Hamtramck Star

Hamtramck Square 3 city tax exemption: The ordinance establishes a PILOT related to R-31 housing. It passed unanimously.

Grand Haven Village Homes: This ordinance also established a PILOT related to R-31 housing. It passed unanimously.

Klein said the R-31 work was noticed by the National Brownfields Conference as an example of how brownfields "can work in redeveloping a dense urban area".

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Budget: The ordinance sets the general appropriations of the city, fee schedules, and water and sewer rates for the coming year. All voted in favor.

Public hearings for all three ordinances were set for May 27.

City manager reports

Road work on Nagel and Dequindre is ahead of schedule and should be completed in 60 days. The state will begin reconstructing bridges over the expressway immediately after. Beautification will be done after that.

Danforth Street has been completely ripped out and a new water main installed and disinfected. Service lines are being put in, and then a road base and surface will be installed. The work should be done within 6 weeks.

Milling and resurfacing of many streets is underway. The milling machine came early to remove old patches, and to lower the surface because there isn't much curb left in some areas. It will be about two months before a new surface is put in, after cracks and defects are repaired.

There will be a City of Promise conference at the Kellogg Center of MSU for which arrangements will have to be made.

Stackpoole asked who mowed Veterans' Park. Crawford said the front was mowed by the school. Stackpoole asked about contracts for mowing and board-ups. Crawford said they would be on the agenda for the next meeting, and the existing contracts don't expire until June.

Majewski asked about installation of street signs. Crawford said they had started in the area North of Caniff last year. They are replacing all signs according to the uniform traffic code. The police appreciate it because the judge sometimes tosses tickets out. All the utilities have to be marked before any post can be installed. Requests for replacement and installation of handicap signs has caused the contractor to be pulled off installing street signs several days per month, but another contractor will be handling those from now on. Joseph Campau and Conant are to be done next so that people coming in to town know where to turn.

Klein said it would be nice if the council thanked department heads for coming to the city manager interviews the previous Saturday. He said they also needed to decide how to proceed with two candidates they chose not to interview before. Bill Richards of the MML sent him an e-mail asking for direction. The candidates were not interviewed before because their experience with diversity was not there.

Algazali said they should go ahead with interviews because the city will have to pay another $10,000 fee for a second search if someone is not hired from the pool. He didn't know that was the case until after the ads were placed. Klein said the fee is 10% of the awarded salary, and he would argue that the city doesn't owe if no one is hired. Gordon asked what happened to 6 other applicants. Majewski said they didn't meet the minimum criteria. Stackpoole said some of the criteria was mandated by the charter. Klein said others may apply if the expectations are lowered.

Gordon wanted to be sure that the council didn't make a decision based on having to pay the MML fee again. Klein asked Majewski to clarify the cost with Richards. Stackpoole said it was encouraging that another city found a good candidate the second time around. Gordon wanted someone to ask Richards to let the candidates answer the questions and not lead them as much. Klein said that was his familiarity with some of the candidates showing through.

The motion to interview the other two candidates passed unanimously.

Algazali said that some of the candidates interviewed are currently paid $60,000 to $80,000, which is the starting range he wanted to advertise for initially. He asked if department heads were paid overtime for attending the interviews. Crawford said department heads do not get overtime, but will probably get some comp time for it. Algazali asked who told them to come because he didn't know they would be there. Majewski said she invited them, there are a lot of things she ends up having to do, and she isn't required to notify the council because the mayor's office is independent of the council.

Gordon said that while she was on her way home on Caniff a few weeks ago, traffic was backed up in front of the library for several minutes. She thinks this was related to the BHA Hall. While she was sitting in traffic, a car pulled up in front of all the cars and started shooting. The police told her this has happened multiple times. She said the city needs to pull their business license because we don't need that sort of reputation. She also thinks they're serving liquor without a license.

Crawford said that business licenses are up for renewal in July. Gordon asked how the city could legally declare the business a nuisance. A representative from Allen's office said that the city should review public records, like incident reports. Gordon asked if the police could keep statistics about complaints against businesses like Jet's Pizza and The Belmont bar. Crawford said that information is kept by the police. Gordon said it doesn't do any good if there have been 4 shootings in 6 weeks at the same place and they're still open for business. The attorney said it is a matter of records, and if no report is made there is no official note.

Majewski asked if every business is researched when they apply for license renewal. Crawford said they are approved by the fire department and code enforcement. They are working on a database. Nazarko said the police do not currently sign off unless there is a liquor license. There is a software module through the financial software company for business licenses that the city hasn't purchased. The city clerk has been pressing for it, but the city doesn't have $5000 for the purchase.

Crawford was surprised the problem hasn't been dealt with. Gordon said that when she called the police, they came right away. A man was shot in the leg. When she talked to the police, they told her they have calls there every weekend. There are 200 to 300 kids piling out of there, and they are lucky only one person was shot in the leg. She asked if the business owner understands that he's liable, and serving liquor without a license is against the law. Crawford said he would follow up with the police department.