good evening january fourth twenty seventeen it's a new year it's a new time and we're grateful for your presence here this evening we trust you had good halliday's and mazing  fast they go but they are good good times to connect with family and reflect on good things in life and also help those who are struggling about good things in life so we're our colleague councilman birch and after that we will join in the pledge of allegiance we'd ask that you would stand with us if you're able by your heads with me holy spirit of light and love you are the substantial love of the father please hear our prayer bounteous bestower of most precious gifts grant a strong and living faith which makes us accept all revealed truths and shape our conduct in accord with them give us the most confident hope in all divine promises which prompts us to abandon ourselves  y to you and your guidance infuse in us a love of perfect good will and act accordingly to your least desires make us love our enemies as our friends in imitation of your sacrifice holy spirit animate inspire and guide us and help us to always be true followers of you amen of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all still continue with the consent to gender this is a list of items that we have already discussed and we will proceed with voting once in order to pass all of those items however you may have come because you wanted to address one of those items in its sequence as it appears in the program and the agenda and we would do that if you come to the front and tell us your name address and which i removed so am now will read the entire list and after that i will open it up for you to come forward and take whatever item off the agenda to consent to gender that you would like so am i please present the consent agenda item for b to approve the minutes of the regular meeting held december twenty one two thousand and sixteen item for c to accept and file execute don'ts of office from various boards and commissions item twelve the one to appoint an ad hoc committee to review existing city owned properties that could be developed as recommended by the planning commission twelve eat two point one two accept the saw a bid to hire david klassen to complete work at ninety two east twenty second street with the cost be charged back to home to the homeowner if not paid be placed on the next year tax bill item twelve eat two point two to approve a request submitted by how in hospital for a temporary oversized banner to be placed on how improper at the hospital property for the acknowledgment of its one hundred years of service subject to payment of all permit fees item twelve e's three point one two approving agreement without accounting for the provisions of the suttons work abatement program for two thousand and seventeen authorized the mayor and deputy clerk to sign an agreement pending approval as to form by the city attorney with cost for the service be provided through the parks and submit terri's budget item twelve point one to authorize a fire division personnel to enter into the bidding process to purchase a pursue it twenty to seventy vote be an auction buy out of a county for an amount not to exceed twenty five thousand and to amend the fiscal year seventeen budget to purchase an item from the fun your vehicle replacement the rise of mayor and deputy clerk to sign all documents item twelve the six point two to approve the appointments of matthew scott grant hurst robin there in cairo i spoke to the p s v board said term from two thousand and seven three team to two thousand and twenty as recommended and item twelve east six point case you could come up to the podium give us your name and address and which of these items would you like us to remove thank you anna so we'll move and to the windmill island garden non motorized pathway update right please thank you america for this item we discussed upstairs is not was tabled till tonight until more information is available which is expected within the next two weeks so it's recommended we postpone this indefinitely till we know when is that right ron that's correct we have a motion to that effect is supported by conference all those in favor say aye or i post same sign that carries thank you now we are open for public comment this is a time when anyone in the audience could come forward to address council you're welcome to speak for five minutes there is a little light system green light means go yellow light means you have one minute and the red light means your five minutes are up so you just come to the podium give us your good evening any members of council thank you for the opportunity to dress you my name is steve gross i live at one forty seven west twelfth street in holland excuse me i'm addressing you because i was troubled by a quote in a recent newspaper article covering one of your december i feel this is something that needs to be either publicly addressed and or clarified i say clarified because i've been misquoted in the paper before and i know the damage it can cause i've also learned the hard way the puck controversial quotes sell  papers i've seen these have seen these taken out of context in order for them to seem even more controversial for those reasons i'm offering the benefit of the doubt with hopes that things can be clarified the quote i'm referring to as a council member unhappy with the state of how public schools and that the council is powerless to help just in case you don't know or any of you need clarification i can tell you that if you are looking for a top notch education that has historically had more national merit scholars per capita than any other local school there is nothing wrong with the state of home public schools i can also tell you that if you you're new to this country and don't speak english and that you're looking for a school system that is going to give you the best chance for academic success there is nothing wrong with the state home public schools we can go on and on with these examples but my time is limited i do though want to take this time to make sure you understand that you're not powerless to help your local schools let me give you three examples of how you can help first do what you can to push back on developers and organizations that are removing housing stock if you look or if you just look at hope college how in hospital in the new power plant construction projects have taken out complete neighborhoods i'm not condemning these projects they're all beneficial to the community but there are consequences in these decisions your city and your school district is landlocked with hardly any billable land each house or apartment building taken down is a lost opportunity please encourage that expansion of housing stock in new and exciting ways a second way is to support a plan for internet for everyone in the community i look at the new snow melt system up central and it's really cool last month when it snowed i saw people walking their dogs and jogging it will be a wonderful addition but the same day i saw people enjoying the new snow melt i was in a meeting where lack of home internet access for kids was discussed and it got me thinking about tradeoffs i'd love to see us make similar investment in our kids that are in need as we have in dry feet between downtown and african comments finally people that care in leaders in our community must speak out against the segregation that's happening within our public within public education in our city the data from the state of michigan is clear there is very little if any difference in education outcomes between our schools in our city but their populations are distressingly different if this type of segregation was happening in housing or in any other publicly funded concern there would be outrage we need to not be afraid to call this issue what it is and work to eradicate it thank you for your time and thank you for your service thank you steve we appreciate all your service of how public schools your leadership all those years thank you very much my name is sarah lefevre and i live at five seven three lawndale court like steve i'm here to respond to some recent comments by a council member published in the holland sentinel in december the comments made were in a response to a survey that the city of holland implemented conducted by the frost research in an open ended question about what residents of holland would like to see changed a response was given that suggested our local public schools are on a decline it is the response to this that i need to address according to the sentinel in a december fourteenth study session one council member said he's not happy with the state of holland public schools but there's not much council can do about it i am in one nine hundred ninety two graduate of holland high school and i am in my twentieth year of teaching at my b mater i'm curious if council could do something to change h p s what might you do to change h p s for lily lily as a current senior at holland high she's worked strategically with her counselors and teachers to graduate by january of this year while a student of how in public schools lily has cultivated a passion for loving and caring for people the marginalised the poverty stricken people she encounters she has worked to graduate early in order to serve for the next six months through world youth with a mission to directly care for these people and spread the good news of jesus christ i wonder what would you do to change holland public schools to better serve lily i'm curious if council could do something to change holland public schools what might you do to change holland public schools for rowe how leo came to the united states from mexico when he was three years old with illegal papers he has been a student of holland public schools ever since as of two weeks ago how leo has been accepted to four different four year universities i wonder what would you do to change how in public schools to better serve ro hollyoaks i'm curious if council could do something to change h p s what might you do to change h p s for mattie mattie was first in my speech class as a sophomore and it was clear after only a few days that maddie's anxiety and depression was too crippling to speak in front of her peers over the course of the next couple of years how in public schools has served and cared for mattie now she's a senior back in my speech class and earning one of the top grades in all my classes furthermore through her mass media class she has recently made a pitch to local business executives in the hopes of earning financial backing for a usable mass media app that she designed and created i wonder what would you do to change h p s to better serve maggie and i'm curious if council could do something to change h p s what you do for merida merida came to the united states six years ago from cambodia in search of a better life an education not able to speak a word of english merida work overtime with her teachers to not only get a handle on the language but to excel academically and now married as a senior she was crushed a couple weeks ago when she received word from the university of chicago that she was deferred by the next day her letter of acceptance from the university of michigan wiped away those tears i wonder what would you do to change h p s to better serve merida and i'm curious finally of council could do something to change h p s what you do for friends freddie serves as the hauen high school student council president he's currently leading a campaign at holland high that partners with other local high schools in an effort to raise money to build a house in holland for homeless teens i wonder what would you do to change how in public schools to better serve freddy these are not isolated exceptional examples these are current stories that mirror and represent thousands of stories just like it of kids who walk the halls of holland public schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade for generations so my question tonight is merely rhetorical the only thing i genuinely ask of all our city council members is that before you make comments please consider who you may be hurting saying that you are not happy with the state of holland public schools is a very on an informed perspective and it only serves as a punch in the gut to the very people the children the teachers the parents in the community members that you serve by sitting on this council thank council i watch you guys on t v periodical e and figure it's so easy it's easier to come a city council meeting than to try to catch it on on t v because it usually takes a couple hours of different times to watch it to get the whole thing so it is easier to come here and just listening not prepared to speak on what the previous people do but it hit me because i do have a son that goes to holland high  previously in november december he participated helped with the stage he was of the putting on mary poppins nine perform ten performances nine of them were sold out for over four hundred people per per performance he's got involved in he went to black river transfer to holland high he is able to participate in football yeah not a great team but a good i mean record but a good group of kids a diverse group of kids look at look at what the what is on that the people on that team the kids the background of those kids involved in classes i mean he's taking government a government advance chemistry american sign language english but we'll talk about that another day advanced calculus those are the things that he's involved in at holland high i'm not don't get there to see what's going on but i hear what he's doing i see what what is going  on and yeah it does concern me when i guess is it would be the question of the council member that made that comment have they spent time in the school have they researched truly researched what's going on in the school talked with the kids talked with the parents about it or was it an off the cuff comment based on something else if it was truly based on research then yes but if it was an off the cuff comment then yeah ok you guys got some you got out of a problem you're not doing your job think about that that's what i have thank you thank you to handle any other comments or questions thank you thank you for caring about the community thank you for taking time to come here tonight comments that were shared have my own particular closeness down public schools steve i appreciate your comments as far as context and and and whatnot and i think it least for the seven plus years that i've been around this diocese this group has placed a huge emphasis on decorum in what we do particularly were in that when we're in this room on television  we're probably on our best behavior at least the best we can muster up on any given night amongst strenuous dialogue disagreement at times more times than not though votes that are nine and the listening public to fully understand that the comment at least by my estimation and i was in the room and i was very proximate of the conversation even a participant in the conversation and i will tell you it was one of the most difficult that i've been part of in my seven and a half years and i suspect for those of us that have been around the table even longer probably for them as well but i won't speak for them it wasn't a shining moment for anybody in the room to single one person out in the newspaper quite frankly in my opinion lacks a lot in the world of professionalism integrity you name it that it was a forty five minute discussion it was a snippet i will agree wholeheartedly that that there are things that th city can do this council can do to contribute to our public schools as well as any school that has a footprint in this city i think we have that obligation regardless of which choose which school i choose to send my kids to or which school council member brian birch to send his kids to and maybe someday bryan land if he has a little shavers running around as a college highlight may choose to send his kids somewhere but i will say this we can do more and i suspect we will do more it means that we get out of our silo and i emphasize we not one but nine of us along with administrat and we have more frequent meetings with the school board in understand the issues that confront us this conversation did not start two weeks ago folks i'm sorry but it did not that's the context that we need to understand this conversation started about a year ago quite frankly and maybe even beyond that relative to washington school and a comment that was made there relative to the health of public schools subsequently a comment that was made at the planning commission about the health of holland public schools which was only a snapshot i will concede and sarah appreciate your willingness to go in to personalize this and really talk about the students because that's the that's the stuff that gets lost when we have policy conversation but this started a long time ago and we need to resolve some of that and we need to get at the table in understand one another in the objectives in the  places where we can come together and move the needle forward by my estimation a lot of times we find ourselves playing from behind relative to the need of the school or the need of the city and how it might relate to the school and so i appreciate everyone's comments yes i'm going well out of my way to defend a colleague and friend because it started out by being said that  it was a misquote out of context true both in my head and then therefore we need to reset the conversation and if we're going to reset it it means leaders being at the table more frequently talking about real issues and not whether  i understand the health of another entity or my my understanding of their operations so that's my long way of saying let's try a new paradigm let's try some new procedures together i have the blessing of going home tonight and being real close to home and public school board member and will source some of those things out over tea and bill talk there are a lot of great stories that have come out of how in public schools it's they just don't always get told and now i think we we need to do a better job no situations ever going to be perfect the challenges of education nowadays are limitless and the kinds of things that have a costed that education system in the last ten years are mind like two a very static system before that and now there's been a lot of changes a lot of nimble movement really for that large an organization to accommodate everything that has happened that has come down from the state level and so i i have a lot of respect for  how things have been handled and the difficulties that have to be addressed than the teachers who have given their  careers and their lives really to build into those students to give them a better future and to walk alongside them so inspiring so please realize that we care about the community as a whole and we're here to do the best job that we can to help everybody work together and as todd has said we really would like more conversation i worked toward that when i first started as mayor to have a combined board meeting but it didn't work out so but maybe the time is right to try again i really like to have conversation about how the world of leadership can be a lonely place and be great to have people that can talk with each other about things so thank you very much for taking time thank you for your investment in the community for and trusting your children and for making this community a better place by your being a part of it thank you this is what we didn't need to talk about to highway commercial district but they own one property down in kind of the southwest corner of their automotive campus and this is located at the northeast corner of sutlers road and tenth street that is currently zoned are to whoever is being used in it has been used for literally for decades for the storage of vehicles and so forth that is a non conforming use of that property and it's kind of a gravel parking lot and barber for de is a been working quite a bit and improving their entire campus but done a lot of work on the buildings improving them and this coming year they would like to extend those improvements to exterior portions of the campus and one of the things that they would like to do if this rezoning is successful and they also would need to come in for an administrative site plan review but they would like to spruce up the entire area there by bringing this portion of the property is proposed to be rezoned into a larger vehicle display and sales area along sutlers road here so in order to do  improvements and put in a lot of new landscaping and so forth to better shield residents street and as well as just to make it much more appealing to the motoring public on the us thirty one and so forth  they do need to have that up property rezoned to the sea to district so city council did look at this for the first time you accepted it for first read it or your dim suburb twenty first meeting  planning commission held the required public hearing for the set there december thirteenth meeting in unanimously of voted to recommend the approval of this rezoning to a city council that's going to look great thank you ok we're and the  yes twelve b ok recommendation the city council to appoint an r f p committee for city on property rights well our senior planners here this is an action of the planning commission so you might need to return but i'll just attempt to say briefly that there is a recommendation for you from the planning commission pertaining to map and data associated with city of parcels council discusses up stairs and there's a thought that needs more conversation turned over to members council who i think would like to propose a motion this is their motion support supported by little discussion a launching discussion as i said i plan a commission have been asking for this for several weeks and this is the result of some conversation we had  as a result of the seven parking lot seven c conversation and members of the community who were frustrated with i guess our decision plenty commission's decision council's decision  to effectively look at one of our properties as a sellable in developable property that which was from their perception not on the table and several us on planning commission and i looked at that and said well let's actually look at the properties and evaluate those and let's create an ad hoc committee and create a plan a plan that would allow developers who had an interest in properties in the city to take effective action or inform staff more appropriately on the type of action they could take on a particular property so that's what this is intended to satisfy as part of it there are several it would be a community ad hoc board and try to reopen my well genda people with extensive related backgrounds in terms of development that doesn't mean that they have to be developers but they could be planners they could be people in the community who understand planning and development again is at the decision of council to approve those individuals that said they could also create our piece for properties that could sit in a filing cabinet and be pulled out if used as necessary and it was unanimously approved by the by planning commission and we think that's a pretty good idea to move forward on  yes mike the promise of this is great i like the idea but i think there's as we did upstairs is a lot of discussion as to what this committee first of all the make up second of all its responsibilit was who is going to be responding to and what the outcomes are so i think we need a little bit more time at this point i'd like to make a motion to table the motion support ok move  that is table he is applying for a class c chord or improvement district liquor license and to be located in the columbia arts district in october of two thousand and seven city how an adopted a resolution creating the columbia arts district as a corridor improvement development authority we went through all the procedures with the assessors to make sure that there's been at least two hundred thousand in public and private investment in real and personal property and it has been exceeded by double the amount in the applicant has complied with all the requirements for the city's liquor license policy what we're asking of council is to adopt a resolution that we could for him to the liquor control commission with your recommendation of approval for mr hill to receive this liquor license request thank you and i had read that in the packet but it wasn't on my  at he's proposing to do growler fill up this is the way you would have to go for this type of any other questions or comments yes thank you the city manager's office is pleased to report the phone gives parks and recreation for the digraph nature center land improvement project exhibits were received from the first family foundation in the amount of two thousand six hundred gail klassen in the amount of fifty my apologies about your with the needs parks and recreation digraph nature center for the adopt any animal program receive various donations in the total amount of four hundred needy dollars parks and recreation present digraph nature center in kind donation store credit from john avian and back in the amount of one thousand five hundred hours for wild bird feeding station parks and recreation veneral to farmhouse and bark through the community foundation of the highland zero zero m area and the amount to one thousand and the public safety services police division honor guard received a one hundred dollar donation from adam israel's it is recommended that these donations be accepted was post same sign that carries wow what a wonderful amazing list and such amazing people wow thank you community for your support in so many ways communications from the city manager no oh yes we have to do the civic center community fundraising report yes we have to  run as council knows there's been a multi year effort to reinvest in the civic center reimagine that building in a way that will be focusing on event and wellness center in the future unless as a the in the amount of two million dollars about a year later we're very fortunate thanks to leadership on council that the hayward corporation made a donation of a million dollars or five hundred thousand in cash and five hundred thousand in furniture to support the project such that the city council decided in july to proceed with conceptual design and and that has moved to its granite design and now you're at the detail design phase with that comes the last events happening at the civic center in the next couple months as we know it and there is surplus property associated with the building that won't be needed in the future the bleacher seats for example some of the chairs on the a balcony will be removed in to make room for the north hall a multipurpose spaces there's opportunities to purchase trees benches have  families recognized memorial contributions planned into the project and the time is now to to make some of those changes so the staff imagined some of the opportunities here and as you see on the screen there could be on a first come first serve basis an opportunity for people to purchase some of this surplus material as momentos of their time spent in the facility and or for other reasons there's opportunity to be recognized and to recognize their families paper blocks large trees other trees you auditorium seats there are some events planned that concerts and some last make sure everyone knows at the last couple of events coming up in the next couple months the second page deals with potential guest list potential naming rights and as discussed in council of stairs the  meeting there's a lot of unknowns in relation to the actual cost for some of those potential facilities and how that would function in relation to the the overall building and what gets built and when need more discussion of reflection so that is although this is on your packet for except for information it's the intent of staff to further explore the second page with you  subsequent meeting involving probably some other professionals who who can assist in and deicing us however the first page is very timely and we'd like to proceed this month or next and first come first serve basis more to follow in terms that detail but at least with your support except for information will know that we ground to proceed with as much due diligence as we can must thank you ryan so would you like to have a motion to accept this full thing as information would you like ted divide it up so the first page is accepted with for full information on the second page i would like divide it up as we talked about upstairs they're open for a motion discussion in that that outlines many of the accomplishments that the city of holland has done over the last fiscal year a large document ryan's office met with the communications team and some additional folks  spice that annual report up a little bit so i'm going to actually throw some stuff here for my laptop one of the things that we wanted to do with that is we wanted to make it a piece that was very easily digestible for folks this is a pamphlet that was produced nancy gillis up in community neighborhood services has some some skills that she helped work with the communications team put that up there real quick and you can just see this is a real quick one page pamphlet that we're able to handle people they can see that see what we've done in a very quick way we want to dig a little bit deeper bill bennett and the rest of the communications team fill in our i t staff worked with taking that annual report again bring it down just a little bit and creating a website where how an annual report dot com it goes back to the three years you can see we've again taken the items that are in that annual report really added some visuals to them and a lot of people to come and this happens to be the the public safety piece of it there are many items on that first page and then someone can come in and things that those folks have done obviously in much better weather than we have outside today but the final piece and what's usually pretty popular for folks is video right we do video  that's great thank you so much matthew today's world you can't just use printed sheets of paper anymore it's not a way to communicate and it's great when i can have such a creative exciting team to put things together in a way that makes the information accessible to people and enjoyable so we can learn about what's going on and and come out have better off because of it that anybody i show that pamphlet to says wow there's a lot of good things going on in holland and we're very grateful for the huge team that it takes to do all the good things to report on in that pamphlet and then the gifts of the people that put it together to tell the story saw and all those videos i think halves you can say that they were working to have great relations with the community and the police officers and but when you show  the faces of everyone as they relate to each other it says a much deeper message than again just the printed page so thank you for all that all that work and that it's wonderful we really appreciate having a story told in such a great wife for the public thank you ryan did you have anything out so you want to talk about just one thing that we counsel knows had worked on some downtown parking changes and all of which you reviewed and considered and gave support to subject to future budgets and other things to come there has been a misunderstanding and as it's no fault of anyone's and  some people have gotten the impression employees that they would now under this scenario need to park at the civic center parking lot can't park anywhere else just look at the lot that's not the case so i want to make sure everyone watching it works downtown knows that there's really no change for where employees can park in fact it's the same what we are doing as you know is making it easier for customers to park and anything changing for the employees and the civic center of course is there but it's not a requirement that people park their thank you thank you ron we appreciate the employees that work downtown we appreciate the customers that shop downtown and we appreciate the owners and we just try to make all of those things work and sometimes it can look a little skewed one way or the other so please don't get the wrong message communications from the mayor there's a an appointment were done swearing go to the parks and recreation commission for his first term that term starts in september of two thousand and twenty so it's recommended for council that you approve the appointment of done swearing get to the parks and that carries some and also there's a we have coffee with council and high cocoa but the holland youth advisory council they're going to be joining us again this year we'll be at the library try to make things as accessible as possible in that first floor conference room overlooking river avenue it's a beautiful space with the window looking out there the southeast corner of the first floor love to have you come by to talk about whatever it is you'd like to talk about between nine and eleven on saturday january fourteenth so please put that on your calendar if you like and brian did you have something yeah just on that note i unfortunately will be traveling out of state for our traditional coffee with counsel so i also we were recognized as one of the tapped thirteen talents that you need to visit in twenty seventeen in michigan we were number three and this was the line addition that mentioned what highland is all about t o two people and so it's great to have that mention as well and you know here's a list of how to reach us and where you can get a hold of us you know at that and of a meeting like this it makes me realize you know how much people care about this community and how we work together and how we live and make this a better place and  seeing that heart and soul involvement in the community at all different levels is very inspiring humbling and that is what has made holland such a great place people don't take this for granted and we will a want to continue to work together to build a better better community and to create understate good a good understanding between each other and solve problems together so we really want to keep working on all of those things and and build on the trusted relationships that have made the difference in the level of cooperation in the city of holland so are there any communications from council members sorry yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes thank