want welcome to tonight's regularly scheduled meeting of the whole city council it is good to have you with us whether you're in chambers this evening or whether watching on television at home or on the internet somewhere around the world we had a special city council meeting before this televised one where we handled some money we wanted to close session to discuss a legal opinion we took no action and now we are here and ready to begin this meeting but first we need to make sure we have a quorum present to conduct business so ana would you please call the immediately thereafter we will say the pledge of allegiance to our flag i would invite all in chambers to rise and join us in both of these items  i offer what's considered both a reflection and a prayer by former to pursue oscar ramiro if you join me it helps now then to step back and take a long view we accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is god's work nothing we do is complete which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us no statement says that says all that can be said no prayerfully expresses our faith no confession brings perfection no pastoral visit brings wholeness no program accomplishes the church's mission no set of goals and objectives includes everything this is what we were about we plant the seeds that one day will grow we water seeps into it knowing that they hold the future promise we lay foundations that will need further development we provide  produces far beyond our capabilities we cannot do everything in there is a sense of liberation in realising that this enables us to do something and do it very well i may be incomplete but it is a beginning a step thank you david there are paper copies of this evening's agenda located in the rack in the rear of the room for those of you who are in chambers tonight also if you have an electronic device of some sort of phone and i pad or other kind of device whether you're in chambers or out of chambers you can go ahead and find not only a copy of tonight's agenda but also that all of the background theory of counsel has reviewed in preparation for this evening's meeting the easiest way to do so is to go to city of holland dot com click on the calendar link go to today's date and you'll find all of that information there you'll notice on the agenda that there are a variety of items that have an asterisk next to them these are items that are on our consent agenda and they're on there because we believe that they're relatively routine that they've been previously discussed by counsel and require a quick and relatively uncontroverted decision what we will do now is we will have an a read for us what is presently on the consent agenda once she  concluded with that i'll give instruction if anyone would care to remove an item from the consent agenda and please i don't five to approve the minutes of the regular and close sessions held january fifteenth and special joint meeting with how important public works and stud session held january twenty second two thousand and fourteen item eleven eight one item eleven eight to accept and file executed oaths of office i had imported a one to accept an approval an offer of just compensation with how an honey cake company currently located in the area of the home for the new energy park item fourteen two to approve an extension of the fiscal year two thousand and fifteen budget for the of public works from january from feb fifteenth to march seventeenth two thousand and fourteen i had him fourteen eighty three to approve the appointment of a budget subcommittee comprised of two board members to meet with our board of public works staff and review the fiscal year two thousand and fifteen budget item fourteen eighty five to approve an agreement and waiver to allow the jubilee ministry to salvage items from residential homes located within the federal district that is scheduled to be demolished in spring of two thousand and fourteen item fourteen a six to approve a professional service agreement and our performance solutions for cost benefit analysis to become a transmission only member within the footprint of mid continent independent system operator in the amount not to exceed fifty eight thousand five hundred dollars should the cost benefit be favorable to approve a supplemental to the agreement for submittal a required documentation not to exceed twenty one thousand four hundred dollars pending approval as to form by the city attorney item fourteen do you want to refer claims filed against the city to the city's insurance carrier and city attorney for consideration item fourteen v two to approve the two thousand and fourteen salary ansett hours for the border review march two thousand and fourteen meetings and to direct the deputy clerk to publish said hearing dates item fortini one point one two adopt a resolution for a few schedule adjustment to offer a fifty percent rebate on all construction related permit fees for conversions of a multifamily rental home to single family owner occupied homes item fourteen e two point one two accept as information the winter maintenance update report in regards to labor material and equipment expenditures as provided by the transportation services department item fortini two point two to approve a contract modification with period i'm designing the amount of one hundred  thousand one hundred twenty dollars and ninety six cents for additional engine myriam services and approve a purchase order agreement with g m b in the amount of seventeen thousand five hundred dollars for snow melt design services for the central avenue reconstruction project am fourteen eat three point one two except as information the fiscal year two thousand and thirteen annual investment report as prepared by the finance department item fourteen eat three point two two accept as information the quarterly investment report for the second quarter of the fiscal year october through december two thousand and thirteen as presented by the finance department and fourteen e's three point three to adopt a resolution to add morgan stanley as an authorized firm to solicit bids for investment options subject conditions requested by the city attorney item fourteen east three point four to adopt a resolution authorizing prepayment of outstanding series two thousand and four building authority refunding bonds item fortini four point one to accept the reimbursement of seven hundred dollars from the adult county department of public health for the four october two thousand and thirteen through september two thousand and fourteen tobacco compliance checks that will be conducted in may through september two thousand and fourteen within the city limits fourteen eve five point two two approved a tentative agreement with the professional firefighters union local number seven fifty nine effective july one two thousand and thirteen through june thirtieth two thousand and sixteen and that the labor attorney be authorized to prepare the necessary adjustments to such agreement item fortini five point three to schedule a joint special meeting with the hound board of public works for their profile of a bond sale agreement for wednesday feb twenty sixth two thousand and fourteen at five thirty second floor training center at city hall fourteen five point five to approve a revoked license agreement with michigan pantry located at two ten south river avenue for the installation projecting sign as previously reviewed and accepted by the downtown development design review board all right thank you and if that is what is presently on the consent agenda what we will do at this point is our intention is to act on all of these items with one motion and one vote however we understand that just because perhaps we may have thought that they are relatively routine in fact you might be here for one of these items this evening so before we vote on these items we want to give the audience an opportunity to remove an item from the consent agenda or members of council to remove one or more items from consent so would anyone from the audience care to remove him from and sent jenna seeing none of the members of council care to remove fourteen the one point one neighborhood improvement committee item correct ok it is removed anyone else the mayor pro tem please yeah i'd like to remove fourteen year three point four please write the prepayment of the building authority bonds anyone else seeing no one else what is the pleasure of council on the amended consent agenda motion  whiteman yes extra yes clown parents yes good board yes mayor dykstra yes motion passes as amended ok thank you takes us then to item seven which is special presentations and recognitions we have such a presentation this evening and at this point i would invite our three distinguished guests to join me at the podium and we will continue from there copy of all three series volume and we'll talk a bit more about that but let me mention one thing i had the great opportunity a couple of times to meet and interact with a gentleman by the name of russell shorto and shorto is a new york times best selling author who has at least a couple of books that have are very very popular one of which is actually on the new york times bestseller list called the island in the center of the world the history of new york in the dutch era so new amsterdam and his new book is the history of amsterdam in the netherlands itself i would note that both of those books were only one volume so the history of new amsterdam was one volume history and one volume history of holland cannot be contained the history of all segments of our community throughout its history venter all the institute took up its work twenty years ago last month when founding director dr out broads sat down at a desk in the corner of an office for retired faculty members at the college now we have ten staff members for honorary research fellows in the netherlands and one or two annual research fellows  throughout the years the latest and most significant publication that we have had in our twenty year history is the one that we are prepared to present to you  published through represents the india title of the series and swearing god has managed not only to produce three volumes but three volumes which are highly readable have holland to be an example to the world in the twenty's the world was an example to holland and the tension between the roaring twenty's and holland's cultural conservatism you'll have i thought since holland has a new logo they needed a new history i'm sure there's no town in america of say under one hundred thousand population that will have a history like this in this comprehensive nature so it's a it's built pleasure for me to have done this i'm not a native to holland i've only lived here eighteen years but i probably know no more about the city's history now than most people who've lived here their lives so anyway it's a pleasure for me to present this time i want to thank some people bob vander vest who's got the camera there read several chapters the one on the harbor and the one on railroads commission and nancy de boer had me on her radio program seven or eight times to talk about the book and mike the three ways wife laurie helped an awful lot by scanning photos and cropping them and using photoshop for appreciate your work and your interest and work in this community of course we certainly appreciate that this gift it will be displayed well on the desk and will remain in the mayor's office for awaiting volume for some time in the future is a history of every city institution wonderful from the cemeteries to the library excellent well thank you very much graduations these men are dedicated to their craft and if you've ever spent any time in the federal to institute you know that they they may be primarily retired faculty members but you wouldn't guess it by the work that they do i will say however even though they were  pleased to be here tonight and we also should mention that these these volumes are for not the ones that were presented tonight but the books are for sale and you can find them at hope's bookstore you can find it i believe on amazon or in royalty institute website and you can find some information information there but tonight while they were pleased to be here they also did say this will be toward the beginning of the council meeting actually over to the de vos field house for the hope calvin game work and dedication scholarship has its limits so calvin knight thanks guys again we appreciate it  then it takes us down to item number twelve which is communications from the audience this is the opportunity for members of the audience to address council on matters that do not otherwise appear on the agenda all we ask is you state your name and residential address for the record you step forward to the podium and you will see right beneath me a series of lights that will come on to be a green light yellow light at one minute mark and then the red light means five minute time has expired so with that good evening  you can actually hand them to the clerk she will make sure that they are there inserted into the record i would ask that if there for example are any personal information like social security numbers or anything like that and that shows up on those documents that we re no thank you thank you we certainly hope and expect that your obituary will not and in fact need to be printed for many many years but the police chief is with us tonight and i'm sure he's taking down some notes as the temperatures especially get warm are part of what the public safety department does is place a traffic camera not traffic camera traffic  g the microphone is still open for public comment good evening senator and welcome mr baer members of council closure to be with you saving not often back in the district on wednesday night but it's one of those nights that i am back  i saw that you had a meeting want to make sure that i stopped by and first was this was i thank you i served in local government as well before i served at the state level and i know the phone calls you get are not had a void nice job here you're getting mostly from people you know probably relatives about city issues but thank you for what you do i stand before you today and i'm very proud to serve with this governor who again presented his budget that is balanced and will be completed on time for the fourth year in a row it's hard to imagine as we talked about history just a little bit earlier from the gentleman that three short years ago michigan the state of michigan was nearly broke we had enough money in our savings account to run the state government for state government for about twenty minutes we were one point eight billion dollars in deficit and again as i said nearly broke three years in a row we produced balanced budgets with some very difficult very disciplined very and very much prioritizing our spending we could put forward a budget that the citizens would respond to and understand that we knew a sterrett was in our place so we've done that over three years now in the fourth year  and at the at the budget year that will be completed starting october of this year we will have almost seven hundred million dollars in the bank so i don't know how many of you have had one point eight billion dollars deficit and now have seven hundred million dollars in the bank  this this this governor has done a particularly good job he is a problem and he solves it with a number solution he's almost a political he's just trying to make michigan a better place and it really has done a terrific job along the way we've also reformed a lot of different things i don't mean insurance workers compensation a number of other things regulatory scheme got rid of the michigan business tax made a fairer flatter simpler tax system and the revenue started in respon we continue to see upticks in at and i would say it's starting to become a pattern that the revenue is increasing because the more of our people are back to work that they're producing things for our economy and they're happy to have jobs and i think we've seen that particularly in west michigan in fact i'm getting calls from a lot of business owner saying we can't find people qualified people to do the jobs that we need to have done and that's a good problem to have we could probably have a touch just briefly on detroit  i hope you are bullish on detroit as i am i think that we need your state and that michigan is a great state but it's not going to be as great if we don't have to try and they've certainly had their share of problems and misgivings and corruption and all of that but can you in invision in the last thirty years that the city of detroit would aleck the mayor write in ballot i think that's almost ballot on the mayor of detroit this guy's very gifted has run detroit medical center he's been a prosecutor there doing and i think has some big challenges in front of them but i think given him a balance sheet that's clean the bankruptcy will be completed i think under kevin ors leadership is doing a very very very good job very difficult job probably something that should have been fifteen or fifteen or twenty years ago but i hope if you're like me you've traveled around and people such as you where were you from the the next thing they knew usually say as are you from detroit now you can say yeah we turn around detroit it's going to be it's going to be ok it's not maybe not going to be right away and not without some more difficulty and i think we have this paperwork to run for senator again next time this fall if you are so inclined i would appreciate your consideration for indorsement i'm just happy again to be here scuse my voice and partly their voice but thank you council members again for what you do open good evening ken and welcome thank you can freestone eight forty five e state street in holland well i wanted to close out a little chapter of a calmer zation that's been going on for the last several weeks on the city logo  city emblem i was there courage by a few people to finish the conversation i started it or at least ordered a portion of it in a very public way on my facebook page and then go off on twitter it was it was in a variety of different places so i thought well i'll finish it out and close that chapter of if there's continued conversation we want to have and that's that's fine i got three areas that i wanted to cover one was the community involvement and comments about involvement method of introduction to the community and the use of the logo itself and those three things again this will be fairly short because we've had a lot of conversation that you've each received a letter from me as well as the city manager and  other staff members have received a letter from me about the logo in the conversation that went on it was also posted on my facebook page so lots of people got a chance to see it so it's not like it's been hidden i just tucked away someplace or gave it to just a few people a little taken aback by the way the logo was introduced to the community and if this is supposed to be branding for our community government then it would seem like it would you would wanted more community input i was a little concerned with the way it was introduced on the agenda presented voted on and it was not on the agenda that evening so no one really knew about it so no one really was here to comment on it so it was it was very interesting i thought that was a little bit odd there were a quote that took me back and they were tweets that went out between a few people and one was it said some people kind of took it there were a little bit offended by it when it was too many cook spoil the meal when someone said why don't we have people involved and designed by committee always fails and neither innovates or challenges i get that in the private sector especially having come from a marketing approach as background i completely understand that but we are not a committee we are a community and as a community many people felt that this should have been more open and inclusive process and i always i always think of this as nonprofit and government do not belong to non profits and government they belong to all of us so it's an open process if you're a nonprofit it's cooked for the community good if it's city government or other government it's open for the community good so it should have w discussion and interaction the method of introduction to the community and i was a real pleased with that but i and i think that maybe one study section maybe doesn't have to be likely lengthy discussions we hold will have a lot of other things that are mandated to have public hearings and multiple hearings and presentations as at whether it's at study sessions or city council before they can be voted on again this is something if those are the i think maybe one or two study sessions would have been more appropriate again doesn't have to be lengthy discussions mandell up exactly where we are right now with the exact same logo but i think again a little more inclusion and more discussion would have beneficial and just that the use of the logo right now before you start branding it everywhere it's being used quite a bit makes you know ever since the night you announced it in right after that was on powerpoint presentations it was on the b w presentation boards when they were when they were on the screen but when i look at the logo in several different formats and the way it's presented like the way it is right now where it's the single color on a background it doesn't resonate nearly as well it doesn't have the same meetings that were well introduced and well explained by adam wyler and i think that it's lacking some in some of the powerpoint slides that the b p w had the colors with that on the front of it the logo absolutely just doesn't say anything in that format with its color and on the right backgrounds it does jump out i like it overall i think it needs a little tweaking i think it could use a little just meant some of the other comments  colors when it was printed could have been a little bolder but it's for me at seventy five or eighty five percent there it's it's got pretty good potential as old when i look at the fabric on the little symbol that comes up on a web page at the tab at the top or when i was searching for something on my phone the other day we had a council meeting the little symbol that comes up next to it just shows the top part of the logo with the red with the x it almost looks like the symbol for closing that out it doesn't jump out as welcome a welcome this is nice it just shows an x the didn't really resonate real well again the way it's portrayed or the way it appears it doesn't quite come out really really well  so anyway i think that overall and i would also predict in a couple of larger formats the c e o comes out if you're thinking about using it on banners or large format print or promotional products try it in those formats first before you keep going with it i've had a really good discussion with adam while er and he and i are meeting on some other stuff to talk about some other creative projects in the community and i congratulate him on all the work that he did a tremendous amount of work so thank you for letting me have that conversation present the information to you and letting the community have some of that input and then provide it for you also good thank you thank you messed up when you come back and say one more thing about just about the sixteenth street and  kenna's sandwiched between elected officials this evening good evening commissioner good evening mr barrett members of the council this is my first report to you are the elegant county government of for two thousand and fourteen so i want to wish you a belated happy new year and when i do update you in a couple projects that we have going really heavy emphasis the first half of the year of public safety we are nearing completion of the  adjacent county so they can see this facility actually will probably finalize those dates yet this weekend will be getting information out to all of you and other elected officials inside our county as well as the general public so that they can see what is probably the largest capital project at eighty billion dollars in allen county's last fifty years how would you promise know that once you're the facility you will let death of mr happy at the beginning of december the we are trying to make sure that as the michigan department of transportation takes in new data the traffic situation they seek a more permanent safety for the sake of trucks and commuter traffic particularly of that corridor and we tend to pay close attention that we get  more final safety fix to that situation i don't city engineer mr white has been evolved to as well as share of coke's but i think it requires also some attention from those of us who represent the citizens who travel that area  is important component of it and i would add you know the senator was kind enough to report on the budget situation the governor also has put in some extra money his budget proposal for road repairs as i the county it once again i proud to report that allen county is number one in the production of hogs in the state of michigan and number three of the production of eggs and we are climbing the ladder of  jurisdiction but it's under michigan department transportation jurisdiction and they're performing not just another review i think it enhanced review after the december tragedy another comment i'd like you to know of course or not you know but like you to share adjacent touchups we hold office hours for the first monday of the month at five thirty right here in the council chambers and sometimes he can't make it sometimes i can't make it but it doesn't matter we share those notes with each other it's a chance for wherever you live either count either side of thirty second street that you can tell us keep have with the coding cover the respective coty governments so i thank you for bringing it up here i do appreciate that thank you very much for coming tonight  folks in in allegan county congratulations to your emergency preparedness director who i believe was just elected to the head of a national organization so yes congratulations are in order yet scott corben is our emergency all right we will then move on to item number fourteen he one point one the neighborhood improvement committee report the item that was removed from consent one of the items removed from consen city manager i believe will give us a brief introduction this item thank you mr mayor members of the city council this item it was a product of work that was produced by phil meyer and joel dot neighborhood movement committee in relation to the ongoing efforts to improve the quality of life in all neighborhoods this particularly pertains to multi family rental homes and possible conversions to single family owner occupied homes via incentives these incentives would centrally be a reduction in the normal fees if you approve this item tonight with the expectation that the be given as a rebate once the homes are converted back to single family  and the project is complete we do have a number of non profits in the community that are making significant strides in this regard as well as many individuals who are attempting these restoration projects as well and all will be treated  by the same in the same manner so with that i will answer any questions or i know phil is here in the audience and would be happy to swell all right questions from members of council all right a motion reasonable to have some additional discussion on this you know and not necessarily opposed or for it but i think it goes behoove us to at least ponder this little bit i know that rentals and how do we balance rentals with single family homes was an issue of probably greater than than just this particular one couple of points that i think i made and i asked certain was a question of fairness of a few scripts structure fees are cover the real costs of doing business they are basically to make sure things are to code in a quality workmanship manner and is really in essence a cost of doing business and do we really need a two tiered program for this i think secondly we need to think about that single family homes versus multifamily residences are important no matter their size or their composition they are very valid citizens and neighborhood calm composition is kind of a tricky thing oftentimes people who live for example and hope college area are not so happy about having all the rentals with students and yet on the other hand there comes a time when they perhaps wish to sell their properties and perhaps their properties will go and will be in higher valued if they were converted into a multifamily kind of situation so it kind of depends a little bit about where you stand and how it affects you if i have a correct in a recent study in a walk through the city actually showed the kirby valuation of homes that were until  actually many times were on the outside were taken care of better than those that were owned by individual families etc so our big concern or my big concern is that we have good quality affordable housing not only for college students but young adults who are starting out on their own families who have relocated the city of holland families and others that are on fixed incomes you know i think we have to be really careful about not just saying we need to convert rental property or two or multifamily into single family is the only way to go so i would like to have you know really ponder that through and maybe there are some really good arguments for doing it but i would hope that we weigh it carefully all right thank you any other comments on it and as i would say that the goal is variety that we don't want an area overtaken with only one type of housing and it's important to have different types of housing available in neighborhoods so it's harder to incentivize somebody to go from from rental to owner occupied rather than from horner occupied to rental and i'm not on the neighborhood improvement committee but those who are i around quite a tune to what's been going on in holland and it's neighborhoods from this perspective and i appreciate their input and respect their judgment as a body with this recommendation i think it's worth a try but this issue is we've been looking at for several years and this is before even the formation of the neighborhood improvement committee and to echo what nancy said we we want to see it as a strong diversity socioeconomic of and mix of both rentals and owner occupied so what we see especially in our core neighborhoods these are my neighborhood on these are my neighbors is a preponderance of rentals and so we want to see more single family homes to bring additional stability we don't to get rid of all the rentals that would be foolish we need strong rentals in our community but we need the stability that comes with owner occupied and  so this is a this is an issue that we've been facing for for years are a question we've been trying to answer for years and i think that's at least gets a started down that path right i think we know we've had certainly some discussion about this has come from the compounds mentioned that in earlier study session with that unless there are other comments the motion is to approve the recommendation please call the r yes notion passes all right thank you then we drop down to another item that was removed from consent item forty three point four which is the calling or prepayment of the revenue bonds or not the sorry the building authority bonds upper haps the finance director mr wagner might come in up and give us a very brief introduction of this particular matter good evening mr wagner thank you very action council the city of hundred ninety seven and the bonds were issued on the library to help construct that structure in two thousand and four those bonds were consolidated in what's called a refund ing of those bonds at a lower rate of interest as we've gone through a period of time now those last couple years worth of bonds can be paid off early and we have the opportunity to basically either refund those again or to prepa those the city has ended the past couple years in a in a little better solid financial condition and i'm recommending that the city council consider an early payment of the two bonds it would otherwise be paid in fiscal fifteen and fiscal sixteen be prepared from the existing general fund balance that would take our general fund veils down from about four million to just over three million it would allow for  about a half a mill not to be have to dedicated towards debt service in next year's fiscal budget and we discussed in the council retreat the possibility of utilizing those funds and al katyn them towards streets so what i'm proposing we do is make an early payment of that on these bonds to the extent of nine hundred thirty five thousand dollars and that those funds would come from the general fund balance and that would as you see in the end the slide in front of you that would cause that little bar in the fart chart there to dip down back to where it has been the prior ten years or so and i believe that's a good use of money it allows the city to save approximately sixty thousand interest dollars there could be some nets earnings on that nine hundred thirty five thousand dollars for quite honestly there's not much to be earned these days  so i'm projecting a savings of approximately fifty two thousand dollars if we if we pay these bonds that would otherwise come due in fiscal fifteen and fiscal sixteen now thank you all right thank you mr wagner any questions related to bit of a theme going here between the comments that so army cough made about the financial turnaround of the state of michigan over the last few years i think this speaks well for the city of holland as well  be able to have the revenue available again as the economy improves to be able to prepay some debt and some to save some possible interest payments and  put put those to better uses i think this just speaks to good fiscal responsibility so any other comments please i will just echo what the mayor pro tem has said i think if you would have told us five years ago or even two years ago that we'd be in a position to have sufficient cash reserves built up to be able to prepay some of this outstanding debt most of us would have thought you were we're not all together well in the mind clearly we've gone through some pretty significant in trying fiscal times as a city but through good leadership through senior management former city manager wolf burnt city cop and through direction by this and previous councils i believe that our fiscal position is so much stronger and it is i would say probably unrivaled among other michigan cities of similar composition you know we have a healthy mix of  race income levels manufacturing and commercial and residential properties were a full service city with a full service demographic and the fact that we're able to prepay some of this debt and free up those dollars for the potential other uses or savings for the taxpayers of this city i think is a very good thing and demonstrates that we're in a far different footing today than what we were even a couple of years ago please call five point one which brings us to gifts the city manager's office is pleased to report the following gifts when the island is one repair fine received in an amount and not amisse donation in the amount eighty three dollars second street in the amount of thirty five dollars and seventy cents and from gentex corporation in about fifteen thousand dollars when my island carousel received two anonymous donations for a total amount of forty dollars holland in bloom received a donation of one thousand dollars from her college and the digraph nature center received one thousand dollars from rather for an associate in addition public safety services department police division received a donation from g m s america company in the amount of two thousand dollars for the canine unit it is recommended that the said donations be accepted with appreciation in an expression of gratitude be forwarded to the donors what's the pleasure of counsel motion  of the three removed items from the consent agenda that is a fourteen point two sorry about that the human resources approval of the fire labor contract and with for that we again turn to the city manager thirtieth there is a there is an impasse that has led to mediation there were two or three mediation sessions on top of the sixty eight negotiating sessions in advance the negotiating team  found that it was impossible to resolve it through mediation and recommend to the council this matter proceed to arbitration short of arbitration there is much more session held at which time significant changes were made by by the parties at the table in a manner that results in a tentative agreement before you tonight this tentative agreement is pegged to the other city compensation in relation to the annual increase of two point four percent it also represents a possible increase it's a three year contract in your two and three of whatever the other non contractual ways of the city decides to compensate not to not to fall below one point five percent more significantly however is a payment toward the employee defined benefit pension in the amount of one percent in the next year and two percent in the subsequent year this is something that is not infrequent i'm not sure if it has happened here before and it represents a significant opportunity cost savings to the city of holland the other thing involved in this contract is that employees any new employees would be hired in at of a lower rate in representing what's going on in the labor market and the fact that that medical insurance needs to equal in other way and in the way that it's compensate for the present contribution by the employee as as the other employees need to contribute as well so it's standard it has some cost sharing that never before existed and it also leads to a three year contract it which case we can get back to business of running the services that we all are hired to perform all right very good any questions for the city manager i believe our human resources director is also here this evening and if there are questions for her otherwise if there are none a motion would be in order to reprove moved by her extra support that i don't have huge objections and i actually applaud city staff greg shouted i know we know that these are not easy you know this is not has never been easy oh this one appears to have gone smoother than i've we've seen others it pass and that's why i guess my thoughts become very i thought very measured  the fact that we are continuing with a defined benefit plan if i did it i have a conflict i understand why we're doing it ryan has made a very strong case as has to however the the market around us just does not seem to be going in that direction still and while we see a very strong short term benefit in the fact that we don't we but to a defined contribution plan we would have significant upfront costs we would not have those under this i completely understand that i guess my interest is the what we are paying in fifty years  but the people who are currently under this plan are eighty five years old and still very spry because we're smart innovative people with great health care that's that's that  and you know that i appreciate all the work and i just i just want to make sure everyone the staff knows that i think i have a conflict with this if anything so it's not your work it's just the institution of defined benefit plans in general because when weightman care to add anything to that not just you know in similar shared thoughts relative to the defined benefit and i've talked about those in our study sessions and conversations relative to this particular contract and other contracts quite frankly and then i would i would just add the additional note in and again i celebrate some of the things that we attained out of this and i know we talk about  you know some of the increases in the in participation in benefits in health care and things of that nature and we've talked much over the past few years and one big hang ups for me and again i celebrate the staff's work on this one of the hung up with philosophically is you know the the increases that now match the the staff as a whole the non bargaining unit and the general city staff and i i find that somewhat ironic because in years previous the very nature of a collective bargaining agreement afforded the opportunity to say no i don't want that increase i want my own that's protected by my contract i find that very very ironic but also with this one there's a floor and i've said this out loud there's a guarantee one provide one point five percent floor that our other staff don't get and and so those are built thoughts combined with a shared thought on what brian expressed it is leads me to where i'm a again i plod staff and i understand the nature of this but in the long term big picture thing for me i still find it difficult to embrace so does involve some concessions on their part as ryan's pointed out and i don't want to run into burning buildings and i don't want to be called out in this kind of weather to help people with medical emergencies i think these these people put their lives on the line for us i really appreciate what they do i don't want this discussion to be only about how much we can get out of them and how much less we can give them an appreciation for what they do for us so i think it's also important to tap to express our appreciation for them especially in the weather that we've been having and all that they have stepped up to the plate to do for us not just in fire but i know the transportation department as well and and the police and kind of where there were all the rest of us go underground these people are out facing it all standing out there helping us taking care of us and i'm just very grateful for that and so i do realize we have financial considerations we have legacy costs but i also really appreciate what they do and i would want this discussion to and with only that anyone else also i'm just trying to perfect it and again you talk to different people and different people will go on both sides of this question i think one of the really great things is one of our top five priorities for this coming year is the study of pensions so i would hope that during this next year that i'm going to be able to better understand the pros and the cons of each of these as well as hopefully other people and say ok rather than having certain biases what are the true facts and how do they really plato so i'm really looking forward to that and i'm open to it firefighters or other employees are valued or not i don't believe that this discussion is anything to do with whether or not it's the underlying merits of the contractor good or bad i think it has more to do with the philosophical question that we've moved  almost all of our employees from a defined benefit situation into a defined contribution situation a time like this for the these members of the fire union would be the time where we could do that and we have not done it now that being said i think this is a good result for us for the next three years and i think that ultimately it gets us more to where we want to be i believe that that the costs that will be shared bring the firefighters union in line much more so with the non union city employees and i think that as far as the automatic floor of wage adjustments on an annual basis will be consistent with what we will see in the nonunion sector of our employment because of the rising property values and cost of living inflation numbers so with that i am certainly appreciative for our negotiating team chanda and greg in particular as well as chief messer who is in the back i believe that that all sides negotiated in good faith they've come to a spot where i think any good negotiator will end and that is where everybody walks away equally unhappy because nobody in negotiation gets all that they want and the uncertainties that we would face by going t arbitration even with the revised three twelve rules that have been put into place under state law i doubt that we could get all that we want or frankly even better than what we have right now so with that i am pleased and grateful that  this matter will be resolved tonight i suspect and that we can continue on providing the services that we expect and that our employees able leave deliver please call them all band of us  yes motion passes seven yes to no all right thank you but then brings us to forty five point four amendment to a local and michigan strategic fund agreement a renaissance on matter with johnson controls  production in greg i believe you'll introduce this for us to give you some background on it back in two thousand and nine hundred really into an agreement not only with johnson controls but also with the state of michigan one hundred percent of the taxes except for voted debt milledge so taxes like that i think this particular property interestingly enough is into school districts i think it's in both hamilton and all public i'm not sure if there's voted in hamilton but there is in holland public that this particular property facility is painted exercise but otherwise the taxes are paid so this agreement we had two of them back in two thousand and nine one was a three way between the state of michigan johnson controls and the city the other was a local agreement between us and johnson controls it was based largely on that state agreement the terms of that fifteen year renaissance zone johnson controls was to invest over two hundred million dollars in the facility and they were to create over three hundred new jobs as part of this development now keep in mind back in two thousand and nine production a li ion batteries for vehicles was a very new endeavor so we've all learned a lot since that began we're still learning the industry still evolving and i think it's the result of the learning experience  johnson controls has asked to have those agreements amended somewhat one would reduce the investment required to one hundred fifty million by actually was december thirty one two provided at this property and the other one is to reduce the term of the renaissance zone for fifteen years down to ten years so that's five years sooner that the community here will realize the tax  impact in providing services and so forth as a result of this project so those are the three main components of the changes and again the recommendation is that you revise the local agreement to reflect these changes and also to revise the agreement with the state and johnson controls i will say that the state has already approved the agreement to change as well johnson controls so now it's up to you as part of that partnership th questions for staff i know we do have a representative johnson controls in chambers tonight and he's thinking my goodness why am i at the end of the agenda but we being here and sticking around sure that's my pleasure my name's kevin because nicky i'm vice president general counsel for the power solutions group which runs them out of work facility i want to thank the council for its consideration tonight and for your time me to speak a little bit but basically i'm just here to answer any questions you may have  the great job of summarizing the request in the amendments sought like he mentioned when we started this endeavor in two thousand and nine the promise was a lot quicker than it's come to market but we're committed to this market we're committed to this facility as has been mentioned a couple times tonight with fiscal responsibility chance controls we manage to the right at the decimal point so we're looking to continue the partnership with the city and that's why we're asking for these amendments to the development agreement that we've got with the city i'm hoping to touch upon another team that's been raised tonight and history one volume for comes out for the city how and you guys are sure are seen as a leader in the advanced battery space and that were you know a part of that story with you on that so i appreciate all the work that's been done so far and for your time tonight thank you mr carnegie any questions for our guests excellent thank you very what you've heard the report from staff you've heard from johnson controls are there any additional questions before we have a motion seeing none emotion would be in order please we've proved by weitzman were supported by hoekstra is there discussion well let me go ahead sorry councilman to bore yeah i just really appreciate j c s investment in innovation and you choice of holland i think it's been an amazing addition to the whole manufacturing of the area and and now we're so proud to be your host and so this would mean that in the year two thousand and nineteen we would see tax revenue from  great thank you anyone else care to comment i'll just echo some some of those comments and you know clearly johnson controls has been a major player in our community and has been not  just a great company that has come into town but it's been a great company that's also invested in our community post the acquisition of the prince corp clearly j c i is the he's investing heavily in new technology in a new industry and one that is taking some time to develop though i will tell you i happened to be at the facility yesterday for a meeting unrelated to any of this and the parking lot is maybe not exactly full but not far from it lots of people going to work early there early every day there and also they stay late every day lots of activity happening there they had you know they've got customers and more customers on the way and they're working hard to continue to not only build the the customer base they have in the industry base they have but also to expand that so they're doing all that any of us would ever hope any industry in our community would do providing investment working hard to make that investment successful and i can see your flounder step forward yet just want to touch on one thing that was mentioned we have invested one hundred fifty million by the end of last year we have some additional investments planned and we've created over one hundred some of the talent that johnson controls was assembling in this facility was you know of the highest quality also bringing to our community not just people from maybe southfield or milwaukee or holland but people really global talent from around the global tell from around the world that's kind of redundant i guess but certainly talent that could go anywhere and work in any space in any industry and they're choosing johnson controls and johnson controls is choosing us so i think it is a great partnership and as i mentioned earlier with any negotiations both sides give something in here johnson controls is asking for a reduction on some of its earlier commitments but they're also relinquishing some of the benefits they receive from the early renaissance so  has signed off on it and i think that it would be wise for us to do also because johnson controls success with this plant i think really means in many ways a good success for our community as well so with that and lester and of other comments passes unanimously excellent thank you anna thank you very much that then takes us down to item sixteen communications from the mayor this evening and i'd like to first handle our appointment issues not issue year term which means his act expires on january thirty one of twenty seventeen and i would ask for your motion to that effect in careful consideration so moved by weitzman support supported by  discussion on it saying an all in favor please say i pose the same that's passes mr mayor yes you seem to have looked over one item number fifteen possible my goodness i know you're going to get to the basketball game but the city manager probably does have something to say well my apologies mr city manager you have the floor mr mayor you do such a good job i have two things one is to recognize that until there is a thaw and snow banks continue to grow whenever things fall from the sky this is not a good thing on some of the narrow streets that are near  major employment centers and those streets in particular our streets crew will be spending time when they don't have new snow to plow in pushing back or removing snow or some combination depending on time and resources risk will result if it's a push back with some inconvenience both the noise at night as well as extra snow and driveways so we ask for people's patience as we do this the purpose is to ensure that there is room for emergency vehicles to pass at all times which has a great deal again for all next well speaking of emergencies we all have our and anecdotes about services and what it means to people on a case by case direct basis and i have one tonight i had occasion today to this to encounter in video has just returned to work after having suffered a massive heart ailment on christmas and then in vigil in addition to all the gratitude that one would feel at that moment i wanted to express gratitude to the holland public safety services who responded  n two minutes roughly in a manner which that person signifies saved her life so that is a testimonial to the value of the services rendered and she concluded with  that she got a return on her investment on her taxes thank you all right thank you communications for me this evening of course committee you can get ahold of us via finding out information about us that city of holland dot com email addresses telephone numbers the like as well as as much information as we can possibly throw out of the website we try to do so so that you don't have to come to city hall to receive services you can do it during the daytime during the night time from wherever you are around the world city of holland dot com is the web address and also find us on facebook and on twitter we had the opportunity thinking of what ryan was just talking about with some of the plowing activity we had the opportunity this evening to to take a look at the newest piece of equipment in our arsenal it is what we call the wing plow and it's a fancy new truck that hopefully will go into service soon i hope to go into service earlier but the mechanics and crews have been busy actually plowing and had not quite the amount of time to get it ready to go as what they had hoped it is a fascinating and wonderful piece of equipment one of the fun pieces is that this actually has a little laser right up there to mark the end of the plowing area so for the star trek geeks out here suppose it's airborne plow but the plow is is remarkable because it is what is called the wing plow meaning there's a back blade which will allow it to have a greater span of ploughing area and the blade then rises up when it is not in use so it's not always flopping around out there and you'll be happy to know that none of the members of council are authorized to drive the plo so that will be good for us all and all of our mailboxes and vehicles like this will really only be used on some of the more major streets you won't find this plow in the neighborhoods given its width so you know waverl washington those kinds of areas and one of the things that we've committed to especially in the times are we've had you know tightening of budgets is to invest in the kinds of technology that will make us more efficient and this plow in comparison to make they handed out a little piece of paper to us then and sort of with a comparison i snapped a quick picture of it but it's obviously heavier more powerful than our other plows and it has the problem most interesting aspect is the plowing with it is double what a typical plow would be  it costs a bit more but in the whole scheme of things as to what we'll spend in terms of snow removal for the next fifteen to twenty years that this will be in service you know it's a very good return on that investment and we have made a commitment that will invest in technology to be able to become more efficient and this is one of the examples of us being able to do so so look soon for a wind plow near you then finally tonight on a bit of a humorous note there is a basketball game going on between hope college and calvin college and if some of you are familiar with the former a b c reporter now c n n host jake tapper he had a bet with the mayor of denver on the super bowl and the bet was the bet actually so he gets that day off and that the mayor will be denver will be filling in for him then he says it would have been fun to be mayor so i have offered to jake if he'd like another shot at it he can take a bet on the hope calvin game tonight so far i haven't heard but the games early so will still take the open bet if he wants to do so on that light note or any other any communications from members of council this evening saying none just yet one private counseling but i can't let this one go the city manager mentioned that there may be some inconvenience with the snow removal of being done at night and i think the primary reason for that is because we don't have any cars parked at night i couldn't let that one go we were having such a placid meeting my all right any other communications from members of council this evening otherwise motions and resolutions from members of council otherwise the only motion we have left to make which would be guys have to jump in quicker on this stuff all right all right we understand that withdraw that motion i'm looking for a new motion to go into closed session for the purposes of litigation or this will be short yeah famous last words all right move by