all right well good evening everyone welcome to this the second penultimate what would be the penultimate meeting of twenty fourteen thank you second the last meeting of the twenty fourteen year first will be a prayer which this evening will be led by the city attorney run by intervening immediately thereafter we will say the pledge of allegiance to our flag if you're in chambers i invite you to join with council in these items the family celebrations that happen this time here we give thanks for the persons who are here and the opportunity for them to speak freely give us wisdom for the council to debate and decide on matters that continue holland thank you mr city attorney and of course if you are watching the media meeting at home or on an electronic device at some point you certainly were invited to join in with those items if you're in chambers we invite you to rise join but those items  right we have a variety of items to deal with this evening but a bunch of them haven't asterix next to them and these are items that we have placed on the consent agenda because we believe that they're relatively routine or have been dealt previously  counsel now there are copies of the agenda in the rack in the rear of the room for anyone who is in chambers tonight or if you go to the city's web site city of holland dot com go to the calendar tab today's date which is december to you will be able december three actually you will be able to find a copy of the agenda as well as all the materials council has reviewed in preparation for this evening's reading before we act on the consent agenda we want to make sure the world aware of what is on it and so for that we turn to our deputy clerk who will give us the consent agenda as it currently stands to accept the amended agenda by deleting item fourteen one point three item five to approve the minutes of the special closed and regular sessions held nov nineteenth two thousand and fourteen item six to excuse the absence of council member burch item eleven eight to accept and file executed oaths of office item fourteen b one to schedule a public hearing for the january seventh two thousand and fifteen regular meeting in regards to an alley vacation located between twenty second twenty third street west of when ravi ave and to authorize the deputy clerk to is said here in item fourteen the one point one to recommend that city council accept as information in forward to the planning commission to review and recommend ordinance language to allow assess e units in residential zone districts item fourteen one point two to place in the sussman of three thousand and twenty five dollars for the property at three seventy nine central avenue and direct the deputy clerk to notify the owners of said property requesting payment by april one two thousand and fifteen and if not paid by the deadline date to direct assessor to place on the summer two thousand and fifteen tax roll item fourteen one point three two accept a donation agreement with community don't fourteen need two point one to approve a contract with more improved of grand rapids in the amount not to exceed to two hundred eighty four thousand five hundred dollars for the window island gardens regional connector path and bridge project subject to approval asked a form by the city attorney and that this amount be funded from the windmill island gardens fund raising campaign charter township the city's legacy fund and related grants i had in fourteen each three point one to accept the october two thousand and fourteen monthly financial report as presented by the finance department i don't fourteen ethe three point two to approve the purchase of two two thousand and fifteen pickup trucks one from birger chevrolet at the cost of at a cost of twenty five thousand nine hundred ninety dollars for public safety use and one from signature ford in the amount of twenty six thousand two hundred fifty seven dollars for the transportation services with the cost of both vehicles to be paid from the centralized vehicle equipment fund item fourteen e three point three to accept a resolution approving the revisions for the two thousand and fifteen schedule of charges for city services and item fortini five point two to approve the temporary closing  city building on thursday december eighteenth for one hour from noon to one p m for the employees how at a party with conditions set for urgent matters there we are thank you hannah that is what is presently on the consent agenda and the intention of counsel at this point is to handle all of these items with one motion and one vote ordinarily we permit anyone in chambers to remove an item from the agenda however the only person in chambers tonight are city and d p w staff as well as our returning conquering reporter from from the handset and record else so i doubt they'll have anything to remove council is always invited to remove one or more items from the consent agenda council member to that we please mr merrett like to remove fourteen three point two please forty three point two the pickup trucks just right anyone else care to remove c yes motion passes all right thank you very much that then takes us scuse me that takes us to some adoption of ordinances item number ten which is the adoption of an ordinance amendment to section twenty nine dash ten of the sewer use code regarding rates this is not final reading and we welcome the general manager of the board of public works they've koester good evening dave good evening to you good evening everyone this is a very straightforward item we're lead to clean up item to put the ordinance in alignment with our current customer information system the current language in this section of the ordinance code deals with the base usage for determining the waste water rate calculation we use the winter months as a base rate for waste water during the summer since we have one meter on the home for water there is no meter for waste water we use the water meter for that waste water calculations this is simply changing the language to eliminate specific date references within those months and rather changing that so that it indicates that the months of the of the the new language would be that the actual usage would be the consumption months of december through april rather than the specific date that are in the current ordinance right thank you dave any questions for mr coster my sense is this gives us a bit more flexibility and frankly could be perhaps more beneficial to the customer yeah it gives us more flexibility in that  really makes the process quite easier at the chiefs pretty much the same thing for the customer in that will be able to get a handle on their base water usage during the summer that actually goes to waste water as opposed to sprinkling by using those same dates but it gets a little tricky when you're paving multiple billing cycles in a month and you have specific date references in there for that base period it makes the calculations within the billing system more complicated unnecessarily very good into first december but you've also extended to the end of april that's correct the time period is exactly the same as it is just putting it through a whole month rather than getting the partial months in there thank you for that point all right this does require a public is the time and place for fear to address this item the public hearing it is now open and less mr story would like to comment on this ordinance amendment a we will close the public hearing hearing all right so we have the recommendation to approve this amendment to the ordinance is there a motion please prove we will move by hoekstra supported by de boer is there any discussion on it item twelve communications from the audience for anybody in the audience cared to communicate with the council in the public this evening and i do believe that our allan county commissioner board of public works board member and holland city resident jim today we have about one hundred sixty five of the new facility which of course is beneficial to the county budget since roughly a year of somewhat act player county jails about fifty thousand dollars to the taxpayers  in addition we have received certification from the department of corrections that are ceiling for occupancy is two hundred twenty five occupants so while we have room for growth we're very happy that we're not growing in that direction for many good reasons  also today just just happened today we issued fifteen million dollars in bonds had a very attractive rate of three point six three percent that was awarded to us today and what we're doing with that by and lastly not not anything that has too much consequence inside of our cities and allen county but we do have a committee is looking into that eighteen nineteen dog law this is one of those  last resort so we're trying to find a way to streamline the process and make sure that maybe we can recommend some legislative changes in that direction next thursday in our last board meeting for  this is the last meeting of the year for me to attend i want to thank you for the opportunity to represent the city if i was in the allegheny county government these past two years they look forward to continuing that record and you have to take any questions at your direction with me times at least four members of the council here are elegant county residents i think most people probably think of holland as being an ottawa county city but we're one of few in the state that straddle jurisdiction and it's good to have good representation and elegant as well  director of community neighborhood services joel di good evening and welcome yet before council to night is a recommendation from the neighborhood improvement committee to accept as information tonight and subsequently ford a as to the plan commission that they study and come back to the city council this idea of the allowing access three dwelling units and residential zone districts they would approve a committee spent the last couple months reviewing this topic working with staff they've developed well we're considering an ordinance ordinance language as a starting point for that plank commission and the larger community to look at this idea of allowing access rejoin units in residential zone districts and layman terms in excess we don't you know it is more or less what's known as a mother in law apartment it's a structure that's secondary to the primary residential structure on the lot it's usually located in the rear of the progression into property sometimes above the garage is where the typically located their request again tonight is just for city council to accept as information forward to play a commission for their review a recommendation there's no action being taken tonight by city council that would be approving this type of ordinance language and he questions will council in regards to the recommendation before you the questions from yester have first would like to thank both the neighborhood improvement committee and also the planning commission for their work in their future work on this i pulled it off because i would really like to see city council have an opportunity to discuss this in more detail and a study session just to find out the pros and the cons before it goes to plan commissions sometimes when it comes back to us than we have another study session but oftentimes we don't have least i don't feel like i have the freedom or without feel the freedom that we all get perspective and i think it would  be a very important one i think it would be behoove us to take a step backward and to discuss this and get true some true feelings and is that your point so i would hope i'd prefer not to use some other comments please calls for white in ways i wholeheartedly agree that the the subject needs to be studied maybe even in more than one session quite frankly  will but i also believe firmly that we can make this reference to the planning commission and study concurrently with them and then once they've done their homework we can take the matter up even further and in wade through it and so all support the recommendation  by the planning commission as they consider this and so i appreciate that and i'm sure that they will work hard to figure out how to craft it and we will continue to work on it when it comes back i'm sure it's a all right so as it stands right now the motion is to accept information and refer to the planning commission and i would call th through that all right so that then takes us to the other item that was removed from the consent agenda which is forty three point two dealing with this couple of vehicles from the centralized vehicle equipment fun ryan just a brief introduction if you would on that i think council's pretty good idea of what are these there's an idea of what we want to do with it but we'll find out what council thinks thank you mary dexter we did receive four bids on this and we're recommending the two lowest beds the explanation as to why not the lowest bid is because one has a higher capacity for actual load and that one would go to the transportation department needed eyes recommending a slightly higher actual load for that one and the lower front axle weight capacity for the the second vehicle so with that we recommend your approval in the math fifty two thousand two  hundred five dollars as recommended in the report rights come from or through e u remove this from consent so i'll give you the floor if you want it i did and i will and i hope i do this correctly i would like to make a  motion alternate from the recommendation based on lowest response of bitter from the information that we were given upstairs in the fact that we had some  structural damage to one of the general motors vehicles for the small amount of difference between the two i can't see us physically responsibly putting good money after bad so my recommendation would be that we use both the of the ford vehicles four by fours because of all of us responsible better and i put that in the form of an amendment motion so the motion is to award the bid to both vehicles both pickup trucks to signature ford twenty six thousand two hundred fifty seven give me twenty six thousand two hundred fifty seven dollars a piece four times two that is the motion before us is there support for it or all right supported by the mayor pro tem is there discussion on that warranty yes damage the truck is the truck if i might really hear the truck is six years old the frame broke one estimate was eight thousand dollars to repair it for the mere two hundred fifty dollars difference between the b can't see a stake in the chance especially on a vehicle of this type that we're going to run the same problem so six years down the road perhaps we spend eight thousand dollars because it when we could have spent two hundred fifty dollars up front  have to worry about the problem that's that's what my recommendation ok i'm just trying to get a clear picture here that the expected activity of this non ford product if we were to purchase it would be the same activity that caused the structural problem in the other the other vehicle in other words if we got the chevy now and our ford products used is it going to be  situation where there's going to be less stress on the vehicle where that structural defect may not occur we don't know the potential is always there from what i understand dave but i guess i'd question us wanting to pigeonhole or or restrict ourselves from the versatility of the fleet we've always wanted to reduce the number of vehicles that we have and if we're started to specifically in a general use vehicle something like this i'm starting to say ok well this one's going to get a little so it's good thinking i guess what i'm trying to weigh out is honoring the process with the original bid and so forth so the if i might begin mr mason the process is i did speak very briefly with the city attorney because of the responsible bitter and with a defect that a known defect that would allow us to go up to the next they are not the it just happened this time because the city department responsibly said you know the the letter of the law says we have to go to the smaller that the lowest responsible b exactly what we want our employees to do the second part of it was the fact that the lowest response a better did not meet the specifications bars the d v d if you are of the vehicle that's why it was recommended to go to the the the second highest for one of the two so these were put out as a package all the companies had a chance to bid on two trucks one truck whatever they wanted to do but it was a package deal that they can  on this it seems to me that we you know we we had an issue with a particular brand of vehicle with a frame breaking and the repair bill is many multiples of the extra two hundred fifty or so dollars it cost to upgrade to the to the ford vehicle from the outset i think for between two vehicles you know right around fifty thousand apiece around fifty thousand in total to spend five hundred more dollars so that we have pretty good confidence that we've got a bit stronger of a vehicle that will make the vehicles more flexible and usable for all sorts of things is the sort of quintessential view of taking the pound view as opposed to the penny view so that's our motion to basically buy the two ford vehicles from signature ford for twenty six thousand two hundred fifty seven dollars a piece please call the band of s c yes i was talking with mr tim wagner who is not only a finance director but handles all of our purchasing processes on our way from our pre cancer meeting into chambers tonight and we we've gone to a new system of of  using to dispose of vehicles that go out of our fleet we put them on a website the name of which escapes me at the moment of purchasing back of a thing gov deals that go bank of deals dot com something along those lines and they haven't and we've almost doubled the amount that we're getting for vehicles today than what we used to so you know i think we're we're seeing some some savings or additional income into the city from that end of so i guess that's just good for the taxpayer to know that we're trying to get as much as we can for the vehicles that we take out of service and we've been some seeing some success in that process as well we do have some gifts fourteen easy five same that passes thank you very much we go down then to communications from the city manager and in fifteen mr got thank you two items thank you very much for recognizing the way the vehicles are being disposed of and to these credits perching director that idea and to dale dale's credit who is our chief mechanic that idea came from him and it's something that initially wasn't you know we weren't sure of yet it's been tried and found to be very very true so we're grateful to the staff who don't keep these ideas in themselves and i'm grateful to our managers who listen second in michigan m has a monthly roof report magazine it's called the review of this is for november and december and i'm sure that everyone here read every page but i do think it's important to note that the city of holland has ranked high  the communications from the mayor this evening a few things first of all for those who have partaken of some of the holiday events in holland in the city of holland so far i'm sure you've enjoyed them as much as those of us who have had the chance to do so have we had the tree lighting before thanksgiving you know right after thanksgiving sometime around thanksgiving i haven't been out of town sort of when it was but then we also had a lighted parade last night a parade of lights last night which was very very well attended and seems to grow every year  and i did look at the city of holland's video page online video page you go to the city of holland website city of holland dot com you'll see a little link for video and both the tree lighting ceremony as well as the parade of lights are already up there and ready to be viewed so if you have some time that you want to take a look at it and bring a smile their face i would encourage you to do so and actually also see a video of them installing the christmas tree downtown so our tech team does a really good job of putting video together we have one more upcoming parade before the end of the season and that is the annual center cost parade which is this friday evening and will be basically downtown ending at the museum so courage folks to attend that it should be fun and word has it that center class will indeed show up this year so like he does every year so there you go it should be a good time  have course have the website city of holland dot com where you can find lots of information about city hall and how to get ahold of us forms permit requests information about projects ongoing in the city contact information for various city departments reports plans maps you name it tax information all sorts of stuff if you want to come to a city office and speak with someone we invite you to do so so we've got a great staff who is very helpful and wants to be helpful to you but if you're unable to do so or frankly i would prefer to table from your desk at home or at the office you have certainly have the option of doing that as well we're beginning to look at a few little tweaks to the website so in the coming months look for a few different hopefully improve well certainly improvements to the website of you a little on a slightly more somber note i want to make mention of the fact that john wesley smith the second passed away this week i first came to know john nearly fifteen years ago i guess when we both served on the human relations commission he was kind of a burly guy but he had a huge heart and he gave a tremendous amount of energy and time especially to at that time the annual youth convention event and he was very active in that i often thought that he should have sat around this gathering here and whenever i mention the fact he never would concur with me on so by some measure john passed away early but you know that's that's not for us to decide but you'll certainly be miss and hopefully here on behalf of my colleagues here we offer our condolences to his family colleague to appoint joel died to the board of review as a city employee representative is their second for second all right moved by the mayor pro tem supported by weitzman any discussion on it yes should be noted that mr di wore a tie this