The City Commission convened as a Committee of the Whole on August 25, 2026, to address several agenda items, including a development liquor license, the 2027 meeting schedule, election polling locations, Art Prize 2026, the SAFE Task Force annual update, and an update from Just GR. All votes were unanimous. The meeting concluded with a motion to move into closed session for litigation discussion.
Yvette Pittman (Office of Special Events) and Art Prize Executive Director Tyler Loftus, along with deputy directors Ellen Trombow and Coleman Brooke, presented the vision for the 17th annual Art Prize. Key points:
Letisha Lipscomb, Civilian Violence Prevention and Intervention Manager, presented the FY26 update alongside pitch winners Duke Turley (ADT Logistics Drive Your Future) and a mentee. Key details:
Pastor Paris McMurray (co‑chair) and Rafa Castanon (Corewell Health) presented findings from data analysis of public safety systems. Key findings:
All right, calling this meeting of city commission to order uh committee of the whole. And uh first thing on our agenda is um probably gonna be a uh tough fought uh uh resolution. This is yet another resolution for a development uh liquor license, and this is for 1415 Plainfield Northeast. That's the location, and it's Hoxie House LLC. Um Mr. Clerk, you want to give us an age deals? Yep, thank you. Support support great. Yeah, so this is um going into going in that Creston area, and so basically it's a it's a historic 102-year-old building, and their concept is a cafe by day, bar by evening, run by owner and first time Russian tier Angela Tramper. So great. Any discussion, colleagues? All right, all in favor say aye. Aye. Motion all in all opposed, motion carries. Thank you. Uh next is a resolution uh adopting the 2027 city commission meeting schedule. And just so the public knows, these are this is our schedule for the next year. You know, things can change. Um, but uh it's good to have a default uh schedule in it uh well in advance now again to refresh everyone's memories. Uh the purpose of city commission meetings is to do city commission work. Uh and we have public comment as a secondary function. Um, but we uh historically have not had uh all of these meetings happen at the times that they're currently in this calendar, and sometimes we uh cancel meetings if there's not sufficient work for this body. Um that doesn't mean we're avoiding public comment. People can come all the other meetings and talk to us about it about issues. And of course, they can also reach out to commissioners anytime they want, and all of my colleagues are very good at uh responding to uh constituent concerns. Um so just want to put that pin in there, but otherwise, uh I assuming that all my colleagues have looked at this schedule, I'd ask for a res uh motion. So moved. Support. Uh any discussion, colleagues? I do have one thing to add to the one thing that we did uh that I did add to the calendar that you know normally isn't on there is the um the beginning of May um budget work session. So then we want to call a special meeting later. So that that budget work session, since that that's been our flow that's that's um that's there, and then usually the the the first meeting of the month is at two o'clock, but in May we haven't switched to to have the public hearing for the budget and then the approval at the two o'clock meeting in May. So that's the only one that's kind of changed from the schedule. Thanks for the detail. Let me also uh thank you, uh Mayor. Thank you, City Clerk, for uh helping develop the schedule. There's likely one special meeting that we will have to call in November. It'll be after the election for our annual workshop work session. And right now we are targeting the 12th of November. But we'll we'll confirm as we get closer. Great. Thanks. Um further comments, colleagues. Otherwise, all in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed. Motion carries. Uh next is a resolution approving election day polling locations and early voting sites for the 2026 election and fixing uh pay for early voting, absent uh voter accounting board and election day inspectors. Uh Mr. Clerk, you want to first of all motion yep.