We'll start off tonight with prayer and plague.

I'll need the prayer and the pledge.

For those who would like to participate, please do so.

Most gracious Heavenly Father, we come to you today asking you to give us clarity and understanding of the decisions that we have to make.

Father, we asked that we be mindful to work for the betterment of the citizens of this city.

Watch over all of our employees and all of our citizens.

These things we asked in the mighty name of Jesus, and they all said amen.

Amen.

Congratulations to the God of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God into this rule liberty justice.

Well called Madam Clerk.

Councilmember Young.

President.

Councilmember Seals.

President.

Councilmember Balls.

President.

Mayor Pro Tem Garcia.

President Councilmember Ostach.

President.

Councilmember Braddock.

Present.

Councilmember Wiggins.

President.

Councilmember Hammond.

Present.

And Mayor Moore.

President.

You have all members present.

I'd like to welcome everyone to our city council meeting.

This is a meeting that is being recorded.

We ask that everyone please abstain from booing them any obnoxious behavior.

The housekeeping.

Council members, can you please put your phones on silence as well as your computers?

Audience, I asked that you do the same thing so that we don't interrupt when others are talking.

Once again, this is a meeting that is being aired on TV, and we ask that each of us respect one another.

Madam Clerk, do we have any announcements?

Yes, Mayor, we have a couple.

The city's convenience station is open this Saturday, November 8th from 8 a.m.

until noon.

Residents may utilize the station to drop off miscellaneous or bulky items for disposal.

City offices will be closed Tuesday, November 11th in observance of Veterans Day.

That takes us to public input.

Okay.

Madam Clerk.

Would you like to read the rules?

Oh, I'm sorry.

Presenters who are presenting with us tonight, we ask that you come to the podium when you're called, and there's your call, please.

You have three minutes to do your you have three minutes to discuss what you need to discuss.

This is not a question or answer period.

And when you come up, can I ask everybody to talk louder?

These mics are on, but they're not projecting out there.

So can I ask everybody to speak a little louder, especially from the podium?

Madam Clerk.

Our first speaker is Melanie Velasco.

Good morning or good afternoon.

Oh evening.

You know my name is Melanie Velasco.

Um my original complaint that I had was uh these uh cable boxes, but I guess that's ATT's issue and to worry about uh where also trees are hanging over lights where um you know the weather is gonna get bad and you gotta have see the road.

Um so because they don't have all my pictures, my next is we got drug addicts running around and we need this like mailboxes and like paper boxes.

We got drug addicts going down the street and they are wasted.

Um being a CNA and my my trade.

Um retired.

Um I'm for living, not the dead.

And for and we're for the future generation.

I took care of many children.

Um I wish I were.

A future generation is being killed.

And it's also because of drugs, alcohol, weed, and alcohol.

There needs to be a limit of how many alcohol beverages any person can come in any 24-hour time limit.

Them are the other ones that are slowly killing themselves.

Again, I'm for the living.

I went up to the bus station and the police and the ambulance were giving this to somebody who over the oh, you know.

Anyway, they're wasting police and firemen and ambulances' time.

That's somebody's heart attack over there, or some child just got hit by a car.

We gotta put a stop to it.

The drugs, the alcohol, and the wheat, they've got to be shut down.

The zombies in the distribution site is down crashing.

That's where all the zombies are going.

That's where the ambulances are going.

Down crashing.

Find that house behind the premier, and that's where you'll find the drug house.

You need a prop.

You need somebody that's all freaking wasted, prop them up, bug them, and have them go in there and then raid the place.

I ain't doing it.

Okay.

I'm not doing it.

I'm not raiding the place.

You get the cops to go do that and shut it down.

The future generation is being killed by drugs, alcohol, weed, and alcohol and beer, and it's just endlessly going on.

It's not in me.

You may think I'm a little twisted and malfunctionally ill, but I am not.

If you fall down and I think you're having a heart attack, I'll be the first to give you CPR.

I don't care what you got.

If I ain't been dead by the I've been through, then I ain't gonna die giving you CPR.

I guarantee it.

I've been given a concussion.

I've been slapped up freaking black and blue.

Now I'm still here.

I've been homeless for almost two years, but now I have a home.

Thank God there is a God.

He loves me.

And he loves all y'all.

And guess what else?

He knows us by our name, and he loves us all the same.

Amen.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is John Wisnewski.

On to Joyce Seals.

Thank you.

You know I'm part of the Saginaw County Prevention Coalition, as well as the Health Advisory Council, formerly uh Saginaw uh County's uh health advisory uh advisory board now.

They've changed the name.

And one of the things we've been working on is you know, putting a cap on the number of distribution centers we have here, as well as alcohol.

And counterman Tobias Young, last week, the last time I was here, started talking about said, There he is, steering my still in my thunder there, but he had the heart of where we're trying to go.

I've talked with the liquor control, and I found out we have these special designated merchants uh who can sell beer and wine.

We are designated in the city of Saginaw for 45.

We have 47.

We also have these places which are called special designated distributors.

They can sell packaged liquor as well as the beer and wine.

They have to have both licenses.

We're supposed to have 15.

We have 29.

Now, as we look at putting a cap and the uh we have the medical diamond coming into our community, we wanted to be conducive and inviting to people come in.

We have too many liquor stores.

And when the gentleman told me from the liquor commission that people can make applications and they can and they'll go into the clerk's office and that they could buy them from another place and bring them in there.

I said they say the devil is a lie.

Oh no, no, I know that we're not gonna allow that in this city.

I'm gonna have to figure out how it is.

You can get a license, bring it in our our community, and I wanted to understand why we have 29, and we should have 15.

So, Mr.

Manager and Ms.

Mayor, uh, would you guys please check on this and see why this is happening?

We don't need any more liquor stores, and I don't want them transferring anything else into this community.

So when our clerk gets an application, we want to make sure it's turned down because we don't need any more things like this.

So we'll be coming back.

Um we're gonna be working on this as a group.

Uh, we are looking into this because we want to make this a wonderful place to stay, to live, and to invite people to come in, but we're not gonna do it when we have all these negative vices here.

Uh Lieutenant Kondorski did a map for us, the GIS map, which overlays crime and these marijuana sites and the liquor stores.

Guess what?

There's a correlation.

And so, since we know it's related, we need to make sure that we put a squash on all of this to make our city a better place to live and to invite people to come into.

Thank you so much.

Our next speaker is Hurley Coleman.

Good evening.

To our mayor, uh city council members, city manager.

Uh, wanted to take a few minutes to just express my deep felt gratitude for the opportunity to use our ARPA funding to improve our food storage areas and our food transportation vehicles and to make our food giveaways a more smoother uh process with the renovations made to the facility.

My name is Hurley Coleman III.

I'm the executive director of Saginaw CAC.

And back in 2021, uh the Saginaw Just uh Transition in Daba helped to acquire new kitchen equipment and strengthen collaborations with us.

Uh there was few organizations involved in the NAVE, the first ward, meaning center, uh Houghton Jones, and a dozen other places, a few other places.

Uh that may sound simple, but gather getting and gathering all the information and organizations to move together to cooperate takes real work.

Uh so the Saginaw Just uh Transition in DABA supported, uh was so important.

It was timely and it was community-driven.

A few months ago, the Saginaw Just Transition uh in DABA and their partners with Solar Faithful met with us to discuss the ongoing work and introduce community solar in our neighborhoods.

We were uh grateful that the Saginaw Just Transition in DABA has moved forward to do some of this work because our communities they need relief uh to the households of cost burden due to the rising food cost and energy cost, and uh as one of the leaders uh and hopefully co-co-founders of the just transition in Daba back in 21.

I'm grateful that we were able to forward think and get initiative started to do this work around 2021 around the food and energy security areas, and without that work, we could not have been able to bring in Congressman uh Kildee, who in his last iteration of his work helped us to pass in very important uh appropriations through the food bank of eastern Michigan to get those dollars into this community.

Uh so without that help, we would not have been able to put those dollars along with our ARPA dollars to really really refine our uh community and our food storage area.

So I'm grateful for the work that was done, and I just wanted to show the support of the power of what happened in 2021 and how that is translated into what we've been able to accomplish now.

Uh, with my last remaining 30 seconds, I will say uh that the community needs assessment that we've been conducting.

Uh we do it every three years for the agency.

It's about finished, and uh looking forward to sharing uh some of the data that we have uh discovered over the last three years.

That this data will be um about three years past COVID, and so we are going to look at what the landscape is for the needs of the community and look forward to sharing it with uh with the rest of the county and our city.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Pamela Pugh.

Good evening, members of the council and the public.

My name is Dr.

Pamela Pugh, uh 2317, McEwan Street Saginaw, Michigan 48602, and I am speaking on behalf of the Saginaw Just Transition in DABA, which is a community-rooted project focused on food and energy security.

This initiative is fiscally sponsored by the Movement Strategy Center.

And let me begin with this.

This project was delivered has delivered real services to real people without receiving a single dollar from the city of Saginaw.

Roy Stevens, who is here tonight, he'll talk about the STEM work that he's done with the NAB and First World Community Centers.

We've worked with Dr.

Delisha Pruitt, Dr.

Shane Jackson who have delivered food as medicine and nutrition programming.

Umar Faithful, you have a letter in your packet from them who has partnered with us to conduct clean energy literacy training, solar readiness site assessments, and weatherization education for faith-based community-based organizations preparing for future solar project.

These were deliverables clearly outlined in the contract agreement signed in December of 2024 based on the project proposal approved by council in September of 2024, and yet not one of these services was funded by the city.

Along the way, we submitted every document requested, Gantt charts, logic models, Darcy role matrices, updated scopes, budgets.

And despite that, this project and I were publicly mischaracterized before any meaningful engagement or explain explanation.

And that's not accountability.

That's misinformation and is unacceptable.

And let me be clear.

And again, we've received zero city funding, even as food insecurity, energy burden, and neighborhood instability continue to grow.

It's been stated that our budget was too administrative, and let's be honest.

What we provided was hands-on direct services.

You'll see pictures.

The people doing this work are professionals and professionals who do deserve to be paid.

You've received these packets back in September and April or August.

This project may not have fit into traditional molds, but that's exactly why it mattered.

ARPA dollars were intended to repair historic harm, not reinforce it.

We anticipated the current crisis, rising energy and food costs, and a need to strengthen neighborhood anchor institution.

If the city chooses to reclaim funds, it never disperse.

That is your prerogative.

But let the record show the work was real, the services were delivered, and the impact continues with or without city support because this work was never powered by bureaucracy.

It was and will continue to be powered by vision, trust, and community commitment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our final speaker is Roy Stevens.

Good evening, City Council administrators, the public.

My name is Roy Stevens.

I'm the executive director of Dreams Incorporated.

I drove from Flint to Saginaw at least weekly and served as a gardener and a STEM education contractor for Saginaw Just Transition in Dava.

I was hired to teach youth soil science, food systems, and sustainability through hands-on learning.

We built raised beds, installed irrigation, planted, maintain and harvest produce.

Students didn't just watch.

They worked, asked questions, and grew in confidence.

Every session had clear deliverables.

Everything was documented.

The impact was real, measurable, and direct service to the youth and families.

In July and August, Dr.

Pugh and I led programming with students from First War Community Center, including a site visit to Flint to our garden dreams garden that we have in Flint.

While there, the students worked alongside Flint youth, and they learned about weed and watering and harvesting.

They learned how food grows and how it is used as fuel fuel for the body.

They closed the day taste tasting cucumber sandwiches and watermelon slushies made from the garden itself.

Students also completed a full soil science series where they collected soil samples and learned how sand, silk, clay, and organic matter settle into layers.

They studied how soil composition impacts food, water, and plant health.

They conducted capillary action experiments using walking water and celery to understand how plants move water.

They built self-irrigating planners from recycled materials to take home, connecting science to sustainability.

We also incorporated guest educators and partners.

Urban Farming and Food Justice Robert McDef McDuffie, John Brown Farm, How Food Affects Health, Dr.

Shane Jackson, certified food nutritionist and founder of Healthy Just Feels Right.

Food as Medicine, Dr.

Delisha Pure Pruitt, family medicine physician.

This final session concluded with a garden to table, sauce of making lessons using produce the students planted and harvested it, harvested themselves.

Tomatoes, peppers, onions, cilantra, and lemons.

Reinforcing the science of agriculture through food preparation.

I've worked on a lot of youth and garden projects.

This one delivered documented work, real students, real learning, real impact.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That takes us to remarks of council.

Council members, you have three minutes as well.

We will begin tonight with Ms.

Seals.

Good evening, everyone.

Talk loud.

I was loud, I believe.

Okay, thank you, everyone.

It's good seeing you this evening.

Um I was able to attend the trunk and treat with the mayor and some other council people.

Um it did rain on us, and I caught pneumonia.

And but I had a great time outside.

Um, and I think we had a great turnout.

And um it was uh a great event to see all the kids out there and the city of Saginaw came out and I think supported.

believe okay thank you everyone it's good seeing you this evening um I was able to attend the trunk and treat with the mayor and some other council people um it did rain on us and I caught pneumonia and but I had a great time outside um and I think we had a great turnout and um it was uh a great event to see all the kids out there and the city of Saginaw came out and I think supported it was a great event um also um what else did I do I had a good time this this past um um this past couple weeks um I guess the last thing I just want to remind everyone that Thanksgiving is coming up so the holidays are coming up be mindful of people that um are in need um snap benefits have been turned back on for half of the recipients so um they are looking for the other dollars to get them turned back on so um be mindful that um snap is turned back on for half of the recipients um but there are still a lot of people out there that are in need so um be mindful of your neighbors that are around you um help out be kind to your neighbors to the people that are around you if you know someone just this is the season of giving and being thankful not only for yourself but for the people around you so that's all I want to say Madam Mayor thank you next we have Councilman Balls.

Thank you Madam Mayor I don't have a lot of comments today but I would like to thank uh all those who come and speak and explain what in Dava does in the community seemed like you guys have done a lot of work here in the city of Saginaw and when the interview gauge the youth you are growing people who's gonna be able to uh take this thing farther and explore it more uh as been a mentor in the Big Brothers and sisters program for 30 something years I don't think there's no better work we can do to gauge our children especially the ones who don't have uh a father at home or another parent uh when we engage those children uh you can see the lights come on in their eyes when they learn something uh I got a couple of guys come by my house and they'll feed my fish in my pond and uh I sent them back to say go ahead man feed the fish and they come back some of them say man I'm just gonna sit out here and chill for a little while you know for an eight year old to say something like that it really really makes me feel good inside um but not only that I'm teaching them a little bit about electricity and pipe fitting at the same time and and you can see the lights just keep coming on their head and uh we've been in the big brothers and sisters program every little brother I had I always give them a tube box my number one goal is to make sure when I get through mentoring them that they have a two box and you can just see uh the mother come and say he my uh son come home and he came in the house tell me what you want me to fix mom you know that's a beautiful thing man so I want to I appreciate what you guys are doing for our community and just continue to do and it would make our uh city shine bright uh this weekend I had the opportunity to spend some time with the help group I'm a uh member of the help group uh healing love engagement and presence that we uh spend time with the kids and this week we took them to the bowling alley man it was uh it was the kids had a good time but you still had to tell them how to vote uh don't everybody stand right there where the guy got the bowling ball in his hand on Tell them to get back get back get back and they uh they really had a good time uh some of them thought they was really uh pro bowlers uh with the guards up soon we took them guys down they found out they wasn't that good they thought that the ball post to go from side to side but uh you know it was really good to spend time with the kids this weekend um I really don't have a lot to say I'm just want everybody to continue to spend time with children in our community who don't have two parents at home you know it means so much for the kid to have somebody an adult to tell them to do the right thing you know some of them like I had a little guy uh this weekend who uh I was telling him to do the right thing and he he could have been there more than 13 years old and every time I tell him something he brush up to me like I know you ain't talking to me like that you know and eventually before the day was over I took him for a walk and put my arm around his shoulder and we had a nice little talk you know let him know that he got to obey adults you know so you know they they they do try you so we have to keep going we got to do to make them better people thanks let me share that thank you next we have councilman hoste thanks mayor um welcome everybody tonight into uh the Hertz Center um so we had one of our public input speakers tonight uh she had something in her hand and it was an arcan kit and that is for people who are in danger of a drug overdose or if you come up on somebody just wanted to mention that we do have that available at the police department there are various other places in the city also Hoyt Library has them and that is a dispensary that we put in there it also has fentanyl strips in there as well and also the county health department offers that box that she had in her hand um trunk retreat I missed it this year yeah I had uh somebody in from out of town for a funeral and I was hosting them at my house but I I did see the pictures and it looks like again it was a great time sorry it got ringed on also I want to thank our city manager and I also want to thank Chief Ruth I was invited again by Sarah Whitkin uh with Jen she is the Scouting American Troop 366 and her scouts work on their Eagle Badge and she asked us to come in and talk about public safety in the

Chunk retreat.

I missed it this year.

Yeah, I had uh somebody in from out of town for a funeral, and I was hosting them at my house, but I I did see the pictures, and it looks like again it was a great time.

Sorry, it got ringed on.

Um, I want to thank our city manager, and I also want to thank Chief Ruth.

Um, I was invited again by Sarah Whitkin with Jen.

She is the Scouting American Troop 366, and her scouts work on their Eagle Badge.

And she asked us to come in and talk about public safety in the city.

So Office and Megan Nelson was with me.

She's one of our canine officers.

Uh, we had a great conversation with the kids, and some of the questions were pretty pretty tough.

But uh, I heard that they did get a lot from that.

So thanks again, Chief.

If you are following us on Facebook, if you're looking for work, not only is the semiconductor and the solar plant, but the city has uh positions as well in our streets division and wastewater treatment.

So if you think that might interest you, please get a hold of our HR department or apply online.

And also to uh somebody else might mention this.

I did drop by the Arson Watch Center, so thank you again to all the volunteers that keep the city safe from arson on uh throughout the Halloween season.

Uh, not only uh a lot of volunteers that helped put this on, plus our city staff.

So thank you again.

And one more announcement consumers energy is offering their care program.

What this is is energy assistance for folks, and right now I think that might be something that you might know somebody that uh could use this.

The eligibility for the program um you just must must meet these 60% of the state's median income, and I figured it out for 2024.

That's probably around 43,000 or less.

Um you can't have any deaf debt theft fraud bankruptcy.

Um you must live at the primary address, and customers who receive Head Start, home heating credit, state disability assistance, supplemental security income, supplemental nutrition assistance program, or SNAP, temporary assistance for needy families, or women in if it's a children who are in WIC, you automatically qualify.

So if you need help, please get a hold of consumers energy.

Mayor, that's all I have.

Thank you.

Next, we have Council Reddock.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

I just like to say good evening to everyone that showed up to the city council meeting today.

Um, don't have a lot to say.

Uh we know just to echo some of the city council members have said about the um SNAP benefits uh coming up.

So um it's good to see that our city is coming together in a time of need.

We do have some organizations who are putting a citywide food collective together.

Um it's gonna be drop-off locations.

It's in conception right now.

I see some people shaking their heads so they know about it out there, and so we have to make sure that we keep you know, an eye on our community.

The people of the community take care of the people of the community.

And I I would say that just recently, I would say recently, just seeing a collaborative efforts from everyone when our city uh has a need, and that's what we need to happen, you know, not just from this table, but outside this table, you know, outside the city hall walls.

And so just looking at looking forward to um working with those people to see where that need is at and if that and see it what was to come this month in November.

It's the holiday season.

We have Thanksgiving coming, we have Christmas coming, so it's going to be a very sensitive moment sensitive time.

Um during this shutdown has been very sensitive time for everyone.

I believe it's been changing the way we um going to be operating forward and in our families and our society.

And I just remember when I was in the military when we had 9-11, it just changed so much.

The society changed so much, and so how we traveled and things that were.

So I kind of feel that same little change, feel like change is coming.

So just make sure we look out for our youth and our elderly, you know.

You know, the winter months are coming, and um, there's our organization that's out here.

Um, Mount Isle, Bethel, Houghton Jones, uh Victoria's Believers Ministry, World Outreach Campus, Newburgh Cathedral, uh, the Movement Church and the SVRC marketplace.

So they're looking to have some, and um, they're still building it right now, so you still see some flyers and things on social media getting blasted out.

So anybody have any food insecurity.

So but that's all I have to say, uh Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I mean, we can thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you to everyone who came and spoke today and came to attend this meeting.

Um, I had the privilege of being at a uh quite a few uh community events in the over the last couple of weeks.

Uh one being the citywide uh chunker treat.

That was it, that was a good time.

Um appreciate all the staff and the organizers that put that together.

That was not a small thing, and you guys did a great job, so I appreciate being part of that.

Uh Four Corners uh Genesee Quarter Team Loyalty.

They also put on a trunk retreat.

Um I was able to attend, gave out hot dogs, there was music, there was a sea of kids and families through those, the through that corridor.

Um had horse guys on horses and and it was it was a good time, and I appreciate everybody who put that together as well.

It was a blessing to a lot of the families that um attended that.

Um also that's a chance to go to the ribbon cutting for the Saginaw Headwaters, um, which if you don't know about that, is beautiful, beautiful wreck area right in the middle of Saginaw.

Um it's been softly open for a few years, but the official ribbon cutting was uh recently, and I got to take a walk in the middle of uh the city and just see deer walking around and uh there's a beautiful sunset, and if you can look it up and find the location.

Um I suggest you go as I was living leaving.

I saw families with photographers just posing and getting their pictures taken because of the the um landscape is is gorgeous.

Um there was also a kickball tournament uh that was uh put on by I have a soft spot for them now because I got to got to know them a little bit, Brian Keene and um Lecto Leckle and the workbar store and it benefits like five five five thousand dollars to various community organizations in the city of Saginaw, and that was cool.

So there's a lot of things going on, a lot of people giving back and mentioning uh like the liquor stores over mention that uh hearing those numbers, I would love to get more information about that and why we have so many if we're not supposed to.

Uh there's gotta be a reason for that, so I'd like to more have more information about that.

Um and as far as the indaubla, thank you for coming tonight to speak.

Um you brought some clarity and when we we talk about being transparent here in the city of Saginaw and our processes, it sounds like we need to work a little bit on that because I'm missing some clarity.

And if it's not clear why um the funds are being questioned, there's something wrong.

If we're saying one thing that it's right and our our I's are dotted and our T's are crossed, and the organization is still confused, there's something wrong.

So we have to look at that and figure out what that is.

So thank you for coming.

Next we have Councilman Hammond.

Thank you.

Um first I'd like to thank all of our speakers for coming out tonight and the insight and the information that you provide um and coming out to us and and sharing with us your needs.

I I thank you for that.

Um I also wanted to mention it's it's a tough time right now, um, as we're seeing a lot of our systems challenged and and uh shaken.

Um we're seeing the entire healthcare industry right now um seeing the effects of our government shutdown and the inability to supplement uh you know program funding.

Obviously, SNAP um I saw that that um Lieheap is coming up next as a questioned source of funding.

So these are the things that keep our families and our neighbors in our uh homes heated during the winter months.

Um there are reasons why these programs exist, and so when they're when they're um when their funding is called into question, it it it really shakes the entire community.

Um so what has happened so far is when the USDA announced that states would not be able to draw down funds essentially, they they would not be distributing funds to different state systems.

Um there was a court order um that was held up today uh where part the Trump administration essentially said that they would allow partial funding to be distributed to states.

That guidance has not yet been issued.

So there's half the funding that we need for the month.

Um how many are people uh our individuals going to be able to get?

We don't know yet.

When are they gonna be able to access it?

Nobody knows yet.

Um each state has its own system.

Obviously, we have my bridges here in Michigan.

Uh and so some people still have money left in their account because it's not their time to get it throughout the month.

Um, but as to benefits, um i it's all under question.

Nobody knows.

Um so that level of of insecurity is is scary, but we know it's not going to be the full amount.

That's the one thing that's almost almost certain unless the government were to reach a deal tomorrow and pass the CR, and even then those delays would still happen.

So the delays that we're looking at are going to be in the weeks, hopefully not into the months.

Um the system right now is being tested, and so you know, thank you to everybody in the community for pulling together.

I've seen so many people reaching out to volunteer to do food jobs.

I've seen so many things pulled together last minute, so thank you for that resiliency.

And I want to mention a conversation I had with Councilman Young as well.

And and Councilman Braddock, you alluded to this that this is not the last time we're going to be facing massive insecurities in our community.

We we govern a vulnerable population.

I find pride governing our vulnerable people in our community.

But what that means is that it's going to take creative solution, it's going to take more vision building.

We're we're gonna have to wonder how we're how we're gonna deal with these systems breaking down because unfortunately I don't think that this is the first system we're gonna see hit, and it's certainly not the last.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Pro Tim, I see.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I thought I thought I'd be stopping out too.

Next we have outside council meal.

That's okay.

I'm gonna speak up too.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you for coming out, everyone who speak spoke and attended.

Um I'll start with uh this is so many uh community events, which uh is a good thing.

I wasn't able to attend some of them, the citywide trunk or treat, but I was able to support the YMCA with their trunk or treat, and there were a ton of keys that came out.

We all ran out of candy, so that was good to have that kind of turnout for an event and support the community.

Um what I've personally been doing since I've came on board is uh taking tours of all the facilities, the water treatment facility, the fire department, meeting with the staff and department heads.

I think that's important for me to do so that as decisions uh have to be made in the future.

You know, your company decisions is only based on the amount of information that you have.

So you have to see these facilities and the needs they have, how they're running their departments and meet them personally, so then you'll know the correct decision to make in the future.

So that's what I've been doing with a lot of my time since I've onboarded.

And uh, you know, I have to do it with a sense of urgency when I'm coming on at this point so that I don't create a handicap to this council and I can be a benefit to them because I can only troubleshoot and add uh depth to our decisions based on my information.

So that's what I've been personally doing.

Um as far as the liquor store saturation, um uh um former mayor seals um mentioned uh that we are over the amount, and that was something I never knew, but when you're from the community and you're down in the community, you know what doesn't feel right.

So me growing up in the neighborhoods, being in the community, I felt that something wasn't balanced.

So to hear that information on that number being a lot higher than what it should be, that was just based on me just growing up around that.

So that was why I made that uh suggestion to look into that at the last council meeting.

And um the in DABA uh organization.

Um I've met with some of you before.

You do great work, and some of the information is before my time, so I'm trying to gather all the information so that if the decision has to be made, I can make the correct decision.

So that's where I'm at with that organization.

But you do do good work.

I just want to make sure that the correct decision is made.

So I need some more information on that as well.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

Now we have Map Pro Tim Gotta see you.

Good evening, concerned citizens of the community.

Um, thanks for everyone coming out on this uh change of time.

I don't know if it messed up your schedule, but it kind of made me a little bit more tired this today.

Um just wanted to say thanks for all the speakers and with your concerns, it helps brings us council members up to date with some um information that we might have needed.

Also want to say thanks to the staff, you guys did a great job for the trunk or treat.

I only stood an hour in because it started to rain and I had other things.

It's my busy time of the year, so I'm trying to manage my time with Medicare and rope in time.

So you're probably getting all these scam claws, and it's not me.

So if you're not for sure who it is, don't answer it because it turns into bad things.

So make sure you're mindful, and if you're working with somebody to stick with that person.

Um, we had a really great turnout.

Um, we had hot dogs for the kids, and it was so tempting because they were right next to us, our booth there.

And um, as much as I just wanted to keep going over there to get hot dog, I didn't.

So that was um good management there.

Um, so we had a really great turnout candies and giving out all types of stuff, and it was nice seeing all the little kids out there, trunk or treating parents dressing up.

It was just a great atmosphere.

So I really enjoy being out there every year.

I make it um a thing to not book any appointments and be there for the community.

Also, um last week I did Fall Frenzy.

Um me and Mayor got to be down there for the East Side Soup Kitchen.

It was a sold-out event, and it was a great time.

Um we raised a lot of money for the soup kitchen, so it was really nice.

Um, people coming together for the community for such a great organization.

Um, I did Arson watch last week, um Thursday, so I wasn't able to get down there with Terry Reed.

Usually I go down there, but I did um take down some donations to him, and I love what he's doing for the community.

We had a great talk, and um just seeing that Genesee corridor popping, it's really always a great time to see it.

Really booming down there because I know back in the day it was, so it's really nice during that time.

Um, and also last Monday, I also volunteered for the East Side Soup Kitchens food giveaway, which they're gonna be having one next Tuesday, um, starting at 9.

So I'm gonna try to get down there and um volunteer as well.

Um, it's getting a little code out in my bones.

I'm gonna look old, so we'll see how it handles.

But I we are seeing a lot more people coming to these food giveaways, and also a lot more seniors that are coming because they're on a monthly income.

So just be mindful, you know.

Um, part-time's for everybody right now, you know.

Everybody's hurting, so you see it.

But um, I'm just thankful to be part of the council that are willing to do things in our community, and we are moving forward, and there's a lot of organizations that are really stepping up, getting canned goods.

I know down here on the whole town, there's a few um different pubs that are doing different specials for the community.

They're collecting canned goods, and it's just awesome to see the community work together because that's what it's all about.

It takes a village, you know, really to work together and um be successful.

And if we continue to do that, we'll make this a better place to eat, play, sleep, and live.

Thank you.

Thank you.

By the time it gets to me, everybody didn't said everything.

So I did attend some events, a lot of events, but uh the one that stuck with me the most.

Two was Chicken Chunk.

Even in the rain.

Um we did get, I think an hour and a half in before it started raining.

But by then it was coming down, and the kids didn't want to go home, so we stood in the rain giving out candy.

The other one was ice and watch.

Is really just fascinating.

You can put them mice in your car.

Yeah, Bob.

You get to play little mini police officers.

She got some little flash and bull.

But the most exciting part of it is just coming back to where we started and just sitting talking to the community.

Sitting and talking to the people that are in there who have who have generally gotten support this every year.

I also went to the frenzy.

I got lucky, I wanted some money, I gave it back.

Um, but it was a good thing.

It was a good thing.

This is a season for giving.

Um, I do plan on working.

If anybody is not busy on Thanksgiving Day, we will be at the soup kitchen.

I've been doing this for the last five years.

I plan to be there again on Thanksgiving Day.

We know that as of last Monday, the numbers went up to like 540.

No, they went, they were at 540.

They went up to almost 700 at the soup kitchen as it related to filling the children.

When we do a breakout on the children, we had like a 35% markup on children who were coming to give meals.

I understand about the snap, understand about everything.

I'm closely watching.

I had the opportunity to go to Bethlehem Meet to celebrate 90, a 90th birthday for a community person who has been quite active.

And one of the things that the pastor that preached said was keep your mouth off me.

Keep your mouth off me.

He was talking about things that we want to talk about that we don't know about.

We we've got to begin to keep our mouth off of stuff.

Sometimes we think we're doing good.

We're really not doing good.

We really are starting up stuff that we can't even control.

Saginaw.

Saginaw.

I'm glad I'm a citizen of Saginaw.

Saganal Michigan has come a long way in the last 12 years.

And I've watched it grow, and I'm sure some of the council people and all of you have watched it grow.

But the best is yet to come.

This is just the beginning for Saginaw.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

That takes us to reports from the manager.

Mr.

Manager, you now have to the total store.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

So first, we do have a presentation this evening from the law enforcement accredited for the law enforcement accreditation award.

Matthew Silverthorne from the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police are here.

And Chief Ronald Wiles, the Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police is here for the presentation.

I'm not that important.

I just wore a suit.

I'm not important.

But uh thank you very much for the opportunity to be here tonight to recognize and honor uh your police department.

Uh my name is Ron Wiles, I'm the executive director of the Michigan Association Chiefs of Police.

Um I did my law enforcement career in Grambling Township, where I served for 26 years, and I had the absolute honor to be their chief of police for the last six years of my career.

Um you're all probably somewhat familiar with accreditation.

There are a lot of professions that have accreditation programs.

Your kids go to accredited schools, you need medical attention, you go to an accredited hospital.

Well, law enforcement should be no different.

Accreditation is a progressive time-proven way for law enforcement agencies to improve their overall performance and level of service.

Now, the foundation of the program lies in the voluntary compliance of 128 professional standards.

The key word there is voluntary.

No one's making the agency do this.

They do it for the sole reason of getting better.

I can tell you accreditation is a significant professional accomplishment.

It's an accomplishment that shows the agency's commitment to excellence, professionalism, and continuous improvement.

In Michigan, there are 573 police agencies.

To date, 94 agencies have been able to successfully complete the accreditation process.

It's a distinction that separates your police agency from other police agencies across the state.

Let me put that another way for you.

Your police agency has accomplished something that only 16%, one sixth of all police agencies in the state of Michigan have been able to accomplish to date.

You, the community, should be very proud of this accomplishment, knowing that they will continue to serve with the purpose, pride, and integrity that is expected in Saginaw and deserved by the residents.

So with that, I'd like to introduce our accreditation program director, Matt Silverthorne.

Talk a little bit about the process and what it took to become an accredit agency.

Hello.

Thank you for having us.

Like I said, my name is Matt Silverthorne.

Uh I'm the accreditation program director.

I retired as a detective lieutenant from White Lake Township Police Department in Oakland County earlier this year.

Um, like you said, there's 130 standards that are involved in the process that the police department has to meet.

Um, within that those standards, there's also substandards, so in reality, it's probably about 600 standards they have to abide by.

The Michigan Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission is both police departments, which we represent the Michigan Association Chiefs of Police and Sheriff's Departments represented by the Michigan Sheriff's Association.

So the process basically is after the agency applies, they have to go through every single one of their policies and see if they fit the standards.

If they don't, they have to alter their policies, add, remove, uh, make their policies fit the standards.

Um, it's a long process, usually two to three years.

Um they must then prove that they're following those policies.

So for every standard, they have to show that it is a policy, and they have to give us a demonstration that they're following that policy.

Um I assign two assessors from different police departments, which are accredited command officers that have been trained as assessors, and they come to the police department for they spend two days here.

Uh they do detailed examination of all the policies and proofs they provided.

They interview members of the agency, the government, some of you might have been interviewed in this process.

Uh, they do a ride-along with officers, and they do a public call-in session where people can call in and call in and comment on the process.

Uh, the assessors then write a detailed report, which goes to the uh Michigan Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission board.

That report is on the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police website if anyone wants to read it.

And once they it goes to the board, they go to a hearing, and the uh top command of the department are required to answer questions specifically about that report from the commission, which is comprised of chiefs and sheriffs of sheriffs from across the state.

Uh the board then votes to for the agency to become accredited, and over the course of this process, the Saginaw Police Department met all the requirements and achieved accreditation.

I was just here to congratulate Chief Chief Ruth and his team on this process.

Uh, Director Wiles, you want to come back up?

Yes.

Thank you.

You all who see the certificate know that the Saginaw Police Department having voluntarily complied with the standards established by the Michigan Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission, deemed essential for the delivery of professional police services and the protection of their community is here by a board, the certificate of accreditation.

Good for a term of three years.

Chief, congratulations, being very proud of you.

Chief.

Yes, why don't you say something to say?

Every time I get near this podium, I'm sort of chased away.

I talk too much.

This is a process.

And it's not only for me, this is for our department.

It's for all the citizens of Saginaw.

That's what this all means right here.

This is the change.

Everybody's been asking for for the last 10 years with our department.

Going back 12 years.

It's the change.

Okay.

Change is very difficult for some people, as you may understand.

Because you've seen a few of them come before you over the years complaining about some of our processes at the police department.

There the change doesn't stop right here.

The change has to continue into the future.

It has to.

We're going to become a better department, which we are.

There is going to be a lot of change into the future.

So we need everyone's support.

We need support from the officers, we need support from the citizens, and we need support from our city council.

100%.

I want to thank every one of you and the city management team for all the support that we had in this process.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you, Chief, for uh that and the association for the presentation.

And they did the police department staff did put a lot of time and review in that process, so I congratulate them as well.

We do I do want to also thank our staff moving on to other issues.

The trunk our treat was uh huge planning process.

So I want to thank the staff who helped in planning and participated and volunteered to make it another successful event, and our council members who came and helped as well at our booths, a city booth there.

And we did have a wide swing in weather, but it didn't matter.

We still had kids lined up when it was pouring down rain when it got cooler, they were all lined up, and we had over 600 uh people at our booth, come through our booth.

Um, so great attendance, and we it seems to be growing every year, so we want to keep uh figuring out how to improve it and how to get more people there, and um open to any suggestions.

And I had uh the mayor had asked me some questions about the water tower, so I asked um uh Mike Granier, our director, uh, for an update on that, and the work is progressing well, and we'll be filling the water tower the second week of December.

Piping part of the project has presented challenges, and that's because our system is over a hundred years old, so it's there's some surprises that they find in there when they start digging it up, and it's quite a complex system, so that's to be understood.

But we'll be connecting the tower to the piping the first week of December.

Once the tower is filled and tested, they'll be placed in service.

There will be some work left to complete for the project, site restoration, punch list items, along with one pipe connection for which we needed uh to order parts to discovering differences in the depth of a buried pipe.

So we were planning um kind of a ribbon cutting event for the spring.

That's gonna be pushed or for the fall, that's gonna be pushed off to next spring.

Um, so it should be fully operational at that time.

We did receive questions too, uh particularly from the business owners in Old Town about the Hancock Old Town Parking Ramp.

That ramp project is uh just finishing up, and there are still a few items to complete, and we want to keep the ramp closed while the contractors finish their work, but we do plan to have that open for our holidays in the heart of the city if everything's completed as expected.

Um our community engagement project uh coordinator at the fire department that council approved uh some time ago to work with the youth in the schools, is um is expanding.

If as you know, they started working with uh Success Academy when we created a community engagement coordinator.

The community engagement coordinator and fire marshal recently met with staff at Thompson Middle School, Saginaw Middle School, and Saginaw United.

Thompson Middle School.

The team is exploring the possibility of implementing the level one curriculum for sixth grade students, and once the sixth grade class is completed, they proceed to work with seventh grade students with the level two curriculum, and the school uh administration would like to include about a hundred students in that first round.

Saginaw Middle School working on a plan to implement level one curriculum curriculum with the sixth grade students.

And they would like to include approximately 56 graders.

There's a good portion of them are already working on the botvin program with the women of colors group.

The team may also work with the seventh grade students at the end of this school year if they finish uh instruction with sixth grade students and there's time left over.

Saginaw United, the team there had a great opportunity to meet with the administrative leadership of the school, and they also want to implement a modified program for some ninth grade students as selected by school administration.

The team will have to follow up follow-up meeting with Saginaw United Administration to discuss planning and the next steps to include the high school students.

So that's a great progression.

It's uh fairly new program, and as we started with a small group at the Success Academy, and it looks like it's been looked on pretty positive by the school district, and they're moving it into the middle schools and uh some high school students, so that's great.

And finally, we did I did um we did communicate uh back and forth today about um some of the issues that uh councilwoman Hammond mentioned and specifically we're talking about our water system and some of the fees they're related.

I did get a call earlier this week from I think it was channel uh five about federal workers and uh if they're furloughed, are there any programs for our water system and water bills?

So and I think um I think Councilman Hammond did a good job at the last meeting talking about some of the limitations we have there with bonding and some of our um revenue requirements, but um there are some potential options that you could look at, but we always want to make sure whatever the issue is with any of our residents to please reach out to the customer accounting uh department at the city for water.

We don't want to be turning people's waters off, so if we can help connect people with resources, um sometimes the staff knows about a lot of resources that maybe people in the public don't just generally know if they don't know who to reach out to, they can direct them that way.

Um we're always open to alternative payment plans and um you know if you have a significant outstanding balance and you can't pay that off, but you can make payments.

We're um we're willing to work with people in the um that are having those issues to make payment plans, keep their water on.

So that's always our goal.

So um we just want everyone to be aware of that, and um many times we can keep you from getting your water shut off if we know you're looking at what type of assistance programs and you're applying for those or you're making arrangements with us.

But um we may talk more about that later on in the meeting.

Those are all the items I have, madam mayor.

Do we have any questions for the city magic?

Yes, comment handling.

Um yes, thank you for your uh quick responses today, and we will talk about that later.

Uh, but um one question I had.

Um, I noticed on today's agenda we have an appointment to the human rights commission, which would I believe constitute a quorum, just in general.

I don't think it's been since I've been on council, we haven't like started up a commission.

Do you have any idea about when their first meeting would be if that if that goes through and we have a quorum?

Chris.

We don't have a schedule established at this time.

I'll reach out to the commissioners and see what their availability is and we'll go from there.

Thank you.

And the other yes.

Councilman Baugh.

I don't know if you can answer this question, but maybe you got somebody here that can from the staff.

But when you fill that water tower, is the the water that goes to the top, we're using that to keep the pressure for the uh other homes and stuff like that.

Do they recirculate that water at the top?

Yes.

Okay.

No, and that's actually a a very very real concern that we have.

Uh one is winter's coming in ice, but the idea is you want that to stay fresh.

So staff right now and and some of our engineering firms are playing around with where do we set the pressure levels, how are we going to manipulate those because you want that tank to go down at least a third at least once a day.

Ideally, we'd be doing it twice a day, but we'll see what we can make the math do once we get going.

But yes, the we have we're working very hard to make sure we're doing that.

I'll just curious if I know you know water in these fields.

Yeah, no, you can't let it sit there.

Right.

Good.

Yeah, you you want fresh water.

That was one, and how do you actually keep the pressure up like you just said, you know, you gotta let the level go down so the water can come.

You know, I ideally we'll let the system help us with that because we're diurnal.

Everybody gets up in the morning, takes a shower, gets their stuff together before work.

There's a demand, hopefully, depending on how we set things up.

There's a demand, hopefully, depending on how we set things up, that tank will go down in the morning, you know, come up a little bit at noon, take another little dip around supper time, and then go and we'll see how much naturally we can let that happen.

Otherwise, we'll play with our pumps and valves a little bit to make it happen.

So we do got pumps to pump the water up to the top.

Oh, yes, sir.

Okay, I'm just saying because we we uh we we doing that so we don't have to worry about the pumps.

Oh, exactly.

You gotta be, yeah, nothing's for free.

So once you get it up in the air, that's what buys you the process.

So now we still got pumps that we gotta worry about to keep pumping the water to the top.

Yes, but I'll still have three hours if all those pumps shut up.

Okay.

That's that's one of the things that we're buying with that tower is is time.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Yes, I guess, council on this, yes.

Um, I have a question for Tim.

Uh I don't know if you can answer this question, but as um how connected are we as a city?

And I don't know if we are connected to the process of um DHS.

I don't know if that's a county, I mean I believe it's a county um process for like SNAP and food stamps and that process.

Uh and I'm asking because um I know that uh I was a recipient of all of those services as a young parent.

And so um until I was able to get myself out of that situation, so I I kind of resignated what the mayor said earlier, what her mother told her, unless you understand what she said earlier, until you were in those shoes, you don't understand you have good intentions and wanting to help people, but until you've been there before yourself, you don't understand.

So I do understand that there is a process down at DHS that they can actually help people with water bills and different bills if you are on those services.

So, how connected are we as a city with that process with the DHS?

Um, I don't know how connected we are with is that is that a county service, or is like how connected can we be, or are we connected?

Like I don't understand, you know, I don't know how connected we are.

Yeah, we for the one that we would mainly deal with would be for utility bill assistance to DHS, and we're not necessarily connected to the process, but we refer people there Lori's Lori's area handles that um it's been a long time since I worked downstairs.

Yeah, they have direct contacts at all the agencies for utility billing, so they do speak daily with those agencies looking for letters, emails, confirming somebody's getting some type of assistance, or if a customer comes in and says, Well, I I'm getting assistance from DHS, we can reach out directly to DHS and confirm that with them to avoid a shutoff.

So they they could come to the city and literally say, you know, because they might not know that they can get help from their casework.

Oh, sure.

So they could with this can the city if they come to the city and say that they have a case worker.

Um, yes, we can do emails to DHS and confirm facts with them.

Okay.

And we do emails and faxes back and forth, confirming that they're receiving assistance or um CAC, they do that daily with them too.

Okay.

Because I didn't know how much the city can support them on having that just basic knowledge.

And yeah, and referring them to 211, yeah, happens all the time too.

Okay, yeah.

Because there are so many other gaps we can bridge, other than you know, taking away our late fee and not, you know, right.

There's other ways we can build that.

Sure.

Okay.

And that's a good point, and that's kind of what what we want to make sure is people have that information.

And also, you know, just like any charge or anything like that that's outstanding, please call contact us.

So a lot of people may tend to think, well, it's too large, and I'm just gonna put it over here and not think about it because I don't know what to do, but contact the city so that we can refer you out and as Lori said, we have contacts with DHS, but we can we know we typically know who has funds available, whether it's CAC or United Way, so we can say, hey, contact this organization.

So simply just reaching out.

So is there is that something that we have here for?

And I know there's a pamphlet or something.

Is there something that's like yeah, that people will have the imprimage because don't we have I think we have something that at the UB counter, but I can double check up.

Okay, but that really got strengthened during the pandemic too.

Right.

The relationship with all those agencies.

I remember having like a sheet.

I and I I guess when I was starting on to Ronfield City Council, I remember pulling something, and I I don't know if I read it before, and I I can't remember it, but it might have been like a I don't know if it was 214, but it was very vague.

I don't know if we have something very specific, and I think we might need to be more specific right now on telling people where to find this help.

Sure.

Maybe we just need to be more like uh councilwoman Wigan said we need to be more specific in our communication and saying, hey, this is where you find this help.

Because um maybe that's just the the need is this to communicate a little bit better on our end as a city.

Sure.

I think that that's a subject that you should tackle.

And I'm saying it not to be physician.

And being council people, yeah.

There are a lot of things that we do know.

Yeah, and so I've asked several times could we get together and do like a ready reference referral book on everybody doing stuff.

So maybe that's something that you know that you would not mind and anyone else who would like to help.

Just get a sheet together.

These people do this, these people do this, these people do that.

They used to be a book, and you're right, they used to be a sheet that came out that you could get, yeah.

But they haven't been doing that in years, and so now it's word of mouth.

I remember health department used to do it, yeah.

Every year, and I knew exactly where to go as a young mother and single mother raising three children, but I I remember going here and I need help here.

I knew exactly where to go if I needed the support.

So, yeah.

Of course, yes, sir.

Um what's the percentage of uh late fees that the city make on all the different late stuff?

I mean, this is a lot of money.

I I don't know what the I don't think we have the number offhand.

Well, can you get that number from me, please?

I appreciate that for every fee or for what I'm just saying for for water and and different fees.

I mean, we I mean, sometimes being a member of the credit union industry for a while, um the people who had money get the lowest rates.

The people who have less money have to pay more.

Because of that fee.

They had to pay more because they poor and they're just getting started, so they might have to pay 25%, the other guy pays six or seven percent.

When that guy that pays six or seven percent when he buy a house that costs a million dollars, when he go bankrupt, we lose a million dollars.

But when the little guy, when he ain't got fifty dollars to pay his bills, then we lose 150 dollars, but yeah, we study charging them all the time.

You know, so the big guy study wins and the little guy keep losing because he can't catch up.

So I'm just wondering how much fees do we the city make just on fees, late fees.

Yeah, we'll look it up.

I I don't think it's a uh super significant amount because it's it's kind of a staggered fee, but yeah, this the water water billing system is is in an interesting uh interesting system just because and I know uh there are other council members can tell you we one issue we have as well as with with landlords, right?

Because you know, when you have tenants that don't pay the water bill, then it goes to the landlord, and then the landlord faith has to pay that either on their taxes or pay it off so it doesn't go to their taxes, so we have a lot of different interests involved in that.

So I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Yes, thanks for um a question.

I I wonder if you could talk a little bit about this ordinance proposal that I've read it's uh for nuisance gatherings.

Maybe you were the attorney, it's coming from our police department, so it's a it's um that hasn't been introduced, it's not on an agenda yet.

No, it's not introduced, but could we have this uh could could we get this to the council so the council members could see it as well?

Well, we were looking for council to initiate provide us with some direction as to whether or not they wanted that brought forward.

Okay, well, that's why I asked the question about how we should approach this for tonight, and we had a conversation and Tim just asked me to bring it up so we could talk about it.

I think they didn't have time, you can make motions.

Okay, yeah, there's there's been some general discussion about you know, especially during the summer months, we have these moving parties, if you will, with hundreds of attendees that tend to move from parking lot to parking lot to parking lot, for example, they kind of move around town.

Police spend a lot of time breaking them up, they just scatter and move to another location.

Police then have to respond again and so on and so on and so on.

Um so it was just um a question as to whether council would want to see some sort of ordinance.

There are other cities that have uh essentially it's called a nuisance gathering ordinance.

Um if council would want to see something along those lines brought forward.

But thanks, because that was the explanation I was hoping to get from the attorney.

So yeah, so what I'm what I'm hearing from this for the folks that are listening at home and for the council members is that this is something that I was unaware that we didn't have that could help uh even with the large gatherings on, say like Hamilton Street, we've got 200 people.

Um where there would be some accountability that the police department could enforce.

And so I have read it.

I think it's good, but I so thanks.

I I have a question.

No, I I'm not against it, but we keep making ordinances, and we don't have enough police officers or people who can uphold them.

So we continue to make new ordinances that we can't even keep up with.

This this was actually um this has actually been a discussion raised by both police and the prosecutor's office for quite a while to offer another enforcement option and enforcement tool, give the police another option in their toolkit to try to handle these sort of parties.

So this is something coming from the public safety side.

Again, I'm not against him.

I'm just saying, can't we do that?

We got cars, we've got audity and a lot of these things.

We're not doing we're not keeping up with it.

We don't have a manpower.

Wow.

Any other questions from city management?

Yes, Councilman Braddock.

Um maybe I missed it.

What are the penalties if we violate them?

Are there any recommended penalties for those?

Well, right now we you know there's a draft, and we can if council would like to read that over, we can distribute that, and it'd be up to council if you want to introduce it or ask the city to purchase city manager or the city attorney to pursue that.

So we can get that out to everyone.

It really, as a city attorney said, now that we do have on staff city attorney, she does meet with the prosecutor's office, and that has initiated some of these changes in um ordinances similar to the one that is on the agenda tonight.

Um so we are getting more input from from other law enforcement areas, but if um we could get that to uh ordinance to council so you can look at it and see if it's something you want to pursue.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Matt Clark.

On to the consent agenda.

The agenda has been available on city hall and on the city's web page.

Do I need a motion to approve leaving room for exceptions?

It's been moved to support any exceptions.

Yes.

Uh seven.

Any other exceptions.

Okay, none of those maybe sitting through by saying I.

Item number seven is to approve the purchase with Lunghamer Ford of Owasso for 32,689 for a 2026 Ford Maverick for the water and wastewater treatment services department, water treatment division.

That was council member Wiggins.

Hello.

Uh question, this is uh replacement.

What's wrong with the 2017?

We do scheduled replacements at this vehicle, nothing.

But as they start rolling off of warranty, you'll see probably I believe it'll be the next council meeting around.

I'll be replacing a vehicle for our computer folks, our IT people on the utility side that's out of warranty and a dud.

Um things only got like 17,000 miles on it because they don't drive around.

I mean, they drive to the plant, drive back to City Hall.

They don't drive very far.

Um, this vehicle is not that low mileage, but we do like to keep up on them because we're out sampling rain, snow, you know, shine and all that with the idea that we get as much value as we can out of them, and then a lot of our vehicles end up getting recycled into public works.

I know the last one we replaced, uh Phil's crew bought that for parks, and then we try to get more mileage out of them.

I was gonna ask that what happens to it next.

Generally, Phil steals it.

Well, he he he buys it.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, we'll either transfer to the other division that can't afford to buy it otherwise, or go sell it on a deal site, a competitive bid site.

Do you know what I want to piggyback on that?

No, motion to yeah, yeah, maybe that's a question.

Yeah, motion to approve support.

It's been moved as support now.

Thank you, maybe mention that.

You're welcome.

Why why are we buying this auto-bandwassa?

Why we not buy any local uh local lead?

That's just uh they're the ones that got the state bid, like the state of Michigan put out an annual bid for all kinds of vehicles, and so they're the ones that can guarantee us the lowest price for sure within the state for that same vehicle.

Okay, we've had this question come up before.

I think we tell the local dealers, Garber.

They couldn't come anywhere near meeting the prices of what we get when they when we buy into us.

This is already pre-approved competitive bid process.

So they're the low state there on it.

We're just piggybacking their bids.

Can you come to the bottom?

I figured I'd love them up right now.

Thank you.

Any other questions, yes.

Yeah, I had a question on that same um uh on piggybacking on what Mr.

Ball said um about the bid process.

Uh so you put it out for through the state.

Um, is there anything we can do to like get that to maybe get it out to some dealerships that are closer to us that may not have known about the bid process so they can submit bids to make it more competitive?

We do.

I mean all of those, yeah.

It's the only dealership in the state knows about the state bid because it's a huge market to tap into, but they don't all want to do that, so that it's open to everybody.

Oakland County has a big bidding process too, and most of the dealers in the state know about that.

It's just the margins are very low, and like Phil said, we've contacted locals, but we have to remember we don't have one new car car dealership in the city anymore.

But we contacted ones in our region, and they've they've told us we can't match that price.

Well, I understand that uh maybe uh McDonald is in the township, still nearer to us.

So when I was reading over the council minutes, I usually go there and I sit and drive an EV.

So I'm sitting on their supercharger, so I'm going through the the agenda and I see the purchases while I'm sitting at a dealership.

So when I went back in there to tell them thank you, I asked them about did they know about this bid process, and they said we didn't know anything about it.

So that's what made me want to get some information because McDonald, and that was from the general manager there, they didn't know about he should know about it.

Yeah, well, that's who we've got our uh Ford lease buyback programs with is McDonald Ford.

I think we have five vehicles that we've done other work with them.

Um, but yeah, it's just it would be the reason why we use the state bid processor Oakland County is because it's it's the most efficient way to put instead of bidding it out instead of contacting every local dealership and if we put a bid out, we're probably getting higher prices.

So you put it out there be one, they just have to make sure they tap into the process.

What happens is with the MI deal, the state puts out an annual bid for thousands of items, lawnmowers, brakes, trucks of all kinds, and every vendor from the state can bid it, and then whoever the low, then they hold they'll hold several several bidders on that list, but for this type of vehicle, this company was the lowest for that type of vehicle on the state bid, so then we just look up the state bid on the Michigan States on State of Michigan site and find out who their low bidder was in the contract, and then we just piggyback that low bid for that piece of equipment.

Understood that saves us from having to put together the specs and the wrecks and put all that stuff out the bid, you know, and it is a it is a guaranteed low bid for that bid that the state of Michigan put up.

And like Tim said in the past, I've been had the same question.

I've reached out to three or four of the local McDonald Garber and told them what we were buying and the price we're getting at, and they said fair we'd lose money trying to sell you that vehicle.

So that's the player price you're getting.

That's what you know.

They said I appreciate you calling and discussing, but yeah, it's a it's a volume business the government vehicle.

So one dealership will buy the one that wins the bid, they'll order I don't know how many from GM or Ford or whatever happens.

So they they usually have them there when you put the order and they'll have access to them right away, except for during COVID.

Yeah, that was thank you.

Any other questions?

But about all those invitations saying aye.

All those opposed, nay, madam clerk.

On to board commission and committee reports.

Do we have any reports from anyone who attended any type of meeting that affects the city of Saginaw?

Yes.

Yeah, I attended.

Well, I'm actually on the planning commission.

And our chair, uh John Millenni is here tonight as well.

Uh we had what they call it.

We invite the other commissions to come to the planning commission, and it's an annual thing that we do for our redevelopment readiness certificate or redevent.

Redevelopment readiness certification for the city.

So we did do that this week, and they come and they do a small presentation about what it is that they do, uh, what their future goals are, and so uh so yes, we're meeting our certification.

It was very interesting.

On a note, I need to get my mail for that.

I got my mail on the 29th.

Not the 28th when the meeting was happening.

Anyone else?

Madam Clark.

So appointment of board commission and committee members.

We have two appointments.

I need a motion to approve one and two weeks.

Moved.

Second.

It's been moved to second.

Any discussion.

All those in favor signify by saying that.

All those opposed, nay.

Madam Clerk.

Our next item is ordinance introduction.

We have one on the agenda.

It's to amend chapter 151 property maintenance regulations of Title 15 land usage by amending section 151.112, non-owner occupied property prohibited conduct, section 151.113, non-owner occupied property registry, section 151.114, unoccupied property registry, and section 151.117 fees of the City of Saginaw Code of Ordinances 0-204.

I need a motion to introduce a move.

Any discussion?

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed.

Madam Clerk.

I'm to miscellaneous business.

Is there any other motion that needs to take effect?

Yes.

Thank you.

I move I move that the city council approve a temporary waiver of all late penalties for all city customers on water and sewer utility bills during the period of the full or partial suspension of the supplemental nutrition assistance program, SNAP benefits, and for one additional billing cycle following the reinstatement of SNAP benefits, and that the city manager or designee is authorized to administer and implement this temporary policy, including establishing the start and end dates based on official state or federal notification of the SNAP suspension period.

Second discussion.

What I need to ask is is well.

Thank you.

So this particular motion is to waive the associated fees for uh late payment.

So right now the current standard is I believe a 10% late fee that it's uh that's added to a bill at like 4 p.m.

on the due date, or like right after it's not paid.

So what this would do is essentially waive that 10% fee for not just the duration of the SNAP benefit cut, uh, but for one billing cycle after it.

Um so as to the details of of length, I would defer to the the city manager and city attorney.

By the way, both of your nameplates are swapped.

And it's been confusing me the entire meeting.

Uh sorry.

Scroll brain a little bit.

Um but what this uh does, it's it's it's a nominal um, and I spoke about this via email with the city manager.

It's essentially nominal from the city's financial perspective, but it's the difference for you know, it's it's the family or the mom or the fixed income household who, as councilwoman Wiggins was saying, you know, SNAP benefits and they are going up caused a lot of the um fixed income households to go down.

Um but you know, obviously the there's there's a lot being withheld right now.

So for people choosing between paying their water bills and digging to their pop pockets and paying for food where they otherwise wouldn't, just not compounding the issue with late fees.

So this doesn't change the schedule for water shutoffs when those come into play.

This isn't an it isn't you know, oh no one's gonna be paying their water bills.

That's not what this is.

But for those people who aren't able to pay on time because they had to, you know, they have limited income.

That's 50% of our population falls under Alice.

Um that those folks are not compounded when you know SNAP is turned back on, they're not also having to pay exorbitant late fees in order to keep their water on.

So it's it's it's minimal for the city, um, but I think it would it would help us a lot.

I I briefly talked to um Hurley Coleman here from CAC and he he thought it would be in a tremendous help for the people he's talking to.

When you talk about the 10%, so we talk is say I got a six six dollar bill, six dollars and six cent.

Okay, we take your same freeze that okay, but then at the bottom of my bill that I get, and I'm sure everybody else sees it too, you can't exceed the certain dollar fee.

So even if I don't pay my late B, what happens to my water bill?

I don't get delayed fee, but now I've got to pay for this month, then I might be late, and then next month.

I I guess I don't want us to run into what we ran into before.

No, I think I think this is something that would keep us from running in that issue because if you have in as councilman Hammond said, it's not it's not gonna have a huge burden on the water system because our financial plan isn't just built upon late fees, but if you're a family of five or six, your water bill might be two hundred or higher.

Say it's three hundred bucks, that's thirty dollars, and if you missed your SNAP benefits during November 1st, you missed December, and you know, as um a few of you mentioned it, it doesn't isn't necessarily gonna be smooth sailing to get those back on.

So if we put another month on, it it might um mean a hundred dollars to you or more, where by you're you're not putting huge impact on our system, but that can mean a lot to people, especially as they try to get back, uh get their budgets back on track.

Now it during COVID, as you mentioned, and and um councilman Hammond didn't mention this when we were communicating back and forth is it it did cause issues because there wasn't necessarily additional water assistance available when people didn't pay their bills.

So, like you're right, you get to four months on a moratorium and you might owe a thousand dollars, and then what do you do when you're in that point?

But this is just to try to help people that little bit where they can get back on track.

And I think it's it's certainly isn't gonna have a negative impact on the system.

I'm like councilman boss, I want to get a report on how much money we make doing this.

Yes, councilwalk.

I can yeah, I um glad.

Yeah, I haven't.

I'm trying to get the words to say.

I um I guess the perspective from a person that's actually been on ADC.

Um when you actually been there, and you you let's say you don't uh when you've been turned off.

Let's say SNAP has SNAP is on, okay.

You've been turned off because you forgot to turn in some paperwork to your caseworker, and you are delayed in being turned on.

What do you do?

Okay, so this is a scenario.

Um you you find a way to make you know, you find a way to make food happen.

Um various ways you can go about doing that.

Um, people will find a way, and I'm not negating the help that we're trying to get right now.

And I and I love the way we're thinking, um, but it's not realistic.

You know, I'm just gonna say that.

What I would like for us to do is think about if we're gonna do something like this, then let's do it not because of SNAP.

Because what's gonna happen is when they turn back on SNAP, possibly on Wednesday, because this could happen on Wednesday if you're following this attentively.

If you're intentionally following this, then Wednesday, this could snap happen.

We know 50% of it could turn on Wednesday, then they can possibly have the other 50% by the end of this week.

Okay.

Then what's gonna happen now?

We have done this, okay.

If we're gonna do something like this, then either we do it because we want to do this across the board because we want to help people, because they could be doing this not just with SNAP.

Like you said, they could be doing this with other programs.

We don't know what they what they could attack.

So if we want to help our constituents, then let's talk about doing it across the board.

Let's just take the let's waive the fee completely.

Let's talk about the fee period, not just because of SNAP.

Let's talk about the waiver period.

Why do we have that?

We want to talk about the waiver.

Let's not just use SNAP as the the reason right now because SNAP might not be the reason in the next week.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

So let's talk about let's just get rid of the waiver.

If we want to talk about get rid of the wait the late fee, let's get rid of it now and and be done with it.

But I I will hate us just to use SNAP as our reasoning for right now, and then all of a sudden SNAP is back on.

And now what do we do now?

Because we have just turned you know off our late fee because of SNAP, and now SNAP is back on.

Well, I think Snap, you know, part of Snap.

If you want to do an overhaul like that, you probably want to wait until we do the rate study.

So that our exactly.

But but I do understand in the short term it's something, and and this would apply for everybody for the time being that's uh in the motion, but there while our financial plan, financial model for the water system isn't built upon late fees, it is in the rate, you know, in the overall rate structure.

So if you remove that when you do your rates, you're gonna spread that revenue across to everybody.

So all the rates will go up.

It might just be a little bit to make up for that amount.

But then I I would like to hear from the rate consultants too, because there is a component within the late fee that does encourage on time payment.

So if you don't have a late fee, and you know, if we're running behind on shutoffs, and I think our average time is usually about three months in arrears.

Do are we gonna delay it all of our big portion of our revenue for for 90 days now?

Because there's no penalty for paying later.

So I think you have to think about all of those options, and there are some there are other communities that do different things that we could, especially when we're doing our rate study, those individuals can provide us that information because they work around the state.

Oh no, my name.

Any any more questions down here?

Yes, council on the greatest.

I see your hand raised.

Yes.

That's my question.

This was this would be a temporary implementation that is uh started and stopped by your discretion based upon those.

Based on the yes, yeah.

Okay, yeah.

That's all they wanted to say.

I I think it's a it's uh it's a benefit to our people of Saginaw, just to say, you know, we can do this now.

This is something we can do.

We can help you right now.

And um, I think that's just in a good faith motion to say, you know, we see this is happening.

Um, why compound your pain with a fee?

It doesn't that doesn't make sense to me.

So I just I I think it's a good thing.

Council meaning.

Um I just wanted to give my input on that.

Um you have to look at all scenarios like when you mentioned someone with sixty dollar water bill, it's only six bucks.

Very few people got sixty dollar water bill, so you have to enact something that encompasses the whole community.

So you would have a 200 uh late fee or a 20 late fee because you know people bills are are much higher.

So um I think you know, just like what you said about it being temporary when not just do it because of SNAP, maybe we just formulated to us a water relief ordinance that we can enact or take away based on different circumstances that may happen in the community in the future.

But this is our test right here because SNAP is the face of it right now, but we need to put an ordinance that can be implemented for temporary time and taken away for our future if things happen and it will encompass more households than a sixty dollar, you know, uh water bill, because some people are higher, and you know that's something that's not permanent, temporary fix that we can kind of package that can apply it to different situations the community might face in the future.

Yeah.

Yeah, that I think that would be something else for our attorney and um and our rate consultants to research too because of when you're bond funded, you do have certain obligations where you don't necessarily you can't have your your rate fluctuating like that frequently based on different variables.

So we can always, you know, as we work through the next rate something that we can look at that go to heath.

I'll just say fire for this this motion.

I'm I'm looking to support it because I think far as large I think far if you snap um far as the snap benefits, um, what will we have what we know of it so far?

We don't know what's gonna happen when it happens.

So I would have to be on the back end of everything, knowing that people are in need and we can't help them out at the time when it's actually happened.

So I'm looking forward to push this because um to help out with the um with the families and the children.

Uh $30, $40 goes a long way in some people's households.

That could be two or three days worth of food.

It could be a turkey, right?

And so I think it this right here also helps the efforts that the uh other organizations are also doing trying to help with the food insecurities as well.

And so when um so I'm looking supporting, I think that we have to look at getting ahead of this situation before it gets bad, you know what I'm saying?

If if it gets to that point, you know, where people are cut off.

So that's all I have to say.

Yes, Council Walking.

Um, my question was it didn't stay in here with the months, so would that be starting this month if it was passed, or what what does that look like?

So it would start with November because the benefits ended in um November 1st, and then so for instance, if they were reinstated December 5th, you'd impact you'd be impacting November, December water cycles, and then one extra be January, so it'd start back up in February.

The top first will be back in February, yeah.

Yep.

People can get a hold of that because you can't be tired for him.

Right, I need to know that.

Thank you for that concern.

Yes, Councilman Ball.

That's that.

No, you're good.

We did help out with the water bill.

The city did help out when we had the other crisis.

We did help out some.

We did something.

I don't know what we did, but we did do something.

We had a there was a uh moratorium on shutoffs that was uh mandated by the governor, and then we extended it for um additional periods.

But then that did lead as um councilman Hammond said, and the mayor said it's if there was an additional relief, then you put some people in really bad positions where they have significant bills and that got turned off.

So the way that if you're if your water service is turned off, then um usually you have to pay that full amount to get it turned back out.

So um if it's a thousand dollars, then a lot of times you have to come up with a thousand dollars.

And it and this may, you know, this temporary.

I understand the idea about well, let's look at some long-term planning.

We have we may have that opportunity coming up.

But potentially this helps um the agencies too, because if they you know, if you have a cumulative people that are applying and there's thousands of dollars of late fees on that assistance, if you can remove that, then they can help more people too.

You know, I wonder if my uh comments up to that.

I mean, it's good this the city of Saginaw City Council can show some compassion for the people live here.

I mean, I'm I don't know if you guys know, but we got like if I'm not mistaken, 40 something percent of the people that live in Sagma living under the poverty.

You know, so uh a lot of the houses people don't own homes.

You know, so we can help out a little bit.

I would say let's help out a little bit.

You know, and when we get to the next bridge or something else come up, we deal with it when we get there.

And on that note, I would like to call for the question supporting supporting by nothing.

I was opposed and was been moved and seconds towards any other discussion.

No, just like these dates on here.

You have to take your vote.

Can you call for the question so you go right to the vote?

All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed.

Still under miscellaneous.

Pardon me.

You're still under miscellaneous.

Do we have any more motions?

Support.

We've got a motion on the call for adjournment.

All those in favor, support by saying aye.