May 2005 Status Report

 It is my pleasure to submit my monthly status report for your review and consideration. If you have any questions about any items mentioned here, or you would like some information on subjects I did not cover in this report, please do not hesitate to contact me.

1. Okaya Visit

I believe the recent visit by the Mayor of Okaya and his delegation was a very successful exchange. They indicated that they had a great time and were extremely pleased with the reception they received from the City Commission and the community. The various activities went off very well, and my thanks to everyone involved including City staff, the IRC, and the Mayor and City Commission for your participation in the various events. I believe the whole experience further strengthened our Sister City relationship, and we look forward to hosting five high school students from Okaya in July and August. As you know, we will also be sending a delegation to Okaya to celebrate our fortieth anniversary there. They also have a lot of wonderful events planned for the visit, and we look forward to it.

2. Construction Projects

We have begun many of our summer construction projects. University Street reconstruction is already well underway with the utilities and curb and gutter installed in the first two blocks. As you know, Duane Ellis prepares his own status report on our capital improvement projects, so he will give you much more detail on our other projects.

3. Wastewater Treatment Plant EPA Permit

As I indicated in my last status report to you, after four years we have finally received information from the EPA regarding the permit discharge limits for the Wastewater Treatment Plant. As I indicated in my last status report, it is our impression that the permit limits would not require any further changes or modifications to the Wastewater Treatment Plant. There were some issues that we needed to address with them, but nothing substantial. Pete Boettcher, our Wastewater Treatment Superintendent, has responded to their proposed permit issues and we now await a response from them. The limits they are proposing would mean that our initial permit will cover a period of almost ten years. This is good news since most likely we will not have to make any further modifications to the plant for at least another five years.

4. Project 2000 Tax Case

In my previous status report I indicated we had hoped to have the hearing before the Court of Appeals scheduled some time in May or June. We are now in the middle of May and we have still not received a new hearing date. We will just have to wait to see when the matter will be scheduled.

5. Tribal Two Percent Requests

As you probably know, the Tribe will announce its award of two percent allocations by the end of this month. They usually do it the Friday before Memorial Day. As soon as I know I will e-mail you outlining what the City received.

6. City-County Liaison Committee Meeting

Our next meeting with the County is scheduled for May 19th. Now that the County has made a decision on the Family Recreation Center, we will revert back to meeting every other month. We prepare minutes from those meetings, and I will get you copies of those minutes so you will know what we discussed at the meeting. At this point we have not set an agenda for the May 19th meeting.

7. City-CMU Liaison Committee Meeting

Our last meeting was held on May 12th. The meeting was essentially to review each other’s ongoing projects. CMU indicated they were beginning their $1.5 million landscaping and lighting improvement project at various locations on campus. They also indicated that construction had started on the new residence hall towers at the Woldt complex, which should be completed by August of 2006. We also reported on a recent meeting between City and CMU staff regarding ownership of water and sewer lines as well as street lights. As the University has expanded there has not always been a clear record of who owns which utility lines. We agreed to do research into location and ownership of lines, and take appropriate steps to make sure that lines on CMU property are appropriately deeded to the University.
Also, over a period of years various arrangements have been made regarding ownership and operational costs of street lights on campus. We agreed to meet and develop a comprehensive agreement on ownership, maintenance and operational costs for those lights. I reported on various projects in the City, including University Street reconstruction, the Borden Building, the Family Recreation Center, and other anticipated capital improvement projects for 2005. The University indicated that they anticipate no real growth in enrollment for the Fall 2005 term. They also reported on the recent grant award and start of construction of the wet lab at the Center for Applied Research and Technology.

8. Downtown Landscape And Parking Consultant Reports

Michelle Sponseller and Tony Kulick will make a presentation to the City Commission at their work session Monday night on the recommendations contained in both reports.

9. Airport

At the Airport Advisory Board meeting on May 12th, John Benzinger reported on the purchase of snow removal equipment and construction of a storage building for the equipment. He indicated that the City would save approximately $5,000 to $7,000 if he does the plowing. He also reported that the FAA and MAC will pay for the extension of electricity to the new storage building.

10. Budget Session

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your time and participation in our recent work session on our budget problems. I found it to be very productive, and it provides us with a better understanding of the direction you would like to take with the upcoming budget. I hope you found it worthwhile, and that it gave you an opportunity to think about this issue in more detail. Again, thank you for your willingness to devote the time to this issue.

11. Lansing Issues

There are a couple of pieces of legislation that are of concern to the City that have recently been introduced. The first deals with proposed changes to the state-shared revenue statutory formula. I am sure you have seen the e-mails from the League indicating that legislation has been introduced in the Senate that would change the formula. I am pleased to report that the Mayor and other Commissioners have written letters to Senator Cropsey urging him to oppose such legislation. I have also sent a similar letter to Mr. Cropsey and the response I received indicated that he will be looking at the matter in detail. In his response to me he stated that under the proposed formula change the City would lose an additional $80,000 in revenue sharing. If there is any movement on this matter we will let you know so that you can contact Senator Cropsey as well. Obviously the Michigan Municipal League is on top of this issue and will fight any proposed changes.

The second issue deals with a bill that has been introduced in the House that would limit our ability to do rental housing inspections. I am dictating this to you on Wednesday, May 18, and Greg Walterhouse, our new Fire Chief, is in Lansing testifying against the changes in the rental inspection bill. Obviously this is of some concern to us, and we will continue to fight any changes to the current statute.

12. Union Negotiations

We continue our negotiations with AFSCME, IAFF and Part-Time Firefighters. It is anticipated that we will have a number of meetings yet to come.

13. Budget Presentation

As I indicated in my presentation to you on our budget shortfall issue, I have been able to make presentations to two local groups. The first was at the Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber of Commerce Board meeting on May 17, and the second was the following day at the Rollie Denison Leadership Institute. I have also scheduled a presentation to the Middle Michigan Development Corporation’s Client Council on May 25. At these presentations I have given the attendees an overview of our budget problem, and have also sought volunteers to meet with the City in the fall of this year to begin to look at long-term solutions to this problem.