Importance: High
Sara-
Wanted to update you on a couple of potential stories that you could see over the weekend.
First Nancy Kaffer of the Freep is writing a column for Sunday to do with Flint and the choice of KWA
over DWSD. She had FOIA’d a doc from MEDQ that had a 2013 report from Andy Dillion that says that
KWA is a risky proposition and that DWSD was a better option. [let her know that the report was just a
starting point in the process and as more information became available a joint decision was made by the
EM, council and other key city leaders.
Second Matt Dolan from the Freep called and said that he was doing a one year wrap up on Detroit
coming out of Bankruptcy and he wanted to speak to Ron Rose. | offered up Nick instead (with his
permission) Nick did a 15 minute phone interview with him. After a few softballs about a year later
Matt opened a line of questions about possible pension liabilities in 2024. NK did a good job of staying
high level. | believe that Matt reached out on his own and spoke to Ron as well as John Hill.
Let me know if you have any questions.
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Weekly Conference Call Notes — Nov. 09, 2015
Allen Park —Nov. 6 —Mayor Matakas, M. Kibby, B. Cady E. Cline, P Dostine
Election commentary
e Road millage. 10-year millage passed ($1.43M). Meetings will begin with engineering,
DPW, to create a list of roads for the next four years. Plan is to get bid specs out Dec/Jan,
thus locking in lower rates. With the city bundling the millage, with Act 51 ($1.9M) with
$500K general fund, it will have approximately $3.8M annually to do reconstruction,
crack sealing, street sectioning. Allen Park can also use the millage as a match for the
county’s FAC program (20% match).
e The success of the millage as well as the mayor winning by a large margin and incumbent
councilpersons winning are all seen as a vote of confidence in a way, the mayor stated.
e The city is offering MML training to the entire council.
Bond update
e BAML dropped the ball, Cady said. BAML wouldn’t give AP a guarantee to buy the new
issuance.
e Allen Park got an extension till Nov. 19 to make final the recent bond tender.
Meanwhile, Allen Park is looking elsewhere for another institution.
© S&P gave a below grade rating to Allen Park (CCC+ up from CCC-).
e City Administrator Kibby sent Treasury a letter requesting financial help.
Order 29
e Kibby requested Order 29 be amended to offer new hires a choice of the 20% or the hard
cap. Currently, Order 29 mandates the 20% premium cost, hard cap is not an option.
Benton Harbor —Nov. 5 —D. Watson, R. Widigan, E Cline, A. Heimann, D, Hudson
e Weekly Priorities
© City approved a contract with AFSCME.
o City attorney will update the commission on the ongoing lawsuits, no major
changes on the Lange, O’Brien, Unruh lawsuits.
= Two new lawsuits: wage and hour claim and a wrongful termination/first
amendment claim.
e Update on Vacant Positions:
o Finance Director: MML search approved by commission 9-0
« Darwin will speak with the MML and get the process going, vote is
subject to RTAB approval.
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Water Department Superintendent: Fleis & VandenBrink Engineering has
started working with the city.
= Still looking to fill the superintendent position.
Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director: City has some
potential interim individuals to fill the position, short term while the city looks for
someone to fill the position.
Assessor: Assessor is on board and beginning work, a lot of work to do.
«None of the building permits found have been recorded.
™ None of the new construction have been updated (roughly $12M in new
contraction).
= Meeting with BS&A to develop a plan of attack.
» A letter will be submitted to the state and the assessors division regarding
what the past assessor has done.
City Manager Evaluation Discussion: Already rumors to replace Darwin with
individuals friends of the city commissioners.
[e)
Staff is very concemed that if Darwin is gone they will all be fired.
E-Loan Payment: City has made the payment.
Election/Atmosphere @ City Hall: Newly elected Commissioner, Bryan Jones is a
supporter of the emergency manager law.
Oo
°
[e)
°
Commissioner Muhammad will have to vacate his commission seat to become
mayor.
Mayor-elect Muhammad has not reached out to Darwin.
Mood is very somber at city hall.
Darwin stated if the RTAB left today, the city would be under emergency
manager within 2 years, likely sooner.
Commissioners are very upset and if there was no state oversight they
would blow through the budget.
«Likely to be multiple attempts to change/fire staff.
= He stated that there are rumors the state is looking to pull the RTAB,
Darwin stated that would be a grave mistake.
= After election results were in, Commissioner Seats entered the building
and removed a photo of Mayor Hightower off the wall
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Ecorse — Oct. 20— W.O’Neal, R. Byrne, D. Van de Grift, P. Dostine, A. Heimann
Priorities
o Water audit. Ecorse is in the process of doing a water audit. The city found that 24 % of
the bills are estimates. Ecorse loses approximately $940K worth of water annually. The
city has discovered the use of straight pipes in 3 houses. O’Neal believes there are more in
the city.
ariel reported that the Water and Sewer fund currently has a positive cash flow.
O’Neal said there is a lack of communication between the water billing department and the
DPW. Broken or defective meters are not being reported to DPW. O’Neal also said the
city will be raising the minimum water rate.
Fire Dept.
o Firemen are campaigning for Mayor Pro Tem Miller for mayor. O’Neal said at least three
department heads have said they will resign if Miller is elected mayor.
OPEB benefit audit
fe}
O’Neal said that the OPEB benefit audit has been completed. “Some discrepancies were
found. But overall, it’s wasn’t bad,” O’Neal said. A deceased female was still receiving
BCBS coverage. Ecorse is going to request a refund from BCBS.
DPW Business Plan
o O’Neal said the potential savings from taking DPW in-house is approximately $57K.
annually, But this would depend on the wages Ecorse would pay workers. O’Neal said he
is finding it difficult to find even part-time workers for DPW. O’Neal said it’s unlikely the
in-house plan will be implemented at this point.
Flint — Nov. 4 — Mayor Walling, N. Henderson, J. Freeman, F, Headen, W, Lamphiery, E.
Cline, P. Dostine, D. Hudson, A. Heimann
Elections
Mayor Walling — Reiterate a few things already shared, hopes that this group can
continue to meet, and involve City Council, Council presence has been essential. Saying
that we are going to be met with an entirely different approach, one of “anger and
resentment”, Will need to be much more “Hands On”.
Called for additional investments to help deal with the elevated lead levels in high risk
. people’s blood
Believes that the new administration will be very destructive
We “have his number”
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e ALL- Nervous about new administration, and are looking for the State to be more
involved to ensure that the atmosphere does not become too destructive.
e N Henderson — Suggested that all department heads are at risk because new mayor has
made promises to people for these department head jobs.
e J Freeman —Not likely going to be elected for City Council president
Priorities
e Grants: Received three grants from the Ruth Mott Foundation
e $1.5M (three yr) from the Ruth Mott foundation for Police work in the North End of
the City. Not for operational policing, but for public safety programs.
e Neighborhood planning grant $300K, can work with previous grant, and are waiting
on agreements
e Park Grant $70K.
Devil’s Night / Halloween report
e No Major issues
® One fire, basement fire. Two more brush fires, nothing major. Sat it rained
Water System Update
® Switched to DWSD
e Waiting on a finalized permit, to add more phosphate to the water. Already have
phosphate in water, but they believe that more is needed, and special permit is needed to
add more. Recommendation from that there is substantially more Phosphate in the water.
¢ Technical advisory committee meeting on November 9
e N Henderson will have a private EPA Meeting
e EPA will have a task force meeting on Tuesday (Not public information)
KWA bond payment date
® November 2016 - Working on it now (called Jodi? While we were on call to find date)
Planning Director Start-date
e First day will be November 9th
Miscellaneous
e RTAB vacancy — The Governor’s office is taking names and then they will be making the
decision. Unclear how long that process will take.
e Veterans Day — will not be having a phone call with Veteran’s day being Wednesday,
Thursday will be the RTAB meeting not Wednesday, confirmed that they had posted the
RTAB meeting appropriately.
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Byrne, Randall (T reasury)