Good evening.

I call to order the November 5th, 2025 Ported City Council meeting in honor of all denominations and personal beliefs, and as we strive to protect each and every one of our children in this community, especially those exposed to domestic violence, please rise for a moment of personal introspection and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please join me in the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

And if I could please ask the clerk to call the role.

Start with Burns.

Here.

Ludbetter.

Here.

Miller.

Here, Pearson.

Here.

Randall, here.

Urban.

Here.

Young.

Here.

Thank you.

All right.

We have a proclamation this evening from the Family Court Awareness Month of 2025.

And I'd like to ask Erica Eklove, our city clerk, to please read this into the record.

Yes, Madam Mayor.

It's unfortunate our reader was ill tonight, but I'd be happy to read it.

Whereas the mission of Family Court Awareness Month is to highlight the need to prioritize child safety in family court, as one in three families in Michigan are exposed to domestic abuse and whereas an estimated 58,000 children in the U.S.

are ordered into unsupervised contact with abusive parents each year, resulting in almost 1,000 children in the United States murdered during visitation with abusive parent parents since 2008, and 39 children in Michigan have been murdered by a parent since 2008 during divorce or custody disputes, including six-year-old Rowan Mori Poles of Caledonia in 2024, and three-year-old Dylan Thebo of Kent County in 2021.

And whereas Rowan's and Dylan's families have been working to increase awareness of child safety issues by promoting Family Court Awareness Month and have been honoring their children's legacy by introducing legislation to improve the safety of missing children in Michigan.

Rowan's Act was introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives this year by Representative Angela Riggus as an is an amendment that would allow a faster response for Amber Alerts to be issued if police believe a missing child to be in danger following six domestic violence-related homicides within three months in 2021.

Kent County recognized the need for specialized domestic violence court staffed by individuals knowledgeable about the intricacies of domestic violence, aims to support victims and families, hold offenders accountable, and prevent further homicides, and whereas the City of Portage hopes to improve safety and outcomes for families exposed to domestic violence by having law enforcement change the way it responds to domestic violence calls by using lethality assessments in all domestic violence cases, and whereas Family Court Awareness Month recognizes the need to incorporate evidence-based research into the court's decisions, including the adverse childhood experiences or ACEs study, which highlights long-term effects of exposure to abuse in childhood and emphasizes the need for research-informed and impartial decision making to protect children's well-being.

Whereas Family Court Awareness Month aims to encourage collaboration among legislators, advocates, professionals, and the community to improve family court practices, ensuring they are guided by evidence-based research and prioritize the safety and best interests of children.

Now, therefore it be resolved that I, Patricia M.

Randall, as mayor of the city of Portage to hereby proclaim November 2025 as Family Court Awareness Month and encourage all citizens to support our community's efforts to prevent the harm to children in the hands of family members and honor and value the lives of each and every child.

And hope that we can do some good with that.

On a lighter note, uh we have some winners for our annual fourth annual trick or treat, tricked out home, um, Halloween decorating contest.

And this was um our city manager, Mr.

Pat McGuinness's idea.

So I am going to turn it over to him to introduce the winners.

Mr.

McGuinness.

Thank you very much, Your Honor.

This is uh I think my favorite meeting of the year.

Uh this are the the Christmas decorations one.

And it and it ideas are easy, ideas are cheap.

You come up with an idea, but then it's the people that are a little crazy that decorate their places like Disney or something, uh, that really are doing all the hard work, and our staff, Mary Ruppel's here tonight, other staff members that spend a lot of time coordinating a very, I think, sophisticated presence online.

And our staff, Mary Ruppel's here tonight, other staff members that spend a lot of time coordinating a very, I think sophisticated presence online.

They they attract a lot of uh positive attention to the city.

They get these rather zealous individuals who are a little wild about Halloween uh to sign up.

They get different places nominated.

We see new ones each year.

We see some friends come back each year, uh trying to outdo themselves from the year before.

Uh also turning this with the help of our small business friends, uh, council members Miller and Young saying we should use some small business uh uh participation in this program.

So we do get gift cards from a variety of small businesses to award to these um wonderful residents who make our Halloween holidays so much fun.

Uh so with that, a little build-up.

I'm gonna list our four honorable mentions because it was so hard.

We had 2 submissions this year.

Uh and there was a wonderful map on our uh Facebook page and website that you could follow and you could go from place to place to place to place 22 times and see these, and there's audio, there's uh of course, bright lights and scary things and kid friendly things and platables, and it's just it's a real delight at the at the holiday to go out and look at these things.

Um and it's kind of a warm-up to act two, which is our Christmas season, so look forward to that.

Um but 10527 Dandale Street, 2328 Colorama, 7015 Sandpiper, and 10527 Sudan Street uh are our honorable mentions.

And I will honorably mention that the sandpiper one's a neighbor of mine.

I can see him right out my window, and he gets more outrageous every year.