HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-08-17 CITY OF LIVONIA — CITY COUNCIL
MINUTES OF STUDY MEETING HELD AUGUST 17, 2020
Meeting was called to order via Zoom remote technology at 8:00 p.m. by President
Kathleen McIntyre. Present: Laura Toy, Scott Bahr, Cathy White, Brandon McCullough,
Rob Donovic, Jim Jolly and Kathleen McIntyre. Absent: None.
Councilmember Toy led the meeting in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Elected and appointed officials present: Mark Taormina, Director of Planning and
Economic Development; Todd Zilincik, City Engineer; Susan Nash, City Clerk; Paul
Bernier, City Attorney; Ted Davis, Superintendent of Parks and Recreation; and Jacob
Rushlow, Superintendent of Public Service
During Audience Communication two people addressed the issue of racism.
NEW BUSINESS
1. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL OF APPROPRIATION AND EXPENDITURE AND
AWARD OF CONTRACT: Department of Parks & Recreation, re: to execute a
contract with WT Group for ADA facility audits and developing a Transition Plan,
to improve accessibility in the City's parks system, from budgeted funds to be
reimbursed by grant funds from Healthy Livonia.
Ted Davis, Superintendent of Parks and Recreation, presented this request to
Council. He stated he is asking Council to approve an accessibility audit by the
WT Group that specializes in this product. They are also asking Council to approve
a grant from Healthy Livonia and the total project amount of$43,277.00 that would
reimburse for the entire project. He said it will come from budgeted funds but will
be reimbursed by grant funds from Healthy Livonia.
Vice President Bahr asked if this is the normal process in the outlay of funds and
then reimbursement by grant money or isn't it typically the other way around.
Davis replied that typically what they see with grants, Wayne County is another
example of this, where the City initially puts out the money and then is reimbursed
for that. Same thing with MEDC which they've had in the recent past, so it's pretty
much norm that the City initially fronts the money and then is reimbursed.
Councilmember Jolly stated he thinks this is a great project, there's no reason not
to do it. When Healthy Livonia was kicked off, it was the hope that this would be
an organization and an agency that would contribute in these ways, he thinks it's
a great partnership between the City, St. Mary's Hospital, Livonia Public Schools,
the Chamber of Commerce, and all kinds of well-intended and caring folks. He
then offered an approving resolution for the Consent Agenda.
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Councilmember McCullough stated that he knows this is not required through the
ADA to have these kind of audits done but he applauds and values to see this
happening in Livonia. A lot of the parks infrastructures are dated and so taking
this proactive approach, he thinks is commendable. And the little research he did
on the WT Group, they specialize specifically in creating long term needs
assessments on ADA transitions. He is looking forward to seeing the list of capital
expenditures that will probably be forthcoming, but he definitely thinks getting the
City's parks ADA compliant should be a huge step in the right direction.
DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT
2. REQUEST FOR AUTHORIZATION TO PURCHASE ONE (1) 2021 FORD
TRANSIT CONNECT VAN THROUGH THE STATE OF MICHIGAN BID
PROCESS: Public Service Division, re: to replace a vehicle used by City Clerk's
Office, from budgeted funds.
Vice President Bahr stated this item is replacing a vehicle from 2008 that has a
lot of issues. He then offered an approving resolution for the Consent Agenda.
Councilmember McCullough stated this is through what is called the MIDEAL
Program and that is a State procured contract so we can leverage as a City to
get the best pricing. It goes through multiple different avenues and this is being
fiscally responsible as we're getting the best pricing that's out there.
DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT
3. REQUEST FOR RELEASE OF OBLIGATION AND TERMINATION OF
CONTRACT WITH SIMPLE RECYCLING: Public Service Division, re: to be
released from contracted $0.01 per pound payment to the City of Livonia for March,
April and May, 2020 and termination of contractual per pound payment from June
1, 2020 through August 12, 2023, due to operational challenges related to Covid-
19. (CR 270-19)
Jacob Rushlow, Superintendent of Public Service, presented this request to
Council. He stated the Public Service Division was provided a letter from Simple
Recycling earlier this year and as Council is well aware the Covid pandemic has
put a lot of stress on a lot of different companies. Since Simple Recycling has
been operating here in the City which was started back in November of 2019 with
the curbside soft recyclable program, they've been very successful in collecting a
lot of pounds of those materials from Livonia residents which is great but
unfortunately with the condition of Covid-19 in March of 2020, they were forced to
cease collection services. So they sent us this letter in June requesting a release
of that obligation to pay what's essentially a rebate of every pound they collect they
give back to the City $0.01 in a rebate. So they're asking for release of the
obligation for the months of March, April and May, since they shut down in March
they only collected partially for that month through the first couple of weeks, they
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only collected about 7,233 pounds during the month of March which would equate
to $72.33, they're asking for forgiveness of that rebate amount. And then the
second part of their request is also asking for release of that contractual obligation
moving forward through the rest of the term of the contract. So starting June 1,
2020, they ask that they be released from that obligation to pay that back to the
City just because of their ongoing own financial situation and their stress caused
by the pandemic as well. So because this item was originally brought to the
Council for approval through the Greenleaf Commission, we brought the item back
to them for their discussion and recommendation. They discussed it at their July
22nd meeting and put it in a letter which is in Council's packet with their
recommendation to approve the request for that release of obligation and for the
termination of the per pound part of the contract and therefore through that
recommendation the Department of Public Service is also recommending that
Council proceed to grant that request.
Vice President Bahr asked if Simple Recycling has given any indication of what
the complications are that are keeping them from collecting? He knows it's related
to Covid-19, but what is it exactly.
Rushlow said he did get a chance to be in communication with the account
manager for the City, he is on the line as well, and how it was explained to him is
that it is an ongoing situation that they're dealing with is not being able to collect in
a lot of communities still and a big challenge, they're trying to bring back drivers to
do the collection and make those routes and those runs that they needed to. And
then he also said they are actually being called by a lot of the — the part of their
business really isn't just the recycling piece, it's also the recapture of those
materials that don't need to be recycled yet and they use those through thrift shops
and things like that for resale purposes to not just recycle but actually reuse the
materials. So they've been contacted by a number of different organizations
asking if Simple Recycling would be willing to buy material back from them and
those are just some of the challenges they're having.
Bahr reiterated it's the difficulty of getting workers and then also the market is dried
up for them to give these to other donation centers, is that right?
Sonny Wilkins, Vice President of Simple Recycling, said that Jacob did an
excellent job in explaining a lot of their challenges. Since the Covid pandemic
they've had to reduce their national footprint by a third, shut down some facilities.
And also most of their municipal partners in the Detroit area have not restored the
program. The pandemic turned their whole industry basically upsidedown in terms
of supply and demand and there's just an abundance of material and the
downstream market can't process it fast enough so one of the issues that they
have is in collecting the material now, is not being able to push it through and
thereby holding it which is increasing their costs tremendously, it's not part of their
business model. So in order for them to keep the program free for the municipal
partners that they want to continue the program with, are one of the ways we're
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able to do that is to take away the penny per pound rebate. So when the market
is a little bit better and they're over their challenges, they totally intend to restart
the program in Livonia, it's been very successful since the beginning and the
community is a very important part of that market. He doesn't know exactly when
that's going to be, but that's the reason for the asking and this ask on the rebate
has been done company-wide over all of our partners.
Vice President Bahr thanked him for the explanation and said he's one of those
people that did a lot of clearing out in the early days of this pandemic and waited
in line at the Salvation Army and Goodwill trying to find somebody who would take
a bunch of stuff and he actually has several of those orange bags in his basement
stuffed with things he couldn't donate and thought it would be a chance to use
Simple Recycling and he's disappointed not to be able to use it but will look forward
to when they restart. He then asked Rushlow to refresh his memory, when Council
approved this, is this the type of thing that goes on indefinitely or is there a certain
point at which it would be revisited.
Rushlow replied it was a three-year term of the contract for the program with them
so it goes through August of 2023 would be the expiring term of the contract.
Councilmember White asked if the plan is to start up in Livonia again when the
time is right, and also were their expectations met in terms of the early start of the
program before the pandemic, what the expectations were as far as Livonia
residents getting on board and it sounds like those expectations were met and
Wilkins replied they were.
Councilmember Toy asked if Wilkins planned to continue at all between now and
three years. Wilkins replied they certainly intend to restart the whole Detroit market
at some point, they're waiting for the market to balance itself out so that way
because their business model is to collect it and being able to move the material
immediately and if we collect now we'll just basically be storing it, the resell lenders
and the foot traffic being down because of the Covid and things like that, it's really
hard to say when that market will balance out but we certainly intend on, absolutely
100%, continuing the program.
Toy then clarified for three years they just want the City to void the entire contract
and Wilkins replied no, just the rebate portion. Wilkins stated they are asking all
of their municipal partners to forego the rebate portion of the program, that they
still believe that the program is beneficial through the diversion of the material with
the reduction of the tipping fees and things of that nature. So they want to keep
the program free and that's going to be one of the ways that they're able to do that,
by the redaction of the rebates.
Toy said she's in business as well and she'd love to have that opportunity to back
out and not fulfill her contract because of hard times, which she's had a lot of hard
times in her business but to grant you three years of nonpayment to the City kind
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of bothers me, especially if you're going to collect goods from our residents when
the time becomes right within that magic window that you're suggesting by 2023,
she has a little bit of a problem with that. There were grants around, she realizes
your markets have dried up, you know a lot of recycling programs as we look at
them, even on plastic and things, and she realizes his is unique but she really has
a problem having our residents that were very enthusiastic for this program and
very excited about it, when you start up again, and the City just ignore collecting
money from that program whatsoever, she doesn't know if that's good business
practice, to tell you the truth.
Wilkins replied he understands the concerns, they had an agreement and the
program started in a particular way. We still want to provide the service to the
residents, and again, it's a no cost program where we're collecting these goods
and still benefitting the City by the reduction of the normal trash and tipping fees
that you would normally incur. So the program is still beneficial to the City. I would
like to keep the program fee free and still provide that service and this is going to
be one of the ways that we're able to do that. The other thing, and I know this
doesn't concern the City of Livonia, but again, we've had to reduce our footprint by
a third, we've closed several facilities due to the pandemic so this has put a
tremendous stress on us and I still would like to honor the agreement and provide
the service to the City and this is one of the ways that we'll be able to do that.
Councilmember Toy stated she doesn't mean to hardnose Wilkins but in her world
when you're in business, if you can't honor that contract, she gets a little of that,
but she also wants, we're having you come into our City and having our residents
in good faith put out their goods for you, and then we began to get paid for it and
now you're telling us we're not going to get paid for it and that's bothersome
because you're still going to make some dollars off of those products you're
collecting from our residents. So you're coming into our City and it's a great City
and people buy good things here so you're getting some good deals and you're
getting them for free and you're asking us to get out of your contract for three years
because of the virus, she understands that. She's in business, she's had all kinds
of cancellations on things and she employs thirteen people, so she feels his pain
to some degree but she also she has to honor contracts she was in so she's a little
sensitive to the fact that the City is not going to get paid anything if they start up
again.
Councilmember Jolly stated he agrees with a lot of what Vice President Bahr and
he is sympathetic to a lot of what Councilmember Toy just said. This is a situation
where, to be quite frank the money that was involved in this is de minimis, we're
talking about a penny per pound. He doesn't want to say he doesn't care about
that but this is seriously a small number and it's really not that big of an issue.
What he's finding though is the more and more we talk about this, the more and
more I understand the business model, and although you are providing a service
where you're picking up things at people's houses, so are the Vietnam Veterans,
so is St. Vincent De Paul, so is the Salvation Army over here in Livonia makes
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available drop off. To be quite frank with you, the way he understands it, is that
you are picking up items and then you're largely going through them and
redistributing them. When we first had this before us I asked a question in regard
to the actual recycling process and the answer he got for that was that to say not
a whole lot is actually being recycled for the technical definition of what recycled
is. So he's sitting here now wondering how are you any different from the
organizations that he just listed off other than that you are a for profit business and
that you are partnered with the City of Livonia in regard to this. And to be quite
frank with you, at this point if there's no, even though a de minimis amount of
money coming back to the City in regard to this, he doesn't know why the City is
partners with you when there are other nonprofits that have served this community
well for decades and decades and decades, especially if he understands what was
said tonight, you're picking up the product and then selling it or redistributing it to
these agencies to sell at their shops; do you have any comments on that, sir?
Wilkins replied he has several comments and he certainly appreciates what
Councilmember Jolly said but there's a huge difference with their program. One
of the things that the EPA has said and it's all over the studies that textiles is the
fastest growing part of the residential waste stream. And all of the organizations
that you're named have always been able to pick up these items, have someone
call and go to their house to pick them up. Yet they cannot handle the volume of
the amount of waste that's produced through the waste stream with the residents.
So the difference with our program is that the residents who set the items out on
their recycling day at any time without having to call or schedule a pick-up and that
is a huge difference, the matter of convenience. Only 15% of the material through
charities makes it to all of those entities combined, 85% of the material goes
through the waste stream without the convenience of our program. So our
program is for the resident that chooses not to donate, doesn't have the time,
maybe doesn't have the transportation or whatever the reason is that they choose
not to donate to charity, the resident can still put the material at the curb and have
it reused in another manner. And that's why our program exists across the country,
is the amount of waste that textiles are.
Jolly then asked if they are recycling material because that's not clear to him.
You're called Simple Recycling, are you actually recycling materials, yes or no?
Wilkins replied they do not recycle the materials, sir, they don't actually go through
the materials. So we collect he material, and the material is pushed on to the
downstream partners and we allow them to separate it based on quality and best
use and things of that nature. So the idea is to actually reuse the material as it is.
The actual recycling course is down the line in terms of the reuse, recycling
triangle.
Jolly asked through the Chair a question to the Law Department, saying he is not
familiar with the verbiage in regard to this contract at this point; does the City have
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an out to get out of this contract altogether and end our partnership with this
organization?
Bernier replied the City did have an out on it and he'd have to look to see what it
was but he remembers when we did this, there was an out provision for the City to
get out.
Jolly said he's sitting here with what he's learned in his perspective at this point,
he will offer a motion to terminate the contract for the Regular Agenda at the next
meeting.
Vice President Bahr asked Wilkins to clarify, did he say that 85% of what you
collect ends up being waste?
Wilkins replied no, 85% of textiles that are no longer wanted by residents are
actually going to the landfill; 15% of the material makes it to charitable
organizations and that's EPA data.
Bahr then asked Wilkins when he says that they're not actually recycling it, the
waste material, he's not concerned about the stuff that can be resold, the stuff that
can be reused, the waste material, the socks with holes in them and the jeans that
are torn up and those kind of things that can't be resold, that stuff that would end
up in a landfill, when that leaves your hands, where does that go?
Wilkins replied there's companies out there that actually do break down the
material, Simple Recycling doesn't actually do that process.
Bahr said in his notes it says that they have picked up 555,000 pounds since
November, do you feel like that's similar to the rate of what you would have
normally been doing, are we looking at roughly 1,000,000 pounds a year out of
Livonia?
Wilkins replied that sounds about right. The way that the program works typically
is when the program is new you have high participation rate, people are getting
their stuff out. And then the longer the program goes, there's a certain point where
it sort of levels off because are using it intermittently. He isn't sure in that four
months that they were able to actually get at that point where it would level off so
he really wouldn't be confident to say a million pounds but he's not sure exactly
where that level off point would have settled.
Bahr said he needs to make a correction, that number was way, way off. It says
7,000 pounds in the last six months so he wants to put this in perspective from a
money perspective, and Councilmember Jolly alluded to this, it's a small amount
of money. In the time that we were running this program before it stopped, roughly
four or five months, what the City got out of that was $72.00, okay, and he thinks
on a high end we're looking at a few hundred dollars a year coming to the City for
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this. And Jolly taught him a new word he didn't know, de minimis, he actually
looked it up, and he's totally right, it's probably a legal term, but this is de minimis,
this money doesn't make a difference. So as far as forgiving the rebate, he doesn't
have a problem with that and he happens to think that this is a good service for the
City and he has those orange bags in his basement, he had many, many more
bags than that that went to Salvation Army, that went to Goodwill, that went to
another organization that he's personally involved with. What those bags are filled
with are the stuff that he could not in good conscience donate because he knows
it had no value and that's where he's thrilled as somebody who hates waste, he's
thrilled he can set those out by the curb and have somebody pick those up and not
toss them in the trash. And if we have somebody willing to provide this service to
us and it's going to somewhere downstream recycle that stuff, it doesn't cost us
anything, and frankly, it makes the jobs of the St. Vincent De Paul's and the Purple
Hearts and the Salvation Armies easier because we're not throwing all of that
waste into their stream. He thinks this is a good thing and he then offered an
approving resolution for the Regular Agenda.
Rushlow stated he wanted to offer a couple clarifications on those numbers and
he does have some of that data in front of him. The 7,233 pounds that was
referenced in the letter, that was just the part they're asking the forgiveness for
that they haven't paid to us yet, so that was for the month of March which was
about two weeks'worth of collection. So overall since the program has started they
collected 55,747 pounds total in about 4 and a half months total period. So the
payback amount, the rebate amount was $557.47. So as it's been stated a couple
times, not a huge chunk of change.
Councilmember Jolly stated just to piggyback on what Mr. Rushlow said, $550.00
for all the time and effort of the personnel involved in this, from City Hall, from the
Law Department, from DPW, professionals, that doesn't cover our costs for this.
We have good people, we have big responsibilities, and this is a distraction. He
understands the sentiment, he just thinks this is something that we should not be
involved with and the more he finds out about it, he feels less and less comfortable
in regard to it. He wished them the best of luck but not in Livonia.
President McIntyre stated when we had the discussion about this last year, she
asked if we could try it on a year basis and that wasn't possible. My concerns were
not so much with the amount of money we were going to get or not going to get,
but diverting from other charities. And one point of clarification, Sonny made a
good point about only 15% of textiles that our household is done with actually goes
out to another agency, whether that's charitable or something like yours, but what
I have found out is those bags of rags that you cannot donate that we could put in
the orange bags, there are some agencies that will accept those, Salvation Army
for one and I don't know what their requirements are. We put them in a bag marked
rags and they take them. Because what they do in turn, and this is where their
business model is somewhat similar to Sonny's, I believe, the difference being that
the Salvation Army is not for profit and you're a for profit organization. Those rags,
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so after it works downstream, people pull apart what can be sold and what can't
be sold you know as secondhand clothing. All those rags go to a jobber that then
uses that waste textile material for all sorts of industrial products. So it's not that
you can't donate some of these things to a charitable organization, you can. One
other statement to the Administration, if we aren't going to move ahead with this
project, I suspect many people and Vice President Bahr alluded to this, have bags
of things set aside for when the program was going to be resumed, including things
like shoes that were not in a condition that could be resold in a thrift store, and she
would like the City if we do terminate this to find out where if anywhere those sorts
of items could be donated. I know the rags can be donated to Salvation Army. I
don't know if there are other places like the shoes that are only good for scrap
material.
DIRECTION: APPROVING REGULAR
4. REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATION AND EXPENDITURE: Public
Service Division, re: for an additional annual amount of $30,000, increasing the
not-to-exceed annual amount to $50,000, in order to provide as-needed
environmental engineering services related to the City's landfill, from budgeted
funds. (CR 257-19)
Jacob Rushlow, Superintendent of Public Service, presented this request to
Council. He stated if you recall back in July of 2019 at a Council meeting, Council
authorized an amendment to our five-year contract with NTH Consultants to
provide as-needed environmental engineering services, mostly related to the City
landfill for an annual amount that we anticipated be appropriated at$20,000.00 per
year through the remaining term of their contract which goes through June 30th of
2023. Since that time we have engaged with NTH for those as-needed services
to assist with many more activities that we hadn't anticipated back in July of last
year, things that came up on our end requested from the City and also a very heavy
load that's been placed on us by regulatory agencies, both Great Lakes Water
Authority and the State of Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and
Energy, also known as EGLE. Those requested items or required items are what's
causing us to come back before you tonight to ask for funds to be added to their
amount not to exceed for as-needed services. And just some of the examples of
things we've been asked to do or have been required to do include things like our
PFAs best management practices that we had to start monitoring and reporting to
Great Lakes Water Authority through what comes out of our leachate from the
landfill to the sewer system that goes to the Great Lakes Water Authority
Treatment Plant. Also, EGLE has required us to start looking at methane gas
monitoring and reporting in addition to what we had already been required to do.
And then also we need to do updates to our landfill operation plan and end of use
plan. So those are just a few examples of things that are pretty big tasks that we
had not anticipated even being on the horizon or knowing that we would need to
do when we came to you last year in July. So based on that, what seems to be an
ever growing list of regulatory requirements with the City landfill, it's the
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recommendation of the Public Service Division to Council to proceed to approve
that additional appropriation and expenditure in the amount of $30,000.00,
increasing the previously approved not to exceed amount up to $50,000.00 from
funds that are budgeted in the contractual services for landfill remediation for
payment to NTH for those services.
Councilmember White said because these are regulatory obligations, we need to
spend these funds obviously for legal reasons and she then offered an approving
resolution for the Consent Agenda.
Vice President Bahr asked Rushlow if they've been engaged with NTH prior to
2019 and Rushlow replied they brought them on in 2018 as our new environmental
engineering consultant to assist with all things related to the landfill which NTH is
really very, very well known in the industry as being a go-to consultant for that type
of service. And we actually went out through a QBS process back then and ended
up selecting NTH as the consultant. So that was a five-year contract that was
signed in June of 2018, so that five-year contract would go through a term ending
June 30th of 2023.
Bahr asked was the City not paying for this type of service prior to 2018, was that
the first time we started doing this?
Rushlow replied he believes as far as he knows because he's only been here since
2017 but he doesn't know offhand what had been done previously for as-needed
services.
Bahr said the reason he's asking is because it's a startling amount of increases in
services this year, we're talking about two and a half times and he understands
these are legally required and you guys are reacting to what's thrown at you but
he was just trying to get a sense of how unusual it is to have this many regulations
added in one year that we didn't see coming. But if we just started this in 2018
that makes a little more sense to me now.
Rushlow stated one of the big drives we're seeing, too, I'm sure you've been
informed of it somewhat through even just the news, but the PFAs regulations that
are coming on board. Just recently the state passed drinking water regulations
which previously they did not and now they are placing those on things that we will
need to look for in drinking water. They're doing the same with the surface water
and ground water as well as just general requirements for limitations on how much
of those parts per trillium you can have some substance for PFAs. So PFAs is
really that emerging contaminant that's driving a lot of these regulatory changes
that we're seeing with the landfill.
President McIntyre stated that no one would disagree that PFAs is a known
problem or a strongly suspected problem that had not been regulated and you
know it's good that we're now attending to them but this is another example of an
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unfunded mandate and again I have no quibble with the State looking into these
and now requiring us to track and monitor. But it's easy for the State to say you
have to do this when again there's no funding provided to municipalities for doing
it and we see the results, a contract that's two and a half times the size that it was
before.
DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT
5. AWARD OF CONTRACT: Public Service Division, re: using the Qualification-
Based Selection (QBS) contract, with OHM Advisors, to provide professional
engineering services to prepare the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018
(AWIA) Risk & Resilience Assessment and Emergency Response Plan (ERP) as
required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (CR 365-16)
Jacob Rushlow, Superintendent of Public Service, presented this request to
Council. He stated he is asking for award of a contract to OHM Advisors to assist
with preparation of the document that's required, a Federal requirement
administered through the Environmental Protection Agency and I believe there is
one representative from OHM on the line in case there's any questions. So the
way this one worked out is back in 2018 the Federal regulators passed the
America's Water Infrastructure Act and in that there's two requirements. One is a
certification of a Resilience Assessment and the other is the Emergency Response
Plan. So the first document that's due is the what's known RRA, Risk& Resilience
Assessment and that's intended to assess the risk of our water system basically
from malevolent act and natural hazards as well as the resilience of our pies and
other components of the water supply system. The Environmental Response Plan
focuses more on strategies, resources, plans and procedures that water systems
can use to prepare for and respond to an emergency incident. So this is definitely
something that is a good to have and we think OHM is a great asset to have on
our team, they're very similar with our water distribution system, they recently
prepared our Water Reliability Study, they did our General Plan Update, our Asset
Management Plan and our Drinking Water Revolving Fund Project Plan all within
the last few years. They were definitely a big part of preparing that, the Drinking
Water Fund, to help us get that low interest loan for those water main
improvements. OHM also maintains our water system model and helps perform
hydraulic analyses to assist us with our normal operations for efficiency in the
water system. So with all that in order to proceed with the project and fulfill those
requirements to the EPA in compliance with the American's Water Infrastructure
Act, we recommend Council proceed with award of this contract to OHM Advisors
in an amount not to exceed $56,500.00 for professional engineering services to be
provided with respect to the project and authorization of the additional
appropriation expenditure from the Unexpended Fund Balance of the Water and
Sewer Fund.
Councilmember Toy offered an approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. She
thanked everyone at the DPW for their hard work.
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DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT
6. REQUEST TO APPROVE RESOLUTION TO CONCUR WITH INDUSTRIAL
PRETREATMENT PROGRAM (IPP): Public Service Division, re: as required by
the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) to regulate the discharge of commercial
and industrial wastewater.
Jacob Rushlow, Superintendent of Public Service, presented this request to
Council. He stated recently the Great Lakes Board of Directors passed a
resolution to add language to their rules regarding regulation of PFAs compounds
which is what this resolution is concurring with those rule changes. They require
that the governing body of every municipality whose wastewater flow goes to the
Great Lakes Water Authority Treatment System, also known as the Water
Resource Recovery Facility, must pass this resolution and adopt that set of rules.
So it's our recommendation that Council proceed to approve the attached
resolution to concur in the rules and regulations concerning the Industrial
Pretreatment Program as adopted by the Great Lakes Water Authority.
Councilmember McCullough offered an approving resolution for the Consent
Agenda.
Councilmember Toy requested it be put on the Regular Agenda.
DIRECTION: APPROVING REGULAR
7. REQUEST TO RELEASE ENTRANCE MARKERS/LANDSCAPING BOND AND
MONUMENTS AND MARKERS BOND: Engineering Division, re: for the Livonia
Manor II Site Condominium Development located at 31700 and 31750 Seven Mile
Road, in the Southeast '/4 of Section 3. (CR 296-14)
Todd Zilincik, City Engineer, presented this request to Council. He stated this
item is a bit of housekeeping. Now that the work is completed out there, he is
requesting to release the bond in the amount of$5,000.00 for the entrance marker
and landscaping and $700.00 for the monuments and markers, he is asking
Council's approval to release that money back to the developer, Leo Soave, in the
amount of$5,700.00.
Councilmember Toy offered an approving resolution for the Consent Agenda.
DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT
AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION None heard.
Councilmember Toy reminded everyone that the prior meeting was the last one for Judy
Priebe, Director of Legislative Affairs, and wished her well on her retirement.
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President McIntyre spoke about Judy and her being the backbone, the heart, and the
brain of Council and she will be missed.
Vice President Bahr lauded Judy on her service and thanked her.
Judy Priebe commented and thanked Council for their praise saying she will miss
everyone and she was very fortunate to serve the City for 28 years and really enjoyed her
job but the next chapter in her life is retirement and she promised to stay in contact with
everyone.
Councilmember Donovic stated that he is a little jealous that his other Council members
had the pleasure of working with Judy for son long. As a new member of Council, she
has been a huge help and he wanted to thank her publicly for helping him as a new
member and all of the help she provided to Council for all these years.
Councilmember White stated she has had the pleasure of working with Judy for a lot of
years before the Council Office, from the Inspection Department and it's always been a
pleasure, she has always been so pleasant, and that she thinks that anybody that can
work with seven elected officials is awesome.
Councilmember Jolly expressed his thanks and gratitude to Judy and wished her the best.
Councilmember Toy stated that Council will not be the same nor the City without her. She
thanked her and expressed her appreciation for all she's done over the years.
Councilmember McCullough asked for a round of applause on Zoom.
Judy thanked everyone for their kind words and comments.
As there were no further questions or comments, President McIntyre adjourned the
Study Session at 9:03 p.m. on Monday, August 17, 2020.
For the 1,904th Regular Meeting of September 9, 2020
DATED: August 21, 2020 SUSAN M. NASH, CITY CLERK