Neighborhood Planning Council 11 - Lakeview east

Meeting Minutes Minges Brook/Riverside Neighborhood Planning Council (NPC) #11 Central Christian Church Community Room 713 Riverside Drive Battle Creek, MI 49015 Wednesday, January 24th, 2018 1. 7:00 PM – Welcome and opening – Leah Ortiz, Tina Yost-Johnson 2. Attendance sheet: Dave Hawks, Frank Egland, Coleen Jewell, James Hamlin, John Godfrey, Laura Herzing, Leah Ortiz, Rudy Barda, Tate Trujillo, Tim Martinovich, Tina Yost- Johnson, Sally Goss, City Rep: Jason Francisco, PD: Officer Kilbourne, City Comm Rep: Chris Simmons, Linda Phelps, Don Bradstreet, Dan Boyd, Tracie Tomak, Linda Morrison, Elizabeth Insley, County Comm Rep: Jake Smith 3. Additions or deletions to this agenda: None 4. Approval of the previous month’s meeting’s minutes. Dave Hawks moved to approve and Tim supported the motion. Motion passed. Tina abstained. 5. Correspondence sent/received: BCATS report, distributed to attendees. 6. City staff reports: City staff reports and Commissioner Comments:  City Commissioners’ reports- Chris Simmons- Distributed business cards with contact information. Referenced to the Citizens Police Academy, which will run from March 7th-May 16th, every Wednesday from 6pm-9pm. Must be 18 years old, a BC or Bedford resident or business owner in the area. Blue Ribbon Committee established to review our City Charter, specifically as it relates to how the election of the Mayor occurs, staggered terms, how many commissioners are on the commission, etc. NPC 11 is well represented with several members serving. We are the legislative body and the City Manager is the administrative body. Question regarding Medicinal Marijuana zoning, Chris specified the limitations placed on these dispensaries.  County Commissioners’ reports- Jake Smith- Shipt prescription service for Seniors- Community Health Options will provide this service. Chair of the IT committee at the County, trying to get as much paper out of the building as possible. Trying out touch screens to improve efficiency. Applying for Committee’s on County’s Boards: removing filters of applicants in order for the applications to go straight to the Board, rather than another channel first. Calhoun County Road Department App- if you are anywhere in the County, you can take a picture of a pothole and it will send an automatic location of the area of issue. Currently, this only functions in the City limits, work is being done to move to more of the County.  Police Department Report - Officer Kilbourne- Call volumes are high still, despite the holidays being over. Larcenies from vehicles continue to occur to unlocked vehicles…lock your car. No trending crimes currently, however Officer Kilbourne asked if we would like to know of any stats that are not  currently generated. One suggestion was to learn about the resolve of the crimes, such as if the suspects have been caught/apprehended. A request was presented for a graph or pie chart to describe the crime occurring around us, or perhaps highlighting “hot spots”. Officer Kilbourne reminded us check out website for reports, however acknowledged that not everyone has access to a computer. Question about whether the Department would be doing another program they had done in the past, regarding young drivers and their interaction with officers during a traffic stop; Tina shared the NAACP is putting together something like this program in the future. A comment regarding reestablishing Neighborhood Watches in communities. Recommendations were for people to follow the Nextdoor App, which connects individuals to their neighbors.  City Representative Report- Jason Francisco- Jason stressed that we are the eyes and ears of the City, we need to call and report things that need attention. Snow Removal priority map is on the website, keep in mind main access areas are priority areas. The City is out of mattress bags, the program ended. The paint program will start back up, with another 4-50 vouchers to give out. 7. Committee reports:  Beautiful Battle Creek Award Nominations – Dave Hawks – None at this time, reminder that businesses can be nominated as well.  Neighborhoods and Land Use – John Godfrey – Planning Commission Meeting was held this afternoon. General updating of ordinances, however postponed to get more information. Front yard parking discussion was also postponed.  NPC 11 Programs – Laura Herzing – Chief Blocker (BCPD) will be sharing updates next month. 8. Old business: None 9. New business: None 10. January Program: Linda Morrison, Director of the City of Battle Creek Finance Department Kicking off the FY19 budget. Golf Course budget was adopted in December. A committee is established to determine the process involved with the Golf Course, they will be meeting on February 20th at City Hall. The City will commit $43,000 to the Youth Golf Program. Fundraising is done to raise the other funds for the program, through the non-profit organization, Southwest Michigan Youth Golf Association. Important dates: City Commission Workshop on April 26th at Department of Public Works at 6pm. May 15th is a Public Hearing for the FY19 budget at the regularly scheduled City Commission Meeting. June 5th is the anticipated Budget adoption date. Millage rate to remain the same, is the goal, as operating millage has been floating, whatever increase would have been made to fund the police and fire retirements, however will be offset with a corresponding decrease in the operating millage. The model of priority based budgeting was implemented in FY16, this tool is used to assist the budget workshop to work through scenarios (primarily for the general fund budget). After a question, Linda shared the police and fire retirement was voted on in 1962 in a millage and approved, this millage does not have a cap. The Legacy Cost Committee, established 2 years ago, was implemented to assist in determining this assessment, this is not only tied to pension, but also infrastructure. 11. Public comments: Tracie Tomak: Shared she is intending on running for Judge for the 10th District Court. She is also appointed to the Blue Ribbon Committee and shared that she would take comments to the meeting from residents at the February 7th meeting. Don Bradstreet: Shared concerns about the sludge issues. Feels “the City of Battle Creek is one of the hardest cities to get anything completed.” 12. Member Comments: John Godfrey mentioned that other NPC’s that move to other meeting locations other than schools, have reduced their summer break periods. Recommendation to move this topic to the next agenda. Vote from members would be needed to move to meet during the typical June, July, and August NPC meetings. 13. Next Month’s Meeting: 7:00PM Wednesday, Feb 25th, at Central Christian Church, 713 Riverside Drive. Program: Chief Blocker from Battle Creek Police Department 14. Adjournment: There being no further business, Laura motioned to adjourn the meeting with Dave supporting at 8:28pm.