the-compact
Board Of Trustees Tuesday, April 14, 2026 · 81 min

Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees Meeting on April 13, 2026

Summary

The city council discussed water and sewer rates, police department space needs, and potential solutions, including a new police building and town hall, as well as fireworks permits and environmental concerns.

  • Concerns raised about financial management of water and sewer fund in Bloomfield Township.
  • City council discussed water rate increases and monthly billing, with a focus on funding capital improvement projects and meeting reserve levels.
  • Police department needs a new building due to its current facility being at the end of its life.
  • City council discussed feasibility of new standalone building for police department and potential relocation of animal shelter.
  • Council members discussed the impact of quarterly billing on working capital and the need for a predictive model to determine accurate rates.

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Topics

Transcript

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  1. The Bloomfield Township Board of Trustee meeting and Monday, April the 13th, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag 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. Good evening and welcome. We'll start with our public comment. If you're here to comment on anything on the agenda tonight, you can step forward, introduce yourself and your address. And if you keep it within three minutes, we'd appreciate it. I got it. Nice to see you. Good to see you again in a couple of days. Okay, Effie Steele, 1387 Club Drive. On behalf of my husband, William, and myself, I don't know how long ago it was, but approximately two years ago, we received the notification regarding replacing our water meters. Having lived in the township since 1988, we wrongly assumed this was going to be like the electric meter replacement we had many years ago. We also assumed that the difference would be when it was time to read the meter, they would ping it and generate the bill. Additionally, we were misled by the free replacement in what we believed was a $300,000 project that you guys approved. So we complied and exchanged our meter. The reality is that the meter, after we got it, we... realized generates a constant signal 24 hours a day and the data is stored at a third-party facility or server this is rather concerning on two levels the health safety of the device which is unproven it's too new and possible safety factor I don't know if you guys discussed it with the police department who are here if the third party was hacked they could check to see who doesn't have activity and if there's no activity on the water bill we know nobody's home indicating nobody's home so gee let's go break into that house however the good news is that there is an app called eye on water I didn't even remember this until Valerie told me and you can access it 24 hours a day and also sign up for push notifications which I did to let you know if you have a leak I was absolutely shocked however when I heard that the township administration

  2. Additionally, we were misled by the free replacement in what we believed was a $300,000 project that you guys approved. So we complied and exchanged our meter. The reality is that the meter, after we got it, we... realized generates a constant signal 24 hours a day and the data is stored at a third-party facility or server this is rather concerning on two levels the health safety of the device which is unproven it's too new and possible safety factor I don't know if you guys discussed it with the police department who are here if the third party was hacked they could check to see who doesn't have activity and if there's no activity on the water bill we know nobody's home indicating nobody's home so gee let's go break into that house however the good news is that there is an app called eye on water I didn't even remember this until Valerie told me and you can access it 24 hours a day and also sign up for push notifications which I did to let you know if you have a leak I was absolutely shocked however when I heard that the township administration wants to send us monthly bills under the premise that we want to be notified about our usage more frequently we now have that mechanism in place what we don't have is township uptake because most of us were not paying attention from initial notification to application or forgot nobody wants eight more bills nobody wants to be bothered eight more times a year nor do we want to pay for eight more bills a year the premise was that we get usage notification which we are now you are using old citizen information to make this change we have the usage information that we all wanted at our fingertips with this very expensive multi-million dollar project which William reminded me as I was going out the door that there was a $40 increase per quarter to pay for this and he told me to ask if this is into perpetuity how long are we going to be paying the extra forty dollars for the meters what we need is a notice sent out with the next quarterly water bill containing attention yeah we're over time oh okay all right so we need a notice for

  3. I was absolutely shocked however when I heard that the township administration wants to send us monthly bills under the premise that we want to be notified about our usage more frequently we now have that mechanism in place what we don't have is township uptake because most of us were not paying attention from initial notification to application or forgot nobody wants eight more bills nobody wants to be bothered eight more times a year nor do we want to pay for eight more bills a year the premise was that we get usage notification which we are now you are using old citizen information to make this change we have the usage information that we all wanted at our fingertips with this very expensive multi-million dollar project which William reminded me as I was going out the door that there was a $40 increase per quarter to pay for this and he told me to ask if this is into perpetuity how long are we going to be paying the extra forty dollars for the meters what we need is a notice sent out with the next quarterly water bill containing attention yeah we're over time oh okay all right so we need a notice for everybody to know about the app okay so I got your email I forwarded the note and he's here to explain to you uh when we're done and he gets up here we'll explain to you and hopefully answer some your questions okay well okay so you guys understand I I think everybody needs to be notified and if you want to survey people do it with that notice and say do you want to pay extra for monthly bill after you know about the app that's the right way to do it okay thank you thank you so we do have public comment if you're in a public make any comment now's your time dave good to see you good to see you it's good to see everybody after the year I've been through uh before we start the clock could you just freeze that for one second I'd like to use uh would you introduce yourself and your address please david thomas you Grove, Bloomfield Township. Thank you. I'd just like to take a minute here to recognize a couple individuals in the township. I should have done this a year ago but because of health I couldn't be here. This is probably the first time I could be here because of health reasons for the last year and a half. But I'd like to recognize Chief Gallagher when he completed that FBI course and I did a lot of work with the FBI and that when I was doing armored vehicles for him and that that's a very, very rigorous course. So that was no small task. I hope you guys recognize him for it. I was out of commission. I couldn't tell whether you did or didn't. I heard you were ill. I'm glad to see you're up in the box. Yeah. And the other thing is Mr. Shostak there is now running for the regents of the University of Michigan. Go blue. And all the weight he's lost which is not a hard thing which is a very hard thing to do because I dropped the hundred pounds. But we can't do promotional things here for candidates.

  4. water bill containing attention yeah we're over time oh okay all right so we need a notice for everybody to know about the app okay so I got your email I forwarded the note and he's here to explain to you uh when we're done and he gets up here we'll explain to you and hopefully answer some your questions okay well okay so you guys understand I I think everybody needs to be notified and if you want to survey people do it with that notice and say do you want to pay extra for monthly bill after you know about the app that's the right way to do it okay thank you thank you so we do have public comment if you're in a public make any comment now's your time dave good to see you good to see you it's good to see everybody after the year I've been through uh before we start the clock could you just freeze that for one second I'd like to use uh would you introduce yourself and your address please david thomas you Grove, Bloomfield Township. Thank you. I'd just like to take a minute here to recognize a couple individuals in the township. I should have done this a year ago but because of health I couldn't be here. This is probably the first time I could be here because of health reasons for the last year and a half. But I'd like to recognize Chief Gallagher when he completed that FBI course and I did a lot of work with the FBI and that when I was doing armored vehicles for him and that that's a very, very rigorous course. So that was no small task. I hope you guys recognize him for it. I was out of commission. I couldn't tell whether you did or didn't. I heard you were ill. I'm glad to see you're up in the box. Yeah. And the other thing is Mr. Shostak there is now running for the regents of the University of Michigan. Go blue. And all the weight he's lost which is not a hard thing which is a very hard thing to do because I dropped the hundred pounds. But we can't do promotional things here for candidates. Well, I just want to say, you know, I think our new name for Mike is Bloomfield Township Slim. So So all right. Now can we start the public comment? I just want to get that out. I figure recognize these guys. They both did a great job of what they did. Oh, real quick. Ditto for what you said on the sewer and water bill. It's kind of crazy that the Bloomfield Township subsidizing all the rest of the communities with SACWA. That's absolutely insanity. Spending $15 million for what we got back is even more insanity. You people are supposed to be fiduciaries for our money. That was not a strong move as a fiduciary. In fact, it's counter. I was looking for this springtime. Do you see a lesson on you on of the runway? Yeah, it's a tecnologia that you're looking for. No more nor theancy. Tell me I go. Yeah. Yes, no more when Ira Glass River. That's ridiculous that we paid $15 million for this system. Who in the hell would spend that on that? Who in the right mind would spend that? I mean, this started from a thing in Congress going through beaver manufacturing.

  5. that's a very, very rigorous course. So that was no small task. I hope you guys recognize him for it. I was out of commission. I couldn't tell whether you did or didn't. I heard you were ill. I'm glad to see you're up in the box. Yeah. And the other thing is Mr. Shostak there is now running for the regents of the University of Michigan. Go blue. And all the weight he's lost which is not a hard thing which is a very hard thing to do because I dropped the hundred pounds. But we can't do promotional things here for candidates. Well, I just want to say, you know, I think our new name for Mike is Bloomfield Township Slim. So So all right. Now can we start the public comment? I just want to get that out. I figure recognize these guys. They both did a great job of what they did. Oh, real quick. Ditto for what you said on the sewer and water bill. It's kind of crazy that the Bloomfield Township subsidizing all the rest of the communities with SACWA. That's absolutely insanity. Spending $15 million for what we got back is even more insanity. You people are supposed to be fiduciaries for our money. That was not a strong move as a fiduciary. In fact, it's counter. I was looking for this springtime. Do you see a lesson on you on of the runway? Yeah, it's a tecnologia that you're looking for. No more nor theancy. Tell me I go. Yeah. Yes, no more when Ira Glass River. That's ridiculous that we paid $15 million for this system. Who in the hell would spend that on that? Who in the right mind would spend that? I mean, this started from a thing in Congress going through beaver manufacturing. Who happens to be the main contributor to the association that your water experts belong to that use the data? This is nothing but a sales pitch. We're on the end of it. And all that took about 15 minutes on AI to loop all that together. I can tell you Tim Burchett was the one that pushed the legislation through Congress and his wife, his brother-in-law is the vice president of beaver manufacturing. So the end result is taxpayers left holding the bag again. I haven't seen anything to reduce the cost for the taxpayers being done. It's not a transfer from our 401k to your 401k. You guys are supposed to be acting as our fiduciaries. And I haven't seen it at all. Thank you. Mary Alice Leduc, Bloomfield Township resident. The questionable management of water and sewer issues continues to be a concern to the residents of Bloomfield Township. It is clear that there has been years of overspending and questionable financial management. Consider the following. The following. The following. Jason Henderson's on stage in America.

  6. I mean, this started from a thing in Congress going through beaver manufacturing. Who happens to be the main contributor to the association that your water experts belong to that use the data? This is nothing but a sales pitch. We're on the end of it. And all that took about 15 minutes on AI to loop all that together. I can tell you Tim Burchett was the one that pushed the legislation through Congress and his wife, his brother-in-law is the vice president of beaver manufacturing. So the end result is taxpayers left holding the bag again. I haven't seen anything to reduce the cost for the taxpayers being done. It's not a transfer from our 401k to your 401k. You guys are supposed to be acting as our fiduciaries. And I haven't seen it at all. Thank you. Mary Alice Leduc, Bloomfield Township resident. The questionable management of water and sewer issues continues to be a concern to the residents of Bloomfield Township. It is clear that there has been years of overspending and questionable financial management. Consider the following. The following. The following. Jason Henderson's on stage in America. Approximately $700,000 in interest income is being skimmed off and sent to the general fund. Contrary to GASB financial standards in Michigan's Uniform Budgeting and Accounting Act. Water and sewer is being charged $177,000 by the treasurer and $323,000 by other departments. In essence, water and sewer is getting charged to pay for services that are mandated to be performed by the township by law. This is, in essence, a double charge. Water and sewer has overfunded pensions, well over 125% of its OPEB obligations, which is contrary to the actuarial recommendations, while other accounts are vastly underfunded. As a result, over $1 million in OPEB cannot be used. There is no annual published budget for water and sewer, despite the fact that the revenues are more than $30 million a year, and there has been no publication of quarterly fund balances as mandated by Public Act II of 1968. There has been no effort to renegotiate ridiculously high SOCWA rates. We are subsidizing the other members who pay less than our cost. Our cost is $37.50. They pay less than $25, okay?

  7. Approximately $700,000 in interest income is being skimmed off and sent to the general fund. Contrary to GASB financial standards in Michigan's Uniform Budgeting and Accounting Act. Water and sewer is being charged $177,000 by the treasurer and $323,000 by other departments. In essence, water and sewer is getting charged to pay for services that are mandated to be performed by the township by law. This is, in essence, a double charge. Water and sewer has overfunded pensions, well over 125% of its OPEB obligations, which is contrary to the actuarial recommendations, while other accounts are vastly underfunded. As a result, over $1 million in OPEB cannot be used. There is no annual published budget for water and sewer, despite the fact that the revenues are more than $30 million a year, and there has been no publication of quarterly fund balances as mandated by Public Act II of 1968. There has been no effort to renegotiate ridiculously high SOCWA rates. We are subsidizing the other members who pay less than our cost. Our cost is $37.50. They pay less than $25, okay? So over the last decade, we have more than paid for the overhead costs that original members put in. Where are the negotiations to stop having Bloomfield Township residents pay for lower rates? I don't know anybody forums on W � Lovely Coupon, That's I'm sure you'll find it free! in other communities. The fund balance of water and sewer is $20 million. It is $4 million higher than the $16 million recommended by the Bloomfield Township consultant. So $4 million should be returned to residents immediately. Loans have been made from restricted funds to pay obligations for other funds. So there was a $16 million shortfall on payroll in November. But where was the money coming from? Unsure. The $12 to $15 million project for new meters, which only adds costs, no real benefits, has been farmed to a subcontractor without approval. Trustees only approved $300,000. If you wanted to ensure that we didn't have leaks, you could have gotten a meter for $50 from Home Depot and gotten it for all the households in the township for $750,000. Instead, at $15 million, it is a cost of $1,000 per household for these meters.

  8. They pay less than $25, okay? So over the last decade, we have more than paid for the overhead costs that original members put in. Where are the negotiations to stop having Bloomfield Township residents pay for lower rates? I don't know anybody forums on W � Lovely Coupon, That's I'm sure you'll find it free! in other communities. The fund balance of water and sewer is $20 million. It is $4 million higher than the $16 million recommended by the Bloomfield Township consultant. So $4 million should be returned to residents immediately. Loans have been made from restricted funds to pay obligations for other funds. So there was a $16 million shortfall on payroll in November. But where was the money coming from? Unsure. The $12 to $15 million project for new meters, which only adds costs, no real benefits, has been farmed to a subcontractor without approval. Trustees only approved $300,000. If you wanted to ensure that we didn't have leaks, you could have gotten a meter for $50 from Home Depot and gotten it for all the households in the township for $750,000. Instead, at $15 million, it is a cost of $1,000 per household for these meters. What are you thinking? Okay? No money should be spent on new meters at $15 million a year. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mayor Ellis. Thank you. Any other public comment? If not, I'll close public comment and open it up for consider consent agenda. I'd like to remove the board minutes for March 23rd and payroll and vouchers. Payroll and vouchers. So A and B, Mark? Yep. Yep. Okay, so we'll move those to, we'll do it after NOAA at 6A and 6B before we go into closed session. Sound good? Okay. Okay. I'd like to make a motion that we approve the consent agenda as amended. Support. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, it passes 7-0. Thank you. Okay, item number three, discuss solutions to the police department's present and future space and functional needs, presented by our chief, James Gallagher. Welcome, Jimmy. Yeah, I'm back. We can go to the PDF. Great, thank you. So last meeting I was here and discussing and kind of laid out a PowerPoint presentation on the conditions of the police department and the needs to move forward on some type of plan, which I'm hoping the board will discuss this evening.

  9. What are you thinking? Okay? No money should be spent on new meters at $15 million a year. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mayor Ellis. Thank you. Any other public comment? If not, I'll close public comment and open it up for consider consent agenda. I'd like to remove the board minutes for March 23rd and payroll and vouchers. Payroll and vouchers. So A and B, Mark? Yep. Yep. Okay, so we'll move those to, we'll do it after NOAA at 6A and 6B before we go into closed session. Sound good? Okay. Okay. I'd like to make a motion that we approve the consent agenda as amended. Support. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, it passes 7-0. Thank you. Okay, item number three, discuss solutions to the police department's present and future space and functional needs, presented by our chief, James Gallagher. Welcome, Jimmy. Yeah, I'm back. We can go to the PDF. Great, thank you. So last meeting I was here and discussing and kind of laid out a PowerPoint presentation on the conditions of the police department and the needs to move forward on some type of plan, which I'm hoping the board will discuss this evening. I was able to go through and take the full space needs analysis that Redstone completed a year ago, maybe a little longer, and just highlight a couple of things on there for discussion points for the board. And they're really the recommendations that came out of their study. Again, I just want to just real quick rehash that the current building we're in is about 32,000 square feet with numerous additions, 38, which they believe is 61 to 68. I believe it's 68 and then 98. The building contains numerous support systems and it's good. Noah's here tonight to correct me on anything that they may think. Again, I want to reiterate, this building's been very well maintained over the years, but for the police department, it's hit its end of life. As we went through with Redstone, the process used was interviewing everybody within the agency, taking a survey, then meeting with all the township boards. Going back to when that was approved with the ARPA funds, they had to do this entire building. So I just want to make sure that while the Redstone report reflects all of Township Hall, the only thing I'm focused on and that the board has questioned me on

  10. and the needs to move forward on some type of plan, which I'm hoping the board will discuss this evening. I was able to go through and take the full space needs analysis that Redstone completed a year ago, maybe a little longer, and just highlight a couple of things on there for discussion points for the board. And they're really the recommendations that came out of their study. Again, I just want to just real quick rehash that the current building we're in is about 32,000 square feet with numerous additions, 38, which they believe is 61 to 68. I believe it's 68 and then 98. The building contains numerous support systems and it's good. Noah's here tonight to correct me on anything that they may think. Again, I want to reiterate, this building's been very well maintained over the years, but for the police department, it's hit its end of life. As we went through with Redstone, the process used was interviewing everybody within the agency, taking a survey, then meeting with all the township boards. Going back to when that was approved with the ARPA funds, they had to do this entire building. So I just want to make sure that while the Redstone report reflects all of Township Hall, the only thing I'm focused on and that the board has questioned me on is strictly the police department needs, nothing to do with Town Hall. But that was part of the study, so I only highlighted the things that we go to the police department, so I hope there's no confusion that we're talking about moving forward on some Town Hall, which was not my focus. The results of that space needs analysis showed that the police department alone needs about 58,000 square feet, so just under 60,000 square feet. And that's for modern-day policing. Again, last meeting I discussed, this building was created when there wasn't many females in law enforcement. The number of women in law enforcement then, when we built our locker rooms, this was a male-dominated field. That is inaccurate today. As a matter of fact, I think three out of the last six, seven officers we've hired, maybe even half, have been females. Our entire, other than one individual in our dispatch, are all females. So that's just, again, we have no room for that expansion. they did architectural studies on our current existing building both structural and then mechanical and based on the recommendations that at the time again I'm only focused on

  11. the only thing I'm focused on and that the board has questioned me on is strictly the police department needs, nothing to do with Town Hall. But that was part of the study, so I only highlighted the things that we go to the police department, so I hope there's no confusion that we're talking about moving forward on some Town Hall, which was not my focus. The results of that space needs analysis showed that the police department alone needs about 58,000 square feet, so just under 60,000 square feet. And that's for modern-day policing. Again, last meeting I discussed, this building was created when there wasn't many females in law enforcement. The number of women in law enforcement then, when we built our locker rooms, this was a male-dominated field. That is inaccurate today. As a matter of fact, I think three out of the last six, seven officers we've hired, maybe even half, have been females. Our entire, other than one individual in our dispatch, are all females. So that's just, again, we have no room for that expansion. they did architectural studies on our current existing building both structural and then mechanical and based on the recommendations that at the time again I'm only focused on the police department but they recommended two new buildings one for police and one for town hall the purpose of that and the issue became behind is when we talked about the structural needs they recommended redstone did a new three-story police building located where the existing building is that was before supervisor McCready was in office and there was parameters set by previous administrations on what could be utilized as area and locations so a little bit of this redstone can be different whatever we decide as a board so that we can actually move forward with maybe some architectural plans and things of that nature to ideally for continuity of operations a new building if approved or how we go forward with that would hopefully be somewhere within this site structure that we have here today but their recommendation was that again our current facilities that's the overhead view of the top right corner is where our current township hall and police department are located I showed last time the space that we are currently in downstairs is all of this this top left corner I know it's hard for you to see

  12. mechanical and based on the recommendations that at the time again I'm only focused on the police department but they recommended two new buildings one for police and one for town hall the purpose of that and the issue became behind is when we talked about the structural needs they recommended redstone did a new three-story police building located where the existing building is that was before supervisor McCready was in office and there was parameters set by previous administrations on what could be utilized as area and locations so a little bit of this redstone can be different whatever we decide as a board so that we can actually move forward with maybe some architectural plans and things of that nature to ideally for continuity of operations a new building if approved or how we go forward with that would hopefully be somewhere within this site structure that we have here today but their recommendation was that again our current facilities that's the overhead view of the top right corner is where our current township hall and police department are located I showed last time the space that we are currently in downstairs is all of this this top left corner I know it's hard for you to see But this is all police operations downstairs. We're crammed in and completely out of space. This up here is the Planning, Building, and Ordinance Department, which takes up a portion of downstairs. This is the second floor. The police department only has the right side of the screen. The analysis study was based on the history of the existing Township Hall and its many additions. At the time, the tour of the building by the engineering consultants. And their cost estimating consultants and architectural staff, it was believed that any attempted renovation expansion of this current building is not feasible. They do not recommend a repurpose of this building. Several of the walls, as I said last time, that are structural walls, that used to be exterior structural walls. So when we get to try to expand up or expand out, I'm not sure this building could even handle that. It may cause a building collapse. And so, again, that was the structural. The mechanical was based on their findings that the Town Hall has very old but updated or maintained mechanicals. We just talked about it the other day as I was showing some of you around how the heating structure works.

  13. But this is all police operations downstairs. We're crammed in and completely out of space. This up here is the Planning, Building, and Ordinance Department, which takes up a portion of downstairs. This is the second floor. The police department only has the right side of the screen. The analysis study was based on the history of the existing Township Hall and its many additions. At the time, the tour of the building by the engineering consultants. And their cost estimating consultants and architectural staff, it was believed that any attempted renovation expansion of this current building is not feasible. They do not recommend a repurpose of this building. Several of the walls, as I said last time, that are structural walls, that used to be exterior structural walls. So when we get to try to expand up or expand out, I'm not sure this building could even handle that. It may cause a building collapse. And so, again, that was the structural. The mechanical was based on their findings that the Town Hall has very old but updated or maintained mechanicals. We just talked about it the other day as I was showing some of you around how the heating structure works. One area of the building is cold. They're putting ice packs on the thermostats to get heat into those buildings, but then they, you know, sweat out the other areas of the building. And that's no fault of anybody's other than the number of renovations we've had on this. current building um last time we showed this as well just the difference and this is all subject to final approval and professional architectural drawings um it's just how a three-story laid out building um in the space would actually look again i focus on the modernization of our of our services the accreditation standards new state mandated training standards that we're operating out of too many buildings um and and so with that we initially when we discussed this we obviously talked about town hall which is not our discussion but we also looked at the court building which we have future meetings on and whether a new police court building um would be the way to go so that we can that building over there i think was built 70s i believe it was um is going to be needing significant repairs as well or could be and that there's many things the police and a court would share whether it's a stally port secured facility holding facilities uh things of that nature that maybe you know doing something all in one could could end up saving money years down

  14. We just talked about it the other day as I was showing some of you around how the heating structure works. One area of the building is cold. They're putting ice packs on the thermostats to get heat into those buildings, but then they, you know, sweat out the other areas of the building. And that's no fault of anybody's other than the number of renovations we've had on this. current building um last time we showed this as well just the difference and this is all subject to final approval and professional architectural drawings um it's just how a three-story laid out building um in the space would actually look again i focus on the modernization of our of our services the accreditation standards new state mandated training standards that we're operating out of too many buildings um and and so with that we initially when we discussed this we obviously talked about town hall which is not our discussion but we also looked at the court building which we have future meetings on and whether a new police court building um would be the way to go so that we can that building over there i think was built 70s i believe it was um is going to be needing significant repairs as well or could be and that there's many things the police and a court would share whether it's a stally port secured facility holding facilities uh things of that nature that maybe you know doing something all in one could could end up saving money years down the road um and one of my concerns is is we know the cost of construction um and pushing this process down the road and we're just increasing time and and cost um and so that's that um if we can go back to real quick the powerpoint there's several agencies around us that have are in the process of building or have built a new new station most recently uh novi uh is in the process of they passed They're building a new police and fire. Their new building will be about 80,000 square feet, and they have about the same amount of officers we do. They're at 73. We're at 67. Northville Township just built theirs. They're half the size of us. They're 35 officers, and they just built a single-story facility at about 65,000 square feet. That also included in that 65,000, I believe it was about 13,000 that was dedicated to their fire. And then so forth. Royal Oak has about 61,000 square feet. It's a three-story building with a basement and underground parking. Waterford Township built there several years ago. They're about 60,000 square feet, and it goes so forth. Livonia's is currently 55,000.

  15. that nature that maybe you know doing something all in one could could end up saving money years down the road um and one of my concerns is is we know the cost of construction um and pushing this process down the road and we're just increasing time and and cost um and so that's that um if we can go back to real quick the powerpoint there's several agencies around us that have are in the process of building or have built a new new station most recently uh novi uh is in the process of they passed They're building a new police and fire. Their new building will be about 80,000 square feet, and they have about the same amount of officers we do. They're at 73. We're at 67. Northville Township just built theirs. They're half the size of us. They're 35 officers, and they just built a single-story facility at about 65,000 square feet. That also included in that 65,000, I believe it was about 13,000 that was dedicated to their fire. And then so forth. Royal Oak has about 61,000 square feet. It's a three-story building with a basement and underground parking. Waterford Township built there several years ago. They're about 60,000 square feet, and it goes so forth. Livonia's is currently 55,000. We know what's going down in Livonia. They will be also looking to redesign their old plan that failed last year and focus solely on public safety, not on anything further. So kind of where we're at, I'm hoping that the board will have a discussion so that we can move forward. This plays a big role in a lot of things that we do, whether it's recruiting, retention. These younger officers talk about these things and the need. We have no facilities to properly accommodate ADA. We have no fire suppression system. We have fire alarms, but we don't have sprinkler systems, things of that nature that are critical infrastructure pieces in today's world. Thank you, Jimmy. Any questions? Any questions? Any questions? Thank you. Thank you. Comments? I, I've got to, go ahead, Val. You were gonna reach out to me, we were gonna have a tour, so let me know what works for you. Yes, I actually did one with Mark the other day, but yes, I will reach out to you. Okay. Thanks for the tour, appreciate it. I know it was your day off, and I appreciate that you came in. And then congrats on your daughter and the place that she's in. Yeah, this opening play this weekend. Yeah. Yeah, I saw some of the signs on the road.

  16. Livonia's is currently 55,000. We know what's going down in Livonia. They will be also looking to redesign their old plan that failed last year and focus solely on public safety, not on anything further. So kind of where we're at, I'm hoping that the board will have a discussion so that we can move forward. This plays a big role in a lot of things that we do, whether it's recruiting, retention. These younger officers talk about these things and the need. We have no facilities to properly accommodate ADA. We have no fire suppression system. We have fire alarms, but we don't have sprinkler systems, things of that nature that are critical infrastructure pieces in today's world. Thank you, Jimmy. Any questions? Any questions? Any questions? Thank you. Thank you. Comments? I, I've got to, go ahead, Val. You were gonna reach out to me, we were gonna have a tour, so let me know what works for you. Yes, I actually did one with Mark the other day, but yes, I will reach out to you. Okay. Thanks for the tour, appreciate it. I know it was your day off, and I appreciate that you came in. And then congrats on your daughter and the place that she's in. Yeah, this opening play this weekend. Yeah. Yeah, I saw some of the signs on the road. So, so congratulations. We wish her the best. I appreciate that. Break a leg. Yeah, thank you, sir. This type of construction and teardown is gonna take time. One of my concerns is, and how to bridge that, especially with the locker room situation. We had been in the public works building, would it help to have the locker rooms in the public works building until stuff is finished that would open up two rooms for office space? And if we have to do renovations, the one locker, the men's locker room was in horrible shape. So if you're gonna renovate that, why don't you put it also closer to the exercise equipment to keep everyone fit? So I didn't know if that would help or not short-term. That's something that, That's a great point. Right, right. Yeah. Thank you. that would help give you some space room conference room space for two more desks until you get to where you need to be yeah unfortunately with the amount of equipment that they have to carry out to their patrol cars and their patrol cars being here um and

  17. So, so congratulations. We wish her the best. I appreciate that. Break a leg. Yeah, thank you, sir. This type of construction and teardown is gonna take time. One of my concerns is, and how to bridge that, especially with the locker room situation. We had been in the public works building, would it help to have the locker rooms in the public works building until stuff is finished that would open up two rooms for office space? And if we have to do renovations, the one locker, the men's locker room was in horrible shape. So if you're gonna renovate that, why don't you put it also closer to the exercise equipment to keep everyone fit? So I didn't know if that would help or not short-term. That's something that, That's a great point. Right, right. Yeah. Thank you. that would help give you some space room conference room space for two more desks until you get to where you need to be yeah unfortunately with the amount of equipment that they have to carry out to their patrol cars and their patrol cars being here um and that's where they store all their gear in their lockers i and you know more often than not they're they're scrambling out of this building to run out of this building on uh you know some type of a call for service i just don't know if it'd be feasible um i think it would actually make their operations a little more difficult um it would definitely open up room right but i don't know if if the dpw has a spot or a room without taking away their locations and things that that they also do do there um so i don't i don't know that maybe an extreme short term but that doesn't solve our long-term progress correct yeah and tearing everything down putting up a new building that's going to take a couple years so hang on we're not tearing anything down here mark this would be a new standalone building uh it says that um the uh animal shelter would be torn down right well again and that's kind of why i made that that asterisk about what was um previous administrations and then when the kind of the new talk was after this was presented i think there's different areas areas of opportunity where we can expand on that um and you know i don't want to get into without an architect and and getting approval on the board but are there other

  18. that they have to carry out to their patrol cars and their patrol cars being here um and that's where they store all their gear in their lockers i and you know more often than not they're they're scrambling out of this building to run out of this building on uh you know some type of a call for service i just don't know if it'd be feasible um i think it would actually make their operations a little more difficult um it would definitely open up room right but i don't know if if the dpw has a spot or a room without taking away their locations and things that that they also do do there um so i don't i don't know that maybe an extreme short term but that doesn't solve our long-term progress correct yeah and tearing everything down putting up a new building that's going to take a couple years so hang on we're not tearing anything down here mark this would be a new standalone building uh it says that um the uh animal shelter would be torn down right well again and that's kind of why i made that that asterisk about what was um previous administrations and then when the kind of the new talk was after this was presented i think there's different areas areas of opportunity where we can expand on that um and you know i don't want to get into without an architect and and getting approval on the board but are there other areas of the township or that we own um could could the animal shelter i'm just using examples i'm not saying this is the plan but you know cable studio if they moved them into where the police department was eventually um if we vacated town hall you know could that then be the animal shelter and things of that nature that yeah maybe our discussion is if you looked at the original plan was very uh contained we said no let's look at the whole campus and figure out where we could put a new building on the whole campus yeah yeah and mark i don't remember i don't know if you were on the board yet were you here when redstone did the i was here when they did the presentation yeah and and they were a little bit constrained in that and frustrated and i don't know if you could tell in their um their presentation a little bit because we the only location they were allowed or permitted to look at at that time was this building okay maybe that's what you're referring and that you that is what you're referring to and so it you know without and that's why i want to bring it back to the board because the longer we push this down the road the perfect the more of a problem we run into um and so your points are 100 accurate it's going to take a couple years that's why i don't want to wait another three years before we decide what we're going to do i'm going to put a plan in place so i is okay mark can i pick up from here sure okay great so um i just want to express support for

  19. areas of the township or that we own um could could the animal shelter i'm just using examples i'm not saying this is the plan but you know cable studio if they moved them into where the police department was eventually um if we vacated town hall you know could that then be the animal shelter and things of that nature that yeah maybe our discussion is if you looked at the original plan was very uh contained we said no let's look at the whole campus and figure out where we could put a new building on the whole campus yeah yeah and mark i don't remember i don't know if you were on the board yet were you here when redstone did the i was here when they did the presentation yeah and and they were a little bit constrained in that and frustrated and i don't know if you could tell in their um their presentation a little bit because we the only location they were allowed or permitted to look at at that time was this building okay maybe that's what you're referring and that you that is what you're referring to and so it you know without and that's why i want to bring it back to the board because the longer we push this down the road the perfect the more of a problem we run into um and so your points are 100 accurate it's going to take a couple years that's why i don't want to wait another three years before we decide what we're going to do i'm going to put a plan in place so i is okay mark can i pick up from here sure okay great so um i just want to express support for the for the idea the need is is really clear redstone laid it laid it out um uh previously about a year ago we've reviewed it again last week um it's been an ongoing ongoing item discussion here with regard to the need. It's pretty extensive. You know, this building opened in 1939. It's constructed between 38 and 39. I love talking about context. So 23 years later, there's a first edition done in 1961. 37 years later, another edition done in 1998. It's been 28 years since that happened. And a lot has changed over the years. I mean, it's just remarkable how complex policing has become, especially really since the year 2000. And it will continue to become more and more complex. I talked to Captain Brown a little while ago with regard to the academy. And it was interesting to learn that the proportion of women in the academy is going up quite a bit over the last three years. And they anticipate that that will hold steady or continue to become more and more women are available. With our facilities, we're limited in the amount of staff that can be, you know, the locker rooms and so forth for women. So we're limited in the quality and the scope of folks we can

  20. so i is okay mark can i pick up from here sure okay great so um i just want to express support for the for the idea the need is is really clear redstone laid it laid it out um uh previously about a year ago we've reviewed it again last week um it's been an ongoing ongoing item discussion here with regard to the need. It's pretty extensive. You know, this building opened in 1939. It's constructed between 38 and 39. I love talking about context. So 23 years later, there's a first edition done in 1961. 37 years later, another edition done in 1998. It's been 28 years since that happened. And a lot has changed over the years. I mean, it's just remarkable how complex policing has become, especially really since the year 2000. And it will continue to become more and more complex. I talked to Captain Brown a little while ago with regard to the academy. And it was interesting to learn that the proportion of women in the academy is going up quite a bit over the last three years. And they anticipate that that will hold steady or continue to become more and more women are available. With our facilities, we're limited in the amount of staff that can be, you know, the locker rooms and so forth for women. So we're limited in the quality and the scope of folks we can recruit. And recruiting here, because policing is done by police, not by police cars or anything like that. But the other thing to point out, noted too, is the facility. You know, corporations invest in headquarters. Schools need good facilities. Police departments need good facilities too. It does help with recruiting. It helps with performance of the essential duties. And... that... But... know this building is is as redstone laid out really clearly at the end of its life with regard to the ability to modernize it from modern policing requirements and standards. Little lost in the other issues that have been identified which is the police cars which remain open to the public and should not be so they should be secured so that we can respond as needed throughout the township and that make any sense to go into some of the other other opportunities would have to improve with with a new facility so and I emphasize into what you indicated we're not talking about a new facility for clerk's office or treasurer or the

  21. rooms and so forth for women. So we're limited in the quality and the scope of folks we can recruit. And recruiting here, because policing is done by police, not by police cars or anything like that. But the other thing to point out, noted too, is the facility. You know, corporations invest in headquarters. Schools need good facilities. Police departments need good facilities too. It does help with recruiting. It helps with performance of the essential duties. And... that... But... know this building is is as redstone laid out really clearly at the end of its life with regard to the ability to modernize it from modern policing requirements and standards. Little lost in the other issues that have been identified which is the police cars which remain open to the public and should not be so they should be secured so that we can respond as needed throughout the township and that make any sense to go into some of the other other opportunities would have to improve with with a new facility so and I emphasize into what you indicated we're not talking about a new facility for clerk's office or treasurer or the normal off normal functions we're talking specifically about the needs for police maybe adding in the courts because of the synergies that that presents and we have space on this campus to do it I mean we just we do so I like to focus on something new provide the police department the resources it needs with regard to a facility so that we can continue to have the best policing in the state for the next you know next hundred years. Yeah and I think that's what's one of the things Martin that you just said was this isn't just a 25 year plan right this is hopefully something that's gonna last us another 50 to 75 years with the proper planning and the proper you know doing the right research up front rather than You know, you have agencies in the past who said, yeah, we can build a 20,000-square-foot facility, and we're going to have this land next to us in case we have to expand. That just doesn't make sense in today's, you know, especially with the cost. You know, if we would have done this in 2007 when it was discussed with the buildings in the back, I bet you we're paying $20 million less. Okay, any other comments? Just one other thing. Just going along with what you said, Jimmy, I think it's really important that we look at something as far as a separate police department building.

  22. not talking about a new facility for clerk's office or treasurer or the normal off normal functions we're talking specifically about the needs for police maybe adding in the courts because of the synergies that that presents and we have space on this campus to do it I mean we just we do so I like to focus on something new provide the police department the resources it needs with regard to a facility so that we can continue to have the best policing in the state for the next you know next hundred years. Yeah and I think that's what's one of the things Martin that you just said was this isn't just a 25 year plan right this is hopefully something that's gonna last us another 50 to 75 years with the proper planning and the proper you know doing the right research up front rather than You know, you have agencies in the past who said, yeah, we can build a 20,000-square-foot facility, and we're going to have this land next to us in case we have to expand. That just doesn't make sense in today's, you know, especially with the cost. You know, if we would have done this in 2007 when it was discussed with the buildings in the back, I bet you we're paying $20 million less. Okay, any other comments? Just one other thing. Just going along with what you said, Jimmy, I think it's really important that we look at something as far as a separate police department building. Accreditation is really important, and if you look at what the needs were in the police department when you started as an officer based on now being chief, it's just astronomical the number of changes and demands that have gone into the construction and the needs of your department and the buildings. So, first of all, I'm just pleased that we're not restricted to what the prior administration was looking at. We're more open-minded on what we can do and what we're going to do, and that we really need to take into account what the other departments are doing. They have state-of-the-art facilities that they're building because of the needs and of the accreditation and how policing has changed. And, of course, part of it, as you mentioned, Martin, is recruiting. It certainly helps with recruiting. Security is really an important issue. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. that we really don't have right now and this would provide additional security both for the police department and if we have the synergy with the courts it would help both of them so it's something that certainly very much in favor of coming up with some plans

  23. I think it's really important that we look at something as far as a separate police department building. Accreditation is really important, and if you look at what the needs were in the police department when you started as an officer based on now being chief, it's just astronomical the number of changes and demands that have gone into the construction and the needs of your department and the buildings. So, first of all, I'm just pleased that we're not restricted to what the prior administration was looking at. We're more open-minded on what we can do and what we're going to do, and that we really need to take into account what the other departments are doing. They have state-of-the-art facilities that they're building because of the needs and of the accreditation and how policing has changed. And, of course, part of it, as you mentioned, Martin, is recruiting. It certainly helps with recruiting. Security is really an important issue. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. that we really don't have right now and this would provide additional security both for the police department and if we have the synergy with the courts it would help both of them so it's something that certainly very much in favor of coming up with some plans as a separate police police building and very much in need over needed uh chief can you um talk about the opportunities that we've had to pass on regarding shared services with neighboring communities specifically as it relates to dispatch and that because our dispatch is so confined to a finite space we can't expand it to take on additional services maybe you can talk about that yeah so that's kind of what drew us to this initial issue about a year ago um was that we did um have an agency reach out to us um with with an ask and inquire um as to whether or not we could provide dispatch services for them um and of course we're always interested in that um you know that's one of the things that we we feared the state would target is because there's so many dispatch centers um and shared services with dispatch are are applicable one thing that i will say is i don't want to get too big where ai is taking over what our dispatchers do i think that human voice on the other end of that line is critical to what somebody not not just a phone tree somewhere

  24. so it's something that certainly very much in favor of coming up with some plans as a separate police police building and very much in need over needed uh chief can you um talk about the opportunities that we've had to pass on regarding shared services with neighboring communities specifically as it relates to dispatch and that because our dispatch is so confined to a finite space we can't expand it to take on additional services maybe you can talk about that yeah so that's kind of what drew us to this initial issue about a year ago um was that we did um have an agency reach out to us um with with an ask and inquire um as to whether or not we could provide dispatch services for them um and of course we're always interested in that um you know that's one of the things that we we feared the state would target is because there's so many dispatch centers um and shared services with dispatch are are applicable one thing that i will say is i don't want to get too big where ai is taking over what our dispatchers do i think that human voice on the other end of that line is critical to what somebody not not just a phone tree somewhere Um, with that being said, I'm not saying that there's not a place for it. Um, but that's really what looked at, forced us into this matter, um, was that we are, we wanted to add this, we would probably added four councils to our dispatch center, um, in order to take on that agency. Um, we would probably have to have about four to six on duty, especially during peak hours. Um, and we just could not, we had to say no. Um, and would they be interested today? I can't answer that question, but we can't even bro, we can't entertain that topic until we, um, have, have some kind of firm plans. And with that, you know, um, Chief Leroy is here and maybe he can answer more, but we have our dedicated EOC, um, which we're one of what nine, I think in the state, uh, of emergency operation centers that's licensed that where we are a full functioning emergency operations center. And when you look at the modernized stations, um, you know, it's accessible to the dispatch center. Um, and so when we would develop something like this, we would develop it, um, to where our emergency operations center is, you know, can work hand in hand with that dispatch center. You can wall off part of the dispatch center so that there's a council and a dispatcher assigned, uh, to that area. And again, you hear me say it, but Michigan was one of the last, uh, states to join the

  25. Um, with that being said, I'm not saying that there's not a place for it. Um, but that's really what looked at, forced us into this matter, um, was that we are, we wanted to add this, we would probably added four councils to our dispatch center, um, in order to take on that agency. Um, we would probably have to have about four to six on duty, especially during peak hours. Um, and we just could not, we had to say no. Um, and would they be interested today? I can't answer that question, but we can't even bro, we can't entertain that topic until we, um, have, have some kind of firm plans. And with that, you know, um, Chief Leroy is here and maybe he can answer more, but we have our dedicated EOC, um, which we're one of what nine, I think in the state, uh, of emergency operation centers that's licensed that where we are a full functioning emergency operations center. And when you look at the modernized stations, um, you know, it's accessible to the dispatch center. Um, and so when we would develop something like this, we would develop it, um, to where our emergency operations center is, you know, can work hand in hand with that dispatch center. You can wall off part of the dispatch center so that there's a council and a dispatcher assigned, uh, to that area. And again, you hear me say it, but Michigan was one of the last, uh, states to join the active shooter or, or mass casualty, um, response or incident. But now we're one of the states leading with the number of incidents, uh, in a state. And so having those types of centers, uh, I mean, it could be a storm here, it could be a tornado. We could be assisting another agency that they had to relocate for a minute. To be able to do that and do it functionally in the best way possible is important. So that's what drew our attention. And then adding staff, if we were to had to do that, we literally had to take our dispatchers and move them into a very tiny locker room with half the size lockers just so we could open lockers for female officers. That's pretty tight in there. Any other comments, Chris, do you have something? Yeah, just again, I echo what Trustee Barnett as well as Clerk Brooke talked about. I think a standalone building makes more sense, especially now that we've opened it to any place on the campus. It helps us if we do decide to go forward with this, that we would have, we don't have to worry about temporary locations for our police department because we already have an area. So we don't have to worry about bridging that gap if we had to do it with the building, which at one time was a suggestion. I think that makes more sense because it gives us the best option because I don't want to be confined to a short-term solution. It's supposed to be a 50 or 100 year building.

  26. And again, you hear me say it, but Michigan was one of the last, uh, states to join the active shooter or, or mass casualty, um, response or incident. But now we're one of the states leading with the number of incidents, uh, in a state. And so having those types of centers, uh, I mean, it could be a storm here, it could be a tornado. We could be assisting another agency that they had to relocate for a minute. To be able to do that and do it functionally in the best way possible is important. So that's what drew our attention. And then adding staff, if we were to had to do that, we literally had to take our dispatchers and move them into a very tiny locker room with half the size lockers just so we could open lockers for female officers. That's pretty tight in there. Any other comments, Chris, do you have something? Yeah, just again, I echo what Trustee Barnett as well as Clerk Brooke talked about. I think a standalone building makes more sense, especially now that we've opened it to any place on the campus. It helps us if we do decide to go forward with this, that we would have, we don't have to worry about temporary locations for our police department because we already have an area. So we don't have to worry about bridging that gap if we had to do it with the building, which at one time was a suggestion. I think that makes more sense because it gives us the best option because I don't want to be confined to a short-term solution. It's supposed to be a 50 or 100 year building. So the fact that we've opened it up and that narrowed our focus into one area, I think makes sense. But I fully support this and would love to see what we need to do. Okay, thanks, Chief. And then I think Mr. Thomas might want to talk to you after we're done here, okay? I was going to start off with your volunteer. I used to do the catalogs for it and I'll listen to you back down to help the Chief. Okay, thanks, Dave. Appreciate it. Real quick, Supervisor McCready, if you may, and I just want to address that range issue, you know. and i met not too long ago i had no idea what noah's uh the dpw staff and office staff was dealing with down there which is shame on us for not verifying that in the past um but yeah we can't use that range during the day basically with unless it's handguns only right all right thank you jimmy yep thank you all right i think we'll have to discuss that michael okay okay and we'll come back maybe with some harder facts harder numbers harder facts timelines okay and we can bring it up at the next meeting sure i think we can work out i think redstone's coming in tomorrow afternoon okay okay so next step we'll be back here two weeks at this board table to talk about it further and maybe we'll have a some ideas of more concrete ideas okay good okay item number

  27. It's supposed to be a 50 or 100 year building. So the fact that we've opened it up and that narrowed our focus into one area, I think makes sense. But I fully support this and would love to see what we need to do. Okay, thanks, Chief. And then I think Mr. Thomas might want to talk to you after we're done here, okay? I was going to start off with your volunteer. I used to do the catalogs for it and I'll listen to you back down to help the Chief. Okay, thanks, Dave. Appreciate it. Real quick, Supervisor McCready, if you may, and I just want to address that range issue, you know. and i met not too long ago i had no idea what noah's uh the dpw staff and office staff was dealing with down there which is shame on us for not verifying that in the past um but yeah we can't use that range during the day basically with unless it's handguns only right all right thank you jimmy yep thank you all right i think we'll have to discuss that michael okay okay and we'll come back maybe with some harder facts harder numbers harder facts timelines okay and we can bring it up at the next meeting sure i think we can work out i think redstone's coming in tomorrow afternoon okay okay so next step we'll be back here two weeks at this board table to talk about it further and maybe we'll have a some ideas of more concrete ideas okay good okay item number four consider approval of a permit for display fireworks at wabi country club 4000 club clubgate drive for june 26 2026 presented by our fire marshal joe syracuse welcome joe hello how's everybody doing good how are you doing joe uh did you guys put the you need to see it up there i i believe you guys were supposed to load it on there it's in the yes if you can see it that's fine if you can see the packet um the wabi one this is a annual event we've been doing it for years um same setup every single year um never had any issues with it they meet all the requirements um it's kind of like a cookie cutter thing we do every year them birmingham does there and so as far as that one goes I had zero issues with that at all great so I want to confirm that the clerk's office has all the required items for the application and I'm happy to make a motion I move that we approve the Wabi country club fireworks permit as submitted support all in favor say aye aye any opposed that's a seven or nothing thank you item number five consider approval of permit for display fireworks at 3950 Franklin Road for June 19 2026 presented by Fire Marshal Joe Syracuse welcome back Joe all right

  28. about it further and maybe we'll have a some ideas of more concrete ideas okay good okay item number four consider approval of a permit for display fireworks at wabi country club 4000 club clubgate drive for june 26 2026 presented by our fire marshal joe syracuse welcome joe hello how's everybody doing good how are you doing joe uh did you guys put the you need to see it up there i i believe you guys were supposed to load it on there it's in the yes if you can see it that's fine if you can see the packet um the wabi one this is a annual event we've been doing it for years um same setup every single year um never had any issues with it they meet all the requirements um it's kind of like a cookie cutter thing we do every year them birmingham does there and so as far as that one goes I had zero issues with that at all great so I want to confirm that the clerk's office has all the required items for the application and I'm happy to make a motion I move that we approve the Wabi country club fireworks permit as submitted support all in favor say aye aye any opposed that's a seven or nothing thank you item number five consider approval of permit for display fireworks at 3950 Franklin Road for June 19 2026 presented by Fire Marshal Joe Syracuse welcome back Joe all right maybe I'll do better this time this was presented to us just a couple summers ago and it almost got voted through it it's the same exact setup again we inspected it it met all the requirements according to NFPA regulations the concerns that the board had was due to the short notice where the neighbors able to be notified because you know not everybody likes fireworks they're worried about some fallout in the water and then yeah yeah but the biggest concern was it was given on such short notice you guys didn't have time to really talk through it and it almost got voted through I think it only got voted down by one vote and it was kind of like okay next year next time you want to do this let's put a little bit more you know give a little more notice on it and then you could talk it through once again Again, it's the same exact set up. It meets all the regulations. It's a reputable company that's doing it. They're insured properly. Once again, I mean, my recommendation is that, you know, they be allowed to do it.

  29. 19 2026 presented by Fire Marshal Joe Syracuse welcome back Joe all right maybe I'll do better this time this was presented to us just a couple summers ago and it almost got voted through it it's the same exact setup again we inspected it it met all the requirements according to NFPA regulations the concerns that the board had was due to the short notice where the neighbors able to be notified because you know not everybody likes fireworks they're worried about some fallout in the water and then yeah yeah but the biggest concern was it was given on such short notice you guys didn't have time to really talk through it and it almost got voted through I think it only got voted down by one vote and it was kind of like okay next year next time you want to do this let's put a little bit more you know give a little more notice on it and then you could talk it through once again Again, it's the same exact set up. It meets all the regulations. It's a reputable company that's doing it. They're insured properly. Once again, I mean, my recommendation is that, you know, they be allowed to do it. They meet all the requirements that I would be concerned about. Okay, I'm certainly in favor of this. I was in favor of it last time. Certainly the concerns about lack of time to notify neighbors is not an issue because this is not until June 19th, and certainly based on the fire marshal's recommendation, I'd make a motion that we approve. I just had a question. Have the neighbors been notified or will they get notified, or how does that go? That I don't know, but luckily the homeowner's here today, so he can answer some questions for us because the last time there was nobody here representing the private entity, so we didn't have those answers. I mean, realistically, no, I'm not going to be able to go around and notify all the neighbors. I don't know if there's a homeowner's association or something you can go through. You want to come up and introduce yourself? Yep. Answer any questions. I'll step aside for you. Yes. Use that right there. Hi there. Jay Farner, 3950 Franklin Road. Back in Bloomfield Township after I grew up at Lone Pine and Franklin. Moved to Bloomfield Hills and I'm back now. Love it. Um, yeah. Um...

  30. They meet all the requirements that I would be concerned about. Okay, I'm certainly in favor of this. I was in favor of it last time. Certainly the concerns about lack of time to notify neighbors is not an issue because this is not until June 19th, and certainly based on the fire marshal's recommendation, I'd make a motion that we approve. I just had a question. Have the neighbors been notified or will they get notified, or how does that go? That I don't know, but luckily the homeowner's here today, so he can answer some questions for us because the last time there was nobody here representing the private entity, so we didn't have those answers. I mean, realistically, no, I'm not going to be able to go around and notify all the neighbors. I don't know if there's a homeowner's association or something you can go through. You want to come up and introduce yourself? Yep. Answer any questions. I'll step aside for you. Yes. Use that right there. Hi there. Jay Farner, 3950 Franklin Road. Back in Bloomfield Township after I grew up at Lone Pine and Franklin. Moved to Bloomfield Hills and I'm back now. Love it. Um, yeah. Um... and i'm happy to notify my neighbors pay for the cost to notify the neighbors and if someone's got a problem of course we won't do it but a simple nine or ten minute fireworks display and i got the idea from my previous the previous homeowner who had done it as well so seems like the neighbors in the past have been agreeable okay thank you any questions for yeah it's not the first time this has happened at the location or anything like that okay so again i make a motion we approve before i support another question before we sorry so um jake can we also do you have a quick second because there's a lower long lake of course is a one of the lakes that has a lake board in the township correct works very hard to maintain the quality of the lake and and spends funds that that you contribute to and the right parents contribute to uh we just had a lake board meeting and the lake is doing great um what i i i'm concerned about the fire fireworks over the lake um you know there is fallout that occurs from it there are chemicals in it um you know my i guess you know it's also you know not private property it's it's owned by a variety of folks not simply just you uh whereas the country club is a little easier i mean the fireworks are on the country club property um uh my so my next request would be that that your vendor provide us some

  31. and i'm happy to notify my neighbors pay for the cost to notify the neighbors and if someone's got a problem of course we won't do it but a simple nine or ten minute fireworks display and i got the idea from my previous the previous homeowner who had done it as well so seems like the neighbors in the past have been agreeable okay thank you any questions for yeah it's not the first time this has happened at the location or anything like that okay so again i make a motion we approve before i support another question before we sorry so um jake can we also do you have a quick second because there's a lower long lake of course is a one of the lakes that has a lake board in the township correct works very hard to maintain the quality of the lake and and spends funds that that you contribute to and the right parents contribute to uh we just had a lake board meeting and the lake is doing great um what i i i'm concerned about the fire fireworks over the lake um you know there is fallout that occurs from it there are chemicals in it um you know my i guess you know it's also you know not private property it's it's owned by a variety of folks not simply just you uh whereas the country club is a little easier i mean the fireworks are on the country club property um uh my so my next request would be that that your vendor provide us some additional you know some information concerning their their uh cleanup regimen you know what they're going to do with regard to that um sure i don't know what they you know that's not normally required as part of a license, but it's a concern that's been expressed to me by riparians on the lake, and I'm concerned as a member of the Lake Board for the Lower Lung Lake with regard to that. We can ask all, as you probably know, the location of my property is that all the trash from the lake winds up at my house. So I pay to have it cleaned already so I can happily discuss with them if there's a process that we can do and clean it up and make sure, I don't want to look at anything floating in the lake either. So I'm happy to talk to them about that and ask about the biodegradable and the chemicals or so forth and so on just to ensure that that's nothing that needs to be concerned about. So if you'd ask them to submit something to my office after you speak with them, that'd be wonderful. Thank you. One thing to think about with the commercial fireworks too is most of it disintegrates upon explosion. You don't get a whole lot of fallout like you do from the, you know, the ones you can buy at say Costco and whatnot.

  32. country club property um uh my so my next request would be that that your vendor provide us some additional you know some information concerning their their uh cleanup regimen you know what they're going to do with regard to that um sure i don't know what they you know that's not normally required as part of a license, but it's a concern that's been expressed to me by riparians on the lake, and I'm concerned as a member of the Lake Board for the Lower Lung Lake with regard to that. We can ask all, as you probably know, the location of my property is that all the trash from the lake winds up at my house. So I pay to have it cleaned already so I can happily discuss with them if there's a process that we can do and clean it up and make sure, I don't want to look at anything floating in the lake either. So I'm happy to talk to them about that and ask about the biodegradable and the chemicals or so forth and so on just to ensure that that's nothing that needs to be concerned about. So if you'd ask them to submit something to my office after you speak with them, that'd be wonderful. Thank you. One thing to think about with the commercial fireworks too is most of it disintegrates upon explosion. You don't get a whole lot of fallout like you do from the, you know, the ones you can buy at say Costco and whatnot. They blow up and most of the stuff with it blows up. So are we going to table this to the next meeting? No, I don't. I made the motion and I will not entertain tabling this. He's been through this already. Well, we have the time. This time we have the time. He can present it. He can present it to Martin's office. Again, I make the motion. We approve. Again, just a friendly amendment, with the conditions just discussed, we're going to notice to neighbors and the environmental state. or plans for cleanup if any okay included in the motion yes thank you okay one thing i did put in a letter is you know they need to notify me the day of um because if there's high winds or something like that it will need to be shut down once you get up to above 20 miles an hour i realistically being a professional company they should call it off but you know we need to make sure or advise the lake next door that they'll be having fireworks or that or tell the neighbors to pose it so we have a motion and we have support all in favor say aye aye any opposed okay passes seven nothing thank you joe joe all right item number six introduction of the 2026 2027 water and sewer rates presented by our director of public works noah owalski welcome noah yeah they were saying they couldn't hear online

  33. buy at say Costco and whatnot. They blow up and most of the stuff with it blows up. So are we going to table this to the next meeting? No, I don't. I made the motion and I will not entertain tabling this. He's been through this already. Well, we have the time. This time we have the time. He can present it. He can present it to Martin's office. Again, I make the motion. We approve. Again, just a friendly amendment, with the conditions just discussed, we're going to notice to neighbors and the environmental state. or plans for cleanup if any okay included in the motion yes thank you okay one thing i did put in a letter is you know they need to notify me the day of um because if there's high winds or something like that it will need to be shut down once you get up to above 20 miles an hour i realistically being a professional company they should call it off but you know we need to make sure or advise the lake next door that they'll be having fireworks or that or tell the neighbors to pose it so we have a motion and we have support all in favor say aye aye any opposed okay passes seven nothing thank you joe joe all right item number six introduction of the 2026 2027 water and sewer rates presented by our director of public works noah owalski welcome noah yeah they were saying they couldn't hear online all right you're really sure we already had a study session march 9th i believe that was not that short okay so a little bit about the system again we're heavy into irrigation in bloomfield township that's very unique uh the size scale and scope of our system plays a large role in the rates of our system plays a large role in the rates that we pay other key factors weather supplier increases our actual max day and flows distance and elevation from the source then you can see a little bit about our customers the big thing there is we don't have a lot of commercial customers here within the township so the major irrigators kind of fill that niche for us um each year looking at rates we look at the cost for doing business and put those over the amount of water we believe we're going to sell so it really we're a non-profit

  34. by our director of public works noah owalski welcome noah yeah they were saying they couldn't hear online all right you're really sure we already had a study session march 9th i believe that was not that short okay so a little bit about the system again we're heavy into irrigation in bloomfield township that's very unique uh the size scale and scope of our system plays a large role in the rates of our system plays a large role in the rates that we pay other key factors weather supplier increases our actual max day and flows distance and elevation from the source then you can see a little bit about our customers the big thing there is we don't have a lot of commercial customers here within the township so the major irrigators kind of fill that niche for us um each year looking at rates we look at the cost for doing business and put those over the amount of water we believe we're going to sell so it really we're a non-profit so we want to break even in that regard and we come up with a revenue requirement based on costs from our commodity suppliers rates that we have to pay our staff contracts with our staff and then internal um you know uh consumables that we use to do our job so uh currently we've got um approximately 21 of our is of our fee is fixed our overall revenue requirement is fixed and we allocate that with the meu structure um interestingly i always tell you guys that our sewer is 100 fixed fixed right now our water is right around 20 fixed but they're looking to go to 60 fixed on our water which will bring down the commodity portion but the fixed portion will go up obviously so the portion that remains out of our control will become more and more from our suppliers And that's reflective of what Great Lakes Water did five to ten years ago. And then you have our variable costs, and that's where you start to talk about tiering a rate and those type of things. So the factors we were dealing with specifically this year, SOCWA landed on a 7.5% rate increase for us.

  35. put those over the amount of water we believe we're going to sell so it really we're a non-profit so we want to break even in that regard and we come up with a revenue requirement based on costs from our commodity suppliers rates that we have to pay our staff contracts with our staff and then internal um you know uh consumables that we use to do our job so uh currently we've got um approximately 21 of our is of our fee is fixed our overall revenue requirement is fixed and we allocate that with the meu structure um interestingly i always tell you guys that our sewer is 100 fixed fixed right now our water is right around 20 fixed but they're looking to go to 60 fixed on our water which will bring down the commodity portion but the fixed portion will go up obviously so the portion that remains out of our control will become more and more from our suppliers And that's reflective of what Great Lakes Water did five to ten years ago. And then you have our variable costs, and that's where you start to talk about tiering a rate and those type of things. So the factors we were dealing with specifically this year, SOCWA landed on a 7.5% rate increase for us. WRC landed on a 6% rate increase. The one for SOCWA, I believe, has been through their board but hasn't been finally approved by the communities. And then WRC, it hasn't even gone to their board yet because they have a July fiscal year, so they're just kind of a couple months behind us. Monthly billing, we talked about that a little bit. We added about $20,000 in the budget to do the monthly billing. It's about $1.33 a person, in my mind, or per customer. We're not going to have to carry that Hills and Valleys money as much when we're, you know, charging on a monthly basis. So we're going to have to, we will be able to lower our reserves at that point. So in my mind, that pays for the program, plus the benefits that our residents have been asking for to be in the driver's seat on their water for that as well. Tiered rate, again, we're going to talk about what that looks like kind of in the future, and Raftelis will be able to touch on that. We're also looking if the relationship is going to be in the future, and Raftelis will be able to touch on that, and Raftelis will be able to touch on that.

  36. So the factors we were dealing with specifically this year, SOCWA landed on a 7.5% rate increase for us. WRC landed on a 6% rate increase. The one for SOCWA, I believe, has been through their board but hasn't been finally approved by the communities. And then WRC, it hasn't even gone to their board yet because they have a July fiscal year, so they're just kind of a couple months behind us. Monthly billing, we talked about that a little bit. We added about $20,000 in the budget to do the monthly billing. It's about $1.33 a person, in my mind, or per customer. We're not going to have to carry that Hills and Valleys money as much when we're, you know, charging on a monthly basis. So we're going to have to, we will be able to lower our reserves at that point. So in my mind, that pays for the program, plus the benefits that our residents have been asking for to be in the driver's seat on their water for that as well. Tiered rate, again, we're going to talk about what that looks like kind of in the future, and Raftelis will be able to touch on that. We're also looking if the relationship is going to be in the future, and Raftelis will be able to touch on that, and Raftelis will be able to touch on that. with SOCLA is the best out there for the township as well the buy-in factor is dictated by their bylaws and they're currently it's cost prohibitive for us to be a full-fledged member but we're still getting a better rate than we would have gotten with Great Lakes water but we're looking at that ready to serve there's been talk about that being that proportion in a fixed fee being played with when we go to a tiered rate so that'll be part of the discussion we also have to understand that costs are increasing and usage is decreasing by about a percent a year so it's a trend within the industry that you're losing about 1% of your consumption a year so that drives costs up in addition to actual costs increasing we want to fund our capital improvement project so we can keep reliability of the system high and we want to meet our reserve levels that we set as a policy decision by the board we were actually successful in the last year of paying down the reserves by about 3 million but the weather in the fall caused us to over collect and oversell water because we had two

  37. with SOCLA is the best out there for the township as well the buy-in factor is dictated by their bylaws and they're currently it's cost prohibitive for us to be a full-fledged member but we're still getting a better rate than we would have gotten with Great Lakes water but we're looking at that ready to serve there's been talk about that being that proportion in a fixed fee being played with when we go to a tiered rate so that'll be part of the discussion we also have to understand that costs are increasing and usage is decreasing by about a percent a year so it's a trend within the industry that you're losing about 1% of your consumption a year so that drives costs up in addition to actual costs increasing we want to fund our capital improvement project so we can keep reliability of the system high and we want to meet our reserve levels that we set as a policy decision by the board we were actually successful in the last year of paying down the reserves by about 3 million but the weather in the fall caused us to over collect and oversell water because we had two additional irrigation months within the year so that means that we added to our reserves this year even though we spent them down through staff activity I'm touching on some public comment The meters that send the signal 24-7, that's what we're getting rid of. And so the smart meters that DTE calls smart meters, we've already had those meters in place. Those are the radio read meters that we have had in place in the second generation of the system. We're going to a cell phone-based system. They ping three to four times a day. There's FAQ sheets in the back on them. And they make basically a millisecond telephone call up to about a two-second telephone call three to four times a day. That's the level of exposure. Much less than our radio read meters, which are sending out the signal 24-7 right now. The Ion Water, we're struggling. We've got about a 10% utilization right now with the Ion Water app. We give out propaganda or mailers when they get the meter. We're going to transition into sending a message with bills. But we couldn't do that until we had most of the people, the lion's share on the new meters.

  38. fall caused us to over collect and oversell water because we had two additional irrigation months within the year so that means that we added to our reserves this year even though we spent them down through staff activity I'm touching on some public comment The meters that send the signal 24-7, that's what we're getting rid of. And so the smart meters that DTE calls smart meters, we've already had those meters in place. Those are the radio read meters that we have had in place in the second generation of the system. We're going to a cell phone-based system. They ping three to four times a day. There's FAQ sheets in the back on them. And they make basically a millisecond telephone call up to about a two-second telephone call three to four times a day. That's the level of exposure. Much less than our radio read meters, which are sending out the signal 24-7 right now. The Ion Water, we're struggling. We've got about a 10% utilization right now with the Ion Water app. We give out propaganda or mailers when they get the meter. We're going to transition into sending a message with bills. But we couldn't do that until we had most of the people, the lion's share on the new meters. Because if you get that for the Ion Water, you literally can't use it until you have the new meter. So we've got to be careful about that messaging. I've seen some meters available at, like, Home Depot and that. They're flow meters. They're not necessarily a water meter, which actually tracks the entire use. It actually tracks the flow at any given time. But it does not track leaks and the billing purposes, the items. that we need in a water meter. Plus, we did the bidding process and we took the low bidder. Again, like I said, Raftelis is studying the relationship with SACWA. They'll be able to talk a little bit about that and kind of fill you in, but in the end, we come to the end of the study and it doesn't make sense, we will make a move back to Great Lakes Water, if that's what makes sense, or another supplier. Noah, while you think, can I ask you a couple of questions? Okay, so the meters you're replacing are the smart meters that were very controversial 10 years ago, and we're going with a cell phone-based meter that's monitoring pretty much 24-7,

  39. But we couldn't do that until we had most of the people, the lion's share on the new meters. Because if you get that for the Ion Water, you literally can't use it until you have the new meter. So we've got to be careful about that messaging. I've seen some meters available at, like, Home Depot and that. They're flow meters. They're not necessarily a water meter, which actually tracks the entire use. It actually tracks the flow at any given time. But it does not track leaks and the billing purposes, the items. that we need in a water meter. Plus, we did the bidding process and we took the low bidder. Again, like I said, Raftelis is studying the relationship with SACWA. They'll be able to talk a little bit about that and kind of fill you in, but in the end, we come to the end of the study and it doesn't make sense, we will make a move back to Great Lakes Water, if that's what makes sense, or another supplier. Noah, while you think, can I ask you a couple of questions? Okay, so the meters you're replacing are the smart meters that were very controversial 10 years ago, and we're going with a cell phone-based meter that's monitoring pretty much 24-7, but it's pinging three to four times a day through a cell phone. Correct. Do we have the cell service? Because we have a very weak, if any, cell service in many of our communities. Yeah, it's a government network that's encrypted, protected, and it is not available to the general public. So it's set up, it's a better network that's earmarked for government, operations only. Right, and then the app with the eye on water is really only good once you have the new meter in to track your work, right? Right, and much like our tax data, the meter data and our usage data is available. It's stored in secure off-site locations. All the tax data is stored in BSNA off-site. Same with the water data, there's protections in place. that's the industry standard and then I know Val and her husband had a problem with a toilet I believe it was we've caught two leaks truly since we've been using the app and with the new meter with the new meter right right and Michael Michael I think you had a thousand dollar over charge because you had something leaking as well right well that was many years ago it was like a six thousand dollar charge because you wouldn't know for three months and ours was I didn't know for three months Noah knew said he said well my leak because I

  40. that's monitoring pretty much 24-7, but it's pinging three to four times a day through a cell phone. Correct. Do we have the cell service? Because we have a very weak, if any, cell service in many of our communities. Yeah, it's a government network that's encrypted, protected, and it is not available to the general public. So it's set up, it's a better network that's earmarked for government, operations only. Right, and then the app with the eye on water is really only good once you have the new meter in to track your work, right? Right, and much like our tax data, the meter data and our usage data is available. It's stored in secure off-site locations. All the tax data is stored in BSNA off-site. Same with the water data, there's protections in place. that's the industry standard and then I know Val and her husband had a problem with a toilet I believe it was we've caught two leaks truly since we've been using the app and with the new meter with the new meter right right and Michael Michael I think you had a thousand dollar over charge because you had something leaking as well right well that was many years ago it was like a six thousand dollar charge because you wouldn't know for three months and ours was I didn't know for three months Noah knew said he said well my leak because I told him what I found he said oh that's a small leak so we didn't know between you know kids moving out and kids coming back to visit and you know we're not big irrigators but you know it's a three-month bill so it's all over the place so you know it's like it goes up but I pay it goes down I pay it but I didn't notice it's like a gallon gallon an hour or something I was losing significant it was significant but it wasn't he told me it was well relatively so it wasn't like oh my gosh look my bills everything you're doing is going to help stop that from happening so people don't because we have to pay SACWA for the water right we can catch those leaks quicker it's a benefit to the water system right especially in a case where it may be a leak to a non sewer where we have to basically refund them the water or the sewer portion of the bill at that point so a it's better customer service because they're fine out about a leak and putting them in the driver's seat quicker hundreds i can't say thousands hundreds have benefited by it already um so and the feedback that we've gotten is that far outweighs the dollar 33 cost which will be actually proportionalized between everyone and then what's the average

  41. was I didn't know for three months Noah knew said he said well my leak because I told him what I found he said oh that's a small leak so we didn't know between you know kids moving out and kids coming back to visit and you know we're not big irrigators but you know it's a three-month bill so it's all over the place so you know it's like it goes up but I pay it goes down I pay it but I didn't notice it's like a gallon gallon an hour or something I was losing significant it was significant but it wasn't he told me it was well relatively so it wasn't like oh my gosh look my bills everything you're doing is going to help stop that from happening so people don't because we have to pay SACWA for the water right we can catch those leaks quicker it's a benefit to the water system right especially in a case where it may be a leak to a non sewer where we have to basically refund them the water or the sewer portion of the bill at that point so a it's better customer service because they're fine out about a leak and putting them in the driver's seat quicker hundreds i can't say thousands hundreds have benefited by it already um so and the feedback that we've gotten is that far outweighs the dollar 33 cost which will be actually proportionalized between everyone and then what's the average we're paying for those new meters they're like 450 but i don't know 490 maybe the latest one so but it depends on size the bigger the meter the more it costs that type of stuff but they were a little bitters paid for installation installation is about 400 bucks too and that was all by bid low bidder okay uh low with qualified bidder correct and how much was approved by the board on multiple occasions during these meetings in april i got approval for the meter project in multiple subsequent years approving revenue is not approving expenses i understand you and and that makes me absolutely livid the fact that you wanted to spend all that cash and you didn't come to the board for approval to spend all that cash i believe on the project board stop let's be professional yeah mark i don't think that it's accurate i know you're frustrated with the water situation but i don't believe that's accurate so so but we're professionals mark you're professional know us professional

  42. 33 cost which will be actually proportionalized between everyone and then what's the average we're paying for those new meters they're like 450 but i don't know 490 maybe the latest one so but it depends on size the bigger the meter the more it costs that type of stuff but they were a little bitters paid for installation installation is about 400 bucks too and that was all by bid low bidder okay uh low with qualified bidder correct and how much was approved by the board on multiple occasions during these meetings in april i got approval for the meter project in multiple subsequent years approving revenue is not approving expenses i understand you and and that makes me absolutely livid the fact that you wanted to spend all that cash and you didn't come to the board for approval to spend all that cash i believe on the project board stop let's be professional yeah mark i don't think that it's accurate i know you're frustrated with the water situation but i don't believe that's accurate so so but we're professionals mark you're professional know us professional We could talk about it offline. Right. And let's go back to, Mayor Alice had a couple of comments about we have $15 million extra set aside, and she feels $4 million should be refunded to the residents. She said $20 million. Was it? So when we look at our reserves, you talked about how we had oversold even though we tried to reduce that $3 million from last year. Can you explain in the water rates the extra revenue and what you're planning on doing that came up with these water rates? I believe is what Supervisor McCready is getting at. Yes, so those, a myriad of factors cause you to oversell water, whether people's conditions change. Weather in this case was likely the biggest factor. We had irrigative weather into September and October last year before it switched on us. That caused about a $3 million surplus in the operating funds. That's been moved over to the reserve. The reserve this year came down by $3 million because of my engineering, our counterparts, the good work they're doing out there putting pipes in the ground and the meter program as well. But so then basically we had to move that money out of operating funds over to restricted, and then we make a decision how that impacts the rate.

  43. We could talk about it offline. Right. And let's go back to, Mayor Alice had a couple of comments about we have $15 million extra set aside, and she feels $4 million should be refunded to the residents. She said $20 million. Was it? So when we look at our reserves, you talked about how we had oversold even though we tried to reduce that $3 million from last year. Can you explain in the water rates the extra revenue and what you're planning on doing that came up with these water rates? I believe is what Supervisor McCready is getting at. Yes, so those, a myriad of factors cause you to oversell water, whether people's conditions change. Weather in this case was likely the biggest factor. We had irrigative weather into September and October last year before it switched on us. That caused about a $3 million surplus in the operating funds. That's been moved over to the reserve. The reserve this year came down by $3 million because of my engineering, our counterparts, the good work they're doing out there putting pipes in the ground and the meter program as well. But so then basically we had to move that money out of operating funds over to restricted, and then we make a decision how that impacts the rate. So again, the extra money that our residents paid, we are reinvesting into the system. Whether we're putting new lines in, fixing, we're stopping water main breaks. We have a big project coming up at Maple Road between Lasher and Cranbrook. There you are. Thank you. intention we don't want to so we could we were looking at going for a zero percent rate increase this year strongly considering it right but we look at this as a five-year revenue stream and we want to meet that it would have likely resulted in a five percent increase somewhere down the next two or three years so our thing was okay we've got large project coming up let's keep that money in the coffer then we don't have to have this rate you know limbo going up and down with our residents stability of the rate and so we've generated that cash we should use it for the capital program all while trying to maintain and get that reserve level down so um we had talked about rate stability when we've met before right again our residents don't want to see these big increases that other communities do and if we are able to have a modest rate increase which you're suggesting three and a half it can also save us money because then we're not bonding out for some of these projects which in other communities they would which creates interest in the system which

  44. and then we make a decision how that impacts the rate. So again, the extra money that our residents paid, we are reinvesting into the system. Whether we're putting new lines in, fixing, we're stopping water main breaks. We have a big project coming up at Maple Road between Lasher and Cranbrook. There you are. Thank you. intention we don't want to so we could we were looking at going for a zero percent rate increase this year strongly considering it right but we look at this as a five-year revenue stream and we want to meet that it would have likely resulted in a five percent increase somewhere down the next two or three years so our thing was okay we've got large project coming up let's keep that money in the coffer then we don't have to have this rate you know limbo going up and down with our residents stability of the rate and so we've generated that cash we should use it for the capital program all while trying to maintain and get that reserve level down so um we had talked about rate stability when we've met before right again our residents don't want to see these big increases that other communities do and if we are able to have a modest rate increase which you're suggesting three and a half it can also save us money because then we're not bonding out for some of these projects which in other communities they would which creates interest in the system which again then we pass on to the customers so it ends up being a cheaper option for our residents long term if i'm not mistaken is that correct correct and you you really i mean there's good examples in west bloomfield who had double digit rate increases last year and i think they got like a four-year plan out there and also royal oak who had double digit increases they actually changed their rate structure a couple times because they're in this financial crunch so all right but they were they were subsidizing the To the general fund. To the general fund. For whatever reason, they're underfunding. And then it caught up with them. Yep, yep. Well, I know you said that last year we spent down our excess reserve to try and control the rates, and we're doing a little bit of that this year as well, correct? Yeah, we always, in our revenue requirement, we always look and try to get that reserve to our target each year. It's just life and, you know, the realities of a water system and the users kind of come into play then, especially because we have to be conservative and make sure we don't under, we can't be at a deficit for multiple years because, you know, we'll go out of business. But the increases from SACWA and the sewage were higher than expected, so we're trying to offset some of that still. That's a function of our strong position in the reserves, and again, that's, we carry this money within our reserves

  45. again then we pass on to the customers so it ends up being a cheaper option for our residents long term if i'm not mistaken is that correct correct and you you really i mean there's good examples in west bloomfield who had double digit rate increases last year and i think they got like a four-year plan out there and also royal oak who had double digit increases they actually changed their rate structure a couple times because they're in this financial crunch so all right but they were they were subsidizing the To the general fund. To the general fund. For whatever reason, they're underfunding. And then it caught up with them. Yep, yep. Well, I know you said that last year we spent down our excess reserve to try and control the rates, and we're doing a little bit of that this year as well, correct? Yeah, we always, in our revenue requirement, we always look and try to get that reserve to our target each year. It's just life and, you know, the realities of a water system and the users kind of come into play then, especially because we have to be conservative and make sure we don't under, we can't be at a deficit for multiple years because, you know, we'll go out of business. But the increases from SACWA and the sewage were higher than expected, so we're trying to offset some of that still. That's a function of our strong position in the reserves, and again, that's, we carry this money within our reserves to level out these hills and valleys of only collecting money every three, four months, right? So that's going to help us move that down as well. Hold on a second. Hold on. During the last meeting, we were told by Treasurer Sostak that we bill one-third of the residents every month, and he said there was going to be no change in the networking capital requirements. What has changed? What I'm saying is we carry money to cover the other months that we don't have the cash. We're buying the water in a month. We don't pay for the water. We don't have the funds to pay for it. We had to carry money in a bank account. We bill one-third of the residents every month right now. One- We get billed for all the residents' usage in a given month, though. You're still collecting cash. Not on the volume we need it. So we have to have money in the bank to move through those bills and ballots. Yeah, and you have $20 million in the bank. You have over $1 million in excess in the OPEP fund. So your statement does not match what Treasurer Sostak said during the study session. Michael, you want to clarify that?

  46. That's a function of our strong position in the reserves, and again, that's, we carry this money within our reserves to level out these hills and valleys of only collecting money every three, four months, right? So that's going to help us move that down as well. Hold on a second. Hold on. During the last meeting, we were told by Treasurer Sostak that we bill one-third of the residents every month, and he said there was going to be no change in the networking capital requirements. What has changed? What I'm saying is we carry money to cover the other months that we don't have the cash. We're buying the water in a month. We don't pay for the water. We don't have the funds to pay for it. We had to carry money in a bank account. We bill one-third of the residents every month right now. One- We get billed for all the residents' usage in a given month, though. You're still collecting cash. Not on the volume we need it. So we have to have money in the bank to move through those bills and ballots. Yeah, and you have $20 million in the bank. You have over $1 million in excess in the OPEP fund. So your statement does not match what Treasurer Sostak said during the study session. Michael, you want to clarify that? I'm lost as to what you're saying. I would say that with quarterly billing, we have three cycles that are on different months. But what NOAA is saying is that we get billed for everybody's usage in a given month, and we're only billing one-third of the people. And so using quarterly billing requires us to have a larger amount in working capital to sustain those peaks of values, especially when you look at people in the summer and we don't get the money from them until the fall, et cetera. How much extra? We don't know until we implement the monthly billing, and then we'll be able to see that. You should know. You have a predictive model. You're saying that you're making rates. You're saying you're making payments. That means all of the assumptions... making to doing the the rates are inaccurate there is no fact basis for it that's just not true you're drawing making conclusions they're just unsupported they're wild you know what you know it's not if you're collecting from one-third of the residents there might be timing for one month

  47. I'm lost as to what you're saying. I would say that with quarterly billing, we have three cycles that are on different months. But what NOAA is saying is that we get billed for everybody's usage in a given month, and we're only billing one-third of the people. And so using quarterly billing requires us to have a larger amount in working capital to sustain those peaks of values, especially when you look at people in the summer and we don't get the money from them until the fall, et cetera. How much extra? We don't know until we implement the monthly billing, and then we'll be able to see that. You should know. You have a predictive model. You're saying that you're making rates. You're saying you're making payments. That means all of the assumptions... making to doing the the rates are inaccurate there is no fact basis for it that's just not true you're drawing making conclusions they're just unsupported they're wild you know what you know it's not if you're collecting from one-third of the residents there might be timing for one month yeah but you're still the rates are not associated with facts what you have dispute about one small item and you made a categorical statement so let's just talk about the item maybe do you have a business background of course do you have an mba look so you tell me how much money either you need the money and the difference is one million from 11 million in the in the so i have a question though mark actually i have a question you gotta like take a step back okay i don't like misrepresentations and false statements and if mr i'm saying you you you have championed that pretty well i think of making misstatements you categorize things the way you want to see it you got to open up and see how he operates it and take a step back and kind of give it a better study i think it would help yes and i believe that the reduction in the networking capital will be minimal to the 16 to 17 million that was mentioned by rap telus if that number is off then rap telus should explain why and they never presented that during the last meeting they never presented how the rates would change

  48. it's not if you're collecting from one-third of the residents there might be timing for one month yeah but you're still the rates are not associated with facts what you have dispute about one small item and you made a categorical statement so let's just talk about the item maybe do you have a business background of course do you have an mba look so you tell me how much money either you need the money and the difference is one million from 11 million in the in the so i have a question though mark actually i have a question you gotta like take a step back okay i don't like misrepresentations and false statements and if mr i'm saying you you you have championed that pretty well i think of making misstatements you categorize things the way you want to see it you got to open up and see how he operates it and take a step back and kind of give it a better study i think it would help yes and i believe that the reduction in the networking capital will be minimal to the 16 to 17 million that was mentioned by rap telus if that number is off then rap telus should explain why and they never presented that during the last meeting they never presented how the rates would change They never stated anything when I asked the questions, and they, nothing. There was no financial information presented during the study session. Now to come back and claim that his statements are accurate, I don't have monthly bills. I think they are. I think most of us are in agreement that they are accurate. Can I ask Noah a question? Please. In your estimation, when do you think we will go to monthly billing? And, because I have had questions about the monthly billing and the cost of mailing and all this, is there going to be maybe an option to do, you know, like electronic bills? Electronic billing is already in place, so you can do that. We've pegged it at around $20,000 right now, the additional cost. That's where I come up with the $1.33 per customer. So we've pegged that cost because there's some, you know, set-up costs and stuff that don't change based on the volume of the posted mail that we do. And you're also getting e-mailed. Your bill is getting e-mailed also. It's not everybody yet, but pretty close, right? Well, a large number of people get e-bills. Well, because when we go to monthly billing, you'll have the money coming in every month, which will help with the ups and downs and the predictability and paying the bills.

  49. They never stated anything when I asked the questions, and they, nothing. There was no financial information presented during the study session. Now to come back and claim that his statements are accurate, I don't have monthly bills. I think they are. I think most of us are in agreement that they are accurate. Can I ask Noah a question? Please. In your estimation, when do you think we will go to monthly billing? And, because I have had questions about the monthly billing and the cost of mailing and all this, is there going to be maybe an option to do, you know, like electronic bills? Electronic billing is already in place, so you can do that. We've pegged it at around $20,000 right now, the additional cost. That's where I come up with the $1.33 per customer. So we've pegged that cost because there's some, you know, set-up costs and stuff that don't change based on the volume of the posted mail that we do. And you're also getting e-mailed. Your bill is getting e-mailed also. It's not everybody yet, but pretty close, right? Well, a large number of people get e-bills. Well, because when we go to monthly billing, you'll have the money coming in every month, which will help with the ups and downs and the predictability and paying the bills. But also, you know, if we can get the bills electronically and pay the bills electronically, if we so choose, some people might not want to. But it certainly is, I find it to be very easy and helpful to me. In Bloomfield, you kind of have a tale of the two ages, I guess, right? Where some people, even younger people, some staunchly wanted paper. I'm a paper type guy. So you're always going to have that contingent, but we do push them where possible to email. Right. But if they pay online by credit card, point out, there's going to be a service for your tax, right? Yeah. Right. I think we pay an outside vendor. We offer it through ACH, where it's free. We also have auto pay, where people can just, it'll automatically hit. And for people that want to use the auto pay, but they don't like the fact that the bill is so large, because they only get it quarterly, it's harder for them to manage their cash flow. They would prefer it to come monthly. We hear that all the time. So let them pay the extra for the monthly billing. We have Treasury charging $177,000 a year for collecting for water and sewer.

  50. which will help with the ups and downs and the predictability and paying the bills. But also, you know, if we can get the bills electronically and pay the bills electronically, if we so choose, some people might not want to. But it certainly is, I find it to be very easy and helpful to me. In Bloomfield, you kind of have a tale of the two ages, I guess, right? Where some people, even younger people, some staunchly wanted paper. I'm a paper type guy. So you're always going to have that contingent, but we do push them where possible to email. Right. But if they pay online by credit card, point out, there's going to be a service for your tax, right? Yeah. Right. I think we pay an outside vendor. We offer it through ACH, where it's free. We also have auto pay, where people can just, it'll automatically hit. And for people that want to use the auto pay, but they don't like the fact that the bill is so large, because they only get it quarterly, it's harder for them to manage their cash flow. They would prefer it to come monthly. We hear that all the time. So let them pay the extra for the monthly billing. We have Treasury charging $177,000 a year for collecting for water and sewer. Noah just mentioned that's $1.33 per month. No, you'd say per month. Per customer. That would be the entire year. Per customer. That would be the $1.33 per fee to do auto pay per transaction. you also have the 177 Treasury for receiving we've already discussed this and that's gone up the auto pay depends on I think if you take it directly out of your account there isn't a fee but if you use a credit card I think there's a fee there we have to pay according to the report that was presented by our deputy treasurer it's 50 50 cents per transaction water and sewer has to pay for it don't they you know I don't want to misspeak but I'm not sure it gets

  51. We have Treasury charging $177,000 a year for collecting for water and sewer. Noah just mentioned that's $1.33 per month. No, you'd say per month. Per customer. That would be the entire year. Per customer. That would be the $1.33 per fee to do auto pay per transaction. you also have the 177 Treasury for receiving we've already discussed this and that's gone up the auto pay depends on I think if you take it directly out of your account there isn't a fee but if you use a credit card I think there's a fee there we have to pay according to the report that was presented by our deputy treasurer it's 50 50 cents per transaction water and sewer has to pay for it don't they you know I don't want to misspeak but I'm not sure it gets allocated back to water and sewer I'd have to double check treasuries charging money for collections aren't they and we're going to monthly billing we're only doing one-third of the residents the central services fees have gone up over a hundred thousand in the last year for water and sewer so why shouldn't we expect more charges from Treasury for collections because the collection process is the same from Treasury whether we're collecting a third of the bills or all of the bills we have the same process the same staff there's words so there's not getting we're not going to occur any additional costs so there's no more no additional work to go from one-third collecting from one-third of the residents to collecting to all the residents work I'm saying staffing we there we no additional staffing required so there will be more work there's going to be more payments to process but we can we can handle that especially because we're with our new payment processor we're going to be able to push people into paying online or for paying for paying for automatic automatic or automatically pay right so I mean we're pushing people towards that and then that simplifies the collection process as well and for

  52. for it don't they you know I don't want to misspeak but I'm not sure it gets allocated back to water and sewer I'd have to double check treasuries charging money for collections aren't they and we're going to monthly billing we're only doing one-third of the residents the central services fees have gone up over a hundred thousand in the last year for water and sewer so why shouldn't we expect more charges from Treasury for collections because the collection process is the same from Treasury whether we're collecting a third of the bills or all of the bills we have the same process the same staff there's words so there's not getting we're not going to occur any additional costs so there's no more no additional work to go from one-third collecting from one-third of the residents to collecting to all the residents work I'm saying staffing we there we no additional staffing required so there will be more work there's going to be more payments to process but we can we can handle that especially because we're with our new payment processor we're going to be able to push people into paying online or for paying for paying for automatic automatic or automatically pay right so I mean we're pushing people towards that and then that simplifies the collection process as well and for residents that don't want the monthly bill because all that cash we have we're not keeping the investment income and it's going to the general fund directly so I also have a problem with that but I'm the only one on the board that does I see that as a hidden tax to our residents but that's money that's missing and that 800,000 this year or from last financial year is missing from water and sewer okay Chris yeah so I think what we're doing we continue to do is invest in our system we try to make sure that we have good pipes in the ground we continue to invest in the infrastructure we do not want to be a community that continues to have sewer main breaks or rate unstability again I believe what we're doing is right I continue to do that I've sat with Noah we've done we've gone through all the numbers We've gone through all the information from Reftelis and the auditors. I agree with what we're doing. So I would like to make a motion that we approve the water. I have some more questions regarding SACWA. Hold on a second, Martin. That's a question.

  53. towards that and then that simplifies the collection process as well and for residents that don't want the monthly bill because all that cash we have we're not keeping the investment income and it's going to the general fund directly so I also have a problem with that but I'm the only one on the board that does I see that as a hidden tax to our residents but that's money that's missing and that 800,000 this year or from last financial year is missing from water and sewer okay Chris yeah so I think what we're doing we continue to do is invest in our system we try to make sure that we have good pipes in the ground we continue to invest in the infrastructure we do not want to be a community that continues to have sewer main breaks or rate unstability again I believe what we're doing is right I continue to do that I've sat with Noah we've done we've gone through all the numbers We've gone through all the information from Reftelis and the auditors. I agree with what we're doing. So I would like to make a motion that we approve the water. I have some more questions regarding SACWA. Hold on a second, Martin. That's a question. Today's just introduction. Yeah, this is just a study. Okay. So I noticed, Noah, that our suppliers are increasing costs at 7.5%, 6%, and you're proposing a 3.5% increase. So we're, you know, and similar to last year, I mean that our suppliers increased our costs more than we increased our cost to customers. So can you talk a little bit about the efficiencies and other things, steps you're taking to insulate our customers from the increases we're seeing from suppliers? There would be, I guess, a number of factors. Conservative planning. You know, again, we can't under-collect for multiple years, right? We'll start getting nasty grams from the government, that type of stuff. We can't under-collect for the state. So it's wanting to be in that cash-positive position. Additionally, our commodity costs aren't 100% of the cost of the department. So I have my own staff and our efficiencies offset that. Additionally, if we have reserve funding, that's the big factor that's been the case the last few years. If we have reserves, again, we're looking at the revenue stream to meet our revenue requirement. So we'll allocate to spend down in those reserves in a given year. We're doing that again next-

  54. Today's just introduction. Yeah, this is just a study. Okay. So I noticed, Noah, that our suppliers are increasing costs at 7.5%, 6%, and you're proposing a 3.5% increase. So we're, you know, and similar to last year, I mean that our suppliers increased our costs more than we increased our cost to customers. So can you talk a little bit about the efficiencies and other things, steps you're taking to insulate our customers from the increases we're seeing from suppliers? There would be, I guess, a number of factors. Conservative planning. You know, again, we can't under-collect for multiple years, right? We'll start getting nasty grams from the government, that type of stuff. We can't under-collect for the state. So it's wanting to be in that cash-positive position. Additionally, our commodity costs aren't 100% of the cost of the department. So I have my own staff and our efficiencies offset that. Additionally, if we have reserve funding, that's the big factor that's been the case the last few years. If we have reserves, again, we're looking at the revenue stream to meet our revenue requirement. So we'll allocate to spend down in those reserves in a given year. We're doing that again next- year with our capital improvement projects that are out there and then really it is some efficiency within our unit right timing materials and we've really turned our staff for they used to do full dig ups of water mains in 1993 type of time frame right we've divested of that and let the professionals do that type of work rather than carrying our own teams and that results in efficiency as well plus my staff focuses on the higher level stuff instead of just looking in a manhole something we can pay maybe a young kid or engineer tech to do those type of things we can gain efficiency in the system as well great yeah so operational things really good positive position within our reserves and then conservative planning to make sure that the system doesn't unravel itself great I appreciate that I just want to say that yes it's great that's reflected in the invoices to customers and they were they were taking extra steps to make sure it's it's prudent and appropriate well another thing that we've experienced going way back is we've had two water main breaks across the street from our house it is a vacant piece of property and on both occasions one was at midnight one we were out of the country on both occasions the water department came out immediately they handled it immediately if they don't

  55. year with our capital improvement projects that are out there and then really it is some efficiency within our unit right timing materials and we've really turned our staff for they used to do full dig ups of water mains in 1993 type of time frame right we've divested of that and let the professionals do that type of work rather than carrying our own teams and that results in efficiency as well plus my staff focuses on the higher level stuff instead of just looking in a manhole something we can pay maybe a young kid or engineer tech to do those type of things we can gain efficiency in the system as well great yeah so operational things really good positive position within our reserves and then conservative planning to make sure that the system doesn't unravel itself great I appreciate that I just want to say that yes it's great that's reflected in the invoices to customers and they were they were taking extra steps to make sure it's it's prudent and appropriate well another thing that we've experienced going way back is we've had two water main breaks across the street from our house it is a vacant piece of property and on both occasions one was at midnight one we were out of the country on both occasions the water department came out immediately they handled it immediately if they don't somebody's got to pay for that water if it sits there and trickles like in the department sorry but in Detroit that's going to be reflected on our bills it but we had somebody came out at midnight and turned the pressure rate down just enough so we could still have a little water in our house overnight and they came out the next morning and they fixed it and they fixed it in a nice storm so um you know i appreciate it that that's the cost of having clean water and water available and it's a good thing thank you and also i mean certainly and then can't emphasize it enough is that the capital improvement programs are so important and essential to the residents to make sure that the water is clean that it's flowing to their houses that we're having minimal water breaks and if we do have water breaks system breaks we are able to address them very quickly as opposed to some of our surrounding neighbors detroit but also some of our suburban neighbors wall lake novi just went correct two week deal or they're still fixing it exactly i know it's still going on and so to see what's going on in the future planning for a maple and lazer i think very important and some of the future planning that we're looking into it's essential again that

  56. water department came out immediately they handled it immediately if they don't somebody's got to pay for that water if it sits there and trickles like in the department sorry but in Detroit that's going to be reflected on our bills it but we had somebody came out at midnight and turned the pressure rate down just enough so we could still have a little water in our house overnight and they came out the next morning and they fixed it and they fixed it in a nice storm so um you know i appreciate it that that's the cost of having clean water and water available and it's a good thing thank you and also i mean certainly and then can't emphasize it enough is that the capital improvement programs are so important and essential to the residents to make sure that the water is clean that it's flowing to their houses that we're having minimal water breaks and if we do have water breaks system breaks we are able to address them very quickly as opposed to some of our surrounding neighbors detroit but also some of our suburban neighbors wall lake novi just went correct two week deal or they're still fixing it exactly i know it's still going on and so to see what's going on in the future planning for a maple and lazer i think very important and some of the future planning that we're looking into it's essential again that we continue to invest in the underground systems because that you know people don't think about that but without that we're not going to have um the clean water we're not going to have the water flowing so and there's certainly a cost to that um with that said you're still minimizing the cost to the residents on the rates you versus uh what is being proposed to us so um kudos to you for you know working with your system and your department and trying to keep it as conservative as possible okay any other questions for noah yes i have questions about uh the sakwa billing uh a little over a year ago i came into public works i met with noah and we reviewed uh the sakwa budget and in the sakwa budget there's the rackham golf course which only uses water during the summer so when we go to a tiered structure since rackham golf course pays the same as southfield they pay the same as beverly hills who both use more water don't use as much water increase during the summer

  57. very important and some of the future planning that we're looking into it's essential again that we continue to invest in the underground systems because that you know people don't think about that but without that we're not going to have um the clean water we're not going to have the water flowing so and there's certainly a cost to that um with that said you're still minimizing the cost to the residents on the rates you versus uh what is being proposed to us so um kudos to you for you know working with your system and your department and trying to keep it as conservative as possible okay any other questions for noah yes i have questions about uh the sakwa billing uh a little over a year ago i came into public works i met with noah and we reviewed uh the sakwa budget and in the sakwa budget there's the rackham golf course which only uses water during the summer so when we go to a tiered structure since rackham golf course pays the same as southfield they pay the same as beverly hills who both use more water don't use as much water increase during the summer but they get the same rate so when you want to go to a tiered rate structure especially with the high fixed cost i want to see the details uh regarding how those charges are going to look um and we have none of those details here uh we kept being told that we need the data yet we don't know what the data is used for um and my other concern is that that we're actually subsidizing where is rackham golf course located it's on 10 miles and scotia yep it's what 10 miles that's right okay and uh what were the other golf courses you mentioned related to rackham you know uh i'm mentioned that the other communities use the increase in water during the summer, it's not as much even ours is not as much as Rackham because Rackham doesn't buy any water. They use well water, don't they? A lot of these golf courses pull out of the ground. No, it's not. It's on the SACO report in 2025 for the whole golf course, for the whole golf course, unusual. So the amount of water that golf courses demand are usually pulled out of wells, from my understanding, I'd like to check that out.

  58. the same as beverly hills who both use more water don't use as much water increase during the summer but they get the same rate so when you want to go to a tiered rate structure especially with the high fixed cost i want to see the details uh regarding how those charges are going to look um and we have none of those details here uh we kept being told that we need the data yet we don't know what the data is used for um and my other concern is that that we're actually subsidizing where is rackham golf course located it's on 10 miles and scotia yep it's what 10 miles that's right okay and uh what were the other golf courses you mentioned related to rackham you know uh i'm mentioned that the other communities use the increase in water during the summer, it's not as much even ours is not as much as Rackham because Rackham doesn't buy any water. They use well water, don't they? A lot of these golf courses pull out of the ground. No, it's not. It's on the SACO report in 2025 for the whole golf course, for the whole golf course, unusual. So the amount of water that golf courses demand are usually pulled out of wells, from my understanding, I'd like to check that out. Well, they do get a rate for water usage. They only use water in the summer and maybe bathrooms, maybe it's the bathrooms, right? But the clubhouse. But if if that requirement is valid, and there's no cost increase from SACWA for using more water in the summer, and even Beverly Hills uses about the same amount of excess water or more water during the summer that we do. They don't have an increase in rate. And they pay the same as Southfield and Southfield has very little change month to month. So when we go to a tiered billing structure, if we can't go back and validate that other communities are using more getting a benefit from tiered rates, then that would not make any sense. And even Bloomfield Hills City uses significantly more water than we do. Yet they pay the same amount for water. Significantly more water per resident? Per resident? Per resident? Per resident? during the summer i could see that there's some big lots there many big homes they have what sixteen hundred fifty homes yeah so there are what do we have sixteen thousand they pay the same rate for their water so if we are going to a tier rate structure there's no fact basis to justify i do know because i was on the city commission there are many of those and we did

  59. wells, from my understanding, I'd like to check that out. Well, they do get a rate for water usage. They only use water in the summer and maybe bathrooms, maybe it's the bathrooms, right? But the clubhouse. But if if that requirement is valid, and there's no cost increase from SACWA for using more water in the summer, and even Beverly Hills uses about the same amount of excess water or more water during the summer that we do. They don't have an increase in rate. And they pay the same as Southfield and Southfield has very little change month to month. So when we go to a tiered billing structure, if we can't go back and validate that other communities are using more getting a benefit from tiered rates, then that would not make any sense. And even Bloomfield Hills City uses significantly more water than we do. Yet they pay the same amount for water. Significantly more water per resident? Per resident? Per resident? Per resident? during the summer i could see that there's some big lots there many big homes they have what sixteen hundred fifty homes yeah so there are what do we have sixteen thousand they pay the same rate for their water so if we are going to a tier rate structure there's no fact basis to justify i do know because i was on the city commission there are many of those and we did for a while we were on well water but we use city water inside the house but well water outside yes and uh which is fine but uh again i'm comparing the data sakwa data for usage they have very nice charts anyone can go to their website and look at it and then this is part of the rap tell a study that's going on right now right now yeah we're just setting up the meetings to have those discussions with sakwa um so that'll be born out so you'll take some of mark's questions well we're definitely going to look at the cost benefit analysis right and compared to the some of the communities he's talking and you will be part of the tiered rate discussion which will occur you know again like i said in the study session after these after we set this rate for this year is sakwa going to a tiered rate structure i don't know we're having that i don't believe so i've not heard anything that they are so i mean i don't know how much other communities usage are brought to bear in our rate calculation either so well those are questions we need southfield uses twice the amount of water we do on daily average well and there's members and associate members there that muddies the waters as well and we'll we'll likely never be a member but that's what rap tell us is looking into they can speak to that now if we'd like them to i don't know there are

  60. justify i do know because i was on the city commission there are many of those and we did for a while we were on well water but we use city water inside the house but well water outside yes and uh which is fine but uh again i'm comparing the data sakwa data for usage they have very nice charts anyone can go to their website and look at it and then this is part of the rap tell a study that's going on right now right now yeah we're just setting up the meetings to have those discussions with sakwa um so that'll be born out so you'll take some of mark's questions well we're definitely going to look at the cost benefit analysis right and compared to the some of the communities he's talking and you will be part of the tiered rate discussion which will occur you know again like i said in the study session after these after we set this rate for this year is sakwa going to a tiered rate structure i don't know we're having that i don't believe so i've not heard anything that they are so i mean i don't know how much other communities usage are brought to bear in our rate calculation either so well those are questions we need southfield uses twice the amount of water we do on daily average well and there's members and associate members there that muddies the waters as well and we'll we'll likely never be a member but that's what rap tell us is looking into they can speak to that now if we'd like them to i don't know there are only two rates offered one for members one for non-members right it's the cost to become a member of that yeah and their bylaws like if we were to become a member it was the costs involved but we're going to flesh that out that's part of the study that we're currently undergoing so you know it's a kind of help take the word for because if it makes sense to go back to Great Lakes water or drill our own wells we're gonna find out right so the the cost the average cost is 2518 and their recent budget you just mentioned it was not approved the township is at 3750 the members in the authority are at 2124 and that is less than the cost to purchase water which they place at let me see about 23 let me get the exact number mark would you email it to to note to Noah and so he can have a reptile study the water is purchased on you for resale is at $23 and 64 cents so we're actually subsidizing all of the members okay for the cost of purchase before we make those kind of statements why don't we take the numbers

  61. only two rates offered one for members one for non-members right it's the cost to become a member of that yeah and their bylaws like if we were to become a member it was the costs involved but we're going to flesh that out that's part of the study that we're currently undergoing so you know it's a kind of help take the word for because if it makes sense to go back to Great Lakes water or drill our own wells we're gonna find out right so the the cost the average cost is 2518 and their recent budget you just mentioned it was not approved the township is at 3750 the members in the authority are at 2124 and that is less than the cost to purchase water which they place at let me see about 23 let me get the exact number mark would you email it to to note to Noah and so he can have a reptile study the water is purchased on you for resale is at $23 and 64 cents so we're actually subsidizing all of the members okay for the cost of purchase before we make those kind of statements why don't we take the numbers he has and let's confirm that with rap tell us compare for us and bring it back to us so we can we can see it for ourselves okay he has the 25 numbers he printed them out when we reviewed it right understand so we can't get the price that sack was getting for their volume that they're buying we are that price is not available to us if we went out on our own that I understand but when we are paying for the cost to purchase water we can certainly make the decision to leave the consortium what I'm saying is all the data I've seen in the studies we've done it's a winner for us to be in SACWA versus Great Lakes water we can't force SACWA to give us a better rate beyond their bylaws so that's their bylaws allow them us to subsidize the cost of water dictate the cost for us to join the system and dictate how we're built and we cannot allocate any of the excess payments we made over the last since 2013-2014 to the cost to be part of the system no I don't that's not the way it works per their bylaws we pay the fees per the bylaws we have not entered into a pay-as-you-go type of an arrangement I don't even think it would be allowable but that's why we're having the experts meet together with the

  62. purchase before we make those kind of statements why don't we take the numbers he has and let's confirm that with rap tell us compare for us and bring it back to us so we can we can see it for ourselves okay he has the 25 numbers he printed them out when we reviewed it right understand so we can't get the price that sack was getting for their volume that they're buying we are that price is not available to us if we went out on our own that I understand but when we are paying for the cost to purchase water we can certainly make the decision to leave the consortium what I'm saying is all the data I've seen in the studies we've done it's a winner for us to be in SACWA versus Great Lakes water we can't force SACWA to give us a better rate beyond their bylaws so that's their bylaws allow them us to subsidize the cost of water dictate the cost for us to join the system and dictate how we're built and we cannot allocate any of the excess payments we made over the last since 2013-2014 to the cost to be part of the system no I don't that's not the way it works per their bylaws we pay the fees per the bylaws we have not entered into a pay-as-you-go type of an arrangement I don't even think it would be allowable but that's why we're having the experts meet together with the new executive director over there we will figure out what the best business model is and we will come back to you and you will be a part of that process okay thank you all right so item number six thank you and let's go to item 6a mark approved board minutes from March 23rd yes I took another look at that my main concern was on that one no was uh the fund-based accounting and that there was no uh and director tice never affirmed that 100 of the additional 1 million dollars was due to the general fund uh principal and i am concerned about that because it increases the uh it overstates the general fund revenue and understates other entities revenue so i am concerned about that and i'm just bringing it to the board's attention okay sounds good so a kind of a motion to approve what i call 6a approve the board minutes so moved support all in favor say aye aye any opposed passes seven to nothing item number b approved payroll and vouchers for april 13th mark and my no vote stands i don't

  63. even think it would be allowable but that's why we're having the experts meet together with the new executive director over there we will figure out what the best business model is and we will come back to you and you will be a part of that process okay thank you all right so item number six thank you and let's go to item 6a mark approved board minutes from March 23rd yes I took another look at that my main concern was on that one no was uh the fund-based accounting and that there was no uh and director tice never affirmed that 100 of the additional 1 million dollars was due to the general fund uh principal and i am concerned about that because it increases the uh it overstates the general fund revenue and understates other entities revenue so i am concerned about that and i'm just bringing it to the board's attention okay sounds good so a kind of a motion to approve what i call 6a approve the board minutes so moved support all in favor say aye aye any opposed passes seven to nothing item number b approved payroll and vouchers for april 13th mark and my no vote stands i don't believe uh approving water sewer rates uh justifies the millions of dollars for spending on the new water meter program um and in addition it was not included in the uh uh the presentation for building inspection products projects as well the water and sewer meter project motion to approve payroll and vouchers support all in favor say aye aye any opposed nay okay six to one thank you and so now we'll entertain a motion to move into closed session martin uh well i move we enter in closed session 268E for the purpose of discussing pending litigation in the matter of Jill Milan versus the charter township of Bloomfield. Support. And I'll take a roll call vote. Mr. Antockley. Aye. Mr. Galinsky. Yes. Mr. Shostak. Yes. Mr. McCready. Yes. Mr. Brooke. Yes. Ms. Murray. Yes. Mr. Barnett. Yes. Pass the 7-0. All right. We'll go back into the conference room back here. Yep. Okay. Ready? All right. Welcome back, everyone. So I'll entertain a motion for item number seven.

  64. nothing item number b approved payroll and vouchers for april 13th mark and my no vote stands i don't believe uh approving water sewer rates uh justifies the millions of dollars for spending on the new water meter program um and in addition it was not included in the uh uh the presentation for building inspection products projects as well the water and sewer meter project motion to approve payroll and vouchers support all in favor say aye aye any opposed nay okay six to one thank you and so now we'll entertain a motion to move into closed session martin uh well i move we enter in closed session 268E for the purpose of discussing pending litigation in the matter of Jill Milan versus the charter township of Bloomfield. Support. And I'll take a roll call vote. Mr. Antockley. Aye. Mr. Galinsky. Yes. Mr. Shostak. Yes. Mr. McCready. Yes. Mr. Brooke. Yes. Ms. Murray. Yes. Mr. Barnett. Yes. Pass the 7-0. All right. We'll go back into the conference room back here. Yep. Okay. Ready? All right. Welcome back, everyone. So I'll entertain a motion for item number seven. I move we return to open session. Support. Support. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. I also make a motion that we accept the advice of council as presented in closed session. Support. Support. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Pass the 7-0. And move to adjourn. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye You