January 26, 2026 City Council Meeting

Introduction:

Links to the video recording and the council packet are at the bottom of this post. Please note any errors or omissions in the comments. Anything in brackets was inserted by Clarkston Sunshine.

Agenda Item #1, Call to Order (video time mark 0:00:01):

Sue Wylie said it is 7:00, I’m calling the meeting to order.

Agenda Item #2, Pledge of Allegiance (video time mark 0:00:03):

Wylie said if everybody would please stand, we will say the Pledge of Allegiance.

(Pledge said.)

Wylie said thank you.

Agenda Item #3, Roll Call (video time mark 0:00:28):

Wylie said our third item on the agenda is a roll call. (To Angela Guillen, clerk), Wylie said and could you take the roll call, please?

Sue Wylie, Laura Rodgers, Al Avery, Gary Casey, Erica Jones, and Ted Quisenberry were present.

Amanda Forte was absent.

Wylie said thank you. (To Guillen), Wylie said welcome back.

Agenda Item #4, Approval of Agenda – Motion (video time mark 0:00:47):

Wylie said approval of the agenda, I need a motion to approve of the agenda as presented.

Motion by Jones; second Rodgers.

Wylie said any discussion from council.

No comments.

Wylie said any questions or comments from the public.

No comments.

Motion to approve the agenda passed by unanimous voice vote.

Wylie said the agenda is approved.

Agenda Item #5, Public Comments (video time mark 0:01:10):

[Though public comments can sometimes irritate the city council, there is value to both the council and the public in hearing them. While they can’t eliminate public comments entirely without violating the Open Meetings Act, your city council has occasionally decided not to acknowledge public comments during a city council meeting unless the person submitting the comments also appears at the meeting (in-person or electronically) to personally read them. In the past, members of the public have been cut off for exceeding the city council’s arbitrary three-minute time limit (it’s arbitrary because no time limits are required by the Open Meetings Act).

If your public comments were submitted to the council but not read, or if you tried to make public comments but your comments were cut short, please email them to clarkstonsunshine@gmail.com and I will include them in my informal meeting summaries either under public comments or under the specific agenda item that you want to speak to.]

Wylie said public comments.

(Wylie read the rules for public comments.)

Wylie said does anybody have any public comments.

No comments.

Wylie said OK. No public comments.

Agenda Item #6 – FYI: (video time mark 0:01:39):

Wylie said Item #6 is FYI. I have nothing. Does anybody else have?

No comments.

Wylie said OK.

Agenda Item #7 – City Manager’s Report (video time mark 0:01:43):

• • January 26, 2026, City Manager Report (Page 3/69 of the council packet)

Wylie said Item #7, city manager’s report, which is included in the packet. (To Smith), Wylie said did you have anything to elaborate or talk more about?

Smith said well, first of all, we’re happy to have Guillen back. So, as you know, in the last council meeting, we did not accept her resignation. We took no formal action to end Guillen’s employment. So, really, no action is needed. It’s kind of business as usual.

Smith said sidewalk shoveling, I really want to emphasize this. The local postal carrier has complained that he’s having trouble getting around to the houses because a number of them have not been shoveled. So, I do ask all homeowners to do their best. We hate to issue citations for lack of snow shoveling, but we will if we need to. Either that or we can step in and our guys do it. Not that they have a lot of extra time, but we could ask them to do it. And then we bill the homeowner for that work. So, just want to reemphasize the importance of snow shoveling.

Smith said road salt, we’re working through the shortfall that the road commission is experiencing. We’re trying to get everything salted the best we can. We’re buying some salt from a private supplier as needed, but that’s more expensive. So, we’re trying to limit that.

Smith said and as I said here, my last comment was, I did attend the Michigan Municipal Executives Conference last week, a great conference. And despite my broken ankle, I was very glad that I attended. It was a great event with a lot of good information, everything from artificial intelligence to effective communication strategies and just a great conference. So, it was very well received.

Smith said so, that’s all I have, unless somebody has a question.

Wylie said questions or comments for the manager.

No comments.

Wylie said council or the public.

Casey said I have a comment. Wylie said yes.

Casey said with regards to road salt, it doesn’t work when it’s this cold. Smith said it doesn’t really work. Casey said it’ll melt temporarily, then it just freezes. Smith said yeah. Casey said the water freezes. So, that’s no big deal. Smith said yeah. It’s true. Below 18 degrees, they say road salt really doesn’t work very effectively. So, it’s not really that effective right now anyway. So, you’re right.

Wylie said anybody else.

Wylie recognized Guillen for a comment.

Guillen said on top of that piggyback, and I just wanted to commend the DPW [Department of Public Works] supervisor and staff for keeping us safe and keeping the roads salted (unintelligible). Appreciate that. Wylie said I think everybody probably agrees with that. Jones said yes.

Wylie recognized Cara Catallo for a comment.

Catallo said yeah, I wanted to reiterate that they’ve done a great job, Jimi [Turner, DPW supervisor] and Carson [Danis, DPW laborer], and I’ve seen them all over town. One thing, and I doubt they have the time, but I told several residents I’d mention it that longtime residents remembered when DPW had maybe helped clear the corners. They get really thick with ice and mostly from the plow. So, I just thought I’d mention that just because it’s tough for some of our older residents to try to chip away at that with a shovel. Just basically the corner where it meets the road has just been an issue in several places around town. Wylie said so, you’re talking about the sidewalk, the part that goes down? Catallo said exactly, the sidewalk hits. Wylie said OK.

Wylie said anybody else.

No comments.

Wylie said all right.

Agenda Item #8 – Consent Agenda (video time mark 0:05:22):

• • 12-08-2025 Final Minutes, Regular City Council Meeting (page 4/69 of the council packet)
  • 01-12-2026 Draft Minutes, Regular City Council Meeting (page 6/69 of the council packet)
  • 01-26-2026 Treasurer’s Report (page 8/69 of the council packet)
  • 01-21-2026 Revenue and Expenditure Report for the Period Ending 12-31-2025 (page 9/69 of the council packet
  • Rosati, Schultz, Joppich & Amtsbuechler December invoices (page 19/69 of the council packet)

Wylie said Item #8 is consent agenda. This includes final minutes of the December 8, 2025, regular meeting; draft minutes of the January 12, 2026, regular meeting; and the treasurer’s report from January 26. I’ll need a motion and then a second to accept the consent agenda.

Motion by Quisenberry; second Jones.

Wylie said any discussion or comments from council members.

No comments.

Wylie said any questions or comments from the public.

No comments.

The consent agenda was approved by unanimous voice vote.

Wylie said the consent agenda is approved.

Agenda Item #9, Unfinished Business (video time mark 0:06:00):

Wylie said Item #9 is unfinished business and there is none.

Agenda Item #10, New Business (video time mark 0:06:03):

Wylie said Item #10 is new business. We’ve got a number of things, number of items.

Item #10a – Discussion: Historic District Commission Status Update for 2025 Q4 (video time mark 00:06:07):

• • Clarkston Historic District Summary of CoAs [Certificates of Appropriateness] for 2025 (page 26/69 of the council packet)

Wylie said Item #10A is discussion, historic district commission status update for 2025 fourth quarter. And Mike Moon is here for that.

Michael Moon:

Dr. Michael Moon, 80 North Main Street, here to represent the historic district commission. Just a quick comment. This will be the last time that I will be addressing you in this capacity. After this, I will pass the torch to Lisa Patrczak, the new chair of the historic district commission, who will be doing it henceforth. Also, I want to remind everyone that all of the documents from the HDC [Historic District Commission], the COAs [Certificates of Appropriateness] and notices of denials are available hard copy in binders here at city hall and at clarkstonhistory.org. So, if you have any questions, if you’re interested in seeing what the COAs or notice of denials say in actuality, you can get the information.

OK, so you should have in front of you the entire year. Now, we’ve already covered the first three quarters, so I will just go over the last quarter, October through, so, this is the last two pages.

OK, on October 7, 50 East Washington, this was an application to replace non-original windows and a non-original canted bay on the north elevation. And this was granted a COA.

Next, October 12, 99 South Main, application to fix/replace the roof, again, COA.

On November 21, 46, South Holcomb, this application to replace, again, non-original windows that were damaged.

And in each of these cases, a lot of these windows, we ask and the homeowners always comply to provide us photos of the damage of these windows. And often, if one of us can, we’ll go and look at the damage in person. But again, all of these are non-original windows, and that’s not uncommon. The replacement windows usually last about 20 years, and then they have to be replaced.

OK, next then, on the final page, November 21, 55 Buffalo, again, to replace non-original windows and to remove a non-original window. That was granted a COA.

And then finally, on December 17, 71 North Main Street, now, this was a COA that was granted 12-30-24. But due to unforeseeable difficulties in construction of a new carriage house, they could not begin their construction. And the ordinance states that construction must be completed within one year of granting the COA. So, since that year was up, again, it would be December 30, 2025, the homeowner came to us at our December meeting to see about getting an extension, which we granted. It’s easy to see how they had difficulties, unforeseeable problems with getting power into that new construction. DTE was not making it easy for them. And so, there’s simply an extension of one year of the COA. Everything else remains the same. All the stipulations and all that we approved in the original COA stand simply extended. And we’re hoping that they’ll be able to get it worked out with DTE and get back their power. Certainly, I don’t know if others have experienced this, but with some of these old houses, some of them, as this, in this case, still have very old wiring. And some of the companies won’t even deal with it.

So, in the final analysis, then, for the year 2025, we had a total of 24 certificates of appropriateness and two notices of denial.

Rodgers said let me have a quick question for you. In the 20 to 26 South Main, the gray building, it says here that the wood clapboard could be replaced by hardie board. Is the HDC allowing that now? I know, like with the homes, we had to replace ours with wood. Hardie board wasn’t allowed. Moon said the HDC has been approving Hardie board since before I joined, which was 2017. We approved Hardie board. Rodgers said for residential or just for businesses? Moon said residential also. Rodgers said well, that wasn’t the case with us. Or nor the, nor the (unintelligible), so. Moon said I don’t know that. Yeah. Since I’ve been here – (interrupting Moon, Rodgers said so you can replace with – (continuing), Moon said in 2017, we’ve approved use of Hardie board. Rodgers said interesting. OK, alright. Moon said with some warnings that, for example, Hardie board should not be used close to the ground because it will wick moisture. That sort of thing. But we have approved it. You know, we would always prefer to see people use original materials. Rodgers said sure. Moon said but Hardie board has been approved. Actually, in the national, from the National Park Service, they will approve some, and we go by their guidance, and they will approve Hardie board. Rodgers said interesting. OK. Wylie said thank you.

Wylie said anybody else have questions for Dr. Moon.

No questions.

Wylie said anybody else from the public.

Wylie recognized Nancy Moon [Michael Moon’s wife] for a comment.

Nancy Moon said well, there’s kind of a, it’s kind of a three- Wylie said for you, OK. Nancy Moon said to put the whole piece together, yeah. Wylie said OK.

Nancy Moon said I did hand out the 2026 Michigan state tax credit for historic preservation. Sorry, it didn’t get in your packet. I was struggling trying to get the newspapers to accept it. So, I think it should appear in the Clarkston News, and it should appear in the Oakland Press. It’s applicable to anybody. This is just geared toward us.

Nancy Moon said but I wanted to give you an update on the National Register of Historic Places. We have been working on it for the historic district. In May of 2025, we completed the preliminary report, which was really providing the SHPO [State Historic Preservation Office] documents to the National Register. They wanted current and historical maps, end of story. We got an, OK, you did OK. Step two was a site visit that came here in June of ‘25. We walked around the village. We brought them in to meet people here in city hall. We passed step two. Step three has been a struggle. It is a massive report. It’s 104 pages of text, three maps, and 55 photographs, the streetscapes and the buildings. It includes 143 contributing resources that were built between 1832 and 1930. Then it included 19 new contributing resources, which you, the city council, approved in March of ‘25, from 1931 to 1970. And then we still have 15 buildings within the village that were built after 1970. And that includes our two landscapes. It includes Depot Park, and it includes Mill, Mill Pond. Thank you.

Nancy Moon said just to give you an idea of what we had to do, we had to come up with classification and define how many were gothic, how many were greek, how many were craftsmen. Then we had to specify how many houses had wood and how many houses had asbestos shingles. And it was just honestly overwhelming. We ended up writing a description for all 177 buildings and the two landscapes. Our area of certification we asked for was pattern of events and architecture. Pattern of events was kind of a walk through the history of the village. And then we had the Depression, then we had World War II, and now we have today. So, we had to describe the architecture as we passed through that same period of time. We had to give the latitude and longitude of every location and of the historic district as a whole. Then we ended with a boundary description.

Nancy Moon said there are three review board meetings this year in 2026. February, May, and September. It’s highly unlikely we will be asked to participate in any of those. We are in what’s called the queue. They generally take one historic district to review at each meeting, and there’s several in front of us. We would like to finish it this year, but chances are it’s not going to happen. All of the documents are on file in here. If anybody would like to see them.

Wylie said thank you.

Wylie recognized Michael Moon for a comment. Oh, we have Julie [Meredith, Clarkston Independence District Library director], too.

Michael Moon said just a comment. Because we have turned this in and they give us a hearing, it’s not a fait accompli. Nancy Moon said yes. Wylie said yeah, I think that’s what she said. Michael Moon said they may not agree to that change in our national register status. And one of the problems we found is that most of these are done by experts, by professionals in the field. And we’re obviously not professionals. So, they are very, very critical. So, when you go before the national register. Nancy Moon said we looked into it. It was about a $25,000 bill to have the professionals do our report. They go, I don’t think so. Wylie said has anybody ever been turned down before? Nancy Moon said yes. Michael Moon said oh, yeah. Nancy Moon said and if you don’t follow the rules and you get the certification, they are even now uncertifying locations and districts. Wylie said oh, oh. Michael Moon said well, that’s by the state. Nancy Moon said yep. By the state. Nancy Moon said now. Michael Moon said it has decertified three last year. Nancy Moon said all the SHPO documents that we’ve been floating around that you’ll approve are in clarksonhistory.org, which Meredith’s got on.

Wylie said OK, Julie Meredith, the director of the library. I couldn’t come up with your title. Meridith said Smith said I could use his computer so that I can show you. Wylie said OK, thank you. Meredith said thank you so much for sharing your computer with me. I appreciate that. All right.

Meredith said I appreciate your time and attention. Just a couple things. Smith told Meredith to watch the keyboard. Meredith said hold on. Technical difficulties. Librarian, not IT specialist. Did not bring my IT specialist with me this evening. OK, great. OK.

Julie Meridith:

So, I’m really excited to show you our Clarkson Historic District website. So, the first thing I’m gonna do is show you how to get to it from our website. It is just clarksonhistory.org. But if you wanna do it from the library’s website, you go to our research tab. You go to local history, and you’ll see we have lots of really interesting local history pieces here. Just scroll down to the bottom, and it says Clarkson Historic District site. I guess I can wait for it to pop up here. There we go. OK.

So, I often hear people say that the library is just a building full of books. But in reality, a library is an organization of lifelong learning. Librarians gather and disseminate information in all of its forms, and we are professional researchers. We thrive on collecting information for people and connecting them to the information that they need. The library’s mission statement is we inspire our community to pursue lifelong learning through innovation, enrichment, and education for all. This project actually started out, though, as a labor of love by people who are passionate about Clarkson’s history. It does now serve much loftier purposes than just that labor of love by supporting public access to information, transparency in government, and the preservation of our community’s robust history.

So, this actually started 32 years ago in 1994. The previous library director of security library services and construction act, known as LSCA grant, funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, IMLS, that’s a federal organization. It was awarded by the Library of Michigan to create a website to gather and house (unintelligible) information. So, I just want you to stop and think about that for a minute. 1994, that is the infancy of the internet.

So, this project was really cutting edge when it was started. It was Susan and Bill Basinger, and they partnered with the library director to create the Community Information Network website. It is coded in raw HTML. Notice that I said is. It still exists, and we do keep it, we keep it live as long as technology will allow. So, if you scroll to the bottom of this site and you go to where it says classic website, and you click on it, if it’ll load for me, here we go. This is the original 1994 website in raw HTML. Its very innovative feature at the time was a walking tour where you could go to one house and then click on little arrows and go house by house and see all of those houses in the historic district.

OK, so in 2018, back up here, I’ve got to be able to get to the new site. We started the process of transitioning the site to a modern database platform. The library hired local website design company, IDE Solutions, to work on the project with us. It is in a database format. That means, for any of you who are a little bit techie, behind the scenes, all of the information is done in little fields, and each page is told what field to show. That means if we find an error in our data, all we have to do is change it in the one field, and it changes every place that piece of information shows up on the whole site. Extremely efficient way of being able to control the information that’s on the site, and very easy to fix things.

The database format also allows us to create a record for each property in the historic district and compile that data into this one-stop shopping, including history, architectural details, photos, documents, links, and more. Some properties have lots of details, some only have a little. We include what we have and can add to the record when new details are discovered. The database allows us to easily upload, create, and even create whole new categories of information. So, this is where the records of the Historic District Commission and the State Historic Preservation Office documents are now posted and being maintained. That’s what I wanna show you tonight. So, thank you for your patience while I got you to the point where you kinda know where I am with all of this.

OK, so let’s start out how to find somebody. If you don’t mind, I’m going to call upon the properties of some of the council members who live in the historic district. So, if we go to Buildings by Address up here at the top, and we’re going to go down to North Main Street. I’m gonna pick North Main, North Main Street. And there is the actual map. And if I scroll down, I can see all of the addresses. And I’d like to show off beautiful number 58. So, there’s the house. There’s all of the information that Bill and Susan gathered on the house. Property descriptions, significant property history. And here are the parts that I’d like for you to know that are now housed here. The Historic District Survey Form. So, this is the form for this specific property, as well as all of the Historic District Commission documents, all of the certificates of appropriateness that have been gathered on this particular home. And then also some miscellaneous documents. This one’s interesting because it was on a home tour. And so, if you click on that, you can actually see the brochure of the home tour. And we are using this as an opportunity to gather this data and make it available publicly.

Do you want to see a few more, or do you feel like you got it for the moment? You want to see which? OK, which house do you want to see next? If I go to Buildings by Address? Quisenberry said yes. Meredith said let’s see, which one? Quisenberry said 29 South Holcomb. Meredith said OK, so let’s go to South Holcomb. And we’ll scroll down into 29, 29. So, here’s the house. And as we scroll down, we can see the official property description, the significant property history. And there’s the survey and all of the Historic Commission documents. And when you click on these, these are just PDFs, and they pop right up on the screen for you.

Quisenberry said does it show anything on 27 South Holcomb. Nancy Moon said no, I can tell you, no. Quisenberry said no, OK. Thank you. Nancy Moon said when we had the split like that, those have all been combined, because it got too complicated. Quisenberry said good. Meredith said OK, OK. Any other ones we want to look at?

Nancy Moon said do you want to open up one of the SHPO documents, just so we – Julie Meredith said of course. Nancy Moon said I think it doesn’t matter which one. Meredith said OK, well, then we’ll pop back up to, you want to, 18 North Holcomb? Nancy Moon said said yeah, 18 North Holcomb. Meredith said North Holcomb. Nancy Moon said said yeah, that’ll work. They have one. Every location has one. Meredith said there’s 18 North Holcomb. And we’ll scroll down. And here’s the SHPO documents. You can pop it open, and you can see exactly that whole form. Nancy Moon said and these, you can print anything that’s there. Michael Moon said so, there are a lot of details of the architecture. There’s like a genealogy of the house, who lived there, and when, what changes they made. Of course, limited by what information is available. Wylie said oh, that’s cool. Avery said it’s the birthing house. (An unidentified person said yeah. There’s a lot of documents here. This is an especially robust amount of information.) Michael Moon said a lot of these documents are 10, 11, 12 pages long.

Meredith said OK, so as we developed the site, we identified three types of users of the site. So, we knew we would have visitors. Visitors to the community, who might be here to have dinner, and they see an interesting house, and they might be interested in seeing something. So, we wanted to make it easy for them to navigate. So, if we go to the main site, you’ll see that we have a visitor site that is geared toward them.

We also knew that we had youngsters in the community, who especially are second graders, who have a local history as part of their curriculum. So, our school outreach coordinator collaborated with the school district and the historical society to create and post the downtown walking tour field trip that all the second graders take in springtime. We’ve seen them all tromping through downtown and looking at the houses. Kids who missed the field trip can go on the tour just by clicking right here where it says youth, and downtown historical walking tour. This is their walking tour. This is exactly what they do in their school classroom tour. They start here. And this is, of course, kid level information. And you just click on this little arrow and you go, you can walk through downtown and you can do this with a mobile device. This is a mobile friendly site. So, you can just take your cell phone and go right down the line and do the tour. It’s also great if the kids get inspired and they wanna take their parents back to show them all what they saw on their tour.

And we also have an interesting new feature that was, of course, not on the original site, but technology is grand. So, we also have the interactive map. The interactive map, this is actually the Oakland County Historic District map for Clarkston. And IGD Solutions was able to make all of these teeny tiny little house numbers live links. So, when you go to this website, this page, and you click on 90 North Main, it takes you right to that property. And then, of course, we wanted to keep the original feature, which was that walking tour. And the walking tour, you can get to from any place on the site. On the original site, it was, you would go to the site and there would be these little arrows back and forth during the walking tour. And we kept that same feel because we thought that the nostalgia of it was really nice. So you can click on an arrow and you can go to the next house down the street. And you can work your way down Main Street and see all of the houses and see all of the information.

So, our next vision for this, we do hope to further build out this site to include other types of historic information. We do have the Clarkston News archived all the way back to its origin and then some of the precursor newspapers that came before that, as well as The Reminder, which no longer exists, but we do still have those as well. We have all of the Clarkston High School yearbooks. Those are all housed on our Main Library website. But my vision would be to create the Clarkston Independence, sort of a history hub. We also have, for those of you who know, back also in the 1993-94 timeframe, Independence Township did a survey of all of their historic homes. That was a ring binder. And we have scanned that ring binder, and we have all of those homes as well. But in that time, there wasn’t any house that was over a hundred years old. So similar to the SHPO documents, although not quite as lengthy and robust, but there is that for Independence Township as well. So, anyone who’s looking for those details to apply for that tax credit, we have not only the historic district information here on this website, but we have those as well for the township. So, any questions on any of that?

Wylie said thank you. Very informative, very helpful. Anybody have questions?

Meredith said do have a handout if you just like want to go in and browse. And I basically kind of gave you the little step-by-step directions of what I did, so you can pop in and see it. I do have a little note at the bottom, which is a message to all of the historic district property owners. If you have historic photos or documents of your property that you would like to share on the website, we are happy to add them to this database to assure that they are preserved for future generations. We are happy to scan old photos, give you back the originals, and then put those historic photos up on the site attached to the property so that people can enjoy those pieces. OK? Thank you so much.

Wylie thanked Meredith and the Moons. Meredith said thank you.

Item #10b – Motion: Approval to Investigate Two Finance Committee Recommendations (video time mark 0:32:14):

• • Motion – Approval to Investigate Two Finance Committee Recommendations (page 36/69 of the council packet)

Wylie said Item #10B is a motion, Approval to Investigate Two Finance Committee Recommendations. I’m going to read this motion.

(Wylie read the motion.)

Wylie said we can start of with a, actually, I usually like to start off having the motion and second it, and then we can have discussion. I think we can probably do that tonight. So, we need a motion supported by, motion supported by somebody else to authorize a detailed investigation of the above two finance committee recommendations. And once that’s done, we can have a discussion with council and the public.

Motion by Jones; second Quisenberry.

Wylie said OK. So now we can have a discussion.

Wylie said so, we don’t have Greg [Coté, treasurer] here tonight. I don’t know if you want, (to Smith), maybe you want to talk about this first? Smith said well, just that we’ve asked if there’s going to be a big initiative that’s going to take a significant amount of time on my part, or Coté’s part, or any of the staff’s part, we would like to have council authorize that work before we embark on, you know, 50, 60, 100 hours of labor to investigate things.

Smith said so, these were two recommendations that came out of the finance committee. There were a dozen or more recommendations that we looked at. These are the two that are kind of floating to the top, so we would like city council to authorize the continued investigation. Obviously, before anything is voted on, we bring these back for more, a lot more detail. But it’s just to authorize us to start investigating and spending some time on investigating these two.

Wylie recognized Casey for a comment.

Casey said where would the parking be extended to? Smith said a couple of things. We’ve looked at expanding the parking system to include the parking spots on Main Street. So not just the parking lots, but the actual on-street parking. And then secondly, it’s a possibility to look at some different rates. Maybe we want to change the rates. The parking system designers recommend that the on-street parking be your most valuable spots, and then the parking lots secondary, and then third and down the list would be the further away places that people might go to park. So maybe we change the rates, maybe we change the hours of operation. So, there are a few different proposals all under the heading of expanding the existing system. It might be physically expanding any more spaces, or it might be expanding the rate structure.

Rodgers said and this proposal is just to say, yeah, go ahead and look at it. Smith said yeah. Rodgers said it’s not saying yes to anything. Smith said go ahead and get some numbers, pull it all together in a summation, and bring it back to council for consideration.

Wylie said and who would continue with the investigation? Smith said who would do this. Wylie said yes. Smith said in the case of the paid parking system, that would probably be me working with our supplier, our parking system supplier, who’s very, very knowledgeable about this, has done this in a number of cities, has all the details on what you can expect if you put paid parking on Main Street, how you would do that, the cost of doing it, what the expected revenue might be from that. So, because I know this town very well, I would probably work with him directly on that.

Smith said the other one, a special assessment, or possibly a millage for public safety would probably be a number of people, Coté, I think would be, Coté, our treasurer, would be the focal point, but he’d probably be enlisted. Guillen’s help, Evelyn’s [Bihl, administrative assistant/deputy clerk/treasurer assistant] help, possibly our city attorney, possibly our city auditor, all looking at what this might mean. We might have to bring in Kim [Fiegley, Kim Fiegley Assessing], our assessor, and look at all the implications of bringing a public safety millage or assessment forward. Wylie said thank you.

Wylie said anybody else have questions or comments? I’ll start first with the council.

Quisenberry said to Gary’s question, in addition to the parking on Main Street, two of the other, one of the other options we have is actually the parking there on Depot Street. Smith said right. Quisenberry said as part of that inquiry. All right. Smith said yeah.

Wylie said anybody else on council?

No comments.

Wylie said anybody in the public have questions or comments.

Wylie recognized Erich Lines [Curt Catallo’s business partner] for a comment.

The man said yeah, I think when we first talked about paid parking a while ago, we knew this day was going to be coming, and I guess my question is, in regards to the businesses downtown, will they be, obviously this will affect them, how are they going to be included in this discussion? And I know that we’ve got a parking committee, we’ve got two members here, and will they be included in this investigation? Smith said so, the thought was we do the initial investigation first. Anything that’s going to go forward with the council, I think this is a big enough issue that I think we would want to have a public meeting where maybe a separate, or part of a council meeting either way, but a separate discussion focused on going through the details of the proposal. And we would have the opportunity for people, whether they be a business owner, a patron, a resident, to speak at that time. So, it could be a separate meeting before we bring it to council, or it could be actually in a council meeting either way. But I agree, this has gone around enough times that I think we owe it to those property owners and patrons and whatnot to have their word known or heard before any decision is made.

Wylie said anybody else in the public with questions or comments.

No comments.

Wylie said OK, we have a motion, but I think we need to do a roll call on this. (To Guillen), Wylie said if you would do the roll call please.

Jones, Quisenberry, Rodgers, Wylie, Avery, and Casey voted yes.

Wylie said and Forte is absent, so the motion is adopted.

Wylie said thank you.

Item #10c – Resolution: Modification of the Paid Parking Agreement (video time mark 0:39:47):

• • Resolution – Modification of the Paid Parking Agreement (page 37/69 of the council packet)
  • 08-28-2017 City Council Meeting Minutes [outlining the promise to residents]

Wylie said Item #10C is a resolution, Modification of the Paid Parking Assessment.

(Wylie read the motion.)

Wylie said and I’ll need somebody to resolve and then support.

Resolution by Jones; second Casey.

Wylie said and now any questions or comments, discussion from council.

Avery said yeah, I guess my two cents is that, I mean, to me, this would be appropriate when we have all the roads fixed and they’re all level fives or whatever that we’re striving for. Why are we taking money out of the road fund when we have roads that need work? Because once you open this box, then it’s just going to keep going from there. Like I said, if we had all the roads were taken care of, the sidewalks were where we want them to be, then I would say, OK, then maybe we need to address it, you know, maybe redirecting funds or lowering the parking rate. I mean, the purpose was. originally was to raise money to pay for parking lots, maintenance, that sort of stuff. And the roads, I don’t see any reason why we would have to change that now.

Rodgers said yeah, what is driving this, I guess. Jones said yeah, I was going to say. Smith said just budget shortfalls anticipated next year. So, Coté has been working on the budget. Finance committee hasn’t really gotten into next year’s budget yet, but he has seen some concerns with presenting a balanced budget next year. So, this was one thought, wouldn’t we, when I say next year, I mean the next fiscal year, starting July 1. His thought was, this is something that we could do now and it would help us resolve a balanced shortfall. Right now, what he’s anticipating is we’re going to have to make some cuts in order to balance the budget next year. So, finance committee hasn’t had the opportunity to review those numbers yet. So, this is kind of new news to the finance committee, but this was a thought by Coté. He did bring it up in the last finance committee meeting that we need to take some kind of action to buoy up the operational budget.

Quisenberry said at the last finance committee meeting, Coté presented this to us. (To Smith), said and if I’m correct, it’s something that we’ve done, I think, every year for the last years that I’ve been here. As the fiscal year gets through, periodically something will come up where we’ll need to fund something, and we use the parking fund and we make a motion and move some of it over to cover whatever. So, we’ve done it as needed in the past. This is the current resolution that we have that regulates the parking agreement. This is specifically for parking, unless we authorize it elsewhere. He wants to have this authorization in place so that he can do it as needed and as approved. Smith said on an as needed basis annually, up to $35,000 annually.

Smith said in the past, just to date, we’ve just been using it for roads, sidewalks, and parking lots. And we stayed within those parameters that were set up when this was first approved by council back in 2017. We’ve stayed within that. But Coté anticipates us maybe needing to go beyond that and use it for some operational shortfalls as well. So, it is a change, but we’re not seeing a lot of alternatives. We can go back to the drawing board and kind of relook at where we might go to cut expenses to balance the budget. And if this doesn’t pass, that’s what we have to do, but it’s gonna, it’s gonna have some impacts.

Rodgers said isn’t this kind of putting the cart before the horse? Jones said yeah. Rodgers said like shouldn’t we do that first and then before we even vote on this? Like, I don’t want to vote it down because then we can’t bring it back up again or it would have to be whatever. But it seems like we’re putting the cart before the horse. Like, if that happens, what you just described, then maybe we do need to look at this. But right now, we don’t know if we do or not. So just to have it there just in case, I don’t know.

Jones said I tend to agree with what Rodgers is saying, just given that we just talked about how we’re gonna investigate, you know, increasing parking revenue. So, I’m just wondering again, yeah, if this is premature for us to take action on this, not knowing what the rest of the budget and the other options. Again, knowing if there’s gonna be budget shortfalls, I get that, but I just feel like with us not being able to see what kind of the larger picture is, it’s maybe too early to make a decision like this.

Smith said OK, well, we can do that. And Coté’s thought was a covenant that would be in place ongoing. But the other option is we can bring these forward on a case-by-case basis and maybe we don’t need it in the 2027 budget, but maybe in the 2029 budget or something, and we can bring these up on a case-by-case basis as needed. But we’ll hold off for now. And so, if we wanna table this, we can.

Wylie recognized Casey for a comment.

Casey said this doesn’t necessarily mean that we would automatically move 35K, does it? Smith said no. Casey said it just means it would be available on an as-needed basis. Would council have to approve every one of those exceptions? Smith said well, that could be a stipulation, is that every time we try to borrow from that fund or move monies from that fund, that we have to bring forward the exact places where those monies will be spent. The thought here was that this would be a covenant that would just be in place and it would be available on an as-needed, almost immediate basis. But we can change it so that it’s on an as-needed, as explained or brought to council each time as a separate resolution brought to council. It could be done that way. Casey said I would support it on that basis. Smith said good.

Wylie recognized Quisenberry for a comment.

Quisenberry said that was one of the things that Coté was talking about. I mean, he knows and he can see far more into the future than we are as far as expenses we have and the funds that we have to deal with them. We know what we did last year. We had to borrow money from one account. I don’t know what it was. It was a sewer. Some account to move over to something else. And he’s convinced, he believes that’s going to happen again. And he would like to know that this is available if it is. One thing that we didn’t talk about is what Casey said, is that if there is a stip placed on this resolution that any transfer that Coté feels we need, he needs to come to present it to us and say, this is how much money and this is why. And we want to do it this way because we don’t have the funds because, or any other fund that we can move over to it. Rodgers said but don’t we already do that? Isn’t that what we do? Quisenberry said but I don’t think we can do it with this commitment.

Avery said I mean, the history of the parking fund is that it was very contentious when paid parking was first brought to the city. And to get it to pass, I wasn’t on the council then, I wouldn’t have voted for it then, but it is what it is, was that we were going to keep it as an exception and that all the money raised from that, because that was the big selling point was that we needed this money, we needed to maintain the roads, we can do the sidewalks, we can do all this. That’s why we have the paid parking. I don’t see, if we have budget shortfalls, which is what I’m hearing is that we need to discuss that in the finance committee first and figure out if there’s ways to get around that. All right. So I think, again, I think this is, I’m not for it.

Wylie said I’ve been attending the finance committee meetings, and it looks like we are approaching some financial shortfalls. I think the number I remember is Coté said, our expenses are going up 10% a year and I think revenue is going up 3 or 4% a year or something like that. And I agree with you say this is, it should be for roads. My impression of this when we talked about our last finance committee meeting was this would be something temporary. Obviously, if we’re continuing down this road of expenses are going up and up and up and this revenue isn’t gonna be enough to keep up that we need something else more permanent. This was a temporary step to help us until we can find another source of revenue, which is why we also are investigating a possible public safety millage or some other source of money. And I guess, I guess.

Avery said I mean, you open that door, it’s not gonna close, right? I mean, once we say, yeah Coté has our permission to go ahead and redirect these funds as needed – (interrupting Avery), Quisenberry said or to ask us, ask us if he can, not just do it. Avery said well, we’re basically, again, we’re going back. The purpose of this whole parking fund was to take care of the roads and the sidewalks. And by my best guesstimation is that we haven’t done that. We’ve gotten some things done, but the roads are not up to standard in a lot of places. We’ve got expenses that are coming. We’ve got Church Street. We’ve got Miller, the second half of Miller. That’s gonna be expensive. We’ve got everything in the Middle Lake section. I mean, those roads aren’t getting any younger. And if we keep chipping away at what’s in there. I’m just uncomfortable.

Wylie said we haven’t been chipping. We’re not taking that money. We have not taken that money for anything. Avery said not yet. Wylie said not yet Avery said but that’s what we’re proposing to do. Wylie said that’s what we’re talking about doing, yes, temporarily. But there’s also, I mean, the city needs money. Avery said yeah, well, I understand. We raised taxes last year or this year to increase our revenue. At some point, we have to look at the expenses side of things and not just the revenue side. That’s all I’m saying. I feel like until we know for sure that we’re that short, you know, that’s what we have the general fund for. That’s the rainy day fund. If we’re spending it down too low, then we have to, if we, I know a lot of the expenses went up this year because we had the police and the fire and we had to renegotiate those contracts and they all went up. I get it. But we have to bake that in and plan accordingly. And I just feel like, I’m just not comfortable doing that, I guess. OK.

Wylie said anybody else on council or comments, questions?

Rodgers said I kind of agree with Avery. I just, it just seems premature to me. That’s all. I just don’t, I don’t know. I personally don’t know enough to say, yeah, I understand. I hear you. I hear what you say. But nothing has been presented to us to back that up. And I don’t want to say no. I think we should just table this until something is brought to us that shows us that that is indeed what needs to happen. Wylie said thank you.

Wylie said anybody else here.

No comments.

Wylie said anybody in the public have questions or comments on this resolution.

Wylie recognized Lines again.

Chet Pardee said so, this is Chet. (To Pardee), Wylie said hang on, hang on. We got somebody else in the, present. Pardee said thank you.

Lines said I have to agree with council member Avery then that, you know, I don’t know how many times when you’ve got a source of money that it’s in the temporary, you open it once, it’s always going to be open. And that’s, you’re just going to, as you’re looking at doing it now, you’re going to raise parking prices. You’re going to just extend where people have to pay to park and then just be the new source of funding. Wylie said thank you.

Wylie recognized Pardee for a comment.

Pardee said yes, I’m encouraged that the finance committee has signed up to, and Coté, to look at a three-year forecast of what our budgets may be. The other thing that’s been available to us is we have a six-year capital project plan that got presented along with the budget in the May timeframe. And within that capital project plan is our expenditures for sidewalks and for streets and for parking lots. So, there’s a source of information that’s been available to us for several years that includes the information that we’ve projected that we need to spend in the future. And I’m on Avery’s side with this point that we need to be understanding what we need to be spending in the future on streets and sidewalks and parking lots before we consider changing the concept that we’ve been using for the last several years. Wylie thanked Pardee.

Wylie said anybody else in the public.

No comments.

Wylie said OK, so we do have a motion, or I’m sorry, this has been resolved and supported by Jones and Casey. So, we can go ahead and have a vote. There’s been some mentions of tabling, and I never remember, first of all, I don’t know if you remember the rules about, if we want to table, that comes first. Is that correct? [Assistant city attorney] Kolb said right. Wylie said so somebody would have to make a motion to table it. Kolb said yeah, and that cuts off the discussion, Wylie said OK.

Rodgers said I’ll make a motion to table this. Wylie said OK, so we’re, Rodgers is making a motion to table. And you’ll need a second. Second, Jones. Discussions, let me write this down. To table.

Wylie said discussion from anybody on council.

No comments.

Wylie said from the public.

No comment.

Wylie said let’s do a roll call on it.

Casey, Jones, Quisenberry, Rodgers, and Wylie voted yes.

Avery voted no.

Wylie said OK, so the resolution has been tabled. Do we need to say the time, or can we just table it? Kolb said no, when it comes up again, you’ll have to move to take it off the table – Wylie said un-table it – (continuing), Kolb said and then you can continue discussion.

Wylie said all right, thank you. And she’s absent, and Jones is a yes. OK, thank you. All right. OK.

Item #10d – Resolution: 2026 NoHaz Program Participation and Interlocal Agreement (video time mark 0:56:48):

• • Resolution – 2026 NoHaz Program Participation and Interlocal Agreement (page 40/69 of the council packet)
  • NoHaz Program Information (page 41/69 of the council packet)
  • 2026 NoHaz Information for Clarkston (page 48/69 of the council packet)
  • 2025 NoHaz Program General Information (page 49/69 of the council packet)
  • 2025 NoHaz Statistics (page 50/69 of the council packet)
  • Form Resolution, The North Oakland Household Hazardous Waste Consortium (page 53/69 of the council packet)
  • Interlocal Agreement Between North Oakland County Household Hazardous Waste and the City of the Village of Clarkston (page 54/69 of the council packet)
  • Exhibit A – 2026 Projected NoHaz Budget (page 68/69 of the council packet)
  • Exhibit B – 2026 Estimated Costs (page 69/69 of the council packet

Wylie said we are moving on to Item #10D, it’s Resolution, 2026 NoHaz Program Participation and Interlocal Agreement. (To Smith), Wylie said and I’m assuming you want to talk about this. They gave a lot of good information, but they’re not here.

Smith said yes, this is a renewal of a program that we’ve been involved in for the last four years, and the last three years, this next year, it will be a fourth. And back in the day, we used to be involved in this, but then there was a gap where we found that residents were not using it, so the program was discontinued, at least from the city’s standpoint. So, what is being proposed here in this resolution is that we continue it into 2026.

Smith said we’ve been involved in ‘23, ‘24, and ‘25. We’re seeing gradual increases year over year in participation, and more and more junk, if you will, being taken to the event for disposal. So, we’re finding that people are using it, and we like that, as opposed to putting some of these things in a landfill, or worse yet, just dumping it on the ground or something. These are toxic chemicals, potentially. Paint, or paint thinner, or gasoline, used motor oil. These are things that we don’t want people to feel restricted about and just say, well, I’ll just pour it out behind the garage, and no one will notice. So, we really want them to dispose of these items in a proper way. Our aquifer here that we rely on for our drinking water is so important to us. We think this is something that we should continue to support and make it available for a nominal fee of just $15 a car, a nominal fee for our residents to dispose of their items.

Smith said this is not just, if you have cardboard boxes or other things that we could normally go out with the trash. These are toxic items that, batteries and motor oils, et cetera. So, the cost would continue, under the proposal would continue to be $15 per carload for our residents, and the city’s share would be $100.79. And this resolution recommends that we continue to do that in 2026. If you need more details on how much that’s gonna cost on an annual basis, I have notes here, but that’s the summary is $100.79 per car, which is $1 more than it did this past year.

Wylie said I neglected to read the resolution, which you just summarized.

(Wylie read the resolution.)

Wylie said and I’ll need something to resolve and then also a support.

Resolution by Rodgers; second Jones.

Wylie said questions or comments from council members.

Rodgers said so, for last year, 23 people participated at $100 apiece, so we paid 100 times 23. Is that right? Avery said mm-hmm, roughly. Wylie said $99. Smith said $2,295 was our cost this year. Based on trends, they’re saying we’ll be $2,418 next year, so it’s about $120 more next year than it was this year, but it’s a very important program that we strongly recommend you continue. Wylie said it’s a great way to get rid of your old computers and TVs. I mean, nobody takes them, so.

Avery said my only concern is that we got 800-plus residents and only 23 of them took advantage of it, so I don’t really see that there’s a pressing need for this, honestly. I mean, it’s a nice perk that the city’s gonna pay $100 per resident for the people that actually do it, but generally speaking, I mean, we just spent the last 15 minutes talking about how we’re gonna have budget shortfalls. This seems more like a want than a need. If we’re looking at cutting things, this seems like a prime – Wylie said well, if you got more people participating, it costs even more, and I do know that people share. Some people, a couple neighbors will go in together and load up one car, so it may be 23 residents, but it could end up being more like 30 to 40 residents, 23 residents paying, but more people. Avery said that’s 2% of the population – Wylie said OK – (continuing), Avery said that’s all. I mean, that doesn’t seem like very much. Wylie said I’m on well. I don’t want our water polluted with stuff being dumped out of drains. Avery said I don’t either, but people have a responsibility to take care of that stuff anyways. It shouldn’t be thrown in the rivers, and the people that are gonna take the time, the 23 people that take the time, they’re gonna take the time anyways, and the ones who aren’t aren’t, and they’re gonna dump. Wylie said OK.

Wylie recognized Quisenberry for a comment.

Quisenberry said this has kind of been in existence for a long enough time that the common knowledge, the common perception of people, residents, is that if I have stuff like this that I have to get rid of, I wait and I go here. Where would you go if you didn’t have this? Casey said that’s a question. Avery said I believe you can take it to the dump, but you’re gonna have to pay for it. They’re not gonna let you just put it in the regular load. I think people will dispose of it, but you’re gonna have to pay.

Quisenberry said I don’t know. I’m not disagreeing with you, but I don’t know that dumps take stuff like that. I don’t know. You may take mattresses. I don’t know. I just don’t know. What else you would do except this established opportunity? Avery said well, answer me this, I guess. If we don’t subsidize it, residents can still take their stuff there. They just have to pay the full price, essentially.

Smith said we can adjust. I don’t know that there’s any way to just say we’re not participating as a city, but individuals can go there. I don’t know that that’s true, but we could change the percentage difference. We’ve done $15 a car. Independence Township, for example, is $30 a car, and therefore, it reduces their share of the, so that would be a possibility of changing the split, how much the resident pays versus how much the city pays.

Rodgers said that’s what I was gonna ask you. How much, like, is $15 on the low end, or, like, what is the average of all of these communities? And I know they’re all different sizes and we’re smaller and all of that stuff, but it’s still the same thing. We’re still throwing out stuff, hazardous materials. Smith said yeah. Rodgers said so, what is, like, the average amount of money that other places charge their residents? Smith said a lot of them are set at $15. Jones said it’s $15. Smith said there are some that are $10, but most of them are either $15 or $30. I’m trying to see if there’s one on the schedule that shows that, but.

Wylie said I’m going back to how many people use it. I use it, but I don’t go every year. You know, I let the paint accumulate. I don’t have computers and paint that needs to be disposed of every year. Maybe every two, three, four years, I’ll go.

Wylie said anybody else have any, I know your people are looking up, see what school, what places are depending on. Rodgers said I think it’s a great thing, because like Quisenberry said, if those 23 cars would probably, wouldn’t maybe just dump it if there’s no place to go. I guess, I guess I was just wondering what everybody else has their residents pay. Wylie said I think increasing the fee for the city, for the residents, that’s up there, I’d pay $30. Rodgers said mm-hmm, I would too.

Wylie said anybody else, any council questions, comments, discussion points.

Jones said then do we want to raise it to $30 a car. Wylie said we would have to, let’s see, (to Rodgers), Wylie said you, (to Jones), Wylie said you would have to – Casey said If we were to raise it to $30 a car, would that reduce the city’s, by the same amount? Wylie said yes. Smith said that’s my understanding, yes, so it would come down to $85.79 for the city, be a $15 reduction.

Wylie said anybody in the public, questions or comments.

(To Rodgers and Jones), Wylie said would either of you like to amend the resolution?

Jones said yes, do I do I need to. Wylie said I think it has to come from Rodgers. I think it has to come from Rodgers.

Rodgers said so, can we just say that instead of with residents paying $15 a car, they would pay $30 a car. Wylie said, so that is whereas for 2026, the estimated participation cost will be, that’s your amendment, to make it $30, and (To Kristen Kolb, assistant city attorney), Wylie said I’m sorry, I don’t remember, can we, do we have to vote on an amendment? Oh, don’t worry, it’s OK, because we haven’t voted on it in any way. $30 per car, and that would be? Kolb said he $85.79 for the city. Wylie said $85.79. Kolb said thank you, and then again in the resolved paragraph. Wylie said OK. Kolb said clarify the amount the city’s paying. Wylie said OK. Kolb said OK, so motion’s amended and supported. Wylie said and from Jones also. OK, so we have a resolution, and it has been amended.

Wylie said now, is there any questions or comments.

No comments.

(To Guillen), Wylie said if you would do a roll call, please.

Quisenberry voted no. Rodgers and Wylie voted yes. Avery voted no.

Casey said yeah, I’m on the fence here. Casey voted no.

Jones voted yes.

Quisenberry said it’s three to three. Wylie said three to three, so it does not pass. Kolb said correct. Wylie said all right. Kolb said someone can offer a different motion if they’d like.

Casey said I think that the $30 would be counterproductive. Wylie said reduce the number of people who would do it. Casey said I think it would dissuade people from going. Wylie said OK. Casey said I think most people think 15 bucks is, I think there’s a psychological difference, and I think it would dissuade people from taking advantage of this program. I support the program. Wylie said mm-hmm.

Quisenberry said so, can we just do a resolution to pass it as is. Wylie said we need a lawyer on that. Kolb said yes, you can do another motion or another resolution at the original prices cited in the memo. Quisenberry said OK. Kolb said we’ll see if that fits.

Wylie said so, we have another resolution exactly as it’s printed in the handout, which is participation cost is $15 per car for the residents and $100.79 per car for the city. And in the last paragraph, that $100.79 would continue.

Motion by Quisenberry; second Jones.

Wylie said any discussion or comments from council.

No comments.

Wylie said from the public.

No comments.

(To Guillen), Wylie said could you once again do a roll call.

Casey, Jones, Quisenberry, Rodgers, and Wylie voted yes.

Avery voted no.

Wylie said and the resolution was adopted. Thank you. Thank you for some creative thinking.

Item #10e – Closed Session to Consider Attorney’s Written Legal Opinion (video time mark 1:10:48):

Wylie said and at this point on Item #10E.

• • Motion to Hold a Closed Session Meeting with [Assistant] City Attorney Kristen K. Kolb

(Wylie read the motion.)

Wylie said the meeting is not adjourned. We will be coming back. So, I’m mostly saying this for purposes of video, but our videographer, Gina, is not sticking around to videotape anymore. Am I correct? Gina said unless you need me to. Wylie said no, I don’t, because all we’re going to do after the closed meeting is come back and, I don’t know, do we adjourn the meeting? Avery said adjourn the meeting.

And what we have coming is a motion to hold a, motion to hold a closed session meeting with city attorney Kay [Kristen] Kolb, and we’ll be initiating a closed session meeting and discussion, motion to end the closed session meeting and end the closed session, return to open session, and then adjourn the meeting. So, I don’t know that anybody, if you would like to hang around, let somebody know that you’re going to be sitting in your car, but I don’t think there’s going to be anything afterwards. Thank you.

• • Initiate a Closed Session Meeting
  • Discussion
  • Motion to End the Closed Session Meeting
  • End the Closed Session, return to Open Session

Agenda Item #11, Adjourn Meeting

[We have no video or eyewitnesses to confirm that council did not have any additional discussion when they reconvened.]

Resources:

• • Link to video recording here 
  • 01-26-2026 city council packet