Good morning, everyone.

Um, let's go ahead and call our fiscal committee meeting to order.

Um, we have a number of items.

First is a resolution of resolution approving a $67,000 agreement with Access of West Michigan for the urban agricultural project at Joel Joe Taylor Park.

Do you have a motion?

So moved.

Support.

Moved in support, Miss Claypool.

Good morning, Laura Claypool with the Parks Department.

Uh so you have a resolution that authorizes an agreement with Access of West Michigan to implement a community-based urban agriculture project at Joe Taylor Park.

Um it's in the amount of sixty seven thousand dollars, and the funding is coming from a grant that we received from Eagle uh for environmental justice.

Um through this partnership, Access will develop new gardening and orchard and native plant infrastructure and deliver a full season of community-led programming.

Activities will run May 1st of 26th through September of 27 and will support the city's um broader effort in uh expanding urban agriculture opportunities throughout the community.

Questions, colleagues?

Hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed item carries, thank you.

Um next, or well, I guess you're staying up here.

Uh next is a resolution approving an $83,000 agreement with Jade Rabbit for agricultural projects at Garfield and MLK Parks.

Sure.

So moved?

Support.

Ms.

Claybole.

Uh same situation.

So this one is with Jane Jade Rabbit to um implement projects at both uh Garfield Park and MLK Park in the amount of um $83,000 again, funded through that same Eagle Environmental Justice Grant.

Jade Rabbit will develop uh and activate new agricultural spaces at both parks, cultivation work, education, volunteer education, and community focused programming, and um that will take place again May 1st of 2026 through September of 27, and we'll just continue to expand food access um environmental health and community capacity in neighborhood parks.

I have a question.

Why am I raising my hand?

You have the mic, Commissioner, I think you're good.

Uh uh my question is um these are eagle grants, but I know Jade Rabbit has done some other activation for us.

Is was this a renewable grant that we got, or is this a a new nope?

Um it's a new grant, and it it's twofold.

It's one for building out infrastructure and two for the actual programming and um community education around the urban agriculture.

Okay, all right, great.

Thank you.

Yes.

Thank you, uh Chair.

Uh so with the in line with that questioning, I know when we have the new uh community center at MLK Park, uh there used to be community gardens there.

So that will let this be in restoration of the community gardens that were present.

So Jay Drappett will be doing uh work at two separate parks.

The work that they're doing, um a smaller part of the uh funding that that organization is receiving is for the programming piece at MLK.

When we did the park reconstruction, we did include in that project the rebuild of the infrastructure at MLK Park.

The other side of that grant is through Garfield Park, and that will be both the infrastructure and the programming side of things.

But when we did the project, we did build out that um replacement of the of the infrastructure at MLK.

Awesome.

So that's already replaced.

So this is sort of a new thing in.

I'm so thankful to hear this.

Both of these are great and come into the south side, and then in addition, as we know, we have so many great ideas and goals within our climate action adaptation plan, and I think it is wonderful to see staff uh continue to look for innovative innovative ways to fund these things, right?

Not creating additional pressure to our neighbors, but seeking different funding.

So thankful for the state and for your staff and all of our staff here at the city for finding ways to uh support these goals that we've put forth for our neighbors.

So thank you so much.

Commissioner, we appreciate that.

All those in favor?

Hi.

Hi.

Any opposed item carries, thank you.

Uh, next is a resolution accepting a grant award in the amount of four hundred and twelve thousand five hundred dollars from the federal emergency management agency to be matched with the city share of a hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars in connection with Plaster Creek Advanced Assistance.

So moved.

Support.

Moved and supported.

Mr.

Outz.

Good morning.

James Oots Environmental Services Manager.

Uh ESD applied for a hazard mitigation mitigation grant through FEMA for the assessment and preliminary engineering for the 66-inch plaster creek uh sanitary sewer trunk line.

Plaster Creek is uh highly susceptible to INI uh during wet weather events.

Uh this project will include uh a field investigation assessment of the mains and uh preliminary design.

The uh uh what you have before you is uh a resolution for the acceptance of the 412,500 from FEMA as a grant with a matched 137,500, uh which was included in the FY26 ESD budget and approved by city commission on May 20th of 2025.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Questions, colleagues.

Hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Um item carries.

Thank you.

Uh, next is a resolution authorizing a budget substitution for $305,338 for installation of Duck Bank on Stocking Avenue from First Street to Fourth Street.

Do you have a motion?

So moved.

Support.

Moved and supported.

Mr.

McCall.

Uh good morning, Commissioners.

Jeff McCoss, City Engineering.

Um, yes, this project has a companion award item on CD later this morning.

Um the project consists of a new duct bank and stocking avenue from first to fourth.

It's replacing some failed duct and um it will be installing new duct, a manhole, new primary cable.

Um we had five bids on the project.

Um they're approximately 17% under the engineer's estimate.

And this item will just move um do a budget substitution to move funding um to fund a portion of the project.

Great, thank you.

Uh questions, colleagues.

Hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Resolution carries.

Thank you.

Um, next is a resolution authorizing an agreement with Mesmerize in an amount not to exceed 40,000 to promote GR Pay it on rapid buses for the city treasurer's office.

So moved.

Support.

Moved and supported.

Um our our city treasurer is out today.

He did reach out to me to cover this item.

This is exactly what it says.

It's it's uh the advertising for GR Pay It on our city buses.

Um we previously did this campaign uh two separate times in January through March of 2023 as well as January through March of 2024.

We took a pause in 2025, and now we're gonna run the new program July 1st through September 30th.

Um we believe it did is it got the name GR Pay it out of there, out out there out of there, out there in the community um where we've had double-digit growth for uh over the past nine years for GR Pay It.

Um also one other nice perk of this advertising um method is the two two previous times we did it, we'd be walking around the city, you know, after March, but these contracts expire to still see the advertising on the bus, and it stays there until they get someone else to you know put their put the new contract up on the bus.

So we often get a couple extra months as a result, so it's a great bang for our buck.

And um, yeah, we recommend putting this forward.

I would add that uh Mr.

Bull.

Yeah.

Uh I would add that uh GR Pay it has been an incredibly uh cost effective way of processing payments for the treasurer's office.

Uh as Ms.

Claren mentioned, uh customer adoption has increased uh year on year on year ever since we launched um several years back.

Um so this is yep, uh one of the most cost-effective advertising methods um in order to accomplish that.

Okay, great.

Colleagues, questions for either Miss Uh Ms.

Claren or Mr.

Bowl?

Yes, Commissioner.

Um thank you, Chair.

I am just curious if you have any specific targets or goals for the purpose of this or is just general awareness.

Do you expect to see any further growth than the double digit, etc.?

We we do expect additional uh increase in adoption.

Now, this is simply by the way percentages work, you know, it's logarithmic where you there's only so many more uh of our customers who aren't already using pay it, but uh certainly we do expect continued adoption increases.

All right, hearing no other questions.

All those in favor?

Aye, aye.

Any opposed item carries.

Next is our bid list resolution for April 28th, 2026.

Do you have a motion?

So moved.

Support.

Moved and supported, Ms.

Claren.

Is there any ones that you want to highlight?

Uh no, just three items this morning.

Myself or the departments are here to answer any questions.

Colleagues, any questions on the bid list.

Hearing and seeing none, uh all those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Resolution carries.

And with that, that's all of our business.

So we'll move on to item number seven, which is our Comptroller's report, uh, Comptroller's warrant report for the period of March 31st, 2026 through April 13th, 2026, and the amount of 39,332,02.6 cents.

Mr.

Uh Comptroller.

Good morning, Commissioners.

For the period reference, cash payments were released totaling approximately 39.2 million dollars.

Uh that amount includes just over 5.8 million dollars for employee payroll uh payments and just over 150,000, uh 157,000 excuse me for income tax warrants.

In terms of quantities, 648 income tax refunds were issued and 1,037 um AP checks and electronic payments uh were issued.

Uh these funds were issued for payment by individuals not in the city compontroller's office and not in accordance with the Grand Rapids City Charter.

And that concludes the report that I have for you this morning.

Thank you.

Um questions, uh colleagues for the comp troler.

All right.

With that, that report is received and filed.

And our last item for today is the treasurer's report for the period of April 1st, 2026 through April 14th, 2026.

Mr.

Bull.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Again.

Um market expectations of uh the path of of interest rates going forward have stabilized somewhat.

Um short term rates uh that are controlled by the Federal Reserve are unlikely to change uh in any material way in the next year.

Now, of course, that is subject to uh global economic events.

Um the uh uh the nomination of the next Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, is likely to proceed, but is also very likely to be dragged out over time.

Um so don't expect an immediate confirmation on that.

Uh but uh some immediate challenges will face whoever has that job.

Um the global macro uh economic environment is inflationary, especially with the events that are occurring in the Middle East.

Um and unrelated to those events, uh private credit markets domestically have been deteriorating, and whoever has that chair position is going to be responsible for making sure that if um that deteriorates further becomes a crisis contagion that it's contained within those private markets and doesn't uh negatively impact the overall financial system.

Um however, uh the task of the treasurer's office is to ensure the safety of city money and ensure the liquidity is available when it's needed, and then obviously um try to capture a competitive yield.

Uh to that end, uh we've been able to navigate um uh the financial markets uh fairly successfully.

Um the only securities that we buy are of the highest quality.

Um for instance, most recently um we uh uh invested uh a little over seven million in uh bonds issued by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority that were issued for uh affordable housing uh development projects throughout the state.

Um the the state of municipal debt um let's just say I sit on the opposite side of Ms.

Clarence, she loves it when issues are oversubscribed.

I hate it because I don't get all the bonds I want.

So um that is that issue was roughly uh three to four times oversubscribed.

So we we only got roughly a third of what we were trying to, but uh still that's kind of expected and uh normal for that market.

Um but at the moment uh the total portfolio is uh roughly six hundred and eighty point nine million dollars, uh yielding three point two three percent.

If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer.

Thank you.

Thanks for the report.

Um, questions, colleagues from Mr.

Bolt sending today for the treasurer.

All right, hearing none.

So with that, that report will also be received and filed, and we will be adjourned at four or I'm sorry, eight forty three.

Thanks.