Tonight we'll be with prayer.

It's a council person on the volunteers.

We're glad to peak.

Okay.

Speak loud.

All right.

Our minds and hearts focus on the Lord.

Heavenly Father, we thank you, Father God, for waking up today, Father God.

We ask you to bless this meeting, Father God, as we make decisions for our city, Father God, and our heart communities, Father God.

We hope that our hearts and mind is clear, Father God.

We ask that for any division, Father God, that you get rid of it.

Father God, we ask for unity in Jesus' name.

We pray.

Amen.

Now we're in the Pledge of Allegiance and our legal.

Pledge of legions.

And it is with liberty and justice.

Madam Clark Blockhaw, please.

Councilmember Young.

Present.

Councilmember Seals.

Councilmember Balls.

Present.

Mayor Pro Tem Garcia.

President.

Councilmember Ostash.

Present.

Councilmember Braddock.

Present.

Councilmember Wiggins.

Present.

Councilmember Hammond.

Present.

And Mayor Moore.

Present.

You have all members present.

Okay.

I'd like to welcome everybody to this city council meeting.

I ask that we restrain for boyclapping and any obnoxious behavior.

Council persons, can you please silence your phones as well as your computers?

Audience, I ask that you do the same so that we don't a phone won't ring in the middle of a conversation that we really might want to hear.

Madam Clark, do we have any announcements?

Yes, Mayor, beginning tomorrow.

Absentee ballots are available for the February 3rd special primary election in the clerk's office.

Voters that previously signed up for the permanent ballot list will automatically be mailed their ballot by the end of the week.

You may call the clerk's office at 759-1480, extension six to verify if you are on the permanent ballot list.

City offices will be closed December 24th and 25th in observance of the Christmas holiday and December 31st and January 1st for the new year holiday.

Our first city council meeting in 2026 will be on January 12th here at the Anderson Center.

That takes us to public input.

Individual will be called to the podium, state your name.

And I again I ask that no clapping or obnoxious behavior be demonstrated during individuals talking.

And you have three minutes to express your concerns to the council.

This is not a question or an answer period.

Madam Clerk.

Our first speaker on your list this evening, Kevin Jones actually canceled prior to the meeting, so we will move on to Melanie Velasquez.

Hello, City Council.

Hello.

Very nice to see you all.

Um Christmas, everybody.

My name is Melanie Velasco.

Um my concerns I put on here is uh the city and the United States government, they care about us, okay?

They really do.

And the census will probably be coming around because we gotta keep an account.

Um there's my my pads for my pain everything there.

Okay, if they come around, make sure that everybody in the house is noted.

And there's some very important things on here that I want to make sure you know is that you should make sure that you make account of everyone in your house.

If they stay for a while, make that account.

They want to know where you are and if you're well.

The second concern that I have is this is flu and and um COVID's coming back, and I I got you even got my shingle.

So this is very important right now because somebody might be carrying the germ and you might get it.

So keep your hands clean and not all that touchy touchy stuff, but important.

And you have to remember that some immunization shots, lesson, they have different side effects, but if you can get one of these pamphlets, it'll explain all everything about washing your hands and keep an eye on your children.

They might get sick.

Some don't get it like right away, but this is another thing you want to worry about here right here in the back.

Okay, it says the fool-like symptoms include fever, coughs, sore throat, running nose, stuffy nose, body aches, headaches, chills, and fatigue.

Okay, but then all this is very important here too.

Some people also may have vomiting and diarrhea, and people may also be infected.

One of the signs of being infected with the flu.

And um, they also have a respiratory system without a fever.

So that's something I highly keep a track of.

Um the second issue that I wanted to make note is um if they anybody has a business, and the sidewalks are not clear, and I'm walking, and I find out outside your business.

I'm calling them, but you're gonna pay for the bill, and I'm gonna sue you for paid suffering.

So I really suggest if you have a business, shovel your sidewalk.

Hire someone.

Not me, I'm doing that.

But anyway, those are my highly concerned things that I have.

Oh, I I got a couple of minutes.

Okay, now every time that I've ever called the police, they have been a little slow, but I believe if you tell them this is an extreme emergency, get here like ASP now.

I do believe Saganal City Police will come.

And when I see the fire department, people going down the street, I salute them.

I've been doing it all my life because I live right next to the fire station of Brian Hess.

And that was just my DNA.

My dad, dad, my mom that said, respect your your police and your fire department highly because they're out there taking care of you, and they're watching.

There's cameras in this town all over.

So that's another thing.

When you're out and about, be careful as to where you're at, what you're carrying, and where your valuables are.

I wouldn't carry any of my valuables in a person.

I'd carry on me.

Oh, come jumping back then.

I'm sorry.

Have a lovely evening, Merry Christmas.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I spent all that on that couple minutes.

Hi, y'all.

Have a great Christmas.

Thank you, Melbourne.

Oh, yes.

Thank you, Melanie.

Hi, I'm always telling you that too.

That melodar recommendation ready.

Oh, I'm going to be uh sorry.

I mean that greetings, council city staff.

Uh greetings to the audience here and at home.

Uh I come before you, council and city staff uh with a couple concerns or topics really.

Um, number one, the medical diamond.

Um I I've I've heard the recent changes.

Uh CMU made their announcements, and so um, with those changes, I think that we've we've come to a place that I think would be a blessing in disguise.

Um, I think you know, where we are now with the medical diamond, with what with the changes that they've made, and now we're talking about the riverfront again.

I think that we're at a point that we can hit the reset button.

Um, I'll continue to say, no matter how many times I come up here, the public piece of this will always be important.

It's not a nuisance, and I hope that city staff and you guys by proxy take that into account.

We have an opportunity now with the new medical diamond to bring the public comment into it, the community piece into it.

We won't have any development without the public buy-in.

It won't work.

So I'm imploring all of you to insert the public comment piece into this, the community piece.

And to that point, Mr.

Manager, we talked about this before.

I know I met with you about it before.

Um the CBO piece, the CBA piece and the CBO piece.

I think we can revisit that now.

The community piece is important, and I implore you to put that in any future decision making when it comes to the medical diamond and any other developments.

When we talk about housing that's gonna come and other businesses and other developments that come, a CBA, plug it in.

It's not a nuisance, it's a win-win for everybody.

Also, um, I come before you uh bringing data centers into play as well.

That conversation is coming right down the track.

Uh it hit see it hit TB5 news a couple days ago, but it's been coming, and I implore you on that as well.

We don't want data centers.

There's no jobs that are gonna come with it.

Don't believe those lies.

But what's gonna come with it is pollution.

What is gonna come with it is noise pollution.

What is gonna come with it is a bunch of negative health effects that we don't want in our city.

AI isn't that important.

Shut that down and and and then employ your city staff to go research it, get research, use your city staff to research it, and and get some real data about it.

You'll see what I'm saying.

There's no net benefit to it.

And finally, I'm also here uh in support of Kevin Jones and his issue with Cinderella pools.

I haven't taken a position on it, but I feel like the city should really look into it and help them come to an amicable solution.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Cynthia Oland.

Hello, good evening, everyone.

Thank you for allowing me the time to speak.

My name is Cynthia Olin.

My address is 3411 Pebble Creek Drive.

I come before you tonight to present the possibility of new business within the city of Saginaw, and that would be hopefully allowing medical marijuana licensing at already existing recreational facilities.

I am representing Premier Cannabis.

We opened our first location in Saginaw October 2021.

We have two locations now, and we see many of our customers and your residents on a daily basis.

A common concern among almost everyone that we see is, of course, the cost of living.

Things are not getting cheaper these days, groceries, gas, utilities, and everything else in between.

So being that we're at an all-time low with marijuana, of course, that naturally does hurt the business, but it benefits the consumer.

And I'm sure most of you are aware, but if you're not, our state government has recently imposed a 24% wholesale tax.

It's gonna take place on January 1st.

Right now, there's a zero percent wholesale tax, and it's going to go into effect immediately.

So the only way to ensure that this tax does not hurt the consumer and continue to cripple the business, would be to allow medical licensing in these already existing facilities.

This tax does not touch the medical cannabis market, and it probably never will either.

You can't really impose a tax like that on medical cannabis.

But thank you all for listening.

That's all I have, and um have a good night.

Thank you.

Thank you.

For months we have come to and been asking you to cap the number of retail marijuana outlets in the city of Saginaw.

We gave you rationale based on sound research that we had completed.

Despite your reluctance, it looks like our state legislature is going to do all of that for us, and they're actually doing more than what we want it to them to do.

Uh their guidelines would even be stricter than the ones that we recommended.

You will note that I brought you the articles from the Detroit Free Presses from the Bridge Center as well, and it shows that they're recommending for every 10,000 people, there would be one establishment.

Based on that, they will only be 4.5 of them in our community, and we have 12.

And this is what we were saying to you is that uh we have too many, and evidently our state is saying the same thing.

One of the representatives from the association of marijuana retailers agrees with this plan, and you'll see that documented in what I've given you.

Unchecked authorizations of all of these places in the state, put all of the businesses in jeopardy of not making any money.

Remember, this was one of the recommendations and rationale we gave you for putting a cap to protect the other people who already have businesses hoping.

Remember, this is about improving our quality of life for our community to make our community attractive for new businesses and new families.

So as you make decisions, please always consider that.

You are our representatives that we elected to represent the people of this community.

We want, like as I said, make our businesses more attractive and so forth.

And we want you to make those decisions for us.

You should always consider the health and safety implications of your decisions.

There is always a safety and health impact.

So as you get the various recommendations come in, please consider those.

Also, with that having been said, I want to remind you that we're working on some liquor uh issues as well in our city.

Um I just wanted to put a request in to the uh city council.

When we have transferred liquor license applications coming into our community, they come into the clerk's office.

The the uh state liquor control could not tell us when we met with them what happens after it gets to the clerk's office.

So we can you figure out what happens to them and then how are they made uh are they uh ratified or okayed?

Because he said that we don't have to accept them if they come in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our final speaker is Celine Manan.

God knows I don't want to be here, but I guess the timing is just right.

When we had a chance to not have any dope house, it's like Franken Booth, like the townships, like the other areas.

I was the only voice that came in opposition.

None of these other people came.

I was by myself and I felt alone.

I had no support, and I warned you not to do it.

Some of them sitting here know I did that.

I warned them, I say, don't do it.

You don't know the scheme of these people.

You don't know what they plan.

They are blood suckers.

They come to destroy this community.

That's what they're gonna do.

You talking about you want an abatement.

You need to not have any liquor stores or any drug houses in this community.

And if they are having a problem making a profit, then let the leadership of the owners come before this committee and tell them.

Let them come here.

But they smart.

They're very smart.

They send this lady out, and they know not to come out because they know what they're doing is wrong.

I bet you they children don't smoke this stuff, and they don't live in this community, and they don't drink the alcohol, and it's hard for you to find out who owned these liquor stores.

That's the way the devil operate.

That's the way the blood suckers operate.

Now I thought this, and I'm not giving up yet, and I'm not gonna support an abatement.

I'm gonna support closing them down because I have a better vision of what Saginaw has to be.

I went to Lowe's not too long ago, and I know where we live.

Now I know the time that we're very careless.

It's a flood, and the flood kills the flesh, and when you when your flesh is died, it becomes a callus, and you can cut it.

The people are so callous and not caring.

They say political leaders.

Uh, I was reading uh Will Rogers, he said political leaders are more concerned with the next election than they are with the next generation.

We are calm and callous.

We don't care, you have to search yourself and just find out how callous you really are.

If you allow them to do this, maybe you are protected, but you have to care about the other weak people who don't have the knowledge because I am my brother's keeper.

I am my brother's keeper.

Saginaw is better than what you're doing.

You're supposed to stand up for God, and God has power over all things, and then all of the scriptures, he condemns intoxicants in all forms.

It's clear.

It's clear.

He condemns it, and then we don't need it now.

We can look at the repercussion of what's happening to our city.

Children can't read.

We have a lady come here, and she's voted for an abatement that she represents the school that has the worst reading in the city or in the state.

The worst.

But yet she's talking about a moratorium.

Tell me how we just have our children to read.

Tell me.

You can't.

My time is up.

Yes, it is.

No, no.

I'll be back.

And I don't want to be here.

I really don't want to be here.

No, they need to care.

I have to do that.

Mayor, that takes us to remarks and care.

Taking advantage of her.

Council members.

You have three minutes as well.

We will begin tonight with Councilman Braddock.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um, first of all, just like I appreciate the uh uh comments, the advocacy from the people of our city.

Um, you know, our community runs deep with pride and people really love our city, so you know we we're willing to stand by.

I know I'm willing to stand by our public people, our citizens in our community for stand up for what's right and make Saginaw a better place.

So, you know, I you know I appreciate y'all coming out and um expressing y'all sales.

Um I believe that there's a lot of a lot of good things happening in you know, small pockets of uh in this community.

So I do see a lot of good things from our youth.

Um, you know, us passing trying to pass things down the right way.

It's gonna be a process, my brother.

I really do believe that I think it's going to be a process, and as we continue to move forward, moving Saganal forward.

Um, you know, um a lot of things changed, not just affecting Saginaw, but affecting cities all across the country.

And so I believe that uh as far as us our city, we can stand alone and make some changes within our city to make our city better for the next generation.

Okay.

Um also two um thank you.

First, I would like to say happy holidays.

Um thank everybody for the Christmas cars that's up here.

Um Melanie, thank you for the Christmas card.

Um also um, like I said, the youth um mentoring a group of young men in the um from Saginaw Covenant Academy recently, and they have a student-led event December 19th at Gideon's Gym.

It's called Guns Down Hands Up.

And so um it's is to oppose gun violence and go get in the box ring and mix it up a little bit.

So we're looking forward to that.

Um, we're gonna have guest speaker, Robert Sims.

So um, you know, welcome to come, December 19 from 4 to 6.

So I encourage y'all to come and check it out.

Um, but um, other than that though, um, I just like to say um appreciate everybody here and uh appreciate the efforts of everybody that's putting forth.

We we had a meeting um earlier today with the you.

I'll let y'all talk about that a little bit more as I will.

But um my time is up.

But um, yeah, that's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you.

Next, we have Councilwoman Wiggins.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, thank you to all the speakers and everyone that's here tonight and uh watching online.

Appreciate your input.

Um we are here for you, so we're here to listen to your your wants and needs for this community.

So I appreciate you taking the time.

Um as Councilman Braddock mentioned, we did mention uh or meet with uh the Saginaw Youth Council just earlier today, and it was it was exciting.

I appreciate the city staff who helped put all of that together, um, as well as the fellow council people that were able to come today.

It was uh great participation, a great group of young people.

Um looking forward to to working with them and being assigned uh what one of the youth to work with and mentor.

Um so it's gonna be a good time just uh educing them about how city council works as well as other branches of local government and how they can be involved.

So it was a good time.

Um as was mentioned, you know, be be aware of of your surroundings and uh COVID and flu and all of that.

Um it is on the increase.

A lot of people that I know I've been fortunate.

If I had wood, I'd knock on it, but fortunate and blessed not to not to experience uh the the colds and the flus and the covet that's that's been going around.

But just be aware and take care of yourselves and check on people that might be a little vulnerable.

Um data centers were also brought up.

Um everybody like wants to benefit from the the features of uploading things to the cloud and getting information quickly and being able to use chat uh like GPT or something like that, but nobody wants it in the backyard.

So that's a that's a a line you're gonna have to we're all gonna have to navigate very very quickly here, and we're looking forward to getting more information about how to protect our resources.

Um that's very very important.

And um, you know, to say it's not going to be here and completely surrounding us, you know.

That's that's a difficult um line to toe.

So definitely need more information on that.

Um yeah, that's all I have.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Next we have Councilwoman Hammond.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Um, first I wanted to notify the community as a reminder.

We have a very important opportunity for public input cutting up coming up in this building, happening on Wednesday, December 17th.

So that's this Wednesday.

There's an open house happening at 6 p.m.

here at the Anderson Center, and this is for our five-year consolidated plan.

Uh, in layman's terms, what that means is the money that we get from HUD every year uh in community development block grants.

We distribute that amongst a lot of nonprofits and a lot of different initiatives in the city.

Once every five years, the city is required to do a bunch of data collection and also determine how that money is going to be spent from a strategic five-year perspective.

So it involves a massive study into housing and homelessness.

So if those are concerns that you have and issues that you care about this week, Wednesday, December 17th, please come and have your voice heard.

It's an open house, so there's a lot of opportunity.

It's also part of the required public participation of this plan.

So that means that your comments have to be incorporated, they have to be, you know, recorded.

Um, so it's a very important piece of of what we do here in the city is administering those federal funds.

Um speaking of federal funds, because I had mentioned this at a previous council meeting, I wanted to give an update because it again has to do with money distributed here in our communities.

Um federal HUD funds that are usually distributed for permanent supportive housing projects.

Um, as I warned that those programs, uh the guidance issued for the new grant funding were severely limiting to our homeless assistance providers uh in those networks that provide permanent supportive housing.

I'm happy to say that those particular regulations for that grant administration were reversed at the congressional level.

However, they are still under the encumbrance of filling out grants that now instead of this uh limited guidance, now there's no guidance.

So we're all still waiting in the wings.

It's a chaotic process.

So if you're if you were invested, if you're involved, if you're interested in housing and tackling homelessness, please keep up to date on that issue, and that's something that affects all of us, but of course, is decided in the halls of Congress.

Um thank you so much to our uh speakers today for bringing up some information.

I know that particularly with the new regulation around marijuana retailers.

I'm sure that our city manager will touch on this because some of those impositions have to do a lot with our financial uh situation here in the city and revenue sharing as well.

Um I think it's time we have to hook hit the books again uh with some of these uh lawsuits that are happening with the new regulations and make ourselves aware of what we can do as a city council to move forward in the best interest of the public with when the standards are changing at the state level.

It's there's so I'm very interested to see how this all plays out.

Um also with data centers later this meeting, I will be bringing that up as a discussion point.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next week, Council Mayor.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh thank you, everyone, this evening for coming out.

And uh I want to uh first speak on uh the two speakers that spoke about the marijuana facilities and uh liquor stores um when uh Ms.

Seals first spoke and mentioned the marijuana facilities.

I was the one that added that you know liquor stores cause a lot of problem in our community too.

That's usually where the blight and the crime and everything starts.

And I reached out staff and got some information about the number that we're over for our population size.

So I am interested in uh any remedies we have for uh bringing that number down.

You know, I know we can't close places down, but we can allow new ones from opening, and then you know, there's a way that we can lower that count and get it more uh compliant with our community.

So I am interested in that.

Um also I had a uh I hosted a local developers meeting uh just this past Saturday, and I want to thank staff for really supporting that, and it was a great turnout.

Um we had the housing commission and their inspections department had uh dozens of landlords in there that came out wanting to be better landlords.

We shared information on how they can be better landlords and some of the things that were shared with scenic and the zoning would again uh I believe would cut down on some of the blight of people dumping they would use services that are available to them, so it was a good uh opportunity to share information, and um there's some homeownership programs that the housing commission brought in that they're they're willing to share because uh some of those programs, if you don't use them, you lose them.

So that would be the next phase, and what I'll be hosting is a home ownership program for uh low-income residents that are on section eight and have landlords that are willing to sell the property.

So that's the next direction I'll be going to you know increase home ownership in our community.

Um and uh also since our last meeting, I did a couple um more tours.

I've uh toured the wastewater treatment facility, and that was an awesome experience to see how they protect our community.

You know, those are some of the um, I guess uh I want to put it, those are some of the uh thankless jobs that we take for granted in our community.

I listened to their expertise, how they've been managing with the resources that they have, their needs, and also the advancements that they are doing to continue to protect us, so nobody really thanks them, but I personally want to thank them, and I've went through that facility.

The same with the IT department.

You know, the IT, you know, when you send your bills and you have your personal information, and they have um they have uh fiber optic lines where they share the data to protect you, and you know, they were explaining to me how many times they tried to hack.

It's a lot of agencies that try to hack to steal your information and they protect you.

So that's another thankless job that they do, and they're a professionals.

So I just wanted to share that with everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Council Woman Seals.

Uh thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um just wanna say happy holidays to everyone.

Um have fun and stay safe this holiday, and most of all, just be the hope.

Be the bright star and be the change agent you want to be, and you want to be seen in this community this year.

And that's the positive message I want to send out to Saginaw and the surrounding community.

That's it, Madam Mayor.

Thank you.

Next, we have Councilman Ball.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um I report too on the uh student council meeting we had today.

Um got some bright, extremely bright students who want to get involved in city and uh county and government, and it was extremely smart, bright students that we met today.

Uh some of the questions they asked was on point.

Some of them even mentioned about home ownership and uh knowing how that can be your gay way to pass it on uh money to your family and stuff like that, and it was good to see the kids think that way.

Um, as a young youth myself, I can remember uh the uh kindergarten or first grader or something like that, and all the kids going to school, and we're looking so bright, bright eyes, happy to go to school, and it seemed like the older we get, the uh more those lights start dimming a little bit.

And I'm trying to recollect what happened in between that time.

Uh I know some kids uh uh families fell into poverty.

Uh after working in the plant myself for almost 40 years, I can see what happened to a community when the jobs start leaving.

Uh people started losing hope.

And for some reason, uh people lose hope, they start using dope.

You know, alcohol is a drug too.

And uh other people use different types of drugs and stuff, trying to uh alleviate some of the pain that they've been experiencing in life.

Another use, I can say the same thing happened to me when I lost my grandfather, my mother at early age.

I thought that was the answer to made me forget a lot, forget about a lot of things, the feelings that I had.

But one thing about it, when you get sober up, those issues are still there, and more than likely they're gonna even worse because you wasted all your money and and your family resources on alcohol and drugs, and now you got kids just growing up and doing the same thing.

And I noticed that some of the kids that I deal with today that uh they're not as bright as uh other students was that age.

Uh working in the Big Brothers and Sisters programming with the help organization.

Uh I can see kids that are coming into our organizations that uh in the ninth and tenth grade, and you can smell the marijuana on them in the morning.

You know, and that stuff is a whole lot more important than it was when I was a kid.

And I hate to see that you know happening in our community.

You know, so we got to do something to uh alleviate that pain.

Uh I think uh the state legislators or whoever's gonna stop some of these marijuana facilities, they here.

Uh unfortunately I voted for one I'm voted for it myself, and that's one of the worst things I ever did in my life to vote for that.

Uh but I thought I was doing something that's stopping something that couldn't be stopped.

But we could have stopped it at our community.

Other communities are stopping there.

It's Frankenwood.

Uh, like he was talking about other communities, they don't have that stuff in their community, but they know what it does.

They live in those communities.

A lot of people here, we vote on things, and people that bring them here don't even live here in the city.

So they really don't care.

You know, a lot of people that work here in the city don't live in the city.

You know, so we got it we got to take care of our own.

And uh there's some things that we can do, and we need to start stepping up to the page, start getting some of those things done for our kids.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Councilman Nastage.

Thanks, Mayor.

Uh, welcome into everybody in the chamber and Anderson Center.

I keep saying chamber because they're so used to it.

Uh, but and from watching at home.

So public inbook tonight, I I do want to say thank you, Melanie, because you're here at a lot of our meetings, and it's a beautiful Christmas card that you left, and I know I've got a few more here.

Um of the other public input tonight, Jeff.

Uh, you brought up the medical diamond, and I I'm anxious to this this is all just come about last week with Central Michigan moving across the street.

So I have been talking to the city manager.

I'm hoping to hear more.

Um a lot of these plans are millions and millions of millions of dollars in development.

So how do we how do we incorporate something that you're talking about when we do a complete reset?

Is I can't put my head around that right now.

It's too new.

Also, you talked about data centers.

That is something that we do agree on, and there's a lot in that going on with that too.

I know in some cases we're even trying to move them offshore.

Um or move them out of the town, or getting them out of the municipalities in a way.

So I'm sure this is something that's coming, so I know we'll be uh having to think about that.

So thanks for bringing that to our attention.

And then also you mentioned Kevin Jones, who couldn't be here tonight.

We did get an update on that.

I'm not sure if Kevin's been notified or not, but um, if it he can always get a hold of city staff, there's been some new stuff on that with the uh remediation of the chlorine that's built into his yard from the uh pool company.

Um Ms.

Seals, thank you again for coming.

We spoke prior.

We we continue to talk about this.

I I thank you for all the work that you are doing because some of us just don't have the amount of time to do that amount of footwork.

Uh, but I will read the documents that you brought here tonight.

I'm interested in reading that, so thank you for bringing that to my attention so I can take a look at that tomorrow and over the week.

And also, too, I participated in the Sagnar Youth Council today.

Um Miss Karen Webster did a fantastic job of facilitating my councilman, uh colleague here, councilman Braddock did as well, and I'm anxious to working with the kids, teaching them about municipality, how the city works.

So there's a lot of good topics that are going to come up over the prior uh next few and four months that we'll be working with the students.

Um, too, we've been having some really cold temperatures.

I know I've been kind of looking around the neighborhood, making sure my neighbor's okay, making sure I see movement.

Um, if you have somebody who's more elderly, uh with my my neighbors across the street, grab a shovel, clean their steps so that their mail can get delivered, whatever we can do to help them out in these cold temps.

And also, too, this is a time of the year where a lot of times at Christmas time, we have people who have lost someone.

So just kind of do a mental health check on your friends and different folks around, just make sure they're doing okay, uh, even if especially if they've lost somebody during the year.

And also, last of all, um, happy holiday season, Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa, or however you are celebrating the season.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Next, we have we have protein glass here.

Good evening, concerned citizens of the community.

Thank you for attending this cold night evening.

Um, thank you for all the speakers for bringing great knowledge um to us to make us aware of what's going on in our city.

Sometimes we can't be everywhere.

Um, I know there's always a lot of events going on, and like last week I was uh taking ill.

So um, while the weather was cold and snowing, I um stood in and stayed away from people just because of all the germs and stuff.

But um, and it's always a busy time right now with the holidays.

I do like to volunteer and give back, but I do know my limits um because I'm starting to get sick again.

I kind of feel some heart issues, so that's kind of my slow down phase.

Um, I know my body, and I have to be an advocate for myself.

So I just want to say thank you to Wonderburger, they did a really great job down at White Park yesterday.

They served 2,000 meals.

I went last year, I wasn't able to go today or yesterday due to me still trying to recover, you know, just taking it easy.

But we do appreciate all the small businesses that participated and gave back to the community.

It wasn't just for the homeless, it was for anybody that was in need of a mail and fellowship.

So it was great seeing um all the camaraderie, all the small businesses come together, and when we do work together, we can get things done.

You know, we don't have to always bump heads, and it's okay to have different opinions.

Um, sometimes we can grow that way.

So um, I just want to say I did also do a class uh Friday at noon with the AI, and it's been around.

Um, it's just coming more in rooms to the communities.

Um, so it was very interesting, but they fitted a lot in one hour, so um, they did give me some um handbooks for me to review and stuff.

So it's very interesting.

Um, because of course we're moving forward with the new technology, and just something we have to get hip to, you know.

I remember I started off with AOL when the little dial connections, so um, it's come a long way technology, so it's gonna be interesting to read what they have.

Um, also the marijuana houses, yes, it's gonna be interesting to see what the state decides to do with those.

Um, and then also the stores.

Um, I know a lot of them were already here before my time, and um, hopefully, things will start to scale back where we can get more control over that that's going on in our community because it does affect our youth, our former leaders in the community, and I just want to give a shout out to um Phil.

I always call him after hours.

Um, I had a couple well, quite a few concerned citizens over here on the south side.

There have been some abandoned vehicles in the area, and uh, I didn't call 911 because I didn't feel like it was an emergency, but I did contact the non-emergency services, and they were really great with getting the banded vehicles out of the way because they were a hazard, and especially at night.

Sometimes people can't see our kids.

Um leading me where I need to go.

So I might not be live on the trenches like I used to be, but behind the scenes I'm still doing a lot for my community because it's important to me to make sure that things are getting taken care of.

So we do see and hear sometimes we don't respond right away, but we do, we know, like with the medical diamond and stuff.

So thank you for bringing that up.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Uh good evening.

Okay.

Happy holidays.

Jesus is the reason for the season.

I'll say that again.

Jesus is the reason for the season.

This holiday weekend, this next 30 days or 45 days, however you want to call it.

My plans are to focus in on debt that I can't do, and that I came to, I can't worry about.

And a lot of the elderly right now don't have anybody.

So some of these nursing homes, some of these centers, if you do nothing else, go in.

If you can, read some books.

Just go in and have a cup of coffee with them.

It's horrible to think that the young man said it early.

I am my brother's keeper.

And you are too.

So when I heard, you heard, but it might be in a different way.

I've got a toy giveaway coming up.

We've been doing it for the past five years.

I can't, it's just amazing how people get angry because you can't service everybody.

The one thing I've learned about being a being in this seat and all of the other seats is I'm a servant.

I'm not gonna get everything right, and I'm not bewitched, I can't twiggle and be everywhere you want me to be.

However, if you let me know.

But it's okay.

Because I got tough skin.

I got tough skin.

I say it all the time.

Some sometimes I get mad at myself.

But trust you.

My speakers, I'm glad when you come and talk.

Because afterwards, if you're around, I really want to talk to you.

Because there's a lot of misinformation.

There's been out there.

I call it study.

Study to show myself approved.

I'm not going by what you tell me.

Because everybody don't always tell me the truth when they call me.

So this holiday season.

Make it your business.

To help somebody.

If you can spend time helping somebody, you stay out of other folks' business.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

Takes us to reports from the manager.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

We have uh presentation this evening and a few items before that.

I will uh first say that uh councilwoman Hammond has been corresponding and uh discussing data centers uh with me and we've been passing that information along to our planning staff and our city attorney.

We do plan to meet more about that in the coming weeks, and I think I agree that's something we need to prepare for.

I think if you look at a lot of the stories, and even uh TV5 did mention that there are potential sites that site selectors are looking at in our region.

Um we haven't been contacted about any sites in the city, but let's remember that uh the city of Saginaw provides water to over 20 communities throughout our region and Saginaw County, a part of Bay County, I think Aranat County, so it does impact our system.

We talked about this at the uh Saginaw Midland Water Supply Corporation, which is a corporation that's owned by uh 51% Saginaw, uh 49% city of Midland.

So we're talked about that in case they're approached as well.

So it is imperative that we do prepare for that and start thinking about it.

Also, the impact that it has on the um the electrical service grid and uh potential for expansion of other businesses.

We know that one of our region's current businesses is um Hemlock Semiconductor is a big user of electricity.

So if something else came in, could that impact any of their potential expansion and jobs that they have their job expansion there?

So definitely something to watch.

Um changes in marijuana legislation.

I will um say uh compliment our city attorney.

She's very up on changes in legislation, and she watches all the lawsuits, so I know she's watching these items.

So if you have any questions specific about uh marijuana legislation or some of the taxes that have been going to court, please feel free to contact the city attorney.

Other items we have, we have rescheduled the city citywide meeting that was originally scheduled last week and canceled due to inclement weather.

That's going to be January 14th at the water plants deal.

So same topic.

Please join us to hear an update on the water tower project and learn more about the past, present, and future of the water treatment plant.

And um, as we also have coming up this week, uh residents are encouraged to attend the neighborhood association action group meeting on Tuesday, December 16th at noon at the Saginaw YMCA at 1915 Fordney Street, right down the street here, to your updates from public safety inspections and other city departments, and as councilwoman Hammond uh mentioned earlier as well.

Citizens are invited to attend the upcoming open house event Wednesday, December 17th, 6 p.m.

here at the Anderson Enrichment Center to provide feedback and input as we update the city's five-year consolidated plan.

And the 6 p.m.

meeting is open to all residents.

Uh city's five-year consolidated plan is comprehensive strategy, as mentioned, that impacts the HUD funding.

Okay, we did get an update uh too recently about the city hall construction.

So the most recent schedule for City Hall second floor reflects a target completion date of April.

So that's good news.

The construction team anticipates a faster pace of work due to experience gained during the earlier phases of the project.

And once they complete the second floor, then they'll move on to the elevator upgrades, which I know a lot of people are looking forward to that as well.

And then uh leading into our current audit report, the city of Saginaw has once again received the government finance officers association certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting for its comprehensive comprehensive annual financial report, a CAFER, for which fiscal year ending June 30th, 2024.

This marks the 16th consecutive year the city has received this recognition.

Certificate of achievement is the highest form of recognition in governmental accounting and financial reporting.

It reflects a commitment to transparency, accuracy, and full disclosure, and the CAFER was judged by an independent panel to meet the program's rigorous standards.

Financial statement audits are designed to provide users and with the assurance of reliability, they must inspire confidence by providing trusted information concerning financial statements and the financial position of a local government.

The Department of Fiscal Services continues to demonstrate excellence in financial stewardship, and staff are to be commended for their dedication and professionalism and for maintaining this high standard for public trust.

So Lori, congratulations.

Good job.

And I know Jamie was ready to get up, but I do want to say that uh we have come a long way.

Um 2000 and going back to 2007, the city of Saginaw was six months, eight months behind on audits.

Uh there were bank reconcil bank reconciliations that were six months behind.

Uh, that leading uh what led to that was um high turnover in the accounting staff and um the inability to attract and uh retain staffing, which is um on our agenda tonight, our contract with Plant Moran.

Um they helped clean up that department that kept it running, and I think Jamie uh mentioned uh from Yo and Yo, our audit firm that this year was the fastest that they we've ever had a draft.

So it's come a long way, and we hope to maintain that.

I know Lori and her staff are working on uh keeping that up.

So with that, I'll I'll uh invite Jamie to the podium.

Good evening, and thank you for having me here tonight.

My name is Jamie Rivette.

I'm the audit partner with the ON YO CPAs, and I'm going to cover the highlights from your audit.

Um, and as the city manager mentioned, this was the fastest year.

Um I think it was the middle of November.

We pretty much had everything wrapped up and then provided drafts.

And then what happens is we give that to the City of Saginaw team, and they work with plant morand, and there's a lot of back and forth on just making sure we have all of our I's dotted and T's crossed and verifying numbers.

And then we met as a team last middle of last week just to make sure we were all on the same page, and we got everything finalized and submitted to the state of Michigan.

So tonight I'm just gonna go over the highlights from the audit.

Okay, this did work earlier.

Thanks.

Let's turn it off and back.

You can maybe give the remote to Phil and just tell him every time you need to change it.

Sure, I'm not sure.

That worked.

Do you all have a copy of it?

Yes.

Up there.

Yeah, we do.

Okay.

I don't think I got that.

Oh, in the council pack.

Okay, I'll go ahead and get started while that they're trying to figure that out.

Um so you're not here really late tonight.

Um, so the first slide that I have talks about the audit opinion.

That's really what I'm here for.

So you have to have an independent annual audit done every year, and it's really management's responsibility for the preparation and fair presentation of that financial information.

And then what happens is my team and I come in and we audit that information, and then we issue you an opinion on it.

And the city was issued an unmodified opinion, which is the highest level of assurance.

That means there's no material modifications that need to be made to those financial statements.

And as the city manager mentioned, you did receive the highest award of financial reporting.

Um, so congratulations to the team on that.

Can we go to the next slide?

Um, that's your general fund revenue.

Um, so for this year for general fund, that total amount was a little over 50 million.

And a couple areas there that um I'll point out is the first one being the income taxes.

So the city income taxes makes up about 34 percent of the total general fund revenue, and that was up over last year about 650,000.

Wow.

Oh okay.

Thank you.

Um, and then we have intergovernmental, so that is the gray area up at the top.

Um, and I just wanted to point that out that this um is down about 18 million compared to last year, and that's because last year was a unique year where you received a very large pension grant.

Um, it was about 22.6 million, and this year you received uh about four million of that.

So that makes up the difference as to why the significant decrease there that has the exact corresponding expenditure as well, so the net effect on the fund is actually zero.

So I do want to point that out.

And then you had property taxes in there about uh nine percent.

So the bar chart here then is just given a picture of where the general fund revenue kind of where it's been over since 2019.

We've been charting it, and you can see we had a significant increase from 23 to 24, and again that's because of that large pension grant, and now it dipped back down.

Um really the majority of that difference there is all related to that that revenue from the pension grants about an $18 million difference when you compare the $22 million to the $4 million that you received this year.

Now on the expenditure side, the total general fund expenditures was a little over 50 million, and the the largest section here you can see from here is the the green part of the pie chart, which is the public safety, and that's about 30 million or 59 percent of the total.

Um, and that's made up of both fire and police.

So fire is about 10.8 million of that, with police making up about 19.3 million, and then we have general services, the red part of the pie chart.

Um, we do follow state chart of accounts, they really tell us what functions and departments we need to include in that.

So that that combines building and grounds, engineering, um, cemetery, parks, and rec.

So there's a lot of items that are included in that section.

And then I have a similar bar chart here too, where it is showing again a significant increase because of the opposite side of that revenue is the expenditure related for that pension with a decrease for this year from 67 million down to 50 million.

Um we also had a decrease in the transfers out that went out of the general fund this year.

Last year there was a significant transfer out to the capital improvement fund, and we did not have that this year.

Now the next two slides are on your water and sewer funds.

So those funds are a little bit different.

Those are proprietary funds or enterprise funds.

They have charges for services.

So here we track really what the cash inflows and cash outflows are for the year.

And a quick comparison to last year.

So 24 to 25, the blue part of that bar is your cash inflows, and that did decrease about 1.5 million this year.

That also had some of the effects from the pension grant played into that change.

We had an increase in user charges over last year, about 1.9 million.

And then we had some inner funds.

So we had other funds we had loaned money to previously.

We received that money this year, so that did increase as well.

And then we had a decrease or the cash outflows decreased slightly.

You can see the red part of that chart is pretty flat year over year from 24 to 25.

So for the water fund, similar change here.

We had an increase in your cash inflow.

This one is a little bit more significant for your cash inflows for revenue is because you did get a federal grant about 10 million for the Eagle grant this year for your water fund.

And then we had a decrease in the state grants.

The offset to that for your cash outflows, that increase too because of the capital and construction related to the Eagle grant, and then the change as well in your pension grant.

I also have a slide for your retirement and then the retiree health care.

At the bottom, the contributions to the plan for your retiree health care was about 7.1 million, with pension being about 20.6 million.

Those were contributions into the plan.

And then in addition to auditing the financial statements, we also are required to gain an understanding of the internal controls over the city.

There was one adjustment this year that actually Plant Moran found when they were doing their reconciliations of the capital grants and the capital assets related to that is that there were some funds that were paid for in the fund, and then on the government-wide statements where we put all of the capital assets, some of it was missed because there were so many projects going on last year, and some of it was in engineering fees, and so that was corrected this year.

So we did have a prior period adjustment that was noted in the financial statements.

There were no significant deficiencies that we identified either.

Now, in relation to the federal grants, two, this is a part of the audit where because you do receive and spend more than 750,000 in federal grants, we have to do what we call as a single audit and is based on the various grants, and we have to go through a whole calculation to make sure we have enough coverage.

This year we audited three major programs, and they are listed there.

We had the community development block grant, the EDC initiative special project, and then also some of the ARPA funds too are still being spent.

So we did audit those three funds.

So the fact that we didn't have any findings on any of those three programs is a very good job done for your team, making sure they had everything that was required for each of those specific grants.

They're all different and re require different things.

I know you had mentioned about the citizens participation meeting too, which I'm like, yes, that's great because we check that every few years to make sure that that has been done as well.

So they are very specific, but a great job to the team on having everything completed timely.

And that really brings me to my final slide.

Just wanted to say thank you to Tim, Yolanda, Lori, and their teams.

We're on site a couple of weeks.

I know at the construction we were, you know, in one spot, and then we work in our office a little bit and we've come back.

So I just really appreciate them putting this as an important part of their duties and working together to get the audit done and completed timely.

Are there any questions that I could answer for you?

Yes, Council.

All right, um, one question that I had.

You mentioned that a large difference in the changes in years are from uh pension grants uh adjusting, you know, that money being like one time and then or receiving different kind of tranches.

Um why would that impact specifically the water and sewer fund for a pension grant?

I'm I'm just not familiar with why it was realized in that category.

Yes, so they have to the water and sewer fund actually records that debt um in their fund, but we have to show the revenue side of it, and what happens is when you when the grant didn't come to the city for them to turn around and pay it out.

It went right to to MERS to reduce the liability.

Yes.

So it has the offset of the revenue for them, and the piece for the water and sewer for that is actually based on the individual valuation.

So every year they have a valuation done based on from a specialist that we don't do, and they calculate out what is going to be the actually required contribution, and then that gets adjusted based on that actuary.

So your water and your sewer funds, those actually get reported right within that fund as the debt.

And those are specifically water and sewer employees categorized within that okay.

So and payments out to like the OPED liability MERS system.

Okay, yes.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Yeah, for sure.

Councilman involved.

Yes.

You said the uh income tax income was up.

How time where did it come from?

I mean your city income tax.

Yes.

I mean we have more employees to come to the city or people that have wages and we get more money.

I'm trying to find out how do we make more money this year than we did previous years.

I mean, because it seemed like the economy is going down, but how do we get any more income tax?

I I would look at who are our largest employers.

So our say I think our three largest employers in the city are Covenant Healthcare, My Michigan Health, and um the VA hospital, at least they're in the top four.

So those industries typically will add uh employees regardless of the economy because they're still operating and gaining um gaining services, and I look to for that, you know, we'd have to go in depth and look at the income tax and where each amount came from.

But uh, my Michigan Health has a focus on expanding their services there.

So I'd probably look at that first to see how much of an increase they had in that fiscal year, and then I would probably next look at look at Covenant would be the second one.

But I think um councilman was we're seeing some growth in small businesses in in old town and downtown too.

So that that will have an impact as well.

So it's good it's good to know you know where our money coming from if we if we growing you know in that way to maybe I mean the city is getting a little more money, that's a good thing.

Thank you.

Yes, Council.

Um actually, just to add on to what you were saying, Councilman, because Tim, you and I which we've talked about this before, and like 60% of our income tax used to come from people that don't live in the city.

So I mean these are numbers that are really good to look at because if the if the numbers are going up, that means more people are moving here that are paying the 1.5 and then having more people live in the city.

So I'd love that number when you got time.

At the time, I mean, even just anything, and I can look at it, you know.

I I'd love to take a peek at that.

Um I do have a question, if I may, um because I was gonna talk to the manager, so I'm just this will be my two.

Okay, but anybody that's watching and they see the graphs on pension or other things, you see that money is going out and not as much as coming in.

So right away the question is how do you fill the gap, or what what are what are the concerns with that gap, or what do we see over time?

Do you know what I'm saying?

Let's just look at um I think water consor was one of them.

Sure, yep.

Yeah.

Let me get in my okay.

I forget what slide it was, but I just took it.

Oh, I know, yeah.

I know what the retiree.

I just want to look in here because so you have money set aside specifically for those that are invested, so you get investment income from them too.

Okay, um, it is a legacy cost that they are significant estimate, right?

So you can't really every year that's changing too.

So they are estimating, and I am number one not an actuary, not the specialist that does that calculation.

Um, and I don't know if Tim wants to speak a little bit more to it because he probably sits down and meets with them in more detail.

I just know as an auditor's point of view, um, you know, that does change.

There's a lot of expectations that are going into that number, life expectancy, um, when you're gonna retire, you know.

There's this it's not really uh a one-for-one.

No, yes, okay.

As Jamie mentioned, uh, investment income is a big part of it.

Um so just the inflows from our our ARC, that's what the auditors are looking at.

Are you contributing what the the actuaries say to contribute through through your ARC?

Okay.

That's not always it's it's a mathematical science I would say just because there are so many uh factors going into it and MERS which is one of the largest um pension funds in Michigan is constantly or guess every few years at least updating those expectations so you could you know could it can change every year and that can be drastic swings but our our hope is that our investments generate enough income to pro to uh match that gap I'll tell you um when we used to have the police and fire pension fund in-house we really watched those swings and from I think 2008 to 2009 that fund went from a hundred and forty million down to about eighty million.

Wow okay so you can have those kind of swings depending on what the market is so um we uh we did combine those everything's at MERS now we don't have pensions anymore we have a hybrid plan now and we have in between we have a 401 type plan so um we do watch all of those and we we work on that with our actuaries well you answer my question it's statistics and forecasting so yeah thanks anyone else yes councilwoman just a quick question you mentioned user change increase user fees yes what is that um those are just for your your w the water and sewer rate charges okay yep so those were in there were some changes in effect for the year that we audited then so that does just automatically would increase the revenue for those okay thank you anyone else Jamie's always thank you um they did I guess we put a staff they say it's easy when you ask them I easy to work with to get your job done.

Thank you appreciate that no more questions.

Yeah we get to the questions the city managed yep that's all the items we have so there are questions those are all the items that we have for update so yeah we'll take questions now.

Okay.

Yes Council um for uh the marijuana medical licenses so today we were approached about medical cannabis licensing I'm honestly not familiar with the city's um legal authority to issue medical licenses versus recreational uh I I assume that was that that is DLAR and not us so I'd I'd like some some I I'm very interested in and also I mean if that can be something for uh a later email conversation as well because as I'm aware there are lawsuits there are changes there's a lot happening but I I think a lot of us would be very interested in understanding our um our uh like like if there's gonna be big changes in the market we're gonna be approached about a lot of different licensing changes um could could we expect some kind of report is the question I want to ask is um what kind of time frame can we can can we expect in an info dump on these changes as council members after the holidays after holidays okay yeah after the holidays the city attorneys anyone can hear two weeks thank you um so my second question is uh who is responsible for plowing the sidewalks of the bridges uh specifically on Jefferson and Genesee do you do that Phil?

C we follow streets department file bridges for you talk about our vehicle bridges correct yeah okay I I mean the sidewalks on going over those bridges okay um I ask because um when I was uh traveling over those bridges uh we had a big snowstorm uh like middle of the week beginning of the week they those sidewalks were unplowed for quite some time um I don't know if they were just plowed over by the um by the road plows and then they weren't gotten to but it was very dangerous situation there were students trying to walk to school who are walking in the road on the bridges and that line of sight's very bad over that bridge um so I request that we we check out that schedule and be very aware that that's something that is being used very often and again I don't know the cause maybe it was shoveled and then got ploughed over but um it was not a it was not a safe situation uh when I was when I was uh traveling around there and what I was seeing on Thursday and Friday in particular thank you any questions I didn't okay I guess I had a couple yeah oh do you want me to use me I'm sorry um I just had a question that I didn't know if I hear because I was multitasking but I know for the Wednesday thing um there was a news release and I don't know if you had mentioned it and I think you did but I'm not really quite sure but for Wednesday for the five year consolidated plan at six o'clock it um states that there will be a dinner provided and then the first hundred um eligible households in attendance will get a re free air purifier from consumers energy.

Um I just had a question that I didn't know if I hear because I was multitasking, but I know for the Wednesday thing, um, there was a news release, and I don't know if you had mentioned it, and I think you did, but I'm not really quite sure.

But for Wednesday for the five-year consolidated plan at six o'clock, it um states that there will be a dinner provided, and then the first hundred um eligible households in attendance will get a re free air purifier from consumers energy.

Yes, that's true.

Okay.

I just didn't know if you had mentioned it or not, and that's all about marketing, and maybe it'll be able to get some people in.

So that's all I'm really doing.

Thank you.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

Um, my question goes back to we've been discussing the medical marijuana and recreational, because I I haven't really kept up on the medical side since we did record.

But if I remember correctly, and I'm not sure if the state law is like this.

The question is that if you have a recreational facility and you're gonna put a medical inside because THC content was higher, you had to have your card, they would have to section off a part of their business.

And I'm just wondering if that would still be held true.

That can be information that I include.

Okay, okay, that can be in there too.

Okay, thanks.

Yep.

Hold on, let me know.

All right, um, real quick, my question, City Master is um basically sidewalks as well.

Um, I've been driving down um East Tennessee, and um the same I had to actually stop to let somebody walk past me because they was walking on the streets because the sidewalks is not being plowed.

The um our ordinance doesn't really spell out any enforcements or time frames for business to have those southwalls clear out, but have we had anything any solution or anything in the past concerning those sidewalks, especially on those busier streets like Tennessee, East Tennessee?

Yeah, I think there's probably there probably is limited enforcement because we would have to enforce it with uh residences to the same degree, but if there are specific businesses that you notice that that aren't removing snow, send the send a uh note to my office and we'll reach out to them to make sure they try to get warning or something.

Yeah, that's cool.

Yep.

We'll do that.

I think Cassie has a few already.

Thank you.

Um so I have a question about specifically the medical diamond project changes.

Um I think that there's been a uh a lot of differences over time.

It's difficult to say when certain changes were made or even to what, because there's not really a central planning authority for this that is public or that is committed.

Um I guess in in uh your work uh Tim, what do you think would be the best way to bring these conversations to not just the public but but as a center where we can more better collaborate with our partners?

Because one of the conversations we had was that MDOT, which is planning a huge road rehabilitation, which would be an incredible boon for our city, right?

On M13 Washington, that's a very dangerous uh situation.

It discourages business investment, discouraging pedestrianism.

That project isn't it is I don't want to say on hold, but it it's not progressing at a pace I would like to see, particularly because now we have institutions going across the river that creates a lot of uh and m dots looking for for information and we're looking for information.

So I guess my question would be from your perspective.

What as a city is there anything we can do better to to bring you know partners into into a situation where like you know, we're getting more accurate information.

Is there a better way we can be having these conversations with the partners that are looking at investing in our downtown?

Yeah, I think we're at a point where um we are getting more information.

You know, before there were a lot of ideas, but we didn't have a lot of concrete information or data to work with.

But I don't know if you have kind of a central planning group if that's the best way to do it.

I think it's now probably a time where we break out with with a CMU and the city and with SVSU and the city and Great Lakes Bay Health and whoever other private developers are, just to make sure we're getting all that information.

We've started to do that work, especially as as organizations are becoming more serious.

Um CMU has probably 90% of their funding event that fundraise to do their building right now.

Um so they're at a point where I think they are probably beyond where they wanted to be to start building.

But we've invited their owners rep to start meeting with Phil Carwa and his staff about what their needs are with their current site, and that does impact Washington, like you said, and how do we facilitate um pedestrian traffic across that street to get to the places where they'll need to go, whether they live in the bankrupt and eddy or they live in another building or they want to go to restaurants downtown.

And I think that's information MDOT will look for, and I think we're at a point where we can tell work through CMU and Phil's office and get data about well, there will be X number of students on this site, um, which we're probably looking at a few hundred because we'll still have the site on Kevin on Covenant's campus as well.

So there will be we'll know how many faculty I think that are planning on how much faculty they'll have at that site.

So that'll give us some traffic numbers and potential pedestrian numbers as we work with Saginaw Valley State, the same thing.

But I think having those smaller work groups will give us that data, and it will be very helpful to us, you're right, as we move forward because a lot of the grants that we're applying for want to know how many new employees there will be or how many students there will be.

So this this information that we're starting to get will be very beneficial.

So I think those work groups will be the best way.

And um as we as we progress, um, I think there's probably other opportunities where it might might be a good idea for council to have some uh letter drafted that reaches out to um CMU board and SVSU's board and offers to to partner and work with some of the um transportation needs if it's um stars or whatever happens to be and pedestrian and um we do have uh kind of a tr track record going back um when the Bancroft and Eddie were redeveloped, that came from uh state RFP project, the state owned those buildings, they put it RFP out, and RFP was won by a um developer from Cleveland, I believe is where they were from.

But when they first did those buildings, was this about the time that the first or the final two years of CMU Medical School was coming to Saginaw.

So they did a lot of outreach with those students about what would you want to see in this building, what would be beneficial, Wi-Fi, so on.

So I think similar groups would be helpful.

Um opportunity to connect the landlords and the developers all with these organizations.

So I think I we've talked a little bit about doing that, and I know Phil and his team are already doing that.

Thank you.

And as you mentioned, with um sending a formal letter, because I I think that CMU um obviously they're a big big player, huge player in Mount Pleasant.

Uh haven't been so much in Saginaw.

We're looking at a new investment.

I think a formal uh communication would be fantastic.

What what do you need from council in order to start that outreach?

Yep, if there's um a feeling of consent, my office can draft a letter from the city manager and council making that offer to to partner and help them with transportation study and things like that.

If there's no, I don't think there would be any objection from any council member that we proceed with that.

Okay.

Should we take a vote on CMU?

That'll be in the big players.

It could be not miscellaneous.

Yeah, under miscellaneous.

If you want to take a vote, if you just want me to proceed, I think it's beneficial.

Consent works too.

CMU has talking about this project uh medical diamond and uh development.

If I'm not mistaken, when we we gave Jane Development uh five million dollars of APRA money.

No, uh we uh we allocated to Great Lakes Bay Hill.

Great Lakes Bay Hill.

That's how it first came out.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay, I thought I thought we did that on on um is the county supposed to give five million to with that project.

So that is how it started off.

We've given them five and they gave five.

Yeah, it it it it kind of um evolved because initially we talked about five million to the medical diamond infrastructure, I think.

Um instead it was five million dollars toward behavioral health clinic that was allocated to Great Lakes Bay Health.

Um Saginaw County allocated five million dollars of ARPA money to the medical diamond, but subsequently um withdrew that allocation to put it towards um the uh health department, I believe, is what they allocated it to ultimately.

Yeah, but that I thought we was given them money based on what they was given, then they pulled out.

So I'm just trying to figure out how that uh well they they pulled up they didn't provide ARPA funding to the general project, which we didn't we didn't do that either to infrastructure, but they're still f planning on spending it in the medical diamond um for um for health services.

Um and if you look at the broader medical diamond concept, and I think we had this on a lot of our presentations.

Actually, it goes from the Dow to the two hospitals to the Y.

So it's a big area.

Um, you know, we tend to conflate this two block area as the medical diamond, but really we're looking at investment in that big area, and I know um uh councilwoman Hammond and I talked about this, and we're seeing I think investment already that may not have come without this discussion.

Um we have Tri-Star Trust building down there, which is in the medical diamond, it's uh block farther than this two block area that we talked about.

Um there have been some some subsequent plans for the next lot next to there, I think that Cassie and her team are working on.

Does say it's listed for sale, but there are some plans to build there.

I'm not sure if it's gone to the planning commission, but um so it and it extends to both sides of the river.

Okay.

Um the area by the YMCA.

I think it's overflow by the Wix Park drive.

That area did looks like uh what it looked like.

It looks terrible.

Can anything be developed on that area?

It's um that property was donated and go into my memory, but it's donated to the city, I believe, for water or streets.

And I think the way that it lies, I don't know if it's developable property.

Um there's some infrastructure under there, is that right, Phil?

And Phil and Mike are both kind of.

I think Kitty South of the Y.

Yeah.

South of what they wake's park used, I mean what the uh uh big brother's office used to be at.

Yeah, on that same site, Phil, across from the trail.

So that's a very low area.

This is a 100-year floodplain, so you have floodplain restrictions on that.

Okay, I'm gonna say I've been here 60 some years, I ain't seen no flood all day yet.

So I'm just I'm just curious.

You know, it's it's not developing really anymore because we can't get our equipment stuff in here.

We can't even get in air maintaining it.

No, it's not kind of like if it's the area I'm thinking.

The southeast corner over there, it's um it's right across when the big brothers office was it'd be south of the big brother's office.

Yeah.

Okay.

In the summertime if you go out there and walk it.

You you get a squeeze.

Don't go there.

You only seen them by the wall.

Madam Mayor, yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, I just want to be clear that I understand what's yeah, where we're talking, I'm trying to not.

This is a little raspy.

Um I'm trying to understand that uh so you we want to make a vote later on in the agenda about I'm just trying to understand what we're about city council.

I think generally um I'm just trying to can you explain that a little bit better for me because I I'm not because right now I'm having difficulty understanding because what I'm trying to is because what I heard is the CMU is not hasn't been invested or haven't because CMU has been in our community and they have been invested in this community.

And you know, I I'm not understanding in and what they bring, what they have said they were gonna put to the table was obviously not on the table right now, right?

That that has changed, correct?

As far as the medical diamond, what they brought initially to the table.

No, uh, it's the same facility.

It's just um not as it's in projected.

It's across the street from where we're gonna be able to do that.

It's gonna be different than what it is.

Okay, so that's that's the issue at hand, correct?

No, I think the general issue is they're coming, they're bringing the same number of students.

I think actually they probably will, and I don't want to speak for anyone else, but I think that they will look at potentially bringing more.

They're bringing all their faculty, so I think the point from council is staff and I can work with them on okay.

This is the same.

You said the point from council, what do you mean from all of us?

Yes, I'll get to that.

So for staff, we will work with them on infrastructure and different things like that.

I think they would like to see that council is engaged in the project and is interested in being of assistance if necessary.

So they've uh worked with staff, their administration has worked with staff and others.

There hasn't been a lot of interaction between our elected officials and their appointed uh board.

So I think that that's kind of the point, is just extending that extending that invitation to meet with council members and to offer help from the city in other aspects beyond just the infrastructure work and the planning.

So they're reaching out for us to no, we would reach out to them.

Council would reach out to the CMU board and extend extend a hand to say, hey, if there's so we're initiating this?

Yes, yes.

Council longly league.

With the hi town.

With the change in the the CMU location.

Um does that how do I say that?

How does that change the medical diamond look of the medical diamond?

Um, the progress of the medical diamond.

Um is it in a like hands thrown up in the air, it's not gonna work.

I get I get a lot of that comment in uh from people in the city.

And I just need to do clarification out loud to the people what that means.

Yeah, so it it is an opportunity to me.

It's not a negative, I don't think in any way.

Um so we look at one of the one of the first things we talked about when trying to um have CMU locate here and provide additional medical services was improvement of overall health outcomes in the city of Saginaw.

Uh Saginaw has um some I I think I have a note here on some of the discussions we had, but there is um the highest infant mortality and obesity rates in Michigan are in Saginaw County.

And life expectancy is more than five years less than the county and the state of Michigan in the city.

Uh nearly 35% of people in the city of Saginaw live in poverty.

Community's vision is this is what I took from some of the discussion that when we first started talking about this.

Community's vision is to support the collaboration of experts in medical education and health care services to improve access to health care and provide a learning environment for future medical professionals.

So the benefit is still there.

They're training the um health professionals in the city.

Um so it might look a little bit different, but that's an opportunity because there was so much interest in the medical diamond that um frankly we didn't know if we had enough space for everybody who wanted to be there.

So this is additional space there that um I was contacted about the day that CMU made the announcement.

So I think we'll see additional projects there from our other health education partners that are gonna be very beneficial.

Um from my understanding, uh CMU, the first two years of of medical education aren't necessarily interactive with patients in the first place, but um SVSU is interested in adding educational opportunities there, and it would be their master of health programs, which are very interactive with health.

Um they're interested in occupational therapy there that um would work with Great Lakes Bay Health and others.

Um CMU education partners, which is a uh a separate entity from uh Central Michigan University, they are interested in working with um with Great Lakes Bay Health for behavioral health because they have a residency there.

So you're still getting the the health benefits and you're ex I think expanding your opportunity on that riverfront site.

Thank you.

Counselor, yeah.

Yes, um you got to talk loud.

I was trying to get the same um uh clear on the changes, so I think I heard it right that the central Michigan location is still within the medical diamond, it just went across the street.

And then the services provided went from community health to behavioral health or they were intended to be behavioral health from the beginning.

Uh that was identified as one of the major areas for COVID was an impact on mental health, so that was the target there, but there will be expanded services on that site, is what the plan is going beyond behavioral health to occupational health, um, general um uh general health, I think physicians and also pharmacy services.

So I think they're planning on expanding that quite a bit.

Um looking at so what do you don't know the difference in what they initiated behavioral health and they took that away and they're replacing it with something?

Will those services still be covered in the community?

They didn't take away the behavioral health aspect of it, they actually added to it.

So for the behavioral health portion, which is the Great Lakes Bay Health, um they are looking at adult behavioral health clinic, physical therapy, and occupational therapy.

Um hopefully working with SVSU occupational health or occupational uh therapy students and faculty, uh pediatric and adolescent behavioral health clinic, primary care clinic, pharmacy, and um central Michigan adolescent behavioral clinic with uh CMU medical education partners.

Just on that piece there, so the name of the type of HIPAA services provided didn't take anything away, it just was changing what it was called on paper, but we still get the same benefit from it coming into the community.

Yes, yes, yeah, and and more benefit expanding it, which is good.

Okay, that was wonderful.

Thank you.

Councilman, thanks, Mayor.

Um and I like what the conversation that we're having right here, too, because yeah, we're not losing anything, and I think if you look at we're gonna open up a section of the road or the street where something else can go and I think even expand more.

The project too in the beginning was projected to bring 15 close to 1,500 jobs just to that area as well, and then like we've talked about tonight, housing, students, professors, everybody that's got to either relocate, maybe, that would come over here.

So with any jacobs again, right?

The uh urban development, anytime you develop your city, you've got to start from the the core again, like we have to because we've lost so much, it's gonna create those demands for services, demands for goods, demands for housing, rents, and different things.

So thanks, Tim, for filling this in because I think that was a misinterpretation that I was hearing in the community.

Things are still the same.

Um Sagana Valley's still coming, behavior mental health, uh, an apartment complex huge with retail commercial services, uh, a complete riverfront, which I found out now is like 90, I think 98% done, 90% done.

Yeah, I had folks asking me about that too.

Like, well, what's gonna happen with the park?

Um, so thank you.

But prior to this conversation uh with the council members, you mentioned we talked about a letter, and that was kind of what we did with Corning.

We worked with them as a city, a municipality because they were coming to town, and we were like, Yeah, we'll help, but we'll try to help fill those job positions, and I think this gives us an opportunity too to sit down with the college because we really haven't, and that way we can they can because we have nine people here with nine different ideas, and that would give us an opportunity to meet with them and and have some uh meetings, but MDOT is what councilwoman Hammond was talking about, and before I had sent some information to uh you and Director Carwat about housing and in now with walk, we're we're gonna have people walking across the street, which wasn't necessarily the case, and it's gonna be at a more of a rapid rate.

I think this gives us an opportunity with MDOT to really show them the opportunity as they think about how we're gonna restructure this street.

It could be again two lanes, angle parking, you'll you know, slow the traffic down, you create density.

Studies have shown I've got them, I can resend them if you'd like them.

And actually get the urban developer, urban planners that I got this information from that's been successfully done in Florida.

Uh and it didn't it didn't slow down anybody getting from point A to point B, but it created a safe environment.

Plus, when it when the cars came through, there they they saw things because it created density.

So maybe a letter to MDOT.

If we I don't know if that's uh something that's appropriate, but it gives us an opportunity now to open up that conversation with them.

I think that's a um yeah, that's a good analogy because and that that might um be something good to share with the council members who aren't here when Corning came, and that might help uh councilwoman seals with kind of what we're talking about when Corney was presenting their um their project, and they have a 425 agreement with the city for water service through Thomas Township.

There's a lot of I think four different contracting entities entities.

We had several meetings with them as staff because of the infrastructure, but then they wanted to know how can they work with the city council and the public about you know what could you help get the word out about the jobs?

Can you help help them know what the community would need if they were gonna work there?

So we had multiple sessions, I think uh the council members who were here could tell you.

Um we set up different times for them to meet with the administration at Corning and I would envision the same thing, whether we're there at that at that point with CMU, I don't know, and that's kind of we would have to rely on them for communicating that, but just to reach out and say, hey, we're here if you want to talk and about some of these services.

I think that's kind of the goal that we're going there.

And um going back, I think um when I started meeting with people about the the the riverfront part of the project for the medical diamond, we're creating shovel ready sites on the riverfront.

We don't control all the property there, we control the park and the the road and some of the lots, but what we can we can guarantee the infrastructure work and the park and we did in have an impact on that with the money allocated for the behavioral health clinic, so we knew that building would be there.

That's what that's what we knew we had.

So the rest of this is us working with other organizations to give them what they need to locate in the city and to encourage that.

So that's that's where we are, and I think it's been I think we're at a point now where it is uh becoming much more concrete about what's gonna happen and what's gonna go there.

Um CMU had their boat, they announced where they're going.

SVSU is still planning, they're taking things to their board, but they they're very excited to be down there.

Um Great Lakes Bay Health is proceeding with their plans, and then we have other lots that are either privately controlled or um some controlled by the land bank, but we'll work with all those organizations in the other place.

Yes, councilwoman.

So I do understand everything that just was spoken.

Just want to let you know that.

Um I just um I don't want to be a jack of our trays.

And the thing is that um it came from one person from the council.

So I guess I see this as uh if you bring it up, I think you should take it and run with it type thing.

And I say this because I guess I see it as you know, when you say it's from the council, it's from all of us.

And so I guess I see this as a if it's going to be from us, is from like a coalition, a committee or something from that sense.

And so I look at it, it could be from like a like for instance from this if we're gonna look at well, my mind thought of it like this.

If CMU was CMU, so Ms.

uh councilwoman Hammond uh says, let's reach out to CMU.

We want a partnership with CMU.

Well, have we partnership with my Michigan?

Have we partnership with SBSU?

So what's gonna happen when we want a partnership with other entities or other um downtown developments or other uh riverfront new developments.

So why not bring them all together and make a coalition of a like the city county school liaison?

Why not make a coalition of these groups when we all sit down and talk together as one?

Like we do the city county school liaison.

Let's bring us all together into one particular group.

Why spend time speaking with one when we can bring us all together into one group?

So instead of doing it like that, I'm just saying why we could kill you know, five birds of one stone and bring together coalition.

So we could bring together my Michigan, bring together everyone that's coming downtown and make this into a particular uh downtown development group or a new riverfront route and all the new organizations that's coming down to the new sites.

So I guess that's how I was looking at it, so that we don't have to you know build relationship with CMU and then start building relationship with SBSU when we have to have these same conversations with CMU, SVSU, whoever else comes downtown.

We can have these conversations all at the same time and building starting those relationships from the beginning.

You don't have to reinvent the will with you know SBSU when they come on the scene or wherever else goes and come on the scene.

So that's I guess I was looking at it from that perspective, saying, you know, why start from ground one or ground zero with you know the new entities?

Yeah, I can understand that.

I think for a big group like that that does exist, the downtown Saginaw Association meets exactly they meet monthly.

I think it's monthly, right, Cassie?

They meet monthly, and the downtown organizations attend that and they talk about different matters.

I do think this is a little bit um more directed just because you know it's a bunch of new students, a bunch of faculty that are that potentially are coming, and that's something that that CMU's working through.

Um they would have different needs than SCSU because SVSU faculty are already here.

Um you're talking about professors that are in Mount Pleasant now that would be teaching in Saginaw and however many in a few years.

So they do have different needs, and I think I don't think it's a negative to reach out to them, and I think it should come from all of council because you shouldn't you should speak as a group.

Um but this would be something new.

It would be something this would be a new entity, a new type of something that we could create.

I think you could they might say, oh no, we're good working with staff too.

So I think that's kind of what's making the offer is is a good step, but they may say, um, no, we have this relationship with Phil and his staff already, so we're good with that.

We'll provide you information through that.

So I think the the offer is important to make so they know their new entity, they're at least the first two years, the new administration.

I think it's good to make that offer.

However, it is facilitated, they might be different, like you said, where maybe it is a bigger group.

Well, we have Phil, we have the genius of the come on, we have geniuses over here that can create things that don't exist.

So let's keep in mind that we already have we've already started to develop relationships with Valley.

They've got a satellite office downtown with entities right now.

The CMU location is on Covenant Campus.

I'm sure that they would welcome they would welcome counsel to the table.

So let's take one step at a time.

The biggest concern that we got is the medical dime and actually CMU going up.

So we need to focus on one thing at a time.

We've got relationships.

We might need to rekindle them.

But it wouldn't be any difference to me then when Dow came and said we got jobs.

And that's my whole thing.

Any other questions?

We got entities in here many.

Any other questions?

Yes.

Well, I um I just I think we could be more efficient just being specific.

We reach out to Central Michigan.

All of those entities are at different stages, so you can't be waiting for them to come to the table at a certain time.

But if you're specific and let them reach out, because when you get too many things going on a pot, then you can't get anything done.

So I think being specific and reaching out just to Central Michigan and build a relationship there and leaving everything else to the side will create more efficiency and clarity instead of a whole bunch of people in a room talking and getting nothing done.

That's all you have.

Yes.

Uh Mr.

Manager, if you know why uh the county took their five million out.

I mean, I think it was a good idea for everybody.

I'm just curious to know why why would they take their money out at this and yes?

So our discussion with them was related to their funding for uh county health department.

So we were not gonna build the health department, obviously.

The allocation was to the city, and um so we we did meet with them.

And if if if their intent, I think their intent was to utilize that for the health department, we did agree that it would be better for them to manage that project than the city.

So they're gonna go to uh with the uh uh with the medical building, I mean with their own uh behavior.

I would recommend talking to a county board member.

Okay, I thought maybe you already been talking to them, but I will talk to them.

Yeah, I can talk with them.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

No, the question for Mr.

Manager, Madam Clark.

On to the consent agenda.

It didn't have been available in both city hall and on the city web page.

I need a motion to approve consent agenda leaving room for exceptions.

Second, it's been moved and second.

Do I have any exception?

No exception.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, nay.

Madam Clerk.

On to board commission and committee reports.

Do we have any board to any boards that are related to the city that anybody would like to report out on Madam Clerk?

On to appointment of board, commission, and committee members.

I need a motion to approve one through five, leave room for exceptions.

So moved.

It's been moved and supported there.

Any exception hearing uh all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, nay.

Madam Clay.

On to ordinance introduction.

We have one.

It's an ordinance to create the Baringer Building Historic District.

I need a motion to introduce some move.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Uh I'm sorry, any questions?

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, nay.

This will under this will, this ordinance will be laid over under our charter provision.

Madam Clerk.

We also have one there.

It's objecting to the transfer of tax-reverted properties.

I need a motion to adopt.

So second.

It's been moved to second.

Any discussion.

Hearing none.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, nay.

Madam Clerk.

On to miscellaneous business.

Miscellaneous business.

Do I have any motions to bring forward?

Yes, Councilwoman Mahemming.

I have a motion to direct staff to draft a letter inviting collaboration and partnership to the CMU Board of Trustees regarding their medical education investment into the city of Satin.

It's been moved and supported in discussion.

Thank you.

Councilman Ball.

Any discussion?

Hearing then, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, nay.

I need a motion to adjust.

I'm sorry, is there any more miscellaneous?

Yes, Councilwoman.

I have a motion to direct staff to draft moratorium language regulating the construction of data centers to allow for a subsequent time period of information collection and strategic outreach to stakeholders and the public.

Second.

Any discussion.

Can you repeat it?

Of course.

Um so I will repeat the as requested the motion.

It's a motion to direct staff to draft moratorium language regulating the construction of data centers to allow for a subsequent time period of information collection and strategic outreach to stakeholders and the public.

And this is um something that is happening in a lot of other communities across the state of Michigan in particular.

Um I did sent out to council this week some Washtenaw County resources that they drafted specifically for Michigan municipalities, and what they compared it to because data centers are kind of a new use because they have an incredible amount of electricity requirements per square foot that and also we are a water provider.

There's a lot of implications for our community for our uh manufacturing partners as well, and so a lot of um what a lot of communities are making sure that that much like when marijuana facilities came on the stage and there was a bunch of legal implications that we can give our city government time to investigate the issue, call in our stakeholders, gather information, talk to council, look through our options and develop a policy where if we have data centers, we can ensure that they are done in a way that benefits the public good, uh produces jobs and economic development strategy, all that good stuff.

So this motion is specifically to direct staff to have moratorium language while we consider a long-term policy.

It's open for questions, and I have a question because my understanding with that whole process is that they're looking for rural areas.

Saginaw is not rule, and they're looking for open wide space.

But I can't compare Washington to Saginaw because Washington is a whole different set.

So I got a problem with that one.

I got a problem with with passing that that motion.

Yes, councilman.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um is isn't rule, but we also send water to municipalities that are rules.

So if they put it out in a rural community and we supply water there, it will affect us.

So I think it's important to get all the information.

We would not be able to impact that from a standpoint of allowing it or not allowing it because it's not in our community.

Where we would have an impact on a different or in a uh uh community that we provide services to is if it would potentially have an asked an impact on their water contract, for instance, if they wanted to increase their water contract, then it would come back to the city, but if they already had the water capacity and they were a customer, we would not be able to impact that yes.

I understand you know both sides, but the thing is that we got rules in place.

If they ever do come here, they know they got to come by the rules before they get here.

You know, so that's one way we know that that's that's already set in stone, is like we did with other things.

Uh Sagnar is a uh community shovel ready place for certain other things, and if these people come, we'd be shovel ready for them too.

So we have a moratorium on what they need to do before they get here, then they'd be in place when they get here.

So it's it's not it ain't like we're doing something to discourage anybody, just making sure they follow the rules when they get here.

So I support that.

Okay, any more questions?

Yes, it's the word moratorium that's kidding me.

Um because you're putting a halt on um you're putting a halt on something that doesn't exist, there's no problem for it to exist, and therefore the moratorium can actually get us into a legal situation.

No, yeah, it's the same thing when we were asked to cap the um put a moratorium on cannabis.

There's there's there's no there's nothing that exists, and then if you put a moratorium on, it's only for like a year, but normally there's a problem.

And I don't I don't have enough information on it.

I I don't I can understand that that communities around us, if they wanted to do it, yeah, then it's just like building a plant where we had to uh look at how to supply water out to that area.

But I don't see where you would put a data center in the city of Saginaw.

That these things are huge.

So I don't I've had a hard time with it.

I it's too new for me.

I I don't have data, I have nothing to go off of.

Councilwalking.

Thank you.

So um I appreciate your your comments and concerns, Councilman Ostash, and I agree with you.

Um however, this this motion is to direct staff to draft moratorium language.

We're not passing a moratorium.

So, what if your concerns are uh we can have those discussions in you know before we consider a moratorium, and again, a moratorium like with marijuana when we pass it, we can also have a deadline for it.

Um, when we pass that moratorium to say it's gonna be temporary, this is when we're gonna have our concrete policy.

And to uh the mayor's point about um seeing uh data centers in the city.

There are data centers coming to cities.

Lansing right now, they also have their own municipal uh regulated electricity authority, and the city of Lansing is getting data centers right now, like that they are in the approvals process, and I think that giving our staff the tools that they need to develop policy where we see these where we see potential issues or where we see potential opportunities.

This is the best way to prepare uh and the best way to be both development friendly and also friendly to our stakeholders that are invested in the city and for the public.

I don't disagree.

My problem is that it we've got stuff in place for a lot of things right now.

We've got staff that's been monitoring this for a while.

Maybe because they haven't told you that they're doing it.

We've got people that stay up on the rules and regulations of what's going on in the city.

For me, it's a no vote.

I can't speak to anybody else.

It's a no vote.

This the staff, the staff is already doing stuff, and so now we want to add some more.

When I when the word moratorium, that really is a no-no for me.

So I guess maybe it does have to do with the word moratorium in it.

But for me, my answer is no.

All those in favor?

Oh, I need a second for call for the vote.

Second.

It's been moved and second.

No more discussion.

All those in favor signify by aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, nay.

Nay.

Did you run back again?

Yes, you're going to be able to do that.

Yeah, we did.

So let's go back.

Call for the motion.

It's all by itself.

All those in favor, calling for the motion.

Aye.

All those opposed.

Nay.

Go back to the recording.

Now you're one for nay.

Now you're to the motion.

Now we're to the motion.

Yeah.

The motion is to have the staff draft up.

We're calling for the vote.

All those in favor.

I have a point of order.

I would like to clarify the vote that we just took was a motion to call the question.

Right.

So if we're if if there if we have to do, I believe a roll call vote if there are any nays to call the question, and then if it if if there are significant nays, we have to go back into discussion.

So I just want to be clear that we're we're following the procedures.

I have a point of information.

That's why I asked her if she ran it together because I think there was not an A on the call or question.

I think they were saying nay for the what they thought was the motion.

Great.

So I have a point of information.

Recently on called questions at the table.

I went back into some research Rob's rules of orders since we don't have to take a vote.

Once the question is called, we vote on the motion that's on the floor.

So true.

Repeat that so we've had this we've had to call the question quite a few times here at the table this year.

I did some research on Robert's rules of orders.

If a council member calls the question, there's no vote.

We just you called the question, now we're back to giving a motion to take the question.

That's incorrect.

Because you're taking away council's right to debate or discuss.

Okay, so that's why you have to vote on the call.

That's I just want to clarify.

Okay, so let me just ask Mayor Pro T when you voted.

Did you vote on the vote or the call for the motion?

Which one will you vote?

Because you're not going to be able to do it on the way.

Yeah, I was confused.

I thought that it was for the motion, so to continue on, and it should have been a yay, not a na.

So we can continue so we can make vote on the main motion.

So your yes vote um you had a yes vote on the call to question.

Yes, and I didn't realize that.

Is that clarified for everyone?

So the call to question was unanimous.

Okay.

Now that we've called for the question.

All those in favor, this is the original motion that we're looking at.

Would you like me to read it?

Can you read it again?

Okay.

It is excuse me.

Motion to direct staff to draft a moratorium language regulating the construction of data centers to allow for a subsequent time period of information, collection, and strategic outreach to stakeholders and the public.

Okay, let's go.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, nay.

Councilmember Yao.

Aye.

Councilmember Seals.

Nay.

Councilmember Balls.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Garcia?

I'm sorry?

Nay.

Councilmember Osash?

Nay.

Councilmember Braddock?

Yes.

Councilmember Wiggins?

Aye.

Councilmember Hammond?

Aye.

And Mayor Moore.

Nay.

You have five yes and four no.

That motion is approved.

You are still under miscellaneous business.

Do we have any more motions on the floor?

Second.

All those baby signify by seven aye.

Happy holiday.