Grand Rapids City Commission Meeting – February 24, 2026: Budget, Tax Exemptions, and First Ward Vacancy Planning
Grand Rapids City Commission Meeting – February 24, 2026
The City Commission met on February 24, 2026, to approve several resolutions, receive a comprehensive mid-year financial and performance review, and discuss the process for filling an upcoming vacancy in the First Ward. Key actions included unanimous approval of scheduling changes for city attorney selection and budget deliberations, tax incentives for Long Road Distillers, and an ordinance update for the downtown steam district. The financial presentation highlighted slowing income tax growth, projected deficits starting in FY28, and the need for cautious budgeting. On the vacancy, the commission directed staff to begin an appointment process immediately but to delay the final decision until after the April 21 filing deadline for the November election.
Consent Calendar
- Resolution to schedule 2026 meetings: Approved scheduling an April 1 meeting (if needed) for city attorney deliberation, a May 5 special meeting for the preliminary budget review, and adjusted start times for December meetings (Dec. 1 at 7 p.m., Dec. 15 at 2 p.m. with oath of office at 7 p.m.). Passed unanimously.
- Industrial development district and tax exemption for Long Road Distillers: Approved a resolution establishing an industrial development district and a 12-year industrial facilities exemption certificate for a $680,000 project at 1750 Elizabeth Avenue NW. Passed unanimously.
- Thermal energy franchise ordinance change: Approved a resolution for publication of an ordinance change to allow Vicinity Energy to sell steam generated by electric boilers (previously limited to natural gas) to downtown customers. Passed unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made during the meeting.
Discussion Items
- Mid-Year Financial and Performance Review (Presentation): CFO Molly Claren outlined economic concerns including tariff effects, a national unemployment rate of 4.3%, Michigan unemployment at 5–5.5%, and a potential depression projected by ITR for 2030. The city's income tax is outperforming projections at 4.2% growth, but the general fund is projected to operate at a deficit in FY28 if current trends continue. The budget stabilization fund is below its 10% policy level (requires $850,000 to reach policy). ARPA funds of $92.3 million have $8.7 million remaining, to be spent by December 2026. City projects totaling $6.777 million were at risk from state clawback but were deemed already encumbered. The presentation also covered progress across six strategic priority areas, including housing (1,621 new dwelling units permitted in FY25, 636 affordable units completed), public safety (full beat coverage for first time in a decade, 13 murder victims in 2024), and infrastructure (e.g., lead service line replacement). Commissioner discussion focused on trade-offs, affordability, and the need to balance services with fiscal constraints.
- First Ward Vacancy: City Clerk presented options for filling the seat vacated by Commissioner Robbins (resignation effective March 6, 2026). Commissioners debated four options: (1) wait until November election, (2) wait until April 21 filing deadline, (3) set a timeline immediately, (4) delay setting a timeline. After extensive discussion, the commission reached a consensus to adopt an approach similar to option 2/5: begin the application process immediately but conduct interviews and make the final appointment after the April 21 filing deadline. The Committee on Appointments will lead the process. Commissioner Purdue noted that starting soon would allow a new member to participate in major decisions like the city attorney selection and budget deliberations.
Key Outcomes
- All three resolutions were approved unanimously.
- The commission directed the city clerk to open applications for the First Ward vacancy immediately, with interviews by the Committee on Appointments after April 21, 2026, and a final appointment vote at a special meeting between April 21 and the regular April 28 meeting.
- Staff will proceed with the FY27 budget process, aiming to present a balanced budget on April 28, 2026, while addressing structural deficits. The CFO indicated that program reductions or fee increases may be necessary to maintain service levels.
- The city will continue to monitor federal and state funding uncertainties and advocate for legislative fixes on court funding and public safety revenue sharing.
Meeting Transcript
My microphone on. Uh the first item is a resolution that uh implicates uh hiring of a city attorney, but I did not feel the need for him to recuse himself since this is simply a scheduling uh discussion. I don't anticipate that I'm obvious of course he doesn't get a vote on it, but if anyone any colleagues object, otherwise I'm just uh I'm I don't see that there's a need for him to recuse himself from the room. Um we did discuss that. So the first item is a resolution uh to schedule meetings for the city commission for 2026 for deliberation of the city attorney uh selection uh and to on May 5 review review the proposed preliminary budget uh and to adjust some start time uh the start time for the December 27 26 meetings. Uh can I have a motion? So moved. Okay. Um the clerk, maybe you want to just roll through this. Yeah, so for the for the first part, so this is kind of like a um a bunch of a vehicle for uh a few changing of city commission meetings if we're scheduling new ones. So the April 1st meeting is isn't as needed um if needed for continuation on the um deliberation on a city attorney approval. Um so we just want to make sure we have that on the books in case it's needed. May 5 is our annual um additional meeting for working on the the fiscal plan and then the December 26 meetings adjusting the start times is to um adjust the first meeting in December of December 1 to make that a seven o'clock at night meeting and the 15th at 2 o'clock on the meeting and then on the evening of Tuesday the 15th would be the um oath of office for the um commissioners um com troller and library commissioners that are elected to the November election. So um so we'll have a long day that day, but that that's what we did in 2022. So great. Mayor may I add more context to for the public. Uh uh Clerk Hondor mentioned the April 1st meeting if needed, but I just wanted to remind the commission and the public there are two dates that precede that. The 30th at 6 o'clock will be uh proposed to be a night meeting in which uh the finalists who if they're selected by the commission will be available for the public for city attorney to meet, and then the 31st would be your day in which you would publicly interview the final candidates doing uh city commission uh meeting on the added May meeting uh that uh the clerk identified the special meeting for May 5th. I just want to remind the public in the commission that the budget will be presented on April 28th, and we'll have four opportunities, including that day to deliberate before you the final decision on the 19th. And so all proposed revenue as well as proposed uses of funds will be uh presented on April 28th. Thank you. Any further discussion? All in favor of the resolution say aye. Aye. All opposed. Motion carries. And uh sorry, city manager, you wanted to take a moment of point of privilege. Uh I'll wait till we get to briefings. Uh the second and third items on the agenda relate to a business in which I have an interest and I've recused myself at every step of this process and asked our uh commission president to take the dias, and so I am going to walk out of the room for the items two and three here. You're there. You can move if you want. It's okay. All right, colleagues. Uh the next item for our committee of the whole is item number two and item number two and three, as previously noted, are companion items, but first is a resolution establishing an industrial development district for long road distillers at 1750 Elizabeth Avenue Northwest. So moved. Support moved and supported, Miss Renero. Yes, this is the final step before this would go to the state tax commission uh for local approval. Again, um this is to uh support their expansion over on Elizabeth. I'm happy to take any questions if you have any. Thank you, Miss Renero. Colleagues, any questions? I don't think we and we didn't have any, just remembering from the last meeting that we didn't have anybody. Um well, we had I think one comment is related to public comment on this item. Correct. Okay. Um hearing and seeing no other questions. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed?
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