all right good evening everyone welcome to this evening's council meeting for purposes of the record we actually went into session last evening or last evening oh my no last well upstairs about half an hour forty minutes ago we did so for the purposes of going into a closed session to review to talk about labor negotiations which was the purpose we stated on the record so we are already in session the the only thing that we have done is going to close session for purposes of that labor negotiations issue so that means we have the rest of our agenda to go through starting first of all with items two and three which we handle together this evening our opening prayer will be led by our colleague  council member from the fifth ward and after that we'll immediately have the pledge of allegiance to the flag site invite all the chambers to rise and join us in these items tonight i'll read in adaptation of a prayer by thomas a campus grant us lord to know what we ought to know to love what we ought to love to praise what  lights the most to value what is precious in ny sight to hate what is offensive to the do not suffer us to judge according to the sight of our eyes but to discern with the true judgment between things visible and spiritual above all always to inquire what is the good pleasure of thy will i pray he right there are copies of this evening's agenda paper copies located in the rack in the rear of the room additionally if you are either at home or in chambers and you have an electronic device you can certainly pull a copy not only of the agenda from the city's web page but also a copy of all the material that council has reviewed in preparation for this evening's meeting if you're in chambers and note that the wife i signal here is password encrypted if you grab someone's attention who works for the city they can give you the password and you can get in with no problem hopefully you'll note as you look at the agenda there are a variety of items that have an asterisk next to them these are items that we call our consent agenda items i don't mean that we deem to be relatively routine and our intention is to handle them all with one motion and one vote at one time regardless of where they show up on the agenda just because at this point we think that they're routine and intend to handle them on consent someone in the chambers tonight might be here to talk about one of these items and what we will do then is to have our clerk read for us what is on tonight's consent agenda then we'll give the opportunity for members of the audience members of council to remove an item from consent if one would so choose and then after that will have an amended consent agenda perhaps that will then be voted on those procedures so before we do anything else and if you would kindly read for us what is on tonight's consent agenda at present item to approve the minutes of the regular and close auctions helgi any recent sixteenth in study session held january twenty third two thousand thirteen item six to excuse the absence of council members peter's interest item eleven to accept and file executed oaths of office item fourteen b one to adopt a resolution scheduling a public hearing to for the regular meeting scheduled march twentieth two thousand and thirteen and to instruct the deputy clerk to post and publish said hearing item fortini one point one to approve a downtown manager position and revised administration plan for the downtown development authority and principal shopping district office and authorized city staff to pursue for filing this position should immediately item fourteen one point two to amend the two thousand and twelve community development development block grant also known as the c d g consolidated plan by reallocating funds in the amount of eighty eight thousand seven hundred sixty two dollars and twenty six cents to the two thousand and thirteen cd upon thirty day public hearing held on december twelfth two thousand and twelve item fourteen one point three in item fourteen one point four two a point the community and neighborhood services are streak ordinator as the interim landlord tenant relations co and appoint the community and neighborhood services community development corps nater as the fair housing officer retroactive to feb one two thousand and thirteen item fourteen eat two point one to table parking changes in order to notify adjacent property owners of the proposed changes to the traffic schedule at thirty fourth street between washington maple and eighth street between college and columbia with a public hearing to be scheduled for february twentieth two thousand and thirteen item fourteen ethe report one to accept the fiscal year two thousand and twelve cash in investment portfolio performance and status report as presented by the finance department has information in item fourteen eat three point two to accept as information the quarterly investment report as presented in available for you from the finance department item fortini five point two two approve of revokable license agreement for projecting sign at six west eighth street item fourteen point three has several recommendations item one is to extend the original charge of the hauen community sustainability committee to a date to be determined by council item to recognise the acronym of sus to present represent the name of the community to be the equivalent but not replace the official name of how one community sustainability committee item three confirm application of the original charter of the sauce comed adopted by city council in march two thousand and nine with the following changes each member serve a two year term with the opportunity to serve up to three years consecutive or intermittent terms open positions be filled by city and d p w dependent on original nomination with ninety days of notification of the committee or actual or pending opening change the status of the sauce come to a permanent standing committee to be dissolved by majority recorded vote of the city council follow the mission on the original committee charged to advice and promote sustainability within the city in community operations in continue working with city and  staff to educate and identify sustained sustainable opportunities with the city and authorize the community and neighborhood services department to develop a modest budget for consideration in the fiscal year two thousand budget process and item fortini five point four two a point city manager cotton as interim title six and equal employment opportunity officer retroactive to february one two thousand and thirteen all right thank you and a bed is what is presently on tonight's consent agenda anybody from the audience care to remove an item from the consent agenda and if so i ask you step over to the microphone at the podium to do so are current ok or anyone else question on sort of a matter of protocol mr city attorney i note that what has been recommended for fourteen and two point one in the traffic committee is a tabl of that particular item don't we need to have it on the floor first before we can table it or can we handle that in a consent or take it off you can table it so i think we ought to probably have someone wouldn't mind  moving fourteen either taking to forty two point one off consent the mayor pro tem has so indicated so we'll take that one off as well right no one else on council could remove an item saying none what is the pleasure of council on the revised consent agenda completed resident survey that we had done this fall the results are in it's kind of award season with golden globes and oscars and those sorts of things i'm not quite sure this gets to that level of interest but nonetheless it's an interesting survey with babbin in our office who has as done the leg work to get us to this point tonight is very helpful to to to what we're about ready to see i want to also thank you for comparing ourselves to national trends in other questions in ways that we have not yet seen in any other surveys to date so thank you very welcome and even thank you i have to bear with me i have a little bit of a cold but i'll try to keep it costs down to a minimum and be as clear as i can but i thank you to the mayor and to city council for commissioning serving and having us here tonight so i'll just get into the very briefly the methodology that the survey we conducted was a random phone number survey that was a city of holland residence and we particularly took extra steps to try and get a representative sample of the city residents and so that entailed using cell phone numbers in addition to landline numbers and using some lists  difficult to to get a hold of on the phone such as younger adults we screen for people that lived ok that lived in the city and also in the fo hundred forty three area we also asked people to list the nearest cross street as a another fallback to help ensure that the people that responded the survey and the results that we presented were representative of city residents ok so we had eight thousand four hundred ish numbers that we had originally some of those were business lines disconnects  had a final complete sample of five hundred eleven so a response rate of about thirty percent the margin of error for these results that are present is about four percent so you can think of what we have in our sample and say plus or minus four percent and that will tell you the range that we can say with high certainty that city residents hold their opinions on issues that we polled them for also this is comparing the makeup of the city of holland now under the questions we asked residents generally five sets of things some issues with respect to quality of life energy  taxes and issues facing the city such as policy and budget issues  with respect to the quality of life issues we asked residents what they liked most about holland and you got a breath of positive responses but over whelming majority  of those responses said that downtown was mentioned as something that they liked quite a bit about holland its access to lakes and beaches and the friendly and caring people that live in the city right when asked things that people might like to change about holland about one in four between those sixteen percent that didn't give a response or said they can come up with anything we have about one four that said they like holland just the way it is or can think of something to change and here you have a lot of infrequent comments about things that people would like to change but of those the most common were gangs and security or crime issues where four is very safe and three is somewhat safe and what we found is about during the day ninety seven percent say that they feel very safe or somewhat safe and at the night time this drops off but very very minor drop off ninety percent still saying that they feel very safe or somewhat safe wledge about that energy plan as of the time that we conducted the survey so there might be more efforts there to get out the news and educate the citizens about these plans  we also ask them about their support for the city being involved in energy efficiency incentives that is providing incentives for homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient and there was overwhelming support for this with seventy percent saying they strongly support or the side that they strongly agree or agree with the city being involved in offering these kinds of incentive when asked about interest and learning more ways they can make their families sorry their homes more energy manage their sorry manage their family and home energy use and costs more effectively  we also asked people about their views and willingness to pay for renewable sources of energy and we got a variety of responses on how much people said they would be willing to pay for those  relative to how much they paid currently but if we look at the with only about six percent not responding refusing or didn't didn't know how to respond if we look at those that did respond  we find that a simple majority fifty one percent say that they are willing to pay more than what they currently pay for renewable sources of energy and if we look at the averages based on their responses we ha asked people are they willing to pay five percent ten percent fifteen percent twenty percent or more than twenty percent than what they currently pay and on average people in the city are willing to pay those that are willing to pay more they're willing to pay nine point two percent more than what they currently all right the next set of questions we asked had to do with us city policy and pending issues such as priorities that the city should put into different initiatives  right related to this we asked people what they thought the most important local issues were and the top of mind responses that people gave had to do with energy or power plant or renewable energy issues with a little more than one in four giving some response at the top of their head that had to do with that issue  also the rounding out the the next most frequent offered issues we had about one in five saying that taxes or budgeting was an important local issue that the city would face in the near future one in five saying jobs and about one in five saying schools as well city policy issues were asked first of which specifically had to do with overnight parking during the warmer months during summer and when asked whether or not yes or no they support such a policy we have a majority fifty five percent saying that they do in fact support overnight parking being offered and that's fifty five percent to thirty seven percent  no they do not support that another policy issue that was asked was how the city should respond to anti discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and we asked residents  these issues another would be to put it to a vote and the last would be to change the city ordinances to provide such protections and what we found is that a majority thirty seven percent of residents support taking no specific action at the city level but deferring to federal or state guidelines with thirty seven percent giving that and close behind then was thirty two percent or about a third  said that the city should change its ordinances to provide such protections and about one in five thought that it should be put to a vote on this matter all right we also asked residents to rate a number to give their view on how how much a number of issues should be prioritized that the city may be making some decisions on the near future and the most these issues are listed from top to bottom in the topic that had the highest support for residents should be given the highest level of priority and topping the list is improving the waterfront area particularly in the industrial section of the waterfront with that being giving a moderate high priority by  majority residents followed following that was renovating the pool bo's pool scuse me and the least support overall was for building an particular some other questions we were the city was interested in knowing more was reasons that people visit the civic center and what so its use is to the city resident s and what the city residents felt the city should do with the civic center in the in the near future and when asked if they visited the civic center the building in the past three years  we had about one in four responded they had not visited in three years but the majority forty percent are the most frequent response forty percent was that they visited it for an indoor farmer's market event and then around a third saying that they went to the civic center for a show or exit bishan and then there's the other reasons coming given their two sporting events being about one  four and performances also coming up about one in five when asked what to do with the civic center building we asked residents should they build a new one leave it as it is demolish not replace or renovate the majority fifty five percent said that was the city should renovate the civic center and with about one in five twenty two percent between one five one four twenty two percent saying that a new civic center should be built all right next we asked residents about city services how satisfied they were with those and how much contact they had had with city employees if any and these were a number of servers city services that were rated on a scale of one to five scuse me thought that they were very good good average fare pour and good news is that all the services that were rated were considered to be average or slightly higher than that and all the way up to good to very good the services that were rated most highly at the top of the page there for those looking is the  parks in the city but also closely tying with that and others coming in close have to do with the public safety services so fire departments e m s and police all being rated very highly  one other point to to maybe draw out with this is that the civic center rec facilities when those are asked those had the lowest level of satisfaction  d also towards the and had to do with things about streets and storm drainage is but overall everything's considered average or above when asked if residents that had contact with city employees we had a little less than half about forty six percent saying that they had had some kind of contact recently and then we asked them to think of their most recent excuse me the most recent interaction and to rate the quality of that as very good good average poor or very poor and of those that had contact with city residents ninety percent said that there they were very satisfied with that interaction and with the service they received with ninety percent saying very good or good  just a breakdown of those departments very quickly about one in five to one in four contact that people had was with someone in the fire police public safety service departments followed by board of public works city clerks and parks  all right we asked residents several questions about taxes and city budget issues and there were a few questions that i asked about people's views towards  services to trade offs for for taxes such that people were asked would they want to keep their services as they are now if it meant even if it meant raising taxes to maintain those services where they want to keep their services as they are now but only if their taxes stay the same or somewhat reduce the services if it meant to keep their taxes the same and and so on  d with these what we found is that about thirty four percent said that they would be willing to pay more in taxes in order to maintain the services that they have currently about forty nine percent saying that they would only want to maintain the services they have currently if it meant their taxes would stay the same we asked a very similar question this but specifically focused on public safety services so police fire and e m s services and when you look at this support for maintaining these services relative to just general city services you find that it's fairly comparable but that there is support for maintaining the services even at a higher tax rate goes up a little bit if i could just flash back here we have about one third saying that for taxes  for services in general but about forty three percent saying that they'd be willing to pay more to maintain those public safety  services we also asked people for their level support for several art alternative models for are varying models i should say for how public safety and fire services may be provided and the highest level of support in our survey of city residents was for maintaining full time firefighters and that was followed by the next highest level support for  a model where cross training public safety officials to do different responsibilities other than their space the one that was in their partner and the least amount of support was for a volunteer  part time firefighters fleet ok when asked about support for city income tax if it meant they would be a reduction and property tax  among city residents forty one percent to thirty percent favor or support the idea of having a city tax city income tax with again thirty percent opposing  when asked about services that the city could possibly reduce only about sixteen percent said that they felt that there were such services and with their responses that came top of mind from th sixteen the most frequent one was sidewalk snow removal and another portion of them again saying that they couldn't think of they think something should be reduced but couldn't think of something of anything in particular  the so these were somewhat and infrequent responses but nonetheless the way to view this is that the most common commonly offered top of mine response out there in the in the community was the sidewalk snow removal another way to look at this and i would encourage the councils to look at the the breath of comments that you received for suggestions and that might give you a bit of a variety of of ideas to kind of pull together right all right for the last part i want to discuss some comparisons of where possible city of holland residents responses relative to residents in similar sized cities across the us we purchased some data comparing where possible and we were able to find matches on seventeen questions that were asked in the last six years nonetheless they help to give sort of a general normative information about where the city of holland falls in its response is relative to similar size and the similar size cities i should say are twenty five to fifty thousand population so holland falls right in the middle there right and i know this is awfully small it's a hard way to kind of present it  t overall cross the the seventeen areas we found that holland is doing relatively well for most of the seventeen items that we could find comparison data  on such as nighttime safety feeling safe during the nighttime hours they were above relative to other cities of similar size rating of the quality of city  city council was much higher than in similar sized cities and another one that was much higher animal control street snow removal and  satisfaction with sidewalks were much higher in the city holland than comparable sized cities across the us a few areas just three where the of holland did a little bit or much well perform a little bit lower than relative to similar size cities had to do with  the civic center in particular and it might be worth noting that out of fifty eight comparison cities that were available the city hollins coming in at the very bottom with satisfaction there having said that you know referring back to earlier the rating was average people thought the civic center satisfaction with that was just generally average so it's not that it's terrible but  relative to other cities it is towards the bottom of the list ratings on fire department services were below a little bit below where the the average city of a similar size and there we had about sixty eight comparison cities now if you remember back to this city satisfaction section that was satisfaction of fire services as one of the highest things  so with an average of from responses from the city residents being very good to very good so it's just this just goes to show i guess that people in lots of cities the size of holland tend to be very very happy with their fire services and the one other area where the city of holland according to our survey relative to others cities of similar size comes in a bit behind is with their level of contact with city of holland employees now this is less frequent than other cities but if you look at how satisfied people are with the city council and the overall ratings of city services you see that there holland is much above compared to other similar sized cities so maybe the way to to read that is that people are pretty happy with the services and they're not coming to see city employees to complain and i also look back to some of the data we presented were that forty six percent that had contact with the city employee recently ninety percent said that they were very satisfied with that their customer service and that experience so so overall people are very happy with those interactions and perhaps because of that don't feel quite as much need to hunt down city employees and certainly not complain as much i suppose all right with that is there any any questions or anything i should try  for the record the slides that we've been reviewing tonight as well as a bunch of additional ones are on the city's web page and they're accessible right from the home page and i don't know if you do this or not gerri but we're going to take the video of your presentation and also link that to that very same page so not only can folks look at the slides they can watch this presentation with the slides sort of in their hand as well also questions for gerri are comments and the survey itself we did have a st session discussion about this a few weeks ago so the council's review this a bit more but david really quick question relative to your your last statement you know the complete survey is substantially longer than the source and offices so you you comments right well thank you jerry and you and the staff the frost center did a really very good job for us in this survey was no it was a labor of love for us as we helped put together some of the questions but it was really fantastic working with the professional folks at frost and i think that what we're getting here is good data that at least we can rely upon it i think we're asking the kinds of questions we needed to have answered and i think this will be helpful for us as we look forward to trying to get some policy decisions in the city and you know it's been what at least five years since we've done a citizen survey and quite frankly i think this is a that the kinds of questions we asked in this particular one i think are probably more helpful to us as we try to deal with some of the issues that are before us and appreciate your work on thank you right whiteman is there discussion on it all in favor of so doing please say i i both same it is accepted for purposes of information all right that takes us then item eight i had a tax abatement for metal standard corp eight i'm sorry to eighty six head core st gregory first turn to for a quick report introduction of this item please i'll give you summary of the report medal standard provides the metal fabrication of subassemblies for various manufacturers an area primarily the office furniture industry there investing three hundred fifty four thousand five hundred twenty dollars in machinery and equipment that's part of this tax abatement application the staff has reviewed the application no objections have been  noted there are three new jobs are expected to be created due to this investment so the recommendation is that you approve a resolution approving an industrial facilities tax exemption certificate for metal standard it to eighty six head core for twelve years from the state tax commission approval date right any questions for staff at this time this does require a public hearing this is the time of the place for it so if you are here to address this particular item  is you step forward to the podium of the microphones that everyone in chambers and at home can hear what you have to say state your name and residential address for the record in council rules provide up to five minutes to address council the public hearing is open good continuation of expansion has been going on for the last few years we put three we're conservative in our estimates i went back and looked at my two thousand and nine i said three jobs and i think twenty were at it so we tend to be conservative but this was a continuation of upgrades moderate they should an expansion of this facility and i'm here to answer any questions is there any thank you that's the kind of multiplier we'd like to see yes well i looked at it this is the fifteenth application we've had before city council and testing any questions for the applicant thank you very much for being here tonight the microphone remains open public hearing is still open on th nine relating to signage in the c two highway commercial zone district that just rolls right off the tongue bill meyer the director of community neighborhood services is going to introduce this item for us good evening phil good evening thank you from time to time we get requests from various property owners around the city for some changes to the ordinances that we have periodic lee in the last eighteen months to two years we've gotten requests from some property owners  highway commercial zoning districts they have been interested in being able to add movable freestanding signs and add open signs or open flags in front of their businesses those are two types of signs that currently are not allowed in the c two highway commercials on they are allowed in the c one neighborhood commercial district and in the c three downtown district traditionally i think the reason for that has been there in vision as being most useful in walkable environments where where the pedestrians are in close proximity to the stores as opposed to see to highway commercial which is more generally larger setbacks and that's vehicle oriented but the comments and concerns people have raised is the number of the c two commercial districts have covered walkways in front of a number of stores and there are a variety of settings out there where such a free anding sign would be useful or a flag indicating that their businesses open would be useful so what you have before us a recommendation from the planning commission it essentially takes much of the language from the  that they would not be permitted within the public right of way there is an application fee and they'd have to prove general liability insurance with those signs essentially models after after those ordinances that we currently have in the c one c three there are some limitations on sizes and the placement of those sciences well i just want to make sure you've got the the most current version of this ordinance that the planning commission adopted and i'm looking at under section thirty nine three fifty nine easy movable free standing signs if you go down to paragraph five that should be one sentence that rea location at least one point of the sign shall be placed within one foot of the building that is the version we have ok thank you and then again in thirty nine three fifty four f that would allow public hearing so this is the time and place for it here to address i tunes related to this proposed amendment to the ordinance we ask you to step forward name a residential address for the record and you have five minutes to address council them public hearing is open right i will close the public hearing and ask for a motion from counsel please prove moved by debord to adopt support supported by birch is there any discussion mr well i would just have to say that i i really do question the need for this you know i way commercial district we have a few places where there are some limited walking space in front of a strip of stores but i just don't see that it's going to be particularly necessary or or effective and i think the downside is the  sort of visual clutter that accumulates particularly through these highway commute commercial districts so i'll be voting no thank you  one of our former colleagues jerome thomas copus was paid particular interest to sign issues and was generally not crazy about them and the other comments by council discussion point please lot of that stretches c two so it's those the strip malls that occur down there are within the c two zone there are commercial zones the only commercials on that i can think of that is not a c t it's on a highway or on a busy street other downtown is not certainly but meyers is a c four zone but the other commercial areas you see out there are very typically see two highway commercial zones so shopping centers can be see to the strip malls those kinds of developments i remember this came to the planning commission a few years back probably at three years or so and it was specifically related to a business owner on south washington drive in one of the strip malls and there was so i forget the exact ticklers but i know that it was something that he had wanted to do to put a flag out and it was some restriction in doing so i think right think that nder the ordinance that's in front of us that that would be permitted but that's that's the kind of thing that it can sort of lead to along with inflatable  ok any other discussion please council member whiteman just a quick question are you referring to confusion with in the us you think that a crop of them will be dealing with an enforcement aspect remind the property owners that that's not allowed motion passes yes and to no ok thank you very much then that brings us to item twelve which is communications from the audience this is the opportunity for anyone in the audience to address council on items that do not show up elsewhere on the agenda the rules of council are bla typically simple please come forward a microphone so everyone in chambers and at home can hear what you have to say state your name and residential address for the record in council rules permit up to five minutes to  good evening and welcome to the evening my name is not a man who not thirty six eleven better not drive here in harlem tonight i respectfully address the city council members to staff but more specifically the holland community at large viewing this on television the holiday relations court later position should remain full time and with full benefits if the consul and the mayor vote to reduce this procession to only part time the quality of applicants shifts tremendously tremendously the human relations court nater should be an individual who is a person of color who speaks spanish and is bicultural competent as well comes to this position with actual and not perceived professional work experience and ethic no ethical training in working with diverse populations in working with the economically  families the financially disadvantaged the elderly individuals with physical and mental limitations and disabilities english language limited speakers newcomers people of color under unemployed and not to forget that if we take an honest look at the faces and backgrounds of the holon leadership and staff we would clearly see that the needs of the voices are in fact not match with the face is the background of this city holiday leadership city staff or the city council again the human relations coordinator position should remain a full time with full benefits thank you thank you the microphone is still open good evening and welcome good evening mr mayor members of the council jim story three forty four west thirty fifth street and be pleased to give you a few updates from the county commission insectivora he's in the first month of the year for allegheny county and then later on i in my report i'd like to also make a brief announcement if i may first of all i had the opportunity to participate with two sessions with the elegant county road commission i guess it's tradition that in january every year the road commission sits down with the representatives of the various townships and on the and the commission the county commissioners it sells by region as it happens to i have two regions that impact our district but i learned a lot about that i think would be useful information for you and for the other citizens of the city about the ele road commission the county maintain some eight hundred miles of roadway among its nine hundred square miles thirteen hundred of those miles are paved and there's also a hundred forty seven bridges as a county residents we all contribute a millage which was renewed in august of last year for six years which raises about eight point six million dollars for these capital improvement projects thirty percent of that revenue is returned to the cities and villages of allegheny county and the other interesting part is that eight point six million dollars is one and a half million dollars higher than any other county in the state the thirty percent that's returned to the city here one project will impact our city the six treat which connects with lincoln will be repaved from one hundred forty first street to the city limits so people writing that stretch can look forward to a little smoother wrote one other part that i've taken a look at is the allegheny county transportation your bus system there is a one it is kind of a bare bones system because it does expand that service to interact so that people have access to two things that were recently identified you know united way assessment of needs in allegheny county that is access to health care for all of the residents and access to jobs and other services that they may need and with that i just do want to say that that same survey showed a lot of interesting statistics most of which is the profile of people your county are about this is the two thousand and twelve survey part of it was conducted by the organization you just heard from frost center part of it is due to census data but this two thousand and twelve report card sort of speak  shows that the county residents are kind of like all of the rest of the state very similar in some of the key issues such as you know diabetes and obesity and those subjects but one that i think is at least of concern is  that from two thousand to two thousand and twelve poverty increased from seven percent to sixteen percent in terms of those who are in poverty and the other one that really stuck out for me was the rate of students eligible for free and reduced lunch increased from twenty one percent in two thousand to forty one percent in two thousand and twelve and i'm sure that's a huge concern to all of us to make sure our young people have opportunity you know to get out of that poverty cycle also i just wanted to report that an april first allegan county health department will take over the sanitation and inspection of items in the city limits here that's one of  the services that are spun off to the two counties and i think there are something like ten to twelve institutions and the allegheny county portion of the city that will be regularly inspected by sanitariums from the aga county health department and finally  in terms of trying to get money back into the county or right now we're working with representative jeannette ski to get four hundred thousand dollars in sales tax revenue back to us that we have paid for materials associated with the building of the new county jail  michigan is an interesting perspective in that even for tax exempt organizations such as our own if the contractor buys the equipment then the county or the city or municipality is liable for pay sales tax on those on those materials that are purchased and so we're trying to get some help from the state to get it back to us it terms of announcements as we all know how and like a month starting at five thirty in the evening and going to tell people don't want to show up or want to see us effective in march it will always be the first monday of the month but just this month that money was not available we'll see how well it goes but you know we want to make sure that whether you live in ottawa county or allegheny county but our city of holland resident that you can come to us and we can take up whatever your need is with the county within i because i did answer the questions that i appreciate the opportunity report you give when you're next with us right thanks and please report back to us as to how you're your joint sessions with don work and chambers i really like that idea and by the way congratulations on your survey results in terms of it being about the rest of the country and how there's lies there's darn lies and there are statistics right all right on the microphone remains open good evening and welcome good evening maggie reverify fifty west twenty third street holland to night i just have a quick comment i've heard constantly and consistently that the city is only cutting positions yet i am shocked and very confused to see that the new downtown manager position to be filled immediately according to tonight's consent agenda will be funded by general fund monies over the course of eight the next eighteen months and i believe if i'm not mistaken it's a new administrative level position if you look on your organization charts it clearly shows that that would be an administrative level position according to that chart and i'm not for sure they couldn't tell from the documents i'm kind of guessing but it looks like it is a full time full benefited position according to the council supporting documents yet unfortunately the city over the last two years has very slowly and very painfully i might add chosen to gradually eliminate the human relations department thank you thank you i think that there's a bit of a mistake in that assumption however the downtown position is funded by the special assessments paid by the downtown business it does not come out of the the general fund tax dollars city it's a downtown businesses pay extra into both principal shopping district and downtown development authority and those are the funds that are used then to do things like events downtown christmas decorations downtown and the downtown staff yeah i'm looking at the document i don't have a right here but it clearly  gives the outline of the funding of the position and it's one of the supporting documents after the very lengthy job description of the downtown manager so there is a maybe i need to have somebody school me on that a little bit but it says very clearly that it's a general funded position over eighteen months and it gradually gets actually increases so yes it references the other two sources but it says something about general fund there so that's what i'm referencing ok thank you thank you microphone is still open all right ryan what we just have a brief outline of your plans for continued discussion in the human relations coordinator service area and what you are intending to do in terms of further discussions and  page eighty six of the package i suspect and then page ninety four list general fund and there's a large number that that general phone number for things that are already funded is not for the managers down to manager position there is going to be some changes in the way things are allocated and i'm not sure if you're prepared i think a lot there was a leaven thousand dollars additional impact i recall at some point a long  while phil is preparing his comments which i think is what we need to get to in terms of the general fund impact i just want to make sure everyone is aware that tomorrow night at four thirty the international relations commission will receive a report  tentative job descriptions three options to give me feedback on in relation to how to conduct services for the naturalizations commission going forward at six o'clock the same thing with the human relations commission so they'll be opportunity for commission members to spend whatever time they'd like to to look at the three options and say what is better than other options and that feedback will then all be put together and come back to council at your study session of february twenty seventh i will be upstairs in the training room and from that i'll get direction and this will be then placed on the march sixth regular city council meeting for a vote so between now and then there's interim positions you saw in the agenda so there's no gap and services there's interim duties i should say and then come march six you'll give us our marching orders and we can make some some advertisements and hopefully get hires i will say that the job description and visions bilingual and bicultural preferred and i think a lot has to do with who's out there and interested in and there are some thoughts as to what the wages should be that i think are pretty appropriate so with that fill perhaps you can address the general fund impact sure  i think there is a bit of confusion here as the mayor indicated the funding for the downtown manager position will be entirely from the p s t budget the d d a budget in the parking budget there there are a variety of positions that one of which is open one of which is coming open some of those dollars are shifting dollars within the budget part of my time which comes my time is  currently i believe it's seventy percent out of the general fund budget my time the remainder of that twenty five percent of that is with the downtown operation my time in the downtown operation will diminish as this downtown manager comes in so there is some shifting of my time to other areas whether it's neighborhoods or planning and it's a gradual transition as the new downtown manager gets in place and and works gets familiar with things and begins to take on the responsibilities that are identified in that job description but the funding for the downtown position all come out of the downtown funding sources not general fund and the questions for staff that any other comments from council on these items are right then we move forward with  that's right flip the page fourteen one point three which was the item that was removed from consent dealing with the interim appointment of the community neighborhood  services our street for debtor as the interim landlord tenant relations coordinator ryan brief introduction if you would right this has to do with the interim appointments three of them the coordinator for a landlord tenant relations   the functions of the community human relations coordinator for i think a period of a year when there was a gap the second individual is on the board of fair housing for housing whatever that office is called and so he is well skilled with that and third point of city manager is interim title six coordinator and also equal employment opportunity officer which is something i'm familiar with having worked with grants that required those duties in other places so as an interim as well as depending on council eventual action all right any questions for staff then emotion please comment on opinion on the subject already and i just want to make a couple of comments not necessarily to any specifics because as ryan has said and says in the agenda these several of these positions are interim positions at this point am ryans i have the opportunity to discuss more specific options tomorrow evening so i don't want to make comments germane to those prior to those opportunities for discussion but i do want to make a couple of points i think the  the concern about this the outcome of this position in the disposition of what's going to happen here is well founded we've all heard of a number of comments i've talked to several people and i had  communication from folks whose experience and opinion i place a high value on and i think the desire among those folks that i've talked to and i think certainly for me and i and i discern from ryan and his office and i think on the part of counsel is while the desire is to maintain the effectiveness and the role of the visibility in the impact that human relations directorship has played over a number of years personally i have had quite a fair history with the human relations department and the commission i served for several years i was chairperson for a year i've served as  does and it's very true i think it's fair to say that for a non white person to try to navigate what happens in this building you're in even to to come in here and find a friendly face or find someone who can give them answers as it's a little bit of kin i can't say that i can completely identify that maybe feel a sense of i want to walk into the police department with all due respect an apology to chief messer there's that's sort of perceived nks that once i walk in i hope i'm going to be able to walk out and i haven't forgotten about you know some overnight parking tickets or something that will preclude me from actually doing but there's a tension that goes along with the experience from my perspective at the police department and i'm sure with a number of our citizens who enter city hall looking for information or remedies it's not to say that that's intentional i don't think it is on either part of a police department or city hall but you know it's a fact and  it's important that we recognize that that we explicitly find ways to communicate the value that we place on human rights and resources to address the needs of a relative to do those things in our community so without you know i rambling on and on saying that i wasn't going to be specific but i guess the message that i want to convey is that i think over the next few months or so there are options that will be proposed to that will be i will have to make decisions about whether we take advantage of those options or not but will represent if i could potentially represent a fair amount of change and as we all know changes such a great thing to embrace so is happy life was like before as we know it or but you know the knowledge of civil rights the availability of help the ability to help people where they are in situations of the experience every day is something that should be expanded but it isn't necessarily that we had all that knowledge and ability so centralized that the rest of the organization had no knowledge of it but i think there's potential for the impact of what the human relations director and office and commission represented and tried to bring to the community i think there's potential for that to be broadened for that knowledge to be experienced and known by a wider section of argumentation here if not the whole organization so i guess i'm trying to say is let's not jump to conclusions if there's going to be a change there's in my view a great potential for that change to to bring about a better situation and better services so let's take a little bit of time and let things sort of be presented and give them a fair hearing so thank you presence a strong corner there is a good to go person for these issues and if they become all fragmented all over the place i think we're going to lose some things there and so i think with a look at this really carefully and in study it and look at the proposal at sudra but right now i've certainly have a strong inclination that it's something that i would like to see maintain but we will pass judgment later and give it a yes white man yes dear dykstra yes motion passes thank you then opportunely one point five an approval letter for support for michigan housing community development fund granting ryan do you want to briefly introduce that are still going to do it yeah there are some resources available and i'll just do a intro has to do with six sixty i think three sixty i'm going to turn over to fill some day when they get large i'll be sixty three thank you this is a request for counsel to authorize the mayor to sign a letter of support for an application that is being made by three sixty the neighborhood organization to the two thousand and thirteen michigan housing and community development centers as you're aware there are a couple of efforts in the community to develop community centers through the neighborhood organizations good samaritan ministries who is overseeing the neighborhood connectors program with ties into several neighborhoods now came to the city and requested that that we provide support for an application to mission for for supporting the redevelopment or rehab of buildings for a community center  we met with with good samaritan we met with representatives from two of those community centers and after discussions with those folks and discussions then with mission representatives from mischka trying to kind of hone in on what it was they were looking for and and which projects they thought would be eligible and have a better chance than others the conclusion we came to along with good sam was that both organizations the city and good samaritan ministries could be helpful to three sixty in making an application for a community center funding and help to advise them both good sam and the city have lots of experience in grant management more so than three sixty does so we can add some technical expertise along the way as they go after this grant and assuming they get it then as they administer the grant the city would have no no responsibilities in this in terms of financial responsibilities we're there to provide whatever assistance and helpful advice we can provide to three sixty as they move forward with this application their specific project is the building that the city assisted in their acquisition and sixteenth street it's where patrice knows pizza is located on the first floor and there are two apartments on the second floor there are code violations in the two apartments are currently not  occupied there are some of verity of changes to that building modifications and improvements to that building that three sixty would like to do to bring it into the context of a community center there in order to keep the tree knows there as long as they can and within the neighborhood but they see that space evolving over time into a larger component of the community center as well they envision a community organization office in that building and and in one of the apartments the potential for interns to their organization occupying that space so this is simply a letter of support that we would be issuing and then essentially trying to walk beside three sixty as they move forward with this project yes yes whiteman yes yes yes motion passes ok thank you takes us to then forty two point one the item we removed from consent from the traffic committee and the reason we did so was for procedural reasons not even going to introduce it because we're being asked to table it until our next meeting is my understanding so first we need to get the matter onto the floor please move reprove move by hoekstra supported by the mayor pro tem as their motion to table to the next meeting moved by whiteman for supported by hoekstra table to our next meeting all in favor of so doing please say i pose the same at matters table to our next meeting fourteen five point one some gifts please the city manager is pleased to report the following gives parks recreation and transportation department received the graphic nature center received a thousand dollar donation from rather ferd and associates abby in william price doctors and mrs clark we are seeing a fifty dollar donation has been received from norma or in memory of mr paul de cook and the digraph nature cent is there a motion misleader mayor oh i have been waiting three and a half years to say this phrase motion to accept with appreciation usually that is a council member  theories line but he's not here this evening so moved by whiteman support supported by the board one hundred favor please say i i i pose the same that passes thank you that then takes us down to item fifteen communications from the city manager this evening i have no extra reports ok thank you sixteen predications from the mayor in addition to our ordinary discussion that please go to the city's web page we can find lots of information about the city of holland including this month talked about a bit earlier in addition to lots and lots of additional information about what goes on here at city hall programs the city offers meetings that are happening in information that members of those committees review in preparation for those meetings additionally you'll find ways to get in touch with each one of us  telephone numbers e mail addresses those kinds of things please do contact us to let us know what you're thinking we do appreciate hearing from you we had a wonderful tenth annual mayor's roundtable event this past monday  night my predecessor in office started this event and it has always been a good event but what we did this year will be back up for a second typically what we will do is will invite a bunch of high school students selected by their teachers and counselors from the area high schools holland west ottawa holland christian hamilton black river you know on and on and on and get them together interacting with adult leaders in our community talking about issues in primarily getting people to know one another in this community adults youth and adults from our youth in different schools this year we did something similar but in my estimation a bit better because the topic we discussed this year was the model communities initiative the effort under way by primarily jim brooks with the assistance of linda brand and other major business leaders in this community to talk about what holland in the zealand area might look like in the future as a model community it is a discussion that has had many many different participants and a couple of reports issued related to it but one thing that was missing was a lot of use of youth voice the youth perspective and what we tried to do this past monday night was get about eighty different high school students together  with teachers counselors leaders in the community including fortune five hundred c e o s government leaders and all sorts of very interesting and influential adults and they had a remarkable discussion in fact before we adjourned after about two and a half hours there was a general question raised from the floor of anything you'd like to see for for next year's event and the two comments that came back were i wish we had more time and maybe we could do this over two nights instead of one so it was a remarkable evening a remarkable discussion that was held and the things that were talked about will find its way find their way into the community initiatives report to point out that is being drafted as we speak right now so a good evening thanks to all who participated thanks to the youth leaders who assisted in selecting and bringing students to this event thanks to the business and community leaders who were participating in the event and of course thank you to the high school students as well that is all my announcements however we do have a few appointments to take care of this evening that i am asking you to them bringing before you and asking you to confirm the first as an appointment to the neighborhood improvement committee richard bean hovan said the commission to expire january thirty one twenty sixteen also steve and to the t v commission with  an expiration date of july one twenty fifteen then a re appointment of marvin martin as the dangerous structures hearing officer for a three year term expiring july thirty one of twenty fifteen and i would ask for your consideration of those nominations move by the twelfth grader at holland high in the us would be until july thirty one of twenty thirteen but asked for your consideration on those please move by the mayor pro tem supported by whiteman any discussion all in favor  se say i post the same that passes and one final thing i will say before going into the next item is this is always a good reminder that we have lots and lots and lots of boards and commissions here in the city of holland and there are some vacancies on them and if you where there are you're an adult who lives in the city or whether you're a student we certainly would invite you to consider looking at some of the vacancies if you have questions as to what that means what that might look like i would just ask you to either call my office or send me an email mayor at city of holland dot com and we'll be sure to reach out and give you a listing of all the vacancies that exist as well as the methodology for submitting an application it's not terribly onerous and we're certainly always looking please i just wanted to spec and the excitement for the mayor's roundtable this past week and the mayor didn't say it but it was his brilliant idea to have the students talk about their own hometown and figure out solutions for how to do things and how to work as a region and i'm just so excited to be a part of that and to feel the synergy of business and education connecting and planning for the future and to have this regional cooperation with  students from all different school systems and all throughout the area i mean i really think you're planting the seeds for future leaders in tackling problems that they will be facing an even a bigger level than we have today and to see those kids working together and so excited about what would make my my community better how could i come up with ideas that adults may really embrace was so energizing for them and for the adults i just thought it was a wonder wonderful evening not just for what we saw that night but we will be reaping the harvest of planting those seeds with those students last monday night and everyone accepting responsibility for their community one of the women that i talked to there said that she had recently been in chicago at a restaurant and had some how it came up that she was from holland michigan and the person said to her oh ho michigan that's where they really plan don't they that's kind of a planning community i thought well that's that's a great reputation to have to be vision casting vision generating people and to include people from so many different sectors and to empower the youth to help us in that process was just very exciting so i'm very grateful to the mayor and the whole system that he set up in order to facilitate back into so all we have left to do then is move to adjourn please not all at once but all right move by whiteman support supported by de boer any further discussion all in favor of adjourning please say i post the same we stand