterworth being in this year's budget potentially.

Butterworth is gonna be uh likely a decision at the end of the month.

Um the e-Steam is the one that we want to bring forward as part of the budget because it has a long-term meaningful impact on the budget.

Uh, we want to make sure that we have a thoughtful discussion about it.

Great.

Thank you very much.

And and Mayor, if I could just clarify we'll have to evaluate whether or not we will be able to bring it forward as part of this year's budget.

So I didn't want to make it seem like we already committing to the subscription, but certainly we want to try to do it, but that will have to be evaluated.

Yeah.

Commissioner Covert.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Matthews, uh, and Miss Wilkinson for your presentation and your work on this.

We don't see you all nearly enough.

Uh, and I will be looking forward to uh March uh for a larger conversation on where we are with the CAP.

If you could please remind me of where eSteam would fit in on our prioritization uh by both the commission and we also had community partners that prioritized work.

Where does that fit in?

Was that high priority?

Was that low priority for commission just to see how this will fit into what we already moved forward on?

Um I don't know that we ranked the priorities.

I think we just by consensus created 20 priorities.

So uh I'm not sure how to answer the question.

So did that fit into those ranked priorities?

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

So the E-Steam was one of the 20 priorities that you all established when we had the conversation.

Getting us off of those fossil fuels and the sort of archaic uh energy uh types.

Um so of course I think it's good.

I've met with the vicinity team.

Um I'm looking forward to the further conversation in the budget of how we fit that in there.

The number um I think could look striking to some, even though it is across 20 years, it's still, you know, we have to see how that fits into our first.

I think we do it in five-year forecast.

I'd love to see how that fits in that five year, um, and then um going forward now in terms of the so supportive but tentatively and how it would fit in with our overall budget, because we want to be make fiscal prudent decisions um for uh the community.

Um and then with Butterworth solar, now that seems much more accessible and feasible.

And I think this is as you said, been a priority of multiple commissions now uh and folks within community as someone who's works uh continues to work in the environmental community here locally, um, folks who are engaged on this issues uh throughout our neighborhoods want to see this.

So it's not only a commission priority, but a community priority.

So as this comes to the end of the month, I really um hopeful to see this move forward and would be supportive of that.

So thank you for this.

Um, supportive of both Butterworth 100% thumbs up right now in the vicinity East Team looking forward to that.

Larger conversation on if that's feasible.

Thank you so much.

Any further comments, colleagues?

Just one other comment, Mirror, as we bring forth the Butterworth um item.

I'm gonna ask Mr.

Matthews to also give the commission an update on the parking conversations that are occurring around Butterworth.

I know the CAA is very interested in uh a portion of the parcel there, and also as uh have some public conversation.

So we should be able to bring everybody else up to speed at the next briefing.

Great.

Uh and actually to that end um you to the extent you said you're gonna get this engineered right.

Uh yeah, I would I I would appreciate it if you would at least do have some initial thinking about engineering if there's going to be parking out there or having solar above the parking.

It's an obvious possibility.

We um that was a discussion the that we had almost two years ago with our pre-qualified developers at the time.

Um what they told us was you could expect about a hundred and fifty percent um the increase to the cost.

Uh and um your parking at that point would have to be significantly larger because you have to ballast the solar panels, and you'd have to have big ballasts to put those solar panels high enough to go over parking.

So it was a conversation that we had.

Um it didn't pencil out.

Um, but I do want to let you know that was that was my first question as well.

But it just didn't seem like it was going to be feasible unless we had outside funding.

Great.

Okay, thanks.

Mayor.

In line with that, was there any further conversation about green space activation at the park, or were we allowed for that?

That was also a good idea, but I don't know where that came from.

Yeah, I don't know where that went, excuse me.

I uh I don't want to uh step on parks and economic development's work, but DGRI has been involved in the conversations.

There is a longer term plan for the whole of the Butterworth site.

So we've had some conversations about making sure that the uses are compatible.

Um part of that conversation, we'll talk about parking.

Um of the questions that I had when it came to having parking on the site is whether or not that parking could be contributory to future active uses on the site.

So uh all of those are active parts of the conversation.

Thank you.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Uh I think we'll move on to our next presentation then.

Um, and that's an update on mobility planning.

See Miss Smith coming up.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I am Jessica Smith.

I'm the mobile GR director.

And thanks for this opportunity to provide this briefing today.

This presentation really builds on the memo that's in your packet and provides an overview of a proposed mobility blueprint for the city, what it is, why it's needed now, and how the city will continue advancing safety maintenance and priority investments while this work is underway.

So Grand Rapids really has a strong vision for mobility and transportation development.

You can go to the next slide.

You gotta click it.

Oh, I have to click.

All right.

There we go.

Perfect.

I have the power.

So we already have a really strong blue um vision for mobility in Grand Rapids, and that's been seen through the Vital Streets Plan, our recently adopted community uh master plan, and also the regional uh Grand Valley Metro Council Vision Zero Regional Safety Action Plan.

So with these clear uh vision and goals around safety, connectivity, and mobility choice.

The mobility blueprint is about operationalizing that vision and connecting adopted policy direction to how we prioritize transportation investments in capital projects.

So last time we were meeting, we were talking about the community engagement framework.

And this is that process map, and I wanted to share with you all where we are in this process.

So with the community master plan, there was a chapter on mobility, and there were as a lot of conversations about mobility and transportation with the community.

So now we're looking at how we implement those visions found in the community master plan.

You're also running through steps eight, nine, and ten, where we're looking at evaluating and learning, um, closing out the loop, coming back and reporting to you all on what we have been hearing and what we've been learning, and then really encouraging that shared learning together.

The big blue arrow there is where you start again with a community engagement process for something like a mobility blueprint, and then we start all over again.

But I just wanted to point out where we're at with our process today.

So with the mobility blueprint, we want to continue that community engagement, and this work really follows in that framework, and the blueprint builds on extensive engagement that's already been done throughout the community master plan and other citywide initiatives.

So we are now moving into this phase where we translate what we've learned into implementation guidance and investment priorities.

So that threshold of engagement really looks like for the mobility blueprint, anticipating an involved level of engagement, meaning that we gather that input that directly informs the framework and prioritization approach, and then that effort builds on that prior co-create threshold of engagement that you saw on the community master plan.

So let's talk about the shared learning.

So what we've really been hearing over the past several years are consistent themes that have emerged across commissions, advisory commissions, community partners, and residents.

So starting with the Vital Streets Oversight Commission, the commission has been really diligent about ensuring that voter approved vital streets income tax has been prioritized to deliver on the good and fair commitments made for our road assets, and those resources are distributed fairly across our city wards.

So at the same time, the Vital Streets Oversight Commission has raised important questions about how we prioritize and integrate additional mobility improvements, particularly connected pedestrian and bicycle facilities, alongside traditional asset maintenance work, and how we braid funding sources together to deliver all of those improvements.

So we've also heard from your mobile GR Commission, which has emphasized safety for vulnerable users and alignment with the community master plan, vision zero, and your other adopted plans.

So neighborhood associations, business districts, and corridor organizations have asked for clearer understanding of how transportation projects are prioritized and sequenced, and businesses have expressed concerns around parking impacts, construction disruption, and the need for more predictable mitigation strategies.

So during Eurom City Commission workshop last fall, the commissioners asked for clear direction on transportation investment priorities and how we make those as a team.

So taking all this together, this feedback points to the same need, a shared framework to guide transportation decisions in the city.

So with the community master plan implementation, the mobility blueprint is really the city's effort to implement that bridge between the community master plan and the capital improvement program.

It should define transportation investment policy using a safe systems approach, identify gaps in the mobility network, and connect existing regional and local plans into one coordinated framework.

So this is exactly the kind of work building consistency and connectivity in the transportation system that gives the vision of a vibrant Grand Rapids and operational path forward.

So it provides a single reference point for that mobility capital planning and project prioritization.

So this doesn't mean that we just pause everything we're doing in mobile GR and across the city in the mobility efforts.

We will continue to do critical work around safe routes to school improvements, prioritizing high injury and high-risk network corridor safety improvements, neighborhood traffic calming programs, regular design standard updates.

We consider the impacts of grant-funded projects, required maintenance, and data collection around parking and neighborhood districts, neighborhood business districts.

And so this ensures that we maintain momentum on safety and maintenance while being intentional about larger transformational corridor decisions.

So with this, the next steps are really to incorporate any feedback into final implementation approach, scope, and timeline for the community for the mobility blueprint, publish an RFP, and bring on a consultant team to help us with that analysis, continue community engagement based on our framework for the city, probably at an involved level.

And then there will be a funding request to continue this effort in the fiscal year 27 budget submission.

Major project milestones are in front of you, pre-work and then different phasing to move through the project together.

This is just an illustration of a phase-to-project approach to developing that blueprint.

This structure really ensures that we have transparency, community input, and alignment with future capital investment decisions.

So really this blueprint represents an opportunity to bring clarity, predictability, and alignment for how the city plans and invests in its transportation system.

So by connecting adopted policy, community engagement, and future capital investments, the city can really move forward with greater confidence and consistency.

Thank you.

Do you have any questions for me?

Mayor, before the commission um begins to make inquiry, may I point out an item in the memo I want to bring to the attention of the public and the commission.

And it's uh it's uh on our briefing memo, it's the last page of it.

Yep, all the way down.

Thank you.

Yep.

So if you go down to uh 208, page 208.

Right there.

So I want to make sure commission and the public so we're presentation.

Miss uh Smith said it, but I want to um it to be clear in black and white, uh, while we will continue uh those important things around safety and maintenance.

Um there is a sense of we we need to take a serious pause while we do the study on some of those transformational corridors.

And I wanted to point to the language that's in the memo as well as uh the public and any media covering the story so that we're not misunderstood on what we're doing.

Thank you.

Uh colleagues, Commissioner Belcher.

I just want to say, congratulations.

This is so great to see the very first team presenting with the new community engagement framework and using it as a f as the framework for your presentation.

So I I give everybody who worked on that kudos because that's really really great to see that in action.

Um I think that uh it's really a smart plan uh that you've put forward.

I think that um it's gonna be very interesting to see community feedback to get the the blueprint in place, and I think the thing I'm most excited about is that when this gets put into place and finalized, it's actually addressing those needs that you have so clearly pointed out that you've been listening to that we've all been hearing from the community, from us, from all these different sources.

So um, you know, if we can be clear and connected and do our streets that way, then we're we're going in the right direction.

So thank you.

I just really really impressed.

So I'll I want to weigh in and and and uh you know respond, I think a little bit to the presentation, but also to um your note, city manager, and I and I and I hope we're gonna be in alignment here, but I at least want to want to discuss it a little more.

Um first um I think this is great.

I think the idea of this work is great.

Um, but I'm I'm concerned that it's necessary but not sufficient.

In other words, this is not me saying we shouldn't do this work.

Um however, um I am concerned that as we look at these things that there's a category that this framework doesn't really address, and specifically that's um experimental things.

Um and uh I've said before that I think that there's a category of things that we have to look at and ask if something is cheap, fast, and reversible, and reversible is an important part of that uh criteria for me that we should be willing to explore things that we can experiment with.

So to put it crudely, you know, if you if there's a place where we can put in a bike lane, and if it's wrong and it does something terrible and it snarls traffic or it, you know, is is uh uh harms uh any of the dynamics or has unforeseen consequences that if it's a reversible, we can say, right, we tried that and we're not gonna do that anymore.

Um so I think that is I think often traditionally in city systems, um often things are built for sort of a 30-year standard or a 50-year standard, which is great if you're talking about a sewer pipe, right?

You don't want to dig up the ground every five years because you didn't you built you built a five-year sewer line.

That's not a good idea.

Um and you don't want a five-year uh asphalt, nobody nobody likes the roads ripped up, nobody likes um durable projects not being durable.

On the other hand, um some of the work that we can do in this, I mean you got a two-year timeline for the for the uh blueprint to evolve, but I think in those two years, I I a hundred percent agree, city manager, I and I'm taking your memo to mean big projects that we can't reverse, we really should be pausing until we have our act together, till we have a clear vision.

So if we're going to do uh and I'll just name an example, um there's a new bike lane on division between Fulton and Michigan.

Well, it's really not reversible.

Uh the concrete is poured, it is raised above the city, uh above the level of the city street.

Um that's the kind of project that you know, once you've done it, you're really not gonna undo it.

Um same with the Turner bike lane.

Really not gonna undo that.

I mean, it's really done.

Um but there I but I do think that there are categories out there that we should be thinking about, and I just want to flag it and asking ourselves, are there things out there that we can upgrade?

Um and for example, you this is this may sound really trivial, but here's an example.

A lot of our bike lanes in the city are striped with a white line.

Um I think if we stripe those with a green line, um more more motorists would get them would notice that, oh, that's a bike lane.

When I see a white line on the street, I'm not that worried about it.

I'm worried about yellow lines.

I know I'm not supposed to cross those or I crash.

Um white lines I don't know give or you know, more s more insignias in the bike lanes.

Like those aren't things that are gonna that need a 20-year plan to pro uh and and they're also reversible.

We could take out the out the little bike lane signs in in a in a bike lane if we wanted to.

Um but we could all I think that um we also have, and I think we all know the community knows, we all know there are some uh projects that are simply uh they're not continuous.

And so the opportunity to make uh continuity between the investments we've already made.

I think those are things where we should have the conversation, particularly if they meet the criteria of like I said, cheap, fast, reversible.

Um so I think that there are places where we can be looking at connectivity and and completion um even while we're doing this.

So I just wanted to flag that.

I think that the rhythm of making sure that we get a long range uh plan right and that we do it right is absolutely essential.

But I also don't want us to halt progress.

I want us to halt long range irreversible things uh until we get it right.

But I don't want to I don't want to halt progress.

I mean uh and again I will throw this out for uh uh uh something that shocked me when I heard it at um I I'm I sit on the rapid board.

And there are about as many people now in the city who bike as who use to get to work as you use public transit.

Like that's a really impressive number.

And so if there's a growing adoption of multimodal transportation, um we should be we shouldn't, you know, thwart that energy.

So just wanted to say that.

Uh Commissioner Sasi.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thanks for this presentation.

Um I really appreciate when I was reading the memo and and just looking at this presentation, these were a lot of the calls over the last year that I've gotten into my office, and I know even in the past, other colleagues have gotten to their office specifically around small business needs, and I think we're we're just at a real really critical point, unfortunately.

I I get a lot of my information from social media and Facebook, you know, um tells me what's going on in Grand Rapids a lot of the times.

It doesn't mean that that's the that might, you know, we all have individual truths, and so much that I've seen lately on social media, and then many of you know I work with small businesses, is that they're challenged right now.

Um they're challenged because people don't have additional income.

They're challenged because of the weather, they're challenged because of quite honestly the federal government.

Um so I think right now what we need to do more than anything is provide clarity and consistency to our small business owners.

Um and so I I feel like this is a step to provide that clarity.

Um, you know, I think we learned a lot of things.

I I think back to some of the construction that was happening in the uh Grandville Cessor Chavez corridor a few years ago that brought that that sort of to me was like the tipping point of some of this conversation.

That was almost two years ago, I think, right, Miss Barns.

And um and so I I think that's that balance of the city stuff is it does take time because we have different regulations, we have different laws, we have different funding dynamics, and so um I would also say, and and maybe to your point, Mayor, um kind of what are the things that we've tried.

I actually we were uh Commissioner Kilgore and I were at the East Town um pancake breakfast this week, and they talked about actually some of the um I think it was a f like at least one roundabout that they had worked with mobile GR on is like let's put this up because we're kind of hearing this.

So I think to your your point is well taken of what are the things that we can try, and maybe it admittedly I you know uh I'm not as close to this, but um that was a reminder as we were preparing for this meeting that we do have some examples when we've tried that.

I was looking at our our Monroe Business Association, there's been a couple of things specifically as like not just Silva, but you know, Core Well Health and Silva, there's been some work that you all have done and again collectively on some on some stop signs because those used to be streets that people just like rode you know through and now there's a lot more pedestrians.

So maybe we could also um as we go through this, and I and to me it's like I you know I see it says pause, but it's really it it's to me this is an intentional engagement.

We have this framework.

Um we could talk about some of those things that we've done with different business associations or neighborhood associations.

They they were really appreciative, and they were just kind of talking about you know that walkability for them, um, and they and they really enjoyed that.

And then so that's that's my comment.

I think we can I think it's like a both and of what are what is the certainty that we can provide people?

Is that we know that there is a lot of uncertainty right now, and I think this allows that.

And then how can we review some of the things that we have tried and what are some of the innovations that we've done?

Especially, I know we've talked, you know, a lot of our businesses.

How do we slow down the traffic so people will go into these businesses and like want to engage with them?

Um then so that's just one comment to to support this ongoing conversation.

And then the other thing I would say also I think our corridor improvement authorities, and just we we made an investment in some additional and an additional role for corridor improving these at the last meeting.

So I think that ties into this work too.

So that was gonna be my question.

Um, and maybe more so for city manager, Miss Smith, than for you is um how are we ensuring that this new and again there's a lot of things that we've done, you know, we had master plan, but we have the um this new community engagement framework.

How do we make sure that is getting to like all the our our citizen boards and bodies, you know, because sometimes I think what happens, and I can think of a couple examples is like we're here, we're affirming these things, we all know about it, and then we have these citizen members who it's like once a month or once a quarter.

So I just want to make sure that's um, you know, how is that overlapping and engaging?

And I know like an example, you're over mobile GR, Miss Barons, and then you're over economic development.

So you're probably making sure those connection points happen.

But just wanted to highlight that.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

And I'll I'll speak to it.

Certainly, uh, Ms.

Smith will take that feedback into account when we're talking about the various um efforts that we make to go to different commissions.

So the mobile GR Commission obviously will be leading the engagement strategy here, but we'll be at planning commission and can work with economic development staff to hit all the CIAs at the right time in the development of the mobility blueprint.

Um, also we've heard we've talked before about our just our process improvement that has been underway to date, which has covered the construction period, and now we're sort of in parallel talking about the design of those projects.

We've had economic development uh representation in our process improvement team throughout that uh process to so to find ways to more formally and predictably um build that bridge into the various business associations and corridor improvement authorities and neighborhood associations.

How are we communicating?

When are we communicating?

Where's that feedback loop is all part of what we're also constructing, sort of in parallel to this on the side.

So appreciate Mayor.

I just would add when um Miss Raleigh Mokovich did a presentation.

One of the things we wanted to do was to cascade this throughout the organization.

So we still have departments that are being um trained on this new framework.

So that part, so there's internal work.

We happen to have uh I want to come in uh Miss Smith because uh we happen to have um you know, people are ready to embrace it now and major efforts and initiatives, but there's still a lot of work internally in the city to make sure all of our departments are um aware of the um engagement framework.

Commissioner Glover.

Yeah, I am happy to see this coming before us.

I concur with uh my colleagues, Commissioner Isasi and the mayor um want to delve into a little bit more of the sort of um experiment.

Uh I think we we do need to be able to be responsive, is what I'm hearing.

Um, and and what I certainly think we need to allow for community for us to be responsive.

So I'm happy about the framework.

I was the chair of the Vital Streets Oversight Commission.

Um, and I think that that is helpful for folks who are um I came in like at first I was vice chair, and then the chair left to Hawaii.

I was hoping that that was something you got if you were the chair of that.

It did not happen.

Um, but I I think that would be very helpful uh for our community members who serve on these boards just to see a bigger picture.

And we have uh Commissioner Sassi's note of that roundabout is a good example, but also on Vital Streets working when we got the scooters at first of where to put those scooters, so those little squares, the white squares that we're familiar with now, that was sort of a quick responsive action that I think the team worked really well on.

So I think there really has to be that space for that within community, um, just so we can be responsive.

So happy to see this uh and want to concur with.

I'm hopeful that we will also be able to sort of walk and chew gum at the same time, making sure we uh make prudent decisions and have a framework for it, but also be able to be responsive and sort of have uh ideas within community, get feedback if it works, we keep it.

If it works, we keep it.

If not, uh we listen to that feedback and uh take it back.

So thank you so much for your presentation.

Great, thanks.

Uh oh, sorry, Commissioner Purdue.

Yes, good morning, everyone.

Thank you so much for the update.

Looking forward to this process playing out.

Um I have a question uh for the day, isn't really for city manager and maybe you miss Smith, but uh will we get a list of those projects, those larger projects that will be paused during this process.

I think um what we can do when we prepare the budget.

We typically have a list of some of the planned capital improvements uh for the upcoming year, and so you'll see which ones we're planning regarding the ones that we're gonna put on pause.

I've yet to see a list, so I'll have to follow up with the staff and see if there's something that's already planned that's gonna be paused.

Yeah, is that something that you all um have on hand because you all are stopping some projects right?

What what I what I'm sharing is that there are a couple obviously that we've already indicated we're gonna take a pause, like the wealthy street initiative.

That's the major one that I'm aware of at this time.

The others we're gonna review the capital planning effort and the ones that we will put forth in the budget will be the ones that we will say we will do, those will not be paused.

So other than the one on wealthy, I'm not aware of another one that we are intentionally pausing at this time, but we'll we'll follow up and make sure.

Just the other one, because I know it'll be top of mind for uh Commissioner Purdue is the Seymour Square uh project.

So the Wealthy Street project, we pause Seymour Square, we've also paused both in commercial corridors, both with a lot of concern about how to not only deal with the temporary impact on parking, but just long term, the the growth visualized for both of those corridors and the current parking situation.

So uh Ms.

Smith talked about what we are continuing to do is gather more data at the corridor level about some parking circulation.

Uh and so we'll bring back a more complete list, but I did want to mention Seymour Spark because I knew that would be talking about it.

Thank you.

Uh yeah, particularly for those that are public, uh being really clear about what we're pausing, I think is really important.

So thank you for that clarity.

Um I guess the only other thing that I will bring up that hasn't already been said um is you know, I I when I look at the shared learnings, this all feels very accurate to the conversations we've had, we've heard.

The thing that's not explicitly caught out today, um, and I'm curious if this is something you all are thinking about, and that is just coordination with the rapid.

So a lot of our mobility conversations feel like they come down to cars versus bikes versus pedestrians.

Um but buses are a key part of that system, and it's really about can people get where they need to go affordably, reliably, and buses, our public bus system is a really key part of that.

I'm aware that the rapid is represented on the mobile GR Commission.

Um, but I'm wondering if there is plans for a more kind of intentional collaborative look as we think about how we grow and how we do that in box step with the rapid and include them as part of our our networking plans.

Sure, and so with transit specifically, it's it is a collaborative coordination process since the um the transit system is separate from the city, and they have been an excellent partner with us and are really excited.

I just um chatted with them yesterday about uh in preparation for this conversation today, and they are very excited uh to see us move forward.

They just completed their master plan, their master transit plan, and so that is part of the over 50 regional and local transportation and mobility related plans that the team has been looking at to have a coordinated and collaborative um effort forward to have that one that one vision in one place.

So thank you for adding that.

It's a really important part of our system and our network, and it's certainly something that needs to be layered in with the analysis.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thanks.

Uh seeing no further questions, thanks for the review.

And um, I now um uh our next step for this group is we're going to be um there's we have a request from a city attorney that we move into closed session.

Uh and so that will take a vote, and that will be happening in room 601.

So uh city clerk, if you call the vote for the case.

I will move do we need to move?

Yeah.

I'll make a motion to go into closed session.

I'll support.

Okay.

Commissioner Kilgore?

Yes.

Commissioner Robbins?

Yes.

Commissioner Belchak?

Yes.

Commissioner Purdue?

Yes.

Commissioner Asassi.

Yes.

Mayor LeGrand.

Yes.

And that moves us into closed session.

Thank you all.