Call this meeting of the city commission order and uh ask to have you join us as is our habit with a moment of silence.

Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

If allegiance to the flag of the States of America and to the Republic for which we stand, one nation under God, indivisible, and justice for all.

Thank you.

And as our clerk calls the role, if our interpreter could come up and introduce him or herself.

Commissioner Knight.

Yes.

Commissioner Belchak.

Present.

Commissioner Asassi.

Mayor LeGrand.

Yes.

And Commissioner Kilgore will be here momentarily.

Thank you.

Hold on one second.

Sorry.

You want you want to?

Oh, fine.

Uh, if I could briefly have a motion to excuse Commissioner Purdue, support.

And Commissioner Kilgore is running late.

We don't need a motion for that.

So, oh yeah, question all proof all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Great.

Uh all posed.

Thank you.

Try again.

I'm here from the Hispanic General.

We are providing some interpretation services.

Good afternoon.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And that brings us to our first opportunity for public comment on any items on the agenda, the public wishes to address.

Mr.

Jones is coming up from the first ward.

Otherwise, please identify yourself and if you could and where you live.

Just so I can be sure I'm aligning with the agenda, I can speak on the ordinance to be adopted, which is the consideration of their environmental design.

That's cool.

Alright, cool.

How y'all doing?

I'm D Jones, passionate entrepreneur and visionary.

And uh, if we are going to be doing environmental design or anything with crime prevention, I hope that we get our uh people from our underserved communities, our nonprofits that are black led, like the NWACP, the Urban League, uh people that can really give critical feedback because a lot of people are the product of their environment.

If there's high poverty, if there is no resources, if there's no jobs, uh likely you're going to get crime.

And so I want us to be intentional about when we design these initiatives because we do uh have the, I believe, still the second worst city for economics for African Americans, to be honest, and uh our student uh populations of color in our poor Caucasian communities.

And I just want to be sure that we are very strategic and very, very intentional about being sure that we actually have programs or initiatives that are designed to reduce the high levels of poverty around our community.

Also, when we have these polices, police officers, some of these police officers come from Sparta, some of them come from Rockford, they don't even live around the community, but they're police in the communities.

And so I like for them to also be a part of the disengagement because I believe that if these people, these police officers uh are not from this community, if they don't understand the community, but they're getting a little bit of training and then they got to get out into the field where they're not really used to dealing with people from high poverty, uh high crime areas, that we educate them on this because in the snap fast of a second of somebody that comes from a nicer neighborhood with a little bit of police training, and somebody that's been living in poverty their entire life, uh, the second in the heat of passion can happen, and then you know there can be some type of incident.

So I would like for us to really really consider the organizations and people that you guys get involved when you're designing this kind of this crime prevention environmental design and being sure that we get people of color, being sure that you have different bodies of government.

Uh I like for the commissioners to be there.

The police officers definitely should be there because they should understand the high levels of poverty and the circumstances that people have to go through.

Uh, these uh people that live in these high crime areas, these high poverty areas, likely it's a lot of crime because there's not a lot enough jobs above the poverty line and resources for people to be able to help themselves get out of these circumstances.

So I really like you guys to consider getting different parties involved and being sure that the police is really educated about the high, high, high, high levels of poverty that they are policing in.

Thank you.

Hello, friends.

Mark from Grand Rapids.

I want to speak on this as well.

I think that's some of your crime prevention.

And um I'm gonna come at it from a different angle.

Understand you get the low poverty, you get high crime.

That's no brainer.

But as far as the gun violence is concerned, you left out.

One thing that is just as important.

You left out the part that you should find methods to these gun shop to these gun shop operators to limit the sale of bullets.

Can't fire no gun without a bullet.

You limit the sale, limit the sales of the people who purchase firearms, and you put high taxes on the purchases of the bullets.

And in addition to that, anybody who purchases a firearm and ammunition should be mandated to have gun safes, and find a way to make these gun safes affordable for anybody to purchase.

Because once again, you leave you don't you don't have you don't you leave them in the hands of rowdy youth?

They go do they get they go do what they want to do with them.

Like in San Diego, where you had what you had we had teenagers opening fire on innocent people because these parents of these individuals didn't have no gun safe to store the guns.

So you you do that.

That's that's what I was I was missing out of that.

You put them two, you put you put those two that I just mentioned in your executive order.

I guarantee you the gun violence will be reduced to where nobody can use these weapons to do bad things.

Thank you.

That brings us to um petitions and communications.

Pardon me, approval of minutes.

Uh, can I motion approve last week's minutes?

Support.

All in favor say aye.

Aye, all opposed, motion carries.

That brings us to petitions and communications, Mr.

Clerk.

Communication received from uh reach uh Grand Rapids United for real public safety with recommendations regarding ice and public safety.

See from filed.

You can't receive from Ron and Baker regarding a vacancy on the Historic Preservation Commission.

Sir uh prefer to committee on appointments.

That brings us to report of city officers.

Is this clerk?

The city clerk submitted the city of Grand Rapids Police and Fire Retirement System annual actuarial evaluation report ending December 31, 2025.

See you filed.

Controls report warrant report for the period of May 5, 2026 through May 18, 2026, the amount of 27,891,420.

In the monthly travel report.

You sure it wasn't 28 cents a penny anymore.

That's 27 cents on my.

Treasure's report for the period of May 6, 2026 through May 19, 2026.

Received and filed.

That brings us to our consent agenda uh for the public's in uh information.

This is these are items which passed unanimously through committee earlier today, and which have not been pulled from uh the consent agenda for further discussion by any uh of my colleagues or myself uh as we're as we're able to do if they feel like they want further discussions.

Uh could I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved.

All in favor say aye.

Aye, aye, all opposed.

Motion carries.

That brings us uh all the way to uh our ordinances to be adopted.

And our first ordinance is uh amending chapter 175, our crime prevention through environmental design ordinance, and we've already had a couple public comments about it.

But Commissioner Usasi.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Could I have a motion?

So moved.

Or thank you, Mayor.

Um so this is a consideration I was previously noted on May 19th.

We established today as the date to consider this amendment um for crime prevention through environmental decide design, um, which I'll now refer to as SEPTED, just for timing purposes, um, this ordinance to adjust an outdated code reference and transitioning to the current enforcement appeals program to the oversight of a designated hearing officer.

Um, I'll give a little bit of background.

Back in 2019, the city commission adopted the SEPTED ordinance to provide oversight for business establishments where controlled substances like beer, wine, liquor, tobacco, and cannabis are sold and which are regulated by the state of Michigan, as well as businesses with uh what are considered late night operations.

Um, that draws on passive strategies incorporated into the planning, design, and management of the built environment.

These inherent cues are intended to tur to deter criminal behavior and foster community quality of life by defining private versus public spaces and reinforcing an assumption of public visibility.

Um the planning department does have a septe specialist that is responsible for the administration interpretating and enforcement of this, um, and then just noting the different details about the amendment.

Um, but now that we've had this program in several years, the planning department has identified areas which would require timely adjustments to ensure long-term effectiveness and sustainability.

While a more comprehensive update package and future state presentation will be planned, the program does require these immediate changes that we have before us today.

So they are related to the code reference as it relates to property code maintenance, which was previously termed building code, and then the appeals process that was previously noted in the overview.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And just to decode that for the public.

Essentially, this is uh this is an attempt to say that places where we might uh have hot spots in the community.

Uh we try to have really good visibility because visibility is one of your primary tools for preventing crime.

So uh making sure that there's good window transparency in these operations and good lighting.

Um that oversimplifies, but that's exactly what I was trying to do.

So that's roughly uh what the ordinance does, and this is just updates, and we had a previous previous discussion about this at a previous meeting of the commission, but that's for the public's information.

Any further discussion, colleagues?

All right, seeing none, all in favor of the ordinance.

Oh, I'm sorry, roll call vote.

Uh Mr.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Commissioner Kilgar.

Yes.

Commissioner Asassi, yes.

Commissioner Knight, yes, Commissioner Belchak, yes.

Mayor Lagrand.

Yes.

Um, motion carries.

That brings us to uh the next item we have the final item we have to vote on today, and that is um to move immediately from following this session into closed session uh for purposes of purposes of employer review.

Uh these are uh we're doing our um periodic review of our uh clerk with our clerk and with our um uh city treasurer.

Um can I have a motion?

So, all in favor say aye.

We'll call on that.

Oh, I'm sorry, roll call on that too.

Come on, uh yeah, and we'll be doing this in room 601.

Are you looking at me?

I mean, unless it's booked, we're gonna be in 601.

We don't know if it's booked, that's why I was looking.

Um, so we'll presumably do this in room 601.

Commissioner Kilbar, yes.

Commissioner Knight, yes, Commissioner Asassi.

Yes.

Commissioner Balchak, yes.

Mayor Legrand.

Yes.

This has the law library mayor for both of them.

Oh, great.

Law library works fine too.

Um, and that brings us to um our second opportunity for public comment.

Hi, y'all doing?

I'm D Jones, passionate entrepreneur and visionary.

Before I get into a little bit of the three minutes, I want to give David LeGrand a shout out.

As I've said, David, I'm a man of uh the things that I say, and David LeGrand does his mayor's Mondays, and he let my friend that got out of prison uh cook for him at one of his mayor's Mondays.

Uh one of the Kent County commissioners liked his food, and then uh a year later he got to cook for Amplified GR, and that was because of David, and now he's getting a bunch of gigs.

So, David, you're passionate about restorative justice, and you're really helping people from the hood actually chase their dreams and helping them open uh the floodgates for them to continuously earn funding for the things that they love.

So I had to give you a shout-out for that, David.

Thank you for that.

Also, I just handed you guys a flyer for the 303.

Uh, the neighborhood organization is doing a 303 July 11th.

My birthday is July 10th.

The same birthday as Nikolaya Tesla, actually.

Yes, I have the same birthday as the innovative genius.

I'm an innovative genius too.

I just don't create cars and a bunch of policies and stuff that people steal.

But we're doing a 303, it's a thousand dollar cash prize looking to get it on TV.

We're also going to be doing a block party too.

Uh I actually just came from a conference speaking at the Affordable Housing Fund.

Uh, I was invited by IFF and David De Velder.

Uh I got to speak to them about our stock and community hub project.

A lot of people have been concerned about the hub and things like that.

But this uh for public education, we do have the funding.

IFF is helping us finance, and they did give us a seven-figure letter of intent to actually purchase the school.

And so we will be looking for all of the support and the uh people to speak up and just let them know hey, we are we do have the financing.

I believe IFF is also going to be there.

So we will be putting the pressure to make sure that the school district does the due diligence and holding up the highest regard of what the JLL and the school facility staff recommended, which is the sales uh the neighborhood organization, the school, so we can be able to get to this full-fledged vision of actually getting to the core root of the social issues, fixing society.

I'd say uh I got a big global economic vision for this, and we also are going to be speaking to the uh Michigan Economic Development Corporations as I spoke to the CEO.

So I know this is going to have a huge economic impact.

I'm happy to build the 17 to 25 transitional housing units and do the workforce development job training around 3D printing construction, esports, gaming, digital assets, cryptocurrency, all of these beautiful things having a practice kitchen.

My friend is going to be cooking in that practice kitchen, the same person that David gave an opportunity to, and I'm just excited to really full-fledged go after this vision.

I've been on this since 2018.

My goal was to develop an innovation center in 2020 when I actually earned the 10,000 dollar grant, and I stayed true to that vision for eight years, and here I am today, about to really change the world and the universe around us.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Uh my name is Stafford Smith, and I live at 56 Fitch Place Southeast in East Hills.

I'm here to talk about a proposal by a developer to add a ADU in the backyard of 645 Kellogg Street.

And that backyard butts up against Fitch Place.

There is a proposal to add a new address on Fitch Place, uh 58 Fitch Place.

Uh, speaking for the residents of our street, we are opposed to this idea.

Fitch Place is a very narrow street.

It's a cul-de-sac.

Uh already the cul-de-sac is so tiny, it was built in the age of milk wagons.

It's too small to get a vehicle around there.

There's also a fire hydrant in there, and we're concerned that if there's a new address added on that side rather than on Kellogg Street, uh there will be an increase in traffic put in already uh in a neighborhood that already is fighting over parking and delivery vehicles, um, emergency vehicles uh coming to this uh down our street would would add more um confusion.

The fire marshal and uh representatives of the police have come by and they've also both expressed to us that they didn't think it was a good idea to add the address on the Fitch Place side that Kellogg would be a much easier place for emergency services to um uh you know address issues at that place.

And in the wintertime when the fitch place is plowed, the snowpile pushes all the snow into the cul-de-sac, building this massive barrier, and it would uh be very difficult for whoever had their front entrance on that side to uh actually dig out to to get um to uh the street.

Thank you.

Hello, my name's Greg Shotwell, can you hear me?

You're excellent.

Uh I live at 54 Fish Place next to Stafford.

Fitch Place does not have sidewalks.

It's not simply narrow, it doesn't have any sidewalks.

Now they want to invent a new address for an ADU.

As I understand ADUs, you can put a dwelling on that parcel, but you cannot cut the parcel up and sell the dwelling separate.

Then why does he need 58 Fitch Place unless his intention is to sell?

And I think there is a long-term plan.

He wanted a driveway.

He wanted just to plow Fitch up and make a driveway.

Now he's gonna settle for a gate.

Gates grow.

He's going for a driveway.

This is a uh a situation where a neighborhood, when we have a party, we talk to the neighbors, and we organize parking.

Can I use your driveway so we have extra spaces in the street?

It takes a lot of cooperation to live in a neighborhood where people share a driveway.

Have any of you shared a driveway?

It's difficult.

Some people don't have driveways, so they have to park on the street.

Uh this plan would benefit one person.

It would benefit one man's profit to the disadvantage of maybe 18, 20 people just on Fitch Place.

Also, Windsor Terrace is affected because we have to park on Windsor Terrace.

They don't have sidewalks either.

Um I just want to say that the idea of inventing a new address, breaking open a fence to provide a gate to a house on Kellogg Street, is preposterous.

It doesn't make any sense.

Thanks.

Good afternoon.

My name is Sheila Solomon Shotwell, and I live at 54 Fitch Place as well.

Um I'd like to, before I launch into the aspect I want to address, the house closest to this fence, which has just been purchased by three young people, and we needed young people in our neighborhood, does not even have a driveway.

So they have to they have there are three cars that are now added to our very stressed parking area.

But aside from all of those facts, um, another one is that a fence was put in by the people who have lived in the neighborhood the longest for safety reasons, which they explained to the police that showed up this morning, because so many times uh police went to uh people would cut through when there wasn't a fence over to Kellogg, and it would be impossible for the police to go follow through with them.

So it's a safety issue for all of us as well.

But I wanted to just present to you a little heart and soul.

I have lived in this house since 1985.

I've raised three children there, two dogs, many cats.

I've lost a child from that house.

Our neighborhood has a very strong foundation.

We have supported each other through illnesses, loss of deaths, births, and like the other people have said, we need to reach out on a constant basis to be sure that we can accommodate one another if we want to have company, because there's so little parking.

So by putting in a new resident, which they would be doing, and who knows how many would, I guess it's a small house, but who knows how many would live in it.

Um there's added stress to our our situation, and I can't imagine an Amazon truck delivering or a fire engine, and the fire hydrant is right next to where they want to put the gate where they already cut down a tree.

And the thing that bothers me the most is none of us were consulted or spoken to about this possibility.

All of a sudden, we saw machinery on the other side of the fence, cement being poured, and we were at the fence looking through saying, What are you doing?

And they said, We're making a dwelling to go with this house.

And and this dwelling, I said, is gonna be a Kellogg Address.

No, 58 Fitch.

That is ridiculous.

And it please don't ruin this wonderful neighborhood that we have all been honored and privileged to live in.

And many of us are senior citizens, and we need the safety.

And I plan to leave my house to one of my grandchildren.

I want my great-grandchildren to grow up in a safe neighborhood as well.

So please look into this as best you can.

I really would appreciate it.

Thank you.

We want what's best for everybody, although the mega people want to harm the enjoyment.

But get this, you wouldn't have no Pride Month without the spilling of black blood.

Without that, there wouldn't be no Voting Rights Act, no Fair Housing Act, no Title IX, and no LGBTQ protections.

So remember, all this would not be in place.

So remember that.

If not for the people who fought for civil rights and human rights, you wouldn't have no Pride Month.

You wouldn't have no Title Nine.

You wouldn't have no fair housing.

So when you all enjoy this, keep in mind, the black ancestors made it possible for you to have this month.

Revenge 2026.

Thank you.

That moves us to closing comments from commissioners.

Um Commissioner Saucy.

Thanks everyone.

Um thanks for being here today.

Thanks to the neighbors that came from East Hills.

Hopefully, we can uh chat.

Myself and Commissioner Knight, we've been in some email uh contact and have talked to the planning department.

Um and overall, just want to say thank you for the good day.

We talked quite a bit about um our zoning pieces and getting an update and um the kickoff there, and so I hope that discussion can still continue.

Um I know that over the last couple weeks the amphitheater opened, and it was really without a lot of incident in a good way.

Um, and we had some questions about noise levels.

Um, appreciate you, city manager um responding to that to the media, and I've been able to share that out with some of our constituents as well.

And then just lastly, you know, I was really glad that we were able to do the gun violence awareness prevention month proclamation.

This was something last year.

I know she can't be here today.

Commissioner Purdue really asked us to consider how could we tie in this awareness piece where our SAFE task force is also working on ways that we can more broadly remember, recognize, and again bring awareness for those that have been the direct victims of gun violence.

And you you said that today, Mayor, really talking about violence that occurs via a via um a handgun or a weapon, a firearm.

And so uh was really grateful that we were able to do that, and I wanted to highlight Commissioner Perdue's um actions in that as well.

Thank you, City Manager, for working to help us establish some future memorial that will be um, you know, beyond all of us being here on commission and and in perpetuity.

So um and I think you know, it's when we look at and I know there were definitely a number of violent acts, and I think to can continue to consider that what were the things that occurred.

Are they personal interactions?

Are they domestic uh relationship pieces?

What occurred leading up to that.

And so, you know, I want to continue to say that we are a safe city, um, and any loss of life is is absolutely horrible, especially when we're dealing with situations of uh mental well-being, mental health, you know, serious crisis that people may be, you know, in and evolving.

So, just want to continue to to say appreciation to all those that are working on that, and it's you know, not just our police department, it's our parks department.

It's you know, you just heard about SEPTED, it's planning, it's all the different pieces.

Um, so thank you everyone for working to make this city uh a great place and a and a safe city as well.

Thank you.

Commissioner Kilgar.

Yeah, thank you all so much, colleagues.

Um, this was a nice one.

The two BMs sometimes can still be just as uh packed, but this one seemed to be lighter because we worked so hard in May.

So I want to thank all the staff again for all their work.

It was wonderful the way we started the day of honoring, of course, lifting up our fight to combat violence of all forms, but gun violence today, um, and then also celebrating Pride Month.

Uh it's very meaningful for me.

June is uh a favorite month because it's Juneteenth at the end of the month, and then Pride Month is the hold month, and I'm gonna have the awesome opportunity to be with the governor and uh statewide elected officials and uh folks of both communities, both uh the LGBT plus community and the black community at the governor's residence yesterday in Lansing, and uh something that we discussed there, and that the governor talked about, which is you know, we've come so far in a short time for both of these communities for the black community.

Um, you know, it took a long time, a lot of effort, but folks did it.

You know, folks talked about the Civil Rights Act and things uh earlier.

Um we've done it, and we've moved the Elliott Larson Civil Rights Act here in Michigan further, but that just shows how quickly people can also undo those things and also uh roll us back quickly, just as we've gained forward momentum.

So I'm deeply thankful for my colleagues again for a second year reaffirming other commitment to every person when we do a proclamation and we reaffirm folks like myself.

I'm honored to be uh the first out of 175 years to be the first person who's openly LGBTQ plus on this commission is deeply honoring honorable and and it's humbling, uh, but it also means we've got a lot of work to do because we've always been here and we need to continue to make sure every single person in our community feels good.

So, what these proclamations do, in my opinion, is to reaffirm that we believe in every single Grand Rapidian's uh dignity and their humanity, and so thank you, colleagues, for the second year in role, as I've said, here to do that means a lot to me and my community.

Um, and we've got a lot of work to do.

There's too much violence.

Uh one life is too many.

So we we are I'm so thankful uh for uh the commitment to combating violence from my colleagues from this community.

It was beautiful to see all of the leaders stand up for that as well today.

So June is a month of work of service of reflection, um, and I'm proud to be in this work with all of you all.

I had a great uh and lastly, I had a great community conversation uh with the local NAACP and good neighbors of Alger Heights and Garfield Park.

We talked about all of the things I've already discussed, uh, but uh we also talked about data centers.

I have gotten many uh so much feedback about that, um, and it is uh it's good that we are going to start having a bigger, more built-out conversation on a pressing issue.

I think it is imperative that we listen to our community, but we also make sure we take the temperature and we bring the temperature down of letting people know and grounding them that we are doing our work.

I think the planning department for uh listening to those concerns and going all around our community to talk about concerns uh about zoning period.

Uh so um I'm excited.

I think there's good work ahead for us.

Um, and I want to thank all the folks who came to that community conversation.

So thanks again.

Have a good afternoon.

It's still afternoon.

Commissioner Knight.

Uh yes, thank you, Mayor.

Um, echoing the sentiments of uh the proclamations that went forward today.

Um it's always good to remember um all of our community, all of us that make up the the vibrant communities that we live in.

Um, and um, grateful to our neighbors for coming um and having that discussion.

We've been talking about it, I think, for the last couple of days and um have a few things that we might be able to add to that.

Um conversation uh today if you'd like to stay after.

Um, and also um just thinking about um some of the conversation we've had having around um zoning and zoning language and changes that we can make to our community.

I think one of the things that I like to say a lot is um, you know, we love to continue to build uh our community and especially vibrant communities and vibrant neighborhoods, looking at different ways that our zoning can impact that um and help with all of the things that we're talking about across the city, whether it be uh shortages of housing and building up some of our small businesses and supporting that and how how do we create those opportunities uh in the communities that we have right now.

So I'm grateful for that uh presentation today and looking forward to more information coming in the future.

Thank you.

Commissioner Belcher.

Yes, thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you to my colleagues.

I agree um that it was a good working day.

Um, I wanna just concur with all the the conversation that we've had around um the proclamations that we made for continuing to talk about how we are a safe community, but we need to continue to look out for each other to continue to um remember to show some care and compassion whenever we're going somewhere and to not be afraid to call uh for resources because we do have those in our facility in our city, and so um helping out.

We just finished May with mental health awareness month.

So I think that's a good thing to continue on as we're continuing to think about these things.

And in addition to that, I want to celebrate that we um had a great river restoration for the Grand River yesterday, um, kind of a kickoff putting some stones in the river and celebrating the the 18 or so years of work.

Um I did not get to um be a part of those conversations early on, but I've been watching it from afar, and it was a great day to be there yesterday to get the lower reach of the rapids uh kicked off so that we can start that construction.

So it is um celebration season, festival seasons, there's all sorts of things going on.

So remember to be safe out there and to pay attention to the fact that because of the rapids being uh brought back to the river.

We will be probably doing fireworks in a different place this year since that's all a staging ground there by the Ford Museum.

So pay attention and uh keep your heads up.

And then and speaking of the Ford Museum, I had the opportunity to meet with some Boy Scouts.

Um they had over a hundred and twenty scouts, uh, all sorts of scouts, I guess they're girl scouts and boy scouts, but just scouts now.

Um they they had their first ever civics camp, and the scouts came from all over the state to be there at the Ford Museum, and they I I believe our city manager was there for one of the sessions.

I was uh one of the local officials to speak, and they had three different groups, and they worked us, but those those students are really bright and a future learning how government works, learning how our society works, learning how they can be civically engaged and becoming part of an informed electorate going forward.

So that was considering the fact that I had been thinking about civility and what it means to have a civil society this year, this um was a great addition to the calendar.

And I also had a great conversation with um Roosevelt Park neighborhood neighborhood association that hosted um a coffee hour at the end of May.

We talked a lot about community safety, we talked a lot about housing and the need for that, and um I'm going to be hosting another one at Construction Simplified on West Fulton on June 11th at noon.

If you feel like coming and chatting more about what's going on in our city and how we can make it better together, thank you, City Clerk.

Um my report today deals with voting, that's not surprising.

However, this is a different kind of voting.

So public voting has begun for I voted stickers in the state of Michigan.

If you're familiar, in 2024, the state of Michigan did the I voted um sticker contest.

Uh, for remember the the werewolf sticker that everybody was all excited about.

And um, and there was a great um interest in that.

So this year they had 2,000 entries.

I think that's double the entries that they had in 2024.

Um it got Darrell narrowed down to 90 different entries, 30 at the um elementary slash middle school age group, then a third 30 for a high school age group, and then 34 um above high school age group.

So those 90 um stickers are out there that you can vote for three from each category.

So I went through and voted today to um pick my top three from each um category, and I think it's just been an interesting um process, and people were really excited about it in 2024.

Um, and um for those for that sticker contest.

So you can uh Google that for um for the state of Michigan to or look over in the socials and find that and um goes from everywhere from cats, deers, ducks to Edmund Fitzgerald to um Mackinac Bridge.

So there's all kinds of different um categories for that.

So take a look um and make sure you vote in that in that contest.

That's it for me.

I think I heard you advocating for ranked choice voting.

I'm still not quite sure that I'm on the same page as you on that, but um city attorney.

I think you heard that incorrectly.

Uh city manager, all right.

Thank you, uh, mayor and commissioners, and thank you uh to the staff for your work today and the public for for coming.

I want to highlight um and thank the commission for supporting the funding for Rx kids as we did uh strategize in the budget process and appreciate the third ward uh commissioners um offering utilization of the third ward fund, and that will help us to really address some prenatal uh issues as well as um implement strategies similar to Detroit and Kalamazoo, Muskegon, I think Flint as well.

So thank you for that work.

Um I did want to uh briefly comment on some of the gun violence that has uh plagued our community recently, and as you think about, I think uh was talking to the police chief earlier.

There were uh nine homicides this year of the nine, uh seven have been committed by use of guns to the other two knives.

But if you think about uh the places where we've had multiple victims, there were two incidents with uh five people passing away in two incidents.

So over half of the nine homicides were due to um a double homicide and triple homicide.

As you know, the one that was a triple homicide was a domestic, and so I remain very committed to uh making sure that we have effective crime prevention programming as we talked about today, and doing everything from septed to community programming, summer programming.

We saw all of our partners here this morning.

No, in violence and eruption, but uh also uh know that many of the causes of violent crime uh are they're all different, but there's only so much programming we can do until the point the individual has to take accountability.

And while I understand there are again complex reasons uh for which uh crimes are committed, it is not acceptable to take the life of anyone under any circumstances.

And so I appreciate the police department for their work in uh helping to solve the crimes and also their work in helping to uh prevent crime with enforcement.

Uh but I do want the public to know that we will uh deploy every resource possible to ensure that justice is served for the persons who are the victims of the families of the victims of those crimes and uh the people who are committing those crimes.

But I want to thank our Office of uh public accountability and um um Brandon um introduced uh I was gonna say Gail.

Natisha this morning, that's right.

Thank you.

To really help us in uh really spread the message has been doing a great job partnering with Safe Task Force uh and doing a real good job, and I really appreciate their work.

Uh lastly, I do want to uh thank the staff for putting together uh several good briefings this morning on traffic safety uh in the city as well as uh the zoning and both comprehensive uh response to our comprehensive master plan as well as the briefing on ADU task force and look forward to those discussions.

We heard the feedback from the commission on both the ADU task force as well as uh the zoning uh code rewrite, and so we'll be taking that in consideration and looking forward to those updates uh prior to the end of the year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um so I want to uh piggyback off a couple of comments that were made.

Uh the first is uh hard to overemphasize how excited I am about the RX Kids program uh coming to Grand Rapids, and Commissioner Kilgore, I remember an early comment with you where you were vibrating with excitement about the possibility of getting this done.

Uh this is um for those of us who are um policy wonks, it turns out that uh direct cash assistance to people um that doesn't involve a whole lot of government strings turns out to be really really effective.

Um we've actually got a I think we've got an organization town called the Acton Institute, which actually really highlighted some of the elegance of doing this kind of thing.

And so the RX Kid program, just so that those of you who uh don aren't familiar with it, what it does is it gives um specific cash assistance to expected mothers and to uh uh parents during the early months of a child's uh life, and it has huge outcome uh advantages in terms of preventing evictions, um uh preventing um some uh improving maternal health and uh child uh birth rates and all kinds of exciting things.

So it's really really proven to be excit uh uh successful and having it in the community is really important.

And uh city manager, thank you for prioritizing that as part of our budget very early on, emphatically, and it's something that um our uh we as a city are to be honest contributing a fairly small amount.

Um so we're we're stepping up with what we're asked to step up over, and we did that today.

Um, but this has got a philanthropic component.

Of course, it's got a state funding component.

Um, but it's uh it's a great thing to have in our community, specifically to focus on people with some of the most need.

Um the other thing I wanted to uh point out is that I wanted to um there are there are times when um there are potential clouds on the horizon, and it's hard to predict the future and see how things will actually go.

And one of those things right now in the world that we know is the whole question of AI and how that's gonna roll out and what our world's gonna look like in a year or two years, and there are you know real potential economic disruptions and social disruptions that are gonna come from what's clearly a rapidly emerging technology.

And so uh again, I want to thank Commissioner Kilgore for pointing out that um we have to be ready for this and we have to be thoughtful about this, um, and we don't want to be panicking and fearful, but we do want to be careful about how we em how we embrace and move forward and change.

And so um, and uh Commissioner, I know you already did research on some best practices from other communities, and I'm confident that those uh best practices that we reviewed together briefly before um will bear fruit in in some kind of um planning uh vision uh going forward.

So um thank you for uh continuing to make that a uh focus of prudent analysis.

Um so with that I have no further comments and commission meetings adjourned.