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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-01-15 CITY OF LIVONIA – CITY COUNCIL MINUTES OF STUDY MEETING HELD JANUARY 15, 2020 Meeting was called to order at 8:00 p.m. by President Kathleen McIntyre. Present: Cathy White, Brandon McCullough, Rob Donovic, Jim Jolly, Laura Toy, Scott Bahr and Kathleen McIntyre. Absent: None. Elected and appointed officials present: Mark Taormina, Director of Planning and Economic Development; Todd Zilincik, City Engineer; Paul Bernier, City Attorney; Susan M. Nash, City Clerk; Dave Heavener, Fire Chief; Curtis Caid, Police, Chief; Ted Davis, Superintendent of Parks and Recreation; and Dave Varga, Director of Administrative Services. Councilmember Donovic announced that his little brother, a student at Johnson Elementary, is getting his yellow belt in karate from United Karate at Middlebelt and Five Mile Road and congratulated him on his achievement. He then recognized a few of his friends in the Local Livonia Jaycee Chapter, who are newly appointed members of the Jaycee Chapter Board. He stated the Jaycees are a long, active organization in the City that does all sorts of different community activities and many members of Council have sat or have been a part of the Jaycees and he acknowledged the Jaycees and all of the hard work that they do in the community. He stated that there is a fundraiser Thursday, th January 16 at MOD’s Pizza from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. Councilmember McCullough commented on the remarkable Ribbon Cutting Ceremony he attended at Anastasia and Katie’s Coffee Shop and invited everyone to take the time to visit this new business located on the northwest corner of Seven Mile and Merriman. He indicated it is a wonderful organization who hires employees with special needs and wants to ensure its success in the community. President McIntyre also commented on the Ribbon Cutting, stating that the new establishment is the brainchild of two parents, both of whom have 13-year old daughters with Downs’ Syndrome, one is Anastasia and one is Katie, and they created a nonprofit called MIWorks and the first project of the nonprofit has been putting together this coffee shop. She stated they have a Facebook page and it’s a phenomenal organization, a number of employees spoke how happy they were to find a place for them to go to work and their business is going to need the community’s continued patronage for its success. Councilmember Jolly made a motion to direct the City Attorney’s office to draft an ordinance amendment that accounts for provisions of the Michigan Open Meetings Act that would allow our colleague, Rob Donovic, to attend City Council meetings in a different way when he is deployed for military service or he is on call and not available to be here. It’s my understanding from speaking with Mr. Bernier and Clerk Nash that these provisions are in the State’s Open Meetings Act and I think we need to take advantage of them and Mr. Bernier told me he is ready, willing and able to do so. 2 City Attorney Bernier added that he would like the motion to also include any other Boards, and actually the Open Meetings Act doesn’t talk about Council directly, it talks about Boards and Commissions. So he doesn’t don’t know of anyone else that might fit, but we’d like to have the ordinance fitted for everybody, anybody who is in the military service who is called up, that they can participate in the meetings. So thank you for that, we will draft an ordinance. th President McIntyre stated that that will be voted on at our next meeting on January 27. Councilmember Donovic stated he would like to say on behalf of everybody in the military that he appreciates and is sincerely very humbled that the City would have that kind of foresight and he appreciates all of his colleagues on City Council. It’s the greatest honor of his life to serve in the military and there are a lot of members in military that serve in different capacities throughout other cities, throughout the State and country, and it means a lot that the City is doing this. Thank you. President McIntyre thanked Attorney Bernier for looking into that and Bernier replied that he has to thank Clerk Nash who brought it to the Law Department’s attention and they looked into it and the privilege is there. AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION: None heard. NEW BUSINESS: 1. REQUEST TO WAIVE THE CITY’S NOISE ORDINANCE: Robert Rais, Knights of Columbus, re: to allow a car show with a DJ at Saint Colette’s Catholic Church, 17600 Newburgh Road, on Saturday, June 6, 2020 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Councilmember Jolly presented this request to Council. He stated he is a member of the Knights of Columbus and he is standing in for Mr. Rais tonight who he has known for approximately 25 years. This is the fourth year that the car show is being held at St. Colette’s, there have been no noise complaints that he is aware of which may be accounted for by them not being a rowdy bunch or the fact that Father Gary is keeping them well under control. He asked Council to allow them to continue doing this for the fourth year and hopefully going forward as well. Councilmember Donovic stated as a fellow Knight and Third Degree, he’d like to offer this item for the Consent Agenda if there is no objection. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 3 2. REQUST TO EXTEND PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT FOR EMERGENCY MEDICAL TRANSPORTATION BILLING: Livonia Fire & Rescue, for a five (5) year contract at 5.9% of the amount collected, from budgeted funds. Dave Heavener, Fire Chief, presented this request to Council. He stated he is here tonight to request an approving resolution to extend the Professional Services Agreement to Accumed Billing Services. This will be the third time that it is being renewed. They have a proven track record with us through providing a high quality of service, positive working relationships, continuity of service, and a consistent data collection for the Department. The Fire Department does generate a significant amount of revenue through this process and the renewal is proposing a .5% reduction over the next five years going from 6.4% to 5.9%, for an estimated savings of about $139,000 over the five years. He is asking Council for their approval on this item. Councilmember White offered an approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 3. AWARD OF BID: Department of Parks & Recreation, re: of various items of clothing for the 2020 and 2021 departmental needs, from budgeted funds. Ted Davis, Superintendent of Parks & Recreation, presented this request to Council. He stated he is requesting Council to award the low bid on each item, eight companies bid and they have split up the bid significantly. Councilmember McCullough stated there are twenty-nine line items on this bid and he commended City staff for going through twenty-nine different articles of clothing and selecting the low bid. That shows fiscal responsibility for going the extra mile and please commend your staff. He then offered an approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 4. AWARD OF BID: Department of Parks & Recreation, re: for Botsford Pool pump replacement, from budgeted funds. Ted Davis, Superintendent of Parks & Recreation, presented this request to Council. He stated he is asking Council to award this project to Aquatic Source as the low bidder. This will be done prior to the opening of Botsford so there will be no delay. Again, this is for a motor, a pump, and the strainer housing. Councilmember Jolly commented that it is apparent to him and he thinks to most people of the need to continue to invest in the Botsford Pool, that it is a source of great pride and great joy, particularly in that neighborhood, and with the renovations that were done a couple years ago, it really is a significant 4 improvement over what it used to be. He then offered an approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 5. AWARD OF BID: Division of Police, re: for perimeter security fencing of Public Safety Complex, from budgeted funds. Curtis Caid, Police Chief, presented this request to Council. He stated he is before Council to request approval for an award of bid on a project that was identified for a number of years but plan on undertaking in this year, 2020. The security of the Public Safety Complex, which includes both the Police and the Fire Department, the rear lot area that contains a number of pieces of sensitive equipment, access points, including their prisoner housing, is vulnerable to folks that can basically walk in, drive in, without really being detected, quite frankly, many times and occasions. There have been incidents nationwide where public safety officials have been assaulted, one most recently down in Arkansas where a police officer was in the lot of his building when he was basically executed as he sat in his police car. This project, we’ve identified and we’ve looked at different aspects of it, we want to maintain of course the goal of security, costs and esthetics as well, the esthetic part, most important is to what is viewed publicly along Farmington Road and Civic Center. I’ve had some discussion and appreciate the support of Council on this item. And in our letter, which I’ll spend a little bit of time on going through some of the specifics of this project, we worked very closely with Don Rohraff and Doug Moore at DPW and their support in this, I want to thank them for all their time and effort that they’ve put forward. Certainly our City Engineer, Todd Zilincik, and Rick Grodek, they’ve been out there walking the site with us when the weather was a little bit balmier, but nonetheless in our preparation and I appreciate the support. Jerome Hanna and then Chief Heavener, his staff, and Enna Bachelor working with the Finance Department to develop the specs, set the timeline, meet with the vendors which we had a mandatory walk-thru with the vendors to ensure that they knew the scope of our project. So, before you are the specifics that were developed and essentially along Farmington Road or the area that’s visible through Farmington Road or the front lot of the Police Station along Civic Center, would contain a 7-foot high fence that will have different access points, it would still allow us to have community functions on the Public Safety grounds, but also maintain that level of security. Along the east end would then turn into a vinyl covered chain link fence and would have the three-strand security wire at the top along the eastern end, along the rear perimeter of the parking complex and then up towards the Fire Department where there again it would assume the more esthetically pleasing security fencing that is in the packet. There were initially seven contractors that appeared for the walk-thru, five submitted bids. A process was established with the Finance Department, a scoring process based on a number of different factors, experience, qualifications, the proposed cost, references, and a project approach. And with that the decision was 5 on the committee of the high score of being Upright Fence at 94.42 rounding up at a cost of $242,790.00. This company, it was ironic at the time that we were all doing a walk-thru, there was some concrete work being done over at the Fire Department and we approached the foreman, actually the owner of the cement company, and he asked us what we were doing, basically getting into his business and we explained that we were looking at a fence project and he said I’ll tell you who to use, and it was Upright Fence. Without any prompting by us, it was just one of those random things which made us feel good about this recommendation as we approached this stage. So with that, doing the analysis, it is our recommendation that we accept the bid, or the Council accepts the bid of Upright Fence, who is located on Ford Road. They have a longstanding experience with the City of Livonia, different projects. Speaking with the DPW Director, Mr. Rohraff, he is very familiar with them as well and had nothing but good things to say about their service and their commitment to professionalism and basically doing the job right the first time. So we feel very comfortable with that and we feel that this project is really quite a necessity for the safety of our staff and for the security of our facility. In my letter it indicates a number of concerns that are important for us to consider as far as what that building houses and the potential vulnerabilities. And with that, I’ll turn it over to Chief Heavener from the Fire Department with whatever he chooses to add and then of course any questions that Council might have. Dave Heavener, Fire Chief, came to the podium and stated that Chief Caid did an excellent job summarizing the project that has been in progress and he is here tonight to just show support for that project. It has been a joint effort for all of the same security reasons that Chief Caid has outlined, we share all of those concerns with the Fire Department as well and obviously the fence encompasses collectively the property for both Police and Fire Departments so we would definitely be in support of this project as well. Councilmember White asked looking at the drawing if basically the fencing is to keep in areas where officers and emergency responders park and do City business, that’s closed off, but the open lot in the front is the same as it always has been and Chief Caid replied that’s correct, front parking lot, the public area would remain as it is. Councilmember Jolly stated first of all if we were to build a Police Department and possibly a Fire Headquarters today, this fence would be one of the first things that would be put in and the parameters would be set out. We do have a precedent for th some security fencing like this already in the City at the 16 District Court, the staff and employee parking lot is fenced in, so I think this is completely compatible with that and obviously there’s a need in this society today, policing is not what it once was, it does not necessarily get the respect it deserves. He then offered an approving resolution, although this is a big expenditure, he thinks it’s something that can be placed on Consent. We’ve had the opportunity to speak to the Chief 6 throughout the day in regards to some concerns, I think he knows what my concern is and I’ll take you for your word that you’re going to try and work around that particular concern, but otherwise I think it’s a necessity and something that in the long run if it avoids one negative situation it’s well worth the money. President McIntyre stated this came right around where we saw it was going to come in in the Capital Budget and Chief Caid replied yes, but actually a little cheaper than they anticipated. Councilmember Donovic stated he has been a reserve police officer for five plus years now and has spent a lot of time at different agencies across the state, it’s very common for police agencies across our state to have this sort of perimeter fencing. While extremely unfortunate, the reality of today’s world is officers are a target, and many officers have been ambushed in recent years and we’ve seen that over the media, so he’s definitely in support of this and we need to give a space for our officers to feel safe when they’re conducting their business, he thinks this is a great idea. Chief Caid stated that they’re very blessed that they live and work in the community that they do, and Livonia is a safe community and he just wants to make sure that the folks at home realize that we see bad things happen across the nation and the common theme that you hear people say is I never thought it would happen here, and it’s a tragedy. And our effort in this is just being aware of the issues that are out there today and how unpredictable things are. There’s a national security concern with this as well, so it’s a significant issue and it certainly is, both myself and Chief Heavener, we have a responsibility to our staff as well to ensure their safety as best as we reasonably can and I feel this project will accomplish that and I want to thank each of you for your support, not only with this but in our endeavors on a daily basis. My officers certainly appreciate it and I do personally as well. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 6. REQUEST TO AUTHORIZE PURCHASE OF 40 DELL DESKTOP WORKSTATIONS THROUGH THE STATE OF MICHIGAN BID PROCESS: Division of Police, re: to replace approximately 50% of the Police Department’s workstations, from budgeted funds. Curtis Caid, Police Chief, presented this request to Council. He stated that this proposal replaces about half of their desktop workstations in the Police Department, which are at least five years old and at end of life and no longer under warranty. If approved by Council, we would be asking to waive the sealed bid process and utilize the State of Michigan Contract Bidding for this purchase. The specifics of it are Dell Precision, 3630 Tower Desktop units, forty of them at just over $900 apiece, with a total expenditure of budgeted funds of $36,338.00 rounded up. 7 Councilmember White offered an approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION None heard. As there were no further questions or comments, President McIntyre adjourned the Study Session at 8:25 p.m. on Monday, January 15, 2020. th For the 1,889 Regular Meeting of January 27, 2020 DATED: January 16, 2020 SUSAN M. NASH, CITY CLERK